Civil War News May 2023

67th Annual Maryland Arms Collectors Association Show Report

The 67th anniversary of the Maryland Arms Collectors Association Show was held at the State Fairgrounds at Timonium, Md., on March 17 & 18, 2023. The “Baltimore Show,” as hosted by the Maryland Arms Collectors Association, is considered to be the finest arms show of its kind.

MACA started in 1947 with a half dozen antique arms collectors discussing the creation of a club. In a rather short time, these enterprising men formed a set of by-laws and a constitution for what they named the Maryland Arms Collectors Association. In 1955 they decided to hold a show highlighting their collections at the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore. Many dealers at the present show remember those days at the Belvedere. The show continued to grow, leading to several changes in venue from the Lord Baltimore Hotel, 5th Regiment Armory, and the Baltimore Convention Center. In 1993 the show moved to the Cow Palace located in the Timonium Fairgrounds. Over the years the club expended great effort and expense to transform a building built to exhibit cows into an attractive and accommodating space to welcome the

ever-increasing exhibitors and visiting crowds. The show continues at this venue to this present day. The show opened to the usual rush of customers on Saturday and quickly filled the Cow Palace. Those who attended were treated to over 900 sales and display tables of antique and historic arms and arms-related items. These exhibits held some of the best this country has to offer, not the least of which was the tremendous expertise found on both sides of the tables. Exhibitors came from 46 states and several foreign countries including Canada, The United Kingdom, and Germany. As is usual with the show, old friends were revisited, new friends were made, and treasures found new homes.

The weekend seemed to fly by and all too soon it was Sunday afternoon and time to announce the awards for the show. When displays win awards at the Baltimore Show, you can be assured that they are world class.

p Judges Choice Awards went to Dan Hudson for “U.S. Trapdoor Sporting Arms,” Gerald Roxbury for

p

“NY Naval Militia,” Robert Sullivan for “Red Tape of the Rebellion,” and Mark Tyler for “Solomon Silknitter and His Tintype Guns.”

p Third Place Educational Award went to Taylor Allen for “Afghan Army Helmets 1873–1880,” Craig Bell for “Scottish Steel and Silver Strength and Beauty,” and James Kochan for “Gifts from the Sea.”

p

p The Best Single Weapon Award was presented to Samuel Higginbotham, II for “Gas-Operated 1903 Springfield Rifle.” Best of Show Award was presented to James Partridge for “Hall’s Breechloaders.”

p Also featured were exhibits from the USMC Historical Company, Harpers Ferry National Park, the NRA/National Firearms Museum, USS Constellation, 4th North Carolina Regiment USA, Springfield Arsenal, and The Cody Museum. In addition, 50-year pins were awarded to members Tom Gross and Lee Norris. Congratulations!

We all look forward to next year’s show which will be held the weekend of March 16 & 17, 2024 at the Timonium Fairgrounds. See you there at the best antique arms show in the country.

Best in Show display.

Lt. Col. Albert M. Edwards, 24th Michigan Infantry, “Iron Brigade.” Dave Parks displayed the artifacts brought home by Colonel Edwards.

First Place Educational Award was given to James L. Kochan for his display “Gifts from the Sea.”

The National Firearms Museum brought a display of Medal of Honor recipients medals.

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Dennis Kubicki (left) with his display of antique shotguns from 1865–1915.

Third Place Educational Award went to Taylor Allen for his display “Afghan Helmets 1873–1880.”

Second Place Educational Award went to Craig D. Bell for his display “Scottish Steel and Silver Strength and Beauty.”

Judges Choice Award to Robert Sullivan for “Red Tape of the Rebellion.”

“Evolution of the Winchester 1866–1894” by David Gotter.

Best Single Weapon Award (center rifle) was given to Samuel Higginbotham, II for his display “Gas-Operated 1903 Springfield Rifle.”

Judges Choice Award was presented to Mark Tyler for his display “Solomon Silknitter and His Tintype Guns.”

Brian Riel brought a few sniper rifles for show and tell. The one in the center is a British Whitworth rifle.

James Partridge accepting the award for his Best in Show.

Display “Hall’s Breechloaders” from MACA President Dave Booz.

Judges Choice Award to Dan Hudson for his display “U.S. Trapdoor Sporting Arms.”

“World War I: The Great War” display of soldier uniforms and gear by Erich VonBuehs.

“Ithaca Gun” display by Gerald Kreger.

U.S. Model 1883 Gatling Gun with limber was brought to the show ring by Ken Knoll.

Gerald Roxbury with his display “NY Naval Militia” was given the Judges Choice Award.

Rick Hudak’s display of Harper’s Ferry weapons.

By Bruce Allardice and Wayne Wolf

William J. Anderson enlisted in Company I, 51st Pennsylvania Infantry on Sept. 28, 1861. He was a 21-year-old farm laborer from Montgomery County, Penn. The 51st was ordered to Annapolis, Md., that fall to become part of the Burnside Expedition. The unit later became part of Burnside’s IX Corps. Anderson was killed in action at Fox’s Gap, September 1862, just prior to the Battle of Antietam. [See Parker, History of the 51st Pennsylvania].

The excerpted letter is written to one of Anderson’s hometown acquaintances, perhaps a local storekeeper, but it is unclear to who. Anderson writes of camp life, mostly boredom, interspersed with drilling and guard duty. He “hates” review but nonetheless takes pride in his unit’s appearance in drills. He seems more or less satisfied with the clothes and equipment he’s been issued, but food is another

“Uncle Sam is Very Good to Us”

story. Soldiers have to shop at the sutler’s to get enough to eat, the soup is inedible, and dinner one night consists of only one potato and one hardtack cracker. The food complaints are especially ironic, since they’re encamped in Union territory and have much better supply lines than soldiers in the field.

This excerpt from his letter leaves out a lot of gossip on his tentmates and hometown friends.

“Camp Union Annapolis MD. Dec. 25 1861

Dear Sir: I take my pen in had to let you know with pleasure that am well thanks be the Almighty for all his kind mercies to me and in fact to us all [deleted as it makes no sense ]

Each one last night our camp was in a melodious strain all over the camp singing war hymns. Parker [Thomas H. Parker (182490), later promoted to captain. He wrote the regimental history.]

and I have been trying our best + we are getting along right well. There came a man selling hymn books from the 23rd Mass. Regt. They were 10 cts apiece + and every tent was singing all in the greatest kind. There is some very good singers in the camp so Christmas eve was spent in a very happy way + we are spending Christmas very happy + gay too. Richard Martin [Sgt. Richard Martin (1836–1863)] has just come home from patrol guard in Annapolis + he ain’t sorry for he say he is almost starved + when he came all he wanted to know if we had anything to eat + dinner was over. Dick says he liked patrolling first rate only if he had got enough to eat + when he came in he bought a big hoe cake + then he was all right. Then he sends his love to you. Gen. McClellan staff was here yesterday + inspected us [McClellan inspected Burnside’s “Coastal Division” Dec. 26th] + it did not take them long to do that job for they made it very brief. We received our new coats yesterday afternoon they are frock

coats bound around the collar + waistbands with light blue card + they look pretty well. We got new shoes + I got a awful fit. I take 6 + I got 8. I don’t know if I can wear them or not. They are too big for me. If I were down at your store I could get them changed I think.

…We are kept pretty well to drilling. The Col. [John F. Hartranft (1830-89), later promoted to Major General] is putting us through right sharp since he has got us down in Dixie. He drill us regimental 2 a day now + some time with knapsacks on + it’s the Devil but the talk around here that our Regt. Is the best one drilled here. There is one thing we try to do our best any how when on review we are got to do our best then I hate review as a school boy hates the single rule of three for it makes me mad when our line ain’t quite straight. But it’s hard to keep a company in line on double quick.

Uncle Sam is very good to us. He has gave us plenty of good cloths more I think than we can carry in our knapsacks. I went out on inspection + my knapsack was as full as I could get it + I did not think it was light no how but I tottered around as well as I could with the rest of the boys. Some of them is cunning. They don’t put all they got in their knapsack but I think some of them will get fooled some time or other + would not get time to get they leave out sometime, for the Col. is a little cunning sometimes.

We are in marching order at 12 hours warning or notice but I am going to make up my mind he won’t catch me that way anyhow for I am going to try to carry all that I got anyhow. Now I will begin again on the 2nd of January…

There is quite a sight to be seen here today 2 regt. Firing by battalion + they make quite a noise + it makes a fellow feel like going into a battle. There are on our drill ground right now at the foot of our camp + the first volley they fired Parker jumped right out of our tent + it made me laugh to see him + he said my bumper curiosity was not very large or I would have jumped too at such a cracking as that. We expected to be surprised last night but we were not. The wind blew at an awful rate + we were glad we were not surprised and had to get up.

…I believe I have just had my dinner 1 potato 1 cracker. We had been soup but it was so awful like the water that is in the ocean for salt that we all came to the conclusion to throw it out + go without so we did for we did not want to suffer with drought on regimental this afternoon for there is no chance to get a drink when you are in the ranks. We are all sitting in our tents waiting for orders from headquarters to be ready to jump for we are always ready. Every horse we see coming into camp on a run we think its our marching orders sure but we soon find out that it ain’t + then we are in a state of suspense waiting for orders. …

Ever yours truly, Wm. J. Anderson”

Bruce S. Allardice is Professor of History at South Suburban College in Illinois. He is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago.

Wayne L. Wolf is past president of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable.

Review of Burnside’s troops at Camp Union. From Harper’s Weekly, Jan. 18, 1862.

Col. John F. Hartranft.

Thomas H. Parker. (findagrave.com)

Civil War Impressionists Association Claims Rocking Horse a Winner

By Bob Ruegsegger

In 2022, the Civil War Impressionists Association made a highly favorable impression at Jamestown Settlement’s annual Military Through the Ages event with their replication of Grant’s Headquarters at City Point in 1864. They were awarded an honorable mention in the Visitors Choice competition for their meticulous recreation of the City Point scenario and their fastidious portrayals of Civil War notables.

This year, the CWIA returned to MTA with their detailed reproduction of the exterior of Grant’s “tent city” headquarters complex. Their impression was based upon a Matthew Brady photograph taken in the summer of 1864 prior to construction of wooden cabins for winter quarters.

Brian Withrow of the CWIA portrays General Grant. He decided to introduce something new, a little giddy-up to pique the curiosity of youngsters who visited the organization’s already superb City Point Headquarters 1864 exhibit.

“This is a Victorian rocking horse. Rocking horses have been around for hundreds of years. There are still companies in England making them,” said Withrow.

In the 1800’s, a well-to-do

Victorian family, according to Withrow, would probably have owned a large rocking horse and perhaps smaller-sized versions for younger children.

Farm folks who couldn’t afford a fancy professionally made model would often make their own equine effigies if they had the carpentry skills. Examples of rustic-looking, vintage equine folk art turn up for sale occasionally. Withrow opted for a professionally made paradigm.

Although Withrow was unable to document the use of rocking horses for training cavalrymen during the Civil War, he was able to confirm their use as cavalry training aids during World War I. “There are actually some photos that you can find on line that show World War I cavalry soldiers getting their first training on one of these rocking horses,” said Withrow.

When Withrow began preparing for a return to the Military Through the Ages event, he wanted to add something to his unit’s presentation that would add to their interaction with youngsters.

“I started researching rocking horses,” said Withrow. “With General Sheridan here, we equipped the rocking horse with a McClellan saddle and outfitted it as a training horse for the cavalry and kids to enjoy.”

Dozens and dozens of youngsters throughout MTA weekend took advantage of the

opportunity to ride the CWIA’s “giddy-up” exhibit. “Some kids didn’t want to get off,” said Withrow. “It’s been very popular.”

Withrow ordered plans from England to create his own fullsized rocking horse but time constraints compelled him to purchase an existing horse from a British couple living in Philadelphia who bought it for their children decades ago.

“I had to build a brand-new stand for it. I totally stripped the horse down to the wood, repainted it, left the hair,” said Withrow. “I basically designed it as a chestnut flaxen horse—a darker body mare with a lighter mane and tail.”

James Standard was on site portraying Major General Philip Sheridan, Grant’s leading cavalry officer. Sheridan, Little Phil, became infamous for his brutally successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign. His victory at Five Forks and capture of the Southside Railroad forced General Lee to withdraw from Petersburg and Richmond.

“Sheridan was quite a capable individual. He was recognized for his ability,” Standard observed. “He looked after his men well. He looked after the horses. That was number one.”

Standard and other CW impressionists kept an attentive eye on the chestnut flaxen mare to ensure the wooden horse was well tended and treated with all the respect due a training aid.

“It wasn’t just for play. It was a training device back in the day,” said Standard. “The hardest thing about riding is the ground. Mr. Newton figured that out a few centuries ago. It’s a gravity thing. It’s hard,” observed Standard. “Initially, they did some training especially with saddlery, mounting the horse, and putting the tack on.”

When cavalry trainees were comfortable with the basics, mounting the horse and handling the equipment, they were more easily introduced to actually riding the live four-legged animal.

“During the Civil War, in the North, the biggest problem we

had with cavalry was we did not have a lot of people who rode horses anymore. They were behind the horses as a farmer with a plow. That’s a big difference,” noted Standard. “If you have a green horse and a green rider, your next two colors could be black and blue, and all the colors of the rainbow.”

Being in the cavalry was a hard life. Spinal injuries, piles, hemorrhoids, and brain fever were common ailments suffered by Civil War era cavalrymen, both Union and Confederate.

Families flock to Military Through the Ages to learn about history. Youngsters are an integral part of the audience and need to be addressed with experiences that will be memorable—and safe but exciting.

“If you’re on a huge hobby horse that goes back and forth, it’s a lot of fun,” said Gary Carlsberg who portrays General George Meade with the CWIA. “It’s been quite the conversation piece.”

Carlsberg’s brothers-in-arms kid him now about his falling off a horse during a Battle of the Crater reenactment. As General George Meade, Carlsberg rode his horse out on the battlefield before the action started. He was certified to ride horses on the re-enactment battlefield, but the horse bucked Carlsberg off, and his fall looked incredibly realistic. Unfortunately, Carlsberg suffered severe injuries in the fall.

“I was seriously busted up,” recalled Carlsberg. “I broke six ribs in eight places and punctured a lung. I just about got killed. I’ve obviously recovered.”

At the time when the ambulance hauled him away, no one fully appreciated the seriousness of his injuries. His colleagues long after his complete recuperation have never let him forget his “incredibly realistic” display of horsemanship during that battle reenactment.

“They tease me by saying that the only horse I can safely ride is the hobby horse,” said Carlsberg. “We’re just having fun with it.”

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

Gary Carlsberg portrayed General George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac.

CWIA’s Brian Withrow refurbished the rocking horse.

Outfitted with a Federal saddle blanket, the appropriate tack, and a McClellan saddle, this mare stood poised to offer rides to young equine enthusiasts.

Impressionist James Standard prefers portraying Major General Philip Sheridan, Grant’s trusted cavalry commander, wearing a civilian porkpie hat when he is overseeing rocking horse operations at the CWIA’s City Point Headquarters exhibit. Once in a while, smaller versions of a rocking horse are available for sale to parents whose youngsters may be aspiring to portray Civil War cavalrymen.

The Relation of Alimentation and Diseases by Dr. J.H. Salisbury

During the Civil War, dysentery and chronic diarrhea were rampant among soldiers on both sides. We only state the facts when we acknowledge that many more soldiers died of disease than died from battlefield injuries. During the War, Dr. James Henry Salisbury was a physician for the Union Army. Dr. Salisbury believed that the basic Army rations were largely to blame for much loss of life due to disease. He felt that diet was the way to a healthy life, and he became convinced that a restricted diet limited to certain foods could actually cure illnesses, especially intestinal ailments.

