The Civil War Sesquicentennial

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PROLOGUE

1861

Williamsburg line & College

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hen Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, Benjamin Stoddert Ewell was president of the College of William & Mary. He had graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1832 and joined the faculty there. During 1836-48 he worked as an engineer and taught mathematics and natural philosophy at several Virginia colleges.

In May 1861 after the college voted to close during the war, he organized the 32nd Virginia Infantry and accepted a commission as colonel. In preparation for the Peninsula Campaign, Col. Ewell, serving under Gen. John B. Magruder and using his engineering background, developed and constructed the line of defenses at Williamsburg, including Fort Magruder.

— Rick Calhoun

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PROLOGUE

1861

Battle of Big Bethel

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n the summer of 1861 at Bethel Church, eight miles from Hampton, Confederate fortifications defended approaches to a bridge across the Back River. These defenses denied access to the upper Peninsula for Union troops at Fort Monroe.

On June 10th some 4,400 Union troops under Gen. Ebenezer Pierce tried to remove the 1,400 Confederate defenders commanded by Col. John Magruder. The poorly coordinated attack was a failure resulting in 76 Union casualties.

The Confederates lost one killed and 11 wounded. Later in the war the battle at Bethel Bridge would be considered a mere skirmish. But in mid-1861 the Confederate victory was major news that boosted the enlistment of Confederate soldiers and resulted in the immediate promotion of John Magruder to brigadier general.

–– Jeff Toalson

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PROLOGUE

1861

A change of command

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hen the Civil War began, Winfield Scott was the commanding general of the United States Army. He had participated in every conflict since the War of 1812. By now he was nearly 75, suffering from rheumatism, weighed over 300 pounds, and could no longer ride a horse.

President Lincoln needed a younger, more energetic leader against the South who was capable of participating in the decision-making and would excel as a battlefield commander. In November 1861, Lincoln appointed Gen. George B. McClellan as his new general-in-chief.

McClellan did not trust Lincoln and considered him incapable of understanding military strategy.

He often did not confide in the president or reveal his campaign or battle plans to his commander-inchief. Yet McClellan was quick to blame the administration whenever things did not go his way.

Gen. George McClellan

Gen. Winfield Scott

–– Rick Calhoun

Picket duty on the Back River

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arly camp life consisted of drill, target practice, camp duties and picket duty. It quickly became a very monotonous routine.

On Oct. 16th 1861, Private Richard Watkins of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry wrote, “...out on [picket] at the mouth of the Back River. Tis quite a lonesome place right ... on the sea-beach.... we have a fine view of the bay our main object is to watch the passing vessels and report if any turn their courses into Back River or begin to land soldiers... These vessels ply between Baltimore and Fortress Monroe. Just across the river the country is entirely in the possession of the Yankees.”

–– Jeff Toalson

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PROLOGUE

1861

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he Confederate supply system was unable to provide food to meet the total needs of the armies. Crops and animals were impressed, and the residents were paid with receipts or monies by the commissary department.

On Nov. 13th 1861, Private Richard Watkins wrote: “Genl McGruder has been steadily engaged with several regiments of infantry and one of cavalry gathering corn and forage, cattle etc from the country between us and the Yankees. They go every morning and load 75 or 100 wagons and send them back and they are unloaded, and the contents stored away, by the troops left in reserve... wagons are coming in and I must close...”

Foraging for supplies

–– Jeff Toalson

Contrabands were runaway slaves

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rom the beginning of the war, as Union troops pressed into Confederate territory, runaway slaves sought protection behind federal lines.

The term “contrabands” was first applied by abolitionist Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe, where slaves were used to build fortifications. By August 1861 the Confiscation Act ordered that any fugitive slave used by his master to defend the South was a prize of war. They only becamee free with the Emancipation Proclamation.

Commanders set up contraband camps, though there was no formal system of care.

Conditions were unhealthy. One camp reported a 25% mortality rate. Some returned to their masters, and others joined the Union army when blacks were permitted to enlist in 1863.

–– Rusty Carter 10 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

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PROLOGUE

1861

Handmade flags

The Civil War marked a turning point in American history 150 years ago. Explore earlier American milestones — the 1607 founding of Jamestown, the 1781 Revolutionary War victory at Yorktown and the formation of our new nation — every day through interactive gallery exhibits and historical interpretation in re-created settings at Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center.

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resenting hand-sewn flags to Confederate units became a popular pastime in wartime Williamsburg. In 1861 Mrs. Catherine Heth Morrison presented a white silk flag, made from her wedding dress, to the 15th Virginia Infantry. Trimmed with silver metallic fringe, it had a circle of blue stars on each side, and on the obverse side the single word “HOME.” Shortly after, ladies of the town presented a flag to Co. B of Coppen's Battalion, Louisiana Zouaves, with the word “Remembrance” added in white silk appliqué. Both flags survived the war and are on display at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.

–– Carson Hudson

Free admission to both museums for residents of the City of Williamsburg, including the College of William and Mary, James City County and York County. Proof of residency required.

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YORKTOWN

Union Army lands

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

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he amphibious movement of the Union Army of the Potomac from Washington to the tip of the Peninsula was the largest movement of men and materiel yet seen in America. During three weeks in March 1862, almost 400 ferryboats, side-wheelers, schooners, barges and canal-boats were contracted from the entire Northeast seaboard.

121,500 men, 14,592 animals, 1,224 wagons and ambulances, and 44 artillery batteries were transported from Alexandria and Annapolis to Fort Monroe and Hampton. Sergeant Elisha Hunt Rhodes described his cruise as “gaily decorated with flags, and it looks more like a pleasure excursion than an army looking for the enemy.”

–– Paul Huelskamp

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PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

McClellan arrives

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n April 2nd 1862 Gen. McClellan debarked from the steamer Commodore at Fort Monroe. His objective was Richmond, and he wanted to outflank the Confederate Army encamped at the time halfway between Richmond and Washington.

Therefore he had moved his Army of the Potomac down from Washington to Fort Monroe. He was counting on a quick advance up the Peninsula’s “good natural roads” to Richmond, which would force the Confederates to march south to defend their capital. He counted on using the James and York rivers (controlled by the Union Navy) to protect his flanks and provide supplies for his army.

–– Paul Huelskamp

The Warwick-Yorktown line

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he Warwick-Yorktown line spanned 14 miles from Mulberry Island on the James River as it followed the Warwick River to within a half mile of Yorktown. The town was fortified with a series of

redoubts, some of them built on top of British works remaining from the American Revolution in 1781.

The Warwick River formed a formidable barrier for the lower half of the Confederate line. The

swampy areas of the upper Warwick coupled with major defensive works at Wynne’s Mill, Dam No. 1, Dam No. 2 and Lee’s Mill made the Yorktown end of the line equally daunting for any invaders.

— Jeff Toalson VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 15

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PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

George B. John McClellan Bankhead Magruder

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nown to his admirers as “The Young Napoleon,” Maj. Gen. George McClellan was the commander of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign. Although a brilliant organizer and motivator of his troops, his caution and slowness in battle were fatal flaws that prevented Union success in the Peninsula Campaign.

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aj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder enjoyed staging amateur theatrical productions.

This talent would prove surprisingly useful as commander of the Confederate Army of the Peninsula.

Joseph E. Johnston

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native Virginian, Joe Johnston was the highest ranking U.S. Army officer to join his state in 1861. A West Point classmate of Jefferson Davis, the two were always at odds. He was not aggressive, and victory eluded him in every campaign he led.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

–– Joli Huelskamp

–– Paul Huelskamp

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YORKTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Young’s Mill Fortified

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arly on the morning of April 3rd 1862, McClellan’s juggernaut began its advance from Fort Monroe up the Peninsula to Richmond.

Regis de Trobriand, a French soldier of fortune who was serving as colonel of a New York volunteer regiment, found himself positioned on the left flank of the Army, near the James River. He wrote: “That day we passed by Young’s Mill, a good position and well fortified, and where the enemy might have given us much trouble if he had defended it. But he left it on our approach, and we found there only some tents, where a few regiments had passed the winter.”

Young’s Mill was located on Deep Creek, two miles east of Warwick Courthouse, and four miles short of the Confederate Warwick River defensive line.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

Defenses at Lee’s Mill A

s the Union Army advanced up the Virginia Peninsula on April 5th 1862, they expected Yorktown to be well defended. They were surprised when they reached the Warwick River to find Confederate fortifications spread across the entire Peninsula.

Gen. Baldy Smith’s 2nd Division of the IV Corp was advancing up Lee’s Mill Road (now Warwick Boulevard) when it found a large, earthen fortification on the far side of the river. Both sides began an artillery duel that lasted several hours. McClellan then decided the Warwick line could not be forced and chose to conduct a siege of the Confederate line, abandoning his plan of a rapid advance up the Peninsula.

–– Paul Huelskamp

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YORKTOWN

McClellan’s siege guns

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hen the Union Army reached the Warwick River defensive line, the always-cautious McClellan decided against a direct frontal assault, choosing instead to flank the Confederates by first capturing Yorktown.

To that end, he ordered 103 siege guns of various calibers to be shipped to the front, which further delayed his advance by nearly a month. Then, as the Federals were about to unleash a thunderous artillery barrage, someone observed that the Confederate trenches were now empty.

The rebels had skedaddled back to their next defense line just east of Williamsburg.

