Civil War Times October 2020

GARY GALLAGHER ON GETTYSBURG’S CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS H

Thomas Taylor of the 8th Louisiana was seriously wounded in the Cornfield fight.

SEPTEMBER 17, 1862

ANTIETAM NEW LOOK AT THE DEADLY CORNFIELD MCCLELLAN AT THE FRONT UNTOLD STORY OF A BATTLEFIELD GRAVE CHANCELLORSVILLE

A UNION CAPTAIN’S HORRIBLE DAY October 2020 HISTORYNET.com

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CIVIL WAR TIMES OCTOBER 2020

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CHARGED WITH MEANING Gettysburg’s Confederate monuments, like this one to North Carolina, are already in an open-air museum, where they can teach critical lessons about our past.

ON THE COVER: Thomas Taylor was shot in the knee and captured at Antietam. The wound forever crippled him.

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Features

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Cornfield Maelstrom

By David A. Welker

A detailed look at the bloody, convulsive fighting that opened the Battle of Antietam.

Little Mac on the Move

By Steven R. Stotelmyer

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A Name on the Map

Soldier accounts contradict the myth that General McClellan never left the Pry House on September 17, 1862, during the fighting near Sharpsburg, Md.

By Nicholas Picerno

The story of an East Woods casualty.

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By Robert Lee Hodge

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Leave Them Standing

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‘ Lee is Marching to Our Flank’

May 2, 1863, at Chancellorsville was one terrible day for Union Captain Frederick Otto Von Fritsch.

By Gary W. Gallagher

Confederate monuments on the Gettysburg battlefield can serve as invaluable teaching tools.

Regulating Venus

By Gordon Berg

The U.S. Army undertook a bold social experiment to regulate the sex trade in Nashville, Tenn.

Departments 6 8 14 16 18 22 27 64 68 72

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: JAMES NESTERWITZ/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; OUR BOYS; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; WORTHPOINT; COVER: COOK COLLECTION, THE VALENTINE/PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRIAN WALKER

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Return Fire Dishing Some Dirt Miscellany Fabulous Forts of D.C. Details Sailors at Leisure Insight ‘Little Phil’ Took a Nap Rambling Nashville’s Civil War Interview Contraband Camp Religion Editorial American Symbol Armament The James Rifle Reviews Junior Officers for Lincoln Sold ! Confederate Chapeaux OCTOBER 2020 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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

Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan with his 1862 Peninsula Campaign staff officers.

O CTOBER 2 02 0

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VOL. 59, NO. 5

EDITORIAL Emancipation Proclamation

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

McCLELLAN’S SUPPLY CRISIS

Were supplies deliberately withheld from the Army of the Potomac after Antietam? https://bit.ly/SupplyCrisis

ANTIETAM TIME TRAVEL

A veteran of America’s bloodiest day returns to capture photos of scenes of carnage. https://bit.ly/AntietamTimeTravel

EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

Professor Judith Giesberg discusses her 2017 book, Sex and the Civil War: Soldiers, Pornography, and the Making of American Morality. https://bit.ly/GiesbergInterview

13th Amendment

What is the most important political document issued during the war?

ADVISORY BOARD

Edwin C. Bearss, Gabor Boritt, Catherine Clinton, William C. Davis, Gary W. Gallagher, Lesley Gordon, D. Scott Hartwig, John Hennessy, Harold Holzer, Robert K. Krick, James M. McPherson, Mark E. Neely Jr., Megan Kate Nelson, Ethan S. Rafuse, Susannah J. Ural

Emancipation Proclamation

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Emancipation Proclamation Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

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CIVIL WAR TIMES OCTOBER 2020

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RETURN FIRE

I WOULD LIKE TO RESPOND to the interview with Julie Schablitsky the archaeologist in your June 2020 issue. I agree with her that it is very important that our history be preserved. I disagree with her though about the practice of relic hunting with metal detectors as detrimental.

Not every single acre of historical land

can be covered by archaeologists. The archaeologists need to recognize that we provide a valuable service and actually in many cases can even help out!

Take for instance the case of the “Centreville Six.” If a relic hunter had not discovered these previously unknown Civil War graves, they would have been lost forever under a Northern Virginia McDonald’s parking lot.

Thanks to the work of the relic hunter, and archaeologists from the Smithsonian, these graves were able to be excavated (with the help of a local relic-hunting club) and the soldiers given a proper military burial in a veterans’ cemetery in their native state of Massachusetts.

Archaeologists cannot cover every single acre of land in this country before the history gets lost forever. We are helping to ensure that the history is saved.

Jason Waddell Poquoson, Va.

Editor’s note: While views about relic hunting may differ, we stand by our deci-

THE JUNE IRON BRIGADE STORY by Keith Bohannon intrigued me. Readers may be interested in this information: The Company C, 2nd Wisconsin photo that spanned two pages was taken in summer 1862, shortly before Brawner’s Farm on August 28 and Antietam on September 17. Three officers and 69 enlisted men are pictured. The officers (l to r) are Captain George Gibson; 1st Lt. William Booth; and 2nd Lt. Edward Kellogg, who died of wounds at Brawner’s Farm. Seventeen enlisted men were killed or died of wounds in these battles, 39 were wounded, and three went missing. The 60 casualties were 83.3 percent of the company!

Steve Magnusen Indianapolis, Hamilton County, Milwaukee, and Mid-Ohio Valley Civil War Roundtables 6

FROM TOP: COURTESY OF JULIE SCHABLITSKY

IRON BRIGADE IMAGE

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LEFT TO RIGHT: THE PICTURE ART COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; CLASSIC IMAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

GETTING IN SOME DIGS

I read the interview with the Maryland DOT archaeologist in the June issue and thought it was an interesting paradox how she was quick to condemn private relic hunters who pursue their interest in history at their own expense, most of whom record their finds diligently, while emphasizing the importance of site recording the State’s recoveries through their preferred methods. What was missing from the interview was the MDOT requirement to sweep a site for historic significance to allow construction to begin of the next major road/infrastructure project which will forever destroy the site and the related historical context.

It strikes me as quite a contradiction in purposes when the relic hunter looks to commemorate history through the collection and preservation of history and MDOT’s purpose is to clear a site of “old stuff ” so the bulldozer can do its job. I struggle to understand how this interview advances the goals of the magazine.

Gordon D. Campbell Via email

sion to run the interview and give our readers another interesting perspective on the Civil War.

SICK OF LEE

Please spare us from any more cover photos of the traitor-in-chief Robert E. Lee. So sick of him and the pedestal to which he has been elevated. How about a photo of a dead Confederate soldier instead.

R.H. Flint Golden, Colo.

Editor’s note: Lee instigated the Gettysburg Campaign, hence his cover image.

QUIZ TIME

The June 2020 issue of CWT is among the most enjoyable I have seen in the past 40 years. As we are all hunkered in, I have given my extended family a quiz that all have enjoyed immensely: Find Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address photo! What fun!

(P.S., my GG uncle Patrick O’Reilly was killed at Antietam, a member of the Irish Brigade).

Peter Pickens Wayne, Pa.

LEFT TO RIGHT: THE PICTURE ART COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; CLASSIC IMAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

FROM TOP: COURTESY OF JULIE SCHABLITSKY

CHAMBERLAIN, 1864

I read Tom Huntington’s article “The War Made One Man, Destroyed the Other” ( June 2020) with interest, but want to make one point: Joshua Chamberlain returned to the Army of the Potomac well before the fighting at North Anna (May 23-27, 1864). He was, in fact, back with the 5th Corps

by May 17, and late that night, Maj. Gen. Gouverneur Warren assigned him to lead eight 1st Division regiments toward the enemy’s line to build an artillery platform. Twenty-six of the 5th Corps’ guns were brought up, guns that would be used to support the 2nd and 6th Corps’ attack at the Bloody Angle on May 18. While Chamberlain had been away from the Army of the Potomac through illness, he lost his command of his brigade that had been given him after Gettysburg and missed the Battle of the Wilderness

The Results Are In! Our recent Facebook poll asked what event would you rather have witnessed: The bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12-13, 1861, or the surrender of General Joseph Johnston to General William Sherman on April 26, 1865, at Bennett Place, North Carolina?

It was a landslide victory for Fort Sumter! Sixty-two percent of respondents wanted to watch the boom and flash of shells fired at the U.S. Army bastion in Charleston Harbor.

Our next poll goes online September 24.

and the first few days of the fighting at Spotsylvania.

But during the rest of the Overland Campaign, Generals Warren and Charles Griffin often cobbled together brigade-sized forces for Chamberlain to lead, and at times, he even regained temporary command of his old 3rd Brigade due to General Joseph Bartlett’s reoccurring illness. A number of his missions were the result of Ulysses Grant having allowed Sheridan to ride off with the army’s entire cavalry force,

leaving the Federals moving through enemy territory blind. Chamberlain was therefore called upon to lead reconnaissances in force or missions pressing upon Lee’s rear guard. So while it is true that Joshua Chamberlain did not officially receive another brigade until just prior to the Battle of Petersburg, his opportunities to command during the Overland Campaign were abundant.

Diane Monroe Smith Holden, Maine

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU ! e-mail us at cwtletters@historynet.com or send letters to Civil War Times, 1919 Gallows Rd., Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4038

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MISCELLANY GET DOWN! Somewhere on the ramparts of Fort Stevens on July 12, 1864, the story goes, Abe Lincoln stuck his head up a little too high, prompting officer Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. to yell, “Get down, you damn fool!”

tecting the southeastern corner of the capital, Barnard wrote after the war in A Report on the Defenses of Washington, “A glance at the map will show it to be almost a continuous forest. It is not deemed necessary to connect the works by a continuous line of parapet, but the intervening woods should be abatised and open ground traversed by a line of artificial abatis, and infantry parapets, half-sunk batteries, &c., placed so as to protect these obstructions and to see all the irregularities of the ground not now seen from the works.” A member of the 79th New York “Highlander” described the fortification work as “the hardest kind of manual labor; spades were trumps and every man held a full hand.”

Check out the D.C. forts at https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2020/07/07/ civil-war-defenses-of-washington-drawings-available-in-the-catalog/ 8

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FROM TOP: NPS PHOTO; THE LINCOLN FORUM

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n May 24, 1861, work began on building forts that would protect Washington, D.C., during the war. Meticulous renderings of forts, drawbridges, magazines, bombproofs, and other features of the fortifications encircling the capital can now be viewed online. The 700-image trove of drawings represents only a portion of the drafting plans. At the outset of the war, the nation’s capital had no fortifications to speak of. Over the next four years, under the leadership of Army engineer John G. Barnard, soldiers and laborers created 68 forts, supported by 93 batteries and some 800 cannons, along with 30 miles of military roads. It was no small job. In regard to pro-

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

DEFENSES ON VIEW

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SYMBOLS RENOUNCED

ON JULY 17, 2020, news outlets reported that Secretary of Defense Mike Esper was preparing to issue an order covering all Department of Defense sites, stating that it would effectively ban the public display of Confederate battle flags. Esper’s move follows bans on Confederate flag displays issued by the Marines in April and the Navy in June. In a related move, Congress approved renaming U.S. bases bearing the name of a Confederate general in the National Defense Authorization Act, which the Senate passed with bipartisan support on July 23, 2020. Meanwhile, municipalities continue to remove Confederate statues, most visibly on Richmond’s Monument Avenue. The city of Richmond has removed statues of Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, and Matthew Fontaine Maury. The Robert E. Lee statue remains standing at press time.

LINCOLN FORUM

FROM TOP: NPS PHOTO; THE LINCOLN FORUM

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

PLANS CHANGE

THE LINCOLN FORUM has postponed its 25th annual November symposium at Gettysburg because of the COVID-19 pandemic and instead will host a live Zoom symposium on November 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. Top historians will present, and all sessions will include an audience Q&A. The event will be free to all up-todate Forum members. Applications for memberships or renewals can be obtained on the website (www.thelincolnforum.org), or from Forum Treasurer Henry Ballone (treasurer@thelincolnforum.org).

REGISTER National Park Service restoration carpenters have made significant progress this summer on the James Warfield House.

Restoration of James Warfield House. The home of free African American blacksmith James Warfield along West Confederate Avenue is being restored to how it appeared in 1863, when the Warfields fled in fear of being sent into slavery by the Army of Northern Virginia. Joseph Kershaw’s Brigade launched its July 2 attack from the property. When the Warfields returned, their belongings and James’ blacksmith tools—his livelihood—were gone, a loss Warfield estimated at $516. Over the decades, many alterations had been made to the house, and the renovation will restore its original look: 1½ story, two-room stone structure. The work should be completed by the end of 2020. Arkansas Memorial Spruced. A brownish spray that appeared on the base of the Arkansas Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park on July 22, 2020, was not vandalism, as some on social media feared, but a deliberate act of preservation. Park officials use rainfall as an ideal time to apply a biological cleaning agent, D/2 Biological Solution, to remove algae, mold, and lichen from memorials throughout the park. The agent is left on overnight, bleaches in the sun, and is later removed.

GETTYSBURG GETS IT DONE

Grants totaling more than $5 million will help MARYLAND Civil War heritage sites in Maryland survive in coming years. A state fund distributes grants CIVIL WAR SITES the to 13 different regions of the state, and for 2021, WIN STATE 16 groups in the Civil War Heritage Area, ranging SUPPORT from the African American Resources–Cultural and Heritage Society (AARCH) to the H&F Trolley Trail Association, won awards. The three largest, at $50,000 each, went to the AARCH, the Fort Frederick Visitor Center exhibit construction, and to the Chesapeake Conservancy for bilingual interpreters.

OCTOBER 2020 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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MISCELLANY

THE WAR ON THE NET   The 1890 Veterans Census www.familysearch.org or www.ancestry.com

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n 1890, representatives of the

U.S. Census Bureau interviewed thousands of veterans across the nation. The bureau had several goals: improve Congress’ understanding of how many Union veterans were still alive and what their demands might be on pension allocations; assist veterans in locating comrades who could verify their service for pension applications; note the units in which men had served to improve military records for the War Department; and to measure, if possible, connections between types of military service and veteran mortality rates.

For military historians, the 1890 Veterans Census offers fascinating insights, even brief anecdotes, about veterans’ and their widows’ experiences after the war. For educators, it helps teach students how to use

freely available online resources to uncover the experiences of soldiers, sailors, and their families who may not have left traditional records like letters and diaries. It can also enhance our understanding of those who did.

Historians such as Kurt Hackemer have used the 1890 Veterans Census to study the correlation between veterans’ postwar relocation to the West and service in hard-fighting units. Jonathan Noyalas and his students are using it to study the experiences of Union veterans in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. My research team and I are studying Union veterans’ complaints to the Mississippi governors’ office while tracking their postwar lives.

The 1890 Veterans Census is freely available at FamilySearch.org.

It is keyword searchable by first and

last name, birth date/location, location at a later date, and other family statistics. It’s also available by subscription on Ancestry.com. When combined with free digitized newspaper collections such as chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, subscription collections like Newspapers.com and Genealogybank.com, or military service records at Fold3.com, scholars and students can uncover details about the wartime and postwar lives of Union veterans, including in the Deep South. You might even find Confederate veterans listed, though in Mississippi’s portion of the 1890 Veterans Census, their names are often crossed out (though legible). Without a doubt, the 1890 Veterans Census is a great tool for studying the Civil War veteran community in postwar America. —Susannah J. Ural

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DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION

CONFEDERATE OR FEDERAL? This unidentified bandsman from the Library of Congress collection is labeled a Confederate, but he could also have belonged to an early-war Federal unit. He poses with his over-the-shoulder saxhorn, designed so that the music would direct backward to troops marching behind him. Regimental bands were all the rage when the war began, but most were consolidated into brigade bands as the war dragged on. The power of music to enspirit weary soldiers or calm shaky nerves cannot be underestimated.

Union Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan was a firm believer in that, and ordered his bands to stay close to the front lines during a fight and “play the gayest tunes in their books. Play them loud and keep on playing them, and never mind if a bullet goes through a trombone, or even a trombonist, now and then.”

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

WAR F RA M E

FIRST MONDAYS

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DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

hings don’t always go as planned on “live TV.” During CWT’s First Monday’s Facebook Live broadcast at Gettysburg on August 3, Director of Photography Melissa Winn and Editor Dana Shoaf attempted to take viewers down to Hampton’s Rock near the Pennsylvania Memorial but lost their connection. Captain Robert Hampton’s artillery battery, formally known as Independent Battery F, was from Pittsburgh, Pa., and had been badly battered at Chancellorsville, where Hampton was killed. By the Battle of Gettysburg, his battery had been combined with Pennsylvania Independent Battery C with Captain James Thompson commanding the combined batteries, which were overrun at the Peach Orchard on July 2. By July 3, the cannoneers were reposted on Cemetery Ridge.

During the pre-Pickett’s Charge artillery bombardment, Hampton’s Battery sheltered their wounded behind a large boulder now known as the “Hampton’s Battery Rock,” or the “Pittsburgh Rock,” as is indicated by a photo on page 56 of the battery’s 1909 history.

Every time Winn and Shoaf walked down to that rock on August 3, they lost their signal. The good news is they now have a mobile hot spot and plan to redo the broadcast, probably sometime after the leaves drop this fall. Until then, here is an image of the rock for you to enjoy.

REFIGHTING THE BATTLE In this undated image, two Hampton’s Battery veterans sit on the sheltering boulder.

A pencil inscription written by a veteran begins on the right side and concludes on the bottom. It reads, “The Patterson House in Rear of our Position, Hampton Battery, and near where Gen. Barksdale C.S.A. was buried.” The Patterson House has since been restored to its wartime appearance, and sits along the Taneytown Road. The Hummelbaugh Farm, where Brig. Gen. William Barksdale was temporarily buried, is out of view to the left.

HOTSPOT BROADCASTS COMING UP ON OCTOBER 5 & NOVEMBER 2

Don’t forget to watch Editor Dana B. Shoaf and Director of Photography Melissa A. 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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MISCELLANY

STRETCHER  SAGA 

CLOSE UP!

AN SW ER TO LAST ISSUE ’ S

CLOSE UP!

AN OFT-OVERLOOKED FIXTURE of Civil War battlefields and hospitals, the stretcher gets a close look in an online post at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine website. Historian Kyle Dalton examines four different types of stretchers and their design features and failings. The Satterlee, for example, was too heavy for the young soldier-musicians frequently tasked with carrying wounded soldiers and had a yoke that was easily lost.

The most common stretcher was the Halstead, with handles that could convert to legs, and a hinged, collapsible design that made it easier to fold and carry on the march. Another innovation was the wheeled Coolidge Stretcher Bed, which doubled as a stretcher and ambulance. The most elaborate, the Tompkins Wheeled Stretcher and Ambulance, featured a bonnet to shade the face. For more details, visit: https://www.civilwarmed.org/stretchers.

