Civil War Times February 2021

BUSTED GUNS AND A BROKEN NOSE: REPAIRING BATTLEFIELD MONUMENTS H

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GETTYSBURG THREE UNION OFFICERS WAR AT

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CIVIL WAR TIMES FEBRUARY 2021

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TOO CLEAN Postwar Currier & Ives engravings presented a sanitized view of the war to the public. This tidy depiction of the fighting at Stones River on January 2, 1863, wasn’t close to the gory reality.

ON THE COVER: Three men in the same army with different views about commanders, Confederates, and war aims.

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Features

28 38 46 54

By J. Gregory Acken

Three Pennsylvania officers had differing views about their common cause.

Kill Zone

By Matt Spruill

Fifty seven Union cannons, hub to hub, shredded Confederate attacks at Stones River.

Texas Tough

By Susannah J. Ural

‘Shoot and Be Damned’

A tense early war interaction between soldiers and Maryland civilians results in murder.

22

Citizen Soldiers

Skillful, rugged leadership made the Texas Brigade a potent fighting force.

By Dana B. Shoaf

Departments

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6 8 14 16 18 22 27 62 66 72

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Return Fire Mac and Monuments

Miscellany Good Gettysburg Development Details Union Gunners Strike a Pose Insight The Labor of Black Folk

Rambling Perryville Gator Ride Interview Sculptural Saviors

Editorial Discovery in a Tangled Wood Armament Volley Gun

Reviews New U.S. Army Museum Sold ! Battered Bugle

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; COURTESY OF NORTHERN STONE CARVING LLC; HN ARCHIVES/PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN; TROIANI, DON (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; COVER: COURTESY OF GREG ACKEN (2); COURTESY OF THE CIVIL WAR MUSEUM OF PHILADELPHIA AND THE UNION LEGACY FOUNDATION/PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRIAN WALKER

FEBRUARY 2021 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER DAVID STEINHAFEL PUBLISHER ALEX NEILL EDITOR IN CHIEF

C E L E B R A T I N G 60 Y E A R S

Texas Brigade soldiers on the attack.

TEXAS BRIGADE PRIDE

Duty, honor, and a desire to uphold the fighting reputation of the Lone Star State drove Lee’s favorite shock troops. https://bit.ly/TexasBrigadePride

THUNDER AT GETTYSBURG

Explore this mix of obscure and frequently visited artillery locations on the Pennsylvania battlefield. https://bit.ly/GettysburgThunder

KEYSTONE CONTRIBUTION

Philadelphia’s participation in the Union war effort was as expansive and diverse as the city itself. https://bit.ly/KeystoneContribution

FEBRUARY 2 021

“Westport, Mo., part of my hometown of Kansas City, because I know so much less about the border wars that are too often neglected in current historiography.”

/

VOL. 60, NO. 1

EDITORIAL DANA B. SHOAF EDITOR CHRIS K. HOWLAND SENIOR EDITOR SARAH RICHARDSON SENIOR EDITOR STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR BRIAN WALKER GROUP ART DIRECTOR MELISSA A. WINN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY SHENANDOAH SANCHEZ PHOTOGRAPHER AT LARGE

What city or town would you have liked to visit during the conflict?

ADVISORY BOARD Catherine Clinton, Gabor Boritt, Gary W. Gallagher, Lesley Gordon,

D. Scott Hartwig, Harold Holzer, Robert K. Krick, William C. Davis, John Hennessy, James M. McPherson, Mark E. Neely Jr., “I’d like to visit “I would visit Megan Kate Nelson, Ethan S. Rafuse, Susannah J. Ural the college town Montgomery, Ala., of Boydton, Va., in February 1861 in spring 1861 to to see the act of CORPORATE view how white Confederate ROB WILKINS DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP MARKETING residents rapidly ‘nation’-making.

TOM GRIFFITHS CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT came to see It would would themselves as be fascinating,” GRAYDON SHEINBERG CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT Confederates, SHAWN BYERS VP AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT and how JAMIE ELLIOTT PRODUCTION DIRECTOR enslaved people planned to confront the ADVERTISING war.”

MORTON GREENBERG SVP Advertising Sales mgreenberg@mco.com RICK GOWER Regional Sales Manager rick@rickgower.com TERRY JENKINS Regional Sales Manager tjenkins@historynet.com

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CIVIL WAR TIMES FEBRUARY 2021

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RETURN FIRE of the Potomac voted for Lincoln in large numbers. Perhaps they might have felt deep down a sense of great betrayal and heartbreak from him by running on the Democratic Party’s peace planks.

Connan Smith South Jordan, Utah

MAC, MAC, MAC

I find the controversy between Stephen Sears and Steven Stotelmyer that was expressed in the December issue’s “Return Fire” so interesting. Frankly, General McClellan is a man that I love to hate, and for that reason I want to side with Mr. Sears. Whenever I read about the Peninsula Campaign, my blood boils and I want to give him a piece of my mind. However, there is the issue of newly found research. I may be forced to give him more credit, but I doubt that I will ever like the man!

Nancy Cole Humboldt, Ill.

BEST WORD ON MONUMENTS I QUITE ENJOYED the October 2020 article, “Little Mac on the Move,” about McClellan’s activities at the Battle of Antietam. All that has been written about the battle and this is rarely noticed. Unfortunately, wherever George McClellan went, he brought along George McClellan. It would be nice to see how his activities might have affected his decision on September 18 not to renew the battle. In another vein, reading Private Alexander Wight’s recollection about the general, and if it is true, shows really how much he loved his men and why they loved him. Perhaps it was more difficult for some men two years later to have cast their vote against him than is commonly acknowledged even though the Army

I always depend on Gary Gallagher for the best—and what deserves to be the last—word on Civil War-era controversies that have justifiably reinserted themselves in contemporary culture and politics.

Such is the case with the finely reasoned and remarkable insightful case he makes in his essay, “Leave Them Standing,” in the October 2020 issue for not messing with the Confederate monuments in our National Battlefield Parks.

Gallagher’s fine points stand out for their erudition and even-handedness, even amid the storm of words I’ve heard and read on this burning issue in recent months.

Bob Allen Eldersburg, Md.

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CIVIL WAR TIMES FEBRUARY 2021

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NPS PHOTO (2)

THE WAR FRAME PHOTO of Sergeant George P. Provost in the December issue illustrates that you can’t presume that what is scratched on the back of a photo is true. Provost’s relative wrote on the back that the photo was “made about close of war,” which I am confident is inaccurate, since a) the nicely tailored and well-trimmed uniform screams “1861,” and b) while a sergeant when the war began, Provost was mustered out as a private. Indeed, given Provost’s late enlistment in the 19th Louisiana (December 11, 1861), I think it most likely that Provost is depicted in a pre-enlistment militia uniform, most likely the Henry Marshall Guards, which became Company F of the 19th Louisiana.

We don’t know why Provost was demoted, but the consolidation of the 19th Louisiana into the Pelican Regiment on November 3, 1863, and Provost’s absence from the unit could have made him unneeded as a sergeant and/or unable to fulfill that role.

John Braden Fremont, Mich.

ISTOCK/PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRIAN WALKER; ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY & ARCHIVES

WAR FRAME PELICAN

Thanks for the insightful article by Gary Gallagher in your October issue regarding the significance and purpose of Confederate memorials on the Gettysburg battlefield. I’ve always felt that the men engaged in most battles fight more for each other, and for survival, than they do for “a cause.”

Critics of the monuments to Confederate soldiers might do well to consider that these edifices honor the bravery, sacrifice, and loyalty of fallen warriors. If there were any cause involved for the majority of soldiers wearing gray, it was most likely loyalty to their state rather than anything else.

Thomas Sakely Warren, Mich.

BEAUTIFUL MAP

Who drew the map of the Antietam battlefield on P. 40 of your October issue? It is nicely done.

Bob Plance Pawley’s Island, S.C. Editor’s Note: Thank you for the compliment! The map in question was drawn in 1890 at the direction of the Antietam Battlefield board. We added our own numerals. The original, and digital copies, can be found at the Library of Congress, Geography and Maps Division.

NPS PHOTO (2)

ISTOCK/PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRIAN WALKER; ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY & ARCHIVES

MOUNTAINTOP ENCOUNTER

I enjoyed the “Harvesting History” interview in the June 2020 issue. The photo of Julie Schablitsky looked vaguely familiar. I checked my phone and found a photo of Ms. Schablitsky with one of her colleagues who had just unearthed a Sharps bullet.

My brother, two of his buddies, and I are all Air Force veterans who meet each fall and spend several days exploring the sites and battles of a Civil War campaign. In fall of 2019, we followed the Maryland Campaign—South Mountain, Antietam, and Shepherdstown. We started out at Fox’s Gap and were surprised to find the parking area full, several people using metal detectors, and lines of small flags. They were very friendly (some were veterans like us) and explained what they were

ONLINE POLL

39 0 0

61 0 0 The Results Are In!

Our recent Facebook poll asked what type of cannons you would rather have in “your” artillery battery: bronze 12-pounder Napoleons or cast iron 10-pounder Parrott rifles?

The majority of voters would rather pull the lanyard on the 10-pounder Parrott. But remember, the Napoleon was better when it came to firing canister!

Our next poll goes online January 14.

doing. Ms. Schablitsky (I did not know her name until I read the article) came over and gave us a tour of the site and explained the purpose of the project.

She was friendly, enthusiastic, and informative. It was the high point of the trip for us.

Steven Higgins Greenville, R.I.

SOUTHPAW MUSKETS?

CWT is my favorite magazine, and I derive much enjoyment from the hours I spend reading it.

The purpose of my letter is to inquire about the August 2020 “Armament” column on the Austrian Lorenz musket. On the last page of the article, there is a photo of four members of the Iron Brigade’s 2nd Wisconsin posing with their Lorenz muskets.

I noticed that the hammer and lock on each musket is on the left side of the gun. I know that lefthanded muskets have been produced, but I would not think that they were produced during the Civil War era.

Even so, I find it hard to believe that all four men would have been left-handed. Would you please educate me on this matter?

William M. Rollins Poquoson, Va. Editor’s note: A very oft-asked question.

That image is a tintype, a photo actually taken on a thin piece of iron coated with light sensitive chemicals. Due to the camera technology at the time for that type of photo, the images actually came out reversed from reality. So those soldiers are in fact carrying muskets made with the lockplates on the right-hand side.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU ! e-mail us at cwtletters@historynet.com or send letters to Civil War Times, 901 North Glebe Rd., 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203

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MISCELLANY

FUTURE

TELL THE WHOLE STORY The new Adams County Historical Society, top, will provide public exhibits and research facilities. The society has fascinating Civil War artifacts, like the shot-riddled sign from the 1863 battle and soldier and civilian images, as well as items from the county’s prehistoric era, such as American Indian points.

To learn more about the project, visit www.achs-pa.org/campaign, or email info@achs-pa.org. Donations can also be mailed to the Adams County Historical Society at P.O. Box 4325, Gettysburg, PA 17325.

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COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST; DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION

O

n December 16, the Adams County Historical Society kicked off a capital funding drive with the announcement of $2.7 million already donated or pledged to support the construction of a 29,000-square-foot center to house the society’s collection of some one million items. The ACHS has long outgrown its current home, a Victorian era house. “With no fire protection or climate control, we worry that all of Gettysburg’s history could be lost in a matter of minutes,” said Executive Director Andrew Dalton. The new center will be at the battlefield’s north edge and require $5.5 million to construct, with opening slated for the fall of 2022. More than 300 civilian battle accounts, diaries, letters, and published works are in the collection along with objects reflecting battle damage; William Tipton’s camera that captured famed images of the battlefield; a Confederate surgical kit; and American Indian projectiles. “How did Gettysburg become the place we love today? What was Gettysburg like before the battle? We will answer all of these questions, and more, at the new facility,” Dalton said.

COURTESY OF THE ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (4)

GETTYSBURG ATTRACTION

LINCOLN’S

RISKY ARRIVAL ON NOVEMBER 14, 2020, the Lincoln Forum announced Ted Widmer as winner of the 2020 Lincoln Forum book prize for Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington (Simon & Schuster). Widmer traces Lincoln’s perilous 13-day journey from Springfield, Ill., to Washington, D.C, preceding his 1861 inauguration. This year, the annual Forum meeting was held on Zoom, the first remote meeting in the organization’s history. Widmer is a professor at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York and a former aide and speechwriter on foreign policy to President Bill Clinton. Widmer’s previous books include collections of American oratory and a biography of President Martin Van Buren.

PUT

THE

WAR

INTO

YOUR BACKYARD

THE AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST launched a new app, Gettysburg AR Experience, in November. Available for download on both iOS and Android devices, the app offers users an augmented reality experience. Whereas virtual reality places modern audiences into a generated environment, augmented reality places digital elements onto the physical landscape surrounding the user. The app re-creates several popular Gettysburg-related events, including Pickett’s Charge, the reburying of soldiers in the aftermath of the battle, and President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Users can interact with characters in each scene for a greater understanding of the battle and the environment, and click on icons designated to reveal battle facts. Developed by Lumina Datamatics and Interactive Knowledge, the app is designed to be expanded with additional interactive scenes in the months to come.

WAR F RA M E COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST; DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION

COURTESY OF THE ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (4)

THE MILITARY FASHIONS of the Civil War influenced civilian clothing as well. This young boy wears a distinctively cut jacket trimmed in red and with numerous brass buttons, obviously inspired by the dramatic Zouave uniforms that were worn throughout the war. He also holds a forage cap on which is the brass company letter “H.” The cap could very well have belonged to his father or another male relative. In a more general sense, this 1/6th plate tintype image of a cute toddler hanging on to a chair for stability is a reminder of how the Civil War intruded upon and disrupted American families.

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MISCELLANY

GETTYSBURG REENACTMENT An attendant places a chloroformsoaked cloth over the face of a “patient” during a mock amputation staged for a photographer at Gettysburg’s Camp Letterman.

WEAR A MASK,WASH YOUR HANDS

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Don’t forget to watch Editor Dana B. Shoaf and Director of Photography Melissa Winn explore off-the-beaten path and human-interest stories about the war, and interview fellow scholars of the conflict. Broadcasts start at noon on Facebook at facebook.com/civilwartimes.

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COURTESY OF CAMP

FIRST MONDAYS!

to only 3 percent of gangrene cases under Dr. Middleton Goldsmith, who experimented with treating gangrenous wounds with bromine.

These techniques, known as antiseptic treatments, were based on the importance of hygiene; the knowledge of bacteria did not yet exist.

Sadly, Dalton writes that most American doctors resisted the evidence. For example, after the war, “Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow, head surgeon of Massachusetts General Hospital, banned antisepsis and declared it ‘medical hocus pocus.’ This was the same hospital where the first operation under ether was performed. A very different turn from their innovative push only twenty years before.”

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

MORE CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS DIED of disease than wounds on the battlefield—a well-known, tragic statistic. Civil War surgeons worked with what they knew, and the success of chloroform or ether for pain relief during amputation overshadowed emerging clues about the importance of hygiene in patient care, according to a blog post by Kyle Dalton of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine located at Frederick, Md. Introduced in 1842, chloroform or ether were used in an estimated 95 percent of surgeries in the chaotic field hospitals of the Civil War, and amputations were often done to prevent the onset of gangrene in a wound.

Yet some army doctors who had trained under Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter, well-known surgeon and professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, were aware that keeping wounds clean could prevent infection and resulting gangrene. Dalton cites reduced deaths from disease in the 100th Pennsylvania Infantry under Colonel Daniel Leasure, who had trained under Mütter. He also notes that deaths from hospital gangrene dropped

REGISTER On September 7, 1941, in New York an elaborate brick building with a glass dome, the Cattaraugus County Memorial and Historical Building, seen at right, was dedicated to the county’s Civil War veterans as a monument to their service. In 2013, the Memorial Building was slated for demolition, but that decision was protested by ancestors of those to whom the building was dedicated.

Four years later, the county-owned building was put up for sale and purchased by Citizens Advocating Memorial Preservation (CAMP), which formed to rescue the memorial from the wrecking ball. Since that time, CAMP’s ever-growing base of supporters and donors have made steady progress in the rehabilitation of the Memorial Building. During the summer of 2020, CAMP made a significant step when the Memorial Building received a new roof to stop water infiltration that plagued the structure. Visit www.cattcomemorial. com for more information and ways to volunteer.

An avid preservationist of the Gettysburg battlefield since 1997, Glenn Hayes has rounded up 358 organizations in support of a letter-writing campaign to save the former site of Camp Letterman. Situated on 17 acres less than two miles east of Gettysburg, camp staff treated roughly 20,000 wounded and sick Union and Confederate soldiers for weeks

following the battle. Some of the site is developed, but a portion could be saved. The latest groups supporting the preservation campaign are the Nurses Historical Association and the Walter Reed Society. They join letter-writers in 45 states, as well as groups in Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, England, and Italy. To weigh in on the preservation project with the owner of the land, a real estate development company, write to: S&A Homes c/o Robert Poole, CEO 2121 Old Gatesburg Road Suite 200 State College, PA 16803

MAGNOLIA BLOOMS

COURTESY OF CAMP

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The National Park Service announced December 3 that over $2.2 million in grants from the American Battlefield Protection Program will be awarded to protect Civil War battlefields. The grants will be used

to acquire portions of Mississippi’s Brice’s Cross Roads, Raymond, and Vicksburg battlefields, as well as land at Bentonville Battlefield in North Carolina and at Virginia’s Petersburg and Williamsburg battlefields.

ON JUNE 28, the Mississippi state legislature voted to replace the Confederate battle flag on the state banner. The depiction of that on the corner of the Mississippi state flag dated from 1894, roughly coinciding with the onset of Jim Crow laws segregating Blacks as second-class citizens.

According to Vox magazine, there is no record of that design being requested by Confederate heritage groups. On November 3, Mississippians voted to replace the old state flag with a new design featuring the magnolia, the state flower.

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MISCELLANY

THE WAR ON THE NET   Digital Maine digitalmaine.com/civil_war

istorian T. Harry Williams once argued that a unit history done well “tells the story of a democracy at war.” It is not enough to trace a company, regiment, or brigade from one campaign to the next. You need to understand who made that unit effective or ineffective, as well as the war’s long-term impact on its men and home communities. To do that, you could consider questions like: What motivated volunteers to enlist? Did they remain enthusiastic, or did they desert the unit? Did strong or inept commanders lead them? What ailments troubled the men or their families for decades after the war? But if you don’t have a large amount of time and funding, how do you access the materials needed to answer them?

