Civil War News February 2023

Calling All “Advocacy Allies”

The Trust is ringing in the new year with a call to preservation allies across the country. Launching in 2023, the nonprofit is introducing a new subscription newsletter for friends groups, historical societies, and other groups with ongoing interests in battlefield preservation and advocacy.

Published on a quarterly basis, subscribed organizations will receive updates on emerging threats to historic sites, as well as discussions on best practices

for political outreach and proven tactics to empower the evergrowing preservation community. Subscribe to this “Advocacy Allies” newsletter and other dispatches at www.battlefields. org/email-signup.

Preservation allies are also encouraged to submit their upcoming events to the Trust’s partner event submission form at www.battlefields.org/ addyourevent.

Help the Trust Bring Preservation Efforts Across the Finish Line

Preservation projects can sometimes involve several layers of history, ultimately making for an even more meaningful impact. With its latest efforts, the Trust is targeting seven acres across three sites in New York and South Carolina, as well as 128 acres of battlefield land in Maryland and West Virginia. Altogether, these sites cover three separate conflicts in American history.

With an ambitious goal of protecting 2,500 acres of Revolutionary War battlefield land to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Trust is eyeing a small property at Upstate New York’s Fort Ticonderoga and two additional Palmetto State properties at Fort Johnson and Eutaw Springs.

Fort Ticonderoga, initially under French control, was a critical post during the French and Indian War. Captured by the British during that earlier conflict, a contingent of Green Mountain Boys and New England militia took the fort only one month into the Revolutionary War.

Just outside Charleston, S.C., the 2nd South Carolina Regiment seized Fort Johnson in September 1775. On April 12, 1861, a flaming mortar shot from Fort Johnson exploded over Fort Sumter, beginning the American Civil War.

The Eutaw Springs Battlefield is an hour northwest of Fort Johnson and represents a key moment in the Southern Campaigns. This is where it became evident that Patriot forces wouldn’t take defeat as an

answer. It is also a stop along the budding Liberty Trail. These properties are valued at more than $2.7 million, but thanks to a variety of matching grants and already-promised donations, the Trust must raise the remaining $62,000.

Preservationists are also needed to protect land associated with the bloody Maryland Campaign of 1862. Now, 160 years later, the Trust has launched an effort to protect 128 acres at the Antietam and Shepherdstown Battlefields. While six acres are prime for preservation at the site of America’s bloodiest day at Antietam, 122 acres are at stake at Shepherdstown. With federal and state matching grants, partner funding, and a generous donor, all gifts will be matched $8-to-$1 to meet the $343,837 need. Learn more at www.battlefields.org/ preserve.

Mark Your Calendars for Park Day 2023: April 15

For 27 years, thousands of history lovers, families, Boy and Girl Scouts, and more have come together to celebrate and help keep our nation’s heritage preserved and well

maintained. This year, volunteers will convene nationwide at battlefields, museums, cemeteries and historic sites on April 15.

Since its inception in 1996, citizens have taken part in Park Day at sites across the country. Activities vary at each site and can include building trails, raking leaves, painting signs, constructing fences and more. Every participant receives official Park Day water bottles and may get the opportunity to hear local historians discuss the site’s importance. This year, the Trust will be paying special attention to accessibility at Park Day sites, ensuring that the event is something that everyone can partake in, no matter what their limitations!

While some locations have cemented Park Day as an annual tradition, new sites are always welcome to join in on the movement. Site managers are invited to register online at www. battlefields.org/addparkdayevent. As the date draws closer, details for individual locations will be posted, giving volunteers an opportunity to make plans to attend a site near them.

The Shepherdstown Battlefield is one of many that donors can help the Trust preserve through its current campaigns. (Photo by Matt Brant)

Ruins of bridge, across Potomac River at Shepherdstown. (Library of Congress)

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Letters Editor to the

TO THE EDITOR:

Stephen Davis’ article in the January issue of Civil War News explaining the continuing historical importance of Robert E. Lee is, in a word, superb. The piece is both well documented and persuasively written.

Like Mr. Davis, I grew up admiring General Lee. Back in the Fifties and Sixties, the general was pretty much universally esteemed in my native West Texas. Even in this remote area of the Old Confederacy, newly opened public schools in Midland and Pampa were named for General Lee in the 1950s. Among us Texans of that day any suggestion that Marse Robert was not deserving of deep respect and admiration would have been treated as heresy. The general’s birthday was celebrated as a state holiday in Texas, and one of our counties honored his name.

I think I speak for my generation of Texans, in particular, and Southerners, in general, in saying how painful it has been to see General Lee’s name and legacy dishonored by the myopic woke crowd. For them, General Lee touched pitch by serving the Confederacy, and he is forever tarred.

C. Michael Harrington Houston and Galveston, Texas

TO THE EDITOR:

Please pass along to Stephen Davis my applause for his very fine column on Robert E. Lee published in the January 2023 issue of Civil War News. It was informative and timely.

I look forward to each issue of Civil War News and enjoy the feature articles, as well as, the regular columns.

Wayne Diehl Montpelier, VA

Letters to the Editor:

Publisher’s Note:

In the current supply chain issues and escalating prices due to the inflation we are all enduring, Civil War News is diligently looking at ways to keep our costs down while continuing to provide excellent products and services to our subscribers and advertisers. We are always looking for more streamlined and efficient ways to reduce labor costs.

Our circulation processing company automatically mails renewal letters on the first day of each month. These are sent via email or USPS to subscribers whose account is about to expire in our system. The barcode on renewal letters allows us to use a scanner to pull up your accounts automatically for easier renewal access. To avoid delays and double renewal letters on our end, we process renewals in-house the same day we receive them in the mail. Lately, we have received numerous calls from subscribers complaining that they have received a duplicate renewal form when they have already mailed their checks. Please help us keep costs down by sending in your renewals as soon as possible. In turn, as long as we receive them before the first of the month, we will not be charged duplicate processing fees.

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Trust Makes Strides to Inspire “Revolutionary” Learning

Through the Trust’s dedication to outside-the-box learning, students of history are gaining access to tools that present the story of the American Revolution in energetic, thoughtful ways. The newest resources to enter this collection lean on a combination of eye-catching animation and quippy dialogue, as well as

immersive virtual reality (VR) footage.

After the success of its first two installments, the Trust again expanded its How We Became America: The Untold History series of video shorts. Supported by the American Battlefield Protection Program and brought to life by Makematic, this series is made for students and teachers, but easy-to-consume by all. It is designed to fill in the gaps and bring interesting stories to life. While the first two 15-episode batches of videos focused on the

Revolution and the Civil War, the new set expands upon the independence-yielding conflict, from King George III to George Washington, the significance of Fort Ticonderoga, the 1783 Newburgh Conspiracy and more. In the realm of virtual reality, the Trust followed up to the vast success of its Civil War 1864: A Virtual Reality Experience by releasing Soldier Life of the American Revolution. Produced by longtime partner Wide Awake Films, the VR experience places viewers in a 360-degree perspective of daily life during the Revolutionary War, giving them an inside-look at a military encampment, the chaos of woodland fighting and the perilous horrors of late 18th-century

medicine. See these videos for yourself at www.youtube.com/ AmericanBattlefieldTrust.

Another Successful Year Motivates the Trust to Keep Marching On!

Dedicated to preserving, educating, and inspiring, the American Battlefield Trust made impactful strides toward its mission in 2022. Notably, the nonprofit celebrated its crossing the threshold of 55,000 acres saved forever as it went about preservation efforts in 11 states this past year. Of these efforts, more than 300 acres were successfully transferred to responsible stewards, such as the National Park Service.

Of the organization’s most monumental victories, the Fredericksburg Battlefield’s Slaughter Pen Farm was finally deemed “saved forever” following a 16-year, $12-million fundraising campaign to ensure its protection. Additionally, establishment of Culpeper Battlefields State Park came via a two-year, compromise budget for the Commonwealth of Virginia signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin over the summer. At the park’s core will be 1,700 acres donated by the Trust from our holdings at the Brandy Station, Cedar Mountain, Kelly’s Ford and Rappahannock Station

battlefields.

The Trust also made big steps by announcing its goal to preserve 2,500 Revolutionary War acres to mark the upcoming 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, launching the Medal of Honor Valor Trail™ alongside the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and teaming up with the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) to debut the American Revolution Experience. Each of these initiatives will allow the organization to share even more stories across American military history.

The jam-packed year also saw the Trust connect with some 16 million teachers and students through its quality content covering the nation’s first conflict-filled 100 years.

Despite a wealth of victories, the Trust also witnessed an overwhelming resurgence of threats to historic landscapes in the form of data centers, highway interchanges, solar facilities, and more. The organization called on preservationists nationwide and thousands answered our calls for support at Manassas, Culpeper, Wyse Fork, Wilson’s Creek, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg. These causes remind us that our work is incredibly relevant and that we must march on to advance our mission.

The American Battlefield Trust is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educating the public about what happened there and why it matters today. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization has protected more than 55,000 acres associated with the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War.

The Trust relies on dedicated individuals like yourself to ensure that these hallowed grounds are forever preserved and serve as outdoor classrooms for generations to come. To learn about becoming a member, visit www.battlefields.org/give.

After

The newest batch of Untold video shorts highlights some of the Revolution’s most fascinating leaders. (Courtesy American Battlefield Trust)

a 16-year-long fundraising effort, the American Battlefield Trust declared victory at Slaughter Pen Farm in Fredericksburg, Va. (Photo by Chris Landon)

Park Day volunteers rake leaves at Buford Massacre Battlefield. (Courtesy American Battlefield Trust)

USS Casco – A Spar Torpedo Boat of the Potomac Flotilla

by Joan Wenner, J.D.

The USS Casco, first of particular class of twenty 1175ton light draft monitors was built at Boston. When launched in May 1864, it was found that the ship’s design was seriously flawed due to the turret’s weight. It was then completed, by raising the deck almost two feet, as a spar torpedo vessel, without the monitor-type ironclad turret, and then commissioned in early December 1864.

Subsequently assigned duty on the James River near Dutch Gap

in early 1865, the torpedo gear was mounted on the bow and the ship additionally armed with an XI-inch Dahlgren pivot mounted on its curved deck. (Readers interested in Dahlgren should go to the Library of Congress collection and see a photograph of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, U.S. Navy, standing by a Dahlgren on the USS Pawnee in Charleston.)

The Casco served on the James until April 1865, then spent the last week of the war with the Potomac Flotilla, together with

other warships that included four “double-ender” Sassacus Class gunboats, two screw gunboats, and two monitors plus a variety of civilian steamers and sailing vessels that can be seen in the Collections of the National Archives in a photograph by the Matthew Brady organization.

The flotilla, was also known as the Potomac Squadron. It was a unit of the U.S. Navy created in the early days of the war to secure communications on the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac and its tributaries, as well as disrupting

Spar torpedoes were also successfully fitted to some Confederate vessels, most notably the submersible H.L. Hunley which used its spar torpedo to sink the USS Housatonic, and the David class surface torpedo boats. The U.S. Navy used spar torpedoes on small boats where a spar was held in place at the bow by a complex system of yokes, ropes, and gears to permit accurate placing of the torpedo. The boat torpedo was to be immersed to a depth of at least 10 feet and could safely be exploded 22 feet away horizontally. The Union crews used surface boats to bring torpedoes into contact with the underwater part of an enemy hull, most famously when William Cushing sank the CSS Albemarle. (Images of two Confederate Spar Torpedo boats can be seen at: weaponsandwarfare. com/2018/01/17/ the-spar-torpedo).

There was also the Union’s steam tug USS Linda on the James River that had been rigged with a spar on which was rigged a 150-pound torpedo. If needed she would attack by lowering the torpedo into the water and running abeam an enemy vessel and detonating the torpedo by pulling a lanyard.

Joan Wenner, J.D., is a native New Yorker presently residing in eastern coastal North Carolina and longtime contributor to the Civil War News with a law degree. Published in numerous history publications, she has a special interest in naval operations and military courts of inquiry. Comments are welcomed at joan_writer@yahoo.com.

USS Casco on the James River. She was armed with one XI-inch Dahlgren smoothbore, and a spar torpedo mounted on the bow. (National Archives Identifier (NAID) 530265)

Confederate communications and shipping especially in the southern Maryland area. The small fleet had been proposed by the commander of the USS North Carolina, James H. Ward, said to be the first USN officer killed in the war. He was shot by Confederates while sighting a gun at Mathis Point, Va., during June 1861 while sighting a bow gun.

Plan of spar torpedo equipment fitted to light draft monitors Casco, Chimo, Napa, Naubue, and Modoc, about 1864-65. (NH 55203)

The USS Casco was decommissioned June 19, 1865, at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., and given the new name Hero, renamings being common at the time. Broken up and scrapped in 1875, the name Casco was later used for a WWII ship.

A Monumental Confederate Gesture

by Joseph Wilson

After the Civil War, monuments funded by states and private groups began populating the battlefields. Towns followed by erecting statues along their avenues and town squares to honor local heroes. One extraordinary Confederate soldier took a most unusual approach by funding and erecting a monument that defied logic. His statue didn’t celebrate the Confederacy, but surprisingly honored Union soldiers.

Charles Strahan grew up in

Baltimore, Md., and enlisted in the Confederate Army on May 24, 1861. Private Strahan joined the Maryland Guards, a company that was incorporated into the 21st Virginia Infantry. The 21st saw hard fighting in nearly every battle as part of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. At the Battle of Seven Pines, Private Strahan suffered a gunshot wound. Yet, he still found it in his heart to forgive his former enemies in the years after the war. When promoted to Lieutenant, Strahan

served on the staff of Gen. Isaac Trimble.

Like many former Confederate soldiers, Charles Strahan relocated in the north after the war. After dabbling as a coffee exporter in New Orleans, he put down roots in 1884 on the quaint island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. Not long after arriving on the island, Strahan took over a newspaper in Cottage City that he renamed the “Martha’s Vineyard Herald.” Life seemed good for the new publisher, or so he thought. Bitter feelings die hard in old soldiers. A measure of hostile sentiment directed at Johnny Reb still remained on the island. With the approach of Memorial Day in 1887, Strahan advertised in his newspaper that a huge picnic would be held in town for all the Cottage City’s residents to remember the veterans, living and deceased. He never thought after so many years that resentment for a former Confederate and transplanted Southerner still burned in the hearts of some Union veterans. Former Union soldiers refused to attend the picnic with a Rebel soldier present; so, Charles Strahan stayed home.

The rebuke shocked the new resident and publisher. Strahan

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thought of ways to heal the small community of Cottage City that might erase the ill will coming from his former enemies. Then an idea struck like a lightning bolt. He’d erect a huge Civil War soldier’s monument in the center of Cottage City. It would not be a Confederate soldier, but a Federal. A former Confederate soldier commissioning a monument honoring Union soldiers took the town by surprise.

The Henry Clay Wade Post 201 of the Grand Army of the Republic was already established in Cottage City. Strahan would present the monument to the GAR Post when it was completed. Being the publisher of an island

wide newspaper played a pivotal part in the plan. A subscription for the Martha’s Vineyard Herald cost $2 for one year. All money for any new subscription would go for the monument.

Strahan contracted with J.W. Fisk of New York, at a cost of $2,000 dollars, to construct the statue. A base of Quincy granite would support a 7-foottall bronze Union soldier. Funds received amounted to only $1,500 dollars. It’s believed that Strahan put up $500 of his own money to complete the project. The monument became known as “The Chasm Is Closed” monument. Today, the chasm once thought closed is being

forced wide open. Although the Civil War ended 157 years ago, the Union soldier atop the structure is coming under fire because it was a Confederate who hoisted him up on his pedestal.

In 1907, Cottage City became Oak Bluffs. Ample space was left on the monument by Strahan

hoping one day it might feature the name of a Confederate soldier.

At a rededication in 1925, the local Women’s Relief Corps of Oak Bluffs added Strahan’s name on a new plaque. Now well into his eighties, Charles got his wish.

The plaque that so far remains to this day reads, “Erected in

During the Obama years, President Obama and his family enjoyed frequent visits to Martha’s Vineyard. As usual, the President’s advance team ran point for his visits. They considered the statue put up by a Confederate to be offensive to the Obamas and wanted it covered up or removed for maintenance so as not to insult the first black president. According to locals, that never happened.

island’s Oak Grove Cemetery not far from the Civil War monument he thought would bring the country together. He’d be turning in his grave if he knew his effort to reconcile a nation opened a wider chasm 137 years after its dedication. At the dedication, he spoke of Americans living together as brothers under the same flag. A heartfelt feeling lost in today’s America.

honor of the Grand Army of the Republic by Charles Strahan, Co. B, 21st Virginia Regiment.”

A second controversial plaque added at the ceremony in 1925 graced the statue for nearly 100 years before residents and Boston activists demanded its removal.

In 2019, the activists had their way. The second plaque is gone. The tablet read, “The Chasm Is Closed – In memory of the restored Union this tablet is dedicated by Union veterans of the Civil War and patriotic citizens of Martha’s Vineyard in honor of the Confederate soldiers.” The offending phrase they objected to read “in honor of Confederate soldiers.” But the political activists made it known that they want the entire monument removed.

The offending tablet now resides inside a museum in Oak Bluffs. A section of the museum features an exhibit titled “The Chasm Is Not Closed.” Indeed, the Chasm is getting wider in America by the day. A monument erected to heal is now swept up in a controversy that is fueling division by people who are over 150 years removed from the Civil War. This is a crusade that threatens the statue’s future.