Congratulations to Tom Gillette of Columbia, S.C., who correctly answered that the star denotes where a Union cannonball struck South Carolina’s statehouse in his hometown.

BE THE FIRST TO IDENTIFY this object, and what state it represented, and win a Civil War Times water bottle.

Send your answer to dshoaf@historynet.com or 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4038, marked “Gilded.”

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FROM TOP: NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; HNA; ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

QUIZ

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7/23/20 1:30 PM

QUIET DAY ON A

DOUBLE ENDER NOT EVERY SAILOR IN THE U.S. NAVY served on high-seas warships or innovative ironclads. Hundreds of tars, like these crewmen of USS Mendota, spent their enlistments on vessels that patrolled and presented a Union presence of force on the Confederacy’s twisting coastal waterways. The 205-foot-long Mendota, launched at Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 13, 1863, and assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, was one of 28 Union ships built between 1862 and 1864 called “double enders” because they had a rudder at each end. The sidewheelers, all wooden hulled save for one, were designed to be nimble shallow-draft warships that patrolled rivers and prevented the establishment of Confederate batteries that might interfere with Union communications or help a blockade runner reach its port.

Mendota patrolled Four Mile Creek and later the James River in conjunction with the offensive to capture Petersburg, Va. The unheralded vessel didn’t last long after the war. It was decommissioned by the U.S. Navy on May 12, 1865. –D.B.S.

5 2 1

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1. Mendota was often referred to as a “picket ship,” and assigned to patrol a section of a river. The vessel carried six large cannons—four 9-inch Dahlgrens such as this one and two 100-pounder Parrott rifles that can be seen at the bow.

2. A number of African American sailors are present in the image, a portion of the ship’s 200-man crew. About 18,000 black men served in the U.S. Navy, about 20 percent of the wartime force. Some were former slaves who used their knowledge of Southern waterways to help pilot the warships. Unlike the U.S. Army, the Navy was integrated from the start of the conflict.

4. Disembodied head? No, just a sailor posing as he ventured belowdecks through a hatch.

5. Interdepartmental task force. A Marine banjo player and a sailor drummer make for a strange musical combo. They likely never played together, however. Banjo tunes would be a welcome diversion, but thunderous drumbeats called sailors to various duties.

6. A young sailor leans on the capstan, a large gear that could be used to lift heavy objects. Sailors would insert poles into the square slots, then walk slowly in unison to turn the capstan and raise or lower heavy cargo, large sails, or perhaps Mendota’s anchor.

3. This is the most visible of at least four games of check- 7. Two sailors spend their time sewing and mending their ers being played. The man at left wearing a kepi is a member of the ship’s contingent of Marines.

6

clothes. Some sailors became very skilled with the needle and embroidered patriotic designs on their uniforms and caps.

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by Gary W. Gallagher

TWO MISTAKES Tom Lovell’s handsome painting includes both George Custer, far right, and Phil Sheridan, leftmost Union officer, as witnesses to the Army of Northern Virginia’s surrender. Neither man, however, was in the room.

WHERE WAS

‘LITTLE PHIL’?

16

Members of Grant’s staff left several accounts. Colonel Horace Porter discussed the surrender in Battles and Leaders and also in Campaigning With Grant (1897). In both instances, Porter recalled Grant’s having Lt. Col. Orville E. Babcock summon Sheridan, Maj. Gen. Edward O.C. Ord, and others into the parlor before the negotiations with Lee commenced. “We walked in softly and ranged ourselves quietly about the sides of the room,” Porter stated in Battles and Leaders: “Some found seats on the sofa and the few chairs that constituted the furniture, but most of the party stood.” In Campaigning With

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

THE MEETING BETWEEN Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in Wilmer McLean’s parlor at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, highlights the difficulty of pinning down historical details. One seemingly straightforward question about that famous moment illustrates the larger phenomenon.

Was Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan in the room while Grant and Lee discussed surrender terms?

Artistic depictions seemingly provide the answer. An iconic image by Walter Taber, which appeared in Volume 4 of the Century Company’s immensely popular Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887-88), placed Sheridan on the far right, intently watching the seated Grant and Lee. Eighty years later, National Geographic Magazine commissioned Tom Lovell to paint the scene for the centennial of Appomattox. Lovell positioned Sheridan in the center of his composition, standing beside the parlor’s fireplace as Lee signed the surrender document. Lovell’s rendering earned many enthusiastic compliments as largely accurate (though it mistakenly portrayed George A. Custer as present). Innumerable other artworks also feature Sheridan in the room while Grant and Lee worked out details of the Confederate capitulation.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

FEW THINGS VEX HISTORIANS MORE THAN CONFLICTING TESTIMONY FROM WITNESSES TO THE SAME EVENT

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Grant, Porter located Colonel Charles Marshall of Lee’s staff “on the sofa beside Sheridan and [Brig. Gen. Rufus] Ingalls.”

Adam Badeau’s Military History of Ulysses S. Grant (1881) described “a naked little parlor” that the “generals entered, each at first accompanied only by a single aide-de-camp, but as many as twenty national officers shortly followed, among whom were Sheridan, Ord, and the members of Grant’s own staff.” The “various national officers,” Badeau added, were later “presented to Lee,” who bowed “to each, but offered none his hand.” Lieutenant Colonel Ely S. Parker, Grant’s military secretary, gave a postwar interview in which he identified staff members Porter, Badeau, Theodore S. Bowers, and Seth Williams, as well as “other officers” who either sat on the sofa or “stood in the doorways and hall.” Parker did not mention Sheridan.

Colonel Marshall featured Sheridan in his postwar narrative of the surrender. “I was sitting on the arm of the sofa...,” wrote Marshall, “and General Sheridan was on the sofa next to me. While Colonel Parker was copying the letter, General Sheridan said to me, ‘This is very pretty country.’ I said, ‘General, I haven’t seen it by daylight.

All my observations have been made by night and I haven’t seen the country at all myself.’” Marshall also included Sheridan in a discussion about sending Union rations to Lee’s hungry soldiers. He quoted Grant instructing his lieutenant: “Order your commissary to send to the Confederate Commissary twenty-five thousand rations for our men and his men.”

Grant’s own memoirs allocated relatively little attention to what transpired in McLean’s parlor. “When I went into the house,” he noted, “I found General Lee. We greeted each other, and after shaking hands took our seats. I had my staff with me, a good portion of whom were in the room for the whole interview.” Later, while copies of the surrender documents were being prepared, “the Union generals present were severally presented to General Lee.”

WORN OUT BY THE WAR By his own 1878 admission, “Little Phil” Sheridan fell asleep outside Wilmer McLean’s house and was not in the parlor when Lee accepted Grant’s terms.

GRANT’S OWN

MEMOIRS ALLOCATED RELATIVELY LITTLE ATTENTION TO

WHAT TRANSPIRED IN

MCLEAN’S

PARLOR

Grant did not name the generals, and his handling of the conversation with Lee regarding rations did not mention Sheridan. “I authorized him,” wrote Grant of Lee, “to send his own commissary and quartermaster to Appomattox Station, two or three miles away, where he could have, out of the [Confederate] trains we had stopped, all the provisions wanted.”

What about Sheridan’s testimony?

In 1878, James E. Kelly, a sculptor and

illustrator, interviewed Sheridan, at one point referring to the meeting between Grant and Lee. “Wouldn’t there be any way of showing you in the scene?” asked Kelly. “I would like to be in the picture,” responded Sheridan, “but I was not there.” He had accompanied Grant to McLean’s house, and “General Grant introduced me with other officers. I gave General Lee some papers referring to some of his men, firing on our Flag of Truce in the morning.” But then Sheridan, who was exhausted, excused himself, “went outside and laid down under a tree—although it was raining, I fell fast asleep, but hearing a noise I woke up and saw General Lee coming out of the door.” Kelly subsequently left Sheridan out of his sketch of the officers in McLean’s parlor—a sketch Ely Parker pronounced satisfactory.

Sheridan also wrote about Appomattox in his memoirs, published posthumously in 1888. He included Ord among the Federal officers who first saw Lee in McLean’s house. “After being presented,” observed Sheridan, “Ord and I, and nearly all of General Grant’s staff, withdrew to await the agreement as to terms, and in a little while Colonel Babcock came to the door and said, ‘The surrender has been made; you can come in again.’” Reentering the room, Sheridan observed Grant writing and soon spoke with Lee about the violation of a truce earlier in the day. “I am sorry,” Sheridan quoted Lee as saying, “It is probable that my cavalry at that point of the line did not fully understand the agreement.” Neither of Sheridan’s accounts mentioned Marshall, sitting on a sofa, or anything about rations.

These sources support different scenarios. Sheridan met Lee in McLean’s parlor but left before negotiations began; or was present early, departed, and returned after terms had been agreed upon; or left but returned in time to witness some of the proceedings; did or did not speak with Marshall and Lee and discuss rations. The particulars of Sheridan’s activities, though ancillary to the main story, remind us that recovering the past is an uncertain project. ✯ OCTOBER 2020 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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RAMBLING with John Banks

LONGSTANDING LEGACY Downtown Presbyterian Church, once Nashville’s tallest building, served as Hospital No. 8 during the war.

TARGET ACQUIRED DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE IS A BULLSEYE FOR OVERLOOKED CIVIL WAR HISTORY EARLY ON A FRIDAY EVENING in Nashville, I stand in the bullseye of history on the corner of 5th Avenue and Church Street. Two blocks south stands the Ryman Auditorium, once home of the Grand Ole Opry. A short distance north, 124 black civil rights protesters were refused service in 1960 during a sit-in at the lunch counter of F.W. Woolworth’s five-and-dime store.

A block to the east, pioneers struggled against attacking Indians in 1781 during 18

The lone reminder of the Maxwell House Hotel is a black-and-white painted historical marker mounted on the outside of a modern office building on Church Street. Once one of the grandest hotels in the South, it was destroyed by fire on Christmas Day 1961.

From its opening in 1869 to the early 1900s, the Maxwell House was the go-to site for the most important people in society. Presidents Rutherford Hayes and William McKinley, both Civil War veterans, were guests, as was former slave trader and Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest, who took the oath to the Ku Klux Klan in a ceremony in Room No. 10.

In the spring of 1870, the farm of former Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell—who lived in Spring Hill, 35 miles south of Nashville—supplied the Maxwell House Hotel with 100 pounds of fresh butter a week. Seven years earlier, “Old Bald Head” supplied us with unending controversy by not taking Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg. The hotel also was the setting for a little-known Civil War tragedy.

Construction on the Maxwell House began in 1859, using mostly enslaved labor, but stopped when the war began.

Before they abandoned the city in early winter 1862, Confederates used the unfinished, five-story brick building as a barracks. After Federals occupied Nashville, it continued to house troops and was used as a supply depot as well.

“Zollicoffer’s Barracks,” the Yankees called the place, after Confederate Gen-

PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS

the Battle of the Bluffs. And to the northwest, around the block and past the city park, Ulysses S. Grant made his 1864 headquarters in the home of a Confederate sympathizer.

But, oh, what mostly forgotten Civil War history occurred merely steps from where I stand.

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Tinseltown Has a Sharp Turnaround Sanctuary City: 1800s Brooklyn Building with ... ATOM BOMBS? An Act of Faith: Maryland Origins

Fighting Founder

Sam Adams and the roots of public protest October 2020 HISTORYNET.com

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8/6/20 4:50 PM

The new American History features Sam Adams and the roots of public protest, atomic bombs for peace, big trouble in Tinseltown, and more!

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8/10/20 6:59 AM

RAMBLING with John Banks

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and a man fell across me,” former POW John M. Dickey of the 44th Tennessee recalled years later. “His brains were scattered over my coat, and the spots were on it when I left prison in 1865. I lay pinned until the rest of the wounded and dead were cared for.” Dickey, who was taken to the Central Baptist Church for care, couldn’t stand up for nearly a month because of his injuries.

“The sight was one of the most appalling ever witnessed, except on the battlefield, one man having his head mashed flat as a board, others frightfully bruised or mutilated,” the Nashville Dispatch reported the next day. Days later, the Nashville Press described the scene

SOME WERE

BETWEEN THE

FLOORS AND

MASHED

ALMOST TO

JELLY

as “one quivering mass of bleeding, mangled humanity.”

News of the accident spread throughout the city. Guards were placed around the building, and ambulances rushed to the site to take “misguided and suffering Confederates” to a prison hospital.

“Here they were attended by our surgeons and nurses with all the kind and tender care that could have been shown a Federal soldier wounded under the Stars and Stripes fighting for the Union,” the pro-Union Press reported.

“The secesh ladies also waited on them with an untiring devotion that would reflect honor on a more righteous cause.”

There were conflicting accounts of the number of dead—one indicated as many as 45 were killed; another said 25, while others said less. Dozens were injured.

“Some were between the floors and were mashed almost to jelly,” a 10th Texas Cavalry veteran recalled. “The patriotic women of Nashville were soon there, and gave the Yankees a good round of abuse for placing prisoners in a trap to kill them, rather, as they stated, than meet them on the field of battle. I never placed any censure on the Yankees for this unfortunate occurrence, as it was purely accidental and unexpected.”

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PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS; COURTESY OF TENNESSEE STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

eral Felix Zollicoffer, a Nashville citizen who was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs, Ky., in January 1862.

From the outside, the place looked appealing. Inside, it was a dump.

“In many places the tiling of the rooms was cracked and broken where fires had been built on the floor for warming purposes, and having been used for so long as a barracks, the building was alive with vermin,” former 1st Wisconsin Cavalry Quartermaster Sergeant James Waterman wrote decades after the war. “The whole thing was more like a prison than a barracks for civilized beings, and was a disgrace to the service.”

In the fall of 1863, the grimy barracks housed hundreds of Confederate POWs, many from the September 19-20, 1863, Battle of Chickamauga.

On the morning of September 29, disaster struck as POWs were being herded near a fifth-floor stairwell for breakfast. Barracks commander John Lakin, a captain in the 89th Ohio, may have warned the Confederates about the rickety flooring, but none apparently listened if he did.

Crack! A temporary wood floor suddenly gave way, sending prisoners plummeting to the second floor.

“I fell lengthwise between two joists,

COURTESY OF TENNESSEE STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES; PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS

SINGLE STAR RATING Although the Maxwell House Hotel looks complete in this image taken at the end of the war, it was really just a shell with a temporary interior. That interior collapsed on September 29, 1863, killing and injuring dozens of Confederate prisoners held there.

OUR MAN IN NASHVILLE Regular Civil War Times columnist John Banks lives in Nashville, and frequently bikes and walks by its historic sites.

Decades after the tragedy, a former POW remained bitter. “I will never forget how the guards pushed the good women of Nashville with their bayonets,” recalled W.C. Jennings about the ladies who had aided the injured.

PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS; COURTESY OF TENNESSEE STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

COURTESY OF TENNESSEE STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES; PHOTO BY JOHN BANKS

Less than 50 yards down Church Street, no historical marker denotes the location of St. Cloud Hotel, which closed its doors in 1873.

When Union forces occupied Nashville in early 1862, the three-story hotel briefly became headquarters for Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell. An undertaker visited the St. Cloud “every day to receive the consignments of Federal corpses from neighboring battlefields,” the Nashville Tennessean reported.

“They came in, often three carloads at once,” the newspaper wrote about the bodies, “and were stacked up, one upon the other, like cord wood....”

Early on the icy morning of December 15, 1864, Maj. Gen. George Thomas, nicknamed the “Sledge of Nashville,” checked out of the St. Cloud Hotel and headed to the front to pummel John Bell Hood’s army on the first day of the Battle of Nashville.

At the corner of 5th and Church, catty-corner from the St. Cloud Hotel site, stands the historic Downtown Presbyterian Church. A sign on front of the Egyptian Revival building notes its long history. Three skyscrapers tower over the historic building that was once the city’s tallest.

Life-and-death decisions played out at the church, one of at least 25 Nashville structures commandeered by the

UNMARKED HISTORY The St. Cloud Hotel served as a headquarters for both Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell and later Maj. Gen. George Thomas. The hotel is long gone, and Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant now occupies part of the site, called St. Cloud’s Corner.

Union for use as a military hospital.

Pews were removed, creating room for 206 beds; the basement was used as a stable for army horses.

The church, along with the long-gone, four-story Masonic Hall across the street, was designated Hospital No. 8. Here, nurses and doctors cared for soldiers suffering from wounds and diseases such as typhoid, which killed thousands of soldiers during the war.

On March 25, 1865, weeks before Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, a small slice of humanity in the midst of war took place in Ward 5. At 4 p.m., attendants and patients were assembled for the presentation of an inscribed silver watch, chain, and key to acting assistant surgeon George Duzan, a 23-year-old from Indiana in charge of the ward.

The gift, which cost $75, a significant sum, was in recognition of Duzan’s “kind attention and skillful treatment” and “gentlemanly deportment” at Hospital No. 8, according to hospital chaplain Thomas Goodfellow. “[W]hen these brave but afflicted donors have separated, this ward broken up, and this cruel rebellion crushed,” he said, according to the Nashville Daily Union, “may you look upon this gift with as a kind remembrance of these men, as is now felt by them, in presenting it.”

Duzan, who served with the 52nd Indiana, was touched. “I accept it as testimonial of your appreciation of my services,” the young doctor said. “As such it will be preserved and cherished with feelings of gratitude and pride.”

Just another faint echo of the past at 5th and Church. ✯ John Banks is the author of the popular John Banks’ Civil War blog.

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with Abigail Cooper

FREED PEOPLE’S

FAITH

war records and narratives of former slaves recorded during the Works Progress Administration, Abigail Cooper, assistant professor of history at Brandeis University, has begun to uncover the powerful culture of faith and community-building forged by freed people in refugee camps during and after the Civil War. Her research will appear in Pierced Dimes and Placenta Fires, forthcoming in 2021. A job directing theater in Port Gibson, Miss., when she was fresh out of college helped her reconceive the way she saw history and who narrated it.

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CWT: How did you become interested in this topic?

AC: I have an unusual path. I was a theater major, and after I graduated, I went to Port Gibson, Miss., right near Vicksburg, to work as a theater teacher, director, and community programmer. That was a watershed moment: to be taught by this majority-black rural community in the south. It was still in the midst of civil rights battles that according to history were kind of relegated to a Freedom Summer. Their influence on me persists. It changed the course of my graduate study. I did a master’s at Yale Divinity School. I took that cultural orientation and cultural curiosity and parlayed it into a deeper look at deep-seated black culture as a lever for political change.

CWT: Why study the freed people’s camps?

AC: Because the Civil War was such a monumental event that has had such an outsized role in memory, it often occludes a whole range of questions. What is getting lost are the very things that make scholars especially uncomfortable.

