SHERMAN’S EAGER BUMMERS LOOT GEORGIA P. 52
T H E
A U TH ORI TY
ON
THE
WAS GUERRILLA WAR A REBEL OPTION? P. 18
C ONF L IC T,
EST.
1962
Discovery!
How a slave picture found on eBay changes the story of Selina Gray, far right, helped save priceless Lee family artifacts. This recently found image shows Gray at Arlington.
TORPEDO RAKES & STEAM RAMS
Weird Union Naval Inventions TIMBERCLADS & TINCLADS
February 2015
HistoryNet.com
Yankee Gunboats Rule the Heartland
Here it was that General Lee realized it was over. . . this was the true turning point ++
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February 2015
Contents
32
Arlington’s Enslaved Savior By Kim A. O’Connell
Selina Gray protected Washington family heirlooms during the Union occupation of Robert E. Lee’s home
➧
Ahead of Its Time
George Clay of New York was one of several inventors who proposed underwater cannons to Union officials. Clay noted it would be necessary to get into close quarters with an opponent to achieve the correct trajectory. But the real problem was finding a workable means of firing through a host-hull and have it remain watertight. That was a conundrum that Civil War–era technology could not solve, thereby dooming Clay’s underwater weapon to failure. Yet the concept eventually resulted in the self-propelled torpedo (story, P. 46). On the cover: Selina Gray is pictured outside her Arlington slave quarters with two girls, perhaps her youngest and eldest daughters (story, P. 32).
FOLLOW US ON
38
Control the Heartland By William Whyte
$SHFXOLDUÁHHWRIVKDOORZGUDIWKHDYLO\DUPHG gunboats patrolled the rivers by the fall of 1861
9
Letters&Opinion Potomac River blockade journal
46
Will That Thing Work? By David J. Gerleman
7KH861DY\ZDVÁRRGHGZLWKLGHDVIRU weapons—some bizarre and some pragmatic
13 WeiderReader More great reads
14 Past&Present 150th of CSS Albemarle’s sinking
18 Blue&Gray The folly of continued guerrilla warfare
52
‘ Forage Liberally from the Country’
24 Image&Insight “Heavies” strike a pose
By Anne Sarah Rubin
26 Q&A
Sherman’s Bummers learned to live off the land during their March to the Sea
28 %DWWOHÀHOGV %H\RQG
The Papers of Abraham Lincoln City of Brotherly Love
31 Thoughts&Comments
58
The Song That Keeps Marching On By John Stauffer
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” had its beginnings at Southern camp meetings
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67 Books&Media Broken bones and bodies
81 Etc. The Cushing brothers
82 Old&Sold Bombs a’plenty
Civil War Tours 2015 April 8-9 (Wed & Thurs) Sunset of the Confederacy: 7KH)DOORI3HWHUVEXUJDQG/HH¶V5HWUHDWWR$SSRPDWWR[ 6SHFLDO6HVTXLFHQWHQQLDO7RXU )ROORZOHJHQGDU\EDWWOH¿HOGWRXUJXLGHEdwin C. Bearss as he takes you through the closing battles of the Petersburg Campaign of 1864. Then we’ll follow the retreat of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and conclude the tour with a visit to Appomattox Court $325 House. Evening lectures by 5REHUW..ULFN 5(/.ULFN
May 2-3 6DW 6XQ &KDQFHOORUVYLOOH /HH¶V*UHDWHVW9LFWRU\ Join historians5REHUW..ULFN 'U*DU\*DOODJKHUas we cover the historic events associated with Robert E Lee’s dramatic victory at Chancellorsville. We’ll VWDUWDW(O\¶V)RUGIROORZ6WRQHZDOO-DFNVRQ¶VÀDQNPDUFKVWDQGRQWKHVSRWZKHUH-DFNson was mortally wounded and follow the ambulance route to Guinea Station. In addition we will tour the sites of the Second Battle of Fredericksburg and Salem Church. Evening lectures presented by 5REHUW..ULFN 'U*DU\*DOODJKHU $325
June 15-20 (Mon-Sat) %OXH *UD\7RXU Follow our historian guides as they lead you on this exciting comprehensive tour of the Civil War’s most dramatic battles. 5REHUW..ULFN will lead the group over WKH&KDQFHOORUVYLOOH%DWWOH¿HOGIROORZHGE\DGD\ORQJWRXURI*HWW\VEXUJ1DWLRQDO Military Park led by historian Jeffry Wert
Sept 19-20 (Sat & Sun) $QWLHWDP 0F&OHOODQ¶V0LOLWDU\0DVWHUSLHFH
Spend 2 days with historian Ed Bearss as we cover in detail the dramatic events of America’s bloodiest day. We’ll tour the famous sites of Antietam National Military Park including the North Woods, West Woods, Bloody Lane, and Burnside’s Bridge. Evening lectures by 'HQQLV)U\H 7HG$OH[DQGHU. $325
Oct 24-25 (Sat & Sun) *HWW\VEXUJ 7KH6HFRQG'D\ Follow historian Ed Bearss as we cover the extraordinary events of the pivotal day of the famous Battle of Gettysburg. We’ll visit Culp’s Hill, Little Round Top, Devil’s 'HQWKH:KHDW¿HOGDQGWKH6KHUI\3HDFK2UFKDUG Evening lectures by -HII:HUW 'U5LFKDUG6RPPHUV $325
Nov 13-15 )UL±6XQ 9LFNVEXUJ *UDQW¶V0LOLWDU\0DVWHUSLHFH Travel back in time with historians Ed Bearss and Terry Winschel as we devote 3 days to the famous Vicksburg Campaign. We’ll follow the action of the dramatic events associated with the Battles of Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill and the Big Black River Bridge. In addition, we’ll cover the siege operation at Vicksburg and visit the gunboat U.S.S. Cairo. Evening lectures by Terry Winschel. $550 2XUWRXUVLQFOXGHHYHQLQJOHFWXUHVOXQFKHDFKGD\PXOWLFRORUWDFWLFDOPDSV WKH¿QHVWEDWWOH¿HOGJXLGHV
Call (301) 676-4642 today for our 2015 brochure! Visit us on the web at: www.civilwartours.org
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Lincoln and Freedom by Lewis E. Lehrman
W EI DE R H I S T O R Y EDITOR IN CHIEF
Roger L. Vance
Vol. 54, No. 1 EDITOR ART DIRECTOR
FEBRUARY 2015
President Abraham Lincoln’s hand was shaking. New Year’s Day festivities on January 1, 1863 began at 11 A.M. The hundreds of hands Lincoln shook at the White House Reading the Emancipation Proclamation
Dana B. Shoaf Jennifer M. Vann Nan Siegel
Managing Editor
Chris K. Howland
Senior Editor
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Senior Editor
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Photo Editor/ Social Media Coordinator
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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, Michael McAfee, James M. McPherson, Mark E. Neely Jr., Megan Kate Nelson, Ethan S. Rafuse, Susannah Ural
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About noon, President Lincoln took time out from shaking hands to sign the corrected Emancipation Proclamation. Frederick Seward, assistant secretary of state, remembered coming from the nearby State Department to the White House: “We, threading our way through the throng in the vicinity of the White House, went upstairs to the President's room, where Mr. Lincoln speedily joined us. The broad sheet was spread open before him on the Cabinet table. Mr. Lincoln dipped his pen in the ink, and then...
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All through the state, Mississippi’s Civil War heritage is a key component of America’s story. See collections of two presidents— Confederate President Jefferson Davis at Beauvoir and President Ulysses S. Grant at Mississippi State University. Journey through two of the most studied military EDWWOHÀHOGV³9LFNVEXUJDQG%ULFH·V Crossroads. Watch the story of this WUDJLFFRQÁLFWFRPHDOLYHDW&RULQWK·V Civil War Interpretive Center and the Contraband Camp. Browse VisitMississippi.org to start writing your own chapter.
Letters&Opinion LETTER of
NOTE
Private Gause included this map in his notebook (Cockpit Point is at left). He also made other maps that were cut out—likely to give to his officers— with numerical keys to camps, structures, roads, etc.