One of the best places to look is in the digitized collections of state archives and libraries. Consider, for example, projects like Digital Maine, a partnership of repositories from across the state that share digitized collections from their holdings. There, you can find personal and official correspondence organized by regiment and detailed enlistment records for White

H

CLOSE UP!

and African American volunteers. County-level communication about “Absent Soldiers” offers insight into Maine’s less enthusiastic enlistees. The “Miscellaneous Civil War Documents” section shares data on enlistments by county and several letters about the Maine Sanitary Commission. The medical collections are limited but useful: intermittent hospital returns for a dozen regiments, records for Maine soldiers in other state or private hospitals, and medical examinations organized by surname. The site also shares hundreds of digitized portraits.

Projects like these work well in classrooms or groups, or you may prefer to work independently. Regardless, you’ll need to explore digitized census, military service, pension, and newspaper records, as well as existing studies of the unit, its campaigns, and its home communities to better understand their experiences. Remember that not everything is online; you still need to make trips to archives and libraries to complete your unit history. But projects like Digital Maine are revolutionizing our access to Civil War records. —Susannah J. Ural

ANSWER TO LAST ISSUE’S

CLOSE UP!

BE THE FIRST TO IDENTIFY where this Confederate battle flag is located on the Gettysburg battlefield and win a Civil War Times water bottle. Send your answer to dshoaf@historynet. com, or 901 Glebe Rd., 5th floor, Arlington, VA, 22203 marked “Banner.”

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CONGRATULATIONS to William A. Watson of Florissant, Mo., who correctly identified the battle-battered St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Sharpsburg, Md., which was torn down in 1871.

PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN; DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION (2)

QUIZ

CIVIL WAR TIMES FEBRUARY 2021

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ACTION FRONT! ARTILLERYMEN OF INDEPENDENT BATTERY H, PENNSYLVANIA

Light Artillery, pose with their cannons ready to open fire, but in this case the warlike pose was for the camera only. The battery, raised in October 1862 by Captain John Nevin in Pittsburgh, Pa., actually never left the defenses of Washington during the war, and its potent Napoleon cannons never fired a shot in anger before it mustered out in June 1865. Nevin was forced to resign his commission not long after the battery was formed due to an unrevealed offense, but the unit colloquially remained known as “Nevin’s Battery” throughout its service.

This image is one of several photographs of the battery, and all of them were labeled as being taken in a location referred to as “Camp Nevin.” The exact location of that camp remained a mystery until recently, when clues on the horizon revealed that the battery was camped just west of Alexandria, Va., and not far from the rear of Fort Ellsworth, one of the earthwork forts protecting Washington, D.C. —D.B.S. Civil War Times thanks reader William Lawson for helping identify the buildings visible in the background of the photograph.

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1. The image provides a fine view of what a well-equipped battery looked like and shows caissons parked to the rear of each gun. In addition to an ammunition limber, each cannon had its own caisson, a two-wheeled cart that was pulled by its own limber and that held two more ammunition chests.

2. The distinctive cupola and chimney of the Mount Vernon

Cotton Factory is the strongest clue to Camp Nevin’s location.

The factory was built in 1847 along Alexandria’s Washington Street. It made cotton sheeting. The building still stands, and is today used for lofts and apartments.

3. Battery H’s remuda, the horses that did the heavy work of pulling cannons, limbers, caissons, and other artillery vehicles, enjoy an easy day tethered to their picket line. The men of the battery enjoyed the relative comfort of spacious Sibley tents. The tops of the tents are soot-stained from their internal heating stoves.

4. A six-gun battery consisted of three sections of two cannons. Lieutenant Theodore Finley, pictured here,

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commanded the Left Section of Battery H. All of the section commanders of the battery were cousins of original commander, John Nevin, with the surname Nevin, except for Finley, whose mother was a Nevin. Finley claimed to have helped in the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth after President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

5. The battery’s guidon snaps in the breeze, and the battery’s bugler can be seen next to it. Each battery had one guidon, often a small national flag that helped set the left flank of the battery and direct the fieldpieces into a designated location during the chaos of battle. Artillery manuals called for guidons to be posted at the left end of the line of caissons, but the banners were often brought closer to the camera when images were taken, as seen here.

6. Christ Church’s tall steeple is barely visible on the horizon. George Washington and other colonial notables worshipped at the 18th-century landmark, preserved and located in the heart of what is now known as Old Town Alexandria.

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PARTICIPANTS A LANDMARK STUDY GAVE AFRICAN AMERICANS CREDIT FOR BEING IMPORTANT ACTORS IN THEIR FREEDOM QUEST BLACK RECONSTRUCTION: An Essay Toward a History of the Part

Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 appeared on New York publisher Harcourt, Brace & Company’s list of new titles in 1935. Written by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963), a leading African American intellectual, sociologist, and historian best known for The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903), the book received a good deal of attention from newspapers but less from mainline academic journals. Du Bois challenged the prevailing interpretation of Reconstruction as a dark time when carpetbaggers, scalawags, and their recently freed Black allies ran roughshod over a prostrate White South struggling to recover from the Civil War. That interpretation, widely disseminated by D. W. Grif-

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BIG FIRST STEP Two African American camp servants pose with Union officers in Virginia. The African Americans had most probably left their “owners” and headed for Union lines, a bold first step to an uncertain freedom.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

ACTIVE

fith’s blockbuster film The Birth of a Nation (1915) and by Claude G. Bowers’ best-selling The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln (1929), shaped scholarly and popular attitudes toward Reconstruction for many decades. In a major departure from previous—as well as much subsequent—literature, Du Bois treated enslaved people during the war and freedpeople in its aftermath as important actors, rather than as passive pawns in the political, military, and economic struggles of the era. In doing so, he anticipated scholarship from revisionist studies by Kenneth M. Stampp and others in the 1960s, to the landmark work of Eric Foner in the 1980s, and down to the present. Anyone familiar

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GRANAMOUR WEEMS COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

by Gary W. Gallagher

GRANAMOUR WEEMS COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

with Henry Louis Gates’ Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, first aired on PBS stations in 2019, would find many similarities between that documentary and Du Bois’ 750-page masterwork.

Apart from its detailed examination of Reconstruction, Du Bois’ book offers a great deal to students of the Civil War. It presents a powerful argument for what later came to be called the concept of self-emancipation, whereby African American actions on the ground in the Confederacy forced politicians in Washington to proceed more quickly to end slavery. Du Bois relied on a Marxist-inspired economic analysis that cast the enslaved population as workers who rose up against the aristocratic class in the Confederacy. He sought to explain “How the Civil War meant emancipation and how the black worker won the war by a general strike which transformed his labor from the Confederate planter to the Northern invader, in whose army lines workers began to be organized as a new labor force.” The point regarding Black contributions to Union victory, while overstated, is clear and compelling—as African American refugees flocked to Union positions, they deprived the Confederacy of their labor, worked and eventually served as soldiers for the United States, and by their efforts contributed significantly to suppressing the Southern rebellion.

Du Bois correctly linked an enslaved work force directly to the Confederate war effort. “The South counted on Negroes as laborers to raise food and money crops for civilians and for the army,” he noted, “and even in a crisis, to be used for military purposes.” With nearly 4 million enslaved people available to keep the economy running, the Confederacy could mobilize a huge percentage of its military-age White males.

But as the war progressed, African Americans, through steady movement to Union lines and work slowdowns on plantations and farms, engaged in what Du Bois termed “The General Strike” that eroded the Confederacy’s capacity to mount an effective military resistance. Overall, the “guns at Sumter, the marching armies, the fugitive slaves, the

fugitives as ‘contrabands,’ spies, servants and laborers,” Du Bois observed, furthered the process of emancipation and marked the progress of “the Negro as soldier, as citizen, as voter…from 1861 to 1868.”

Black Reconstruction handles the role of U.S. military forces in ending slavery

TRAILBLAZER The accomplished W.E.B. Du Bois was a leader of the Niagara Movement, which pushed for equal rights for Blacks.

DU BOIS CORRECTLY LINKED

ENSLAVED WORK FORCE AN

DIRECTLY TO THE

CONFEDERATE

WAR EFFORT very well. It sets the stage by identifying the overarching war aim for most of the loyal population. “The North did not propose to attack property” at the outset, Du Bois asserted: “It did not propose to free slaves. This was to be a white man’s war to preserve the Union, and the Union must be preserved.”

“Freedom for slaves furnished no such slogan,” continued Du Bois, who estimated that not “one-tenth of the Northern white population would have fought for any such purpose.” Yet when Federal forces “entered the South they became armies of emancipation.” Wherever they marched, regardless of soldiers’ racial attitudes, the armies weakened Confederate control over enslaved people.

The arrival of blue-clad soldiers swelled the number of African American refugees. In turn, Union planners who oversaw the war effort “faced the fact, after severe fighting, that Negroes seemed a valuable asset as laborers, and they therefore declared them ‘contraband of war.’ It was but a step from that to attract and induce Negro labor to help Northern armies”—and after 1863 to enroll thousands of Black soldiers.

The impact of armies, not the efforts of the small number of abolitionists in the loyal states, settled the issue of slavery. “Freedom for the slave,” Du Bois insisted, “was the logical result of a crazy attempt to wage war in the midst of four million black slaves, and trying the while sublimely to ignore the interests of those slaves in the outcome of the fighting.”

By fleeing to Federal camps across the Confederacy, African American refugees “showed to doubting Northerners the easy possibility of using them” to subjugate the Rebels. “So in blood and servile war,” judged Du Bois, “freedom came to America.”

After Appomattox, the same attitude that sustained the Union as the preeminent focus of the loyal White citizenry undercut the possibility of achieving true racial equality. The postwar tragedy lay in the fact that “the Reconstruction of the Southern states, from slavery to free labor, and from aristocracy to industrial democracy,…[was not] conceived as a major national program of America, whose accomplishment at any price was well worth the effort ….” Had the nation made that effort, Du Bois concluded at a time when Jim Crow reigned supreme across much of the United States, “we should be living today in a different world.” ✯ FEBRUARY 2021 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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RAMBLING with John Banks

AIM FOR THE RIDGE TOPS A Federal cannon on Parsons’ Ridge overlooks ground that Confederate troops attacked on October 8, 1862, during the Battle of Perryville.

DEATH VALLEYS ...AND RIDGES

battlefield, he sees something much different than most of the rest of us.

“Every stretch of ground,” the 72-year-old says, scanning Kentucky ridges cloaked in green and brown on a deep-blue sky day at the Perryville battlefield, “is a chance to die. I’m thinking, ‘That’s good for concealment, that’s good for cover.’”

This “battlefield vision,” as I like to call it, is a product of experience and perhaps family genes. Lott witnessed the carnage of war in Vietnam, where he served as a medic. And his family is steeped in service in the American military: His father was a Marine during World War II, surviving the bloodbath at Okinawa in the conflict’s waning weeks. An uncle stormed Anzio in 1944; another fought in the Korean War. Six of his great-great grandfathers served in Michigan regiments during the Civil War. Soon after Lott and his wife moved to the Bluegrass State in 2005, he immersed himself in the history of the Perryville battle, visiting the field on his days off from his job as a hospital technologist. “Widowed the wife,” says the now-retired Lott, cracking a slight smile. He eventually became a Perryville battlefield interpretive specialist.

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Now treasurer of the “Friends of Perryville Battlefield,” Lott has given roughly 300 tours and U.S. Army staff rides on this hallowed ground in rural central Kentucky. On a frosty fall morning, my friend Jack Richards and I eagerly join him in a four-wheel drive Gator for a five-hour jaunt on the field.

“There are about 58,000 stories out here,” says our gravelly voiced guide, clad in a camo jacket and white hoodie, “and we only know about 2,000 of them.”

Nearly as it appeared in 1862, Perryville is a battlefield wanderer’s paradise of

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PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS; COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN VETERANS MUSEUM

WHEN U.S. ARMY VETERAN Chuck Lott examines a Civil War

PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS

THE ROLLING TERRAIN NEAR PERRYVILLE, KY., PLAYED HOST TO A CRITICAL OCTOBER 1862 BATTLE

PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS; COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN VETERANS MUSEUM

PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS

heart-racing ridges and scenery even an impressionist painter could appreciate.

Only five battlefield monuments and markers and 47 modern interpretive tablets stand in the nearly 1,200-acre state park. But the battle that largely snuffed out Confederate hopes in Kentucky is hardly top of mind with Civil War historians or travelers. It was hardly top of mind with the public in 1862 either, coming three weeks after the much-bloodier Battle of Antietam in the Eastern Theater.

The Battle of Perryville was a strange but vicious fight on October 8, 1862, resulting in an astonishing 7,600 casualties in five hours. A fresh breeze was blowing out of the southwest. Temperature: About 85 degrees. Terrain: “Boldly undulating,” according to Confederate Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee. But I think Lott’s description captures this place perfectly: “Shaped like a giant egg crate.”

All those factors conspired to cause a phenomenon called an “acoustic shadow.” Army of the Ohio commander Don Carlos Buell didn’t hear the roar of artillery and gunfire from his headquarters three miles from the battle’s epicenter and thus probably didn’t deploy the full weight of his forces against the outmanned Army of Mississippi, commanded by ill-tempered Braxton Bragg.

Meanwhile, a Confederate adjutant 45 miles away distinctly heard the cacophony of battle.

Perhaps Buell, who was despised by many on his staff, simply should have stayed home. In a letter to his wife shortly before the battle, a Federal officer wrote of his disappointment that the general had not broken his neck in a recent fall from a horse.

And so, roughly 13,000 Federals squared off against about 16,000 Confederates, who soon after sweeping the Federals from one ridge found they had a defensive position on another. “Almost like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole,” Lott says.

“What a pisser,” Richards says of the

HE KNOWS THE ROLLING GROUND Guide Chuck Lott stands outside the Henry Bottom House at Perryville. Today, that location is welcoming and beautiful, but during the fight, farmer Bottom lost just about everything. “Chaplin Hills” is another name for Perryville, as indicated on the 1st Wisconsin’s national flag.

Confederates’ fight plight.

Atop Parsons’ Ridge, one of those “Whac-A-Mole” hills, we gaze toward a fence line, the Confederate position, about 100 yards away. To our left is battlefield land saved by the American Battlefield Trust; nearly 400 yards behind us, another one of those challenging ridges; above us, a soaring eagle, one of two that Lott says nests somewhere on the battlefield.

Steps away, a historical marker tells us this was the place that Union Brig.

Gen. James Jackson, “the highest type of Kentucky gentleman,” was killed.

The 39-year-old’s New York Times obit wasn’t as kind: “In manner he was brusque and overbearing, and as a consequence was a party to numerous quarrels, which sometimes resulted in duels.”

But I am more interested in what Lott says happened here to grunts in the 123rd Illinois. “Fresh fish,” he calls the

regiment, which was mustered into service only a month earlier.

As Confederates swept toward the crest of Parsons’ Ridge, the Illinois boys were insanely ordered to make a bayonet charge. Among them was Private Alfred Hall, the 24-year-old son of Abraham Lincoln’s stepsister, Matilda. As an overwhelming enemy force advanced, Hall and his comrades did what most sensible soldiers would: They shifted into reverse, leaving dozens of their dead and wounded in their wake. “He was a pretty good sprinter,” Lott says of Hall, who retreated several hundred yards.

Near the bottom of the reverse slope of Parsons’ Ridge, we rumble past a lengthy double fence Lott constructed in about a week. “A hate fence,” he calls the wartime original that separated the property of two feuding farmers. Yards away, we stand by the site of a cornfield where the FEBRUARY 2021 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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RAMBLING with John Banks

Lott points to the steep incline where Union soldiers somehow dragged two cannons to safety while under fire.

Nearby, John S. Durham, a 19-year-old 1st Wisconsin sergeant, grabbed the regimental colors from a dying color sergeant “amid a shower of shot, shell, and bullets” and advanced with the flag midway between the armies. Durham, who ran away from home at age 7 and was

tive, booming voice. Lott walked with Bearss, a World War II Marine who died last summer, on a steep stretch.

“I did not plan to shift into a lower gear,” Bearss growled, “but I think I just did.”

Every Civil War battlefield has a story about families ravaged by warfare. At Perryville, poor Henry Pierce Bottom’s family was especially hard hit.

“Squire” raised cows, sheep and pigs and grew corn on more than 600 rolling acres near Doctor’s Creek. His crops were destroyed, a barn was set afire by Confederate artillery, and his farmhouse-turned-makeshift military hospital was wrecked.

Bottom’s psyche was damaged, too. Asked during his war claim testimony after the war if “Squire” recovered from his losses, a Perryville doctor replied, “No sir, he never did. He was broken in spirit from that time on until he CATHARSIS FOR THE DEVASTATION HE WITNESSED died.” Bottom sought more than In 1885, farmer Bottom sits on an unfinished wall for a Confederate cemetery he wanted to build. $4,000 in compensation from the The United Daughters of the Confederacy finished his project with a large monument in 1902. government, but never received a penny during his lifetime.

Lott unlocks the door to the priadopted by a showman, was awarded the injury that never healed, and later in the vately owned Bottom House and Congressional Medal of Honor for valor neck. (He later became commander of escorts us through a marvelously at Perryville in 1896. the Camp Douglas POW camp.) restored Civil War time capsule. Cov“Your conduct in the battle,” StarkOur Gator chugs up Starkweather’s ered by small pieces of Plexiglas, bullet weather wrote Durham decades after Hill, named after 1st Wisconsin Colonel holes pepper the interior. On the secthe fight, “was the most conspicuous act John S. Starkweather, whose troops ond floor, Lott reaches under a bed of bravery on the part of a soldier that I defended the ridge. Lott shows where and pulls out a remarkable relic: an have ever witnessed.”

Samuel Watkins, who wrote the classic original door used as an operating Heroism, of course, wasn’t confined to Civil War memoir Company Aytch, and table during and after the battle. soldiers in blue. In one of the most audahis 1st Tennessee comrades aimed to Luminol sprayed on it revealed the cious acts of the largest battle ever fought outflank the Federals on a steep side of presence of blood. in Kentucky, 900 Mississippians in Colthe hill, below Union cannons.

On the opposite side of Doctor’s onel Thomas Jones’ brigade charged Then Lott drives us to one of the Creek, we didn’t need Lott’s gift for through a valley against 3,000 Federals more beautiful spots on this battlefield: spotting good cover and concealment supplemented with six cannons. “Like another of those damn “Whac-A-Mole” to know a massive, almost 200-year-old storming a castle wall,” says Lott. When hills. At the high-water mark for Bragg’s oak would be excellent for a game of cat I walked Jones’ Ridge weeks earlier, my army, a small section of stone wall and mouse. The imposing monster is heart raced. remains on ground behind which the the last witness tree on the battlefield.