It is not just the black church but what has been termed the

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

DIGGING THROUGH official

BEHIND UNION LINES The 1862 Peninsula Campaign created a flood of refugees, including these escaped slaves photographed at Cumberland Landing, Va.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

slave religion or the cultural practices that has been lambasted as superstition or unassimilable. I’m trying to rescue them from the dustbin of history and say this was not as scary, or as minstrelized a thing as we make it out to be. There were a whole range of cultural practices that were forging relationships between African Americans in camps before they were negotiating what their relationship was going to be with a state that had heretofore been their enslaver. I wanted to find a place where I could do a granular study of that. The camps were an opportune place to do that.

CWT: How do you recover the records?

AC: It’s almost bizarre how little the camps were talked about. They were seen as these places of pity, places of scorn. The official records of the camps are often filed at the National Archives under different generals who supervised the contraband camps, as they were first called. You can get the administrative angle there, but the challenge is not to lose sight of African Americans interacting with each other. You get a great overview but then only little short bits, such as a note that the camp residents all seem to be meeting at midnight for their service, even though they have daytime events with chaplains. What is going on at midnight that everyone seems to be participating in? Funerals end up being this extremely important thing because they aren’t denominational. You are now seeing certain rituals and events, even around emancipation itself, that are black-directed.

One of the supplements was to look at the WPA interviews from the 1930s, oral histories, newspaper interviews, to flesh out some of the things I’m seeing in the records of the camps but couldn’t explain.

CWT: How many camps were there?

AC: Union camps were around 250, but that number expands to nearly 600 when including leased plantations. More come into view when you look beyond Union jurisdiction. As for residents, it is close to one million total, if you just count the movement of people, such as those who were being moved by Confederates to Texas and its outskirts. These places are what the African Americans themselves talk about as slave refugee camps because the owners became unable to take care of them. Displaced African Americans are finding their family members in Texas, and these places become refugee camps even though they are not run by

IT’S ALMOST

BIZARRE HOW LITTLE THE

CAMPS

WERE TALKED ABOUT the Union. But in this time, there is a lot of black-initiated organization. It’s fair to say you have a million people in this state of displacement and they are forming networks.

CWT: That amounts to one out of four enslaved African Americans being displaced during the war. How did they get by within the camps? How much support was there for the refugees?

AC: It varies. The scholarship is always trying to balance the need, the destitution, the squalor, alongside the actual initiatives. People are building schools, they are building churches.

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities that we see today trace their history from freedmen’s camps: Hampton University, Fisk University.

CWT: What was the role of the Army?

AC: The Army wasn’t prepared, but paired with the Treasury Department and all of these benevolent organizations, some religious, some secular, Freedmen’s Aid society, the American Missionary Association, the Christian Commission, the Sanitary Commission. A lot of abolitionist organizations are coming to provide some infrastructure and a range of metrics: How many people come to school?

How well are they doing, no longer as slaves, but as black laborers? Are you giving them school? Are you giving them rations? It creates paperwork and that in itself is a major transformation. Now people are learning to advocate. At these camps the fact that rape is being recorded is a major shift because before that, a black slave chattel was subject to any manner of sexual exploitation, but now a victim can actually prosecute. There are Union soldiers who are sentenced to five years or dishonorable discharge for rape.

CWT: For many reasons it is a difficult history to recover.

AC: These camps have dual identities.

On the one hand, they are places of outrage: the government not meeting its own promises. On the other hand, there is a new idea of what the government owes its citizenry, when before that life was under the paternalism of the master. I am trying to stay as close as I can to what it meant for African Americans to change their consciousness into an emancipation consciousness, how they build things, how they also accept that all these new possibilities: literacy, the ability to read the Bible for themselves, to reconnect with family members and to solidify their relationships—but not lose what they’ve already created: this African or Afrocentric culture that has sustained them through slavery. They are trying to preserve these invisible institutions. For example, with all this political chaos that gets talked about, you see so little infighting between African Americans, which should in and of itself be noted. Why there’s an OCTOBER 2020 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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with Abigail Cooper

CWT: Can you talk about what conscription meant to them?

AC: As the conscription effort takes off, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation, in a lot of places there is ambivalence because the conscription will physically remove them from their families. Just when they have the best legal chance of giving service to Union so the Union will owe them rights that will extend to their families, there was still the need for African American men to negotiate: How are you going to make sure my wife and family are protected? In the latter war years, freedmen’s camps become majority women and children, where children sometimes are 57 percent of the camp. You have a lot of female networks: how do I make wages and have childcare networks? They work out co-ops, but they don’t have as strong a land claim because male landowners are stronger and a more understood entity. You have a lot of black femaleled communal habits that end up being the backbone of what the postwar black universe looks like. That’s what I want to show in the camps, as a major support for even the rise of Black 24

LEARNING TO BE FREE Recently freed children form a line as they read from textbooks at a camp for refugees near Washington, D.C. Reconstruction, when you see black legislators and black men in power and a lot of times the literacy rates among women in the camps was so high that you see men relying on the women and their organizing power. And you see that success in early Reconstruction efforts. That had a lot to do with networks forged in the freedmen’s camps.

CWT: What do you feel is the most misunderstood aspect of this history?

AC: When I say “religion,” I want to signal the legal separation of church and state that allowed African Americans to continue practices that weren’t “political” in relation to the U.S. state, but I also want to rechristen them as absolutely constitutive of the black solidarity that gave them such resilience. When I say religion, I’m not talking about the things you expect.

I’m talking about the things that have made scholars extremely uncomfortable and that is why they have excised these particular practices—because they saw them as superstitious and unassimilable to a white citizenry. I’m saying there are a lot of non-West-

ern aspects here, but there was a great creolization going on that made this force distinctive and also forged networks of resilience. Because of the separation of church and state, religion was a great venue for protecting ancestral reverence—believing that your ancestors from Africa are with you—and the church put on a front that was intelligible to mainstream white-dominated networks. Yet they were also sacred places so you could continue networking and keep practices secret because they were behind the veil of religion. The cross has a dual meaning, as the crucifix of Jesus and the Bantu cosmogram, which symbolizes the cyclical nature of life.

Those dual meanings reinforced identities as Africans in America and as Americans as they are negotiating this relationship into the citizenry.

CWT: It is almost inconceivable to imagine the sense and scale of dislocation.

AC: There is a lot of death and tragedy in these camps, but I am impressed with how refugees made meaning out of this. When you feel dislocated out of a normality, you end up placing significance in different places. ✯ Interview conducted by Senior Editor Sarah Richardson.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

ability for African Americans to have semi-autonomous garden plots and they worked out property arrangements before involving government.

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Miller’s Cornf ield, Antietam National Battlef ield

IN

TALL CORN

SEPTEMBER 17, 1862, PUT A BLOODY TWIST ON AN AMERICAN SYMBOL

FROM TOP: MAURICE SAVAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION/PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

FOR DECADES BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR,

cornfields symbolized success and prosperity in America. Stereotypical depictions of cabins meant to illustrate the American frontier to folks “back east” or abroad often included a small patch of corn to emphasize the hard work that had hacked a farm out of a wilderness. Corn became a leitmotif in the American song, and some state seals included stalks of the staple food. Even if you lived far from a barnyard in a comfortable urban home, you could display a vase shaped like an ear of corn on your mantle or shelf, a ceramic icon of the American dream and Manifest Destiny. And then, a few hours of 1862 carnage in Maryland placed a capital “C” on a certain Cornfield. Major General Joseph Hooker famously wrote, “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they stood in their ranks a few moments before. It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield.”

Quite a different take on an agricultural symbol of success. In “Cornfield Maelstrom” (P. 28), we have included images of men killed or wounded in the fight for Farmer Miller’s land at Antietam. For those soldiers and their families, a symbol of success and prosperity would forever be associated with loss, destruction, and fellow citizens shooting each other at close range. An American nightmare. – D.B.S.

Porcelain vases like this one were produced at a pottery in Bennington, Vt., from 1847 to 1858. Corn was a strictly American symbol, and these vases were made for domestic distribution only.

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CORNFIELD Maelstrom

BY DAV ID A. W ELK ER

SEPTEMBER 1, 1862,

ANTIETAM’S OPENING FIGHT TURNED A FIELD OF CROPS INTO A SCENE OF SLAUGHTER

dawned bright and clear on David and Margaret Miller’s farm north of quiet Sharpsburg, Md. Stepping from their two-story whitewashed home, David— known as D.R.—could see his barn and haystacks west across the Hagerstown Pike, running north from town and bisecting his property, while just east was the family’s garden and orchard. Bounded by three woodlots—known now as the North, East, and West Woods—Miller’s three welltended fields east of the road reflected the farm’s prosperity. The northernmost, abutting the North Woods, had been recently plowed while another field to the south contained fallow grass. Farther south stood a 24-acre field awaiting harvest, thick with ripe corn. Miller had no way of knowing that within two weeks, his cornfield would become one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Of the many actions aligning to make that so was the decision by Confederate General 28

p

Robert E. Lee to move his Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland after his late-August victory at the Second Battle of Manassas.

Lee sold his move north to President Jefferson Davis as a way to enable Maryland to join the Confederacy.

Also, winning a battle on Northern soil might persuade Britain and France to openly support Southern independence, break the Union naval blockade, and perhaps more. Lee’s men began crossing the Potomac River on September 4 and reached Frederick the following day. The general quickly scattered his forces across western Maryland preparing his next move.

Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan, meanwhile, reorganized his army to better chase Lee, creating three “wing commands” and unifying his cavalry into a single division while also streamlining army logistics from top to bottom. The unexpected acquisition of Lee’s campaign plan—the famous “Lost Orders”— handed McClellan another critical advantage.

PHOTO COURTESY OF XXWILLIAM WILSBACH

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CRIPPLED IN MARYLAND Union gunfire wounded Private William Calton Odum of the 6th Georgia Infantry in the right arm during the morning fight in the Cornfield. The injured limb had to be amputated, but he lived until 1898.

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ANOTHER TYPE OF CASUALTY David R. Miller’s handsome home, seen in this wartime image, stood north of his cornfield. After the battle, Miller submitted a damage claim to the federal government for $1,237, and was awarded $995 in 1872. His brother, Daniel, died of disease contracted from exposure to sick soldiers. is campaign compromised, Lee moved west from Frederick to buy time and gain maneuvering room. Fighting at South Mountain on September 14 failed to stop McClellan’s relentless advance, and Lee concluded that returning to Virginia was his only option and ordered his army to gather at Sharpsburg. Word that Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson had secured the vital communication line at Harpers Ferry breathed fresh life into Lee’s campaign, however, and he gambled all on fighting at Sharpsburg.

Lee deployed his army along Sharpsburg’s north-south ridge, nearly astride the town, facing east toward Antietam Creek. The Confederates wanted to use long fields of fire to oppose McClellan, and then attack after he was winnowed by casualties.

September 16 found both armies only AND HELD IN CHECK a mile apart, held in check by thick fog.

McClellan used the day to plan his attack for September 17, an assault built around Antietam Creek’s three crossings, the Upper, Middle, and Lower bridges and nearby fords. McClellan’s opening strike would use the Upper Bridge to hit the Confederate left, followed by a carefully coordinated assault on Lee’s right flank from the Lower Bridge, sometimes called the Rohrbach Bridge for a local family and soon to be forever known as Burnside Bridge.

H

Blunting simultaneous flank attacks would thin Confederate forces in the center, where Union attackers crossing the Middle Bridge would strike the final blow. With the flank attacks cutting two of Lee’s escape routes—leaving only west to Shepherdstown open—he would be trapped, facing surrender or destruction.

McClellan ordered Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s 1st Corps, which would lead the opening attack, to get underway by late afternoon. Shortly after 7 p.m., Maj. Gen. Joseph King Feno Mansfield’s 12th Corps moved to reinforce Hooker.

Hooker’s crossing was detected almost immediately. Confederate cavnoticed the advance and quickly BY alry warned Lee, who had Maj. Gen. James Longstreet send Brig. Gen. John Bell Hood’s Division—the only Southern infantry nearby—in response. Facing north along the Hagerstown Pike, Hood’s presence bought time for Jackson’s entire command to deploy on Hood’s left.

At dusk, Hooker’s advance troops—Brig.

Gen. Truman Seymour’s brigade of Pennsyl-

SEPTEMBER 16

FOUND BOTH ARMIES

ONLY A MILE APART

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COURTESY OF BRIAN WHITE (2)

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THICK FOG

vanians—encountered Confederate cavalry and infantry skirmishers from Colonel Alfred H. Colquitt’s Brigade defending the East Woods. Seymour pushed Colquitt back, revealing Hood’s infantry and artillery in Miller’s corn and grass fields. Thus ended September 16th’s brief fighting.

As his troops slumbered, Hooker surveyed the ground of the impending attack. Though it was dark and drizzly, the small white Dunker Church stood out above Miller’s rolling ground, framed by the three woodlots. Beyond that the enemy controlled the West Woods, but Hooker knew little more of their location. His plan called for Brig.

Gens. Abner Doubleday and James Ricketts’ divisions to drive over the open ground toward the church, supported by Brig. Gen. George Meade’s Pennsylvania Reserves. The ultimate objective, however, remained reaching the ridge to break Lee’s left flank.

Like many of his men, Hooker’s plan would not survive long after dawn.

“The bullets began to clip through the corn and spin through the soft furrows—thick, almost, as hail.”

Confederate shellfire from Nicodemus Heights to their right rear began to “burst around us, the fragments tearing up the ground, and canister whistled through the corn above us.”

The vicious gunfire stalled Doubleday’s half of Hooker’s attack.

Ricketts’ assault 300 yards to the east fared even worse. General Hartsuff, Ricketts’ best commander, was wounded while reconnoitering the field prior to the attack. The command vacuum left his brigade confused and immobile. Duryée’s brigade, meanwhile, marched determinedly south into battle by itself.

Lieutenant Lewis Parmelee, 2nd U.S. Duryée’s New Yorkers and PennSharpshooters, shot five times, killed sylvanians endured terrific artillery fire from Nicodemus Heights and Colonel Stephen D. Lee’s cannons posted near the Dunker Church.

Reaching the northern end of Miller’s cornfield, Duryée shifted to a battle front before ordering all 1,100 men to lie down. After Captains James Thompson’s and Ezra Mathe rain ended at first thew’s Pennsylvania batteries lobbed light September 17, but a rounds into the cornfield to clear deadlier storm was brewRebel skirmishers, the men rose and ing. Hooker’s plan took its first hit picked a lane between corn rows and when both Doubleday and Rickstarted forward again. The concealetts sent forward individual 400- to ing corn briefly spared them from the 900-man brigades rather than their shellfire, and on they pressed to the entire 3,000-man divisions. Doublesouthern end of the field where the day ordered Brig. Gen. John Gibbon’s enemy waited.

“Iron Brigade” south along the Hag2nd Lt. John Whitman, The men of Lawton’s and Trimerstown Pike, with Colonel Walter 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters, killed ble’s brigades anxiously watched for E. Phelps’ and Brig. Gen. Marsena signs of the Yankees they knew were Patrick’s brigades in support. Ricketts somewhere among the corn. As the meanwhile directed both Brig. Gens.

31st Georgia’s skirmishers fled Union shells, George L. Hartsuff ’s and Abram Duryée’s brigades south through Miller’s Lawton’s men cried, “What’s the matter? What fields toward the church. Ricketts’ reserve, Colonel William Christian’s are you running for?” “You’ll soon see!” the brigade, was unexpectedly sent skirting the East Woods to flank an unexscrambling Georgians replied. Colonel Dougpected Confederate threat revealed by the growing daylight. lass, pacing in the rear, directed Lawton’s men to That new threat was 1,935 men of two brigades in Brig. Gen. Alexpick a row and fire low, which would make every ander Lawton’s Division, deployed perpendicularly to Jackson’s main line shot count when the enemy appeared. Nearer facing north, roughly 200 yards south of Miller’s cornfield. Georgia Coland nearer they came, until suddenly… onel Marcellus Douglass was in command of Lawton’s men, and Colonel Nearing the fence bordering the southern James Walker, leading Isaac Trimble’s Brigade, was posted in the same edge of the Cornfield, Confederate rifle fire location by Jackson the previous night to resist exactly the advance Hooker tore into Duryée’s line, blasting the Union regintended. Brigadier General Harry Hays’ Brigade of Louisianans soon iments as they emerged from the corn to align arrived as reinforcements for Lee’s left. with Seymour’s Pennsylvania Reserves, still in The Iron Brigade pushed south through Miller’s farmyard until reachthe East Woods from the previous night. Before ing the still-standing corn. There, unseen Rebel fire from the corn ahead the Federal lines met, however, Colonel Walker and the West Woods on the right halted the leading 6th Wisconsin, soon pushed three of Trimble’s Georgia and North joined by the “Ragged Ass” 2nd Wisconsin—so-called for the sad condition of their trousers. Recalled Major Rufus Dawes of the 6th Wisconsin, Carolina regiments forward to a low rock ledge,

COURTESY OF BRIAN WHITE (2)

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Private Jobe Gilley, 27th Indiana, wounded in the chest

placing them squarely on Duryée’s exposed left flank.

Duryée was losing men fast. Recalled Lieutenant Rush Cady of the 97th New York, “[Private] Sherman was squatting down in the act of priming, when hit by a solid shot, which nearly severed both legs at the knees, & took [off ] his right hand at the wrist, the same shot killing Dick Handley instantly, going completely through his body. Sherman’s blood, flesh & pieces of bones flew all over & in the faces of the boys who were next to him. He asked for a drink of water, & then begged Alek to cut his throat, he was in such agony.” After 20 minutes of such gore, Duryée ordered a retreat.

As Yankee troops yielded, Lawton’s and Hays’ brigades pursued them into the Cornfield. But just beyond the Cornfield’s center, they were halted by threats to their flanks. Lawton’s left stalled on Gibbon’s 2nd and 6th Wisconsin, while Hays’ men drove right at Hartsuff ’s brigade.

Hartsuff had finally moved once Colonel Richard Coulter of the 11th Pennsylvania assumed command. While too late to save Duryée’s men, its advance nonetheless stopped the latest Confederate drive. Barely 300 yards apart, both Hays’ and Hartsuff ’s brigades were being torn apart by musketry, and Coulter’s men suffered additional slaughter as targets of S.D. Lee’s artillery adjacent to the Dunker Church. Coulter needed reinforcements, fast. A fresh Federal brigade suddenly appeared in the East Woods, and Coulter raced there to plead for its help. He had no idea what this simple act would cause. oulter was racing toward Colonel William Christian’s Brigade, which had been sent to support Duryée and Hartsuff by striking the Confederate flank. Christian was a Mexican War veteran, but this was his first brigade command under direct fire, and his approach to the battlefield was erratic to say the least. He ordered his brigade through a series of direction-changing maneuvers and periodically halted to have them drill in the manual of arms. When Coulter approached and asked for assistance, Christian snapped and rode away muttering that “he’d always had a great fear of shelling.” By abandoning his brigade, Christian left Coulter’s command stuck in its lonely, costly fight.

