2018
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: • PRESERVING AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS BATTLEFIELD BY JIM LIGHTHIZER • MARY THOMPSON - ROBERT E. LEE’S HOSTESS BY CARL L. SELL JR • GETTYSBURG REVISITED: STILL CONSECRATING AND HALLOWING THAT GROUND BY HAROLD HOLZER • THE PENNSYLVANIA RESERVES: BACK IN THE FIGHT BY JOSEPH F. WILSON • NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS BY JOE MIECZKOWSKI • RESEARCHING CIVIL WAR ANCESTORS BY MICHAEL K. SHAFFER • CONTAMINATION FACED BY THE TOWNSPEOPLE OF GETTYSBURG BY MIKE SHOVLIN • ALFRED R. WAUD AND THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG BY SALVATORE CILELLA • COLONEL OF THE GALLANT 4TH TEXAS REMEMBERED BY SHANNON PRITCHARD • ESKIMOS AT GETTYSBURG TRANSLATED BY THOMAS P. LOWRY
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
2 Gettysburg
July 2018
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The Civil War Soldier – His Personal Items By Robert Jones Another first! It explores and explains the daily life and times of the common soldier with vivid images of numerous artifacts, photographs, letters, and documents. With almost 600 photographs, this book is destined to be the reference source when it comes to the personal items used by the Civil War soldier.
Battle of Gettysburg The Relics, Artifacts & Souvenirs By Robert Jones
This is the first published book devoted entirely to Gettysburg, its artifacts, souvenirs and the stories behind them. Many of the unique relics pictured are from early museums and collections. Includes the battle and aftermath, veteran reunions, museums, battlefield monuments and “Gettysburg Today”. Over 750 photos. Other books by Jones are “The Civil Canteen – Second Edition”, “Children at the Battle of Gettysburg – Their Unforgettable Summer” and “Civil War Artillery – A Pictorial Introduction”.
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COMING SOON! THE CIVIL WAR CANTEEN – THIRD EDITION Ordering and Info: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/civilwarbooks Author contact: Bob33rd@optonline.net
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
6 Gettysburg
July 2018
New York Draft Riots “Remember this—that the bloody and treasonable doctrine of public necessity can be proclaimed by a mob as well as by a government.” New York Governor Horatio Seymour By Joe Mieczkowski The New York City Draft Riots, July 13–16, 1863, remain the largest civilian insurrection in American history. While Robert E. Lee’s battered Confederate Army of Northern Virginia faced a pursuing George Meade and the Union Army at the Potomac River, events in New York would unleash resistance to Lincoln’s policies. 2018 is the 155th anniversary of the horrific events that hot summer. New York City was a deeply divided city at the start of the Civil War. Its merchants and financial institutions were reluctant to lose their southern business and the city’s then-mayor, Fernando Wood, had called for the city to secede from the Union. In the decades preceding the war, large numbers of New Yorkers—workers, businessmen, bankers, newspaper editors and politicians—had been adamantly pro-South and pro-slavery. The gigantic international trade in southern cotton was the key. New York banks financed the spread of cotton plantations across the Deep South. New York merchants sold plantation owners their supplies. New York’s Republican mayor in 1863, George Opdyke, had made a fortune selling cheap clothing for provided slaves. Cotton
accounted for a whopping 40 percent of the shipping in New York’s harbor. Meanwhile, to the city’s poorer citizens, the war increasingly came to be seen as benefiting only the rich, as the coffers of the city’s elites filled with the financial spoils of battle and the conflict became known as a “rich man’s war, poor man’s battle.” The passage of the nation’s first military draft act, in March 1863, only worsened the situation. Opposition to the draft was widespread across the North. Not only did it allow men to buy their way out of military service by paying a commutation fee of $300, it also exempted blacks from the draft, as they were not considered American citizens. Among New Yorkers purchasing $300 commutations were both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt’s fathers. Later in life, T.R. was embarrassed by his father’s decision. The other way out was by hiring a substitute. In many cases, a substitute would collect compensation, usually called a “bounty,” then desert before his unit would be sent to the front. He would then move to a new area or state, and start the process all over again. These men became known as “bounty jumpers,” and they were almost universally reviled as cowards. One man
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was known to have “jumped” 32 times. As many states and cities also offered their own bounties, some men could make up to $1,000 per “jump.” Most Union privates earned a mere $13 a month, so bounty jumping, while dangerous, could also be highly lucrative. Early in the summer of 1863 it was announced that a compulsory addition would be made to augment the field armies by means of general conscription. The New York City quota was fixed at 12,500 and that of Brooklyn at 5,000. Colonel Robert Nugent, of the Sixty-ninth New York Volunteers, a captain in the Thirteenth United States Infantry, was detailed as assistant provost marshal general. As the July draft approached, New York City was already on edge. Many of the city’s white, largely Irish and German immigrant workers, refused to work alongside AfricanAmerican workers. The two groups, on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder, had jostled for the city’s lowest paying jobs, and tensions had increased as the war continued. The first day of the draft, Saturday, July 11, passed largely without incident; however, as the initial lists of the conscripted began to spread, a large-scale protest movement got underway. When officials, accompanied by just a dozen police officers, arrived at the city’s Provost Marshall’s office on the morning of Monday, July 13, they found an anxious crowd of roughly 500, many of them armed. Shortly after the draft’s 10:30 a.m. start time, a volunteer fire company, angered at the military conscription of their chief two days earlier, arrived on the scene. Known as Black Joke Engine Co. No. 33, the burly group was just as famous for their fistfighting skills as they were for their firefighting. The men soon began to smash the building’s windows and force their way inside, followed closely by the growing mob. After breaking in, they destroyed much of the draft equipment as local officials fled the scene. The protesters, meanwhile, began to spread out across the city, growing in numbers. When the Superintendent of Police, John A. Kennedy, reached the scene, he was recognized and beaten within an inch of his
life. Colonel Henry O’Brien of the 11th New York Regiment was stripped, beaten, tortured, and shot in the head after he fired his howitzer into a crowd, accidentally killing a woman and child. In an attempt to quell the unrest, General John E. Wool, Commander of the Eastern District, brought approximately 800 troops in from forts in the New York Harbor and from nearby West Point. He also ordered the state militias to return to New York. An early target of the mob was the pro-war press, particularly the New York Tribune, run by abolitionist Horace Greeley. By mid-morning a group of protesters had descended on the city’s lower Manhattan media district and were turned away under heavy fire by armed newspaper staffers. Around the same time, another mob contingent laid waste to the one of the city’s armories. Late that afternoon, the crowd reached the Colored Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, home to more than 230 children.
The orphanage’s staff was able to evacuate all the children to safety, but just minutes later, the mob turned on the building with ferocity, uprooting trees, destroying clothing, toys, and supplies before setting fire to the building. As the first day of the riots wore on, many of the early participants, whose opposition had been focused solely on the draft itself, turned away from the increasingly violent mob. Many, including some men from the Black Joke Engine Co. would spend the next several days combating the rioters and protecting the city’s citizens. The uprising morphed into a race riot, blacks seen in the streets were targeted by the rioters, mainly as the perceived scapegoats for the war and the draft, as well as potential job competitors. Many were beaten, some were tortured, and others were lynched. One man was attacked by a crowd of 400, beaten with clubs and paving stones, then hanged and his corpse set afire. Black men and black women were attacked,
Recruiting poster for the southern division of New Your. Dated, June 23, 1863.
July 2018 but the rioters singled out the men for special violence. On the waterfront, they hanged William Jones and then burned his body. White dock workers also beat and nearly drowned Charles Jackson; they beat Jeremiah Robinson to death and threw his body in the river. Rioters also made a sport of mutilating the black men’s
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section bodies, sometimes sexually. A group of white men and boys mortally attacked a black sailor, William Williams, jumping on his chest, plunging a knife into him, smashing his body with stones, all while a crowd of men, women, and children watched. At least 100 blacks were killed for no other reason than the color of
Sacking a drug store on second avenue. (Harpers Weekly, Aug. 1, 1863)
their skin. After a night of heavy rain, rioters returned to the streets early on Tuesday, July 14, looting and destroying businesses in the downtown area, including a large Brooks Brothers’ store which, as a contractor for the U.S. government, had been churning out military clothing for more than two years. The mob also began constructing barricades around the city that proved difficult for police to overcome. Targeted
attacks on blacks intensified and included the lynching of at least two African-American men. New York politicians squabbled amongst themselves about how to bring order to the city. The Democratic governor, who had openly opposed the draft law before it went into effect, seemed reluctant to move forcefully against the demonstrators. The city’s Republican mayor, George Opdyke, well aware of the shortage of available
Gettysburg 7 police officers, asked the War Department to send Federal troops, but stopped short of declaring martial law and turning control of the city over to Federal officials. President Lincoln proposed to send General Judson Kilpatrick, a cavalry officer fresh from Gettysburg, to the scene, thinking his name would be a terror to the lawless gangs ravaging the city. Horatio Seymour, New York’s governor, spoke to the mob.
The Second Avenue Armory in New York burns during the city’s draft riots in July 1863.
(AP)
8 Gettysburg Seymour consulted Mayor Opdyke and issued a proclamation ordering the rioters to disperse. At the city hall he addressed the mob, ‘My friends,’ he began as he pleaded with them to cease destroying property. Republicans pounced on the phrase, which they claimed proved Seymour’s affiliation with the rioters. But the rioters, friend or no, failed to disperse. Seymour was much criticized in following weeks and years for this phrase, “My friends.” At least four more blacks were killed on Wednesday, July 15, as the riots reached their third day. Desperate to contain the violence, New York Police Commissioner Thomas Acton and Harvey Brown of the New York National Guard decided to concentrate their vastly outnumbered forces at key parts of the city, including the area around City Hall, and northern outposts on the city’s east side. This allowed them to target the barricaded areas more efficiently, but left other areas of the city vulnerable to attacks. In fact, two key decisions that afternoon; the passage of an emergency bill that would provide low-interest loans to New Yorkers wishing to buy draft exemptions, and the announcement of the suspension of the draft itself, did little to quell the violence, as the riots spread to Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section Hoping to appeal to the largely Irish Catholic mob, secular leaders implored religious leaders to get involved. Governor Seymour asked Archbishop John Hughes, long a giant of New York’s Irish Catholic establishment, to speak to the city. Some 4,000 mostlyIrish poor gathered outside his home, and Hughes urged them to conduct themselves peaceably, as proud sons of Ireland, “that has ever been the mother of heroes and poets, but never... of cowards!” Observers wished that Hughes had given the speech a few days earlier. By mid-day, the first of more than 4,000 Federal troops, some fresh from the horrors of the Gettysburg campaign, arrived in the city. The four-day draft riot was finally quelled by police cooperating with the 7th N.Y. Militia Regiment, which had been hastily recalled from Maryland. Within hours, they faced off against rioters in what became the final clashes of the New York City Draft Riots. The 7th was on duty during the New York Draft Riots from July 16–21. Additional troops were recalled from Pennsylvania, and after a demonstration of military force, the riot was suppressed and order restored. The response was augmented when the 65th and 74th New York Militia returned from Pennsylvania where they
had been guarding railroad bridges and railroad crossings in and around Harrisburg. On Thursday night there was one final confrontation between Federal troops and police on one side and rioters on the other. It took place near Gramercy Park, and was said to have led to the death of at least 12 civilian rioters.
Three regiments of the Second Vermont Brigade came through town on July 20, soon after the riots and just days away from mustering out at the end of their enlistments. General Wool appealed to the Vermonters for assistance in patrolling the streets. The commanding officer of the 14th Vermont asked his men if they wished to help. They
The Illustrated London News depicted the riots in 1863.
Ruins of the Provost-Marshal’s Office.
July 2018 quickly declined, and by the next day the regiment was back home in Brattleboro, Vt. The colonels of the 15th and 16th Vermont didn’t ask their men’s opinions, but simply volunteered them. The exact death toll during the New York Draft Riots is unknown, but according to historian James M. McPherson, at least 120 civilians were killed. At least
(Wikimedia Commons)
(Harpers Weekly, Aug. 1, 1863)
eleven black men were killed by lynching. Violence against black men was especially fierce. The most reliable estimates indicate that at least 2,000 people were injured, hundreds of buildings were damaged, and as many as 50 burnt to the ground, causing millions of dollars in damage. The long term damage to New York’s black population was significant. In the aftermath of the
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section riots, the city’s black population plummeted by more than 20 percent, to below 10,000 (the lowest number since the 1820s), as blacks fled the city. One month later, New York City’s Civil War-era draft resumed, this time peacefully. The drawing of names proceeded on August 19 without incident. In November 1863, there were other speakers at Gettysburg
The Riots in New York: Destruction of the Colored Orphan Asylum. (Illustrated London News, New-York Historical Society Library)
as well as Abraham Lincoln, including Democratic Governor Horatio Seymour who had been in New York during the riots. New York had furnished more troops and material for the war effort than any other state. While Pennsylvania had more troops at Gettysburg, New York sustained more casualties than any other northern state or any Confederate state. Seymour would say, “We love our whole country without reservation. But while we do so… we love and are proud of our own state.” We honor “the glorious dead of our good and great state.” Whether Lincoln and Seymour spoke at Gettysburg apparently is not documented. Seymour ran for the presidency in 1868 and was defeated by U.S. Grant. In time, the city’s wounds healed. The Union League sponsored a black infantry regiment, the 20th U.S. Colored Troops, which paraded through the city and boarded ships for New Orleans on March 5, 1864. New York’s anti-Lincoln fervor also cooled. After the President’s assassination, his body briefly
Gettysburg 9
lay in state in City Hall. Most buildings were draped in black. Sources: https://tinyurl.com/mehz9c8 https://tinyurl.com/yb6l74hy https://tinyurl.com/y9sou9zd Joseph E. Mieczkowski speaks on Jefferson Davis. Joe Mieczkowski is a retired Federal Executive and a Licensed Battlefield Guide for the Gettysburg National Military Park. Joe is a Past President of both The Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides and The Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable. In addition, Joe is on the faculty of the Lincoln Leadership
770-630-7296
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Institute in Gettysburg, Penn. He has three books to his credit including “After Gettysburg: Lee retreats and Meade pursues” and “Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet.” Joe has been a featured author on C-Span. Joe is a resident of Fairfield, Penn., where he lives with his wife, Chris.
