Civil War News April 2020

America’s Monthly Newspaper For Civil War Enthusiasts

American Battlefield Trust In The News

The American Battlefield Trust has no shortage of exciting programs on the horizon for this spring! Whether you are looking for volunteer opportunities, partnerships to provide exceptional experiences for underprivileged classrooms, or opportunities to introduce talented young people to preservation advocacy, it’s a fantastic time to be involved in the battlefield protection movement.

Volunteer at Your Favorite Battlefield this Park Day

Well more than 100 sites across the country are poised to participate in our 24th annual Park Day. This nationwide effort invites volunteers of all ages to give back to their communities by helping with upkeep and maintenance at local historic landmarks. In 2019, some 7,000 volunteers donated approximately 25,000 service hours on much needed projects at sites that stretched across 32 states and the District of Columbia, from Maine to California. Find a participating site near you at www.battlefields. org/parkday.

Introducing the Great Task Youth Leadership Program

We are also thrilled to announce a new partnership with Gettysburg National Military Park and the Bowe Stewart Foundation that will extend and expand the park’s dynamic, award-winning Great Task Youth Leadership Program over the next five years. Expansion plans for the partnership include: a virtual component designed for those who cannot physically make it to Gettysburg, but that will also better prepare those who can, the addition of at-risk youth from Baltimore, Md., and Chicago, Ill., among other key cities and regions, classroom and library materials for participating organizations, and the application of this leadership and service model to other American battlefields.

Geared for at-risk student and youth organizations from grade levels 7 to 12, the Great Task offers intensive leadership and character-building experiences that go beyond traditional curriculum-based field trips. By utilizing the battlefield as an outdoor classroom, participants are immersed in stories of leadership, heroism, and civic responsibility embodied by those involved in, and affected by, the battle.

“The education goals of the American Battlefield Trust and the National Park Service at Gettysburg are one and the same: to create model programs for the next generation of leaders to learn directly from America’s battlefields,” said Trust chief historian Garry Adelman. “We are proud to join forces to make that happen for an ever-broadening circle of youth.”

Applications for the program will be accepted through April 30 for one or two-day excursions from July through October. The site visits will be customized to match the mission and objectives of each youth organization. To learn more, visit www.battlefields.org/great-task.

Seeking our 2020–2021 Youth Leadership Team

We are also now accepting applications for the next class of our Youth Leadership Team, a group of high school students from across the country who are passionate about American history. This year-long program is an opportunity for students to learn the ins and outs of our mission and serve as ambassadors for the Trust. They participate in a “Lobby Day on Capitol Hill”, attend our annual conference during the summer, and energize their local communities about the importance of our mission.

During the year, each team member is responsible for a preservation or education project in their hometown area. Our current Youth Leadership Team is hard at work completing their projects. Owen is hosting a history day to highlight the Civil War and Revolutionary War history in Yorktown; Sarah is taking a group of her peers to experience a history day at the Olustee battlefield in Florida; and Jessica is putting together a history-based game show for her school to participate in.

If you are interested in being part of our next class (or know someone who is), please help spread the word about the Youth Leadership Team. Applications are open until April 30th, 2020. Applicants must be aged 15-18 and be able to travel independently in order to participate. Further details and application materials are available at www.battlefields. org/ylt.

Uncovering Charleston’s Hornwork

Just below the surface of one of the most popular parks in

Charleston, lies a significant archaeological and historical treasure that demonstrates the resilience of early Charlestonians in defending their country from European invasion attempts. In early February, The Liberty Trail, a joint project of the Trust and the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust (SCBPT), leveraged modern technology, local experts, and graduate students from the Clemson/College of Charleston Historic Preservation Program, to document the exact footprint of this fortification in Marion Square.

The Hornwork, built in 1758, anchored an intimidating defensive line around colonial Charleston. Constructed of tabby, a mixture of shells, sand, and lime, the structure was a massive 30-foot tall fortification spanning three city blocks. The Hornwork and its surrounding ditch or moat occupied a space measuring approximately six to eight acres. While a remnant remains visible in Marion Square today and archaeologists know

its approximate outline, this project is the first to completely document the exact footprint of the Hornwork and provide educational resources to explain its significance.

Trust president Jim Lighthizer noted that ultimately this work will yield a gateway experience for The Liberty Trail, a statewide network of Revolutionary War sites proposed by the partners. “We envision a state-of-theart augmented reality program to allow Marion Square visitors to see the Hornwork and where it fits on the modern landscape. Traditional interpretive signage will further educate visitors.” Learn more at www.thelibertytrail.org.

Discovering a Warrior Legacy

Among the many untold stories of exceptional valor in American history is the powerful example of

Lt. General Ronald Coleman (USMC, retired) outside Fort Harrison on the New Market Heights battlefield, today part of Richmond National Battlefield Park.

(Jamie Betts/American Battlefield Trust)

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Joe Bilby had an accident that hospitalized him. He is

recovering and his column will resume in the following issue.

We’ve had a few columns and letters about Blacks serving in the Confederate Army recently. If you have specific knowledge of a Black man who was duly enlisted and carried on the rolls as a soldier (infantryman, cavalryman, navy, or artilleryman) we would like to hear from you. As a topic that needs airing, we know there are non-academics who have specialized knowledge about a variety of little-known sources that can contribute to the discussion of Black soldiers in the ranks.

The argument as to whether or not black soldiers voluntarily served in the Confederate Army to fight against the Federal troops

Gettysburg.

For anyone who would like to read more about Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg, I recommend my award-winning book, recently released from Savas Beatie, titled “Lee is Trapped and Must Be Taken”: Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4-14, 1863.

Thomas J. Ryan Bethany Beach, DE

during the Civil War is an extremely controversial topic. We encourage any factual or historical documented proof of black soldiers that willingly fought for the Confederacy. Photographs, pensions, newspaper accounts, Official Records, period firsthand accounts, and any other documentation that proves or supports the myth will be considered for publication.

Please send any correspondence to Letters to the Editor at mail@civilwarnews.com.

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To The Editor: Regarding the article entitled Stuart shields retreat from Gettysburg by Carl Sell Jr. which I found both enjoyable and enlightening, I would like to clarify or expand on a few items discussed in the article. West Virginia was a state at the time of the retreat from Gettysburg rather than later as implied in the article; Gen. John Bell Hood’s Division attacked the left flank of the Union army on July 2, not just Little Round Top; Gen. Stuart captured a Union signal party operating at a station on Jack’s Mountain just west of Fairfield, Penn.; and Gen. Robert E. Lee was not on hand to assist Gen. John Imboden establish a defensive position at Williamsport, Md. Otherwise, I thought the article provided an interesting perspective regarding Jeb Stuart’s cavalry and its adventures in screening Lee’s forces from the pursuing Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George G. Meade following the battle at

3rd NC Cavalry—North-South Skirmish Association

THEN

The companies of this regiment were in the field as early as August 1861. They served on independent duty as scouts and pickets from the Cape Fear River in North Carolina to the Blackwater River in southeastern Virginia. Several attempts were made to assemble the scattered companies into an organized regiment but due to the wide spread dispersement; this did not meet with much success. Company K mustered in at “Little” Washington, N.C., and was then mustered into Confederate service February 7, 1862, to date from November 6, 1861. Col. John Baker assumed command of the regiment and Captain Jordan Walker took charge of Company “K”.

The company saw active service in several commands during the conflict, taking part in numerous campaigns in North Carolina and Virginia. Active in the 1862 New Bern Campaign, siege of Suffolk, Va., under Longstreet, Dillards Wharf, South Anna Bridge, New Bern 1864, Bermuda Hundred, Drewry’s Bluff, and Hanover Court House. After General Rufus Barringer assumed command of the Third and other mounted units, the force would be known as Barringer’s Brigade until the end of the war.

Later in 1864 came Cold Harbor, Hanover Town Road, Haws Shop, Meadow’s Bridge, Second Cold Harbor, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, and Harrison’s Landing. The regiment was to see much action while protecting the Petersburg to Weldon Railroad and heavily involved in action at Charles City Road, Whites Tavern, Yellow House, Davis Farm, and Ream’s Station where the Third distinguished itself

The regiment participated in Hampton’s Beefsteak Raid during September 1864. Belfield, Va., signaled a change for the unit. From then on, the Third participated in major defensive actions at Dinwiddle Courthouse, Five Forks, Chamberlin Run, Namozine Church, and on the march to Appomattox.

The night before the surrender, most Confederate cavalry rode off to join General Johnston in North Carolina; some just went home. The lone trooper from the 3rd NC Cavalry at the surrender was in the hospital.

NOW

The modern reincarnation of the Third was organized during the fall of 1994 by six N-SSA

veterans with service dating as far back as 1967. It stood its probationary skirmish at the 91st Spring Nationals with eight members participating.

In its short history it has grown to sixteen active members who participate in almost every type of competition the N-SSA offers. Since then, the team has won numerous national, individual, and team medals in revolver, musket, and carbine.

The company draws members from eastern North Carolina and Virginia. Since organizing, it has helped host the 97th, 112th, and 125th National Skirmishes by running the pistol range. As time has gone by the team has accepted northern competitors as team

members who, we reckon, ought to be called “Galvanized Rebs.”

Since women were allowed to compete, we added two female shooters to our ranks. While we still hold to the family atmosphere, we have moved with the changes in the N-SSA. Our current membership is eighteen competitors.

As to why the 3rd NC Cavalry (41st Regiment) was selected, a cousin and I had a great grandfather, two great uncles, and several cousins who served in Company K, 3rd NC Cavalry until the war ended.

– Jimmy Hardison

3rd NC carbine Fall 2008 at Fort Shenandoah.

3rd NC working pistol range May 2012.

View from firing line as 3rd NC breaks hanging tiles. Blur in distance is a tile shattering.

from page 1

the United States Colored Troops (USCT) at the Battle of New Market Heights, near Richmond, Va. For their actions during that Sept. 28, 1864, engagement, 14 black Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor.

To tell this story, the American Battlefield Trust debuted a new video in which retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General Ron Coleman brings viewers to New Market Heights to follow in the footsteps of the remarkable USCT assault by visiting the portions of the battlefield protected by the Trust. As only the second African American to attain the rank of three-star general within the Marine Corps, Coleman acknowledges a powerful debt owed to the black men who volunteered to fight for the Union. Their legacy was continued by

later generations of black soldiers and sailors, including the World War I Harlem Hellfighters and Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, up until the career of Coleman himself. “Without them, I wouldn’t be here. I’m standing on a lot of shoulders,” the general said.

The film is part of the Trust’s Warrior Legacy project illuminating the deep connections that today’s veterans and active duty military retain to their historic counterparts, and how the landscapes of historic battlefields can be used to bridge those eras. The Trust is committed to creating powerful content that bridges the gap between modern servicemen and women and their forebearers in uniform, and showcasing the dedication with which its many veteran members support the protection of battlefields as monuments to those who have answered the call to our country’s service.

A group from LNESC/LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), an after-school program in Philadelphia, visits the Soldiers’ National Cemetery with Ranger Dan Vermilya. They are working through an activity on the difficulty but importance of identifying soldiers after the battle and creating a national cemetery, which provides opportunities to discuss the leadership of Lincoln, and the duty and sacrifice of the soldiers buried there.

Lt. General Ronald Coleman (USMC, retired) walking on property preserved by the American Battlefield Trust at the New Market Heights Battlefield, outside Richmond, Va. Gen. Coleman visited the battlefield as part of his involvement in the American Battlefield Trust’s “Warrior Legacy” video series.

(Jamie Betts/American Battlefield Trust)

Students from Clemson and College of Charleston operating a ground penetrating radar to identify below ground remnants of the Hornwork and determine how much remains and better understand its scale. (Sarah Nell Blackwell)

Students from Clemson and College of Charleston stand alongside the only remaining visible portion of the Revolutionary War-era “hornwork,” part of the 18th-century defenses of Charleston, S.C. The remains are located in Marion Square in downtown Charleston. (Sarah Nell Blackwell)

Students from Clemson and College of Charleston conduct a ground-penetrating radar survey of Marion Square in downtown Charleston, S.C. Marion Square was the location of the Revolutionary War-era “hornwork,” part of the defenses of Charleston. The original Citadel appears in the background.

(Sarah Nell Blackwell)

We hope that you will accept our invitation to advertise in the 26th annual July Gettysburg section of the Civil War News. This year we are printing 12,000 copies of the Gettysburg Edition, in full color, which will be mailed to Civil War News subscribers but also delivered to shops, lodging, restaurants, historic homes, Civil War dealers, auction houses, libraries, battlefield parks, and museums for free distribution in downtown Gettysburg. It will also be handed out at the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association’s 47th Annual Civil War Show June 2728 and at the 157th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg with Battle Reenactments, Artillery

and Cavalry Demonstrations, Living History Programs, Tours of the Restored House & Barn, and more! We are working on getting it distributed to other big venues in Gettysburg as well. The reenactment will be staged on the hallowed ground of the GBPA’s 146 – acre Daniel Lady Farm located on Hanover Road with a large reenactment field bordering the Gettysburg National Military Park at Benner Hill.

In addition to the Gettysburg Edition being free to the public in shops, restaurants, and other businesses in downtown Gettysburg. It will be available for free viewing online at CivilWarNews.com which has over 300,000 visitors per year. The online version will have clickable hyperlinks which will automatically redirect the reader to the advertiser’s website. The July issue will also be posted on the Civil War News Facebook page which has almost 75,000 likes.

Please contact us at 800-7771862 or email ads@civilwarnews. com for questions, a copy of our rate sheet which includes the pricing and ad size specs for this special issue, or to reserve your ad space. Deadline is May 20th for ad reservation and May 31st for materials deadline.

If you choose not to participate,

but are located in Gettysburg, and would like copies of the Gettysburg section to distribute, please contact me and I will make certain that you receive a box. We look forward to hearing from you!

e Second Colorado Cavalry A Civil War Regiment on the Great Plains

By Christopher M. Rein

During the Civil War, the Second Colorado Volunteer Regiment played a vital and often decisive role in the fi ght for the Union on the Great Plains—and in the westward expansion of the American empire. e Second Colorado Cavalry is the fi rst in-depth history of this regiment operating at the nexus of the Civil War and the settlement of the American West. $34.95

a powerful—and poignant—tale of two star-crossed lovers against the backdrop of post–Civil War America. In addition, the volume gives readers a fascinating glimpse into gender roles and marital relations in the nineteenth century.

PAPERBACK · 336 PAGES, 8 B&W ILLUS.

NEW DIGITAL MAGAZINES:

Digital subscriptions for back issues of Civil War News (Archive 2012 to current issue are available now) and The Artilleryman magazine from Vol. 1, No. 1 to the current issue, will be available soon. The first ten years of the publication and every issue from Summer 2015 to present, are now available as an online, yearly digital subscription. Over 6,500 pages of artillery information available on your phone, tablet, or computer. By the end of Summer 2020, this project will be entirely up to date, with over 160 issues.

If you are a student of the Civil War, artillery, a historian, researcher, author, or just interested in the hobby, you’ll find plenty of information within this massive archive.

To Subscribe Visit: CivilWarNews.com or ArtillerymanMagazine.com and click on Digital link to subscribe.

ALEXANDER RITCHIE PORTRAIT OF GENERAL JOHN STARK, OIL ON CANVAS

1764 DATED ENGRAVED POWDER HORN OF WILLIAM HEWLET WITH RELATED DOCUMENT

LT. WILLIAM COLFAX RECEIPT FOR GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON’S WINE, MAY 24, 1778 IMPORTANT DOCUMENTED PAIR OF SILVER MOUNTED PISTOLS PRESENTED BY GEORGE WASHINGTON TO CAPTAIN JAMES CHAMBERS

Into the Valley of Death: Lt. Horatio D. Yeager and the 153rd Pennsylvania at Gettysburg

By Daniel Glenn

It was a crisp day in September 1889 when a procession of Union veterans and assorted spectators ascended a small incline called Blocher’s Knoll on the outskirts of Gettysburg, Penn. As they walked, they came in sight of a sixteen-foot tall monument topped by a bugler. Heralded by patriotic songs and a sea of spectators, the surviving members of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, some of whom limped from wounds sustained twenty-six years before, gathered around the newly erected monument.

As the music died down, one veteran, 1st Lt. Horatio D. Yeager, stepped forward and addressed the crowd. “There is the proof of our labors and of our love to the fallen comrades who went down, beneath those awful volleys, into the valley of death, that you and I, and our Country, its freedom and flag should live,”

he stated. “Let this day, its acts, its deeds, live in the heart of each and every Comrade present and be remembered through life even down to the Shadows when death ends and closes over all.” Like so many present, Yeager remembered the events of July 1, 1863, with painful clarity.

The youngest in his family, Horatio Yeager was raised on a farm in Catasauqua, a small rural community in eastern Pennsylvania. After graduating from Van Kirk’s Academy in 1851, he worked in a number of jobs including clerking, wholesale, and a general mercantile business. In April 1861, Yeager surprised his mother with a letter saying, “I am now going to write to you on a subject which I never have done before. I have made up my mind to go and fight for my country and our Government and the Constitution.” Yeager assured

his mother he was not afraid of death, writing that he would only have to die once, and he might as well “die in the Battle Field as any other place.” On April 25, 1861, he travelled to Philadelphia to enlist in the 17th Pennsylvania Volunteers. He saw almost no action during his three-month enlistment as a private, and in July he returned to civilian life.

Yeager mustered into the service again in October 1862, this time as 1st Lieutenant in Co. C, 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, a nine-month regiment assigned to the First Brigade, First Division, XI Corps. This service would thrust the young man into two of the war’s bloodiest battles.

During his enlistment, Yeager regularly kept his family up to date on his affairs. However, it seems that they were not as diligent, and the lack of word from home was a continual source of worry and annoyance. “I have not received a letter from any of you for nearly two month[s]. . . . Have you all turned secession[?]” he asked his parents. “This is enough to discourage anyone, particularly a soldier.” He even threatened to “kick” one friend at home “like fury” for not writing.

The men of Yeager’s company viewed him highly. “Our Captain wants to resign,” Yeager wrote proudly, “and the men want him to do so providing I will be Captain of our Company.” In

On April 25th, 1863, Yeager sent his family a letter and carte de visite, writing, “Inclosed you will please find my Photograph which I had taken in camp but it is not a good one at all but must do for the present as I have no better to send you, but be carefull [sic] and let no one steel [sic] it from you.”

May 1863, he became acting captain of Company C, and although he was never officially promoted, he went by “Captain Yeager” for the rest of his life.

The great admiration between Yeager and his company was mutual. “You never saw a better set of men in your life,” he wrote. The fondness he and his men felt for one another made losing some of them all the more difficult. After one soldier died of disease, Yeager wrote, “I done all for him I could but he was only sick 3 days [and] then went the long journey home.”

The 153rd first saw action in the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863. Forming the far right end of the Union line, the 153rd caught “a perfect hail of lead” from rebel troops under the

command of General Stonewall Jackson. Outnumbered and outflanked, the Pennsylvania volunteers fired only one volley before retreating with the rest of the XI Corps. The regiment sustained 85 casualties, and several dozen, including Col. Charles Glanz, were captured. If Yeager ever wrote home about the engagement, the letter does not survive.

As the 153rd marched into Gettysburg, its commander reminded the men that their nine month enlistment had ended and that if “there was a man in ranks who did not wish to go into battle; he should step out.” Although he was incorrect and they still had time left in their enlistment, no one did.

On July 1, 1863, the regiment was tasked with defending

Officers of the 153rd Pennsylvania taken at their winter quarters in late 1862 or early 1863. From left to right: Capt. John P. Ricker, Capt. Henry J. Oerter, Capt. Joseph A. Frey, 2nd Lieut. William Simmers, 2nd Lieut. William Beidelman, 1st Lieut. Henry R. Barnes, 1st Lieut. George H. Fritchman, Capt. Joseph S. Myers, 1st Lieut. Horatio D. Yeager, Capt. Howard J. Reeder, 2nd Lieut. J. Clyde Millar.

These two photographs show Lieut. Yeager’s daughter, sonin-law, and granddaughter visiting Devil’s Den and the 153rd’s monument on Blocher’s Knoll in the early twentieth century.

Yeager saved this star cut from the regimental flag of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers.

Blocher’s Knoll, known today as Barlow’s Knoll, after Francis Barlow, their division commander. The knoll overlooked a small stream called Rock Creek north of town, a prime position for cannon and skirmishers. It was here that Yeager’s regiment would, as he’d put it earlier, “show our pluck,” as they faced repeated assaults from several Confederate regiments from Georgia.

Yeager took a Minié ball to the hip, but stuck to his post for over an hour. As the 153rd struggled to hold its position in the line, men went down by the dozens. “They were piled up in every shape,” one private observed. “I stood between those two lines of battle, viewing the windrow of human dead composed of my old comrades.” By the end of July 1, nearly half the regiment had been

killed, wounded, captured, or was missing.

Withdrawing with his men toward Cemetery Hill, Yeager was hit by a second Minié ball in the left leg. As his leg gave way, those around him recalled the lieutenant still “urging his men to retreat or they would be taken prisoners.” His company far ahead, and the air thick with smoke, Yeager crawled to a nearby farmhouse, most likely the one owned by Thomas Scott, where he was held as a prisoner of war by rebel soldiers. After his release on July 4, he finally received medical attention. Luckily, unlike forty-one of his comrades, he survived his wounds, but for Yeager, the war was over. He spent the next three weeks in a hospital, possibly the Adams County Almshouse, before returning home.