C 32

BLOODY STALEMATE Possession of the Cornfield changed hands several times during the 1st Corps’ opening attack north of Sharpsburg. Well-timed counterattacks, in particular one by John Bell Hood’s infantry, blunted piecemeal Federal assaults, forcing Hooker to reset his plans.

COURTESY OF RICHARD THOMPSON; COURTESY OF SAMUEL HILLENBURG

Lt. Col. Emory Best, 23rd Georgia, wounded and captured

Colonel Peter Lyle, commanding the 90th Pennsylvania of Christian’s brigade, heard Coulter’s plea, however. Determined to act, with or without orders, Lyle marched his regiment into the northern end of the Cornfield, allowing Christian’s spent command to retreat toward the North Woods. Although the 90th Pennsylvania was only 264 strong, its fire began tearing apart what remained of Hays’ Brigade.

On the Cornfield’s western end, Lawton’s Brigade battled with Gibbon’s men. Gibbon had daringly split his brigade. He held the 2nd and 6th Wisconsin regiments in the corn while sending the 19th Indiana and 7th Wisconsin west across the pike to clear threats within the West Woods. Into the center of his position, Gibbon sent Lieutenant James Stewart’s two-gun section of the 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery B, which raced south to deploy on the pike’s western edge. As support, Hooker ordered Phelps’ brigade forward behind Gibbon in the corn while Doubleday sent Patrick’s brigade to aid Gibbon’s two regiments in the woods. If this pincers movement worked, Gibbon’s brigade would soon reunite and resume driving to the Dunker Church.

Seeing Lawton’s Georgians struggling in the Cornfield, Brig. Gen. William E. Starke—commanding Jackson’s Division—decided to act, advancing both the Stonewall and Taliaferro’s brigades out of the West Woods toward the pike. They arrived just as Jones’ and Grigsby’s brigades were retreating and the effort proved to be for naught. Starke, in fact, was mortally wounded as Gibbon’s two regiments emerged from the West Woods, pouring flanking fire into their left. Meanwhile, Gibbon’s two Wisconsin regiments and Phelps’ brigade sprang at them from the Cornfield’s southern end.

“We jumped over the fence, and pushed on, loading, firing, and shouting….There was, on the part of the men, great hysterical excitement, eagerness to go forward, and a reckless disregard of life, of everything but victory,” recalled Major Dawes. Pivoting on Phelps’ 2nd U.S. Sharp-

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COURTESY OF RICHARD THOMPSON; COURTESY OF SAMUEL HILLENBURG

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VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND CULTURE; THE MARC AND BETH STORCH COLLECTION

shooters, Gibbon’s regiments hit Starke’s two brigades in front and flank at nearly the same moment Lawton’s and Hays’ brigades—short on ammunition, thinned by casualties, and seeing reinforcements moving behind them—yielded ground. he Cornfield had changed hands four times in barely an hour, and it seemed Hooker might have won the fight. He was, however, about to be brought back to earth by John Bell Hood’s men.

Hood’s infantry column, sent to aid Lawton, quickly deployed across the Cornfield’s south edge until reaching the East Woods. The men had marched into battle eating their half-cooked breakfast, johnnycakes or pork, from their bayonets. With Colonel William T. Wofford’s “Texas Brigade” on the left and Colonel Evander M. Law’s Brigade of Alabamians, Mississippians, and North Carolinians on the right, Hood’s Division swept north into the Cornfield.

“A long and steady line of rebel grey, unbroken by the fugitives who fly before us, comes sweeping down through the woods and around the church,” recalled Corp. John Morton Booker, Lt. Col. Thomas Allen, 2nd Wisconsin, Dawes. “They raise the yell and fire. It is like a scythe 23rd Virginia, killed wounded in the right arm running through our line.” Wofford’s Texans swept away Gibbon’s short-lived victory, while across the Cornfield, Law’s Brigade drove away the stout 90th Pennsylvania. In mere minutes, Hood had regained control of the Cornfield and all gone and their brigade’s other two regiments looked promising for the Rebels. Until suddenly it wasn’t. stalled in the center of the Cornfield by enemy The two guns in Stewart’s 4th U.S. Artillery blasted Wofford’s left flank, fire from the East Woods. Alone and exposed, stalling Wade Hampton’s Legion and the 18th Georgia, while across the short on ammunition and with mounting casuCornfield, Evander Law’s right was stalled by Christian’s Brigade, restored alties, the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves retreated, to order and firing from cover in the southern end of the East Woods. In yielding the Cornfield once more. response, Law divided his brigade. Half his men pushed north through Ripley’s Brigade, with Colonel George Doles the open corn and the remainder drove eastward, clearing Christian’s men of the 4th Georgia commanding, controlled the from the East Woods. Wofford also shifted regiments and faced his entire position by fire, rather than presence, remaining brigade west along the Hagerstown Pike, reinforcing each flank by postsouth of the Cornfield to align with Law’s 4th ing the 4th Texas on the left and moving the 1st Texas toward the right. Alabama, 21st Georgia, and 5th Texas holding But, as General Hood later observed, the 1st Texas had “slipped the bridle the southern East Woods. Left behind by misand got away from the command.” The Lone Star boys were driving the communication, they halted Meade’s advance Yankees back as they moved north, but they were alone. Their uncoordiand now anchored Confederate hopes to retain nated advance also exposed Wofford’s unprotected right flank. control of the Cornfield.

Patrick’s brigade and Gibbon’s 19th Indiana and 7th Wisconsin Hooker’s next deadly countermove was advanced from the West Woods to threaten Wofford’s open right, while a already in play, as Mansfield’s 7,500-man 12th single volley from George Meade’s 3,131-man division—the last of HookCorps—a mix of mostly untested and a few veter’s fresh 1st Corps troops to arrive on the field—nearly swept away the 1st eran regiments—arrived between the North and East Woods. Unlike as he had done with his Texas. Hood ordered his men to retreat, and 1st Corps, Hooker would utilize the full mass the Cornfield exchanged hands for a sixth DEADLY of Mansfield’s corps, maneuvering two 2,500time.

COUNTERMOVE man divisions rather than individual brigades.

Even so, hope was already marching northThe 12th Corps led Hooker’s The division of Brig. Gen. Alpheus Williams ward from Samuel Mumma’s fields.

About 7 reset, as concentrated pushes drove directly south toward the Cornfield as a.m., Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill advanced Ripley’s

by Williams’ and Greene’s Brig. Gen. George S. Greene’s division swung Brigade to Jackson’s aid. Once deployed across divisions finally gave the on Williams’ left through the East Woods. The the Cornfield’s width, Ripley’s Georgians and Federals control of the two divisions were to seize McClellan’s objecNorth Carolinians swept northward.

Cornfield about 10:30 a.m. tive—the Dunker Church ridge.

Meade’s force advanced swiftly, too. GibGreene even advanced Hooker knew that for his grand advance to bon pushed forward his left-most regiment, beyond the Dunker Church the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves, to support succeed, Law’s Rebels, who had stopped Meade’s until flank attacks by advance, had to be dispatched. Hooker also knew Patrick’s brigade. At the Cornfield’s souththat assigning Mansfield to lead the task was a ern fence, however, they found Patrick’s men McLaws forced a retreat.

VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND CULTURE; THE MARC AND BETH STORCH COLLECTION

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Captain John Hanna, 6th Georgia, killed

Sergeant Charles Johnson, 12th Massachusetts, killed

Private Benjamin Sharpless, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves, wounded

Cornfield as Greene’s leading brigade on the left, Lt. Col. Hector Tyndale’s risk. Mansfield had assumed command of the 1st Brigade—Pennsylvania and Ohio boys—pivoted southwestward into corps only five days earlier, had not led troops in the East Woods, driving the Rebels before them. battle since 1847 during the Mexican War, and The Confederacy’s final hope for holding this position, Garland’s Brilacked confidence in his new command. Divertgade of D.H. Hill’s Division, soon proved not up to the task. It had lost ing Brig. Gen. Samuel Crawford’s brigade—three 359 casualties only four days before during the South Mountain fightveteran regiments and the massive but green ing, including General Garland, leaving its five North Carolina regiments 124th, 125th, and 128th Pennsylvania—to this under Colonel Duncan McRae unnerved by prospects for another fight. task, Mansfield personally led regiments into position astride the East Woods’ northern end. Once into the chaotic East Woods, the 5th North Carolina’s commander recalled, “Captain T.P. Thompson…came up to me in a very excited manExposed to the nearby maelstrom of battle by this ner and tone cried, ‘They are flankrole, Mansfield fell mortally wounded. ing us! See, yonder’s a whole brigade!’

The first Union, and third overall, gen[W]hen this act of indiscretion occurred, eral officer to fall before 9 a.m.

THE they began to break and run.”

Williams quickly stepped into the McRae’s reinforcements fled just as command void, however, completing Tyndale’s brigade appeared. Emerging Mansfield’s task by sending the 128th largely unopposed into the Cornfield, Pennsylvania south into the woods. The Tyndale hit Colquitt’s thinned brigade inexperienced Keystoners struck Ripley’s while Greene’s second brigade, Coloright flank and Law’s 4th Alabama and nel Henry Stainrook’s, arrived on their retired, but the attack persuaded Doles left. Swinging like a barn door, Greene’s that Ripley’s Brigade couldn’t withstand united division swept away the East another fight. As if on cue, D.H. Hills’ Woods’ remaining defenders, Law’s next brigade, Colonel Alfred Colquitt’s, three regiments. appeared, crossing Ripley’s front like a Brigadier General George Gordon’s brigade advanced, too. Recalled human curtain to enable Doles’ retreat. Colquitt’s Robert Gould Shaw, a captain in the 2nd Massachusetts who would go on timing was impeccable, but it was the last bit of to fame with the 54th Massachusetts the following July, “[T]he Brigade luck the South enjoyed in the Cornfield. advanced through the cornfield in front, which…was full of their dead and At nearly the same moment, the 12th Corps wounded….Beyond the cornfield was a large open field, and such a mass attack wound into high gear. Crawford’s briof dead and wounded men, mostly Rebels, as were lying there, I never saw gade, holding the northern East Woods, served before; it was a terrible sight….” as an anchor in the center; on their right, GorGreene’s division pressed inexorably westward across the Cornfield, don’s brigade moved directly south toward the

CORNFIELD

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COURTESY OF NEAL THOMPSON; COURTESY OF ROSS KELBAUGH; HNA ARCHIVES

CHANGED HANDS

sweeping remaining Confederate resistance before it. Benjamin Witcher of the 6th Georgia proposed to make a stand with some prone comrades, until his friend shook several, proving they were dead. When the 12th Corps reached the Hagerstown Pike, it signaled the 10th time that the Cornfield had changed hands in barely two hours. he Cornfield was securely in Union hands, but it remained to be seen if Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner, who replaced the wounded Hooker in command, could meet McClellan’s first objective. Stonewall Jackson also faced a daunting task, sustaining the Confederate left. Resolving such issues would require many hours of fighting.

The fight for the Cornfield had consumed all of Hooker’s forces on the Federal right, the 1st and 12th Corps, while two-thirds of Jackson’s available force—Lawton’s, Jackson’s, and Hood’s divisions—and three of the five brigades in D.H. Hill’s Division were similarly spent.

The Cornfield’s human cost stunned witnesses.

One Confederate wrote, “Around me are dead and wounded in horrid crowds,” while another recalled, “frequently places where for 50 or 60 yards you could step from one dead Yank to another & walk all over the ground without touching it with your foot.” A New Yorker observed, “We saw some without any head. Some without any arms. Some without any legs. Some shot through their guts…

It took hard to see them lay there bleeding to death.” Wofford’s 1st Texas lost 45 killed and 141 wounded of the 226 Texans who entered the Cornfield, an 82.3 percent casualty rate—the greatest single regimental loss in any battle for either side of the entire war. Hartsuff ’s 12th Massachusetts lost 49 killed and 165 wounded of the 334 men who advanced into the Cornfield, generating a 64 percent casualty rate.

Nightfall on September 17 brought an end to Antietam’s fighting and marked many historic transformations on the fields surrounding Sharpsburg. America’s bloodiest single day forever applied a capital letter to Farmer Miller’s Cornfield, and made it a national symbol of death and sacrifice.

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COURTESY OF NEAL THOMPSON; COURTESY OF ROSS KELBAUGH; HNA ARCHIVES

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David A. Welker is a professional historian and a military analyst for the federal government who writes from Centreville, Va. He has also published Tempest at Ox Hill, and this article is adapted from his 2020 release, The Cornfield: Antietam’s Bloody Turning Point, published by Casemate Press.

unfit for command Colonel William Christian had a track record of incompetence

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orn in 1825 in Utica, N.Y., William Henry Christian served with the 1st New York Volunteers throughout the Mexican War, though he saw no combat. He then served as his local militia’s drillmaster. With such military credentials, he was able to form and lead the 26th New York Infantry when the Civil War began.

Colonel Christian’s first battle experience on October 21, 1861, proved a complete disaster, however. He led a 350-man force to capture Confederate cavalry operating near Pohick Church, Va., but the Rebel troopers slipped away. During the return march, Christian lost control of his force and his men looted local homes, with one soldier killed in the process.

Christian and his regiment faced their next test at the Second Battle of Bull Run, when he was ordered to hold a position along Chinn Ridge on the Union left flank. But while his New Yorkers faced the unexpected attack by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s Right Wing, Christian was well behind the lines, lying under a tree, wrapped in a blanket, and being attended to by a surgeon.

He had left his command, Christian later explained, because he suffered from both heat stroke and a severe case of poison ivy on his hands.

Once Chinn Ridge’s intense fighting ended that day, Christian experienced a miraculous recovery when he assumed brigade command in place of the wounded Brig. Gen. Zealous Tower.

That evening, as the brigade fell back toward safety, the newly minted brigade commander rode among his ranks, waving the brigade flag and encouraging “his men.” Understandably suspicious, the 26th New York’s officers gathered in secret to consider alerting division commander Brig. Gen. James Ricketts of Christian’s actions. Probably considering the implications if they were mistaken, the group decided against raising their concern. As it would turn out, this was the wrong decision, one that would have grave implications two weeks later at Antietam. –D.A.W.

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LITTLE MAC ON THE MOVE Primary accounts dispel General Mc Clellan’s

supposed inactivity at Antietam IN MANY HISTORIES OF THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM, it is stated that Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan never left the Pry House, where he observed the battle from afar, and never ventured west of Antietam Creek to observe firsthand any of the fighting on September 17, 1862.

Those points have been accepted as truth by many for decades. But McClellan did journey to the front on several occasions and was also exposed to enemy fire in the days before the bloody battle as the following primary source accounts prove.

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BY STEVEN R. STOTELMYER

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September 15,1862

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Late in the afternoon, while on the heights east of Antietam Creek observing General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia on the opposite heights, McClellan, his staff, and escort drew the attention of Confederate artillery. According to McClellan,“[N]o sooner had we shown ourselves on the hill than the enemy opened upon us with rifled guns, and…his firing was very good.” Lieutenant Colonel Henry D. Strother of his staff and Brig. Gen. Jacob B. Cox, titular commander of the 9th Corps, corroborated this anecdote.

Sources: George B. McClellan, McClellan’s Own Story, Charles L. Webster & Company, 1887; David H. Strother, A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War, Cecil D. Eby, ed., University of North Carolina Press, 1961; “Personal Recollections of the War by a Virginian, Tenth Paper,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Harper & Brothers, 1868; Jacob D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900

Often accused of remaining sedentary during the Battle of Antietam, several eyewitnesses testify to McClellan’s front line visits.

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3 4 7 5 16

9 2

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HERE AND THERE The numbers on this map correspond with the divisions in the text, and the yellow circle approximates the location of McLellan and his staff in the James Hope painting on pages 42-43.

Antietam is a vertical battlefield, running north and south. Before and after the engagement, McClellan ranged over the landscape far more than he is usually given credit for.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS (2)

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September 16,1862

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McClellan and his escort scouted the area at and beyond the landmark today known as Burnside Bridge. He noted, “I rode along the whole front….Our small party drew the enemy’s fire frequently.” Several individuals, among them Private George A. Hitchcock of the 21st Massachusetts, noted this. Hitchcock recorded in his diary, “General McClellan, followed by a long staff of officers in brilliant uniforms and escort of cavalry, rides rapidly past us.”

Another 9th Corps soldier, Captain James Wren of the 48th Pennsylvania, attested to the enemy artillery in his diary, “[T]hey opened fire on our regiment & and shelled us out of our Camp.”

Sources: George A. Hitchcock, The Civil War Diary and Reminiscences of George A. Hitchcock, Savas Publishing Company, 1997; James Wren, Captain James Wren’s Diary; From New Bern to Fredericksburg, White Maine Publishing Company, 1990

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The same day, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s 1st Corps was across Antietam Creek by 4 p.m. As “Fighting Joe” led two of his three divisions, McClellan joined him. “We had not proceeded over half a mile before the commanding general with his staff joined me,” wrote Hooker, “apparently to see how we were progressing.”

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS (2)

Source: Joseph Hooker, Official Records, Volume 19, Part 1

By late afternoon Brig. Gen. George Meade’s division of the 1st Corps was moving southward along the Smoketown Road toward the East Woods and the Joseph Poffenberger Farm.

Sergeant John W. Burnett of the 4th Pennsylvania Reserves remembered, “I heard clattering of horses hooves and sabers to our rear.” The sound came from “a General and a few attendants crossing our column from the left rear.” Burnett identified the general as “George B. [McClellan] whose face and form was familiar to me.” Another of Meade’s men, Corporal Abram L. Crist of the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves, observed McClellan in the same area. Remembered Crist, “General McClellan and staff were coming on the field a short distance to our right and rear” as his unit advanced to support troops embroiled in a heavy skirmish in the East Woods. “The men saw him and commenced cheering,” a common occurrence. But this time, Crist recalled, “[T]he General rose in his stirrups and waved his hand in such a manner as was understood and the cheering ceased at once.”

Sergeant Archibald F. Hill of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves remembered, “I observed that a general who did not belong to our division was directing the movements….I discovered to my gratification that it was McCLELLAN.” Several Union artillery batteries simultaneously deployed near the North Woods and, as Hill related, “A battery took position in the corn-field on our right, another on our left, and a third, well supported, went forward and took position in the wood.” As evening approached, “several additional rebel batteries” responded and “a rebel battery far to the right opened a flank fire. The battle was terrible.” Then, “amid the storm of iron hail GENERAL McCLELLAN rode up to the battery in the cornfield on our right, and directed it to change its position in order that it might play upon the rebel battery on our flank to greater advantage” to meet the new threat.

