THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MUSEUM
SUMMER 2021
´ & turkey hash chicken supreme DINNER AT THE EXECUTIVE MANSION | ‘RICHMONDERS AT WAR’ | 1864 DIARY
LETTER FROM THE CEO
ROB HAVERS, PH.D. CEO JOHN M. COSKI Editor PENELOPE M. CARRINGTON Magazine Design
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Edward L. Ayers Ph.D. J. Gordon Beittenmiller Claude P. Foster George C. Freeman III Bruce C. Gottwald Sr. David C. Gompert Monroe E. Harris Jr. D.D.S. Elizabeth Cabell Jennings Richard S. Johnson Donald E. King John L. Nau III Lewis F. Powell III Walter S. Robertson III O. Randolph Rollins Kenneth P. Ruscio Ph.D. Thomas A. Saunders III Leigh Luter Schell Daniel G. Stoddard Ruth Streeter W. Hildebrandt Surgner Mario M. White Elisabeth S. Wollan Ph.D. ACWM FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS Donald E. King* President J. Gordon Beittenmiller* David C. Gompert* Walter S. Robertson III* Kenneth P. Ruscio Ph.D. * Jeffrey Wilt Elisabeth Muhlenfeld Wollan Ph.D. (ex officio)* *Also on Museum Board
D
ear all,
It is a very great pleasure to write this, my first letter as CEO, to you our loyal constituents and supporters. I’m delighted to be here and to join such a vibrant organization with such a great history and at such an interesting juncture in this nation’s own history. My own background is in academic military history (in particular the way in which conflicts are remembered) as well as in the administration of public history institutions. The confluence of these two career trajectories, here at the American Civil War Museum, seems quite appropriate. As you can see from our full table of contents, there is much to enjoy in this edition of the magazine and plenty new to see at Tredegar as well as our ongoing tremendous offerings at Appomattox. The long-awaited experience theater will make its bow in the late autumn, and, with it, the main exhibition will be complete. We are eager to see the public reaction to this great new component of our museum and believe it will add substantially to the visitor experience. In the same vein, our new Richmonders at War temporary exhibition will give our visitors a sharp sense of what life was like right here in Richmond during the war.
Following an extensive shift toward virtual programming, I’m delighted to say we are now planning a return to far greater inperson activities. So successful were many of our on-line offerings, however, we likely will retain this option for the foreseeable future. At the time of this writing, we are seeing a loosening of restrictions on visitors to cultural institutions and, in tandem with substantial progress on vaccinations, we are looking forward to a summer that sees our As well as attending to the very visible frontof-house stuff, we also work behind the scenes wonderful facilities as full of people as caring for our extensive collections and actively circumstances will allow! sourcing and receiving new artifacts and items I look forward to meeting as many of you as to embellish our holdings and to tell more possible in due course and thank you all for stories about the Civil War. You can read in your support of this great institution. this issue about the recently acquired diary of Eben Andrews, a Maine cavalryman who All best wishes, transferred to the U.S. Navy and participated in the battle of Mobile Bay. As other articles testify, we continue to learn more about our first and largest artifact – the historic Confederate president’s house – and about the people who inhabited it.
Rob Havers CEO 2
SUMMER 2021
FOUNDATION UPDATE
D
ear Friends,
This issue of the Magazine highlights a very special person in the Museum’s history, Don Wilkinson (See page 30). Don supported the Museum as a generous donor and board member for decades. He had a special interest in Confederate naval history, especially his ancestor, John Wilkinson, a renowned blockade runner during the Civil War. Don (left) was also a close personal friend. Don included the Museum in his estate plan. It was an effective way to provide long-term support for the Museum’s mission of telling the whole story of the Civil War from multiple perspectives. Our nation and the world need the Museum to
carry out that mission today and far into the future. There are many types of planned giving that can be tailored to your needs and goals. Please consider making the Museum part of your estate plan. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our Chief Advancement Officer, Patrick Daughtry, by e-mail (pdaughtry@acwm.org) or by phone (804-649-1861, ext. 145). We are now into the summer season, experiencing a rise in visitation that we expect to continue. Thanks to the generous support of so many of you, the Museum has successfully navigated one of the most trying times in a century. Rest assured that the Museum is effectively performing its mission better than ever before.
Donald E. King Chair of the Foundation
Partner with the Museum: Become a Member & Donate Today We hope you are enjoying reading and learning about the extraordinary future programming and initiatives offered at the ACWM. There will be plenty more to come over the next few years, and we can’t wait to share it with you! We thank you, because none of it would be possible without your loyal support and commitment to the museum. Please consider partnering with us as we continue telling the vital stories of the Civil War and its legacies by making a donation here, or becoming a member here. Director of Collections Robert Hancock (above right) filmed Kelly Hancock, during a live virtual tour of the White House of the Confederacy.
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
3
11
CONTENTS SUMMER 2021
20
´ CHICKEN SUPREME & TURKEY HASH DINNER IN THE EXECUTIVE MANSION
4
SUMMER 2021
PHOTO BY ROBERT HANCOCK
REGARDING HENRY NEW DETAILS ABOUT ENSLAVED MAN WHO WORKED FOR THE DAVISES AND ESCAPED.
12
THE SAME ‘DAY AFTER DAY’
1864 POCKET DIARY REVEALS MONOTONY
DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES
02 LETTER FROM THE CEO
18 HOW WARS ARE REMEMBERED
03 FOUNDATION UPDATE
30 DON WILKINSON: A LIFE DEVOTED
Letter from the President
TO SERVICE - AND HISTORY
06 CALENDAR OF EVENTS 08 EDUCATION
New Immersive Film in Production Online Exhibits
10 RICHMONDERS
AT WAR New Exhibit on the Mezzanine in Richmond
SHOP 26 2021 SUMMER READING
28 T-SHIRTS & MUGS
WITH A HISTORIC TWIST
ON THE COVER: A detail of the rosewood sideboard from which meals were served in the State Dining Room of the Confederate Executive Mansion. Photo by Penelope M. Carrington. ABOVE: A page from soldier and sailor Eben Andrews’ 1864 pocket diary. LEFT: Varina Davis used this Chinese porcelain tea caddy during her years in the Confederate Executive Mansion. After the mansion became the Confederate Museum in 1896, Mrs. Davis gave the caddy to Katie Walker (Mrs. W. J.) Behan for the Museum’s Louisiana Room. ACWM Collection.
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
5
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Northern Virginia remained capable of defeating the Army of the Potomac. But two days of relentless fighting proved devastating. Author John Reeves discusses the first bloody showdown between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee — a battle that sealed the fate of the Confederacy and changed the course of American history.
A LL PROGRAMS ARE ONLINE.
Sign up and attend from anywhere; go to ACWM.ORG/EVENTS and then click on the specific event.
JUN BOOK TALK A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee Thursday, June 3 @ 6:30 Free. Registration required. Donations suggested. At the outset of the Battle of the Wilderness, General Lee’s Army of
6
SUMMER 2021
BOOK TALK Grant’s Left Hook: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, May 5 June 7, 1864 Thursday, June 24 @ 6:30 Free. Registration required. Donations suggested. In the spring of 1864, Ulysses Grant sent the 38,000-man Army of the James under Benjamin Butler to Bermuda Hundred to threaten and possibly take Richmond. Join author Sean Michael Chick to learn how the series of clashes between Butler and forces under General P. G. T. Beauregard helped decide the fate of the city and Lee’s army.