McClellan was thus deprived of the huge victory that he so dearly sought.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

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PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

YORKTOWN

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astly outnumbered by McClellan’s forces of 121,500 Union vs.

13,000 Confederates, John Magruder employed theatrics to delay the Federal advance up the Peninsula.

Behind the fortified Warwick Line, he marched his men strategically up and down ravines, accompanied by noisy drum rolls and bugle calls, creating the illusion of a much larger force.

We “have been traveling most of the day... with no other view than to show ourselves to the enemy, at as many different points of the line as possible,” wrote Pvt. Edmund Dewitt Patterson of the 4th Alabama. McClellan readily bought the illusion so he could employ the siege tactics he preferred, and the Confederates bought more time.

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Master of the ruse

–– Joli Huelskamp

Battle of Dam No. 1

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s part of the Warwick Line across the Peninsula, Magruder had constructed three earthen dams to flood the Warwick River. On April 16th 1862, McClellan ordered an artillery and infantry attack just below Dam No. 1 (now Newport News Park) to discourage the Confederates from strengthening their fortifications there.

192 men of the Third Vermont Regiment forded the river below the dam and pushed the surprised Confederates from their rifle pits.

The Confederates soon reorganized and counterattacked the unsupported Yankees, pushing them back across the river.

Union casualties were 35 dead, 121 wounded. Confederate casualties were 75 killed and wounded.

–– Paul Huelskamp VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 21

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n April 17th, Gen. Joe Johnston arrived on the Peninsula to assume command of the Confederate forces. Surveying the sparsely manned Warwick Line, he wrote, “No one but McClellan could have hesitated to attack.”

It was clear that “Little Mac” was preparing for a devastating bombardment of Yorktown. Federal troops continued for the next two weeks to build emplacements for their massive guns.

While the Confederate numbers were now up to about 54,000, they were still outnumbered 2 to 1, and the Federal artillery was far superior. Johnston reported to President Jefferson Davis, “The fight for Yorktown must be one of artillery, in which we cannot win.”

–– Joli Huelskamp

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YORKTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Hospital matrons

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ntil the Civil War, virtually all hospitals were staffed with male surgeons and hospital stewards. Females were considered too weak to deal with the horrors and gruesome aspects of battlefield hospitals.

In 1861 President Lincoln appointed Dorothea Dix as Superintendent of Union Army Nurses. She recruited female hospital matrons to serve in army hospitals. To avoid flighty and marriage-minded young women, she established requirements that they be “plain looking” and older than 30.

Miss Dix also authorized a dress code of black or brown dresses, and forbade hoops or jewelry. Their duties often included feeding the soldiers and helping them write letters to loved ones.

–– Rick Calhoun

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PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Nelson House in war again

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his early Georgian home was built circa 1729 by Thomas “Scotch Tom” Nelson, the immigrant progenitor of an important Virginia family. His grandson Thomas Nelson Jr. was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Although it received some superficial damage, the building survived both the Franco-American bombardment during the siege of Yorktown in October 1781 and McClellan’s rather tentative cannon fire in April 1862.

It was first a hospital for the Confederates, and after they departed, the Union garrison employed it for the same purpose.

Dorothea Dix visited here in 1862. The house is now owned and exhibited by Colonial National Historic Park.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

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YORKTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Evacuation at Kings Mill Wharf

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ith the pending withdrawal of Confederate troops from the Yorktown defenses, Gen. Johnston dispatched all of his sick and wounded across the Peninsula to a safer haven for evacuation by water.

This freed up wagons for military use and reduced traffic on the limited peninsula roads. 2nd Lt. Richard Watkins of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry wrote: “On last Friday... I was ordered to Kings Mill Wharf on the James in charge of all the sick of our Regiment.

There I witnessed one of the saddest scenes... Twenty nine hundred men were lying on the cold wet ground awaiting the boats. I had forty or fifty under my charge which I succeeded in getting off very soon but my orders were to remain... and I had to stay until Sunday.”

–– Jeff Toalson

Confederates to Williamsburg

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en. Joe Johnston knew Yorktown could not be held against the Union artillery siege. On May 2nd the Confederates began their withdrawal toward Williamsburg, starting with the supply trains.

Around sundown May 3rd the Confederate troops distracted the Federals with a heavy artillery barrage before moving out.

Johnston divided his army to use two parallel roads: Hampton Road (also called Lee’s Mill Road, now Warwick Boulevard) and York Road (now roughly Penniman Road and Old Williamsburg Road). The two roads converged just below Fort Magruder. The vanguard reached Williamsburg at dawn May 4th. That morning the Federals were shocked to discover their enemy in Yorktown was gone.

–– Joli Huelskamp VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 25

YORKTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

The Union Balloonist

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rofessor Thaddeus Lowe built his first balloon in 1858. With the pending war, he approached President Lincoln with his concept of using anchored balloons for military observation. One day in June 1861, he rose 500 feet above the District of Columbia Arsenal and sent reports via telegraph and signal flags.

In the war, he took cartographers aloft and provided artillery fire corrections. Gen. McClellan was so impressed that he expanded the corps to seven bal-

loons and funded Lowe with $8,600. He created a portable gas generator, and his balloon corps deployed to the Virginia Peninsula with the Army. Lowe and his balloon corps made over 3,000 ascensions during 186162. Lowe himself reported the Confederate withdrawal from Yorktown and provided intelligence to the army at Williamsburg, Seven Pines and the Seven Days.

Lowe resigned May 8th 1863, and the balloon corps was disbanded in June.

–– Jeff Toalson

Disease ran rampant

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iseases killed more soldiers during the Civil War than battlefield wounds. From a Williamsburg hospital, Captain John Walker of the 15th Virginia Infantry wrote home on Aug. 7th 1861, that he suffered a “severe attack of Typhoid Pneumonia... stricken with chills & fevers.”

Crowded military camps and poor sanitary conditions resulted in the death of many soldiers before they ever saw any fighting. Food and water were often the source of much illness.

Doctors were able to save many wounded soldiers, often by amputating shattered limbs. However, the causes of many diseases and post-surgery infections were still not fully understood during the Civil War. Often medicines, including those for pain, were unavailable or in short supply.

–– Rick Calhoun

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YORKTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Land mines invented here

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rig. Gen. Gabriel J. Rains of North Carolina was in command of a brigade of Georgia and Alabama troops during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. In May he buried artillery shells, with pressure sensitive primers, in roadways to slow the Union cavalry pursuit of the Confederate withdrawal from Yorktown. Generals Johnston and Longstreet immediately banned the use of land mines except in front of defensive works. Explosive devices, mines & torpedoes were allowed in rivers and harbors.

In October 1862 Gen. Rains assumed command of the Torpedo Bureau in Richmond and devoted his engineering talents to the design and deployment of a wide variety of mines and torpedoes. His work resulted in the sinking of 58 Union vessels during the war.

–– Jeff Toalson

Gabriel Rains

Pursuit of the Rebel Army

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uring a driving rain, the Union Army pursued the Rebel Army toward Williamsburg. Private Robert Sneden recorded the following scene in his diary: “...we came upon numerous Rebel wagons which had been stalled in the mud. They were lying on their sides with all the wheels cut to pieces with axes. Nothing was found in the wagons but a few old salt bags. There were lots of dead mules strung out on the road... half smothered in mud, with their feet sticking up out of it. These had to be all removed by ropes before the line mules in our train would pass them, another delay of an hour.”

–– Jeff Toalson VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 27

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PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

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t was during the Peninsula Campaign that George Custer, later known for his tragic mistakes fighting Indians at Little Big Horn, got early war experience.

Less than a year out of West Point (he graduated at the bottom of his class), Custer was a second lieutenant in the Union Army when he arrived on the Peninsula.

Custer quickly gained a reputation for brashness and braggadocio.

On May 5, as the Union pursued the Confederate Army from Yorktown to Williamsburg, Custer volunteered to lead a detachment over exposed ground to explore a formidable Confederate redoubt. It was empty.

At the close of the Battle of Williamsburg, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock noted Conferderate dead were strewn for 600 yards in front of his line. Custer’s take in a letter to his sister was that he had “captured a Captain and five men without any assistance.� — Rusty Carter

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WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Mardi Gras on Main Street

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he arrival of Confederate soldiers from Louisiana in 1861 created quite a stir in Williamsburg as they proved to be a truly exotic group of southern volunteers. Wearing “Zouave” uniforms of baggy red pantaloons and loose-fitting jackets, they all seemed to have a bowie knife and a “devil-may-care” attitude.

The Louisianans liked parties and they introduced Williamsburg to a New Orleans tradition. Material for costumes was collected from ladies around town. and in March of 1862, more than 200 “New Orleans boys” dressed out “in as fantastic manner as it was possible to accomplish” created a Mardi Gras parade on the main street, much to the delight of the local residents,.

–– Carson Hudson

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WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Burial detail at Cedar Grove

July 2, 1861 — Estate of Mr Len Henly, to makeing a coffin for black child by agreement as to price with Mrs H Henly, ($2.00)

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onfederate troops who reported to Williamsburg in the summer of 1861 worked on building the defensive line across the Peninsula. Heat, bad water, poor sanitation and a variety of diseases took a heavy toll.