Despite his survival, Yeager’s family received a horrifying surprise when their hometown newspaper, the Easton Argus, reported him dead.

Although his wounds prevented his return to manual labor, Yeager accomplished a great deal after the war. Following his discharge, he joined a lumber business that eventually bore his name: H.D. Yeager and Co. He worked as a school director for eight years, was active in Republican Party politics, and was the master of ceremonies at the 1889 dedication of the 153rd’s monument at Gettysburg. Yeager continued his active involvement in the local community until heart disease did what Confederate fire could not; he died October 14, 1907, at the age of seventy-one.

Sources:

• William R. Kiefer, History of the One Hundred and Fiftythird Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers Infantry (1909)

• Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861–5 (1869–71)

• Jeffrey D. Stocker, “We Fought Desperate”: A History of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment (2014)

• Portrait and Biographical Record of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania (1894)

• Lochard H. Lovenstein, In Lieu of a Draft: A History of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment (2012)

• Yeager’s pension file and military service record, National Archives. Yeager’s letters and photographs are from the collection of Jonathan W. White.

Daniel Glenn is co-editor of Untouched by the Conflict: The Civil War Letters of Singleton Ashenfelter, Dickinson College with Jonathan W. White (Kent State University Press, 2019). He has published articles in Military Images, Connecticut History Review, The Lincoln Forum Bulletin, and The Federal Lawyer. A graduate of Christopher Newport University, he now studies law at William & Mary Law School.

EVERY ISSUE

Yeager was wounded by these bullets on the first day of Gettysburg.

The N-SSA is America’s oldest and largest Civil War shooting sports organization. Competitors shoot original or approved reproduction muskets, carbines and revolvers at breakable targets in a timed match. Some units even compete with cannons and mortars. Each team represents a specific Civil War regiment or unit and wears the uniform they wore over 150 years ago. Dedicated to preserving our history, period firearms competition and the camaraderie of team sports with friends and family, the N -SSA may be just right for you.

While the history of the American Civil War is an area of great interest to hobby participants there is also a historical piece to the reenactment hobby itself dating back forty to fifty years. In the early 1970s, the Birmingham gun-maker ParkerHale began selling reproduction Enfield rifles to both reenactors and live fire enthusiasts, or “skirmishers.” These are considered among the highest quality reproductions of Civil War-era rifles and rifle- muskets ever produced. The first reproduction Parker Hale Enfields became available for sale beginning in 1972, starting with the 1861 Artillery carbine. This was followed by their Enfield long rifle (P53) in 1974, Naval rifle (P58) in 1975, and later a .451 “Whitworth” target rifle. The P53 was by far the

most popular Parker Hale product, and the one most widely used by reenactors. In 1990, the company ceased production of muzzleloaders in England. The Birmingham Parker-Hales are now gone but not forgotten. A bit of background discussion about the history of the Parker-Hale enterprise is in order.

First of all, Parker-Hale was an English commercial gun-maker founded in the Gun Quarter of Birmingham, England, but not until many years after the Civil War ended. Although the name sounds reminiscent of Civil War-era gun-makers in the Birmingham Small Arms Trade, such as Cooper & Goodman, Bentley & Playfair, Tipping & Lawden, etc., obviously, the company never produced Enfield rifles on commercial contract for either side in the Civil War.1

Alfred Gray Parker and Arthur

Hale founded the business to provide shooting supplies to the British Volunteer companies and the marksmanship (target shooting) clubs in England beginning around 1880.

Over the years the firm primarily produced small caliber bolt-action target rifles. Parker Hale’s Production Manager John Le Breton decided in the early 1970s that he wanted to make a good reproduction of the Enfield black powder muzzle loading rifle, and that he wanted the gun to reflect the exact specifications of original Enfield rifles. He assigned an engineer named Tony Kinchin to the project.

Fellow Civil War News columnist Joe Bilby, an expert on the history of Civil War arms noted, “In an attempt to meet Le Breton’s request, Tony Kinchin traveled to the (Royal Armoury) museum at Enfield to record the dimensions of original rifle-muskets and the tooling used to manufacture them. To his delight, the museum director allowed him to take a set of original Enfield master gauges back to Parker Hale.”2 What this means is that ParkerHale copied, almost exactly, from original gauges, the specifications for the machine made P53 British service rifle. This is the so called type IV Enfield manufactured at the Royal Small Arms Manufactory by the British War Department to supply their own troops. This particular version of the Enfield rifle was an improved design over earlier models still being commercially manufactured using individual craftsmen as they had for centuries in both Birmingham and London. The two variations were quite close in overall design, but not exactly the same in detail.

Some variations between RSAF British service rifle that Parker Hale copied and the earlier type III P53 widely used during the Civil War included different stock contours, lock plate screw escutcheons (washers), lockplate engraving, a rounded screw head design, different sling swivels, and barrel bands. There has always been considerable confusion in particular about

the front or “top” sling swivel on the Parker Hale, which is offset and does not resemble any Civil War-era Enfield sling swivel ever made. The company decided to make “a minor concession to historical accuracy” and used readily available surplus sling swivels from the World War II-era LeeEnfield SMLE, which were less expensive than reproducing their weapon with the correct center stud configuration front swivel. This decision by Parker Hale would impact the later Italianmade P53 Enfield reproductions down the road. Ironically, when the Italian reproduction gun makers decided to add an Enfield model to their Civil War product line, rather than copy an original P53 they merely copied the already existing Parker Hale design…mistakes and all.

While there were differences between the Parker Hale and original Civil War P53 Enfields, there were also many identical details, for example the barrel featuring a 1:78 twist and progressive depth rifling. The rifling in the period correct .577 caliber bore tapers from .015 at the breech to .005 at the muzzle. All original Enfield long and short rifles manufactured after 1858 featured progressive depth rifling. In addition, Parker Hale used modern manufacturing methods to recreate this old-style rifling. Progressive rifling in Parker Hale barrels was cold hammer forged around a sliding mandrel to insure the proper depth.3

Taking it a step further, Parker Hale lock plates were case hardened through the bone charcoal method, resulting in the unique swirling color pattern. All other modern reproduction locks are not actually case hardened but have a chemically induced surface color that is similar in

appearance. The Parker Hale percussion cone uses the same pattern 5/16 x 18 bolster threads as the original Civil War-era Enfield rifles made in England.

Therefore, while the Parker Hale reproduction was very well made, especially when compared to the various less expensive reproductions that followed, and got a number of things right, it was not quite the same as the earlier commercial version most widely used during the Civil War. However despite all that, it was an immediate sales success among both reenactors and skirmishers.

The net result was the Birmingham-made Parker Hale was the best reproduction Enfield available for most of its almost twenty year production run. When Parker Hale stopped making muzzle loaders, they sold the naming rights to Euroarms Italia, SrL. For a period of time, Euroarms produced and sold what was essentially their own reproduction Enfield with a Parker Hale barrel labeled “Made in Birmingham” for about twice the price of their other models. These “2nd generation” Enfields were not the same high quality as the Birmingham-made Parker Hales, though they shared all of the same faults.4 Euroarms eventually went out of business in 2011 and there are currently no newly

Parker Hale purchased inauthentic offset front sling swivels for their reproduction Enfield.

1st generation Birmingham made Parker Hale before defarbing, serial number 5556, probably manufactured about 1980 or 1981, note type IV “British service” oval rear sling swivel and P-H stamped under the crown behind the hammer, case colored lock, etc (author’s collection).

The Parker-Hale Enfield

manufactured Parker Hales of any type currently available. Part of the Parker Hale legacy is that in the void created by their absence, demand for a quality reproduction of the P53 Enfield has remained strong. After Euroarms went out of business, there has been a marked improvement in the form of newly available “defarbed” Enfield offerings from both Italian gun makers Armi Chiappa (Armi Sport) and in particular Davide Pedersoli. Existing 1st generation ‘made in Birmingham’ Parker Hales in good condition still come up from time to time. If you happen to find one of those, they are well worth the cost. My own Parker Hale P53 Enfield serial number 5556 was over thirty years old when purchased, and virtually in unfired condition. It has since been “defarbed” to more closely resemble a London Armoury

produced P53, which it closely resembles since the Civil War-era LA Co Parker Hale was itself a parts interchangeable copy of the RSAF Enfield. An original LA Co 1862 lock assembly was dropped right into the lock mortise and it functions perfectly.

Endnotes:

1. Joe Bilby, Colt Six Guns and Parker Hale, www.civilwarguns.com.

February 1996.

2. Ibid

3. The Italian made Parker Hale Enfields are easily distinguished by their lock plate markings that read Parker Hale in front of the hammer with no date. The Birminghammade version reads “1853” over “ENFIELD.” Neither one is period correct but besides an early four digit serial number, the lock plate is a quick way to identify a 1st generation Birmingham made Parker Hale.

4. Armi Sport offers both a defarbed and (believe it or not) what they call a “farbed” version. Their defarbed version has a few of the worst historical accuracy mistakes corrected. D. Pedersoli makes a very good quality reproduction Birmingham Tower 1861 P53 Enfield which is historically accurate pretty much right out of the box. It still requires refinishing with linseed oil, etc.

Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina (Charlotte). Craig served The Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003–2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is

the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy (2006, 2011), The Unfinished Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013) and three books (soon to be four) in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.

Meet Mike Greenfield: CVBT’s Lands Manager

at the location during the Civil War. When board historians researched the location, they found more details about the ground’s significance. The next step involved looking at the land’s assessed value and parcel features.

It took time and tact, but a few weeks later, in January 2018, CVBT made an offer. The following month, CVBT signed a contract with the landowner and then began working with preservation partners to raise $205,000.

20th Century house had to be removed and two wells on the property required filling and capping. During the following months, Mike worked with the rest of the CVBT team to answer specific questions about the land’s future and how to proceed with demolition and safety projects when that time came.

Over the last couple of months, Mike Greenfield has been keeping a close eye on land bordering Brock Road. Mike, the Lands Manager for the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, has been watching, specifically, a tract that the Union Fifth Corps occupied in 1864. It’s a 14.4-acre property bordering historic Brock Road, an area where troops fought and rallied during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

In 1864, the site offered a commanding ridge with a broad view of the battlefield. The V Corps/ Brock Road Tract served as a staging area for the Union Army of the Potomac’s initial attacks on May 8, 1864. Over May 10 and 12, General Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps launched new attacks from the property. Finally, on May 14, Confederates moved across the ground when they probed Union defenses.

The preservation saga along Brock Road started in 2017 when Mike saw a “For Sale” sign at the property. The land lies near the authorized boundary of the national park, a good initial indicator that troops were probably

Once the contracts were signed and fundraising began, Mike’s next job started, studying the land more closely and observing all the topographical and hidden details. He spent hours walking the property in a criss-cross pattern, looking for boundaries, identifying any safety hazards, searching for historical resources, and bringing back answers. With any parcel, a few key questions he always keeps in mind are related to information that will be needed to secure grants and easements for its preservation: “What’s on the land? What can we do with the land? What should we do with the land? What types of easements already exist? How can we ensure the land will be protected forever?” He made a list of answers for the Brock Road tract.

From the hours spent on the property, Mike speculates that the land might have been farmed or logged after the War, actions that may have destroyed earthworks. So far, trenches have not been identified, but there is an earthwork line along the property’s border that abruptly ends at the national park boundary, suggesting there may have been a trench line that ran across the tract at the time of the battle.

Two challenges to restoring the property to a more historical appearance were unmistakable; a

It might seem easy enough to hire a demolition team, but there are many steps to consider. First, grants and easement processes dictate when a structure can be removed. Second, the process for removal must ensure the least amount of damage to the land and other resources. As Mike explains, access points are often the key to these dilemmas. He always finds ways to get heavy equipment on and off the property and confers with the demolition crews to avoid unnecessary ground disturbance. Permits must be filed to remove structures, and the Health Department advises and oversees demolition of wells. Finally, in November 2019, Mike stood by, camera in hand, and watched the demolition of the 20th Century structure that had no ties to the Civil War. He inspected the site daily and kept in contact with the demolition team, always checking to see if there were any problems. “In a process like this, I’m watching for the situations we don’t expect,” he said. “I’m especially looking for historic resources that might have been hidden by a structure or foundation.”

Mike explained what’s next for the V Corps/Brock Road Tract.

“In my walks, I’ve identified other locations that need major clean up,” he said. “This is for the environmental health of the land and also to give a better sense of the land’s appearance in 1864. Maybe we will be able to have a Youth Day or Community Service Day to remove the litter and other unsightly features.” The discussion is continuing for when and how to bring visitors to the property and the safest options for access.

“There’s a lot more to preserving battlefields and preparing them for public access than just buying land,” Mike shared with a smile. Defining his role as Lands Manager at CVBT, Mike said, “It’s dealing with the properties after acquirement, but I’m also heavily involved in the acquisition process, too. There’s a lot of hands-on work, including surveys, studying records from the land’s previous deeds, title insurances, and grants, overseeing demolition, collaborating with historians to determine the 1860’s appearance, arranging for bush-hogging, and keeping the properties open to the public

‘looking respectable.’”

Mike served as a National Park Service ranger from 1974 to 2004, working at Blue Ridge Parkway, Everglades, Assateague Island, Fort Necessity, and Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania. As a field ranger, he actively protected lands and resources and worked at solving survey issues. He always wanted to work at a Civil War-related national park. His fascination with the Civil War started around age four or five when his grandmother let him play with family artifacts from the war period.

Mike says his experiences have shaped his vision, which he is glad he’s now able to share through his volunteer work with CVBT. “I realize how neighboring lands affect the national parks, and I know how much land affected by Civil War battles isn’t preserved within the park boundaries,” he said. “Private efforts are the only way to help with new preservation efforts like this. In the Central Virginia region, we have four major battlefields. The effects of the war cover so much land and everything was changed by the Civil War, economy, topography, forests. This was really an area repeatedly devastated by the conflict. We have to preserve

the areas of significant history. That’s what I like to work on. That’s what I’ll continue to do.” Central Virginia Battlefields Trust saves Civil War battleground to preserve the memory and meaning, sacrifices and stories of the men who fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. Learn more: www.cvbt.org

Come tour these four battlefields with nationally recognized historians at CVBT’s Annual Conference, April 24-26, 2020. A la carte or package tickets available. Event details: www.cvbt. org/cvbt-annual-conference.

Digital Issues of CWN are available by subscription alone or with print plus archives from 2012 at CivilWarNews.com

Mike Greenfield volunteers as Lands Manager for Central Virginia Battlefields Trust after a career with the National Park Service.

Demolition Day at the Brock Road-V Corps Tract. Mike oversaw the removal of the 20th Century structure, another step in returning the land to an 1864 appearance.

The Brock Road-Fifth Corps Tract is an exciting preservation story and illustrates how sometimes the work has just begun when the battlefield land is saved.

Opportunities

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Parry W. Porter Revolving Turret Rifle. Very rare early 1850’s percussion 9 shot revolver, .44 caliber rifle. Marked: “ADDRESS / P.W. PORTER / NEWYORK / P.W. PORTER’S / PATENT: / 1851. Serial number 604, which would make a Second Model, less than 400 made. Its design flaw: one live round was always aimed at the shooter! This is in very good condition, excellent patina, 25-in. Octagonal barrel. Incredibly rare piece of firearms history.

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Grand Army of the Republic 1913 Gettysburg Reunion Flag.

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119 Peachtree Pkwy. Byron, GA. 31008 • Exit 149 Byron, GA @ The Big Peach off I-75

In January this year, the National Archives announced release of digitized maps from US File Unit RG 77: Civil Works Map Files. Many of the over 1,900 maps, currently in the database, pertain to the American Civil War. This writer consulted with the staff at the National Archives to offer the following tips to help researchers quickly search for the maps they seek. Use this link to begin your search: https://catalog. archives.gov/search?q=*:*&f. parentNaId=7491452&f. level=item&sort=naIdSort%20 asc. Once at the landing page, click ‘Advanced Search’ near the top center of the page. When at the ‘Advanced Search’ page, enter your search terms in the first box. For this demonstration, the writer selected ‘Georgia’ as the keyword. After entering the keyword, scroll down to the ‘Type of Archival Materials’ box and select ‘Maps and Charts.’ Next, continue to scroll down to the ‘Location of Archival Materials’ box and select ‘National Archives at College Park – Cartographic.’ Finally, scroll to the very bottom of the page and select search. Following the ‘Georgia’ keyword example, researchers will see 665 results. To narrow the search to the Civil War period, scroll down the page while looking at the left column. First, select ‘Record Group 77,’ which narrows the results to 105 hits.

Roads the Army of the Tennessee took while approaching Atlanta.

Continue to scroll down, again looking at the left column, and in the ‘Refine By: Date’ section, select ‘1860-1869.’ Now, the researcher can view 37 wartime maps of Georgia! See the screenshot above.

As mentioned in previous editions of this column, if the researcher does not already have a National Archives online account, create one (free), and save findings through the ‘Add to My Lists’ function. The large image above, ‘Map Showing the Roads followed by the Army of the Tennessee in its March from Chattanooga Tennessee to Atlanta Georgia,’ serves as the sample exercise. While online, users can zoom in and out on the map, move in any direction, and download the map.

Spend some time on this site and see what your research uncovers, as the National Archives continues to add to the collection. Next month, we will explore additional primary sources. Until then, good luck in researching the Civil War!

Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, instructor, and a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, the Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at mkscdr11@gmail.com, or to request speaking engagements,

via his website www.civilwarhistorian.net. Follow Michael on Facebook www.facebook.com/ michael.k.shaffer and Twitter @ michaelkshaffer.

Deadlines for Advertising or Editorial Submissions

is the 20th of each month. Email to: ads@civilwarnews.com

Digitized Civil War Maps at the National Archives

NARA RG77 Maps screenshot.

It seems popular opinion today is to rid this country of all things Confederate. Now, however, there are many in the New Jersey State Senate who wish to remove and replace a statue honoring a Union military hero! They have already approved New Jersey Bill S-1369. It must now be approved by the NJ General Assembly before it is sent to Gov. Phil Murphy for his signature; this could happen before the end of March!

According to William Styple (the modern authority on Kearny) the bronze statue of Major General Philip Kearny was placed in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on August 21, 1888, thanks to the efforts of Cortlandt Parker, a highly respected Newark, N.J., lawyer and Kearny’s closest admirer. He began his quest to honor Kearny in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, because: “Philip Kearny gave his life to eradicate slavery.” General Kearny was killed in action leading his Union troops in the Battle of Chantilly, Va., Sept. 1, 1862, on the heels of the Second Battle of Manassas. Parker continued, “Kearny saw early and clearly the stake of the war….he preceded all in suggesting our duty to the race. Nationality for the union, freedom for the slave, these his simple directness saw were the issues of the strife….”

At the ceremonial unveiling of the statue, one of the speakers was U.S. Congressman Albert C. Thompson, a Civil War veteran who fought in Kearny’s command. Speaking of his old commander and his fellow Union soldiers, he said: “These men came from every walk of life and abandoned the prosperous employments of peace to die, if need be, for country. The lessons of patriotism taught by them should be constantly impressed upon the youth of the Nation, and no higher or more important duty devolves upon the survivors of the grand army of the Union than

that of bringing up their children in that respect for authority, that reverence for the Constitution and that love of country which so distinguished them in the days of ’61.”

Major General Philip Kearny, who New Jersey claimed as her citizen, fought with all his might against a Confederacy that advocated slavery and gave his life to destroy slavery and give freedom and equality to all in a reunited country.

His statue should not be removed from Statuary Hall. His bronze features should now compel us to bring up our children, of all races, to respect authority, revere the Constitution and love this country, the United States of America. Please, let your voice be heard by contacting the N.J. state lawmakers and governor. Don’t let them remove this American hero!

– Norman A. Dykstra Charter member/Trustee

–New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association

Charter member/Officer – Phil Kearny Civil War Round Table of North Jersey

16,000-pound

Dahlgren Guns

May Reveal New Civil War-era Artifacts at Mariners’ Museum

NEWPORT NEWS, Va.—The Mariners’ Museum and Park will embark on the next monumental step in conserving USS Monitor’s Dahlgren guns. In late February and early March, the Museum will clean out the 11-foot-long bores in each gun using a custom-made machine. Monitor’s guns are the largest guns ever bored for conservation, giving this significant step its own mark in history. The removal of the marine material is the final mechanical cleaning step before the guns can be dried and put on display.

“By boring the guns, we will finally have the ability to remove trapped ocean salts from the interiors of these massive artifacts; setting the stage for us to dry and then put the guns on display,” said Will Hoffman, the Museum’s director of conservation. “Due to the size of the guns, no one has done this procedure at this scale, so we’ve had to develop new equipment to make it happen.”

In 2002, after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Navy divers raised the 120-ton USS Monitor turret, the massive artifact came to The Mariners’ Museum and Park for conservation, curation, and display. The turret was covered in thick layers of concretion; over time, the material was removed using hand and pneumatic tools exposing the turret itself and hundreds of additional artifacts including the two 11-inch (bore diameter) Dahlgren guns.