JUL BOOK TALK West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire Thursday, July 8 @6:30 Free. Registration required. Donations suggested. Slaveholders’ western ambitions culminated in a coast-to-coast crisis of the Union. By 1861, the rebellion in the South inspired a series of separatist movements in the Far West. Even after the collapse of the Confederacy, the threads connecting South and West held, undermining the radical promise of Reconstruction. Dr. Kevin Waite explores how the struggle over slavery played out on a transcontinental stage. BOOK TALK From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lee’s Civil War, Day by Day, 1861-1865 Thursday, July 29 @6:30 Free. Registration required. Donations suggested. Lost in all of the military histories of the war, and even in most of the Lee biographies, is what the general was doing when he was out of history’s public” eye. Where was Lee and what was he doing when the spotlight of history failed to illuminate him? Join author Charles Knight as he uses correspondence and papers from Lee’s family, his staff, his lieutenants, and the men of his army to reveal new things about Lee.
History Happy Hour Programs
AUG
BOOK TALK Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War Thursday, August 5 @ 6:30 Join author Brian Swartz as he explores Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s swift transition from college professor and family man to regimental and brigade commander as he honed his fighting skills at Shepherdstown and Fredericksburg. Praised by his Gettysburg peers for leading the 20th Maine Infantry’s successful defense of Little Round Top — an action that would eventually earn him Civil War immortality — Chamberlain experienced his most intense combat after arriving at Petersburg. BOOK TALK The Confederacy’s Most Modern General: James Longstreet and the American Civil War Thursday, August 12 @ 6:30 Free. Registration required. Donations suggested. The Civil War is often called the first
FALL 2021 “modern war.” Some of the most profound modern contributions to the art of war were made by Confederate General James Longstreet. Join Harold Knudsen, LTC (retired) to discover how Longstreet’s thinking evolved over a series of battles and how his innovations appeared in future wars. BOOK TALK The Boy Generals: George Custer, Wesley Merritt, and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac Thursday, August 26 @6:30 Free. Registration required. Donations suggested. Custer was a hussar — a firm believer in the shock power of the mounted saber charge — while Wesley Merritt his immediate superior was a dragoon, with a belief that troopers should fight dismounted with their carbines. Author Adolfo Ovies explores how the diametrically opposed styles of these two men led to a steadily deteriorating relationship that affected events in the field.
Emancipation Towns Monday, September 13 @ 6:30 In the aftermath of the Civil War and Emancipation, newly freed men and women established homes and communities of their own. Names like Westwood, Zion Town, Washington Park, and Jackson Ward will ring familiar as Richmond neighborhoods begun by people starting with nothing but the determination to start new, autonomous lives in a new, uncertain America. With Ana Edwards, ACWM Ulysses S. Grant and Slavery Monday, October 11 @ 6:30 During the time Grant lived at White Haven, his father-in-law’s 850-acre plantation in St. Louis, the Dent family owned upwards of 30 enslaved African Americans, and Grant himself owned one man, William Jones. Grant’s later outspoken criticism of slavery has prompted fierce debates among historians about his actual views. With Nick Sacco, Park Ranger at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Missouri. From Civil War to Civil Rights Monday, November 8 @ 6:30 How did newly freed African Americans in Appomattox Court House and the surrounding area seek to build new lives following the Civil War? With Al Jones, local historian. Petty Differences: Brother Against Brother in the Civil War Monday, December 13 @ 6:30 Summerfield Petty mortified his family by remaining loyal to the United States and serving in the Union Army. Thomas Petty remained loyal to Virginia, fought for the Confederacy, and is buried in Arlington Cemetery. What can we learn by studying the saga of the Petty brothers? With John Coski, ACWM
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
7
E D U C AT I O N
NEW IMMERSIVE FILM IN PRODUCTION
BY STEPHANIE ARDUINI
Fr
om its inception, the American Civil War Museum has been working to tell the stories of the Civil War and its legacies in ways that our visitors have never before seen – showcasing the human experience, human emotions, and the war’s continuing relevance. This fall, the Museum will debut its newest storytelling offering: an immersive film to be shown in the new Robins Theater, made possible by the extraordinary generosity of Mr. E. Claiborne Robins, Jr. When the American Civil War Museum was born in 2013, it kept the dream of one of its predecessor organizations, the American Civil War Center, to create an immersive theater experience for visitors. More than a
8
SUMMER 2021
simple “orientation film,” the theater experience was to use the unique audio and visual powers of film to give life and emotion to the stories of the Civil War era. The immersive film will be an indispensable part of the visitor experience. The Robins Theater occupies prime real estate in the new museum building at Historic Tredegar, on the ground floor off the Jordan & Thomas A. Saunders III Lobby, adjoining our flagship long-term exhibit, A People’s Contest: Struggles for Nation and Freedom in Civil War America. Just as we opened the doors to our new museum, we turned to designing and developing the theater space and its film, which we had waited to do
until after completing the move of our collections and the design and installation of the new exhibits. In early 2020, we began our work on the theater project, utilizing the same team that came together to create the new museum: Solid Light for creating the film as they did for the films and exhibits, 3North for architectural design, and Whiting Turner as general contractor. Of all of the potential stories we could tell with a film, which did we want to bring to our big screen? What would that experience be? How could it best support the stories featured in A People’s Contest, as well as add to stories we weren’t able to fit in the exhibit?
(Photo Left) Architect's rendering of the new Robins Theater. The large two screens - one in front (visible here), and the other behind it - will create an immersive experience for viewers through the use of strategic
We listened to our staff and our visitors to guide these choices. We heard that we needed the film to spend more time about the beginning and end of the war so that it could help answer frequently asked questions as well as underline the tremendous impact and implications of the war itself. For instance, since the exhibit covers secession relatively briefly before diving into the story in 1861, the film should give more attention to the causes of the war and secession – setting the stage for the choices that people made, what was at stake in the war, and establishing expectations of Americans at the time. ACWM and Solid Light staff began brainstorming conversations in summer 2020 to define goals for the film, identify stories, and build a narrative for the film, and completed a script in early 2021. ACWM staff even visited a prototype of the film technology that will help create effects to enhance – and not detract from –
impact the story.
The film ... will use two relatively gigantic (nearly 30-feet wide,14-feet tall) layered screens to create an almost 3D effect.
the story. As the narrative came together, so did a design for the film that will use two relatively gigantic (nearly 30-feet wide,14-feet tall) layered screens to create an almost three-dimensional effect that will immerse the audience in the experience. The creative team is now working together to begin production by storyboarding the film, identifying historical assets (images, photos, maps, quotes, drawings, artifacts) to feature visually in the film, and even holding a few focus groups to help test how those proposed historical assets
Simultaneous with the creative work, an architectural team worked out the technical details for a space suitable for both a film and programming, including the number and layout of seats, lighting, and soundproofing significant enough to contain the film’s sound effects. Construction is slated to begin later this summer. We are eager to bring this film experience to visitors at our Tredegar location later this year, as it transports them through the origins, course, and impact of the Civil War in ways that make the rich, complex, and deeply human stories of the Civil War era come alive. Stay tuned for more details in our e-newsletters and social media. Stephanie Arduini is the Museum’s Deputy Director, as well as the Director of the Edward L. Ayers Center for Civil War & Emancipation Studies.