Strahan’s attempt to foster reconciliation is having the opposite effect in our politically correct America. At the 1891 dedication, Charles Strahan spoke eloquently of a post-Civil War America when he said, “As your father and my father stood shoulder to shoulder at Valley Forge and Yorktown, and stood by their guns on the deck of the Constitution and Chesapeake, so the sons of the gray will stand with the sons of the blue, should any foe, domestic or foreign, dare attack that flag.” Such sentiment can only be dreamed of today.

Charles Strahan forgave his former enemies despite still carrying the scars of a Yankee bullet. Forgiveness seems to be a lost virtue even if the offensive actions took place hundreds of years ago. The Virginian’s gesture of good will has been replaced by a bitterness that has taken root. Sadly, the chasm is growing wider, not only on Martha’s Vineyard, but across America.

Martha’s Vineyard is a beautiful island where many of the rich and famous like to spend time at their summer homes. The island features pristine beaches and seems disconnected from the mainland, but the same problems that infect the mainland now have encroached on the island. I recently had the privilege of viewing and photographing the monument. The Virginian’s unusual tribute to Union soldiers may be gone by any future visit.

Charles Strahan is buried in the

The monument and the flag are both in trouble!

Joseph F. Wilson lectures on Andersonville Prison and The Pennsylvania Reserves. The writer also wrote and produced the documentary film “Civil War Prisons – An American Tragedy” now available on Amazon. Contact - joef21@aol.com.

Charles Strahan good will monument.

Charles Strahan gravesite at Martha’s Vineyard.

A closer look at Charles Strahan’s monument.

Civil War News is the only national monthly C ivil War publication in newsprint and digital form for history lovers, battlefield travelers, collectors, an d avid readers. Each issue covers various topics from the Calendar of Events, including shows and seminars, reenactments, living history, and current book reviews. Regular columns include interesting articles by renowned authors Craig Barry, Salvatore Cilella, Stephen Davis, Stephanie Hagiwara, Gould Hagler, Chris Mackowski, and Michael K. Shaffer.

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A Civil War Visitor Returns to Monterey, Tennessee

Late last month the Town of Monterey installed a new Civil War Trails sign. The new sign explores the life of a Union general, a native of New York who moved to Monterey after the Civil War. The new sign also solidifies the Monterey Depot Museum as part of the Civil War Trails program, a multi-state tourism initiative.

The project was a result of the continued partnership between

the Museum, the mayor’s office, and Civil War Trails, Inc. Although the sign itself is educational, the program and its partners advertise the sites and stories internationally. The Museum is one of two Civil War Trails sites in the county, one of over 350 in the state, and one of over 1,400 across the breadth of the program.

“Each site is promoted by a partnership of local and regional destination marketing organizations and state travel offices,” said Drew Gruber, Executive Director of Civil War Trails, Inc. “This means that we are daily serving economic development by the carload.”

The Civil War Trails program indicates that their visitors often spend between $600-$1,000 per trip and stay average of two to three nights. As their audiences grow younger, visitors are interested in trips combining local amenities like history, breweries, hikes, music, and local B&Bs. This sentiment was echoed by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.

“Tennessee’s historic sites and trails serve an important role in driving tourism in Tennessee,” said Commissioner Mark Ezell, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. “This new marker is an important addition to help tell the story of Monterey and

create economic impact when visitors come to explore the town’s rich history and visit its local businesses.”

The new sign content was reviewed by the Monterey Depot Museum team, including Rafferty Cleary and Alderman

Jason Shaffer from Civil War Trails levels the new sign. The updated sign not only tells a new story but was adjusted to help improve accessibility for visitors in wheelchairs or those with visual impairments. (Courtesy, Civil War Trails, Inc.)

Jim Whitaker. Rafferty Cleary, Cultural Administrator for the Town of Monterey said, “I am thrilled to know that the Monterey Depot Museum will continue to be a part of the Civil War Trails program,” Cleary said. “This addition adds to the plethora of museum artifacts and attractions that continue to draw thousands of visitors to Monterey each year.” The staff at Civil War Trails designed and installed the new sign, recycling and reusing materials from the previous sign on site. The work was made possible by the annual participation in the program by Mayor Mark Farley’s office. Alderman Jim Whitaker said, “I’m proud to know that the Town of Monterey continues to support the efforts of the Civil War Trails program. This marker is uniquely positioned where the Wilder home place and Imperial Hotel are in clear view,” Whitaker said. “I believe this program strengthens Monterey’s commitment to preserving history and educating the public about the people, places, and events that shaped our history.” For more information about visiting the Monterey Depot Museum and visiting Monterey use: https://exploremontereytn. com or call 931-839-2111. Inspired to plan your trip? Request a Tennessee Civil War Trails brochure at https://civilwartrails. org. While you are checking out the new sign be sure to post a #signselfie @civilwartrails.

Alderman Jim Whitaker (left) was on hand to help assist Chris Brown, Assistant Director of Civil War Trails place the new interpretive sign now located at 101 E. Depot Ave., Monterey, TN 38574. (Courtesy, Civil War Trails, Inc.)

The 1909 Imperial Hotel was constructed at the behest of Union Gen. John T Wilder and is only a few blocks from Wilder’s post-war home in Monterey, Tennessee. (Courtesy, Civil War Trails, Inc.)

“You can’t save a man by telling him of his sins. He knows them already.

Tell him there is pardon and love waiting for him.

Win his confidence and make him understand that you believe in him, and never give him up!”

– Fanny Crosby

One of the most fascinating characters of the 19th century was the blind hymnist, Fanny Crosby (1820–1915). Imagine if you will a stack of 18 goodsized church hymnals—that’s what the 9,000 hymns Crosby composed, in whole or in part, during a 50-year period would fill. You would be hard-pressed to find a postbellum hymnal without several of her compositions included. In fact, a few of her better-known hymns are still gospel standards. Crosby’s hymns have been criticized as “gushy and mawkishly sentimental” by modern standards and critics

have sometimes attacked both her writing and her theology.

The fact remains that she exerted an enormous influence on a considerable body of American hymnody, and some of her hymns are still being recorded today. Her “Blessed Assurance” was on a record called “Amazing Grace: A Country Salute to Gospel”

that won a Grammy Award in the Country/Southern Gospel category in 1996. Crosby was born with vision on a farm in Putnam, N.Y. She was blinded when a traveling doctor treated her eye infection at six weeks old with hot mustard poultices, a treatment that burned her corneas. Shortly thereafter the family suffered another tragedy when her father passed away, forcing her mother to take work as a maid to provide for them. For her part, Crosby never indulged in self-pity despite her difficult circumstances. She was fortunate to have had an extended family to provide care while her mother worked. She wrote later, “It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.”

The Crosby family had strong roots in New England. Fanny’s great-grandfather Charles fought

at Bunker Hill against the British in 1776 and she grew up hearing stories of his exploits. In her own words, “When General Warren was killed at Bunker Hill it was a Crosby who caught up the American flag as it fell from his hands.” Another relative, Enoch

Crosby, was once captured and imprisoned by the British soldiers he was spying upon. He is considered in some literary circles as the inspiration for James Fennimore Cooper’s second novel, The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground (1831).

Fanny Crosby

Fanny Crosby.

Sunday morning mass in camp of 69th N.Y.S.M. (Library of Congress)

Practice Chapel Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va. (Library of Congress)

At age 15 Crosby left for New York City, which at that time meant Manhattan, to attend the New York Institute for the Blind. She used her gift of memory to absorb the lectures she attended. She joined the faculty there at age 23 and taught history and rhetoric classes. Crosby devoted many of her Civil Warera poems and songs to the abolition of slavery. Her satirical “Song to Jeff Davis” deemed the Confederate president worthy of death by decapitation. She was so staunchly pro-Union that after the Civil War began, she often wore a small U.S. flag pinned to her bodice. Once a Southern lady visiting a restaurant in New York found this display offensive and snapped, “Take that dirty rag away from here.” Crosby, blind and middle-aged though she was, challenged the woman to “… repeat that remark at your own risk!”

During the Civil War years in New York, Crosby’s already remarkable life took a sudden turn after composer William Bradbury gave her a hymn-writing test. He asked her to put her Christianthemed poetry to some of his melodies. She came up with lyrics that Bradbury considered much better than work of his other collaborators. Her first

effort, “We Are Going,” (1863) was published in his next hymnal. She later worked with Howard Doane, Ira Sankey, Robert Lowry, and other prominent hymn composers. Fanny Crosby was in great demand as a lecturer and preacher. Although completely blind, wherever she traveled and performed, she insisted on going alone.

While she received a stipend of a few dollars for each hymn published, she and her husband, a former student, lived in simple circumstances near the Bowery district. The Bowery, originally a respectable entertainment center in Manhattan’s southern tip, had degenerated by the time of the Civil War into an area of lowbrow concert venues, gambling halls, beer gardens, and flophouses. It was also home to the infamous Nativist gang “the Bowery Boys,” who took an active part in the mayhem during the New York Draft Riots of mid-1863.

Rather than improve her standard of living even for safety’s sake, Crosby opted to donate any funds in excess of her modest living expenses to local rescue missions. On the evening of Feb. 11, 1915, when she was almost 95, Crosby dictated a letter to cheer a bereaved friend, including a poem which she

recalled perfectly. She died later that night. Hymnist Elisa Edmunds Hewitt, who wrote “Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown,” provided the memorial poem:

Away to the country of sunshine and song

Our songbird has taken her flight And she who has sung in the darkness so long Now sings in the beautiful light.

Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from UNC (Charlotte). Craig served The Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003–2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy (2006, 2011), The Unfinished Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013). He has also published four books in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.

“The best little book on Barnard”

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

128 page Paperb ac k: $19.95 (+$3.50

CHARLESTON IN THE WAR

Fanny J. Crosby, The Blind Poet, and Ira D. Sankey, Composing A New Hymn. The Christian Herald and Signs Of Our Times. March 25, 1896.

The Stonewall Brigade at Chancellorsville

by Tim Talbott Central Virginia Battlefields

Trust’s latest preservation campaign involves a two-acre property that witnessed retreating XI Corps soldiers conduct a fighting withdrawal across it, while Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s Confederates followed in close pursuit. This piece of land, designated as the “Stonewall Brigade III” tract, is contiguous with a 9.2-acre parcel saved in 2012, and near another 1.6-acre plot where the Stonewall Brigade bivouacked part of the night of May 2/3, 1863, preserved in 2016.

Although the Stonewall Brigade was part of the force comprising Jackson’s famous flank march, they were not engaged in the May 2 assault. Brig. Gen. Elisha Franklin Paxton received instructions that detached his regiments from their division and placed them under Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, who kept them positioned across the Orange Plank Road on the right flank of the attack force until the column moved forward. The Stonewall Brigade

eventually followed behind.

On the night of May 2, the Stonewall Brigade (2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia Infantry regiments), moved twice. Col. John Funk submitted his official report on May 6, and related that the Stonewall Brigade made camp at 11 p.m., and then two hours later moved again. Here, “the men worried and worn out by the rapid detour made that day and by want of rations, were permitted to rest for a few brief hours.”

At daybreak on May 3, increased picket firing alerted the Stonewall Brigade. After Gen. Henry Heth’s Division assaulted the entrenched Union line and were repulsed, the Stonewall Brigade, now part of the second Confederate battleline, along with Gen. Raleigh Colston’s Brigade

and other units, attempted to take the position. Pvt. Ted Barclay, 4th Virginia Infantry, wrote home soon after the battle that, “We at first went on the left of the plank road, thinking the main body of the enemy were posted there, but soon we found out from pressure on our right that it was the enemy’s strongest point, so we had to cross the road covered by the enemy’s cannon.”

During the move, according to Col. Funk, the Stonewall Brigade encountered “a large number of men of whom fear had taken the most absolute possession. We endeavored to persuade them to go forward, but all we could say was of but little avail.” Apparently, these men were from Gen. Samuel McGowan’s South Carolina Brigade, as Lt. J.F.J. Caldwell mentioned in their brigade history that the Stonewall Brigade passed them, “some of them saying, with not pleasant levity, that they would show us how to clear away a Federal line.”

The Union troops the Stonewall Brigade now encountered behind a second line of improvised works were XII Corps soldiers under Brig. Gen. Thomas Ruger, who let loose a devastating volley. Paxton’s Virginians moved forward and returned the favor in kind and a furious firefight erupted. Col. Silas Colgrove of the 27th Indiana in Ruger’s Brigade wrote in his official report that, “I can safely say that I never witnessed on any other occasion so perfect a slaughter.” It was around this time that Gen. Paxton received a chest wound that killed him. Apparently, Paxton had expressed

a premonition of death to one of his staff officers during the night before. In the dense smokey woods, a gap developed between the 2nd and 4th Virginia that Union reinforcements exploited, forcing the Stonewall Brigade to fall back to a previous line of works and reform. Pvt. Barclay explained that, “A piece of shell struck my knapsack, but was too spent to hurt me.”

Maj. Gen. Robert Rodes’ Division was the next to attack the Union position while the Stonewall Brigade served as part of their reinforcements. Gen. Stephen Ramseur’s Brigade charged the Federal works. After expending most of their ammunition, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, now commanding in place of the wounded Jackson, ordered Col. Funk and the Stonewall Brigade to support Ramseur.

Col. Funk reported: “Seeing some confusion among the enemy who occupied the embrasures on the crest of the hill, I ordered the brigade to charge, which order they obeyed with the utmost enthusiasm, driving the enemy from his works and before them for three quarters of a mile. We took their works.” During the assault, Pvt. Barclay said, “We went over the breastworks with a yell which was answered by a shower of leaden hail.” He continued that, “I became almost unconscious of danger though men were falling thick and fast all around me.”

Forced out of their stronghold at a terrible price to both sides, the Federals fell back around the Chancellor House. According to Col. Funk, “Our ranks having been greatly reduced by the severe conflict of the day, onethird of [our] number having fallen, entirely out of ammunition and unsupported, the brigade was of necessity forced to retire, which they did like veterans.”

Back behind the fieldworks, the Stonewall Brigade received

rations and ammunition.

Pvt. Barclay, writing in another letter on May 12, explained, “Sunday night [May 3] we slept on the battlefield with the wounded and dead of both armies. Monday morning we moved in towards the enemy, who was now retreating toward the Rappahannock.” Maj. William Terry’s 4th Virginia moved north of Chancellorsville, filed into the woods and “slept on our arms by the main road east of Chancellorsville.” Lt. Col. Daniel Shriver, 27th Virginia, reported that, “On the morning of the 4th [of May], and during the whole of the day, we were employed in throwing up breastworks.”

Unconvinced by his subordinates that a coordinated offensive could secure victory, Gen. Hooker decided to retire across the Rappahannock River and abandon the once promising campaign.

According to historian Jeffrey Wert, Chancellorsville cost the Stonewall Brigade “55 killed, 430 wounded, and 9 missing, an even higher proportion than for [Lee’s] army as a whole.”

The 5th Virginia’s commander, Lt. Col. Hazael Williams noted in his official report, “Never did our brave men behave with more gallantry, coolness, and deliberation than on this occasion.”

The mission of CVBT is to preserve land associated with the four major campaigns of: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Mine Run, and the Overland Campaign, including the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. To learn more about this grassroots preservation non-profit, which has saved over 1,700 acres of hallowed ground, please visit: www.cvbt.org.

Tim Talbott is the Chief Administrative Officer with the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.

This photograph gives a good example of the improvised fieldworks that Federal soldiers constructed during the Battle of Chancellorsville. (Library of Congress)

Brig. Gen. Frank “Bull” Paxton served as commander of the Stonewall Brigade and fell leading his troops at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. (Public domain)

CVBT is currently campaigning to save two acres on the Chancellorsville battlefield where the Stonewall Brigade spent part of the night of May 2-3, 1863. (CVBT photo)

THE fourth year of the war was also the year for the election of a President of the United States, and it would have been strange if an event of so much importance had not in some measure shaped the conduct of the campaigns of that year. If any one of the Southern States could he brought so effectually under the control of the Union army as to give plausible pretext to any considerable portion of the inhabitants, white and black, to form a quasi State government recognizing the authority of the United States, it would not only be received as an earnest of the success of the Union arms, but the State could be represented in the approaching convention for the nomination of a candidate for President, and take part in the election to follow.

Florida appeared to offer better prospect of success in such an undertaking than any other Southern State. Its great extent

The Battle Of Olustee, Or Ocean Pond, Florida.

By Samuel Jones Major-General C.S.A.

of coast and its intersection by a broad and deep river, navigable by vessels of war, exposed a great part of the State to the control of the Union forces whenever it should be thought desirable to occupy it. The exigencies of the Confederate service had in a great measure stripped Florida of troops. If a column of Union troops could penetrate the country westward from Jacksonville, occupy a point in the interior, and break up communication between east, middle, and west Florida by the destruction of the railroad and bridges about the Suwanee River, the Southern Confederacy would not only be deprived of a large quantity of the food drawn from east and south Florida, but a point d’appui would be established for any of the inhabitants who might be disposed to attempt the organization of a State acknowledging allegiance to the United States.

President Lincoln’s views on

the subject are expressed in the following letter:

“Executive Mansion, Washington, January 13th, 1864.

“MAJOR-GENERAL

GILLMORE:

“I understand an effort is being made by some worthy gentlemen to reconstruct a loyal State government in Florida. Florida is in your department, and it is not unlikely that you may be there in person. I have given Mr. Hay a commission of major, and sent him to you with some blank-books and other blanks to aid in the reconstruction. He will explain as to the manner of using the blanks, and also my general views on the subject. It is desirable for all to cooperate; but if irreconcilable differences of opinion shall arise, you are master. I wish the thing done in the most speedy way possible, so that when done it will be within the range of the late proclamation on the subject. The detail labor of course will have to be done by others; but I shall be greatly obliged if you will give it such general supervision as you can find convenient with your more strictly military duties. Yours very truly, “A. Lincoln.”