In 2004, the guns were removed from the turret and transferred to individual treatment tanks to advance the removal of concretion

and facilitate extraction of marine salts using electrochemical treatments. By 2018, the exterior of the guns had been cleaned of ocean deposits, but the bores of the gun are still full of marine materials which cannot be accessed by hand tools. To remove this material, a custom boring machine and holding apparatus is currently being built by the Museum and Master Machine and Tool of Newport News.

The Museum is hopeful to find Civil War-era artifacts during the process. During excavation of

USS Monitor’s turret, hundreds of artifacts were found including many personal items from crew members.

“Although the chance is small, the potential to find artifacts is exciting,” added Hoffman. “Personal items such as silverware, coins, and pocket knives have been found in the turret. Items such as these provide us with a direct-connection to the crew of Monitor.”

The Dahlgren guns will be bored one at a time and will take about a day per gun.

Kearny Statue In Peril

Overall view of the port gun in its treatment tank.

Detail view of port gun’s interior bore concretion.

Detail view of the port XI-inch Dahlgren gun “Worden” showing the sight and firing hammer mounts.

Dear John:

I am writing seeking assistance about how to discover the value of a Civil War era folding knife. I have included some photos of the knife and the history I have been able to find. This knife is been in my family for a very long time, but I do not know how we came to have it.

As you can see in the photographs the knife is engraved by hand and apparently belonged to Capt. William H. Baird of Company H, 38th Regiment, New York Infantry. On the other side of the knife is the name “William M. Gardner” who apparently received the knife as a gift from Baird.

I have done some research and had no trouble finding information on Baird. He was an officer at the first Battle of Bull Run. A fascinating account of that battle was written by him in a letter to his brother in July 1861. I’ve included a link to that letter. In it he mentions saving the life of a Confederate soldier who was badly injured in the leg. No name was mentioned in that letter. However, information on a William Gardner was available and shows that he was at the same battle and badly injured with a leg wound. I think it’s very possible that may be the William Gardner to whom knife was given.

Thank you for reading this email and taking the time to perhaps have a look at what I have enclosed.

David Savage

Dear Mr. Savage:

William Baird does have a fascinating history, but the name on

other side of knife is not William M. Gardner, but a much less common name William Cardner. The letter you cite from 1st Manassas shows Baird’s gallantry and it is no wonder he went through the ranks with promotions and accommodations.

Baird entered service May 24, 1861, at Geneva, NY, as a Captain in the 38th New York Infantry. He must have received this Union Knife Company knife/ fork combination sometime prior to his leaving the 38th in July 1862. This particular patent item was very popular with soldiers in the field and excavated parts are very common in Civil War campsites. More common are knife/ spoon/fork combinations.

Captain Wm. H. Baird’s name is carved in same hand that carved the other side’s “To Wm. Cardner,” using the same abbreviation for William and same slab serifs. I can find no one named Cardner as a soldier, maybe he was a family friend back in New York? Or did he mismark the “G” and name really is William Gardner. Baird does not give a rank, so possibly he was not one of the 350+ soldiers North and South with that name, but there are no Gardners in the 38th NY Inf. Gardner’s name may not add much to the value unless William Gardner’s story is rescued from history which I have not been able to do. Colonel, and later general, in the Confederate Army, William M. Gardner is the only officer Gardner listed among the Confederate wounded at Manassas; if Baird had gifted this William Gardner, he most assuredly would have recognized

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Typical “folk art” carving identifying a knife made between enlistment May 1861 and July 1862, probably in an extended camp in Virginia or back in Seneca, N.Y., when carving would help pass the time. We may never know who recipient William was but some intense detective work may find a connection.

this West Pointer by rank, and it would be part of historical record. Regardless, William Henderson Baird has a remarkable Civil War history but not in the 38th NY Inf., but in the hard fought and unjustly labeled “Harper’s Ferry Cowards”, the 126th NY in which he was commissioned major during August 1862. Baird was removed from service surrendering the 126th at Harper’s Ferry in October 1862. The newly formed 126th was just 2 weeks old at the time and 907 men surrendered, in what was the largest surrendered American military force till Bataan in WWII. President Lincoln reappointed Baird after an outpouring of support from several generals and his commanding colonel in the 126th. The 126th would show their “manhood” after their capture and humiliation. Eliakim Sherrell, colonel of the 126th would be killed defending the Union line against Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg.

Baird would be promoted Lt. Colonel of the 126th and would take command of the regiment when Col. James Bull retired from service due to poor health in the spring of 1864.

Baird led the 126th gallantly through the Overland Campaign against Richmond that led to the June 16, 1864, battle of Petersburg where the 126th was in Hancock’s II Corps. Colonel Levin Crandall of the 125th NY was leading the right wing, including Baird’s 126th, when Crandall was shot in face and Baird ordered to take command.

Baird was now leading the 3rd brigade, 2nd division of the II Corps through heavy fire close to the Confederate entrenchments. Baird was shot through both lungs by a musket ball. He was attended by his adjutant, Spencer F. Lincoln, who stayed with him on the field taking final messages for his wife and two children at home. Baird died less than one

hour after that mortal shot. Adj. Lincoln, while attempting to take the body back to Union lines, was shot and killed; since both bodies lay in front of the strong Confederate defenses, Baird’s final messages lost.

William H. Baird (August 19, 1831–June 16, 1864) was one of many casualties from the 126th. The total enrollment of the regiment during service was 1,036 of whom 17 officers and 259 men were killed. The total of killed and wounded in the regiment amounted to 535. The killed and wounded at Gettysburg amounted to 228; 57.4 per cent of regiment was casualties in the war. The 126th rid themselves of the nickname “Harper’s Ferry Cowards” forever. Baird’s tombstone reads “COL. WM H. BAIRD / 126TH NY Vols / KILLED / IN THE BATTLE OF PETERSBURG VA / June 16 1864 / Age 32 yrs 19 mos 27 days.”

Union Knife Company patented

Identified Knife / Fork Combination

Unidentified soldier in Union uniform with combination forkknife-spoon eating utensil. (Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs. Library of Congress). Another image of a solider holding a knife/fork/spoon combination utensil sold for $1,195 at Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas, (lot 57657, Nov. 20, 2008)

folding cutlery combinations were copied after Sheffield-made combinations originally made for picnicking and for military

officers. But this particular Civil War utensil was ingenious in that the knife part would slide off the fork so a soldier could use both

hands to eat. This was such a popular item that several wartime photographs are posed with the soldier holing this unique utensil. One tintype of a private holding one sold at Heritage Auctions for $1,200 in 2008.

I have seen many of these knives sold over the years. A fine complete example by the same maker with no history is available for about $200-300 in the Civil War market. Identified examples, such as this one, inscribed by an officer killed in action, should bring several multiples of the basic sale value. If I were cataloging for auction, I would estimate your “Union” knife/fork combination for $600-800, and not be surprised to see it bring more.

John is an certified appraiser with International Society of Appraisers specializing in Civil War memorabilia. He authenticates and evaluates other rare and valuable historic items as well. His website is www.civilwardealer.com. He is coauthor of the book Confederate Bowie Knives (2012) by Jack Melton, Josh Phillips and John Sexton, that was published by Mowbray Publishing, Inc. Send “Ask The Appraiser” questions and photographs to civilwarappraiser@gmail.com.

A Terrible Blunder

“… You had better get away from here quick. The Texans are whipping our men in the canyon like hell, have driven them nearly through the canyon and pretty soon will have them out on the prairie.” – Federal prisoner

Seizing Federal supplies was a crucial element to the Confederate plan to capture the New Mexico Territory. The March 26-28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta Pass was fought along the Santa Fe Trail as the Confederates traveled from Santa Fe to plunder the Fort Union supply depot. The route took them through an 11mile area of canyons and valleys known as Glorieta Pass.

The first clash came at Apache Canyon. In his first battle, Maj. John Chivington and his raw Colorado recruits opposed Confederate Maj. Charles L. Pyron and his two 6-pdr. guns. At

nightfall, Pyron had kept his guns but the Federals had captured 71 Texan prisoners, the highest capture rate during the far western battles. Both sides retreated to opposite ends of the pass, reported the need for reinforcements to their superiors, gathered their wounded, and buried their dead.

On March 28, tired of waiting for the enemy to attack, both sides went on the offensive. U.S.

Col. John P. Slough had never fought a battle but had studied Napoleonic maneuvers. He decided to split his 1,340 men. He sent Chivington on a complicated flanking maneuver through the mountains. Slough’s attack force included U.S. Capt. John Ritter, commanding two 12-pdr. howitzers and two 6-pdr. guns, and Capt. Ira Claflin commanding four smaller 12-pdr. mountain howitzers. To the frustration of Quartermaster Capt. Herbert M. Enos, Claflin also commanded

the 100-wagon supply train. Enos had argued to leave the wagons safely in the rear.

The Confederate opposition under Col. William Scurry had 1,285 soldiers, two 12-pdr. howitzers, and Pyron’s two 6-pdrs. Unlike Slough, Scurry parked his eighty-wagon supply train “in a secure position,” under guard. About 11 a.m., the advance pickets of both sides were surprised to discover their enemy approaching near the center of the Pass, a half mile from Pigeon’s Ranch. A Federal shouted, “Get out of our way, we are going to take dinner in Santa Fe.” C.S. Pvt. Bill Kirk yelled back, “You’ll take your dinner in hell.” Instead of fighting, all rushed back to alert their brethren.

The Confederates brought three of their guns to the front line. Pyron was assigned to the far right, Maj. Henry Raquet in the center, and Scurry on the left. The Federals unlimbered eight canon. Enos’s ammunition wagon had to be pried from the mud after supplying the artillery. Company I, 1st Colorado, jumped into a gully using it to flank the enemy, but the Confederates quickly turned their guns on them. This fire fight lasted half an hour before the surviving Federals retreated. By noon the “fog of battle” hung over the field.

By 2 p.m. Slough knew he was being outflanked by a superior force. He ordered a retreat to Pigeon’s Ranch. The Federals took the high ground on both sides of the trail, hidden by trees and larger boulders. Ritter and his guns were placed on the road.

Scurry ordered his men forward. “Pyron was galloping from the right down our line … when a cannon ball from the enemy cut his horse’s head off.” Pyron survived and continued his rush to join Scurry.

C.S. Maj. Shropshire, leading his men forward on the right, was shot dead, stalling the advance.

C.S. Sgt. Alfred Peticolas continued moving forward through a gap in the Federal line. Suddenly, Peticolas realized he was among the Federals. “You had better look out, Captain, or those fellows will shoot you,” said U.S. Lt. Col. Tappan. “Who will?” replied

Peticolas. “Why those fellows yonder,” said Tappan pointing at the Texans. Peticolas, wearing a confiscated Federal coat, appreciated his luck. Peticolas declared that he would “go over that way and take a shot at them,” then walked cautiously away as he returned to his side.

Scurry renewed his frontal assault on the Federals about 4 p.m. The fight raged until nightfall. Slough returned to where he began the day, Kozlowski’s Ranch. Scurry camped at Pigeon’s Ranch. Both sides collected their dead and wounded.

Meanwhile, Chivington and his 488 men had left the Santa Fe Trail to climb the mountains, getting above and around the pass, and reaching its mouth. As they trekked across the mesa above, due to the sheer canyon cliffs, Chivington could not hear the battle raging below. About 2 p.m., Chivington reached his designated position, 700 feet above Johnson’s Ranch, the main Confederate camp. Slough planned on driving the Texans back into Chivington’s waiting Federals. As he waited for Slough, Chivington could see the supply wagons, 500 horses and mules penned in a natural corral, a field hospital, and a 6-pdr. gun pointed towards Apache Canyon, and “the unconscious Texans, jumping, running foot races, etc.” Neither Slough nor the main Confederates force could be seen. Was it a trap? After an hour, Chivington ordered an attack.

Suddenly, the Texans realized the enemy were slipping and sliding down the 700-foot precipice towards them. More Federals were hurrying down mule trails while howling the “Injun” yell. The Texas artillerists ran to their gun and Sgt. Timothy Nettles

fired two shots from the 6-pdr. before being forced to abandon it. Others fled by foot or on horseback. The fight was over fast. Before his men had a chance to plunder the wagons, Chivington ordered them burned and the livestock released. Freed Federal prisoners warned that the Confederates could arrive at any minute and, since he didn’t want to fight them in the pass, Chivington had to return the way he came. The men made the perilous journey up the mountain, in the dark and through a snowstorm.

The men on both sides thought they won and wanted to continue in the morning. For Slough, the battle was over. He had more than accomplished his objective to harass the Confederates. Scurry knew that by losing his supplies, they had lost their ability to remain in the field. The opportunity to capture New Mexico Territory was gone. As C.S. Pvt. Bill Davidson wrote, “… leaving our train without a heavy guard was a terrible blunder.”

Sources:

• Alberts, Don E. The Battle of Glorieta: Union victory in the West: Texas A&M University Press, June 1, 2000

• Edrington, Thomas S. and Taylor, John. The Battle of Glorieta Pass: a Gettysburg in the West, March 26-28, 1862: University of New Mexico Press, August 1, 2000

Stephanie Hagiwara is the editor for Civil War in Color.com and Civil War in 3D.com. She also writes a column for History in Full Color. com that covers stories of photographs of historical interest from the 1850’s to the present. Her articles can be found on Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest.

John Potts Slough, Colorization © 2020 civilwarincolor.com courtesy civilwarincolor.com/cwn. (Library of Congress)

Richmond Burning

The Graphic War highlights prints and printmakers from the Civil War discussing their meaning and most importantly, the print maker or artist’s goals.

To every Civil War student and scholar, April stands out in singular fashion from the other eleven months. Fort Sumter in 1861; Shiloh in 1862; prelude to Chancellorsville which began on May 1, 1863; Grant’s preparation for the Overland Campaign in 1864; and of course Lee’s surrender, the fall of Petersburg, the fall of Richmond, and Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, must have kept the oracles busy looking for mystical patterns. There really weren’t any, the seasons

and the weather had more to do with the movements of armies than coincidence and happenstance. Most military action ground to a halt during the inclement and unpredictable winter weather and renewed in the spring.

All the major events enumerated above were depicted by nearly all large lithographic firms. True to its strategy of providing visual documentation of a current event, Currier and Ives rushed out a dramatic view of Richmond burning on the night of April 2, 1865. Entitled “The Fall of Richmond Va. on the Night of April 2nd 1865,” the title margin carried three more lines explaining the vivid visual. “This stronghold

and Capital City of the Davis Confederacy, was evacuated by the Rebels in consequence of the defeat at ‘Five Forks’ of the Army of Northern Virginia/under Lee, and capture of the South Side Railroad by the brave heroes of the North, commanded by Generals Grant, Sheridan and others. Before abandoning the City the/Rebels set fire to it, destroying a vast amount of property and the conflagration continued until it was subdued by the Union troops in the following morning.”

Sheridan’s defeat of Pickett at Five Forks opened the flood gates. Early that morning, April 2, 1865, Lee realized that a breakthrough had occurred at

Hatcher’s Run. By 11 a.m., Lee informed the higher ups in Richmond that he could no longer hold his position and was preparing a westward movement. Davis gave up the ghost and by night fall, Confederate General Richard Ewell ordered all material that would aid the enemy destroyed. Mob panic and a strong breeze set the town on fire. Law and order ceased to exist, and pandemonium reigned.

At dawn, Ewell “ordered his men take control of the Mayo’s bridge at the foot of 14th Street, the only remaining bridge across the James,” and then set it afire. As the troops reached the foot of 14th Street, “the arsenal…reputed to have…750,000 loaded projectiles, exploded over their head.” A correspondent reported that the “city magazine passed out of existence.”1 Ewell depended on Provost Marshall Isaac Carrington to burn the warehouses. Captain Clement Sulivane, a 26-year-old from Maryland was tasked with guarding Mayo’s toll bridge until all rebel units were safely across. Once Carrington’s men had burned the “tobacco warehouses and the railroad bridges,” Sulivaine was to “perform the final act of demolition and burn Mayo’s bridge, the last intact span across the river.”2

Currier tried to capture all the pathos of this historic event

not in one print, but in three. Unfortunately they did not identify any landmarks leaving us to reconstruct the event. Two of the three prints were issued as small folios including this one, which was hurriedly produced. It differs from the other small folio with minor changes in depicting pedestrians and carriages on the bridge. The large folio shows more of the foreground and the spot where the bridge connects to the land. Taken from the perspective of the city of Manchester across from the capital, all three folios show the steady stream of fleeing refugees crossing the James River using Mayo Bridge at 14th Street (Currier did not identify it). The capitol building, high on the hill, is shown to the right of the flames consuming the city.3

In 1932, print dealer and collector Harry Shaw Newman of the Old Print Shop in New York City teamed up with renowned Currier collector, Harry Peters to produce two lists of the best 50 large and best 50 small folio Curriers. Fifty years later, another generation re-examined the original lists and came up with 100 in each category, one of them being the “Fall of Richmond.”4

Endnotes:

1. Ken Bivin. https://www.historynet.com/americas-civil-war-thefall-of-richmond.htm.

2. Nelson Lankford. Richmond Burning: The Last Day of the Confederate Capital. New York: Viking, 2002, 83.

3. Gale Research Company, Currier & Ives: A Catalog Raisonne. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 2 Vols., 1984. I, 203.

4. Robert Kipp. Currier’s Price Guide to Currier and Ives Prints. Brockton, MA.: Currier Publications, 1989. 45-46.

After 43 years in the museum field, Salvatore Cilella now spends his time collecting American prints and maps and writing. His last professional position was President and CEO of the Atlanta History Center. His most recent books are Upton’s Regulars: A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War (U. Press Kansas, 2009). His two-volume Correspondence of Major General Emory Upton, (U. of Tennessee Press, 2017), is the recipient of the 2017–2018 American Civil War Museum’s Founders Award for outstanding editing of primary source materials. His latest book is an edit of Upton’s letters to his wife 1868–70, published by the Oklahoma University Press.

Currier and Ives: The Fall of Richmond Va. on the Night of April 2nd, 1865.

(Library of Congress)

NEWS

Gettysburg Foundation Plans to Renovate the Rupp House

by Elle Lamboy Gettysburg Foundation

As the American Civil War creeps further into the corners of our history, there is an increasing concern that its significance will, in turn, fade from our country’s collective consciousness. Studies have revealed that only one in three Americans could pass a U.S. citizenship test. Some participants even thought Dwight D. Eisenhower led troops in the Civil War. Each year, fewer students choose to major in history, and many teachers have stated that the American Civil War doesn’t get much airtime in the classroom.

Here at the Gettysburg Foundation, we’re trying to kickstart an early interest in the significance of what happened in Gettysburg by meeting our young learners at the Rupp House History Center.

During the Battle of Gettysburg, what is now the Rupp House History Center (451 Baltimore Street) was the family home of John and Caroline Rupp and their six children.

When fighting began on July 1, the Rupp family went across the street to Soloman Welty’s house, one of John’s best friends, and hid in his cellar. The Rupp’s returned to their home later that same night; when fighting started again on July 2, they hid in their own cellar. That night, John’s father, Henry, arrived and took Caroline and the children to his residence, about eight blocks away. John remained in the cellar to the soundtrack of gunfire shooting through his home.

In a letter he wrote days after the Battle of Gettysburg to his sister-in-law, John recounts the horrifying experience stating (spelling and punctuation are as written by John Rupp) “…Now Ann, I will tell you about my warm and uncomfortable situation I was placed in after Caroline and the children had gone to fathers. The Rebs occupied the whol of town out as far as the back end of my house….Our men occupied My porch, and the Rebels the rear of the house, and I the cellar…..I could hear the Rebs load their guns, and fire. Thair was one of our men killed under my big oak tree in the lot, and one in Snyders

meadow close to our house…”

His home, as you could imagine, was also “well roddled with Minie Balls” and the damage from the Battle of Gettysburg would eventually cause the Rupp family to perform extensive renovations on the family home. It is now our turn to do some renovating.

The Rupp House currently offers a free, interactive museum experience that tells the story of John Rupp, his family, and the perils of Gettysburg’s civilians. These exhibits are 15 years old and are more than ready for a concept and construction upgrade.

The plan to renovate the Rupp House was developed to engage the next generation by designing it for families with young children. The exhibit will invite these young learners to follow The Children of 1863, people just like them, who lived through the Battle of Gettysburg. The children of Gettysburg tell their story in their own words and directly connect us to July 1863 and to the search for meaning that followed and continues today.

Guided by learning objectives designed by professional educators, our creative concept has six areas for families to explore together through an inclusive, interactive journey of informed imagination. Visitors will be faced with the same questions children faced in July 1863 like, “Would you stay or go?”; “If you left, what things would you take with you?” More complex thoughts will be introduced including, “How did freedom mean different things for different people?” and “Why is Gettysburg still relevant today?

To bring this new vision to reality, the Gettysburg Foundation is partnering with the PRD Group. Located in Chantilly, Va., PRD is highly regarded in the field and has worked on exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Seminary Ridge Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and several Presidential Libraries, among others.

We anticipate opening The Children of 1863 exhibit in 2021. For more information and ways to support the project, visit our website gettysburgfoundation.org.

The Rupp House at night.

A young learner explores an interactive exhibit at the Rupp House History Center.

Children will have new hands-on activities to explore once renovations are complete.