Digital Issues of CWN are available by subscription alone or with print plus CWN archives at CivilWarNews.com
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PHOTO: GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
10 Gettysburg
Researching Civil War Ancestors Readers of this publication have an interest in the American Civil War, and like many folks, perhaps the initial thirst to learn more about the conflict stemmed from family stories of an ancestor who wore the blue or the gray. In this article, we explore some of the research tools, that can help one learn more about a family member’s wartime service. The various methods examined work whether looking for a Federal or a Confederate ancestor and equally apply regardless of the branch of service and if the soldier carried rank or served on the frontlines. In keeping with the upcoming anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, this writer selected Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing, who during the July 1863 battle, served with Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, II Corps, in the Army of the Potomac. Cushing lost his life on day three at Gettysburg while working one of his guns near the copse of trees—the focal point of the Pickett/Pettigrew/Trimble Charge. Tracing the military service of one’s ancestor can result in an exciting venture. The more information one possesses upfront, the better one’s chances of yielding accurate results. While we could explore Cushing’s early-life in Wisconsin, via Census records and other data found at www.ancestry. com (a subscription site), we will focus exclusively on his wartime service. A subsidiary of Ancestry, Fold3 www.fold3. com, also a subscription site, generally serves as an excellent place to begin. Although Fold3
offers many Civil War databases, the “Service Records’ section marks a good jumping-off point. Running a search on Cushing produced many results. The sample shown represents but one—a letter Cushing wrote in 1862, requesting to remain with the 4th U.S. Artillery. Another subscription site, www. civilwardata.com, contains millions of records on Federal and Confederate soldiers, as well as descriptions of regimental assignments and location history. The National Park Service offers, via their Soldiers and Sailors Database, at www. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/ soldiers-and-sailors-database. htm, a free-service containing over six million records. All of the websites as mentioned earlier provide a search function, and with Fold3, the ability to download files, or bookmark them to your research folder on the site. Regimental histories serve as a good source for learning more about the various actions of any particular unit, as do biographies or autobiographies. For example, Kent Masterson Brown authored a work on Cushing, Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander, and many books exist on the artillery at Gettysburg, with several containing excellent maps of where the various batteries unlimbered on the battlefield. Of course, any of the myriad books written on the battle over the years will also prove helpful. Studying campaigns, battles, or researching one’s ancestor
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benefits with the use of maps. Many sources exist, offering wartime maps, or modern maps created to reflect troop positions and movements. One excellent source, the Library of Congress (a free site), which provides a ‘Civil War Maps’ section. Users can find this collection at https:// www.loc.gov/collections/civilwar-maps. The map shown indicates troop positions on day three at Gettysburg. The American Battlefield Trust (formerly the Civil War Trust), https://www.battlefields.org, also provides many detailed maps. At both sites, researchers can download their findings. The Battlefield Trust also offers several mobile apps for use on smartphones. These apps serve as electronic tour guides; open them when on the battlefield and learn more about the fighting, location of various units, and even locate markers identifying the troops who fought over 150
years ago. Currently, apps exist for Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, and many others, with additional apps in the works. Users can download, for free, for iPhones or Android devices. Period newspapers offer insight into wartime actions (although sometimes not reported with a high-degree of accuracy) and several institutions have digitized various newspapers and placed them online. A free source, the Library of Congress, https://chroniclingamerica.loc. gov, offers one example. Several subscription sites provide databases of papers from the war. GenealogyBank, at https://www. genealogybank.com/explore/ newspapers/all, and Newspapers. com at https://www.newspapers. com, contain thousands of period newspapers. A search for Cushing at Gettysburg yielded, among others, the headline shown from a Boston newspaper. Using Cushing—a more wellknown officer, especially after he received the Medal of Honor in 2014—yields several websites containing information on his military history. Individuals researching their ancestors will most likely not find the same type results, especially for soldiers in the ranks. A couple of the more notable sites containing pages on Cushing, include the United States Army at https:// www.army.mil/medalofhonor/ cushing/, and the National Park Service, https://www.nps. gov/gett/learn/historyculture/
July 2018 cushing-at-gettysburg.htm. Often, some of the most informative information on Civil War soldiers exists at the various grave locator websites. Genealogists and others maintain these sites and include pictures of the final resting place, along with known information on the individual. The more popular sites: www.findagrave.com and www.billiongraves.com. Many other sources exist, which can help in tracing your Civil War ancestors, and http://www. worldcat.org will aid in finding books in a library near your location. The various links listed below will assist in researching your Civil War ancestors, whether they fought at Gettysburg, or engaged in a minor skirmish in some backwater region. Good luck and have fun! Michael K. Shaffer, who writes a monthly column for Civil War News on using primary source material to research the Civil War, is a Civil War historian, author, frequent lecturer, and instructor. He is 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 to request speaking engagements via his website www. civilwarhistorian.net. Follow Michael on Facebook www. facebook.com/michael.k.shaffer and Twitter @michaelkshaffer.
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Warrenton, Va. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner and staff. Lieut. Alonzo Cushing is standing second from far right. (Library of Congress)
July 2018
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
Gettysburg 11
Boston Christian Watchman, August 13, 1863.
1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing, 4th U.S. Artillery. (Library of Congress)
Map of Gettysburg on Day Three.
(Library of Congress)
Transcription of Cushing’s Fold3 Letter Bolivar, Va Oct. 11th 1862
Cushing’s gravesite at West Point Cemetery, N.Y. (Dawziecat)
Cushing 1862 letter from Fold3.
Colonel I have the honor to respectfully report that at the time I gave my consent to be transferred to the Topographical Engineers I was serving as a subaltern in a light battery. I can now have command of a battery in the 4th Arty. and under existing circumstances would consider it much more to my advantage to remain in the regiment. I therefore respectfully and earnestly request that if not too late I may be allowed to withdraw my consent to be transferred. I have the honor to be Colonel Very Respectfully Your Obdt. Servt. A.H. Cushing
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www.fold3.com (subscription) www.ancestry.com (subscription) www.civilwardata.com (subscription) National Park Service Soldiers & Sailors Database: www.https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm, The Official Records: http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/index.html Atlas to the Official Records: www.loc.gov/item/03003452 Library of Congress Civil War Maps: https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-war-maps ProQuest (various Civil War databases) : www.proquest.com (access through universities and libraries) EBSCOhost (various Civil War databases): www.ebscohost.com/ (access through universities and libraries) Report on the Conduct of the War: www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/investigations/JointCommittee_ConductofWar.htm Civil War Battle Summaries from NPS: www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/bystate.htm Confederate map collection: https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=*:*&f.oldScope=(descriptions%20or%20online)&f.materialsType=mapsandcharts&f.level=item&f. locationIds=29&f.recordGroupNoCollectionId=109&SearchType=advanced National Archives Civil War Records: www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/index.html Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-14121350R-mvset Confederate Military History: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Evans%2C+Clement+Anselm%2C+1833-1911%2C+ed%22 and at https://catalog. hathitrust.org/Record/000113357and at https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-14121350R-mvset Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts (select papers): http://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Military%20Historical%20Society%20of%20 Massachusetts%22 and at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009793905 MOLLUS Papers: http://suvcw.org/mollus/warpapers/warpapers.htm Civil War Trust (maps, battle histories, biographies, and much more): www.civilwar.org Finding books in a local library: www.worldcat.org
12 Gettysburg
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section Soldier Letters & Diaries (all free)
July 2018
Capital of the Confederacy (Richmond) Civil War Show
Documenting the American South (diaries, letters, many other sources): http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/index.html Civil War Voices, Soldier Studies: www.soldierstudies.org/index.php Voices from the Past: www.indiana.edu/~imaghist/online_content/vcsfrmpst/voices_cvlwr/index.html Letters and Diaries of the 26th Wisconsin Infantry: www.russscott.com/~rscott/26thwis/26pglett.htm Letters from the Past: www.civilwarhome.com/fourletters.html Letters from the American Civil War: http://civil.war-letters.com Civil War Letters of the Christie Family: www.mnhs.org/library/christie/intropage.php Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War: http://civilwarletters.com Love Letters of the Civil War: http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/index.html Virginia Tech Civil War Center: https://secure.hosting.vt.edu/www.sources.civilwar.vt.edu/#!/sites Virginia Tech Library: www.spec.lib.vt.edu/civwar University of Washington Collection: www.content.lib.washington.edu/civilwarweb/collections.html The Incomplete Correspondence of Lieut. Josiah Blair Patterson 14th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gaforsyt/diariesletters/patterson/ jbpletters_title.htm The Southern Homefront: www.docsouth.unc.edu/imls/homelife.html Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library: www.dlg.galileo.usg.edu/Institutions/guan.html?Welcome Georgia Historical Society: www.ghs.galileo.usg.edu/ghs/search?keyword=Civil%20War;smode=advanced;f1-subject=Letters%20 (correspondence) Digital Library of Georgia: www.dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/meta.cgi?action=query&term_a=civil%20war%20letters Internet Archives: www.archive.org/search.php?query=Civil+War+letters&and[]=mediatype%3A%22texts%22 Civil War Homepage: www.civil-war.net/searchlinks.asp?searchlinks=Letters%20and%20Diaries Civil War Archive: www.civilwararchive.com/LETTERS/letters.htm Gilder Lehrman Institute: www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-civil-war/interactives/i-take-my-pen-letters-from-civil-war/transcripts Auburn University: www.diglib.auburn.edu/collections/civilwardiaries GeorgiaInfo: www.georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/history/link/civil-war-reconstruction/civil-war-letter-diaries-books
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Burial Sites (free for basic access) • •
Find a Grave: www.findagrave.com BillionGraves: www.billiongraves.com/dashboard
Newspapers/Magazines (free unless otherwise noted) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Library of Congress: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov GenealogyBank (subscription): https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/newspapers/all Newspapers.com (subscription): www.newspapers.com National Tribune: www.chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016187 National Tribune Scrapbook: www.archive.org/details/nationaltribunes00wash National Tribune Repository: www.archive.org/stream/nationaltribuner00nati#page/n0/mode/2up Civil War Times and America’s Civil War magazines (subscription but searchable): www.historynet.com/ Confederate Veteran Magazine: www.archive.org/search.php?query=Confederate%20Veteran University of Pennsylvania, Confederate Veteran: www.onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=confedvet Library of Virginia, Online Index to Confederate Veteran: www.lva1.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b-clas65&local_base=CLAS65&_ga=1.730800 83.1639850006.1477929703 The Countryman: www.djvued.libs.uga.edu/AP2xC84/tcmenu.html Virginia Tech, American Civil War Newspapers: www.dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Index Accessible Archives (through a university or library): www.accessible-archives.com/collections/the-civil-war/a-newspaper-perspective/ Richmond Daily Dispatch: http://dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr Frank Leslie’s Illustrated: www.archive.org/details/franklesliesilluv1112lesl Harper’s Weekly: www.onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=harpersweekly Harper’s Weekly: www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/the-civil-war.htm Southern Historical Society Papers: www.catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008376679 Civil War News (subscription): www.civilwarnews.com The Artilleryman Magazine (subscription): www.artillerymanmagazine.com Military Images Magazine (subscription): www.militaryimagesmagazine.com Civil War Navy The Magazine (subscription): www.civilwarnavy.com Civil War Monitor magazine (subscription): www.civilwarmonitor.com Civil War History Journal (subscription): www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/journals/civil-war-history The Journal of the Civil War Era (subscription): https://journalofthecivilwarera.org Gettysburg Magazine: http://unp-bookworm.unl.edu/product/Gettysburg-Magazine,675907.aspx
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Photography (free) • • • • • • • • • •
Dec. 1 & 2, 2018 www.MKShows.com
Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/pictures Library of Congress Liljenquist Family Collection: www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/liljenquist-civil-war-photos/?loclr=blogtea The Center for Civil War Photography: www.civilwarphotography.org Civil War Trust: www.civilwar.org/education/in4/photography.html Civil War Trust 3D: www.civilwar.org/photos/3d-photography-special Smithsonian: www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/cw/npgcivilwar.html National Archives: www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos Civil War Photos: www.civilwarphotos.net American Civil War Photos: www.americancivilwarphotos.com U.S. Army War College: www.cdm16635.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16635coll13
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
14 Gettysburg
July 2018
Colonel of the Gallant 4th Texas Remembered
FOR SALE
By Shannon Pritchard In 1860 Samuel Colt introduced a revolutionary new revolver with the power of a Dragoon and the weight of a Navy; in reality somewhere between the two. Colt did well in the private market throughout the 1850s with his .36 caliber Navy and the Colt Pocket revolver. The only thing he had to offer with real oomph was the Colt Dragoon, which weighed in at four pounds, two ounces. That was too much weight for a man to carry around in a holster on a waist belt. He had tried to lighten the Dragoon without much success, but by 1860, new, stronger steels were available, known as “Silver Spring Steel.” Using the new steel and a Navy frame adapted to take a fluted .44 caliber cylinder, streamlining the barrel and adding a loading lever with a gear reduction to pack in those large 44s, he created a two pound, eight and a half ounce revolver that was extremely
attractive and packed all the punch anyone could want. He even created a quick release stock for it, so it could be used like a carbine. He called it his “Cavalry Model.” Today we refer to it as a “Fluted Colt” to differentiate it from Colt’s later Army Model. As Colt worked with the US Ordnance Department for military contracts in 1860–61, he needed to keep his business profitable. To do so, he took advantage of the huge demand from the Southern states, just then expecting to be invaded at any time and desirous of obtaining any weapon better than a pitchfork, they were clamoring to purchase such a fine weapon as Colt produced. Some of his first shipments of the 1860 Cavalry Model went to known dealers in the Southern states. These sales were completely legal, because the South had yet to secede. Colt’s motives were unquestionable; he was driven by profit rather than
any desire to help the South. Approximately 2,230 Model 1860 Armies were shipped to Southern dealers between Dec. 1860 and April 1861, as follows: Dec. 27, 1860, 300 to Gov. Wm. Brown of Georgia; Jan. 15, 1861, 50 to Wm. Sage, Charleston, S.C.; 160 to Wm. Martin, Natchez, Miss.; 240 to H.D. Norton & Bros, (prior to April 16th), San Antonio, Texas; and 1,100 to Kitteridge & Folsom (up to April 9), New Orleans, La. Colt even continued after the firing on Sumter, shipping Peters, Williams & Company, in Richmond, Va., 500 on April 15, 1861, three days after the firing started and long after the Southern states had seceded. In addition to the above, Colt sent 1,000 New Model Fluted Army Revolvers to Texas at the behest of his friend Ben McCulloch, who would later command the 1st Texas Regiment and still later the Texas Brigade.