Under these instructions General Gillmore, on the 5th of February, ordered General Truman Seymour to proceed with a division of troops from Hilton Head to Jacksonville, Florida. Admiral Dahlgren, who seems to have been always ready to cooperate with the land forces, sailed with the expedition with a squadron of five gun-boats, and was in readiness, if needed, to cover the landing. No opposition was met with, however, and on the 7th General Seymour’s force of about seven thousand men landed at Jacksonville.

The objects of the expedition as reported by General Gillmore to the general-in-chief (who did not approve it) were: First To procure an outlet for cotton, lumber, timber, etc. Second To cut off one source of the enemy’s commissary stores. Third. To obtain recruits for the negro regiments. Fourth. “To inaugurate measures for the speedy restoration of Florida to her allegiance,” etc.

It was known that the few Confederate troops in east Florida were widely scattered, and no opposition was anticipated until reenforcements could arrive. Celerity of movement was therefore important. General

Seymour promptly marched inland,—Colonel McCormick, commanding a picket at McGirt’s Creek, retiring,— captured five fieldpieces which the Confederates could not move for want of horses, and reached Baldwin, twenty miles from Jacksonville, February 9th, where he was joined by General Gillmore. Colonel Guy V. Henry, commanding a small brigade of cavalry and mounted infantry, marched westward, encountered a picket of about 150 men at the crossing of the south fork of the St. Mary’s River, which, with the loss of twenty-five of his men, killed and wounded, and without loss to the Confederates, he dislodged, and proceeded to within three miles of Lake City, when he was recalled, and on the 11th joined the main body, which had reached Barber’s plantation on the south fork of the St. Mary’s. Here the command was delayed for the lack of transportation. The railroad had been relied on for transportation, but there was only one engine on the road, and that in such wretched condition that it could not be used within several days, if at all.

From Baldwin General Gillmore returned to Jacksonville, and on the 13th to Hilton Head, whence he issued a proclamation announcing his occupancy of

Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore, USA. (Library of Congress)

Reprinted from an article written by Gen. Samuel Jones and Gen. Joseph R. Hawley in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 4, 1888, pp. 76-80.

Florida, calling on the people to take the oath of allegiance to the Union, assuring them that the State had been recovered from rebel rule, and would not again be abandoned, the United States being able to protect all loyal citizens.

There seems to have been some vacillation in the execution of the expedition. General Seymour, on whom the execution of General Gillmore’s plans devolved, wholly disapproved it. The movement on Lake City he regarded as in opposition to sound strategy, and inadvisable, and he had discovered that what had been said of the desire of Florida to come back into the Union was a delusion. “Do not,” he writes to Gillmore, “fritter away your infantry in the interior,” but at once withdraw the who whole force back to Jacksonville and Palatka, points which could be easily held and would serve as rendezvous for such Floridians (if any) as should desire to form a new State government under the Union flag. To this Gillmore replied telling him not to risk a repulse by an advance on Lake City; if he met serious opposition he should concentrate at Sanderson’s on the St. Mary’s. But how was he to advance at all without risking seeing a repulse, seeing that there was an enemy in his path? Nor could he remain at Sanderson’s with entire safety, for Seymour reported that Sanderson’s could not be fortified to advantage or the troops supplied there. Gillmore then directed him to concentrate

without delay at Baldwin, but that point offered scarcely more advantages of strength than Sanderson’s, and was, besides, twenty miles from his supplies at Jacksonville, and he had but little transportation.

Whilst General Gillmore was at his headquarters at Hilton Head and the army in the interior or Florida was beyond the reach of telegraphic communication, much of necessity war left to the discretion of General Seymour. Having obtained reliable information that the strength of the enemy in his front did not exceed his own, the excellent character of his own troops, as he reports to his chief, forbade any doubt as to the propriety of a conflict on equal terms. Accordingly he resolved to carry out the general plan on which he supposed the occupation and control of east Florida had been based, by marching at once to the Suwanee River and destroying the bridges and railroad, thus breaking up communication between east and west Florida. On the receipt of Seymour’s letter communicating his determination, Gillmore promptly returned a sharp and emphatic disapproval; but it was too late.

On the landing of Seymour’s expedition at Jacksonville, Brigadier-General Joseph Finegan, the Confederate commander of east Florida, immediately telegraphed to Savannah and Charleston for reenforcements, and by February 10th had collected at Lake City 490 infantry, 110 cavalry, and

two field-pieces of his own widely scattered force. That night he placed the men in position two and a half miles east of that town, and reenforcements were sent to him from Charleston and Savannah. Demonstrations were made by the Union commanders at these points, but they failed to prevent the departure of reenforcements for Florida.

By the 13th a Confederate force of about 4600 infantry, 600 cavalry, and three field-batteries (12 guns) was concentrated near Lake City. This force was organized into two brigades; the first, A. H. Colquitt’s, made up of the 6th, 19th, 23d, 27th, and 28th Georgia regiments, the 6th Florida, and the Chatham battery of Georgia artillery. The second brigade was composed of the 32d and 64th Georgia Volunteers, 1st Regiment Georgia Regulars, 1st Florida Battalion, Bonaud’s Battalion of Infantry, and Guerard’s Light Battery. Colonel George P. Harrison, Jr., of the 32d Georgia, commanded the brigade. The cavalry was commanded by Colonel Caraway Smith, and the Florida light artillery was unattached and in reserve. The whole force numbered about 5400 men at Ocean Pond on the Olustee, 13 miles east of Lake City.

The country along the railroad from the Suwanee River eastward is low and flat, without streams to delay the march of an army, and covered with open pine forests unobstructed by undergrowth. The only natural features which could serve any purposes of defense were the lakes and ponds scattered over the country. The

position at Ocean Pond offered these advantages. From the 13th to the 20th some defensive works were begun, but little progress was made toward completing them, on a line extending from Ocean Pond on the left, a sheet of water of about four miles in length by from two to two and a half miles in width, to another pond about two miles long, on the right and to the south of the railroad. A short distance in front of the left was another pond, and in front of the right a bay or jungle, passable only within two hundred yards to the right or south of the railroad. The position possessed strength provided the enemy would attack it directly in front, but could be readily turned.

Early on the morning of February 20th, Seymour marched westward from his camp on the south fork of the St. Mary’s River, to engage the enemy near Olustee, about eighteen miles distant. The country over which he marched was open and level, presenting no strategic points, and the ground was firm, offering no difficulty to the march of troops of any amount. Colonel Henry was in advance with his small brigade of cavalry and Elder’s Horse Artillery (Battery B, First U.S. Artillery). Though there was no lack of general officers in General Gillmore’s command, on this expedition the three infantry brigades were commanded by colonels. Colonel (afterward General and United States Senator) J. R. Hawley led in three parallel columns, marching by flank, the center one on the road, the other two dressing on it. Colonels W. B. Barton’s and

James Montgomery’s brigades followed in the same order of march. Captain John Hamilton’s Light Battery ‘’E,” 3d United States Artillery, and Captain L. L. Langdon’s “M,” 1st United States Artillery, and a section of Rhode Island Artillery, under Lieutenant Metcalf, followed. One regiment, the 55th Massachusetts, was left in camp, which, with other regiments detached, reduced the force engaged to about 5500 men, with 16 field-pieces.

General Finegan had thrown forward Colonel Smith’s cavalry, supported by the 64th and two companies of the 32d Georgia regiments, to skirmish with the advancing enemy and endeavor to draw thorn on to attack in the selected position. Apprehending, however, that the Union commander would be too cautious to attack a relatively strong position which could be so easily turned, he ordered forward General Colquitt with three of his regiments and a section of Gamble’s artillery to assume command of all the troops in front. About two miles east of Olustee Colquitt found the enemy, who had driven in the pickets, advancing rapidly.

The colonel of the 64th Georgia, a new regiment, never before in action, supposing that only mounted troops were advancing against him, had formed square to resist cavalry. Colquitt arrived just in time to save the square from being ripped open by the enemy’s artillery. He threw forward skirmishers and quickly formed line of battle under a brisk fire, the 19th Georgia on the right, the 28th on the left, with the section of Gamble’s battery in the center. The 64th and the two companies

Capt. Samuel Sherer Elder, USA.

Capt. John Hamilton, USA.

Brig. Gen. Truman Seymour, USA.

of the 32d Georgia were formed on the left of the 28th. The 6th Georgia was thrown still farther to the left to check any movement by that flank; the cavalry was divided and thrown to the two flanks. In this order the line advanced, the enemy yielding slightly but stubbornly contesting the ground. Finding the enemy in force in his front, Colquitt called for reenforcements, but

General Finegan had anticipated him and Colonel Harrison was at hand with his brigade. The 6th Florida, Battalion was put in line on the right of the 19th Georgia, and the 23d on the left of the 64th Georgia. Colonel Harrison with his own regiments, the 32d Georgia and 1st Georgia Regulars, took position between the 23d and 64th Georgia, and by Colquitt’s order assumed

direction of affairs on the left of the line. Instead, therefore, of attacking the Confederates in a selected position strengthened by field-works as the Union officers supposed, the battle was joined about 3 o’clock P.M. on level ground covered with open pine forest, offering no advantage of position to either.

General Seymour’s plan was

to concentrate his artillery in the center, strongly supported on both flanks by the first brigade, and while the two brigades in rear were hastening into position, to overwhelm his enemy by a rapid fire of his superior artillery, and then charge. Hamilton’s and Langdon’s batteries were hurried

forward to join Elder’s, which had been in advance with the cavalry. The 7th Connecticut, which so gallantly had led the first assault on Battery Wagner, July 11th, 1863, had first felt and driven back the advanced Confederates, all in turn had itself yielded ground, was withdrawn

Ocean Pond map of the Feb. 20, 1864 battle. (Official Records Atlas, plate 53, no. 3. Library of Congress)

Colonel Loomis L. Langdon, 1st Artillery, 1890. (State Library and Archives of Florida)

Col. James Montgomery, USA.

Col. Guy Vernor Henry, USA.

to unmask the line; the 7th New Hampshire moved forward into line on the right and the 8th United States Colored Troops on the left of the batteries. The fire of the latter was exceedingly effective. The section of Gamble’s battery was soon put hors de combat. It was replaced by the Chatham Artillery of Savannah, which, under Captain John F. Wheaton, was drawn from the right to the center under a galling fire. The whole Confederate force on the field moved forward and the action became general along

the whole line. The 7th New Hampshire, a veteran regiment armed with superior rifles, broke and fled in confusion; not, however, until it had suffered severely in killed and wounded. The most strenuous efforts of its colonel, Abbott, and of Colonel Hawley, aided by staff-officers, could not stem its flight and reform it. The 8th United States (colored) on the left experienced the same fate. Its colonel, Fribley (white), had fallen mortally wounded; other commissioned officers and many of the rank

and file had fallen, when it too fled and did not appear again as a regiment on the field. Barton’s brigade replaced the 7th New Hampshire and Montgomery’s the 8th United States Colored Troops, but the flight of those regiments had greatly exposed the artillery. Though it continued its fire with admirable effect, the men and horses were falling fast, and some of these, becoming unmanageable, dashed and locked their carriages against the trees, until so many of the men and horses were killed and wounded

that five guns were abandoned to the advancing Confederates. By that time the Confederates had exhausted their ammunition, and there was none near at hand. The regiments were halted, the few men who had ammunition returning a slow fire to the very brisk fire from the other side, while staff-officers, couriers, and orderlies were riding at utmost speed between the line and an ammunition-car on the railroad some distance in the rear, bringing up cartridges in haversacks, pockets, caps, in anything into

which they could be crammed, and distributing them along the line. To hold a line under a heavy fire which it cannot return is a severe trial to the steadiness of the best troops. During this trying pause Lieutenant Hugh H. Colquitt of the general’s staff was a conspicuous object to the troops in both lines as he galloped in front of the Confederates, waving a battle-flag and exhorting the men to stand fast, not to lie down or shelter themselves behind the pine-trees, lest the enemy should suppose the line had broken and

melted away, and assuring them that their cartridge-boxes would soon be replenished. The men were equal to the emergency and stood fast until they were supplied with ammunition. In the meantime the 27th Georgia Regiment, Bonaud’s Battalion, the 1st Florida Battalion, and a section of Guerard’s Battery arrived from the intrenched lines in the rear. They were put in position near and a little in advance of the center, to hold the enemy in check until the other commands could be supplied with ammunition. By direction of General Colquitt, Colonel Harrison had formed the 6th and 32d Georgia regiments on the extreme left, thus securing an effective cross-fire on Seymour’s right. A general advance along the whole Confederate line followed, and the Union line yielded ground, first reluctantly and sullenly, then with some precipitation which presently became a confused flight. When the Union line gave way, the Confederates sprang forward with a yell and pursued the enemy several miles and until

Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Colquitt, CSA.

Brig. Gen. Joseph Finegan, CSA.

Col. George Paul Harrison Jr., CSA.

night closed in on the scene and stopped pursuit.

During the engagement Colonel Smith’s cavalry had guarded the flanks, Lieutenant-Colonel A. [Abner] H. McCormick, 2d Florida Cavalry, on the right, and Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, 4th Georgia Cavalry, on the left. Early in the action Colonel Clinch was so severely wounded as to necessitate his removal from the field, and was succeeded by Captain N. A. Brown. When the Union line finally gave way and the flight commenced, the cavalry was ordered to pursue and seize every opportunity to strike the retreating enemy. But from some excess of caution, or other unexplained cause, the pursuit was not vigorous, and thus the full fruits of a dearly won victory on a well-contested field were not gathered. The retreat was covered by Colonel Henry’s cavalry and the 7th Connecticut Volunteers, which

halted for a time at the St. Mary’s and Baldwin, but the main body of the shattered army continued its flight until it gained the shelter of the gun-boats at Jacksonville. As so often happened during the war, the victors were ignorant of the full extent of the victory, which, on this occasion, was so complete that a vigorous pursuit could scarcely have failed at least to double the already heavy Union loss.

General Seymour, who throughout the day had shown his usual coolness and gallantry, attributed his disaster to the “great numerical superiority of the Confederates,” an opinion which doubtless he held with sincerity at the time, but which was soon found to be entirely erroneous, the numbers engaged being nearly equal. General Gillmore and his staff sharply criticised the whole affair, and even charged Seymour with disobedience of orders, but did not give the specifications. In the Union camps in the Department of the South the affair was characterized as a second Dade’s massacre, or Braddock’s defeat. It was, however, a fair fight in an open field. The tenacity with which the Union troops contested the field is shown by the losses on both sides. Theirs was about one-third of their number engaged, and 120 horses killed. It was especially heavy in officers: Colonel Fribley was mortally wounded and died on the field, Lieutenant-Colonel Reed was mortally, and the major of his regiment, Bogle, severely wounded, as were Colonels Moore of the 47th, Sammon of the 115th New York, and the chief of artillery, Captain Hamilton. Captain Vandervere [Captain Garrett Van Deveer] of the 115th New York was killed. General Seymour commended the good conduct of all the troops engaged except the 7th New Hampshire and 8th United States Colored

Troops. The former’s misconduct he attributed to the presence in the ranks of a number of inferior conscripts and substitutes. It lost in the engagement 209, and the 8th United States Colored Troops 310, officers and men. In addition to five or six field-pieces, the Confederates captured 1600 rifles and muskets, a flag, and a quantity of ammunition.

The Confederate loss was 940 killed and wounded. The 32d Georgia had suffered most severely, losing 164 officers and men. Among the killed or mortally wounded were LieutenantColonel James Barrow and Lieutenant P. A. Waller, 64th Georgia; Captain H. A. Cannon, commanding the 1st Georgia Regulars; Adjutant William H. Johnson, 19th Georgia; Lieutenant W. H. Combs, 6th Georgia; Lieutenant Thomas J. Hill, 6th Florida; and Lieutenant W. W. Holland, 28th Georgia. Lieutenant R. T. Dancey, 32d Georgia, on Colonel Harrison’s staff, was killed by the side of his chief early in the action.

This expedition to Olustee, the only one of any magnitude which General Gillmore had undertaken beyond the range of the gunboats, terminated his campaign in the Department of the South.

COMMENTS ON GENERAL JONES’S PAPER, BY JOSEPH R. RAWLEY, BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U.S.V.

I HAVE read General Jones’s paper upon the battle of Olustee with much interest. It is clearly his sincere endeavor to write an impartial statement of the facts; it is amusing to see how widely he varies from the exaggerated reports of Generals Beauregard and Finegan. He fairly presents the differences between Generals Gillmore and Seymour. At Baldwin, a night or two before the battle, General Seymour called together six or eight of his officers for consultation. Some were cautious, others were outspoken, but it was decidedly the general opinion that it would be impossible to hold permanently a position out toward the center of the State, having for its line of communication a rickety railroad with one engine running fifty or sixty miles back to the base at Jacksonville. It would take more than our whole little army simply to hold the line against

the force that would certainly soon be collected against us. The Confederates could have ruined us by letting us march one more day without interruption and then sitting down on the railroad between us and home with their rapidly increasing force. Most of us thought it would be sufficient to attempt to make the St. John’s River our main western line, but Seymour thought it his duty to go on. He was, and is, a brave and honorable patriot and soldier. General Jones shows that the Confederates had chosen a strong position. They had their line of battle fully formed to meet us. My old regiment, the 7th Connecticut Infantry, about 330 strong, armed with Spencer carbines, led the advance guard, commanded by Colonel Henry, and composed of the mounted 40th Massachusetts Infantry (a small regiment), Captain Samuel S. Elder’s regular battery, and a detachment of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. Between 2 and 3 P.M. they met and drove back the enemy’s cavalry, and soon found the main line, striking up a vigorous combat. Our troops were stretched along the road in the order General Jones describes. When the artillery opened, General Seymour told

Survivors of the Battle of Olustee at the dedication of the battlefield monument on October 23, 1912.