The Confederate government contracted July 15, 1861 — Mr Edward Tabb of Warwith Richard Bucktrout for pine coffins at wick, to makeing and lining and trimming a $10 each. Company captains paid the $2 neat plain coffin ($10.00) polished for grave digging, $1 conveyance and $1.50 your son died wooden headboard fees. Bodies could be in Williamsburg with meesles, to diggin packed in sawdust and shipped home for $5 grave in new burying ground ($2.00) or $6. Bucktrout buried the bodies in the City Cemetery. By September there were already nine men in the Louisiana row and 16 in the Georgia row plus numerous Virginians.

These graves and almost 275 more are in July 27, 1861 — At Colwhat is now Cedar Grove Cemetery. The site is leage Hospital, Capt of marked by a single monument in the center.

Company H to the 10th –– Jeff Toalson

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Georgia Regiment, to makeing a lined and trimmed coffin for Private Thomas J Statham of your company ($10.00), to diggin grave for same ($2.00).

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WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Fire destroys court records

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ames City County and the City of Williamsburg had shared a common courthouse since 1770.

At the end of April 1862, with the Federal Army moving up the Peninsula, the court records of both localities were shipped to Richmond for safekeeping.

They were destroyed when Richmond was burned in April 1865. Had they remained in Williamsburg they might have survived. Lost were order books, deed books, will books, etc. going back to the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. It was a devastating loss to American history. York County records stayed in Yorktown and were saved.

–– Joli Huelskamp

The 1770 courthouse on Duke of Gloucester Street survived the Civil War. Williamsburg’s records didn’t.

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O

n May 4th 1862, as Gen. Joe Johnston marched his army up the Peninsula to Richmond, he had no intention of defending Williamsburg. Then the rain started. His troops and supply wagons halted in the mud around Williamsburg just as their Yankee pursuers began to catch up with the Confederate rear guard.

With rain continuing into May 5th, Johnston ordered Gen. Longstreet’s division to occupy the fortifications east of town.

His strategy was to delay the Union advance while his supply train continued on to Richmond. Throughout the day, more than 15,000 Union and 12,000 Confederate soldiers were drawn into heavy fighting around these fortifications.

–– Paul Huelskamp

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WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

The Ravine

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he Ravine is a natural formation 1,600 feet long, 40 feet deep and 200 feet wide at the top. It lies three-quarters of mile southwest of Fort Magruder, between Tutters Neck Pond and today’s Pocahontas Trail. The Ravine was the site of intense and savage fighting on May 5th 1862.

Regiments from General Joe Hooker’s division and General Philip Kearny’s division assaulted the Confederates, who were led by General James Longstreet’s Division. At the height of the fighting, more than 10,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fought for possession of this sector. In the end, nearly 2,000 soldiers lost their lives in the Ravine.

–– Rick Calhoun

Hesitant W at Redoubt 1

hen he was informed that the Confederate right was weak, Union General Heintzelman sent cavalry under Brigadier General William Emory to lead an assault up Quarterpath Road. He reinforced him with two batteries and four infantry regiments from Kearny’s division. Though Redoubt No. 1 appeared empty, the unenthusiastic Emory, at one point “sit-

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ting on his horse half asleep,” declined to assault it because of “the nature of the locality.”

Had he attacked, Emory might have turned the Confederate flank.

Today, Redoubt 1 is preserved at Redoubt Park on Quarterpath Road and is the best interpreted among the 14 redoubts that comprised the Williamsburg Line.

– Joli Huelskamp

WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

A dedicated Army private

G

eorge Fielding enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 1856. When the Civil War began Private Fielding was serving in the First U.S. Artillery in Charleston. He helped defend Fort Sumter during the Confederate bombardment in April 1861, where he suffered burns and the loss of his sight in one eye. In August 1861 he received a medical discharge from the army.

Determined to help defend the United States, he changed his name to Fieldon and enlisted in the 5th Michigan Infantry. His unit participated in the Battle of Williamsburg, where he was wounded in the savage fighting at the Ravine. He died from his wounds on May 19th 1862.

– Rick Calhoun

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VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 37

WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Fighting at Fort Magruder

A

t the center of the Confederate defensive line sat Redoubt No. 6, also called Fort Magruder. Straddling the main road into Williamsburg, the fort was an elongated pentagon mounting eight guns, with walls rising up 15 feet from a flooded moat, and fronted by an abatis of felled trees in a muddy quagmire.

It was “a very ugly place to have to attack,” said the

Union artillery commander, Major Charles S. Wainwright. Fort Magruder’s artillery and sharpshooters thwarted Union advances throughout the battle on May 5th, 1862. Today the remains of Fort Magruder are maintained as a park on Penniman Road by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

–– Joli Huelskamp

Opportunity Lost by federals

O

n May 5th 1862, less than half of McClellan’s huge army encountered the retreating Confederate forces under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston about a mile east of Williamsburg. Later in the day, a reinforced Union brigade under Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock probed the rebel left flank near Jones Pond and occupied abandoned earthworks in hopes of cutting off the Confederate retreat.

Amidst disarray among the Federal command, Hancock fell back instead of attacking. He was closely pursued by Jubal Early’s Virginians and North Carolinians. That night, the Confederates moved their wounded from the battlefield into every available space in Williamsburg, and then resumed their retreat to Richmond. On May 6th the Federals occupied the town and remained there for the rest of the war.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

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WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Pvt. Carper of 11th Virginia Infantry

“I

n the spring [1862] we were transferred to Yorktown by the way of Richmond. After doing picket duty there for some time along the Warwick River, we fell back to Williamsburg and fought a furious battle. My oldest brother, Dr. R. B. Carper, was mortally wounded at Williamsburg. My brother, George, and I came out O.K. On the retreat from Williamsburg to Richmond, I was pushed off the pavement in a hurried march through Williamsburg and my shoes were left in ten inches of mud.

I was barefooted from there to Richmond.... In the battles of Williamsburg and Seven Pines, we lost seventy-five men.

After the Battle of Seven Pines, I was sent to Chimborazo Hospital, Richmond, with typhoid fever... Owing to my illness, I did not return... until September, 1862.”

The 11th Virginia lost 31 killed, 93 wounded, 9 captured at Williamsburg and 30 killed and 115 wounded at Seven Pines. The regiment lost more men killed and wounded in each of these two battles than in any other engagement in the entire war.

–– Jeff Toalson

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VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 39

WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Pvt. Dickey, the battle

L

etter from a Union soldier to his mother, shortly after the Battle of Williamsburg.

Dear Mother I take this opportunity to write you a few lines.

We have had a hard fight and this time we are the concores [conquerors]. I was not hurt but came very near it three or four times by having shells explode close to me. I had one rifle ball put through my clothes. I took one prisoner in the engagement. … We lost 107 killed and wounded. The Rebels are the worst set of men I ever seen.… It is my opinion that the war will soon be closed. Private Lyman A. Dickey Co. I, 2nd NH Vol. –– Rick Calhoun

Strange metamorphosis

R

andolph Abbott Shotwell, a Confederate soldier, stumbled into the College of William & Mary the night after the Battle of Williamsburg, looking for shelter from the rain. He described the sight he found in the Wren Building.

“What a strange metamorphosis was this of the peaceful abode of science and learning into a veritable chamber of horrors, where every turn of the eye revealed some shocking spectacle of human misery...

“As I ascended the stairway my foot struck some object, and a man passing at that moment with a light from one of the rooms showed me a pile of legs and arms that had been amputated and thrown on the landing of the stairway, that being the only place unoccupied by the wounded.”

— Wilford Kale

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VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 41

WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

The fallen remembered

T

he highest ranking Confederate to die in the Battle of Williamsburg was Col. George Taliaferro Ward of the 2nd Florida Infantry.

During the battle, he was shot and killed instantly as he tried to rally his men. His body was recovered later that evening, and laid out on the clerk’s table at the city courthouse with a note pinned to his uniform with his name and rank. The rector of Bruton Parish Church personally saw that Colonel Ward’s body was laid to rest in the parish churchyard.

After the war, a monument was erected over his grave. Today Col. George T. Ward still reposes “neath the soil, in defense of which his life-blood was shed.”

–– Carson Hudson

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42 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

She fought with honor

A

t least one woman fought in the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5th 1862. Sarah Emma Edmonds served as “Franklin Thompson” in the 2nd Michigan Infantry. During the battle, as her unit was driven back, she helped carry her wounded captain off the field. She spent the night in a makeshift hospital assisting the surgeons at their work.

For her wartime service, she received a pension from Congress of $12 per month. In 1897 she was accepted into the Union veterans’ organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, the only woman ever to be so honored.

–– Carson Hudson

WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Meet Cynthia Tucker Coleman

S

he was a granddaughter of Revolutionary War hero Judge St. George Tucker, and daughter of law professor and ardent states rights and slavery champion Judge Nathaniel Beverley Tucker. Of May 5th 1862 she later wrote, “All day long we heard the booming of cannon... All day long, the wounded were coming in.”

Her home was crowded that night with wet, tired and wounded Confederate soldiers. Her husband Charles, an army doctor, stayed until dawn and departed with the rear guard. A few hours later, she and her mother watched with dread as Williamsburg filled with Federal troops. She left her town in July to seek word of her husband and brothers, but was refused reentry because of occupation regulations, and could not return home until the war was over. She later became a founder of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

St. George Tucker House in Colonial Williamsburg.