Fantastic Field Book I was very glad to see the December “Battlefields & Beyond” about the Confederate blockade of the Potomac River. I have been interested in that operation for many years. My great-grandfather Samuel Sydney Gause Jr., was involved in that operation. He was a private in Company G of the 1st Arkansas Infantry, the Jacksonport Guards. He was a newly minted lawyer, having graduated from Cumberland University School of Law in December 1860, but he also knew surveying, and he was appointed to survey the Potomac River forts. I have his surveyor’s field book. There are about 15 pages of field notes of bearings and distances along roads, with descriptions, measurements and sketches that he combined into maps, such as the one shown here. All four batteries are shown, including the one at Cockpit Point and two at Evansport, which was just Mr. Evans’ house, a landing and several warehouses. There is a book describing the operation, The Confederate Blockade of Washington, D.C., 1861-1862, by Mary Alice Wills, Burd Street Press, 1973. However, it is focused entirely on the U.S. reaction. There is some C.S. information in the Official Records, and I have a Xerox copy of another map that identifies the regiments occupying each campsite shown on this map. There is also a discussion of it by W.E. Bevins, also in Company G, in his little book Reminiscences of a Private. Thanks for adding more information to my file on this operation. —Ed Thackston Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Thackston will receive a copy of Gateway to the Confederacy: New Perspectives on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, 1862-1863, for having his correspondence selected as this issue’s Letter of Note.
Grant the Opportunist I enjoyed Evan Jones’ article in your October issue on U.S. Grant’s conduct toward William Rosecrans at Iuka. Grant’s revered reputation has always astounded me. In my opinion, he was an ambitious, opportunistic man who continuously “backstabbed” other officers or took credit for their accomplishments. Vastly overrated in history, he rode his lone attribute—he would fight—to undeserved heights. If not for his hometown political connection to the powerful Congressman Elihu Washburne, Grant would not even have been a footnote to history. The fabrication of his role at Chattanooga and subsequent denigration of George H. Thomas is much worse that what he did at Iuka. —Robert J. Dwyer Travelers Rest, S.C.
Serendipity Thanks for highlighting Cockpit Point in the December issue. On the day I received my copy of Civil War Times, we received the deed to the Cockpit Point battlefield. I’m happy to report Prince William County owns the property, and we’ll start working on an interpretive plan and allowing public access to the fortifications. —Robert Orrison Historic Site Operations Supervisor, Prince William County, Va., Historic Preservation Division
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 9
Letters&Opinion
Election Addition In your December 2014 issue, you included a “Close Call?” item [P. 17] and an accompanying electoral map about the 1864 Presidential Election. The map shows Nevada with two electoral votes. It actually had three, the minimum any state could ever have (based on two senators and one representative). The map also shows incorrect Lincoln margins of victory in two states. His margin in Michigan was 10.2 percent, not 7.2 percent, and in Pennsylvania 3.3 percent, not 3.5 percent. These figures come from Congressional Quarterly’s Presidential Elections, 1789-1996. More significant, the item and map do not reveal the bottom line: the switch of a mere 29,935 votes in certain states out of the 4,031,195 votes cast nationwide (less than 1 percent of the national vote) would have given the election to McClellan by one electoral vote. This is significant because, despite the appearance of a landslide Lincoln victory, McClellan came close to winning— even though the Union had captured 10 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
Atlanta and Mobile Bay and swept through the Shenandoah Valley in the months before the election. A McClellan victory would have had dire consequences for Emancipation and possibly Union victory. —Ed Bonekemper Willow Street, Pa. I went through the electoral map in the December 2014 issue and found that you gave President Lincoln not 212 electoral votes but 220 electoral votes. I believe you counted Michigan’s electoral votes twice. See P. 17; there is an 8 outside Michigan. —Michael Bamford Newburyport, Mass. Infographic author David Fuller responds: Mr. Bonekemper is correct that Nevada had three electoral votes. Only two of those electoral votes were cast in the election, however, because a snowstorm apparently prevented one of the electors from voting.
The different margin percentages for Michigan and Pennsylvania can be explained by which sources were used. The state popular vote numbers we used were from David Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (uselectionatlas.org), in which he claims to use primary source material (state returns) and Congressional Quarterly’s Presidential Elections, 1789-2000. There is indeed a discrepancy between the numbers given on Leip’s website and the numbers Mr. Bonekemper used—resulting in the different percentage results he quotes. The reason for the difference would require further in-depth research and analysis. As to Mr. Bamford’s letter, he’s mistakenly counted the electoral vote symbol that is part of the map key (located just outside Michigan) to get his total of 220. Nowhere do I claim Lincoln received 220 electoral votes—if you look at the bar graph in the lower right-hand corner, we clearly show that the Electoral Vote was 212 vs. 21.
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Haunt of the High Seas
Funston of the Philippines
From the January 2015 issue
From the January 2015 issue
During the summer of 1861, Northern shippers trembled at the mention of the Confederate raider Jefferson Davis.
T
he Naval Historical Center calls the voyage of the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis “the last truly classic cruise in the history of privatearmed sea power.” Indeed, Jefferson Davis was the war’s single most successful maritime raider. ♦ Just three days after Fort Sumter fell, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation inviting “all those who may desire by armed service in private vessels on the high seas to aid this government” to apply for “commissions or letters of marque and reprisal….” This was a call for privateers: vessels commissioned as commerce raiders, privately owned and crewed by individuals. ♦2QHRIWKHÀUVWRZQHUVWRUHVSRQGZDV&DSWDLQ5REHUW Hunter, a Charleston, S.C., shipping merchant, who sought a letter of marque for his vessel, the square-rigged Baltimore brig Echo. When Hunter solicited shareholders, some 27 locals signed on. But his letter of marque was nearly two months in coming—by which time Hunter and his investors had changed the vessel’s name to Jefferson Davis. AMERICAN HISTORY
Philadelphia Fever From the February 2015 issue
Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic of 1793 was arguably the most devastating health crisis to strike the early republic.
P
hiladelphia was the seat of the American government, and with over 50,000 inhabitants, the young nation’s largest city and premier port. Yellow fever began its grim march in late July or early August. By the time the epidemic ended in November, almost 10 percent of the population had died and nearly KDGÁHG,Q6HSWHPEHU6HFUHWDU\RI6WDWH7KRPDV-HIIHUVRQZDVOHIW with only one clerk. “An infection and mortal fever is broke out in this place,” Jefferson reported. “The deaths under it, the week before last, were about forty; the last week fifty. This week they will probably be about two hundred, and it is increasing. Every one is getting out of the city who can. The President…set out for Mount Vernon….I shall go in a few days to Virginia. When we shall reassemble again may, perhaps, depend on the course of this malady.”
During 1901 Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston masterminded a “desperate undertaking” to quash the guerilla insurrection WKDWÁDUHGXSDIWHU the Spanish-American War
I
n the spring of 1901, Frederick Funston, a young brigadier general of volunteers, approached U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Arthur MacArthur Jr., military governor of the recently occupied Philippines, with an audacious plan. Funston proposed a covert expedition to Luzon’s interior to penetrate the hideout of Emilio Aguinaldo, commander of Filipino resistance to the U.S. acquisition of the islands after the SpanishAmerican War. His plan called for 81 Macabebe scouts on Luzon to disguise themselves as insurgents DQGHVFRUWVHYHUDO86RIÀFHUV³ Funston included—posing as their prisoners. The ruse, he believed, would let them capture Aguinaldo. Though MacArthur considered the proposed expedition “a desperate undertaking,” he approved Funston’s “stratagem.” On March 6, 1901, the gunboat USS Vicksburg sailed with the “guerrillas” aboard.