Tared linen haversack that each solider would have carried. (Courtesy Atlanta History Center)

me the enemy had but a section of artillery “up there” and that it could be captured. Under his orders I put the 8th United States Colored Troops, Colonel Fribley, in line and sent them up the road and led the 7th New Hampshire to the right, moving around to strike the enemy’s left flank. Our artillery began to work fast. My little regiment of three hundred, deployed as skirmishers in rather close order, went straight into the face of General Colquitt’s brigade in full line waiting for us. Suddenly the 7th New Hampshire, moving in column of companies, saw the solid gray line about 250 yards ahead. A heavy fire was opened on us. Colonel Abbott misunderstood my order of deployment; I undertook to correct the error, and the regiment broke. Here General Jones is in error; they reformed and did excellent service on our right flank, and later rejoined the 7th Connecticut in the center. They lost in all 209; there were never braver men. In the meantime Colonel Fribley’s black men met the enemy at short range. They had reported to me only two or three days before; I was afterward told that they had never had a day’s practice in loading and firing. Old troops, finding themselves so greatly overmatched, would have run a little and re-formed—with or without orders. The black men stood to be killed or wounded— losing more than 300 out of 550. General Jones is again in error; they fell back and reorganized.

Colonel Fribley’s monument shows where he fell.

The 7th Connecticut assembled on their colors in response to their

bugle-call, and I placed them in the center of the field opposite to my friend General Colquitt, and they were supplied with ammunition. Several times they checked the enemy with their seven-shooters, and they did not stir from their position until they received a second order from General Seymour to fall back. The 54th Massachusetts (colored) after a time came and stood on their left. The next brigade, under Colonel Barton, of the 48th New York, came up and deployed. But the whole Confederate force of five thousand was there. Barton’s brigade suffered frightfully. Montgomery’s two regiments, both colored, were heavily punished.

Omitting further details of the battle, which lasted over three hours, shortly after sunset General Seymour ordered us to full back to a new line. We did so, and several regiments successively gave three cheers. This was the occasion of the report to the Confederate commander that we had formed a new line. Their cavalry so reported, and, though six hundred strong, never fired a shot at us, nor came within our sight. Behind us was a small body of water—an acre, it may be—beside which were gathered a large number of our wounded, under the care of surgeons. All who could walk or be put into wagons were started off, and several surgeons were ordered to stay with the remainder.

Our whole column was put in motion deliberately. Seymour took my regiment from me again, to serve as infantry skirmishers in the rear-guard with Henry’s mounted men. The 54th

Massachusetts was sent to report to me, and with three regiments, moving by the flank, in parallel lines my brigade marched eastward, with our comrades.

General Jones says the Union forces “yielded ground first reluctantly and sullenly, then with some precipitation, which presently became a confused flight. When the Union line gave way, the Confederates sprang forward with a yell and pursued the enemy several miles, and until night closed in on the scene and stopped pursuit.”

This must have been borrowed from some of the wild reports made by the enemy immediately after the battle. Our last formation in line of battle (just referred to) was a few hundred yards in rear of the center of the field. It was fast growing dark in the pine woods. Not a yell nor a shot pursued us that long night. When my command reached Baldwin on the 21st, we picked up some of our equipments, left there two or three days before, destroyed some stores, loaded up the cars and moved on to McGirt’s Creek. Crossing on the narrow road through the swamp, we formed line on the eastern bank, put out pickets, and took a good sleep. Colonel Henry and his mounted men and the 7th Connecticut stopped at Baldwin over the night of the 21st.

General Finegan’s report of the 23d (three days after the battle) says: “I occupy Barber’s place this morning and my cavalry are in the vicinity of Baldwin.” He says, also, “I left Ocean Pond [the battle-field] yesterday”—that is to say, two days after the fight.

The reports of Generals

Colquitt, Finegan, Gardner, and others give reasons for the feeble pursuit—“fatigue, absence of rations, disadvantages of pursuit in the dark,” etc. It is stated that the order to pursue was withdrawn “in consequence of a report from the advanced cavalry picket that the enemy had halted for the night and taken a position (subsequently ascertained to be incorrect).” General Colquitt says he sent ‘’repeated orders to Colonel Smith of the cavalry to continue the pursuit, but only two companies on the left, and those but for a short distance, followed the enemy.’’ Smith was relieved from his command, and he requested a court of inquiry. Finegan was relieved by Gardner. General Beauregard, reporting to Richmond, March 25th, says “the fruits of the victory were comparatively insignificant” laying the blame on the cavalry commander, through “whose lack of energy and capacity for the service no serious attempt was made to pursue with his command, while the exhaustion of the infantry . . . and our want of subsistence supplies and ammunition made an immediate pursuit by them impracticable.”

It was a fair, square, stand-up fight in pine woods, just there not very thick, and having little undergrowth, save about an occasional swampy hole. There was probably a difference of less than five hundred in the numbers

engaged. The Confederates knew the ground and were formed for battle. We rushed in, not waiting for the proper full formation, and were fought in detail. The enemy had the great advantage, with modern weapons, of being on the defensive and ready. There was absolutely no pursuit of the defeated party until the next day. The Confederate loss was 940; the Union loss 1861. This left the former with say 4500; the latter with about 3700, or in about that proportion. It was one of the sideshows of the great war, but the loss on the Union side was proportionately about three times as great as at Buena Vista. I suppose it did help to whittle away the great rebellion.

Publisher’s Note: The Olustee Battlefield is open to the public. For more information visit https:// www.floridastateparks.org/parksand-trails/olustee-battlefieldhistoric-state-park.

Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park, in Baker County, Florida. (Wikimedia)

COLLECTION

James Williamson Millner (1841–1910) enlisted June 2, 1861 with his two brothers William H. (1840–) and John P. (1844–) into Company K, 38th Virginia Infantry “Cascade Rifles.” Both brothers were out of service by 1862 but James was promoted to 2nd lieutenant November 14, 1861, and served the entire war. The 38th Virginia was raised in Pittsylvania County was a hard-fighting unit in the Army of Northern Virginia, sustaining close to 500 casualties by Appomattox. Less than one month in service, James was wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, one of 76 wounded in action (WIA) that day. James married Mary Jane Daniels Millner (1843–1917) during the winter of 1863. In one of the last battles of the war James was wounded with a gunshot to his neck April 1, 1865, at the Battle of Five Forks. He was also captured

same day along with 68 other members of his regiment. He was hospitalized in a Union Hospital in Petersburg then transferred to Fortress Monroe military hospital May 14, 1865, and finally recovered to take the oath of allegiance and return home July 22, 1865. This fine image signed in blue by photographer Charles Rees who beautifully tinted Millner’s eyes the same natural blue. Rees is well known for his crystal-clear high contrast images. Millner stares at the camera with an unforgiving look ready for a fight wearing battle shirt, gold tinted sash holding classic Richmond-style side knife (most likely manufactured by Boyle & Gamble or Burger & Brother of Richmond, Va.), small holstered revolver, and a musket. His forage cap has a hand tinted plume. (Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Library of Congress)

McDowell and Front Royal, then hastened back down the Valley in pursuit of the retreating Federals.

A Natural Battleground

Mountain passes, rivers, fords, roads and (in modern times) railroads often determine how armies move and consequently influence where armies collide. Many places have witnessed more than one battle. Thermopylae is the site of eight battles (per Wikipedia’s count), the first in 480 B.C. and the most recent in 1941. Three famous battles between the English and the Scots—Stirling Bridge (1297), Falkirk (1298) and Bannockburn (1314)—were all fought along a short, 12-mile corridor in southern Scotland. In World War I we had two Battles of the Marne, one in 1914 and a repeat in 1918. The French and the Germans fought in the Ardennes in 1914; in the next war the Germans attacked there in 1940, and yet again, against U.S. forces, in what is best known as the Battle of the Bulge.

The Civil War has its own share of multiple battles fought in the same vicinity. The best known are the pair of battles fought in Northern Virginia. The First Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) on April 21, 1861, was the first major battle of the war. Sixteen months later Federals and

Confederates met here again in the Second Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas). We also have Corinth.

The First Battle of Corinth (May 1862) was not much of a battle and is sometimes called the Siege of Corinth, but it was not really a siege. The Second Battle of Corinth, or just the Battle of Corinth, was the real thing, fought in October 1862. Both events point to the importance of the railroad.

Fredericksburg (numbers one and two), Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, and the Wilderness were so close that a single National Military Park serves to teach visitors about all five battles, where a total of over 100,000 American men were killed, wounded, or captured.

To the west, we have the Shenandoah Valley.

Shelby Foote called the Valley “a corridor [that] pointed shotgun-like at the Union’s solar plexus.” The Confederates took advantage of this weapon and used the corridor several times to launch invasions and minor raids into the North. Throughout the war, armies marched up, down and across* the Valley. The whole place was a battlefield.

The National Park Service states that the area “witnessed hundreds of skirmishes and engagements,

GEORGIA’S CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS

In Honor of a Fallen Nation

Gould B. Hagler, Jr.

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

including twenty battles.”

In the Valley there were two battles named for Kernstown and three for nearby Winchester. Let’s look at each of these five, in chronological order, and consider how each battle fits into the overall course of the war.

The First Battle of Kernstown, fought on March 23, 1862, was the initial engagement in Stonewall Jackson’s famous Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Jackson marched his men 40 miles in a day and a half from Mount Jackson to Kernstown. There he came upon what he thought was a small rear guard. He attacked. His intelligence was faulty, however, and he unexpectedly met a force of 8,500. With only 3,000 men in the ranks (about 1,500 others fell out during the rapid march), the Confederates were repulsed, suffering over 700 total casualties, including 80 dead.

This was an inauspicious start for the Valley Campaign. However, in the next two months Jackson took his force up the Valley, crossed and recrossed the Blue Ridge, fought battles at

Not far from the Kernstown battlefield, on May 25, the Federals attempted to make a stand at the First Battle of Winchester, just south of the town. Federal Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks commanded a force of 6,500; Jackson led 16,000 men. The Federals offered stiff resistance at first but ultimately broke and fled north, through Winchester and beyond. After losing over 2,000 casualties (including 1,714 captured), Banks’s army crossed the Potomac at Williamsport. The Confederates lost fewer than 400.

First Winchester was a major tactical victory with major strategic consequences. Lincoln ordered more troops to the Valley, hoping to snag Jackson in a trap formed by three separate Federal forces. The plan failed. Banks, disregarding Lincoln’s orders, did not pursue when Jackson went up the Valley. Then, by rapid marching, Jackson was able to defeat the other two Federal armies in detail. In addition, the diversion of forces to the Valley relieved pressure on the Confederates defending Richmond. Jackson, having cleared the Valley of enemy forces, took his army to join Gen. Lee to help drive Gen. George McClellan’s threatening army from the Confederate capital.

The Second Battle of Winchester was fought during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign. Lee invaded the North for the second time, using the Blue Ridge to cloak his movements and aiming Foote’s shotgun at Maryland and beyond. The Army of Northern Virginia’s Second

Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell, led the way. Ewell crossed the Blue Ridge on June 12 via Chester’s Gap, placing the corps near Front Royal.

The bulk of the Federal forces in the vicinity, about 7,000 under Maj. Gen. Robert Milroy, were holding fortified positions at Winchester, 25 miles to the north. Ewell marched toward Winchester with some 12,500 men, while sending one division to bypass the town and block the road north of Milroy’s position. Not realizing he was facing so large a force, Milroy disregarded orders from Washington to withdraw to Harpers Ferry. On June 14 and 15 his force was battered by Confederate artillery, flanked on both sides, and ultimately surrounded. The Federals’ attempt to fight their way out failed. In the chaos the Union lost 4,000 captured and missing (including 700 sick who were not in the fight and were left behind in the town). Only 95 were killed and 348 wounded. Confederate losses were minimal.

Several hundred men, Union and Confederate, were hospitalized in Winchester while their comrades battled in Pennsylvania. As Lee retreated after the Battle of Gettysburg, thousands followed the route through Winchester. The town was overwhelmed with 8,500 sick and wounded Confederates, who were followed by many hundreds of tired and hungry Union prisoners.

The Second Battle of Kernstown occurred a year later, after the Overland Campaign ended and after the investment of Petersburg started. In July 1864 the Second Corps, now under Lt. Gen. Jubal Early and designated as the Army of the Valley, marched down the Valley and embarked upon a large-scale raid

Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, Confederate commander at Second Winchester. (Library of Congress)

Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks. (Library of Congress)

that reached the outskirts of Washington. With only 14,000 men, however, Early could do little more than raise a scare. On July 14 he crossed back into Virginia. Ten days later Early attacked the Federals at Kernstown.

The Federals had reduced their strength in the area. Learning this, Early, with his entire army, attacked Brig. Gen. George Crook’s somewhat smaller force in Kernstown. The Federals lost about 1,200 men, half of whom were captured. The

Confederates lost half that number.

Crook’s routed force retreated precipitously across the Potomac. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Early wrecked the railroad between Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry. He

History has recorded three Battles of Winchester and two Battles of Kernstown. The imagination of historian Richard McMurry has given us a fourth Winchester and a third Kernstown. As a bonus McMurry throws in a Second Seven Days.

In his 2002 work The Fourth Battle of Winchester: Toward a New Civil War Paradigm McMurry presents a whimsical counterfactual as a springboard to his serious analysis of the war and 150 years of historiography.

The counterfactual chapters of McMurry’s book posit a Confederate victory at Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864. In the imagined battle the Federals do not recover from the Confederates’ initial success, as they did in reality, and are routed. Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early is killed in action (a stroke of good fortune, as McMurry imagines it) and is replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Kershaw. The new commander capitalizes on the victory and chases the foe northward. In the Third Battle of Kernstown the Confederates destroy the Federal rear guard and continue the pursuit. The Union force attempts a stand a few miles to the north, but are defeated in the Fourth Battle of Winchester.

In a few fun-packed pages McMurry leads the Confederates from victory to victory. Lee triumphs in Virginia. General Grant and other incompetent Eastern commanders are transferred to Minnesota to fight the Sioux. Abraham Lincoln loses the election to McClellan. All is lost.

Or is it? Across the Appalachians the imaginary Confederates have no more success than they had in real history. Major General George Thomas wins a smashing victory at Nashville. Major General William Sherman continues his winning ways through Georgia and the Carolinas, and faces no real opposition as he heads toward Virginia.

General Joseph Johnston visits Lee. They and other generals see the hopelessness of their situation. With difficulty they convince President Davis that defeat is inevitable and that further resistance will result only in more death and more misery.

News of the Confederate surrender is delivered to President Lincoln as he sits on the stage at his successor’s inauguration, moments before McClellan is sworn in.

The second half of McMurry’s book drops the fantasy and analyzes actual events. He argues that action in the West determined the outcome of the Civil War. In the Trans-Appalachian Theater Federal forces won an almost uninterrupted string of victories from early 1862 onward. Whatever happened in the East, or whatever one imagines could have happened, the South was doomed to lose the war for the simple reason that its armies lost the battles in the Confederate heartland. Confederate wins at Third Kernstown, Fourth Winchester and even Second Seven Days wouldn’t matter.

First Battle of Winchester, May 25, 1862. (Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph), 1828–1891, artist. Library of Congress)

Third Battle of Winchester, Sept. 19, 1864. (Forbes, Edwin, 1839–1895, artist. Library of Congress)

Map illustrating Jackson’s Valley Campaign. (Library of Congress)

Sheridan’s Ride – His arrival on battlefield credited with rallying Federal troops after initial setback. (Thulstrup; facsimile print by L. Prang & Co. Library of Congress)

With the help of our supporters and partners, the American Battlefield Trust has saved more than 55,000 acres at 150+ sites in 25 states — creating outdoor classrooms where the past can come alive. Join us and protect America’s past by saving these endangered battlefields. www.battlefields.org

Chancellorsville Battlefield, Virginia. THERESA RASMUSSEN

Gen. Philip Sheridan. (Library of Congress)

then crossed into Maryland and engaged in some payback for earlier Federal depredations in the Valley. Brigadier General John McCausland was dispatched with his 3,000 cavalrymen to the prosperous town of Chambersburg, Pa. McCausland demanded a ransom ($500,000 in greenbacks or $100,000 in gold) or he would burn the town. He got neither the greenbacks nor the gold. Chambersburg went up in flames. A hard war was turning harder.

At the Third Battle of Winchester, fought two months later, Early’s 15,500 men faced a Federal force of 35,000 in the largest of all the battles fought in the Valley. On September 19, the new Federal commander in the area, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, attacked Early’s army north of Winchester near Opequon Creek. The outnumbered Confederates fought effectively most of the day, but finally had to retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers. Losses were very heavy on both sides. The Federals lost a total of 5,000; the Confederates 4,000.

Sheridan’s assignment was to drive Early’s army out of the Valley and to destroy the region’s ability to feed Lee’s beleaguered army. The Third Battle of Winchester was the beginning of that effort. After Winchester, Early resisted for a month and even took the offensive at Cedar Creek on October 19. Here the Army of the Valley achieved initial success, but was routed by a Federal counterattack late in the day. Cedar Creek ended effective Confederate resistance in the Valley.

In Volume One of Lee’s Lieutenants, Douglas Southhall Freeman included an appendix on the military geography of

Virginia. The pages on the Shenandoah Valley cogently analyze the strategic significance of the Valley’s agricultural resources and its geographic features, natural and man-made.