Confederate Purchased British Pattern 1856 Cavalry Carbines

The best possible description of the British Pattern 1856 cavalry carbine is that it was a compromise; a carbine that no one wanted, and yet was the only logical solution to the current needs of the British military. The mid-19th century saw the British Board of Ordnance in a transitional phase; in fact the Board of Ordnance ceased to exist in 1855, being replaced by a section within the War Department. Sometime around 1856 we begin to see the changeover from the BO {Broad Arrow} Board of Ordnance storekeepers mark in the stocks of firearms, to the WD {Broad Arrow} War Department mark. This mark still conveyed the same information, that the gun was British military

property, but was now marked by the War Department, rather than the Board of Ordnance.

The year 1853 saw the adoption of the Pattern 1853 “Enfield” rifle musket by the British military that brought the most advanced muzzle loading, percussion ignition rifle musket of the period into use for all regular infantry regiments. An entire series of long arms was spawned from the Pattern 1853, including the Pattern 1853 artillery carbine, the Pattern 1856 and Pattern 1858 (and eventually the Pattern 1860 and Pattern 1861) short rifles, and the Pattern 1856 cavalry carbine. The “Enfield” family of small arms was the first widespread adoption of a “reduced caliber” rifled long arm for a major world power.

While the .577 bore of the Enfield does not appear “small” by today’s standards, it was

somewhat revolutionary in concept for the period, as at the time most world powers still relied upon muskets and rifles that were nominally .69 to .71 caliber. The fact that the Enfield was rifled was revolutionary as well, as up until that time standard infantry doctrine called for rifled arms to only be issued to specialty troops and relied upon the smoothbore musket for line infantry. Now, all British infantry would be issued rifled long arms.

During the early part of the 1850s, the British cavalry was armed with a variety of outdated and non-standard arms. The most widely issued was the Pattern 1844 yeomanry carbine, a .66 caliber smoothbore percussion weapon; the next most common was the .66 smoothbore Pattern 1847 Padget percussion carbine, many of which were either converted from flint or made up from old flintlock parts, some of which still retained their original Georgian era proof marks. Additionally, some Padget’s were rifled in an attempt to make them more modern, and several regiments serving in India, South Africa, and Ireland used double-barreled carbines of various patterns that saw issue only to those regiments. None of the cavalry long arms were standardized. Small arms standardization had been one of the goals of Board of Ordnance Inspector George Lovell, who helped champion the modernization of British military small arms.

At the same time the Pattern 1853 was revolutionizing the concept of the infantry musket, it was becoming clear that some form of breech loading rifled carbine was going to be the best choice to arm the cavalry. The problem was to decide which one. In 1855, a number of American made Sharps Model 1855 carbines were ordered for the British cavalry. These were delivered between May 1856 and April 1858, with a total of 6,000 seeing British service. All were issued to cavalry regiments serving in India. In 1855, another American design was ordered as well, the Greene patent carbine.

Over the next 18 months or so, some 2,000 of these carbines were delivered to the British military, but these arms saw only trials issue and service, and no real use in combat.

Domestic designs were considered as well, including the Calisher & Terry breechloading carbine, and eventually the Westley Richards “Monkey Tail” breechloading design. None of these arms provided the solution the British military sought. In almost all cases the primary issue was the ammunition. In the case of the Greene and Sharps carbines, the problem was that combustible cartridges sturdy enough to withstand the rigors of field service tended to be too tough for the carbines to use and detonate effectively, while those that were easily cut open by the Sharps’ breech block or pierced by the Greene’s firing pin shaped flash channel tended to fall apart in the cartridge box during regular field service. The Terry carbine had accuracy and durability issues with its patent ammunition. Other breechloading patterns and designs were tested in smaller numbers, but none proved to be the answer the British were searching for.

The end result was that in 1856 the Pattern 1856 cavalry carbine was authorized, a gun essentially based upon the carbine in service with the East India Company at the time, and thus known in service as the East India Service Pattern. The gun was a compact, muzzle loading percussion firearm with a 21 inch barrel with the service standard .577 inch bore. The carbine closely resembled the P1853 rifle musket it was patterned after, with a blued barrel and barrel bands, color case hardened lock, and brass furniture. The ramrod was the captive design, mounted to a stud under the barrel near the muzzle with a pair of swiveling arms.

The rear sight was the same pattern used on the P1853 artillery carbine and consisted of a fixed 100-yard leaf and two additional folding leaves for 200 and 300 yards, respectively. The sight had been developed by Thomas Turner as part of the design of the P1853 rifle musket and had originally been intended for use in conjunction with an adjustable long-range ladder sight regulated out to 1,000 yards. This pattern sight was never officially adopted for general issue with the P1853, but the 3-leaf portion used for 100, 200, and 300 yards did see use on the carbines until a new sight was adopted for cavalry and artillery carbines in 1861.

The carbine was 37 inches in overall length, and included an

iron sling bar opposite the lock, secured to the stock with iron side nail cups through which the lock mounting screws passed. Although the majority of the P1853 family of arms utilized progressive depth rifling, the majority of P1856 carbine production did not, although the standard 1:78 inch rate of twist was retained in the carbine bores. In the end, in an era where even the U.S. military had discovered that breechloading carbines were the wave of the future, the British military settled upon an essentially obsolete design and kept it in use for a decade, when it was finally replaced by the Snider carbine, the British version of the American “Trapdoor” system, that altered percussion muzzle loaders to breech loading cartridge guns.

Despite the obsolescence of the design, a number of the British Pattern 1856 cavalry carbines were purchased by the belligerents during the American Civil War. However, extant examples are rather scarce for a number of reasons, making them highly desirable on the collector market. The U.S. Government only purchased about 250, while the Confederacy purchased roughly 10,000 of the carbines, by most researchers’ accounts.

The majority of the Confederate purchased carbines appear to have been acquired and delivered during the last half of the war. In fact, the Payne Ledger, which details the late war Confederate imports through Wilmington, N.C., notes that some 4,700 English cavalry carbines were landed there between July 1863 and November 1864. These guns were likely examples found today that are marked with the {ANCHOR} / S inspection mark on the comb of the stock, forward of the buttplate tang, and have lock dates of 1863 or 1864. The carbines acquired earlier in the war, before the winter of the 1862, had the well-known JS / {ANCHOR} inspection mark in the same location.

Purchasing documents located in the McRae papers indicate that Caleb Huse purchased 120 Pattern 1856 cavalry carbines from S. Isaac, Campbell & Company on August 1, 1862. He paid 65 shillings each for these guns, and they were shipped to the Confederacy aboard the blockade-runner Gladiator. Huse purchased one additional case of 20 carbines from the same source on August 6, 1862, for the same price. These guns crossed the ocean in the hold of the blockade-runner Harriett Pinckney. These two orders only account for 140 carbines and may

be an indication of why the JS / {ANCHOR} marked guns are so scarce. To date, the known Confederate marked Pattern 1856 carbines have locks marked TOWER for the Birmingham contractor produced gun and BARNETT, or in extremely rare instances London-based gunmakers EP BOND, or Parker, Field & Sons.

While 10,000 cavalry carbines may seem like a significant number to have been imported, it is quite low when compared to the fact that most researchers put the total of all “Enfield” pattern English arms imported by the Confederacy at somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000. Even by the most lenient standards, that puts the importation of Pattern 1856 cavalry carbines at between 3%-4% of all Enfield pattern arms obtained by the Confederacy. Their absolute paucity on the collector’s market underscores the fact that these guns saw hard use during the war and were often used up or destroyed in the field. Extant examples of Confederate marked Pattern 1856 carbines tend to appear in two conditions; heavily used and well-worn, or nearly mint guns acquired from captured Confederate blockade runners. In either case, the guns are very scarce and are rarely found available for sale.

One reason for their lack of survival comes from the Report of William H. H. Terrell, Adjutant General for the State of Indiana. The report dated December 1865 concerning the Seventh Indiana Cavalry states in part On the 21st of December (1864) the Seventh Cavalry moved from Memphis with a cavalry expedition under General Grierson. On the 28th Forrest’s dismounted camp at Vernon, Mississippi, was surprised and captured, and a large quantity of rebel stores destroyed, including sixteen railroad cars, loaded with pontoons for Hood’s army, and four thousand new English carbines This clearly indicates one very good reason for the scarcity of these guns. When the Federal troops captured them, they destroyed them. Since nearly all U.S. cavalry regiments were armed with some form of repeating or breech loading carbine, a muzzle-loading carbine was of no real value. However, U.S. troops regularly used captured C.S. imported Enfield rifle muskets, as they were of use to the infantry.

The carbines were not popular with Confederate cavalrymen either. Their short barrels and captive ramrods were universally despised. When Confederate inspected examples of the carbine

are encountered, the swivel ramrod is often missing or has been modified. Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia’s cavalry corps had a strong preference for the slightly longer 24 inch barreled Pattern 1853 Enfield artillery carbine, which used a conventional, rather than a swivel, ramrod. To this end, he penned a letter on October 7, 1862, soon after the Battle of Antietam, which read in part, an …application from General Stuart, commanding cavalry, to exchange rifles, for the Enfield carbines (artillery) in the hands of our infantry. It is not clear that anything came of the request, but the overall preference for Enfield artillery carbines and “short” Enfield rifles by Confederate cavalry commanders in both Virginia and Tennessee is well known.

In the end, the British Pattern 1856 cavalry carbine was not only a compromise for the British military but also for the Confederate cavalry, which was provided with a reasonable number of the guns, but never found any particular favor for them and regularly sought to acquire a more suitable weapon for mounted use.

Tim Prince is a full-time dealer in fine & collectible military arms from the Colonial Period through WWII. He operates College Hill Arsenal, a web-based antique arms retail site. A long time collector & researcher, Tim has been a contributing author to two major book projects about Civil War era arms including The English Connection and a new book on southern retailer marked and Confederate used shotguns. Tim is also a featured Arms & Militaria appraiser on the PBS Series Antiques Roadshow.

Obverse overall view of a British Pattern 1856 cavalry carbine.

Lock and rear sight of a Barnett manufactured P1856 cavalry carbine imported by the Confederacy.

JS / Anchor Confederate inspection mark on the comb of the stock of the Barnett P1856 cavalry carbine. (All photos by Tim Prince)

Confederate Anchor / S inspection mark on the comb of a P1856 cavalry carbine. This later war inspection mark is associated with guns imported during 1863 and 1864.

Muzzle area of a P1856 cavalry carbine showing the threegroove rifling and large palm disc of the captive ramrod.

Former U.S. Congressmen Henry Shaw Was Killed in Civil War Combat

by Bob Ruegsegger

Colonel Henry

Marchmore

Shaw had the dubious distinction of being one of the few former congressmen killed in combat during the Civil War.

Henry Shaw was born in Newport, R.I., on Nov. 20, 1817. His family moved to North Carolina following his father’s commercial setbacks during the War of 1812. After his mother’s death in 1829, Shaw’s younger brother, Silas, was sent back to Rhode Island to live with relatives. Henry remained in North Carolina with his father.

Sponsored by Gideon Marchant, a local Currituck County physician, Shaw studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and later established a medical practice in the Indiantown area in Currituck County, N.C.

Dr. Shaw became involved in politics in the 1850’s. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1853. Defeated in the 1855 election, he was again elected to Congress in 1857.

“He was a doctor. He was also a state representative from Currituck before the war,” said Currituck native E.G. Swain. An ardent secessionist, he represented Currituck County at the 1861 Secession Convention.

Shaw was so adamant about North Carolina’s secession from the Union that he resigned from the convention and joined the North Carolina State Troops that were later amalgamated into the Confederate Army.

“The whole of northeast North Carolina was almost 50-50 as to whether to secede or not,” said Swain. “The businessmen all had their ties with the North, and they didn’t want to lose their businesses. There were very few slave holders in this area. That did not play a big part in it,” he said.

“North Carolina was supposedly the last state to secede, and they did not secede until Lincoln called for 75,000 troops. They made the statement that ‘We won’t fight the South’.”

North Carolinians, according to Swain, were a lot like the other southern people. Southerners thought with considerable justification that the Union was invading their land and their lives; they resented the Yankee aggression according to Swain. “I think there was a whole lot of that. That’s why the southern people joined the Confederacy,” he said. “That, to me, would be the main reason.”

Shaw elected to join the army as an infantry officer; not a surgeon. He was appointed colonel

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of the 8th Infantry Regiment N.C. State Troops organized in September 1861 at Camp Macon near Warrenton, N.C.

Personnel in the 8th Infantry Regiment were drawn from the counties of Pasquotank, Perquimans, Camden, Currituck, Franklin, Cumberland, and a number of other areas.

Colonel Shaw and his regiment were sent to the coast to defend Roanoke Island, an important link in the defenses of North Carolina.

Colonel Ambrose Wright with the 3rd Georgia Infantry was also sent to Roanoke Island. He established Camp Georgia and built fortifications all over the island to protect the rear approaches to Portsmouth and keep Union forces from entering Albemarle Sound and other eastern North Carolina waterways.

“Colonel Shaw and the 8th NC were sent to reinforce him,” said Swain. “When Colonel Wright and his troops left, Colonel Shaw was more or less in charge on the island until Brigadier General Wise was sent from Virginia to assume overall command.” Wise only had about 2,500 troops to defend Roanoke Island from an impending Federal attack. “During the Battle of Roanoke Island, Wise was sick with the flu in a Nags Head hotel room,” said Swain. “Colonel Shaw was in charge of the Battle of Roanoke Island.”

General Ambrose Burnside’s expedition arrived at Hatteras Inlet in the Outer Banks with 15,000 soldiers and a fleet of 80 ships. Bad weather delayed his amphibious operation for nearly a month. On Feb. 7, 1862, Burnside attacked the outer defenses on Roanoke Island with 10,000 soldiers. The Union force was overwhelming. Colonel Shaw withdrew his troops to the northern end of the island. There was no hope of escape. Resistance would have been futile. The Confederate troops would have been annihilated. Colonel Shaw surrendered his entire force on Feb. 8, 1862. Following their surrender on Roanoke Island, the men were briefly held as prisoners of war. They were transported to Elizabeth City by steamer, paroled, and sent home. After they were formally exchanged, the men reformed the regiment at Camp Mangum near Raleigh.

Once the unit was re-assembled, the 8th North Carolina was assigned to General Clingman’s command.

Colonel Shaw’s regiment

was sent to Morris Island in Charleston where they fought against the Union attack on Battery Wagner. One of the attacking commanders was Robert Gould Shaw, 54th Massachusetts, the regiment made famous in the movie Glory. They were later assigned to Fort Moultrie across the harbor on Sullivan’s Island.

Later, as part of General Hoke’s Division, the 8th North Carolina took part in the 1864 eastern

North Carolina campaign, an effort to reclaim parts of eastern North Carolina occupied by Union troops. During initial preparations for a Confederate attack on New Bern, Colonel Shaw suffered a fatal wound at Batchelder’s Creek on Feb. 1, 1864.

“While in this position, within 200 or 300 yards of the creek, Colonel Shaw, who was with me at the head of his regiment, was

Henry Marchmore Shaw portrait. (Library of Congress)

Shaw highway marker.

instantly killed by one of the enemy’s shots from the opposite side of the stream,” wrote General Thomas Clingman in his report. Clingman added that “this unfortunate casualty” made it necessary that Lt. Colonel Whitson assume command of the 8th North Carolina.

“Actually, a Yankee sharpshooter shot him off of his horse,” said E.G. Swain. “His troops thought so much of him they bought a brand-new uniform to dress him and shipped him home so he could be buried at the home place.” Colonel Shaw’s home was in Bayley, in Currituck County. After the Civil War, Bayley became known as Shaw’s Corner, then was designated Shawboro by the Norfolk & Southern Railroad, in honor of the Shaw family.

Henry Shaw and his wife Mary rest peacefully side by side in the Shaw family cemetery adjacent to their former home.

In recent years, the William F. Martin Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #1521 from Elizabeth City has hosted an annual memorial service for Colonel Shaw in Shawboro.

E.G. Swain, member of SCV Camp #1521, admires Colonel Shaw most for his patriotism. “Apparently, he was well liked and loved by his men,” said Swain. “They said that he was a good soldier. He knew what to do.”

Bob Ruegsegger is an American by birth and a Virginian. His assignments frequently take him to historic sites throughout Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Southeast. His favorite haunts include sites within Virginia’s Historic Triangle—Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg. Bob served briefly in the U.S. Navy. He is a retired educator and has been an active newspaper journalist for the last twenty years.

Civil War Artillery Book

Shaw Family home, Currituck County, N.C.

Currituck County native E.G. Swain serves as the lieutenant commander for the William F. Martin SCV Camp #1521 in Elizabeth City, N.C.

Henry M. Shaw and Mary R. Shaw rest

in the family cemetery next to

that served as their home.

The Strange Case of John Forney

Early last year two “This and That” columns peeked into the Valley of the Shadow archive to see the different ways newspapers in Staunton, Va., and Chambersburg, Pa., reported on selected events before and during the Civil War. We know that the Virginians’ perspectives differed from the Pennsylvanians’. We may not have given sufficient attention to the stark contrast between views held by Democratic and Republican editors who were close neighbors in Chambersburg and other Keystone State communities.

I searched two newspapers in Chambersburg, the Valley Spirit, a Democratic Party organ, and the Repository, a Republican paper, to see what they had to say about

the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. These led me to other publications in Pennsylvania.

As I read, I came across an interesting story about a Pennsylvania man, John Forney, who shot and mortally wounded Lieutenant E.N. Ford. Was Forney a deserter and a murderer, or was he an honest citizen who justly defended himself in his home and was persecuted by a tyrannical government?

Forney, a resident of Fulton County (just west of Chambersburg), first appeared in the record during early 1863. According to an account in the Jan. 28 Spirit, Forney was exempted from the draft because of his age. Afterwards, “for some cause not well understood,” the

draft commissioner wrote “not exempted” next to Forney’s name, which then “was put into the wheel and drafted.” Forney appeared again before the commissioner, accompanied by a neighbor who attested to his age. For the second time his exempt status was recorded by the commissioner.

When the Provost Guard went to the county to arrest deserters and draft dodgers, either “through the negligence of the Commissioner, or some other cause,” Forney was listed among the drafted men who failed to report. He was arrested on Jan. 17. Brought before a court on a writ of habeas corpus, Forney presented his case to the satisfaction of the judge, who ordered

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Forney’s discharge.

Lieutenant Ford, the commander of the Provost Guard, attempted to re-arrest Forney at his home, when “the unfortunate shooting took place.” Forney surrendered voluntarily to the civil authorities, but was taken by the military and imprisoned in Washington.

After presenting these facts, the Spirit offered some opinions. “There seems to have been a direct collusion between civil and military authorities in this case, and an attempt on the part of the military to act at deciding the civil law. This raises a question regarding the rights and liberties of every American citizen.” The Spirit expressed dismay that decisions of civil courts could be overridden and the military allowed to remove a citizen charged with a crime from the state for trial before a distant military tribunal.

The Spirit reported that Pennsylvania’s governor had been petitioned to intervene, “to vindicate the dignity and supremacy of the laws and Courts of the Commonwealth.” The Spirit urged that Forney be returned to Pennsylvania for trial.

When Lieutenant Ford died of his wounds on Feb. 13, Forney was still locked up in Washington. At some point in the next few months, Forney was returned to Pennsylvania and held for trial, but he would have another adventure before his trial began. This adventure was brought about by a Confederate cavalry raid on McConnellsburg during Lee’s

invasion of Pennsylvania. We learn about these goings on in the Sept. 30 edition of the Repository. It was reported that Forney, who had been “taken out of jail and carried off by the rebels during the [June 21] raid…, returned on the 21st Inst. [Sept.], and surrendered himself to await his trial at the October term of Court.” Forney’s whereabouts between the raid and his return are not reported, but it is interesting to note that Forney had now twice turned himself in voluntarily.

On Jan. 20, 1864, the Repository told its readers of the trial, which resulted in Forney’s acquittal. “The fact that Forney killed Lieut. Ford was not denied but the defence was founded on the allegation that Forney did not owe service and that Ford had no orders or authority to attempt his arrest.”

The Repository was not critical of the court nor of the jury but there was more to be said: “That Forney was legally acquitted seems to be free of doubt; but that he was an instrument in the hands of abler and worse men, was painfully manifest from various facts elicited in the history of the case; and that the aim of his masters was to breed revolution, defeat the conscription, and prevent the increase of our armies, cannot be truthfully questioned. That they have in this case, been saved by the generous bearings of our criminal code in all cases of reasonable doubt, is their fortune – not their just reward.”

What is this about? Who were

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. (Library of Congress)

these abler and worse men?

For this we turn to the Jan. 20, 1864, Spirit. “The grand jury of Fulton…ignored the bill of indictment against Henry G. Smith and John A. Robinson, as accessories of the shooting, there not being a particle of evidence to convict them of any complicity in the affair.” Per the Spirit, they were innocent, but who were they?

I found them identified in an earlier report in the Potter Journal (Jan. 18, 1863). Henry G. Smith was the publisher of the Fulton Democrat. John A. Robinson was a local official, a prothonotary. Both were Democrats, of course, and both suspect in the eyes of Republican papers like the Repository and the Journal

The Repository seemed merely resigned to the acquittal; the Spirit was more positive. The Jan. 20 Spirit quoted with approval the Fulton Democrat’s opinion on the verdict, a determination reached after a threehour deliberation. “The result of this trial will be regarded as right and proper by every candid man who read the evidence, and we are sure that there was not an individual in the Court room who expected anything else than a prompt verdict of acquittal.”