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Past&Present
Commemorating CSS Albemarle ’s Sinking On October 27, 1864, Lieutenant William B. Cushing wrote to Rear Adm. David Porter, “the rebel ironclad Albemarle is at the bottom of the Roanoke River.” Cushing had just narrowly escaped with his life during D GDULQJ DWWDFN RQ WKH LURQFODG LQ ZKLFK³WKRXJK XQGHU ÀUH³KH PDQDJHG to position a spar torpedo beneath the Southern vessel’s hull. ♦ Designed to operate in North Carolina’s shallow sounds and armed with two 6.4-inch %URRNH SLYRWLQJ ULÁHG FDQQRQV WKH LURQFODG UDP ZDV IHHW ORQJ DQG IHHW ZLGH ZLWK D IRRW GUDIW 2Q $SULO Albemarle sank the Union gunboat 6RXWKÀHOG near Plymouth, N.C., and forced a number of other Federal vessels to retreat down the Roanoke. ♦2Q2FWREHUWKH3RUW 2·3O\PRXWK 0XVHXP FRPPHPRUDWHG WKH WK DQQLYHUVDU\ RI Albemarle’s VLQNLQJLQDUHHQDFWPHQW7KHFHQWHUSLHFHWKDWGD\ZDVDIRRWORQJUHSOLFD RIWKHLURQFODGEXLOWLQDÁRDWEHKLQGWKHPXVHXPLQ3O\PRXWK1&,Q addition to tours and demonstrations, canoeists and kayakers were invited to SDUWLFLSDWHLQ´&XVKLQJ·V(VFDSH WK$QQLYHUVDU\3DGGOHμ,I\RXPLVVHG out on that event, plan on participating in Port O’Plymouth’s Living History :HHNHQG$SULO7RÀQGRXWPRUHVHHOLYLQJKLVWRU\ZHHNHQGFRP
14 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
➧
A Union salvage crew raised CSS Albemarle at the end of the war and floated the ironclad ram to the Norfolk Navy Yard, where this image was taken.
Though not as large as the original ram, the Port O’Plymouth Museum’s scale model of Albemarle still looks like it could be a fearsome opponent in a fight.
Restoration and New Home for
ATLANTA CYCLORAMA The new home for the Battle of Atlanta painting, currently under construction on the campus of the Atlanta History Center LQ%XFNKHDGLVH[SHFWHGWRRSHQLQ 0HDQZKLOHWKH \HDUROGDUWZRUNSDLQWHGE\ a group of German artists in Milwaukee at the studios of the American Panorama Company and long displayed at Grant Park, is undergoing DPLOOLRQUHVWRUDWLRQ7KHZRUNEHLQJGRQH includes restoring the painting to its original full size. What’s more, once it goes back on display, visitors will again be able to see the DUWZRUNDVD'H[SHULHQFH)RUPRUHRQWKH project, see atlantacyclorama.org.
Land Saved Along the North Anna IN OCTOBER 2014, THE CIVIL WAR TRUST ACQUIRED 654 ACRES on the North Anna River at Jericho Mill where fighting occurred on May 23, 1864. The area to be preserved includes the Fontaine Farm and the ruins of Jericho Mill, as well as the surrounding land on both sides of the river. During the fundraising campaign, Civil War Trust President James Lighthizer enthused, “we will save the entire battlefield in one fell swoop!” On May 23, Union forces set up pontoon bridges at Jericho Mill in pursuit of Lee’s army during the Overland Campaign. Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps was nearly caught in a trap laid by the Army of Northern Virginia, but his men were able to hang on to a well-defended bridgehead along the river, and after heavy fighting the Confederates retreated at dark. Lee, who was absent from the field that day due to illness, reproached Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, saying: “Why did you let those people cross here? Why didn’t you throw your whole force on them and drive them back as Jackson would have done?” A wartime photograph taken on the south bank of the North Anna River shows Jericho Mill in the foreground and the Union pontoon bridge.
National Portrait Gallery Exhibits
Time is running out to see an array of Civil War–related exhibits at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., that are tied to the Sesquicentennial. These include: ■
Mathew Brady’s Photographs of Union Generals (HQGVLQ0D\)
■
Washington During the Civil War (WKURXJK-DQXDU\)
■
Grant and Lee (HQGV$SULO )
■
Alexander Gardner (WKURXJK0D\)
For more information on these and related displays, including the Portrait Gallery’s “American Origins” permanent exhibit, see npg.si.edu/ exhibit/cw/npgcivilwar.html.
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 15
Past&Present
Q THE FLEMING FILE Rare images from the collection of Matthew Fleming
“Fighting is nothing to the evils of the river— getting on shore, running afoul of one another, losing anchors, etc.” — UNION ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT
´Ural on URLs
THE CIVIL WAR ON THE INTERNET
Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North http://publications.newberry.org/digitalexhibitions/exhibits/ show/homefront/introduction
“H 1st Lt. Alonzo Coy’s military career began in May 1842, when he served with the Washington Light Guard, and this image dates from that era. He fought in the Mexican War before heading to California to seek his fortune in gold. By 1853, he was a captain with the San Francisco Eureka Light Horse Guard. In 1861 he was appointed first lieutenant of the 11th Massachusetts Volunteers, and was later promoted to quartermaster. In that role, he was dispatched to Washington, D.C., with $1,000 in his pocket—which was either lost or stolen during the trip. At the time, Coy was grieving the recent loss of his wife. Distraught and facing the prospect of disciplinary action, Coy returned to camp near Alexandria, Va., where he shot himself in his tent. The New York Times reported that Coy “was, probably, one of the most efficient Quartermasters in the army, and his death has cast a gloom upon the spirits of all who knew him.”
16 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
ome Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North” focuses on “the deep connections between Northern home fronts and Civil War battle fronts, revealing that even those who lived far from the fighting felt the war’s effects every day.” There are of course a variety of ways to show this, but Chicago’s famed Newberry Library has teamed with the Terra Foundation for American Art to portray how Northerners experienced the war through popular culture. The result of their efforts is a site that offers powerful, sophisticated insights into wartime thought, matched with rich source material that viewers can enjoy and share with larger audiences. The site is organized around eight themes: Cotton Kingdom, Contrabands, Indian Country, Stand by the Flag, Women’s Work, Chicago in the War, Autumn of War and War’s End. Each of these includes 4-6 subsections that present anywhere from one to several images or other material around which the exhibit creators present a historical discussion. In
The engraving on this envelope encouraged single women to become nurses.
“Indian Country,” for example, visitors learn about everything from the Dakota War to the Sand Creek Massacre, topics that are, at least until recently, vastly understudied. A bonus for teachers is a resource page that offers discussion questions and added materials geared toward state standards, which are accessible in the Newberry’s “Digital Resources for the Classroom” section at: http://dcc.newberry.org/ collections/home-front-thevisual-culture-of-the-civil-warnorth.—Susannah J. Ural
Q WAR GRAPH
ARMING THE UNION
From the East Coast across the heartland to the territories and states of the West, the North developed a series of arsenals to supply Old Abe’s troops. Certain arsenals, like the Schuylkill and the Cincinnati, primarily produced clothing, while others specialized in weapons or ammunition. Some, like the Watervliet Arsenal near Albany, N.Y., are still operating, producing materiel for today’s Army. The map does not include prewar U.S. arsenals captured and used by the Confederacy.
Artist Reinterprets Southern Icons SOUTH CAROLINA ARTIST LEO FRANKLIN TWIGGS, who developed his own innovative batik technique to produce his work, frequently incorporates the Confederate flag and other Civil War iconography into his pieces. When he was recently asked why he has so often included icons such as the Stars and Bars in his pieces, Twiggs responded: “The Confederate Flag is an icon that Whites in the South love to remember, and most Blacks would like to forget; yet, within the dichotomy of these two views is the passion within us all to remember the past and to hold on to some special moment of triumph.” Born in 1934, Twiggs was the first African American to receive a Doctorate of the Arts from the University of Georgia. In 1981 he was awarded the South Carolina Governor’s Trophy for his contributions to the arts. His studio is in Orangeburg, S.C., where he’s the Distinguished Artist in Residence at Claflin University. Two South Carolina galleries, Hampton III in Taylors and if ART in Columbia, represent his work.