“If a Southern army could hold the passes of the Blue Ridge,” Freeman wrote, “[the Valley] could be a vast covered way.” He explained that if Union troops moved along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, “Southern soldiers in the Lower Valley would be on their flank.”

The “covered way” was, of course, a two-way street. Freeman wrote that “to an enemy who seized and held the gaps, the Valley offered an easy route to the geographical center of Virginia.” In addition, Freeman wrote that the region “was the most productive area of Virginia for both cattle and for grain.” Armies must eat.

The Shenandoah Valley was a natural battleground. It was inevitable that it would be bitterly contested from the war’s beginning to its end.

*As most readers know about the Valley, “up” means south and “down” means north, as the river flows. “Across” means across.

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

publications listed have a ‘Related Charts’ box. Click on this box to open a new page containing maps and charts accompanying the report, for example, this Cedar Keys, Florida, map.

Continued success in researching the American Civil War!

Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer,

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey Historical Publications

Publication search page.

Search results.

Researchers seeking information on coastal operations during the American Civil War can augment their searches using the various publications found at the Historical Map

Day by Day through the Civil War in Georgia

& Chart Collection website at https://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/ publications.php.

Many maps reviewed in last month’s column have supporting documentation, especially the

Until now, a daily account (1,630 days) of Georgia’s social, political, economic, and military events during the Civil War did not exist.

In Day by Day through the Civil War in Georgia, Michael K. Shaffer strikes a balance between the combatants while remembering the struggles of enslaved persons, folks on the home front, and merchants and clergy attempting to maintain some sense of normalcy. Maps, footnotes, a detailed index, and bibliographical references will aid those wanting more.

February 2022 • $37.00, hardback

Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, instructor, lecturer, newspaper columnist, and author. He is a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Contact the author: mkscdr11@gmail.com

www.mupress.org

• 866-895-1472 toll-free

Notes on the Coast of the United States. The website states, “Coast Survey supervisor Alexander Dallas Bache published Notes on the Coast of the United States, secret documents used by the Union Blockade Board. Coast Survey superintendents prepared a report each year, showing the progress of the survey…full reports were over 200 pages, Bache’s summary statements… gave a sense of Coast Survey’s involvement in the war effort.”

The image above shows an entry of search dates 1861–1865, and results yielded 15 archival publications; various sort methods exist. See the image above.

Mining the Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey Showing the Progress of the Work 1861 offers an example of the type of literature available in the archive. Each wartime report – 1861–1865 – resides in PDF format. (See the image of the cover page for the 1861 report.) Note: several Cedar Keys map.

CivilWarNews.com

and instructor, who remains a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at mkscdr11@gmail.com or request speaking engagements at www.civilwarhistorian. net. Follow Michael on Facebook, www.facebook.com/ michael.k.shaffer, and Twitter @ michaelkshaffer

1861 Report.

A Soldier’s Dream/A Soldier’s Vision

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

We have written several times in this column how the Civil War was “good” for American printers, artists, and lithographers. The field was crowded with well-known names at the time: Currier and Ives, The Kellogg’s in Connecticut, the Sartain’s in Philadelphia, and out west in Cincinnati, Strobridge and Company.

What began as an attempt to bring the latest news depicting the most recent battle, wellillustrated, from the front, evolved into a lucrative market of all manner of prints. Although they were well sanitized, battle views filled the need of news hungry civilians back home. Religious prints showing the heart of Jesus, the last supper, and Mary appealed to recent emigres from Europe. Small folio prints of women and children sold well, as did memorials to the recently deceased member of a family. Early portraits of Union heroes such as Winfield Scott and George McClellan were eventually replaced by Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Abraham Lincoln. Even the enemy were portrayed; Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were immensely popular in northern markets. As historian Brian le Beau has noted “The trauma of the Civil War seems only to have stimulated the public’s interest in mass-produced illustrations of various scenes related to the war. Lithographers and engravers sold thousands of pictures of army camps, military installations, and ships of war.”

Additionally, Currier produced “cartoons or graphic satires, of the war; those that might be

labeled patriotic prints; those related to secession, politics, and Lincoln’s assassination.” Combining current events with sentimentality, the firm produced The American Patriot’s Dream/ The Night before the Battle in 1861. It is unusual in that it is an early piece. Not to be outdone, Currier produced a second similar print entitled: The Patriot’s Dream of Home. Both images depict a lone soldier asleep before his campfire. In the background his comrades gather around the fire awaiting tomorrow’s unknown. In one version, a cloud over the recumbent soldier depicts his dream of home, populated by his family all of whom welcome him home in their loving embraces. All three generations are there to

greet him: his child, his wife, and dutifully completing the tableau, his parents. In the alternate dream version featured here, only his wife and child great him. Below our sleeping hero in the title margin is an eight-line, two stanza poem:

“Stretched on the ground the war worn soldier sleeps, Beside the lurid watch fire’s fitful glare; And dreams that on the field of fame he reaps, Renown and honors which he hastens to share.

With those beloved ones who gathering come, To bid their hero husband father ‘welcome home,’

Fond dreamer may thy blissful vision be, A true foreshadowing of the fates to thee.”

“Such scenes were meant to reassure families that their men in arms remained inspired, perhaps even protected and blessed, by thoughts of home and hearth.” To complete the sentiment, Currier and Ives produced a companion piece the following year entitled The Soldier’s Home, the Vision. It depicts a woman asleep on a sofa “dreaming of her husband, who carries a flag as he leads the Union army in battle.” The inscription reads:

“Ever of him who at his country’s call, Went Forth to war in freedom’s sacred name; She thinks in waking hours: and dreams are all, Filled with his image,

On the field of fame. She sees her hero foremost in the fight.

Bearing the glorious banner of the free; Triumphing o’er the traitors boasted might, Then home returning crowned with victory.”

As historians Neely and Holzer point out, these prints were meant to be reassuring as the war intensified. America’s naivete

concerning the tragedy unfolding before them was shattered when Alexander Gardner published and displayed his photographs of the carnage at Antietam.

Endnotes

1. Brian Le Beau, Currier and Ives: America Imagined, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2021, 72.

2. Ibid, 78.

3. Mark Neely & Harold Holzer, The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2000, 96. See also 93-95.

4. Le Beau, 98.

After 43 years in the museum field, Cilella devotes his time collecting American prints and maps and writing. His most recent books are Upton’s Regulars: A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War (U. Press Kansas, 2009). His two-volume Correspondence of Major General Emory Upton, (U. of Tennessee Press, 2017), received the 2017–2018 American Civil War Museum’s Founders Award for outstanding editing of primary source materials. Upton’s love letters to his wife 1868-70, (Till Death Do Us Part) was published in 2020 by the Oklahoma University Press. His current book, the memoirs of Private Dewitt Clinton Beckwith of Upton’s Regulars for McFarland Press will be released this Spring.

A Soldier’s Dream, Currier and Ives. (Library of Congress)

The histories of the Lost Cause are all written out by “big bugs,” Generals and renowned historians, and like the fellow who called a turtle a “cooter,” being told that no such word as cooter was in Webster’s dictionary, remarked that he had as much right to make a dictionary as Mr. Webster or any other man; so have I to write a history 1

And boy did he. Samuel Rush Watkins was born on June 26, 1839 near Columbia, Tennessee. He attended college there and was twenty-one when the war broke out. Just weeks after Sumter he volunteered to join a local company, the Maury Grays, that became Company H of the 1st Tennessee.

Private Watkins saw the elephant at Shiloh, followed Bragg to Perryville, and was slightly wounded at Murfreesboro. He suffered through the rout at Missionary Ridge, then was wounded at Atlanta. He survived Hood’s tragic raid into Tennessee, though wounded at Nashville. At some point in the war he suffered a third wound.2 True to the colors, he surrendered with Johnston in North Carolina.

After the war veterans of both sides, sensing that their experiences would be the dramatic highlight of their lives, went to work writing and seeing to the publication of their memoirs. Some of these appeared at first as articles in local newspapers. Thus Watkins’ recollections were serialized in his hometown

Columbia Herald, 1881-82.3 The author stitched them together as a volume which at one time he thought he would entitle Sam’s Book.4 Fifteen hundred copies were printed, both in hardcover ($1.25) and paperback (75 cents).

More recently a descendant found Watkins’ personal copy, in the front of which he had written

Co.

H

(Co Aytch) Reb.

Memoirs of a Private Soldier C.S.A. or Anecdotes and incidents of A Webfoot by An old army veteran What he saw What he thought & how he felt 5

Watkins planned to issue a second edition of his book in 1892, but that never came about.6 Instead, Watkins turned to writing articles, notably for Confederate Veteran, whose first issue came out in January 1893 from Sumner “Sam” Cunningham in Nashville. In the September 1893 number there appeared Watkins’ first piece, “Snow Battle at Dalton— Little Jimmie White.”

The famous snow fight occurred as the Army of Tennessee quartered during the winter of 1863-64 in north Georgia. Watkins’ article dealt less with the soldiers’ snow battle than with the accidental death of one of Sam’s friends, a fourteen-yearold whose legs had been crushed by a caisson.7

There was not much to do in winter quarters, as Watkins recalled in a piece appearing in the Veteran for November 1909. But card games, especially poker and chuck-a-luck, helped while away the time. “A few men would read their Bibles and hymn books,” Watkins observed, “but not many.”

In camp there was one soldier who was extraordinarily lucky at playing cards, fleecing everyone out of their money. One of Watkins’ comrades, Tom Tuck, suspected the card sharp of cheating, so he demanded to see the deck of cards. Sure enough, they were marked. Tuck had threatened to shoot the sharpster if he was bilking, and he kept his word. The cheater tried to escape, but Tuck followed, firing twice with his pistol. Watkins remembered the victim’s “shriek of mortal agony.”8

Co. “Aytch” offers tons of stories like the snowball fight at Dalton—just the sort of reminiscence one would expect

from a raconteur like Sam Watkins. Our memoirist recalled how some scamps packed rocks in their snowballs, causing “an occasional knock down, and sometimes an ugly wound.” In the middle of the snowball battle, soldiers stopped for a moment to watch the execution of a deserter. Sam remembered that the firing squad’s volley wounded, but did not kill its target, so “the whole affair had to be gone over again”—this time, with deadly effect.

Then there was the time when during a prayer meeting—that winter saw a lot of revivals in the Army of Tennessee—a tree that had caught fire overhead fell upon ten men engaged in fervent prayer. The worshipers had asked that their souls be delivered up on high. “God had heard their prayers,” was Watkins’ laconic comment.

With rations sparse, veterans kept their eyes out for dietary supplement. So when out on an excursion, someone spotted “a fine fat sow” in a farmer’s yard, Sam was among those sent inside to engage the owners’ attention while the men outside made off with the pork-on-hoof. He was chagrined to learn, in conversation with the lady of the place, that her husband and three sons had all died in the war. Filled with remorse, he pulled out a new Confederate $100 bill, which he

offered her. No, she would not take it; “she was perfectly willing to give the soldiers everything she had.” Sam placed the money on the table and left. “I have never in my life made a raid upon anybody else,” he confessed.9 Music and song can sometimes take the bite out of winter’s cold. Thus could Watkins remember the words of a wartime air that was very popular among Southerners, “Cheer, Boys, Cheer.”

Cheer, boys, cheer, we are marching on to battle! Cheer, boys, cheer, for our sweethearts and our wives! Cheer, boys, cheer, we’ll nobly do our duty, And give to the South our hearts, our arms, our lives.

Old Lincoln, with his hireling hosts, Will never whip the South, Shouting the battle cry of freedom.

“Shouting the battle cry of freedom” are lyrics best remembered from the Northern air, “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” but here we see that singing Confederates could also share in those lofty lines.

Henry Russell’s song “Cheer, Boys, Cheer” was published in Nashville and Memphis in 1861. The song was also called “The Song of Southern Boys,” and the chorus, which Rebels knew well, ran “Cheer, boys, cheer, for

“Cheer, Boys, Cheer”: Sam Watkins in the Winter of ’63-‘64

Samuel Rush Watkins.

country, mother country, / Cheer, boys, cheer, the willing strong right hand / Cheer, boys, cheer, there’s wealth for honest labor / Cheer, boys, cheer, for the new and happy land!” “Cheer, Boys, Cheer” is unknown today, but it remained popular for years after the war. As reported in Confederate Veteran, in the 1890s during the dedication of a Confederate monument in Owensboro, Kentucky, the main orator for the event referred to Southern soldiers: “Through the vista of years we see them again as they struggle in their icy trenches or charge through the ‘untrodden snow’ at Fort Donelson; again we hear them singing, ‘Cheer, boys, cheer, we’ll march away to battle,’ as they

lead the charge of Albert Sidney Johnston’s army through Grant’s camps at Shiloh.” At this point, Veteran editor S. A. Cunningham inserted, “Just here a group of well-trained voices arose suddenly upon the platform and sang that old-time thrilling war song, and the innovation gave renewed interest to the splendid address.”10

Notes

1. Sam R. Watkins, Co. “Aytch” Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment or, A Side Show of the Big Show, ed. by Ruth Hill Fulton McAllister (Franklin TN:

Providence House Publishers, 2007 [1882]), 6.

2. “Samuel Rush Watkins,” Confederate Veteran, vol. 9, no. 9 (September 1901), 419.

3. Roy P. Basler, “Introduction” in Sam R. Watkins, “Co. Aytch”: A Side Show of the Big Show (New York: Collier Books, 1962) [1882], 8.

4. Andrew B. Miller, “Publisher’s Preface to the 2007 Edition” in McAllister, ed., Co. “Aytch,” xviii.

5. Frontispiece in McAllister, ed., Co. “Aytch.”

6. McAllister, “Preface,” in ibid., xix.

7. S. R. Watkins, “Snow Battle at Dalton—Little Jimmie White,” Confederate Veteran, vol. 1, no. 9 (September 1893), 261-62; Steve Davis, “The Great Snow Battle of 1864,” Civil War Times Illustrated, vol. 15, no. 3 (June 1976), 32-35.

8. S. R. Watkins, “A Gambler at Cards in Dalton, Ga.,” Confederate Veteran, vol. 17, no. 11 (November 1909), 559.

9. McAllister ed., Co.“Aytch,” 143-48.

10. McAllister, ed., Co.“Aytch,” 159; E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861–1865 (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000), 300n.54); E. Lawrence Abel, Confederate Sheet Music (Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 2004), 38–39; “Confederate Monument at Owensboro,” Confederate Veteran, vol. 8, no. 9 (September 1900), 388–89.

Stephen Davis’ next book will be a new edition of Eliza Frances Andrews’ War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, first published in 1900. It will appear this winter from Mercer University Press.

the Lord I Am Not a Yankee...”

a successful writer and educator. Her War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl surely ranks among the most observant and intelligent wartime memoirs by a Southern woman.

Edited with commentary by Stephen Davis, I Thank the Lord I Am Not a Yankee includes selections of her wartime and postwar journals which are most expressive of her Confederate patriotism and Southern pride.

February 2023 • $35.00, hardback Stephen Davis is author of ten books on the Civil War, most of which treat the Atlanta Campaign. His two recent volumes on Confederate General John Bell Hood have won several prizes, including the Fletcher Pratt Award of the New York CWRT.

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866-895-1472 toll-free

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The snowball battle near Dalton, Georgia. (Library of Congress)

www.emergingcivilwar.com

From the Editor

I write this on the evening of the longest night of the year. By the time you read it,

Christmas will have passed and the Hanukah lights will have been extinguished. The fat, lazy week between Christmas and the New Year will be unspooling, hopefully at a leisurely rate for you, and we’ll either be planning for our New Year’s resolutions or willfully harrumphing them away as nonsense.

One hundred and sixty years ago, Abraham Lincoln eyed the New Year with trepidation. The final Emancipation Proclamation was slated to go into effect, yet his armies had done nothing to pave the way for a firm roll-out. Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Potomac was embarrassed at Fredericksburg, Va., and William T. Sherman’s forces were quickly repulsed at Chickasaw Bayou, Miss. In central Tennessee, Confederate forces were converging on William Rosecrans’s Army of

the Cumberland. At stake was what Lincoln later called “a new birth of freedom,” not just for the millions of men, women, and children in bondage but for the survival of the entire nation with a renewed purpose.

When I think of New Year’s resolutions, I think of that same sense of renewed purpose they represent. It is for us to be rededicated to whatever task remains before us.

Yes, I realize I’m mixing my Lincoln writings here, but of course, he saw a clear throughthread between them, and so should we. The New Year lies ahead, and as we approach it, we control our own destiny more than we sometimes recognize, through our sense of purpose and resolve. It offers us an opportunity to make ourselves better and, as it did for Lincoln 160 years ago, it offers us an opportunity to make the world better.

I wish you all the best for the New Year ahead. Maybe it be full of warm hearts, good health, and plentiful opportunities for all of us to make the world a brighter place.

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

Ninth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge

We’ve announced Timothy B. Smith as our keynote speaker for the Ninth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium; in January we’ll start rolling out the full list of speakers and their topics. This year’s event, August 4-6, 2023, is themed “1863: The Great Task Before Us.”

You can still purchase tickets at the early bird price of $200 each before December 31, and then when the calendar flips to 2023, tickets go up to the full price of $225. For tickets, or for more information, visit https://emergingcivilwar.com/ ecw_event/2023-symposium.

ECW News & Notes

The Midwest Book Review gave a strong thumbs up to the latest title in the Emerging Civil War 10th Anniversary Series, Civil War Monuments and Memory. The review described the book thus: “Unique, special, and unreservedly recommended compendium of erudite, informative, and insightful articles by experts in their fields, Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories

and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War must be considered a core addition to professional, community, and academic library American Civil War collections.” You can read the full review here: https://midwestbookreview.com/ wbw/dec_22.htm#CivilWar

For the 160th anniversary of the battle of Fredericksburg, the American Battlefield Trust featured a series of “on location” videos on YouTube and Facebook Live, with content by ECW’s Kris White, Sarah Kay Bierle, Dan Davis, and Chris Mackowski. You can watch the full playlist here: https://www.youtube. com/playlist?list=PLZrhqv_ T1O1sZbxH6pLFYKtreRLLozBp.