The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette (Jan. 22) admitted that the verdict

was just, but like the Repository, said that “from various facts elicited in the trial it was apparent that [Forney] had been aided by bad men, whose object was to incite people to resist the conscription act.”

The Jan. 20 Lewistown Gazette reported on the acquittal with less nuance than the Repository and the Pittsburgh paper: “There were some queer doings in that region, as is proved by the fact that a deserter can wantonly shoot down an officer and not be punished for it.” The Gazette was a Republican paper which in this same edition endorsed Lincoln for re-election, referring to the president as “that honest and incorruptible Patriot.”

The reporting in the Potter Journal also lacked nuance. This paper did not wait for a trial to form its opinion. Much earlier, in February 1863, the Journal reported that Forney shot an unsuspecting Ford as the lieutenant approached the house; that Forney was a deserter; that Ford had been detailed to arrest him; and that this deserter had been arrested and “had escaped by a habeas corpus.” The details of the shooting, Forney’s standing in relation to the draft and, of course, whether Ford was acting under orders when he attempted the second arrest were important details that did not seem to concern

the Journal. There is also the odd choice of verb associated with the writ of habeas corpus: most people would not consider a man released by order of a judge to have “escaped.”

After the acquittal, however, the Journal was more matter-of-fact. On Jan. 17, 1864, the paper gave a brief summary of the events leading up the trial and stated without comment that Forney had been acquitted. No calling Forney a deserter; no allegations about abler and worse men. We do learn one other fact about Lieutenant Ford that may account for the earlier bias: he had once been employed at this very newspaper. We have seen how the military, the judges, the newspapers, and the jury all spoke and acted in this strange case of John Forney. In the spring of 1864 the voters had their say as well. From Philadelphia’s Daily Evening Bulletin, April 7: “Rewarded –John Forney, of Fulton County in this State, who killed Lieut. Ford for attempting to arrest him as a deserted conscript, was elected Constable by the Democracy of Todd township at the late election – receiving all but three of the entire Democratic vote polled.” Vox populi auditur.

Sources:

The newspapers cited in this column can be found at Valley of the Shadow archive (http:// valley.lib.virginia.edu/ and at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive (https://panewsarchive. psu.edu/).

Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and the author Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagler speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and has been a regular contributor to CWN since 2016. He can be reached at gould.hagler@gmail.com.

This unique work contains a complete photographic record of Georgia’s memorials to the Confederacy, a full transcription of the words engraved upon them, and carefully-researched information about the monuments and the organizations which built them. These works of art and their eloquent inscriptions express a nation’s profound grief, praise the soldiers’ bravery and patriotism, and pay homage to the cause for which they fought.

www.mupress.org

866-895-1472 toll-free

The Merryman Case

While I was perusing Pennsylvania newspapers to learn about John Forney and Lieut. E.N. Ford, I found a lively discussion of a more famous story, the case of John Merryman, a Maryland planter and militia leader.

In May 1861 Merryman was arrested by the military for his role in the destruction of railroad bridges and telegraph lines, an effort undertaken to prevent the passage of troops through the Maryland. He was imprisoned in Fort McHenry. Merryman was not charged with a crime nor allowed access to legal counsel or civilian authorities. President Lincoln had authorized the army to suspend the writ of habeas corpus

Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that only Congress could suspend the writ. The president himself lacked that authority and could not delegate to the military a power he himself did not have. Taney ordered the commander of the fort to bring the prisoner before the court. The commander refused. A review of news reports provides some interesting perspectives on this controversy.

In June the Valley Spirit condemned Lincoln’s suspension of the writ and condemned the continued imprisonment of Merryman and the defiance of the court order.

The Spirit published Taney’s long opinion in its entirety, an opinion ruling against the military’s “attempt to trample on the Constitution by destroying the great writ of habeas corpus.” The commander, the editor wrote, “informs the Chief Justice that he is authorized by the President to suspend when he pleases the operation of this writ which is the only guardian and security of liberty.” Lincoln’s action was “a dangerous usurpation of power,” the Spirit asserted, and added that “We are now carrying on a War to maintain the Constitution and Laws and must not see them trampled underfoot and the liberties of the people destroyed by the very Government that is professing to sustain them.”

Another Democratic paper, the Lancaster Intelligencer, agreed with the Spirit. Of Taney’s opinion the Intelligencer wrote: “Like everything else emanating from this venerable and learned jurist, it is a lucid and unanswerable exposition of Constitutional law.” The military authorities ignored the newspaper editors as they had ignored Justice Taney.

While the Franklin Repository did defend the suspension of the writ several times during the war, it did not report on the Merryman case. Other Republican papers covered the case in some depth. The Press, a major Republican paper in Philadelphia, discussed Taney’s opinion on June 1 and June 10. Justice Taney “appears wholly unconscious that the seat of Government…was threatened by hostile armies” and, in issuing his opinion, “took no notice of the fact that…Merryman was one of a number of armed men, who, confederating with the invaders…burnt bridges on the railroad over which [Government troops] were traveling.” The opinion was, moreover, “in exceedingly bad taste” and displayed Taney’s “petulant temper.” Bad law and bad manners too, according to the Press

Not all support for the Lincoln administration came from Republicans. The Sunbury American, a Democratic paper, argued that “In times such as these, the personal liberty of the subject must give way to the security of the State. Inter armes leges silent.” This was a rebellion, said the American, and Merryman was “a rebel traitor.”

Merryman was indicted for treason in July and released on bail. He was never tried. Like Forney, Merryman found some vindication through politics. After the war he was elected by the Maryland General Assembly to the office of State Treasurer, a position he held from 1870 to 1872. He died in 1881.

Chris Mackowski

From the Editor

Even in the summer, with plenty of green around and the fields sown, the Slaughter Pen Farm at Fredericksburg can feel like a wide, empty landscape. At this time of year, it can feel downright barren. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying a walk around.

The Slaughter Pen is a great case study in topography (too detailed a topic to get into here, especially where I don’t have the benefit of pictures, but you can check out this blog post I wrote in 2011: https://emergingcivilwar.com/2011/12/23/adecember-walk-across-slaughter-pen-farm/). At 216 acres, the Slaughter Pen also represents one of the most significant victories in the history of the modern preservation movement. Protected through the leadership of the American Battlefield Trust, it helped redefine our understanding of the battle of Fredericksburg in an entirely new way.

I paid a visit recently, nipped by cold temperatures and nagged by a breeze just strong enough to be annoying. I’m wrapping up a new writing project about the

battle of Fredericksburg that includes a tour, so I was driving my route and walking around at various stops to get a renewed sense of the lay of the land. This particular tour needed to focus on locations related to critical decisions made during the battle.

It would be easy to “phone it in,” so to speak. I give plenty of battlefield tours; Kris White and I already laid out one battlefield tour in Simply Murder, so I’m confident in my ability to get people around Fredericksburg.

But a new tour offers a new opportunity to make sure I’m looking at the battlefield with fresh eyes. How wonderful it is to see something new on a battlefield that is otherwise so familiar. Most of all, I never want to take this or any battlefield for granted. It’s a privilege to be able to get out there and walk the ground and look around.

For all those who helped support preservation at the Slaughter Pen, or on any battlefield, thank you.

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief, Emerging Civil War

The Seventh Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge

Gordon Rhea and Jeb Stuart! Greg Mertz and James Longstreet! Yellow Tavern and the Wilderness! Plus, if you’ve been following along with our weekly Symposium Spotlight (https://emergingcivilwar.com/ tag/2020-ecw-symposium/), you know we’ve been rolling out another tremendous line-up of speakers and topics for this year’s

Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge (Aug. 7-9, 2020). We’re focusing on Fallen Leaders. Tickets are available for $155 each and include all three days, including Gordon’s keynote address on Jeb Stuart and Greg Mertz’s tour focusing on Longstreet in the Wilderness. We have ten speakers total, and we’re highlighting some compelling stories. We hope you’ll join us!

ECW News & Notes

Edward Alexander “popped the question” on February 19. Congratulations to Edward and his now-fiancée, Alison!

Sarah Kay Bierle is hosting her fifth and final Civil War history conference in Temecula, California, on April 4. Details can be found at: https://gazette665. com/2020-civil-war-history-conference/. In the meantime, Sarah has been chasing historical facts all over Virginia and North Carolina these past weekends. You’re not gonna believe what she’s finding about a certain Confederate artillery officer. Hint: she’s speaking about his death and memory at the symposium and writing a book about his life and military innovations.

Doug Crenshaw led a tour of the Glendale battlefield, over land not yet open to the public, on February 22. He also took a group to the newly preserved land at Gaines’s Mill. He’s been up to his eyeballs in Seven Pines lately, too, developing a talk on the battle. From his bookstand, he says he just finished reading The Great Partnership, “which I liked,” he says, and Hymns of the Republic. “The latter, though well written, held on to some myths that I believe have been debunked, particularly the characterization of Grant,” he says.

From Caroline Davis: “Big news for me is I will be spending my summer in Vicksburg,” Mississippi!” Caroline has been hired as a seasonal historian at Vicksburg National Battlefield.

Jon-Erik Gilot, board member for the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation in Wheeling, W.V., is busy planning a Civil War Symposium for Saturday, June 20 at the Hall. Confirmed speakers include Jonathan Berkey (Concord University), Rich Condon (Civil War Pittsburgh), and ECW’s own Kris White (American Battlefield Trust). Keep an eye on ECW and the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation’s Facebook page for more information!

Jon-Erik has also been reaching out to many of our friends at numerous Civil War Round Tables across the country,

checking in with your groups, updating your contact information, and letting you know the latest happenings with ECW. Has your Round Table received Jon-Erik’s email update? If not, and you would like your Round Table to be included, send us an email at emergingcivilwar@gmail.com.

Meg Groeling is working her nicely manicured fingers to the bone sorting through the Ellsworth images she amassed over the last several years, trying to figure out the best ones for her book First Fallen: The Life of Elmer Ellsworth, the North’s First Civil War Hero. Not only must they be chosen; they must be sourced. “From the Internet” or “Meg’s Files” does not cut it professionally. In addition, she is reading biographies of Walt Whitman, trying to figure out how to make his scandalous life more palatable to the general public. The main problem is that she likes all that scandal. She is also researching the Republican Wide-Awakes and their connection to Colonel Ellsworth. A visit to Brown University might be in order this summer. And as usual, the roses have been cut back, the violets are in bloom, and the porch has been freshened up for spring. Come join her for a cup of coffee.

Steward Henderson participated in a Civil War program at Childhelp Middle School in Lignum, Va., on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Dr. John Yurechko appeared with Steward as another Union soldier, Beth Stenstrom as a civilian woman, and Bob Lookabill as

a Confederate soldier. The event was sponsored by the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield. Thirty eighth graders and 6 teachers attended the event. The school specializes in helping abused children. On Feb. 25, Steward also presented to the Celebrate Virginia History Club.

Dwight Hughes is discovering the challenges of collecting two hundred-plus images for his first volume of the Emerging Civil War Series. “I thought getting the book written would be most of the job, but not so,” he said. “Although many Civil War images are viewable in internet search engines, determining permissions and acquiring digital copies of sufficient resolution can be difficult. Some great pictorial sources apparently have not been digitized for public access. Some apps, like the Library of Congress website, could be more efficient. Profuse illustration is one of the most distinguishing features of the Series, telling stories, as or more effectively, than longer books. It’s another form of composition, certainly rewarding and worth the effort.”

From Frank Jastrzembski:

“It can take months to see the final result of a project. But it’s well worth the wait. I’m happy to announce the completion of two projects at the River View Cemetery in Portland, Ore. I’ve included before and after photos below. I’m grateful for all the help River View Cemetery manager Lee Rogers provided to appropriately honor these two soldiers.”

The Slaughter Pen Farm is more than a big, open field.

Restored graves of Lt. Cyrus Jerome Ward, 17th Ind., and Gen. Joseph Horace Eaton.

From Chris Kolakowski: “I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my CBI book for Ted Savas, due March 1. The title is Nations In the Balance: The Indian-Burma Campaigns, December 1943 – August 1944.”

Derek Maxfield’s two-man performance group, Rudely Stamp’d, that explores the relationship between Grant and Sherman, recently returned from a very successful engagement in Lancaster, Ohio, where they performed for Sherman’s 200th birthday celebration in his hometown. “There was a great, very engaged crowd with folks from as far away as Utah and British Colombia,” he says. Derek and performance partner Tracy Ford will be performing their play “Now We Stand by Each Other Always” for the Brunswick [N.C.] CWRT on March 3. In April, they will perform for the Butler CWRT in Butler, Penn. “Still no dates in Virginia, despite my efforts to get word out,” Derek says. Hint, hint.

Kevin Pawlak was recently able to visit some privately-owned ground east of Antietam Creek where Federal artillery was posted during the battle. There were some great vantages! I captured some of them on my own Antietam blog: http://antietambrigades.blogspot.com/2020/02/ tour-photos-from-mcclellans-observation.html

Kevin and Dan Welch have been diving into some new and exciting research for their upcoming History Press work Ohioans at Antietam. Keep tuning in to the Youtube channel for their series on the battle and the blog for some interesting stories they have dug up.

From Ryan Quint: “I don’t really have a lot going on right now, but I’ll pass this along as a ‘cool source.’ A few years ago, I think I told you that Bowdoin College had digitized most of O.O.

Howard’s papers; Howard was a native Mainer. In the intervening time, Bowdoin has also added thousands of pages of transcriptions, including almost all of his Civil War correspondence, along with his two brothers. If anyone wants to access the collection, it’s here: https://library.bowdoin. edu/arch/mss/oohg.shtml. We’re in the midst of some great collections going online; the internet is a powerful tool that will continue to make research easier and easier.”

Besides the weekender Terry Rensel recently wrote up about Fort Clinch, his vacation travels have also included visits to Fort Pulaski, Sherman’s Savannah HQ, and the Battle of Bentonville marker on I-95.

10 Questions...with Dan Welch

Dan Welch, ECW’s secretary and the co-coordinator of our symposium, teaches music by day and works at Gettysburg National Military Park by night, well, by summer, that is. We last profiled him in the April 2017 newsletter (http://conta.cc/2qa9WsW).

You can read his full ECW bio here: https://emergingcivilwar. com/author-biographies/authors/ dan-welch/.

don’t get “Ramblin’ Fever” every now and again during this time, though.

Are you working on anything at the moment to help you bridge the gap back to campaign season?

Yeah, I’ve got way too many irons in the fire right now. I am working on four different book projects and an essay at the moment. My free moments are research and writing, which I don’t mind in the least!

You’re coordinating the ECW symposium again this year. The theme is “Fallen Leaders.” What do you like about that theme?

I really like the versatility of theme. Almost immediately folks would think of those who were killed in action or wounded at a critical moment in the battle that changed the course of events. We’ll certainly hear those stories in August, but we’ll also hear a different take on the theme as well. There were those leaders who rose to prominence only to fall to military or political blunder, taking them from the historical spotlight. Those stories, to me, are the most fascinating.

You recently had the chance to help a friend sell part of his collection of Civil War books, which included a lot of regimental histories. It must’ve been cool to run across some unexpected units as those books passed through your hands. What jumped out at you?

effect of this turning point in our history on the world.

Lightning Round (short answers with a one-sentence explanation)

Favorite primary source? The O.R

Favorite Civil War-related monument? 14th Brooklyn or 149th Pennsylvania at Gettysburg

Favorite unsung hero of the Civil War era? Jonathan Letterman

What’s a bucket-list Civil War site you’ve not yet visited? Too many to list but all are Western Theater. I need to spend more time outside Virginia.

Favorite ECWS book that’s not one of your own? No Turning Back. I had a great time taking that book into the field.

The ECW Podcast

The ECW Podcast is going on hiatus for a bit, but before we go, we have two February podcasts that dovetail from the release of our newest Engaging the Civil War Series book, Entertaining History: The Civil War in Literature, Film, and Song.

American Revolution are preserved by a plethora of local, state, and federal sites.

But, as we turn our eyes toward March, Emerging Revolutionary War (ERW) invites you to pay close attention that first week, especially March 5, when ERW historian Mark Maloy does a Facebook live from the Old State House that evening kicking off the inaugural 250th anniversary of the road that led to the American Revolution.

Last but not least, on April 1st (no April Fools, promise!), join ERW historians Rob Orrison and Phillip S. Greenwalt at the Washington, D.C., American Revolutionary War Round Table, held at Mount Vernon, as they talk about their book, A Single Blow, about the battles of Lexington and Concord.

As always, continue to check www.emergingrevolutionarywar.org to stay up-to-date on posts, book reviews, weekender places to visit, and the next volumes upcoming in the Emerging Revolutionary War Series.

It’s the middle of winter, and you’re in eastern Ohio. The Civil War has to feel pretty far away at this point, doesn’t it?

It can feel physically far away this time of year. Although we have had a pretty mild winter compared to other years, I still do not travel much between December and March because of the weather. That’s always hard for me because I never like to “hang my hat” too long and prefer to be a “Travelin’ Man.”

During the campaign season, I am always on the road speaking to roundtables, visiting battlefields, going to conferences, or commemorating anniversaries on the actual ground. I use this downtime to catch up on reading and prepping for the coming season, so it all balances out in the end. That doesn’t mean I

Like so many of us in this field, books are a huge part of it for me. We buy, sell, trade, read, reread, collect, and so much more. Since my Civil War collection is pushing several thousand volumes, there was not much I needed or wanted, but what jumped out at me most were some regimentals on the small, obscure units from the Western and TransMississippi theaters. It was great to see some of these units “get some love” on the research and publishing level.

In our recent ECW book Entertaining History, you had great essays about “Dixie” and “Ashokan Farewell.” Was there a song you didn’t get to write about but wish you’d had the chance to?

There’s this band I’ve been really into the last couple years called The Dead South. On their second major release, they wrote a song titled “The Good Lord.” It’s a story about a solider trying to stay alive long enough to get home. His wife is pregnant, and she wants him to desert. It is a powerful twenty-first century song written by Canadian musicians about our Civil War. This continues to demonstrate the

The first podcast of the month features a wide-ranging conversation between Chris Mackowski, Sarah Kay Bierle, and Terry Rensel about the Civil War in pop culture. The second podcast features an interview with Nick Sacco, an historian at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, tying back to an essay Nick wrote for Entertaining History, and a related blog post he recently did, about Grant’s memoirs. (Read his post here: https://emergingcivilwar.com/2020/02/04/cwpop-culture-breaking-down-thetruths-of-the-personal-memoirsof-ulysses-s-grant/)

You can download podcasts for only $1.99 from our Patreon page. The cost of the download helps support production costs. (https://www.patreon.com/ emergingcivilwar)

Speakers Bureau Spotlight

Paige Gibbons Backus serves as the Site Manager as the Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre in Prince William County, Va. In addition to her work, she specializes in the medical and civilian aspects of the Civil War. You can read her full bio here: https://emergingcivilwar.com/ author-biographies/authors/ paige-gibbons-backus/.

One of the most famous dates in the American Revolutionary War Era falls in February, actually, two dates, one in the old calendar and one in the new calendar. If you haven’t guessed it, that date is February 11 (old style) or February 22 (new style): the birthday of George Washington. You can follow George Washington’s earliest steps at George Washington Birthplace National Monument. Or his final steps at Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens. Of course, his many footsteps throughout the

Talks:

• Unheralded Heroines: Women in the Civil War

• The Chaos and Carnage of the Medical Field during the Civil War

• The Deadliest Enemy: Disease During the Civil War Tours:

• Manassas Junction

• First Manassas

• The Civilian Experience of First Manassas

• Hospitals of First and Second Manassas

• Wartime Alexandria

Visitors along I-95 South in North Carolina can find a memorial to the battle of Bentonville at one of the rest stops.

Paige Gibbons Backus helps manage ECW’s social media.

Dan Welch co-coordinates ECW’s annual symposium

Patriotism and Necessity: The Use of Homespun in the Southern U.S. during the American Civil War, 1860–1865

Written by Annette Bethke, based on the research of Vicki Betts

“Ackworth [sic], Ga., June 9, 1864

Editors Chicago Tribune:

The accompanying song is from a letter of a Southern girl to her lover, in Lee’s army, which was obtained from a mail captured on our march through Northern Alabama. The materials of which the dress alluded to is made in cotton and wool, and are woven on the hand-loom [sic], as commonly seen in the houses at the South. The scrap of a dress enclosed in the letter as a sample was of a grey color with a stripe of crimson and green— quite pretty and creditable to the lady who made it…” Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1864. p.3, c.3

3. All factory spun, but hand woven;

4. All factory spun, and factory woven in the South, where “home” means the South; intended to resemble true hand-woven fabric; or

5. Fake homespun – factory spun and woven in the North, considered a cheap imitation. It is impossible to know for sure what kind of homespun is being discussed in sources unless there is specific reference about how it was produced.