QUIZ: Harbor Bastion Name this storied fort and send your answer via e-mail to
[email protected] or via regular mail (19300 Promenade Dr., Leesburg, VA 20176) marked “Harbor Fort.” The first correct answer will win a book. Congratulations to last issue’s winner, Steve Narrie of Snellville, Ga. (e-mail), and Vickie Dempster of Sunray, Texas (mail), who correctly identified the battlefield of Brice’s Cross Roads near Baldwyn, Miss.
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 17
Blue&Gray
BY GARY W. GALLAGHER
Unconventional Warfare Should Confederates have pursued wide-scale guerrilla resistance?
This is not to say that guerrilla activities should be ignored. The few thousand genuine guerrillas contributed to chaotic social conditions in a number of places, most obviously in parts of Missouri and areas radiating out from the spine of the Appalachian Mountains. Civilians suffered amid an escalating drama of brutality, reprisals and freebooting lawlessness. The Confederacy sought to manage its guerrilla problem with the Partisan Ranger Act of 18 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
➧
G
uerrillas did not play a major role in shaping the military outcome of the Civil War. First to last, conventional armies composed of citizen-soldiers waged operations that dictated swings of national morale, determined control over the most important waterways and logistical areas of the Confederacy and, ultimately, decided the fate of slavery. Of the more than 3 million men who served, the overwhelming majority fought in regular units commanded by duly appointed officers. The outcome of the Seven Days’ Battles, which brought Robert E. Lee to the fore and did much to place emancipation on the table for the United States, had more to do with how long the war lasted than all guerrilla activities during the entire conflict combined. The depredations of outliers such as William Clarke Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson, as well as the headline-grabbing but vastly overrated exploits of John Singleton Mosby, scarcely influenced any campaign in a meaningful way. Expanding the definition of guerrilla to include officers such as John Hunt Morgan, as sometimes happens, does not change the picture. (Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl Van Dorn cannot be termed guerrillas or irregulars by any reasonable definition of the term.)
The murderous actions of “Bloody Bill” Anderson, who terrorized Union troops and sympathizers in Missouri, often had little to do with larger Confederate strategy, but he became a folk hero among the state’s Rebel populace. He was shot dead in October 1864.
April 1862, only to repeal it less than two years later as irregular groups proved resistant to any type of discipline. Early guerrilla activity in Missouri also helped inspire Francis Lieber’s attempt to codify the rules of war, signed by President Lincoln and issued as General Orders No. 100 in April 1863. “Gen [Henry ] Halleck called upon me, after my correspondence with him, to write a pamphlet on guerrillas,” Lieber wrote to Charles Sumner in May 1863, “which
I did….At last I wrote to Halleck that he ought to issue a Code on the Law of Nations so far as it relates to the armies in the field. I was approached, and here is the thing.” Some historians believe the Confederacy should have pursued a widescale guerrilla resistance. They argue that Confederate manpower within this context would have lasted almost indefinitely; that the Northern public lacked the commitment to suppress dedicated guerrillas; that the Con-
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federacy could have relinquished considerable territory without materially damaging its cause; and that the Revolutionary War demonstrated how a guerrilla conflict for national liberation could succeed. If subjected to the realities confronting the Confederacy, however, a guerrilla-based “war of liberation” seems an anachronistic pipe dream. Such a policy would have required Confederates to repudiate their obvious military leaders. R.E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard and other West Point–trained soldiers represented an ideal of the gentleman as military officer that held great appeal in the antebellum South. Considering antebellum efforts to replicate West Point at the Virginia Military Institute, the Military College of South Carolina and elsewhere, it is inconceivable that Confederates would have shunned prominent West Pointers in favor of some unknown men who would command small bands of partisans. Guerrilla war also would have been inappropriate for the kind of nation Confederates hoped to establish. They envisioned taking their place among the roster of recognized Western states, a goal that demanded creation of formal governmental institutions—including a national army and navy. In his inaugural address, Jefferson Davis spoke to his fellow citizens of “the position which we have assumed among the nations of the earth.” European recognition could prove decisive. Would Great Britain and France have recognized a fledgling Confederacy that relied on guerrilla units rather than on a formal army? Would harassment of Federal armies, rather than victories such as the Seven Days’ and Second Bull Run, have per-
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suaded Europeans that the Confederacy seemed destined to achieve independence—as Saratoga had pointed the way toward American independence in 1777? Supporters of the guerrilla option often cite the American Revolution as a precedent but emphasize the wrong dimension of that earlier struggle. Although partisans such as Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion earned success in the Revolution, Confederates looked for their models to George Washington, who always placed the broad interests of the nascent nation above local needs, and the Continental Army, which loomed large in the memory of Saratoga, Yorktown and other benchmark military events. As Beauregard wrote in the summer of 1861, “Washington and the Revolution should always be present in our minds.” The threat of social chaos in a slave-based society stood as the most important obstacle to a Confederate
22 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
policy of guerrilla war. The approach of Union forces understandably provoked alarm among Confederates about the consequences for their slaves. Late-antebellum fears of insurrection and reactions to Union invaders strongly suggest that Confederates would have opposed a guerrilla strategy that accelerated the process by which slaves came into contact with Federal armies. Since the South seceded in large measure to protect their slave-based society, it strains credulity to believe Confederates would select a strategy calculated to undermine their economic and social control over millions of black people. Ironically, Jefferson Davis supplied the opening for historians to broach the subject of guerrilla war. On April 4, 1865, he addressed the Confederate citizenry: “We have now entered upon a new phase of a struggle,” because the fall of Richmond rendered “our army free to move from
THE THREAT OF CHAOS IN A SLAVE-BASED SOCIETY WAS AN IMPORTANT OBSTACLE TO GUERRILLA WAR point to point, and strike in detail the detachments and garrisons of the enemy; operating in the interior of our own country, where supplies are more accessible, and where the foe will be far removed from his own base, and cut off from all succor in case of reverse.” For many historians, it seemed Davis belatedly recognized the merits of a guerrilla strategy. Often overlooked is his explicit mention of “our army,” by which he meant Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Davis envisioned not a “people’s war” but an unleashed Lee taking the offensive against whatever pieces of the Federal army he could find. ■
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Image&Insight Capital Defenders Troops of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, all spit and polish, collectively strike a pose inside Fort Richardson, one of the large earthen bastions that protected Washington, D.C. The Connecticut gunners built the fort, which was southwest of the city, in modern-day Arlington, Va. Veteran E.B. Bennett remembered days of “grubbing up stumps” over “fully ten acres of what had been Virginia forest.” The 1st camped near the fort at Camp Ingalls, a spot that Bennett considered so remote he said he would “be glad when he got back into America again”—a comment soldiers engaged in far-flung Southern campaigns would have likely found humorous, if not annoying. On January 11, 1862, Bennett remembered that “Brady, of Washington,” came by to take photographs of his unit, and this image was likely taken that day. The Connecticut men manned Fort Richardson until May 1864, when they, like many of the “heavies” guarding Washington, were ordered to reinforce the Overland Campaign against the Army of Northern Virginia. Unlike some heavy artillery regiments that were eventually converted to infantry, the 1st Connecticut continued to man its heavy guns and mortars, including the famous “Dictator,” used in the Siege of Petersburg.
24 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
3
2
1
Gunners man a 24-pounder siege and garrison gun, Model 1819. These stout cast-iron smoothbores were last produced in 1840, but with more than 1,200 in the Army inventory, the Union put them to good use.
2
Two men stand at the base of the cannon’s trail with large handspikes, which were used to leverage the gun to the left or right.
3
This crewman, who is holding a rammer, wears a friction primer pouch to the left of his cartridge box. Friction primers would be inserted in the vent and attached to a lanyard. When a crewman gave the lanyard a sharp pull, the friction primer sparked, setting off the barrel charge.
4
This small “tent” represents a bit of a mystery. It may have covered a pyramid of shells or shot, or perhaps extra fuses. It seems to be placed too close to the gun to cover gunpowder bags. Note a similar tent is visible along the far wall.