Grim battle was a draw

B

y the end of May 5th 1862, the bloody fighting just east of Williamsburg resulted in a draw. The Confederates successfully held the Yankees east of Williamsburg while their supply train escaped up to Richmond. However, the Union Army of the Potomac was positioned to envelop the Confederate line the next day.

But on the night of the 5th, the Confederate de-

fenders withdrew from town toward Richmond. On May 6th, Union forces captured the city and continued their march toward Richmond.

The Union casualties were 456 killed, 1,410 wounded and 373 captured or missing. The Confederate casualties were 288 killed, 975 wounded and 297 captured or missing.

–– Paul Huelskamp VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 43

CONFEDERATE LEADERS

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

James Jubal Longstreet Early

George Pickett

J

G

ames Longstreet was born in 1821 in South Carolina. As a brigadier general, he led his soldiers in several major battles, including First Manassas, the Peninsula Campaign and Williamsburg.

–– Neal E. Wixson

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J

ubal Early was born in 1816 in Virginia. He fought in the Battle of First Manassas and was promoted to brigadier general before the Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days battles.

–– Neal E. Wixson

eorge E. Pickett was born in 1825 in Richmond. As a brigadier general, he was in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines and Gaines’s Mill before sustaining a serious wound.

–– Neal E. Wixson

CONFEDERATE LEADERS

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

A.P. Hill

D.H. Hill

Andrew William Talcott Allen

A

S

onnecticut-born Andrew Talcott graduated from West Point. He left the army in 1836, but followed his adopted state of Virginia to war.

One of his descendents is Queens Lake resident Right Rev. Herman Hollerith IV, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia.

mbrose “A. P.” Hill was born in Virginia in 1825. He fought in the Battle of First Manassas and was promoted to major general for his leadership in the Battle of Williamsburg.

–– Neal E. Wixson

outh Carolinian and West Point graduate D.H. Hill left the U.S. Army in 1849 to become a professor. He played a key role in the battles of Big Bethel, Seven Pines, the Seven Days, South Mountain and Antietam.

In July 1863 he was transferred to the Army of Tennessee.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

C

–– Richard M. Ludwig

W

illiam Griffin Orgain acquired his name and fortune through inheritance from a great uncle, William Allen. He provided most of the funds and much of the labor for the construction of the several earth forts at Jamestown, and he personally commanded and helped train troops there.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

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VIRGINIA TRUSSES, INC. VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 45

UNION LEADERS

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

William Franklin

William Smith

Joseph Hooker

W

V

oseph Hooker was born in Massachusetts in 1814. As a brigadier general, he led in the Peninsula Campaign and was promoted to major general for distinguished service in the Battle of Williamsburg.

illiam B. Franklin was a West Point graduate and career U.S. Army officer. The day after the Battle of Williamsburg, Brigadier General Franklin's division sailed up the York River to Eltham in an unsuccessful attempt to outflank the Confederates.

ermont native Brigadier General “Baldy” Smith was a West Point engineering graduate. At the Battle of Williamsburg he commanded the Union 2nd Division of IV Corp, which broke the Confederate left flank at Redoubt No. 11.

J

–– Paul Huelskamp

–– Neal E. Wixson

–– Paul Huelskamp

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UNION LEADERS

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Samuel P. Winfield Philip Edwin Heintzelman Hancock Kearny Sumner

A

veteran of the Mexican-American War, Union Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman had been wounded at First Manassas. He commanded III Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsula Campaign.

N

amed for Gen. Winfield Scott, Hancock fought under him in the Mexican War. He served with distinction in the U.S. Army for 40 years, nicknamed “Hancock the Superb” for a counterattack at the Battle of –– Joli Huelskamp Williamsburg. He ran for President in 1880, losing to James Garfield.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

B

orn into wealth in New York, Philip Kearny chose a military career instead of Wall Street. He lost an arm in the Mexican War. He despised McClellan, accusing him of cowardice and treason. Kearny was later killed during the Battle of Chantilly in Fairfax.

T

he oldest of McClellan’s generals, Edwin Sumner joined the U.S. Army in 1819 and fought in every American war until his death. He was mediocre during the Peninsula Campaign, but came to the rescue of Keyes and his IV Corps at Seven Pines, preventing a –– Richard M. Ludwig Federal disaster.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

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JAMESTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Catesby Jones on the island

Drewry’s Bluff

L

ieutenant Catesby Jones was a U.S. Naval officer and a native of Clarke County. When Virginia seceded, he followed his state. He helped select the site of Fort Pocahontas on Jamestown Island, procurred the cannon and munitions to arm the fort, and trained the recruits as artillerymen.

Jones commanded the CSS Virginia in her famous battle with the USS Monitor in Hampton Roads on March 9th 1862. When the Virginia was scuttled, he escorted her cannon to Drewry’s Bluff and helped mount and site them in the fort’s defenses. Catesby went on to command the Charlotte Navy Yard and the Selma, Ala. cannon factory during the final three years of the war.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

Conversion of the USS Merrimack into the Confederate ironclad Virginia.

Remnants of the Fort Pocahontas earthworks, circa 1900.

Island fortified by the Confederates

T

wo weeks after Virginia seceded, William Allen of Surry County decided to build a waterside earthwork fortification on Jamestown Island, which he owned. He was trying to protect the lower James River from Federal gunboats, and he enlisted an artillery company at his own expense to man the guns.

One week later, Col. Andrew Talcott, the state engineer, went to Jamestown at the order of Gen. Robert E. Lee to do the same thing. Talcott concurred with

Allen's site selection, next to the old brick Jamestown Church Tower. Other smaller earth forts were built and armed. Jamestown remained a heavily fortified outpost until early May 1862, when it was evacuated because McClellan’s army had occupied the lower Peninsula.

Archaeological exploration in 1994 found that the Confederates had sited their main fort on the exact location of the 1607 James Fort.

–– Richard M. Ludwig VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 49

JAMESTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Telegraph sabotaged

T

o facilitate communications between Washington headquarters and Gen. McClellan, telegraph wire was strung in July 1862 between Jamestown and Williamsburg. Messages were relayed by telegraph to Jamestown, and then by boat upriver to McClellan at Harrison’s Landing.

Since Jamestown was an outpost in Confederate territory, the telegraph line was often cut. It was a constant struggle for the Union to keep saboteurs from tampering with the wire. Two years later, 22 miles of underwater cable was strung between Jamestown and Fort Powhatan. From there it linked to City Point, General Grant’s headquarters during the Siege of Petersburg.

–– Joli Huelskamp

Moving upriver from Jamestown he CSS Virginia was destroyed by her crew on May 11th 1862 when the Confederates abandoned Norfolk. The way was now clear for Union gunboats to move up the James to attack Richmond.

On May 12 the ironclads Monitor, Galena and Naugatuck, and the wooden gunboats Aroostook and Port Royal anchored off Jamestown Island on their way upriver. Union crewmen noted the incongruity of Confederate earthworks adjacent to the Jamestown church tower. This formidable squadron, under Commander John Rogers, was defeated May 15th at Drewry’s Bluff and returned downriver. On May 17th, 13 crewmen from the Galena were buried on the shore at Jamestown.

T

USS Galena after Drewry’s Bluff 50 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

–– Joli Huelskamp

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VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 51

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52 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

JAMESTOWN

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Ambush near a Federal outpost

J

amestown was an outpost in Confederate territory, and the Federals found their neighbors unfriendly. In September 1864, Federals at Jamestown wired Williamsburg requesting an ambulance for some ill soldiers.

Shorthanded, the Williamsburg commander sent all the cavalry he could scrape together –– just three men –– to accompany the ambulance.

A mile from Jamestown, the party was attacked by snipers hidden in the woods. A corporal was killed and the other two cavalrymen were captured, one badly wounded. Only the ambulance driver escaped unharmed. A larger party of Federal cavalry went in pursuit, but the culprits could not be found. Tellingly, the adult males of the local families were not at home.

–– Joli Huelskamp

History made here Bricks from the burning of the College in 1862 were recovered in the rubble for the foundation of Cedars Bed & Breakfast.

VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 53

OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Dr. Galt & the Lunatic Asylum

M

embers of the Galt family served at the Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital) dating back to 1733.

The last was John Minson Galt II, who served 1841-62 as superintendent. Brilliant and compassionate, he revolutionized the treatment of the mentally ill with his belief that they were entitled to human dignity. He replaced cruel restraints with calming medications, instituted therapeutic activities, and even socialized with patients in his own home.

But on May 6th 1862, the Union army occupied the Asylum. Dr. Galt was barred from entering and told his services were no longer needed.

Despondent, he died just days later, possibly from a heart attack or an overdose of laudanum.

–– Joli Huelskamp

Makeshift hospitals all over town

A

fter the Battle of Williamsburg, at least 32 public buildings and private homes in town were used as hospitals, including Bruton Parish Church, the Wren Building and Bassett Hall. When the Confederates withdrew May 6th, about 400 seriously wounded remained in town, with up to another 400 still on the battlefield.

The Union army then brought its own wounded into the mix. General McClellan sent word to General Johnston that surgeons would be received on parole.

Some 18 nervous Confederate surgeons were escorted into town by Union troops later that day. McClellan soon put them at ease. At many hospitals, Union and Confederate surgeons worked together.