Making Homespun

Home spinning and weaving had fallen out of common practice in the U.S. by the time of the Civil War; diaries and newspapers often mention taking spinning wheels out of the attic, or of women having to learn to spin and weave. However, some women were still producing homespun for home and retail purposes when the War came.

spin and weave long years before, and they now gladly taught relatives and all others who wished to learn. Women from all over that section of the country went to them to learn how to manage the spinning wheels and the looms.”1

Kate Cummings wrote from Georgia in 1862, “This lady had two young daughters, who were busy weaving and spinning. They had on dresses spun and woven by themselves. This ancient work is all the fashion now, as we are blockaded and can get no other kinds of goods.”2

Diaries of the planter class in the South often give the impression that plantation mistresses produced multitudes of cloth and thread. In letters to her husband, Harriet Perry mentions several times the amount of cloth her mother-in-law managed to spin.

and weaving; however, it was the enslaved persons, male and female, of the plantation doing the work. Harriett commented that Aunt Betsy, an enslaved woman, is with the looms all the time. Also, Willis and two women spun from light till dark. Willis and the two women, “spin the warp for fifteen yards every day,4” and “women, who have young babies are spinning with the hand.”5

Making a completely homespun/homemade dress is time consuming; taking more time than the typical white woman in 19th century America was willing to devote to clothing production without help. W.N. Watt, in Early Cotton Factories in North Carolina and Alexander County estimated that it took 360 hours to produce 30 yards of homespun fabric:

• 160 hours to pull the cotton by hand from the seed and card it when cards were available. The manufacturing of cards became less a

priority once the war began. The cost of cards when they could be bought went for $10 to $80 a pair.

• 85 hours to spin and then hank the weft

• 17 hours to gather bark, dye, size the thread, and spool the warp

• 12 hours to quill the weft

• 10 hours to warp, beam, harness, and “slew” the loom

• 75 hours to weave the cloth This work adds up to a total of 36, 10-hour workdays. If the labor is proportionate, it should take almost seven 10-hour days to produce the 5 2/3 yards of cloth for the Furr dress shown below.

Purchasing homespun

Purchasing homespun was an option. The Perrys sold cloth produced on their plantation at a rate generating from $100 to $125 a week; it is unclear who is buying the cloth. Based on the amounts, it is probably the government or

Most scholars of the American Civil War home front are familiar with the song “The Southern Girl or The Homespun Dress.” Attributed to Carrie Belle Sinclair in 1862; it praises women for wearing homespun dresses in support of the South during the Civil War. The homespun dress has become the symbol of the hard scrabble life many Southerners experienced during the war. How common was homespun? Was it worn as a sign of pride as suggested by the song, or was it worn out of necessity when all other fabric choices were used up?

What is Homespun?

Homespun can be:

1. All handspun and hand woven, what most think of as “homespun”;

2. Factory spun warp, handspun filler, hand woven;

Mary Love Fleming remembered that in Dale County, Ala., “At first few knew how to spin and weave. But my aunt, Mrs. Bennett, and some of the older women in the Byrd, Martin, and Johnson families had learned to

In 1862 she wrote, “the spinning machine spins thirteen yards of cloth per day-they have two looms weaving now.”3 By October she was making 90 yards of cloth a week, by February 1863 she had made nearly two thousand yards of cloth.

As often as Harriett mentioned her mother-in-law making cloth you would think she was a very busy woman, skilled in spinning

Sheet music, The Southern Girl or the Homespun Dress. Library of Congress, M1642.S. A. E. Blackmar, New Orleans, 1865.

Swatch of homespun fabric. Pennsylvania State History Museum. (Annette Bethke)

Hank of homespun thread. (Photo by Vicki Betts used with permission.)

Furr homespun dress. Privately owned by Vicki Betts, Tyler, Texas. (Photo by Vicki Betts used with permission.)

other slave owners purchasing slave cloth. Even with all this cloth on hand, they are still purchasing calico on the market.

Harriet also mentioned in 1862, “everyone is very busy making cloth & there is a good deal for sale at $1 & $1.25 per yard for common plain negro cloth…”6 Prices for homespun differed greatly by year of the war and location in the South. For example, in 1862 Southerners could find homespun from 50¢ to $4 a yard depending on where in the South they were. By 1865 the cost had risen to $8-$10 a yard. Calico, on the other hand, cost between 50¢ and $2 a yard in 1862, but by 1865 ranged from $25-$35 a yard.

The Southern Illustrated News published a letter from Louise, November 8, 1862, “Well, Messrs. Editors, I bought me a home-spun dress, had it made up and wore it to church on Sunday last.”7 It is important to pay attention to this quote: she bought the fabric, she did not make it.

Why Homespun

Since homespun was so labor intensive and early in the war other options were available, why was it being used in fashion? Early in the war homespun appeared as a patriotic statement. Homespun as a patriotic statement dates back prior to the American Revolution. It served to promote American industry, simplicity, and democracy, as opposed to “British luxury and corruption.”

As tensions rose in 1860 and 1861, Southerners again turned

to the old symbol, fully aware of homespun’s historical significance. While across Virginia, in late 1859, men met and spoke on self-dependence, by early 1860, “the ladies have begun to act. Without noise they have commenced to give force and color to our resolutions” by sponsoring homespun parties. “More than a hundred ladies and gentlemen, belonging to the most respected families in the city [Richmond], were present all of whom were attired in part or in whole in garments of homespun.”8 Elzey Hay from Georgia remembered in 1866:

“In the first burst of our ‘patriotic’ enthusiasm, we started a fashion which it would have been wise to keep up. We were going to encourage home manufacture… so we bought homespun dresses, had them fashionably made, and wore them instead of ‘outlandish finery.’ The soldiers praised our spirit and vowed that we looked prettier in homespun than other women in silk and velvet. A word from them was enough to seal the triumph of homespun gowns.”9

Caroline Seabury wrote in her diary while in Mississippi in 1863, “Then they showed me cloths [sic] they had spun and woven of themselves—saying ‘I’ll wear homespun as long I live before I’d depend on Yankees for it…’”10

Schools also encouraged homespun. In October 1860, twenty-seven teachers and pupils of the Spring Hill School attended the Georgia State Fair, “all attired in a substantial Check Homespun Dress.” Sarah Conley Clayton later wrote about the

experience: “to show our patriotism at that critical time, we were all clad in homespun dresses made by our own hands, the girls, with two or three exceptions being under sixteen years of age. … so in our simply made blue and white and brown checks, with all eyes upon us we walked proudly from the Union Depot out to the grounds on Fair Street near the cemetery.”11

The girls did win a prize, but they were “a little bit crest fallen” to discover another homespun clad young lady also in attendance. Years later Sarah could describe almost every detail: “It was made quite stylishly, as I remember; more of a riding habit… we understood that she herself had woven the material.”12

Graduating classes made a special effort to patronize homespun, much as Harvard and Yale did during the Revolution. In March 1860, the students of Mercer University pledged themselves to buy “no more apparel of Northern manufacture. . . [and] to appear on the rostrum of our next Annual commencement in Southern-made clothing.” Editors and correspondents noticed young ladies around the region who exemplified the Southern ideal. “Home Industry” wrote

Samples of homespun fabric. American Museum of the Civil War, Richmond Va. (Annette Bethke)

Homespun dress, 1864. Original owner: Martha Evelina (“Lena”) Dancy Ledbetter, (1850–1936). Current location of dress unknown. (Photo by Vicki Betts used with permission.)

into the Charleston Mercury in November 1860:

“We observed, while on a visit to a lady friend, a bonnet and dress of Georgia linsey and cotton, designed for the daughter of one of our leading Secessionists.…The entire work is domestic, as well as the material, and exhibits considerable ingenuity. The idea illustrates the patriotism of the ladies, and their earnest sympathy with the great Southern movement, while its execution affords convincing proof of how independent we can be of our Northern aggressors, when we have the will to undertake and the energy to achieve.”13

Within the next month, the Columbus [Ga.] Times noted “In the street yesterday was observed one of our pretty young ladies attired in a dress of Georgia homespun and wearing the blue cockade.”14

“Miss T.”, the daughter of a friend of the editor of the Atlanta Southern Confederacy, arrived at that printing establishment on August 24, 1861, “dressed in beautiful checked homespun; … Let us have more homespun dresses—enough at least to destroy the novelty...”15 By fall, the Charleston Courier was noticing, “Many beautiful damsels were seen yesterday on King street, in suits of homespun.”16 If editorial comments were not enough, some prominent citizens sponsored “homespun parties” of various sorts and fairs.

In Leake County, Miss.,, Col. Donald gave a party in which “The ticket sent to each young lady, required that she should come dressed in Mississippi manufactured apparel, in the manufacture of which she must in some way assist. The gentlemen were also required to dress in the manufacture of Mississippi, made in Leake and Attala.”17 In Atlanta, for one of the first fairs sponsored by the Ladies’ Relief Society in Sept. 1861, the notice in the newspaper announced that “The ladies will appear in southern homespun.”18

One of the most interesting accounts, however, is of an Alabama homespun ball. Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon recalled the preparations leading up to that event and the unintended results.

“The young ladies were all preparing for a grand ball, that was soon to be given, and four of them were going to wear homespun dresses. . . The four girls were sewing on their dresses, vile-smelling, common checked goods, such as we used for our servants at that time. They were making them with long trains, low neck and short sleeves, and the lace they were trimming them

with was Pointe de Alencon, Honiton and Valenciennes, suitable for the dress of a duchess at a court ball. . . One of the young men who had danced with all the four…taking me to one side, asked…: ‘Miss Lizzie, what in heaven’s name is it that smells so awfully about those girls?’ ‘Why, it is a new perfume they are using,’ I said. ‘They call it patriotism; I call it indigo dye.’…I told the girls about it, and when they got home there was a beautiful blue all about their necks, and they hardly allowed the word homespun ever to be uttered to them until we really had to make it at home and wear it.”19 The young Southern ladies of 1860 and 1861 created and “ostentatiously” wore their homespun dresses as a means of being “heard” politically, without leaving their separate spheres and without having the vote. Homespun became, for them, a visible tie with their heroic and independent past and a uniform to match the gray of their brothers and beaux. Some soon became disillusioned with the fashion, however, putting their dresses aside when they washed poorly or were too hot to wear.

Giving Up Homespun

Amanda McDowell of White County, Tenn., wrote in October 1864, “We have got our wool ready… at last, Oh! I am getting so tired picking, coloring, carding, spinning, etc., I would secede from it if I could conveniently.”20

Upper-class women made relatively little use of homespun, depending instead on re-made finery of prewar times or on new clothing obtained from outside the South. A young Georgia aristocrat wrote one of her friends in March 1863: “I am going into the [Federal] lines . . . and expect to get the prettiest wardrobe which Paris or France afford. . . .”21

The Memphis Daily Appeal included an article in Feb. 1864, “You who, in the first flush of your patriotism, gave twenty five [sic] and thirty dollars for homespuns and ostentatiously wore them, do not now discard them because they wash badly and cost so much…”22 Again, in 1863 Georgia, as published in the Richmond Sentinel,

“Messrs. Editors:

…In Atlanta and Macon the ladies dress as in times of peace, have an abundance of fine clothes…Fine bonnets and silk dresses are as thick as blackberries. Homespun by the city ladies is not much worn. It is not becoming, they say, and gives them rather a plebeian appearance.”23

“A still better reason is that calico

is cheaper than homespun, besides being more comely. Our observation teaches that homespun is about the dearest every-day dress a lady can wear…What with trimming to make them look decent, the fading after the first introduction to the washtub and consequent early abandonment, it is poor economy to indulge in homespun dresses.”

Necessity

By late 1862, many civilians were beginning to turn back to homespun out of necessity, as the blockade cleared off merchants’ shelves and the Confederate army consumed much of what came from Southern textile mills. Eventually, even the Alabama girls with the Valenciennes lace “really had to make it at home and wear it.”In Sept. 1864, Sarah Watkins wrote, “If it [the war] lasts much longer I do not know what Baby and I am to do for clothes. We are both very needy. Some people run the blockade and get things. I believe your Pa would go in rags before he would trade with the enemy. I could not go in their lines but if I had money or cotton and could get the chance, I would supply myself with clothes.”24

Some women stocked up but wanted homespun to save the better dresses “… I wanted some homespun dresses to wear about home to save my others; as there is not a yard of calico, gingham’s [sic], or anything else in Cam[den], except berage or swiss &cc.” wrote a woman from Arkansas in 1862.25

Harriet Perry felt very strongly about using homespun as she wrote to her husband in Feb. 1864, “You spoke of a suit Lt. Dukes had & expressed a wish for

some like it and said you thought it better taste to wear home made goods—it is cheaper for you to wear any other kind and I know it looks better than the homespun— the latter is so smutty and dirty I do not like it.”26

Drew Gilpin Faust wrote in Mothers of Invention:

The homespun revolution so heralded in the postwar accounts of white southern women’s wartime achievements seems to have been actually of very limited scope. A recent study and museum exhibition entitled Mississippi Homespun: Nineteenth Century Textiles and the Women Who Made Them came to a conclusion that might be generalized to the entire South: “The oft-reported surge in spinning and weaving by women on the homefront during the Civil War was not reflected” in the surviving evidence from Mississippi. Women who had actively engaged in textile production before the war continued to do so; households where slaves had produced cloth before the war maintained or even increased their output; some women who had never spun or woven made efforts to produce fabrics, but their contributions did not have a significant impact in meeting

Homespun boy’s dress, 1862–1863. American Museum of the Civil War, Richmond, Va. (Annette Bethke)

Homespun dress, 1864. Made from cloth woven by 10-year-old Mary Hart of Palatka, Fl. American Museum of the Civil War, Richmond, Va. (Annette Bethke)

Homespun dress, 1864–1865.Original owner: Mary E. Love (1849–1866). Current location of dress: Alabama Department of History and Archives, Montgomery, Ala. (Vicki Betts) the Civil War” Alabama Historical Quarterly 19 (1957): 61-109.

the demand for textiles in the Confederacy. … Less fortunate southerners made do by recycling bed or table linens, curtains, and discarded garments. Economic pressures on Confederate households did not result in profound or widespread alterations in white women’s relationship to home textile production.

Endnotes:

1. Fleming, Mary Love Edwards. “Dale County and Its People During

Civil War News

6. Johansson. P. 41.

7. Southern Illustrated News, November 8, 1862

8. Dallas Herald, February 8, 1860, p. 1, c. 6

9. Hay, Elzey. “Dress Under Difficulties; or, Passages from the Blockade Experience of Rebel Women.” Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine 73 (July, 1866): 32-37. Contributed by Jan Stofferna to Citizens’ Companion 8 no. 5 (December 2001-January 2002): 30-37.

10. Seabury, Caroline. The Diary of Caroline Seabury, 1854–1863. Edited by Suzanne L. Bunkers. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991, p. 91.

11. Clayton, Sarah Conley. Requiem for a Lost City: A Memoir of Civil War Atlanta and the Old South. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1999, p. 30.

12. Ibid

13. Charleston Mercury, November 20, 1860, p. 1, c. 3, repeated in Daily Chronicle & Sentinel [Augusta, GA], November 27, 1860, p. 3, c. 2

14. Columbus [GA] Times, quoted in the Daily Chronicle & Sentinel [Augusta, GA], December 2, 1860, p. 2, c. 1

15. Southern Confederacy [Atlanta, GA], August 15, 1861, p. 3, c. 1.

16. Charleston Courier quoted in the Natchez Daily Courier, 2 October 1861, p. 1, c. 3.

17. Marshall Texas Republican, April 20, 1861, p. 3, c. 3

18. Southern Confederacy [Atlanta], September 27, 1861, p. 2, c. 1-2

19. Lyle Saxon, Elizabeth A Southern Woman’s War-Time Reminiscences. Memphis: Pilcher Printing Co., 1905, pp. 18, 22, accessed July 28, 2002, http://sunsite.unc.edu/docsouth/saxon/saxon.htm.

20. Irwin, John Rice. A People and Their Quilts. Exton, PA: Schiffer Publishing

Ltd., 1984, p. 19.

21. Fannie Baylor to Virginia King, March 23, 1863, as quoted in Bell Irvin Wiley, Confederate Women. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994, pp. 168-169.

22. Columbus [GA] Enquirer quoted in Memphis Daily Appeal [Atlanta, GA], February 6, 1864, p. 2, c. 6

23. Southern Confederacy [Atlanta, GA], April 10, 1863, p. 1, c. 3-4

24. Sarah E. Watkins, Winona, MS to Mrs. L. A. Walton, in Dimond, E. Grey, and Herman Hattaway, eds. Letters from Forest Place: A Plantation Family’s Correspondence, 1846–1861. Jackson: MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1993, pp. 322-323.

25. Ouachita County, AR, August 16, 1862, in Sisters, Seeds, & Cedars: Rediscovering Nineteenth-Century Life Through Correspondence from Rural Arkansas and Alabama. Edited by Sarah M. Fountain. Conway, AR:

UCA Press, 1995, p. 140. 26. Johansson. p. 219

Annette Bethke lives in Gettysburg, Pa., after 20 years in Texas. She has been involved in Civil War living history since 1989. While it was the love of the clothes that first brought her to the hobby, her interest has expanded to include the study of everyday life of the mid-19th century. She has given presentations for the Association of Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums; the Ladies and Gentlemen of the 1860s Conference; the Texas Living History Association; and numerous school presentations. She has also published papers in the Citizen’s Companion and the ALHFAM “Bulletin.” She currently works for the Seminary Ridge Museum in Gettysburg.

Nobody even comes close to building a Civil War tent with as much attention to reinforcing the stress areas as Panther. Our extra heavy duty reinforcing is just one of the added features that makes Panther tentage the best you can buy! PANTHER Catalog - $2 Web: www.pantherprimitives.com

2. Cumming, Kate. Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, 1987 reprint, p. 64.

3. Johansson, M. Jane, ed. Widows by the Thousand: The Civil War Letters of Theophilus and Harriet Perry, 1862–1864. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2000, p. 28.

4. Ibid, p. 103.

5. Ibid, p. 116.

CIVIL WAR BOOK,___ B mv 11:

Civil War News book reviews provide our readers with timely analysis of the latest and most significant Civil War research and scholarship. Contact email: BookReviews@CivilWarNews.com.

A Confederate and His Family Confront War

The Yankee Present. By Philip Ross Chadwick. Westbow Press, www.westbowpress.com, 2018, 163 pp., softcover, $13.95.

Reviewed by Wayne Wolf

Getting to know the Troup Artillery

Sons of Tom Cobb: Troup Artillery, Athens, Georgia

In this novel of historical fiction, the author uses the life of his distant ancestor, Thomas Hanner Lyle, Company B, 14th Tennessee (CSA) Infantry Regiment to delve into the psychological stresses for a soldier going to war. Leaving a new bride pregnant with their son, Thomas feels the need to fight for his ideals and support the Southern cause. In a series of flashbacks, the author uses imagery from Thomas’ antebellum farm life to show how war disrupted family, affected those left behind, changed the soldier, and destroyed the social and economic fabric of life.

Within Thomas’s story are woven many incidents that define a soldier at war. He is wounded at the Battle of Shepherdstown, listed as missing in action at Chancellorsville, and has his letters with a Yankee present (the bullet that caused his injury) returned to his wife with no explanation, leaving her uncertain over his fate. He experiences the lack of food, the excitement of letters

from home, and the pride of being promoted to sergeant for bravery. Yet, the last two years of the war are spent officially missing while recovering from a broken arm and leg. Not writing home during this time, he is unaware of the mental torture his family is enduring. His family is aware that thousands of families never find out the particulars of their loved ones death or final resting place.

This is a novel that adds no new historical facts to the record but encourages historians not to neglect the mental and psychological strain placed on both soldiers and their families during war. When battles and statistics flow from the pen of researchers, this novel begs they examine the individuals behind the numbers and add a human dimension to their work. Each soldier and his family are profoundly affected by decisions to go to war, a lesson as true today as during the Civil War. While a careful editing would have removed some grammatical lapses, this book should appeal to a younger generation of readers interested in the trauma of war. The price of the novel is reasonable, and the storytelling makes the reader want to finish the book without taking a break.

Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous Civil War books and articles. He currently is concentrating on publishing soldier’s letters that add to the understanding of life during the war.

Digital Issues of CWN are available by subscription alone or with print plus CWN archives at CivilWarNews.com

By William Sidney Smedlund. Maps, illustrations, appendices, bibliography,

-

photos, ros

ters, notes, index, 320 pp., 2019.

Self-published.

smedlundbill@ gmail.com. $48 hardcover plus $5 postage.

Reviewed

by

Charles Kelly Barrow

Long Walk Home” details what the men experienced as they made their way toward home or North Carolina so they could join Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and continue fighting. The perseverance of the seven men who desired to see the Natural Bridge in Virginia before returning to Georgia is to be commended.

Finally, the story of the Troup Artillery flag is a story within itself. When the new unit flag was presented before General Robert E. Lee in June 1863, Captain Henry Hull Carlton promised, “The flag should never be disowned, dishonored, or surrendered.” The flag escaped capture, even after being shot down numerous times, but went on to be present when Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ daughters visited Athens.

Cobb: Troup Artillery, Athens, Georgia, Mr. Smedlund provides a vital resource for those who desire personal accounts or are in search of genealogical information on this Clarke County, Georgia, artillery unit.

Charles Kelly Barrow, Ed.S has been passionate about the War Between the States since he was a young boy. He is currently a teacher of high school history, as well as the Vice-Chairman of the Georgia Civil War Commission. His favorite topic, and one he has published articles and books about, is the blacks who served and fought for the Confederate States of America.