Original Civil War Cannon
3-inch Parrott Rifle, M1863 (1 of 6 in private hands)
3-inch Ordnance Rifle, Dated 1862
For additional information and photos contact: Glenn Dutton
glennjdutton@aol.com or 770-351-7565
Senator Louis T. Wigfall had been instrumental in acquiring the revolvers and it is likely that Colonel Key received his revolver, serial number 3575, from Wigfall, either by purchase or presentation. The first 250 revolvers of the McCulloch order were shipped on March 28, and the following 750 on April 9, 1861. No factory letter for SN 3575 survives, but among the 1,000 gun McCulloch shipment serial numbers were SN 3449 and SN 4381. This leaves little doubt that SN 3575, inscribed “John C.G. Key” on the backstrap, arrived in Texas as part of the McCulloch order. The grip stock of serial number 3575 is heavily stained with blood. It was so drenched with blood that it ran between the backstrap and the grip staining the inside of the grip. And there lies a story. John Cotlett Garrett Key was born a South Carolinian in 1809 and died a Texan in 1866. When the War Between the States broke out he was a successful lawyer in Gonzales, Texas. John C.G. Key organized a company of infantry, the “Hardeman Rifles,” officially enrolling them on July 11, 1861, at Camp Clark, Guadeloupe County, Texas. The Hardeman Rifles boarded the steamer Florida at Beaumont and sailed for Virginia immediately afterwards. In Richmond the Rifles became Company A, Fourth Texas Infantry Regiment under Colonel Robert Allen, with John Key as Captain. Colonel Allen was literally driven from the camp by the independent minded Texans who were fed up with his harsh discipline. Allen was replaced as commander of the 4th Texas by Colonel John Bell Hood. The 4th was brigaded with the 1st and 5th Texas under Brigadier General (ex U.S. Senator) Louis T. Wigfall. The Texas Brigade wintered at Dumfries, Va. Upon Wigfall’s resignation to take his place in the Confederate senate, Colonel J.B. Hood was promoted to brigade command on March 3, and John C.G. Key was made Regimental Major. At the Battle of Gaines Mill, General Hood took personal command of his old outfit, the 4th Texas. He knew his men, he had once boasted that he could “double-quick the 4th Texas to the gates of hell and never break the line.”1 At Gaines Mill he proved it. The Fourth Texas started the battle in reserve, but the overly aggressive Hood led the just as aggressive Fourth Texas to the front and it is well that he did;
John C.G. Key the 4th Texas, under Hood’s personal leadership is credited with breaking the Yankee line. The Fourth Texas drove them up and over the top of Turkey Hill, where they were immediately greeted by canister from Federal artillery posted to their left. Hood faced the Fourth to the left and ordered another charge. Supported by the Eighteenth Georgia, the Texans charged the guns and captured fourteen of the eighteen pieces. Now Hood turned his attention to the casualties. He spent the night supervising the treatment and removal of the wounded and was struck by the heavy losses. Years later a staff officer remembered Hood sitting on a cracker box, “Just look here, Major,” Hood wept, “at these dead and suffering men, and every one of them as good as I am, and yet I am untouched.”2 Major Key was among the severely wounded. As the Fourth Texas formed for roll call the next morning General Hood rode up to his old command and asked: “Is this the 4th Texas?” “This is all that remains,’’ was the answer. Hood turned his horse in a vain attempt to hide his tears. Of all Hood’s regiments, the Fourth’s casualties numbered 44 killed, 208 wounded, and 1 missing, the most at Gaines Mill, and nearly half the losses in his entire brigade. Half the enlisted men and all the field-grade officers were casualties.3 The Texas Brigade was now one of the more famous brigades in the Army of Northern Virginia, primarily because of their Gaines Mill performance, where they marched over the backs of Confederate troops who had gone before, crossed Boatswain’s Creek, and drove Fitz John Porter’s Yankees out of their prepared works at the point of the bayonet. Such bravery was costly; the Fourth’s leadership was decapitated. Colonel Marshall and Lieutenant Colonel Warwick were killed, and Major Key was wounded. Despite the losses, the Texans held Turkey Hill, and Richmond was saved
July 2018 for another day. To fill Hood’s shoes was a herculean task, but Key had been under Hood’s own eye at Gaines Mill and so sure was he that Major Key was the man for the place, the position was held open for him during an active campaign in which he could not participate due to wounds. Colonel Key missed the Battle of Second Manassas due to his wound (or wounds). He caught up with his regiment in time to ably command it at South Mountain on Sept. 14. He was not sufficiently recovered to continue field service, and was unable to lead the Fourth at Sharpsburg. The Colonel commanded through the winter, but his regiment was little engaged at Fredericksburg. In the spring, the 4th along with the rest of Hood’s Division was sent to Suffolk, Va., on a supply gathering mission. They did not return until after Chancellorsville had been fought. When the Army of Northern Virginia marched north on the campaign to end the War, Colonel Key and the 4th Texas were once again in fighting trim and high spirits. The authorities in Richmond had pronounced him a gallant and skilled warrior, but what was John C.G. Key, the man like? He died in 1866 so he never wrote a memoir or letters to the Confederate Veteran magazine of the sort that has given us insight into so many Confederate leaders. I was able to find one tidbit not related to battle, written by J.B. Polley, the author of the “Charming Nellie Letters.” Polley kept his fine sense of humor even after the disappointment of the Gettysburg Campaign. Writing on July 30, 1863, he describes the march into the North: “Crossing the Potomac on a pontoon bridge, at noon we halted in the outskirts of the town of Williamsport, Md. and, mirabile dictu (spoken miracles) drew rations of whiskey. (it had been pouring rain) There was only about a gill to the man, but as the temperance fellows gave their shares to friends, the quantity available was amply sufficient to put fully half the brigade not only in a boisterously good humor, but in such physical condition that the breadth of the road over which they marched that evening was more of an obstacle to rapid progress than its length. At an early hour, John Brantley, of my company, became so exhausted by his latitudinarian tendencies as to prefer riding to walking, and perceiving that Col. Key was in an excellently good natured condition, took advantage of a momentary halt to approach that gallant officer and slapping him
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section familiarly on the leg, remarked: “Say, Kunnel! I’m jus’ plum’ broke down; can’t you walk some an’ lemme ride a while?” Bending forward over his horses neck and grasping the pommel of his saddle with both hands to steady himself, the old Colonel looked pityingly down at Brantley and, between hiccoughs, replied: “I’d do it in a minute, ole feller, d—d if I wouldn’t but I’m tired as h--- myself, ah sittin’ up here an’ah hol’in’on.” This short story by Polley gives us a pretty good insight into the Colonel’s jovial character. Little did he know that shortly he would not be able to walk or how near his last ride was. At 2 a.m. on July 2, the 4th Texas was at Cashtown; in the next two hours Colonel Key marched them eight miles to Gettysburg, and then had them cook breakfast along Willoughby Run. Time was frittered away and Longstreet’s Corps was not deployed for attack until after 4 p.m. Artillery posted at Devil’s Den and the Peach Orchard roared a greeting of shell which struck down fifteen of the 4th Texas just as Colonel John Key ordered a charge. General Hood was disabled about the same time by another shell. General Evander Law led the Texas Brigade as they drove the Federals through Devil’s Den, splashed across Plum Run, and turned up the “valley of death” driving towards a stone wall at the base of Little Round Top. The destructive artillery fire was joined by Major Homer Stoughton’s 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters, armed with .52-cal. breech loading rifles and General Strong Vincent’s Federals at the top of the hill. The 2nd U.S. was securely ensconced behind the stone wall at the base of the hill. Though well protected and wielding rapid firing breech loading rifles, they still could not stop the Texans. They made them pay a steep price for that rock wall. Colonel John C.G. Key and Lt. Colonel Benjamin Carter were both shot down at the wall.4 Lt. Colonel Carter was wounded in the face, arm, and leg and lay dying. According to Major John P. Bane, Colonel Key was severely wounded while “gallantly urging the men to the front.” The remaining Texans pushed on, driving the Yanks back to Little Round Top. Try as they might, the Texans could push them no farther. After the fighting had moved beyond the wall, Colonels Key and Carter were removed to a field hospital where they suffered untold agonies while the battle raged for another day. On the
Gettysburg 15
Above, left and right side of Fluted Colt Serial Number 3575.
John C G Key engraved into the Colt’s backstrap in script. following night Colonels Key and Carter were placed together in a wagon for the torturous ride back to Virginia. Colonel Carter suffered so grievously he was eventually left near New Franklin. Colonel Key endured the trip but never recovered. After nearly a year trying to regain his health, he applied for retirement on April 27, 1864; it was approved Nov. 1, 1864, and forwarded to the Assistant Adjutant General. On November 5, 1864, while convalescing in Edgefield, South Carolina, he was reassigned from the Invalid Corps to the Reserve Forces of the State of Mississippi, while noting he was unfit for duty and directing that he report when his health would permit. There is no indication that Colonel Key was ever again able to report for duty. He died in 1866 as a result of the effects of the War, ending the war where he had begun it; in Gonzales. He is buried in the Masonic Cemetery there. Colonel John C.G. Key led the 4th Texas, a regiment readily acknowledged to have been one of the Army of Northern
Note the blood stains on the grip stock. Virginia’s bravest and most hard charging; one to which General Lee often turned when he was most pressed. Two of the 4th Texas’ most famous charges were under Key’s leadership, Gaines Mill and Devil’s Den. In both, Colonel John Key was severely wounded; the last led to his early death. Ironically his early death caused him to be nearly forgotten, though his grave stone does acknowledge his service to the Confederacy as Colonel of the 4th Texas. The Colt revolver he carried in battle is now bringing him some well-deserved appreciation and as long as mankind admires men of a greater mold, collectors will recount his deeds of daring and “wish this one could talk.” Maybe it does if you listen carefully.
Endnotes: 1. 2. 3.
4.
The Gates of Richmond, by Sears John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence, McMurray http://www.pha.jhu. edu/~dag/4thtex/history/history. html Texans at Gettysburg
Shannon Pritchard has authored numerous articles relating to the authentication, care and conservation of Confederate antiques, including several cover articles and is the author of the definitive work on Confederate collectibles, the widely acclaimed Collecting the Confederacy, Artifacts and Antiques from the War Between the States, and Confederate Faces in Color.
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
16 Gettysburg
July 2018
The Pennsylvania Reserves: Back in the Fight By Joseph F. Wilson Life within sight of the Capitol dome was a pleasant reprieve for a broken organization badly shot to pieces in many bloody engagements with Robert E. Lee’s stalwart Army of Northern Virginia. After a devastating year of combat in 1862, the ravaged division of Pennsylvanians headed to Washington to rest and recruit their mutilated ranks. But the break wasn’t to last. The “Pennsylvania Reserve Corps of the Commonwealth” initially formed as state militia in May 1861 under the direction of Pennsylvania’s War Governor, Andrew Curtin. When Lincoln took 25 regiments out of the state in April for Federal service, a wealth of volunteers were rejected. Curtin gathered up the leftovers and rejects and created his own private army. Curtin wanted a militia to defend the state from all threats from within and beyond the borders. The state financed force numbered 13 infantry regiments, several artillery batteries, and a regiment of cavalry. History came to know them simply as “The Pennsylvania Reserves.” When the Union Army met
with disaster at 1st Bull Run on July 21st, 1861, a Confederate army threatened a disorganized Washington. A distressed Lincoln knew just where to go for an already established force. A pressing wire the night of July 21, implored Curtin to send his Pennsylvania Reserves without delay. Governor Curtin, a friend of Lincoln, started the militia for the vulnerable capitol the next day. Once in Federal service, everyone still referred to the division as “The Pennsylvania Reserves;” but the name “Reserves” hardly represented their function. On many occasions, the unit served as shock troops to be fed into the thickest of the battle. The War Department frequently detached the Reserve’s artillery and cavalry regiment to serve in various units. The three infantry brigades usually fought together for the entire war. Some of the finest commanders to ever draw a sword led them in battle. At different times they went into action under the leadership of such famed men as General George McCall, General George Meade, General John Reynolds, and General Samuel Crawford.