5
Colonel Robert Ogden Tyler, the 1st Connecticut’s battery commander (later promoted to brigadier general), strikes a Napoleonic pose, with his hand tucked inside his coat.
6
A pyramid of solid shot is neatly stacked, ready for action. Each solid shot weighed a little more than 24 pounds. Several stands of grapeshot can be seen just beyond this stack. Consisting of nine shells, each nearly 3 inches in diameter, a grapeshot stand weighed 30 pounds.
7
It took two men to ram and swab the large gun. Standing in a puddle, these two soldiers pose as if they are swabbing out the bore.
1 5 6
7
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FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 25
Q&A
Daniel Stowell
Casting a Wide Net for Lincoln’s Legacy Interview by Sarah Richardson Today’s presidents begin planning their libraries even before they leave office, but in Abraham Lincoln’s day such libraries did not exist, nor was there any formal procedure for collecting presidential documents. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln Project, led by director Daniel Stowell, is making up for that by canvassing the country for documents written to, signed by or forwarded to Lincoln (papersofabrahamlincoln.org). “It’s a great experience, a great detective story and a great puzzle,” according to Stowell.
Back in the late 1940s and 1950s, the Abraham Lincoln Association assembled what is referred to as the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. That has been the standard documentary source for Lincoln studies and Civil War studies that touch on Lincoln’s life and career for about 70 years now. About 32 years after the Collected Works was published, the Abraham Lincoln Association and the state of Illinois partnered to start the Lincoln Legal Papers project, and that was to assemble all the papers from Lincoln’s 25-year legal career. When I became the director in 2000, I suggested that the Lincoln Legal Papers be expanded into the papers of Abraham Lincoln. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln was just that: his correspondence and his speeches, but it didn’t include the incoming correspondence and was only lightly annotated. So we made that case to the state of Illinois and the Abraham Lincoln Association— and by this point we also had as a partner the University of Illinois–Springfield—and they agreed to expand the mission. We basically converted the Lincoln Legal Papers into Series 1 of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, which What is the Papers of Abraham Lincoln Project?
26 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
was completed in 2008; Series 2 is the Illinois papers that includes Lincoln’s pre-presidential correspondence and speeches. And Series 3 is the presidential papers. Any document written by, signed by or endorsed by him is in our scope, and any letter written to him or forwarded to him (for example, a letter written to a senator and forwarded to Lincoln). And anything that we have evidence that it crossed his desk for his consideration. Documents about Lincoln are outside our scope. For specific guidelines on what we’re looking for and how to submit a Lincoln document, go to our website, papersofabrahamlincoln.org. What makes something a Lincoln document?
It is a vast undertaking. We have a benefit in that Abraham Lincoln is the most written-about president in history, and we have the Collected Works to rely on in identifying repositories with known substantial collections of Lincoln material. In 2003 we sent a mail survey to thousands of universities, archives and historical societies; we sent it to every county historical society in Illinois and surrounding states and to museums and anyplace that might have documents. We followed that up with a phone survey and got a pretty decent response. We got a core list of 300 repositories all over the country that had Lincoln documents or documents sent to Lincoln. From 2004–2008 we went out, typically in teams of two, and by the end we had thousands of documents from probably 45 states. How do you look for the documents?
We knew that the major untapped reserves would be at the Library of Congress because of the Abraham Lincoln papers there, donated by his son Robert in the early 20th century. Of about 20,000 in that collection, only 1,500-2,000 were written by Lincoln; others were excluded from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, and we also knew the National Archives had a vast number of documents. And we began work with two researchers in 2006 at the National Archives—that search is still underway. Thus far we’ve identified about 61,000 documents at the National Archives, about 25,000 at the Library of Congress and about 25,000 at the Library of Congress. And his Cabinet Where are most of them found?
ABRAHAM LINCOLN SUED RAILROADS ABOUT AS OFTEN AS HE REPRESENTED THEM Researcher Caitlin Haynes examines court-martial case files at the National Archives for the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project. Court-martial records are among the thousands of newly discovered Lincoln documents gathered by researchers at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project.
officers and Civil War generals have papers/collections at the Library of Congress. Right now we’re at about 99,000 documents: maybe 61,000 from the National Archives, 25,000 from the Library of Congress and the remainder from over 400 repositories and over 200 private collections. We’re up to 48 states and at least half a dozen countries. And we still find things. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln doesn’t collect any paper. We are collecting high-resolution color digital images to make them all available online and searchable with their transcriptions. The key is to do the transcription and then put the material in context for the reader. The end result is an electronic archive of documents. What is the goal?
I would estimate another five years of searching at the National Archives. That’s the search phase. The transcription and contextualization is for the most part occurring in Springfield. There are 98,000 documents in our database; of those, approximately 32,000 have any sort of transcription. How long will you be looking for documents?
In ballpark numbers: Currently 45 percent are state funds through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and the University of Illinois–Springfield; about 25 percent is federal, with two main grants—one from the National Endowment for the Humanities and What is your funding?
one from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The remainder is private: individual donations, foundations and so forth. It’s a three-legged stool. The length of each leg varies from year to year. As I was doing research, I came across a letter from Alexandre Dumas—author of The Three Musketeers and other works—to Lincoln that had been published in a French newspaper from late 1865 and has since been digitized. It turns out that Pittsburgh had a sanitary fair [an aid and fundraising event] in 1864 and wanted to auction off famous people’s autographs, so they wrote to Dumas and for whatever reason he replied to Lincoln. He was so enthusiastic about the Union cause that he sent 100 copies of his autograph to be auctioned off. Are documents turning up outside the United States?
There’s a persistent myth that Lincoln started out with simple debt cases and then became a corporate attorney for the railroads, and that’s just not true. He was still handling simple debt cases in 1859 and 1860, and he wasn’t doing railroad work in 1830 and 1840s because there weren’t railroads. He sued railroads about as many times as he represented them. But this is not an archive for Lincoln biographers alone. I would like to suggest immodestly that when we’re done no one will be able to write a book about the Civil War era without finding something useful in our online edition. ■ What has surprised you most?
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 27
Battlefields&Beyond Philadelphia, Pa. Can’t Miss Bullets & Bones The Mütter Museum is an intriguing place to spend an afternoon, featuring a collection of skulls and medical oddities. Until 2018 you can take in a special exhibit, “Broken Bodies & Suffering Spirits: Injury, Death & Healing in Civil War Philadelphia.” See the exhibit review on P. 67 (müttermuseum.org). The statue of John Reynolds shows the general as he might have looked moments before he was shot down at Gettysburg.
Tucked between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, Philadelphia was the country’s second-largest city in 1860, an industrial center that played a major role in the Union war effort. The Frankford and Schuylkill arsenals, established in the early 19th century, produced ordnance, equipment and uniforms for Federal armies. Philadelphia was a major railroad hub and seaport, and as the largest Northern city close to the fighting in the Eastern Theater, it quickly became a major hospital center. The 24 military hospitals established during the war treated approximately 157,000 wounded troops. Philadelphians also bolstered the ranks, with about 100,000 men from the region, including 12,000 African Americans, fighting for the Union. Wealthy residents helped finance the conflict, too. In 1862 the Union League formed to raise funds and support a war that was dragging on longer than anyone had expected. Today the city’s grid system makes it easy to get around, so grab a cheesesteak and explore Philly’s rich history. The following sites are just a few of those you’ll find in the City of Brotherly Love.—Dana B. Shoaf
28 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
Loyal Men The Union League still meets in its wartime headquarters. Though entry is generally restricted to members, a Civil War exhibit on the building’s lower level is open to the public, and the two exceptional statues that guard the entrance are well worth a look (unionleague.org).
buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery. Founded in 1833 as one of America’s first rural cemeteries, Laurel HIll offers tours throughout the year, including some with a Civl War focus (thelaurelhillcemetery.org). River Bastion Fort Mifflin, on the Delaware River, is best known for the ferocious bombardment it withstood from British ships during the Revolutionary War. But it also served as a prison during the Civil War, and Rebel prisoners from the Battle of Gettysburg were processed there. Fort Mifflin remained active through World War II (fortmifflin.us).