There are few books written concerning artillery units and their history; yet, Bill Smedlund’s Sons of Tom Cobb: Troup Artillery, Athens, Georgia brings a focus on the exploits of Athens’ most famous artillery unit. Mr. Smedlund covers these men from January 1861 until they disband on April 9, 1865, outside Appomattox Courthouse. The book is not only a military history, but it delves into the personal side of each soldier.

The Troup Artillery consisted of young men who included 41 sets of brothers, 34 brothers-inlaw, and over 30 cousins. These family connections made this unit perform well under the most severe of circumstances. The biographical sketch of each soldier provides details such as wives names, postwar jobs, and significant accomplishments. This is a treasure trove to any genealogist.

When reading the first-hand stories from letters, diaries, and postwar reminiscences, the reader will be moved by the detailed accounts of engagements. The emotions are raw as soldiers tell of losing friends, brothers, commanders, and the casualty numbers on both sides. This is especially true with accounts pertaining to the Battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. The retreat from Petersburg to Appomattox Station is a blow by blow nail-biting account that has the reader desiring that these boys can achieve the impossible.

The chapter entitled “Appomattox Station and The

In 1995, Bill Smedlund gave the Civil War community Camp Fires of Georgia’s Troops 1861–1865, an asset for anyone researching locations of the Georgia troop’s camps during the War for Confederate Independence. With Sons of Tom

Deadline for submissions is the 20th of each month.

Email: ads@civilwarnews.com

By Lawrence E. Babits

Civil War Alphabet Quiz - B

1. This Mississippi general led his brigade through Union lines at Gettysburg but was slain.

2. This Union general invented a series of bugle calls.

3. Confederate Army under Joseph Johnston surrendered here.

4. U.S. Grant’s first big fight where he refused to retreat and thus won.

5. Large Confederate rifled cannon type produced at Selma, Ala.

6. Union name for Manassas.

7. His 1859 raid “jump started” the Army of Northern Virginia.

8. Most effective artillery fuse of the Civil War.

9. Confederate flag song.

10. First land battle of the war.

Answers found on page 45.

Selectively Picking up the Pieces

Engines of Redemption: Railroads and the Reconstruction of Capitalism in the New South. By R. Scott Huffard Jr. Illustrations, figures, graph, tables, appendices, chapter endnotes and bibliography. 324 pp., 2019. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. www.uncpress.org, paperback, $32.50.

Reviewed

by Richard J. Blumberg

“A Snitch, Indeed”…But Whose!

track durability, the spread of yellow fever, and the consolidation of various rail lines. This section is especially interesting for railroad enthusiasts since it covers train wrecks, robberies, and the growth of monopolistic management companies. Both parts of the book are set in the American South during the 1880s and 1890s.

Lincoln’s Informer: Charles A. Dana and the Inside Story of the Union War. By Carl J. Guarini. Maps, Illustrations, Photos, Index, Notes, Bibliography, 520 pp. University of Kansas Press. www.kansaspress.KU.edu, 2019, hardcover, $39.95.

Reviewed by Joseph Truglio

Engines of Redemption provides a good example of how history is almost always written by the victors. Huffard’s latest work presents an interesting argument that railroads were a conduit for elite whites and railroad management companies to exploit racial, social, and economic tensions in the name of capitalism.

Railroads always played an important role throughout America. One of the first forms of mass transit, it provided efficient transport of troops and supplies during the war. It also became a popular form of passenger travel. However, it also brought its own challenges in management, safety regulations, government policies/intervention, and health related issues.

The economic culture of the South was permeated with political, racial, and entrepreneurial strife before and during the Civil War. During Reconstruction, the North sought better trade routes and economic growth by expanding rail routes to increase commerce. This made railroads a very lucrative target.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One describes the love affair of antebellum America with the railroad. Part Two provides various case studies related to the unique problems encountered in the New South. Some of these include: safety regulations,

Huffard uses illustrations, a graph of train wreck events, and recollections of personal rail journeys to show readers how Northern capitalists took advantage of the devastated South. He effectively validates his argument, while providing additional information about railroad operations. Readers will learn how rail routes could make or devastate a city’s economy. He also discusses the challenges of how to manage and rework rail lines of different track widths. Much like what happens in our economy today relative to financial crises and natural disasters, certain companies and cities were selectively chosen to survive the changes in railroads, while others were simply lost in a desperate fight for economic survival.

An interesting note related to this work is that the story of African American contributions is purposely excluded. The redemption of the railroad came primarily at the hands of white supremacy. Therefore, the public media was essentially controlled by their agenda and desires.

Huffard’s work is a delight for railroad enthusiasts, logisticians, and those interested in management principles.

Richard had a 26 year Active/ Reserve career in the Army. Seventeen years were spent in assignments dealing with Corps and Theater Army level multi-functional logistics. His current works include an article awaiting publication on the influence of music in the Civil War. He has also begun a series of articles emphasizing the contributions made during the Civil War to modern logistical operations.

According to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, an informant is one who gives information against another for money or other rewards. That seems to fit Dana’s character. However, he is much more than that.

Starting in 1849, Dana was the managing editor of the N.Y. Tribune, one of the most influential newspapers in the nation. It was owned by Horace Greeley. Greeley and Dana had a volatile relationship. Both were abolitionists but Dana wanted change quicker than Greeley and that conflict led to Dana’s leaving the Tribune and taking a job with the U.S. War Dept. as an observer of General Grant and the war in the western theatre. Lincoln needed to know that his confidence in Grant was well founded. Edwin Stanton was the man to get that done. And so began a long relationship on intelligence gathering, one that lasted until Stanton’s death in 1869.

In a nut shell, Dana went out West, attached himself to Grant’s army, got involved in its politics, was supportive of Grant’s strategies, and was very helpful in resolving the situation there. Along the way, he became friends with Grant, protected him from the politics of the Union’s leadership, and assured Lincoln that Grant doesn’t drink on campaign. All this was done while reporting directly to Stanton. Dana was active in deflecting Gen. McClernand’s criticisms. He was also very instrumental in the removal of Gen. Rosecrans from the Army of the Cumberland.

He came east with Grant in ’64, was assigned to the war department directly under Stanton, and worked in logistics. He was active in the politics of the ’64 election in the Army and a strong supporter of Lincoln. After the assassination, he was active in the hunt for the assassins, and worked tirelessly in the trial and its aftermath. He stayed in the war department until Stanton’s death in 1869. After that, he returned to his first love, newspapers, and built the New York Sun into one of the nation’s leading papers. He continued this passion until his death in 1897.

He also published a best selling autobiography called Recollections of the War. Later it was discovered it was written by Ida Tarbell.

That is the overview of this excellent biography. I left out much so you can enjoy, like I did, finding many nuggets of information not usually told. There is a similar book published recently called Lincoln’s Confidant, but I enjoyed this one more. As to the title, I will leave this up to the reader to decide. Myself, I think Dana was Stanton’s man. There is little written contact between Dana and Lincoln.

With all that said, get yourself a copy and get a good look into the machinations behind the scenes of military campaigns. You will be glad you did. Enjoy!

Joseph Truglio, of Manchester, N.J., is a retired Motion Picture Technician who has a life long interest in the Civil War. He is currently President of the Phil Kearny CWRT in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.

Loyal Legion of the Confederacy

WWW.CWMEDALS.COM

cwmedals@yahoo.com

1 Smithbridge Rd., Unit 61, Chester Heights, PA 19017

A Runaway Slave Who Never Received Free Paper

The Princeton Fugitive Slave: The Trials of James Collins Johnson. By Lolita Buckner Inniss. Notes, Bibliography, and Index. 272 pp., 2019. Fordham University Press, www.fordhampress.com, cloth, $29.95.

Reviewed by David Marshall

white women paid off his former titleholder.

In The Trials of James Collins Johnson, offers a fascinating tale of a man who spent several years paying off his debt and how he lived a fascinating life. He became an independent entrepreneur at Princeton who came in contact with many people throughout a six-decade life on campus. At his death in 1902, students described him as “the students’ friend”. This was a man who had freedom, safety, and independence for sixty-three years.

Lolita Inniss tells the story of James Johnson, a runaway slave from Maryland who ended up in Princeton, N.J., in The Princeton Fugitive Slave. In 1839, Johnson found his way to this college town in New Jersey where he obtained a job and became someone well known by many. Working on campus in 1843, he was recognized by a student from Maryland and arrested on suspicion of being a fugitive. Johnson’s owner came to the college and had him taken to jail and kept there until his trial based on the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. He was convicted and shortly before being returned to his former life, a local

The author makes an insightful question regarding Johnson keeping his feelings to himself throughout his time dealing with many students, Princeton employees, and well-known local citizens. A second intriguing question that the writer covers is who betrayed Johnson to his former owner. In the end, Innis proposes that the Princeton University provost actually was involved in laying out school funds to buy the former slave’s freedom. As he often indicated to people, the college owned him. This man’s life is one of being a slave in the Mid-Atlantic, the challenges of living at a univer sity during the Antebellum Era in New Jersey, and being an inde pendent business person safe and secure for the balance of a pro ductive and long existence.

minutiae of Johnson’s move to Princeton and how he succeeded in fitting into the college community. The third chapter is the most complete in detailing the main character’s experience of disloyalty and detention. An excellent point this writer addresses are the different people who were involved with the main character’s arrest. Chapter four analyzes the fugitive slave trial, who the lawyers and jurors were, and how they arrived at their guilty verdict. Chapter 5 elucidates how Johnson went from a slave to a free person. An intriguing point brought up concerns the former slave’s patron and the prominent family she was a member of. Chapter six defines Johnson’s life after the trial and contests the appearance of this man as a typical free person during Jim Crow but someone who made a successful independent life as an entrepreneur. The concluding chapter goes over the book’s central ideas

and makes excellent conclusions that will cause some readers to rethink their own opinions of runaway slaves and free people.

Disappointing is Inniss’s inability to write about Johnson’s life prior to 1839. This would have completed the story and provided a much greater context to what he became. Sadly, Johnson failed to leave any writing of his life prior to 1839. However, this writer does full justice to the unfolding drama in a narrative rich in biographical detail and perceptive analysis. She was able obtain a great deal of information from primary source material in the Princeton College records, census records, newspapers, family records, and local histories, that discloses Johnson’s life story. One fascinating anecdotal point the author found is that Jonson was well known on campus but nicknamed by Princeton students as “Jim Stink” which says a great deal of the individuals he came in

CHARLESTON IN THE WAR

CHARLESTON IN THE WAR

This new and interesting title consists of seven very readable chapters and a narrative that was difficult to put down. She writes about the life of James Collins Johnson in Maryland, and how he was able to flee from his cap tives. The author explains the

100 Signi cant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War features newly restored images of scenes in the famed city, taken 1860–1865. e cameramen include the better-known, such as George N. Barnard and George S. Cook, as well as some lesser-known ones: Samuel Cooley, Charles Quinby, the partners Haas & Peale, Osborn & Durbec.

100 Signi cant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War features newly restored images of scenes in the famed city, taken 1860–1865. The cameramen include the better-known, such as George N. Barnard and George S. Cook, as well as some lesser-known ones: Samuel Cooley, Charles Quinby, the partners Haas & Peale, Osborn & Durbec.

contact with.

This book is highly recommended for a short but insightful look at the life of James Johnson, a runaway slave, whose freedom during the antebellum period and the Jim Crow era is threatened by lack of opportunity and a local interpretation of several disputed laws. It is a thought-provoking study that should be required reading for students and enthusiasts of an often-neglected topic.

David Marshall is a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for the past thirty-three years. A lifelong Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Roundtable Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and the Battle of Gettysburg.

100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Atlanta Campaign collection of George Barnard’s camera work. Most of the photographs are from Barnard’s time in Atlanta, mid-September to mid-November 1864, during the Federal occupation of the city. With this volume, Stephen Davis advances the scholarly literature of Barnardiana.

Text by Stephen Davis and Jack Melton accompanies each featured photograph, describing the pictured scenes and the history surrounding them. e selected images depict a variety of settings: that portion of Charleston known as e Battery, the “Burnt District” (the area of the city destroyed by the Great Fire of December 1861), the Charleston Arsenal, and the many churches that allow Charlestonians to call theirs “the Holy City.” Special sections of this book are devoted to the huge Blakely guns imported from England by the Confederates and close-ups of Barnard’s views.

Text by Stephen Davis and Jack Melton accompanies each featured photograph, describing the pictured scenes and the history surrounding them. The selected images depict a variety of settings: that portion of Charleston known as The Battery, the “Burnt District” (the area of the city destroyed by the Great Fire of December 1861), the Charleston Arsenal, and the many churches that allow Charlestonians to call theirs “the Holy City.” Special sections of this book are devoted to the huge Blakely guns imported from England by the Confederates and close-ups of Barnard’s views.

e history of Civil War Charleston goes back to e Defense of Charleston Harbor (1890) by John Johnson, Confederate major of engineers, and to Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-’61 (1876) by Capt. Abner Doubleday, Federal second-in-command. Since then Charlestonians have contributed to the history of their city, notably Robert N. Rosen and Richard W. Hatcher III. e historical text surrounding 100 Signi cant Photographs draws on these and other works. A unique feature is its reliance upon the writings of actual participants, such as Augustine T. Smythe (1842–1914) and Emma Edwards Holmes (1838–1910).

As a contribution to this literature, 100 Signi cant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War o ers rewards for all readers, from the casual novice to the serious student.

The history of Civil War Charleston goes back to The Defense of Charleston Harbor (1890) by John Johnson, Confederate major of engineers, and to Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-’61 (1876) by Capt. Abner Doubleday, Federal second-in-command. Since then Charlestonians have contributed to the history of their city, notably Robert N. Rosen and Richard W. Hatcher III. The historical text surrounding 100 Signi cant Photographs draws on these and other works. A unique feature is its reliance upon the writings of actual participants, such as Augustine T. Smythe (1842–1914) and Emma Edwards Holmes (1838–1910).

As a contribution to this literature, 100 Signi cant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War o ers rewards for all readers, from the casual novice to the serious student.

$19.95 + $3.50

128 pages, photographs, maps, bibliography. $19.95 + $3.50 shipping. Softbound. ISBN: 978-1-61850-151-6.

160 pages, Over 100 Photos, Maps, Index, Bibliography, Softcover. ISBN: 978-1-61850-167-7

$19.95 + 3.50 S&H Order online at www.HistoricalPubs.com or call 800-777-1862

Stephen Davis JACK W. MELTON JR.

A Tale of Two Generals

Worthy Opponents: William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston – Antagonists in War, Friends in Peace. By Edward G. Longacre. Maps, photos, notes, index, 392 pp., 2017. University of Oklahoma Press, www.oupress.com. $24.95.

Reviewed by John D. Fowler

The Case That Elected Abraham Lincoln

Sherman. Longacre writes well, and he weaves an interesting story. He does not, however, offer anything new on Sherman’s and Johnston’s military histories or their battlefield encounters during the Vicksburg, Atlanta, or Carolinas’ Campaigns. Indeed, sections covering the battles are mere summaries without much depth or detail. While the narrative does examine their generalship to a degree, the reader is left wanting more. Moreover, the most disappointing aspect of the book is the short epilogue that chronicles the generals’ post-war relationship. The title appears to promise more than the ten pages give.

Dred Scott: The Inside Story. By David T. Hardy. Illustrated, notes, self-published, 2019, 68 pp. Softcover, $9.00.

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

effect. While the case originated in Missouri as a freedom suit, it was seized by a conniving President Buchanan, pro-slavery Chief Justice Roger Taney, and former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, reject the doctrine of popular sovereignty, and deny citizenship to all blacks. To do this the brother of the real slave owner, Mrs. Irene Chaffee, the wife of anti-slavery Rep. Dr. Calvin Chaffee, was named as the owner of Etheldred (Dred) Scott and his wife Harriet.

the case designed to put the issue of slavery to rest once and for all, stirred it instead to divide the Union, cause a Civil War, and led to the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

is generally considered by Civil War historians as one of the best generals of the American Civil War, while his most famous opponent, Joseph E. Johnston, is often considered among the worst. The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 cemented the reputations, good and bad, of both men and created a bond they continued after the war. Through their post-war letters and memoirs, Sherman explained his success while Johnston explained his defeat. Interestingly, both men needed the other to substantiate their accounts and their generalships.

Historian Edward G. Longacre’s Worthy Opponents examines this interesting story.

Longacre is a prolific scholar, having written 24 books and some 100 journal and magazine articles on the Civil War. His The Cavalry at Gettysburg: A Tactical Study of Mounted Operations during the Civil War’s Pivotal Campaign, 9 June-14 July 1863 (1993) won the prestigious Fletcher Pratt Award as the best book of Civil War nonfiction; his Pickett: Leader of the Charge – A Biography of General George E. Pickett (1995) was a finalist for the Douglas Southall Freeman Award; and his Gentleman and Soldier: The Extraordinary Life of General Wade Hampton won that award in 2004. He also served as a historical advisor to the 1993 motion picture Gettysburg

Worthy Opponents is organized into 18 chapters that present parallel biographies of both Sherman and Johnston. The final chapter is an epilogue that discusses the men in the post-Civil War period until the death of

In sum, Longacre has written a basic biography of both generals that would come in handy for someone who only needs a brief overview with limited detail of these men and their Civil War careers. Despite its brevity, this volume is more effective than the ultra-slim, 94-page attempt at a co-biography of the generals entitled Civil War Enemies, PostWar Friends: William Tecumseh Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston (Charles Rivers Editors, 2013). Those wanting a more detailed account of the lives of both men must consult other biographies.

Currently, perhaps the best biographies of William T. Sherman are James Lee McDonough’s William Tecumseh Sherman: In Service to My Country – A Life (2016), Robert L. O’Connell’s Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman (2014), and John F. Marszalek’s Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order (1993). Additionally, while not a biography as such, Burke Davis’s Sherman’s March: The First Full-Length Narrative of General William T. Sherman’s Devastating March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1980) offers great insight into the man and his generalship.

Perhaps the best modern biographies of Johnston include Gilbert Govan’s and James Livingwood’s Joseph E. Johnston: A Different Valor (1994) and Craig L. Symonds’s Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography (1992). Historians have not delved into Johnston’s life as much as Sherman’s, and there is a need for a new monograph on the general.

John D. Fowler, Ph.D, holds the B.J. and Dicksie Bandy Chair of American History at Dalton State College. He is co-editor, with David B. Parker, of Breaking the Heartland: The Civil War in Georgia (2011).

The 1857 case of Dred Scott vs. John P.A. Sandford was contrived by pro-slavery forces to once and for all end the sectional debate over slavery and preserve the Union. It had, according to the author, just the opposite

The case thus proceeded with a surrogate defendant and for ten years worked its way through the judicial system until finally coming before the Supreme Court in 1857. The result of the case relegated the Scotts back to slavery and propelled Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. It, along with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, gave Lincoln a roadmap to oppose slavery, divided the Democratic Party, rallied Northern anti-slavery sentiment, and created the 1860 Republican platform. Thus,

David T. Hardy’s short book is an excellent synopsis of the case for those readers who enjoy the nuances of trials. A much more extensive review of this case and its participants can be found in Don Fehrenbacher’s The Dred Scott Case, and Lea Vandervelde’s Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery’s Frontier. This book, however, is recommended for anyone interested in conspiracy theories and conniving politicians, topics as pertinent today as in antebellum America.

Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and Past President of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Civil War history, particularly the life of the common soldier.

A Long Road to Disunion

No Greater Calamity For The Country: North-South Conflict, Secession, and the Onset of Civil War. By Leon Reed. Illustrated, bibliography, Little Falls Press, 2019, softcover, $13.95.

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

not only highlights major political personages, e.g. Lincoln, Seward, Fremont, and Douglas, but also military leaders including Grant, Lee, Jackson, Butler, and McClellan. He weaves their roles into a summary of the war’s causes, early attempts at reconciliation, the journey to ultimate disunion, and the use of printed media to sway the weary public.

Using the photographs, letters, and patriotic covers from the scrapbook of ancestor Hiram Roosa, Corresponding Secretary of the New York Military Association, the author catalogues events leading to Civil War. Starting with the election of Abraham Lincoln and ending in mid-1862, Reed

This book uses over 300 images of patriotic envelopes, the comic medium of the day, as a way to present the basics of the road to secession. Each patriotic envelope is placed in the context of its historical event and why it was chosen to influence public opinion. A great deal of emphasis is placed on Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion and how this singular event galvanized Southern Unionists to support secession, the loss of four Border States, and the destruction of compromise. Likewise, the attack on Fort Sumter caused Northern opinion to support the war effort to preserve the Union. While the nation had been drifting apart philosophically for decades, these two events crystallized public opinion and led to rejecting a peaceful resolution of their sectional differences.

John Slidell were not British diplomats but rather Southern diplomats captured on their way to Great Britain; the Confederate government never issued $25 bills. The illustrated note is actually a 25 cent note issued by countless municipalities during the war. Despite these minor lapses, the book includes many previously neglected events, e.g. The French Lady Affair, the Enchantress Affair, etc., which add much needed humanity to the endless battle reports. These comic events add readability to any recounting of the horrors of Civil War.