He tested his theories during the Civil War, treating chronic diarrhea among Union soldiers with a diet consisting mostly of chopped-up beef. After over

30 years of field research, he published his ideas in The Relation of Alimentation and Diseases (1888). He mostly blamed the soldier’s basic rations of hardtack and salted meat for their ailments or what he termed the “amylaceous army biscuit diet” which was lacking in essential nutrients. His prescription was to “wash out the sour stomach and bowels, and to change the food.” Dr. Salisbury further elaborated that, “The food selected should be such as is least liable to ferment with alcohol and acid yeasts. This is muscle pulp of beef, prepared as heretofore described, when it affords the maximum of nourishment with the minimum of effort to the digestive organs. Nothing else but this food, except an occasional change to broiled mutton.”

Salisbury began his dietary research on himself in 1854 when “...in one of my solitary hours to try the effects of living exclusively upon one food at a time. This experiment I began upon myself alone at first. I opened this line

of experiments with baked beans.” He found after just three days that this particular diet was unsatisfactory and left him “wholly unfitted for mental work. The microscopic examination of passages showed that the bean food did not digest.” Perhaps still unconvinced, in 1858 he enlisted six others to attempt his baked bean diet while staying with him. They noted “flatulence, dizziness and ear ringing” as a few of the side effects.

Union officers’ wearing uniforms and hats with engineers’ insignia seated outdoors with food on their laps Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress).

Hand tinted photograph of wounded Union soldiers at Savage’s Station, Va., during the Peninsular Campaign. (Library of Congress)

It probably goes without saying that Dr. Salisbury was not married at the time of these experiments. He subsequently settled down and got married in 1860. His wife must have been a very patient and understanding domestic partner. Several early volunteers gave up after the bean diet experiments while another four later experimented with a diet of nothing but oatmeal for a month. Salisbury finally arrived on a diet of ground, lean beef as the best and most easily digested food. His prescribed diet consisting of “food meats” was given to Civil War soldiers to alleviate the symptoms of chronic diarrhea with some degree of success reported.

His description of how to prepare “food meats” is as follows:

“Eat the muscle pulp of lean beef made into cakes and broiled. This pulp should be as free as possible from connective or glue tissue, fat and cartilage. The “American Chopper” answers very well for separating the connective tissue, this being driven down in front of the knife to the bottom of the board. In chopping, the beef should not be stirred up in the chopper, but the muscle pulp should be scraped off with a spoon at intervals during the chopping. At the end of the chopping, the fibrous tissue of the meat (the portion which

lamb, broiled mutton, broiled game, broiled chicken, oysters broiled or roasted in the shell, boiled codfish (fresh or salt), broiled and baked fish free from fat, and broiled dried beef, chipped thin and sprinkled over broiled beefsteak to give it a relish. A soft boiled egg may be taken at breakfast occasionally with the meat if it does not heighten the color of the urine.”

the most favorable temperature, amount, and hours for taking the hot water were determined accurately as above given.”

makes up fibrous growths) all lies on the bottom board of the chopper. This may be utilized as soup meat for well people. Previous to chopping, the fat, bones, tendons and fascia should all be cut away, and the lean muscle cut up in pieces an inch or two square. Steaks cut through the center of the round are the richest and best for this purpose. Beef should be procured from well fatted animals that are from four to six years old. The pulp should not be pressed too firmly together before broiling, or it will taste livery. Simply press it sufficiently to hold it together. Make the cakes from half an inch to an inch thick. Broil slowly and moderately well over a fire free from blaze and smoke. When cooked, put it on a hot plate and season to taste with butter, pepper and salt; also use either Worcestershire or Halford sauce, mustard, horseradish or lemon juice on the meat if desired. Celery may be moderately used as a relish. No other meats should be allowed till the stomach becomes clean, the urine uniformly clear and free, standing at a density of from 1.015-1.020, and the cough and expectoration so improved that they cease to be troublesome. When this time arrives, bring in for variety as side dishes, broiled

The Salisbury prescribed diet is not without carbohydrates, but lacks any balance from plant based foods about which he states “Bread, toast, boiled rice or cracked wheat may be eaten in the proportion of one part (by bulk) to from four to six parts of the meat. The bread should be free from sugar and raised with yeast. It may be made from gluten flour, white flour or Graham flour; corn meal preparations should be avoided. All things not previously enumerated and the following articles of food in especial should not be eaten, viz.: beans, soups, sweets, pies, cakes, pickles, sauce, preserves, fruits, vegetables, greens, pancakes, fritters, crullers, griddle – cakes and mush. Vinegar should be carefully avoided.” He believed that vegetables produced poisonous toxins in the digestive system that were responsible for heart disease, tumors, mental illness, and tuberculosis. He believed that humans were meant to eat meat based on the shape of their teeth, and sought to limit vegetables, fruit, and fat in the diet.

Dr. Salisbury also had some unusual theories about what to drink as well. He felt that only hot water should be consumed, and further that all cold beverages we were an abomination. He states, “we should not crave this cooling; this taste, much like the appetite for liquors, wines and drinks of all description, is a cultivated and abnormal one (and as) such have no place in the healthy system; they are symptoms of disease and warn us of a subbasic cause which must be removed.” Salisbury continues, “I have known confirmed drunkards, after they have been kept from all spirituous liquors and cured of diseased appetites by the restoration of tone to the digestive apparatus, to admit that they preferred hot water to liquor in any form, and to keep it up throughout life as a stimulant to digestion. Lukewarm water has also been tried, but was found to excite upward peristalsis and to make the men sick at the stomach. It was only after repeated experiments that

Lisa Bramen noted in her 2011 article for Smithsonian magazine that Dr. Salisbury’s diet can be considered as an early attempt at “Civil War health food.” This is especially true compared to long term effects of a diet consisting solely of salted meat, beans and hardtack. She further noted that upon publication in1888, Dr Salisbury’s findings led to increased popular interest in low carb diets.

Dr. James H Salisbury’s recipe for “muscle pulp of beef” is better known today by another name, “Salisbury steak.”

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.

James Henry Salisbury, physician.

In the Footsteps of Early Battlefield Visitors

By Tim Talbott Central Virginia Battlefields

Trust preserves area battlefield land partly to ensure that future generations of learners will have the opportunity to see these fields and forests in a state closely resembling their appearance at the time of the Civil War.

The visitors who came to the area’s battlefields a few short years after the fighting ended did not have to contend with most modern visual and auditory intrusions coming from the paved roads, utility lines, and automobiles that we benefit from, yet at times disdain, today. Those first battlefield sightseers got a true firsthand look at the landscape. Their eyes observed the debris of battle still remaining on the fields, the damage to buildings and the environment, and the then on-going reinterment process, all of which evidenced

the hard fighting that occurred. Fortunately, some of those first battlefield visitors left vivid accounts of what they saw. Being that their battlefield treks came so soon after the war, they certainly experienced things we never will, but learning about their visits can add significantly to our modernday encounters with battlefields.

In the spring of 1868, Erie, Penn., resident Isaac Moorhead accompanied David B. McCreary, a former lieutenant colonel in the 145th Pennsylvania Infantry, to the Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville battlefields. The historical significance of this area was not lost on Moorhead. He noted that, “It is a little singular that so many battles of the war should have been fought in this county of Spottsylvania— the two Fredericksburgs, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and the battle of Spottsylvania Court House.”

Moorhead’s companion, McCreay, who had fought at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, served as interpreter. Morehead explained that McCreary “pointed out all the positions, went over the details of the battle on this part of the field in a thrilling and impressive manner.” While on the Fredericksburg battlefield the visiting duo met “a man who had fought against us at this point and who corroborated all” that McCreary had related to Moorhead “of the bravery of our

men in this unequal and hopeless contest.”

Moorhead and McCreary stopped at the millrace, brickyard, Marye’s Heights, and Willis Hill, all notable landmarks to McCreary. On Marye’s Heights at Brompton, there was still visible evidence of the battle: “all over the house and grounds are marks of shot and shell. We reached the crest . . . occupied by the Washington Artillery under Col. Walton. What a position! No marvel the Confederates had it their own way. It was mere target practice for them,” Moorehead observed. They also visited the emerging National Cemetery, “hallowed as the resting place of thousands upon thousands,” and observed the work of reinterments from the area’s battlefields as it went on. While at the National Cemetery, the men “raised the lids on some of the boxes and saw the skull, the bones, some tattered blue rags, socks, a mat of hair—nothing more.” Moorhead stated that, “Great care is taken in collecting these remains to preserve all the marks upon the boards at the heads of the fallen ones. . . .”

The following day, the two visitors went to the southern end of the Fredericksburg battlefield, noting where Gen. Meade “made a splendid fight,” and where Maj. John Pelham “immortalized himself with a single gun.”

Chancellorsville was their next stop. On the way, they

spied Salem Church, where “the entrenchments and marks of shot and shell showed us Sedgwick’s extreme point of advance.” Moving on, they came to a row of earthworks where McCreary had become a prisoner of war. “The earthworks were still quite complete, although somewhat washed by rain. They lay directly across the road, and extended on either side into the deep woods.”

Nearby “Remains of uniforms, cartridge boxes, canteens, haversacks and some human bones lay in the trenches.” All around them, “Dead branches were hanging on all the trees, and all the [trunks] of them were scarred with shot and shell.”

During a brief stop, while they used the earthworks for a place to sit, McCreary, who fought as part of the II Corps, related his Chancellorsville memories. Around them were numerous Confederate graves “marked with head and foot stakes, the pencil tracings obliterated and a tangle of second growth covering them.” Moorhead “cut a hickory

walking stick that had grown right out of the breast of some brave fellow. . . .”

On they wandered to the Chancellor House ruins. Moorhead apparently thought Chancellorsville was a bit of a misnomer, as he wrote, “There was no village here, nothing but this one house.” Standing on the front porch steps, Moorhead painted a picture with his words. “An open plain all about the house in every direction, then a dense, dark mass of jagged and stunted pines and scrub oaks as close together as it is possible for them to grow. . . .” Roads radiated around the house. They “faced a road leading to Catherine Furnace,” the Turnpike and Orange Plank Roads ran to Fredericksburg to the left, “to the right, and near Melzi Chancellor’s [Dowdall’s Tavern] (which is about a mile west,)” the roads split again. Before moving on, Moorhead picked up a round musket ball.

Continuing to travel west, they stopped at Rev. Melzi

Many of the area’s Union battlefield dead were reinterred in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery, as witnessed by Moorhead and McCreary. (Tim Talbott)

Improvised earthworks remain even today on parts of the Chancellorsville battlefield. (Library of Congress)

Of Brompton on Marye’s Heights, early battlefield visitor Isaac Moorhead wrote that “all over the house and grounds are marks of shot and shell.” (Library of Congress)

Chancellor’s house for a visit. He was not home, but Mrs. Chancellor invited them in. Above the fireplace were images of Gen. Lee, Gen. Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. Moorhead noted that this house was Gen. O.O. Howard’s headquarters before Jackson’s May 2, 1863, flank attack swept

Howard’s XI Corps eastward.

“Mrs. Chancellor spoke well of General Howard’s kindness and courtesy,” Morehead wrote, and he was “much pleased with the lady-like bearing of Mrs. Chancellor.”

After leaving Mrs. Chancellor, they took “a moment to look at

the Wilderness Church across the road and further west.” They then “passed back to the spot where Jackson was wounded.” Traveling south they headed toward Catherine Furnace, and in doing so they wound up their sightseeing with a ride through “the scene of the principle

fighting” on May 3, 1863.

By taking a virtual tour with early battlefield visitors, we can still see some of sights they saw: Marye’s Heights, Willis Hill, the National Cemetery, Pelham’s Corner, Meade’s breakthrough, Salem Church, the Chancellor House ruins, Catherine Furnace, and the area of Rev. Chancellor’s farm; places that could have been wiped out by development if not for action from groups like CVBT, the National Park Service, and the American Battlefield Trust, who stepped in to save them. In reading early battlefield visitors’ accounts we can also live vicariously through them to do things like talk to Confederate veterans, see reinterment work at the National Cemetery, pick up a musket ball, and chat with Mrs. Chancellor. Through their accounts, we see a much different battlefield than we see through the fighting soldiers’ eyes, or our own modern perspective.

CVBT has helped save over 1,100 acres at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

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

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 nonprofit, which has saved over 1,700 acres of hallowed ground, please visit: www.cvbt.org.

Moorhead and McCreary probably saw landscape sights similar to this on the Chancellorsville battlefield. (Library of Congress)

The Chancellor House ruins drew battlefield visitors after the Civil War. (Library of Congress)

Preservationists Must Rally to Stop Orange County Mega-Development

A massive residential and commercial development has been proposed near the historic intersection of Routes 3 and 20, the gateway to Orange County, Va. At 2,602 acres, the “Wilderness Crossing” project would mark the largest rezoning in the county’s history, severely altering the rural area into a congested zone.

Worse still, this is the same location where, starting in 2009, a coalition of local residents and preservationists vocally opposed construction of a Walmart Supercenter and associated development. Ultimately the win-win scenario resulted in the retailer donating the site and building the store further west. Out of that dispute, the Trust and its partners sought to establish a safe vision for the future of the land with the Wilderness Gateway Study. The report advocated for a model of development that would preserve open space while allowing for readjustments of intersections without causing damage to the nearby Wilderness Battlefield or disturbing residents’ lifestyle.

The current proposal abandoned both the Wilderness Gateway Study principles and the recommendations made in the Germanna Wilderness Area Plan, the latter created by the county itself. As this issue was heading to print, a Planning Commission hearing was to take place regardless of the outcome, the proposal will be heard by the Board of Supervisors in the near spring.

For more information on the study and how you can help, visit www.battlefields.org/speak-out/ stop-largest-rezoning-orangecounty-history.

Help Protect 820 Acres Across 5 Virginia Battlefields

From Texas to Pennsylvania,

the Civil War ravaged the whole country, but if any one place bore the brunt of this fighting, it was Virginia, where nearly one-third of all major battles occurred. Now, the Trust has launched a major campaign that would secure the preservation of 820 acres across the battlefields at Reams Station, Boydton Plank Road, Dinwiddie Court House,

Mine Run, and Petersburg; two of which are new sites for our activities.

In total, these hallowed grounds carry a transaction value of $3.6 million. However, the Trust has secured various matchinggrants and, thanks to generous landowner donations, only needs the final $111,856 to save all 820 acres in perpetuity. That means

all gifts will be multiplied by a factor of $30-to-$1, one of the best matches in recent memory. Containing stories from all parts of the Civil War, the history and relevancy of these 820 acres are undoubtable. Apart from their historical significance these grounds have one more thing in common: they have been recent targets for hungry developers who are looking to build and permanently destroy the nation’s heritage.

At Mine Run, where 702 acres were recently threatened by modern development, the land saw repeated cavalry action during both the 1863 Battle of Mine Run and the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. At Reams Station, eight Federal Army units from five states fought on the 96 acres that the Trust is seeking to save, but in recent years this land has been exposed to potential solar farms development.

This campaign marks the Trust’s first preservation efforts at Boydton Plank Road and Dinwiddie Court House. At Boydton Plank Road, site of the 1864 battle, the organization is seeking to save 12 acres that were targeted for residential development just last year. In the closing hours of the Civil War, Dinwiddie Courthouse became the focus of intense fighting. There, the Trust is seeking to preserve its first 8 acres.

Lastly, two acres at “The Breakthrough” at Petersburg is thrice-hallowed having already seen action at the 1864 Battle of Peebles’ Farm and in March 1865 at the Battle of Jones Farm before the climactic assault broke Confederate lines on April 2, 1865.

To learn more about this preservation opportunity, visit www.battlefields.org/preserve.

Safeguard Five Key Battlefields in the Western Theater

Still, any understanding of the War’s story is incomplete without inclusion of the Western Theater. Places like Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Bentonville represent the valor and courage of thousands of soldiers, prompting the Trust to pursue preservation of 343 acres at five different Western Theater battlefields.