By the end of 1862, the hard fighting unit was decimated. A strong 12,000 man division of three infantry brigades at the start of the year now resembled a disorganized brigade fielding only 2,000 soldiers. A bloody six month stretch in 1862 took a heavy toll. The Pennsylvania Reserves saw heavy fighting in the Seven Days’ Battles on the Peninsula where the division took more casualties than any of the five corps present. The bloodshed continued for the Reserves on Henry Hill at Second Bull Run, South Mountain, in the Cornfield at Antietam; the year mercifully ended after a 40% casualty rate at Fredericksburg. Curtin’s call to bring the shattered division home to rest and recruit failed. The War Department needed troops in Washington. Guarding railroads in the vicinity of the capitol proved easy enough. Only an occasional incident by Confederate raiders shook things up. The hiatus from active campaigning pleased the division’s survivors, but alarming news circulating through camp quickly changed that view. By June, the boys of the Pennsylvania Reserves begged
the War Department to let them once again stand before Lee’s army. A lull in the fighting was no longer welcome. In early June 1863, General Robert E. Lee gathered his 75,000 man army and headed north. Soon the newspapers screamed urgent warnings, “CITIZENS OF PENNSYLVANIA!! THE REBELS ARE UPON US!!” The Pennsylvania Reserves demanded they be allowed to rejoin the Army of the Potomac in hunting down the rebel army. Worried Pennsylvania boys watched helplessly as units of the army marched north to confront the aggressors. To be forced to stand idle while the enemy threatened their homes and loved ones infuriated the Pennsylvanians. Swift action followed. Protesting members of the Reserves took up petitions pleading with officials to allow them to go home to defend their own firesides. They argued their rightful place was inside the borders of their home state fighting the invading Southerners, not guarding railroads. Washington hesitated before finally allowing the 1st and 3rd brigades to leave Washington. Officials insisted the
2nd Brigade remain. Morale soared when told they’d get their chance for a confrontation with the invading Southern army. General George Meade, a fellow Pennsylvanian, knew the mettle of the Reserves from prior service and wanted the veteran troops in his V Corps. To serve again under their much loved former commander lifted spirits even higher. On June 25, 1863, the proud Sons of Pennsylvania numbering 3,800 men, struck their tents, loaded knapsacks, and eagerly marched north to defend the sacred soil of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Reserves, commanded by General Sam Wiley Crawford, turned their backs on Washington and headed for the Keystone State. Waiting pontoons at Edwards Ferry brought the Keystone State men across the Potomac River on June 27 into Maryland. They finally caught up with the V Corps near Frederick, Md. Reports that Meade had just left the V Corps to command the Army of the Potomac pained the Reserves. Command of the V Corps shifted to General George Sykes. After five days of hard
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July 2018
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
The Monument to the 11th Pa. Reserves stands on the border of the Wheatfield. (Joseph F. Wilson) marching, the green rolling hills of Pennsylvania came into view on July 1st. Thousands of scruffy brogans crossed into Pennsylvania to the stirring tunes of regimental bands. Tired feet now stepped lively, pressing the sweet soil of home. Glorious hurrahs thundered across the hillside from boisterous native sons fixing for a fight. General Crawford rested the weary soldiers on the evening of July 1, but more pressing matters cut the halt short. When news drifted back of the fighting at Gettysburg, the Pennsylvanians rose to their feet and trudged off with even greater haste. For the next 14 hours, they pushed a total of 20 miles, finally reaching the rear of the battlefield around noon on July 2. Since leaving Washington, the loyal boys in blue had marched nearly 100 miles in one week to fulfill what every man considered a solemn obligation to defend their families and the good citizens of their home state. Resting in the rear of the V Corps, the boys learned their
former commander, General John Reynolds, had been killed. A profound sadness filled the ranks. Already harboring sufficient reason to fight, Reynolds’ death aroused revenge. The 1st Brigade carried with them a beautiful presentation sword for their past brigade leader and planned to honor him in the days ahead. The orphaned sword eventually went to Reynold’s sister. The afternoon of July 2, some exhausted soldiers slept; others cooked rations. Toward evening, Meade ordered General Sykes and the V Corps to reinforce the III Corps of General Dan Sickles. General James Barnes led the 1st Division to the extreme southern end of the Union Line while the 2nd Division followed General Romeyn Ayres toward the Wheatfield. The 3rd Division, the Pennsylvania Reserves, marched swiftly toward the summit of a rugged and rocky hill dubbed “Little Round Top.” Colonel Joseph Fisher’s 3rd Brigade consisted of the 5th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Penn. Reserve regiments. Crawford
detached the 11th to bolster the 1st Brigade. Fisher’s Brigade then peeled off to support Colonel Strong Vincent’s Brigade already hotly engaged on the far side of Little Round Top. Fisher’s Brigade arrived near the end of the fight but helped deter any more attacks on the hill. Big Round Top still had to be secured. Along with the 20th Maine, Fisher’s 3rd Brigade
drove Rebel sharpshooters off the big hill and secured both hills for the remainder of the battle. Colonel Buck McCandless pushed the 1st Brigade’s 1st, 2nd, 6th, 11th, and 13th regiments forward. A narrow lane overflowing with soldiers heading to the rear offered evidence of the hard fight ahead. Undeterred, the determined Reserves marched to the sound of the guns. McCandless led his five regiments up the rough terrain to the top of the strategic rise anchoring Meade’s left flank. On gaining the summit, a panoramic scene of the bloody struggle taking place in the valley below came into full view. Outrage soon replaced apprehension as the home state boys eyed the Rebel hordes desecrating the soil of Pennsylvania. Through the thick smoke, the 1st Brigade caught glimpses of Sickles and Ayres off in the distance battling an imposing Southern force in the Wheatfield and Peach Orchard. The victorious Rebels swept through the Wheatfield and chased the faltering Union troops back across the Plum Run Valley with hopes of seizing Little Round Top.
Gettysburg 17 Crawford ordered the men to lie down as the retreating Federals passed through their lines. Muskets balls from pursuing Confederates passed overhead, ricocheted off rocks, and many found their mark. Angry shouts rose up at not being able to respond. Impatient Pennsylvanians gripped their loaded muskets waiting to assail the Southerners. Once the blue clad soldiers cleared their front, Colonel McCandless ordered all five Pennsylvania Reserves regiments to rise and fire. At last, the time to strike a decisive blow had arrived. A hail of lead from 1800 muskets greeted the approaching enemy. A few more volleys stunned the gray tide advancing toward the rocky ridge. With fixed bayonets, the boys waited for the order to charge. General Crawford rode to the front and gave a short patriotic speech imploring his troops to defend Pennsylvania. After seizing the flagstaff of the 1st regiment, Crawford turned to face the Southerners and shouted above the din of battle the long awaited order to charge. With their own unique battle cry, a dogged swarm of Pennsylvania boys went
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
18 Gettysburg screaming and yelling down the slope into the aptly named Valley of Death. With a pent up fury reserved for their native soil, the attacking Pennsylvanians clashed with the gray clad regiments of Longstreet’s Corps and pushed them back across the Plum Run Valley. A hand to hand struggle at the eastern edge of the Wheatfield convinced the Rebels that the Reserves fresh troops had gained the upper hand. They raced for the woods on the far side of the field. The colors of the victorious 1st Brigade now flapped in the breeze along the stone wall lining the Wheatfield’s eastern boundary. All day the Confederates had enjoyed success. The formidable charge of the Pennsylvania Reserves swung the momentum back in favor of the Union. Darkness brought the bloody day’s fighting to an end. The Reserves lay on their arms all night and held their position at the stone wall fronting the Wheatfield. Many spent the night treating the severely wounded men strewn about the battlefield. The morning light of July 3 seemed eerily still save for the annoying sharpshooters in Devil’s Den occasionally firing into the ranks of the Reserves. Most expected a renewed battle. Booming guns on Culp’s Hill signaled a renewal of the fight
on the Union right flank, but along the line from Little Round Top to Cemetery Hill, all was quiet. Finally, around 1 p.m., a screaming artillery shell toward the middle of the Union line opened an artillery barrage from 130 Confederate cannons that shook the Pennsylvania countryside. Union artillery answered with 90 guns. The deafening exchange went silent after ninety minutes. Shortly after the last shot was fired, a mile long line of gray and butternut clad soldiers emerged from the woods on Seminary Ridge. Under the command of Generals George Pickett, Isaac Trimble and James Pettigrew, some 13,000 men advanced over the field intent on piercing the center of the Union line. The famous charge failed in what many consider one of General Robert E. Lee’s few blunders. From the vantage point of the Pennsylvania Reserves, watching the charge was a sight to behold. Boys on the far right of the Reserve’s position still looking for vengeance strayed north to fire into Pickett’s ranks. After the failed Confederate attempt at slicing the center of the line, General Meade feared an attack on his left. Along with his staff, he hastily rode toward Little Round Top. Thunderous cheers rose up in the ranks of
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General Samuel Crawford led the charge of the Pa. Reserves on July 2nd. Little Round Top is visible in the background. (Jack Melton) the Reserves when they saw Meade arrive on the scene. The commanding general ordered his former command to attack the Confederates in their front. At a signal from Colonel McCandless, the Reserves leapt over the stone wall and charged across the Wheatfield and into Rose’s woods. Anderson’s Georgia brigade offered stout
On the night of April 14, 1865, John
Wilkes Booth entered Ford’s Theater and shot President Abraham Lincoln. In Lincoln’s pockets that night were 9 items, one of which was his favorite pocket knife purchased in Kentucky, a 6-blade ivory handled Congress engraved Wm. Gilchrist’s Celebrated Razor Steel, made in Sheffield, England.
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resistance before fleeing toward the Peach Orchard. Over 200 prisoners went to the Union rear along with hundreds of muskets and a cannon. James Thompson of the 13th Penn. Reserves earned the Medal of Honor for capturing the flag of the 15th Georgia. The Wheatfield, Rose’s Woods, and Devil’s Den now fell under Union control. The curtain finally fell on the largest battle on the North American continent. Gettysburg proved to be the bloodiest battle of the war with a total of 51,000 in killed, wounded, and captured. For their part, the Reserves suffered 210 killed and wounded. The citizen soldiers could have avoided the bloodbath and stayed in Washington, but they chose to fight. The Reserves consecrated nearly every battlefield in the eastern theater with their sweat and blood. They added more laurels to their stellar record at Spotsylvania, the Wilderness, and their final battle at Bethesda Church in May 1864.
Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin wanted to preserve his organization that made Pennsylvania so proud, but it wasn’t to be. Thanks to Governor Curtin, “The Pennsylvania Reserves” were born of necessity in the chaos of 1861. Three years later, in 1864, the famed organization faded into the history books as one of the finest fighting units in the Army of the Potomac. Joseph F. Wilson is the writer and producer of the new Civil War documentaries, “Civil War Prisons – An American Tragedy,” and “Remarkable Tales of the Civil War.” Both films are available on Amazon pay-perview. Contact joef21@aol.com
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
Gettysburg 21
Original Copy of the Emancipation Proclamation Arrives in Gettysburg GETTYSBURG, Penn.— The Gettysburg Foundation announced Gettysburg National Military Park and the Gettysburg Foundation have teamed up to honor the history of the Emancipation Proclamation by exhibiting a copy personally signed by President Abraham. One of three color lithographic broadsides, this was given directly to Lincoln by David Williams Cheesman, and is known as the Cheesman copy. The Emancipation Proclamation is on loan from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of
American History and will be on display from May 17–Nov. 25, 2018, in the Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War in the Museum and Visitor Center. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, as the nation approached the third year of civil war. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” It also announced the acceptance of men of color into the Union Army and Navy. The Gettysburg Foundation
invites people to see and reflect on the meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation as part of “Gettysburg Revisited,” an effort aimed at broadening our understanding of the deeper meaning of this hallowed ground. Park Service Rangers will lead walks to the Soldiers’ National Cemetery throughout the summer, where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, which spoke to a “new birth of freedom” in America. Visitors holding a museum ticket will be able to participate on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
22 Gettysburg
July 2018
Gettysburg Revisited: Still Consecrating And Hallowing That Ground By Harold Holzer Last year, I had the honor of delivering the November 19 commemorative address at the National Soldiers’ Cemetery on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It seemed to me, then and now, one of the most exciting moments in my career as a Civil War-era historian. Even after 50 books, 500 articles, and scores of speeches, it challenged and worried me. I don’t know if Lincoln was deeply moved and personally anxious at Gettysburg, or, myths to the contrary notwithstanding, thrilled by the experience; I certainly was both. Climactic as it was, however, Gettysburg 2017 cannot stop me from wondering still about the Gettysburg of 1863. What it was like for Lincoln to be there? What was it like for journalists who accompanied him (about whom I’ve written extensively), not to mention two fellow New York leaders who later followed in his footsteps? First, the obvious, though Lincoln was invited to deliver only “a few appropriate remarks” at Gettysburg, he did not slough off the opportunity, nor leave preparation to the last minute, and certainly did not scribble his speech on the back of an envelope during the train ride to
Pennsylvania. In fact, he had for months been honing the message inspired by the Union’s victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. Just a few days after that engagement, he had appeared at a White House window to address serenaders gathered on the lawn below to celebrate the Union triumph. The question of whether General Meade would pursue Lee’s battered army and, perhaps, end the entire war still remained unresolved; Meade failed to do so, much to the president’s chagrin. But Lincoln already saw the July 1-3 victory as a validation of the nation’s founding principles, a reminder that there could never be recourse from ballots to bullets. “How long ago is it?—eighty odd years,” the president earnestly but clumsily began his White House talk, as newspaper stenographers scribbled down his words for subsequent publication, “since on the Fourth of July for the first time in the history of the world a nation by its representatives, assembled and declared as a selfevident truth that ‘all men are created equal.’” That same message of course came into memorably sharp focus in Lincoln’s exordium four months later: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth a new nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” To inspire an equally unforgettable closing, Lincoln might have read and remembered New York journalist Samuel Wilkeson’s elegiac postbattle obituary to his fallen son, whose death at Gettysburg had inspired the correspondent to speculate about a second birth of American freedom. As gifted an editor as he was a brilliant writer, Lincoln liked to massage his thoughts repeatedly until they glittered in jewel-like perfection, regardless of their source. Strong evidence indicates that Lincoln took his Gettysburg opportunity most seriously.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, Lincoln headed to Alexander Gardner’s Washington photographic gallery to pose for new portraits. The Gettysburg dedication, only 11 days away, was much on the President’s mind. He carried to the session a single-sheet proof copy of principal orator Edward Everett’s speech. Everett had sent it in advance so Lincoln might avoid covering similar ground in his own remarks and perhaps to stake out his primacy as the day’s top attraction. Had the President written his own speech yet, wondered Sacramento Bee correspondent Noah Brooks, who accompanied Lincoln to Gardner’s that day?