ONLINE EXHIBITS
T
he American Civil War Museum is pleased to announce a new suite of online exhibitions.
EMBATTLED EMBLEM is an updated version of the exhibit of the same name that appeared at the Museum of the Confederacy from 1993-1995. It surveys the history of the Confederate flag(s) from the war until the present time and examines the multiplicity of meanings it has acquired in its long lifetime.
IN SERVICE AND SERVITUDE traces the free and enslaved people who served in Jefferson and Varina Davis’ household. This exhibit is one of three (including The Birth of Monument Avenue and The Life of Monument Avenue) that currently reside on our newly unveiled Google Arts and Culture platform. Look forward to more exhibits in that space. Post-war photo of Robert Brown.
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
9
NEW EXHIBIT
RICHMONDERS AT WAR B Y C H R I S TO P H E R G R A H A M
W
hat happens when war comes home to Americans? Few places within the current United States have been the sustained target of military action. Soldiers of the Continental Army besieged Boston in 1776. The United States Army assaulted and dislodged Diné (Navajo) people from Canyon de Chelly in 1864. Numerous southern cities — Vicksburg, Atlanta, Charleston, Petersburg, for example — came under attack in the same years. But from the moment the new Confederate States moved their capital to Richmond,Virginia, in late May 1861, capturing this city became a
1 0 WINTER/SPRING 2021
men either recovered or died. In that, Richmond is unique in American history.
primary objective of United States armies. Richmond also became the industrial and political hub of a new nation, the destination for conscripts and impressed men, White and Black, and the place where wounded and sick
Richmonders at War, a new temporary exhibition at the American Civil War Museum’s Tredegar location, invites visitors to see the story up close and in person. This panel exhibit, to be located on the
(Above map) Union soldier Robert Knox Sneden’s hand-drawn map of Richmond shows the extensive network of fortifications that ringed the city. Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
REGARDING HENRY BY KELLY R. HANCOCK second floor mezzanine, will feature a simple but unexpected narrative. It gets beyond familiar stories of courageous suffering in defense of the Confederate national capital and those of famous men at the helm of the slaveholder’s republic. Instead, the story weaves through the excitement of secession, the desperation of bread riots, the endurance of a city flooded with both dead and wounded, conscript and refugee, and the despair of men and women sold as slaves until the last days before liberation. Prior to secession, Richmond had been a medium sized but cosmopolitan American city. It boasted merchants and banks, tobacco and grain factories, an iron works, a major hub of the American slave trade, and a possibly outsized sense of itself as the historic home of American democracy. War brought dramatic changes. Richmond’s iron works, grain mills, and textile factories transformed themselves into major military suppliers. Massive government bureaucracies took root downtown while large military installations grew on the city’s outskirts. The arrival of a national government, its military forces, the workers to support them, and the civilian refugees from war-torn surrounding counties more than doubled Richmond’s population. It also strained the capital’s capacity to sustain itself. Inflation, low wages, and a food distribution system hampered by poor supply lines and complicated military regulations produced hunger and despair. Perhaps nothing impacted Richmonders more than the overwhelming presence of the wounded and dead. The Richmond Daily Dispatch noted in 1863 about the cemeteries surrounding Richmond that “nearly every stranger has a father, brother,
son, or friend now inhabiting that vast city of the dead.” Most of our visitors to Historic Tredegar are from out of town, and the most-asked questions fielded by our Visitor Engagement Associates are “what else is there to see in Richmond?” and “where can I get something to eat?” To answer these questions, Richmonders at War will incorporate QR codes into exhibit panels that will open links on the Vamonde tour platform to locations (and directions) to sites in Richmond to visit (and nearby restaurants). These locations will not be battlefields, but rather other kinds of sites of unrest, suffering, pride, and work. Some are on the outskirts of town. At some, visitors may see original buildings. Several are spaces that have been utterly transformed since the war. All are reminders that Civil War history happened all over the landscape and not just on monument marked battlefields. By encouraging visitors to ponder the presence of the past that surrounds them wherever they go, we hope to provide a great experience that lingers well after they leave us at Tredegar. And getting out into the city to explore will expose our visitors to our modern home, complete with entertainment, shops, and of course, excellent restaurants where they might continue their conversations over a bountiful meal. A future planned addition to the exhibit will contrast the experience of war with the memory of war by examining the ways that Richmond recalled the conflict. Christopher Graham is Curator of Exhibitions at the American Civil War Museum
O
ne of the things that makes studying history so fascinating is that there are mysteries yet to be uncovered, and, occasionally, a key piece of information falls into your lap, or in this case arrives in your inbox. Interpreters at the home known now as the White House of the Confederacy often tell the story of Henry and his escape. Henry, an enslaved man whom Jefferson Davis hired out from his owner to work as a butler in the fall of 1863, made his escape on the night of January 19, 1864. That night, around 10:00, a fire was discovered in the basement. It was put out before any real damage was done, but after the smoke had cleared, Henry was nowhere NEW RESEARCH to be found. This account left two key questions. Did Henry start the fire? And more importantly did he reach the safety of Union lines? Thanks to Dr. Jonathan White, a professor at Christopher Newport University, we now have the answer to one of those questions. White, who has participated in a number of the Museum’s programs, was doing research when he found an article in The Anglo-African, from February 6, 1864. Seeing the article pertained to “The Escape of Another Servant of Jeff Davis,” he shared it with staff at the Museum. In addition to providing other information, the article boldly states, “Mr. Henry Mosely, Jeff Davis’s dining room servant, has since made his escape, and is now in the room with us.” We hope to share more information about Henry Mosely and other free and enslaved members of the Executive Mansion servant staff in future issues and blog posts. Kelly R. Hancock is the Museum’s Public Programs Manager.
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
11
“EVERYTHING HAS PASSED ALONG JUST THE SAME DAY AFTER DAY” Pocket Diary Reveals the Monotony of Daily Life in the Army and the Navy BY JOHN M. COSKI
W
hat I don’t understand is this entry about going ‘into Pennsacola [sic].’ What’s a guy in the 1st Maine Cavalry doing in Pensacola?” Senior Curator Robert Hancock and I were puzzling over the often faint and almost indecipherable penciled entries in a pocket diary that the Museum just received. The donor found the diary in a thrift store in Washington state and knew nothing about
1 2 WINTER/SPRING 2021
it beyond what is written on the first page: “Eben Andrews / 1st Maine Cavalry / Compeny [sic] C / Jan. 1st / 1864.” We discovered the answer to the riddle about a Maine cavalryman in Florida as we perused entries leading up to the May 1864 Overland Campaign. “[P]leasant all day Rebel Capt. Captured in Warrenton,” Andrews recorded on Saturday, April 23, 1864. “Application came back for me to go in the Navy[.]” Closer examination revealed that a month
earlier Andrews had “again sent my name for a transfer to the Navy.” Transferring between services was not uncommon in the Civil War, but letters and diaries by men who did so are rare. George S. Burkhardt received the Museum’s 2008-2009 Founders Award, given for excellence in editing of primary source documents, for his Doing Double Duty in the Civil War: The Letters of Sailor and Soldier Edward W. Bacon. Could Eben (Photo Above) Scan of Eben Andrews’ diary signature page. ACWM Collections
Andrews’ diary be another valuable source offering insight into a little-studied aspect of the War?