Although these acres are worth $2.5 million in total land value, their historical value is priceless, inspiring the Trust to pursue grants, donations, and partnerships with a value of $2.3 million. With such an opportunity to save such vital pieces of land, these preservation efforts allow the Trust to offer a remarkable $18-to-$1 match on gifts.

The battlefield land in need of saving spans four years of the Civil War across four different states. At Shiloh, one of the war’s bloodiest battles, Union troops saw success before being repelled by the Confederates at Chickamauga. Later, Confederates were able to exploit sparse Union supply lines in a victory at Brice’s Crossroads. After devastating losses, however, the Confederate army’s attempts at contesting the Federal’s advance were ultimately futile at Wyse Fork and Bentonville, leading to their eventual surrender. These sites all have land available to be safeguarded forever, and saving these locations provides an opening for preservation allies to strengthen our understanding of these key events.

To learn more about this preservation opportunity, visit www.battlefields.org/preserve.

Troop movements of the Breakthrough at the Battle of Petersburg. American Battlefield Trust.

Civil War Artillery Book

John Nau Announced Trustee for Life

For decades, John Liston Nau, III, has cemented himself as an exemplary preservationist and park advocate, working to make the nation’s history accessible for all. This Spring, the Trust honored Nau with its lifetime achievement award and officially named him a member of the organization’s board of trustees for life. Further recognizing his steadfast work in historic preservation, the organization renamed its national leadership award for federal officials in Nau’s honor and intends to place a permanent marker to his legacy on his beloved Vicksburg Battlefield.

A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Nau spent his time studying American military history, eventually developing a

fascination with the Civil War. Nau was first elected to the Trust’s Board in 1999 and served as chairman from 2009 to 2011. From 2001 to 2010, he served as chair to the federal Advisor Council on Historic Preservation, appointed by President George W. Bush.

47 Acres Perpetually Preserved in Virginia

The Trust has successfully preserved 47 acres across the Cedar Creek Battlefield and Cedar Mountain Battlefield, two important engagements in the Old Dominion. At Cedar Creek, the saved parcel is pivotal to the story of the battlefield and now, following its transfer, will become an integral part of Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park, especially given its adjacency to the park headquarters. This land saw the

movement of both Union and Confederate troops during the Battle of Cedar Creek, where a Union rally prevented any future hope of Confederate offensives in the Shenandoah Valley.

At Cedar Mountain, 45 acres of hallowed ground are also newly preserved. This addition bolsters the 1,700-acre donation of land that the Trust has committed to for the creation of the new Culpeper Battlefields State Park and broadens the rich history visitors to these sites will get to experience. These great successes will pave the way for more victories in the Old Dominion for the Trust, and for preservation allies everywhere.

Learn all about the Trust’s latest news at www.battlefields. org/news. Follow us on social media at American Battlefield Trust.

392 page, full-color book, Civil War Artillery Projectiles – The Half Shell Book. For more information and how to order visit the website www. ArtillerymanMagazine.com or call 800-777-1862.

$89.95 + $10 media mail for the standard edition.

Cedar Mountain Battlefield in Culpeper, Va. Photo by Buddy Secor.

The sun sets over the Shiloh National Battlefield Park. Photo by Mike Talplacido.

Banks suggested that “the only speedy and certain method” to implement the Ten Percent Plan would be to hold a special election for state officials under the current Louisiana constitution while declaring the slavery provisions “inoperative and void.” Subsequently, a convention to revise the constitution would be ordered, thereby avoiding “the

Military Plans vs. Civilian Elections

“The eggs of crocodiles can produce only crocodiles; and it is not easy to see how eggs laid by military power can be hatched into an American state.” – U.S. Senator Charles Sumner

On December 8, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln sent his annual message to Congress which included his Ten Percent Plan on how to restore loyal, civil rule in the seceded states, aka “Reconstruction.” State governments could be formed after 10 percent of its voters swore an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and to accept the emancipation of slaves. Confederate officials would not be able to participate in the new governments. He offered full pardons for former Confederate soldiers and sympathizers as a further enticement to end the War.

Lincoln proposed the Ten Percent Plan from a base of forgiveness and to enable the reunification process to begin quickly. Congress too wanted jurisdiction over Reconstruction. Congress objected to the Ten Percent Plan’s leniency towards the South and the absence of providing black citizens the right to vote. Lincoln acted while Congress debated and came up with its own plan.

Louisiana, the sixth state to secede, was chosen as the Plan’s first test case. Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks, commander of the Department of the Gulf, was based in New Orleans, La. Banks had been struggling with the feuding factions of Union loyalists and hostile Confederate sympathizers to restore the state into the Union. Banks, who lacked military experience, became one of the first major generals in the War due to his political aptitude as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

question of slavery to the chances of election.”

Lincoln responded that one advantage of focusing on the state level would be an “… exhibition to the World of moral, as well as military power, in the suppression of Rebellion and the reconstruction of government by consent and participation of the different classes of People.”

At the same time, Gen. Henry Halleck devised the Red River Campaign. Federal forces would move up the Red River to Shreveport, La., before moving on to Texas. Adm. David Porter’s fleet of gunboats would supply the firepower. Banks would provide 20,000 men along with an additional 15,000 soldiers from Gen. William Sherman to combat land forces. Gen. Frederick Steele’s troops would swoop down from Arkansas to join the attack on Shreveport, La.

On March 2, 1864, Sherman went to meet Banks in New Orleans. The preparations for the campaign were completed. Sherman was invited to the March 4, swearing in ceremony for Governor Michael Hahn. It featured army bands playing, church bells ringing, and “cannons would be fired by electricity.” Sherman, “regarded all such ceremonies as out of place at a time when it seemed to me every hour and minute were due to the war.”

Sherman had wanted to go up the Red River. He was familiar with the area due to his service as the superintendent of a local military academy. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant wanted Sherman to lead the campaign. However, Banks decided to serve as the overall commander and out ranked both men. Sherman, “thought it best not to go.”

The March 14, election of state officers delayed the start date of the campaign. According to Steele, “the President is very anxious it should be a success. Without the assistance of the troops to distribute the poll-books, with the oath of allegiance, and to protect the voters at the polls, it cannot succeed.” Sherman commented, “If we have to modify military plans for civil elections, we had better go home.”

On March 26, Banks reached Alexandria, La., to rendezvous with Porter and Sherman’s men. Banks was astonished to find Sherman’s men were looting stores and private homes. Porter’s sailors were busy seizing cotton from the surrounding countryside as a prize of war. Cotton was being burned to prevent it from falling into Federal hands.

Banks received a message from Grant, newly appointed as

Gen. Nathaniel Banks. Colorization © 2022, civilwarincolor.com courtesy civilwarincolor.com/cwn. (Library of Congress)

President Abraham Lincoln. Colorization © 2012, civilwarincolor.com courtesy civilwarincolor.com/cwn. (National Archives)

Gen. William “Old Tecumseh” Sherman. Colorization © 2012, civilwarincolor.com courtesy civilwarincolor.com/cwn. (Library of Congress)

General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, that he had to return Sherman’s men to him by mid-April, “even if it leads to the abandonment of the main object of your expedition.” Furthermore, the level of the Red River was lower than normal. Porter would have difficulty moving his heaviest vessel, the USS Eastport, through shallow water. Banks could abandon the entire campaign, wait for the navy to navigate shoals, or proceed without it. He determined to take advantage of the navy’s water depth delay to hold an election for convention delegates. It would give the impression of wider support for the new government.

The area’s 1,500 potential voters, “… were very much frightened at taking the oath of allegiance and then being left to the rebels. But it was represented to them that we had come to remain and take possession of the country.” Furthermore, it was seen as an opportunity to be able to use their cotton as they saw fit.

On April 1, Alexandria held the election. “Flags fluttered and guns boomed as the Unionist citizens of the parish trooped to the polls to exercise their right of franchise, and when the ballots were tabulated it was found that a grand total of 300 votes had been cast.”

On April 3, Banks decided he couldn’t spare the time to reconnoiter the road alongside the river. Instead, he sent the army on the inland route, separating it from the navy’s guns. Away from the river, the muddy road narrowed through the woods. The distance between the head and tail of Gen. William Franklin’s, XIX Corps., stretched 20 miles.

On April 8, at the Battle of Mansfield, La., C.S. Gen. Richard Taylor was able to turn his intention to slow the Federal advance into a rout. Factoring in Grant’s timeline, Banks knew he had to turn back, acknowledging the military failure of the Red River Campaign.

On April 9, Louisiana held a constitutional convention. Delegates were sent from 19 of Louisiana’s 48 parishes. Conventioneers enjoyed free liquor, free cigars, and other extravagances at the cost of over $250,000; still, the Constitution of 1864 was passed. It abolished slavery, granted the vote to all white males, gave tax money to educate both black and white children, and opened the possibility for the state legislature to grant voting and civil rights to blacks. Lincoln considered the new Constitution imperfect but gave “a foundation to build on for the future.”

As Banks predicted, “Offer them a Government without slavery, and they will gladly accept it as a necessity resulting from the war. … If this plan be accepted in Louisiana, ... it will be adopted by general concurrence … in every other southern state, as rapidly as you choose to accord to them the privilege of self-government.”

Sources:

• Johnson, Ludwell H. Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War: The Kent State University Press, 1993.

• ed. Roy R Basler. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: Rutgers University Press, 1953-55, vol 7, 124 -125.

• Oates, Stephen B.. With Malice Toward None: HarperCollins, 1977.

• The Law Library of Louisiana. (2023, March 15). Louisiana’s Constitutions:1864. lasc.org. https://lasc.libguides.com

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

Faces of the Civil War

The Library of Congress, working from their Liljenquist Collection of more than 3,000 portrait photographs, created the ‘Faces of the Civil War’ site: https://tinyurl.com/pt3du7dk.

Once on the site, users will find ‘story maps,’ which provide, for Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, a battle map, a synopsis of the engagement, and photographs of various participants in the affair. This project draws from but a small sample of the full Liljenquist Collection. Visit https://www. loc.gov/pictures/collection/lilj/ to view these unique wartime photographs!

Researchers will discover a more user-friendly experience if using the site on a desktop with a larger monitor than a mobile device. Scroll vertically through the site to uncover maps and images from the Battles of

Day by Day through the Civil War in Georgia

Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. For example, in the Gettysburg section, see the photo of Private Richard T. Gilbert, 18th Georgia Infantry.

After perusing the resources available for the battles, move on to another great section of this site: ‘Mapping the Faces of War.’ Here, one can “Zoom in on the map to view locations in more detail and click the colored areas to see associated portraits. Use the arrows at the top right of the box to scroll through additional photographs of people who were present at each location.” This database contains images from over 100 battles and skirmishes. Search through these records and continued success in researching the American Civil War!

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.

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

‘Mapping the Faces of War.’

A participant in the Battle of Atlanta.

Private Richard T. Gilbert, 18th Georgia Infantry.

Faces of the Civil War homepage.

Historical Society Opens New Museum at Gettysburg

By Leon Reed

The redevelopment of Gettysburg, now well underway with a new children’s museum at the Rupp House, a virtual reality experience at the old train station, and the new World War II American Experience museum west of town, will take another gigantic step April 15 with the opening of another major new attraction: the Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum.

The new museum was developed by the Adams County Historical Society in a new facility on Biglerville Rd., less than a mile north of the town square and just south of Howard Ave. The property was originally part of the Almshouse and most recently was the site of the jail.

Adams County is best known for the July 1863 battle and Lincoln’s speech later the same year, but the story is much broader. The museum gives ample treatment to the battle but presents the broader perspective, starting millions of years ago when South Mountain, Devil’s Den, and other features of the landscape were created. The museum also covers other prehistoric topics such as a meteorite that hit present-day Mount Joy township (ironically, the meteor fragment is on loan from a museum in Austria) and early human settlers. In the colonial era, the museum describes early villages, roads, and white settlers, including the story of Mary Jemison, a teenage girl kidnapped by Indians who voluntarily chose to remain with the Indians.

The museum covers the Civil War era, including a four minute “immersive experience” during which participants huddle in the dark while bullets and artillery shells whiz by, giving participants a sense of what it might have been like for Gettysburg civilians.

The museum then covers Gettysburg after the battle, presentations on topics such as the rise of the fruit industry; tourism; presidential visits and Gettysburg’s most famous resident, Dwight D. Eisenhower; and the uses of the park in World War I (a tank training school) and World War II (a POW camp).

The facility also includes an impressive bookstore and conference facilities on the second floor. And its collection of tens of thousands of documents and artifacts will be housed in safer facilities and will be more accessible to the hundreds of historical and genealogical researchers who use these collections.

For years, the local historical society was housed in cramped quarters on Seminary Ridge. Planning for the new facility has been underway for more than a decade but came together within the past five years under the leadership of 25-year old executive director Andrew Dalton, a Gettysburg native and Gettysburg College graduate. His vision was instrumental in securing the support of local business, civic, and government leaders. The original budget was $5M but the cost ultimately came in at $12M, including $2.8M from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, $1M from the Adams County commissioners, and major donations from other local and national donors. Dalton is justifiably proud of the effort. “Now we have a beautiful facility to showcase our remarkable story.”

Tim Smith, who played a

leading role in designing the museum and its exhibits, noted how quickly it came together once the project gained critical mass. “We bought this property in 2004 and tore down the prison the following year,” he said. “We always had a plan for a new museum and considered different options and different sites. But things happened quickly once the capital campaign started in 2019.” Even the Covid epidemic played a part. “We weren’t able to do anything else, so I started designing and writing some of the panels.”

A project this big doesn’t get completed without major support from a lot of people and this project was no exception. All films in the museum were produced by local film-maker Jake Boritt and narrated by actor Stephen Lang. The first temporary exhibit will feature some rare photos from the collection of

Adams County Historical Society’s new building. (Photo courtesy Adams County Historical Society; all others by Leon Reed..)

Gettysburg in Popular Culture with Jeff Shaara and Ken Burns.

Mock tavern display.

Relics found on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Display includes U.S. cartridge box with sling, sword and revolver.

William Frassanito. The featured exhibit, a 360-degree sight and sound experience called “Caught

in the Crossfire,” was written by best-selling author Jeff Shaara.

Atlanta Campaign Trail, Part 2

Too strong to assault and too extensive to invest

Last month’s column covered the Atlanta Campaign as marked by Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails, from its starting point at Tunnel Hill to Kennesaw Mountain. From May 1864 to July, the Federals under Maj. Gen. William Sherman drove Gen. Joseph Johnston’s Confederates toward Atlanta. Now we pick up the trail at the Battle of Peachtree Creek where, under a new commander, the Confederates attacked on July 20.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis, frustrated by Johnston’s Fabian maneuvering, had dismissed Johnston on July 17 and put Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood in charge of the Army of Tennessee. Our first two stops describe the action at Peachtree

Creek, where Hood assailed the Federal Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Thomas, as it crossed the creek.

A GCWHT marker, set in a “pocket park” on Atlanta’s busy Collier Road, covers the attack mounted by the two brigades

of Maj. Gen. William Loring’s division on the Confederate left. The attackers achieved initial success but were ultimately driven back with heavy losses. One of the many Confederate casualties, according to an enemy account, was a woman, “shot

in the breast and thigh and still alive and as gritty as any Reb I ever saw.” Other Confederates, all men we presume, showed the same kind of grit. An Alabama colonel wrote that his regiment, receiving the order to charge, “moved forward under a terrible enfilading fire of grape, canister and minie, as well as a galling direct fire.”

A second marker, placed where Peachtree Road crosses the creek, tells of the attack on the Confederate right by Lt. Gen. William Hardee’s Corps. This attack was also driven back. The Army of the Cumberland, separated from the other Federal forces, had been in a vulnerable position, but prevailed. The marker explains: “Inadequate reconnaissance, poor coordination, rugged terrain and effective artillery fire enabled [Brig. Gen. John] Newton’s

3,200-man division to prevent 10,000 Confederates…from reaching this crossing point and enveloping Thomas’s left flank.”