More than a decade ago, Lott and Federals deployed. Below us, Georgians It’s just another reason to appreciate battlefield wanderers on hay wagons swept through the ravine – Lott says this underrated battlefield. ✯ pulled by tractors examined this valley Georgia-manufactured bullets were with Ed Bearss, the renowned Civil War found there before it became part of the John Banks, who lives in Nashville, is historian, then in his early 80s. state park. This area also was site of author of a popular Civil War blog “Get off your wagons, guys, you better heroic efforts only fully appreciated by (john-banks.blogspot.com). start walking,” said Bearss, in his distincexamining the ground yourself.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE PERRYVILLE BATTLEFIELD STATE HISTORIC SITE (2)

rookie 21st Wisconsin lay awaiting its baptism of fire. Even today, I can sense the green regiment’s fear.

As scores of Confederates streamed over Parsons’ Ridge, the Midwesterners’ commander, Colonel Benjamin Sweet, still recovering from malaria, arrived on the field in an ambulance and mounted his horse. The 30-year-old officer was severely wounded in the right arm, an

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TODAY IN HISTORY DECEMBER 18, 1934 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT VISITED BEAR RUN IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND REQUESTED A SURVEY OF THE AREA AROUND A PARTICULAR WATERFALL. PITTSBURGH BUSINESSMAN EDGAR J. KAUFMANN HAD COMMISSIONED WRIGHT TO BUILD A COUNTRY HOME WITH A VIEW OF THE WATERFALL. THE FAMOUS ARCHITECT SURPRISED HIS CLIENT

BY INSTEAD DESIGNING THE HOME OVER THE WATERFALL. FALLINGWATER COST $155,000 TO COMPLETE IN 1941. THE HOME WAS MADE AVAILABLE TO VISTORS IN 1964.

For more, visit WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/ TODAY-IN-HISTORY

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with Scott Halverson and Margaret Moore

STONE SAVERS SCOTT HALVERSON AND MARGARET MOORE, partners in Minneapolis-based Northern Stone

Carving LLC, have overcome challenges in restoring damaged monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park and elsewhere. Among their projects have been 38 repairs to 14 monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park and the 21st Indiana Battery monument in Chickamauga, Ga. The two met while working on stone carving in the restoration of the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., in 2014 and founded their company in 2018.

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OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN; COURTESY OF NORTHERN STONE CARVING LLC; CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: COURTESY OF NORTHERN STONE CARVING LLC (2); PHOTOS BY MELISSA A. WINN (2)

GETTING IT DONE IN ALL WEATHER Members of the Civil War Times team ran across Scott Halverson, seen here, and Margaret Moore when they were working on the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves monument on a drizzly October Sunday.

OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN; COURTESY OF NORTHERN STONE CARVING LLC; CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: COURTESY OF NORTHERN STONE CARVING LLC (2); PHOTOS BY MELISSA A. WINN (2)

CWT: How did you become stone carvers?

SH: I have been carving stone for 20 years. I was an art major in the ’80s and got interested in working with stone while traveling in Europe. When I got back, I found a place to start learning in Austin, Texas, and later went back to Minnesota, where I found an apprenticeship with a French stone carver.

After working with him for a few years, I started working for myself.

MM: I had a different path. I was introduced to stone carving in South Carolina, at the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston. I was interested in art, and this path was a good fit. I received a Bachelors of Science in architectural stone carving at the only degree-seeking and accredited craft college in the nation. I have spent time in England and had the privilege of working with the Lincoln Cathedral Works Department as well as a summer with The Prince’s Foundation.

CWT: How do you begin to restore a Civil War monument?

MM: You need to understand the artist’s background, understand how and why they were doing what they did, what tools they had, and what was their training. You need to know the techniques and process of previous stone carvers.

SH: We also need to know what type of stone was used, and from what quarry it came. Preferably we can obtain stone from the same part of the quarry. The original quarries for the granite used in the monuments at Gettysburg have been closed, for the most part, for some time, making finding the correct stone a challenge. A lot of the monuments at Chattanooga are limestone, which is readily available, but the buff color that was used is a bit harder to obtain.

CWT: What kind of damage do you repair?

SH: Most of the monument repairs that we do are relatively small pieces— ears of horses, hammers on rifles, fingers, things that protrude from the stone that are easily broken.

ALL DETAILS LARGE AND SMALL Years of exposure had battered the 13th PA Reserves monument, located on Ayres Avenue.

Margaret Moore points out a replaced missing button.

They also repaired the 1890 monument’s broken musket hammer.

MM: The directive of the Monument Preservation Branch is to tell the story of the monument but not focus on details that are not integral. It is important to keep the historic fabric of the original intact as much as possible.

Deciding what must be fixed and what doesn’t need to be fixed to remain true to the story of the monument. A lot of the damage is from falling branches, some from weathering of the stone. Lucas Flickinger, supervisor of Gettysburg National Military Park’s Monument Preservation Branch, wants the story of the monument to be told. For example, the goatee is missing on the soldier on the monument to the 13th Pennsylvania Bucktails. But it was missing when it was first installed, so it is true

to the story of the monument.

CWT: Can you explain the steps in your process?

SH: If there are any historic photos available, we look at those to determine what the missing piece looked like on that exact monument. We also utilize photos and actual elements of things like rifles, bayonets, spurs, etc., that were used at Gettysburg. The park is an excellent source of information and historic elements to draw from. We then make a model with clay to show what the final repair will look like. After the clay model is approved, we remove just enough stone on the monument to form a pocket or joint to attach the new piece. We carve the new piece and then FEBRUARY 2021 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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process and understand the position of the hand.

SH: Carving spheres is not like reproducing something like leaves or feathers, where a slight deviation from the original would not stand out. For me, one of the biggest challenges was working on the 17th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry Regiment monument at Gettysburg. The repairs included replacing a missing piece of the reins and part of the bit in the horse’s mouth. It was difficult because due to it being freestanding, floating in space, and it had to be attached in three different places, but not be visible. A complicated repair. It has to both look right and fit. We did it two years ago, and it took five days if I recall correctly.

CWT: Your work must be physically demanding.

MM: Most of the work we do on Civil War monuments is in small pieces. But they are sometimes hard to reach. The work is repetitive and you have to be good to your body.

CWT: Where do you get stone to match the original?

MM: Most of the stone that was used in the monuments at Gettysburg is no longer quarried. Lucas Flickinger has been hunting down and stashing pieces quarried from the original sites and he provides them to match as well as possible. Most of the monuments are made of granite, but there is a wide variation in appearance.

CWT: What was the most difficult restoration on a Civil War monument for you?

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MM: Carving the spheres in a row on the 21st Indiana Battery was a fun challenge. The geometry must be perfect on something like that. We carved five new cannonballs that were missing from the top. That was the Chickamauga project. The 155th Pennsylvania Infantry monument at Gettysburg on Little Round Top was the hardest monument, though. That was a single repair with parts of both hands and the end of the rifle. The difficulty piece of this was the position of the hand at the point the carving captures the loading of the gun. The soldier is just about to remove the ramrod for use. An NPS ranger was very helpful in my understanding of this process and let me video the whole

CWT: Have you had to work on any malicious damage?

MM: No. It is mostly damage from kids playing on the monuments, tree branches falling (or whole trees!).

That type of thing. Don’t climb on the monuments!

CWT: Do you use high-tech methods of digitization and scanning?

MM: We focus on low-impact carving, with modern tools for this work. We still use the traditional principles even if we do use grinders and die grinders.

Typically, these are the best choices for the monuments because of their design.

If we were carving a new sculpture, start

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attach it to the monument with stone epoxy, titanium or stainless steel pins, and color matched grout.

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A COMPLEX, CHALLENGING TRIUMPH Repairing the shattered hand and musket muzzle on the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry monument, which stands on the northern slope of Little Round Top, took great precision.

CWT: What restoration are you most proud of ?

MM: The 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment monument.

Tricky and complex—it was a hand touching hand on the top of the gun.

Getting the stone to work was a complex problem, like the reins.

SH: I like them all, but those reins turned out pretty nice.

21st INDIANA BATTERY, BEFORE

123rd NEW YORK, BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

PORTFOLIO OF ACCOMPLISHMENT Clockwise from upper left: Repairs to monuments at Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Gettysburg again, testify to the team’s skill.

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17th PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY, BEFORE to finish, we could use traditional methods (i.e., hammer and chisel or pneumatic gun and chisel). Working progressively from high impact to light impact. Since the Gettysburg monuments are already completed, they are now more delicate, relatively of course, and so we use low/no impact methods.

CWT: Why does stone carving appeal to you?

SH: It’s sort of a cliché, but I like to reveal the object hidden within the stone—looking at a block of stone and visualizing something inside of it. It can be a meditative process—slowly

AFTER removing material until the final form is achieved. In addition to stone carving, I also enjoy modeling. It’s similar, but you’re adding material, like clay, instead of removing it. I draw and paint as well. I always say sculpting is like drawing in three dimensions.

MM: I love the reductive process. There is a zen feeling about it for me. I do have to be careful not to get too relaxed or I carve very slowly. I love drawing out a project on paper and then watching as the stone conforms to the plan. I enjoy the step-by-step nature of it. I love being a part of something bigger than myself and longer lasting.

CWT: What carved stone monument do you find especially moving?

SH: At Gettysburg, I find the 116th PA Infantry monument rather poignant— it’s not often that you see a monument featuring a fallen soldier, as opposed to an action or heroic pose.

MM: I love the Soldiers Monument.

I think it is beautiful. I also like the horse on the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry monument. I believe the carver did a great job capturing the look that would have been on its face. ✯ Interview conducted by Senior Editor Sarah Richardson.

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by Dana B. Shoaf

TOMBSTONE DISCOVERY

PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

AN INTERNET PURCHASE LED TO AN ABANDONED GRAVEYARD Bright sunshine helped offset the late-October chill, and the deep blue sky was a marvel. But my eyes couldn’t linger on the azure atmosphere; I had to focus on every step I took, lest I catch my foot on a tumbled tombstone and fall into a sunken grave. I was walking through an eerie scene from a Gothic novel due to a chance find on the Internet. A Civil War artifact dealer was selling a unique document that told of a wartime murder near Adamstown, Md., located not far from my home. I bought the document and learned of Samuel Calvin Lamar’s killing (story, P. 54). I wanted to find his grave. My wife, Heidi, helped me in that quest by digging through Frederick County records. We checked out one cemetery with no luck, and that led us, along with Director of Photography Melissa Winn, to this forgotten graveyard in the woods. We frequently gasped at 18th-century dates on canted gravestones, and even though the day was bright, it felt gloomy inside the bramble-tangled woodlot. Lamar couldn’t be found, and we were about to leave when Heidi noticed a stone off by itself, and there was the victim, the death date, July 21, 1861, visible under lichen. Because of a chance purchase and cemetery searching, Lamar’s story is now known.

But how many other “small” Civil War tragedies like this will remain forever lost to history? ✯

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CITIZEN SOLDIERS THREE VOLUNTEERS FROM THE SAME REGION OF PENNSYLVANIA EXPERIENCED

THE WAR IN VERY Different WAYS d

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BY J. GREGORY ACKEN

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he afternoon of July 2, 1863, found the larger part of two great armies, nearly 165,000 men, locked in combat in and around Gettysburg, Pa. For three officers engaged on the Federal side, the battle took on special meaning—as Pennsylvanians, they were fighting on their native soil.

The three men came from varying backgrounds and upbringings, had differing political viewpoints and reasons to enlist, and were also serving in three different branches of the army. Their views are proof of the complex motivations that urged men to fight for the United States. Far from being a homogeneous military mass, the Army of the Potomac was composed of immigrant, native, wealthy, and working-class men, and thousands of different viewpoints about the war and what is was for.

The soldiers in question, listed with their ages and responsibilities by the time of Gettysburg, were 23-yearold Captain Francis Adams Donaldson, a company commander in the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry of the 5th Corps; Captain Louis R. Fortescue, 25, the leader of a detachment in the Signal Corps; and the youngest officer, 19-year-old 2nd Lt. William EDUCATION IN THE SADDLE Brooke Rawle, who had been in the army for less than seven weeks, a The yellow star denotes 2nd Lt. commander of a company of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry. What the William Brooke Rawle of the 3rd three “native” men had in common, in addition to their hometown of Pennsylvania Cavalry. As Rawle fought Philadelphia, was that through their contemporary letters, and, in Forteat Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, about scue’s case, a voluminous memoir, they produced finely detailed, ground120 miles to the east, his classmates at the University of Pennsylvania were level accounts of their Civil War experiences that provide insight into the enjoying commencement ceremonies. mindset of the junior officer corps of the Army of the Potomac.

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onaldson and Fortescue both joined the army in mid-1861. “I burn with indignation when I think of the outrageous conduct of the South,” wrote Donaldson when he learned of the firing on Fort Sumter, “and I will never be able to give up the fight until they are chastised into submission.”

Donaldson would initially enlist in the Philadelphia-raised 1st California Regiment, later renamed the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry, as a sergeant, and later be promoted to second lieutenant. Fortescue was equally motivated by the attack on Fort Sumter, which he considered an attempt by “Southern traitors…who had openly and defiantly seized Government property” to insult the nation’s flag. Fortescue was commissioned first lieutenant in Philadelphia’s 29th Pennsylvania Infantry, and not long after was

PREVIOUS SPREAD: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; THIS PAGE: PHOTO ©DON TROIANI/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA

COAST TO COAST Captain Francis A. Donaldson, opposite page, served in both the 1st California, later renamed the 71st Pennsylvania, and the 118th Pennsylvania. The latter regiment’s mustering camp is seen above.

assigned to the newly established Signal Corps. As a Signal Corps officer, Fortescue would enjoy freedom of movement and a degree of autonomy that would have been unthinkable had he remained an infantry officer.

While Donaldson and Fortescue both developed into seasoned veterans over the ensuing two years, William Brooke Rawle, the only surviving son of a wealthy, old-line Philadelphia family, was completing his studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Eschewing both his graduation ceremony and a life of privilege and ease, the boyish looking Rawle set out for Virginia in mid-May 1863, not long after completing his classwork. He had secured a commission in the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, and after arriving at their camp near Fredericksburg, Va., on May 17, found himself in command of a campaign-thinned company of veterans, some of whom were twice his age.

Of the three men, Donaldson was the most expressive, pouring out his observations and opinions in equal doses via lengthy letters to his family.

With the 71st Pennsylvania, Donaldson’s first fight would come at Ball’s Bluff in October 1861, where he was captured after the fighting ended.

Exchanged after several months in captivity, he made his way back to the 71st, now part of the Army of the Potomac’s 2nd Corps, in time to participate in Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign.

Donaldson, a self-described member of the Democrat Party, “first, last and always,” came of age as a soldier serving under McClellan, and was devoted to “Little Mac.” “I do not think any other living man could handle this army successfully,” he wrote in March 1862. Shortly before Lincoln relieved the “Young Napoleon” later that year, Donaldson would refer to him as “the greatest military chieftain of the age.” Even after his dismissal, McClellan would represent, in Donaldson’s eyes, the standard by which all future commanders of the army would be measured.

Prior to his assignment to the Army of the Potomac just before the Antietam Campaign, signal officer Fortescue served in the Shenandoah Valley under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks in the spring of 1862, and later in Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia during the Second Manassas campaign. Fortescue was supportive of the Lincoln administration and its

war aims, and skeptical of McClellan, and he criticized those of his ilk who “placed safeguards around the property of rebels and punished the weary and footsore soldier who helped himself to their fruit.”

Cavalryman Rawle, like Donaldson, was also a Democrat, but having joined the Army of the Potomac six months after McClellan’s departure, he was more pragmatic in his opinions.

Several weeks before the election of 1864, which pitted Lincoln against McClellan, Rawle informed his mother, “Tho partial to McClellan personally, I think that a change would be prejudicial to the good of the cause,” adding just after the election: “I of course voted for ‘old Abe’ because I think the administration should be held up at all hazards. When anyone attempts anything he ought to carry it through.”

E

COURTESY OF GREG ACKEN (2); COURTESY OF THE CIVIL WAR MUSEUM OF PHILADELPHIA AND THE UNION LEGACY FOUNDATION

PREVIOUS SPREAD: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; THIS PAGE: PHOTO ©DON TROIANI/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA

ach man, as might be expected, experienced different sensations under fire. Lieutenant Rawle first smelled powder during the cavalry fight at Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, after he had been in the army for only three weeks. Sent to support a Federal artillery unit, he came under counter-battery fire: “For the first time I heard

OPPOSING VIEWS Captain Louis Fortescue, seen in a postwar image above left, had little respect for his Confederate opponents, calling them a “rabble,” and “sallowpated.” Rawle, above right, and Donaldson, below, were more sympathetic toward their Southern foes, but no less eager to defeat them. the shells with their nasty noise,” he wrote in a letter three days later.

“Bang—zzzzZZZZ—bing—boom is the way I can put it on paper. Sometimes they would bury themselves in the ground with a ‘thud’ & scatter the dirt in every direction, when a general laugh would arise.”

Fortescue’s first real taste of fighting came at the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9, 1862, where he was detailed to serve as an aide to General Banks. Positioned on a knoll overlooking the battlefield, Banks and his staff presented a tempting target for Southern artillerists. While seated there on horseback, Fortescue heard a “depressing shriek” behind him, and turned to see a “scene so ghastly, that I was almost unnerved by the sight.” A shell had flown several feet over the group and passed through the chest of an orderly near them, mangling both the man and the horse he was mounted on. Continuing on, Fortescue recalled, the shell proceeded to burst, tearing “almost to pieces” three soldiers who were coming up as supports.

Infantryman Donaldson advanced up the Peninsula with McClellan, and, learning of his advancement to 2nd lieutenant, was determined to prove to his men that he merited the promotion. As the 71st Pennsylvania approached the battlefield at Fair Oaks on May 31, 1862, they were ordered to lie down in support of a line of troops who were engaged, but for Donaldson, it “was the opportunity I had sought to fix myself in my men’s confidence.”

