The North-South Skirmish Association (N-SSA) held its 147th National Competition May 17 through 21, 2023. Member units competed in livefire matches with original or authentic reproduction Civil War period muskets, carbines, breech-loading rifles, revolvers, mortars, and cannon. It is the largest Civil War event of its kind in the country and attracts not only spectators but Civil War enthusiasts and shooting sports media coverage.
The only bittersweet occurrence at this sun-drenched national was the retirement of longtime executive secretary, Judy Stoneburner. This past winter, health issues plagued Judy who has served the association in this key role for 13 years. A native Virginian, she joined the N-SSA in 1994 and continues to be a member of Mosby’s Rangers. Judy was also the first woman to be the director of a national skirmish. In her own words, she lists her top three duties as “always take care of the members’ needs,
represent the association in a positive and professional manner, and strive for excellence in all of her assigned duties.” Judy was the hub of the organization and will be greatly missed.
It was a big weekend for one of the N-SSA’s founding units, the Washington Blue Rifles. They won medals in five of the seven small arms team matches. They won the musket team match with a time of 514.9 seconds for the five-event program finishing 48.5 seconds ahead of the second place team. One hundred fiftyfive teams participated in this N-SSA signature competition. The 2nd Maryland Artillery (CSA) triumphed in the carbine team match over 121 other sundrenched teams. The Nansemond Guards won the smoothbore musket match, defeating 123 other four-member teams. The Iredell Blues bested 63 other teams to win the fourevent revolver team match by a whopping 77.6 seconds. The
Washington Blue Rifles scored another gold medal in the single shot rifle match, the 1st Maryland Cavalry (CSA) won the Spencer class match and the 2nd Maryland Artillery (CSA) won the breechloading rifle match.
The cannon matches on Saturday afternoon opened with a special tribute to Charles W.
“Charlie” Smithgall. Charlie was one of America’s most renowned collectors of artillery pieces and equipage from the 18th century to modern times. He established The Smithgall Foundation, a 501c3 dedicated to the preservation of
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Asheville Gun & Knife Show
WNC Ag Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Road Fletcher, NC
Oct. 7 & 8, 2023
Myrtle Beach Gun & Knife Show
Myrtle Beach Convention Center 2101 North Oak Street Myrtle Beach, SC 29579
Nov. 4 & 5, 2023
Charleston Gun & Knife Show
Exchange Park Fairgrounds 9850 Highway 78 Ladson, SC 29456
Nov. 25 & 26, 2023
artillery and military antiques. Charlie was a past commander of the N-SSA and frequently wowed members and spectators with the amazing range of guns that he brought to the nationals, including a 30-pounder Parrott rifle that shook the ground when fired. Artillerist Tim Scanlan delivered a stirring eulogy, after which a massive 21-gun salute was fired, followed by a duo of buglers playing “Taps” before the matches began. Charlie leaves behind a great legacy.
Forty-four guns participated in the artillery team matches. The range is reconfigured so that the cannon fire perpendicular to the small arms firing line, and the guns are classified by type: smoothbore, rifled, howitzer, and rifled howitzer. Target frames with paper targets mounted on drywall backers are set at a range of 200 yards for rifled and smoothbore guns and 100 yards for howitzers. Rifled cannon and smoothbore guns fire 12 solid projectiles, with a maximum of seven shots at either of two targets: a bull’s eye and a silhouette of a cannon facing them that represents counter battery fire. The best five shots on each target count for a maximum of 25 points per target, with a perfect score being 50-5V. Howitzers each fire a maximum of 12 projectiles at their single bullseye target, with the 10 best shots counted and a perfect score being 50-10V. In the Smoothbore class, the 1st Virginia Cavalry (gun #1) was the winner with 47-3V. In the Rifled class, the 1st Valley Rangers won with a perfect score of 50-5V. This highly competitive group of 27 had five guns score 50 or better. In the Howitzer class, Hardaway’s Alabama Battery (Baldwin gun) won, shooting an impressive 504V. The 1st Maryland
the Rifled Howitzer class, scoring a terrific 49-5V. Civil War cannon accuracy is truly amazing
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and N-SSA artillerists know how to get the most out of them.
Forty-nine units participated in the Mortar Team match. The mortar teams fire seven shots at a stake 100 yards down range. Officials then carefully measure the distance from the stake and tally the best five shots for score. The overall winner was the Cockade Rifles with a terrific five shot aggregate score of 25 feet-6 inches. This is a particularly fun match to watch because with the mortars’ low muzzle velocity, you can actually see the flight of the projectile.
The N-SSA is the country’s oldest and largest Civil War shooting sports organization with 3,000 individuals that make up its 200 member units. Each portrays a particular unit or regiment and proudly wears a uniform representative of the one they wore over 160 years ago. At the 147th National, 16 members were recognized for 50 years and six for 60 years of membership in the Association: quite an accomplishment. The National Rifle Association award for the top Young Skirmisher (under 19 years of age) went to Emilee Walsh, 2nd Maryland Artillery (CSA), with an aggregate musket and carbine score of 148-0X and the Senior Skirmisher (over 65) award went to Gary Bowling, Nansemond Guards, with a 177-3X.
The 148th National Competition is scheduled for Oct. 6-8, 2023 at Fort Shenandoah, just north of Winchester, Va. For more information about the N-SSA, visit the web site at www.n-ssa.org.
As Fred Bane of the 1st Regiment Virginia Volunteers fires Lars Curley's 24-pounder bronze mortar, you can see the projectile emerging from the burst of fire and smoke. This reproduction gun was very accurately made in 1988 by Paulson Brothers Ordnance Corporation, Clear Lake, WI. (Niki Bethke)
Left: Two mortar crews with Hardaway's Alabama Battery fire simultaneously. Mortar matches are spectator favorites, because you can follow the ballistic path of the projectiles as they arc through the air toward the stake down range. (Ericka Curley)
Top right: Duncan Bartley, Jack Boyenton, and Rob West of the 1st Regiment Virginia Volunteers load their smoothbore muskets and fire at clay pigeons on a cardboard backer at a distance of 25 yards. One hundred twenty-three fourperson teams participated in the popular smoothbore musket competition, clearing targets at 25 and 50 yards. (Ericka Curley)
Left: Two members of the 9th Virginia Cavalry load and aim their rifle muskets at 32 clay pigeons on a cardboard backer, the first event of the musket match. The eightperson musket teams compete to break all of the clay pigeons in the least amount of time. (Ericka Curley)
Right: Retiring N-SSA Executive Secretary Judy Stoneburner handled any assignment that came her way. Here, she instructs a reporter at a recent media event on the firing of a Smith carbine. (Bruce W. Miller)
Skirmishers of all ages enjoy shooting in the N-SSA competitions. These two are competing in the rifle musket match along with 155 other eightperson teams. (Ericka
It takes only a fraction of a second for an artillery piece to fully fire once the friction primer is pulled, demonstrated by the position of the lanyard as Hardaway's Alabama Battery fires Jeffery Baldwin's Tredegar 12-pounder field howitzer. Hardaway's won first place in the howitzer class with this gun.
The Battle of Perryville, Ky., was fought October 8, 1862. This was the largest Civil War battle in Kentucky. While some claim the battle was a tactical win for the South, the fight was definitely a strategic defeat for the Confederacy. The result of the Battle of Perryville was that the Confederate Army, left Kentucky never to return in strength.
Only 24 hours before the Battle of Perryville it looked as if the Blue Grass State was firmly anchored in the Confederacy. Kentucky’s capital city, Frankfort, had been captured and occupied by the Rebels. Richard Hawes Jr, had been inaugurated Confederate governor of Kentucky on the steps of the State Capitol. Confederate officials across the Commonwealth were sworn in to fill state, county, and city offices. John H. Reagan, the Postmaster General of the Confederacy, started organizing routes to provide mail service to the Commonwealth’s citizens.
Within 72 hours following the Battle of Perryville everything the Confederacy had achieved in Kentucky during the previous four weeks was nullified. Federal state government returned and Confederate flags were pulled down within all of Kentucky’s major cities to be replaced by United States stars and stripes.
farm encompasses 311 acres, all covered by an American Battlefield Trust protective easement. The circa 1845 six room farm house is located on the farm, along with five barns that at one time housed tobacco or animals, and some other period farm outbuildings. The Goodknight Family/Confederate Military Cemetery and the site of the Goodknight Confederate field hospital are within the farm boundary. Over a mile of Chaplin River bank and part of the Doctors Fork stream bank, five farm ponds, wood lots, and pastures rich with native grasses, are broken up by thousands of feet of historical dry-stone fencing. The farm also houses vintage farm tractors and equipment, and
various agricultural mechanical tools.
Gen. Braxton Bragg sent units of the Army of Mississippi across this farm. Leading the attack over the farm was Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham’s Tennessee Division. Cheatham’s Division consisted of the three brigades under Brig. Generals Daniel S. Donelson, Alexander P. Stewart, and George Early Maney. These units suffered some 276 killed and 764 wounded.
The farm during the Perryville Campaign saw both Confederate and Federal troop movements before the battle, fighting the day of battle, and afterward. Following the battle, Federal troops camped on the farm. Brigadier General Philip Sheridan's 11th Division
Headquarters was located in the Hankla-Walker House for three days after the engagement. For three months after the battle, a field hospital was located at the Goodnight House. The present owners of the farm, Scott and Ren Hankla, have found and mapped about 2,000 artifacts relating to the battle.
Scott and Ren Hankla have
put the farm up for sale. They are hoping to sell the farm as an intact whole to someone who appreciates Civil War history and has the ability to preserve the historic fabric of the farm. If you have ever wanted to own a Civil War battle site, you could do no better than purchase the Hankla Farm. The email for the Hankla Farm is hshankla@yahoo.com.
Todd Lincoln’s teenage home was nearly burned to the ground intentionally by a suspected arsonist the morning of June 16th. The home has operated as a house museum since 1977.
Located in downtown Lexington, Ky., the alarm system of the Mary Todd Lincoln House was tripped around 4 a.m. When police arrived, they found 29-year-old Santosh Sharma pouring gasoline on the structure’s back porch.
The house suffered no damage and was operating on their normal schedule later that day.
The Mary Todd Lincoln House was built as a tavern in 1803–1806. The Todd family bought the residence in the early 1830s. Mary Todd lived in the home with her family from 1832 to 1839, when she moved to Springfield, Illinois.
While living in Springfield, Mary Todd met a young attorney named Abraham Lincoln, and they married in 1842. The couple visited Lexington often.
Sharma has been charged with menacing, criminal trespassing, and attempted arson. His case has been referred to a grand jury.
Submitted by Phillip Seyfrit, Curator of the Battle of Richmond (KY) Visitors Center.
Thousands of blackpowder hobbyists and aficionados, from history buffs and re-enactors to modern hunters and competitive shooters, trust Dixie Gun Works for its expertise in all things blackpowder: guns, supplies, and accessories and parts for both reproductions and antique guns. Whether you’re just getting started or you’re a life-long devotee, everything you need is right here in the 2023 DIXIE GUN WORkS’ catalog.
In May 1865, after fighting in the Civil War had mostly ended, there was a parade in Washington, D.C., featuring all the Union heroes. Ulysses S Grant was there and so were George Meade and William T. Sherman. Missing however was George Thomas of the Army of the Cumberland. The so-called “Rock of Chickamauga,” who had also later demolished John Bell Hood’s forces near Nashville in 1864, Thomas as much as anyone, deserved to be there.
George Thomas grew up in Tidewater Virginia on a plantation in Southampton County just above the North Carolina border. He went to West Point and graduated in 1840. His room mates were William T. Sherman and Stewart Van Vliet. His first assignment was with an artillery crew at Fort Lauderdale, during the 1840’s Seminole Wars. Just before the Mexican War in 1845,
his troops were ordered to Texas. His artillery units served with distinction and Thomas received steady promotions during the Mexican War.
In 1851, based partially on a recommendation from Braxton Bragg, he returned to West Point when Robert E. Lee was Superintendent at the Academy. Thomas was assigned as a cavalry and artillery instructor. The story goes that there was concern about the endurance capabilities of the Academy’s elderly horses. Thomas knew the tendency of cadets was to overwork the horses during cavalry drills. To prevent this he insisted on performing at a pace known as “the slow trot.” Hence, he became known by the unfortunate nickname ”Slow Trot Thomas.” Certainly not slow at everything, while at West Point, George Thomas met his future bride, Frances Kellogg from Troy, New York, and was married in 1852.
In late 1860, Thomas requested
a leave of absence from the from the Army. While traveling to Virginia, he fell off a train platform severely injuring his back. When the Civil War started, Thomas opted to remain with the United States Army. His wife being a New York native probably helped influence the decision. His wife Frances later noted that “whichever way he turned the matter over in his mind, his oath of allegiance to the Government always came uppermost.” In response, his family turned his picture against the wall, destroyed his letters, and never spoke to him again.
While Thomas is often
mentioned for being a Virginian who fought for the Union, there were other Southerners who
remained in the US military as well. Besides George Thomas the list includes Admiral David
Farragut, Winfield Scott, John Gibbon, Edmund Davis, and William R Terrill. Nevertheless, when Thomas stayed in the Union Army his true loyalties were questioned and he was always regarded with some degree of suspicion. These concerns obviously proved baseless once the actual fighting got started.
After the Battle of First Manassas, all of Thomas’s assignments were in the Western Theater. In January 1862 he defeated Crittenden and Zollicofer at Mill Springs in Eastern Kentucky. Though not a huge victory, it was an early Union success that turned Confederate forces back into Tennessee.
Arriving after the fighting ended at Shiloh, Thomas successfully led forces at the Siege of Corinth. After Perryville, he was passed over for command in favor of Rosecrans. Although resentful, Thomas successfully held the center of Rosecrans forces at Stones River famously remarking “this army does not retreat.”
Perhaps his greatest moment came at Chickamauga in September 1863. Thomas once again held a desperate position against General Bragg’s onslaught while the Union line on his right collapsed. Thomas rallied broken and scattered units together on Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a significant Union defeat from becoming a hopeless rout while Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga. After the battle he became widely known by a new nickname: ”The Rock of Chickamauga,” for his determination to hold that vital position against continued attacks.
After Chickamauga, Rosecrans was fired and Thomas appointed to command the Army of the Cumberland during the Battles for Chattanooga in November 1863. Missionary Ridge was a stunning Union victory highlighted by Thomas’s troops taking Lookout Mountain on the right and then storming the Confederate line on Missionary Ridge the next day. Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana, an eyewitness, called the assault “one of the greatest miracles in military history....as awful as a visible interposition of God.”
Grant for his part, perhaps relying on old grudges from many years past considered George Thomas a defensive general who was slow to attack. Author Bruce Catton noted that Thomas ”comes down in history...as the great defensive fighter, the man who could never be driven away but who was not much on the offensive. That may be a correct appraisal. Yet it may
also be worth making note that just twice in all the war was a major Confederate army driven away from a prepared position in complete rout—at Chattanooga and at Nashville. Each time the blow that finally routed it was launched by (George) Thomas.” While strangely unappreciated in his time, George Thomas was always well prepared, and is now highly regarded among military historians for understanding the role of logistical support in achieving success on the battlefield.
Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from UNC (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). He has also published four books in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports
At Fredericksburg, South Carolinians battled on both ends of the Confederate line. While Brig. Gen. Maxy Gregg’s South Carolina regiments endured a brief Federal breakthrough at Prospect Hill and lost Gen. Gregg to a mortal wound, Brig. Gen. Joseph Kershaw’s Palmetto State regiments fought on the opposite end of the long defensive line at Marye’s Heights.
Joseph Kershaw, a lawyer
and Mexican War veteran who served in the South Carolina secession convention, started the war as colonel of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry. He received a promotion to brigadier general in February 1862. At the time of Fredericksburg, most of Kershaw’s brigade were experienced fighters, some having participated in actions as early as First Manassas. The brigade comprised the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, and 8th South Carolina Infantry regiments. The 15th South Carolina Infantry and the 3rd South Carolina Battalion joined the brigade in midNovember 1862.
Just before the Battle of Fredericksburg, Kershaw’s Brigade occupied a position in the center of Gen. Lafayette McLaws’ Division. Kershaw’s line stretched from just south of “Braehead,” the Howison family house on Howison Hill, to Hazel Run and the nearby unfinished railroad bed. On December 11 and 12, the newly joined 15th South Carolina served as the brigade’s
pickets, helping monitor Federal activity around the lower pontoon bridge crossing. The regiment returned to their position in line
“after a night of such intense cold as to cause the death of one man and disable, temporarily, others.”