Yes, came the reply, “but not yet finished.” The point was the work was already underway. His draft was brief “or, as he emphatically expressed it, “short, short, short.” But the president never suggested that it was easier to write a long address than a brief one. He left little to chance. His impromptu July talk from the White House window had been earnest, but clumsy. The newspapers had reprinted it, perhaps to his embarrassment. Lincoln was never a great extemporaneous speaker, despite his reputation as a gifted debater and spellbinding courtroom lawyer. He preferred to prepare carefully, to write out his thoughts,
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Abraham Lincoln and his private secretaries, John G. Nicolay (left) and John Hay (right), photographed by Alexander Gardner, Washington, Nov. 8, 1863. Ten days later, all three men in this picture would travel to Gettysburg. (Library of Congress)
July 2018 and to read from prepared texts crafted in his impeccably clear handwriting, or, when he could finish his drafts in time, set in type by friendly newspaper publishers. Newspapermen would soon play a central role in recording, printing, and analyzing his Gettysburg Address, strictly according to party loyalties. As we know, too, Lincoln embarked for Gettysburg the day before the Nov. 19 ceremony, to avoid what he called “a breathless running of the gauntlet” in which “the slightest accident” would cause a delay by which he might “fail entirely.” On Nov. 18, accompanied by a retinue of civil and military celebrities larger than any that had accompanied him since his inaugural journey, Lincoln headed to Pennsylvania. Among the passengers were his trusted secretaries John Nicolay (a former newspaperman) and John Hay (who functioned as a kind of untitled press secretary). Together, they had made sure
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section that a corps of supportive reporters joined the retinue—all Republicans. Arriving in town, Lincoln retired to the private home of David Wills on the village square and shut himself inside to work further on his address. Meanwhile, his two secretaries headed off to rendezvous with newspaperman John Wein Forney, a Democratturned-Republican who had been serving as Secretary of the Senate since 1861; a patronage job which Lincoln had lobbied his legislative allies to award him. Concurrently, he continued to serve as editor of the Washington Chronicle, a pro-Lincoln daily. Forney was attending the Gettysburg dedication both as a newspaper mogul and a government official, a situation that might be viewed today as a conflict of interest, but was par for the course in the age of openly partisan American journalism. The town’s taverns were open for business, and Forney was
anything but a teetotaler like the president. As Hay remembered, “He had been drinking a good deal during the day and was getting to feel a little ugly and dangerous,” particularly on the subject of loyalty to Abraham Lincoln. His managing editor, John Russell Young, soon joined the group. Forney was still “growling” when Lincoln unexpectedly stepped outside the nearby Wills House to pronounce “half a dozen words meaning nothing” to a knot of well-wishers. The remarks were unmemorable and Lincoln returned to his upstairs room and continued working on his main talk. Perhaps tipsy, Forney mumbled, “If I speak, I will speak my mind,” and demanded that congenial “recorders” be on hand to transcribe what he intended to say. Forney’s own Gettysburg Address commenced a few minutes later, lubricated by another shot of whiskey. “My friends,” he began, to a
round applause, “these are the first hearty cheers I have heard tonight. You gave no such cheers to your President down the street. Do you know what you owe to that Great man? You owe your country— you owe your name as American citizens…that great, wonderful mysterious inexplicable man; who holds in his single hands the reins of the republic; who keeps his own counsels; who does his own purpose in his own way no matter what temporizing minister in his cabinet sets himself up in opposition to the progress of the age.”
Gettysburg 23 On and on Forney went, until finally he ran out of steam. “That speech must not be written out yet,” a mortified John Russell Young nervously instructed the nearby “recorders” who had witnessed the diatribe. “He will see further about it, when he gets sober.” The Associated Press devoted a few lines to the address anyway. Next morning Forney, likely hung over, might not even have made it to the cemetery. A large contingent of journalists from all over the country, however, did assemble near the speaker’s
Lincoln close-up, a soldier’s kepi obscuring his lower face.
President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in 1863.
(Library of Congress)
24 Gettysburg platform, and John Hay made notes and ultimately provided Forney with a superb report of the proceedings. Long practice had taught Lincoln that while his piercing voice could carry only a few hundred feet, friendly journalists could always be relied upon to spread his voice where it could not reach. When Everett finished and Lincoln’s turn to speak finally came, the reporters were ready— or were they? From the second row of press benches, John Russell Young blurted out to Lincoln when he finished his two-minute talk to ask incredulously “if that was all.” The President glanced— perhaps glared—at Young and answered: “Yes, for the present.” No one will ever settle the debate over whether Lincoln’s most famous speech was rhapsodically or indifferently
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section received by Young or the other journalists at the scene. But we at least know for certain that when he concluded, the President made certain that Joseph Ignatius Gilbert, the lucky young Harrisburg reporter hired for the day to record the event for the Associated Press, got to examine the President’s own handwritten manuscript to check it against his shorthand transcription. Lincoln’s brilliant decision to share his text with the reporter almost guaranteed its ultimate consecration; that is, if it held up to the scrutiny of the editorial writers later. Gilbert later admitted that he had become so fascinated by Lincoln’s “intense earnestness” that he had “unconsciously stopped taking notes” just as Lincoln “glanced up from his manuscript with a faraway look in his eyes as if appealing from
the few thousands below him to the countless millions whom his words were to reach.” As a result, Gilbert, who was standing directly below the platform when he dropped his pencil, desperately needed to check his imperfect shorthand record against the President’s copy. Lincoln readily complied, knowing that most papers around the country would pick up Gilbert’s report. The AP stringer inserted the word “Applause” wherever he had heard the crowd clapping. At the end he wrote: “Long continued applause.” By Gilbert’s original account, the crowd had interrupted the speech to clap six times, though he later recalled that Lincoln earned “no outward manifestations of feeling.” As Gilbert explained it in 1917, “His theme did not invite holiday applause, a cemetery was not the place for it, and he did
not pause to receive it.” Aside from this incongruity, Gilbert’s shorthand account also suffered from several errors. The phrase “unfinished work” came out as “refinished work,” “government” of, by, and for the people, as “Governments.” As a consequence, newspapers throughout the country garbled their initial reprints as well, even though stenographers had enjoyed “an excellent light” aboard the presidential special returning them to Washington, “around which,” John Hay observed, “busy as bees, they compared notes and transcribed their phonographic reports for the papers for which they were laboring.” As expected, editorial reaction varied according to party. Republican editors lavished praise, while Democratic ones assailed it. The negative
Abraham Lincoln on the speakers’ platform at the dedication of the National Cemetery of Gettysburg, November 19, 1863.
July 2018 comments, all driven by party politics, have served to infuse the myth that most journalists dismissed the remarks. Edward Everett himself generously told Lincoln afterwards that he wished he had come “as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” Lincoln’s greatest speech may not have evolved into national “gospel,” as historian Gabor Boritt has pointed out, until the early 20th century. But most Republicans who read the friendly accounts of the address in 1863 quickly understood that their president had triumphed, and what he said might be the framework for his second campaign for the White House. In the decades since Lincoln delivered his elegiac speech at Gettysburg, other great orators have followed him. I had the privilege of accompanying my
(Library of Congress)
July 2018
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
Powerhouse Washington editor John Wein Forney—who gave his own “Gettysburg Address” the day before Lincoln’s. (Library of Congress) then-boss, New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo, when he delivered the commemorative address in 1991. It was a stirring and brilliant speech more than deserving of a separate article some day. Intractable antiCatholic, anti-Italian bias, Cuomo vowed that morning, should and would never stop a qualified American from seeking the presidency. Ultimately, Cuomo opted not to do so himself, but as he reminded his huge audience that day, the new birth of freedom and equality Lincoln promised at Gettysburg more than a century earlier, still remained out of reach of too many Americans. Cuomo was not the first sitting or former New York governor to follow in Lincoln’s footsteps at Gettysburg. Because I spend my professional life these days at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House, the pre-presidential New York City home of Franklin (and Eleanor) Roosevelt, it seems “altogether fitting and proper” to recall that great communicator’s visit to the town. It did not come on the anniversary of Lincoln’s speech, but on the anniversary of the battle that inspired it. On July 3, 1938, FDR, a Democrat and Lincoln enthusiast, agreed to help mark the 75th anniversary of the Civil War battle. It was also the 25th anniversary of the final soldiers’ reunion on the site, an event at which the last Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson, had given the principal address. The
1938 event would be highlighted by the dedication of an “Eternal Light Peace Memorial,” a project that had been in the planning stages for decades, yet had only recently received federal funding from Congress. After objections arose to placing the slab on its originally designated site, the sacred ground near the Round Tops, organizers located it northwest of town on Oak Hill. Just as local officials had done three quarters of a century earlier, they invited the President to deliver remarks at the dedicatory ceremony. No doubt with Lincoln very much on his mind, FDR accepted. FDR took his chances with the “breathless gauntlet” of a oneday railroad journey, traveling all the way from Hyde Park to Gettysburg the morning of the ceremonies. In 1863, Lincoln had been accompanied to the cemetery grounds by a military escort; he rode horseback to the scene. In 1938, Roosevelt had a cavalry escort of his own, but traveled in his familiar open car. Like Lincoln, Roosevelt spoke from a temporary wooden platform erected for the occasion. Lincoln spoke for less than three minutes; Roosevelt was relatively brief as well, consuming only nine minutes for his own “Gettysburg Address.” Did FDR do what even Lincoln had not done: write some of his speech aboard the train that transported him to Gettysburg? The evidence actually suggests
The Eternal Light Peace Memorial is a 1938 Gettysburg Battlefield monument dedicated on July 3, 1938, commemorating the 1913 Gettysburg reunion for the 50th anniversary of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. (Peggy Melton) that he might well have done so. The surviving typescript of his remarks contains a handwritten opening paragraph likely composed en route: “On behalf of the people of the United States I accept this monument in the spirit of brotherhood and peace.” Inevitably, FDR went on to quote the Gettysburg Address. “We are encompassed by ‘The last full measure of devotion’ of many men and by the words in which Abraham Lincoln expressed the simple faith for which they died.” If Roosevelt failed to emphasize precisely what that devotion had made possible—the beginning of the end of American slavery and the potential for racial equality in the re-United States—he was doing exactly what the 16th president had done 75 years before. He was expressing a vague, if earnest, appreciation of his presidential predecessors and their commitment to “unity.” As FDR put it in a clever paraphrase, it constituted a reaffirmation of “the purposes for which the Nation was founded—to preserve under the changing conditions of each generation a people’s government for the people’s good.” Roosevelt spoke of “unity…opportunity and security,” hopeful that “bitterness” and “strife” might be addressed while “avoiding war. The arc of coincidence did not end there. Three months before speaking at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln received
African American leader Frederick Douglass at the White House. There, Douglass implored Lincoln to address another violation of American principle by equalizing the disparate pay scale that reigned in the Union army at the time, with newly recruited “colored” troops receiving smaller salaries than white soldiers. Lincoln expressed sympathy that day, along with admiration for black soldiers’
Gettysburg 25 recent gallantry in battle, but he cautioned Douglas that the white American public would not yet tolerate pay equity for African American soldiers. “I assure you, Mr. Douglass,” Lincoln told his visitor, “that in the end they shall have the same pay as white soldiers.” The president ultimately lived up to his word. Minutes after delivering his Gettysburg Address on July 3, 1938, Franklin Delano Roosevelt met briefly with an African American introduced to him as the oldest surviving veteran of the entire Civil War: William Barnes, 112 years old, who had served in the U.S. Colored Troops. History had truly come full cycle. Two-and-a-half-years would elapse before FDR’s “Four Freedoms” would enter the national vocabulary as indelibly as had Lincoln’s “new birth of freedom,” but once Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Gettysburg, the past became prologue. What the Springfield, Mass., Republican said of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address might well have been said later about Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms message. “Strong feelings and a large brain were its parents—a little painstaking, its accoucheur”—its obstetrician. The Battle of Gettysburg had a way, and still has a way, of inspiring us. Harold Holzer, Jonathan F. Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York, won the 2015 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize for Lincoln and the Power of the Press. He is co-chairman of the Lincoln Forum.