The trail now swings to the east, toward Decatur, six miles or so from downtown Atlanta. Along the way there is a marker on the campus of Emory University, at the Hardman Family Cemetery. A nearby house served briefly as Sherman’s headquarters. “From there,” the marker says, “Sherman issued Special Field Orders Number 39, which read in part: ‘Each army commander will accept battle on anything like fair terms…If fired on from the forts or buildings of Atlanta no consideration must be paid to the fact that they are occupied by families, but the place must be cannonaded without the formality of a demand.’” After Sherman left, this house and a church at the cemetery were used as field hospitals.

The next stop on the trail is at the DeKalb County courthouse in Decatur. The marker was vandalized last year and will soon be replaced. The marker told (and will soon again tell) about the military action in Decatur and the impact the fighting had on the town’s civilians. The most significant action was an attack on Federal forces by Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry on July 22, 1864. Wheeler targeted the wagon trains of the Federal Army of the Tennessee and was achieving some success against the Federal brigade guarding the wagons. However, Wheeler was ordered to disengage and shift a few miles to the west, where there was more important work to do.

July 22 was the date of the Battle of Atlanta, fought about half way between Atlanta and Decatur. The battleground was covered up with urban development decades ago. Bald Hill, a terrain feature important to the understanding of the fighting, was leveled to make way for Interstate 20. GCWHT at this time has no marker relating to this battle, but is hoping to

Pocket park on Collier Road in Atlanta.

Civil War Centennial, city of Atlanta : showing the area of the three major engagements and deployment of Union and Confederate forces during the summer of 1864. Ezra Church battle is located in the bottom left red circle on this map. (Library of Congress)

Peachtree Creek Crossing.

install one near the covered-up battlefield.

Moving again toward Atlanta, we come to Fort Walker, located in Grant Park. The park is named for Lemuel Grant, the Confederate engineer who designed and oversaw construction of Atlanta’s defensive fortifications. The marker here provides information about the construction and use of these works. The fort was originally designated simply as fortification “R,” but was renamed in honor of Maj. Gen. W.H.T. Walker, killed in the July 22 battle.

Captain Orlando Poe, Sherman’s chief engineer, reported that Grant’s works were “too strong to assault and too extensive to invest.” No effort was made to breech the fortifications. Here, as in other places, Sherman ultimately opted for a more circuitous route.

After failing to drive away Sherman’s army on July 20 and July 22, the Confederates tried again on the 28th. We now motor across town to Atlanta’s Mozeley Park, where GCWHT’s marker explains the Battle of Ezra Church. Even though the enemy had arrived on the scene first, and had built a solid defensive line, two Confederate corps, one after the other, “imprudently attacked.” The failed assaults cost Hood’s army approximately

3,000 casualties, with the Federals losing only about onefifth that number.

A fourth battle took place at Utoy Creek, also west of town. The next marker stands at the entrance to the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. The Confederates were extending their trench lines to protect the last railroad still carrying supplies to the army and the city.

The Federals, of course, extended their lines in the same direction for the purpose of reaching and breaking the railroad link.

At Utoy Creek the Federals were on the attack. An officer in the Confederates’ Orphan Brigade wrote that the attackers moved forward “apparently not knowing they were about to encounter breastworks of a formidable character.…But they were plucky fellows and came within a few yards of our works, paying dearly for their courage and temerity.” Continued attacks achieved some fleeting success but the Federal push petered out.

The fact that the Federals’ attack at Utoy Creek failed tells us something. Three big battles were fought in late July. The Confederates, already heavily outnumbered, suffered about 11,000 casualties. Still, at Utoy Creek, in four days of action, the Federals could make no headway against Hood’s entrenched

positions manned by thinnedout regiments. Atlanta could still be supplied by the last open rail line, the Macon and Western. What Captain Poe had reported earlier about the fortifications still applied, and applied even to the hastily-dug works extending the main fortifications built by Lemuel Grant.

Sherman settled for a siege and bombardment that lasted nearly a month. Then, in late August, he pulled most of his forces from the siege lines and made a wide swing around the west side of the city. This movement takes us to the final two stops on the Atlanta Campaign Trail, at Jonesboro, about 20 miles south of Atlanta.

The GCWHT marker at the Jonesboro depot describes what happened when Hood sent two corps to protect the threatened railroad to Macon. On August 31 the Confederates attacked a force far superior in numbers protected by entrenchments. The Southern force was repulsed with 1,700 casualties. The dug-in Northerners lost only 179.

The other Jonesboro marker, at the Patrick Cleburne Cemetery, describes the September 1 action. Expecting an attack on the city from the south, Hood ordered one corps back to Atlanta. The remaining corps, under Lt. Gen. William Hardee, was attacked and suffered heavy losses. One brigade was overrun.

The marker at the Freight Depot in downtown Atlanta, a stone’s throw from the State Capitol and Atlanta City Hall, focuses on the main reason Atlanta was a target: the rails. The current structure dates to 1869 and is on the same site as the wartime depot. Four railroads met in Atlanta, fanning out east, northwest, southwest and south. During the war the city was a “major manufacturing center for military supplies,” the marker states, and “the railroads transported these supplies to the Southern armies.” The marker also describes the destruction of much of Atlanta before Sherman left the city for his March to the Sea. The marker quotes a Confederate report: “The car sheds, the depot, the machine shops, foundries, rolling mills, merchant mills, arsenals, laboratory, armory, etc., all were burned.”

Its commander, 600 men and eight guns were captured. A Confederate private wrote that “they overran us like a drove of Texas beeves, by sheer force of numbers.”

Overall, however, Hardee’s troops were able to hold on till night, when they retreated south to Lovejoy Station. Even before the fighting in Jonesboro, the Macon and Western had been cut by Federal infantry north of Jonesboro. Atlanta was cut off; the Confederates in Atlanta evacuated on the night of September 1-2 and marched to join Hardee; the Atlanta Campaign was over. Sherman’s armies would occupy Atlanta until November, when he sent half his force north to Tennessee, and embarked with the other half for the coast on his March to the Sea.

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

The series of interpretive markers installed by Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails guides the traveler through the entire Atlanta Campaign from Dalton to Jonesboro. The carefully-done texts and the clear maps tell the big story of the movements and clashes of armies. They also provide information about the privates and the civilians, the smaller stories that add texture to the larger one. In addition, the interpretation is not limited to the Atlanta Campaign itself. There is much to see about goings on in this vicinity before and after the fighting that took place between May and September of 1864.

The famous Andrews Raid of 1862 started in Marietta and ended in Ringgold after a wild race between two locomotives, the stolen General and the pursuing Texas. In 1864, after evacuating Atlanta and rebuilding his forces, Hood operated north of Atlanta on the Western and Atlantic, the lifeline for Sherman’s armies in occupied Atlanta. These stories are told as well.

GCWHT also includes a side trail covering the Chickamauga Campaign of September 1863, in extreme northwest Georgia. Armies under Federal Gen. William Rosecrans and Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg moved about and ultimately slugged it out on September 19 and 20. The Chickamauga Campaign Trail and the sanguinary battle in the valley of Chickamauga Creek will be the topic of next month’s “This and That.”

Ezra Church site.

Patrick Cleburne Cemetery in Jonesboro.

Star marks the location of the Freight Depot destroyed in 1864. This structure was built in 1869.

Utoy Creek. (Photos by Gould Hagler.)

fell out of fashion; by 1900, he was superseded by artists who favored authenticity and realism and was replaced by such luminary American illustrators as N. C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish. “Darley was enormously productive, publishing nearly 4,000 drawings for books, periodicals, newspapers, and

bank notes. With the advent of photolithography in the late nineteenth century, his style of black and white line engraving went out of fashion and he is little known today.”6 In 1883, Darley’s work was reproduced once more, this time as a smaller lithograph produced by J. P. Fitch of Hartford, Conn., and publishedby H. H.

Sherman’s March

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

Perhaps the most talented and most prolific artist of the 19th century is a least known figure of the 21st century. Felix Octavius Carr Darley, “for more than 40 years, dominated American book and magazine publishing, becoming one of the best-known illustrators of his time. By collaborating closely with writers such as Washington Irving, Darley helped popularize such American icons as the Pilgrim, the Pioneer, the Minuteman, and the Yankee Peddler.” His life spanned most of the century, 1822–1888.1

Darley was, in today’s parlance, a “workaholic.” His prodigious output of drawings was truly remarkable. Largely self-taught, Darley began his career in his hometown of Philadelphia when he was hired by a local publishing company where he became a jack-of-all-trades. After moving to New York, he began working for Harper’s Weekly

As his reputation grew, he signed on to provide drawings for new publications. As an artist and draughtsman, he provided work that was easily adaptable to engraving, etching, and lithography. More than 500 of his drawings appeared in Lossing’s History of the United States. His lithographic work consisted of illustrations for Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” In January 1843, he contracted with Edgar Allan Poe to provide him with illustrations for Poe’s ill-fated literary Journal, The Stylus. Before the Civil War, Darley illustrated works for legendary American authors James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Washington Irving.2

During the war, he produced several images of Washington but few of Lincoln. He tended to concentrate on Federal military leaders such as George McClellan. One of his greatest if not largest work (32x40 inches) was On the March to the Sea. As author Nancy Finlay notes, the print, engraved by A. H. Ritchie “appears to sanction and even glorify the havoc produced by the Union troops as they advanced, ripping up railroad ties, cutting telegraph wires, burning property—and freeing slaves.”3 General Sherman is central to the picture as he sits atop his horse to the left of the scene, telescope in hand focused forward determining his next steps.

Engraver Alexander Hay Ritchie (1822–1895), a Scottish

artist, was also an engraver who specialized in mezzotints. With Sherman’s march, Ritchie settled on line engraving which was “the most highly esteemed reproductive process in the midto late nineteenth century, even though the engraver was obliged to use dense patterns of lines and hatching to interpret the shadow areas for which Darley generally used wash in his original drawings.”4

Ritchie’s engraving was based on Darley’s original study illustration which he drew in 1865 and named A Cavalry Raid. It is pencil and charcoal on paper and measures 25 by 42 inches, nearly identical to the finished engraving. The original is in the West Point Museum, U. S. Military Academy.5

Eventually Darley’s work

1883 lithographic version by F.O.C. Darley/Pub. H. H. Willes, lithographer artist J. P. Fitch Hartford Conn (lithograph). (Library of Congress)

Felix Octavious Carr Darley (1822–1888). (Library of Congress)

Willes. In their version, Fitch and Willes have added a bust portrait of Sherman to the title margin. Both lithographer and printer/ publisher are unknown and have faded from the historical record.

Darley died in 1888 in Claymont, Del., and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass.

Endnotes:

1. “Inventing the American Past:

The Art of F.O.C. Darley,” Sept. 11–Nov. 21, 1999. The Brandywine River Museum in the Resource Library. According to his tombstone, Darley was born in 1821. Nancy Finlay, Inventing the

American Past: The Art of F. O. C. Darley, The New York Public Library Co., 1999, 35. Published for the Exhibition presented at the New York Public Library…and at Brandywine River Museum,

Chadds Ford, Pa…. 1999. Author Henry Pitz writes that Darley was born June 23, 1822. Henry Pitz, The Brandywine Tradition, New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.,1969, 29.

2. Pitz, The Brandywine Tradition, 28-32.

3. Finlay, Ibid., 28.

4. Ibid., 33.

5. Harold Holzer, Mark E. Neely, Jr. The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000, 227.

6. Winterthur Museums, Biographical Statement. http://findingaid. winterthur.org/html/HTML_ Finding_Aids/COL0242.htm.

After 43 years in the museum field, Cilella devotes his time collecting American prints and maps and writing. His most recent books are Upton’s Regulars: A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War (U. Press Kansas, 2009). His two-volume Correspondence of Major General Emory Upton, (U. of Tennessee Press, 2017), received the 2017–2018 American Civil War Museum’s Founders Award for outstanding editing of primary source materials. Upton’s love letters 1868-70, (Till Death Do Us Part) was published in 2020 by the Oklahoma University Press. His current book, the memoirs of Dewitt Clinton Beckwith of Upton’s Regulars (McFarland Press) was released Spring 2023.

1868 original engraving by artist F.O.C. Darley and engraver A. H. Ritchie (engraving). (Library of Congress)

When Ranse Wright’s Brigade Breached the Yankee Line at Gettysburg

Lo Armistead is famous for leading his brigade to the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge in the third day of Gettysburg. Lesserknown is the charge the day before, when Ambrose Ransom Wright’s Georgia brigade struck, and temporarily held, the same point.1

Born in 1826 at Louisville, Georgia (the former state capital), Wright went to local schools before studying law. A few weeks after Sumter he joined an Augusta company. In early May 1861 he was elected colonel of the 3rd Georgia.

In a skirmish in eastern North Carolina Colonel Wright is credited with having singlehandedly captured five Yankees. After whipping the enemy in another Carolina battle Wright

was promoted to brigadier general in early June 1862, which led to brigade command in Virginia.

A veteran of Malvern Hill, Second Manassas and Sharpsburg, he was wounded in the latter battle, commanding his troops from a litter.

Seven months’ medical furlough ensued. During this period thirty-two officers in the 3rd Georgia (Wright’s old regiment) signed a letter requesting the regiment’s transfer to another brigade. General Wright, they claimed, was in the habit of displaying a “harsh discourteous temperament.” Their appeal went nowhere.2

Wright returned just in time for Chancellorsville, where he fought as part of Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson’s division. The brigade was with Lee’s army marching into Pennsylvania. When it came time for Wright’s troops to go into the fight on July 2, the commanding general was ill and in hospital. Leading the men— the 3rd, 22nd and 48th Georgia, plus the 2nd Georgia Battalion— was Col. William Gibson.3

In the Confederate army, brigades were named after their commander, and the name stuck even in their leaders’ absence. Because of this, writers mistakenly assume a commander’s presence. Glenn Tucker, for instance, in his High Tide at Gettysburg, states that “Wright…stood with his brigade on the crest of Cemetery Ridge,” when the general was actually

Eliza Frances Andrews (1840–1931) received a strong education and was 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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a few miles to the rear. Though General Wright filed a report for the Pennsylvania campaign, he acknowledges that “I was compelled by severe indisposition to leave my command” during the battle.4

Lee’s battle plan for July 2 called for a huge infantry assault beginning on the Confederate right (Longstreet’s Corps) that would continue in echelon by division, moving to the left. The attack got off to a delayed start about 4 p.m. When it came time for Anderson’s Division to pitch in, it was late in the afternoon, but with still quite enough daylight on that long summer’s day.5

The Confederates were aiming for the center of the enemy line (including the famous copse of trees), held by Win Hancock’s II Corps. After hearing the signal to move forward, the Georgians pushed across the Emmitsburg Road, to the east of which were positioned the Federal troops. “In this advance, I was compelled to pass for more than a mile across an open plain, intersected by numerous post and rail fences, and swept by the enemy’s artillery,” the general recalled.

Wright’s Brigade “surged up the slope of Cemetery Ridge like a tide rolling up a beach,” writes Harry Pfanz, historian of Gettysburg’s second day.6

The Southerners struck the enemy position, “and drove him in great confusion upon his second line,” Wright declared. The Confederates even captured three guns which the Federals left behind.

Having gained the Emmitsburg turnpike, we again charged upon the enemy, heavily posted behind a stone fence which ran along the abrupt slope of the heights some 150 yards in rear of the pike.

Here the enemy made considerable resistance to our farther progress, but was finally forced to retire by the impetuous charge of my command.

We were now within less than 100 yards of the crest of the heights, which were lined with artillery, supported by a strong body of infantry, under protection of a stone fence. My men, by a welldirected fire, soon drove the cannoneers from their guns, and, leaping over the fence, charged up to the top of the crest, and drove the enemy’s infantry into a rocky gorge on the eastern slope of the heights, and some 80 or 100 yards

in rear of the enemy’s batteries.