This book is well written, readable, and provides a snippet of information on all major aspects of the war and the road to disunion. Including the patriotic covers is a welcome addition that any historian ought to consider for how public opinion was molded. For these reasons, as well as its modest cost, a copy of this book would provide a heartening addition to any Civil War buffs library.

There are two historical errors in the text.

James Mason and

Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous Civil War books and articles. His current research involves bringing to light previously unpublished letters of the common soldier.

William Tecumseh Sherman

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March 28, Georgia. Living History

Soldier Saturday at Fort McAllister State Park. 3894 Fort McAllister Rd., Richmond Hill. Included with fort admission. A Civil War soldier will entertain topics ranging from fort history to candlemaking. For more information; 912-727-2339, www.explore.gastateparks.org.

March 28, Pennsylvania. Tour

“An Evening with the Painting,” a behind-the-scenes tour of the Gettysburg Cyclorama. 4:45 p.m. $25/adult. For information; gettysburgfoundation.org/ exhibits-tours-events/special-events.

March 28, Virginia. Civil War History at the Virginia Museum of Civil War

Family fun, exploration and hands on activities for all ages. Learn Army drills, dance the Virginia Reel, enjoy 19th-century games and crafts and take a guided tour through the battlefield and so much more. Visit General Grant’s Store for books and souvenirs. Special event rate: $5, pre-registration open Jan. 27 through March 20 required for participation. For information; 866515-1864.

April 1, Virginia. Ranger Program

Anniversary ranger program at the Five Forks Battlefield at the contact station near Court-house and White Oak roads, Dinwiddie. 2 p.m. Free. nps. gov/pete.

April 2, Washington, DC. Lecture

“Confederate Statues and Memorialization,” at President Lincoln’s Cottage, 140 Rock Creek Church Road NW, Washington. 6 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. lecture, $10 for each. lincolncottage.org.

April 2-4, Georgia. GBSHHA Congress

The General Barton Stovall History & Heritage Association will be holding their 19th annual Congress in Cartersville, Georgia. The event features two days of battlefield tours, a historian night, and a banquet. Information about the Congress is at www.generalbartonandstovall.com.

April 3, Virginia. Lunch discussion

“Battle of Memphis,” at the Mariners’ Park Cafe in the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News. 12:30 p.m. Discussion is free. For information; https://www.marinersmuseum.org/battle-of-hampton-roads-day.

April 3-5, Maryland. Civil War Conference

“Lincoln Assassination Studies: Snapshots from the Big Picture,” 21st Annual Conference. Tours and lectures sponsored by the Surratt Society, in Clinton. $225, tours priced separately. For information; surrattmuseum.org.

April 4, All States. Park Day. Sponsored by the American Battlefield Trust

Annual volunteer cleanup and repair at Civil War sites across the country. For information; battlefields.org/events/ park-day.

April 4, Pennsylvania. Lecture

“Crossing the Deadlines: The Rise of Civil War Prisons as Dark Tourist Destinations,” at the Na-tional Civil War Museum in Harrisburg. 1-2 p.m. Free. For information; www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org.

April 4, Virginia. Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester

The McCormick Civil War Institute will host its 2020 Spring Conference from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. “The Civil War on the Water.” Featuring nationally recognized Civil War scholars John M. Coski, Anna Gibson Holloway, Karen Needles, Jonathan W. White and Jonathan A. Noyalas (Shenandoah University). Registration fee of $50 ($25 for students with valid id) covers all presentations and lunch. For information or to register visit www.su.edu/MCWI, or call 540-6654501, or email jnoyalas01@su.edu.

April 4-5, Maryland. Living history

Civil War medical care comes to life at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, featuring the Blue and Gray Hospital Assn. Free with admission. Begins April 4 at 11 a.m. through April 5 at 4 p.m. For information; 301-695-1864, civilwarmed.org.

April 5, Pennsylvania. Symposium

Annual Meade Society History Symposium at the Conservatory at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pa. at 12 p.m. Speakers on the topic – The War with Mexico; Training Ground of the Civil War. Contact: Jerry McCormick 215-848-7753; or gedwinmc@msn.com.

Join Chambersburg Civil War Seminars & Tours for the largest and most comprehensive study of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga campaigns yet attempted! Five expert historians will cover diverse topics along with four full days of intensive battlefield touring led by David Powell with program coordinator Eric Wittenberg. We’ll visit Bridgeport and Stevenson, AL; LaFayette, GA, Davis’s Crossroads, Chickamauga, Reed’s Bridge, Jay’s Mill, Brock Field, Kelly Field, Brotherton Field, Horseshoe Ridge, Lookout Mountain, National Cemetery, Orchard Knob, Ringgold & more!

July 22-26, 2020

Based in Ringgold, GA

www.CivilWarSeminars.org

April 8, Arkansas. Ranger program

“Emergency Medicine of the Civil War,” at the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park in Prairie Grove. 3 p.m. Free. For information; arkansasstateparks.com/ parks/prairie-grove-battlefield-state-park.

April 11, Arkansas. Living history

Join park interpreters and other living historians for an exciting firing demonstration of Civil War artillery at the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park in Prairie Grove. Demonstrations at 10 and 11 a.m., 1 and 2 p.m. Free. arkansasstateparks.com/parks/prairie-grove-battlefield-state-park.

April 17-19, Maine. Auction

Poulin Firearms & Militaria Auctioneers presents the 2020 Spring Premier Firearms Auction. Rare Confederate revolvers, Confederate battle flags and a Colt Repro 1883 Gatling Gun Rifle are just a few of the many collectible items to be auctioned. 193 Skowhegan Road, Fairfield, ME 04937. For more information; 207-453-2114 or www.poulinauctions.com.

April 23-26, New Jersey. Company of Military Historians Meeting

The 2020 meeting, held at the Crowne Plaza-Princeton, 900 Scudders Mill Rd., Plainsboro, NJ., will begin with the welcome reception on Thursday followed by a field trip to visit Washington’s Crossing, the Old Barracks Museum and Princeton Battlefield on Friday. Nine lectures covering many periods of American military history and material culture along with a 20-table exhibit / flea market room and expanded silent auction. Register online at: https://tinyurl.com/register-4-CMH2020. For more information; lesandjuanita1@hushmail.com, 845-754-8827.

April 24-26, Rock Island, IL. Premier Auction: Fine, Historic, & Investment Grade Firearms

Rock Island Auction Company 7819 42nd Street West, Rock Island, IL 61201, Phone: 309-797-1500 or 800-238-8022, Fax: 309-797-1655, email: info@rockislandauction.com, Fully Licensed Class III Auctioneer. Open to the public. More info at www.rockislandauction.com.

April 24-25. Pennsylvania. Spring Muster

The annual Friends of Gettysburg spring seminar features a Friday evening program followed by a host of Saturday morning/afternoon options including battlefield walks with Licensed Battlefield Guides and history programs with leading Civil War historians. Ends with banquet Saturday evening. For info and registration; https://cart.gettysburgfoundation.org/overview/12035.

April 24-26, North Carolina. Confederate Prison Symposium

23rd Annual Salisbury Confederate Prison Symposium sponsored by the Robert F. Hoke Chapter 78, United Daughters of the Confederacy. Event begins Fri. afternoon with 3 lectures, displays, Friendship Banquet, music, and recognition of veterans. Registration $70 per person when postmarked by April 3, $80 afterwards. $15 charge for refunds after April 10. No refunds after April 17. Mail checks to Robert F. Hoke Chapter 78, UDC, PO Box 83, Salisbury, NC 28145-0083. For information; Sue Curtis 704-637-6411, southpawsagain@gmail.com.

April 24-26, Virginia. Central Virginia Battlefields Trust’s Annual Conference

“First Days - A Focused Look at the opening days of combat at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, & Spotsylvania Battlefields” Registration and Details: https://www.cvbt.org/cvbt-annual-conference Join CVBT for a three-day event (or pick and choose which tours to attend) as we explore “the firsts” at the battlefields where we focus our preservation efforts. Historians Frank O’Reilly, Greg Mertz, Kristopher D. White, Chris Mackowski, and Chris Kolakowski will be leading tours and presentations!

April 25, Illinois. Civil War Show and Sale

Zurko Promotions presents The National Civil War Collectors Spring Show and Sale which will be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $9, Free parking. For information; www.chicagocivilwarshow.com.

April 25-26, Indiana. Sassafras Tea Festival & Civil War Living History

Sponsored by the Jennings County Historical Society. Two days of reenactments, mock battles, Blue Grey Ball, first person interpreters, night firing, working blacksmith shop and more. Open Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For information; jenninghistoricalsociety@gmail.com or call 812-346-8989.

April 25-26, Maryland. Civil War Commemorative Weekend and Wreath-Laying

Come to commemorate the Black Diamond Disaster Weekend: The Forgotten

Tragedy on the Potomac. Water taxi rides to St. Clement’s Island, tours of Blackistone Lighthouse, free admission to the St. Clement’s Island Museum. 38370 Point Breeze Road, Colton’s Point, MD 20626. For information; 301-7692222; museums.stmarysmd.com; email ka-ren.stone@stmarysmd.com.

May 1-2, Gettysburg. Spring Seminar

The Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides of Gettysburg will offer its Spring Seminar. “ Overlooked and Often Not Visited: Ridges, Farms, and Other Sites”, including Battle of Hunterstown, Bliss Farm, and much more. For information; 717-337-1709 or https://gettysburgtourguides.org.

May 1-3, Georgia. Auction

Preston Opportunities invites you to attend their auction and bid on over 100 Pre-1899 guns and swords, along with many other collectible items. 10% buyers premium. Located at 119 Peachtree Parkway, Byron, Ga. Exit 149 @ the big peach off I-75. For information; presto434343@yahoo.com or visit www.prestonopportunities.com.

May 2, Pennsylvania. Reenactment

Join the fun at the 2nd Annual Lincoln Funeral Train reenactment commemorating the 155th Year Anniversary of the Lincoln Funeral Train crossing the Stone Gables Estate. See the only full-scale operating replica of Lincoln’s Funeral Coach in the United States. Experience cannon fire, presentations and demonstrations by reenactors and historians along with Civil War era music. Begins at 12 p.m. For information; 812-325-0374 or ThatTrainLady@yahoo.com.

May 2-3, Ohio. Civil War Show and Sale

The 43rd Annual Show in Mansfield at the Richland County Fairgrounds. Friday dealer setup. One of the most impressive artillery living history displays you will ever see. Living history units representing Rev war through WWII. Over 750 tables. Admission is $7, kids under 12 free. For information; email: info@ohiocivilwarshow.com or visit www.ohiocivilwarshow.com.

May 8-9, Pennsylvania. Living History for Local Schools

Come share your knowledge of the Civil War with Columbia and Montour school children. Unit bounties paid. Free registration. Artillery, cavalry, and sutlers welcome. Large gun show on the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds located at 620 W. 3rd Street, Bloomsburg, Pa. 17815. For info and registration; contact Eric Stahley at ecstahley@gmail.com.

May 15-17, Georgia. Reenactment

The 156th Anniversary “Battle of Resaca” reenactment will be held on over 650 acres of the original battlefield. Camping allowed in or near the breastworks. Amenities include straw, hay and firewood; food and ice on site. The planned activities include main battles both days at 2 p.m., period dance, medical demo’s, and more. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the preservation efforts of the Friends of Resaca Battlefield, Inc. A $150 bounty will be paid to the first fourteen cannon and crews registered by May 1st. Reenactor registration fee is $10 due by May 1. For

History Comes Alive

May 8 & 9, 2020

Friday:

Living history for local schools. Come and share your knowledge of the Civil War with Columbia and Montour County school children. Dinner provided for all participants.

Saturday

Living history all day.

• Unit bounties paid

• Free registration

• Artillery and Cavalry welcome

• Sutlers welcome

• Large gun show also on the Fairgrounds

For more information and registration forms contact Eric Stahley at ecstahley@gmail.com

more information, www.georgiadivision.org or Battle of Resaca, P.O. Box 0919, Resaca, GA 30735.

May 15, Virginia. Director’s Guided Battlefield Tour

Explore the battlefield with Civil War Historian and Site Director, Lt. Col. Troy D. Marshall, who will explain the action as it took place 156 years ago. Hear the accounts of battle in the words of the soldiers who were there. Tour includes a visit to the Bushong Home, the movie “Field of Lost Shoes” and the “Bloody Cedars.” Tour hours 2-4 p.m. Tour includes the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park and Driving personal vehicles to nearby Days Inn. Wear comfortable clothes and walking shoes. For more information; 866-515-1864 or email nmbshp@vmi.edu.

May 15-17, Virginia. Period Firearms Competition

The North-South Skirmish Association 141st National Competition near Winchester. Over 3,000 uniformed competitors in 200 member units compete in live-fire matches with muskets, carbines, revolvers, mortars and cannon plus costume competitions and historical lectures. The largest Civil War livefire event in the country. Free admission, large sutler area, and food service. For more information visit the N-SSA web site: www.n-ssa.org.

Trivia Answers

The Gettysburg Edition for 2020

and more! We are working on getting it distributed to other big venues in Gettysburg as well. The reenactment will be staged on the hallowed ground of the GBPA’s 146 – acre Daniel Lady Farm located on Hanover Road with a large reenactment field bordering the Gettysburg National Military Park at Benner Hill.

Civil War News

May 16-17, Virginia. Annual Reenactment

Join us for the 156th Anniversary Battle of New Market reenactment, one of the oldest continental reenactments in the nation, on original battlefield property. Visit demonstrations and living history presentations before and after battles each day. Explore artillery cavalry, musket firing, camp life, medical corps and much more. Variety of food vendors and souvenir shops on Sutler Row. Admission $10 / 10 and older, 9 and under are free. 866-515-1864 for advance tickets.

May 22-24, Georgia. Auction

Preston Opportunities invites you to attend their auction and bid on over 100 Pre-1899 guns and swords, along with many other collectible items. 10% buyers premium. Located at 119 Peachtree Parkway, Byron, Ga. Exit 149 @ the big peach off I-75. For information; pres-to434343@yahoo.com or visit www.prestonopportunities.com.

May 24, Pennsylvania. Memorial Day Observance at Historic Laurel Hill Cemetery

Recreating the Original G.A.R. Decoration Day Service of 1868: The traditional Decoration Day service of the Grand Army Meade Post #1 will be recreated at Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave. Philadelphia at noon. For information, 215-228-8200 or awaskie01@gmail.com for Dr. Andy Waskie.

May 27, Pennsylvania. Auction

Join Morphy Auctions at 10 a.m. as it presents an Early Arms & Militaria auction. 2000 N. Reading Road, Denver, PA 17517. For information; 877-968-8880 or info@morphyauctions.com.

May 30, Georgia. Living History

Anniversary living history and civilian program at the Battle of Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Historic Site located at 4432 Mt. Tabor Church Rd., Dallas, Ga. Hours are 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. $6/adult. For information; explore.gastateparks.org/ info/214024?c=17413216.

May 30 & 31, Pennsylvania. Living History

Join us for this annual event recognizing the participation of 120 members of the Pennypacker family, including Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, a Private in the 26th Pa. Emergency Militia. See soldier life and civilian demonstrations, artillery fire, troop inspections, dress parade, music and speakers. Children can participate in the Be a Soldier Kid Enlistment each day. Pennypacker mansion is open for tours. Food vendor onsite. Hours: Sat. 10- 5; Sun. 10-4. Free to the public. Reenactment units: Fee $2/person before May 1, $10/person after. Free straw, firewood, water and cake. For Information: 610-287-9349 or www.ppmcivilwar.org.

June 6-7, Virginia. 23rd Annual Reenactment – The Action at Wilson’s Wharf

Fort Pocahontas was the site of the May 24, 1864 Action in which United States Colored Troops defended the fort they built against an assault by Fitzhugh Lee’s Confederate Cavalry. Open to the public 10-4 Saturday and 10-3 Sunday: $10/adults, $8/students. Battle reenactments 1 p.m. both days; Civil War living history including family activities. For reenactors: shaded campsites on the James River, Friday officers’ social, Saturday buffet dinner provided, evening dance and artillery fire. Discounted early registration by May 29. For more info visit www.fortpocahontas.org.

July 6-10, Virginia. Civil War Camp Days

We hope that you will accept our invitation to advertise in the 26th annual July Gettysburg section of the Civil War News. This year we are printing 12,000 copies of the Gettysburg Edition, in full color, which will be mailed to Civil War News subscribers but also delivered to shops, lodging, restaurants, historic homes, Civil War dealers, auction houses, libraries, battlefield parks, and museums for free distribution in downtown Gettysburg. It will also be handed out at the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association’s 47th Annual Civil War Show June 2728 and at the 157th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg with Battle Reenactments, Artillery and Cavalry Demonstrations, Living History Programs, Tours of the Restored House & Barn,

In addition to the Gettysburg Edition being free to the public in shops, restaurants, and other businesses in downtown Gettysburg. It will be available for free viewing online at CivilWarNews.com which has over 300,000 visitors per year. The online version will have clickable hyperlinks which will automatically redirect the reader to the advertiser’s website. The July issue will also be posted on the Civil War News Facebook page which has almost 75,000 likes.

Please contact us at 800-7771862 or email ads@civilwarnews. com for questions, a copy of our rate sheet which includes the pricing and ad size specs for this special issue, or to reserve your ad space. Deadline is May 20th for ad reservation and May 31st for materials deadline.

If you choose not to participate, but are located in Gettysburg, and would like copies of the Gettysburg section to distribute, please contact me and I will make certain that you receive a box. We look forward to hearing from you!

Enroll your little history buff in an economical, educational, and exciting hands-on learning opportunity in the Day Camp at the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. Open to boys and girls ages 7-12. Each day will focus on a different theme. All the while teaching your kids what life was like for Confederate and Union soldiers, VMI Cadets and civilians on the home front. Play games, eat the food and drill as they did. Walk in history’s footsteps at the Civil War Day Camp. $80 for the full week. For more information or registration; 866-515-1864.

June 27-28, Pennsylvania. Civil War Show

Sat. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Eisenhower Hotel & Conference Center Allstar Expo Complex, 2638 Emmitsburg Road, Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association’s Artifact and Collector’s Show features more than 200 vendors and over 300 tables of artifacts, swords, firearms, correspondence, books, photographs, documents and much more. Daily admission: Adults: $8. Children 12 and under free. Vendors contact: bsynnamon@gmail.com or call 717-334-2350. For more information visit www.uniondb.com or www.gbpa.org. Email: info@gbpa.org.

July 4-5, Pennsylvania. Reenactment

The 2020 reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg will be hosted by the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association and will be held at the Daniel Lady Farm. For updates visit https://www.gbpa.org/news/gbpas-daniel-lady-farm-host2020-battle-gettysburg.

July 20-24, Virginia. Civil War Camp Days

Enroll your little history buff in an economical, educational, and exciting hands-on learning opportunity in the Day Camp at the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. Open to boys and girls ages 7-12. Each day will focus on a different theme. All the while teaching your kids what life was like for Confederate and Union soldiers, VMI Cadets and civilians on the home front. Play games, eat the food and drill as they did. Walk in history’s footsteps at the Civil War Day Camp. $80 for the full week. For more information or registration; 866-515-1864.

July 22-26, Georgia. Gateway to the Deep South: Chickamauga & Chattanooga

Featuring tour guide & leading authority David Powell with special guest Eric Wittenberg as we visit Bridgeport and Stevenson, AL; LaFayette, GA, Davis’s Crossroads, Chickamauga, Reed’s Bridge, Jay’s Mill, Brock Field, Kelly Field, Brotherton Field, Horseshoe Ridge, Lookout Mountain, National Cemetery, Orchard Knob, Ringgold & more! Based in Ringgold, GA. More details www.CivilWarSeminars.org or call 717-264-7101.

July 25-26, Tennessee. Civil War Show and Sale

American Digger® Magazine’s Chattanooga Civil War & Artifact Show, Camp Jordan Arena, 323 Camp Jordan Pkwy., East Ridge, Tenn. Info: 770-362-8671 or 716-574-0465; email anita@americandigger.com or kesmas@ localnet.com.

1. William Barksdale

2. Daniel Butterfield

3. Bennett Farm

4. Belmont

5. Brooke

6. Bull Run

7. John Brown

8. Bormann time fuse

9. Bonnie Blue Flag

10. Big Bethel

“The best little book on Barnard”

The American Civil War was the rst war in which both sides widely used entrenchments, repeating ri es, ironclad warships, and telegraphed communications. It was also the rst American War to be extensively photographed. Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and Timothy O’Sullivan are famous for having made iconic photographs in the Civil War’s eastern theater. George N. Barnard deserves to be ranked in this top tier for his photographic work in the war’s western theater. A civilian photographer hired by Gen. William T. Sherman’s chief engineer to take pictures of forti cations around Atlanta, Barnard took several hundred of them in and around the city in the fall of 1864. His most famous is the site of Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s death in the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864. Thus far, no comprehensive, de nitive listing has been made of the photographer’s work. For this book we have chosen a hundred images we deem “signi cant.”

Ordering info: $19.95 plus $3.50 s&h South Carolina residents add 9% sales tax

Mail a check to: Historical Publications LLC 520 Folly Road, Suite 25 PMB 379 Charleston, SC 29412

or Order online at www.historicalpubs.com

128 page Paperb ac k: $19.95 (+$3.50 S & H)

& Digital

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