The fall semester has wound down and all the final papers and essays are finished and graded for Neil Chatelain. Now to catch up on some in the book stack that need reading. On the research and writing side of things, Neil had a small article published in the October 2022 issue of North & South magazine titled “Emelius W. Fuller: The King of the Swamp.”

Bert Dunkerly, Doug Crenshaw, and fellow battlefielder Bob Talbot visited Fredericksburg recently, exploring Chatham, Ferry Farm, and historic sites downtown. Bert also assisted Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania National Military Park with artillery demonstrations during the park’s anniversary event. Despite being visited by Bert twice within a week’s time, the town still stands. Bert and Doug also recently discussed Civil War Richmond at an American Civil War Center function, and Bert has been busy promoting his Emerging Rev War book, Unhappy Catastrophes, and his new Explorer’s Guide to America’s Revolutionary War in his travels.

From Meg Groeling: “The halls are decked here in Hollister, and every cat has his or her own bandanna to celebrate the holidays. It has been such a nice year overall, a few hiccups, but so much better than COVID. At least no one has suggested we all do ECW Trading Cards for Christmas, maybe Halloween? EEEK! Love to all, and I hope to see some of you this coming year.”

From Frank Jastrzembski and his work with Shrouded Veterans: “Veteran headstones were placed for Col. John Wesley Horner (18th Michigan Infantry) at Osawatomie State Hospital Cemetery in Osawatomie, Kan., and Col. Ambrose Stevens (123rd New York Infantry and 176th New York Infantry) at Batavia Cemetery in Batavia, N.Y. Both graves were unmarked. Horner died while a patient at the Kansas insane asylum in 1874 and was buried on the hospital’s grounds. Patients buried at the cemetery are only identified by their patient numbers. Horner is now the exception.”

Chris Kolakowski recently spoke on his Burma book to the Consortium of IndoPacific Researchers. Video is here: https://youtu.be/ Ztun46cM1UQ.

From Brian Matthew Jordan: “In December, I delivered talks to California’s Civil Warriors Round Table, as well as the Houston Civil War Roundtable. I also contributed to The Civil War Monitor’s ‘Best Books of 2022’ feature (alongside fellow ECWer Cecily Zander). I’m looking forward to a busy 2023!”

Tim Talbott enjoyed a return visit to Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Va., to share about soldiers captured during the Petersburg Campaign to the Petersburg Civil War Roundtable on December 1.

Chris Mackowski

Sarah Kay Bierle, Dan Davis, Chris Mackowski, and Kris White broadcast live from the battlefield for the Fredericksburg 160th anniversary.

The Lincoln statue in Gettysburg’s town square, which is all decked out for the holidays, invites us to think about how the president’s legacy ties into this time of year.

Is that a Christmas angel visiting Abraham Lincoln, or the Emancipation Proclamation’s delivery service?

Five Questions with . . . ECW’s New Website!

This month, we’re going to focus our “Five Questions” on the new ECW website which launched in early December. To answer those questions, we welcome Managing Editor Sarah Kay Bierle, who oversaw the website transition and who oversees day-to-day operations on the blog. Yes, there are seven “Five Questions” here, we’re writers, not mathematicians! What prompted the website redesign?

We’d been talking about a platform update and “new look” for several years; actually for about as long as the real Civil War lasted. 2022 was the year that funding, the design team, and the vision all aligned for a charge into the future. There were two main reasons to update the site.

First, it’s not a good feeling whenever you have to run tech updates on a website platform and you keep wondering when the system in use will no longer be supported and the digital empire will crash.

Second, the website appearance just wasn’t “emerging” anymore. It was top-notch for 2011, but blogging has changed and website design has evolved for better visuals and web experience. To say it nicely, the ECW website looked outdated. There was always fresh content, but not a new presentation. It was time to reclaim “emerging” with a new website look!

Any inspiration for the new look?

I wanted something clean, modern, classic (not trendy). Blogging isn’t what it used to be ten years ago, but ECW has remained a strong and growing blog with usually daily content and an ever-expanding readership. We knew we were going to keep creating great content, but instead of the “blog look,” I dreamed of an online magazine appearance, with “featured” and “most recent” articles at the top. We also wanted more ways to highlight pages and our contributors. We looked around at other websites to see what things we liked and what we hated. We kept user experience for both our writers and readers first in mind. It totally made my day when one of our members called me after the new website launch and said, “My husband says it looks like an online magazine.” Mission accomplished.

Did YOU design the website?

Oh no. Chris Mackowski and I had long talks about how to go about getting a new look for the website. We concluded that our history skills and writing skills are better than our website design skills. There would have been too many late nights and probably many tears on my part if we attempted to do this level of design work “in camp.” Instead, we reached out to Childress Agency, a local, veteran-owned website design and marketing team in Fredericksburg. We had worked with their team in the past and loved the web research and concepts they brought to our

early design meetings.

I acted as point-person for the project, but there were ECW team meetings about what we wanted and liked at every step of the process. This was a great example of the joy of paying the experts to be experts! We can be experts on chapters of history, but we were happy to be able to hire website design experts to create and guide us through the process.

Day-to-day changes and blog posting remains “in camp” at ECW, same as usual. Kudos to our team of all-volunteer editors who have rolled with changes to some of our processes behind the scenes over the last few weeks.

What are some of the new features you especially like?

I’m really liking the pages for our contributors. The design is so much cleaner with their photos and bios prominently featured! I’m still figuring out how to get those author photos centered. Ugh. Believe me, I’ve spent a few hours on it already and clearly have a little more adjusting to do. I’m also a huge fan of the home page. It’s easier to navigate and find things other than new blog posts. Oh, and check out the ECW Podcast page. It’s 100 times easier to find new and previous episodes.

How will the new design make it easier for readers to access the archives?

We’re improving the search function for the website! It is also a lot easier to browse the archives by categories. For example, are you just looking for medical blog posts? Select “Medical” in the category filter and you’re set for reading material not recommended to be read with spaghetti dinner. We’re not making a claim that the archives are anywhere near perfect yet, but at least they are getting easier to navigate, and we’re thinking about some other ways to improve accessibility in the coming months and years. As with most technical improvements, it’s a process, and volunteers can’t get it all done overnight.

Are there still bugs you’re working out?

Yes. Of course. ECW has more than 7,000 blog posts already published and a couple hundred pages. Any time changes are made to a website of this size, there will be glitches. However, I can say that thanks to the skill

and responsiveness of the team at Childress Agency, the issues have been minimal and most have been easily resolved. We’ve also had a lot of help from our writers who have found minor issues that we’ve been able to quickly correct or at least start exploring solutions.

While I’m answering this question, we’re still working through some challenges with our comments section and figuring out how to reformat pictures and block quotes. And in the process of checking pages, there are a hundred little areas that need content updates, missing Oxford comma, wrong date, new books to be added, etc. etc. The fun of website/blog editing is that the job never really ends. There will always be something. However, I’m incredibly thankful that the overall process for the website design and launch has been smooth and unexpectedly easy!

Have you celebrated the new site yet?

Personally, no; not at this time of writing. I still have a list of tech bugs to deal with, and I’ve had a nagging concern that if I celebrated too soon, something would go wrong and the whole site would crash. I will be celebrating with ice cream, though! Maybe on New Year’s Eve? And I think there should be a celebration moment when the ECW crew gets together later in the winter. The “emerging” site is a milestone moment and an achievement we can all be proud of.

ECW Multimedia

On the Emerging Civil War Podcast in December:

• Historian Jill Ogline Titus talked about her recent book,

Gettysburg 1963, offering a look at Civil Rights, Cold War politics, and historical memory in America’s most famous small town.

• ECW’s Sean Michael Chick talked about the December 1864 battle of Nashville, Tennessee, and his forthcoming Emerging Civil War Series book on the battle, They Came Only to Die

• Darren “Daz” Rawlings of the U.S. Civil War &. U.K. History site joined ECW’s Chris Mackowski for an across-the-Pond catch-up.

The Emerging Civil War Podcast is available through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever fine podcasts are available. You can also subscribe to our podcast through Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/ emergingcivilwar), where we are now also offering exclusive bonus content for subscribers. That’s just $3.99/month, and proceeds go toward defraying the production costs of the podcast.

In December, for Patreononly content, we spoke with Greg Wade of the Franklin Civil War Roundtable about the December 17, 1864, retreat of the Confederate Army of Tennessee following its loss at Nashville. The retreat brought the armies back to Franklin, still reeling from the battle there on November 30.

On the ECW YouTube page, we featured video versions of our discussions with Jill Ogline Titus, Sean Michael Chick, and Darren “Daz” Rawlings. We also: Explored the store Civil War and More in Mechanicsburg, Penn., for some Civil War-related holiday ideas.

Talked about the aftermath of the battle of Fredericksburg

Greg Wade of the Franklin (TN) Civil War Roundtable on the ECW Podcast.

The new ECW website has a more reader-friendly experience.

Emerging Civil War’s website has a new look.

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

A Union Soldier and Abolitionist at War

Yours Affectionately, Osgood: Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy’s Letters Home from the Civil War, 1862–1865. Edited by Sarah Tracy Burrows and Ryan W. Keating. Photographs and drawings, maps, notes, index, 296 pp., The Kent State University Press, www. KentStateUniversityPress.com, $58.00.

Reviewed by Paul Taylor

matters such as what he ate and that seemingly favorite topic, the weather. Every now and then, however, a work appears by a well-educated soldier who wrote in a clear style and placed thoughtful observations within the larger context of what was going on around him.

Osgood Vose Tracy of the 122 New York Volunteer Infantry was one such man. His previously unpublished and unseen letters from the eastern theater to his home in upstate New York were written between September 1862 and the war’s end in May 1865.

gaps in Tracy’s dutiful letters home are from January through March 1864, when the regiment was detached for prison camp guard duty at Johnson Island near Sandusky, Ohio, and again in May 1864 when Tracy was captured during the battle of the Wilderness but escaped soon thereafter.

Over the course of his development from childhood into adulthood, Tracy became an ardent abolitionist. His antebellum letters (not included in this collection) suggest that learning of an escaped slave who had lived peaceably in Syracuse for two years but was then arrested under the terms of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act may have influenced his growing abolitionist sentiments. Like many if not most men of his era, however, his firm antislavery principles did not equate into any racial equality convictions. His occasional racist descriptions of African Americans were typical of the era.

A Civil War Cavalry First

Riders In The Storm: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Black Cavalry Regiment in the Civil War. By John D. Warner, Jr. Illustrated, index, bibliography, notes, 407 pp., Stackpole Books, 2022. Hardcover, $34.95.

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

prisoners and a howitzer while sustaining only 16 wounded men and 3 officers. Two of their own men were killed accidentally by their comrades.

General Hicks, however, was generally displeased with their performance and transferred them to picket duty along the Appomattox. Here they remained until near the end of the war when they were transferred to Texas where they served guard duty in Brazos until being mustered out.

A countless number of Union Civil War letter and diary collections have been published over the past century and a half. One cannot help but wonder why many of these were published in the first place, as the often uneducated author only recounted mundane daily

Tracy’s address many pertinent social and political issues of the day, as well as provide ample battlefield descriptions. Tracy was twenty-two years old when he enlisted in August 1862 at Syracuse. His regiment was mustered into service with Tracy initially holding the rank of sergeant major. Within weeks it was on the march arriving at the Antietam battlefield the day after that bloody clash. That would be the regiment’s lone dodged bullet; over the rest of the war the 122nd saw hard fighting at every major engagement along the Washington to Richmond corridor, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, the Overland Campaign, the Shenandoah in 1864, Richmond and Petersburg, and then the final dash to Appomattox. The two

The book contains 127 letters written primarily to his widowed mother, Sarah Osgood Tracy. To add additional context into Tracy’s world, the editors also included thirty-eight letters between Tracy and his brothers, friends, cousins, and his sweetheart, Ellen “Nellie” Sedgwick. Tracy’s younger brother, William, also served in the Union army and received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role during the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Osgood Tracy rose through the ranks and ended the war as a brevet major, which was awarded for gallantry at the 1864 battle of Cedar Creek. After the war ended, he received the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel for gallantry in the final Petersburg and Appomattox campaigns.

Editors Sarah Tracy Burrows, a great-great granddaughter of Osgood Tracy and current owner of these family letters, and California State University San Bernardino Professor of History Ryan W. Keating have collaborated to present these Civil War letters. Burrows’ detailed family history and Keating’s excellent wartime analysis firmly sets the subject’s abolitionist sentiments and army experiences within the broader military, social, and political context of the era.

Paul Taylor is an award-winning author and editor of eight books pertaining to the Civil War era. His current manuscript is titled “Tis Not Our War”: Avoiding Military Service in the Civil War North and is currently under publisher review.

The 5th Massachusetts Cavalry was the first black cavalry regiment raised in the North. Recruits, over 1,000, came from all over the North and even as far west as Hawaii. Free blacks, escaped slaves, and white officers filled the ranks as this biracial experiment materialized in late 1863. The new regiment, following in the footsteps of the courageous 54th Mass. Infantry, started out at Camp Meigs in Readville, Mass., where their only blemish during training was the desertion of 37 men.

After their initial training, the 5th Mass. Cavalry (dismounted) was assigned to guard Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout. This assignment lasted until June 1864 when they participated in attacks around Fredericksburg, principally at Bermuda Hundred and Baylor’s Farm. Here they captured a few

Deadlines

The author devotes nearly half of his book to the selection by Gov. John Andrews of the officers for this new cavalry regiment. This use of Gov. Andrews’ archives provides a valuable look into the political machinations wherein the governor was trying to fill the ranks with devoted abolitionists and the elite of Boston society. However, the actual service of the 5th Mass. Cavalry at Baylor’s Farm, guard duty at Point Lookout, marred by the murder of two Confederate prisoners, duty along the South Side Railroad, and the sand of the Brazos might have been better chronicled in a journal article. This would have eliminated the need to fill the text with extraneous material not directly related to the 5th. While this unit should be remembered for its volunteer spirit and breaking the race barrier in the cavalry, the reader should realize direct information on the 5th, although readable and historically accurate, is sparse.

Dr. Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War including Two Years Before the Paddlewheel and The Last Confederate Scout. He is Past President of the LincolnDavis Civil War Roundtable and a frequent lecturer at events and roundtables.

Rediscovering Black Views Of Lincoln

Knowing Him By Heart: African Americans on Abraham Lincoln. Edited by Fred Lee Hord and Matthew D. Norman. Bibliography, index, 537 pp., 2022, Illinois, www. press.uillinois.edu, $39.95.

Reviewed

by Jonathan

W. White

in Beaufort, South Carolina, sent Lincoln a set of resolutions offering him “our hearty thanks for the Proclamation,” issued on New Year’s Day that year. More than four decades later, in 1904, the Voice of the Negro newspaper similarly saw January 1, 1863, as a central moment in American history: “Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Negro are the three most suggestive words of the last half of the Nineteenth Century. . .. The Negro looks upon the first day of January as his natal day. The whole nation should celebrate it as the day when the freedom proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence became a living reality to the whole people.”

office in 1861. How come it took him two whole years to free the slaves? His pen was sitting on his desk the whole time. All he had to do was get up one morning and say, ‘Doggonit! I think I’m gon’ free the slaves today. It just ain’t right for folks to own other folks. It was that simple.”

Lester concluded that it was “a lie, to depict Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.”

The relationship that developed between Abraham Lincoln and African Americans has become a topic of historical interest in recent years. At least four books were published on the subject in the last twelve months, including my own A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (2022) and Michael Burlingame’s The Black Man’s President (2021). Now Fred Lee Hord and Matthew D. Norman have provided an extensive collection of writings by African Americans about the nation’s sixteenth president. Twenty-two documents are letters sent by African Americans to Lincoln (twenty-one of these appear in my book, To Address You As My Friend: African Americans’ Letters to Abraham Lincoln [2021]). The majority of this fascinating book consists of speeches, essays, editorials, and poems written by black men and women, from Frederick Douglass’s 1858 observations about the LincolnDouglas Debates, through Barack Obama’s remarks at the banquet of the Abraham Lincoln Association on Lincoln’s 200th birthday on February 12, 2009. Hord and Norman have accomplished something quite extraordinary. Mining a large number of sources, they have unearthed voices that have been lost, in some cases, for a century or more. While some early writers were critical of Lincoln, the overwhelming majority saw something admirable in him. In 1863, for example, a church

To be sure, Lincoln had black critics during his presidency, including H. Ford Douglas, Frederick Douglass, a soldier who wrote under the pseudonym “Africano,” and others. However, the criticism seemed to increase in the twentieth century. In 1922, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in The Crisis, “Abraham Lincoln was a Southern poor white, of illegitimate birth, poorly educated and unusually ugly, awkward, illdressed. He liked smutty stories and was a politician down to his toes.”

By the 1960s, black assessments of Lincoln were reaching new lows. In 1963, Malcolm X rejected the notion that Lincoln was “a god who brought us out of slavery into the promised land of freedom.” Five years later, in 1968, Lerone Bennett, editor of Ebony magazine, argued that Lincoln was a white supremacist who “was exposed from the very beginning to racism” and could never rise above his upbringing. As an adult in both public and private “he was a firm believer in white supremacy.”