He decided to remain standing, and his somewhat foolish display of bravado proved costly. “I received a musket ball through my left arm, about three or four inches below my shoulder. The force of the

“I DO NOT THINK ANY OTHER LIVING MAN COULD HANDLE THIS ARMY SUCCESSFULLY” — Captain Francis Adams Donaldson, praising Gen. George B. McClellan FEBRUARY 2021 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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LIKE A HURRICANE” mander was “an old grandmother who knows absolutely nothing about soldiering or the Tactics,” while the adjutant of the 118th was “as fit for the position as I would be to navigate a ship.” Fortescue had spent only eight weeks with the 29th Pennsylvania before his assignment to the Signal Corps, but he developed similar views. He described the lieutenant colonel and major of the regiment as “principal ignoramuses…[who] possessed not a scintilla of military knowledge, were ignorant in the English grammar, had no experience in the handling of men, and were rank cowards from 32

their boots up,” while the captain who commanded his company was a “dishonest and supercilious package of arrogance.” Cavalryman Rawle, fresh from college, found much in common with the officers of his regiment, many of whom were from moneyed, influential Philadelphia families. Like Fortescue, however, he found several of his field officers wanting. A major was “a man who will let no officer of the Regiment get a soft thing, but who is almost always away from the Regiment himself,” while the middle-aged lieutenant colonel of the 3rd was “an old fogy…very disagreeable…very unpopular and entirely unfit for the position, being far too old and incompetent.”

During the Antietam Campaign, Fortescue was assigned to man a signal station on Maryland Heights, outside Harpers Ferry, and report on enemy movements. He reached there on September 4, and after two days spent attempting unsuccessfully to attract the attention of the nearest signal station 10 miles southeast at Sugar Loaf Mountain, he decided to abandon his post on September 7 and try to reach Union lines.

Fortescue knew Lee had crossed the Potomac into Maryland, and, he reasoned, “Better to risk capture in an honest attempt at resistance than lie quiet at the Ferry and suffer this rabble to walk over one roughshod.” After riding a clockwise circle around the Confederates, he reached the

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blow turned me completely around….Reaching around with my right I caught hold of my left hand and drawing it up in front of me let it fall, when the arm swung about utterly useless. The blood ran down my fingers in streams.” Donaldson was soon evacuated, and after his recovery, accepted a commission in August 1862 as captain in the newly raised 118th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Each of the three men were vocal in their opinions of their fellow officers. In the 118th Pennsylvania, reported Donaldson, a fellow captain was “insufferably impertinent and overbearing,” and the first lieutenant of his company was “rough and grossly ignorant.” A middle-aged company com-

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

LIGHT SPEED COMMUNICATION The United States Signal Corps, Lieutenant Fortescue’s service, was in its infancy during the Civil War. This wartime wash drawing shows Federals signaling at night with torches.

army in time to witness the horrors of Antietam.

In a rearguard action south of Shepherdstown, Va., three days after Antietam, Donaldson and the 118th Pennsylvania, part of the 5th Corps, found themselves isolated on the Virginia side of the Potomac, staring across a broad farm field as Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill’s Division closed in on them from three sides. Lee had ordered Hill to turn and push the pursuing Federals back across the river, and the green Pennsylvanians, many of whom had never fired their guns and who had little concept of how to fight, were there because their inexperienced colonel refused to obey an order to withdraw because he believed it had been delivered to him improperly. For Donaldson, it was Ball’s Bluff all over again—overmatched, outgunned, and a river bordered by steep bluffs behind him. “The fire of the enemy was appalling,” he wrote several days later, “…the rush of bullets sounded like a hurricane.” The 118th was soon decimated and sent reeling back. When it was over, 269 men were casualties.

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incoln relieved Little Mac in early November and placed Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside in command.

Signalman Fortescue, never an acolyte of McClellan, was non-plussed. He characterized the former army commander at the time as “a pigmy compared to the masterly generalship displayed by those who afterward commanded [the] army.” Donaldson, in contrast, who was beside himself at the change of commanders, wrote that he “gave way to tears of indignation and words of bitter reproach.” He predicted doom under Burnside: “We do not think he can command this army.” Burnside turned the army towards Fredericksburg, and as Fortescue peered through his signal binoculars across the Rappahannock in the days before the battle, shared Donaldson’s forebodings: “It was apparent to all that Lee’s army in its entirety occupied the heights in the rear of the city, and were daily adding to its impregnability by redoubts and traverses.”

The Army of the Potomac began its fruitless assaults on Marye’s Heights on December 13, and from the city that morning Donaldson and his men watched as the lines of blue infantry that preceded the 5th Corps attack “moved up the hill, and then as quickly melt away.” His men, he wrote, “felt defeat before encountering it.” Donaldson advanced part of the way up Marye’s Heights, losing nine men. “The tempest of shot was fearful,” he related, before he stopped to tend to a wounded sergeant.

The day after the battle signal officer Fortescue was ordered into the city to occupy a signal

BROTHER AGAINST

BROTHER

The cliche rang true in the Donaldson family One of Francis Donaldson’s older brothers, John, was living in Charleston, the capital of present-day West Virginia, when war broke out, and decided his sympathies lay with the South. He enlisted as sergeant in Colonel George Patton’s 22nd Virginia Infantry, eventually rising to captain.

Francis feared that he might meet his PHILLY REBEL brother in battle, though they never did.

Captain Donaldson’s “When you write to John,” he instructed Confederate brother, his family in 1861, “tell him that now that Lieutenant John P. he is a soldier, even though it be in a bad Donaldson, is at left, cause, to try and distinguish himself, along with Noyes and....I do not blame him, because he Rand, also of the believes he is right.”

22nd Virginia.

After Francis was captured at Ball’s Bluff, John appealed for his brother’s parole, and managed to gain an audience with Secretary of War Judah Benjamin, who granted the request. John went to Libby Prison to free his brother, and wrote after the war, “I will never forget how he looked as he was brought in to me between two Confederate soldiers….How I shook with emotion as he came towards me and as I folded him to my heart the tears streamed down my face. He did not know I had his parole in my pocket.”

John took Francis to a Richmond hotel, and the brothers spent several days walking about the city, during which Francis, wearing his uniform, was jeered by the locals. Eventually, John had to rejoin the 22nd Virginia, and Francis traveled back to Union lines.

In 1864, John was captured at Cold Harbor on June 3. By then, paroles and prisoner exchanges had ended, and John remained a prisoner at Fort Delaware, 35 miles south of his Philadelphia birthplace, until two months after the war ended. – J.G.A.

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lin, who mismanaged the forces on the Federal left. Donaldson uncharacteristically had little to say about the outcome of the fight, instead focusing on the men in the ranks: “The army was glorious, nothing wrong with its material, but its strength and capabilities were misdirected.”

Following the aborted Mud March in January, Donaldson voiced the opinion of many in the army regarding Burnside: “Why! Oh! Why! Don’t they remove this comically incompetent

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station in the top of the cupola of Fredericksburg’s courthouse, overlooking the battlefield.

Confederate artillery soon detected him and his detachment there and sent shells screaming toward their perch. The signalmen soon beat a hasty retreat across the river, but not before the shells directed at them had killed and wounded men in the streets below. In the days that followed, Fortescue laid the blame for the defeat at Fredericksburg on Maj. Gen. William B. Frank-

TROIANI DON (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

DAY 2 SAVAGERY At Gettysburg on July 2, the 118th Pennsylvania fought to the west of the notorious Wheatfield, a portion of which is depicted here.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

TROIANI DON (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

general…?” Morale in the Army of the Potomac plummeted in early 1863. Major General Joe Hooker’s priority when he replaced Burnside in early February was to restore the army’s confidence, and he undertook the task with a vengeance. Furloughs were granted, rations improved, camps were cleaned up, and desertions were quelled. Hooker’s reforms infused the men with a new sense of pride: “I never saw the army in such splendid condition and such excellent fighting trim,” Donaldson wrote after two months under Hooker.

Although he composed a 50-page letter describing what he saw and did there, Donaldson and the 118th were only lightly engaged at Chancellorsville. His experiences there were enough to convince him, however, that Hooker should be replaced: “The men are morose, sullen, dissatisfied, disappointed and mortified,” he wrote nine days after the defeat. “I sincerely trust there will not again be any forward movement under Fighting Joe!!!” Fortescue concurred, remarking that Hooker “failed to convince those around him that he possessed the qualities necessary to fit him for command of the army.”

Donaldson and Rawle maintained a healthy respect for their Confederate opponents. “They are splendid fighting men,” Donaldson wrote in September 1862, adding in January 1863 that the Southerners were “energetic, brave and wonderful.” Lieutenant Rawle had relatives in the South, and his interactions with Southern citizens were generally positive. During the winter of 1863, he was encamped near Warrenton, Va. “The society IDLE BOAST of the place is very aristocratic,” he On May 1, 1863, Maj. Gen. Joe reported to his mother; however, he noted, its sympathies were “very Hooker bragged, “The Rebel Army hot secesh.” Signal officer Fortesis now the legitimate property cue heaped scorn on the civilians of the Army of the Potomac.” he encountered. “Lean, lank, salHe was a bit off the mark. low-pated and alcohol-drenched biliousites,” was how he described the citizens of Winchester, Va.; other descriptions were similarly uncharitable.

The Army of the Potomac experienced yet another change in commanders as it moved to Gettysburg. Joe Hooker was out, replaced by Pennsylvanian George Gordon Meade. Despite being friendly with George Meade Jr. before the war, Rawle was silent regarding the change. Fortescue also said nothing about Meade, but any goodwill engendered by having a general from his native state in command was wasted on Captain Donaldson. “‘Old Four Eye,’ as [he] is universally termed by the men, appears to be man universally despised in the Corps,” he wrote in late June. “He certainly cares very little for the rank and file, and curses loud and deep are hurled at him.”

An exhausting 37-mile march brought the 5th Corps to the outskirts of Gettysburg at 3:30 a.m. on July 2. Later that afternoon, as Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s assault across the Emmitsburg Road threatened to collapse Union lines, Donaldson and the 118th were sent into the woods west of the Wheatfield to help blunt the attacks of Anderson’s and Kershaw’s Brigades.

“The scene now beggars description,” Donaldson recalled as the regiment became engaged. “The deafening shouts of the combatants, the crash of artillery, the trembling ground beneath us, the silent and stricken countenances of the men, the curtain of smoke over all and its peculiar smell made up a picture never to be forgotten by any who witnessed it.” A fellow captain he held in high regard was mortally wounded a few feet away from him, and soon, he wrote, “nothing could

HOIST A

‘hooker’s Retreat’ A stinging defeat inspired a bitter drinker

Captain Donaldson’s favorable opinion regarding Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker turned to disgust after the Union defeat at Chancellorsville, a view shared by many in the Army of the Potomac.

Captain Lemuel L. Crocker, Donaldson’s best friend in the 118th, concocted a drink called “Hooker’s Retreat” to sarcastically “celebrate” the debacle. Donaldson recounted the libation “consisted of whiskey, water, and sugar, liberally coated with nutmeg. Crocker, Thomas and I, on the marches, always carry these ‘sundries,’ so that in case of separation we can still have a ‘Hooker’s Retreat’ at will….but no one can give it the exact manipulation that Crocker can.”

Throughout his diary, Donaldson frequently mentioned that Crocker was eager to “shake up a Joe Hooker” to take the edge off a stressful day.

–D.B.S.

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At Gettysburg on July 2, the 118th Pennsylvania, upper left, was driven from its position on the Stony Hill west of the Wheatfield and eventually out of the fight. Captain Donaldson recalled “the deafening shouts of the combatants, the crash of artillery, the trembling ground beneath us, the silent and stricken countenances of the men, the curtain of smoke over all and its peculiar smell....” Lieutenant Rawle’s 3rd Pennsylvania skirmished along the Hanover Road east of Gettysburg but saw its largest action on July 3 during the cavalry battle between the Hanover and York roads, above right. The Federal troopers clipped the nose of Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s attack and helped drive it back. Lieutenant Fortescue’s Signal Corps detachment observed the battle from Jack’s Mountain near Fairfield. Fortescue had the luxury of sleeping in an Emmitsburg home in the evenings and may have gotten a bit too comfortable. He was captured there by retreating Rebel cavalry after the fight and spent the rest of the war in prison.

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THREE DAYS, THREE DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES

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stop the rebel onslaught.”

From their position on the eastern edge of the East Cavalry Field on the afternoon of July 3, Lieutenant Rawle and his captain watched as Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry attack, nearly three brigades strong, moved from a walk to a gallop and thundered across the open field toward them. It was clear that Southerners would present their flank as they passed the position of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry; it was equally apparent that unless something was done to check their momentum the Rebels would overwhelm the lone Federal regiment charging up to meet them. What would be described many years later as the “supreme moment of his life” was at hand. “Captain, let’s rally the squadron, give ’em a volley with our TEMPORARY HOUSING carbines and then pitch in with our Though he was distant from the fighting at Gettysburg, Fortescue suffered a worse sabres,” said Rawle. “Will you stand by me fate than Donaldson or Rawle when he was captured and sent to Libby Prison. if I order a charge?” his captain asked. “I will stick to you till hell freezes over,” Rawle replied. Soon, Rawle, his captain and 100 Pennsylvanians were galHe was trundled off to Libby Prison in Richloping headlong into the unsuspecting flank of the Southern column that mond and spent the next 20 months eking out was charging past, blunting the force of the assault and helping to break up an existence in five different Confederate pristheir attack. ons, growing more and more embittered toward Captain Fortescue and his signal detachment were sent to Jack’s Mounhis captors each day. He survived and was tain, near Fairfield and just over the Pennsylvania border, on June 29, exchanged in March 1865. Francis Donaldson where they were to establish communication with Meade’s headquarters, led his company until late December 1863, then at Taneytown, Md. Fortescue’s station on the mountain lay 10 miles when a long-simmering feud he had with the southwest of Gettysburg, and as the armies converged on the crossroads commander of the 118th boiled over and led to town, Fortescue and his fellow signalmen found themselves behind enemy Donaldson’s dismissal from the army. He later lines. During the fighting they could intermittently see signal flags waving succeeded in having the charges against him on Little Round Top, and, through their telescopes, were witnesses to dismissed. William Brooke Rawle would spend Pickett’s Charge, but throughout the battle were unable to establish conthe balance of 1863 and early 1864 fighting tact with other signal detachments. Lacking orders, they remained at their guerrillas in Mosby’s Confederacy. In February station, and were surprised and captured by retreating Southern cavalry on 1864, the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry was assigned the morning of July 5 in a house in nearby Emmitsburg, where they had to duty at the Headquarters of the Army of the been spending nights.

Potomac, and from there Rawle witnessed the The paths of the three Philadelphians diverged in the months followfighting of the Army of the Potomac through ing Gettysburg. As a captive, Fortescue’s experience was the most trying. the surrender at Appomattox. In the years after the war, he studied and wrote about the conflict on the East Cavalry Field, and became recognized as the authority on the fighting there. In recognition of his efforts, a flagpole dedicated in his name stands near the scene of the heaviest fighting on July 3.

WANT TO READ MORE? The full accounts of the Army of the Potomac officers profiled in this article can be found in these three well-edited volumes.

J. Gregory Acken is a Civil War writer and researcher who resides near Philadelphia. In addition to the three books dealing with the Civil War experiences of Union officers in the Army of the Potomac referenced in this article, he is currently preparing the letters of a Massachusetts officer for publication.

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raxton Bragg seemed satisfied as a bloody day of combat wound down outside Murfreesboro, Tenn., on December 31, 1862. The Army of Tennessee commander was confident that when dawn broke on New Year’s Day, his opponent, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, would be gone. Although the Confederates could not claim outright victory that first day of the Battle of Stones River, they had enjoyed the advantage after an early morning attack on Rosecrans’ unsuspecting Army of the Cumberland (known at the time as the 14th Army Corps).

Rosecrans, Bragg assumed, would pull his army back toward Nashville overnight rather than risk its inevitable annihilation.

Bragg’s contentment on that New Year’s Eve would ultimately cost him the battle. As the general waited to see how Rosecrans would act, he did lit-

tle to improve his odds, choosing not to draft further plans or to reposition his forces. Rosecrans, however, got busy very quickly. The Union general saw a line of flickering torchlights in the distance during an early morning reconnaissance that he believed signaled another pending Confederate attack. Though he was mistaken, Rosecrans began strengthening his lines. Critically, he also ordered Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, the Left Wing commander, to reoccupy the high ground above McFadden’s Ford, on the east bank of Stones River.

UNION ARTILLERY

THE BATTLE

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SHREDDED CONFEDERATE ATTACKS

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January 1 would pass with some troop realignment by the opposing forces but no meaningful fighting. Finally, on the afternoon of January 2, Bragg decided to move, ordering Maj. Gen. John Breckinridge to lead a 4 p.m. attack with his division, part of Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee’s Corps, on the Union left. Bragg believed that an assault launched an hour before sunset, if successful, would thwart any possibility of a Union counterattack. Breckinridge objected, sure the attack was a mistake, but followed orders.

Breckinridge’s troops succeeded in quickly

©”THE VERY FOREST SEEMED TO FALL” BY ANDY THOMAS

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forcing Crittenden’s men off the high ground in front of McFadden’s Ford, but a burst of manmade thunder soon reverberated across the landscape, as 12 Union batteries (57 cannons total) doused the surging Rebels with jagged iron.

By day’s end—in what would prove the most dramatic and effective use of artillery in the Western Theater during the entire war—those smoldering fieldpieces had stopped Breckinridge cold and Rosecrans had managed a crucial victory in Middle Tennessee. Bragg and his army were left to lament a missed golden opportunity.

DEAFENING The booming barrage Union artillerymen unleashed on the final day of the Battle of Stones River was so thunderous that to Maj. Gen. Thomas Crittenden, “the very forest seemed to fall.”

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elevated terrain adjacent to McFadden’s Ford.

Beatty aligned his brigades in two rows—two in front and one in reserve.

Occupation of this ground, rising about 50 feet above the river, provided Rosecrans with a significant tactical advantage, whether in defense or to launch an attack on Bragg’s right flank, which to that point had not been tested. Bragg recognized, although too late, the advantage of this same high ground, learning to his chagrin the morning of January 2 that Federals were already in place there.

Troops from Palmer’s division were sent to the ford later on January 1 to support Beatty: Brig.

Gen. Charles Cruft’s 1st Brigade and Colonel William Grose’s 3rd Brigade. Early the next day, two additional brigades from Brig. Gen. James S. Negley’s 2nd Division, in Thomas’ Center Wing, were sent over: Colonel Timothy R. Stanley’s 2nd Brigade and Colonel John F. Miller’s 3rd Brigade.