–– Joli Huelskamp

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OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

A Virginia Yankee

L

emuel J. Bowden was one of the few in Williamsburg who opposed secession. In 1858 the prosperous but unpopular lawyer built a grand Greek revival house (now the Bowden-Armistead House) next to Bruton Parish Church. Three stories high, the house featured Baltimore brick, granite windowsills and an elegant hip roof.

In 1862 the occupying Federal forces made Lem Bowden mayor of Williamsburg. “Down with the Traitor!” wrote a despairing local in her diary. His own mother refused to live under the same roof as her “Virginia Yankee” son, preferring a small cottage behind the mansion.

At the Wheeling Convention later that year, he was elected as U.S. Senator from Virginia. Bowden died of smallpox in Washington the following year.

–– Joli Huelskamp

Taking the oath

R

esidents of occupied Williamsburg were required to sign an oath of allegiance to the United States, but enforcement varied at the whim of the Provost Marshal. Those who refused could be expelled from town, their homes and possessions confiscated. Cynthia Tucker Coleman wrote of those willing “to give up all the sacred associations of home” rather than sign.

In 1864, Sallie Galt, the sister of John Minson Galt II who had died soon after the Union takeover, twice refused to sign the oath. She was about to be turned out of her house when an old family friend, Dorothea Dix, intervened on her behalf.

–– Joli Huelskamp

VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 55

OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Peace along Market Line

U

nion-occupied Williamsburg was the front line from May 1862 until the war’s end. The Federal provost marshal established a “Market Line” where once or twice a week townspeople could purchase produce from the Confederate-held farms to the west. On Richmond and Jamestown Roads, two parallel lines of chest-high rusty telegraph wire were patrolled by Union guards to separate farmers and customers.

Nevertheless, news, mail, military secrets, medicine and other supplies made it across the line hidden in melons, in dressed poultry, and under hoopskirts. The guards “were sometimes easily flattered, by the shrewdly designing opposite sex,” commented Captain David Cronin of the First New York Mounted Rifles.

–– Joli Huelskamp

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OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Town put under martial law illiamsburg is under military control and orders are issued governing rules of conduct by the civilian population.

At first, General Order No. 11 seems unusual since it prohibits the “galloping or fast driving” of horses. However, the military authority determined that the only reasons for such speed would be to evade or escape capture while doing something illegal or of possible benefit to the enemy. Union pickets could fire on such persons without warning.

W

Duke of Gloucester Street in 1859.

–– Jeff Toalson

The myth of happy slaves

“O

ur slaves are content” was the mantra of Southern slaveowners. It was a necessary self-delusion. White Southerners may have been foolhardy to base most of their economic and social structure on Negro slavery, but they were hardly fools.

They understood their way of life depended on the continued passivity of their slaves. So they created fanciful images of “happy darkies” to reassure themselves.

But these portrayals could not change the realities of a cruel, brutal, exploitative system and of the enslaved peoples’ yearning to be free. When the war came black folk by the thousands threw down their fictious banjos and used their feet to flee to freedom behind Union lines.

–– Robert F. Engs VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 57

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OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

O

n the morning of Sept. 9th 1862, Confederate raiders galloped into Williamsburg, surprising the Federal sentries and making a prisoner of the town provost marshal. Although their stay was brief, the Rebels had embarrassed the occupying Union soldiers. That afternoon, Union soldiers started a fire that soon destroyed the Wren Building of the College of William & Mary. In a deposition taken later, an eyewitness stated: “…the college yard was crowded with United States soldiers, many of them drunk and boisterous… soon after the college was a smoking ruin… there is no doubt of the destruction having been designedly effected by drunken United States soldiers.”

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Burning of the college

–– Carson Hudson

Gazette press seized

I

n 1861 The Virginia Gazette ceased publication when publisher Edward Lively joined the Confederate Army. He left the printing press in his mother’s basement. After Federal troops occupied the city, they demanded the press to print their own newspaper, the Cavalier. The Richmond Dispatch of Feb. 25th, 1863, reported how his mother resisted: “The importunities of Mrs. Lively… had no effect. The Lieut. of the guard ordered the men to break the office door down unless she, Mrs. L, would give up the keys. Being alarmed by this… Mrs. Lively had to surrender the keys. The press, etc, was taken off to Yorktown where the publication of the Yankee Cavalier sheet is continued.

This dirty sheet was lies, printed in the Gazette office...”

–– Carson Hudson

VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 59

OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Emancipation Proclamation

T

he proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln, not as “President,” but as “Commander in Chief” and upon “military necessity.” He declared “That on the first day of January 1863 all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then... forever free.”

Slaves were not freed in Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, most of Tennessee, and portions of Virginia and Louisiana held by Union forces.

On the Peninsula the dividing line was the James City County/York County line, which ran through Williamsburg in 1862. Only slaves living in James City County and westward were declared free. No slaves were freed in any of the Union states.

–– Jeff Toalson

Skirmish on Duke of Gloucester

I

n early 1863, a Confederate attempt to retake Fort Magruder, resulted in a skirmish on the main street of occupied Williamsburg. Before dawn, on March 29, about a thousand Confederates approached the city. A small attack force of 100 infantry were detached to skirt the town and surprise the fort, but in the darkness, they became lost. As the sun rose, the attack was called off.

Retreating through Williamsburg, they discovered Union cavalry on the main street, who wildly charged them. The Confederates opened fire, emptying several saddles. The surviving Federals escaped down the street as the Rebels quickly marched to the College of William and Mary and left town.

–– Carson Hudson

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The cutting edge is much improved

Thanks to all the Avid employees and the community for their support all these many years. --Mike Sahady

VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 61

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OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Black soldiers

E

scaped slaves and free black men of the North offered their services to the Union soon after the war began.

However, many felt the black soldiers were incapable of fighting and that they would run away once the shooting began. Others feared black soldiers would be considered expendable and used in situations too dangerous for white soldiers. As a result many were used in noncombat roles in their first months of service.

As the war progressed, the need for additional soldiers necessitated the use of black soldiers as fighters. Some 180,000 U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) fought for the Union, along with 20,000 who served as sailors. Blacks were not permitted to serve as officers even in their own units, and very few achieved a rank higher than corporal. Nonetheless, black troops fought valiantly, especially in the Mississippi Valley. In Virginia, black troops participated in the Battle of the Crater and in the final campaign in 1864-65. Black soldiers were among the first Union troops to march into Richmond in April 1865.

––Rick Calhoun

J

uliana Dorsey, the mother of Carter Coupland and John R. Coupland, spent most of the war as a refugee from Williamsburg living with relatives and friends in Greensboro, Columbus and Mobile. John and his family abandoned Williamsburg in late 1863 and moved to Richmond to find work and avoid starvation. Carter, a riverboatman working the river between Selma and Mobile, wrote his mother in August 1864: “I am flat broke – it takes a Government is paying nothing... [I ] small fortune to live these times... have had no money for 6 or 7 months.”

I have not money enough... to John was down to 117 pounds by contribute in the slightest degree 1864 and suffered with liver disease. to my dear brother... The

Refugees escaped town

He was still working, and he and his wife and daughter all survived the war. Carter married postwar and stayed in Alabama.

–– Jeff Toalson VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 63

OCCUPIED WILLIAMSBURG

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

A

fter being refused entry into Williamsburg by Federal authorities, Mrs. Cynthia B.T. Coleman met her mother at the Market Line in December 1864 to have a small Christmas celebration. She later wrote: …we determined to keep our Christmas…. The snow was falling fast, but we put up our umbrellas, kindled a fire, set on such logs as we could find, eat our cake and drank our toasts to our Confederate heroes in the hearing of the Sentinel whose forbearance we rewarded by giving him a glass of our wine… he expressed his sympathy for us in a manly frank manner that touched us. Prisoners and Lunatics are grateful for very small favors.

Christmas in 1864

–– Carson Hudson

Mosby’s Cavalry raids

T

he last military action of the Civil War in the Williamsburg area occurred on Feb. 11th 1865.

Early that morning, Confederate horsemen galloped down Richmond Road into town. They scattered Union sentries about the college and quickly left with four captured horses. The raiders were part of Colonel John Mosby’s 43rd Virginia Cavalry and had been ordered to probe the Williamsburg line.

The result was that Private Austin Gannon of the 16th New York Volunteer Artillery became the last wartime casualty in Williamsburg. Within two months Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee went on to surrender at Appomattox on April 9th 1865, ending the war in Virginia.

–– Carson Hudson

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Col. John Mosby was not present, but his raiders attacked Union troops in Williamsburg late in the war.

y l i m a f e h t t They kep together

We do too.

VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 65

WESTWARD

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

pursuit from Williamsburg

T

he Confederate forces withdrew from Williamsburg along Richmond Road. For them, and the Union army in pursuit, it was the same old story: mud, mud and more mud. The spring rains had made quagmires out of McClellan’s “good natural roads.” Marching through the muck was bad enough for infantry, but getting the supply wagons and artillery through was hell.