Kershaw noted the brigade’s other regiments worked “strengthening our defenses nightly without any incident requiring notice until Saturday, the 13th.”
About 1 p.m. December 13, Kershaw received orders from McLaws to send two regiments to Marye’s Heights to bolster Brig. Gen. Thomas R.R. Cobb’s brigade in the Sunken Road. Kershaw immediately sent the 2nd and 8th South Carolina; his other regiments were soon ordered to follow. The 3rd South Carolina Battalion was assigned to guard the Howison Mill location along Hazel Run to protect “a gap in the [unfinished] railroad embankment, and prevent its passage by the enemy.”
and 8th South Carolina appeared. Those two regiments took position in the Sunken Road. Writing to his wife several days after the battle to let her know that he was all right, the 2nd South Carolina’s 1st Sgt. Alexander McNeill noted, “Our Brigade occupied a conspicuous place in the engagement, and for the honor of Carolina, I am glad to say that her sons fought as valiantly as ever men did.” McNeill’s company had seven wounded. “I am at a loss to know how we came off so well, and I can but render thanks to an all wise and ever mercifull God for his kind protection in the hour of danger,” he penned. In total, the 2nd South Carolina lost six killed and 56 wounded in the fighting.
Joseph Kershaw began the war as the colonel of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry. Maj. Gen. Kershaw was taken prisoner at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. (Public domain)
Just after putting his brigade in motion, Kershaw learned from McLaws that Cobb was mortally wounded, and Kershaw was to “take command.” He arrived at the Stephens House at the Sunken Road about the same time the 2nd
In his official report, Capt. E.T. Stackhouse of the 8th South Carolina commented that after they occupied the Sunken Road, he received permission from Kershaw to “form my command in four ranks.” Such depth probably helped keep the Federals at a distance. In fact,
Stackhouse reported that evening “the enemy attempted several times to advance on our position, but succeeded only in reaching a defile 200 yards in front, which concealed them from view from our position.” Stackhouse reported that the 8th lost two killed and 29 wounded; 28 of the casualties occurred while moving to the Sunken Road.
Moving to the left along Marye’s Heights, the 15th South Carolina came up behind the Marye House. They soon received orders to shift back to the right, behind the Willis Hill cemetery and support the Washington Artillery of New Orleans. Later, during the evening, the 15th South Carolina moved down into the Sunken Road to support the 2nd South Carolina. The 15th South Carolina lost one killed and 52 wounded.
The 3rd South Carolina received further orders to support troops on the north side of “Brompton,” the Marye house. Urged to hurry, Col. James Nance reported that he led forward several companies already formed. On the hill’s crest, they were exposed to Federal infantry and artillery, and Nance noted that “a severe fire was opened upon us.” The regiment’s other companies soon came up in support and also suffered heavy casualties.
As Colonel Nance moved along the line, he was hit in the left thigh. He remained as long as he could, but the regiment’s officers were falling in quick succession.
Capt. John K.G. Nance, also submitted a report because he led the regiment at the end of the battle, noted Lt. Col. William Rutherford “fell shot through the side, and not long afterward Maj. Robert C. Maffett was disabled with a ball through his arm. Here, too, Capt. Rutherford P. Todd, who was acting as field officer, was disabled by a ball [piercing]
an artery of the right arm.”
Captains William Hance, shot in the leg, and John C. Summer, “killed by a grape-shot through the head,” also went down. The chain of command devolved through at least seven officers in the regiment during the fighting.
Capt. John K.G. Nance was wounded, too, but remained on the field.
Private Taliaferro “Tally”
Simpson wrote his aunt five days after the battle explaining, “I was in the hottest part of the fight and was slightly wounded in the shoulder.” Tally also penned that “Our company suffered severely.
Our gallant Capt [William Hance]
I fear is mortally wounded. His leg has been amputated near the body. Thirty-three of forty-two who were carried into action were killed or wounded.” Noting the fury of the fight, Tally wrote, “The men fell on all sides. The balls came thick as hail, and it is wonderful that every man was not either killed or wounded.”
Suffering disproportionate casualties, the 3rd South Carolina lost 25 killed and 138 wounded. As demonstrated above, casualties among the regiment’s officers were particularly heavy. One officer killed was 25-yearold Capt. Lewis Perrin Foster. Capt. Foster wrote his last letter home three days before the battle. In it, he stated, “Everything here is quiet. I am quite well. All my company well.” How quickly things can change in a time of war.
of CVBT is to preserve land associated with the four major campaigns of: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Mine Run,
and the Overland Campaign, including the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. To learn more about this grassroots
preservation non-profit, which has saved over 1,700 acres of hallowed ground, please visit: www.cvbt.org
Alongside local nonprofits and private citizens, the American Battlefield Trust filed a legal challenge in Orange County, Va., against a mega-development proposal this spring. At 2,600 acres, the largest rezoning in county history, the “Wilderness Crossing” proposal would blanket a historic landscape with residential, commercial, and industrial development, including distribution warehouses and data centers. Filed in Orange County Circuit Court, the challenge identified a host of substantive and procedural flaws with the development project and the County’s approval, requiring its invalidation.
Despite overwhelming opposition expressed during the public hearing, the project was voted on and approved the same evening it first appeared on the Board’s agenda. Altogether, the project could result in up to 5,000 residential units, more than 800 acres of commercial and industrial development, and as much as 750 acres of potential data centers and distribution warehouses.
The plan approved by the Board of Supervisors also differed significantly from what had been advanced by the Planning Commission earlier this year. Major changes were submitted during the hearing, which took place at the earliest possible time after the Planning Commission’s action. Freedom of information failings, including a lack of proper notice of Board meetings and a refusal to disclose materials bearing on the rezoning, are amongst the legal flaws in the rezoning approval process. Furthermore, the challenge also identified failures to provide sufficient analysis on several issues, ranging from noise pollution and water quality degradation to traffic impact.
The Trust is joined by the nonprofit Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, Inc. and Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, Inc. in filing the challenge—all three organizations own or steward historic properties in immediate proximity to the rezoned land or stand to suffer significant impacts from the proposed development. Private citizens whose homes are adjacent to the site and face catastrophic consequences also joined as plaintiffs.
To learn more or stay up to date with these developments, please visit www.battlefields.org/ wilderness-crossing.
The Trust has launched a new campaign that will help restore land at six different battlefields— at Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, Fredericksburg’s Slaughter Pen Farm, Lookout Mountain, and New Market Heights. The six battlefield tracts have already been saved from bulldozers, commercial developers, billiondollar tech companies thanks to generous donor and partner
support, but these properties present a special opportunity to restore the land to its wartime appearance before they are transferred to our nonprofit or government partners.
In total, the restoration projects will cost $287,000. With no federal or state matching funds available, every penny counts in our efforts to restore these battlefields.
At Gettysburg, the Trust seeks to tear down the former MacDuffer’s Adventure Mini Golf Park that currently obstructs the view of the battlefield. For an estimated $50,000, concrete, water pumps, and underground pipes will be removed and replaced with grass and native trees. Additionally, the historic James Thompson House across the road from General Lee’s Headquarters would receive overdue repairs and repainting, estimated to come in at $35,000. At Cold Harbor and Lookout Mountain, restoration projects include demolishing non-historic structures, removing trash and debris, and restoring the sites for incorporation into their respective battlefield landscapes.
Especially urgent, at New Market Heights, known for the 1864 Union victory where 14 Black soldiers earned the Medal of Honor, the Trust is facing a late October deadline to remove a 1970s house and restore the land to its wartime conditions. Here, the project is estimated to cost approximately $42,000.
At Slaughter Pen Farm, the Trust recently paid off the hefty loan at the historic farm and now aims to complete restoration of this hallowed ground. Here, a post-war farmhouse will be demolished thanks to the generosity of a former property owner’s relative. After the house is removed, the Trust will remove electric poles and some anachronistic fencing, as well as landscape the area. Following these actions, this land will function as the start of a trailhead with interpretive signs.
To learn more about this restoration campaign, visit www. battlefields.org/restoration2023.
For more than 20 years, the American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) has remained a cornerstone of the Trust’s efforts to preserve our nation’s hallowed grounds. The program, managed by the National Park Service (NPS), is the administrative body overseeing federal matching grants for the planning, acquisition, restoration, and interpretation of battlefields.
Over the past two decades, ABPP battlefield land acquisition grants have aided in preserving more than 35,000 acres across 21
states at places like Gettysburg, Antietam, Princeton, and Vicksburg.
The American Battlefield Protection Program Enhancement Act (HR3448), introduced by Representatives Elise Stefanik and Gerry Connolly, would make small but significant modifications to the program to further increase its impact. The legislation would allow nonprofits and tribes to apply directly for these grants, saving valuable time and ensuring key land acquisitions can move quickly. Additionally, the legislation would widen the scope of ABPP’s restoration grants to all NPS identified battlegrounds and ensure land acquisition grants can be used to preserve significant battlefields from our nation’s founding conflicts. Finally, it would create a mechanism for the NPS to update Congressionally authorized reports identifying key Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War battlefields when there is new research, archaeology, or studies that show a larger battlefield than originally known.
Please join us in supporting the American Battlefield Protection Program Enhancement Act at www.battlefields.org/HR3448.
During the Civil War, no other state witnessed as much fierce fighting as Virginia did. Today, thousands of acres of Virginia’s hallowed ground stand protected, but with ever-looming development threats, the Trust has launched a new campaign to save 125 acres of battlefield land in Virginia at Spotsylvania Court House, New Market, and Trevilian Station. Altogether, the cost to purchase these tracts is more than $1.4 million. Thanks to federal and Virginia state grants and the
Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation, every dollar donated will be quadrupled in value to meet our $346,000 need.
These battlefields all share an immeasurable degree of historic significance, connected to both Grant’s Overland Campaign and Sheridan’s Valley Campaign of 1864. However, they are located where land is now considered more valuable than ever—for the development of residential neighborhoods and industrial infrastructure like data centers and distribution warehouses.
At Spotsylvania Court House, the second battle of the Overland Campaign and one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on
assistance to finish the job. To learn more about this preservation opportunity and more, please visit https://www.battlefields.org/ savebattlefields.
Rebel horseman and both sides fired. The Confederates fell back into the trees. Expecting the daily experience that “the enemy would fire only one volley and then seek safety by rapid flight into the depths of the wild woods,” U.S. Col. Charles H. Harris, 11th Wisc., deployed four companies of the 11th as skirmishers and four companies of the 33rd Ill. in a battle line; the cannon was posted in reserve left of the road.
“I give captured slaves their freedom on the ground that they became captured captives and therefore subject to my disposal instead of a former captor or assignee.” – U.S. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis
At the Battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., March 7-8, 1862, U.S. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, Army of the Southwest, drove C.S. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, Army of the West, off the battlefield in a decisive victory, establishing Federal control of most of Missouri and northern Arkansas. Van Dorn agreed to join his army with C.S. Gen. P.T. Beauregard’s in Corinth, Miss. In his zeal, Van Dorn ordered all arms, ammunition, food, machinery, and stores shipped out of the district, stripping the area of all military manpower and equipment.
Following Van Dorn’s departure, Curtis was ordered to capture Little Rock, Ark. and declare himself the state’s military governor and rule by martial law. Curtis was a West Point graduate, Mexican-American War veteran, and civil engineer. The abolitionist had given up his seat in Congress to fight in the War. On the morning of March 27, Curtis was promoted to major general in a small ceremony. In the afternoon he learned his 20-year-old daughter had died of typhoid fever which she had contracted while visiting the army camps.
On May 20, having gathered sufficient forces to make the march to Little Rock, Curtis was informed that his supply chain was stretched to its limit. It was agreed to establish a waterborne supply chain. The navy’s supply vessels fought past Confederate batteries but were stopped by low water levels on the White River. Undeterred, Curtis announced if the supply boats could not come to him, “I must go to them.”
Curtis left Batesville, Ark. during the last week of June to meet the supply boats at Clarendon, Ark. For the first time
in the War, a Federal army would operate for two weeks without a supply base. In the height of summer, the men marched through the heat and foraged aggressively. According to an Arkansan, “…almost every thing which could not be eaten was destroyed.”
Curtis seized printing presses in every town the army passed through. Before the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was announced on September 22, 1862, and lacking the authority to do so, Curtis printed and issued stacks of emancipation forms. Waving “freedom papers,” over 3,000 refugee slaves left the area.
“No troops—no arms—no powder—no material of war — people everywhere eager to rise, complaints bitter,” wrote C.S. Gen. John S. Roane. Determined to drive out the invaders, Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman assembled a fighting force from nothing. Hindman ordered Gen. Albert Rust to attack James’s Ferry, six miles from Cotton Plant, Ark. He appealed to local citizens to destroy anything that could sustain the Federals. Hundreds of trees were cut to create timber blockades to give Rust time to reach the crossing first. Still, the Federals won the race.
On July 6, the Federals reached James’s Ferry where pioneers cleared the timber blockade. On July 7, the low water level meant the Federals could wade across the Cache River. Col. Charles E. Hovey, the former Illinois Normal College president, sent 400 men, including the 1st Indiana Cavalry with a 3-in. rifled cannon to scout the road ahead. Four miles south they reached a road fork in the middle of Parley Hill’s plantation. They took the southeast road to Clarendon. At Hill’s nearby home, “the command confiscated a ready cooked dinner, and also a couple of wagon loads of bacon and molasses,” and were fired upon. The Confederates trotted back to the fork to take the Des Arc Road. The Federals rushed after them, “to drive the rebels away from the army’s line of march.”
On July 7, the Battle of Cotton Plant began three-quarters of a mile from the road fork amid a swamp. The Federals approached a line of 30 or 40
Waiting in the swamp were about 1,000 cavalrymen, the advance from the force of five Texas cavalry regiments, three Arkansas infantry regiments, one Arkansas artillery battery, a total of about 5,000 men.
These inexperienced men were armed with a variety of single and double-barreled shotguns, squirrel rifles, buck and ball muskets, and “in one thing only were all armed alike, and that was with big knives.”
The surprised Federals fell back. The 12th Texas Cavalry, dismounted, and “yelling like savages and swearing like demons,” advanced. The Federals opened a steady fire with the cannon blasting as fast as could be reloaded. Hovey, at the fork in the road, galloped to find his troops wavering. Hovey grabbed a rifle and cartridge box from a wounded soldier and went to an unoccupied tree, firing
towards the enemy. Within two or three shots a spent bullet hit his chest, sending Hovey staggering from the blow. Hovey plucked the bullet out and shouted that the rebellion, “did not seem to have much force in it.” His men cheered.
When the dismounted 16th Texas Cavalry advanced thirty minutes later, the outnumbered Federals gave way. Hovey ordered a retreat. Four of the gun crew had been wounded and their cannon was stranded. “Boys, save the gun,” shouted Capt. Potter. Sgt. Edward A. Pike ran towards the Confederates. He “seized the trail and tore down the road with the cannon as if it had been a baby wagon.” Pike would earn the Medal of Honor for this act. Hovey on horseback caught up with his retreating men in Hill’s cornfield. Waving his sword he yelled, “… Are you going to run like sheep?”
He organized his men into building breastworks out of fence rails, branches, and cornstalks, and positioned others in the heavy timber. The 12th Texas Cavalry, riding four abreast, and yelling Comanche war whoops, charged the breastworks “at full speed and in great force.” The Federals rose and shot at point blank range, then frantically began reloading. Bodies soon covered the ground.
Riderless horses rushed in all directions. The remnants of the 12th led the Confederate retreat.
Two hundred men with two 3-inch rifled cannon from Col. William Wood’s battalion, 1st Ind. Cavalry, arrived. They advanced into the swamp. Spotting the Confederates, the cavalry charged. The Confederates fired a “tremendous volley” hitting the officers in the front. For twenty minutes both sides fired at close range before the Confederates began retreating. The Federals
switched from firing canister to solid shot and explosive shells. Hundreds of Texans raced each other from the field. The Arkansas infantry were surprised to see the Texans stampeding towards them, knocking some men down. The Texans vanished in a cloud of dust. The infantry followed, ending the last serious Confederate effort to prevent Federal control of the state.
Alas, Curtis missed his rendezvous with the supply vessels by a single day. Relinquishing the Little Rock operation, the army marched 45 miles to Helena, Ark., suffering with the heat, bad water, and few rations. Curtis would have the consolation of moving into Hindman’s mansion and flying a large United States flag from the roof. However, Curtis would never receive the credit he earned for his accomplishments in the field.