Washington untill I was tired.” He found his unit near Warrenton, Virginia. “Boys all well,” he wrote.
Yes and no. Anyone who has read Civil War pocket diaries is aware of their limitations in space and detail – as well as soldiers’ famously poor spelling and sparse punctuation (which this article will retain). The stereotypical pocket diary was primarily a weather report or running culinary commentary with occasional references to things that modern readers consider historically significant.
Just before Andrews left on furlough in January, his unit went into winter camp. From the time of his return from furlough until his departure for the navy, Andrews settled into a routine that consisted of picket and guard duty, punctuated by occasional company drills, inspections, reviews, and alerts of enemy activity.
Furthermore, the donated diary covers only one of Andrews’ four years of wartime service. The son of a Bangor, Maine, clerk, Eben Andrews enlisted as a private in Company C, 1st Maine Cavalry on October 20, 1861, a month before his 21st birthday. The 1st Maine Cavalry served in the Eastern Theater and participated in campaigns from the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign through the Petersburg Campaign. Andrews was detailed from the unit as an orderly with General Samuel Sprigg Carroll, and it’s not clear how much action Andrews saw during his army service. He was promoted to corporal in November 1863 (but reduced to the ranks on April 2, 1864 for unstated reasons) and reenlisted a month later.
there were stirrings of enemy activity. Still, on April 26, Andrews noted “All quiet as usual” and that “The Boys having a good time playing ball[.]” Two days later he left the regiment for Washington, D.C. “I was examined, and was accepted as ordernary Seaman to serve in the Nav[y] 2 Years 8 months,” Andrews recorded on May 3. As his former 1st Maine Cavalry comrades prepared to ride in Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s raid on Richmond, Ordinary Seaman Eben Andrews “[w]as drafted to go to sea on bord the Sloop of War Brooklyn” and met his ship at anchor in New York the next day.
Could Eben Andrews’ diary be another valuable source offering
insight into a little-studied aspect of the War? Yes and no.
The diary reveals little about his service in the 1st Maine Cavalry. Most of the pages for January through March are blank. Andrews began writing regular entries only as he made his way back from his home in Gardiner, Maine, after a 35-day furlough. (Although he did not mention it, census records suggest that Andrews may have gotten married during that furlough.) Traveling by way of Boston, New York, and Washington, Andrews spent March 12 sightseeing, visiting the U.S. Capitol building and “look[ing] around through
During those six weeks, Andrews recorded his daily routine dutifully in his pocket diary. He always included details about the weather. “Twenty men Left camp to go on Picket near Beal[e]ton Station arived at our destination at one oclock,” he wrote on March 20th. “The Weather clear and pleasant only a little windy.” Three days later it was a different story: “The weather clear this morning with a foot of snow on the ground we had a cold time last night.” The regiment broke camp on April 21, and
(Photo Above) Pencil sketch of 1st Maine Cavalry skirmishing, June 19, 1863, by Alfred R. Waud. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Andrews’ ship was the first of five screw propeller-driven sloopsof-war that the U.S. Congress authorized in 1857. Measuring 233 feet long by 43 feet at beam, she drew 16’3” and carried a battery of 21 large smoothbore guns. She was launched in 1858 and commissioned in 1859. Her first commander was a Tennessee-born captain named David Glasgow Farragut.
By the time Andrews went aboard in May 1864, Brooklyn had been commissioned, decommissioned for repairs, and recommissioned several times during the war. She had seen hard action at the battle of New Orleans in April 1862, on the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, and in blockading duty off Galveston, Texas. As an ordinary seaman, Andrews was part of the deck crew, and his job consisted primarily of cleaning, scraping, painting, and maintaining the ship’s deck. His perspective was limited, as were his diary entries. Anyone hoping for poetic descriptions of a beautiful sloop-rigged sailing steamship will have to look elsewhere.
Continuted on page 14
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
13
Brooklyn left New York on May 10 and arrived at Key West, Florida, on May 22 to take on coal, before proceeding to Pensacola. She took up her station in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (commanded by now Admiral David Glasgow Farragut) off the port of Mobile, Alabama, on June 3. Three days later Andrews reported that “one of the Blockaders brought in a prize from Sea a quite a large Rebel Steemer” (which turned out to be the blockade runner Donegal). On July 1, Andrews “espied a Blockade Runner ashore near the Fort and six of our Gun Boats shelling her[.]” Federal
(Photo Above) The ship that Eben Andrews joined in May 1864 was one of the busiest vessels in the U.S. Navy. Harper’s Weekly published this woodcut in its January 19, 1861 issue when Brooklyn was headed for Charleston, South Carolina. “She is by far the largest sloop of war in our navy, or in the world, and carries the heaviest battery ever placed on the deck of any vessel of her class;” Harper’s claimed, “yet she only draws 16 feet water.” (Photos Right) Entries from Andrews’ diary about his Navy transfer.
1 4 WINTER/SPRING 2021
vessels continued the shelling grounded blockade runner Ivanhoe from a distance for several days. Andrews apparently was unaware that on the night of July 5-6 a raiding party of men from Brooklyn and from the flagship Hartford dared the guns of Fort Morgan and burned Ivanhoe.
nothing going on but cleaning and scraping [throughout] the ship,” he wrote on June 14. On Sunday, June 26, the former soldier stood guard as he had done so often in the army but with a very different perspective: “had a look out at the fore top mast head from eight to ten in the morning[.]”
Aside from the occasional sightings of blockade runners, Andrews settled into a new kind of routine centered around his deck maintenance duties, occasional drills at the guns, and “meetings” – shipboard worship services – on Sundays. “The Weather continues cool and cloudy,
Even in the relative isolation of blockade duty, “Madame Rumor” was as busy in the navy as she was in the army. “We hear that Gen Grant has taken Richmond,” Andrews noted on June 18. More accurately, on July 15 he “heard that the Rebel Pir[a]te Alabama was sunk” – as indeed she had been in an
engagement off Cherbourg, France, a month earlier. Although Andrews reported no rumors about his own theater of war, he did record hints that Brooklyn soon would be doing something other than patrolling the waters off Mobile Bay. His entries for June 20 and 21 noted that he and his comrades “have commenced to prepare the Ship for action” that they were at “work putting up netting around the Bullworks to stop splinters in time of action[.]”