The artillery attached to Negley’s and Palmer’s divisions accompanied them to the ground behind McFadden’s Ford. For Negley, there had been 13 guns in three batteries on December 31; he now had six. Palmer was better off. He lost only two of the 14 guns he had, in two batteries, during the fighting December 31.

Captain John Mendenhall, Crittenden’s chief of artillery, positioned these 18 new guns alongside the six-gun 7th Indiana Battery of Van Cleve’s division. Soon, 12 guns of the 26th Pennsylvania and 6th Ohio batteries joined Mendenhall’s artillery, with more batteries on the way. n the late morning and early afternoon January 2, increased Confederate activity in the direction of McFadden’s Ford was a good indication that an attack was possible. Confederate patrols had engaged Beatty’s skirmish line with increasing frequency and, midafternoon, an infantry battalion-sized patrol supported by artillery probed the Union defenses. Three of Breckinridge’s brigades that had been engaged at the hotly contested Round Forest on December

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The two army commanders had similar intentions for the morning of December 31, each hoping to launch an attack on his opponent’s right flank. The plan Rosecrans devised called for Brig. Gen. Horatio P. Van Cleve’s 3rd Division in Crittenden’s Left Wing to cross Stones River at McFadden’s Ford first and attack Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge’s Division. As that attack proceeded, Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood’s 1st Division was to cross the river above Wayne’s Hill and join the push on Van Cleve’s right, to be followed by Bragg Crittenden’s 2nd Division, commanded by Brig. Gen. John M. Palmer.

Bragg moved first, however, and gained the initiative by slamming into Maj. Gen. Alexander McCook’s Right Wing. Coming out of an early morning fog, the Confederate assault soon drove the Union right back about 3½ miles to the turnpike.

A desperate defense, spurred by the likes of Brig. Gens. Joshua Sill and Phil Sheridan, and in particular Colonel William B. Hazen, went far in preventing what looked to be a Confederate victory.

With the Federals in disarray, RoseRosecrans crans had no choice but to call off his planned attack, recalling Van Cleve’s division across the river. Two of Van Cleve’s brigades, Colonel Samuel Beatty’s and Colonel James Fyffe’s, were sent right to help contest the Confederate envelopment. Colonel Samuel W. Price’s 3rd Brigade remained at McFadden’s Ford, supported by Lieutenant Cortland Livingston’s six-gun 3rd Wisconsin Battery.

The Federals managed to hold on until dark, helped that heavily fatigued soldiers in several Confederate units forced their commanders to call off further attacks. That night, Rosecrans met with his three wing commanders—Crittenden, McCook, and Maj. Gen. George Thomas—in a council of war and decided to keep his army in place, see what developed, bring forward ammunition and supplies, and even consider an attack on the Confederate positions.

Rosecrans’ most important decision came early on January 1 when he instructed Crittenden to reposition his 3rd Division—now commanded by Colonel Beatty, with Van Cleve shelved by a serious foot wound—on the CIVIL WAR TIMES FEBRUARY 2021

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©”PARSON’S BATTERIES HEAVILY ENGAGED” BY ANDY THOMAS

he clash at Stones River had been building for several months. On October 24, 1862, Rosecrans replaced Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell as commander of the Army of the Ohio, which was renamed the 14th Army Corps, and began efforts to rejuvenate a demoralized army. The Federals had suffered a tactical loss at Perryville, Ky., in early October, and, though Perryville became a strategic victory after Bragg quickly retreated out of Kentucky, it was evident Buell had lost the confidence of his officers and men.

“Old Rosy” succeeded in swiftly revamping the army, but President Abraham Lincoln, the commander in chief, wanted more and pressured the general to engage Bragg’s army, now camped at Murfreesboro, before winter set in. Rosecrans moved first to Nashville in early December. Then, on December 26, he headed south toward Murfreesboro with eight infantry divisions along with Brig. Gen. David S. Stanley’s cavalry and the newly formed Pioneer Brigade of engineers—43,400 men total.

In response, Bragg concentrated his 37,317-man army (five infantry divisions, artillery, and Brig. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry) on a wide front across the Nashville-Murfreesboro Pike and the adjoining Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, protecting susceptible approaches to Murfreesboro. Wheeler’s cavalry performed sporadically during the coming battle itself, but had some success disrupting Rosecrans’ ammunition and food supply lines on December 29-30.

IN THE THICK OF THINGS A crew of Parsons’ Regular Battery pushes their cannon into position on December 31, 1862.

Two days later, the battery helped to derail the Confederate onslaught at McFadden’s Ford.

“I HAVE GIVEN YOU THE ORDER

TO ATTACK THE ENEMY IN YOUR FRONT AND EXPECT

IT TO BE OBEYED.”

©”PARSON’S BATTERIES HEAVILY ENGAGED” BY ANDY THOMAS

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; COURTESY OF

— General Braxton Bragg

31 were returned across Stones River to Bragg’s right flank.

That morning, Breckinridge had ordered skirmishers, supported by artillery, to reconnoiter the Union position on the high ground, with Breckinridge also moving forward for a closer look.

Bragg was understandably concerned when Breckinridge reported his observations, realizing the right and center of his army’s position could be subjected to enfilading fire. To Breckinridge’s dismay, Bragg ordered an attack on the Union position. Despite Breckinridge’s protests that the

massed Union artillery firing into his flank during an assault would result in heavy casualties, Bragg was not swayed, responding. “I have given you the order to attack the enemy in your front and expect it to be obeyed.”

With no choice, Breckinridge returned to his division to inform his brigade commanders, all of whom shared his outrage. The order was “murderous,” howled Brig. Gen. Roger W. Hanson, who also threatened to go and “kill Bragg.”

At the battle’s onset, Breckinridge’s Division comprised four brigades and an attached brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. John K. Jackson, as well as five batteries. Jackson’s Brigade had joined the three Breckinridge brigades sent to the Round Forest on December 31 but stayed there when those three brigades returned across Stones River. On the afternoon of January 2, Breckinridge had the services of about 5,200 men. he Confederate attack was set for 4 p.m., just an hour before sunset.

Breckinridge hoped to use the short daylight period to his advantage. Commencing the attack and capturing the objective would not provide Federal forces sufficient time to regroup, bring up reserves, and counterattack before dark. This would provide the entire night for Breckinridge and Bragg to reinforce the newly captured high ground and decide on their next move.

Breckinridge deployed his division with two brigades in front and two in support. On the first line was Hanson’s five-regiment brigade, with Colonel Joseph Palmer’s five-regiment brigade, now commanded by Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, to Hanson’s right. The supporting line featured Brig. Gen.

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Daniel W. Adams’ three-regiment/one-battalion brigade, commanded by Colonel Randall L. Gibson, on the left, and Brig. Gen. William Preston’s four-regiment brigade on the right.

Supporting the attack were 24 guns of Breckinridge’s divisional artillery. In addition, Bragg ordered Captain Felix H. Robertson to shift his battery and two sections of Captain Henry C. Semple’s Alabama Battery—a total of 10 guns— across the river to join Breckinridge’s attack. Breckinridge and Robertson argued, however, on how to deploy these 34 guns during the attack. Breckinridge wanted all artillery to advance alongside his infantry; Robertson thought the batteries should be held back and join the infantry once the high ground was captured. In the end, Breckinridge’s 24 guns advanced with the infantry and Robertson’s 10 guns waited in place.

INFANTRY As Breckinridge’s leading brigades exited the DEATH DEALERS woods, where they had formed, they came under Civil War fieldpieces immediate artillery fire. Hanson’s Brigade marched fired various projectiles, on the double-quick directly toward Price’s position. including case shot, Ordered not to fire until they were within 100 yards fused rounds filled with of the defenders, and then to deliver a single volley lead balls to increase and charge with their bayonets, Hanson’s troops shrapnel. From top to moved steadily across the open ground. bottom: Case shot used Price’s regiments held their fire until Hanson’s by a 12-pounder men were 60–90 yards away before delivering a devNapoleon, a 3-inch astating volley that temporarily stalled the Confederates. But they soon rallied and continued to Ordnance Rifle, and a advance. The Union position began to crumble as 10-pounder Parrot. the front-line regiments retreated through those behind, and Price finally ordered his regiments off the high ground. Hanson was mortally wounded in the attack, dying two days later.

On Breckinridge’s right, Pillow’s Brigade hit Fyffe’s position. Because Fyffe’s regiments on the left extended past the Confederate right, they were able to pour flanking fire into Pillow’s men. One of Preston’s regiments, supported by Captain E. Eldridge Wright’s Tennessee Battery, maneuvered to attack Fyffe’s flank, driving those regiments back. The remainder of Preston’s Brigade moved forward with Pillow’s to continue the attack, while Gibson advanced after moving Adams’ Brigade in line with Hanson’s.

In an effort to stop the overwhelming attack, Beatty committed his reserve brigade. Those troops were initially successful, but, once flanked, they too joined in the retreat. After 30 minutes of intense combat, Breckinridge had accomplished his objective: capture of this key terrain east of the river. Darkness was not far off, and though success was within the Confederates’ grasp, what happened next changed everything.

As the Rebel attack proceeded, Captain Mendenhall positioned three more batteries—15 guns total—at the ford, and Livingston’s 3rd Wisconsin Battery returned across the river to add six guns to a formidable Federal artillery line.

That gave Mendenhall the immediate services of 45 guns in 10 batteries, aligned along a 675-yard-wide front. As the terrain on the west bank of Stones River was 10 feet higher than the east, it gave the Union artillery an unobstructed field of fire across the river and the ground beyond.

In the center of Mendenhall’s position was Captain George R. Swallow’s 7th Indiana Battery (six guns). To Swallow’s left were the guns of Negley’s three batteries—Lieutenant Alexander Marshall’s Battery G, 1st Ohio (two guns); Captain Frederick Schultz’s Battery M, 1st Ohio (three guns); and Lieutenant Alban A. Ellsworth’s Battery B, 1st Kentucky (one gun). To the left of Ellsworth were the three guns of Captain William E. Standart’s Battery B, 1st Ohio.

On Swallow’s right was the 3rd Wisconsin (six guns), flanked on its right by Lieutenant Charles C. Parsons’ Batteries H and M, 4th U.S. (eight guns). Captain James H. Stokes’s Chicago Board of Trade Battery (six guns) was on Parsons’ right, alongside Lieutenant Norval Osburn’s Battery F, 1st Ohio (four guns) and Lieutenant George Estep’s 8th Indiana Battery (six guns). Mendenhall also CIVIL WAR TIMES FEBRUARY 2021

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R E D L O H E C PLA AP TK M W E N

had the support of four infantry brigades, as well as the recently arrived Pioneer Brigade in reserve.

There were 12 additional guns stationed to Estep’s right , belonging to Lieutenant Alanson J. Stevens’s 26th Pennsylvania Battery and Captain Cullen Bradley’s 6th Ohio Battery (six guns each).

While the Confederates attacked, these batteries were able to deliver oblique and enfilade fire.

t was 4:30 p.m. Beyond the high ground Breckinridge had captured was a stretch of land featuring several rolling depressions that should have been used to provide protection from Mendenhall’s artillery. Instead of consolidating their gains, however, the Confederate infantry, flush with victory, rushed forward into the Union artillery’s kill zone.

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TOO BIG A BITE Breckinridge’s assault cleared the ground east of Stones River, but when he pushed his men onward, they became Union cannon fodder.

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GETTING READY TO HEAD SOUTH Members of the 3rd Wisconsin Artillery, also known as the “Badger Battery,” at their Camp Randall, Wis., training camp. At Stones River, the battery retreated across the river before Breckinridge’s January 2 onslaught, and re-formed in Mendenhall’s line.

stated by a participant that the time from giving of the command “Charge bayonets” till the Confederates had been driven back was forty-two minutes…in the short space of time mentioned, and chiefly during the last fifteen minutes, Breckinridge’s loss, as stated by himself, was seventeen hundred men—more than thirty-seven per cent.

Breckinridge

Robertson The main body…were on the point of dashing wildly into the river, the very earth trembled as with an exploding mine, and a mass of iron hail was hurled upon them. The rushing host had been checked in mid-career, and now staggered back. The artillery bellowed forth such thunder that men were stunned and could not distinguish sounds. There were falling timbers, crashing arms, the whirring of missiles of every description, the bursting of the dreadful shell, the groans of the wounded, and the shouts of the officers, mingled in one horrid din that beggars description. To endeavor to press forward now was folly, to remain was madness, and the order was given to retreat. Some rushed back precipitately, while others walked away with deliberation, and some even slowly and doggedly, as though they scorned the danger or had become indifferent to life….But they paid toll at every step back over that ground which they had just passed with the shout of victors….It was 44

The sustained Union fire stopped, broke up, and then drove back Breckinridge’s infantry. Negley’s two brigades (Stanley’s and Miller’s), which had been supporting the artillery, counterattacked and drove the Confederates beyond the recently captured higher ground. As dark descended on the battlefield, the key terrain east of the river was again occupied by Union troops. o, what had gone wrong for Breckinridge, especially after his early success? Three factors were principally involved:

S

First, the Confederate artillery was poorly handled. Breckinridge had 34 guns

available to support his attack: 24 under his control and 10 commanded by Felix Robertson, captain of a battery in Maj. Gen. Jones M. Withers’ Division. Breckinridge and Robertson argued about the employment of the artillery.

Breckinridge wanted all of the available artillery to accompany his attack, but Robertson thought such a maneuver would compress the batteries and place them in a dangerous position. He wanted to hold the artillery back until the high ground had been captured before bringing the guns forward.

Both concepts had merit, but as it played out, Breckinridge would advance with his 24 guns while Robertson stayed back. This divided command and control resulted in many of the batteries going into action piecemeal or not at all.

COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY; MEDFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY & MUSEUM; THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR; OPPOSITE PAGE: ©”MY POOR ORPHANS” BY ANDY THOMAS

The ground the Rebel infantry crossed in pursuit of the fleeing Federal troops extended roughly 900–1,000 yards. Once they reached the river, the attacking Confederates would be partially protected by a steep slope, which provided some relief from Mendenhall’s guns but did not prevent rifle fire from the infantry supporting the artillery.

As soon as Breckinridge’s men began crossing the open ground, the big Union guns opened fire. Mendenhall, a seasoned, tactically proficient artillery officer, handled his batteries deftly over the next 15-20 minutes. With each gun firing at a rate of two rounds per minute, those 57 guns unleashed 114 rounds for every minute of the attack. The result was a total of 1,710–2,280 rounds that tore apart the compact and rapidly disorganized mass of Confederate infantry.

Lieutenant Edwin P. Thompson of the 6th Kentucky Infantry offered the best description of the Federal cannonade from the Confederate perspective, writing:

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Second, the Union artillery was superbly controlled.

It was positioned to provide concentrated fire in defense of the ground on both sides of McFadden’s Ford. As the fighting progressed, Captain Mendenhall brought additional artillery into action. Interestingly, nine months later at Chickamauga, he would attempt a similar massing of artillery on September 20. There he arranged 29 guns from six batteries, five of which had been with him at McFadden’s Ford, on the high ground west of Dyer’s Field in an attempt to check Confederate penetration of the Union defenses. At Chickamauga, however, he had the support of only a few infantry regiments and was unsuccessful, as the Confederates were able to flank his artillery position.

Third, the Confederate attack went too far. The objective of Breckinridge’s attack was to capture the high ground east of McFadden’s Ford, which he did. Whoever controlled this ground would have two tactical advantages: It could be used to enfilade the other’s defensive line with artillery, and, in turn, it would deny the enemy the advantage of enfilading artillery fire. The attack was timed so that the ground would be captured just before sunset. That would give Rosecrans minimal time, if any, before it got dark. In addition, Breckinridge would have the entire night to organize and strengthen his brigade’s defensive alignment.

Had the Confederates stopped once they captured the high ground, they had options to hold their position. Although they were within range of Union artillery above McFadden’s Ford, depressions and folds in the open ground offered them ample protection. Also important was that they could remain out of range of effective Union rifle fire.

Rather than stop and consolidate their position, many regiments pursued the Federals retreating toward the river. At this point, the attack

began to lose cohesion, command and control broke down, and units became commingled.

Two months after the battle, General Hardee wrote a distinct appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the Army of Tennessee and the Army of the Cumberland as exemplified by the fighting on January 2: “It is worthy of remark that at Murfreesboro, whenever the fight was confined principally to musketry, and the enemy had no advantage in artillery, we were successful. It was only when they had massed heavy batteries that we were repulsed. In every form of contest in which mechanical instruments, requiring skill and heavy machinery to make them, can be used, the Federals are our superiors.”

Matt Spruill is a retired U.S. Army colonel, author of 10 Civil War books, who resides and writes from Colorado. The fighting he discusses in this article can be fully explored in Winter Lightning: A Guide to the Battle of Stones River and Decisions at Stones River: The Sixteen Critical Decisions That Define the Battle, published as part of the University of Tennessee Press’ newest series “Command Decisions in America’s Civil War.”

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DOWN TO THE RIVER This painting shows soldiers of the Kentucky Orphan Brigade struggling to cross Stones River. The brigade suffered 430 casualties out of 1,200 men on January 2. “My poor Orphan Brigade! They have cut it to pieces!,” lamented Breckinridge.

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PHOTO CREDIT

“GIVE US HOOD!” Texas Brigade soldiers give Brig. Gen. John B. Hood a rousing cheer during the march to Sharpsburg in the fall of 1862.

Even after the bloodlettings of that year and 1863, the leadership of that storied brigade kept their worn men ready to fight late into the war.

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TEXAS TOUGH WILLIAM “HOWDY” MARTIN EXEMPLIFIED

THE

OFFICERS

WHO KEPT

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PHOTO CREDIT

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insisted on sharing hardships with his men. “Bill Martin himself is a good officer,” one Houston volunteer observed. “He roughs it all the time, and says that what is good enough for the men is good enough for him.” None of these approaches to effective leadership are revolutionary, but it is noteworthy that of the junior officers in the training camps that summer, few mastered the ability to balance authority with empathy like Martin and it served him well in his command of highly motivated but strongly independent men.

The Texas volunteers who later formed the core three regiments of the Texas Brigade spent that first winter of the war in Virginia. When they weren’t battling the cold, disease, and inexperienced officers, the men

Earlier this year, Civil War Times asked its editorial advisory board, “What Civil War personality would you like to live with for a month?” I settled on a man named William “Howdy” Martin of John Bell Hood’s Texas Brigade. Despite his fame among fellow veterans, our understanding of Martin and his leadership remains elusive due to a limited source base. A month of conversation and observation, especially regarding the hard fighting of the summer and fall of 1862, would let me explore a topic of interest to many military historians: the evolution of junior officers from their election by the men through their development as strong company and regimental commanders. The success and failure of Martin and other Texas Brigade officers offers insights into that process which was so critical during the Civil War and remains so today.