Sources:
• Shea, William L. “The Confederate Defeat at Cache River.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 52 (Summer 1993): 129–155
• Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997
• Way, Virgil Gilman, History of the Thirty-Third Regiment Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, 22nd August, 1861, to 7th December, 1865: The [Regimental] association, 1902
• Quiner, E. B.. The Military History of Wisconsin: Clarke & Co., 1866
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.
Gould B. Hagler, Jr.
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.
This writer admits he can not explain all the workings of the latest buzz in the tech world: ChatGPT, OpenAI, etc. However, one recently developed tool can assist Civil War researchers in locating information found within books on their shelves or at public libraries. Talpa searches sources as described on their website: https://www.talpa.ai. Developers
offered the following details on how AI can comb through books using various search phrases.
“Talpa uses AI technology in two ways: First, Talpa queries large language models from Anthropic and OpenAI for books and other media, validating every item against true and authoritative bibliographic data. Second, Talpa uses the natural-language abilities of large language models to parse and understand queries, which are then answered with
traditional library data. So, for example, a search for ‘novels about World War II in France’ taps into subjects, tags, and character data from LibraryThing.”
Take a few minutes to read the instructions on using this tool at the website mentioned above. Let us put bots to work on Major General William T. Sherman and the Atlanta Campaign!
As shown in the image at the bottom, a search using the phrase ‘General William T. Sherman supplies for the Atlanta Campaign’ netted multiple sources containing pertinent information. Developers note this tool remains in the developmental stage, so do not expect perfect results. Using various search terms, this writer has already benefited from timesavings in locating specific topics under study. Clicking on any of the sources located will not take one to the book or any particular pages within the text; instead, this AI tool simply serves as a quickfind aide for locating key words and phrases.
The Talpa tool currently connects to the Mid-Hudson Library System (NY) database, so remember to use https://www. worldcat.org to find books in a local library. Try using various search phrases with Talpa while researching the American Civil War!
Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, and instructor who remains a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at mkscdr11@gmail.com or request speaking engagements at www.civilwarhistorian. net. Follow Michael on Facebook, www.facebook.com/ michael.k.shaffer, and Twitter @ michaelkshaffer. https://www.talpa.ai.
Until now, a daily account (1,630 days) of Georgia’s social, political, economic, and military events during the Civil War did not exist. In Day by Day through the Civil War in Georgia, Michael K. Shaffer strikes a balance between the combatants while remembering the struggles of enslaved persons, folks on the home front, and merchants and clergy attempting to maintain some sense of normalcy. Maps, footnotes, a detailed index, and bibliographical references will aid those wanting more.
February 2022 • $37.00, hardback
Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, instructor, lecturer, newspaper columnist, and author. He is a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Contact the author: mkscdr11@gmail.com
Appomattox Court House
National Historical Park hosted the 158th anniversary event on April 7-12, 2023. The commemoration of General Lee’s surrender to General Grant on April 9, 1865, was a successful observation of the event that brought our country back together. More than 2,000 visitors, according to park counts, came to the multiple-day event to experience the park, exhibits, and Lee (Thomas Jessee), and Grant (Curt Fields), and soldiers who came to bring the event to life and enjoy the twenty-plus presentations by park staff. The Living History group, Lincoln’s Generals, provided most reenactors who participated in the event.
An officer’s call and nowannual dinner was held Friday evening at the Babcock House restaurant in Appomattox, a few miles from the park. Some thirty officers, soldiers, and civilians, all contributing to the anniversary observations over the weekend, came to the dinner to kick off the event in a proper spirit. Friendships were renewed across the lines as the evening’s conviviality set the tone for the weekend’s events and demonstrations.
General Sheridan (James Standard) set up a fly and encampment in the yard next to the McLean house. He and other officers and civilians entertained
visitors throughout the weekend. General Joshua Chamberlain (Ted Chamberlain) set up a tent fly on the road where arms were stacked after the surrender. Colonel Ellis Spear (Ray Lizarraga) assisted General Chamberlain. Spear had been one of Chamberlain’s students at Bowdoin College in Maine prior to the war and had raised a company for the 20th Maine regiment. Colonel Spear was sent across the Appomattox River to lead Gordon’s Brigade to the location for “stacking of the arms.” They were the first Confederates to stack arms. It was quite an honor for General Chamberlain to be designated to receive the surrender of the Confederates and equally as much an honor for Colonel Spear to be sent to lead them to where they would surrender arms and flags. The pair of officers talked to several visitors and explained the three-day process of the Confederates stacking of their arms (mainly in the rain) after General Lee surrendered.
On Saturday evening, April 8th, General Lee and General Grant, surrounded by their respective staffs, gave their presentation “Appomattox: The Last 48 Hours” on the front porch of the McLean house to an enthusiastic crowd gathered in the yard. Their presentation recounts and explains the messages exchanged between Grant and Lee from 5 p.m. April 7th to 11:50 a.m. on April 9th. The generals also describe what their respective armies were doing in the final time frame as the war ground to an end. The audience was
privileged to hear, in the generals’ own words, what happened in those last 48 hours of ‘this cruel war.’
The weather for the weekend was mostly chilly, gray, and frequently wet, just as it was in April 1865. Historically, it was wonderful because these same weather conditions were experienced by the original participants. There were more than a few shivers among the participants and the visitors. Complaints were few and goodnatured from both groups!
Several weekend activities
were held at the nearby Museum of the Confederacy. Many Confederate soldiers were encamped, and several Federal troops and an artillery unit joined them. On Thursday, April 6th, Patrick Schroeder gave an informative program at the Museum: “Final Fury and the Last to Die: The Battles of Appomattox Court House and Appomattox Station.” A special treat was the old-time service on Sunday morning by Pastor Scott Strudivant of the United States Christian Commission. The service was very well attended,
with both Grant and Lee there to enjoy the uplifting words of Pastor Strudivant.
Generals Lee and Grant visited the camps of Confederate and Federal troops and enjoyed the fellowship extended to them in both. Several ladies engaged in family life activities and rolling bandages for the troops in the cabin on the premises. The generals toured the cabin and enjoyed learning about what they were doing to keep the home in good shape while their men were away at war. Overall, the American Civil War Museum had a substantial program for the surrender anniversary and plans to have more in the future.
The plans are underway at the park for the 159th anniversary of the surrender in April 2024 and the 160th in 2025. Appomattox National Historical Park and Generals Grant and Lee certainly hope that all who are able will attend both events!
For more information about Appomattox National Historical Park and events held there yearround, contact the park at: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park 111 National Park Dr, Appomattox, VA 24522 Phone 434-352-8987
Professor Veritas would like to extend his gratitude for the assistance and photographs used in this article to Ted Chamberlain, James Standard, Ray Lizarraga, Jacqueline Terzano, and Patrick Schroeder, the Appomattox Court House National Park Historian.
“Simply put: tell the simple truth, simply.” – Professor E. Veritas
Last month’s “This and That” reviewed the Mexican War experience of an artilleryman, Thomas Jackson. This time we will have a look at the record of an officer who, like Jackson, graduated from West Point in 1846 and almost immediately went into action. Ranking second in his class, George McClellan had his pick of assignments. He chose the Corps of Engineers.
Stephen Sears’s 1988 biography of McClellan devotes the better part of a chapter to his subject’s service in the war with Mexico. Most of the following is based on Sears’s work. I also consulted the 1941 biography by H.J. Eckenrode and Bryan Conrad, which offers a more cursory look at McClellan’s role in the war.
When war erupted McClellan described his excitement in a letter to his sister. “Hip! Hip! Hurrah!” he wrote, delighted at the prospect of entering the fray and battling “musquitoes and Mexicans.” Commissioned on June 1, 1846, the brevet second lieutenant would soon face both enemies.
Lt. McClellan was one of three officers in the elite Company of Engineer Soldiers. He spent two months training recruits in the general duties of a soldier and in the ways and means of building military roads, bridges, fortifications, and other necessary edifices. The company sailed from New York in September and arrived in Texas in October 1846. The warring parties had signed a truce after Maj. Gen. Zachary Taylor’s victories in Texas and northern Mexico. McClellan’s first battles, therefore, would be fought not against Mexicans but
against disease, dysentery and malaria.* McClellan was laid up for a month, after which time the engineers worked their way south
400 miles along the coast to Tampico, preparing the road for a division of volunteers that was to take part in Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott’s amphibious landing at Veracruz.
McClellan and his company rode the waves ashore on March 9, 1847, along with the rest of Scott’s army. McClellan wrote of a shot whizzing overhead just before his landing craft was cast off. He expected to be under heavy fire as they were rowed ashore, but to his surprise that single whistle was the only one he heard: the landing was unopposed.
Once on land, the engineers, commanded by Col. Joseph Totten, got to work. McClellan
and other officers oversaw the construction of siege works used to force the surrender of Veracruz. Once, while reconnoitering beyond the lines, McClellan discovered the city’s main aqueduct, which the Americans soon cut. The daytime work was dangerous, as the enemy constantly fired at the workers and their overseers. At night the sand fleas tortured their victims as they tried to sleep.
Starting on March 24, the army’s guns and heavy ordnance borrowed from the navy bombarded the city’s defenses. The Mexicans asked for a truce the morning of the 26th and surrendered on the 27th. Soon Scott’s force moved west on
the National Road, toward the capital, 250 miles inland.
Fifty miles from the coast the U.S. forces came to Cerro Gordo, where the Mexicans, fortified in a narrow pass, blocked the highway. In his memoirs Ulysses Grant described the difficulty of attacking this position. “The road…zigzags around the mountain-side and was defended at every turn by artillery. On each side were deep chasms or mountain walls. A direct attack along the road was an impossibility. A flank movement seemed equally impossible.”
A way around had to be found. McClellan was on a detail, under Capt. Robert E. Lee, charged
with the task of blazing a trail through the rough terrain. The route was difficult, but a path was made. A force of infantry and artillery reached a position for assaulting the Mexican left. However, when this flank attack was made, McClellan was at the other end of the line, with four regiments of volunteers under Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow, who had been ordered to make a diversionary attack on the Mexican right. Pillow’s attack was botched, but the main attack by two divisions forced a hasty and disorganized retreat. In his diary McClellan lambasted the inept “parcel of volunteers” and their commander, who displayed
“worse than puerile imbecility.”
After Cerro Gordo the army paused at Puebla. Many volunteers went home when their enlistments expired, so Scott had to wait for fresh troops. McClellan used the down time to study the earlier invasion of Mexico by Cortés. Soon he would continue along the route trod by the conquistadors. Starting in early August, the army headed west, severing communications with Veracruz and living off the land.
Engineer McClellan became an artilleryman pro tem during the Battle of Contreras on August 19. The American troops trudged through the Pedregal lava field,
following a rough path hastily made by the engineers and hundreds of laboring soldiers. As they approached the western end of this horrid landscape (described by Eckenrode and Conrad as “a plain of fire frozen into rock”), the troops were met by artillery fire from a fortified position. Pillow ordered two batteries moved into position to return fire. This order was conveyed by McClellan, who soon found himself in the midst of a lopsided artillery duel. As the Mexican guns took a terrible toll on the outgunned American batteries, Lt. McClellan assumed command of some guns when their officers were seriously wounded. He lost two mounts to enemy fire and was himself hit, but he suffered no serious injury and remained in action.
The following morning American infantry flanked the Mexicans again, forcing another withdrawal. Here, at Churubusco, McClellan was again in action, taking part in an assault which drove the Mexican forces back. For his bravery and leadership, McClellan earned words of praise in the official report and a promotion.
Next came the climactic attack on Chapultepec, the lofty fort protecting two causeways into Mexico City. At Chapultepec the temporary artillery commander went back to engineering, a job not necessarily less dangerous than artillery. On the night of Sept. 11 McClellan and the men he trained, under the direction of Capt. Robert E. Lee, laid out two batteries of siege guns. The following day, while under enemy fire, the engineers placed two more heavy batteries.
After a 14-hour bombardment the infantry assaulted and captured the castle. The American troops pursued the retreating Mexicans toward the city.
According to Sears, “McClellan and the engineer troops took the lead in the house-to-house fighting, breaking through the common walls with pickaxes” as they fought their way along the causeway. American forces took the city gates. The defenders evacuated the city on Sept. 14.
After the American victory at Mexico City the fighting ended under the terms of a truce, which lasted until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. During the eightmonth occupation of the capital McClellan served as his company’s quartermaster. He enjoyed very comfortable quarters in a fine home owned by a highranking Mexican officer. During his off-duty hours he attended the opera, went sightseeing and
In addition to McClellan’s actions in the preparation for and during the fighting, some details not directly related to the battles may be of interest to the reader.
One episode discussed by Sears is McClellan’s disappointment in not being ranked first in his class. To most people, I think, being number two at the United States Military Academy would be a source of great satisfaction. One would expect the secondplace man to offer the top man a sincere and comradely congratulations and keep any disappointment to himself. McClellan, however, thought he was the best and wrote to his family that he had “malice enough to want to show them that if I did not graduate at the head of my class, I can nevertheless do something.”
McClellan showed no more aplomb when he was not promoted early in the war. He had asked his influential father to help him get a captaincy in one of the newly-authorized regiments of regulars. He lost out, and in a letter to his father displayed a fierce resentment, blasting a government so foolish as to be blind to his merit. He started at the top with Pres. Polk and then attacked the new regimental commanders, “deficients of the Mil. Academy, friends of politicians, & bar room blaguards.”
Like most regular officers, McClellan had little regard for volunteer troops, political generals and the politicians back home who managed (or mismanaged) the war. Unlike most others, however, Bvt. Capt. McClellan, a month short of his 21st birthday, gave his U.S. senator the benefit of his views. In an intemperate letter, he expressed disgust at a government that passed over professionally trained officers in favor of men taken from “county courthouses, & low village bar rooms.”
One episode in Sears’s biography especially caught my attention. In his final year at the Military Academy the cadet happened to encounter an acquaintance of his father’s. The man called the 19-year-old cadet by his first name, causing great offense. In a letter home, the indignant son informed his mother that he had made it very clear to the man that, to him, he was not “George,” but “Mr. McClellan.”
had a romance with a señorita. He also visited the Aztec Club, a place where he would “meet none but gentlemen,” he assured his mother in a letter.
Like most of the young American officers in the Mexican War, McClellan performed well. In Sears’s assessment McClellan’s “personal courage had been amply demonstrated. In the Vera Cruz siege and at Cerrro Gordo and the battles for Mexico City he had done his duty and more, often under severe enemy fire; Chapultepec, in fact, would earn him a second brevet promotion, to captain.”
However, McClellan was aware that his role as a junior officer in this affair was a minor one. He was somewhat embarrassed by the attention he received upon his return to Philadelphia, where prominent citizens made a fuss and presented him with a ceremonial sword. McClellan wrote that “it actually causes a kind of feeling of shame to rise in me this being rewarded for doing a subaltern’s duty in such a small business.”
In June 1848 Capt. McClellan left the señorita, the Aztec
WALK THE BATTLEFIELDS of history with historical experts who bring the military, human and social stories to life! This summer’s schedule is full of engaging tours, talks and more hosted by the American Battlefield Trust and our partner organizations. Share your interest in history with people who share your passion! Events are geared toward novices and experts alike. We’ll see you on the battlefield!
JUNE 2 TO AUGUST 25
General Lee’s Gettysburg Headquarters Open House
Every Friday and select weekends, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Gettysburg, PA
JUNE 3
Cold Harbor Battle Anniversary Tour
Cold Harbor Visitor Center Mechanicsville, VA
JUNE 17
Park Day at Bulltown Camp 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Napier, VA
JUNE 30
Generations Event General Lee’s Headquarters Gettysburg, PA
Club and Mexico, and with the Company of Engineer Soldiers headed for West Point. He remained in the army for nearly a decade. He resigned in 1857 to go into the railroad business. In this field McClellan proved to be a highly capable executive. He missed the army however, and longed for a more exciting career. He would have his chance beginning in April 1861.
* The malaria parasite was transmitted by the “musquitoes” that McClellan had mentioned in the letter to his sister, but this fact was not known at the time.
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 of 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. His email is gould.hagler@gmail.com.
Publishers: send book(s) for review to: Civil War News
2800 Scenic Drive, Suite 4 PMB 304 Blue Ridge, GA 30513
www.battlefields.org/events.