During the last week of July, Brooklyn sailed to the squadron base at Pensacola to take on coal, ammunition, and provisions. The preparations also included more explicitly warlike measures on July 25-26: “To work taking on provisions and shealding [shielding] the ships with an Anchor cable” and “To work the same as yesterday and also making Grap lines to [fish?] up Torpedoes to keep them clear from the ship[.]” All those preparations seemed superfluous when Brooklyn returned to the squadron and then, as Andrews wrote on July 30, “Nothing doing all day.” Andrews made no entries at all on August 1 or 2, then jotted a retrospective entry for the first three days of August: “every thing goes on as usueual[.]” Finally, on August 4, Andrews noted that “We got the Decks and every thing ready for action[.]” The “action” was, of course, one of the largest and most significant naval battles of the Civil War, the Battle of Mobile Bay. Ordinary Seaman Eben Andrews’ pocket diary entries provide a skeletal outline of the battle and its aftermath:
[Friday, August 5, 1864] Morning three oclock turned out all hands got under weigh and run the Gauntlet by Fort Morgan
(Photo Top) Chromolithograph, “THE GREAT NAVAL VICTORY IN MOBILE BAY, AUG. 5TH 1864,” by Currier & Ives. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
[Saturday, August 6, 1864] Saturday took possession of Fort Powell and Burried the dead
(Photo Above) Andrews’ bare-bones diary entries for the battle of Mobile Bay.
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
15
(Photo Below) Photograph of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (seated center) on the porch of commandant’s house at Fort Gaines, Alabama, August 1864. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
the entrance to the bay. Over the next two weeks, Andrews tracked the measures taken to reduce Fort Morgan. [Wednesday, August 10, 1864] Landed two thousand Troops in the rear of Fort Morgan [Wednesday, August 17, 1864] Took two nine inch guns from our ship and landed them on shore in the rear of Fort Morgan [Thursday, August 18, 1864] Some men were detailed to go on shore, and get the Guns in a position and work them in fireing on Morgan [Friday, August 19, 1864] some fireing by the monators [sic] on Morgan… [Sunday, August 21, 1864] …along towards night the[re] was some preparations made for engaging Morgan the next day [Monday, August 22, 1864] Morning at four oclock we turned out and got under weigh and went with in range of the Fort and fired about one Hundred shots at the same time all the Fleet [Sunday, August 7, 1864] had a meeting of thanks, and o[f?] Prayer and also the thankes [sic] of the Admiral and Capt of the Fleet was read [Monday, August 8, 1864] Fort Gaines surrendered with eight Hundred prisoners Andrews’ diary suggests only indirectly that Mobile Bay was an enormous and costly battle. Andrews’ own ship was in the middle of it all. Brooklyn was nearest in the line of battle behind the Federal monitor Tecumseh when the latter struck a Confederate mine, “turned turtle,” and sunk. Brooklyn’s commander, Capt. James Alden, hesitated,
1 6 SUMMER 2021
then stopped, and alerted Farragut of the minefield, prompting Farragut’s immortal retort: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” as he took his flagship, Hartford, around Brooklyn’s port side.
[Tuesday, August 23, 1864] …the Guns and morters on shore were engaged kept up the fireeing twenty four Hours when the Fort surrendered with every thing
Hartford and Brooklyn engaged both the guns of Fort Morgan and the Confederate ironclad ram, Tennessee. In that action, Brooklyn sustained 59 hits on her hull, rigging, and spars, and suffered 11 men killed and 43 wounded.
With Fort Morgan’s surrender, Andrews and his comrades went to work cleaning the ship and “clear[ing] away all the splinter netting[.]” Brooklyn was ordered to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron to participate in the assault on Fort Fisher guarding Wilmington, North Carolina. Eben Andrews would not be on her. “I with two others were drafted to go on board the Barque Anderson,” he wrote on September 8. The next day he joined the U.S. bark,
The battle gave the Federal navy effective control of Mobile Bay, but it did not destroy the Confederate fleet or compel the surrender of Fort Morgan, which guarded
William G. Anderson (also on duty with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron), and Brooklyn went to sea. Andrews spent the remainder of the year on the Anderson, occasionally on the receiving ship Potomac at the Pensacola Navy Yard. On October 2, he was promoted from ordinary seaman to seaman. He went on the sick list in early October and remained ill for more than a month, making only occasional diary entries in November. He made his last entry on December 16: “Went a shore on liberty visated the Second Maine Cavalry,” which was stationed in coastal Alabama.
“the same as yesterday nothing new nothing happens” “Every thing has been the same day after day” “Every thing has passed along just the same day after day” “Things continue to move along about the same” “every thing quiet” “Every thing quiet allong [sic] the coast”
Aside from making a flag (an ensign) for the ship, Andrews’ duties became a deadening routine. Students of the Civil War are familiar with what historian Bell Irvin Wiley described as “the long periods between campaigns when dullness, homesickness, and despondency hung like dark clouds over encampments….” Eben Andrews himself had experienced the boredom of camp life before he transferred to the navy: “nothing new going on accept [sic] the duties of the camp” he wrote on April 16, 1864.
“same as useual”
Andrews learned that there was an analogous boredom in navy shipboard life. His diary provides an almost comical array of entries that underscored the monotony of his routine:
“nothing doing all day”
“same as yesterday”
“nothing transpires worth noting” “nothing new occurred” “nothing new of any importence [sic]” “nothing new every thing continues about the same”
“every thing remains the same as useual nothing new”
Eben Andrews was discharged from the William G. Anderson on August 3, 1865, a year ahead of his enlistment’s expiration. After the war, he was a farmer in Stetson, Penobscot County, Maine. By 1900, he and his wife, Francena, lived with their daughter and son-in-law in Portland. He attended at least one reunion of the 1st Maine Cavalry. In 1903, he and five other “old war veterans” attracted the attention of a newspaper reporter when they presented “[a] striking and practical illustration of the example of Cincinnatus… sowing cabbage in South Portland….” By 1907, the old soldier and sailor felt compelled to apply to the U.S. Government for an invalid pension. He died in June 1909 at the age of 68. Francena received a widow’s pension until her death in 1925. John M. Coski is the Museum’s Historian.
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
17
HOW WARS ARE REMEMBERED
An albumen print of Alexander Gardner’s shocking photograph showing Confederate dead along the Hagerstown Pike after the battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), September 17, 1862. The battle remains the bloodiest day in American history. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
BY ROB HAVERS, Ph.D.
W
hen the announcement about my impending move to the American Civil War Museum became public, an old colleague of mine, with whom I had team-taught military history at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst many years ago, called me and was enthusiastic about the move. He knew as well as I that the American Civil War is a conflict that continues to fascinate and appall us – a conflict that broke and re-forged a nation. That imperfect Union is one whose imperfections we still grapple today.