That same year, Julius Lester wrote in Look Out, Whitey! Black Power’s Gon’ Get Your Mama!, “Blacks have no reason to feel grateful to Abraham Lincoln. Rather, they should be angry at him. After all, he came into

Today’s ambivalence of many African Americans toward Lincoln is captured in a 2005 essay in Time by then-Senator Barack Obama. Obama praised Lincoln as “Illinois’ greatest citizen and our nation’s greatest President” who “kept his moral compass pointed firm and true” during the throes of the Civil War. But at the same time, Obama wrote, “I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.” Obama was “fully aware” of Lincoln’s “limited views on race.” And the Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote, “was more a military document than a clarion call for justice.”

Knowing Him By Heart traces an incredible arc in black thought, revealing how Lincoln went from being almost universally revered, to viewed with skepticism, disdain, and even anger. This marvelous book, in conjunction with the other recent scholarship, will help readers recapture the special relationship that developed between Lincoln and African Americans during the crucible of the Civil War, as well as how and why things changed over time.

Jonathan W. White is professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and the author or editor of 13 books, including A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (2022) and To Address You As My Friend: African Americans’ Letters to Abraham Lincoln (2021). Visit his website at www.jonathanwhite.org.

Current Event Listings

To see all of this year’s current events visit our website at: HistoricalPublicationsLLC.com

Gateway to Vicksburg

The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863. By Chris Mackowski. Illustrated, bibliography, index, Savas Beatie Publishing, 2022, 171 pp., hardbound, $29.95.

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

turned west toward his intended target of Vicksburg. Sherman was left behind to destroy Jackson’s infrastructure and its ability to transport troops or supplies to Pemberton’s beleaguered troops in Vicksburg. Sherman completed his destruction, along with looting and pillaging much of the town, before his withdrawal. Later, Union forces would return in July 1863 and complete the destruction of Mississippi’s capital.

A different sort of Confederate regimental history

Tar Heels in Gray – Life in the 30th North Carolina Infantry in the Civil War by John B. Cameron. Photos, figures, notes, index, bibliography, 177 pp. McFarland & Company, https:// mcfarlandbooks.com, softcover, $29.95.

Reviewed by Larry Babits

Jackson: Long ignored by historians, Chris Mackowski has written a comprehensive, eminently readable, lavishly illustrated, and historically accurate account of the Battle of Jackson fought May 14, 1863. The battle itself was short, essentially a delaying action to allow Gen. Joe Johnston to evacuate the city with as many supplies and equipment as he could carry. A small Confederate force, primarily from Gen. Albert Thompson’s 3rd Kentucky Mounted Infantry and Col. Peyton Colquit’s command of States Rights Gist’s Brigade, along with a small artillery support group, managed to hold off Generals Sherman and McPherson long enough for the wagon trains and entire command of Joe Johnston to retreat northeast. These delaying troops then likewise withdrew, and the city fell.

Jackson’s occupation by Union forces destroyed not only a major Confederate supply base, transportation hub, and industrial production facility, but removed a threat to General Grant’s rear as he

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Grant was now free, with his rear protected, to take on Pemberton’ s forces at Champion Hill and then to proceed to lay siege to Vicksburg which fell July 4, 1863. Grant had thus successfully crossed the Mississippi River, won engagements at Grand Gulf, Raymond, and Port Gibson, forced Johnston to retreat, thus surrendering Jackson, the third state capital of the Confederacy to fall, forced the capitulation of Vicksburg, and opened the Mississippi River to Union control. As Lincoln believed, the “key” to Union victory was now in Federal hands and he had found his fighting general.

Chris Mackowski tells the story in his clear, engaging style, replete with primary source material, and including the battle’s human side. He concludes with a chapter on the battlefield as it exists today and provides the reader with a map for a driving tour that points out how and where the battle unfolded. This book is highly recommended as a must have on the shelf of any historian interested in the western theatre or the fall of Vicksburg.

Dr. Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War including Two Years Before the Paddlewheel and The Last Confederate Scout. He is Past President of the LincolnDavis Civil War Roundtable and a frequent lecturer at events and roundtables.

John Cameron’s study of the 30th North Carolina is quite a bit different from the usual regimental studies; it doesn’t focus on the military activity as much as it does on the soldiers, their backgrounds, and what happened to them over the course of the war. By Appomattox, 1,506 men, officers and enlisted, had served in the Thirtieth.

The regiment was composed of companies largely raised in eastern and central North Carolina with one company from Mecklenburg. Over the war years, men’s height ranged from 4'8" to 6'4" with the most common height being 5'10," a little taller than today average. At enlistment, the most common age was 18 (11.9%) followed by 19 (6.9% and 20 (6.9%). The oldest was a 58 years old substitute, but at least a dozen were in their 50s and over 125 in their 40s. At the youthful end, there were six at 15 years, 24 aged 16, and 71 aged 17. As conscription grew more intense, the average age jumped to 33.2 in 1863 but in 1864, it dropped to 19.6 because younger men who had just reached 18 were called up.

Three chapters deal with survival; one on battle casualties,

one on survival/death in the regiment, and one on disease. The latter two are most instructive for looking at why regiments were never at full strength. Coupled with another chapter titled starvation and desertion, these four chapters portray a near disaster for the Tar Heels. In some respects, it is a wonder so many were present at the final surrender.

There are chapters on the regiment’s beginning and its initial service before being sent to Virginia and the Seven Days battles in the early summer of 1862. Those chapters are followed by studies relating to who fought and their attitudes to slavery. The author states in the preface that his conclusions, drawn from this one regiment, about social status, slave ownership, free men of color and motivation differ from samplings of larger units (brigades, divisions, and armies) because they are only increments of a wider population that tends to mask smaller unit distinctions.

Cameron uses two chapters to discuss inter-related questions about the war; was it a “Big Man’s War and a Small Man’s Fight,” and what was the relationship of slavery to the men in ranks? To do this, he created his own social/economic categories based on the regiment’s men. These were laborers, small farmers, including craftsmen, middling farmers, and wealthy farmers. He points out that others would call his middling famers “wealthy” but points out the 30th’s soldiers would have been surprised to find themselves described as wealthy. This difference is somewhat due to Cameron’s taking the regiment as a whole, not a sample, for his data base. He found that 83 percent of the regiment were agriculturalists. Related to the issues of wealth in many historians’ eyes was the ownership of slaves. From the 1850 and 1860 censuses 880 men (82%) came from families that owned no slaves. Of the slave owners, 64 (7.3% had from one to eight slaves, 57 (6.5%) owned nine to 25, while only 34 (3.9%) held 26 or more. To compare the 30th with the sample drawn from the Army of Northern Virginia, he used 694 men in the 1860 census. In every case, the 30th had many

fewer slave owners and did not resemble the Northern Virginia sample. The basic difference is that one is a sample, the other draws from an entire stand-alone unit.

The presence of soldiers of color was also covered. The Thirtieth had at least five men of color in the ranks; three were from one family, the other two may have been related to each other. No military records show these men were of color. North Carolina’s racial law was not based on color anyway, but on one’s grandparents. Cameron said it was surprising there were any soldiers of color but other researchers have found them, including one North Carolina man who fought for a year and a half, requested a discharge because he was of “mixed race,” got out, then six months later went back into the same company and was slain during the spring of 1864 (Civil War News vol 46 (6), June 2020).

The regiment suffered a 14.3% (215 men) loss due to death in combat or mortal wounds. Another 10.7% were either prisoners or absent wounded, indicating a quarter of the regiment’s strength was lost to combat. That total was almost matched by noncombat deaths (23%, 349 men). Another 20% (300) deserted, but 153 soldiers (10.5%) were still with the colors at Appomattox.

This book is not a typical military oriented regimental history. It tells the other side of the regiment, focusing on the men, not the battles. Any serious student of the men in ranks should have this book at his fingertips. Students will find it challenges what many are being taught and can better prepare them for analyzing “statements of historical fact.”

Larry Babits is a student of the American private soldier. He is also a battlefield archaeologist with experience on sites ranging from French and Indian War forts to World War II POW and forced labor camps. He is currently working on books about the last three engagements of Nathanael Greene’s 1781 Southern Campaign.

James Longstreet and The American Civil War: The Confederate General Who Fought the Next War. By Harold M. Knudsen, Lt. Col. (Ret). Appendix, Bibliography, Index and About the Authors. 288 pp., 2022. Savas Beatie LLC, savasbeatie.com, cloth, $32.95.

Reviewed by David Marshall

The First Modern General

the right track, and were often Confederate victories. His writing provides readers with a more militarily informed understanding of Longstreet. Lt. Col. (Ret) Harold Knudsen uses his U.S. Army training and years of modern experience to validate that there was more to Lee’s “Old Warhorse” than most readers of Civil War history have learned or read about.

This work is not a traditional biography but a doctrinal analysis and comparison to other time-periods, wars, and generals. Knudsen does a good job illuminating how and why James Longstreet’s execution of battles affecting the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee were on

James Longstreet is one of the most debated Civil War figures, but perceptions about him changed over the past sixty years as historians including Bruce Catton, Shelby Foote, Ed Bearss, Glenn Tucker, Bill Piston, and Jeffrey Wert, added to the literature. He was the target of character assassination by Jubal Early, William Pendleton, and some Southern Historical Society Papers writers after 1870. These Confederate soldiers saw him as a traitor for becoming a Republican after the War, endorsing Constitutional amendments to secure citizenship and voting rights for freedmen, and supporting President Grant during Reconstruction. They made him a scapegoat for the surrender at Appomattox and changed his stellar war record as retribution. The author pointedly observes that “Lost Cause” propaganda was utilized by William Dunning in the 1880’s, and Douglas Freeman the 1930’s

Iowa and the Civil War

1862–1864. During the course of the Civil War, Iowa provided the Federal government with 48 infantry regiments, nine cavalry regiments, and four artillery batteries. Iowans would fight in the Trans Mississippi, the Eastern, and the Western Theaters. The highest commanding officer from Iowa was Major General Grenville Dodge who commanded XVI Corps.

The author skillfully weaves the story of Iowa’s involvement in the various theaters into a comprehensive narrative. He details Iowa’s involvement in General William Sherman’s campaign that led to capturing Atlanta, the efforts to bring General John Bell Hood and General Nathan Forrest to battle following the capture of Atlanta, the march to the sea, taking Savannah, and the final battles in South Carolina and North Carolina. During this period, Iowa soldiers also participated in the Battles of Franklin and Nashville, took part in the capture

and 1940’s, both of whom expanded the anti-Longstreet misrepresentations. Knudsen reveals that Freeman ignored Longstreet’s innovations and developments on future warfare. Readers will gain a military lesson in “James Longstreet and the American Civil War.” Lt. Col. Knudsen contends that Longstreet understood the effectiveness of the tactical defense in a way most people did not. He asserts that he came out of the Mexican War with a thankfulness of this realism, that the tactical defense was truly greater than the strategic offense, when invaders try direct tactical assaults in open ground. Knudsen points out that Longstreet came up with a mobile defense on a small-scale at First Manassas that was used in the twentieth century with motorized and tracked vehicles. Additionally, he saw the casualties the Confederates inflicted on the Union as they came directly toward the Sunken Road at Antietam and were only able to take the position by out flanking it. This lesson Longstreet carried forward to Fredericksburg, where he enhanced his strategic defense even further in advance of the battle. In fact, his defensive effort at Fredericksburg created a “modern,” doctrine called a kill zone, that has become a standard method of today’s armies of how to formulate a kill zone. Furthermore, he recognized

of Mobile, the defeat of General Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley, rode with General Wilson during his raid into Alabama and Georgia, foiled General Sterling Price’s invasion of Missouri, and fought various guerrilla groups on the Western Frontier.

The book’s story of Iowa in the Civil War is enhanced by the author skillfully weaving first-hand accounts of events under discussion into the text. The contemporary accounts provide the reader with a feel of the emotions generated within individuals, families, and communities by the political turmoil and battlefield casualties taking place around them.

Chapter Eight details the 1864 Presidential election and is a must read. Many forget that in 1864 the American people were not only deciding who would be President of the United States for the next four years but whether the war would continue and slavery be ended. Also, the people would be electing a new Congress whose new members might finally approve placing

that Longstreet theorized “the mutations of war” needed new ways to break an enemy’s formations strategically that shaped operational thinking and caused the Germans problems during World War 1. Furthermore, Knudsen concludes that the general’s vision of the function of staff officers helped commanders achieve tactical success. Finally, he determined that Longstreet was a pioneer for using mission analysis.

Knudsen points out that readers should look at his treatment from the standpoint of what military operations the general executed in his era that became accepted methodology in the early 20th Century. Moreover, he concludes that what Longstreet accomplished, and what he advised Lee and Bragg to do at Gettysburg and Chickamauga respectively, was correct, contrary to what detractors said of him following the war. He concludes by stating Longstreet was innovative, forward thinking, and “modern” in his approach to his job fighting Yankees.

Harold Knudsen’s conclusions rely heavily on Longstreet’s memoir From Manassas to Appomattox, the ORs, Longstreet’s contributions to Battles & Leaders, letters, reports, and other firsthand accounts, as well as additional public comments, as being the most

the 14th Amendment before the states. This chapter provides a clear summary of the emotional issues that tugged at Iowa voters. The Republican Party itself was not in total agreement with Lincoln’s war policies, some finding them too lenient and some too demonic. How this all played out in Iowa is a fascinating story.

I personally found the last three chapters of great interest. Here, the author looked at the effect the assassination of President Lincoln had on Iowa’s soldiers and the state’s home front. Plus, he delves into post war Iowa. Hopefully this examination of post war Iowa will become an additional book in this series on Iowa in the Civil War.

The author touches upon the fact that the fighting war did not end with the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The war continued for some time in the TransMississippi Theater; the effects would continue to plague and shape the social and political patterns of Iowa long after fighting ended. I was amazed that

important primary sources due to these being the general’s public record. The author did a good job providing readers with specific details as well as providing the larger context throughout.

The main purpose for Knudsen writing this treatise was to correct wrongs about this misunderstood person. “James Longstreet and the American Civil War” provides readers with an accurate portrayal and reconsideration of the person, as well as much that will not be found in other monographs. This work is well researched, engagingly written, and important. It also provides an appendix on the failure of Pickett’s Charge, ten helpful maps and ten drawings that will help readers better understand the narrative.

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

some post-Civil War political and social problems that plagued my home state of Kentucky, a border state, also played out in Iowa. I found this book to be a fascinating read, and I have ordered volumes 1 and 2 of the series. The author provides a thoughtful insight into why Iowa believed it needed to support the Union cause both politically and militarily. I only wish the author had covered Iowa’s involvement in the purchasing of Federal revenue bonds that were issued to fiance the war. All in all, this book is a great addition to the historical accounts of the American Civil War.

Charles H. Bogart has a BA from Thomas More University and an MCP from Ohio State University. He is employed as a tour guide at the Fort Boone Civil War Battle Site in Frankfort, Ky., serves as President of the Frankfort Civil War Roundtable, and is a board member of the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable. He has written several books and articles on military and naval history.

Iowa and the Civil War; Volume 3: The Longest Year 1864-1865 by Kenneth L. Lyftogt. 2022, Camp Pope Publishing, Iowa City, Iowa. 543 pp., $40.

Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart

This is the final volume in Mr. Lyftogt’s trilogy of Iowa in the American Civil War. Volume 1 covered the period 1850–1862; Volume 2 examined the years

Jan. 28-29, Florida. Antique Gun Show

Florida Military Antique Collectors, Inc. at the Marian Hall, 5632 Sunrise Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33919. Contact Gary 847-863-3929. FMAC, Inc., PO Box 6518, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33932. Email: infofmac@yahoo.com, visit fmaac.tripod.com for additional information.

Feb. 4-5, Georgia. Civil War Show

MK Shows presents the Chickamauga (Dalton) Civil War Show at the Dalton Convention Center, in Ga., for collectors and history enthusiasts. Over 400 sale and display tables. Adults $10, Children under 12 are free. Open Sat. 9-5 and Sunday, 10-3. For info; www.MKShows.com, mike@mkshows.com.

Feb. 10, Pennsylvania. Lincoln Birthday Celebration

Sponsored by the Union League of Philadelphia. Civil War military units, civilians, and heritage groups are welcome and encouraged to march in the parade to honor President Lincoln on his birthday. Participants will gather at the Union League by 10 a.m. Complimentary parking at Laz Garage on the N.W. corner of 15th & Sansom St. Arrive between 9-10 a.m. and obtain a parking pass. Proceed garage at 114 S. 15th St. to park. Return to the Union League. For info; awaski01@gmail.com.

Feb. 11-12, Pennsylvania. Antique Gun Show

The Forks of the Delaware Historical Arms Society, Inc. presents the Antique & Modern Arms Show at the Agricultural Hall, Allentown, PA. Contact 610-438-9006. 1350 Uhler Rd, PMB 138, Easton, PA 18040-9006. Website: http://www.allentownshow.net.

Feb. 17-19, Florida. Reenactment

Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park will host the weekend long 46th Annual Reenactment commemorating the 159th anniversary of the Battle of Olustee. More than 1,500 living historians will give presentations of both civilian and military life during the Civil War. Events will include educational exhibits and speakers, battle reenactment, a skirmish, medical demonstrations, ladies’ tea, sutlers, artillery night firing, an old-fashioned barn dance! Spectators can visit authentic campsites, view artillery inspections, living history programs, listen to a period music and watch the battle reenactment. Festivities will end with the Battle of Olustee Ball at the Ball Tent. Period attire required. Ball is for participants only. For info; 877-635-3655; www.battleofolustee.org.