JULY 22
Buffington Island Memorial Service
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Portland, OH
JULY 24–26
Virtual Teacher Institute
Daily, 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. ET
AUGUST 5–6
260th Battle of Bushy Run Reenactment Jeannette, PA
The Graphic War highlights prints and printmakers from the Civil War discussing their meaning and the printmaker or artist’s goals.
Englishman Captain John Smith noted it in 1608. He tagged it a “great red bank of clay” where, twenty-five years later, Lord Baltimore established his namesake colony with 140 hardy fellow travelers. Prior to the
Revolution, the site served as a meeting ground and was viewed by all as a point of civic pride. According to one source, the site also supported a paint pigment mining operation.1
Maryland’s 1788 ratification of the Federal Constitution gave the hill its official name as a grand celebratory parade featuring 4,000 citizens, terminated at the site. Local merchants, to commemorate the moment, built a 15-foot ship called the “Federalist” that was pulled
through the streets on a horse drawn cart.
During the 19th century, “Baltimore merchants built a tower to watch for ships from Europe and Asia—an important feature of Baltimore’s mercantile heritage. Serving as a defensive stronghold during the War of 1812 and the Civil War, Federal Hill provided a panoramic view of Baltimore that lent itself well as a military outpost.”2 Over the years, the hill underwent several renovations, improvements, and
expansions. Those modifications were captured by Baltimore lithographer Edward Sachse and are pictured in figure 1.
Maryland entered the Civil War era as a much-divided border state. On April 19, Massachusetts troops passing through were attacked, provoking a city-wide riot. Nearly a month later, on the night of May 12, General Benjamin Butler “used a thousand men and a battery to occupy Federal Hill commanding the city, and seize some arms about to be shipped south. The movement was dramatically executed in thick darkness, amid a violent thunderstorm, the lightning gleaming on fixed bayonets.”3 Butler’s mission was “to insure the allegiance of the city and the state of Maryland to the Federal Government under threat of force.”4
Two months later, Colonel Abram Duryee’s Zouaves (Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry) replaced Butler and his troops. Duryee’s second in command Lieutenant Colonel Gouverneur Warren, proposed a more robust stronghold on Federal Hill. When Duryee was promoted
and reassigned, Warren now in command, implemented his plans. His troops “constructed a massive earthworks around the fort site. By the end of October, 42 guns were mounted, including six 8-inch Columbiads and 22 32-pounders. Inside the ramparts, regimental carpenters built officers’ quarters and barracks to house 1,000 soldiers.”5 Tensions between the “town and fort” were often mitigated by colorful reviews and displays presented by the occupants of the fort to entertain local residents. The 7th New York performed an exhibition drill before “800 ladies and gentlemen…”. They “occupied the balconies of the barracks and had a fine view of the movements.” Disorderly soldiers, on other occasions, further inflamed tensions which were dealt with by Federal authorities.6
It was this re-enforced “fortress” that lithographer Edward Sachse (1804–1873) reproduced over and over again during the war. A native of Gorlitz, Germany, Sachse settled in Baltimore around 1840. He and his firm specialized in city views and rural sites.“Works include a 12-sheet aerial view of Baltimore that employed several artists over a three-year period. The firm also produced a four-sheet rendition of Syracuse, New York. Prints of Washington, DC, include a version of the Washington Monument that was planned but never built.”7
Sachse “also produced a series of views of American Civil War era military encampments and hospitals in Baltimore and Washington, DC. They were sold relatively cheaply to soldiers who would sometimes mark their tents on the maps and send them home. Sachse issued revised editions when units in the camps and setups changed.”8 Shown in Figure 2, is the first of four stages Sachse produced throughout the war. The earthworks surrounding the fort were printed in orange. The title margin merely reads “Fort Federal Hill, Baltimore, Md.” The first revision Sachse made (called edition 1) recognized the presence of new occupants: Garrisoned by the 129th Regt., N. Y. V. Col. P. A. Porter. The second state recognized the presence of the 7th Regiment National Guard, Marshall Lefferts, Col. commanding.
The third stage sported green earthworks, wide borders, title only, no imprint or copyright lines.
The fourth stage documented the arrival and encampment of the 131st Regiment of National Guard, O. S. M. July 4, 1864.9 There were eight documented
fort commanders during the fouryear war. The last commander, Colonel Robert P. Kennedy, closed the fort and it was abandoned in August 1865. It had obviously served its purpose as Maryland remained loyal to the Union.
The city purchased the property in 1880 and it is now included on the National Register of Historic Places. Today Federal Hill Park is a visitor destination offering panoramic views of the city. The Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks report that “Monuments commemorating the Battle of Baltimore in 1814 enhance the Park—one is dedicated to U.S. senator and Maj. General Samuel Smith; another, to Lt. Colonel George Armistead, who was commander of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.”10
It seems there is no mention of “Beast” Butler and his role at Fort Federal Hill.
Endnotes:
1. Federal Hill Baltimore, Wikipedia. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Federal_Hill,_Baltimore
2. Department of Recreation and Parks, Baltimore. https:// bcrp.baltimorecity.gov/parks/ federal-hill
3. Allan Nevins, The War for the Union: The Improvised War, 1861–1862 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959), 87.
4. History of Fort Federal Hill. http://fortwiki.com/ Fort_Federal_Hill.
5. Ibid.
6. Laura Rice, Maryland History in Prints 1743–1900. Maryland Historical Society, 2002, 251.
7. Wikipedia: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Edward_Sachse
8. Ibid.
9. Lois McCauley, Maryland Historical Prints 1752–1889. Maryland Historical Society, 1975. 208-209.
10. Department of Recreation and Parks, Baltimore. https:// bcrp.baltimorecity.gov/parks/ federal-hill
After 43 years in the museum field, Cilella devotes his time collecting American prints and maps and writing. 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), received the 2017–2018 American Civil War Museum’s Founders Award for outstanding editing of primary source materials. Upton’s love letters 1868-70, (Till Death Do Us Part) was published in 2020 by the Oklahoma University Press. His current book, the Memoirs of Dewitt Clinton Beckwith of Upton’s Regulars (McFarland Press) was released this spring.
“For the shortest, dullest letter really written in a past age can bring its atmosphere home to you as the most vivid historian of a later time can do.” – Lord David Cecil in The Saturday Review of Literature, March 29, 1930
This commentary on the historical value of epistolation sets the stage for Ham Chamberlayne Virginian: Letters and Papers of an Artillery Officer in the War for Southern Independence 1861–1865. Published at Richmond in 1932, Captain Chamberlayne’s letters were brought forth by his son, C. G. Chamberlayne, who wrote the Introduction. He explains that he obtained the papers from his mother and from collections of correspondence kept by Richmonders. Altogether more than 150 missives are presented. Sixty percent went to Chamberlayne’s mother, Martha, in Richmond. He mailed another two score to his sister
Lucy. A smattering of others went to family friends, such as Dr. George W. Bagby (of the Southern Literary Messenger, which occasionally published Ham’s writing).
In truth, the captain wrote much about how he was doing in camp and asking about friends. But to the extent that his subject touched on the war, the editor refrained both from tinkering with the text of the letters and from softening “the oft-times harsh statements of the writer.”
Indeed, C.G. was rather proud of his father’s writing, sprinkled as it was with Latin. (Ham once wrote his sister, “Nescio tamen… oportet esse. Hunt up a dictionary & translate.”) Of his subject’s references to Shakespeare, Milton and the English poets, the editor remarks that they bespeak “an acquaintance not common in these days of narrower and more specialized education.”
Moreover, the son made no apology for his father’s partisan expressions and political opinions, which he characterized as reflecting “sober optimism as to the successful outcome of the struggle for Southern independence” and an “unbounded faith in the wisdom and practical ability of General Lee,” as well as “the absence of any trace of regret either for the course adopted by his native State in 1861 or for the sacrifice that he individually had had to make as a result of answering the call of the Commonwealth for his services.”
Indeed, as the son explains, “Ham Chamberlayne loved Virginia with an intensity and wholeheartedness that amounted to adoration.” (“If I should ever have a family,” he once wrote, “one should be Virginius & one Virginia.”)
John Hampden Chamberlayne was born in Richmond, June 1838, the son of a physician professor at the Medical College of Virginia. Young Ham attended private academies and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1858. He then studied law and briefly practiced in Richmond. When war came, he enlisted as private in Company F, 21st Virginia. A month later he was a lieutenant on quartermaster’s duty. He yearned for active service, and by June of ’61 was with Capt. Lindsay Walker’s
Chamberlayne had requested transfer back to Capt. Lindsay Walker’s Battery. In early June ’62 Walker recommended Sergeant Chamberlayne’s promotion to lieutenant and assignment as his adjutant; the promotion and assignment came through. Thus he began to mark his envelopes, “J. H. Chamberlayne adj. art. Light Division”—he was marching with A. P. Hill, part of Jackson’s command.
sorts of details of army life. After a religious service, he judged the minister as having “preached but poorly”; besides, he “pronounced dooty &c like a Yankee.” Through newspapers he kept up with events in other theaters. After Murfreesboro he recorded, “All that we ask is that we may hold our own at the West; Lee’s unconquered army will do the rest.”
Battery, 4th Virginia Artillery, as second lieutenant in Johnston’s Army of the Potomac. Soon came transfer to Col. William Gilham’s 21st Virginia, but as private. In October 1861 Chamberlayne was promoted to sergeant. As he wrote to his mother, “I know that I am of some use here, and do my part, tho’ it be now a small one, toward the great & common end.”
The 21st was part of Loring’s “Army of the Northwest,” and took part in Jackson’s Romney campaign. During the winter of 1861-’62 the Confederacy suffered disheartening defeats, yet Sergeant Chamberlayne kept up his spirits. “Our Brigade is a very fine one, & a full, Virginians all,” Chamberlayne proudly wrote home in April 1862; the 21st was then part of the 2d Brigade in the army that Stonewall Jackson was assembling in the Valley. Even when McClellan’s huge army approached Richmond in early May, Chamberlayne voiced optimism:
“As long as we have two great armies in the field our cause is full of hope. The occupation of every sea port & river town & all our frontier is only the first step in conquering us. A people cannot be conquered by occupying its territory, its armies must be beaten & broken up. Their “Anaconda” will have a slow meal after he has swallowed the sea side & the frontier; our army will be indigestible.”
He reminded his sister Lucy that in the first Revolution, the British captured every colonial port, and still the Rebels won.
“Are we not more unanimous against the Yankees than against them?” he asked. “If we are only half as true as our ancestors were we must win.” More, the Yankees were a lot worse than the Limeys.
“I desire neither ease nor riches nor life if to be had under Y. Doodle, most abject of tyrants, most mean & despicable.”
During the winter,
Chamberlayne was a good old Rebel. He reveled when Stonewall humiliated “Pope, the prince of braggarts.” He was there when Jackson seized Manassas Junction, and delighted in writing home of starving Rebels reveling amidst a sea of plunder.
“At the Junction was a large store depot, 5 or six pieces of artillery, two trains containing probably 200 large cars loaded down with many millions worth of qr mr. and Commissary stores; besides these there were very large sutlers depots full of everything; in short there was collected there in a square mile an amount & variety of property such as I have never conceived of (I speak soberly). Twas a curious sight to see our ragged & famished men helping themselves to every imaginable article of luxury or necessity whether of clothing, food or what not; for my part I got a toothbrush, a box of candles, a quantity of lobster salad, a barrel of coffee & other things wh. I forget. The scene utterly beggars description.”
Then came Second Manassas, where, writing of the Yankees, he concluded “they were out generaled & beaten from the start & at 4 ½ P.M. or 5 twas plain they were awfully conquered.”
Of Lee, Chamberlayne could not say enough: “he is silent, inscrutable, strong, like a God.” He had forged “an army great in numbers and spirit [which] has by experience gained such confidence in itself and its leaders that it may be said to be irresistible.” Marching into Maryland, the lieutenant saw Sharpsburg, which he considered a Southern victory after Lee’s army beat back the Yankee attacks (“the enemy was repulsed at every point with great slaughter”). Even after the retreat back to Virginia, he boasted that “we can whip 150,000.” After Fredericksburg he even looked ahead to “the dawn of glorious liberty & peace.”
Ham enjoyed writing his mother, filling long letters with all
Lieutenant Chamberlayne commanded “Crenshaw’s Battery,” four Napoleons and ninety men, at Chancellorsville, where they were slightly engaged. He penned an account of the battle that appeared in Bagby’s SLM. During the Pennsylvania campaign, Chamberlayne was captured near Chambersburg on June 28 while foraging for horses. Soon he was behind bars at Fort Delaware, and from there moved to Johnson’s Island. Though the prison was on Lake Erie, in late October he was able to write home, “the weather so far has been delightful.” To while away time he chatted with comrades, played chess and cards, and of course read. Relatives sent him books by Shakespeare and the French writers; he even taught himself German.
After a winter on the lake, Chamberlayne was exchanged; by mid-March 1864 comrades were welcoming him back to “the land of Tobacco & Race horses.” The lieutenant and his battery fought in the Overland Campaign all the way into the Petersburg trenches. Meanwhile Ham sought further promotion. A captaincy arrived in mid-August ’64, with Chamberlayne commanding “Davidson’s Battery.”
When Grant exploded his mine on July 30, the captain and his guns were nearby, unscathed, but close enough for Chamberlayne to have watched the ensuing infantry fight. In unusual detail he related it to his mother in a letter dated August 3.
“On Saturday last the enemy sprung a mine under a salient angle, on the Baxter road, near Mr. Tim Rives’ & the N. Market race course 2 ½ miles East of Psbg., blew up a battery of 4 guns, disabling two of them, & parts of 2 regiments & then rushed in, held the work, & attempted to form line of battle in rear of it & sweep down the line. Their whole force was concentrated & that days attempt was, doubtless, the grand affair. There was a gloomy look out for some two hours, after which we cleared them out effectually, retaking the guns, killing upwards of 700
outright, wounding many more & taking 11 to 1200 prisoners—A brilliant & important victory, achieved by ⅓ of our force & with comparatively light loss. A month of mining, his whole force concentrated, & his own time & place selected enabled him to lose from 4500 to 5000 men & gain nothing—For we hold every foot of ground—& they have not advanced an inch.”
The Confederates’ Crater victory, which in Chamberlayne’s telling looked so easy, allowed the captain to brag: “If they will whip Sherman, we will finish the war here.” News from the west, though, was hard to verify. Soldiers called rumors “grapevine telegraphs” and “canteen dispatches”; one of them had Kirby Smith crossing the Mississippi and marching on Sherman’s rear. After the longed-for captaincy arrived in mid-August, Chamberlayne’s/ Davidson’s Battery was one of three in Maj. Wade Gibbes’ artillery battalion.
Like other officers in the Petersburg trenches, Chamberlayne busied himself overseeing the strengthening of the works. “Lee holds Grant checked baffled beaten,” he wrote home on August 27. Yet the Confederate army was undeniably pinned down in the Petersburg tranches. “All men agree now that on this army & on the taking or holding of Rd—the great question rests.”
Chamberlayne served the entire war without receiving a serious wound. Thus it was for comic effect that he closed an epistle to a friend, “Yours till blown up, sharp shot or otherwise wiped out.” Although there could be no joking about the iron and lead being flung at them by the Yankees, Johnny Rebs still made light of it all. “You know a shot from the flank, raking a position is called technically an enfilade (from the French),” he tutored his sister Lucy; “the men have baptised the mortar shell as the top filade.”
Even though the enemy fire could be deadly, the day-to-day of trench life became monotonous. “I & my command,” Chamberlayne wrote under the heading “Battery in the Trenches Oct 1864,” “have been occupied in digging and building earthworks & winter huts for the men, & beyond the shelling & the musketry have not been in action since July.” “Drills and horse cleaning take most of my time,” he wrote on another occasion..
Ham’s letters offer occasional
glimpses of soldier life, as when he noted that cigarettes had become popular among the men. All the while, he hoped for yet another advancement: this one would be to major. (It never came; it was as captain that Chamberlayne surrendered at Appomattox.)
…except that he didn’t. When General Lee met with Grant to arrange the capitulation, Ham determined to have no part in it. “McIntosh and myself with several others refused to attend the funeral at Appomattox C.H,” he wrote on April 12, “& as soon as the surrender was certain we cut or crept our way out.” He and his comrades planned to make their way to join Joe Johnston in North Carolina. When that didn’t pan out, Chamberlayne envisioned heading farther. En route toward Atlanta, by April 21 he was in Charlotte, N.C. He hoped to get to Texas, though he affirmed, “my duty is still to my country, Virginia.” The trek was cut short, however. Chamberlayne and his travel companions were paroled near Athens, Georgia, in the first week of May. He took his loyalty oath in Atlanta on the 12th.