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
26 Gettysburg
July 2018
Preserving America’s Most Famous Battlefield By Jim Lighthizer In the summer of 1888, former Confederate Gen. James Longstreet visited Gettysburg for the first time since he commanded troops there 25 years earlier. It was a grand occasion, as Robert E. Lee’s “Old War Horse” met with former rival Dan Sickles and a host of other wartime adversaries. Together with Sickles and other former Union officers, Longstreet visited notable battlefield sites such as the Wheatfield, Peach Orchard, Devil’s Den, and Little Round Top. Not much had changed, the former commander noted, since his soldiers had made desperate assaults on Round Top on July 2, 1863, and, a day later at the “Bloody Angle” during Pickett’s Charge. “This great soldier …” a Texas newspaper wrote a week later about Longstreet’s visit, “standing twenty-five years later on the scene of his strife, in friendly communion with the victors and the vanquished, teaching concord by his words and his example, is an event dramatic with tragic interest but ripe with lessons to be remembered long after these years and we who are of them have passed away.” Although Gettysburg has changed significantly in the 130
years since Longstreet’s visit, much of the battlefield today looks as it did in the 19th century. The Civil War Trust, now a division of the new American Battlefield Trust umbrella organization, has helped preserve more than 1,000 acres of that sacred, blood-soaked ground. We are not alone. Other preservation groups, as well as the National Park Service, have done remarkable work protecting and restoring the battlefield. Major credit also belongs to the tens of thousands of private citizens who give their time and treasure to preserve this shrine. In the past 20 years, some of the most significant acres on the Gettysburg battlefield have been preserved or rehabilitated. I imagine that if they were alive today, Longstreet, Sickles, and touring companion Dan Butterfield, who were a driving force in creating the national military park in 1895, would be pleased. Here are highlights of some of the great preservation work accomplished at Gettysburg:
Removal and Restoration Many of us will never forget the looming presence of the 30-story National Tower at Gettysburg. Built on private land in the early 1970s, it was more eyesore than
innovation. USA Today called it “the ugliest commercial structure to ever intrude on the sanctity of a national park.” Removing the tower took time and trouble. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a law adding land on which the tower was built to the park boundary. Ten years later, a federal judge ruled that Gettysburg National Military Park could seize it for $3 million compensation to be given the structure’s owners. In addition to the Civil War Trust, both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Friends of National Parks at Gettysburg, were also involved in efforts that led to the acquisition and demolition of the tower. On July 3, 2000, the 137th anniversary of Pickett’s Charge, an estimated 10,000 people watched as a demolition team fired 12 pounds of explosives to bring the monstrosity crashing down. For those invested in the tower’s removal, it was a special day. “This is sacred ground,” Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt said. “Americans come here to learn of their past, to understand how it was in those days when we remade ourselves as a new nation.” Added Richard Moe, president
of the National Trust for Historic Preservation: “To a preservationist, demolition is almost an ugly word. But today, we’re doing something right.” Twelve pounds of explosives weren’t needed to help restore another critical area of the battlefield: Ziegler’s Grove, scene of a tremendous Confederate artillery bombardment and infantry assault on July 3 during Pickett’s Charge. Well after the war, this area became the site of the old Gettysburg visitor center and museum as well as the Cyclorama building housing the massive “Battle of Gettysburg” painting by French artist Paul Philippoteaux. To restore Ziegler’s Grove to its wartime appearance, both buildings were demolished and the landscape was rehabilitated. Today, this historic area looks much as it did in 1863, when the left flank of Gen. Joseph Pettigrew’s division swept across a field to engage the men in blue. Now you may enjoy a grand view of the battlefield as you walk
among monuments to Battery G, 2nd U.S. Artillery, Battery F, 5th U.S. Artillery, and other Union markers. Kudos to the Park Service and the Gettysburg Foundation for making this restoration and rehabilitation happen. I consider the entire Gettysburg battlefield a classroom, so I was ecstatic in 2016 when the Trust acquired Mary Thompson’s 1½story house and adjoining fouracre property on Seminary Ridge, just off the old Chambersburg Pike. At $5.5 million, the deal was among the most expensive in Trust history. But we think it’s worth the price to preserve one of the most important historic buildings in the United States. On July 1, 1863, fierce fighting took place on Thompson’s property. Union artillery under Lt. James Stewart was placed in front of the house, supported by three Pennsylvania regiments. Later, Lee plotted tactics there with his commanders, and on July 2 and 3, Confederates positioned artillery in the area.
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The Gettysburg Foundation saved the train depot where President Lincoln arrived in 1863 to deliver his address at the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery. (Ron Zanoni)
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Former Confederate Gen. James Longstreet (left) and Union Gen. Daniel E. Sickles (center) attend the veterans reunion at Gettysburg in July 1888, the battle’s 25th anniversary. (Gettysburg National Military Park)
July 2018 The restoration of the Thompson house and property was, by far, the most complex in our organization’s history. Dormers were removed from the house, a roof was replaced, and the stone structure’s interior was given a wartime look. In addition to restoring the 1833 building, a small hotel, gift shop, swimming pool, and parking lot were demolished. That land was restored to its 1863 appearance, and the Trust installed fencing, interpretive markers, a small orchard, and a walking trail. If you look closely at Mathew Brady’s 1863 photograph of Thompson’s house, you’ll see a small structure outside: it’s a doghouse. In a supreme effort to remain true to the period, we replicated it, dings and all. If Lee were to ride up to the house today, I bet he’d recognize it.
Rehabilitation Some of the most important work at the park involves landscape restoration by the Park Service, notably the removal of trees to restore sightlines that existed during the battle. In the past decade, trees have been cleared between the Peach Orchard and Devil’s Den/ Triangular Field, giving visitors a much better appreciation for what soldiers experienced. A side benefit: Tree removal on Munshower’s Knoll has given greater exposure to battlefield monuments there. As part of the battlefield rehabilitation plan, tree clearing is ongoing, with the goal to reestablish former pasture and cropland present during the battle. The Park Service also has
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section re-established miles of fences that designated farm fields in 1863.
Proactive Preservation Sometimes, a proactive approach is required to halt destruction of, or encroachment upon, battlefield land. Three times, preservation groups have rallied forces to halt a casino planned near the battlefield. As you know, a casino near Gettysburg would forever alter the unique character of a historic treasure. I’m proud to say the Civil War Trust stood strong against casino gaming near the Gettysburg battlefield. Among our partners in these hard-fought and hard-won campaigns were No Casino Gettysburg, Preservation Pennsylvania, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Parks Conservation Association. The latest proposal called for a harness track and a casino to be built on land just off Pennsylvania Route 15, near the Steinwehr Avenue exit, less than three miles from the heart of the battlefield. Thankfully, the developer called off his plan in June 2017. Later that year, local opponents came to the battlefield’s defense once again, this time persuading 31 out of 34 Adams County municipalities to opt out of eligibility for a newly created category of Pennsylvania casinos.
Critical Mass As proud as I am of the Trust’s accomplishments at Gettysburg, we have not been alone in saving large swaths of battlefield land. Thanks to the Gettysburg
Foundation, 80 acres of the historic George Spangler farm were saved in 2008. During the battle, Spangler’s house and barn became a makeshift hospital, mainly for Federal soldiers. Confederate Gen. Lewis Armistead, a casualty during Pickett’s Charge, is believed to have died in the summer kitchen. Spangler’s Farm offers interpretive programs and livinghistory exhibits. A trail from the visitor center to the farm is in the planning stage. A nonprofit partner of the Park Service, the Gettysburg Foundation, also led the way in saving the old train station on Carlisle Street where President Lincoln arrived on Nov. 18, 1863. The next day, the president delivered the Gettysburg Address at the new national cemetery. The Gettysburg Lincoln Railroad Station is now under the Park Service’s jurisdiction. In partnership with the Park Service, the foundation built the park’s state-of-the-art visitor center, which opened in 2008. In 2011, The Conservation Fund and the Trust saved 95 acres of vitally important battlefield land along Chambersburg Pike between McPherson Ridge and Herr’s Ridge. You may remember it as the former site of the Gettysburg Country Club. On July 1, 1863, eight brigades of Lee’s army, more than 15,000 soldiers, were positioned or fought on this land. Confederate Gen. James Archer’s brigade crossed the area during the first day of the battle. Later that day, Archer was captured at Willoughby Run. At East Cavalry Field, the Trust, in partnership with the
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East Cavalry Field, where Gens. J.E.B. Stuart’s and David McMurtie Gregg’s horsemen clashed, is one of the Gettysburg sites preserved by the American Battlefield Trust and the Land Conservancy of Adams County. (American Battlefield Trust)
Preservation allies, including the American Battlefield Trust, have thrice defeated proposals to build a gambling casino near Gettysburg. (Jeff Griffith)
Razing of the Cyclorama building, accomplished by the Gettysburg Foundation and the National Park Service, restored the battlefield’s Ziegler’s Grove area to its wartime appearance. (Michael Waricher)
Trust President Jim Lighthizer dedicates the restored Lee’s Headquarters on Seminary Ridge in 2016. Now, the American Battlefield Trust aims to preserve 18 adjoining acres, some of which can be seen in the distance. (Lindsey Morrison/American Battlefield Trust)
28 Gettysburg Land Conservancy of Adams County, has saved 283 acres, mainly through the use of farmland easements. On the third day of the battle, about three miles from Gettysburg’s town square, J.E.B. Stuart’s horsemen battled Union cavalry led by David McMurtie Gregg. Had the Confederates been successful, the battle’s outcome may have been much different. Twenty-five years after Gettysburg, former Confederate cavalry general Wade Hampton met Gregg during a reunion and picnic at East Cavalry Field. For a half-hour on July 7, 1886, they entertained each other with their views of the battle. “It was,” a New York newspaper reported, “a sight for reflection—this coming together of opposing commanders to find pleasure in marking for the future the successes and the defeats which are the monuments of our common valor.” Because this area is preserved, this special place remains a site for reflection today.
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section In 2005, the Trust partnered with the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association and Land Conservancy of Adams County to preserve 146 acres of the Daniel Lady Farm, a staging area for Confederate Gen. Edward Johnson’s attack on Culp’s Hill. Southern wounded were cared for in the farm’s German-style bank barn and beautiful stone house, where bloodstains still may be seen on floorboards. Of the heartrending dramas that played out on the farm, one of my favorites is the story of Joseph White Latimer, the “Boy Major” from Virginia. On the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Union counter-battery fire from East Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill decimated Latimer’s position on Benner’s Hill, near the Lady farm. Only 19 and wise beyond his years, Latimer was mortally wounded by a shell as he was astride his horse, which was killed in the explosion. Comrades pulled Latimer from under the dying animal, taking him to the
July 2018
The bank barn at the Daniel Lady Farm, where the trust and its local allies preserved 146 battlefield acres in 2005, is a Gettysburg landmark. (American Battlefield Trust) Lady farm, where his right arm was amputated. Praised in an after-action report, the former VMI cadet died of gangrene in Harrisonburg, Va., on Aug. 1, 1863, just 26 days shy of his 20th birthday. Through preserving sites such as Lee’s Headquarters and East Cavalry Field, while standing firm against construction of a casino near the battlefield, the Trust and its allies have helped safeguard the national treasure which is Gettysburg. This vital work goes on. In May, the American Battlefield Trust announced as its first fundraising campaign an opportunity to save 18 acres of core battlefield land at Seminary Ridge. I hope you will all join me in making this a future preservation accomplishment at Gettysburg! Jim Lighthizer is president of the American Battlefield Trust, a nonprofit umbrella organization that includes the Civil War Trust and the Revolutionary War Trust.