Feb. 17-18, Mississippi. Civil War Show

4th Annual Vicksburg Civil War and Old West Show and Sale Vicksburg, MS, on Friday, February 17, 2021 (1 p.m. to 6 p.m. CT) and Saturday, Feb 18th (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT). Address of the show is Outlets of Vicksburg at 4000 South Frontage Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180. For info, contact Charles Pendleton at 601-218-5526 or cpendle@att.net.

Feb. 24-26, South Carolina. 29th Festival of Living History

The 158th Anniversary of one of the last Confederate victories of the Civil War. Experience history coming alive during a weekend of battles, demonstrations, tours, displays, music, crafts, food, and Saturday’s Blue Grey Ball! Tour the historic log cabin, schoolhouse, jail, mercantile building, and soldier’s camps. Eight food and drink vendors on site. Three scripted battles: two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Period church service held on Sunday. All units and individual reenactors (artillery, cavalry, infantry, medical, musical, & civilian) welcome. No fee if pre-registered by Jan. 31. Walk on fee is $10. $150 bounty for first 20 full-size artillery guns registered. All impressions needed for school day at 8 a.m. on Friday. American military impressions from all war periods (colonial through the Gulf Wars) are needed for our Military Timeline. Pioneer and Native Americans welcome. For information; www.battleofaiken.com or battleofaiken@aol.com.

March 3-4, Mississippi. Military History and Civil War Show

We are the oldest Military History and Civil War show in the Mid-South and we are growing! This year will be our 55th show. Located at the Landers Center in Southaven, MS. Friday, the show will open at 2 p.m. for our “First

Lookers” and the general public and will close at 7 p.m. Saturday, show hours 9-5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and children under 12 are free. For more information please visit our Facebook page at midsouthmilitaryhistory or call Don at 901-832-4708.

March 18-19, Maryland. Antiques Arms Show and Sale

Sponsored by the Maryland Arms Collectors Association. With over 1,000 tables of the finest in collectable rifles, revolvers (pre-1898) and sporting shot guns, this show attracts thousands of serious collectors from across the globe. Open to the public on Sat. from 9-5, and Sun. from 9-3. Admission is $10. Located at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Cow Palace, 2200 York Road, Timonium, MD 21093. For information; www.baltimoreshow.com.

March 24-25. Mississippi. Militaria Show and Sale

Sponsored by Col. W. P. Rogers Camp SCV #321, The 14th Annual Corinth Militaria Show will be held at 2800 South Harper Rd. in Corinth. Vendors will have all kinds of military items including those from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI and WWII. Show hours are 2-7 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $5 and children under 12 are free. For information; Contact Buddy Ellis – 662-665-1419 – bellis1960@comcast.net or Dwight Johnson – 662-284-6125 – dgene@gmail.com.

March 30-April 2, Louisiana. Reenactment and Festival

Plan to attend the 159th Anniversary of the Battle of Pleasant Hill Reenactment and Festival located 3 miles north of Pleasant Hill at 23271 Hwy. 175 in Pelican. The original Battle was fought on Apr. 9, 1864, during the Red River campaign of the Civil War. Friday is school day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. On Sat. there will be a parade at 10 a.m. and a program at 11 a.m. at Mansfield State Historic Site. There will be guest speakers, opening ceremonies and then a battle reenactment at 2 p.m. The ball is at 7 p.m. (period dress suggested). 7 p.m. luminary memorial ceremony. Sunday begins with 10 a.m. church services followed by guest speaker. At 1 p.m. is the Crowning Ceremony of Miss Battle of Pleasant Hill followed by the opening ceremony and finally the 2 p.m. battle. For information; www. battleofpleasanthill.com.

April 2, Virginia. Seminar

Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute’s annual spring conference on the campus of Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia, “Beyond the Mere Routine of Everyday Life”: Encounters & Experiences during the Civil War. Presentations with Jonathan A. Noyalas (Shenandoah University), Lauren K. Thompson (McKendree University), Kathryn J. Shively (Virginia Commonwealth University), and Jonathan W. White (Christopher Newport University). $30 registration fee covers all presentations and lunch at SU. Space is limited, visit www.su.edu/mcwi to register. For information; jnoyalas01@su.edu or phone 540-665-4501.

April 13-16, Georgia. The Georgia Battlefields Association Annual 2023 Tour

Thursday Morning Walking tour of Savannah’s Revolutionary War Sites. Thursday Afternoon-Walking Tour of Bonaventure Cemetery. Thursday evening reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres with a presentation by Dr. MaryElizabeth Ellard on Civil War Veterinary Practices.

Friday & Saturday–Tours of Fort Pulaski, Old Fort Jackson, Wormsloe State Historic Site, King’s Bridge, Fort McAllister, Ebenezer Creek, and remnants of the 1864 landward defenses.

Sunday Morning- Walking tour of The City of Savannah’s Squares.

Price: $580 per person which includes all tours (Thursday-Sunday morning), breakfast is included in the hotel price, Thursday night reception, three lunches, two dinners (Friday & Saturday) and bus rental.

$460 per person for Thursday night reception and tours & meals Friday to Sunday morning.

Host hotel: Hampton Inn & Suites-Historic District at 603 W. Oglethorpe Ave. Savannah, GA 31401 912-721-1600.

Ask for The GBA Rate of $179 per night for Wed. & Thur. nights & $259 per night for Fri. & Sat. nights. If you reserve all four nights, it’s $219 per night plus a 16% tax which adds $34.47 per night for a daily total of $253.47 per night. Breakfast is included in the hotel price. Hotel parking is $30 per night.

Our guide is Jim Ogden, Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park Historian.

We welcome Non-GBA Members to join us on our Tour however you can join GBA for just $25. Registration: Mail a check payable to Georgia Battlefields Assn. (GBA) to PO Box 669953, Marietta, GA 30066. You can also use Paypal or Credit Card to register online at our GBA Website Tours Page http:/georgiabattlefields.org/tours.aspx. If you have trouble registering, please contact our Treasurer: William W. Gurry at email:billgurry@bellsouth.net.

April 23, Illinois. Civil War & Military Extravaganza

Zurko Promotions presents The National Civil War Collectors Fall Show and Sale which will be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 W. Manchester, Wheaton, Ill. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10, Early Admission $25. Free parking. For more information visit www.chicagocivilwarshow.com or call Zurko Promotions at 715-5269769.

May 6-7, Ohio Civil War /WWI & II Show Historical Event

The Ohio Civil War & WWI/II Show will be held in Mansfield, OH, May 6th – 7th at the Richland County Fairgrounds. All federal, state, and local firearm ordinances and laws must be obeyed. Civil War and WWI & II Memorabilia from 1775 through 1945 for buy, sell, and trade. Featuring a unique artillery show with full scale cannons on display and daily cannon firing demonstrations. Added Special Features: Civil War & WWII Encampments, Sutlers Row, Civil War Period Music, Gettysburg Address by President Lincoln, WWII US 801st Med Air Evac Educational Presentation, Marlboro Volunteers Traveling Museum and WWII Military Vehicles. Hours are Saturday 9 a.m.5 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Admission $7. Children under 12 Free. Parking is free. Camping on grounds is available – $35.00. For more Information; contact: 419-884-2194 or info@ohiocivilwarshow.com and visit our website: www.ohiocivilwarshow.com. Follow us on Facebook: Ohio Civil War Show.

May 18-21, Tennessee. American Battlefield Trust Annual 2023 Conference

The 2023 Annual Conference will be hosted at the Cool Springs Franklin Marriott located at 700 Cool Springs Blvd. Group rate is $169+/night. Call 800-228-9290 and ask for the ABT group rate. Conference begins with registration and exhibitor tables open on Thursday at 11 a.m. The day will be filled with tours for Color Bearers, history talks, a welcome reception from 6:30 – 8:15 p.m. and a photo extravaganza with Garry Adelman. Friday begins at 6:30 a.m. with a breakfast buffet, 8 a.m. tours depart, 6:45 p.m. cocktail reception for Color Bearers and a Color Bearer Author

Before making plans to attend any event contact the event host.

Dinner at 7:30 p.m. Saturday begins with a breakfast buffet at 6:30 a.m. and tours departing at 8 a.m. There will be a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m. and the Banquet and Awards Ceremony with be held at 7:30 p.m. The Conference will conclude on Sunday morning with a closing breakfast with Q&A with President David Duncan between 8 and 9 a.m. For more information; events@ battlefields.org or 800-298-7878 x7229.

May 19-21, Virginia. Period Firearms Competition

9-2. Admission $10, children under 12 free. For more information visit https://www.gbpa.org/ event/annual-civil-war-relic-show.

Aug. 12-13, Georgia. Civil War Show and Sale

The North-South Skirmish Association

147th National Competition near Winchester. Over 3,000 uniformed competitors in 200 member units compete in live-fire matches with muskets, carbines, revolvers, mortars and cannon plus costume competitions and historical lectures. The largest Civil War live-fire event in the country. Free admission, large sutler area, and food service. For more information visit the N-SSA web site: www.n-ssa.org.

May 20-21, Pennsylvania. 160th Anniversary of Battle of Monterey Pass

Living History Weekend at Monterey Pass Battlefield. Hosted by the 2nd Maryland Artillery CS. Monterey Pass was fought on July 4-5th when Union cavalry attacked Confederate wagon trains retreating from Gettysburg. The battle was fought in a driving rain storm. Approximately 1,500 prisoners were taken. Most of the Confederates prisoners were wounded. Artillery, Infantry and Medical demonstrations daily. Guided walking tours of the battlefield daily. Opportunity for picket line scenario in the evening. For more information visit https://montereypassbattlefield. org or contact John at Johnwelker117@gmail.com.

May 28, Pennsylvania. Original G.A.R. Decoration Day of Service

Memorial Day Observed at Laurel Hill Cemetery located at 1868 3822 Ridge Ave., Philadelphia at 12 p.m. All are welcome. Laurel Hill is the site of the first Memorial Day in Philadelphia in 1868. Special veterans’ markers will be dedicated at the graves of previously unmarked veterans. Speakers, ceremonies, and pageant will highlight the ceremony. Wreath-laying, speeches, music, and honor guards. Historical groups, veterans, and citizens are urged to participate. Wreaths, military contingents, color guards, music and period civilians are encouraged to participate. Refreshments served after the ceremony. For information; 215-228-8200.

May 19-21, Georgia. Reenactment and Living History

The Battle of Resaca Reenactment will be held on over 600 acres of the original battlefield in Resaca, Georgia. This reenactor-friendly event will have main camps located near the original US and CS lines. Campaigners are welcome to camp in or near the breastworks. Amenities include straw, hay, and firewood. Modern food and ice vendors on site. Weekend activities will include battles both days at 2 p.m. – rain or shine, combined US & CS morning colors, period demonstrations, cavalry competition, a civilian refugee camp, reenactor yard sale, sutlers, period music and dance, period church services, and a memorial service at the Confederate Cemetery. Many Civil War historical sites are located on the reenactment site and two major Civil War parks are within minutes of the site. Handicapped parking available with free transport from parking areas to battlefield, vendor and sutler areas. Reenactor pre-registration is $10 if received by April 15th. Artillery bounties of $150 for the first 18 cannons with crew pre-registered by April 15. A portion of the proceeds to be donated to preservation efforts of the Friends of Resaca Battlefield. For more information; www.georgiadivision.org.

May 19-21, Missouri. Reenactment

The Battle of Carthage was the first full scale battle of the Civil War. The 161st Anniversary Reenactment will be held at Civil War Ranch. Experience the battle that both sides claim to have won. Begin Saturday with the Opening Ceremony at 9 a.m. Continue the day with camp life, drills & demonstrations, Ladies Tea at 10:30 a.m., Arms Inspection at 12:30 p.m., Reenactment at 1 p.m., Cake Walk at 3 p.m. and Civil War ball at 7 p.m. Sunday’s activities include drills & demonstrations 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Church service at 10 a.m., Arms Inspection at 12:30 p.m. Reenactment at 1 p.m. For more information, www.battleofcarthage.com.

June 3-4, Virginia. Reenactment: The Action at Wilson’s Wharf

The Action at Wilson’s Wharf. Located between Richmond and Williamsburg on the James River, scenic Fort Pocahontas was the site of the May 24, 1864 Action in which United States Colored Troops defended the fort they built against an assault by Fitzhugh Lee’s Confederate Cavalry. Open to the public 10-4 Saturday and 10-3 Sunday: $10/adults, $8/students; battle reenactments both days. See Civil War camps and enjoy history brought to life through family-friendly activities. For reenactors: pre-registration required starting January 9 at www.fortpocahontas. org; shaded campsites; Friday officers’ social; Saturday dinner and dance.

June 10-11, Mississippi. Civil War Show

Civil War Relic Show will be held at Brandon City Hall, located at 1000 Municipal Drive, Brandon, Mississippi. 300 tables of relics, weapons, prints, documents, artillery, WWI & WWII, bottles, books, currency, living history displays, and more. Admission $8, 12 and under are free. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Contact Tim Cupit at TimCupit@comcast. net or call 769-234-2966, or visit www.scv265.com.

June 23-25, Pennsylvania. Annual Gettysburg Civil War Artifact Show

The nation’s premier Civil War relic and collectors show at the Eisenhower All Star Complex at 2634 Emmitsburg Rd., Gettysburg. Our 300+ tables are a great way to view and even purchase authentic Civil War artifacts. Browse the tables and speak with the vendors who are all well versed in history and artifact identification. Better than a museum! Every item has someone willing to give you its history lesson and answer all your questions. $100 VIP Charitable donation includes Friday and early admission for the serious collector. Hours: Sat. 10-5, Sun.

45th Annual Southeastern Civil War & Antique Gun Show in Marietta at the Cobb County Civic Center hosted by the North Georgia Relic Hunters Association. Cobb County Civic Center, 548 South Marietta Pkwy SE, Marietta, GA 30060. Hours Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission $8, veterans and children under 10 are free. Show chairman: Ray McMahan at terryraymac@hotmail.com. For more info visit www.ngrha.com.

Sept. 23, Illinois. Civil War & Military Extravaganza

Zurko Promotions presents The National Civil War Collectors Fall Show and Sale which will be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 W. Manchester, Wheaton, Ill. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10, Early Admission $25. Free parking. For more information visit www. chicagocivilwarshow.com or call Zurko Promotions at 715-526-9769.

Oct. 6-8, Virginia. Period Firearms Competition

The North-South Skirmish Association 148th National Competition near Winchester. Over 3,000 uniformed competitors in 200 member units compete in live-fire matches with muskets, carbines, revolvers, mortars and cannon plus costume competitions and historical lectures. The largest Civil War live-fire event in the country. Free admission, large sutler area, and food service. For more information visit the N-SSA web site: www.n-ssa.org.

Oct. 21-22, Virginia. Reenactment

The 159th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek recreating the last major battle in the Shenandoah Valley will be held the weekend of Oct. 21-22 at 8437 Valley Pike in Middletown, Va. See cavalry, artillery, and infantry soldiers in action and in camp. Battle scenarios, music, symposia, and medical, military, and civilian demonstrations are scheduled each day. Fundraising raffles, period merchants, and food vendors onsite. Don’t miss the Evening Candlelight Tour Program. 1-day, 2-day, and discount options available! Children 6 & under are free! For more information; 540-869-2064, Info@ccbf.us or www.ccbf.us.

Nov. 10, Pennsylvania. US Marine Corps Birthday Observance

Join us at the Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave, in Philadelphia at 11 a.m. at the grave of General Jacob Zeilin, 7th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the Civil War. A special ‘Veterans’ Day tour of heroes ‘killed in action’ and buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery will follow. sponsored by: The Legion Post 405; MOLLUS; General Meade Society. For information; 215228-8200, awaski01@gmail.com, 215-423-3930 or www.thelaurelhillcemetery.org.

Nov. 18, Pennsylvania. Remembrance Day in Gettysburg

General Meade & his Generals and the veterans of the Battle of Gettysburg Honor/Dedication Ceremonies during the Remembrance Day Observance. Honoring all commanders and veterans of the Battle. Meet at the General Meade Equestrian Monument at 10 a.m. For information; Jerry McCormick at 215-848-7753 or gedwinmc@msn.com.

Nov. 18, Virginia. Civil War Show

In conjunction with the Central Virginia Civil War Collectors Association, Bullet and Shell is proud to present the 42nd Annual Central Virginia Military Antique Show (formally Mike Kent’s Capital of the Confederacy Civil War Show). This year, the show is moving to a new location at Meadow Event Park, 13191 Dawn Blvd, in Doswell, Va. The show will host vendors and displays of American military history from the Revolutionary War through WWII. Bring your relics for appraisal or to sell. Over 300 tables! There will be many historical items to add to your collection. Show hours are 9-5 on Saturday, vendor setup on Friday. Parking is free and admission is only $10/adults with children under 12 free. For more information; www. MilitaryAntiqueShow.com.

Dec. 3-4, Tennessee. Civil War Show and Sale

MK Shows presents the 36th annual Middle Tennessee Civil War Show and Sale at the Williamson County Ag Expo Park, 4215 Long Lane in Franklin. The nation’s largest Civil War show, featuring 750 tables of antique weapons, artifacts and memorabilia from top dealers and collectors around the country and encompassing all eras of military history from the Revolutionary War through World War II. Appraisers are always on hand to help you identify and value your military collectibles at no cost. Hours are 9-5 on Sat., 9-3 on Sun. Free Parking. Admission is only $10/adults and children under 12 are free. For information; www.MKShows. com or Mike@MKShows.com.

Dec. 31, Pennsylvania. Annual General Meade Birthday Celebration

This year will mark the 208th annual anniversary of the birth of General George G. Meade. The General Meade Society of Philadelphia will celebrate his birthday at Historic Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave. at noon. A champagne toast and reception will follow the program. For information; 215-228-8200 Laurel Hill Cemetery.

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