“We were now complete masters of the field,” Wright declared in his after-action report with such exaggeration that George R. Stewart, author of the microhistory of Pickett’s Charge, has written that Wright’s report (“complete masters of the field”) “is the most inaccurate and exaggerated of any that it has been my need to study.”7

But as so often happened, his troops’ penetration went unsupported. William Perry’s brigade advanced on the right, but not far enough to assist Wright’s line-breach. Same thing with Carnot Posey’s brigade to the left. General Wright was not very complimentary: “Unfortunately, just as we had carried the enemy’s last and strongest position, it was discovered that the brigade on our right had not only not advanced across the turnpike, but had actually given way, and was rapidly falling back to the rear, while on our left we were entirely unprotected, the brigade ordered to our support having failed to advance.” William Mahone’s brigade, in reserve, also rendered no help.8

Wright was not afraid to speak his mind. His superior, General Anderson, remarked that Ranse needed “a little more coolness.” That quality was not on display,

though, when he wrote his wife Caroline after the battle. He even picked at other officers involved in the Confederate charge of July 3, in which Wright’s Brigade did not actively participate (standing only in possible support). “On the left, Pettigrew’s line wavers— all is lost,” he claimed, “it falls back—it runs. Some of the officers attempt to rally their men…But one thought seems to actuate them all, and that is to gain a safe place far in the rear.”9

Somehow the general’s letter made its way into the pages of the Augusta Constitutionalist, leading Anderson to place Wright under arrest. In the court-martial trial held in late August, Wright conducted his own defense and won acquittal.10

Perhaps the general needed a break; Wright ran for a seat in the Georgia State Senate and won in September 1863. After the legislature adjourned, he returned to the army, but illness kept him out of action for most of the next year.

An Atlanta newspaper once commented that Ranse Wright was “considered vain, and ambitious of acquiring popularity.” Not only that, but as someone said, he was “too self-willed and combative, often raising unnecessary antagonisms.” Despite these faults, Wright won promotion to major general on Nov. 30, 1864. He was stationed at Savannah

“I Thank the Lord I Am Not a Yankee...”

Carte-de-Visite of General Ambrose Ransom Wright. Inscription on front: Augusta Gen. A. R. Wright. Inscription on back: Ga Lf. 19. From the Collections of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society.

when Sherman took the city; he retreated with Hardee’s troops into South Carolina. He ended up surrendering with Joe Johnston.11

But it is Wright’s breach of the Union center on July 2, 1863 that is the centerpiece of his war record. Dr. Freeman asserts that “Wright’s advance was superb,” and thought so much of it that he quoted at length from Ranse’s letter to Caroline, which he obtained through the courtesy of the general’s grandson.

At length, indeed. Freeman took the unusual step of transcribing it into two full pages of Lee’s Lieutenants, noting that the general penned it just five days after the battle, on July 7. If it works for Douglas Southall Freeman, it works for us; so here it is:

As soon as we emerged from the woods and came into the open fields, the enemy poured a most terrific fire of shells into our ranks. We rushed down the hillside and reaching the valley, we found it was broken by a series of small ridges and hollows, running parallel with the enemy’s line on the mountain, and in the

first of these depressions or hollows, our line paused for breath. Then we rushed over the next ridge into the succeeding hollow, and thus we worked our way across that terrible field for more than a mile, under the most furious fire of artillery I had ever seen. When we reached the base of the range upon which the enemy was posted, they opened upon us with their infantry, and raked our whole line with grape and canister from more than twenty guns.

We were now within a few hundred yards of the enemy’s guns, and had up to this time suffered but little loss, the small ridge I have spoken of protecting our men from the enemy’s fire, except as we would pass on their tops which we always did in a run, thus exposing ourselves very little to the enemy’s fire. But we were in a hot place, and looking to my left through the smoke, I perceived that neither Posey nor Mahone had advanced, and that my left was wholly unprotected. I immediately dispatched a courier to General Anderson informing him of the fact, who answered that both Posey and Mahone had been ordered

in and that he would reiterate the order. That I must go on. Before my courier returned, Perry’s Brigade on my right gave way, and shamefully ran to the rear.

My Brigade had now climbed up the side of the mountain nearly to the enemy’s guns, and being left with support either on the right or left, enabled the enemy to concentrate heavy fire upon my small command, but my brave men passed rapidly and steadily on, until we approached within fifty or sixty yards of the enemy’s batteries, when we encountered a heavy body of infantry posted behind a stone wall. The side of the mountain was so precipitous here that my men could with difficulty climb it, but we strove on, and reaching the stone fence, drove the Yankee infantry from behind it, and then taking cover from the fence we soon shot all the gunners of the enemy’s artillery, and rushing over the fence seized their guns. We had now accomplished our task. We had stormed the enemy’s strong position, had driven off his infantry, had captured all his guns in our front, except a few which he succeeded in carrying off, and had up

Federal 12-Pounder Canister

to this minute suffered but comparatively little loss.

Just after taking the enemy’s batteries we perceived a heavy column of Yankee Infantry on our right flank. They had taken advantage of the gap left in our line by the falling back of Perry’s Brigade, and had filed around a piece of timber on our right, and had gotten into the gap left by Perry’s Brigade and were rapidly getting into our rear. Posey had not advanced on our left, and a strong body of the enemy was advancing down the sides of the mountain to gain our left flank and rear. Thus we were perfectly isolated from any portion of our Army a mile in its advance. And although we had gained the enemy’s works and captured his guns, we were about to be sacrificed to the bad management and cowardly conduct of others. For a moment I thought all was lost, and that my gallant little band would all be inevitably killed or captured. Colonel Hall of the Twenty-second had been killed, Colonel Gibson of the Forty-eighth seriously wounded, and while at the enemy’s gun with his hands on the horses, Major Ross of the Second Georgia Battalion had just been shot down. Nearly all my company officers had been killed or wounded. Everything looked gloomy in the extreme, but the men remained firm and cool to the last. The enemy had now gotten completely in our rear, and were advancing upon us over the very ground we had passed in attacking them. A large force concentrated in our front and artillery brought into position and opened upon us. Then a prayer was said.

that line buoyant in spirit and confident of success, now answered to the order that calmly sang out upon the air, “Fall in, Wright’s Brigade, and here we’ll stand again.”12

“Wright fell back because Posey had not covered his left flank or Perry his right,” Freeman concludes. But the Georgians’ plucky breach of the Yankee line is more than a footnote in the stories of how Lee hoped to win a great victory in Pennsylvania— and nearly did among those fields of Gettysburg!

Notes

1. Glenn Tucker, High Tide at Gettysburg: The Campaign in Pennsylvania (Indianapolis: BobbsMerrill Company, 1958), 286-87.

2. Keith P. Bohannon, “Ambrose Ransom Wright” in William C. Davis, ed., The Confederate General, 6 vols. (Harrisburg: National Historical Society, 1991), vol. 6, 161.

3. Ibid., vol. 6, 161.

4. Tucker, High Tide, 287; Wright report, Sept. 28, 1863, OR, vol. 27, pt. 2, 622.

5. Noah Andre Trudeau, Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 389.

6. Harry W. Pfanz, Gettysburg: The Second Day (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987), 387.

7. Wright report, 623; George R. Stewart, Pickett’s Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 (Dayton OH: Press of Morningside Bookshop, 1980 [1959]), 301.

8. Wright report, 623-24; Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command, 3 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 194244), vol. 3, 124.

9. Bohannon, “Wright,” 161, 163; Gen. Wright to Mrs. Wright, July 7, quoted in Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, vol. 3, 160 n.

10. Bohannon, “Wright,” 161.

11. Bohannon, “Wright,” 163.

12. Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, vol. 3, 126-27.

Grooves to tie cartridge bag on to

Diameter: 4.50 inches (left), 4.45 inches (right)

Bore Diameter: 4.62 inches

Length: 8.05 inches (left), 5.37 inches (right)

Weight: 14.6 pounds (left), 10.4 pounds (right)

This is the most common 12-pounder canister used during the Civil War. It was intended to be fired from a 12-pounder smoothbore cannon such as the Model 1857 Napoleon. The standard 12-pounder cast iron canister balls ranged from 1.46 to 1.49 inches in diameter with a mean weight of .43 pound (6.88 ounces) each. Twenty-seven cast iron canister balls were stacked in four layers, packed in sawdust, with the top center ball omitted so the iron top plate would fit properly. The 12-pounder canister had an initial muzzle velocity of 1,262 feet per second with a 2 pound service charge when fired from a 12-pounder field gun. The non-excavated canister on the left is courtesy The Atlanta History Center, Thomas S. Dickey Sr. Civil War Collection; the canister on the right is reassembled from battlefield recoveries.

We must face about and cut our way out of the network of bristling bayonets, which stretched around us on every side. With cheers and good order we turned our faces to the enemy in our rear, and abandoning our captured guns we rushed upon the flanking column of the enemy and literally cut our way out, and fell back about one-half the distance we had gone over, and then reformed our line. But alas, very few of the brave spirits who so recently had passed over

Stephen Davis resides with his sweet wife Billie and loudmouthed cat Cha Cha near Cumming, Georgia. On a good day of retirement there he sees more cows than cars. Some years back he traveled across the South, Mr. Bojangles-like, visiting historic cemeteries and photographing the burial places of Confederate generals. Ranse Wright, for instance, is buried in Augusta, Ga.; decades ago Steve visited him in Magnolia Cemetery, where there are interred six other Confederate generals, including Porter Alexander. Steve wrote about Alexander in The Artilleryman last Fall.

Evergreen Cemetery, Southgate, Ky. A Civil War Site Worth Visiting

By Charles H. Bogart

Evergreen Cemetery is located in Southgate, Ky., at the junction of Alexandria Pike (US27) and Highland Avenue. This 30-acre park-like cemetery was founded in 1848 by the city of Newport, Ky., and was at that time located three miles south of the U.S. Army’s Newport Barracks. The first burial in the cemetery was in 1848.

The entrance to the cemetery is today located off Alexandria Pike. From 1893 to 1936, the cemetery was served by the Cincinnati, Newport & Covington Street Railway’s Route 15 Southgate streetcar. The streetcar had a return loop at the end of Electric Avenue, and the cemetery installed its main entrance gate here. This entrance gate is now normally closed.

Upon entering Evergreen Cemetery from Alexandria Pike, if one turns left, the road leads to the Civil War-era military cemetery. This 150 feet by 150 feet plot of ground is surrounded by a low stone wall. At each corner of the wall a Model 1844 24-pounder Siege and Garrison howitzer is mounted. Buried within the plot are 68 soldiers and sailors who died during the Civil War while at the Newport Barracks, or were post war members of Newport’s Grand Army of the Republic Post. Among those buried here is William H. Horsfall who was awarded the Medal of Honor on May 21,1862, at the age of 15 for saving the life of “a wounded officer lying between the lines during combat at Corinth, Mississippi.” In 1861 at the age of 14, Horsfall had run away from his home in Newport, and enlisted as a drummer in Company C, 1st Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. He remained in the Federal Army until March 1866. Thereafter, he lived in Newport and was very active in GAR affairs until he died in 1922.

Upon leaving the Civil War

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cemetery, a short drive brings you to the grave of Confederate General George Baird Hodge (1828–1892). Hodge was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1859 to 1861 and Chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations when Kentucky declared itself neutral on May 16, 1861. Hodge,

in September1861, entered the Confederate Army as a private. During 1861, he was also a member of Kentucky’s Confederate Provisional Government. In 1862, Hodge was made a captain in the Confederate Army and served as Assistant Adjutant General in General Breckinridge’s Division. In April

The Civil War era cemetery. One of the four Model 1844 24-pounder Siege and Garrison howitzers can be seen in this photo.

The Fort Thomas post cemetery with the Newport, Ky., World War II memorial monument in the foreground. Medal of honor winner Drum

Major Thomas M. Doherty’s grave site is located in front of the central gap in the hedgerow.

The Woman’s Relief Corps sundial with its repaired pedestal but missing its gnomon. All photos by Charles H. Bogart.

1862, he was promoted to major for distinguished gallantry at the Battle of Shiloh. In 1864, Hodge was promoted to colonel and then to brigadier general. During 1865, he was in command of the Confederate Military District of Mississippi and Louisiana. Post war he returned to Newport where he practiced law and served in the Kentucky Legislature.

After leaving General Hodge’s grave, drive to the highest point in the cemetery. This is Battery Shaler. Erected in 1862 by the Black Brigade of Cincinnati, Ohio, the battery was part of the northern Kentucky defensive works guarding Cincinnati during Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith’s 1862 invasion of Kentucky. The Black Brigade was made up of African American volunteers from Cincinnati who performed pioneer work helping build the Northern Kentucky defensive line.

The interior of the battery is crowned by a bandstand.

Within the bandstand, a bronze plaque reads “In Memoriam, The Nations Heroes.” Evergreen Cemetery was developed not only for burial of loved ones but also as a place for people to walk about and enjoy a day in the country. Throughout the streetcar era, the bandstand was used on Memorial Day and the 4th of July by the GAR to eulogize its dead comrades. Battery Shaler was named for Dr. Nathaniel B. Shaler, Chief Surgeon at Newport Barracks. It was armed with three 32-pounders, two 30-pounders, four 24-pounders, and three 12-pounders. Its guns were never fired in anger, and it is one of the few intact northern Kentucky 1862 defensive gun battery sites one can visit.

Near the former streetcar entrance to Evergreen Cemetery are the damaged remains of a sundial erected circa 1895 by the Woman’s Relief Corps. The sundial was damaged when hit by an automobile some 30 years ago.

While the sundial was repaired and is once again standing at its site, it has lost its gnomon. The brass plate at the foot of the sundial reads “Joe Hooker Womans Relief Corps, GAR of Dayton Kentucky, in Memory of the Unknown.” On the sundial is the following wording, “Grow old along with me the best is yet to come.”

Also located in the cemetery is the Fort Thomas Military Post Cemetery. Fort Thomas was a regimental infantry post from 1888 to 1946. Buried in the cemetery are soldiers and their dependents who died while living on the post. Among those buried within this military plot is Drum Major Thomas M. Doherty (1869–1906) of Company H, 4th United States Infantry, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the SpanishAmerican War on July 1, 1898, at Santiago, Cuba, where he “Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines under heavy fire from the enemy.” Also buried here is Nicholas Peblo of 30th Company, Philippine Scouts, who died at the post in 1905.

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.

Front center is the headstone for Medal of Honor winner William H. Horsfall.

Battery Shaler with its bandstand.

Interior view of Battery Shaler and bandstand.

Medal of Honor recipient William H. Horsfall (March 3, 1847–October 22, 1922).

From the Editor

I’m not much of a fried chicken fan, if I’m being perfectly honest. I have nothing against it, personally. I’m not philosophically opposed to it. It just tends to be a little greasier than I prefer, and it can be downright messy if you let it get away from you.

But the first time I visited the Louisville Civil War Roundtable in Kentucky, they had chicken on the buffet. As the old saying goes, “When in Rome. . . .” I figured, if anyone knew what they were doing when it came to fried chicken, it would be the folks in Kentucky.

Indeed they did! I have raved about that chicken ever since.

In fact, I recently made my third visit to the roundtable, and all I could keep thinking about was that chicken. Mmmm mmmm!

My first visit to the Louisville roundtable was also memorable because they paid me in Kentucky Bluegrass. (Yes, they also offered a kind honorarium.) The bluegrass came in a tiny plastic bag, and I was able to plant it the following spring. The roundtable has also been thoughtful enough to “pay” me in fine Kentucky bourbon. The bottle was even autographed by master distiller Chris Morris.

In Hershey, Penn., I’ve been paid in chocolate. In Cuba, New York, I’ve been paid in cheese. In Seattle, Wash., I was paid in local smoked salmon and treated to a vintage baseball-themed calendar.