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Come shoot Artillery and Civil W ar Small Arms with us The 10th Massachusetts Battery participates in competitive shooting matches in the North-South Skirmish Association and the American Artillery Association. During the 2018 season, we plan to compete at the N-SSA National Matches, and AAA Ponderosa shoot and Westerlo shoots, with a 2.25” Confederate Mountain Rifle, a 3-inch Ordnance Rifle, and a 12-pounder Coehorn Mortar. In addition, we plan to compete with Small Arms at the Nationals, and Regional matches in NY/New England. For more information: Ed Moore cannoneerfour@hotmail.com 508-528-3951
30 Gettysburg
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
Alfred R. Waud and the Battle of Gettysburg This occasional column will highlight prints from the Civil War. It will discuss their meaning and most importantly, what the print maker or artist was trying to achieve. Arguably the American Civil War was the seminal event of the 19th Century, if not the entire span of American History. It was just the dawn of photography and those wishing to portray war’s grandeur and horror were limited to artists recreating scenes of war. Print makers from Currier and Ives to serious artists like Winslow Homer and Edwin Forbes attempted to convey human drama through their drafting pens and lithographic stones. Weeklies such as Harper’s Weekly, The New York Illustrated News, and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper were eager to have not only firsthand accounts of events but pictorial representations as well. As a result, national and local newspapers hired young, aspiring artists. Homer, Forbes, and Waud were just three of many to cover the war. Homer’s drawings, when submitted to Harper’s, were pretty much complete and were probably more competent than Waud’s. Forbes captured camp
and human-interest vignettes; Waud outpaced Homer and Forbes when it came to battle action coverage. He was a Brit, London born in 1828. He made his way to America in 1850 where he found work illustrating novels, tour guides, and doing commissioned portraits. His employment with the New York Illustrated News placed him at First Bull Run, July 1861, and he covered the war all the way to Appomattox. By 1862, he was working for Harper’s. He had the extraordinary luck of the draw to follow the Army of the Potomac throughout the rest of the war covering all its major battles. Viewing his work, most of which is held by the Library of Congress, it appears that he was everywhere throughout the war; and war’s end didn’t stop him. He traveled extensively in the south after the war, dying in the Georgia home of future Governor, Joseph M. Brown, and was interred in Saint James Episcopal Cemetery, Marietta.1 It was Gettysburg where Waud “produced the best drawings of that three day bloodbath.”2 At Gettysburg, either Timothy O’Sullivan or Alexander Gardner took his picture as he sat on a rock in the Devil’s Den, July 6,
1863. (Fig. A).3 He was aptly described by an unknown English correspondent: “Blue-eyed, fairbearded, strapping and stalwart, full of loud, cheery laughs and comic songs, armed to the teeth, jack-booted, gauntleted, slouchhatted, yet clad in the shootingjacket of a civilian…”4 According to Library of Congress records, 776 of Waud’s drawings are in its collections; 44 alone depict his time at Gettysburg. It is unclear when Waud arrived on the field. The best guess is sometime during the night of July 1-2. Since Reynolds was killed the afternoon of the 1st, Waud probably “worked from later eyewitness reports.”5 (Fig. B) Waud’s depiction of the Louisiana Brigade’s charge on Meade’s right on July 2 places him on or near Cemetery Hill. (Fig. C) He seemed to be everywhere at once. His cool
depiction of Gouverneur Warren on top of Little Round Top and the action in the Devil’s Den seem to be taken from real life sketching. (Fig. D, E & F). Waud’s most important and memorable sketch captured the war’s dramatic moments just before Pickett’s charge and the charge itself. In his sketch entitled “Cemetery Hill prior to Pickett’s Charge,” Waud recorded the earth shattering cannonade preceding the Confederate attack on Meade’s center. His depiction of the actual charge does not mention Pickett, but Longstreet. The official title was: “Battle of Gettysburg. Longstreet’s attack upon the left center of the Union lines. Blue Ridge in distance.” As the Confederates walked the open field toward the Union center, Frank Leslie’s illustrator Edwin Forbes “lost his nerve” and retreated beyond Cemetery Ridge and Hill, but not Waud. “His drawing of the event,” according to historian Frederic Ray, “could well be the only version made by an actual observer on the field.”6 Careful research indicates that Waud expended much effort to accurately portray what he observed. “Harper’s engravers faithfully copied the original drawing which appeared as a double page spread on August 8, more than a month following the battle.”7 Because we know that his picture was taken at the Devil’s Den three days after the battle’s end, Waud undoubtedly created, revised, polished, and re-sketched his work of the prior days. Waud followed the Army of the Potomac through to Appomattox
July 2018 and, after the war, visited Southern cities and battlefields that he had not covered during the war. His sketches, along with Brady’s and Gardner’s photographs, are our window on America’s greatest triumph and tragedy. Endnotes: 1. Emerging Civil War. https://emergingcivilwar. com/2012/03/12/drawing-thewar-part-1-alfred-waud/. 2. Frederic E. Ray. “Our Special Artist”: Alfred R. Waud’s Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994, 42. Hereafter Ray, Waud. 3. According to Waud’s own hand script, Gardner took his picture. Ray, Waud, 43. But the Library of Congress’ Centennial Exhibition credits Sullivan. Library of Congress. The American Civil War: A Centennial Exhibition. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1961, 42. Hereafter LoC, Centennial. 4. LoC, Centennial, 42. 5. Ray, Waud, 42. 6. Ibid, 43. 7. Ibid, 43. Salvatore Cilella is retired after 43 years in the museum field. His last position was President and CEO of the Atlanta History Center. He is the author of several articles and books. His most recent books are Upton’s Regulars: A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War (U. Press Kansas, 2009) and he edited The Correspondence of General Emory Upton, 18561881 (U. Tennessee Press, 2017).
A) Gettysburg, Penn. Alfred R. Waud, artist of Harper’s Weekly, sketching on battlefield. Colorization © 2016 civilwarincolor.com courtesy civilwarincolor.com/cwn (Library of Congress)
July 2018
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
Gettysburg 31
B) Reynolds’s death at Gettysburg. The sketch for the published engraving below.
(Library of Congress)
B) The Fall of Reynolds. This is the published engraving of his sketch immediately above.
(Library of Congress)
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
32 Gettysburg
General Warren was Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac during the Battle of Gettysburg. His bronze statue is mounted on a boulder where he is said to have stood on during the battle. (Jack Melton)
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(Library of Congress)
E) The Devil’s Den Gettysburg.
(Library of Congress)
F) Appearance of Cemetery Hill previous to Pickett’s Charge.
(Library of Congress)
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July 2018
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
C) Charge of Louisiana Brigade at Gettysburg.
Gettysburg 33
(Library of Congress)
Alfred Waud, full-length portrait, seated, holding a pencil and pad, facing left. Printed on back of mount: Alex Gardner Galleries, Photographer to the Army of the Potomac, 511 Seventh Street and 332 Pennsylvania Av., published by Philp & Solomons, Washington, D.C. (Library of Congress) G) Battle of Gettysburg. Longstreet’s attack upon the left center of the Union lines. Blue Ridge in distance. (Library of Congress)
Devil’s Den. The large rock in the foreground is the exact location where the photograph of Alfred Waud was taken on the Gettysburg battlefield.
(Jack Melton)
34 Gettysburg
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
July 2018
Mary Thompson – Robert E. Lee’s Hostess By Carl L. Sell Jr. Before she became famous as Robert E. Lee’s hostess at Gettysburg, she was just the Widow Thompson who lived on the Chambersburg Pike. Before that she had been widowed twice, and therein lays the reason for this story. The Civil War Trust purchased and restored Lee’s Headquarters that opened last year. The Widow Thompson lived on one side of the little duplex and, so the story goes, Lee made his headquarters in the other side. Whether or not the famous general actually slept in the house is unclear, but there is little doubt he used it as an office when not out viewing the battle. The house, surrounding grounds, and the orchard across the street saw major episodes of the fighting on July 1, 1863. Lee was in and out until early July 4 when he ordered the Army of Northern Virginia to begin its retreat back to Virginia. The house served as a hospital for both sides during and after the battle. Mary Thompson stayed in the house during the whole time caring for the wounded. The house had been purchased and entrusted to her by Thaddeus Stevens, the fiery Abolitionist and United States Congressman from Gettysburg. Her son, James, lived across the street and her daughter, Hannah, lived just two doors away. All her other children had moved away. In all, Mary had eight children from the two marriages. She was 69 years old at the time of the battle. A year after the battle, Professor Michael Jacobs of Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College) quoted Mary as saying that Robert E. Lee was of “gentlemanly deportment.” She described Jeb Stuart as being “rough and cruel.” (Author’s note: Stuart, who considered himself a “ladies’ man,” would have been nonplussed to hear that comment). Stuart met with Lee at his headquarters on July 2, after arriving from Carlisle. Professor Jacobs’ house was also within Confederate lines during the battle. Born in 1794, Mary had first married Daniel Sell (same name as the author) in 1818. Both were from nearby Littlestown and they lived there for a short time before moving to Frederick County, Md. Daniel died in 1822, leaving Mary with two small daughters and another on the way. His entire estate was worth $76.58, according to court
Trip Leader Ben Trittipoe points in the direction Robert E. Lee came toward Gettysburg. A group from the Franconia (Virginia) Museum visited the restored Lee Headquarters (background) recently. (Bill Kamenjar)
This Mathew Brady image was taken at the house in July 1863, shortly after the Confederates and General Robert E. Lee left Gettysburg. Mary Sell Thompson is in the white dress and her daughter, Hannah Sell Foulk, is on her mother’s right. The Thompson house has been restored by the Civil War Trust as Lee’s Headquarters at Gettysburg. (Library of Congress)
July 2018 records. His coffin cost $6 and the total cost of the funeral was $15.07. The information comes from the Sell families of Adams and York Counties, Penn., and Carroll County, Md., researched and written by Kenneth D. Sell, Ph.D., and printed in 1998. Mary had lived in the Chambersburg Pike house since 1846, working as a cook and steward in the nearby Lutheran Theological Seminary. The stone house had been built on four acres in 1833. Mary was still married to Joshua Thompson, who had disappeared and twice left her and the children without a means of support. In 1841, he was declared a drunkard unable to manage his own affairs and guardians were appointed for the children. Stevens then bought the property for her as part of a trust so her husband could make no claims should he reappear. Mary Sell Thompson died in 1873, age 79, after moving to Maryland. She is buried in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery. The house remained in Steven’s ownership until he died in 1868. It later sold at auction for $740 and remained in private hands until purchased by the Civil War Trust in 2014, then refurbished, and opened two years later. The site will become part of the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park, operated by the National Park Service. The Sell family that settled near Gettysburg and nearby Maryland had its origins in Germany. The Dutch migration, including the Sells, began to the New World in the mid-1680s. Although the author’s direct ancestors didn’t arrive until 1862, family records show a connection to cousins who arrived almost two centuries earlier. The Gettysburg-area Sells were farmers. Those who came during the Civil War were farmers and railroad workers in Schuylkill County, Penn. This information popped up during research for the story about Edmund Sell, the Union private from Littlestown, Penn., who appeared in the April 2018 edition of Civil War News. Edmund was “Killed by Mosby’s Guerillas,” in Nov. 1864 near Winchester, Va. He was 17 at the time. Carl Sell has written two books about his Confederate maternal ancestors who survived at Gettysburg. Thank God He Survived Pickett’s Charge is about his great grandfather. Who Were Those Other Heroes With Armistead at the Guns tells the story of his great uncle at the High Water Mark. Carl Sell can be contacted at 703-971-4716 or via email at sellcarl@aol.com
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
Gettysburg 35
During the restoration phase of the Mary Thompson house, Lee’s Headquarters by the Civil War Trust.
(Jack Melton)
Then and Now photograph of the Mary Thompson house after restoration by the Civil War Trust in 2017.
(Jack Melton)
36 Gettysburg
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
July 2018
Contamination Faced by the Townspeople of Gettysburg By Mike Shovlin It’s a happy surprise to find a large quantity of unexpected information while researching! The discoveries are rewarding because the trap of thinking the battle is over when the last shot echoes and the smoke clears is so wrong. This conclusion thinking (an unintended “ruling theory”) denied me the entire scope of the true horrors of battle to all involved. Gettysburg is only one example of a location that suffered severe issues when the fighting ceased. Many Virginia locations faced similar situations repeatedly. Hopefully, one can take the following information and see the “big picture” of how this horrible time period played in the lives for local citizens near Civil War battlefields. Today we have many studies that identify dangers to the health of the population. One study I found was An analysis of Human Pathogens Found in Horse/Mule Manure Along the John Muir Trail in Kings Canyon and Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.”1 The safety of the backpackers is a concern that needed to be
addressed. In reading this article I began to shudder, thinking of the thousands of horses, mules, and cattle used to transport and feed an army. The needs of these animals in food and water and the availability to meet these needs would have a huge effect on any locality. In the booklet Gettysburg By The Numbers, Chuck Teague notes there were an estimated sixty-seven thousand horses and mules supporting the armies and over five thousand were killed. Each animal would require a minimum of ten gallons of water a day.2 In the 1860’s, sanitation in a town Gettysburg’s size (2,400) was poor. Outhouses were not contained and by-product wastes, offal (pronounced awful), were disposed of by convenient methods. Water was largely provided by wells and streams. Adding 165,000 soldiers task systems to the extreme. As the troops and their wagon trains arrived the problems compounded. The amount of water needed would dictate encamping at a water source. To assure the supply, teamsters could build
The Leister farm right after the battle. Dead horses are visible on the road and farm. (Library of Congress) small dams on the stream to raise need to find other water sources. other areas by their actions. the water level for the animals. In Then fecal contamination from The best available figures show every area where this occurred, animals using the source upstream 57,265 deaths from diarrhea a chain reaction started affecting posed additional problems. The and dysentery as against 44,238 everything downstream. The quantity of manure is in a higher killed in battle.5 These are just reduced flow would result in the percentage due to slowing the numbers for the Union army. In flow. Anyone who filled a canteen general, water that was tasteless or bucket came in contact with and colorless was presumed to be this. Just getting their hands in good. Fecal contamination was the contaminated water spread recognized as bad, but chemical the germs by contact with others impurities and the presence of or in handing food. A second decaying matter seemed equally problem would be the amount of alarming.6 This sort of water bacteria collected on the edges of became part of the life of an a water source. Giardia cysts are average soldier who dealt with one example. A person reaching water shortages and drinkability. out into a fast flowing stream A newspaper correspondent could miss contacting bacteria, reported while traveling with the but a person has to balance with southern army “the water smells one hand while using the other so offensively that the men have to collect the water. Finding to hold their noses while drinking another source of water would it.”7 lead to local wells. A bucket used The combination of animal in a contaminated stream could manure along creeks and streams spread bacteria to these wells. and the bodily fluids of the Tillie Pierce Alleman stated, dead and wounded would be “Obtaining a bucket, I hastened compounded by the increased to the spring, and there, with need for water. An average others carried water to the moving column until the spring was empty.”3 Water was a major commodity for soldiers, civilians, and their animals; it also became a vector for spreading disease. During the Civil War more soldiers died from disease than from combat. If the common contagious diseases of childhood did not strike down the soldiers, diseases spread by the “four Fs” flies, fingers, feces, and food did.4 We will look mostly at diarrhea, dysentery, and typhoid fever. The cause of these diseases will Matilda “Tillie” Pierce Alleman. be found in fecally contaminated She was 15 years old at the water. Anyone in contact may time of the battle. become a carrier and infect (Tillie Pierce House Inn)
July 2018 figure for manure produced at Gettysburg would be over one million pounds per day. Each horse created 15 to 30 pounds and a mule 10 + pounds. There were 165,000 fighting men looking to fill canteens, cook, and care for the wounded. Cannon need water to sponge the bore after every shot. Men and animals crossing through creeks with wagons or cannon churned the creek bottom as well dragging debris into the water. Wounded animals fleeing the battle scene would look for water, then, having gone as far as they could, dropped down and died.8 Flies that gathered on manure and decaying bodies aided the spread of disease. Dysentery follows about ten days after climatic conditions become favorable for breeding of flies.9 Perhaps the meanest offenses were being committed by the farmers who removed the handles and buckets from their wells to prevent the soldiers from reaching water.10 Being forced by the point of a bayonet to return the handle with the possibility of the well being pumped dry would be far better than the well being ruined by dumping bodies down the shaft. A story from the battle of Antietam related that fiftyeight bodies were thrown down the Wine Family well. The only story I found of this happening at Gettysburg was at a farm on Herr’s Ridge. A woman discovered that several bodies had been dumped in a farmhouse well as a quick and easy way of burying the dead. She later explained that the water in the well began to make people ill.