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TROIANI, DON (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

A BIG TEXAS HOWDY! Texas Brigade officer William H. Martin was nicknamed “Howdy” for his preference of that greeting as opposed to formal military protocol.

COURTESY OF SUSANNAH URAL

n paper, there is little to differentiate William H. Martin from other junior officers in Texas when the Civil War began. In his early 30s, he was a practicing attorney and a former state senator who lived comfortably in the middle-class community of Athens, Texas, with the one notable exception from his peers in that he does not appear to have been a slave owner. Like many of his fellow Texas officers, Martin was not a native-born Texan, but he identified with white Southerners who were sufficiently concerned by the growing power of the Republican Party, its efforts to limit the extension of slavery, and the election of Abraham Lincoln to enthusiastically support secession.

As a leading resident of Athens who organized a company in the spring of 1861, it’s not surprising that the men elected Martin their captain. What is noteworthy, however, is how he earned their respect in the early days of the war when men shifted from enthusiastic volunteers to citizen soldiers bristling at the idea of submitting to military authority. In an effort to speed this transition and prepare the men for war, most of the companies that would later form the Texas Brigade, including Martin’s, drilled in the Texas heat that summer of 1861 and later near Richmond, where officers emphasized drill, order, and a respect for their commanders. This, they argued, was the way to turn raw recruits into disciplined soldiers.

Martin understood the need for training, but he preferred to temper authority with persuasion. When, for example, the men of the “Sandy Point Mounted Rifles” discovered they would have neither mounts nor rifles, it was Martin who convinced them to stay in the ranks while he used his political savvy to secure arms from Governor Edward Clark, reminding him that satisfied soldiers made satisfied voters. Martin also used humor and empathy to temper the subservience required in military life. He earned the nickname “Howdy” for his preference for the Western greeting over a formal salute, and

TROIANI, DON (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

COURTESY OF SUSANNAH URAL

earned a reputation for brave, if ill-disciplined, and sometimes unauthorized scouting expeditions into Union lines across the Potomac River.

It became clear that it would take unique leaders to turn the Texans into disciplined combat soldiers who could operate as a large unit in cooperation with others. Unfortunately, the selection of those commanders was no simple issue.

While the men had been allowed to elect company-grade officers, all of the field officers, they discovered that winter, would be appointed by President Jefferson Davis. This violated the men’s sense of a democratic process and their role, as citizen soldiers, in deciding to whom they would surrender their independence. In response to the perceived injustice the Texans inflicted their outrage on every officer Richmond sent, as well as a few they had elected.

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arylander J.J. Archer, who Davis selected to command the 5th Texas, was deemed “a good, competent, and brave officer,” but the men were not convinced he should lead them. Archer was not, 5th Texan Dugat Williams explained, “a Texan and the whole Regiment has, on this and other accounts, made decided objections to him. They say he is not the man to lead them into battle, that he is from a state too far North and too near Yankeedom for Texas to trust as their commanding officer.” The men believed “that Texans are claimed as the best Soldiers in the Army and they think the position of Colonel is too high for a Marylander to hold over Texans.” Fellow 5th Texan, Tacitus T. Clay, agreed. Archer “may possibly be a very efficient man if in the Command of Regulars, but I fear he is not the right type to control or give satisfaction to Texas volunteers....”

The 5th Texas continued on down the list of appointees from there.

They insisted that Major J.J. Quattlebaum was “incompetent and inexperienced” and they played “on his name with verse and song,” tormenting the major throughout camp and in drill. Quattlebaum finally resigned, declaring “that if he had to associate with devils he would wait till he went

ON THE WAY TO PENNSYLVANIA This vignette by modern artist Don Troiani portrays men of the 1st, 4th, 5th Texas, and 3rd Arkansas (also in the Texas Brigade) as they appeared during the Gettysburg Campaign. The soldier with the red blanket roll carries an Englishmade rifle with a sword bayonet, often issued to sergeants or corporals. The Texans always seemed to end up in hot spots. At Antietam, they fought in the Cornfield, and they charged Little Round Top at Gettysburg.

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THOMAS BUFFINGTON, 4th TEXAS

IKE TURNER, 5th TEXAS resigned on September 30, several 4th Texans chased behind his horse with switches, driving him out of camp as the 5th Texans had Schaller.

Lieutenant Colonel John Marshall of the 4th Texas fared only slightly better. A respected Austin newspaper editor and personal friend of Jefferson Davis, Marshall was celebrated in Texas that spring for his recruitment of volunteers and his determination that Texans would join the fight in Virginia. But after several weeks in camp outside Richmond, it became clear that Marshall was not a natural commander. “He made a perfect fool of himself,” Thomas Selman explained, “giving wrong orders such as order arms from a present [arms], fix bayonets when they were already fixed.

The boys would not obey a single order that was wrong. When the parade was dismissed, every company left the ground whooping & yelling &

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COURTESY OF THE PEARCE MUSEUM; HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER, TEXAS HERITAGE MUSEUM, HILL COLLEGE, HILLSBORO, TEXAS

to hell, where he could select his own company.”

The 5th Texans declared their lieutenant colonel, German immigrant Frank Schaller, a dandy and martinet and they finally drove him out of camp on his horse, whose mane and tail they sheared as “sleek as a possum.” Part of the men’s protest was against Schaller as a foreigner, but their primary objection was submitting to a man who did not demonstrate a mutual respect for his men. Schaller did not share the Texans’ rough nature, which rejected overt signs of wealth, urbanity, and formal education. Most officers of the Texas regiments were actually quite wealthy, and the majority of them came from slave-holding families (as did about onethird of the enlisted men). But they preferred commanders who projected a self-made image, rejected Eastern refinement, and who emphasized above all else their respect for the men’s independence.

It’s important to note that Texans could receive equally rough treatment from the volunteers. The 4th Texas rejected Colonel R.T.P. Allen in Richmond despite the fact that he ran a military academy before the war in Bastrop, Texas, and had commanded them during the early training days near San Marcos. He was strong on discipline but rarely showed the respect they demanded. When “Rarin’, Tearin’, Pitchin’” Allen, as they nicknamed him, finally

PETER NEWARK MILITARY IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER, TEXAS HERITAGE MUSEUM, HILL COLLEGE, HILLSBORO, TEXAS (2)

1st TEXAS CAMP, VIRGINIA 1861

EDWARD CURRIE, 1st TEXAS

COURTESY OF THE PEARCE MUSEUM; HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER, TEXAS HERITAGE MUSEUM, HILL COLLEGE, HILLSBORO, TEXAS

PETER NEWARK MILITARY IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER, TEXAS HERITAGE MUSEUM, HILL COLLEGE, HILLSBORO, TEXAS (2)

ALBERT ARTHUR ALLISON, 5th TEXAS

“HURRAH FOR TEXAS!” General Robert E. Lee reportedly made the statement above when he saw the Texas Brigade approach at the Battle of the Wilderness. Here are a few of the officers and enlisted men who earned Lee’s trust, even if one did appropriate fancy drapery tassels to trim out his hat. repeating Marshall’s commands & crying aloud Marshall’s tactics.”

Embarrassed by the event, Marshall studied his manuals and the next day he made just one mistake. But the impression had been made, and men refused to obey his commands. With Marshall, though, they had met their match.

Accustomed to his fellow Texans’ attitudes, Marshall refused to leave even when the men submitted a petition demanding his resignation. Similar petitions were levied against other 4th Texas officers, including Company C’s Captain William Townsend and his Lieutenant Decimus et Ultimus Barziza (whose parents were clearly exhausted by the time their “tenth and last” child arrived). Like Marshall, these Texans rejected the protests and continued with their duties. The complaints were almost always the same: too much discipline and submission required of the men and too lit-

tle respect shown them, but Townsend insisted that “the discontented are the worthless ones—they would be dissatisfied anywhere.” When the campaign season opened, Barziza and Townsend had the opportunity to prove their bravery in battle, which tempered the men’s frustrations and re-established their respect in the ranks. Marshall never had that opportunity; he was mortally wounded early in the brigade’s first major battle at Gaines’ Mill in June 1862.

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here is a clear pattern of what the Texans demanded in their leaders, and the accounts from Townsend and others indicate that their protests were not always justified. Dissatisfied volunteers who had never seen combat on the scale they were about to witness were not well positioned to select the best commanders, and these volunteers clearly needed discipline and order. Fortunately for the Texans, they settled on a few exceptional leaders early in the war, including Howdy Martin, who understood, almost instinctively, that leadership involved a power exchange between officers and men. The Texans would sacrifice their cherished freedoms and rights as independent men only to those whom they deemed worthy of that submission. Of all the officers in the Texas regiments in Virginia in the first year of the war, John Bell Hood, Martin’s regimental commander, stood out as the defining example of how to effectively lead this headstrong, highly motivated unit.

Ironically, Hood was appointed, not elected, the commander of the 4th Texas Infantry in September 1861. But from the start, he purposely developed a close relationship with his men. As he explained years later, he used that first winter of the war to seize every “opportunity whenever the officers or men came to my quarters, or whenever I chanced to be in conversation with them, to arouse their pride, to impress upon them that” they would be the best regiment in the brigade; possibly in the army.

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Texas explained, “Never did I see or know a man to rise higher and more quickly in the estimation of others than did Col. Hood. Well versed in human nature and thoroughly understanding the peculiarities of Texans character,” Hood understood “full well that volunteers would not submit to the same restrictions that would be imposed on regulars.” Hood knew not to “draw the reign of true military discipline very tight at first—issu-

JOHN BELL HOOD STOOD OUT AS THE DEFINING EXAMPLE OF HOW TO EFFECTIVELY LEAD THIS HEAD-STRONG, HIGHLY

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HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER, TEXAS HERITAGE MUSEUM, HILL COLLEGE, HILLSBORO, TEXAS; DEGOLYER LIBRARY, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY, LAWRENCE T. JONES III TEXAS PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION

selves. If a fellow 4th Texan misbehaved in town, for example, Hood taught his junior officers and the men that “they should, themselves, take him in charge and not allow his misconduct to bring discredit upon the regiment.” In that sense, the men had the opportunity to continue exercising the authority they had in their civilian lives rather than requiring their commanding officer to exercise his power over them.

Similarly, Hood often took the time to explain why orders or certain practices were necessary, and he taught his subordinates to do the same. Men who didn’t obey the lights out orders at the end of the night, Hood explained, hurt their fellow soldiers by making them too exhausted for duty the next morning. Again, Hood encouraged his men to police infractions themselves because those transgressions hurt the effectiveness of the unit, which hurt its reputation and, in turn, hurt the men by diminishing the authority and independence they could still practice in their own lives. It was an incredibly effective approach to an incredibly challenging unit. As Joseph B. Polley of the 4th

ing few orders and those quite lenient for sometime but gradually increasing.”

The men for the 4th Texas returned that respect in the spring of 1862 when they presented Col. Hood with a horse. Their gift was not “to court your favor,” they explained, but because in Hood they had “found a leader whom we are proud to follow—a commander it is a pleasure to obey. In a word, General, ‘you stand by us and we will stand by you.’” Those were powerful words from men who, that same spring, drove one officer out of camp with switches and petitioned the resignation of three others (who were fellow Texans).

By the war’s end, John Bell Hood’s reputation would be in tatters, but he excelled at the regimental, brigade, and even division levels of command. And the Texans never forgot him. Although Hood led their brigade only for about six months in 1862, when they organized as veterans, they named themselves Hood’s Texas Brigade Association.

As a company commander in Hood’s regiment that first winter and spring of the war, Howdy Martin absorbed many of those lessons, though he may not have mastered the art of “gradually increasing” the “reins of military discipline.” The evidence is thin, but several wartime and postwar accounts describe Martin’s role as the standing defense attorney for his men, who often found themselves in the guardhouse for one offense or another. There are also stories of Company K’s camp rarely being the most orderly or his men the best disciplined. This may be why the wellliked Captain Martin, despite service in a hard-fighting unit, wasn’t promoted to major until April 1864. But in battle, Martin and his men were unstoppable and, like the Texas Brigade, they earned a reputation for their steadfast determination and reliability.

Few moments better represent Howdy Martin’s leadership and the Texans’ respect for him than a crisis they faced in the final months of the war. In the early spring of 1865, the Texas Brigade was respected as one of the most elite units in the Confederate Army, but they were facing consolidation. On paper, it made sense. Heavy fighting had reduced the brigade to fewer than 600 men. It would, according to the Consolidation Bill passed by the Confederate Congress, merge with other understrength companies and regiments to return to the size of an effective fighting unit, if with a very different makeup, different officers, and a different unit

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identification. The Texans had seen this happen to other units such as the Stonewall Brigade, and they refused to accept the idea that after all they had sacrificed for the Confederacy, their celebrated unit would cease to exist.

HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER, TEXAS HERITAGE MUSEUM, HILL COLLEGE, HILLSBORO, TEXAS; DEGOLYER LIBRARY, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY, LAWRENCE T. JONES III TEXAS PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION

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hat was left of the Texas Brigade met that spring of 1865 and elected Martin to make their case directly to President Davis. With the help of connections in Richmond, Martin secured an appointment and set off from camp to present one of the most important arguments of his career. In a classic understated way, he headed into Richmond in “an old blue coat which once belonged to a Union soldier,” with his shirt showing through a tear in the back, and “the Howdy Martin hair” poking through a hole in his hat.

After waiting some time, Martin was ushered in to meet with Davis, and General Robert E. Lee happened to be present as well. Martin insisted that any decision to “consolidate the Texas regiments...would break the hearts of our men....The bones of their comrades are bleaching upon many battlefields in the South” while hundreds of others “returned to their homes broke down in health forever.”

Martin reminded Davis that the men had accepted the full rejection of furloughs home that winter, and that all they were asking to do was continue fighting, but as the Texas Brigade.

He even secured a spontaneous endorsement from Lee, who added, “I never ordered that brigade to hold a place, that they did not hold it.” Davis pondered the decision briefly, then nodded and promised Martin that he had won his case. The Texas Brigade remained an independent fighting unit, which it did until surrendering with the rest of Lee’s army several months later at Appomattox Court House.

The leadership that men like Hood and Martin demonstrated in the Texas Brigade balanced the need for discipline and order with a mutual respect the men required. In some ways, this is an exceptional case. The volunteers who comprised the Texas units of the Texas Brigade were some of the most highly motivated men to serve on either side of the war. Despite losing twice as many men in combat as to disease—opposite the statistic for most Civil War soldiers—the brigade had one of the lowest desertion rates in any army, and their families at home, who shared the men’s determination, were able to sustain themselves or each other in the men’s absence.

But the leadership “Howdy” Martin, John Bell Hood, and others demonstrated so successfully in the Texas Brigade speaks to the larger lessons of command in Civil War armies. Volunteers took pride in the title citizen soldier and effective commanders learned to demonstrate their respect for soldiers’ rights as independent men who temporarily chose to obey those deemed worthy of that submission. Few officers understood that power exchange as well as William “Howdy” Martin of Hood’s Texas Brigade.

Susannah J. Ural is professor of history and co-director of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. This article is based on her latest book, Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit (LSU Press, 2017).

RELATIVES GO TO WAR Top: Company E cousins Rufus K. Fielder (left) and Miers Fielder of the 5th Texas. Above: Emzy Taylor (left) and George Taylor of Company E of the 4th Texas, also cousins.

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The war in their words

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EYEWITNESSES TO MURDER John P. Crown’s statement is one of four that describe a confrontation between Maryland civilians and New Hampshire troops that went wrong. All the statements are in the same handwriting, meaning they were likely dictated or transcribed.

‘SHOOT AND BE DAMNED’ A TENSE INTERACTION BETWEEN GREEN SOLDIERS AND AGITATED CIVILIANS RESULTS IN MURDER d

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and was in a brigade commanded by Colonel ON THE BORDER Charles P. Stone.

Union soldiers on the The 1st was in the 7th Brigade of the Depart- Maryland shore at Point ment of Pennsylvania, commanded by Maj. of Rocks eye up a Gen. Robert Patterson, hastily formed to protect Confederate flag flying Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Sources in Loudoun County, Va. differ as to who the 1st was brigaded with, but in The bridge was burned the Official Records and in the regiment’s 1890s on June 14, 1861. history, The First Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers in the Great Rebellion, it appears the New Englanders were sent with the 9th New York, the 1st Pennsylvania, elements of the District of Columbia Volunteers, some cavalry and an artillery battery to keep an eye on the railroad line, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, and important river crossings such as Point of Rocks.

To that end, the 1st had been marching back and forth from Rockville to Harpers Ferry, leaving detachments scattered along the riverbank at important locations. The majority of their contact with Confederates had consisted of taunting rival pickets across the Potomac. By late July, some of the New Hampshiremen had established “Camp Berry” at Point of Rocks, where Confederates already razed the covered bridge across the river on June 14. Regimental history author Stephen Abbot, the 1st New Hampshire’s wartime chaplain, described the town as a “dirty secesh village,” and recounted how Colonel Stone was refused “entertainment” at Point of Rocks’ St. Cloud Hotel. Stone got a company of troops to take over the hotel and help him “run it on his own account.” The dismissive treatment of the Union troops reflected the Southern sympathies found in

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ne summer Sunday afternoon on the north bank of the Potomac River at Point of Rocks, Md., a group of eight to 10 men had been enjoying the town’s watering holes. Between 5 and 6 o’clock in the afternoon, they commandeered a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad handcar and began laboriously cranking their way north along a spur of the railroad that ran to Frederick and that passed by their homes near Adamstown, about six miles north of Point of Rocks.

It was likely a familiar outing for the men.

Take a day to go have a few drinks at the end of the week, and then head home and get ready for the Monday workday. But things were far from ordinary in southern Frederick County on July 21, 1861. The First Battle of Bull Run was raging in Manassas, Va., some 40 miles to the south, signaling the true beginning of an American bloodbath. And for the past month, Union regiments had been marching into Maryland’s Potomac River bottomlands. One of those regiments was the three-month 1st New Hampshire Infantry, which had been formed in May

Point of Rocks, and much of southern Frederick County. After all, the bluffs of Loudoun County, Va., were clearly visible just across the river.