1 8 SUMMER 2021
The Civil War continues to fascinate us, especially in Virginia, in large part because of its staggering human toll. As we make plain in our permanent exhibition, A People’s Contest, roughly 2% of the American people lost their lives between 1861-65 – some 750,000 men and women. Extrapolate those percentages to the contemporary US population of 330 million and the equivalent numbers of dead would be around 6.6 million. Those numbers could and should give us pause when we think of the cost of the Civil War. The Civil War also continues to fascinate – and to challenge – us because of how and why it was commemorated and remembered. All conflicts, whenever and wherever they have been fought,
often continue to be fought in the pages of history books and beyond in public commemoration. My own area of academic research explored the reality of life in a particular Japanese prisoner of war camp, one in which the prisoners were able to assert a far greater degree of autonomy over their existence and where they sought every opportunity to frustrate their Japanese captors. Despite the courage and stubbornness as prisoners, their experiences were often obscured by a more commonplace and popular perception of the experiences of Japanese-held POWs, that of broken men who were essentially powerless. This idea became the shorthand for understanding that experience. While
this idea was not baseless, it was not the entirety of the story. Applying this insight to the American Civil War Museum, one of the great aspects of our flagship permanent exhibition is how we seek to tell stories that similarly have not been well heard or not as visible. We have more to do, of course, to deliver on our broad and ambitious mission to tell the story of the Civil War from all perspectives, but we are well on the way to telling a fuller story. In that regard, I am always reminded of the work of another former Sandhurst colleague and graduate school contemporary, Daniel Todman. His Ph.D. research (published in 2005 as The Great War, Myth and Memory) endeavored to look at how the British remembered the First World War. Not how they remembered it, definitively and for all time, but rather how the same war was remembered at different points over the ensuing 80 years. In this work he endeavored to examine the very different ways by which different generations recalled the very same conflict. He examined the conflict and how it was talked about and commemorated at 30-year intervals, beginning in the 1930s, when the men (and women) who fought and won that conflict were still in the prime of their lives; in the 1960s, as age caught up with them and they had largely retired from their working lives; and also in the 1990s, when the war was 70 years in the past and only the youngest of those who had actually served in the war were still alive. Todman studied not only the veterans themselves but how the wider nation marked the various anniversaries at the time. The commemoration discussions of the 1930s still told of the great victories of what still was considered a necessary war. By the 1960s, and with another world war most recent in the memory and with the Zeitgeist prompting student rebellions across the West, the view of the war by then was
an example of naïve young men led to their slaughter by arrogant and ignorant generals. By the 1990s, there was no debate about the war as tragedy not victory, the soldiers being victims not heroes. The research and the book looked at the same war but succinctly showed how the present deftly interprets the past in its own image. The war, as recalled in 1998, was not the same war recalled in 1930, even though the events had not changed. Wars, of course, are particularly vulnerable to mythologizing for a host of reasons; so powerful and tumultuous are their impacts that it is only natural that their remembrances should be similarly charged. Of course, the memory of the American Civil War has been undergoing a similar analysis for more than a generation. The Museum’s audiences have heard thought-provoking presentations by historians David Blight, Caroline E. Janney, Thomas J. Brown, Ashleigh Lawrence-Saunders, and others. Our challenge and our opportunity, at the American Civil War Museum, then, is deliver on our wonderfully expansive and inclusive mission to tell the stories not well told and also to tell the stories that are well known in new and
engaging ways. I was particularly moved, in this regard, to see the wonderful Peter Jackson film, “They Shall Not Grow Old,” which breathed new life into World War I era film footage and smoothed the jerky motions through computer generated additional frames and transformed black and white images into newly and accurately colorized pictures. Pioneering use of forensic lip readers also brought sound to these silent films. The impact was to compel viewers to rethink old images from a new vantage point and transcend the 100 years that separated modern audiences from the events on display. When I first visited the American Civil War Museum, the colorized photographs that greet the visitor made me think of that film. Public history spaces, almost uniquely, have a power and opportunity to challenge both conventional narratives, and also to allow guests to see opposing points of view. The American Civil War, to my mind, has so much still to tell. Dr. Havers is the Museum’s President and CEO and author of “Reassesssing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience:The Changi POW Camp, Singapore, 1942-5” and “Battle for Cherbourg (Battle Zone Normandy).”
PHOTO BY PENELOPE M. CARRINGTON
The closing section of the Museum’s flagship exhibit addresses the important question of how wars are remembered. T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
19
´ CHICKEN SUPREME & TURKEY HASH Dinner at the Executive mansion BY ROBERT HANCOCK
This tin-lined cellarette was used to keep wine or other drinks cool.
2 0 SUMMER 2 0 2 1
PHOTOS: ACWM COLLECTION
T
he rosewood dining table, sideboard, and many other furnishings in the formal dining room of the Confederate Executive Mansion are originals, and the upholstery and heavy brocade drapes are exact reproductions right down to the hand-tied tassels. This allowed for an accurate restoration of that important social space which Jefferson Davis’s wife,Varina, referred to as the “State Dining Room.” Representing and describing accurately the repasts that were served there has proven a more difficult challenge. Hard evidence of food preparation and dining in the Confederate Executive Mansion is sparse to say the least; we don’t even know the cook’s name, race, or status. A couple of mentions of a fete or open house is about all we have. However, those few mentions (notably in the diaries of Mary Chesnut), along with prescribed notions of how upper-class families took their meals and entertained in the mid-19th century, can give us insights into the eating and drinking habits inside the house during the war. Alabama senator and Davis family friend Clement Clay described one informal meal taken en famille with the president as consisting of beef soup (probably a consommé), beef stew, meat pie, potatoes, coffee, and bread. A meal that impressed Clay’s sense of frugality and Jefferson Davis’s tastes. Davis was not a gourmet or, in today’s parlance, a foodie. Apparently, he did not concern himself overly much about food, preferring basic fare prepared simply. While Davis was a meat and potatoes This hot water urn, or dispenser, was used in the executive mansion during the war and was taken as a souvenir by Colonel Thomas Barker, commander of the 12th New Hampshire Volunteers.
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
21
PHOTO BY PENELOPE M. CARRINGTON
Dining Room Table Laid for Service á la Française. The dining room on the first floor was reserved for more formal occasions. Generally, the Davises took their meals in the family dining room located in the southwest corner of the basement. The rosewood and maple dining table was made by the Richmond furniture-making firm of Belvin & Atkinson. kind of guy,Varina, on the other hand, was more of your foie gras and haricot vert kind of person. She enjoyed good food and liked to entertain in high style. She had quite a reputation among the politicians and socialites in Washington, D.C. while they resided there before the war when Davis was a U.S. senator. During the war years,Varina sometimes invited guests to the house for a mid-day repast. One of her “luncheons to ladies” consisted of gumbo, duck with olives, supréme de volaille (chicken in white wine sauce), chicken in jelly (a savory terrine of chicken, spices, and gelatin— similar to head cheese), oysters, lettuce salad, chocolate cream cake, claret cup (generally consisting of Bordeaux wine
2 2 SUMMER 2021
fortified with a little brandy or sherry mixed with sugar, lemon, and finished with sparkling water), and champagne. This little meal took place in January of 1864. So much for the privations of war. All this food, of course, had to be prepared.Varina might come up with the menu, but she wasn’t going to do the cooking. Meals were prepared by a cook, with the assistance of at least one under-cook or kitchen maid, in a two-story brick kitchen located to the east of the main house. The food was brought to the house in warming trays through a basement door, and final preparations were made in the butler’s pantry. If the food was not taken immediately to the table, there was a large fireplace, also located in
the basement, to keep the food warm. The dining room (photo above) is set in service á la française, or French service, for six persons based on an 1859 article from Godey’s Lady’s Book and other sources. In a French service, all the dishes are prepared and set on the table at the beginning of the meal (except for dessert which was served after the table was cleared). Today we would call this type of setup “family style.” Think Thanksgiving and you get the idea. Typically, the host and hostess carved the meats and served the soups, respectively. Etiquette dictated that these tasks be performed sitting down, not standing over the roast sawing away at it like a
carpenter. If the host was not adept at carving, then a qualified guest would be asked to do the honor. The footmen waiting table cleared away empty dishes, made sure the wine and water decanters were kept full, and brought any additional food to the table. Once the main meal was completed, the table was cleared for dessert. If a different wine were to be served during the dessert course, the footmen would bring the decanter and glasses to the table. The meal ended with coffee or tea served either at the table or in the parlor.