IT’S IN THE BOOKS A number of regimental histories and soldier recollections describe seeing General McClellan west of Antietam Creek on September 17, 1862.

I OBSERVED THAT A GENERAL

WHO DID NOT

BELONG TO

OUR DIVISION

WAS DIRECTING THE

MOVEMENTS...

I DISCOVERED TO MY

GRATIFICATION

THAT IT WAS

MC CLELLAN

Sources: John W. Burnett, Regimental Files, Antietam National Battlefield Library (ANBL); Abram L. Crist, Regimental Files, ANBL; Archibald F. Hill, Our Boys, John E. Potter Publisher, 1865 OCTOBER 2020 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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Typical Battle of Antietam accounts usually portray McClellan staying at the Pry House most of September 17, and Colonel Strother’s diary is often cited to verify that. Strother noted Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter by McClellan’s side.

“They sat together during the morning in a redan of fence rails, Porter continually using the glass and reporting observations, McClellan smoking and sending orders.” What has previously been overlooked is that Strother’s description seems to have occurred after McClellan made a morning visit to the East Woods.

rode along the lines a short distance and returned to his headquarters.”

Coffin then followed McClellan’s party back to the Pry House, which Coffin described as a “large farmhouse.”

Three other correspondents discussed McClellan’s late-morning visit to the East Woods. A September 19, 1862, edition of the New York Tribune contains an Associated Press report datelined “Wednesday Sept. 17 via Frederick Sept.

18,” and reads, “When Gen. Hooker fell, Gen. McClellan immediately proceeded to the right, where he was enthusiastically received, and by his presence added much to our success in recovering the ground lost.” A New York Herald correspondent affirmed the account a few days later. “He [McClellan] was…in this portion of the field….When the intrepid General Hooker was wounded, during the morning, General McClellan rode over to the right of the line, and inspired the troops with confidence, by his presence.” The September 20 New York Tribune contained an article from correspondent George W. Smalley. “McClellan had been over on the field after Sumner’s

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Several first-person accounts prove McClellan traveled to the East Woods sometime during the late morning of September 17. Boston Journal correspondent Charles Carleton Coffin started his morning in nearby Hagerstown and arrived on the field in time to witness Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick’s disastrous repulse in the West Woods, which climaxed by 10:30 a.m. “A little before noon,” Coffin wrote, “General McClellan and staff crossed the Antietam and rode up to the woods from which Sedgwick had advanced.”

According to Coffin, “He looked over the field toward the Dunker Church, examined with his glass the Confederate position a few moments, 42

Colonel David H. Strother

Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter

COURTESY OF THE ANTIETAM NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

September 17,1862

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REMEMBRANCE OF WAR Captain James Hope of the 2nd Vermont painted scenes in the postwar years of the fighting he witnessed at Antietam. This painting is titled “A Fateful Turn,” and shows McClellan and his staff, in the yellow circle, riding near the burning Mumma Farm. At far right, Union troops begin attacking the Sunken Road.

[Sedgwick’s Division] repulse, but had speedily returned to his headquarters.”

Private William Olcott of the 10th Pennsylvania Reserves left another remarkable account. This regiment, part of Meade’s division of the 1st Corps, was in the Cornfield on the morning of September 17. Olcott noted in his journal, “We deployed and took position in front of a cornfield,” wrote Olcott. The 10th Regiment was sent to the right, across the Hagerstown Turnpike. “Immediately upon our arrival…we commenced firing…about this time. Genl. McClellan and staff visited some portion of the field. And cheer after cheer rent the air as he made his appearance.” While Olcott did not see McClellan, he definitely heard the cheers of men who did, and his description is another first-person diary account, not meant for the public, and as such must contain a certain amount of truth.

COURTESY OF THE ANTIETAM NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

Sources: Charles Carleton Coffin, Stories of Our Soldiers, The Journal Newspaper Company, 1893; New York Tribune; New York Herald; William Olcott, Regimental Files, ANBL

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Strother also noted that General McClellan left the Pry House to observe the progress of the battle from a bluff behind the home, and after a few moments, “Horses were forthwith ordered, and we rode rapidly across to a commanding knoll on the eastern side of the Sharpsburg turnpike.” The location Strother described was the same position where McClellan came under enemy fire on September 15. As a soldier in the 93rd New York commented, “From this advanced position we could see many of the movements and became such interested and absorbed spectators of the inspiring scenes, the brilliant charges, the incessant volleys, and the heroic scenes the great battlefield presented, that we were unmindful of the scattering shots and occasional shells that saluted our ears.”

By mid-morning high bluffs north of the Boonsboro Pike were occupied

by Maj. Gen. George W. Morell’s division of Porter’s 5th Corps, including the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry, and the regimental historian later wrote, “At noon the combat raged in all its fierceness. It was near this hour when

General McClellan, with his large and imposing staff, rode upon the ground occupied by our division….Shouts, yells, and cheers of appreciation rent the air.” “Regardless of the flying, bursting missiles,” wrote 118th Pennsylvania historian, “there he sat astride his splendid charger, glass in hand, calmly reviewing the mighty host.”

Sources: David H. King, History of the Ninety-Third Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, Swain & Tate Co., 1895; Survivor’s Association, History of the 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers, J.L. Smith, Map Publisher, 1905

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McClellan also paid an afternoon visit to Maj. Gens. William Franklin and Edwin Sumner in the East Woods, and stated in his report that it was, “Towards the middle of the afternoon.” Another soldier belonging to Morell’s division, in the 22nd Massachusetts, attested to this, “Shortly after 2 o’clock, General McClellan rode down the road from the Pry House, with his staff, passing by our line.”

It is generally accepted that McClellan found Sumner and Franklin sometime between 2:30 and 3 p.m. in the vicinity of the East Woods and that the generals rode together accompanied by several officers from both staffs. There is evidence McClellan found himself under enemy fire once again. A soldier in the 21st New York known only as “Jimmy” wrote in a newspaper account, “General McClellan, with General Sumner and OCTOBER 2020 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

OUR BOYS

shells, some of which fell into the ranks of the 128th other officers, have just come through HUZZAH! among the boys, who, on seeing him, rose This illustration depicts Pennsylvania, and they began to fall back; but Gen. up en masse and gave three roaring cheers a scene from the spring McClellan himself rallied them, and they soon regained for ‘Little Mac.’” No sooner had the cheer1862 Peninsula Campaign, their former steadiness.” Another eyewitness, Edmond R. Brown of the 27th Indiana, remembered that after ing stopped, “Than the rebels opened on but similar incidents Franklin arrived on the field and “formed for a final us again with grape, shell and solid shot.” of McClellan adoration assault, near the Dunker church, our brigade was ordered Commented the chaplain of the 60th New York, “Passing into a piece of woods, occurred when he rode near by General McClellan in person to form behind it as a the Antietam front. support.” where a large body of infantry was resting, The 1st New York Light Artillery was in position on their hearty cheers announced to the rebels that the General was near, and immediately the high ground near the junction of the northeast corner of the Cornfield they brought their batteries to bear upon us.” and the East Woods during McClellan’s visit. Nelson Ames, the unit’s hisAccording to the chaplain, the enemy fire was torian, left another description of Little Mac directing counter-battery “Much nearer, than was agreeable. My horse artillery fire: “During the afternoon Generals McClellan and Sumner rode up to where we were posted and examined the lines of battle with their received a slight flesh wound.”

McClellan observed the wreckage of the glasses. In the course of their visit a rebel battery on our front was throwing morning combat and the effect it had upon the shells in to our line. General McClellan turned to Sergeant Barse and told troops. Some were so demoralized he saw the him to give them a few straight shots. So successful was his effort that the need to personally intervene: “Even Sedgwick’s fourth shot dismounted one of their guns, and we were not troubled again division commenced giving way under a few by them while in this position.” Ames’ next sentence leaves little doubt that shots from a battery that suddenly commenced McClellan was in danger. “It was while sighting his gun in this place that firing from an unexpected position,” wrote Corporal Salisbury was mortally wounded.”

McClellan, “I had to ride in and rally them myself.” The New York Herald also reported Sources: Robert Goldthwaite Carter, Four Brothers in Blue, University of Texas Press, 1903; John Harrison Mills, Chronicles of the Twenty-First Regiment New York State Volunteers, The Little Mac rallying his soldiers. “As General 21st Reg’t Veteran Association of Buffalo, 1887; Richard Eddy, History of the Sixteenth McClellan rode along the line he was most vocif- Regiment New York State Volunteers, Published by the Author, 1864; Edmond R. Brown, erously cheered, which attracted the attention of The Twenty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Self-Published, 1899; Nelson Ames, the rebels, when they commenced throwing History of Battery G First New York Light Artillery, Marshall Printing Co., 1900

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After the midafternoon visit to the East Woods, McClellan returned to the Pry House, but it does not seem he stayed there long. Captain Thomas Anderson produced an account that placed McClellan near the Federal artillery on the heights south of the Boonsboro Pike. Anderson served with the 12th U.S. Battalion of Porter’s 5th Corps and he observed, “General McClellan and Fitz John Porter, about a hundred and fifty yards from us.” Anderson described McClellan and Porter as “[s]itting on their horses between Taft’s and Weed’s batteries a little to our left.”

Source: Thomas M. Anderson, “The Reserves at Antietam,” Battle and Leaders of the Civil War, The Century Company, 1887

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Lastly, Private Alexander Wight of the 23rd Ohio provides a remarkable first-person contemporary source that places McClellan on a part of the Antietam battlefield that postwar histories never mention he visited during the engagement. On the afternoon of September 17, the 23rd was located on the extreme left flank of the 9th Corps, the scene of Confederate Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill’s unexpected and decisive counterattack that ended the fighting.

Wight was a member of the regimental band and performed a variety of duties during a fight, which included assisting surgeons. On September 26, in a private letter to his brother, Alexander related his experience at Antietam. “Our left was engaged and I had to be at my post,” the private recalled.

“I hurried down to where the doctors were and they told us there was no use trying to get any wounded off, that we would be running a great risk in trying. We went as far as we could, just far enough so we could hear the bullets whistle all around us and laid down behind stone piles and tree and every now and then, zip came a bullet against the tree or stone pile.”

The next few lines of his account are absolutely astounding. “You may think I am crazy but I have seen something since I came here that convinces me that McClellan is doing all he can for his and our country.…I was helping a wounded man off the field and he rode up to me and asked if he was badly wounded and if he could ride. He jumped off his horse and helped me to put the man on, but he could not ride. Burnside also offered his services at the same time, but I thanked him and said he could not ride.” Wight further proclaimed, “If there is not humanity to you I don’t know where you will find it.”

As a medical assistant, Private Wight was also present at a field hospital to witness another visit

by Generals McClellan and Burnside. “That night after the fight they visited the hospitals and spoke to the boys like a father and told them they had done well and gained a great victory,” Wight wrote. “He did not just go in and speak, but he went to the boys and shook hands with them and spoke to them like a father.” Alexander ended his letter by professing to his brother, “I don’t know what your opinion is about George McClellan, but I have changed my opinion.”

Source: Alexander Wight, Regimental Files, ANBL

McClellan’s staff did indeed occupy the Pry House; however, as we have seen, McClellan certainly did not spend most of the day there leisurely smoking cigars. To the contrary, despite the popular stereotype, eyewitness participants confirm that Little Mac led from the front and was on the battlefield of Antietam several times, often at great peril.

Stephen R. Stotelmyer is an Antietam battlefield guide and the author of, Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship from South Mountain to Antietam. He would like to respectfully dedicate this article to Ted Alexander, former Antietam National Battlefield historian who died on July 8, 2020. As a Vietnam veteran, Ted served his nation, and as a historian he served the Civil War community. He was a friend and supporter of all things Antietam, and will be greatly missed.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

OUR BOYS

KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS The handsome Pry House served as General McClellan’s forward observation post throughout the fight. He maintained his headquarters in nearby Keedysville.

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THE STORY OF AN EAST WOODS CASUALTY

BY NICHOLAS PICERNO

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A CDV of Private Asa Reed and his sister, Abie. Her image was removed from Reed’s pocket prior to his battlefield burial.

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he recent discovery of the S.G. Elliott burial map for Antietam battlefield deaths revealed the location of temporary graves and names of 50 men for whom September 17, 1862, would be their final day of life. One of those men was Private Asa Reed, born on November 28, 1840, in Danville, Maine. In October 1861, he enlisted in Company K of the 10th Maine Infantry commanded by Captain George H. Nye. Throughout the winter of 1861 and the early spring of 1862, the 10th, a two-year regiment, guarded the B&O Railroad at Relay House, Md., and other locations along the line. On May 24, Reed and his regiment arrived in Winchester, Va., but soon retreated from the town due to the arrival of Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s army. Regimental historian Lieutenant John Mead Gould labeled the exodus as a great “skedaddle.”

On August 9, 1862, the 10th and Reed were embroiled in the Battle of Cedar Mountain near Culpeper, Va. Company K Private Abial Edwards wrote, “When I entered the field I never expected to leave it alive….The 10th Maine went into action with 480 men and had 176 killed and

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Nick Picerno is Chairman Emeritus of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and a collector of material of the 10th and 29th Maine Infantry.

COURTESY OF NICHOLAS PICERNO (2); OPPOSITE PAGE: NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE MAP A NAME ON

wounded, 24 out of that number killed on the field—my company went into the fight with near 20 men out of it th[ere] was 16 wounded 1 killed and 1 missing.”

The 10th would next see action at 7:30 a.m.

September 17 at Antietam. The 12th Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph K.F. Mansfield, very new to field command, moved the regiment through the fields just west of the Smoketown Road toward the East Woods. Lieutenant Gould wrote that General Mansfield “piloted us and the other regiments through a corn field and then undertook to deploy the Brigade….The movement was not properly done for the reason perhaps that he thought we should be more exposed to the enemy’s fire. It was undertaken by obliquing, a most difficult movement.”

Gould continued, “We came out of the corn field, crossed a lane along which scores of wounded from Rickett’s Division were going to the rear. We got a variety of orders to left oblique and to left face and in a few minutes were pretty well mixed up. We were under fire now and advancing over some ploughed land.” During this movement Asa Reed likely received his mortal wound. Private Leroy Tobie, also in Company K would write, “Asa Reed [my] chum had a presentment [sic] that he would be killed in that fight and so stated while they were making bean swagen in a quart dipper the night before. He was one of the first men killed, and was found after the battle with a bullet hole through his head the ball going in just under the eye.”

Abial Edwards reflected on the death of Reed in a letter home. “There was Asa Reed a hardworking fellow of 23 years he had been to the Aroostook for two years and had got a fine farm from his labours there and just as our company was organized he had returned home to Danville to be married to an old schoolmate and they were to return to Aroostook but times were hard and he got her consent to come out here in hopes to return next spring with the money he got here to fit up their humble home but it was not so ordered he fell on the bloody field of Antietam close to my side his blood flying over me and his death struggle.”

Reed was hastily buried on the Antietam battlefield as indicated on the Elliott Map. Prior to his burial, a carte-de-visite photograph of his sister, Abie, was removed from his pocket. Reed’s body remained on the battlefield until he was reinterred in the Antietam National Cemetery on November 3, 1866. There he lies for eternity alongside his 10th Maine Infantry comrades. ✯

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COURTESY OF NICHOLAS PICERNO (2); OPPOSITE PAGE: NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

REST IN PEACE Simon G. Elliot created this map, recently found in the New York Public Library files, of 5,844 graves on the Antietam battlefield in 1864.

Asa Reed’s grave was pinpointed just north of the East Woods.

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The war in their words

union captain frederick Von fritsch had a horrible day at chancellorsville

BY ROBE R T L E E HOD GE

hen I was doing research for Time-Life Books’ Voices of the Civil War series in the 1990s, I discovered the fascinating 1891 and 1901 pension requests of 11th Corps Captain Frederick Otto Von Fritsch (seen at right in a postwar image). He wrote in detail of what he experienced during the 11th Corps’ debacle on Saturday afternoon, May 2, 1863, at Chancellorsville, and other events that year that destroyed his health.

“Baron” Von Fritsch was of German aristocracy. He had been educated at the military academy in Dresden, where he became a fine horseman, athletic performer, and swordsman. After three and a half years in the 1st Royal Cavalry, he was honorably discharged and came to America in December 1856. For several years he traveled America and Mexico.

Von Fritsch joined the 68th New York Infantry on November 1, 1862, at Centreville, Va. The 68th New York was made up of Austrians, Prussians, and Bavarians from Manhattan who had served in Union Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia before being melded into the Army of the Potomac.

Almost from the beginning of his service, Von 48

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Fritsch was put on the staff of Brig.

Gen. Alexander Schimmelfennig, sometimes spelled Schimmelpfennig, a Prussian immigrant, political activist, and friend of socialist Carl Schurz.

Schimmelfennig was wounded in the 1848 German Revolutions, and later opposed the Communist leadership of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

The main document in Von Fritsch’s pension addressing the Union veteran’s ailments is titled, “History of the Bodily Sufferings of Frederick Otto Von Fritsch, late Captain, Company A., 68th New York Volunteer Infantry, and Staff Officer. In consequence of Wounds, Accidents, Exposures and Hardships experienced during the great War.” The below account is a graphic depiction of a series of accidents and bad luck for Captain Von Fritsch on May 2 at Chancellorsville. The captain dictated the account to his pension agent, hence the use of the third person. Some punctuation has been added; all bracketed additions are from additional accounts found in the pensions or for reader clarity, but nearly all is as Von Fritsch dictated on June 16, 1891.

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SOUTHERN STORM Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson’s flank attack at Chancellorsville struck and devastated the vulnerable 11th Corps. Captain Frederick Otto Von Fritsch tried to warn of the impending the onslaught, to no avail.

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tain Steuernagel stood by, and said: “You are not off again?” at the same time petting the horse on the beak; the horse kicked and damaged Capt.

Steuernagel’s knee, disabling him from service.

A moment later Capt. Von F. was off like ON MAY 1ST, 1863, the 11th Corps was placed easily assailable and with lightning; he wanted to capture the running no protection of its right flank, on the plank road and turnpike, near Chanrebel, to pump him out. When he nearly caught cellorsville, Virginia. up with him, the fellow kneeled down and fired.

Captain F.O. Von Fritsch, detailed as Aide de Camp to General SchimThe bullet struck the horse in the upper hind melpfennig, commanding 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Division, received the leg. “Surrender” the Captain halloed, but reachorder to ride outside the Union lines to reconnoiter, about 5:30 P.M. He ing for his sword, he found then he had left it galloped at once towards the outposts [the 11th Corps skirmish-line, facing when he fell from his horse Jim. Being unarmed, south from Orange Turnpike], accompanied by two orderlies. From there he and the blood streaming down his horses leg, he rode out alone about one mile, in the direction of the visible camps of Genturned and galloped back to head-quarters on eral [Stonewall] Jackson. Reaching an elevated point, he spied about with the turnpike, to report. field glasses—loaned to him by Captain Renneberg, of the 68th N.Y.—and General Schimmelpfennig, an educated solnoticed wagons and troops of the confederate army moving towards the dier, but not very brave, cried out: “Take away flank of our position. Trying to find out if the whole army was moving, he that horse, don’t show any blood here—take him gave spurs and rode about a mile and half to our right, when three or four to the rear!” bullets whistled around his head and one ball struck his horse in the hind leg.