Local Color
Native Sons Equestrian statues of Generals John Reynolds and George McClellan, both Pennsylvania natives, stand outside City Hall (Little Mac was born in the city, Reynolds in nearby Lancaster). A map of all the Civil War statuary in Philadelphia can be found at association forpublicart.org. Underground History Dozens of wartime notables, including Generals George Meade and John Pemberton, the Philadelphian who went South and surrendered Vicksburg in July 1863, are
Venerable Bar McGillin’s Olde Ale House, an easy walk from City Hall, has been a Philadelphia fixture since it opened its doors in 1860. You can eat and drink in an establishment that served Civil War soldiers (mcgillins.com).
Fort Mifflin held Rebel POWs as well as Union political prisoners. The moat created damp and unhealthy conditions.
+
Q
Q
1861
City militiamen of the “Washington Brigade” are among the “First Defenders” to rush south and defend Washington.
1863
Mower General Hospital opens in the city. With 4,000-bed capacity and 50 wards, it’s the largest hospital in the United States.
Q
1863
Camp William Penn is founded near Philadelphia to serve as a large training camp for United States Colored Troops.
Q
1864
The month-long Great Central Fair raises the remarkable sum of $1.3 million to donate to the Sanitary Commission.
‘The Stern Necessity for Common Safety’ ALEXANDER HENRY, mayor of Philadelphia, urges residents on June 29, 1863, to prepare for the Confederate drive into Pennsylvania
{
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You number more than fifty thousand able bodied men. The means to arm and equip yourselves are at hand. Close your manufactories, workshops and stores before the stern necessity for common safety makes it obligatory. Assemble yourselves forthwith for organization and drill. Spurn from you those who would delude you to inactivity or disaffection. Let no one refuse to arm who will not be able to justify himself before man and God in sight of a desolated heart or of a dishonored family.
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 29
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Thoughts&Comments
Home Security
A Union soldier tosses aside his plunder and stalks up the steps of a plantation home in Georgia, with a leer on his face and revolver in
hand, toward the woman he calls a “little spitfire.” As he approaches, the mistress of the house stands her ground on the dark staircase, finding the courage to pull the trigger of her own pistol. The Yankee drops dead, shot full in the face—and the plantation is saved. That’s how the 1939 movie Gone With the Wind depicted one of General William T. Sherman’s “bummers” (P. 52), a portrayal that influenced how many people perceived the general’s conquest of Georgia, and Union soldiers in general. But there was more than one way to protect a home. In May 1861, when Union soldiers showed up on the doorstep of Robert E. Lee’s home, Arlington, they were met not by a gun-toting belle but by Selina Gray, the personal slave of Mary Custis Lee (P. 32). Before leaving, the Lees had entrusted Gray with oversight of their home, and she did what she could to keep Arlington from being ravaged throughout the Union occupation, protecting priceless heirlooms inherited from George and Martha Washington. Gray’s efforts helped preserve Arlington, and also provide an example of the war era’s complex social relationships. She was a “spitfire” in her own right.—DANA B. SHOAF A Yankee with diabolical intentions picks through a basket of jewelry moments before Scarlett O’Hara’s revolver sends him to his fate.
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 31
The discovery of a rare photo opens up a new chapter in the remarkable life of Selina Gray, one of Robert E. Lee’s slaves By Kim A. O’Connell
Arlington’s
Enslaved 32 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
Savior
The gloved hands of a National Park Service official gently cradle a stereoview of Selina Gray (far right), the Lee family slave who was entrusted with the keys to their home in 1861. The image was taken outside her quarters, which still stand today behind Arlington House.
I
IN OCTOBER 1866, as the country was
still in the early stages of recovering from the Civil War, a U.S. government party arrived on the doorstep of the CustisLee home at Arlington, the grand Greek Revival mansion high on a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. Robert E. Lee and his family had left the home at the war’s outbreak, and the agents were tasked with taking possession of whatever items of value still remained in the house. It was tough work. From May 1861 until the end of the war, the home had served as the headquarters of the Union Department of Northeastern Virginia. Federal troops had swarmed over the grounds cutting down the forests for firewood, gouging roads across the landscape and burying comrades in the gardens. The home had suffered as well. Occupiers had knocked out boards, creating holes through which they waved signal flags, and scribbled graffiti on its walls. Rufus Dawes of the famed Iron Brigade summed up Arlington House’s condition at the time: “The grand old southern homestead of Arlington, with its quaint and curious pictures on the wall, its spectacular apartments, broad halls and stately pillars in front, was an object of especial interest; but, abandoned by its owner, General Robert E. Lee…it was now a desolation. The military headquarters of McDowell’s division was in the Arlington House, which was open to the public and hundreds tramped at will through its apartments.” The government agents worked their way through the house to the mansion’s loft, where according to an account of the visit in the Alexandria Gazette, “Many valuable heirlooms, including some of the family portraits, had been purloined….These boxes had been broken open and everything of real value taken away, and the letters and private papers of Gen. Lee scattered over the loft.” Elsewhere furniture, bureaus, gilt picture frames and other artifacts were “tumbled together, broken, bruised, and in a most vandalized condition.” Standing guard over these family effects was one Mrs. Gray, described as “the old and faithful household servant” by the newspaper reporter. In 1866 Selina Gray was, by modern standards, hardly old; in fact, she was only 43. Yet her faithfulness in a time of war had certainly 34 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
Benjamin Lossing, a 19th-century historian, painted this watercolor of Arlington House in 1853, before the Civil War forever changed the property. Selina had already been a slave at Arlington for 30 years when Lossing’s work was painted. When Mary Custis Lee left her home in 1861, never to return, she gave the pitcher, below, to Selina.
been well proven. Today the Gray family story is a key part of the history of Arlington House, and the continued existence of some of America’s most treasured artifacts can be attributed to this one remarkable woman. The recent discovery of a rare stereoscopic photograph of Selina Gray, dressed in period finery, is the latest chapter (see sidebar, opposite page) in her story. In May 1861, with persistent rumors circulating in Virginia of Union troops building fortifications along the Arlington Heights, and the Potomac River growing ever more crowded with shipments fueling the nascent war effort, General Robert E. Lee’s wife, the former Mary Anna Custis, was preparing to leave the home she had made with her husband since 1857, the place where they had been married
exactly 30 years earlier. Mary’s father was George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson and adopted son of George Washington, and the Lees were in possession of several cherished heirlooms from Mount Vernon. The general, for his part, had long since decamped to Richmond to assume his duties with the Confederate Army. From there, he had written a letter to Mary urging her to take measures to protect herself and their most precious belongings. Among the troops coming from the capital city, he wrote, “it might be considered a smart thing to cross into Va & rob, plunder &c especially when it is known to be the residence of one of the Rebel leaders—I think therefore you had better prepare all things for removal that is the plate pictures &c. & be prepared at any moment….” Mary did as she was advised. On a beautiful day in mid-May, she entrusted the keys to the house, and all the history it held, to Selina Gray. By the end of the month, the Union Army had indeed occupied Arlington.