Decanter and glasses. With the capture of Richmond eminent,Varina Davis sold some of her dinnerware and other decorative objects — those items she was unlikely to take with her if the family had to leave Richmond in the face of the advancing U.S. forces. This decanter and glass set was bought by Mr. Edward Breeden and the money sent directly to Varina Davis. ACWM Collection
In contrast, service á la russe, supposedly introduced to the French court by a Russian diplomat in the early 19th century, was just beginning to catch on by the time of the Civil War, primarily in the big cities in the northeast. In service á la russe, footmen brought each separate course to the table and served it to the individual diners. This cleared the table of clutter, leaving more room for superfluous decoration. It also freed the host and hostess of much responsibility, letting them concentrate on keeping the conversation going, and allowed each course to arrive hot straight from the kitchen or warming oven. Service á la russe reached its height in the late 19th century and is still the preferred service for formal occasions, but at the time of the Civil War, many rebelled against this new-fangled way of dining. One gentleman wrote that having the servants constantly hovering around serving food and clearing dishes interrupted conversation. Besides, he liked to see everything that was to be served all
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
23
One of a set of demitasse cups used by the Davises while at the Executive Mansion.
all at once so he could decide of which dishes he would like to partake. In a French service, once the soup or consume was ladled and passed, the host or a skilled guest carved the meats, placing the slice upon a plate held by a table servant and laid before the guest who had requested it. Hosts and guests alike would help dish out the other food. The first course finished, the servants removed all dishes and the tablecloth, if more than one was being used, and brought on the second course. As with the first course, upon completion of the second course, the table was again cleared and the desserts served on a bare table. And speaking of servants, those who waited table in the Davis executive mansion over the years were all enslaved, either owned by the Davises or hired out from a local owner. One of those servants was James Pemberton who, after seizing his freedom in 1864, ended up in Washington. In addition to commenting on military and political problems faced by Jefferson Davis, the New York Herald reported: “One turkey serves the imperial household of his master at Richmond for three days — the first day as a roast, the second day cold, and the third day as a hash, warmed over again; and he further says that Mrs. Davis sighs and pines all the time over the lost pleasures of those good old days in Washington.” In the “good old days,” a typical dinner in an upper-class home started with at least five different dishes and was followed by a second course of five more dishes. Each course could consist of soup or consume, beef or pork, seafood (fish or oysters), and fowl with accompanying vegetables. The dessert course had the same number of dishes as the second course and that was in turn followed by a second dessert of fruit, both fresh and preserved, cheese, and nuts. All of it washed down with several wines, Madeira or Port, tea or coffee. We do not know whether Varina preferred French service or adopted the new service á la russe, but I suspect the former.Varina has always struck me as someone who liked to retain control over any proceedings and probably preferred to serve her guests, herself, than defer to a servant. There is no record of President Davis’s skill at carving.
In a letter dated April 5, 1865, Jefferson Davis wrote to his wife Varina: “David Bradford went back from the depot to bring out the spoons and forks, which he was told, had been left, and to come out with General Breckinridge. Since then I have not heard from either of them.” Both photos: ACWM Collection
2 4 SUMMER 2021
Robert Hancock is the Museum’s senior curator and director of collections and a self-acknowledged “foodie.”
LEARN MORE
For more information on the servant staff that worked in the Confederate Executive Mansion, please see our online exhibit, In Service and Servitude.
FOOD PRESERVATION & CANNED GOODS The food served in the days before preservatives (except salt and pickling) and deep freezing was, of course, seasonal. Commercial canning was still new by the time of the Civil War but was taking off fast. Five million cans of food were produced in 1860; by the 1870s, it was 30 million. Fruits and vegetables were now available year-round and more exotic foods, such as pineapple, were available to everyone. Condensed milk, patented by Gail Borden in 1856, was considered safer for children than fresh milk, and it was widely distributed to soldiers in the Union army. Mason jars, patented in 1858, made home preserving much easier. Canned goods were in short supply in the South during the war. Once available inventories were exhausted, it was exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to replace them. Southern families still relied on pickling and drying fruits and vegetables for use during the winter months. Archeological research conducted in the 1980s during the restoration of the house suggests that the Executive Mansion’s wine cellar was well stocked and included an expensive bottle of French Chateau Margaux wine. This and the photo at right are from the ACWM Collection.
(Photo Above) According to Varina Davis, this sugar bowl lid is “The only piece of a set of Sevres which took the prize at Vienna, and which was sent to me by a Northern man who had taken it from the Executive Mansion in Richmond as a souvenir.”
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
25
SHOP
IN THE WAVES: MY QUEST TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF A CIVIL WAR SUBMARINE by Rachel Lance balances a gripping historical tale and original research with a personal story of one woman’s effort to explain what killed the crew of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley after it sunk the U.S.S. Housatonic off Charleston in February 1864. HARDCOVER, ITEM #154146 $28; MEMBERS $25.20
A MORTAL BLOW TO THE CONFEDERACY: THE FALL OF NEW ORLEANS, 1862 by Mark F. Bielski tells the stories of the leaders and men who fought for control of New Orleans, the largest city in the South, the key to the Mississippi, and the commercial gateway for the Confederacy. PAPERBACK, ITEM #154222 $14.95; MEMBERS $13.45
I’VE BEEN HERE ALL THE WHILE: BLACK FREEDOM ON NATIVE LAND
NO COMMON GROUND: CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS AND THE ONGOING FIGHT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE by Karen L. Cox offers a timely and eye-opening narrative of the efforts to raise, preserve, protest, and remove Confederate monuments. PAPERBACK, ITEM #154203 $24; MEMBERS $21.60
2 6 SUMMER 2021
by Alaina E. Roberts upends the traditional story of Reconstruction with this account of the intertwined narratives of African Americans and Native Americans in 19th-century Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma). HARDCOVER, ITEM #154225 $34.95; MEMBERS $31.45
2 021 S U M M E R R E A D I N G @ AC W M .O RG EMBATTLED CAPITAL: A GUIDE TO RICHMOND DURING THE CIVIL WAR by Robert M. Dunkerly and
WILLIAM STILL: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD AND THE ANGEL AT PHILADELPHIA by William C. Kashatus is the first full-length biography of Underground Railroad leader William Still, and includes a detailed database of the 995 fugitives Still helped escape from slavery between 1853 and 1861. PAPERBACK, ITEM #154214 $35; MEMBERS $31.50
Doug Crenshaw tells the story of the Confederate capital city before, during, and after the Civil War, and provides a comprehensive list of area battlefields, museums, historic sites, monuments, cemeteries, historical preservation groups, and more. HARDCOVER, ITEM #154198 $14.95; MEMBERS $13.45