Captain Von F. saluted, and said: “Lee is He observed also that a troop of Fitz Lee’s rebel cavalry [from the First marching to our flank.”

Virginia Cavalry] were trying to cut him off and whipping his poor horse “Take away that horse or I will have you with his sword, he [was] chased first through the woods and then over an arrested.” open plain towards the Union lines. The rebel cavalry outpost was pursuing Capt. Von F. rode off at a walk disgusted, the him, firing all the time. One ball struck his saddle, one the heel of his boot, men cheering him. one damaged his scabbard, one smashed the field glasses, and one wounded This horse was the first wounded member the horse in the same damaged leg. The horse—called Jim—was of a supeof the 11th Corps, at Chancellorsville, that fell rior breed and, excited as it was, managed to get along fast enough on three into the hands of the surgeons; legs to keep ahead of the pursuers. At once Captain they threw it down and probed Von Fritsch distinctly heard the commands of Captain for the bullet.

Steuernegel, of the glorious 68th N.Y., commanding Captain Von F., not able to the outposts [a part of a company on the skirmish-line]: find his servant with the pack“Wait Boys! Wait!! Now Fire!!!” horse, obtained an order to the Seven to nine bullets must have struck the horse of Ambulance Corps for a spare Captain Fritsch, many bullets whistled about the rider horse and by this time a Serand the charger fell dead. Captain Von Fritsch fell with geant came up with his [Von fearful force on the saddle knob and to the ground.

Fritsch’s lost] sword. Using it [During the fall, Von Fritsch also hit a log and was as a stick, Capt. Von F. [with knocked “senseless.”] ‘When I awoke I felt a severe pain the help of a corporal] slowly near the testicles,’ said Von Fritsch. The rebels, of course, worked his way to the Ambuhad turned and fled. Captain Von F. raised himself with Brig. Gen. Alexander lance Corps. Arrived there he great difficulty and said to Capt. Steuernagel, who stood Schimmelfennig found a strong inclination to near the road: “Why in hell did you kill my horse?” urinate but to his horror he “Upon my word, I did not recognize you in the dust and could not do it. A terrible pain in the genital thought it was a cavalry attack,” he answered. organs was created by his efforts. He fell down When the dust and powder clouds passed away, Captain Von F. noticed groaning. Some three or four surgeons sura rebel, whose horse had been shot, running after his comrades. rounded him and he stated the above facts.

By this time his [Von Fritsch’s] orderlies came out of the woods and he They partially undressed him and one of them ordered one on a bay horse to dismount and help him in the saddle. Cap[Von Fritsch said, “Dr. Reissberg, very much excited, as some shells bursted near us, performed the operation with careless rapidity, no doubt damaging the channel...”] passed a catheter down to the bladder, when a heavy stream of water mixed with blood came forth and relieved him greatly. Some one gave him a drink of whiskey and he sang out: “I am all right now, get me a horse!”

The Lieutenant in charge furnished a large, thin roan with a miserable saddle. He [Captain

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“Injury to Genital Organs and Incurable Strictures.

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USAHEC

HOW IT GOT STARTED—MAY 2, 1863 Von Fritsch’s bad day at Chancellorsville began when he left the location of the 68th New York at the intersection of the Orange Plank Road and the Orange Turnpike, circled, and headed southwest. He ran into Confederate cavalry pickets, also circled, and had to quickly turn around and spur his horse for the safety of his own lines.

Von Fritsch] begged for a blanket, and folding it carefully over the saddle, mounted and reported for duty.

He reported again that Lee was marching towards our right flank, but General Schimmelpfennig ordered the men to cut down trees and barricade the [Orange Plank Road] road in front of us and nothing was done to strengthen the skirmish line on our flank.

Still, according to [Maj. Gen.] Abner Doubleday’s book about Chancellorsville, —page 29, Gen. S.[chimmelfennig] reported the hostile movement to Howard.

On May 2, when the attack took place, Captain Von F. was ordered to bring Colonel Hecker’s [82nd Illinois] Regiment to [the] cross-road[s].

“Too late!” halloed Gen. S.[chimmelfennig] when he returned, followed by it; and at that moment a ball struck Capt. Von F. in the belt plate, throwing him from his horse, weak as he was.

Colonel Meisenburg, Adjutant General of the 11th Corps, just passed by and Capt. Von Fritsch unfortunately told him, “I am killed.” (Reported in The New York Herald: Baron Von Fritsch, Aide de Camp, killed May 2nd.)

On investigation it turned out, that a round ball had struck the belt plate, passed through the leather belt, tore off a button of the uniform, passed through the clothes but did not enter the bowels. The stomach showed all colors and for some days Capt. Von F. could only speak in a whisper. He at once remounted, under a terrible fire, and worked hard to

stop the panic stricken troops and tried to rally them under the flag held by [11th Corps commander Maj.] General [Oliver] Howard.

After witnessing the terrible slaughter of the rebels by gallant Captain [Hubert] Dilger’s and others batteries, on an eminence overlooking Chancellorsville, in the evening, Captain Von F. rode about trying to find his General and troops, but they had run some miles further.

Passing a cabin near [Maj. Gen. Joseph] Hooker’s head-quarters, he observed a tub and got a negro woman to make him some hot water. Taking a sit-bath he was able to urinate again, and a cup of coffee from the woman and a few hours sleep on muddy ground gave him new life.

He did hard service on May 3rd and 4th until the return to the old camp. There he procured some very thin bougies [catheters] from Washington, by a sutler, Adams, and after some lessons by Assistant Surgeon Reissberg, he managed to insert them himself.”

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During the Gettysburg Campaign,

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plagued him. In 1868 Von Fritsch could only urinate by sitting in hot water because of his severe wound. He visited Leipzig, Germany, to consult a specialist but found little relief. In 1885 he returned to Dresden for an operation, and after terrible suffering he became better.

In his June 1901 letter to the pension office Von Fritsch, living in Manhattan, stated, “So I claim, that accidents and hardships of 3 years and 2 months service during the War have made me a sufferer of a very severe stricture, Rheumatism, Chronic Catharrh, creating blindness, besides very bad piles and a sore toe. My life was ruined mostly by the stricture, as it prevented me from marrying, and I had to give this explanation to the mother of a young lady, worth millions, who was determined to secure me as a husband.” In the same letter he hoped, “to fall in soon for the last Roll Call.”

The conclusion of the pension sums up the long-lasting feeling Frederick Otto Von Fritsch had toward Oliver Howard, the former 11th Corps commander at Chancellorsville. Von Fritsch was invited to a November 2, 1901, banquet at the Waldorf Astoria in honor of General Howard. In a reply sent on November 15, 1901, Von Fritsch explained why he could not attend:

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HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS

SAVED

NOT FORGIVEN Major General Oliver Otis Howard did not give credit to Von Fritsch for saving his life at Chancellorsville, and the captain never forgot the slight.

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Von Fritsch augmented his saddle with a feather pillow but still suffered pain from his Chancellorsville injury. During the 11th Corps’ retreat through Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, Von Fritsch managed to reach the Union lines south of town. General Schimmelfennig, however, was not so lucky, and was trapped in a backyard on Baltimore Street.

Von Fritsch’s bad luck continued on East Cemetery Hill when a Union cannon recoiled and ran over his right big toe. Regardless of his painful wounds Von Fritsch stayed in the saddle, despite repeated fainting spells and falling from his horse, during the pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia after Gettysburg. At Berlin, Md. (modern-day Brunswick), Von Fritsch was ordered to escort the 135th Pennsylvania Infantry to Philadelphia to be mustered out, and while there he sought medical attention for his foot and genitals. His boot had to be cut off, and Doctors found an inoperable sore under his toenail. He would be lame the rest of his life. Von Fritsch later went to Bethlehem, Pa., for a warm water cure for his genital injuries.

Miraculously Von Fritsch returned to active duty in late 1863. By then, the 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac had been combined into the 20th Corps and transferred to the Northeastern Alabama and East Tennessee area to reinforce Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Chattanooga Campaign. Captain Von Fritsch continued to have Dr. Reissberg, surgeon of the 68th New York, administer bougies “every Sunday morning to keep the channel open.”

At Bridgeport, Ala., Von Fritsch helped guard a military bridge over the Tennessee River. While living in a nearby camp, he developed bronchial catarrh, chills, fever, and Rheumatism. “He coughed day and night and filled a big hole next to his field bed with greenish matter, which he had to spit out continually,” states a document in his pension file.

When his regiment left East Tennessee, it left Von Fritsch behind. A missive in his pension file explained, “It is disagreeable The land at the intersecto say, but they left him alone in the woods tion of the Orange Plank with a few very sick men, and he crawled Road and the Orange on his hands and knees to the railroad Turnpike where Captain station and was lifted in an empty freight Von Fritsch’s 68th New car. With much trouble he reached a hotel York was originally in Nashville and got a warm room. This posted at Chancellorsville change worked wonders, in a week he has been preserved by would leave the bed, and a kind sutler the 501© 3 Central drove him to the hospital. There he soon Virginia Battlefields Trust recovered. Ordered back to his command, (www.cvbt.org). The he waited for the 20th Corps two weeks in CVBT has also saved the same woods, near a Commissary who historic green space at refused him shelter. The cough returned and finally developed itself into chronic Fredericksburg, The catarrh, of which he suffers to this date Wilderness, and Spotsyl[ June 16, 1891], in spite of having used all vania Court House— known remedies. He catches cold fretotaling 1,300 battlefield quently as a result of it, and suffers often acres so far. –R.L.H. from throat troubles.”

And his Chancellorsville injury also

“ To Colonel H.H. Adams, New York, Dear Companion:

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and by myself, as Aide de Camp to General Schimmelpfennig, at 3:15 P.M. on May 2, 1863.

We both reported after a most daring Reconnoitering ride far outside our wrongly placed line, that the enemy was marching to our flank and that a total change of position was necessary. I had been fired at by Infantry and Cavalry YOUR KIND INVITATION HAS BEEN RECEIVED, and while I and a confederate outpost had chased me close love to meet old Comrades on such occasions, I am obliged to send my to our lines, that Captain Steuernagel of the regrets for the following reasons: General Howard, while commanding 68th Regt. N. Y. Vols. ordered his sharpshooters the 11th Corps at the terrible battle of Chancellorsville could have saved [skirmish line] to fire at us, killing my horse by this gallant Corps and turned defeat into glorious victory, had he given many balls, and dismounting three or four credit to reports made by immortal Captain Dilger of the Ohio battery Rebel Cavalrymen who then fled. I was badly damaged by the fall of my horse but reporting on another horse soon after, I was told that I was mistaken, and that the enemy was retiring.

The second reason is, that, when soon after 5 P. M. the furious attack on our flank took place and General Howard jumped or fell from his horse on the well known Cross-roads, I caught the frightened animal and assisted the General to mount against his protest, enabling him to gallop to the rear from the spot, where hundreds were killed at that very moment, and when batteries without drivers came chasing right in the midst of our brave soldiers, who hardly knew which way to turn and to fire.

In his official report General Howard stated that some kind Orderly helped him in the saddle, and thus deprived Captain Frederick Otto Von Fritsch of the honor having saved, most probably, his NUTCRACKER SEAT A document in Von Fritsch’s life. I only know that a minute later I got shot in my belt plate, pension file states he that a bullet destroyed my spyinjured himself on his glasses, another tore away my McClellan saddle at heel of one of my boots and two Chancellorsville, perhaps a balls entered the legs of my leather-covered officer’s charger. grade version of the saddle, For the above reasons you like this one. cannot expect me, dear Colonel, to attend a Banquet in honor of General Howard, although I know that he served afterwards with great distinction and received even the thanks of Congress.

Very truly Yours, Companion Von Fritsch”

Robert Lee Hodge is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and preservationist who has organized events that have garnered over $175,000 for battlefield preservation. He has been featured in The New York Times, Preservation Magazine, and appeared on PBS, as well as in many other publications and television appearances. He can be reached at robertleehodge@yahoo.com.

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LESSONS TO LEARN The Virginia Memorial on Seminary Ridge has interpretive value as an example of the Lost Cause tradition.

Leave Them Standing CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS MUST REMAIN AT GETTYSBURG TO HELP INTERPRET THE CIVIL WAR’S CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

isiting Gettysburg National Military Park should be unsettling. The site exists, after all, because of a breathtaking failure of the nation’s electoral system in 1860. Powerful members of Southern society thought Republican victory menaced the long-term viability of slavery and refused to accept the verdict of the ballot box. They dismembered the republic and opened the way for a war whose memory grappled with massive human loss, emancipation’s vast political and social consequences, and anger that lingered for years. As the nation continues to struggle with that memory, a sound understanding of the war and its legacies demands a level of discomfort. The presence of Confederate monuments at Gettysburg will upset some visitors, but that is a price worth paying to protect a valuable and instructive memorial landscape.

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The need to accept discomfort merits attention because heated debates regarding the Civil War’s memorial landscape have included calls to remove Confederate monuments at Gettysburg.

These debates on social media, in the U.S. House of Representatives, and elsewhere raise the question of how best to handle the conflict’s deeply, and sometimes violently, contested memory. No other era in our history features the unfathomable complexity of political, social, and constitutional fracturing that sundered the republic and unleashed frightful slaughter. Through 12 years

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COURTESY OF THE ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BY GA RY W. GA LLAGH ER

MAURICE SAVAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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COURTESY OF THE ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MAURICE SAVAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

of Reconstruction, decades of Jim Crow rule in the South, the Civil Rights Seminary Ridge, tangible evidence of history’s movement of the mid-20th Century, and beyond, conflicting memories of sharp and uncomfortable edges. They evoke the the Civil War affected national politics and culture.

Confederate republic established to maintain a Gettysburg National Military Park offers superb opportunities to study slaveholding society—and most especially the how the war has been remembered. The battlefield yields insights into Rebel armies that pushed the United States to memory traditions developed by both the war’s winners and losers. Because the precipice of disaster. Their presence forces us most Americans have little or no appreciation for the difference between to acknowledge the messy interplay between hishistory and memory, between what actually happened, and how events have tory and memory. Without them, visitors might been interpreted by different groups at different times, the memorials at wonder why the Army of the Potomac went to Gettysburg hold substantial value as educational tools. As part of this comGettysburg and why more than a thousand memorative landscape, which developed over more than a century and a Union regimental and other monuments dot the quarter and retains great historical integrity, Confederate monuments surrounding fields, ridges, and woods. should be woven into a touring narrative devoted to how Americans have A memory tour at Gettysburg should stress recalled their defining national trauma. The addition of contextual waysides that Confederate memorialization proved conwould enhance the quality of the educational experience by helping visitors troversial from the outset. In 1887, for example, a recognize ideas and themes associated veteran of the 73rd Ohio Infantry with various streams of memory. spoke bluntly at a program in the Before moving on, I will acknowlNational Cemetery: “I do not believe edge that some critics have questioned there is another nation in the civilized the educational value of monuments. world that would permit a rebel monEducation cannot reach everyone, ument to stand upon its soil for a sinthey insist, and in the meantime mongle day, and I can see neither wisdom uments can offend some people—so nor patriotism in building them here.” we should take them down to make The earliest Confederate monument, everyone feel safe. These arguments to the 1st Maryland Infantry Battalare misguided. Education is not just a ion, went up in 1886, but with the convenient rationalization in support designation “2nd MD. INFANTRY of retaining some elements of the C.S.A.” carved on the front. The Getmemorial landscape; it is the only tysburg Battlefield Memorial Associahope for a serious, productive engagetion mandated the change because ment with our past—warts and all. two loyal units—1st Maryland RegiAnd no education of any value ment, Potomac Home Brigade Volundepends on selective erasure of trouteer Infantry, and 1st Maryland bling dimensions of America’s story.

Eastern Shore Infantry—deserved History should not be turned into a precedence. All three monuments simplistic morality play juxtaposing adorn the slope of Culp’s Hill, and visgood and evil, heroes and villains, and itors can see that “1 MD. CHANGED contrived to serve current political TO” has been carved in small letters goals. A memory tour at Gettysburg just above “2nd MD. INFANTRY would illuminate controversies relatC.S.A.”—a lesson in disputed meming to secession, slavery, and reconciliory etched on a single piece of stone.

TOURIST ATTRACTION ation. It is also important to note that The imposing Virginia monument President Harry Truman offers his view of Confederate monuments in a national fits squarely within the Lost Cause battlefield park, where professional tradition. It avoids the topic of slavery, the Battle of Gettysburg to reporters from staff are entrusted with preserving and a striking illustration of how memory the base of the Virginia Memorial. interpreting the materials of Civil War can mask the reality of history. Its history and memorialization, should not be declared identical to those in sparse text—“Virginia to Her Sons at Gettysfront of civic buildings, in public parks, or on campuses (the latter raise a set burg”—conveys no political message, but Robert of their own particular issues).

E. Lee, whose mounted figure gazes eastward toward Cemetery Ridge, carried enormous ideological weight among Lost Cause advocates and he Gettysburg park’s website places the number of monuments, continues to be a flashpoint. A wayside should markers, and memorials at 1,328, just more than 200 of which (15 instruct visitors that by 1917, when the monupercent) can be designated as Confederate. A few deal with solment was dedicated, Lee had become a national diers from both sides. The majority of Confederate markers give brigade hero for many Americans, central to a reconciliand battery positions, strengths, and casualties. Others do the same for diviation memory that would witness, in 1925, a sions and corps headquarters and a few regiments. Purely informational, congressional resolution authorizing “restoration these markers seem ill-suited to provoke outrage. of the Lee Mansion in the Arlington National The most visible and controversial Confederate monuments are the 11 Cemetery” and a U.S. 50-cent piece featuring dedicated to individual states. They represent, in stone and bronze along

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Texas and Arkansas chose to Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Previously, a statue laud the “valor” and “devotion” of Lee had been placed in the U.S. Capitol’s of their Confederate soldiers Statuary Hall (a Virginia commission voted unanimously to remove it in July 2020).

MONUMENTS with no allusion to states’ rights, and Florida presented a text The Alabama and North Carolina monuALSO CAN DEMONSTRATE that celebrates the Floridians’ ments focus on soldiers. The former, erected in HOW “courage and devotion for the 1933, bears the inscription “ALABAMIANS! A N D ideals in which they believed” Your Names Are Inscribed on Fames Immortal and, in a gesture toward healing Scroll” and the latter, Gutzon Borglum’s sculpture of five Tar Heel infantrymen completed S T R E A M S OF sectional wounds, adds a hope that “By their noble example of four years earlier, just the words “North Carobravery and endurance, they lina.” A United Daughters of the Confederacy enable us to meet with confitablet, situated just west of Borglum’s grouping, dence any sacrifice which conechoes inscriptions on monuments to fallen fronts us as Americans.”