Confederates retreating

T

he Confederate Rear Guard was moving from Williamsburg to Bottom’s Bridge. Lieutenant Richard Watkins of Co. K, 3rd Virginia Cavalry wrote: “I am now sitting right down in the middle of the road in the midst of a swamp. The enemy about a mile below us... yesterday our company on pickett took five prisoners... We often march only a mile a day... holding our horses by the bridles. They have been saddled the whole time of our retreat... Half the troop are on sick leave... We have hard work with very little food but the men [who remain] are in good spirits... I lost no clothes at all... I had one blanket with me and on the battlefield at Williamsburg in the midst of a hard rain gave that to a poor wounded soldier... send me one blanket if you have a chance.”

–– Jeff Toalson

66 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

Consequently the Confederate commissary could not get adequate food to the men on the march. Soldiers had to forage for whatever they could find.

“Whenever a cow or hog were found it was shot down & soon dispatched,” wrote Pvt. Ruffin Thomson of the 18th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.

–– Joli Huelskamp

WESTWARD

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

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Federal flanking move to Eltham

E

ltham Plantation sat directly across from West Point at the head of the York River. On May 6th, Union General Franklin’s division embarked on Navy ships at Yorktown and sailed up the York River to Eltham in an attempt to outflank the Confederate retreat from Williamsburg.

The first troops landed using shallow-draft pontoon boats. Then a 400-foot floating wharf was built throughout the night so artillery and supplies could be unloaded from the larger ships.

On the morning of May 7th, Franklin took a defensive position around the plantation and waited for three more Union divisions to join him from Yorktown.

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–– Paul Huelskamp VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 67

WESTWARD

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

The Battle for Eltham

O

n May 6th Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin’s Division disembarked at Eltham Landing, across from West Point, for the purpose of harassing and possibly destroying the Confederate baggage train then retreating toward Richmond. Franklin was not an aggressive leader, and therefore only advanced about a mile before stopping for his artillery to come up.

The men in gray sent troops from Barhamsville to ambush the ambushers. Six hours of fighting ensued, enough time for the Confederate wagons to pass through New Kent County safely. Casualties were light, as compared with the carnage that would ensue during the next two months around Richmond.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

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WESTWARD

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

McClellan HQ to White House

A

s Gen. McClellan prepared for his attack on Richmond in mid-May 1862, he moved his headquarters up the Pamunkey River to a 4,000-acre plantation called White House Landing. It had been the home of the widow Martha Custis when George Washington came to court her.

By the Civil War, it was owned by William “Rooney” Lee, the son of Robert E. Lee. Located near the York railroad line between West Point and Richmond, the plantation became a major supply depot for the Union army. Eventually McClellan was forced to retreat from the Peninsula, and he ordered the home burned.

–– Paul Huelskamp

The Battle of Seven Pines

O

n May 31st the Confederate army under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston attacked the rear of McClellan’s army as it was crossing the Chickahominy River into Hanover County, just east of the current Richmond Airport. Although the outnumbered Federals were driven back at first, they managed to bring other units that had already crossed the river back into the fray.

The Confederates had a problem of muddled orders, causing part of their force to use the wrong road and thereby blunting the intensity of their attack. By June 1st the element of surprise had been lost and the rebels pulled back. Johnston was severely wounded on May 31st, and Robert E. Lee assumed command in mid-June.

Both sides claimed victory, but in reality, the battle ended in a draw.

–– Richard M. Ludwig VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 69

WESTWARD

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Change of command

W

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston

hen the Civil War began, General Joseph E. Johnston was the third highest-ranking officer in the Confederate army. General Robert E. Lee was the fourth highest-ranking. During the first year of the war, General Lee worked briefly in the defense of Western Virginia and then commanded the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida before becoming an advisor to President Davis.

On May 31st 1862, during the Battle of Seven Pines, President Davis and General Lee were visiting the battlefield. General Johnston was struck in the chest by a fragment from a Union artillery shell and had to be carried from the field. President Davis, realizing that he needed a new field commander, appointed General Lee to replace Johnston.

–– Rick Calhoun

Gen. Robert E. Lee

From the swamp of the Chickahominy

S

ergeant Benjamin Porter of the 11th Alabama Infantry wrote home to his mother on June 2nd: “Ma... in battle on Chicahomany swamp... The mud was half leg deep nearly all the time & when we wer not in the mud, we wer wadin up to our nees in water... the River was over flowed & all the bridges was washed away &

70 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

only part ther forces [Yanks] on this side... we completely drove them from there own redoubts & they left all there canons... provisions napsaks... & infact everything that they had... I do not know how many were killed or wounded yet... prey for me... preyers are of great youse...”

–– Jeff Toalson

WESTWARD

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

No fear of man or God

Pvt. George Norris (left) of the 5th Vermont Infantry would have been with Aldis Brainerd as the unit approached Richmond.

A

ldis Brainerd resigned his commission in the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Department for health reasons but was still present as a civilian with Union forces. On June 13th 1862 he was with the 5th Vermont Infantry as it neared Richmond.

“I am glad that I am free from the Shoulder Strap although I still wear them... there are many things about the Army that is verry unpleasant the Society is so degrading... there is no restraint on man here and there seems to be no fear of man or God. I would not stay in the Army one year longer for any amt I do not speak of any particular part of the Army as there seems to be but little difference.”

–– Jeff Toalson

Seven Days, a Union retreat

T

he Seven Days Battles east of Richmond culminated the Peninsula Campaign. On June 26, Gen. Robert E. Lee divided his outnumbered army, and sent 65,000 men in a surprise attack on the also divided Union army north of the Chickahominy River along Beaver Dam Creek in Hanover County. The Federals fell back, and Lee continued a relentless assault the next day at Gaines Mill. The Union commander McClellan, instead of counterattacking south of the Chickahominy with his superior numbers, instead decided that the “game was up,” ordering his men to retreat away from Richmond to the James River for later evacuation by ship. Fierce fighting continued in places named White Oak Swamp, Savage's Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill as the Federals retreated. Clearly, McClellan was outgeneraled by Lee, and the bloody war was to continue for nearly three more years.

–– Richard M. Ludwig VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 71

WESTWARD

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

tragedy of Malvern Hill

M

alvern Hill was not so much a battle as a slaughter. The Federals had massed 120 field cannonswheel atop a small hill with long, sloping sides. Confederate Gen. D.H. Hill’s Division attempted to capture the Union works, but it was repulsed with heavy losses. Then, Gen. Richard B. Ewell and his infantry tried, with the same result. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was asked to move against the Union forces, but wisely declined. The Federal firepower was augmented by their gunboat fleet, firing from the nearby James River.

At the end of the day July 1, the Union troops retired to nearby Harrison’s Landing (Berkeley Plantation), to return to Northern Virginia, while the Confederates stopped to mourn their 5,500 dead and wounded. Like Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, this battle should never have happened.

–– Richard M. Ludwig

W l i v i a C r R g r u b o s u n m dtable a i l l i W Celebrate the Sesquicentennial by joining the Williamsburg Civil War Roundtable!

We meet monthly September thru May to study all aspects of the Civil War, featuring noted authors and experts on a variety of subjects.

Visit our website at wcwrt.org for information on our programs and membership.

72 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

RETREAT

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

F

ollowing the Malvern Hill battle, Union forces withdrew to Harrison’s Landing, on the James River, for evacuation by their fleet and the protection of their gunboats. This ended the Seven Days battles and the Peninsula Campaign. Private Robert Sneden describes the efforts to care for the massive number of Union casualties.

“Hospital tents were erected today in great numbers, which were soon filled with sick and wounded which count up [to] 12,000. Surgeons and their assistants are hard at work amputating and probing for bullets, many are dying hourly, and several steamers have arrived here expressly fitted up to carry the unfortunate home.”

Dying by the hour

–– Jeff Toalson

Back to Fort Monroe I

n the aftermath of the Seven Days, the Union army was encamped in and around Harrison’s Landing. The site of Berkeley Plantation, this was the ancestral home of President William Henry Harrison.

President Lincoln twice met with Union commanders here to determine whether to continue the Peninsula Campaign. It was only after Gen. McClellan asked for additional reinforcements that Army Chief of Staff Halleck ordered the Army of the Potomac back to the Washington area.

On Aug. 16th, the army began its retreat down the Peninsula to Fort Monroe.

As they marched back through Williamsburg, one local commented joyfully, “This looks like ’Skedaddling'!!!”

–– Paul Huelskamp VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 73

RETREAT

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Regimental training

A

t Gloucester Point, Union Corporal Edward Cook wrote to his parents on Nov. 2nd 1862: “Our colonel is getting so unreasonably strict.... He is trying to introduce his regular army rules into our volunteer regiment + he will find out one of these days that it is not going to give the best kind of satisfaction.

Drums sounded an alarm.

“I could not march but I knew if the regiment stood still + fired that I could shoot as fast as any one. The alarm was a false one + was ordered by the Colonel in order to teach the soldiers not to stray so far away from camp...”

–– Neal E. Wixson

Available in major local bookstores, or call (757) 220-0114

George Randolph Wood hauled freight on riverboats for the Confederacy. He saw artillery shells descend in his direction, swapped stories with Hampton boys camped in Williamsburg, and twice witnessed Robert E. Lee in the field. He went hungry – and he sampled caviar. There was danger and deprivation; still, when he was in Richmond he attended theatrical shows whenever he could.

"A first-rate, first-person memory – a deftly written and meticulously annotated gem."

-- Civil War historian John C. Waugh 74 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

RETREAT

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Camp life between the battles

O

n Dec. 20th 1862 Corporal Edward Cook wrote his parents from Gloucester Point: “After drill we went down to the spring again... finished our washing (clothes) before we eat our dinner.