When George Washington Parke Custis had begun construction on Arlington House not long after his adoptive father’s death in 1799, having a place to properly showcase what he called “the Washington treasury”— furniture, china, Revolutionary War tents and more—was paramount. Custis had also inherited some of Mount Vernon’s slaves, among them Selina Gray, a descendant from this first generation of Arlington slaves. Born into slavery at Arlington in December 1823, Selina was just slightly older than her future husband, Thornton Gray, a field hand and handyman at Arlington who was born in April 1824. The two were married around 1847, and legend has it that Mary Lee was so supportive of the union that she had an Episcopal minister perform the service in the same room where she and Robert had wed. (In Reading the Man, Elizabeth Brown Pryor’s portrait of Lee through his writings, the historian casts some doubt on the veracity of the wedding story, stating that “the slaves also had their idealized tales of warm bonds and powerful connections,” and that in such stories “truth melds into the wistful desire to believe in a harmonious connection between master and slave.”) Thornton and Selina would have eight children—six girls and two boys—all born into slavery and listed in the Custis property rolls alongside livestock and farming equipment. Yet Selina and other slaves were undoubtedly treated better at Arlington than other slaves elsewhere. Among other things, the Custises and Lees offered education to their enslaved workers, including Selina. “They believed it was their Christian duty to teach them, not only so that they could read the Bible, but so that they could live successfully once they were freed,” says Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, a National Park Service spokesperson. So it is perhaps not surprising, given their relationship, that Mary Lee entrusted Selina Gray with the keys
A Rare Find
W
hen he’s not working as an economist or volunteering with the National Park Service at Arlington House, Dean DeRosa is an Arlington, Va.–based photographer with a particular interest in period photographs. One day in September 2014, he was searching for historic Arlington photos on eBay when he came across a startling image of an African-American woman standing with a younger woman and a little girl, listed as a “Victorian C19th American Stereoview” by a dealer in the United Kingdom. DeRosa quickly realized that the woman was Selina Gray. Experts believe the photograph shows Selina with two of her daughters, perhaps her oldest and her youngest, standing on the east side of the slave quarters where the Grays resided during their time at Arlington House. The photographer is unknown, but based on the clothing the subjects are wearing, the image is thought to have been taken near the end of the war. An inscription on the back of the photo says only “Gen. Lee’s Slaves Arlington Va.” Before DeRosa’s discovery, the only other known image of Selina was a studio photograph showing her head and shoulders, taken several years after the war. Recognizing the significance of his find, DeRosa immediately notified the National Park Service, and the private “friends” group, Save Historic Arlington House, Inc., purchased the photo for $700 and turned it over to the park. Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, an NPS spokesperson, says the photograph will be used to help tell Selina Gray’s remarkable story, including her crucial role in safeguarding President George Washington’s heirlooms. Anzelmo-Sarles adds that the photograph is also important because it shows Gray as a mother. “It’s a family type portrait,” she explains. “Of course, we know she had children, but to see her with two of her daughters is exciting. Their clothing is fascinating, too.” Anzelmo-Sarles notes that the clothing in the image represents stylish dresses that were not typical of what enslaved or recently freed people would wear. “Certainly, dressing up for a photographer would have been important,” she says. “It is possible that this could indicate that the Grays had some means, some income. We know that the Custises and Lees cared very much about their public image, so it’s also possible that the family may have given them these clothes to serve the guests in the mansion.” How the photo got across the Atlantic is unknown, though DeRosa notes that stereoscopy has a rich tradition and history in England. It’s possible, he says, that a British photographer came over during or after the war to record images of the Arlington estate, but that this photo was simply never published…until now.—K.A.O.
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Union officers, female visitors and top-hatted photographer Mathew Brady pose on the steps of Arlington House during the war. The home, built on a bluff overlooking the surrounding area, was an ideal location for a headquarters. The small table at left, now on display at Arlington, belonged to Martha Washington and was one of the items Selina identified for safekeeping and had sent away.
ell arranged for several important artifacts—including a bookcase, knife boxes, dinner plates, a creamer and other china, and a side table among them—to go to the U.S. Patent Office for safekeeping. In many ways, Gray was unintentionally among the first historic preservationists.
Little is known about Selina Gray’s life after she
to Arlington House when hostilities began. As General Lee expected, Union troops quickly occupied the estate. Although Gray reportedly did all she could to protect the “Washington treasury,” soldiers often made their way inside the house and ransacked the Lees’ belongings. Legend has it that Gray confronted looters on one occasion and demanded that they stop; her words likely had little effect. Finally Gray sent word to the commanding officer of the Department of Northeastern Virginia, Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, and told him Washington family heirlooms were at risk of being lost forever. With Gray’s guidance, McDow36 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
became a free woman and left Arlington House. Sources say that Thornton and Selina bought some land not far from the Arlington estate, in the southern part of present-day Arlington County (called Alexandria County until 1920) and grew produce, which they sold at a stand in downtown D.C. Census records from 1880 and 1900 show Thornton listed as a farmer and Selina occupied with “keeping house.” According to the NPS, Selina saw several of the Lees after the war when they came back to visit Arlington, including Robert’s brother, Sydney Smith Lee, and Mary Lee, one of the Lee daughters. When Mrs. Lee visited the house for the only time in 1873, she may have met with Selina there too. It is thought that Selina died in 1907, in
Where Is Selina Buried?
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he final resting places of Selina and Thornton Gray are not known, but the story of their son, Harry Gray, offers some possible clues. Born a slave at Arlington, Harry was an intelligent, ambitious man who became a skilled mason and found work with the Department of the Interior. (According to family history, Harry helped to build the original masonry wall surrounding Arlington Cemetery, some of which can still be seen.) Harry did well enough to eventually purchase a 10-acre property near the former Arlington estate, where he built a stand-alone brick house modeled after the row houses of Washington, D.C. On his death in November 1913, his property was subdivided among his four children. Today his house still stands, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. According to burial records, Harry Gray was interred in the graveyard of
Is this the resting place of Selina and her husband, or simply a family memorial?
the Stevens Lodge of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization founded in 1870 by 12 African-American men, some of them former Arlington slaves. Harry Gray had become a duespaying member in 1873. The lodge had a meeting hall and a two-acre graveyard on Columbia Pike, located between Arlington Cemetery and Gray’s house. In 1964 a private developer made an arrangement with the lodge to reinter those buried there in another cemetery, to make way for new development along Columbia Pike (a Sheraton Hotel now stands on the site). Graves with markers would be moved to Coleman Cemetery in Alexandria, a church and fraternal burial ground not far from Mount Vernon. Three known graves that were moved along with their markers were those of Harry Gray and two of his sisters, Emma and Sarah. Also relocated, however, was a Gray family headstone marked for Thornton and “Salena,” one of several alternate spellings of Selina. The marker indicates it was “Erected by their daughter Sarah G. Wilson.” No dates are listed. Does this mean Thornton and Selina are buried in Coleman Cemetery? No one knows for sure. Today Coleman Cemetery is in a state of disrepair, and burial records are incomplete. (Most of the records of the old Stevens Lodge were burned in a fire too.) It’s possible that their daughter simply placed the headstone
her mid-80s, and that Thornton succumbed around that time as well, although where they are buried is a mystery (see sidebar above). A few years ago, two trunks left behind by Mary Lee, the eldest daughter, were discovered in the cellar of a bank in Alexandria. In one of those trunks was a letter written by Selina Gray to Mrs. Lee in 1872. “It was a cordial, even somewhat friendly letter telling things about Selina’s family and expressing warm wishes for Mrs. Lee,” Anzelmo-Sarles says. “She even told Mrs. Lee that she
This postwar image of Selina was the only one known until the stereoview turned up in the fall of 2014. She died in 1907.
in the Stevens Lodge graveyard as a memorial. Another possibility is that Thornton and Selina were buried in the cemetery at Freedman’s Village, which was created in 1863 and stood on the southern end of the former Arlington Estate for more than 30 years. But this theory is not backed by any evidence. There’s one grace note to the mystery of Selina’s final resting place: Thornton H. Gray, lawyer son of Harry Gray and grandson of Thornton and Selina, fought with the U.S. Army in World War I and died in 1943. He is now buried in Section 8 of Arlington Cemetery, not far from the spot where his grandparents were born.—K.A.O.
hoped that she’d get her home back one day.” Mrs. Lee, of course, never did get her family home back, but her story, and that of her one-time slave Selina Gray, remain forever linked to Arlington House. ■ Kim A. O’Connell writes about history, preservation, architecture and other topics for a variety of publications. As a longtime resident of Arlington, Va., she lives close enough to Arlington Cemetery to regularly hear gun salutes, and she appreciates how local stories often fit into national ones. FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 37
Control the
Heartland BY WILLIAM WHYTE
Hastily produced Union ironclads ruled the Western Theater’s waterways ■ USS Cairo’s crewmen pause in their chores for a photograph while their gunboat
is docked at a river port. Cairo was one of seven shallow-draft vessels that enabled Federals to police the rebellion’s heartland waterways. Though rugged and durable, the ironclads were not invulnerable: On December 12, 1862, Cairo struck a mine on the Yazoo River and went to the bottom within minutes. The ship’s remains, brought up during the 1960s, are on display at Vicksburg National Military Park.