The men of the 1st New Hampshire were far from home and surrounded by a populace that did not welcome them. So when that handcar full of Sunday revelers headed home from the bars of Point of Rocks and ran into a picket line of the 1st New Hampshire, tension quickly grew. The soldiers stopped the car, a confrontation between soldier and civilian ensued, and Private Samuel Webster shot dead a teenage Maryland resident named Samuel Calvin Lamar. Lieutenant William F. Greeley of the 1st was in charge of the detail along the railroad, and he quickly arrived and placed Webster under arrest. Greeley collected the following statements by four of the civilians on the handcar to try and make sense of the incident. Spelling and punctuation have been maintained as written. Biographical information has been added for the civilians when it is known.

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AGE 22, OCCUPATION, PRINTER

pointed his pistol at Lamar when Lamar said he was not afraid of him. The soldier then fired and Lamar fell on the left side of the car. I then said that we must take the car down to camp and get a surgeon, when the soldier said let the son of a bitch die. I shot him and remarked I was not to blame as he did not obey my orders and then told the men to take him down to the camp. Previous to his shooting Lamar the soldier pointed his pistol at all of us and fired at a man named Thomas Harwood and missed him. The soldier who shot Lamar was drunk. I think that Lamar was drunk also.

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Curtis Wheeler

Was with the party who had the handcar. Saw two soldiers on the track.

One of them ordered us to halt which we did. Someone on the car asked the soldier where he was going. He said to the camp. We told him to get on and we would take him anywhere he wished to go. The soldier caught hold of the car as it started and told us to halt. We stopped as soon as we could. Lamar told the soldier to get on if he was going, when the soldier told him to wait til he was ready and said the car was under his orders and if he did not obey him he would shoot him. Lamar made a reply which I did not hear. The soldier then drew his revolver upon which Lamar said shoot and be damned. The soldier said I do not want to shoot you. There was some talking among the men and boys who were with the car and the soldier pointed his revolver at one of the men, Thomas Harwood. One of the men spoke when the soldier told him to shut up.

Harwood went toward the soldier and the soldier moved his pistol and fired without taking aim at anyone. The ball I think went in the ground.

There was some talk again between Lamar and the soldier when the soldier fired at Lamar and he fell. Think that the soldier was drunk. Lamar drank during the two hours before we saw the soldiers. Three times of whiskey and two of beer. We all drank several times of whiskey and beer before we saw the soldiers.

Point of Rocks Md. Sunday July 21, 1861 7 o’clock P.m.

Was on the handcar going down on the way to Adamstown when the soldiers were approaching.

One of them ordered us to halt and said we were under his command. It was suggested by someone on the car that some of us should get off while the rest should take the soldiers to camp. There was much talking, some suggested one thing, some another. Mr. Collins who had charge of the car asked all to get off the car, which was done with the exception of Calvin Lamar, and George Brady [Bready]. Mr. Brady told the soldiers he could take them anywhere they wished to go. The man who was shot said the same. The soldier who shot Lamar told him that he was under his orders and that he must obey him or he would shoot him, and then presented a pistol at his head. The man who was shot said I am not under your orders, fire away. I remonstrated with Lamar and told him not to say anything. The soldier told him he did not want to shoot him. Some of the SCENE OF THE CRIME persons who were on the car started The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad followed the Potomac River in Maryland until it towards Adamstown when the solturned to the northeast at Point of Rocks. The red circle surrounds Adamstown, the diers turned around and bade them town around which lived the men riding the handcar stopped by the Union soldiers. halt. After he had said this the soldier FEBRUARY 2021 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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GRANITE STATE GRAYCLADS Two soldiers from the 1st New Hampshire in their unique 1861 uniforms: Gray tailcoats with red trim at the cuffs and collars, gray trousers, and gray kepis with red bands.

ADAMSTOWN RESIDENT, AGE 17, OCCUPATION, FARMER

I left Point of Rocks Sunday afternoon about five to six o’clock with a party of some eight or ten men on a handcar to go to Adamstown. We had been to Pt. of Rocks on a pleasure excursion and had drank liquor a number of times while there. We had got as far as the curve in the road about a quarter of a mile from camp when we met a party of soldiers & men coming towards us. One of the soldiers ordered us to halt! We stopped the car. The soldier said he wanted us to return to camp with him & his party. We told him we would take them back, and some of our men on the car jumped off to make room for them. My brother, myself & two others remained on the car to bring them up. One of the soldiers got on the car when we started it for the camp, moving slowly for the others to get on also. The soldier who had not got on the car ordered us again to halt. We halted. Lamar said get on. The soldier told Lamar to hold his mouth or he would shoot him. Lamar said shoot and be damned, you can’t scare me. The soldier drew his pistol and fired on him. Lamar fell to the ground.

When the men jumped off the car to make room for the soldiers’ party, the man who shot Lamar ordered them to stand, using language which I do not now remember and drew his pistol and fired at a man named Thos. Howard [Harwood], the bullet entering the ground near Howard’s feet. I think the soldier that shot Lamar was intoxicated. The other soldier was on the car at the time of the shooting. Don’t know if he was standing or sitting.

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George C. Bready ADAMSTOWN RESIDENT, AGE 27, OCCUPATION, FARMER

We started from Pt. of Rocks about 6.00 this afternoon in a handcar to go to Adamstown.

There were about ten of us. Had gone about one half mile from here when we were met by a party of two soldiers and four or five citizens.

The soldier ordered [us] to stop and take his party to camp. All of our party got off the car excepting Calvin Lamar & myself.

One of the soldiers said he was a Sergeant.

He had two stripes on his arm, said we must obey his orders. When the soldier (the Sergeant) ordered us to halt he drew his pistol and threatened to shoot us if we did not obey him. I told him I was ready to obey him. He threatened us again and leveled his pistol, firing at me then at Lamar. Lamar said shoot and be damned. The soldier then fired on Lamar

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Charles E. Bready

Can give no account of what was said immediately after the shooting. Can recognize the two soldiers. One of the party with the soldiers also ordered us to halt.

RON FIELD COLLECTION

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RON FIELD COLLECTION

BOTTOMLAND HQ An engraving of Sandy Hook, Md., which served for a time as Colonel Charles P. Stone’s 1861 headquarters. At left, men pose on an 1860s-era, crank-driven railroad handcar, perhaps similar to the one used by the Point of Rocks party. and Lamar fell to the ground. When our men first got off the car the Sergeant threatened to shoot unless they stopped.

After the shooting the soldiers got on the car & we went to the camp with them. Lamar was a farmer and worked for his uncle Jno. B. Thomas. Am satisfied the Sergeant was drunk.

Can recognize both of the soldiers. I recognize Chas. S. Davis, Co. B as one of the soldiers.

My party all live at Adamstown, had been to Pt. of Rks on a pleasure excursion, had drank there a number of times.

Point of Rocks, Md. Sunday July 21 7 o’clock P.M. The above statements were made to me by the several parties and committed to writing as stated. Wm. F. Greeley Lieut. Co. E, 1 N.H.V. FEBRUARY 2021 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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The Civilians

JOHN CROWN An August 1863 Federal draft roll states that Crown was “In the Rebel Army” and 26 years old. He had joined Elijah Viers White’s 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, often called “White’s Comanches.” On September 15, 1863, Crown was captured in Loudoun County, and spent the rest of the war imprisoned at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. He took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States in May 1865.

The 1870 census lists him living in Frederick.

CURTIS WHEELER No further information has been found about Wheeler.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

LIEUTENANT WILLIAM F. GREELEY After the 1st New Hampshire’s term of enlistment expired in August 1861, Greeley, who was 30 in 1861, joined the Regular Army and served as a lieutenant in the 11th U.S. Infantry. On October 1, 1864, he was shot in the right eye during the Battle of Peebles’ Farm, Va. The bullet struck him a glancing blow, but drove pieces of his skull into his brain. He spent the remainder of the war in hospitals and left the service after Appomattox. He married and raised a family while living in New York City. But his National Archives pension file indicates that the wound troubled him the rest of his life, causing headaches, nerve issues, and sleeplessness.

In January 1879, he walked out of his home on 183 W. 135 St. in Manhattan and never returned to his family. His son, William L. Greeley, wrote in the pension file that although he saw his father from time to time, the elder Greeley never saw his wife, Francis, again, though they did not divorce and the marriage was never annulled. Lieutenant Greeley died in 1914 in Waverly, Mass., and is buried in New Hampshire.

COMMANDER ACROSS THE POTOMAC Three of the civilians involved in the incident crossed the river and joined “White’s Comanches”.

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MUSEUM

PRIVATE SAMUEL WEBSTER Though some of the men referred to Webster, the soldier who shot Samuel Calvin Lamar, as a “Sergeant,” he was a private during his term of service with the 1st New Hampshire. News of the murder quickly spread throughout the county, and Frederick resident and copious diarist Jacob Engelbrecht noted the incident in his journal on July 22: “Killed—Calvin Lamar… was shot yesterday…near the Point of Rocks by Samuel Webster of Company B, 1st New Hampshire Regiment….” Webster’s service record at the National Archives states that he had been placed “Under arrest and detained by civil authority at Frederick City, MD, since July 22, 1861.”

Webster remained in jail until his trial in November 1861. On the 13th of that month, diarist Engelbrecht penned, “Acquitted—Samuel Webster of the 3 months New Hampshire Volunteers who shot Calvin Lamar on the 21 of July 1861 near the Point of Rocks had his trial yesterday in Frederick County Court & was ‘acquitted’. (‘Not Guilty’). The trial lasted all day & the verdict rendered about 8 o’clock PM For the state, John A. Lynch Esquire. For the prisoner, Colonel William P. Maulsby and Grayson Eichelberger Esquire. Wednesday November 13, 1861 8 o’clock AM” Webster later served in the 7th New Hampshire Infantry and became a sergeant in that regiment when he was 24 years old. In October 1863, he transferred to the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery, and died of disease in February 1864.

HIS OWN UNHAPPY ENDING Officer Charles P. Stone is best known for becoming the scapegoat for the Union’s October 1861 Ball’s Bluff debacle.

CHARLES E. BREADY Charles, the younger of the Bready brothers, also enlisted and served in the 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. A member of the Alexander Young Camp of the United Confederate Veterans, he died in Frederick County at age 72.

Less than an hour’s drive south of Point of Rocks, the First Bull Run battlefield is marked with monuments and cannons that commemorate sacrifice and courage on July 21, 1861.

The only monument to the alcohol-fueled incident that claimed the life of a teenager, however, is Lamar’s lonely grave recently located in an abandoned cemetery not far from where his murder took place. Standing at his headstone deep in the woods, hidden by briars and brambles and bearing his death date of July 21, 1861, you can hear trains rumble by using tracks that have been in the same location since the 1860s, and on which his murder occurred. It’s impossible to know how much trauma and grief this small, sad incident of the conflict caused. The great writer and eyewitness to our national tragedy, Walt Whitman, put it best: “The real war will never get in the books.”

Dana B. Shoaf is the editor of Civil War Times.

He purchased and owns the original testimonials on which this asrticle is based. Some of the additional information about the soldiers and civilians mentioned in the article was obtained from soldier service records and pension files held at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and from the 1860 Census.

GEORGE C. BREADY The elder Bready moved to Baltimore and worked as a railroad conductor after the war.

THOMAS HARWOOD Harwood did not write a testimonial, but was mentioned in them as another man at which Private Webster shot. Harwood also enlisted in the 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, and was captured at the June 9, 1863, Battle of Brandy Station.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MUSEUM

The Victim

SAMUEL CALVIN LAMAR Born on September 12, 1842, Samuel Lamar, who seemed to prefer to go by “Calvin,” was 19 years old and working as a merchant when he was killed.

He was one of six children of Benoni and Mary Lamar, well-off farmers who owned two slaves. Benoni died in 1858 when he was struck by lightning, and Mary is listed as a single widow on the 1860 census. Samuel’s sister, Annie, would marry Charles E. Bready in 1869.

1st New Hampshire historian Stephen Abbot mentions Lamar’s shooting in the regimental history thusly: At Point of Rocks “occurred the unfortunate conflict, the only one of the kind during the campaign, in which a young Rebel was killed by a pistol shot fired by a soldier named Webster.”

It’s worth noting that Lamar is referred to as a “Rebel” by Abbot, although he was clearly a civilian when he was shot.

UNDER A WEEPING WILLOW You can just make out the death date, “July 21, 1861,” and the weeping willow carved on Samuel Calvin Lamar’s eroded headstone.

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COURTESY OF THE WEST POINT MUSEUM; HN ARCHIVES, PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN (25)

A NEW YORK DENTIST DEVELOPED A UNIQUE “VOLLEY GUN”

ROOTS OF THE MACHINE GUN Fitted on a two-wheel carriage, the Billinghurst-Requa gun weighed only about 500 pounds and was an agile instrument to deliver firepower. The weapon was designed to deliver a powerful single blast of bullets.

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COURTESY OF THE WEST POINT MUSEUM; HN ARCHIVES, PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN (25)

AS A YOUNG MAN, Josephus Requa apprenticed to Rochester, N.Y., gunmaker William Billinghurst. Finding he didn’t care for that profession, Requa shifted careers, and by the outbreak of the Civil War he was a successful dentist. The conflict, however, inspired him to think of new ways to inflict pain on humanity. He designed a multi-barrel breechloading gun, and had his old master, Billinghurst, make a prototype.

The centerpiece of the weapon consisted of 25 horizontally arrayed barrels that were loaded at the breech. A crew of three worked the gun, opening up a “piano hinge” breech block to admit a strip of .52-caliber brass cartridges, each with a hole in the base. Once the strip was in place, a gunner pulled a lanyard to detonate a single centrally placed percussion cap and discharge the deadly pipe organ. After the initial cartridge discharged, it triggered a chain reaction as the flash jumped to the other rounds until all had been fired.

The “Requa Battery” offered undeniable firepower. At an 1861 demonstration, it fired seven volleys, or 175 shots, in one minute. Despite such promise, the inventors ran into a common problem—hidebound Regular Army officers such as ordnance chief Brig. Gen. William Ripley, who considered the weapon wasteful of ammunition and would not offer a federal contract. Undaunted, Requa took his case directly to President Abraham Lincoln in May 1862. Impressed, the president asked Ripley to take another look, but still no national contract was let.

Requa had aroused enough interest, however, to secure a live test before Lincoln and Ordnance Department officers later that month.

Though the tests were successful, a government contract still eluded Requa and Billinghurst.

PLAYING A DEADLY TUNE The 25 barrels of the gun, which resembled a pipe organ, were movable, and a crank could splay, or fan, them out if needed to cover a broad area. The cover of the hinged magazine opened up to admit the breech-loading ammunition.

The pair turned to private manufacturers such as Remington Arms to produce components that were then assembled in Billinghurst’s shop and by other factories. About 50 were produced.

Some Requa guns made it into the field. Five of the weapons were used during the Siege of Charleston, S.C., where a Federal officer reported they were “used against the enemy’s sharpshooters and working parties, apparently with good effect.” Two Requa guns were engaged with the Army of the James during the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, and manned by members of the 16th New York Heavy Artillery.

The Requa was not a true machine gun, as it did not use a gas return system to fire continuously, and it was quickly obsolete after the war. But it was a significant step forward in the development of rapid-firing weapons that would soon come to dominate the battlefield. —D.B.S.

TWENTY FIVE REASONS TO DUCK An array of 25 of the hefty .52-caliber metal cartridges that made up each volley fired by Josephus Requa’s invention illustrates its potential lethality.

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“FIERCEST BLAZE” Members of Captain Albert G. Mack’s 18th Independent Battery, New York Light Artillery, pose with a Billinghurst-Requa in their hometown of Rochester. Mack was a friend of Requa, and encouraged him to develop the fieldpiece. The battery was raised in 1862 and known as the “Black Horse Battery” because of its dark steeds. An 1863 song published in a Rochester newspaper celebrated the battery’s unique attributes: Our men are prompt when the bugle calls, / And our guns can pour a storm of balls; / In the ranks of war, the fiercest blaze / Will be where the Black Horse Battery plays. The 18th was sent to the Department of the Gulf along with Captain J. Warren Barnes’ 26th Independent New York Battery, which was also issued Requa guns. Despite the fearsome ode, the innovative weapons saw little use in action. The ammunition for Mack’s battery was on a ship that sank, and his gunners ended up as crews on conventional 20-pounder Parrott rifles.

GUMS TO GUNPOWDER New York state native Josephus Requa moved with his family to Rochester in 1849, when he was 14. He established a successful dentistry practice in that city by the 1850s. In addition to inventing a forerunner to the machine gun, Requa also served for three months in the 84th New York National Guard at the Elmira prison camp as a guard. He returned to dentistry after the war, retiring in 1908 and dying in 1910.

DEADLY TOOTH The Requa’s cartridges were mounted on a 25-round strip magazine and inserted into the weapon at the same time, as illustrated on the patent drawing at right. A small hole in the base allowed a spark to ignite the powder charge. When the gun worked at its best, all 25 rounds would discharge at once.

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: COWAN’S AUCTIONS; GENI; HN ARCHIVES, PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

The Requa Battery’s 25 barrels offered undeniable firepower

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HOW MANY TIMES HAS THE DESIGN OF THE U.S. FLAG CHANGED? 27, 31, 36 or 40?

For more, visit WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/ MAGAZINES/QUIZ

ANSWER: 27. THE CURRENT DESIGN HAS BEEN IN PLACE SINCE 1960 WHEN THE FLAG WAS MODIFIED TO INCLUDE HAWAII, THE 50th STATE.

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RAM HOME THE ROUND! A Union artillery crew in action is one of the dioramas you’ll see at the new National Museum of the United States Army.

COME SEE THE ARMY OF THE FREE REVIEWED BY ROB ORRISON

AFTER TWO DECADES of planning, fundraising, and construction, the National Museum of the United States Army opened on November 11, 2020, at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia. The museum, a cooperative project of the Army Historical Foundation and the United States Army Center of Military History, encompasses 185,000 square feet of exhibits and interactives that cover the entire history of the United States Army from 1775 through today.

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ing on 20th century conflicts make up the majority of the exhibits, the Civil War period is represented in the “Preserving the Nation Gallery.” As you walk into the gallery, a large display on your left provides some background to the role that many Civil War notables played in the Mexican War. As you continue, the first major display is about how Army officers, North and

PHOTO BY ROB ORRISON

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South, decided whether their allegiance was with their country or with their state.

Divided loyalties remains a theme throughout the gallery.

Exhibits then run in a chronological fashion, with a heavy focus on wartime artifacts and material culture of the Army.