After we did our washing we all stripped our selves... and had a gay old swim. What do you think of taking a bath with open air on the 20th of December? Oh! This is the country for me and if they ever exterminate slavery in Virginia + I am alive + well... I am coming down here to live. This afternoon was our day for Target Practice but instead... we had to have one of those long and hated battalion drills.”

–– Neal E. Wixson

Unknown soldiers

A

fter four years of the Civil War, an estimated 618,000 lives were lost.

Families were destroyed and thousands of volunteer soldiers paid the ultimate price with their life in defense of their country and beliefs.

On both sides, approximately twothirds of the deaths were the result of disease and one-third battlefield injuries.

In the years following the war, thousands of disabled veterans continued to suffer from the injuries recieved in battles.

Of those who died during the war, more than 12,000 were never identified and lie in unmarked graves or graves that were simply inscribed “Unknown” soldier.

–– Rick Calhoun VIRTUE • VALOR • SACRIFICE | 75

RCKNOWLEDGEMENTS A ETREAT The Williamsburg Civil War Roundtable provided invaluable advice and wrote nearly all of the vignettes.

Rick Calhoun, a structural engineer, is a Civil War historian, researcher and collector.

Carson O. Hudson Jr. is a military historian who writes and lectures on the war.

Joli Huelskamp is a history buff who especially enjoys learning about our local area’s past.

Paul Huelskamp enjoys learning about all eras of American History and volunteers as a costumed interpreter with the Military Department at Colonial Williamsburg.

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN 2011 Others brought their expertise to the project as well.

The Ansada Group LLOC provided permission to use the painting “Gettysburg” for the cover.

Robert F. Engs is Visiting Distinguished Professor and Consulting Scholar for the Lemon Project, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History, College of William & Mary. He offered assistance on contrabands and black soldiers, and wrote the item about slavery myths.

Sheila Gallagher, co-director of Fine Arts Department of Boston College, provided images from the Becker Collection.

Jennifer M. Guild of the Virginia Historical Society expedited the Snedden images.

Richard M. Ludwig is a retired vice president of International Paper and a life-long history enthusiast.

Pryor Green of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts expedited the Becker image

Jeff Toalson has written two books on the Civil War and is a regular speaker at roundtables, historical societies, National Parks and museums.

Wilford Kale, retired bureau chief of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, wrote about the Battle of Williamsburg aftermath.

Neal E. Wixson is an Assistant Dean of Admission at William & Mary Law School and has written two books on the Civil War.

The full set of Bibliography and Footnotes is found in the online edition of this section at vagazette.com.

IMAGES 1 4 5 6 9 9 10 10 13 14 14 15 15 17 18 18 20 21 21 22 24 23 25 25 26 26 27

27 28 29

Copyright Unicover Corporation 1995. By arrangement with The Ansada Group LLC. LOC-LC-USZC4-6698, by William McIlvaine.

College of William & Mary, photographed by Ellen Rudolph.

LOC-DIG-ppmsca-20192 , by Alfred Waud.

National Archives, 111-B-4188 (Scott) and 111-B-4624 (McClellan).

LOC-DIG-ppmsca-20740, “A Rainy Day on Picket” by Edwin Forbes.

LOC-USZ62-68151.

LOC-DIG-cw pb-0129.

Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond. Photo by Katherine Wetzel.

From the collection of Will Molineux, Virginia War Museum.

National Archives, 111-B-157.

Wikimedia Commons.

Frank Leslie’s Illustrated History of the Civil War, p. 166.

(McClellan) LOC LOC-USZ62-100751; (Magruder & Johnston) Wikimedia Commons.

LOC-USZ62-119936, photographer unknown, former Confederate fort along James River.

Virginia Historical Society, Sneden Mss5 1 Sn237 1 Vol1 0613.

Virginia Historical Society, Sneden. 1994.80.109.

LOC-USZC4-13352, “Confederate Camp” by M&N Hanhart.

From the collection of Will Molineux.

Brady National Photographic Art Gallery, LOC-DIG-cwpb-06280.

Nelson House 1860-65. LOC-DIG-cwpb-01542.

LOC-USZ62-9797.

LOC-DIG-ppmsca-21255, Drawing by Alfred R. Waud, Harper’s Weekly, Aug. 15, 1863.

Harper’s Weekly, May 17, 1862.

Virginia Historical Society, Sneden Mss5.1.Sn237.1.

Letter from the private collection of Rick Calhoun.

Land mine from private collection of Will Molineux, published in Harper’s Weekly; LOC-DIG-cwpb-07530, Gabriel J. Rains, CSA. LOC-DIG-ppmsca-21282, by Alfred R. Waud.

LOC - LC-DIG-cwpb-05341.

Cowans Auctions. Coppens’ Louisiana Zouaves.

76 | CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

Marianne Martin, Visual Resources Librarian at Colonial Williamsburg, provided paintings and rare photos.

Penna Rogers of Colonial Williamsburg expedited several images.

Karen Rogers, admin. assistant and researcher at the Gazette, secured permissions for publication.

Will Molineux, retired editor with the Daily Press, offered advice and provided many photos and sketches.

Abbreviations: LOC Library of Congress Swem Library at the College of William & Mary, Bucktrout Day Book pp.

194-195.

31 LOC-LC-DIG-cwpb-01380.

32 LOC-USW33- 026180-C. 34 Wikimedia Commons, Copyright 1893 by Kurz & Allison, Chicago; PDUS – public domain in U.S. 36 Photo by Rick Calhoun.

36 Harper’s Weekly, “Hooker’s Division at Williamsburg,” from the collection of Will Molineux.

37 Photo by Rick Calhoun.

38 Virginia Historical Society, Sneden. 1994.80.133B. 38 Harper’s Weekly, “Hancock’s Brigade Chases Rebels,” from the collection of Will Molineux.

39 Harper’s Weekly. From the collection of Will Molineux.

40 Private Collection of Rick Calhoun.

40 Colonial Williamsburg.

42 Wikimedia Commons (both images).

43 Virginia Historical Society, Sneden 1994.80.133.B. 43 Colonial Williamsburg (both photos).

44 Wikimedia Commons, Longstreet; LOC-USZ62-58278 Early; LOCUSZ6-284 Pickett.

45 LOC-DIG-cwpbh-00463 (A.P. Hill): Wikimedia Commons (D.H. Hill); Historical Marker Data Base by Thomas Sully (Andrew Talocott); Virginia Historical Society (William Allen).

46 LOC-DIG-cwpb-06688 (Franklin); LOC-DIG-cwpb-06368 (Smith); LOC-DIG-ppmsca-19396 (Hooker).

47 Wikimedia Commons (Heintzelman,); LOC LOC-USZ62-100787 (Hancock) and LOC-B814- 2227 (Sumner); Weider History Group (Kearny).

49 Naval Historical Center NH 48723; LOC LC-B8171-3350; Naval Historical Center NH 42222.

49 National Park Service.

50 Harper’s Weekly, From the private collection of Will Molineux.

50 U.S. Naval Historical Center NH 53984.

51 National Archives, 165-SB-62.

52 LOC-LC-USZ62-117312.

53 Harper’s Weekly, from the private collection of Will Molineux.

54 Colonial Williamsburg.

54 Harper’s Weekly. From the collection of Will Molineux.

30

55 55 56 57 57 59 59 60 60 61 63 63 64 64 65 66 66 67 68 69 69 70 70 71 71 72 73 73 74 75 75

Cows on the Campus, Dr. Neil P. Campbell collection.

Becker Collection, Boston, CW-EM-VA-10-1-64.

Becker Collection, Boston, CW-JB-VA-11-23-64.

Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg journal, 1978.301.1, “Lynchburg Negro Dance”

by Lewis Miller.

LOC-USZ62-15662.

New York Historical Society.

Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Civil War. Wikimedia Commons.

Dr. Echols, www.braceface.com.

LOC-USZ62-57032.

Photo courtesy of Rick Calhoun.

LOC LOC-DIG-ppmsca-20741.

National Archives, John Mosby.

Encyclopedia of the Civil War, p. 120.

LOC-DIG-ppmsca-20751.

Harper’s Weekly. From the private collection of Will Molineux.

Harper’s Weekly. From the private collection of Will Molineux.

Becker Collection, Boston, courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

LOC LC-DIG-ppmsca-20003, by William McIlvaine.

LOC-DIG-cwpb-01045 photo by George Barnard.

LOC-DIG-cwpb-06280 (Johnston), LOC-DIG-cwpb-04402 (Lee).

LOC-DIG-ppmsca-22393, by Alfred Waud.

LOC-B8184-10688.

LOC-LC-DIG-cwpb-01063, by James F. Gibson.

LOC-USZ62-132754.

Virginia Historical Society, Sneden. 1994.80.179.A. LOC-DIG-cwpb-00300, by David B. Woodbury, August 1862.

National Archives, 4166929568_94d1f22a18_b.

Soldiers bathing, from the private collection of Rick Calhoun; National Archives, 111-B-220. Soldiers at rest near Petersburg, National Archives.

Photo courtesy of Rick Calhoun.