I’ve been presented with hats and pins and plaques and certificates. I’ve had challenge coins passed to me by handshake. I’ve been given etched glassware, rustic stoneware, and roundtablebranded mugs. Buffalo, New York’s, roundtable presented me with its prestigious “McKinley Cup,” a tin coffee cup named in honor of U.S. President (and onetime coffee-fetcher) William McKinley, who survived bullets at Antietam only to eventually be mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet in Buffalo.

I keep all these treasures, for treasures they are, on the shelves of my Civil War library. I have not saved any of the foodstuff except as fond memories of tasty treats. When I reach for a book, I often have to slide one of these gifts to the side so I can pull the book.

Roundtables are full of generous people eager to share the things that make their communities and their roundtables unique. It’s a privilege to experience America this way. It’s a pleasure to break bread, or share fried chicken, with such fine people.

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

Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge

We’re down to a dozen tickets left for our 9th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium

at Stevenson Ridge, August 4-6 in Spotsylvania, Va. Our theme is “1863: The Great Task Before Us” with keynote speaker Timothy B. Smith.

Tickets for the full weekend are $250. For details, or to snag one of those few remaining tickets, visit: https://emergingcivilwar.com/ ecw_event/2023-symposium.

ECW Bookshelf

Decisions at Shiloh, The Twenty-Two Critical Decisions

That Defined the Battle by Dave Powell (University of Tennessee Press, 2023), with maps by David Friedrichs.

From Dave: “I sort of fell into Decisions at Shiloh when

fellow author and series editor Matt Spruill asked me to take on the project. I agreed, because to me Shiloh is a fascinating engagement, an early-war brawl that involved little finesse. The losses suffered here dwarfed earlier Civil War battles, providing a shocking dose of reality as to just how bloody this struggle might become. But that does not mean it was without key decision points, far from it. Johnston’s decision to pivot at the 18th Wisconsin camp, Sherman and McClernand’s risky venture to counterattack out of Jones Field, and Beauregard’s ultimately controversial choice to halt the Confederate onslaught on the evening of April 6 are each prime examples.

The Decisions series focuses not on narrative, but on analysis: who made those decisions, why, and how each affected the outcome. This was my second such project, after a similar book on Chickamauga, and I enjoyed the chance to dive so deeply into another field of conflict.”

To Hell or Richmond: The 1862 Peninsula Campaign by Doug Crenshaw and Drew Gruber (Savas Beatie, 2023)—part of the Emerging Civil War Series Long-delayed by COVID, Doug and Drew’s book on the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, To Hell or Richmond, is finally available, and readers will agree that it’s been worth the wait. The book tracks George McClellan’s Union army as it advanced from Fort Monroe toward the Confederate capital, with Confederate forces under Joe Johnston carefully giving ground before it. The book takes advantage of new Civil War Trails sites on the Peninsula, too, ensuring tour-followers will have plenty of cool places to visit, good restaurants for eating, and refreshing microbrews to quench their thirst.

Man of Fire: William Tecumseh

Sherman in the Civil War by Derek Maxfield (Savas Beatie, 2023)—part of the Emerging Civil War Series

Man of Fire tells the story of a man who found himself in war; that, in turn, secured him a place in history. Condemned for his barbarousness or hailed for his heroics, the life of this peculiar general is nonetheless compelling, and thoroughly American. According to Derek, his second book is special for its collaboration with his colleagues at Genesee Community College. “You know, while I am proud of the biography,” Maxfield said, “I am especially proud of the contributions from my friends at GCC who wrote great essays for the appendix. Their work added to the quality of the book immeasurably.” The book features appendices penned by GCC Associate Professor of English Tracy Ford, Associate Professor of English Michael Gosselin, and Student Success Coach Jess Maxfield.

News and Notes

Sarah Kay Bierle has been staying home whenever possible . . . and setting aside time to write books! Word counts at a minimum of 6,000 each recent weekend, and getting closer to sending two manuscripts to the editors later this spring.

From Meg Groeling: “The rains in California are not slowing down, but they are getting warmer, so I suspect Spring may be around the bend. I just had a book review for Miss Ravenal’s Conversion published in my column, ‘Civil War Obscura,’ at LSU. We created ‘Obscura’ to give moi an opportunity to ‘review’ and comment on all those books mentioned so often from the middle of the 1800s but which most of us have really never read. It is great fun and

Chris Mackowski

Examples of cool “currency” from Civil War Roundtables.

The latest titles from Emerging Civil War authors.

Kris White stands on the bluffs north of Vicksburg overlooking the old bend in the river, now the site of the Yazoo Bypass canal—with Garry Adelman recording.

gives me double reasons, beyond just my reading addiction, to read obscure books. I will be reviewing the 1855 version of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass next, so watch for it. Meanwhile, my ECWS bio on ‘Uncle Walt’ is within one chapter of being sent to editor Chris Mackowski for his initial perusal, so that is good news for me, if not for him.

“Biggest news? I cleaned up my office, The War Room, and found much that I hadn’t seen for years. Huzzah for me. Next up? Studying Crimean infantry tactics a la Zouave! Because— why not?”

Brian Matthew Jordan delivered a lecture at Genesee Community College in Batavia, NY, on March 1. ECW’s Derek Maxfield was a gracious host and made the trip memorable with visits to Emory Upton’s birthplace, Frederick Douglass’s grave, and the Erie Canal. Brian also spoke to the Austin, Texas, Civil War Roundtable on March 16. Recent travels likewise took him to El Reno, Oklahoma, where he snapped a picture of the statue dedicated to the town’s namesake, Major General Jesse Lee Reno, felled at South Mountain on September 14, 1862. The picture will hopefully illustrate an appendix to his forthcoming title on South Mountain for the ECWS.

Chris Kolakowski recently spoke to the Army Historical Foundation. You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=u1EJMdaR08w

Chris Mackowski and Frank Scaturro did a pair of interviews about their recent co-edited volume Grant at 200. On February 15, they did a virtual book talk for the American Civil War Museum in Richmond. (You can see that here: https://youtu. be/ZT2iMG9zSTI.) On March

16, they did a similar discussion for Civil War Talk.

Chris and Kris White took a trip to Vicksburg in early March to wrap up the final segment in a four-part series of virtual field trips for the American Battlefield Trust. They also shot several videos for the Trust’s YouTube page, which will appear for the Vicksburg 160th anniversary. They were joined by Garry Adelman, Tim Smith, Terry Winschel, and historians from the Old Court House Museum and the Vicksburg Civil War Museum.

Speaking of the virtual field trips, the first one launched this month: A virtual visit to historic Boston, hosted by Chris Mackowski. You can view that video on the Trust’s YouTube page: https://youtu. be/2KfQFRLuMbI.

Derek Maxfield celebrated the publication of his new ECW book Man of Fire: William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War with a book launch party at GoArt! In Batavia, NY. A large, enthusiastic crowd turned out to devour pizza and buy lots of books. The first stop on Derek’s book tour will take him to the Holland Land Office and Museum on April 5 at 7 P.M., followed by stops at the Genesee Valley Civil War Roundtable on April 12 at 7 P.M., the Richmond Memorial Library in Batavia, NY, on April 18 at 7 P.M. and the Buffalo Civil War Roundtable on April 27 at 7 P.M.

ECW Multimedia

On the Emerging Civil War Podcast in March: We chatted with Joe Ewers of the famed 2nd South Carolina Strong Band. The band is in retirement, yet they’re still going strong thanks to the miracle of

digital music. Joe shares the latest.

We got a preview from Andrew Dalton, executive director of the Adams County Historical Society in Gettysburg about the upcoming grand opening of their new museum and research center.

The Emerging Civil War Podcast is available through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever fine podcasts are available. You can also subscribe to our podcast through Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/ emergingcivilwar), where we are now also offering exclusive bonus content for subscribers. For as low as $1.99/month, you can help support ECW. Proceeds go toward defraying the production costs of the podcast.

On the ECW YouTube page, we started exploring sites around Jackson and Vicksburg, Miss., with Chris Mackowski and Kris White. For starters, visit the Bowman House Hotel and the gravesite of William Barksdale, as well as the Vicksburg Civil War Museum.

We commemorated Women’s History Month by talking with Taylor Hegler, the education specialist at Vicksburg National Military Park.

Plus, we posted vodcasts of our conversations with Joe Ewers and Andrew Dalton.

Please don’t forget to “like” and “subscribe” to our videos.

You Can Help Support Emerging Civil War

Emerging Civil War is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. If you’re interested in supporting “emerging voices” by making a tax-deductible donation, you can do so by you can do so by visiting our website: www.

emergingcivilwar.com; you can mail us a check at the address below (make checks payable to “Emerging Civil War”); or

you can make a gift through PayPal: https://www.paypal. com/donate/?hosted_button_ id=2L46N85FH8VWE.

The site of the Bowman House Hotel in Jackson, Miss., sits near the Old Capital Museum and the Two Mississippi Museums.

Living History Association Brings Tidewater Maritime History to Military Through the Ages

By Bob Ruegsegger

When it comes to accurately explaining and depicting maritime history, the Tidewater Maritime Living History Association ranks as one of the premier organizations in the MidAtlantic region. Over the years, they have portrayed the crew of the USS Monitor at the Monitor Center at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News aboard the reconstructed vessel adjacent to the museum.

Sailors of the TMLHA have contributed in the Battle of Plymouth battle re-enactment aboard replica steam launches at the Port of Plymouth Museum on the Roanoke River in North Carolina.

TMLHA has also engaged visitors with living history displays at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum during a USCG Eagle port visit and during Makers Fest.

“TMLHA always offers excellent displays on nineteenth century naval history,” observed Ross Patterson II, curator of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum. “Visitors have always been engaged via their educational activities, displays of accurate reproduction equipment, and through the immense knowledge of TMLHA members.”

Most recently, the TMLHA participated in the annual Military Through the Ages program at Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg. They frequently win blue ribbon awards for their depth of knowledge, degree of accuracy, and expertise regarding nautical history, particularly during the mid-nineteenth century in the Hampton Roads area.

Allen Mordica, a retired Coast Guard officer, co-founded the unit and continues to

pilot the organization through the annual shoals of living history presentations, battle reenactments, and maritime related educational events. “The Tidewater Maritime Living History Association has been around for twenty-three years now,” said Mordica. “Our whole charter is to give an accurate yet positive view of sailors, their lives, their culture, and their activities aboard ship in peace and war,” he said. “We do that through demonstrations as we’re doing today. We will go to battle recreations, reenactments we would call them.”

Mordica and his crew generally shy away from battle reenactments. He believes there’s a social stigma in calling someone a re-enactor. There’s a negativity to it according to Mordica.

“What we do is more educational. We’re here to teach the public. The people seem to eat this up. They love to learn more about the lives of sailors,” explained Mordica. “Virginia is a maritime state. America is a maritime nation. The history of our country is wrapped strongly around the nautical world.”

While most living history groups choose a specific regiment,

tribe, or ship to portray all the time, ad nauseum, the members of TMLHA found the prospect of invariably depicting a particular vessel too limiting. At the Mariners’ Museum, they depicted the crew of the famous ironclad USS Monitor. While presenting a living history program at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, they might portray the crew of the flagship USS Minnesota

“Today we are representing the crew of the USS Aroostook, an Unadilla-class steam powered patrol boat that operated on the James River,” said Mordica. In 1862, the Aroostook anchored at Jamestown and sent a landing party ashore, where we’re standing right now, to destroy an abandoned Confederate gun battery and magazine,” explained Mordica. “

The USS Aroostook was assigned to the small Union flotilla on the James River commanded by Commander John Rodgers on the ironclad flagship USS Galena. The USS Port Royal also served on the task force. Following the Battle of Hampton Roads and the destruction of the CSS Virginia, the diminutive Union flotilla added the ironclad

USS Monitor and the US Revenue Steamer E. A. Stevens to the force. The Federal flotilla steamed up the James River to attack Fort Darling at Drewry’s Bluff, a virtually impregnable Confederate obstacle between Federal forces and Richmond. The Union attack on Fort Darling failed. Confederate gunners from the scuttled CSS Virginia helped repel the Federal naval attack from Drewry’s Bluff.

Kurt Eberly regularly participates in the Military Through the Ages event with the TMLHA. He enjoys setting up camp and doing the two-day event. Jamestown Settlement provides the living history units with a meal on Saturday night as well as supplies such as firewood, straw, and water.

“In the spring of 1862, the Union flotilla was formed to accompany McClellan’s army as it moved up the Peninsula,” said Kurt Eberly who portrayed the ship’s paymaster during the MTA event. “The flotilla was protecting his flank and also clearing the river of any Confederate torpedoes, craft, or gun emplacements on both sides of the river,” explained Eberly.

USS Aroostook anchored in Chinese waters 1867-79 but still configured as per the Civil War. (US Navy History and Heritage Command)

Over the years, TMLHA has earned its share of blue ribbon awards at Military Through the Ages.

Allen Mordica holds a traverse board. The traverse board was a navigational tool used in dead reckoning to record the speeds and directions sailed during a watch.

The USS Aroostook operated with a Union flotilla that included the USS Monitor during an 1862 attack on Drewry’s Bluff. (US Navy History and Heritage Command.)

Paymaster Kurt Eberly is responsible for buying supplies for the ship and paying the sailors. (Color photographs by Bob Ruegsegger.)

“The USS Aroostook destroyed the Confederate installations here on Jamestown Island. We’re representing (the crew of) a ship that operated right here during the war.”

As paymaster, Eberly’s primary duties included buying supplies for the ship and paying the sailors. Paymaster Eberly handled the money and dealt with the contractors and buying the food for the crew. Union sailors were paid in greenbacks. A sailor/ seaman was paid eighteen dollars per month, five dollars better than the army according to Eberly.

The preparation and service of food were essential elements of daily navy life aboard ship and ashore. Cook Eric Jeanneret of the TMLHA offers camp visitors an enlightening look at Union navy mess service and food preparation during the midnineteenth century.

“We’re representing the USS Aroostook (The Old Rooster). She was a 90-day wooden steam gunboat. She sailed in the James River with the Monitor. She actually put men ashore on Jamestown Island,” said Jeanneret, a retired Navy veteran. “We’re representing a landing party that came ashore to destroy

Confederate property.”

Food typical of U.S. Navy fare during the War Between the States is spread out on the exhibit table before Jeanneret.

Salt pork, sea biscuit, and beans were staples, the standard rations, for the enlisted men and were provided at government expense. Officers paid for their own food and their fare varied appreciably from the bland diet of the crew.

“Sailors complained, but they always complain. Really,

the food wasn’t that bad. The officers did eat very well,” said Eric Jeanneret. “A lot of times the officers’ fare was thought of as being as good as a hotel meal ashore.”

An assortment of canned foods, peaches, lobster, pork and beans,

milk, added variety to the crew’s generally insipid diet. According to Jeanneret, Van Camp’s pork and beans have been around since 1861. An Indianapolis merchant discovered that baked beans and tomatoes made a good meal. He began canning the pork and beans and selling the tasty mixture to Union troops as they went off to

war. Borden’s condensed milk has been available in cans since the 1850’s.

“One of the more unusual canned foods is canned lobster. Lobster, back then, was not regarded as the delicacy that it is today. It was actually thought of as a trash food,” said Jeanneret. “It was said that lobster, as a

Admiral Samuel Lee (front center) dropped by the USS Aroostook camp for an informal visit and a photo opportunity.

Connor Jeanneret relaxes with a bowl of beans next to the launch stove that was used to prepare meals ashore.

Salt pork and sea biscuit.

Canned foods including lobster, pork and beans, and peaches were available aboard US Navy ships during the Civil War.

Union Jack Sardines were canned by Jeanneret & Koch in Cleveland, Ohio.

food, was only fit for convicts and sailors. One of the reasons we know lobster as a delicacy today is the canning process.”

In the U.S. Navy, sailors could generally count on getting three meals a day. Sailors were also provided a “spirit ration,” rye whisky with lemon juice and sugar had replaced rum. When the “spirit ration” was officially terminated in September 1862,

Union sailors were paid an extra nickel at day to temper the resentment.