Items of notable figures are represented, like Maj. Gen. George McClellan’s field glasses, Ulysses S. Grant’s forage cap that he ordered upon his promotion to Lieutenant General in March 1864, and Maj. Gen. William Sherman’s hat that he wore during the “March to the Sea.” The vast majority of artifacts are from common rank-and-file soldiers, focusing on weapons, uniforms, and personal items. With so many unique objects on display, however, there is not enough space to describe the background history or provenance of many of the items.

There are several touch screen interactives for visitors to enjoy that focus on individual battles and significant figures from the war. One of the larger interactives is a video presentation of Grant’s strategic planning for the Overland Campaign, which is presented in a replica of the interior of Massaponax Church.

Currently, because of COVID-19 restrictions, the video exhibit is closed.

No items relating to the Confederate Army are displayed, as the mission of the museum is the history of the United States Army. That does make it unique from other Civil War exhibits where both sides are typically represented. But the focus of the gallery, and the museum as a whole, is not on the overall military history of the Civil War, but on the Northern soldiers who fought it. You will not get an in-depth overview of the causes, campaigns, or battles, but a focus on the lives and experiences of the soldiers and an emphasis on their material culture.

The National Museum of the United States Army at 1775 Liberty Drive, Fort Belvoir, Va., is open daily (except Christmas Day) from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Due to COVID-19 safety regulations, tickets (which are free) must be reserved ahead of time via the museum’s website at www.thenmusa.org.

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SNOWY DAY REVIEWED BY ETHAN S. RAFUSE

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ction in war is like movement in a resistant element,” Carl von Clausewitz famously observed, with weather one of the sources of the “friction” that he declared “distinguish[es] real war from war on paper.” There is little question it can be difficult from the comfort of an armchair, air-conditioned vehicle traveling over paved roads, or even a well-maintained hiking trail, to fully appreciate over 150 years later just how much weather shaped the course and outcome of military operations in the Civil War. This is one reason the appearance of The Howling Storm is a most welcome event, for it provides a vivid description and outstanding chronicle of the specific weather events and larger weather patterns that shaped the course, conduct, and outcome of America’s bloodiest war —as well as their interactions with the “sacred soils” that endured the soldiers’ tramping feet (and vice versa).

The quality of this study will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the work Kenneth W. Noe has produced in the course of his distinguished career, not least in his award-winning study of the Perryville Campaign. In this book, Noe offers compelling insights into how weather impacted the ability The Howling Storm: of those commanding the armies of the Union Weather, Climate, and and the Confederacy to achieve their tactical the American Civil War and operational objectives. In addition, he

By Kenneth W. Noe looks at the subject from the “bottom-up,” LSU Press, drawing widely from published and unpub2020, $59.95 lished primary sources to give readers a compelling sense of what life was like for junior officers and the men in the ranks as they struggled to endure and adapt to the elements. Also noteworthy is the skill with which Noe considers how weather impacted the home fronts and the economic foundations of the Union and Confederate war efforts.

In the course of offering a readable analysis of how weather shaped the war, Noe provides one of the more effective general military histories of the conflict as well, though enthusiasts of irregular war might wish for a bit more on how weather impacted that aspect of the conflict. (For their part, budget-conscious readers may take issue with the rather steep cover price; hopefully, a more wallet-friendly paperback edition will be out soon.) Still, The Howling Storm is one of those truly outstanding and important books that it is safe to predict scholars of the Civil War and general readers alike will deem an essential work for years to come.

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REVIEWED BY WILLIAM JOHN SHEPHERD

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ichael G. Laramie, an award-winning historian on military campaigns in Colonial America, sets his sights upon the waterways of Civil War North Carolina, which uniquely challenged Union and Confederate adaptions to the emerging lessons of Industrial Age warfare. Early in the war, the Union seized Cape Hatteras and secured the interior waterways of both Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, forcing the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk. Successful Union landing operations demonstrated how power could be deployed using combined arms and naval superiority. Coastal North Carolina, however, remained overlooked, as the Union focused on deploying troops to other theaters.

Wilmington was a major fortified port for the South to protect the import of vital military and Gunboats, Muskets, industrial supplies. The speed of the Union’s and Torpedoes: steam-powered warships was quickly demonCoastal North Carolina, 1861-1865 strated by blockade operations that nearly annihilated Confederate trading sailing vessels. This was By Michael G. Laramie Westholme a temporary success as stealthy steamships were then developed by the South to penetrate the Publishing, 2020, $30 blockade. But as the war progressed, increased

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PHOTO COURTESY OF LEE WHITE

TAR HEEL COAST

numbers of Union warships again constricted Confederate trade. Ports were shut down until the last, Wilmington, was captured in February 1865.

The Union army at New Bern pushed inland to rendezvous with William T. Sherman’s army, and within a few weeks North Carolina and the Confederate States of America had surrendered.

Coastal North Carolina was a testing ground for emerging weapon technologies. Warships armed with rifled guns could strike objects miles away, which inspired new weapons such as the ironclad, the torpedo (naval mine), and the ram.

Combining armor with a steam engine revolutionized naval warfare, including the use of rams, an ancient concept, to strike an opposing target at a high rate of speed, creating catastrophic damage.

Unfortunately, Laramie misconstrues the United States Navy’s use of flag rank during this era. There was no permanent rank above “Captain” until 1857 when Congress created the temporary rank of “Flag Officer” for the senior Captain. There were no admirals until July 1862 when the rank of “Rear Admiral” was created for David G. Farragut. Vice Admiral and Admiral were later added. Laramie, however, repeatedly refers to Flag Officers Silas Stringham and Lewis Goldsborough interchangeably as Admiral, Rear Admiral, and Commodore in the period of 186162. Despite that, Gunboats, Muskets, and Torpedoes is a significant addition to the naval history of the Civil War. It includes a bibliography, extensive endnotes, a glossary, and numerous contemporary photographs as well as contemporary maps from the Library of Congress and original maps created by the author.

SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Union warships bombard North Carolina’s Fort Fisher in January 1865.

FROM THE

MOUNTAINS TO

TIDEWATER REVIEWED BY THOMAS ZACHARIS

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What Are You

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Reading?

PHOTO COURTESY OF LEE WHITE

SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

LEE WHITE NPS RANGER AT CHICKAMAUGA & CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL MILITARY PARK I am currently finishing A Fine Body of Men: The Orleans Light Horse, Louisiana Cavalry, 1861-1865 by Donald Peter Moriarty II. I picked this up since Army of Tennessee unit histories are not very numerous, not to mention for a unit that served as the A Fine Body of Men: escort company for The Orleans Light General Leonidas Horse, Louisiana Polk and then later Cavalry, 1861-1865 General Alexander

By Donald P. Stewart. The Peter Moriarty II University of Virginia narrative of the book is somewhat sparse, Press, 2014, $30.00 due to the scarcity of primary manuscripts that are available.

But the author does well with what he has to make a traditional regimental history. Where the book really shines though is in the detailed roster he compiled by pulling information from the U.S. Census records and Compiled Service Records. Each man gets about a page worth of data. I was very impressed with this aspect as it paints a great profile of who these men were individually and as a group, and proves there wasn’t really a “common” soldier.

hen the Civil War broke out in April 1861, William Gilpin, a Quaker with a paradoxical amount of military experience, governed the new territory of Colorado. Gilpin was concerned that Confederate forces based in Texas would soon attack the territory, and he also knew that the terrain on the Trans-Mississippi frontier made cavalry units more necessary than infantry. In August 1861, Gilpin issued a captain’s commission to James Hobart Ford and a first lieutenantcy to Theodore Dodd to recruit a full company of volunteers. Officially designated Company A of the 2nd Colorado Volunteer Infantry Regiment, it would soon grow and evolve into the 2nd Colorado Cavalry.

In The Second Colorado Cavalry—Volume 69 in the University of Oklahoma’s “Campaigns and Commanders” series— Christopher M. Rein, managing editor at Air University Press at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Ala., adds a unit history representing an oft-forgotten theater of the Civil War. His research starts with its founding. From the tables of enlisted men, the book reveals the regiment’s original makeup: miners, laborers, farmers, engineers, mechanics, blacksmiths, and even a dentist among his lines. Nineteen The Second percent of them came from abroad, princiColorado Cavalry: A Civil War Regiment pally from England, Ireland, and Germany. on the Great Plains The author had more trouble distinguishing their motives for enlisting, from genu- By Christopher M. Rein ine convictions against slavery to simply University of Oklahoma Press, 2020, $34.95 having access to three meals per day. Ultimately, however, he believes that this amalgam of men played a crucial role in staking American civilization’s claims on the Western plains, not only against the Confederate invasion of New Mexico, but against hostile Indian tribes like the Comanche and Apache. On August 1, 1876, the territory they helped save for the Union became a state.

Rein follows the 2nd Colorado Cavalry’s tracks through five current states, studying the unit newspaper’s articles and its “Soldiers’ Letters” column. After fighting under Colonel Edward R.S. Canby against the Rebel incursion into the Southwest in 1862, the 2nd Colorado fought under Lt. Col. Dodd alongside the 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry (Colored) at the Battle of Honey Springs on July 17, 1863.

In 1864, the regiment, under Colonel Ford, served in Missouri against bushwackers and irregulars. Two of its officers, Ford and James Nelson Smith, lent their names to Kansas counties. Civil War scholars with a bent for unit histories are sure to find much of extraordinary interest in The Second Colorado Cavalry.

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BLACK AND BLUE REVIEWED BY GORDON BERG

nce let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on the earth or under the earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States.” Frederick Douglass uttered those stirring words at a rally on July 6, 1863, at National Hall in Philadelphia to encourage Black men to join the Union Army. Most of the soldiers who mustered into the United States Colored Troop (USCT) regiments after 1863 were former slaves from the border states or Confederate territory occupied by the Union Army. For them, emancipation and freedom were the allures drawing them into military service.

But what about Black men who were already free? Why should they enlist? And what exactly did citizenship mean for them?

To understand why nearly 33,000 free Black men from Northern states signed up to fight Fighting for for the Union is the subject of Brian Taylor’s Citizenship: Black Northerners and the probing and informative monograph. From the earliest days of the war, Black North- Debate Over Military erners debated how “to use their military Service in the Civil War

By Brian Taylor service to win government recognition of UNC Press, African American citizenship.” While most 2020, $29.95 Whites answered President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to preserve the

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Union, Black men sought to use their service to establish a new Union, validate their manhood, and win rights traditionally associated with being a citizen.

Taylor has a plentiful supply of source material to draw from because the debates over military service were conducted in a variety of public forums: “black churches hosted ‘war meetings,’ black debating societies considered the war’s meaning for African Americans, and black newspapers published editorials and letters on the topic of black service.” In addition, many Black leaders and recruiters, men like Frederick Douglass, Henry McNeal Turner, and Henry Highland Garnet, left records of their speeches and presentations to Black audiences. While Taylor concedes that “this study thus focuses on a minority of the wartime black population, which accounted for a minority of black troops’ presence in the Union army,” he conclusively demonstrates that they “drew attention to black Northerners’ debates over enlistment or explained how they influenced African Americans’ thinking and conduct during and beyond the war.”

Taylor follows the evolution of what he calls “the politics of service” in Northern free Black communities from the earliest days of the war

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

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GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES Societal change captured in an image.

USCTs, some undoubtedly former slaves, armed and ready to fight Confederates. through Reconstruction and beyond.

Even though they were precluded from serving in the army at the war’s outset, Black Northerners knew that their service would eventually be required because of the war’s ever increasing butcher’s bill. Many Blacks wanted to enlist right away “because slavery had caused the war, the war might destroy slavery, and thus black men should fight at the first opportunity.” But as early as April 1861, Taylor documents that some “black northerners began to insist that, if they enlisted, they would not fight merely to restore the political integrity of the antebellum United States.”

As the war progressed and regiments of Black troops were formed, Taylor records, “By the time Confederate armies surrendered in 1865, more than 70 percent of the black males of military age, living in states in which slavery had ended before the Civil War, had served in the Union army.” Taylor contends that African Americans leveraged their service by “forcing federal officials and white politicians to devise a constitutional definition of American citizenship and specifically define black men and women as Americans.”

While the Civil War abolished slavery and Black veterans could vote, hold public office, enter into contracts, serve on juries, and have marriages recognized, the full promise of citizenship varied by geography and individual experiences because the White political establishment turned its focus toward national reconciliation. “Black Civil War soldiers,” Taylor concludes, “fought valiantly, but they did not achieve a United States that lived up to its founding ideals.” Those ideals are still not fully realized for African Americans today.

TENNESSEE WALTZ

REVIEWED BY ETHAN S. RAFUSE

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ou do not appear to observe the fact that this noble army has driven the rebels from Middle Tennessee,” a peeved William S. Rosecrans wrote Washington in July 1863. “I beg…that the War Department may not overlook so great an event because it is not written in letters of blood.” Rosecrans had reason to be proud of what he and his Army of the Cumberland had accomplished. In mid-June, that army seemed chained to the area around Murfreesboro, where they had won a hard-fought and bloody victory to open the year. The Confederate army in its front, Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, along with logistical and organizational problems, offered what appeared to be unsurmountable obstacles to Rosecrans’ ambitions to take the offensive. And with Union armies actively campaigning in Virginia and Mississippi, Washington was—as was its wont—getting impatient.

By the end of June, however, Rosecrans and his command were in the process of completing one of the most remarkable demonstrations of operational skill the war would see: the Tullahoma Campaign.

Through skillfully planned and, despite heavy rains, effectively executed maneuvers, they comTullahoma: The pelled Bragg to give up his positions at Shelbyville Forgotten Campaign that Changed the and Tullahoma and not end his retreat until the Confederates were behind the Tennessee River. Course of the Civil War, June 23–July 4, 1863 Although the campaign saw sharp fights at By David A. Powell and Hoover’s Gap and Shelbyville, for the most part, it Eric J. Wittenberg was, like Napoleon’s 1805 victory at Ulm, one Savas Beatie, decided almost purely by hard marching, rather 2020, $34.95 than bloody combat.

In Tullahoma, David A. Powell and Eric J. Wittenberg provide a first-rate study of this remarkable campaign. Powell’s and Wittenberg’s previous works have established them as authorities on Civil War cavalry and their interest and expertise in that subject are evident in the particular skill with which they chronicle the activities of, and critical role the mounted arm on both sides played in shaping the course and outcome of the campaign. If Washington failed in the summer of 1863 to sufficiently appreciate the Army of the Cumberland’s accomplishments, after reading this well-researched and impressively thorough book, no modern student of the war will be able to do the same.

COLONEL JOHN T. WILDER’S “Mounted Infantry” brigade of Indiana and Illinois troops was instrumental in the Union victory at Hoover’s Gap. The seven-shot, .52-caliber, Spencer repeating rifles carried by the men “opened a terrific fire” that the Confederates could not match. Hoover’s Gap was the “first battle where the Spencer repeating rifles had ever been used,” Wilder boasted.

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IMPERFECT

PITCH $2,987.50 A

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HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS

carried this war-battered and repaired German silver bugle, about 10 1/4 inches tall, until it was captured by a hardriding trooper of Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command. “Captured by 4th Ala Cav/ From the federals/ Tishamingo Creek/ June 10th 1864,” is engraved on the bell. Tishamingo Creek is another name given to the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads in northern Mississippi, at which Forrest’s command defeated Brig. Gen. Samuel Sturgis’ forces. The dinged and dented horn, sold by Heritage Auctions, remained in Confederate hands for the remainder of the war. -D.B.S.>

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Gina Elise’s

PIN-UPS FOR VETS

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Actual size is 38.1 mm

Why Are Dealers Hoarding These 100-Year-Old U.S. Silver Dollars?

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hen it comes to collecting, few coins are as coveted as the first and last of a series. And when big anniversaries for those “firsts” and “lasts” come around, these coins become even more coveted.

Take, for example, the 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars. These 90% pure silver coins were the last of their kind, a special one-year-only resurrection of the classic Wild West Silver Dollar. Three years prior, the Pittman Act authorized the melting of more than 270 million Morgan Silver Dollars so their silver could be sold to our allies in the United Kingdom. Facing our own Silver Dollar shortage, the world’s favorite vintage U.S. Silver Dollar was brought back for one year only while the U.S. Mint worked on its successor, the Peace Silver Dollar.

Dealers Begin Stockpiling Last-Year Morgans

Knowing what we’ve told you about special anniversaries, dealers around the country are preparing for a surge in demand. 2021 will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar—the last-yearof-issue for the most popular vintage U.S. Silver Dollar ever minted. But slow-moving collectors may be disappointed in what they find when they seek out these coins.

Since the days of the Pittman Act, millions more U.S. Silver Dollars have been melted or worn down in commerce. It’s been estimated that as few as 15% of all the Morgan Dollars ever minted have survived to the present day. That number grows smaller each year, with private hoards now accounting for virtually all the surviving Morgan Silver Dollars. And that was before silver values started to rise...

Interest in Silver Is on the Rise

19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 LY G T T V C N B R R Y E LY G JU AU SEP OC NO DE JA FE MA AP MA JUN JU AU

Silver Trend Chart: Prices based on monthly averages. ©2020, AMS

As you can see from the chart on the left, in 2020, we’ve seen daily silver prices close as low as $12.01 per ounce and as high as $28.33 per ounce. That rise in value has led to a sharp increase in buyers’ interest in silver. We’re already seeing a surge of interest from collectors wanting to add vintage Morgan Silver Dollars to their collections. But at what price?

Don’t Wait—Secure Your 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars NOW!

With this special offer, you can secure a lastyear 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar ahead of the rush in About Uncirculated (AU) condition for just $39.95! Mint marks vary.

These vintage U.S. Silver Dollars allow you to hold 100 years of American history in the palm of your hand. But only if you secure yours before our limited supply of 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars lasts in our vault.

Don’t wait—call 1-800-973-9208 and use the offer code below to secure your 100-year-old Morgan Silver Dollars NOW!

Weight: Purity: Diameter: Condition: Mint Mark:

26.73 grams 90% silver 38.1 mm AU varies

1921 Morgan Silver Dollar AU - $39.95 ea. + s/h

FREE SHIPPING on Four or More!

Limited time only. Product total over $149 before taxes (if any). Standard domestic shipping only. Not valid on previous purchases.

Call today toll-free for fastest service

1-800-973-9208 Offer Code MCD236-01

Please mention this code when you call

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CWT-210200-004 GovMin 1921 100th Anniversary Morgan Silver Dollar AU.indd 1

11/25/20 4:13 PM