Rebels across the South: “To the eternal glory of South Carolina’s monument the North Carolina soldiers. Who on this battleechoes the language of secession in its principal field displayed heroism unsurpassed sacrificing all in support of their cause.” text. “That men of honor might forever know the responsibilities of freedom,” it reads, “Dedicated ive state monuments and the Memorial to the Soldiers and Sailors South Carolinians stood and were counted for of the Confederacy were erected during the Civil War centennial. their heritage and convictions. Abiding faith in The monuments, a wayside should explain, coincided with some of the sacredness of States Rights provided their the most famous episodes of the Civil Rights movement and passage of the creed.” Unveiled on July 2, 1963, the monument Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Soldiers invites consideration of statements at Gettysburg and Sailors memorial casts Confederates as “Heroic defenders of their from two prominent politicians that same sumcountry,” while Georgia’s granite tribute allows the dead to speak for themmer. Alabama Governor George Wallace claimed selves: “We sleep here in obedience; When duty called, we came; When “South Carolina and Alabama stand for constitucountry called, we died.”

GETTYSBURG’S

LOST CAUSE RECONCILIATION

MEMORY

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SOMETIMES UNITE

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FELIX LIPOV/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; PATTI MCCONVILLE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; COURTESY OF ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DESPERATE DEFENSE The Mississippi State Monument depicts a soldier defending the “righteous cause” of the South.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FELIX LIPOV/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; PATTI MCCONVILLE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; COURTESY OF ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MAURICE SAVAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

tional government,” in a speech during the ceremony for the South Carolina monument: “Millions throughout the nation look to the South to lead in the fight to restore constitutional rights and the rights of states and individuals.” On May 30, speaking in the National Cemetery, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a very different legacy of the conflict. “Until justice is blind to color,” he said, “until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”

Of the final three state monuments, Mississippi’s makes the strongest Lost Cause statement. The inscription trumpets the Mississippians’ “righteous cause” and how “To valor, they gave new dimensions of courage / To duty its noblest fulfillment / To posterity, the sacred heritage of honor.”

Tennessee settled for the prosaic “Valor and courage were virtues of the three Tennessee regiments” and Louisiana the barebones “Louisiana July 1, 2, 3, 1863.”

A tour keyed to Gettysburg’s monuments also demonstrates how Lost Cause and reconciliation streams of memory sometimes unite. The Eternal Light Peace Memorial, dedicated on the 75th anniversary of the battle, sought to be “An enduring light to guide us in unity and friendship.” In his remarks that day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt praised Union and Confederate veterans alike. “All of them we honor,” he affirmed, “not asking under which flag they fought then—thankful that they stand together under one flag now.” ore recently, a Maryland state monument from 1994 depicts two wounded soldiers, one FROM DEEP SOUTH TO BORDER STATE Union and one Confederate, helping each Clockwise from upper left: Louisiana’s monument is titled “Spirit Triumphant”; on North other off the field. It “proudly honors” the Carolina’s monument, Tar Heel soldiers forever seek an elusive victory; a veteran of the 1st state’s 3,000 sons in blue and gray “who Maryland Infantry (CSA) poses next to his regiment’s renumbered monument on Culp’s Hill. fought at Gettysburg in defense of the causes they held so dear” and “symbolizes the aftermath of that battle and the war. Brothers ration of the Union entailed welcoming former Rebels back into the fold. again, Marylanders all.” In 2000, Delaware Restoring the Union and pursuing genuine reconciliation, two linked but erected a monument just a few yards from Maryquite different processes, occurred while the generation that experienced land’s to honor “all Delawareans who fought at the war established what became long-standing memory traditions. Union Gettysburg, both Union and Confederate.” A veterans tried to suppress or counter the Lost Cause, while former Confedshort distance to the northeast, the 1993 Masonic erates labored to disseminate their version of why 11 states seceded and memorial, with “Friend to Friend / A Brotherwhat transpired during the war. The presence of Confederate monuments hood Undivided” chiseled on the base, shows at Gettysburg, however disconcerting for some Americans, demonstrates Union Captain Henry H. Bingham succoring that winners do not always control the memory of historical events and the mortally wounded Confederate Brig. Gen. eras. All visitors to Gettysburg should keep that in mind as they contemLewis A. Armistead. These reconciliationist senplate the battlefield. ✯ timents remind Gettysburg visitors that, for most loyal citizens of the United States, restoGary W. Gallagher is a member of the Civil War Times advisory board.

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REGULATING

VENUS Faced with a rampant prostitution

crisis in Nashville, the U.S. Army

tried a bold social experiment B

BY GORDON BERG

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CLEAN SHEETS This fascinating image shows individuals in the laundry yard of a hospital for prostitutes on 2nd Street in Nashville, and the women in the foreground are likely patients. Note the shirt-sleeved guard at support arms just to the left of this caption.

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POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS Nashville was a main base for the U.S. Army’s Western Theater campaigns, and the city was overwhelmed by Union troops.

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ven before the war, Nashville had a flourishing skin trade. The 1860 census counted 207 Nashville women admitting to prostitution as their livelihood—198 white and nine mulatto. The city fathers recognized they had a problem but were unable to agree on a solution. Thankfully, most of the trade was confined to bawdy houses; most of them were little better than two-room shanties known as cribs. Some abodes, however, were luxurious, probably catering to a higher class of clients.

Best-of-the best was a house run by sisters Rebecca and Eliza Higgins. It was valued at $24,000 with 28 people, including 17 prostitutes, living there. Not far behind was Martha Reeder’s house. She had personal property valued at $15,000, making her one of the city’s wealthier citizens. Mag Seats’ house specialized in adolescent sex, but the typical Nashville prostitute was about 30, widowed, and had small children.

As the Union garrison swelled to more than 30,000, so did the number of prostitutes. By the summer of 1862, some estimated the number of “public women” in Nashville to number nearly 1,500, and they were always busy. While many were eager to relieve the soldiers of their money, most came out of desperation. Nashville offered them an environment safe from armed marauders, ample food at stable prices, and a chance to take care of themselves—and often their children—without benefit of a male provider.

Nearly all of Nashville’s prostitutes were associated with a bordello; few plied their trade as individual street walkers. This gave many women from isolated rural farms their first experience of a supportive community of their peers.

Where prostitutes saw opportunity, civic leaders and military officials saw a growing problem.

Benton E. Dubbs, an Ohio private, recalled a saying among the troops that no man could be a soldier unless he had passed through Smokey Row. Even with a burgeoning clientele, competition for customers was far from friendly. Nashville’s three newspapers regularly carried stories of internecine strife such as “Mattie Smith, Mary Morgan, Jane Morgan, and Alice Hoffman were fined $5 each for sending a crowd of soldiers to clear out Martha Carson’s house.” Or “Sally Mosely, Ada Wyatt, and Ellen Pinson sent a body of soldiers into Mary Morgan’s to ‘cut up and run around’ for which they were fined $5 each.” The Nashville Dispatch opined, “If the Provost Marshall would send a squad of his men down there some fine night and place in jail every man they find there, it would be a wholesome CIVIL WAR TIMES OCTOBER 2020

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lesson to others to keep out of such company.”

Brigadier General Robert S. Granger, the garrison commander, knew the provost guard couldn’t jail all the offending soldiers. But neither fines, threats of jail, nor appeals to moral conscience stemmed the flourishing trade. So Granger tried the Army way. He would round up the women and ship them out of town.

The task fell to provost marshal Lt. Col. George Spalding of the 18th Michigan Infantry. In December 1862, Spalding’s men scooped up all the prostitutes they could—the exact number varies—and put them on a train for Louisville. But the women found far fewer prospective clients in the smaller garrison there and quickly made their way back to Nashville.

By summertime, Nashville’s problem was getting worse and more obvious. As the temperature rose, the women of pleasure advertised by wearing fewer and fewer clothes.

So, on July 6, 1863, Granger issued Special Orders No. 29 authorizing Spalding “without loss of time to seize and transport to Louisville all prostitutes found in this city or known to be here….” The Nashville Dispatch reported “General Granger has given notice to a large number of women of the town that they must prepare to leave Nashville. It is said they are demoralizing the army and that their removal is a military necessity.” Spalding again led soldiers and police officers on raids of the city’s brothels, “heaping furniture out of the various dens, and then tumbling their disconsolate owners after.” The roundup lasted all month. But, having failed by rail, Spalding now included the river as an additional avenue of expulsion.

That decision was bad news for John Newcomb. As captain of the Idahoe, a new sidewheeled steamer chartered to the army, he hoped to take advantage of lucrative contracts hauling military cargo. But Newcomb couldn’t have expected that his first consignment order would read, “You are hereby directed to proceed to Louisville, Kentucky, with the 100 passengers put on board your steamer today, allowing none to leave the Boat before reaching Louisville.”

The Dispatch reported “a boat was chartered by the government for the especial service of deporting the ‘sinful fair’ to a point where they can exert less mischief….” Newcomb protested but to no avail and the Idahoe would henceforth be known as “The Floating Whorehouse.”

Newcomb and the Idahoe began their fateful voyage north on July 8. Again, the exact number

Brig. Gen. Robert Granger

Lt. Col. George Spalding

of passengers varies. When the Idahoe reached Louisville, it was met at the wharves by armed guards. Ordered to sail on, Newcomb continued up the Ohio River, finally docking at Cincinnati on July 17. The city fathers there had heard the Idahoe was coming and what it was carrying. They, too, pulled up the welcome mat. Reported the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, “The Idahoe came up, bringing a cargo of 150 of the frail sisterhood of Nashville, who had been sent north by military orders. There does not seem to be much desire on the part of our authorities to welcome such a large addition to the already over-flowing numbers engaged in their peculiar profession….”

Newcomb became desperate; he was out of provisions and his ship was being destroyed by his unhappy and increasingly unruly passengers. For two weeks, the Idahoe bobbed in limbo while Newcomb frantically telegraphed Washington, D.C., for instructions. The matter came before Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton who ordered the ill-fated ship back to Nashville. The Dispatch reported that crowds of people gathered at the wharf, jostling each other “for the purpose of looking at the steamer which carried out and brought back the precious freight.” By August 5, the voyage of the damned was back where it started, the women went back to work, and the army had an even bigger problem on its hands.

It seems that while their white sisters were embarked on their riverine

PUBLIC WOMEN REPORT A copy of the order distributed by Granger and Spalding requiring prostitutes in Nashville to be licensed.

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odyssey, black women surged into Nashville to meet the continuing demand for paid pleasure.

The Nashville Daily Press thundered, “Unless the aggravated curse of lechery as it exists among the negresses of this town is destroyed by rigid military or civil mandates, or the indiscriminate expulsion of the guilty sex, the ejectment of the white class will turn out to have been productive of the sin it was intended to eradicate….No city…has been more shamefully abused by the conduct of its unchaste female population, white or black, than has Nashville… for the past eighteen months….We trust that, while in the humor of ridding our town of libidinous white women, General Granger will dispose of the hundreds of black ones who are

T

he Union Army operated 23 hospitals in Nashville. Hospital No. 11, a sturdy brick building on North Market Street that ironically had once been the residence of the Catholic bishop of Nashville, became the “Female Venereal Hospital” also known as “The Pest House.” It had a comfortably furnished living room paid for by examination fees, a treatment room, and two wards of 10 beds each. Black female matrons recruited from the nearby contraband camp did the cooking and a black man was hired to do any necessary manual labor.

Armed guards prevented anyone from entering the premises unless accompanied by the resident physician, Dr. Robert Fletcher of the U.S. Volunteers. Appraising the hastily devised program a year after its inception, Dr. Fletcher concluded “after the attempt to reduce disease by forcible expulsion of prostitutes had, as it always had, utterly failed, the more philosophic plan of recognizing and controlling an ineradicable evil has met with undoubted success.”

The numbers support Dr. Fletcher’s conclusion. By the end of the first week, the provost marshal’s report showed 123 women examined and licensed. Twelve women were admitted to the hospital during the first month of operation; 28 more during the following two months. By January 1864, licensed prostitutes numbered 352, 60 of whom were diseased and admitted to the hospital. By August 1864, the number had risen to 456 and officials expanded the registration program to include 50 black prostitutes. By the end of January 1865, the Female Venereal Hospital had treated 207 women. Patients were not allowed to leave until “perfectly cured;” then they were allowed to “return to duty.” Dr. Chambers also made house calls for an additional fee of one dollar.

The Nashville experiment also seemed to refine the appearance and

USAHEC

On May 4, 1864, Captain Thomas Taylor of the 47th Ohio Infantry wrote in his diary, “Gay time—dinner at Carr City—Much whiskey—plenty of spirit, little wit, and less sense. Reached Nashville little before sundown and stopped at City Hotel—visited College Street.” The reference to “College Street” is interesting, as that thoroughfare was in the midst of “Smokey Row,” Nashville’s red light district, and it is possible Taylor was making an allusion to frequenting a prostitute. Of course, he might have gone down there to have a meal and a drink…but that certainly wasn’t the primary reason most soldiers “visited” that section of town. –D.B.S.

making our fair city a Gomorrah.”

Now under intense pressure from his superiors, the ever resourceful Lt. Col. Spalding seemingly had an epiphany. Drawing on the strict Presbyterian discipline he learned as a child, Spalding decided if he couldn’t defeat the women, he would legalize them. And so began the army’s unprecedented program to turn a civic vice into a public virtue benefiting the citizens of Nashville, the soldiers garrisoning the city, and the women who plied a trade that defied eradication.

Desperate for anything that might alleviate the growing clamor for action, Granger quickly approved Spalding’s plan. It had four parts. First, each prostitute would be issued a license costing $5 and have her address recorded by the provost authorities. Second, an army surgeon would give each woman a medical examination; only healthy women would be certified to practice their trade legally. Certificates would cost 50 cents per visit; it would soon be raised to $1. Third, diseased women would be sent to a special hospital reserved for their treatment and pay a 50-cent weekly tax for its upkeep. Finally, any woman found practicing her trade without a health certificate was subject to incarceration in the workhouse for 30 days. All “public women” were told to report for examination by August 17 or face 30 days in the city jail.

At first, prostitutes were required to report to the surgeon’s office every fortnight, but Dr. William M. Chambers, head of the Board of Examination, soon required check-ups every 10 days in order to treat infectious sex workers more promptly. In his January 31, 1865, report, Chambers described how the procedure worked. The prostitutes “enter a reception room which is comfortably furnished and in cold or disagreeable weather well heated. They pass in time from this apartment into an adjoining examination room in which there are a bed, a table, and all the necessary appliances for examining them.” Women who passed the exam received certificates and a figurative public seal of approval. Those not certified were promptly hospitalized.

cooperation of the garrison’s officers was vital to the program’s success, writing “When a soldier of the post forces is infected, it is not uncommon for his captain to report the case, with the name of the suspected woman, who is immediately arrested and examined.” Of course, officers themselves were not immune to the allure of illicit flesh. Before Spalding’s edict went into effect, 20-30 officers per month were treated for venereal diseases; after, the number dropped to one or two.

The end of the war brought an end to Nashville’s bold social experiment. The regiments garrisoned there dispersed and mustered out.

Colonel Spalding returned to Michigan where he served as postmaster and mayor of Monroe, studied law, and served two terms in Congress from 1895-1899. He died in 1907. Dr. Fletcher went to Washington, D.C., where he wrote and edited numerous medical publications for the Office of the Surgeon General. He also made

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USAHEC

THE “PEST HOUSE” Hospital 11, nicknamed “The Pest House,” was dedicated to patients with venereal disease. Admissions spiked in February 1864 when furloughed troops returned. conduct of the women. “When the inspections were first enforced many [prostitutes] were exceedingly filthy in their persons and apparel and obscene and coarse in their language,” Dr. Fletcher reported, “but this soon gave place to cleanliness and propriety.” Dr. Chambers observed that many prostitutes “gladly exhibit to their visitors the ‘certificate’ when it is asked for….” Military officials attributed some of the increasing number of registered prostitutes and those seeking treatment to the popularity of Spalding’s order. In fact, they ascribed part of the increasing number of registered prostitutes to an influx of women from other areas who learned that conditions in Nashville were safer and healthier. Civilian authorities raised little opposition to the program. As proof, the city council voted to defer all regulation and enforcement of what was now a legal part of Nashville’s civic life to the military authorities.

B

ut what about the soldiers? Spalding’s regulations were enacted primarily to improve the health and unit preparedness of the garrison. In February 1864, Hospital No. 15, a three-story brick building on Line Street, was converted into a facility for soldiers’ venereal cases only. Surgeons at the 140 bed facility admitted more than 2,300 cases by the end of the year, but only 30 had been infected while in Nashville. It seems that a large number of veterans returning from home leave or reenlistment came through town during that same period and brought their afflictions with them. Dr. Fletcher acknowledged that the

BROUGHT AN END TO

NASHVILLE’S BOLD

SOCIAL EXPERIMENT significant contributions to the study of anthropology and the history of medicine. He died in 1912. William Chambers returned to Charleston, Ill., and practiced medicine there until he died in 1892.

It took two years for John Newcomb, captain of the star-crossed Idahoe, to receive about $5,000 from the Treasury Department for damages to his ship and expenses he incurred while transporting his human cargo. And what of the women of Nashville, without whom this most unusual medical experiment would not have been possible? They disappeared into history’s shadows, unknown and unrecognized.

Frequent Civil War Times contributer Gordon Berg writes from Gaithersburg, Md. OCTOBER 2020 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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many varieties

This is a rare 12-pounder rifled to accept James projectiles.

Most were 6-pounders.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MORPHY’S AUCTIONS (3)

BRONZE BOMBER JAMES RIFLES HELPED UPDATE SMOOTHBORE CANNONS

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BY CR A IG SWA I N

p

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Give it spin

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James Rifles is a catch-all name given to any bronze smoothbore that has been rifled. But a true James Rifle is one that was bored to a diameter to use one of Charles T. James unique shells.

RHODE ISLAND–BORN Charles Tillinghast James, the namesake inventor of the James Rifle, was an expert on textile machinery who sought and won election to the U.S. Senate.

His assignments included the chairmanship of the Patents Committee.

James also served in the Rhode Island militia, and while serving in Congress, he took active interest in ordnance. James’ first projectile patent cited the use of “a band of fibrous packing around a cannon-ball with a means of distending it into the scores or rifles of the cannon…by the pressure of the explosive gas….” That projectile caught the interest of the U.S. Army, keen to move to rifled artillery, and the Ordnance Department issued a contract to James on December 15, 1860, to rifle one-half of the cannon in the Army’s inventory, and all calibers from 6-pounder field guns up to 42-pounder seacoast guns.