THE BLACK CIVIL WAR SOLDIER: A VISUAL HISTORY OF CONFLICT AND CITIZENSHIP by Deborah Willis presents a stunning collection of stoic portraits and intimate ephemera from the lives of Black Civil War soldiers and explores the crucial role of photography in (re)telling and shaping African-American narratives of the Civil War. Paperback, Item #154200 $35; MEMBERS $31.50
BOUND TO THE FIRE: HOW VIRGINIA’S ENSLAVED COOKS HELPED INVENT AMERICAN CUISINE by Kelley Fanto Deetz draws upon archaeological evidence, cookbooks, plantation records, and folklore to uncover the rich and complex stories of enslaved plantation cooks from Colonial times through Emancipation, and celebrates their living legacy with the recipes that they passed down to future generations. Paperback, Item #154188 $21.99; MEMBERS $19.79
MEADE AND LEE AT BRISTOE STATION: THE PROBLEMS OF COMMAND AND STRATEGY AFTER GETTYTSBURG, FROM BRANDY STATION TO THE BUCKLAND RACES, AUGUST 1 TO OCTOBER 1, 1863 by Jeffrey Hunt is a fast-paced, dynamic account of how the Army of Northern Virginia carried the war above the Rappahannock once more in an effort to retrieve the laurels lost in Pennsylvania. Paperback, Item #153929 $34.95; MEMBERS $31.45
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
27
HISTORY COMES IN i am my ancestors’ wildest dreams
VIRGINIA STATE SEAL
SIZES: S,M, L, XL, XXL $24.95; MEMBERS $22.45
SIZES: S,M, L, XL, XXL $24.95; MEMBERS $22.45
HISTORIC BEARDS
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTE
SIZES: S,M, L, XL, XXL, XXL $24.95; MEMBERS $22.45
SIZES: S,M, L, XL, XXL, XXL $24.95; MEMBERS $22.45
HARRIET TUBMAN SIZES: S,M, L, XL, XXL $24.95; MEMBERS $22.45
ALL
SIZES @ ACWM .ORG
2 8 SUMMER 2021
SHOP
ITEM #153764 $6.95; MEMBERS $6.25
V I $
B I $ ITEM #153439 $9.95; MEMBERS $8.95
ITEM #153617 $9.95; MEMBERS $8.95
T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
29
DONALD M. WILKINSON, JR. A LIFE DEVOTED TO SERVICE - AND HISTORY
Don Wilkinson and Waite Rawls (above) peruse the official program for the opening of the Museum’s 2005 exhibition, The Confederate Navy, which Don Wilkinson underwrote. A few days later I received a kind letter from Mr. Wilkinson, “enclosing a brochure about my day job” and thanking me for “patiently listening to my project on John Wilkinson.”
BY JOHN M. COSKI
I
n January 1998, when I was in charge of The Museum of the Confederacy’s Eleanor S. Brockenbrough research library, I received a call from the Museum’s front desk to let me know that there was a “nice man” at the desk who wanted to talk with me. The man proved very nice indeed, impeccably dressed, and very apologetic about dropping by without an appointment. His name was Don Wilkinson, and he explained that he lived in New York and was only in town for a short while. Knowing that I had written a book on the Confederate Navy, he wanted to talk with me about his own research on his collateral ancestor, the famed Confederate blockade runner captain
3 0 SUMMER 2021
John Wilkinson. He showed me a large binder containing his substantial research. I told him that our collections had little or nothing on John Wilkinson except his memoir and other widely available published materials.
Six years later I found myself in the Museum lobby meeting Don Wilkinson again, this time introduced by the Museum’s new executive director, Waite Rawls. The two men both were graduates of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business; they knew each other from those school’s boards and from the New York City financial world. Both were proud native Virginians who had spent most of their careers outside the Commonwealth but never lost touch with Virginia. Those first encounters with Don
Wilkinson revealed much about a man who became and long remained a generous friend of the Museum and of other educational and historical institutions until his death in April 2020.
to fruition in June 2005 when he delivered a prestigious Banner Lecture at the Virginia Historical Society entitled The Most Good for the Confederacy. When he died 15 years later, he was putting the finishing touches on his John Wilkinson biography. Rather than retire at 65 or even 75 so that he could work full-time on the project, Don Wilkinson had continued to manage his business and devote much time to the institutions and causes in which he believed.
Don Wilkinson was passionately interested in the life of his ancestor, in Civil War history, and in American history generally. But he had to fit his historical reading and research into the interstices of a very busy life. His “day job” was chairman of Wilkinson O’Grady, a global asset management firm. He served on the governing boards of VMI, the Darden School, the Virginia Historical Society, and the American Civil War Museum (and, before their consolidation, with both the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar and The Museum of the Confederacy). His passion for the subject led him to underwrite the 2005 exhibition and book project, The Confederate Navy. “My objective in supporting the Museum of the Confederacy,” he explained in a 2006 article in this Magazine, “was to help shine a spotlight on this rich and too-seldom-celebrated history which includes great bravery, ingenuity and professional accomplishment against overwhelming odds.” He also donated and loaned several John Wilkinson-related
objects for the exhibit and, years later, donated original portraits of John Wilkinson’s postwar business partner, Cdr. John Taylor Wood and his wife, Lola Mackubin Wood (See Summer/Fall 2018 issue). Don Wilkinson’s desire to shine a spotlight on the underappreciated accomplishments of Civil War naval officers such as John Wilkinson and John Taylor Wood also motivated him to endow the plaza space outside the new American Civil War Museum at Tredegar Ironworks. His own patient research came
He attributed his commitment to service to his formative years at VMI. “The reason I have served VMI,” he explained when he accepted the school’s Distinguished Service Award in 2010, “is because I think VMI’s tradition of emphasis on the universal values of integrity, service, duty, responsibility, resolve, honor and patriotism are crucial to the preservation of our way of life as a society, our Constitutional Democracy, and our personal freedom.” For more than a generation, the American Civil War Museum was the beneficiary of Don Wilkinson’s leadership and generosity – an expression of his commitment to education and to the study and preservation of American history. We are all the richer for it. John M. Coski is author of Capital Navy: The Men, Ships, and Operations of the James River Squadron.
PHOTOS (Left) John Wilkinson’s Confederate States Navy desk, which Don Wilkinson donated to the Museum’s collection. (Above) Don Wilkinson wanted the Wilkinson Plaza (located directly in front of the James C. Rees Archway) to pay tribute to John Wilkinson and other officers who served in both the United States and Confederate navies. (Opposite page) Photograph, ca. 1858, of Commander John Wilkinson (1821-1891). A former U.S. Navy officer, Wilkinson became the Confederacy’s most accomplished blockade runner, taking the Robert E. Lee through the Federal naval blockade 21 times. A contemporary observed that “Raphael Semmes did the most damage to the enemy, but John Wilkinson did the most good for the Confederacy.” T H E A M E R I C A N C I V I L WA R M U S E U M
31
STORIES, LEGENDS & LEGACIES OF LIVING IN A DIVIDED NATION
Experience the American Civil War Museum, a national center for the exploration of the Civil War and its legacies, with locations in Richmond and Appomattox, Virginia.
HISTORIC TREDEGAR
WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY
APPOMATTOX
480 TREDEGAR STEET RICHMOND, VA
1201 EAST CLAY STREET RICHMOND, VA
159 HORSESHOE ROAD APPOMATTOX,VA
FOLLOW
ACWM.ORG Photos from the ACWM permanent exhibit, A People’s Contest: Struggles for Nation and Freedom in Civil War America.