FOOTNOTES 5 6 9 9 10 10 13 14 15 15 17 18 18 20 21 21 22 23 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 29 30 32 34 36 36 37 38 38 39 40 40 42 43 43 44 45 46 47 49 49

2011

Staff Officers in Gray, p. 124.

Civil War Times Illustrated, Vol. VI, No. 3, pp. 28-32.

Generals in Blue, pp. 290, 429.

Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls, p. 41.

Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls, p. 44.

The Civil War on the Virginia Peninsula, p. 23-25.

15th Virginia Infantry; Civil War Williamsburg, pp. 14, 16.

To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 20-24.

To the Gates of Richmond and George B. McClellan The Young Napoleon, pp. 170-171.

The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 1, pp. 403-410.

George B. McCellan The Young Napoleon, p.1; To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 24-25; Virginia Magazine, February 1995, p 6.

Sword over Richmond, p.76.

“Historical Connections,” Newport News Visitor Center.

Defend This Old Town, pp.72-73.

The Civil War on the Virginia Peninsula, pp. 8, 91, 97-98. To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 37-38.

To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 55, 56. “The Battle of Dam No. 1,” Newport News Park.

The Civil War on the Virginia Peninsula, p. 108. Defend this Old Town, p. 72.

The Civil War on the Virginia Peninsula, pp. 8, 91, 97; To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 37-38.

Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Colonial National Historic Park.

Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls, p. 87.

The Civil War on the Virginia Peninsula, p. 108. Defend this Old Town, pp. 73-76.

Civil War Times Illustrated Vol. VI, No. 5, pp. 12-23.

Letter dated Aug. 7, 1861, from Captain John S. Walker.

The Confederate Soldier in the Civil War, p. 438.

Eye of the Storm – A Civil War Odyssey, p. 64. www.civilwarhome.com; Defend this Old Town, pp. 143, 171.

“The Druex Battalion” p. 55.

Defend This Old Town, p. 41.

Defend this Old Town, p. 73. Cows on the Campus, p. 64. va.virginia.gov/public/guides/rn30_lostrecords.pdf .

Defend This Old Town, pp. 77-171.

Defend This Old Town, pp.77-171.

Redoubt Park, Virginia Civil War Trails signage. Defend this Old Town, pp. 139-142.

National Archives and Records Administration, Civil War medical and pension files.

Fort Magruder, Civil War Trails signage. Touring Virginia and West Virginia’s Civil War Sites, p. 290. Colonial Williamsburg journal, Summer 1996, pp. 14-25.

Defend This Old Town, pp. 155-171.

An Epitome of My Tramp Through the Civil War, pp. 2-3. 11th Virginia Infantry, pp. 60-61 Private Collection of Rick Calhoun.

The William & Mary Quarterly, January 1933, pp.26-27.

Colonial Williamsburg journal, “My Peninsula Campaign” by Cynthia B.T. Coleman, p. 2-3; Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, pp.124-126; Amazing Women of the Civil War, pp. 13-20.

Civil War Williamsburg, p. 58.

Defend This Old Town, pp. 77-171. A Most Sanquinary Engagement, p. 34.

Generals in Gray, pp. 79, 192, 239. battlefieldportraits.com.; To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 70-74; The Civil War Volume II: The Picture Chronicle of Events, Leaders & Battlefields of the War, p. 178.

Generals in Blue, pp. 159, 233, 463. www.battlefieldportraits.com; Defend This Old Town, p. 83.

Records of the Page-Nelson Family Society of Virginia; River of Lost Opportunies: The Civil War on the James River, p. 49.

Embattled Shrine, pp. 14-15, 26-30.

VIRTUE VALOR

SACRIFICE|

FOOTNOTES 50 50 53 54 54 55 55 56 57 57 59 59 60 60 63 63 64 64 66 66 67 68 69 69 70 70 71 71 72 73 73 74 75 75

2011

Embattled Shrine, pp. 78, 97-99, 124, 126.

Embattled Shrine, pp. 74-76, 123-124. To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 93-94; River of Lost Opportunies: The Civil War on the James River, p. 46-51.

Embattled Shrine, pp. 100, 127.

Cows on the Campus, pp. 39-41. The History of Eastern State, esh.dmhmrsas.virginia.gov.

Civil War Williamsburg, pp. 24, 29, 88. Defend this Old Town, pp. 229-230, 234.

Cows on the Campus, pp. 56-61. Defend this Old Town, p.15. Colonial Williamsburg, research.history.org.

Civil War Williamsburg, p. 43. Cows on the Campus, p. 66. Defend this Old Town, p. 356.

Civil War Williamsburg, p. 76. Defend this Old Town, pp. 306, 339-340.

From private collection of the author.

The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South.

A House For a President, pp. 126-127; Life in Tent and Field 1861-1865, p. 68.

Richmond Dispatch, Feb. 25, 1863; 32nd Virginia Infantry, p. 34.

The Civil War, Foote, Vol. 1 pp. 540-541, 704-710 & Vol. 2 pp. 120-121.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 18, p. 209.

The Common Soldier of the Civil War, p. 110.

No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion, p. 199. The Dorsey-Coupland Papers.

Colonial Williamsburg journal, “My Peninsula Campaign” by Cynthia B.T. Coleman, p. 17.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 46, Part 1, p. 458; Series 2, Vol. 46, Part 2, p. 538.

To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 88-89. lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/t/Thomson,Ruffin.html.

Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls, pp. 91-93.

To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 84-85.

Civil War Times Illustrated, Feb. 1963, pp 38-41.

Images from the Storm, p. 72. To the Gates of Richmond, p. 104.

The Civil War, Foote, Vol 1, pp. 446-449.

Joseph E. Johnston and the Defense of Richmond, p. 209-212.

Prey for Us All p. 34.

A War of the People, p.83, 81.

“Terrible Swift Sword,” pp. 325-337, 339, 347.

“Terrible Swift Sword,” pp. 325, 337, 390.

Eye of the Storm – A Civil War Odyssey, p. 103.

To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 350-355. Defend This Old Town, p. 264. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, p. 939.

Gone for a Sojer Boy, pp. 23-24.

Echoes from the Boys of Company H, p. 84. www.civilwarhome.com/Casualties.

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the road forward branscome.com

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Virginia Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the American Civil War Historic Triangle Local Sesquicentennial Committee

The mission of our Local Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee is to support Virginia's Sesquicentennial Commemoration by sharing the story of the American Civil War in and with America’s Historic Triangle community.

To fulfill its mission, the Local Committee intends to: • Bring together and encourage collaboration among those individuals and organizations most capable and committed to educating and engaging the residents in, and visitors to, James City County, York County, and the City of Williamsburg.

• Highlight, support, promote, market and coordinate the best opportunities to educate and engage residents and visitors; prepare a comprehensive schedule and promotional plan; and identify, preserve and interpret our Civil War sites.

• Collaborate regionally, in particular with local Sesquicentennial Committees in the Cities of Hampton and Newport News, Counties of New Kent, Charles City and Henrico, and the City of Richmond.

By resolutions of their governing bodies, the three localities of Williamsburg, James City and York appointed the Historic Triangle Collaborative (Sandy Wanner, Chair) to carry out the work of the Local Sesquicentennial Committee through the auspices of the Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance (Dick Schreiber, President) serving as the lead agency guiding the effort. To that end, two sub-committees, Education and Marketing, meet frequently to coordinate the regional effort. The Historic Triangle Collaborative would like to thank the following people for their service on those sub-committees:

Mitch Bowman Carla Brittle Priscilla Caldwell Michael J. Connolly Christopher Daley Lewis Edwards Robert F. Engs

Randall Foskey Patrick Golden Darlene Graham Bea Hardy Bob Harris, (Marketing Committee Chair) Bob Hershberger Anne Hillegass Kate Hoving Carson O. Hudson, Jr. Karol Hull Mike Litterst

Virginia Civil War Trails James City County Williamsburg Hotel & Motel Association & Greater Williamsburg Tourist Information Center The College of William & Mary Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation City of Williamsburg Parks and Recreation Department Professor Emeritus of History, University of Pennsylvania Visiting Distinguished Professor of History, The College of William & Mary Consulting Scholar for the Lemon Project Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance Williamsburg Regional Library York County School Division The College of William & Mary Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance Colonial Williamsburg City of Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Williamsburg Chapter 637, United Daughters of the Confederacy National Park Service

Richard Mather Sally McConnell David J. Meredith J. Michael Moore Kristi Olsen Amy M. Parker Ken Parsons Tom Patton James M. Perry Jody Puckett Jason Purse Theresa Redd Karen G. Rehm Lori C Rierson Carol Sheriff Dan Smith Teri Toepke Jack Tuttle, (Education Committee Chair) Mary Lou W. Wagner Bill Weldon Kyra Cook

Williamsburg Civil War Roundtable Colonial Williamsburg York County Parks & Recreation Newport News Historic Services York County York County Planning Division Sons of Confederate Veterans, Camp 2095, James City Cavalry Historic Jamestowne Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service James City County James City County Williamsburg James City School Division Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service City of Williamsburg Parks and Recreation Department The College of William and Mary Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service The College of William & Mary City of Williamsburg Williamsburg Chapter 637, United Daughters of the Confederacy Colonial Williamsburg Sesquicentennial Committee Coordinator Historic Triangle Collaborative Manager

For more information on local Civil War Sesquicentennial activities please visit

www.WilliamsburgCivilWar.com