My copy of Ham Chamberlayne Virginian was printed in a run of 1,000 by the small Richmond publishing house of Dietz Printing. I bought it in January 1978 for $30. It may not, as Lord Cecil put it, convey Civil War history “as the most vivid historian.” Yet it is a handsome collection of thoughtful, articulate letters written by an educated Virginian and a conscientious Confederate. As such it has an esteemed place in my library.
Stephen Davis resides in Cumming, Ga., with his sweet wife (ejus uxor dulcis) Billie and their cat Cha Cha (color: gray and butternut).
He holds his Bachelor’s from Emory, Master’s from Chapel Hill, and Ph.D. again from Emory.
Dissertation: “Johnny Reb in Perspective: The Confederate Soldier’s Image in the Southern Arts.”
His recent books include a twovolume study of General Hood (Mercer University Press).
He has begun to write a counterfactual war history for Shotwell Publishing in Columbia. Jefferson Davis, of course, served one term, but later Confederate presidents include Woodrow Wilson. As the United States teetered toward war in Vietnam, C.S.
Senator from Georgia Richard B. Russell warned Washington of an entangling, losing war in southeast Asia.
Well, we know what happened....
COLUMBIA, S.C.—The Charleston Light Dragoons were formed in the eighteenth century. They were not your everyday cavalry unit. They were more like a very exclusive social club, made up of the sons of the state’s wealthiest citizens. They had strict rules, but the punishment for infractions.
They had relatively little combat experience for a long time. That changed dramatically in 1864, when they were sent to Virginia as part of the 4th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, and encountered some of the bitterest fighting in the Civil War. At some point while fighting Union cavalry from Michigan, they lost a flag that served as a rallying point in battle.
Now, someone in Michigan wants to give the flag back to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. Dave Downing is coming down to Columbia on July 5 to return it.
Downing is, among other things a Civil War reenactor, one who usually wears blue instead of gray. He also volunteers in a project called Save the Flags, which has preserved, researched, and displayed about 270 banners carried by Michigan soldiers in the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and World War I. About 10 years ago, he was speaking to a community group about that project; afterwards, one of the listeners came up to him and said, “I’ve got this flag…” “He came back the next day and gave it to me,” Downing recalls. It was in really good shape for a Civil War flag. It was in such good condition that he decided it must be a reproduction. He set it aside, and didn’t think about it until two or three years ago.
Then, the Save the Flags project received another donation from the same period. It was real, but looked as if it had come fresh and new from a package. That made him think of the flag he had set aside. He thought, “I wonder if it’s the real thing?” He submitted photos of it to a renowned expert who restores historical flags, who pronounced, “This thing is original. There’s no way it’s a reproduction.”
There was no question where it came from, with the huge letters S and C on a blue field, and between the letters a crudely formed palmetto tree with “Charleston Light Dragoons” printed on it. “This doesn’t belong in Michigan,” he decided. “It belongs in South Carolina.”
Someone with the flag project knew about the Relic Room and its successful textile conservation program, and gave Downing the
name and number of Executive Director Allen Roberson to whom he will deliver the flag on July 5.
While it’s finally been found, the flag is still wrapped in mystery: “I’d never met the gentleman who gave it to me,” says Downing. “I don’t know his name; I don’t have his number.”
Eric Emerson, director of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, is focused on a different mystery: how the guidon, the proper term for the small flag, was lost in the first place. He is also the author of Sons of Privilege: The Charleston Light Dragoons in the Civil War He thinks the guidon was lost during one of several desperate battles the unit fought against the Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the spring of 1864. The Michigan brigade was led by George Armstrong Custer, the Little Big Horn guy. Of course, those Yankee soldiers were battle-hardened and had a huge advantage in firepower, as they carried Spencer repeating rifles.
At one point, Dr. Emerson considered that it might have been lost at the Battle of Old Church, or Matadequin Creek, on May 30. Then he realized that Thomas Lining, the unit’s color sergeant, had the flag in the rear, as he was one of those detailed to hold the horses while other dragoons went into the fight on foot.
Emerson now believes the flag was lost at Trevilian Station in June, but the evidence is incomplete. There, as it happened, Lining, frustrated at being kept out of the action, swapped places with another soldier and participated in the fighting with fatal consequences: He bled to death after being hit in the femoral artery,
making him one of 800 Confederate casualties in that engagement. The guidon was likely left with the other soldier in the rear. Emerson suspects that soldier was Burgess Gordon. The flag still wasn’t safe, because at one point in this battle, “Custer and his brigade found a gap between Hampton’s troops and the Virginians of Fitzhugh Lee and rode into the rear of the Confederate line” where Gordon was captured.
The theories are fascinating, if not certain. However it was lost, the flag is coming home to South Carolina on the day after Independence Day.
About the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum
Founded in 1896, the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is an accredited museum focusing on South Carolina’s distinguished martial tradition through the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the War on Terror, and other American conflicts. It serves as the state’s military history museum by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting South Carolina’s military heritage from the colonial era to the present, and by providing superior educational experiences and programming. It recently opened a major new exhibit, “A War With No Front Lines: South Carolina and the Vietnam War, 1965-1973." The museum is located at 301 Gervais St. in Columbia, sharing the Columbia Mills building with the State Museum. For more information, go to https://crr.sc.gov/.
Edited with commentary by Stephen Davis, I Thank the Lord I Am Not a Yankee includes selections of her wartime and postwar journals which are most expressive of her Confederate patriotism and Southern pride.
February
From the Editor
The graves of William T. Sherman and his family stand in a row, tall, flat rectangles at attention, shoulder to shoulder. On a nearby pole, a flag hangs limp in the open sun, but it’s still easy to spot from elsewhere in the cemetery. Four roads converge at the top of a small hill, and there in the curving elbow of
the intersection stand the graves. Visitors pass by as if on review.
I’m in St. Louis’s Calvary Cemetery, and I’ve come to pay my respects to Uncle Billy. It’s 85 degrees, but the gardenstyle cemetery offers plenty of shade. I have my family with me or else I’d spend more time exploring. Dred Scott is buried in this cemetery, as are authors Tennessee Williams and Kate Chopin.
Instead, I use what goodwill I have to go down the adjacent block to another cemetery, Bellefontaine Cemetery, to pay my respects to another Civil War general. A number of them are buried here, including Don Carlos Buell, Francis Blair, and Sterling Price, as well as author William S. Burroughs and brewer Adolphus Busch, but I’m on the lookout for John Pope. I find him behind a bush, obscured by foliage just as he’s been obscured by history. At least he has his wife beside him. It’s a small irony; the
dude named “Pope” isn’t in the Catholic cemetery.
One of my favorite Emerging Civil War Symposium memories comes from 2021, the year we focused on “Fallen Leaders.” Dan Welch spoke about Pope and his fall from grace. Dan had kind of a soft spot for Pope and invited us to reconsider his career as a whole and not just look at Pope’s failure at Second Manassas. Our colleague, Kevin Pawlak, was less sympathetic, and he and Dan began lobbing good-natured zingers at each other about Pope. The hand grenades continued all weekend long, mostly at Dan’s expense. Attendees, in on the joke, had a great time laughing along.
That symposium sponsored an upcoming volume in our Emerging Civil War 10th Anniversary Series, Fallen Leaders. The hardcover is off to the printer even as I write this. Look for it in July (and look for our other great titles in that series, too)!
Sherman did as much as anyone, and more than most, to win the Civil War. Without the fall of Atlanta, would Lincoln have been reelected? I felt compelled to pay my respects.
But while many others buried in the two cemeteries would’ve been cool to visit, in my limited time, out of respect for Dan’s call for us to reconsider the things we think we know about the Civil War; I felt the need to visit John Pope. I don’t know if I think any more kindly about Pope than I used to, but visiting his gravesite reminded me that we’re all human, and we all deserve a little empathy.
— Chris Mackowski, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief, Emerging Civil WarTickets have been sold out since the end of May for our upcoming 9th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, to be held August 4-6 in Spotsylvania, Va. We always hold our symposium on the first weekend of August, so if you’re disappointed that you’ll miss out, mark your calendars now for next year: August 2-4, 2024. We’ll announce our theme at this year’s event, with additional details as the fall rolls along. We hope you’ll join us for an event that’s always a lot of fun and a great way to bond with the larger ECW community, historians and readers alike!
It has been a June of traveling for Neil Chatelain. He had a blast speaking at the Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table on June 12, attended weddings in both New Orleans and Mexico, and is finishing out the month with a trip to Boston, New Hampshire, and Maine, all while squeezing in moments for reading and writing.
Doug Crenshaw will speak at the Chimborazo Hospital site in Richmond on July 1. Doug’s topic: his newest ECW book, To Hell or Richmond: The 1862 Peninsula Campaign
In mid-June, Dwight Hughes attended the Naval History in the Age of Sail and Steam Symposium at the CSS Neuse Museum in Kingston, N.C., to hear some good presentations and (hopefully) sell some books. This was his first opportunity to visit the museum with the only full-size replica of a Confederate ironclad.
From Frank Jastrzembski’s Shrouded Veterans project: “A veteran headstone was placed for Brevet Brigadier General William H. Blair. In October 1861, Blair was appointed a first lieutenant in the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry and promoted to captain in February 1862. Blair distinguished himself at the battle of Antietam, where the 51st stormed Burnside’s Bridge, an action that later earned him a brevet promotion. In December, Blair was appointed colonel of the 179th Pennsylvania Infantry, which he commanded until the regiment was mustered out in July 1863. Blair returned to practicing law after his military service. He died suddenly of heart failure on December 7, 1888, and was buried at Union Cemetery in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.” For more on the project, see Frank’s post at Emerging Civil War.
Brian Matthew Jordan was on the road last week delivering a host of invited lectures. On June 10, he spoke at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio. The next day, it was off to speak on South Mountain at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont. Brian was a
featured speaker at the Lakeside Chautauqua, which appropriately (given its history hosting Civil War veterans’ reunions) devoted a week of programs to our nation’s deadliest conflict. Brian delivered three lectures to a packed house on the beautiful shores of Lake Erie. Finally, he presented “The Great What Ifs” to the Cedar Valley Civil War Round Table in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Brian has now addressed roundtables in twentyeight states. He looks forward to a 160th anniversary lecture at the Seminary Ridge Museum in Gettysburg on June 30, and to the publication of Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves with UGA Press in September.
From Chris Kolakowski, who serves as the executive director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, the Museum recently marked its 30th anniversary in its current location and took a giant step toward an exciting future. According to Madison. com, “Gov. Tony Evers, Wisconsin lawmakers pledge financial support for new history, veterans museums,” including a $9 million-renovation for the veterans museum. Grant at 200, the essay collection co-edited by Chris Mackowski and Frank Scaturro, received a positive review from Richard G. Manion in LSU’s Spring 2023 Civil War Book Review. Manion called it “a compelling collection of essays designed to effect and promote the efficacy of Grant’s ‘reputational reclamation,’ as well as to examine some lesser known aspects of Grant’s life. Written at times with great enthusiasm, the work is informative, on occasion quite quirky and will appeal to both serious students of Grant as well as the most casual of Grant enthusiasts.”
You can read the full review here: https://digitalcommons. lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=3696&context=cwbr
Derek Maxfield is continuing his Man of Fire: William T. Sherman in the Civil War book tour. On June 8, he had a great time speaking for the American Civil War Museum (virtually), and he visited the Waterloo, NY, Public Library and Historical Society June 15. In the meantime, work has begun on a new volume for the ECW Series on the Andersonville POW camp. Derek had events June 23 & 24 at the PCWA 160th Gettysburg Re-enactment, July 11 at the Charlottesville, VA, CWRT, and July 26th at the Albany, NY, Civil War Buffs group.
Kevin Pawlak’s latest book kicks off a new series of illustrated battle narratives from Casemate.
Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons, gave an enthusiastic talk at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. The program is available to watch on the MHS’s website here: https://youtu.be/ Dt5-EIgILZ4 . For more info on additional talks Jill has scheduled, visit her website: https://www. blackcivilwarsurgeons.com/.
Kevin Pawlak brings us the latest publication from an ECW author. Such a Clash of Arms: The Maryland Campaign, September 1862 is the first Civil War volume in Casemate’s Illustrated Campaigns Series. It is a higherlevel view of the Maryland Campaign and the battle of Antietam, although Kevin says, “I tried to squeeze almost everything about the military side of the campaign into this slim volume. Additionally, I wanted to make sure the campaign was viewed within its proper context in the summer of 1862.”
Kevin goes on to add: “I hope the book can serve as a useful introduction to readers new to the Maryland Campaign, but also provide something new for seasoned Civil War readers, too. I framed the book and some chapters differently than previous Maryland Campaign books,
reflecting some of my personal preferences for telling the story and how many different pieces of the campaign were in motion all at once.
The battle of Antietam is split into two chapters: ‘The Northern Front’ and ‘The Southern Front,’ which is how I view the battlefield. Again, there was some crossover in time between both ‘fronts,’ better demonstrating that the battle of Antietam was not fought in phases.”
On the Emerging Civil War Podcast in June:
• Dwight Hughes talked about the latest book in the Emerging Civil War 10th Anniversary Series, The Civil War on the Water, an overview of the story of Civil War navies.
• Kevin Pawlak and Jon-Erik Gilot talked about their new book in the Emerging Civil War Series, John Brown and the Raid on Harper’s Ferry
The Emerging Civil War Podcast is available through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever fine podcasts are available. You can also subscribe to our podcast through Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/ emergingcivilwar), where we are now also offering exclusive bonus content for subscribers. For as low as $1.99/month, you can help support ECW. Proceeds go toward defraying the production costs of the podcast.
On the ECW YouTube page,
• Chris Mackowski visited the monument for the 123rd New York on Culp’s Hill in Gettysburg.
• Dan Davis talked about the action of Robert Beckham at the battle of Brandy Station. Kevin Pawlak took a walk around the monuments along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. We also shared videos of our podcast conversations with Dwight Hughes and Kevin Pawlak and Jon-Erik Gilot.
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.
For more information visit us online at www.n-ssa.org.
The Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home in Georgetown, Ohio, was named a 2023 recipient of the greatly desired Ohio History Leadership Award by the Ohio History Connection, a state agency for the development and maintenance of significant Ohio history sites and organizations.
The director of the Ohio History Connection, Megan Wood, in praising the efforts of the Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home during the Grant birth bicentennial year of 2022, said this about the year-long efforts of the Boyhood Home, coupled with the efforts of the Ulysses S. Grant Birthplace in Point Pleasant, Ohio (just a few miles from the Boyhood Home):
“The History Leadership Awards are given out every year at Statehood Day to honor people or groups who have done something exemplary for Ohio history. In the past we have honored elected officials and this year we decided to broaden it out
to show the breadth of leadership examples in history in the state.
We decided to recognize the Grant sites in Clermont and Brown Counties because their 200th birthday events for President Grant drew more participants than another commemoration. Their work also demonstrated an exemplary partnership between two counties and multiple organizations.”
The Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home hosted ten events during the 200th year of Grant’s birth, ranging from a talk about “GrantThe Civil Rights President” at the National Underground Railroad Center in Cincinnati on February 17, 2022, to “U.S. Grant’s Story: A One-Man Show” with music by Steve and Lisa Ball at the Grant Theater in Georgetown on October 15, 2022.
The other programs were:
“This is your Life, U.S. Grant,”
“The Women in U.S. Grant’s Life” by Chris Burns, “U.S. Grant Remembers Bethel” by the Bethel Historical Society in Bethel, Ohio, “Songs and Stories of a Civil War Field Hospital.”
“Grant and Twain: The Men
And The Memoirs” with Warren Brown as Samuel Clemens and Curt Fields as Grant, “Celtic Music with the Pedigo’s,” “How Grant’s Tomb Came Back from the Dead” with Frank Scaturro as speaker, “U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee,” with Thomas Jessee as General Lee, “Touring Ulysses’ Hometown On Foot” with Dr. Ned Lodwick, Brown county Historian, as guide, “The Last Days of U.S. Grant” by Ben Kemp, the Historian and operations manager at the U.S. Grant Cottage National Historic Landmark in Wilton, N.Y., and the last program of the year was “U.S. Grant’s Story: A One-man Show” with Dr. Curt Fields as Grant.