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section When it was cleaned out, workers found pieces of human bodies, such as a wrist and thumb, that may have been amputated at a nearby field hospital.11 There are many reports of finding decaying bodies in creeks and runs. The heavy rains that followed the battle added to the situation. At the Rose Farm, the little marshy stream in front of the house was clogged with Confederate dead. Ponds were formed, the dams being formed by the swollen corpses of Southern soldiers.12 The widow Leister said, “the dead horses spilled my spring, so I had to have my well dug.”13 The three days of fighting resulted in many attempts to maintain or bring in water. An artilleryman named Berkeley chronicled in his diary how he had to ride almost six miles northwest of town to find any potable water.14 A 23rd North Carolina officer had to station a guard with “fixed bayonet” to keep back a horde of men attempting to use a well that had been pumped dry.15 Gettysburg and the surrounding townships had to face the horror of the battle’s aftermath. The sheer numbers of participants completely overwhelmed any possibility to meet their needs. The heavy rains that began to fall on July 4th helped alleviate the shortage of water, but all that was not collected in rain barrels and buckets added to the disease possibilities as runoff. Millions of pounds of manure and bodily fluids were washed into the streams. The ground water was replenished with
Gettysburg 37
View at Trostle’s barn where the 9th Massachusetts Battery was decimated during the Battle of Gettysburg. The battery’s horses lie scattered in the foreground. (Library of Congress)
Spangler’s Spring is a natural spring located on the southern end of Culp’s Hill. Confederate and Union troops held this site during the battle. On July 2, both sides filled their empty canteens from this spring. (Peggy Melton)
Winebrenner Run along Confederate Avenue. The Henry Culp farm is in the background.
38 Gettysburg contaminated water from the fields. Iron and lead oxides from bullets and cannon balls leeched into the ground for decades. These metals were absorbed into the roots of plants grown on the farms. This affected the grazing animals as well as the people who ate the meat. The health of people downstream was placed in jeopardy. The fecal material and decaying flesh traveled miles from the battlefield. The hastily established latrines, the dead buried in shallow graves, animal wastes, and the runoff from the fields contaminated the remaining potable water. Heavy rains only worsened the situation by polluting regular water sources.16 When Aaron Sheely went out to the fields by his Chambersburg Road farm, “the poor wretched. Still lying there cried for water. It was not long before my arms were filled with canteens. I drove back to the farm, loaded up with water and returned. What little water there was on the battlefield was filled with blood.”17 In the aftermath, the shortages were felt by the civilians who lost crops, livestock and drinkable water. Over twentyone thousand wounded soldiers were left behind, adding to the supply needs. They also added
Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section additional contamination. Many field hospitals were on farms where the sinks (latrines) were dangerously close to a water source. Amputated limbs would draw flies until buried. The number of wounded ten times greater than the town’s population was hard enough to handle but the influx of visitors to the battlefield, became a major issue. Sarah Broadhead noted that ten days after the battle ended, “The old story of the inability of a village of twentyfive hundred inhabitants, overrun and eaten out by two large armies, to accommodate from ten to twelve thousand visitors, is repeated almost hourly.”18 Many townspeople had to scrounge for fresh water and food. Sharing with the wounded made it that much harder. Visitors were the last thing needed. Little did the visitors know that they were putting their health in jeopardy. A correspondent of the Philadelphia Public Ledger wrote on July 15th, “A word of well meant advice. Let no one come to this place for the simple purpose of seeing. Besides, every such visitor is a consumer, and adds to the misery of the sick, by subtracting from the means that should be given exclusively to them.”19 Many came to look for loved
Sarah Broadhead ones at field hospitals already strained by the circumstances. A spring located near White Run Creek became infected with pollutants from the hospital grounds after the stream overflowed during a heavy rain. The single spring was used for cleaning, drinking, and cooking, and for more than a week everyone in the hospital camp became sick due to the infection in the water.20 I became curious about how the town population survived the diseases during the aftermath. Three diseases spread by water were chosen and compared to statistics of preceding years. A six month period was probed with a sample group being those who were buried in Evergreen Cemetery. The amount of time
takes into consideration that the dysentery organism can survive in water for four weeks and that the giardia parasites form hard cysts while in the intestines that can live for months after being passed as feces. Using the Evergreen burial permits on file at the Adams County Historical Society, I found a sizable increase after the battle. In the years 1861 and 1862, three people total were listed on their burial permits as dying from typhoid. In 1863, the number jumped to eight. Diarrhea and dysentery claimed only one victim in the two year period. The number in 1863 was seven. The true number would be higher because only Evergreen statistics were used. The visitors after the battle faced the same contamination and would have carried the affliction home. Gettysburg is only one battle site where the civilians were faced with adversity. I have a new respect for all who held the home front and the trials and tribulations they experienced. May our soil never have to experience this horror again. Endnotes:
1. Robert Wayne Derlet, MD; James Reynolds Carlson, PhD. Wilderness and Environmental
July 2018
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. 10.
11.
12.
13. 14. 15. 16.
17.
18.
19. 20.
Medicine, 2002. pages 113-118. Chuck Teague. Gettysburg By The Numbers, Adams County Historical Society, Gettysburg, Pa. page 20. Tillie Pierce Alleman. What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle, W. Lake Borland, New York. 1889. Page 42. Bonnie Brice Dorwart, M.D. Death is in the Breeze, The NMCWM Press Frederick, Md. 2009. Page 23. Bell Irvin Wiley. The Life of Billy Yank. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge. 1952. Page 124. George Washington Adams. Doctors in Blue, Morningside, Dayton, Ohio. 1985.Page 205. Bell Irvin Wiley. The Life of Johnny Reb, Louisiana State Press, Baton Rouge. 1943. Page 247. Daniel J. Hoisington. Gettysburg and the Christian Commission, Edinborough Press. 2002. Page 46. Dorwart. Page 36. Gerard A. Patterson. Debris of Battle The Wounded of Gettysburg, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pa. 1997. Page 55. Gregory A. Coco. A Strange and Blighted Land, Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, Pa. 1995. Page 73. Timothy H. Smith. Farms at Gettysburg The Fields of Battle, Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, Pa. 2007. Page33. Ibid. Page 41. Coco. Page 187 Ibid. Page 187. George Sheldon. When the Smoke Cleared at Gettysburg, Cumberland House Naperville, Il. 2003. Page 212. Jim Slade & John Alexander. Firestorm at Gettysburg, Schiffer Military/Aviation History, Atglen, Pa. 1998. Page 143. Gabor S. Boritt. The Gettysburg Nobody Knows. Oxford University Press, New York. 1997. Page 163. Coco. Page 169. Ibid. page 184.
Mike Shovlin is a graduate of Westminster College where he majored in history. He is currently employed by the Gettysburg Foundation as the lead Assistant at the Rupp House History Center.
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Civil War News 24th Annual Gettysburg Section
44 Gettysburg
July 2018
Eskimos at Gettysburg By Simone LaMenteuse (Translated by Thomas P. Lowry) Two ongoing controversies have long roiled the world of Civil War history. First, were there indeed “colored” troops in the Confederate forces? The second regards the Confederate records captured during the Army of Northern Virginia’s retreat from Gettysburg. The latter are stored in the vast “Rebel Archives” at the National Archives. Staffing and fiscal constraints have long delayed full cataloging of these records. A final addition to solving this longrumored “Eskimo mystery” is in the recently discovered “secret” papers of LaSalle Pickett, Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett’s widow. The story begins in 1856, when Pickett, then a captain, was stationed in Washington Territory. The treaty setting the US-Canadian border at the 49th parallel had left the border through the San Juan Islands ambiguous; both sides claimed the islands and both had settlers. An American farmer shot a Britishowned pig that was rooting up
®
the American’s potatoes. The pig owner demanded $3,000 (in today’s money). The farmer refused to pay, setting off the Pig War, found in nearly every history textbook. Soon, both American and British troops were camped on the island. Several British warships backed up their land force. A single shot could have set off a world-wide war. The often-impulsive Pickett added fuel to the fire with these immortal words, “We will make a Bunker Hill of it!” Calmer heads prevailed and the issue was settled through diplomacy. More relevant to our story is Pickett’s personal life. While in the northwest, Pickett married a Haida woman, Morning Mist. They had one child, James “Jimmy” Tilton Pickett, who later became a newspaper illustrator. Jimmy’s mother died when he was quite young. The harsh winter of 1858, combined with a severe earthquake, tidal wave, and collapse of most of the Tlingit Glacier, forced a settlement of starving Aleuts onto the San Juan Islands. In a letter recently found in the widow Pickett’s
suppressed files is a letter from Jimmy’s grandmother, Smiling Waters, asking for Pickett’s help in resettling these hundred men and their families. While official Confederate policy prohibited enlisting African Americans, they had already made an exception for Melungeons. The actual nationality of the Aleuts was Russian, but the czarist government had little interest in their whereabouts. Through financing, no longer documented, the Aleut men, leaving their families behind, and nourishing the hope of sending home soldier salaries, traveled south, crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and entered Wilmington on a blockade runner. Panamanian malaria and violent seasickness had reduced their numbers to ninety-six, still enough to fill a company. In the 1860s, a capital letter “I” looked exactly like a capital “J.” To avoid confusion in both northern and southern armies, there were no companies labeled “J.” Pickett’s contribution was to create a Company J, as an
administrative stealth company. Many Aleuts had used firearms while hunting seals and bears, so musket drill was no problem. English-speaking Aleuts became the company’s non-commissioned officers. Every unit is, of course, part of a larger organization. In this case, Pickett assigned Company “J” to the 24th Virginia Infantry, Kemper’s Brigade, and off they marched toward Gettysburg. Little is known of the Aleuts at the actual battle. One Virginia soldier noted, “On our way to Gettysburg, we saw some Chinese-looking fellow who spoke a strange language, maybe they was Yankees from way up north.” Another diarist wrote, “Two men who look Chinee [sic] fell over in the heat on the march into Penna.” It seems likely that Company “J” men were among the thousands who charged uphill in that famous effort of the third day. As Southern forces moved south, the town of Gettysburg faced the burial of thousands of corpses, already rotting in the hot sun. One diarist, Salem Winthrop, wrote of “several rebel dead who looked more Indian or Chinese, or maybe it was just the swelling that comes after death.” Pickett seemed deeply demoralized by the huge losses in the charge that today bears his
name. He left no record of further contacts with his Aleuts. Since there was no official Company “J,” the men may have drifted away without being noticed. Did they blend into the population? Since most spoke an Aleut tongue, this seems unlikely. Neither the “Rebel Archives” nor LaSalle Pickett’s papers tell us any more. Pickett’s men from the far north will forever remain neither confirmed nor disproved. Sources: •
• •
•
VonWitzleben, Fritz: Untold Tales of the Great Rebellion. Ulbrecht & Simon, St. Louis, 1877. Jackson, Ruth Mae: Other Heroes of the South. Porter & Sons, Charleston, 1901. Anonymous: LaSalle Pickett’s Personal and Confidential Letters. Privately printed, 1898. More info regarding the Pig War can be found at https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pig_War_(1859)
Mme. LaMenteuse was a Quebecoise acting as a volunteer nurse at Gettysburg. Her translator is a retired physician and author of many books on the Civil War.
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