“We’ve got a coffee grinder and coffee beans. We’ve got a pot of coffee brewing right now. We can drink coffee all day,” said Jeanneret. “The crackers are known as sea biscuits. The Army calls it hardtack. Hardtack is normally square and it comes in a crate. Sea biscuit is round and comes in a barrel.”

Nearby, Connor Jeanneret, Eric’s son, is preparing a pot of bean soup for the enlisted crew.

Officers will enjoy a threecourse meal, first course, oyster soup; main course, fried steak and ale; dessert, ice cream and bread pudding. They’ll also have a choice of beverages, including apple cider, spiced wine, or coffee.

“Food was being prepared on what was called a launch stove. It was a box stove that could be easily transported on a ship’s launch since two sailors could handle it. They’d bring it along on shore parties to cook on,” said Connor Jeanneret, the unit’s

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assistant cook. “This style of stove came about in the 1840’s. It’s wood-fired. I’ve finished preparing the enlisted meal of bean soup and sea biscuit.”

During the Civil War, the Marine Corps’ primary contribution was serving aboard ships assigned to blockading squadrons and operating in river flotillas. Chris Johnson, a living historian and active-duty Coast Guardsman, portrays a Marine assigned to the USS Galena

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“The Galena was the flagship of a flotilla operating on the James River. She turned broadside to Fort Darling at Drewry’s Bluff and was basically a sitting duck,” said Johnson. “There were obstructions in the river that she couldn’t pass. She was hit four to six times.”

Although the Galena was technically an ironclad, the iron was too thin and easily breached. One of the shots from Fort Darling penetrated the hull and eliminated a Navy gun crew. The Marines who had been taking out sharpshooters on the river banks

crewed the gun and continued firing at Fort Darling.

“One of those Marines, Corporal John Mackie, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor,” noted Johnson. “That was the first time a Marine was awarded the Medal of Honor.”

Homer Lanier is the visitor experience manager with the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the organization that sponsors the annual MTA event at Jamestown Settlement. “The Tidewater Maritime Living History Association is very squared away when it comes to presenting their history and their material culture, all the things they bring with them,” said Lanier. “Their uniforms are spot on as they would have been during the time of the American Civil War. They are an excellent group. They are historians who are genuinely excited to share their expertise.”

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

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Chris Johnson portrayed a U.S. Marine assigned to the USS Galena during the operations around Drewry’s Bluff.

TMLHA set up camp and welcome visitors. The artillery piece is a boat howitzer, a weapon used to provide artillery support for Navy landing parties.

Eric Jeanneret enjoys a bowl of bean soup prepared by his assistant cook on a wood-fired box stove.

Federal ironclad Galena. (Library of Congress)

COLLECTION

This fashionable young lady wears her hair in tight ringlets that hang loose, a style popular among young girls and teens that was less often worn by adult women in the Civil War. She wears a hat with a veil that has been folded back so it does not cover her face. Her dress, with its well-fitted bodice, jewel neckline, sleeves that are widest at the elbow, and full pleated skirt, exhibits many characteristics that were extremely popular at the time of the Civil War. The sergeant is wearing a nine-button dark blue frock with blue trousers and a vest with watch chain attached to a button hole. Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress).

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.

The Confederate Detective Service: A Primer

The Confederate Detective Service. By Ransom N. Hundley. Illustrated, bibliography, 258 pp., Knucklesamich Publishing, 2022, softcover, $30.00. And, The Confederate Detective Service: Duty and Dishonor, Choices Among Men. By Ransom N. Hundley. Illustrated, bibliography, Knucklesamich Publishing, 2022, 131 pp., softcover, $20.00.

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

These two companion volumes trace the formation and workings of the Confederate Detective Service, a branch of the Provost Marshal’s office. While covering a number of detectives and secret service operatives, two detectives are singled out as illustrating the Detective Department; Theodore Woodall, who deserted and became a double agent, and Philip Cashmeyer, who remained true to the Confederacy throughout the war.

Theodore Woodall, a Plug Ugly from the Pratt Street riots in Baltimore, fit in with the rest of his former rowdies by engaging in bribes, extortion, and theft. After being dismissed along with the entire Detective Bureau in November 1862 by Gen. John Winder, he deserted, was arrested, sent to Capital Prison, fled North and entered the U.S. Secret Service. Returning to the South, he was reinstated as a detective, fled with sensitive documents, and again spied for the North. His last act during the war’s aftermath was his role in tracking down John Wilkes Booth. He spent his remaining years as a saloon keeper and merchant.

Philip Cashmeyer became the personal detective for Gen. Winder and thus was appointed to the Detective Corps after the November 1862 purge. He guarded prisoners, delivered messages, and assisted Gen. Winder in Provost Marshal duties. He was temporarily detained in Castle Thunder after he made the mistake of sending harmless

Custer Biography Struggles to Offer New Look at “Boy General”

Custer: From the Civil War’s Boy General to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. By Ted Behncke & Gary Bloomfield. Maps, photos, notes, index, 264 pp., 2020. Casemate Publishers, www.casematepublishers.com. $34.95.

Reviewed by Noah F. Crawford

While certainly minor, these errors collectively undermine the authors’ credibility on larger, more important claims.

correspondence to his Baltimore relatives via Yankee paroled prisoners (Mrs. Patterson Allan Treason Letter). Cashmeyer was then released and appointed by Gen. Winder as sutler for Andersonville Prison. After Lee’s surrender, he was arrested in Richmond but later pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, who had received several letters attesting to his kind treatment of Yankee prisoners. He too spent his declining years as a saloon keeper in Baltimore.

While these two detectives represent the bulk of information on the workings of the Confederate Detective Bureau, other secret operations are covered including the St. Alban’s Raid, the City Point Explosion, Morris Greenwall’s treachery, the invention of the coal torpedo, and the failed burning of New York City. Likewise, some of the more colorful detectives are covered along with their exploits, including John Y. Beale, Samuel Maccubbin, John L. Weatherford, and John B. Williams.

The author provides voluminous copies of records to document the pay and missions of the various detectives. Unfortunately, most are poorly photographed and unreadable. Likewise, numerous spelling and grammatical errors could have been cured by a good copy editor. The second volume, Duty and Dishonor, is a condensed version of the first volume and adds nothing in terms of new information. For those interested in the Confederate Detective Service, The Confederate Detective Service provides a good starting point for understanding its clandestine role in the Civil War.

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.

In their preface, co-authors Ted Behncke and Gary Bloomfield verbalize the question every reader will ask when they find Custer; “why do another biography of Custer? Hasn’t every bit of material been covered?” Their response is curt and unsubstantiated; “The answer will always be no.” The subsequent two hundred pages offer little to support their tenuous opinion that Custer deserves endless biographies solely because of the “irresistible enigma” that enshrouds his name. This hagiographic narrative of Custer’s life falls short of its ambitious goal to inspire a new understanding of “the Boy General” due to distracting errors, indigestible exaggeration, and under-analysis of sources. Every book contains typos, but Custer suffers mightily from lack of thorough copy editing by an observant editor. In the very first paragraph of Chapter 1, readers confront “the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1948.” The book continues to confuse dates, on one occasion describing a Union veteran as “writing in 1981.” Later, readers are mistakenly informed that Custer’s men captured Confederate general Joseph Kershaw in March of 1865 (it was April) and that the famous “Southern Gibraltar” of Fort Fisher was located in South Carolina, not in North Carolina.

These larger claims already rest on shaky soil due to extensive hyperbole. Assertions like “Custer’s meteoric rise… is simply without equal” sit uneasily with readers, especially when such claims simply hang as independent statements without elaboration. Sometimes this unadulterated praise manifests itself in flatly untrue statements, including the assertion that “Custer never lost a battle during the Civil War.” Among others, Custer suffered a humiliating reversal during February 1864 when tasked with leading 1,500 horsemen in a raid toward Charlottesville. Just a few miles from his objective, 200 disorganized Confederate horse artillerymen mounted battery horses and armed themselves with fence rails, bluffing Custer into a hasty withdrawal with his goal unaccomplished. So how can one claim Custer never lost a battle? Simple, by only asking Custer what happened. The only reference to this debacle in the book lies in a single quote pulled from Custer’s report on the affair in which the Boy General spun his unambiguous failure into a smashing success by claiming destruction of such valuable enemy infrastructure as horse harnesses.

Therein lies the next, and greatest, shortcoming of the volume, under-analysis of primary sources. The cardinal rule of writing narratives is “Show, Don’t Tell.” But readers will continually find claims that never receive elaboration. Custer, we are told, was a great prankster at West Point, but we are never shown an example of the chicanery that allegedly endeared him to his classmates. We are told that Custer’s “superiors, and the press, were taking notice of his bravado”

during the Peninsula Campaign, but are not shown a quote from superiors or newspapers from that time. Paradoxically, the book simultaneously suffers from an over-use of primary quotes. In the ninety-five pages that cover Custer’s boyhood through the Civil War years, readers encounter an eye-rubbing eighty-four block quotations. The majority of the text in the book’s second chapter is raw, dry swaths of stiff nineteenth century prose punctuated with only brief analysis. On multiple occasions, block quotes consume entire pages. Indeed, even secondary sources earn quotations that gobble up entire paragraphs of text, especially the earlier biographies of Custer by Frederick Whittaker and Jeffrey D. Wert. Despite quoting so heavily from previous books and taking primary sources at face-value, little incisive analysis arises on Custer’s early life, Civil War career, or demise at Little Bighorn.

When readers pick up a book on Custer, they want to know its significance, “Why is this book on Custer more important than any other I could read?” Unfortunately, readers will confront unsatisfactory circular reasoning that implies that “this book on Custer is important because all books on Custer are important.” Custer buffs searching for an unfamiliar account or two describing the Boy General’s battlefield heroics will find this book’s lengthy compiled quotes useful, but a bit more editing and objective analysis would go a long way for future biographers to offer new perspectives on the Boy General.

Noah F. Crawford is a Ph.D. student in history at Texas A&M University. He studies the experiences of refugees and the intersection of social history and military history in the American Civil War.

Cache of Letters from a Peripatetic Family

Contemners and Serpents: The James Wilson Family Civil War Correspondence. Edited by Theodore Albert Fuller and Thomas Daniel Knight. Bibliography, index, photographs, map, footnotes. 304 pp., 2023. Mercer University Press, www. mupress.org. Hardback, $45.00.

Reviewed by Gould Hagler

written by all seven members of the family, plus a few penned by others, during the Civil War and a short time before and after.

Although both Reverend and Mrs. Wilson were born in the North, they had ties to the South as well, especially Mrs. Wilson When the country began to split apart most family members were residing in what would soon become the Confederacy. When it came time to choose, all seven, with varying degrees of fervor, chose the South. All four sons served in the Confederate army, three as soldiers and one as a chaplain. The father, for a time, worked as a hospital chaplain. Mrs. Wilson and daughter Bessie lived much of the time with relatives in the South.

It is interesting to note that the two editors never met or communicated in any way. Fuller died in 1990, his work unfinished. Knight began his part of the job two decades later when Fuller’s daughter offered him the opportunity to complete the work. While it is unclear which editor did what, it seems that Fuller wrote the text, interspersed with the letters, which orient the reader and provide context. The detailed information on the numerous friends, relatives, colleagues, and comrades mentioned in the letters is, I believe, Knight’s work.

Civil War Monuments –Fresh Perspectives

Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War. Edited by Jon Tracey and Chris Mackowski with a foreword by Michael Kraus. 336 pp., 2022. Savas Beattie, www.savasbeatie. com. Hardback, $29.99.

Reviewed by Sal Cilella

For nearly two decades, starting in 1834, James and Eliza Wilson labored for the Lord as Presbyterian missionaries in India. Five children were born to the Wilsons during their time in that faraway land. In 1852 James and Eliza, with their three youngest children, returned to the United States, where the two oldest had already been sent to boarding school. The return was meant to be an extended, but temporary, leave of absence. However, the Civil War intervened, altering the course of the Wilsons’s lives as it did the lives of nearly every family in the nation.

This capably-edited collection contains approximately 85 letters

The letters reveal a close and loving family, whose members were widely separated and frequently on the move. Wherever they were, and however often they changed locations, they were linked together by the mail. The book’s single map shows about 75 locations where different family members lived, fled to, camped, battled, or were imprisoned during the war and after.

In these letters James, Eliza, Jimmy, Joseph, Lute, John, and Bessie shared news about major goings-on and about personal matters; they described living conditions in camp and on the home front; they expressed their views about the political and military issues of the day; and they offered and sought financial aid and other kinds of help as needs dictated.

The three soldiers had relatively little to say about the battles they fought. Far more common were expressions of their faith and their confidence in divine providence.

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.

www.mupress.org

866-895-1472 toll-free

All survived the war. Two soldier brothers made it through without a scratch. The third was seriously wounded and lost a foot. The fourth brother preached in two Tennessee churches until 1864, when he joined the army as a chaplain. Father struggled much of the time to find adequate employment as a preacher. Mother and Bessie, housed most of the time with well-todo relatives, supported the cause with enthusiasm.

Contemners and Serpents concludes with a chapter that summarizes, in a concise narrative, the stories of all the family members. This helpful recapitulation gathers up the bits and pieces scattered throughout the letters and the numerous footnotes. The chapter also carries the story forward through the family members’ post-war lives. The war threw their lives off course, but all survived the ordeal and, with varying levels of success, continued on.

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

When Upton’s Regulars, the 121st New York State Volunteer infantry, decided to memorialize their participation in the Battle of Gettysburg, they agreed they would take on the task of raising the money and designing the sculpture or statue themselves. The state had authorized all eighty-two regiments and batteries that had represented the state at Gettysburg to design a monument to mark their position on the battlefield. The rest was up to the survivors.

The 121st swung into action immediately. The aggressive deadline of July 3, 1888, to execute the design and implementation of the project was missed by the 121st, but by 1889 they had succeeded. The state provided a subsidy of $1,500 and in the end, the 121st committee raised another $1,000, a considerable amount of money today. James Cronkite, one of the unit’s last commanders, wrote that the Gettysburg Battlefield would be covered with “such a collection of monuments, as the world has never seen together. We do not expect to erect another memorial to our regiment” and he expected it to “stand forever’ guaranteeing that “your descendants will not be ashamed.”

The survivors picked the north slope of Little Round Top where the regiment came to rest on the early evening of July 2, 1863, after a forced march of some 30

miles. The final design included a panel honoring their esteemed commander Brigadier General (then colonel) Emory Upton. The monument was topped off with a sculpture of a soldier at “place rest,” leaning gently on his musket, while intently watching the approach of the enemy and awaiting the order of battle. The soldier was no anonymous prototype but a depiction of one of their own, private Frank Lowe who donned the uniform and gear to pose as the regiment’s model in perpetuity.

The intent or motivation of the establishment of the regiment’s monument was clear from the start; it was meant to honor its most illustrious commander and mark the spot on the most famous battlefield of the war where the boys from upstate New York stood during that famous encounter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Lately, monuments, particularly those related to our “Great Tragedy” have become the center of controversy reaching boiling points in many communities. The deadly riot that occurred in Charlottesville in 2017, was but one of the many new controversies over memory and monuments in the American landscape.

For the past decade, the history of memory has taken first place among practicing historians, both professional and amateur. An outpouring of books, seminars, lectures, and articles have looked at the history of memory from all angles. As I wrote in my review of Peter Cook’s Civil War Memories: Contesting the Past in the United States Since 1865, “I don’t know who invented the history of memory, but David Blight’s, Race and Reunion did for Civil War history of memory what Michael Kammen’s groundbreaking 1991 Mystic Chords of Memory did for the general history of American memory and tradition ” Jon Tracey and Chris Mackowski’s editing of 39 separate entries on nearly every aspect of history and memory touch on all the bases in their book Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War. Several chapters take on the monumentation of Gettysburg. A majority of the entries were originally published as blogs at

. . . . . . . see page 37

The Best of the Very Best of Their Own

America’s Hardscrabble General: Ulysses S. Grant, from Farm Boy to Shiloh. By Jack Hurst. Southern Illinois University Press, www.siupress. com. 244 pp. Paperback, $26.50.