The birthday itself was celebrated on Saturday April 30 with events throughout the day in Georgetown. The highlight of the year-long birthday celebrations was the program “In His Own Words”; interviews held with both General and President Grant in the Grant Theater. General Grant was interviewed in the morning about his military career by the current superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Navy Vice-Admiral Sean Buck. In the afternoon, President Grant was interviewed about his Presidency by Dr. Charles Calhoun, author of the book “The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.” Attendance for the interviews program was estimated at 350 people, the largest attendance for any single event celebrating Grant’s birthday during the bicentennial year.
After the interview with General Grant, a reception was held in the Georgetown United Methodist Church. General Grant used a saber to cut his birthday cakes. The cakes were then shared with all who came to the reception.
The Grant Birthplace in Point Pleasant, Ohio, had many programs and events throughout the year in observance of General and President Ulysses S. Grant.
The History Leadership Award medallions were given to each of the recipients in the rotunda of the Ohio State Capitol building on Saturday, March 2, 2023, by Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio First Lady Fran Dewine. General and Mrs. Grant were with the Boyhood Home contingent to gratefully receive the medallions.
For information about this event and other activities of the Ohio History Connection, contact:
The Ohio History Connection at 800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211, phone 614-297-2300, 800-686-6124.
For information about the U.S. Grant Birthplace in Point Pleasant, Ohio, 1551 OH-232, Moscow, OH 45153. http://www. usgrantbirthplace.org, phone 513-497-0492.
For information about the Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home: 219 E Grant Ave, Georgetown, OH, 45121, usghainfo@gmail. com, usgrantboyhoodhome.org, phone 937-378-3087.
“Simply put: tell the simple truth, simply.” – Professor E. Veritas
The Mississippi River Battle of Helena, Ark., July 4, 1863, was a well-intentioned effort to relieve pressure on Gen. John C. Pemberton under siege in Vicksburg, 170 miles south of Helena. Federal forces under Gen. Ulysses Grant were squeezing Pemberton and his 30,000 men tightly against the river. The Confederate garrison was starving and could not hold out much longer.
Lieut. Gen. Theophilus Holmes, the Confederate commander in Arkansas, got approval to attack Maj. Gen. Benjamin Prentiss and carry Fort Curtis, a redoubt on the river, to begin the operation to help Pemberton.
The relief attempt rapidly dissolved into a botched, bloody affair that did no good for Vicksburg and cost the lives of many soldiers on both sides. Indeed, Vicksburg surrendered at noon on July 4, just an hour or so after the Helena debacle ended. Fighting began with the dawn attack and continued at 11 a.m., when the Confederates fell back to cut their losses. Nearly 12,000 soldiers were involved (4,000 Federal/7,600 Confederate). The fight was as savage as many
other bigger fights in the war. The forces under Holmes made a three-pronged approach over the bluffs and steep hills of the city against artillery and infantry that was well dug in and waiting for them. There was no element of surprise for the Confederate attack.
The Confederate losses were estimated to be well over 1,600; the Federal lost a few more than 200. When Holmes fell back, General Prentiss knew he had secured a significant victory for controlling the Mississippi. His placing of four artillery batteries, imaginatively named Battery A, B, C, and D, on the hills around the town had paid off. Fort Curtis had served the Federal troops well in its sound construction and strategic placement on the edge of town.
One Federal soldier dubbed Helena “Hell in Arkansas.” That nickname turned out to be all too prophetic for the troops under General Theophilus Holmes as they assaulted Helena and were repulsed with heavy losses. It was the last major offensive of Confederate forces in Arkansas.
The 160th anniversary of the battle of Helena was observed on the weekend of April 15-16, 2023. Overshadowed by the fall of Vicksburg on the same day and the Confederate defeat of Lee and
the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg, the battle was little known at the time.
The Delta Cultural Center in Helena, under the direction of Richard Spilman, organized a significant reenactment that did well for the memory of the battle and those who fought and suffered in it. Reenactor Brad Hartsfield of Helena was the host working with Richard Spillman and to organize two days of battle scenes that were well executed.
Bobby Horton entertained the troops and civilians on Saturday night. General Grant (Curt Fields) was present as well. He came up from the earlier surrender at Vicksburg to make presentations and visit with the troops and spectators.
Julia Grant (Lena Moody) accompanied the general and held a ladies tea in the famous PillowThompson House in downtown Helena. The table set by Julia was impressive indeed and pleased her guests no end. A number of ladies attended and politely peppered Mrs. Grant about many things in her life both before and after meeting General Grant. The leisurely afternoon affair went on for quite some time. General Grant made an appearance at the tea and was promptly told by Julia that he had no business there with her and her guests. It was one of the few times that the Grant ever made a hasty retreat (with a smile).
The first day of the reenactment battle took place as an assault on Saturday afternoon at Fort Curtis. The fort, as it is today, is a ¾ size reproduction of the original near the river. It is an attractive site for spectators to view the battle as the Confederate troops attacked the Federal defenders camped out of sight on the steep hills rising sharply from just outside the fort. A four-gun battery in the fort was well served by crews who knew their business. A heavy contingent of Confederates attacked the Federals camped on the hills about the town near the fort. Confederate cavalry assisted in the assault that boiled down the hills and spread around the fort. After heavy fighting for nearly an hour and a half, the Confederates fell back. More than 200 spectators were impressed with what unfolded before them on the beautiful spring day.
The second day of fighting took place on Sunday afternoon in the Helena River Park on the river side of the levee. The field of honor was open and deep in rich green grass as Federal artillery units prepared their guns. The
gun crews were to engage Confederate forces they knew were coming. The woods around the field were full of Southern infantry and cavalry. The bluff above the park, immediately next to the battlefield, was higher than the field, forming natural amphitheater seating and filled with spectators.
The roar of cannon punctuated by the consistent rattling crack of rifles was a battle sound that rolled over the field and out across the Mississippi River. Confederate cavalry did a good job of attack and parry with Federal lines moving across the field to engage Confederate infantrymen. When the Federal attack was too heavy to resist, the Rebels fell back into the tree line ending the fight. Helena had been protected.
Many units were involved in the reenactment. The participating units were:
• Third Arkansas, Co. D, galvanized as the 28th
Wisconsin
• Tishomingo Avengers
• Trans-Mississippi Volunteer Infantry Battalion
• Sixteenth Arkansas Infantry
• Third Mississippi Cavalry
• Tenth Mounted Troops
• First Mississippi Cavalry
• First Texas Light Artillery, Battery E
• Bankhead’s Battery
Larry McCluney Jr. and Charles Tucker were, respectively, the Federal and the Confederate commanders.
Professor Veritas recommends, for further information about Helena, Arkansas, to contact:
Richard Spilman of the Delta Cultural Center at his email: Richard.Spilman@arkansas.gov.
“Simply put: tell the simple truth, simply.” – Professor E. Veritas
Mountains
are a familiar destination for many folks who enjoy hiking remote trails in pursuit of the numerous beautiful waterfalls that flow down from the mountaintop. Finding Confederate history in an isolated boneyard while hiking in the mountains so far from civilization wasn’t expected.
My passion for the Civil War was on hold for the week. Or so I thought. Only cascading waterfalls and spectacular vistas were anticipated. A secluded cemetery with Confederate soldiers buried on the brow of the summit suddenly shifted my focus back to history.
The Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park winds along the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The single road offers a multitude of quiet trails for wandering off into the heart of the mountain. After a hardy breakfast, my travelling cohort and I grabbed our walking sticks looking for adventure. Hiking down the mountain in pursuit of a waterfall quickly followed. Proceeding down the trail in the morning chill we took in the beauty of the great outdoors. Then history intruded on our mountain getaway.
Halfway down the trail to the targeted waterfall an old weathered wooden sign that read “Cave Cemetery” stood alongside a small
foot path that intersected with the main trail; no cemetery appeared anywhere. The path strayed off the trail and disappeared into a thick wooded area. Being curious, I veered up the foot path on the trail less traveled.
After walking a while, a clearing finally revealed a small untidy cemetery with approximately 35 graves. Indeed, the Cave Cemetery did exist. A graveyard high up in the Blue Ridge on the side of a mountain far from anything or anyone seemed out of place. Being a graveyard enthusiast, a close examination of the stones followed.
I was astonished to find the graves of three Confederate soldiers.
One soldier was John G. Cave who served with the Rockbridge Light Artillery. Many of his family were buried in the graveyard named for them. Two other soldiers buried in the cemetery served in the 10th Virginia Infantry. Privates John Weakley and Layton Sisk grew up on the mountain with John Cave. These boys came down from the Blue Ridge to enlist in the Confederate Army. I theorized that all three patriots who volunteered to fight for their country returned to the highlands after the war in good standing. A theory I later questioned.
Later, conversation with a Park Ranger enlightened me about the obscure cemetery and the ways of mountain folk. People who populated the Blue Ridge long ago were born on the mountain and they wanted to rest in peace for all eternity on the mountain they loved. They wouldn’t have it any other way. When the National Park Service created the Shenandoah National Park in 1935, it was written into the agreement that the old mountain dwellers who predated the park retained their privilege of being buried on the mountain if they wished.
The soldiers whose remains rested in such an unusual cemetery so far from the maddening crowd piqued my interest. When I got home, I searched their names on the Civil War Soldier’s database to see what I might find. What I found at first startled me. All three went AWOL and deserted. My first thought deemed them cowards. A firing squad should have been formed for the scoundrels; but after thinking about it, I may have been too harsh. Further study revealed other possible narratives.
Initially, the soldier’s names and regiments stood out. After a second look at the gravestones, I noticed that two are marked with the Southern Cross of Honor. Why would the Cross be on the stone if they deserted? Seems the boys were proud of their Civil War service. Or the families were proud enough to put the Southern Cross on the stones.
There were approximately 103,000 Confederates gave up on the war and went home. The Union actually had many more desertions than the South. Historians would like you to believe that most Confederates took unauthorized “French Leave” but later returned to the army. That’s not the reality. While it may be true for some, not all the fighting men went back to their company. Many Southerners did go home as the war grew old and never returned, and for good reason.
Some soldiers returned home as families living in the mountains and bordering on starvation wrote, begging them to return. Folks in the mountains didn’t have large farms and few, if any, slaves. All the planting and work needed to survive shifted to the women during the war. The young men were essential in supporting their families in the harsh lifestyle of mountain folks. Another dreaded winter on the mountain without their men might bring devastation or even death to families led only by women. Family prevailed when soldiers faced a choice between
a war that wasn’t going well and family loyalty.
John Cave enlisted in October 1863 and served for a year before going home in the winter of 1864, reportedly a severe winter. Layton Sisk enlisted on May 24, 1863, but went AWOL a month later for reasons unknown. When summer ended Layton returned to the army in September and continued fighting till the end. John Weakley deserted twice. He enlisted in 1861. He went AWOL in June 1862 but returned. After serving another year, he went AWOL again in September 1863 and never went back. Weakley’s grave shows he died in 1864. Did illness plague Weakley? Or maybe he was severely wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg and sought family care. Cave and Sisk both lived long after the war. Sisk died in 1888. Cave passed away in 1907.
Many reasons for quitting the war prompted Southern boys to go home. Cowardice wasn’t one of them. Besides the singular act of going AWOL, these boys had very different stories. They likely knew each other and grew up together. But their motives may have been very different. Cave could have quit the war to support his family. Sisk seemed to take “French Leave,” but returned to the fight. Weakley may have suffered ill health or was wounded at Gettysburg.
Another scenario may come into play. Weakley’s early enlistment in 1861 may have been a forced enlistment by General Stonewall Jackson. Resistance in the Blue Ridge formed in the beginning of the war after men were ordered to report for enlistment into the Army. Most opposition to enlistment came from German Baptists, commonly called Dunkards, who populated the Shenandoah Valley. Some place the number of those refusing to enlist from the Blue Ridge at around 1,000.
Many of those resisting found a secure hiding place at Swift Run Gap. Jackson sent a force of infantry and artillery to the mountains and shelled Swift Run Gap. The attack had Virginians firing on Virginians; a Civil War played out within a Civil War. Outnumbered and
facing an organized military force, the resistance quickly crumbled.
All three men buried in the Cave Cemetery may have had a strong opposition to the war. Maybe they enlisted under threat of punishment. These hardy mountain men may have simply put family and religion above a war that they didn’t support. If forced to enlist against their religion, or leaving the war to care for family, they may be innocent of my premature charge. I hereby withdraw my preliminary allegation of cowardice.
Another piece of Civil War history I encountered on the mountain featured Fisher’s Gap. Jackson led his army across the Blue Ridge Mountains at Fisher’s Gap as they left the Shenandoah Valley and headed east on their way to Fredericksburg where a battle would be fought near the end of the year. The main trail to the waterfall runs through Fisher’s Gap. As it turned out, I was walking along the same trail taken by Jackson and his army in late 1862. A creek running alongside the trail likely supplied water for the canteens of the Stonewall Brigade.
The plan for this trip was for a mountain getaway in the fresh frosty mountain air while relaxing beside magnificent waterfalls or gazing at panoramic views of the Shenandoah Valley. As so often happens, history interrupted, but the welcomed war stories added another element to the retreat. Maybe the universe aligns to those who love history and led me to the story. I’ll never know the complete story of those three Confederate soldiers buried in a concealed cemetery way up on the side of a mountain.
But I do ask their forgiveness for my initial assumption!
Joseph F. Wilson is a member of Old Baldy CWRT and The General Meade Society. The writer lectures on Civil War topics and is the writer and producer of the documentary “Civil War Prisons – An American Tragedy” available on Amazon. YouTube channel – “Joseph F. Wilson.” His email is Joef21@ aol.com.
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.
Herbst Woods, Willoughby Run, Blocher’s Knoll, and Rock Creek. The fighting gained momentum as it moved to the more familiar locations on Seminary Ridge, Cemetery Hill, McPherson’s Ridge, and the Chambersburg Pike. Each skirmish is detailed thoroughly and highlighted by insights into the commanders, their decisions, and the casualty reports that infused the chapters with a human element.
Modern History for the Modern Strategist: America’s Major Wars Since 1861. Michael O. Hanlon. Preface, notes, index, maps. 416 pp., 2023. Brookings Institution Press, www.brookings.edu. Hardbound. $39.95.
Reviewed by Joseph A. Derie
in the concluding chapter are “Outcomes in Wars Are Not Preordained;” War is Usually Harder and Bloodier Than Expected;” and “America’s Grand Strategy is Strong Enough to Absorb Some Setbacks.”
While the first two sections will not be particularly controversial, the final section has some interesting comments. The author feels that the United States’ strengths (economic, political, geographical) and alliances have prevented a great power war. His summary is that: “The paradox of American power is that while we may not be that good at wielding it tactically and operationally, the system of alliances and global leadership itself is so strong at its core that it appears capable of absorbing a number of blows
without crumbling.”
Modern History for the Modern Strategist is heavily researched and documented and is an interesting reappraisal of the conduct and outcomes of America’s major wars since 1861. It is highly recommended to those with special interest in strategy, decision making at high levels of authority and unintended consequences
Capt. Joe Derie is a longtime Civil War buff with a special interest in Civil War naval history and the Civil War in the West. He is a retired USCG officer and a licensed officer of the Merchant Marine, currently self-employed as a marine surveyor and marine accident investigator in Portland, Ore.
This first of a planned three volume set telling the story of the Battle of Gettysburg using battle reports, 3-dimensional views, maps, and first- hand accounts. It begins with Gen. Robert E. Lee’s strategic planning to relieve Virginia and its plundered resources, stoke negative political consequences for President Lincoln’s reelection, and perhaps siphon off troops from besieged Vicksburg. With these objectives in mind, the Army of Northern Virginia marched down the Shenandoah Valley into Maryland and Pennsylvania with a clear terminal objective not yet determined. Before long circumstances brought on the initial confrontations at Brandy Station, Winchester, and Stephenson’s Depot. When Lee’s army finally reached Pennsylvania, an early morning cavalry skirmish at Wisler’s Ridge began the fateful events of July 1, 1863. What followed were Confederate advances by Gen. Heth’s Division at Herr Ridge against Gen. Buford’s cavalry. The engagements then proceeded through locations frequently overlooked from texts on Gettysburg, Marsh Creek,
Included in this volume is a complete Order of Battle for both the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac, with all corps, brigades, and divisions represented. Photos of officers and enlisted men help to bring to life the sacrifices of all participants. The accounts stress how the North was fighting to preserve the Union and Southerners were fighting to retain their culture. This first volume concludes with the rout of the XI Corps, the final determined stand of the I Corps at Seminary Ridge, and the nighttime planning of Generals Lee and Meade for the next day. This planning ensured neither side would withdraw and day two would bring additional death and misery.