At the First Battle of Bull Run, a Union battery of James Rifles was the first in action on Matthews Hill. The James, however, was never very popular in the Eastern Theater, and by Gettysburg in July 1863, only one Union battery used them. Rather, the James was used mostly in the Western Theater and played a prominent role at Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. But by the time of the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, the bronze rifles were on the decline, sent mostly to outposts and garrisons as frontline batteries received Ordnance and Parrott rifles. Confederates did use the James Rifles they captured. Given limited ammunition supplies, however, a good number of these were salvaged for the bronze and were recast as Napoleons. (For a full discussion of the James Rifle and its variants, go to https://www.historynet.com/the-james-rifle.htm.) ✯

made in mass.

The Ames manufacturing company of Chicopee, Mass., was a primary cannon manufacturer for the U.S. Army. In addition to rifling cannon to the James system, Ames began casting new bronze 6-pounder field guns as 3.8-inch James Rifles.

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fort killer

untimely end

On October 16, 1862, during a demonstration of new shell prototypes, an accidental explosion mortally wounded James, who died the next day.

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The unique James shell

James’ innovative projectile resembled a bullet with a band over the base, supported by a basket that allowed propellant gases to force the band into the rifling. The supporting rib structure robbed the shell of power, and James patented a new shell on June 10, 1862, that replaced the ribs with flanges.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: DAVID DAVIS PHOTOPRODUCTIONS RF/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; WORTHPOINT; COURTESY OF JACK MELTON

Union Brig. Gen. Quincy Adams Gillmore gave high praise to the five James Rifles that were used in the successful April 1862 siege of Fort Pulaski, Ga. Five James Rifles formed part of the dedicated breaching battery that systematically tore through the fort’s brickwork in just 30 hours.

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The Frontiersmen Who Couldn't Shoot Straight The Army vs. the Pioneers 1815–1845

BY GREGORY MICHNO GREGORY MICHNO herein offers powerful vignettes on citizen fraud and public wrongdoing through the decades of expansionism in the American West. It is at once a well-documented revelation on the fabled institutions that have invested common perceptions of our frontier past that every citizen should consider. Michno is an original thinker and one of our finest interpreters of western history, as this contribution well proves. —Jerome A. Greene, author of January Moon: The Northern Cheyenne Breakout from Fort Robinson, 1878-1879 GREGORY MICHNO ranks among the most original independent scholars at work today on Western history and the American experience in general. In this frequently disturbing book, he eviscerates the notion of American exceptionalism by deconstructing the myth of the frontiersman. The supposedly self-reliant pioneers who facilitated civilization’s advance into the wilderness whined endlessly for government support and protection, and then turned on that helping hand whenever it attempted to curb their incessant efforts to defraud, dispossess, and slaughter their Indian neighbors. Michno pulls no punches in this scathing and well researched indictment, demonstrating that the worst aspects of contemporary culture have dealt in Americans’ hearts since the birth of the republic. —Gregory J.W. Urwin, Temple University

A VA I L A B L E I N B O O K S T O R E S O R O N L I N E A T C A X T O N P R E S S . C O M

WHAT POKER HAND WAS WILD BILL HICKOK HOLDING WHEN SHOT DOWN IN A DEADWOOD SALOON?

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Two pair (aces and eights), four of a kind (spades), a pair of aces, or three jacks?

For more, visit

WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/MAGAZINES/QUIZ

HISTORYNET.com ANSWER: TWO PAIR (ACES AND EIGHTS). GUNNED DOWN WHILE PLAYING FIVE-CARD STUD IN A DEADWOOD SALOON BY JACK MCCALL, HICKOK WAS HOLDING BLACK ACES AND BLACK EIGHTS AS HIS “UP CARDS”, THE IDENTITY OF THE FIFTH CARD, THE “HOLE CARD” IS THE SUBJECT OF DEBATE. THE HAND BECAME KNOWN AS “DEADMAN’S HAND”.

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POLITICAL BATTLEFIELD

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REVIEWED BY RICK BEARD

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A Republic in the Ranks: Loyalty and Dissent in the Army of the Potomac

By Zachery A. Fry University of North Carolina Press, 2020, $45

popularity with all but a few Union corps commanders.

Fry takes issue with both James McPherson and Jonathan White over the matter of Union reenlistment during the last years of the war.

Both historians highlight political considerations as critical motivators but disagree on the numbers of Federal troops actually reenlisting.

Fry argues for a more expansive set of determining factors—peer solidarity, the Republican idea of loyalty, commitment to the war, physical condition, loyalty to family at home, and self-preservation—while suggesting that party affiliation was not as important a factor as McPherson, in particular, suggests.

By the 1864 presidential election, Republican partisans predominated in the Union ranks. As Fry documents, Lincoln won the majority of votes from troops in all but one state, faring better than he did among civilians.

A Republic in the Ranks is a welcome reminder that Union victory during the Civil War was won on more than one battlefield.

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n A Republic in the Ranks, Zachery Fry takes a deep dive into political activity in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He bolsters his central argument—that Republicans won the battle for the political allegiance of Union troops due largely to the activities of the junior officer corps—with prodigious research into contemporary newspapers, soldiers’ letters, military records, and other primary sources.

The author weaves an engaging, straightforward chronological narrative recounting the political machinations of key players such as George McClellan, Benjamin Butler, Joseph Hooker, Clement Vallandigham, John Pope, Fitz John Porter, George Meade, and members of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. “Before 1863,” Fry argues, “political activity was limited mostly to a handful of conservatives [Democrats]…and radicals [Republicans]…who sniped at each other as the mass of relative novices in the ranks learned what the war and its policies really meant.”

Members of the senior officer corps, often with Democratic sympathies, embraced loyalty to the Constitution, criticized Lincoln’s civil liberty infringements, and claimed to oppose partisanship in the war’s execution.

Junior officers, many of them Republicans, pledged loyalty to the Lincoln administration and felt that senior officers’ devotion to conservative constitutionalism masked Confederate sympathies.

McClellan was pivotal to this political tug-of-war. A staunch Democrat, “Little Mac” was wildly popular with Union troops and initially seen as a buffer against Washington interference. But, Fry argues, by the time Lincoln cashiered McClellan in November 1862, the debate surrounding the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and the midterm elections had begun to cast the Young Napoleon in a less than flattering light.

From January through April of 1863, Fry argues, “was the critical refining moment in the army’s political education.” The Democratic Party’s vociferous antiwar wing demanded partisan pushback from federal troops who were witnessing the horrors of slavery first-hand and enduring a series of hardships and bloody battles. That spring, Union regiments began to adopt formal resolutions supporting the Lincoln administration and rejecting the antiwar stance epitomized by Copperheads.

By the summer of 1864, McClellan’s Democratic conservatism, capped by his acceptance of the party’s presidential nomination, had undercut his

 POP CULTURE WAR  REVIEWED BY ETHAN S. RAFUSE

I

ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

shaped their interests. The essays are t is an old adage that wars also relatively short, which makes this reflect the societies that an efficient, easily digestible work and, fight them. As the bloodiest as the very partial account of the subof the country’s armed conflicts, it is jects addressed above suggests, enables hardly surprising that the American it to cover quite a bit of ground in less experience in the Civil War was influthan 300 pages. enced by, inspired, and has been That being said, while Bruce Catwell-represented in popular culture. ton’s Army of the Potomac trilogy is The range of mediums in which this certainly worthy of discussion, one may has been evident is reflected in Enterfairly wonder why his American Heritaining History, a collection of essays tage Picture History of the Civil War was on the war and popular culture, not. Others may lament the limited grouped into three sections. The first attention devoted to the 1988 miniconsists of a dozen considerations of series Gore Vidal’s Lincoln, in which the war in text, with topics ranging Ulysses S. Grant was played by the from Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Entertaining History: same actor who skippered the CleveCrane to Shelby Foote and Jeff Shaara The Civil War in Literature, land Indians to glory in Major League. to Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Film, and Song It would have also been interesting to Attic. This is followed by eight on how Edited by Chris Mackowski see the editor or authors consider how the war has been depicted in visual Southern Illinois University their takes on the war and popular culmedia, from movies to photography to Press, 2020, $26.50 ture compare with those contained in the Gettysburg Cyclorama. The third the book by Jim Cullen on the subject that appeared section offers five essays looking at music and the war.

There is a lot to like here. As befits its subject, this is during the Civil War boom of the 1990s. These quiban interesting, eclectic work whose contributors fre- bles, though, pale in comparison to the many positive quently offer personal testimony to how particular rep- aspects of this study, which offers plenty to not just resentations of the war in popular culture sparked and inform, but also entertain, its readers.

The 1951 film The Red Badge of Courage, based on Stephen Crane’s 1894 novel, starred World War II veterans Audie Murphy and Bill Mauldin. Both men carried original Civil War muskets, while many of the extras carried postwar weapons. The film was to run two hours in length, but studio executives cut it to 70 minutes, forever disappointing director John Huston.

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AN IRISH INVITATION REVIEWED BY JON GUTTMAN

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responsible for the Fenians winning the largest ess than a year after the last Confederate battle of all their invasions, Ridgeway, on June general, Cherokee Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, 2, 1866—a fresh addition to Irish martial surrendered his forces at Doaksville in the legend, even though the campaign itself ended Indian Territory—for all intents ending in failure. the Civil War—members of another Hailing from Andover, Mass., Christopher oppressed minority in the recently reunited Klein makes little secret of where his sympaStates embarked on their own private war. The thies lie in When the Irish Invaded Canada. His Irish Brotherhood, also known as the Fenians, research into the colorful men and events that marched into British North America with the propelled this strange Civil War offshoot are objective of seizing a sizable portion of it and detailed indeed on the Irish side; for the Britransoming it back to Britain in exchange for ish and Canadians, not so much. Even so, he an independent Irish republic. does not deny the visionary overreach that Far-fetched as their goal seemed, the Feniattended all of the invasions, especially those ans’ chief military commander, Colonel John of 1870 and 1871, after their target to the O’Neill, and his supporters centered their forWhen the Irish north had become the Dominion of Canada. lorn hopes on several factors. The recently Invaded Canada And he perfectly sums up the humiliating outconcluded Civil War had caused a deterioraBy Christopher Klein come of O’Neill’s final, farcical attempt to tion in relations between the United States Doubleday, 2019, $28.95 invade Manitoba in 1871: “Not only couldn’t and Britain, and President Andrew Johnson he capture Canada, but he couldn’t find it.” had expressed his personal sympathies for the When the Irish Invaded Canada will provide Irish cause, suggesting that his administration an entertaining and enlightening read to anyone interested in might aid the invaders or at least look the other way. In any the curious, if somewhat overlooked, aspects of American case, while most local Canadian militia had not even fired a history. For readers of Civil War Times, it will be yet another shot in training, most of the Fenians, including O’Neill, were welcome reminder that there was more to the Civil War era hardened Civil War veterans—from both sides, now united in than just the Civil War. a common cause. It was the latter factor that was primarily CIVIL WAR TIMES OCTOBER 2020

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What Are You



Reading?

CHRONICLE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

CHARLES JOYCE ATTORNEY, SENIOR EDITOR MILITARY IMAGES MAGAZINE, AVID CIVIL WAR PHOTO COLLECTOR

While the nation is convulsing anew over questions of race and the memory of the Civil War, I’ve been reading Caroline Janney’s insightful 2013 book, Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation.

Employing a host of primary sources, she demonstrates that while the United States secured political reunion with the rebellious South within a decade of Appomattox, “reconciliation,” which she defines as “the degree to which former Confederates and advocates of the Union had agreed to forgive and forget,” was a process that never truly materialized, even though by the mid-20th century, the myth of wizened veterans of the Blue and Gray bonding over shared sacrifice and martial valor held great sway.

In reality, most of the men who had fought to crush a rebellion and came to acknowledge the centrality of slavery in the contest and the need to eradicate it (even if they were far less interested in black political and social equality) would insist that theirs had been Remembering the Civil the only noble cause War: Reunion and the and could not counte- Limits of Reconciliation nance the monuments

By Caroline Janney and movements that University of North seemed to glorify Carolina Press, 2013, Southern secession. $29.95

 THE 

PETERSBURG REGIMENT



REVIEWED BY THOMAS ZACHARIS n The Petersburg Regiment in the Civil War, author and historian John Horn examines the role the 12th Virginia Infantry played in the conflict. He chose that particular unit for several reasons. For one thing, it was descended from one of Virginia’s oldest organized regiments, with a heritage harkening back to 1828. It participated in the Mexican War and later was part of the Old Grays and the City Guard Companies as part of the 39th Virginia State Militia, in which capacity it served as a security unit during the hanging of John Brown at Charles Town, Va., on December 2, 1859. Another unit standing guard around Brown in case another antislavery group tried to rescue him was the Richmond Grays, another old Virginia outfit that later became Company G of the 12th. Another item that fascinated the author was one of the photographs portraying Philip Whitlock, a Jewish soldier in the unit, which he believes also shows the face of actor and future presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth at far left.

The 12th Virginia began its Civil War career in the garrison The Petersburg Regiment at Norfolk, from which its troops witnessed the famous duel in in the Civil War: A History of the 12th nearby Hampton Roads between Virginia Infantry, From the pioneering ironclad warships John Brown’s Hanging to CSS Virginia and USS Monitor.

Appomattox, 1859-1865 From there, the author follows

By John Horn the regiment’s activities through Savas Beatie, 2020, $39.95 more than 10 of the war’s bloodiest battles until its surrender with the remains of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. The regiment retained its battle colors, proudly claiming, “The 12th never lost a flag, but lost 4 color bearers that carried it.”

With losses of more than 57 percent at Crampton’s Gap, Md., and more than 41 percent at Globe Tavern, Va., the 12th Virginia might have had a place among the most distinguished U.S. Army regiments, had it fought for the Union cause. As is, The Petersburg Regiment deserves a fitting place among Civil War unit histories.

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HKD OFTHE UCV  $4,000

is most famously known as the author of I Rode with Stonewall, a memoir of his service with Stonewall Jackson and the Army of Northern Virginia. A relative published the book, a compilation of the handwritten manuscripts by the Rebel, in 1940. Douglas, whose Maryland home, Ferry Farm, still stands on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River, wore this fur felt hat bedecked with an ostrich plume at United Confederate Veterans events. His name, “H. Kyd Douglas,” is written in ink on the sweatband of the dapper topper, which was sold by Heritage Auctions. –D.B.S.

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HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS

HENRY KYD DOUGLAS

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7/28/20 12:37 PM

Un o 13 pen 8 Y ed ea fo rs! r

Discovered! Unopened Bag of 138-Year-Old Morgan Silver Dollars Coin experts amazed by “Incredible Opportunity”

 Historic Morgan Silver Dollars  Minted in New Orleans  Struck and bagged in 1882  Unopened for 138 years  26.73 grams of 90% fine silver  Hefty 38.1 mm diameter  Certified Brilliant Uncirculated

The Morgan Silver Dollar is the most popular and iconic vintage U.S. coin. They were the Silver Dollars of the Wild West, going on countless untold adventures in dusty saddlebags across the nation. Finding a secret hoard of Morgans doesn’t happen often—and when it does, it’s a big deal.

by NGC

 Certified “Great Southern

Treasury Hoard” pedigree

How big? Here’s numismatist, author and consultant to the Smithsonian® Jeff Garrett: “It’s very rare to find large quantities of Morgan Silver Dollars, especially in bags that have been sealed... to find several thousand Morgan Silver Dollars that are from the U.S. Treasury Hoards, still unopened, is really an incredible opportunity.”

-Jeff Garrett But where did this unique hoard come from? Read on...

Morgans from the New Orleans Mint

In 1859, Nevada’s Comstock Lode was discovered, and soon its rich silver ore made its way across the nation, including to the fabled New Orleans Mint, the only U.S. Mint branch to have served under the U.S. government, the State of Louisiana and the Confederacy.

In 1882, some of that silver was struck into Morgan Silver Dollars, each featuring the iconic “O” mint mark of the New Orleans Mint.

Employees then placed the freshly struck coins into canvas bags...

The U.S. Treasury Hoard

Fast-forward nearly 80 years. In the 1960s, the U.S. government opened its vaults and revealed a massive store of Morgan Silver Dollars—including full, unopened bags of “fresh” 1882-O Morgan Silver Dollars. A number of bags were secured by a child of the Great Depression—a southern gentleman whose upbringing showed him the value of hard assets like silver. He stashed the unopened bags of “fresh” Morgans away, and there they stayed...

 Limit five coins per household Actual size is 38.1 mm

third-party grading service Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), and they agreed to honor the southern gentleman by giving the coins the pedigree of the “Great Southern Treasury Hoard.”

These gorgeous 1882-O Morgans are as bright and new as the day they were struck and bagged 138 years ago. Coins are graded on a 70-point scale, with those graded at least Mint State-60 (MS60) often referred to as “Brilliant Uncirculated” or BU. Of all 1882-O Morgans struck, LESS THAN 1% have earned a Mint State grade. This makes these unopened bags of 1882-O Morgans extremely rare, certified as being in BU condition—nearly unheard of for coins 138 years old.

Don’t Miss This Rare Opportunity—Order Now! Regular 1882-O Morgans sell elsewhere for as much as $133, and that’s without the original brilliant shine these “fresh” 138-yearold coins have, without their special NGC hoard designation, and without their ability to tell their full, complete story from the Comstock Lode all the way to your collection.

Given the limited quantity of coins available from this historic hoard, we must set a strict limit of five coins per household. Call quickly to secure yours today as supplies are sure to sell out quickly!

1882-O Morgan Silver Dollar NGC Certified BU from the Great Southern Treasury Hoard — $99 ea.

The Great Southern Treasury Hoard That is, until another 50 years later, when the man’s family finally decided to sell the coins— still in their unopened bags—which we secured, bag and all! We submitted the coins to respected

FREE SHIPPING on 2 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

1-888-324-9125 Offer Code MSH244-01 Please mention this code when you call

GovMint.com • 14101 Southcross Dr. W., Suite 175, Dept. MSH244-01, Burnsville, MN 55337 GovMint.com® is a retail distributor of coin and currency issues and is not affiliated with the U.S. government. The collectible coin market is unregulated, highly speculative and involves risk. GovMint.com reserves the right to decline to consummate any sale, within its discretion, including due to pricing errors. Prices, facts, figures and populations deemed accurate as of the date of publication but may change significantly over time. All purchases are expressly conditioned upon your acceptance of GovMint.com’s Terms and Conditions (www.govmint.com/terms-conditions or call 1-800-721-0320); to decline, return your purchase pursuant to GovMint.com’s Return Policy. © 2020 GovMint.com. All rights reserved.

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7/23/20 1:24 PM