Reviewed by Meg Groeling

who began his own business and a mother who was not well educated. Grant grew up on a farm in Ohio and only attended West Point because his father saw it as an opportunity to gain a college education for his son at public expense. Young Grant served in the Mexican War but resigned from the Army (in disgrace) when he was posted far away from family and friends. He then experienced farm and business failures until the Civil War broke out, when Grant reenlisted. He was given command of a rowdy volunteer regiment, the 21st Illinois. His style of command, nothing like the usual imperious West Point method, turned the 21st into a model regiment.

During this time, Grant saw how a successful army, in this case, led by Major General (and future president) Zachary Taylor, really worked. Taylor’s leadership style contrasted with General Winfield Scott’s, but Grant watched both generals win a war. He observed how the average soldier should be treated and noted the importance of supplying his troops. Pages 67-76 analyze Grant’s Mexican War experiences in a way usually reserved for his Civil War exploits. Hurst puts in context Grant’s decisions in many situations, firmly basing them on observed and participated-in experiences in that earlier war. This terse analysis sets Hurst’s work apart from other Grant biographies.

The Mississippi River: Highway of the Poor

Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875–1930. By Gregg Andrews. Illustrated, Notes, Bibliography, Louisiana State University Press, https://lsupress.org, 2023, 323 pp., hardbound. $39.95.

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

Today, the reputation of Ulysses S. Grant is changing from that of a successful but mostly lucky general with a drinking problem to a man now considered to be a model of outstanding American military leadership. Jack Hurst, author and retired newspaperman, gives readers a valuable look into how a man from the lower ranks of American society gained this eminence. In America’s Hardscrabble General, he demonstrates how Grant’s humble beginnings and equally humble values better prepared him to lead volunteer American soldiers into battle and on to victory.

Most officers in the American Army came from families of wealth and privilege; however, Ulysses Grant came from humble beginnings that included a father

Hurst gives readers a detailed view of Grant’s early years, from his Ohio youth to the Battle of Shiloh. Other authors rarely examine these years. Instead, Hurst focuses on this period entirely, explaining with detail how every event in Grant’s life added to his future success as a general who, by his nature, fought his Army in a manner Carl von Clausewitz would have recognized. Rather than relying on maneuvering and winning a place on a map, the cornerstone of Grant’s strategy concerned moving forward and beating the Confederate armies into submission. The argument is made that Grant’s military understanding came not from West Point but from his Ohio roots, his place in America’s nascent middle class, and his powers of observance and common sense.

America’s Hardscrabble General pays particular attention to Grant’s service as quartermaster of the U.S. 4th Infantry in the Mexican War.

The depth with which Grant’s early career is examined is invaluable. Many are familiar with Grant’s work at the end of the Civil War, but this book puts those experiences in their proper place as the outcome of Grant’s earlier life. His “rookie mistakes” at Forts Henry and Donaldson, and even Shiloh, his evolving feelings about warfare and the plight of newly-freed slaves, all are examined. So is his ability to handle not just alcohol but the rumors concerning its consumption being spread as far as Washington. Grant’s friendships with U.S. generals Sherman, McPherson, and “Old Brains” Halleck, as well as his issues with political general John McClernand, and eventually with Halleck are given equal importance in the evolution of the General Grant, who led the Union to a complete victory in the American Civil War. If any reader considers him/herself a true Grant enthusiast, this book must be in the bookcase, preferably toward the front.

Meg Groeling received her master’s degree in Military History, with a Civil War emphasis, in 2016, from American Public University. Savas Beatie published her first book, The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead, in the fall of 2015. Her second book, First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North’s First Civil War Hero was published by Savas Beatie in 2020. She is a book reviewer for LSU, Civil War News, and a regular contributor to the blog Emerging Civil War. She lives in Hollister, California in a 1928 bungalow with her husband, her cats, and a lot of books and roses.

Gregg Andrews uses the Mississippi River bottom towns and squatter settlements near the St. Louis levee to tell the stories of the Mississippi River’s poor and their unique culture. While poverty reigns in these camps, a vibrant culture is evident. The author uses the stories of these “forgotten” people to reveal the life of those whose stories are seldom told. These were the “river rats,” water gypsies, and river trash whose life on the Mississippi was a struggle but was not devoid of a vibrant culture all their own. From black roustabouts, river nomads, and white shantyboat travelers, they consisted of former slaves, day laborers, wanderers, and vagrants, drawn to the waterway by unique circumstances. Yet, they had one thing in common; The regimentation, bureaucracy, and industrialization gripping America in the late 19th Century had no appeal to them.

St. Louis provided a window through which the lives of these river poor could be viewed, how their lives were shaped and what mark they left on American history. One of their principal traits was the credo to always help fellow boats and their inhabitants when in need, clannishly protecting each other from outsiders or trouble-makers. Their livelihood depended on the river; whether they captured driftwood, sold cut lumber, fished, told fortunes, searched for pearls, or became moonshiners, they seldom left the river life they loved.

Their shantyboat settlements

swelled with industrialization and the depressions of 1873, 1882, and 1893; yet all was not without danger. Violence occurred on the riverfront. Police and politicians harassed roustabouts and local boatsmen, fines were levied, and the notorious workhouse beckoned for t hose who could not pay. Gambling, prostitution, and drinking were a way of life. Labor strikes resulted in physical confrontations with ship captains. Additionally, mother nature tried the nerves of the river rats. Storms, tornados, floating ice sheets, floods, disease, and river snags reminded wharf residents that nature was not to be taken lightly. Life on the river was not for the faint of heart yet the roustabouts and residents endured its hardships, created a blues, ragtime, and jazz culture to sing its praises while they eked a living from its waters. Their writings told of medicine boats, mission boats, river preachers, swamp healers, and showboat minstrels that added to the mystique of living on the Mississippi. It was a colorful life that added a great deal of “common folk” heritage to American culture.

The life of roustabouts and steam packets virtually disappeared by 1930 when industrialization and technology transformed Mississippi’s river culture. Houseboats and yachts filled the spaces formerly occupied by shantyboats. Work disappeared as the lumber industry folded. Wharfs were getting a middle and upper class facelift. City planners and politicians began transforming the river front. The old days faded to rural river areas where the depression breathed new life into old frontier traditions.

This book, although not directly Civil War related, combines voluminous primary source material into a fascinating picture of life on the Mississippi, the life line of the Confederacy and the home of a culture of poverty enjoyed by river folks. It is very readable, engaging, comprehensive and would make a great addition to an historian’s library to understand the culture of the river.

Dr. Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College, the past president of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable, and the author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War, including the Last Confederate Scout and Heroes and Rogues of the Civil War.

William Barksdale, CSA

William Barksdale CSA: A Biography of the United States Congressman and Confederate Brigadier General. By John Douglas Ashton. McFarland, https://mcfarlandbooks.com, 2021, paperback. $39.95.

Reviewed by Stephen Davis

seceded in January 1861.

When the war started, Barksdale was elected colonel of the 13th Mississippi. The regiment arrived at Manassas just in time for the big battle. Fighting as part of Early’s Brigade, the 13th helped drive the Federals from the field.

Then Colonel Barksdale’s sky darkened. On August 10, during a march toward Leesburg, he imbibed too freely, got drunk and started telling off his officers and men. Col. Shanks Evans, his superior, had him arrested, not so much for intoxication as for mistreatment of the officers, 32 of whom called for Barksdale’s resignation. A court of inquiry ultimately filed no charges, and within a month the colonel was restored to command.

At Leesburg (Ball’s Bluff) Barksdale demonstrated “his characteristic aggressiveness.”

H Monuments

from page 35

eating persimmons. The general admonished the young man against eating astringent food. “I am not eating it for food, General,” came the reply; “I am only trying to make my stomach fit my rations.”

William Barksdale of Mississippi has finally gotten a Confederate general’s due: a book-length biography. And it’s a good one. John Douglas Ashton’s William Barksdale CSA is thoroughly researched, capably written and comprehensively organized. Best of all, its subject provides for a most interesting read.

Born in middle Tennessee in August 1821, Barksdale was schooled locally, attended college for a couple of years, taught himself law and was admitted to the bar. In 1839 he moved to Mississippi and opened practice in Columbus. He helped edit a newspaper in the 1840s, became a prosperous planter and slaveowner, and got interested in politics.

When the Mexican War began, Barksdale was elected commissary captain in the 2nd Mississippi. The conflict ended without his seeing combat. As slavery tensions rose in the 1850s, Barksdale emerged as a vocal States Righter, though he opposed secession (at least at the time). After election to the U.S. House in 1853 Barksdale continued to thread this needle until Black Republican intransigence drove him to call for Mississippi’s secession. He held his House seat till his resignation after his state

Then, during the fall of 1861 the War Department brigaded the Confederate Army of the Potomac by states; the Mississippi Brigade consisted of Barksdale’s 13th along with the 17th, 18th and 21st regiments. Dispatched to Magruder on the Peninsula, the Mississippians fell back on Richmond when McClellan began pushing toward the capital. Then the Seven Days started. At Savage Station, Southerners had their opinion changed as to whether one Confederate could whip five Yankees, as one Mississippian attested (he couldn’t). At Malvern Hill, after three color bearers dropped their flag, Colonel Barksdale snatched it up and led his men forward. Such fearless conduct earned “Old Barks” the respect of his men. Here the three Mississippi regiments were among the seven Confederate regiments “which suffered the highest casualties,” but Ashton doesn’t offer the numbers. At Sharpsburg, Barksdale again led a charge of his brigade that put the enemy to flight in the West Woods.

The author’s research is very impressive: manuscripts, newspapers, memoirs, secondaries. I was pleased to see frequent quotations from Capt. James Dinkins’ memoir, reprinted by Morningside in 1975.

Ashton’s eye for detail allows for funny anecdotes, such as when Lee observed a soldier

Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for. One of the more familiar and widely reproduced illustrations in Battles and Leaders is Allen Redwood’s drawing, “Barksdale’s Mississippians Opposing the Laying of the Pontoon Bridges” (III, 87). Colonel Barksdale is not shown here, but in Turner’s Gods and Generals he is, in all his impressive heft (two hundred pounds, 5'11"). In the movie (as portrayed by Les Kinsolving) Barksdale looks very much like photographs show him, of considerable heft (200 pounds, 5'11". The colonel doesn’t have a speaking part, but in the screenplay, as his troops fire at the Yankees are crossing the river he yells, “Keep it hot, boys!” Then, when the enemy enters town, it’s “Let’s go, Mississippi! It’s house to house now! Make ‘em pay for every step!”

As with all McFarland paperbacks, this one is richly illustrated. I counted 33 photographs, 21 illustrations, and 11 Hal Jesperson maps. The author took a number of pictures himself—impressive.

Stephen Davis’ next book, on how the National Intelligencer covered the Atlanta Campaign, will be published by Savas Beatie later this year.

Emerging Civil War. A smattering are original pieces for this publication, and equal time is given to monuments as well as memory. Author Chris Heisey sets the tone in the first chapter which is entitled “Photographing Monuments,” which is followed by Kristopher White’s “What is a Monument?” White successfully teases apart the confusing array of monuments, markers, tablets, memorials, statues, and every conceivable manner of presenting history to the general public and most importantly, intent or motivation. Flowing nicely into that concept is Chris Mackowski’s (not every contributor in this book was named Chris!) “When a Monument Gets its History Wrong” which addresses the misplacement of Lee in the wrong place at Antietam.

Physically, this book sports an editors’ note, acknowledgments, a foreword, 38 entries, contributor’s notes, a postscript, and an index. The contributor’s notes intrigued me. Of the 27 authors in this compilation, only three admitted to earning a PhD, a few had the Masters. In a recent article published in the New York Times, University of Washington associate professor of international studies Daniel Bessner, argues that “This is Actually the End of History.”

He contends that academe is not turning out enough PhD’s and that “Americans are fighting over the past while historians disappear.”

The existence of emerging civil war authors, with or without their PhDs, their strict adherence to tight logic, judicious use of

primary sources, and ability to communicate, refutes the doomsday scenario that history is dead.

As far as Monuments and Memory is concerned, perhaps the neediest area of conversation should focus on intent or motivation. We need to continue to unravel the original intentions of the builders of these monuments/memorials. It is becoming increasingly clear from much recent scholarship that the Daughters of the Confederacy were intent on not only honoring the Confederate soldier but to perpetuate the myth of the lost cause. The writing in this new examination of monuments and memory by Tracey and Mackowski remind us that there is a vast difference between history and nostalgia. Our challenge is to understand the difference.

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

The Artilleryman is a quarterly magazine for collectors, competition shooters and those interested in ordnance from the Revolutionary War to World War II, primarily focusing on cannon, implements, projectiles and related artifacts from the American Civil War. This full color magazine features articles on cannon safety, artillery history, projectiles, fuses, places to visit, book reviews, competition events, and so much more. The annual quarterly subscription price is just $37.95.

Military Antique Collector is a bi-monthly magazine with detailed high-resolution color photographs of some of the world’s most beautiful and unusual military collectibles. Dedicated to both the expert collector and novice alike, each issue is filled with informative articles written by leading authorities in their fields of expertise, including distinguished well-known authors, along with prominent museum and auction professionals. Issues spotlight rare and unusual military objects, craftsmanship works, and their relationship to historical figures dating from early American and European history to limited coverage of the post-1898 artifact. Priced at only $39.95 for 6 issues. It’s easy to see why Military Antique Collector magazine has become popular so quickly.

HistoricalPublicationsLLC.com

May 18-21, Tennessee. American Battlefield Trust 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 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, 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. 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, Virginia.

Period Firearms Competition

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.

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. 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

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 715-5269769.

Oct. 6-8, Virginia, Annual Conference

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 livefire event in the country. Free admission, large sutler area, and food service. For more information visit the N-SSA web site: www.n-ssa.org.

May 20-21, New York. Annual Artillery School

Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown, NY, will again take place. Open to all branches of service, both Federal and Confederate. Sponsored by the National Civil War Artillery Association and Reynolds’ Battery L. For questions contact: Rick Lake at: rlake413@aol.com or call: 585-208-1839. Registration Forms and additional information can be found at: www.reynoldsbattery.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 20, Virginia. Civil War Books, Relics & Memorabilia Show Saturday, May 20, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Arlington-Fairfax Elks Lodge, Rt. 50, Fairfax, Virginia. Admission $5 per person. Vendors welcome. For information contact dhakenson@verizon.net, 703-785-5294, or mayo5404@ cox.net, 703-389-1505. Sponsored by Frank Stringfellow Camp, SCV, Fairfax, Va.

Central Virginia Battlefields Trust hosts its 2023 annual conference, “1863: Chancellorsville-The Crossroads of Fire.” This year’s conference features a Friday tour of Moss Neck, Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson’s 1862-63 winter headquarters with historian Frank O’Reilly. That evening the President’s Reception will be at the Sentry Box, one of Fredericksburg’s most historic homes. Saturday features a tour of the Chancellorsville battlefield with historians Chris Mackowski and Kris White. Saturday evening includes a banquet and the annual meeting with a keynote address by Kris White at historic Belmont in Falmouth. Sunday brunch at Stevenson’s Ridge includes a panel discussion about “Chancellorsville as the Prelude to Gettysburg” with historians Sarah Kay Bierle, John Hennessey, Robert Lee Hodge, Scott Walker, and others. The weekend registration is $260.00 per person. More information and online registration are available at: https://www.cvbt.org/cvbt-annual-conference.

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. 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.

https://www.historicalpublicationsllc.com/site/eventlistings.html for all 2023 events.

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