This book is historically accurate, well written, and provides a good primer for any student of Gettysburg. The only suggestion for improvement would be to enlarge the battle scene photos as they are too small to fully appreciate their contribution to the reader’s understanding of the battle. The following two planned volumes should form a complete, well presented, understanding of this pivotal battle.
Dr. 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 the Civil War including The Last Confederate Scout and Heroes and Rogues of the Civil War.
Modern History for the Modern Strategist: America’s Major Wars Since 1861 was written by a senior fellow and director of research in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. In this book the author “addresses profound questions. How successful has the United States been when it waged these wars? Were the wars avoidable? Did America’s leaders know what they were getting into when they committed to war? And what lessons does history offer for future leaders contemplating war?—Including the prospects for avoiding war in the first place.”
The book’s first five chapters cover the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, America’s Wars in the Middle East since 1990, and concludes with a chapter entitled “Three Lessons.” The five chapters have sections covering the paths to war, weapons and technology, a very good general history of the war or wars, followed by a concluding section entitled “Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned.” The “Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned” sections are excellent and worth reading as a standalone on their own by anyone familiar with the conflicts involved.
The Three Lessons discussed
Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era. By Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant. Illustrated, Notes, Index, Bibliography, Appendices. Oxford University Press, global.oup.com, 2023, 434 pp., Hardcover, $34.95.
Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf
idealization of Confederate youth helped shape the Lost Cause mythology. These objectives were shaped further by studies of human growth in the 19th Century that concentrated on the effect of war and its horrors on the physical and mental development of youth. Children were seen as having to conquer their fears and develop the manly traits and vigor to deal with the world they lived in. Thus, male youths were seen as benefiting from exposure to conflict so they would remember the sacrifices that others endured to keep them free in a world of competitiveness. In the North youths were thus seen as symbols of the national self and a virtuous Union cause. In the South, they were lauded as proof of Confederate unity and righteousness.
Quarrier Press, Charleston, WV. https://wvbookco.com, 122 pp. Softcover. $12.95.
Reviewed by Meg Groeling
bibliography as compelling as the book itself. Several anecdotes are enjoyable, such as the 1862 ride of Jane Snyder. Her West Virginia neighborhood was in danger of being attacked by some partisan rangers under Col. John Imboden. Young Miss Jane was the daughter of a Unionist. Her father was the leader of some Union Home Guards. When she learned of the coming incursion, she leaped (of course she did!) to the back of a fleet horse. She rode through the night to alert her father and a nearby Union garrison near present-day Parsons. “Her Paul Revere-like ride saved the Union garrison and spread an alarm that foiled Imboden.” (45-46)
remained imprisoned. (85) I had never heard or even considered one particular anecdote. It concerns the famous Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson’s sister. Her name was Laura Jackson Arnold. She was close to her brother until the beginning of the war, but just as he went South, she remained a staunch Unionist. Miss Laura became a nurse in Beverly, W.V., and pledged to “take care of the wounded Federals as fast as brother Thomas could wound them.” Laura Arnold is one of those “B List” characters whose life deserves more investigation. (3-4)
This book traces the history of the economic, legal, social, political and cultural perspectives which formed the basis for the world’s view of what was a child, who owned the labor and body of a child until the age of adulthood, and how did the military reconcile the legal definition of filial obedience to the needs of a war machine. During the Civil War, approximately 10% of both Union and Confederate forces were under the age of 18. Whether these recruits were scammed into enlisting, ran away from home, lied about their ages, or were literally kidnapped, they set in motion a legal process whereby their parents or guardians attempted to retrieve their children. This created a situation where state courts, mainly through writs of habeas corpus, were petitioned to release these children from military service. In opposition, federal authorities, desperate for manpower, generally considered the enlistment contract to be binding and having emancipated the youth from parental control.
Within this context, the authors attempt to clarify four aspects of underage soldiering during the Civil War: (1) How a youngster’s removal from the home affected a family’s labor requirements and, in many cases, survival;
(2) How expectations of young males affected enlistments; (3)
By the war’s end how the traffic in underage boys became a profitable business; and, (4) How
The Civil War thus became the final stage of a process of politicization and militarization that had begun decades before. Neither parental resistance nor legal restrictions could check war fever and the freedom youths could experience away from home in the companionship of other me of all ages. As a result, the federal government became the largest single employer of child labor during the Civil War. Likewise, until the turn of the 20th Century, the bravery of these young soldiers, drummer boys, and musicians was seen as vitally important to justify the Union cause in the North and cement the sacrifices endured in the South.
This book is well written and researched, historically sound, and commendable for exploring the multifaceted aspects of underage service in the Civil War. Youthful service becomes a lens through which history can view changing perceptions of what a child is and how should children be raised to succeed in society. This has been a neglected topic in most Civil War literature and this book fills a vital niche to better understand society’s changing views of childhood and how the Civil War transformed American youth.
Dr. Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous books on the Civil War including Heroes and Rogues of the Civil War, Two Years Before the Paddlewheel, and The Last Confederate Scout. He is past president of the LincolnDavis Civil War Roundtable and a frequent lecturer on the roundtable circuit.
This book has a title that is not entirely accurate. There are few “strange tales” within its covers and very little of the supernatural. There are, however, many short anecdotes concerning West Virginia soldiers in the American Civil War. The book is arranged by year, 1861 to 1865, and each account has its own endnote, 286 of them, at the back of the book. A substantial biography also contains books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, and websites. Readers may find the
Author Lesson claims that, in 1861, General R. E. Lee’s famous mount Traveller was a West Virginia-bred horse purchased for two hundred dollars. He also tells readers of various newspaper editorials mocking General Lee and his less-than-effective defense of what would soon become West Virginia. (26-27)
Many anecdotes feature enslaved persons. One, from 1864, claims that a man wearing a Confederate uniform was captured by Generals Crook and Averell and deposited in the Athenaeum prison at Wheeling, W.Va. The prisoner claimed he was trying to get through Confederate lines when captured and impressed into southern service. The Confederates claimed he was one of theirs, so he
Civil War Oddities of West Virginia is easy to read, mildly interesting, and contains some laughs. This little book is one possible answer for readers tired of five-hundred-page treatises on strategy and tactics or who simply want a break.
Meg Groeling received her Master’s degree in Military History, with a Civil War emphasis, in 2016, from American Public University. Savas Beatie published her first book, The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead, 2015, and she has written First Fallen: the Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, also published by Savas Beatie. She is a regular contributor to the blog Emerging Civil War. She and her husband live, with three cats, in a 1927 California bungalow covered with roses on the outside and books on the inside.
Union General: Samuel Ryan Curtis and Victory in the West. By William L. Shea. photographs, index, endnotes, and bibliography. 346 pp. Potomac Books, An Imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, https://www.nebraskapress.unl. edu. 2023. Hardbound. $34.95.
Reviewed by Richard J. Blumberg
mover/shaker in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Union General: Samuel Ryan Curtis and Victory in the West, chronicles a variety of humaninterest topics all Civil War soldiers encountered. General Curtis not only endured long separations from his wife, but he also lost five of his seven children. Curtis was grateful for his West Point education, which he continually applied to all his career experiences. William Shea also describes the unpredictable political/communications arenas faced by many commanders. He also does a very good job explaining the logistical issues independent field commanders faced and how they solved them.
Western Theater Union commanders were vitally important. Effective commanders, like Curtis, made it very difficult for Confederates to wage combat on both sides of the Mississippi River at the same time.
The Military Memoirs of a Confederate Line Officer: Captain John C. Reed’s Civil War from Manassas to Appomattox. Edited by William R. Cobb. Photos, notes, index, 192 pp., 2023. Savas Beatie, www.savasbeatie.com. Softbound. $19.95.
Reviewed by Jonathan A. Noyalas
offers much value to Civil War historians. While those interested in the 8th Georgia, the Army of Northern Virginia, and Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s Corps will find Reed’s perspectives about battles from First Manassas to the Confederate surrender useful, the value of Reed’s postwar reflections extends well beyond recounting troop movements and the ebb and flow of battle.
Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and Chamberlain are well known Union generals. Each commanded units serving primarily east of the Mississippi River. Their fame was not only derived from military leadership, but also their proximity to major governmental, industrial, and financial centers, where media coverage was strong. Unfortunately, many fine generals who served west of the Mississippi River are still largely ignored. General Samuel Ryan Curtis is one of them. William Shea remedies that problem in his latest work, Union General: Samuel Ryan Curtis and Victory in the West Shea provides a comprehensive biography of this obscure hero. General Curtis was an excellent but largely independent field commander. He was also a civil engineer, attorney, politician, and
Perhaps the best insight Shea provides are the reasons for General Curtis’ relative obscurity. Those living in Iowa or Missouri likely are familiar with Curtis, but he is largely unknown anywhere else. General Curtis’ military triumphs at Pea Ridge in 1862 and the Battle of Westport in 1864, are significant. His contributions as a civil engineer and politician helped complete the Transcontinental Railroad. However, General Curtis expected others would recognize his achievements and credit them to him. Unfortunately, Curtis died shortly after the war ended and others were only too happy to lay claims on Curtis’ achievements.
Historians interested in Western Theater operations, or engineers and railroad buffs will find this book a valuable reference work. It is extremely well researched and written in clear concise chapters that cover a myriad of topics.
Richard has served as a Civil War News book reviewer for twentytwo years. Three of his articles were published in various issues of Civil War News. His current work focuses on religion in the Civil War.
In the Civil War’s aftermath Captain John Reed, a veteran of the 8th Georgia Infantry who served with the regiment throughout the entire conflict, embarked upon the task of writing a memoir about his wartime experiences. Work progressed slowly over the next few decades. He completed the manuscript, “From Manassas to Appomattox,” in 1888, but it was never published. After Reed’s death in 1910 the manuscript ended up in the collections of the Alabama State Department of Archives and Military History. Reed’s memoirs remained there in obscurity for many decades. While some historians have mined Reed’s memoirs in recent years it has not until now, due to the diligent and careful editorial work of William R. Cobb, been available for the public’s consumption.
Reed’s memoirs, carefully annotated by the editor and enhanced by an array of maps, and including a remarkably detailed map of the 8th Georgia’s movements at the First Battle of Manassas by that most-gifted cartographer Hal Jespersen,
Those seeking a richer understanding of the ways in which the experience of soldiering and combat impacted soldiers will find Reed’s memoirs quite valuable. Throughout, Reed offers heart-rending observations about the despair of dealing with the loss of beloved comrades. For example, Reed recounted how the death of Sergeant Frank Crone in the spring of 1862 on the Virginia Peninsula prompted him to possess nothing but “a very sad recollection of this place.” Additionally, Reed’s memoirs reveals how soldiers coped with a bevy of daily issues related to individual health and wellness and engaged in what historian Kathryn Shively termed “self-care.”
Historians interested in exploring the relationships and interactions between soldiers and civilians will likewise find this volume beneficial. In addition to recording encounters with Confederate civilians in places such as Richmond, and Winchester, a community where Reed spent time early in the conflict and for several days after he was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, Reed’s memoirs also details various exchanges he and his comrades had with civilians in southern Pennsylvania during the summer of 1863 as the Army of Northern Virginia launched its second invasion of the North. Among the confrontations Reed recalled was one with “a neatly dressed lady” who exchanged words with Reed about how she believed the Army of the Potomac would crush Confederate forces. Reed also related a somewhat amusing encounter troops in the 8th Georgia had with a young boy who looked somewhat surprised that as he gazed upon
the Confederate troops he did not see any horns protruding from their heads as he was told ‘that the rebels all have horns.’ Furthermore, this masterfully edited volume offers insight into the Confederacy’s political and military figures and their decisions. While Reed’s viewpoints are not necessarily representative of all Confederates, his thoughts about such topics as the role Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart played in the Army of Northern Virginia’s defeat at Gettysburg, disdain for President Jefferson Davis, and the lack of widespread support among Confederate authorities to arm black people to fight for the Confederacy late in the conflict provides another lens through which historians can further analyze various aspects of the conflict.
Reed’s memoirs also demonstrate how Confederates processed their defeat in the decades after the conflict. While admittedly distraught in the spring of 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Reed confessed that in “the years since the war I have changed greatly” and that in hindsight he rejoiced that the Confederacy lost. While some Confederate veterans possessed nothing but bitterness until they breathed their last, Reed’s reflection reveals how some Confederate veterans’ perspectives evolved over time.
William Cobb deserves much credit for bringing Reed’s memoirs to print and for his stellar work in editing it. This memoir possesses mass appeal to historians interested in the conflict’s military, political, and social dimensions.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester, Virginia, a professor in Civil War Era Studies at Shenandoah University, and founding editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. He is the author or editor of fifteen books including most recently Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, published by the University Press of Florida.
By Frank P. Varney. Maps, photographs, appendices, footnotes, bibliography, index. 226 pp., 2022. Savas Beatie, LLC. www.savasbeatie.com. hardback. $32.95.
Reviewed by Gould Hagler
held grudges, hogged credit for himself, dismissed and belittled the accomplishments of others, blamed others for his own mistakes, and tailored his accounts of successful operations so as to leave the impression that all went according to his masterful plan.
Let’s start with Hooker and Thomas at the Battle of Chattanooga. If you think that Hooker’s assault on Lookout Mountain was a difficult thing to pull off and one that contributed to the Federal success, you need to listen to Grant. He said in an interview that “There was no such battle, and no action even worthy to be called a battle on Lookout Mountain.”
than Sheridan’s. The ex-president was evasive, repeatedly using phrases like “I do not recollect.” Sheridan was less evasive and attempted to defend the decision to dismiss Warren. He was not persuasive. The officers on the court determined that the action Sheridan took in removing Warren from command was not justified, despite knowing the members of the court knew that Sheridan was in line to succeed Sherman as Commanding General of the U.S. Army. He did so in 1883.
Gunboats, Muskets and Torpedoes-Coastal South Carolina 1861–1865. By Michael G. Laramie. Photos, Illustrations, Bibliography, Endnotes, Glossary, Index. 383 pages. Westholme Publishing, www.westholmepublishing.com. 2022. Hardbound. $35.00.
Reviewed by Tom
Elmoreuntil these forts were abandoned by the Confederates that the Federals took control of them.
The book under review is the second volume of a two-part work by Frank Varney. It follows General Grant and the Rewriting of History, published by Savas Beatie in 2013.
Volume I examined the military record of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans and discussed history’s perspective of this record, a generally-negative view largely shaped by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant memoirs and other writings. This negative view is unwarranted, Varney argues, with evidence from various sources, especially Grant’s dishonest accounts of Rosescrans’s actions at Iuka, Corinth, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga.
In General Grant and the Verdict of History Varney picks up where he left off and considers Grant’s treatment of three other officers. Joseph Hooker, George H. Thomas, and Gouverneur K. Warren were all major generals who, like Rosecrans, served part of the War under Grant, and who, Varney asserts, were all victims of Grant’s malice.
The portrait of Grant painted by Varney is that of a man who
Did Grant order the assault on Missionary Ridge? Most accounts say that after taking the rifle pits, as ordered, the men in Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland charged on their own accord. Not in Grant’s version. He wrote that they were “effectually carrying out my orders of the 18th for the battle and of the 24th for this charge.”
Was Thomas slow, always slow, ponderously slow? Grant said so again and again. Thomas’s refusal to attack at Nashville until he was ready wasn’t due to atrocious weather and supply problems. It was just the general’s dilatory habits. Grant planned to fire him but couldn’t very well do that after Thomas’s smashing victory in a battle that all but destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
Warren paid the heaviest price for earning Grant’s disfavor. After his corps helped win the Battle of Five Forks, Warren was stunned to find himself abruptly stripped of command. No court of inquiry was convened until 1879. The discussion of this court is perhaps the most interesting part of Varney’s book. Lieut.
Gen. Philip Sheridan, the one who “was doing Grant’s bidding” when he axed Warren, testified, as did President Grant, two years or so out of office. Grant’s testimony was less interesting
Warren never learned he had been exonerated. He died before the court’s decision was published in 1881. Frank Varney does not pull his punches. Regarding Grant’s various statements and actions, the author uses phrases such as “disingenuous,” “false legend,” “patently untrue,” and “pattern of deceit.” He discusses the historiography as well as the history, and points out instances in which historians should have examined Grant’s writings with a more critical eye.
Varney presents cogent arguments based on government records and accounts written by the principal actors and others who were present and wrote about what they did, heard, and observed. The notes are where they belong, at the foot of the page, for the convenience of the careful reader; and the book ought to be read with care. It is not for the novice, but for readers who already know the plot and the characters in the drama.
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 of 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. His email is gould.hagler@gmail.com.
The four year-long battle for the control of the South Carolina coastline, with an emphasis on capturing Charleston, produced some of the hottest fighting of the American Civil War.
At the onset, both sides had certain advantages. The Union had a bigger navy that enabled the north to easily capture Beaufort and the Port Royal area in 1862, enabling them to set up a port for the blockading fleet. The South, on the other hand, had the advantage of easy to defend, if overly extensive, terrain. The South Carolina coastline from Georgetown to the North Carolina state line, (now known as the Grand Strand) is sixty miles of sandy beaches with no natural harbors which would have doomed any operations against it. Consequently, the Union’s army and navy effort focused on the coastal region between Charleston and Savannah.
Charleston’s harbor was ringed by numerous small forts and batteries with Forts Sumter and Moultrie making a nearly impenetrable gauntlet that prevented enemy vessels from getting to the city.
Despite this, the North tired hard to capture the city and/or Fort Sumter. Land attacks were generally made south of the city, most notably the 1862 Battle of Secessionville on James Island and the various attacks on Battery Wagner on Morris Island in 1863. In both cases the North suffered high casualties with little or nothing to show for it. It was not
Military operations in Charleston harbor did not fare any better for the Federals. Despite constant bombardments, Fort Sumter remained in Confederate hands until evacuated in 1865. Much of the credit (or blame) for this lies with Union army and navy commanders. While they often came up with plans for joint operations that looked good on paper, they were never properly executed due to miscommunications, faulty intelligence, poor weather, and just plain bad luck; a surprising lack of support from Washington, was also a factor.
Adding to the Union navy’s woes was the Confederate use of armored torpedo boats. While their success was somewhat limited, they added problems for a fleet that was already stretched thin due to lack of manpower and disabled vessels.
That was not all. Laramie, an engineer turned historian, argues that Charleston was still a valuable port for blockade runners by war’s end, pointing out many ships that ran the blockade were more advanced than the Union ships trying to stop them, and as a whole only one in six blockade runners were captured by the Union navy.
In the end Charleston fell because Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s march through South Carolina forced the Confederates to evacuate the city on February 17, 1865.
This is a good account of the struggle for the South Carolina coastline. Of particular note, is the examination of the relationships between the Union army and navy commanders showing that, while it was far from perfect, it was not as bad as it has generally been depicted. Also included are some of the best maps this reviewer has ever seen in a Civil War book, as well as a glossary of military terms used in the book. The one big complaint is that he seldom mentions officers by their first name in the text, which is often annoying,
This is a very well done study of an often overlooked aspect of the war. For anyone interested in how the blockade or the Union navy fared during the war, this is an excellent read.
Tom Elmore has written several books and magazine articles about South Carolina during the Civil War.
Before the Civil War, George Bayard escaped death twice as a member of the First United States Cavalry, fighting in the Indian Wars. First, he stared down an angry buffalo after his horse had fallen, unseated its rider, and ran off. The second event occurred in actual combat as Bayard was hit in the left cheek with an arrow.
Some publications indicate that after Fredericksburg, Bayard was scheduled to marry Mary Ellen Bowman, daughter of Alexander Hamilton Bowman, the Superintendent at West Point during Bayard’s time there. Contradicting those accounts, other records show that Mary died in 1860, at age 18. The name of the general’s bride-to-be didn’t appear in his father’s book. Nor did the author or his team find a copy of the general’s death-bed letter to her. Research continues!
In the buffalo incident, Bayard was part of a hunting party. A surviving buffalo seemed ready to charge the defenseless officer who had lost his weapons when his horse fell. For some reason, unknown to Bayard, the animal decided to retreat and allowed the young cavalry second lieutenant to rejoin his comrades. Bayard described the incident in a letter to his father, Samuel J. Bayard.
spent months in pain and constant bleeding that threatened his life. He returned to St. Louis for additional surgery and the arrowhead finally was extracted. More complicated surgery involving the carotid artery stopped the bleeding and saved his life. He was then assigned to West Point, where he had graduated in 1856, to recover.
On March 16, 1861, he was promoted to first lieutenant of the Third Volunteer New York Infantry and on August 20, he was promoted to captain of the Fourth United States Cavalry. He then was granted a leave of absence to accept an appointment as colonel of the First Pennsylvania Volunteers, which led to his commission on August 27, 1861.
to brigadier general and placed in command of cavalry in the Department of the Rappahannock. His brigade joined Pope in time for the Battle of Cedar Mountain. There, the Confederates began a string of Confederate victories that emboldened General Lee to expand the war north of the Potomac.
After a long recovery from the wound, Bayard returned to duty just as the Civil War began. He was struck by a Confederate shell at Fredericksburg December 13, 1862, and died the next day from the loss of blood, four days short of his twenty-seventh birthday. By then, he was a brigadier general leading his own brigade and was considered a rising star in the Union cavalry. Bayard’s ancestors reached back to the American Revolution and the family of President George Washington.
On July 11, 1860, Bayard was hit by the arrow in a battle with Kiowa Indians at Black Water Creek in New Mexico’s Salt Desert. The action began after the Kiowa killed a local rancher. Bayard’s men then tracked down and killed Kiowa Chief Big Pawnee, provoking a KiowaComanche uprising. The First Cavalry was then charged with protecting settlers from Indian attack on the Santa Fe Trail. Surgeons were unable to remove the arrowhead and Bayard
After the regiment moved to Virginia on October 10, 1861, Bayard was slightly injured, and his horse killed in a skirmish with Confederate guerillas at Dranesville, Va., on November 27, 1861.
Early in 1862, Bayard and his command were sent to the Shenandoah to assist in a campaign to drive Confederates from the Valley. Bayard was part of the force which killed Confederate cavalry chieftain Turner Ashby at Harrisonburg. He was with Union troops defeated at Cross Keys, the start of a Union retreat that allowed Major General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson’s forces to join up with General Robert E. Lee just outside Richmond and foil capture of the Confederate capital.
Union Major General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac abandoned the Peninsula Campaign and withdrew to Fort Monroe, Va. At the same time, Major General John Pope’s new Army of Virginia began a march toward Richmond from the north.
After leaving the Shenandoah Valley, Bayard was promoted
After the battle at Cedar Mountain, Bayard was one of the Union officers who met with their Confederate adversaries under a flag of truce to collect the dead and wounded from each side. In doing so, Bayard ran into former West Point classmate, Confederate Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart. Both had served and had been wounded on the western frontier before the war.
During their conversation, Bayard heard a Union soldier begging for water and asked Stuart to hold his horse’s bridle while he went to the man’s aid. Stuart quipped that it was the “first time he had played orderly to a Union Brigadier General.”
The War moved on to Second Manassas and another Confederate victory before both armies crossed the Potomac into Maryland. Antietam was a bloody infantry fight, leaving the cavalry on both sides with responsibility to protect artillery and troop movements. Bayard’s Brigade was assigned to protect Washington City.
After a lengthy delay in following Lee’s army into Virginia, President Lincoln replaced McClellan with Major General Ambrose Burnside in early November.
The Union commander moved the army toward Fredericksburg, but delayed in crossing the Rappahannock River because pontoon bridges from a previous crossing of the Potomac River at Berlin, Maryland (today’s Brunswick), were late arriving in Fredericksburg.
Bayard’s Brigade was transferred to the command of Major General William. B. Franklin, part of the contingent charged with attacking Stonewall Jackson’s Corps south of town. Here. Major General George Meade’s forces at first broke the Confederate line on December 13 at what became known as the Slaughter Pen.
A Confederate counterattack pushed the Union troops back toward Bowling Green Road to end the threat. Instrumental in the Confederate success was cannon fire from the lone remaining gun of a battery commanded by Major John Pelham. Pelham’s battery is generally credited with firing the shot that would end Bayard’s life. Bayard had gone to Franklin’s headquarters in the afternoon to discuss the battle situation when he was struck in the hip by shrapnel from a cannonball that hit a tree under which Bayard was standing.
Surgeons warned Bayard that he likely would not survive amputation; the general died from a loss of blood about 24 hours later. Sustained by morphine to deaden the pain, he wrote his parents saying he was weakening and offered advice as to the distribution of his personal effects. Bayard’s father, Samuel Bayard, heard of the wounding and started toward Fredericksburg to bring his son home to Philadelphia. His son died before he arrived, but he accompanied the body to Princeton, New Jersey, for burial. Bayard had served with several other notable generals in the prewar campaigns who were killed in the Civil War, including Major General John Sedgwick and Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon on the Union Side and Lieutenant General Jackson and Major General Stuart on the Confederate side
Much of the information for this article came from the 1878 book Life of George Dashiell Bayard, late Captain and Brigadier of Volunteers Killed in Battle of Fredericksburg, December 14, 1862, by Bayard’s father, Samuel Bayard. The book is out of print, but can be read on the Internet by searching for the general or the title. The story was augmented by Official Records
Carl Sell is a frequent contributor to the Civil War News. His research team includes Genealogist Karen Connair and historians Ben Trittipoe and Don Hakenson. Carl can be reached at sellcarl@aol.com or 703-971-4716.
July 22-23. Tennessee. Civil War & Artifact Show
American Digger® Chattanooga Civil War & Artifact Show, Camp Jordan Arena, 323 Camp Jordan Pkwy, East Ridge, Tenn. Info: 770-362-8671 or 716-574-0465; anita@americandigger.com or kesmas@localnet.com. Visit https://americandigger.com/upcoming-events.
Aug. 12-13, Georgia. Civil War Show and Sale
45th Annual Southeastern Civil War & Antique Gun Show in Marietta at the Cobb County Civic Center hosted by the North Georgia Relic Hunters Association. Cobb County Civic Center, 548 South Marietta Pkwy SE, Marietta, GA 30060. Hours Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission $8, veterans and children under 10 are free. Show chairman: Ray McMahan at terryraymac@hotmail.com. For more info visit www.ngrha.com.
Sept. 16, Virginia. Walking Tour
Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in partnership with the Fort Collier Civil War Center will offer a tour with Prof. Jonathan A. Noyalas, The Scene as I Remember It”: Reflections on Experiences at Fort Collier during the Civil War, in observance of the 159th anniversary of the Third Battle of Winchester. The tour, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. and last approximately seventy-five minutes, will take place at Fort Collier, 922 Martinsburg Pike, Winchester, Virginia. Event is free and open to the public. No pre-registration required. Questions: jnoyalas01@su.edu or 540665-4501.
Sept. 23, Illinois. Civil War & Military Extravaganza
Zurko Promotions presents The National Civil War Collectors Fall Show and Sale which will be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 W. Manchester, Wheaton, Ill. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10, Early Admission $25. Free parking. For more information visit www. chicagocivilwarshow.com or call Zurko Promotions at 715-526-9769.
Oct. 6-8, Virginia, Annual Conference
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust hosts its 2023 annual conference, “1863: Chancellorsville-The Crossroads of Fire.” This year’s conference features a Friday tour of Moss Neck, Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson’s 1862-63 winter headquarters with historian Frank O’Reilly. That evening the President’s Reception will be at the Sentry Box, one of Fredericksburg’s most historic homes. Saturday features a tour of the Chancellorsville battlefield with historians Chris Mackowski and Kris White. Saturday evening includes a banquet and the annual meeting with a keynote address by Kris White at historic Belmont in Falmouth. Sunday brunch at Stevenson’s Ridge includes a panel discussion about “Chancellorsville as the Prelude to Gettysburg” with historians Sarah Kay Bierle, John Hennessey, Robert Lee Hodge, Scott Walker, and others. The weekend registration is $260 per person. More information and online registration are available at: https://www.cvbt.org/ cvbt-annual-conference.
Oct. 6-8,
The North-South Skirmish Association 148th 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.
Oct. 21-22, Virginia. Reenactment
The 159th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek recreating the last major battle in the Shenandoah Valley will be held the weekend of Oct. 21-22 at 8437 Valley Pike in Middletown, Va. See cavalry, artillery, and infantry soldiers in action and in camp. Battle scenarios, music, symposia, and medical, military, and civilian demonstrations are scheduled each day. Fundraising raffles, period merchants, and food vendors onsite. Don’t miss the Evening Candlelight Tour Program. 1-day, 2-day, and discount options available! Children 6 & under are free! For more information; 540-869-2064, info@ccbf.us or www.ccbf.us.
Nov. 4, Virginia. Seminar & Tour
Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute annual fall seminar and tour with Prof. Jonathan A. Noyalas, “Breaking the Shenandoah Valley’s Gibraltar: Battle and Reunion at Fisher’s Hill.” $25 registration fee covers morning lecture at Shenandoah University (1460 University Drive, Winchester, VA), lunch at SU, and vehicle caravan of sites. Event begins at 10:30 a.m. and concludes at 4:30 p.m. To register visit www.su.edu/mcwi. Questions: jnoyalas01@su.edu or 540-665-4501.
Nov. 10, Pennsylvania. US Marine Corps Birthday Observance
Join us at the Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave, in Philadelphia at 11 a.m. at the grave of General Jacob Zeilin, 7th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the Civil War. A special ‘Veterans’ Day tour of heroes ‘killed in action’ and buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery will follow. sponsored by: The Legion Post 405; MOLLUS; General Meade Society. For information; 215-228-8200, awaski01@gmail.com, 215-423-3930 or www.thelaurelhillcemetery.org.
Nov. 18, Pennsylvania. Remembrance Day in Gettysburg
General Meade & his Generals and the veterans of the Battle of Gettysburg Honor/Dedication Ceremonies during the Remembrance Day Observance. Honoring all commanders and veterans of the Battle. Meet at the General Meade Equestrian Monument at 10 a.m. For information; Jerry McCormick at 215-848-7753 or gedwinmc@msn.com.
Nov. 18, Virginia. Civil War Show
In conjunction with the Central Virginia Civil War Collectors Association, Bullet and Shell is proud to present the 42nd Annual Central Virginia Military Antique Show (formally Mike Kent’s Capital of the Confederacy Civil War Show). This year, the show is moving to a new location at Meadow Event Park, 13191 Dawn Blvd, in Doswell, Va. The show will host vendors and displays of American military history from the Revolutionary War through WWII. Bring your relics for appraisal or to sell. Over 300 tables! There will be many historical items to add to your collection. Show hours are 9-5 on Saturday, vendor setup on Friday. Parking is free and admission is only $10/adults with children under 12 free. For more information; www.MilitaryAntiqueShow.com.
Dec. 3-4, Tennessee. Civil War Show and Sale
MK Shows presents the 36th annual Middle Tennessee Civil War Show and Sale at the Williamson County Ag Expo Park, 4215 Long Lane in Franklin. The nation’s largest Civil War show, featuring 750 tables of antique weapons, artifacts and memorabilia from top dealers and collectors around the country and encompassing all eras of military history from the Revolutionary War through World War II. Appraisers are always on hand to help you identify and value your military collectibles at no cost. Hours are 9-5 on Sat., 9-3 on Sun. Free Parking. Admission is only $10/ adults and children under 12 are free. For information; www.MKShows.com or Mike@MKShows.com.
Dec. 31, Pennsylvania. Annual General Meade Birthday Celebration
This year will mark the 208th annual anniversary of the birth of General George G. Meade. The General Meade Society of Philadelphia will celebrate his birthday at Historic Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave. at noon. A champagne toast and reception will follow the program. For information; 215-228-8200 Laurel Hill Cemetery https://www.historicalpublicationsllc.com/site/eventlistings.html for all 2023 events.
45th Annual Aug. 12 & 13, 2023 Saturday 9–5 Sunday 9–3
Cobb County Civic Center 548 S. Marietta Parkway, S.E., Marietta, Georgia 30060
Over 190 8 Foot Tables of:
• Dug Relics
• Guns and Swords
• Books
• Frameable Prints
• Metal Detectors
• Artillery Items
• Currency
Free Parking
Admission: $8 for Adults
Veterans & Children under 10 Free Inquires: NGRHA
Attn: Show Chairman P.O. Box 503, Marietta, GA 30061 terryraymac@icloud.com
Before making plans to attend any event contact the event host.