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A peculiar fleet of shallow-draft, heavily armed gunboats patrolled the tributaries around Cairo, Ill., by the fall of 1861. These Yankee invaders had been pieced together using a variety of nascent naval technologies, and would have a profound impact on the Western Theater fighting. The gunboats’ immediate contribution was to establish tenuous control of waterways within volatile areas of Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. The fleet would play a pivotal role in supporting the Army and securing the Mississippi River by 1863.
The Yankee gunboats did not obtain the iconography of the USS Constitution or Monitor, yet their work in the nation’s heartland proved decisive during the war. It can be argued that the Union’s construction of a brown-water navy, with its symbolic effect on the local populace and military contingents, along with that technology’s important influence throughout the region, played a more decisive role than the Federal blockading fleet along the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. General in Chief George B. McClellan ordered U.S. Navy Commander John Rodgers to Cincinnati, Ohio, to begin the Union naval conquest of the West and “establish naval armament on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.” Though Rodgers had impeccable credentials, like most naval officers of the Civil War era he knew little of river operations. He had also been placed under the command of the Army, not a coveted post for a sailor. The first order of business was to procure vessels suitable for river navigation. To expedite the process, Union authorities opted to convert some existing craft for riverine warfare while new boats specifically designed for the task were being constructed. Rodgers purchased three steamers in Cincinnati: A.O. Tyler, displacing 575 tons, 180 feet long with a 45-foot beam; Lexington, displacing 448 tons, 178 feet long with a 37-foot beam; and Conestoga, displacing 572 tons. All three were side-wheel steamships with thin plank housing covering their decks, which meant they would be very susceptible to enemy fire. Rodgers ordered 5-inch oak plank bulwarks applied to the steamships for protection against musket fire. He also ordered the boilers and steam fittings
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moved below deck. Armed with 8-inch Dahlgren guns, these timberclad or woodclad vessels were classified as “fourth raters” in U.S. Navy jargon. For the price of $62,000, the Union river navy—technically under the command of the War Department—had a fleet to begin offensive operations. The three woodclads arrived at Cairo in early August 1861, making their presence known to the enemy almost immediately. Lieutenant Commander Seth Ledyard Phelps, aboard Conestoga, led a reconnaissance down the Mississippi River as far as New Madrid, Mo., and tried unsuccessfully to capture two Confederate steamers. A few days later, while patrolling the river near Commerce, Mo., Lexington was hailed by fleeing residents who informed Lieutenant Roger Nelson Stembel that 800 Rebels were on their way to take the town. After the gunboat fired just two warning shots in the direction of the Rebels, the would-be invaders reportedly fled to Benton, eight miles back from the river. In light of that development, Rodgers asked permission to place a gunboat permanently at Commerce. One Confederate officer confided in a town resident that the Southerners would fortify the town as soon as the gunboat left, but no action would be taken while it remained. Whether the hastily modified Union vessel was actually a tangible threat is debatable, but the perception that it was a floating fortress proved effective. The gunboats helped establish an early hegemony over the precariously held regions along the Mississippi. In early September, Lexington and Conestoga sailed down the Mississippi escorting a Union Army advance along the Missouri coast. At Lucas Bend both gunboats opened fire on a
large contingent of Confederate artillery and cavalry. The Rebel batteries maneuvered to get off good shots, but Phelps nimbly sailed the gunboats upstream and rendered the Confederate artillery movements futile. The Union vessel inflicted heavy casualties on the Southern cavalry, and also blasted troops firing from the brush with doses of canister. It was apparent to both sides that a steam-propelled flotilla, able to move against the current, put land-based artillery at a serious disadvantage. he Union high command was quick to grasp the riverine fleet’s potential. The woodclads helped offset the shortage of Union troops in the area by patrolling the rivers, and helped deter major Confederate moves on the volatile border state of Missouri. Major General John C. Frémont ordered U.S. Navy Captain Andrew H. Foote up the Ohio River to Owensboro, Ky., to quell secessionist activity. At the end of October 1861, Conestoga headed 60 miles up the Cumberland River, where it engaged a Confederate detachment along the banks, scattering the Southerners
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and leaving seven dead on the field. The dominance of the Union Navy forces in these early engagements provided the sailors with tactical experience as well as confidence. Meanwhile the Confederates were growing increasingly wary of Yankee convoys. The river patrols maintained an uneasy truce between unionists and secessionists. Commander Phelps, cruising the Ohio River, noticed mail steamers flowing freely between Indiana and Kentucky. Convinced those steamers were carrying supplies and, more important, information to Confederates occupying Bowling Green, Ky., Phelps asked permission to stop the mail deliveries, despite Rebel warnings that they would burn the steamers if the deliveries ceased. When Phelps heard that pro-Union residents of Caseyville, Ky., had been threatened, the gunboat commander warned the town authorities of severe consequences for violent reprisals—and the threats came to nothing. In fact, citizens of towns all along the Ohio were safeguarded due to the vigilance of the timberclad crews. Meanwhile, veteran river pilot James
Timberclads like USS Tyler, above, were commercial steamers quickly modified for military use and protected by 5-inch-thick oak walls. They proved to be serviceable– and tough. Tyler fought the ironclad CSS Arkansas to a draw on the Yazoo River in July 1862.
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 41
Buchanan Eads was developing a different type of vessel for riverine warfare. Eads, an old friend of U.S. Attorney General Edward Bates, met with Abraham Lincoln’s Cabinet at the end of April 1861 and urged for the creation of shallow-draft armored gunboats. Eads agreed that the gunboats’ base of operations should be at Cairo, and he also offered his own salvage boat, Benton, for government service. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered John Lenthall, chief of the Naval Bureau of Construction, to submit a design for the river ironclads. Lenthall, whose experience lay with deep-water ships, was less than enthusiastic about this new project. When his premature design of a craft measuring 170 feet long and 28 feet wide, with a 5-foot draft, was handed to Samuel M. Pook, the naval architect realized the design’s narrow 22-foot beam was unnecessary for river operations. He instead proposed a vessel 175 feet long, with a 50-foot beam and a 6-foot draft. Pook also added a rectangular casemate to rise above the gun deck at an angle of 35 degrees, housing a single paddle wheel in
the deck’s center as an alternative to the vulnerable side-mounted paddle wheel. A final protective measure was iron plating placed atop the casemate. When Cincinnati steam engineer A. Thomas Merritt was consulted about engine requirements for the new gunboats, he suggested installing two steam engines for each ship—and said he believed most of the machinery could be made to fit belowdecks. Pook’s design was handed to Eads, who was awarded the government contract to build the boats after submitting a low bid of $89,600 each. The contract stipulated that he would deliver seven boats to Cairo by October 10, 1861, just 65 days later. ads’ experience proved invaluable as he ordered supplies and organized a workforce of competent ship builders. He leased two dry docks to begin construction: one at Union Ironworks, in Carondelet, Mo., near St. Louis; the other at Marine Railway and Shipyard, at Mound City, Ill., near Cairo. Within two weeks, he had gathered roughly 4,000 workers. He paid each man $2 daily for a 10-hour workday, with a 25-cent bonus for each overtime hour worked. A mandated seven-day workweek was put in place, with bonuses for workers who stayed for the entire project. Lights were installed at the docks to allow the constructors to work through the night. Eads worked with Rodgers to figure out the final specifications for Pook’s boat design, also contending with delays in funding resulting from government bureaucracy, which frequently forced Eads to pay salaries and
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‘IT CAN BE ARGUED THAT THE A MORE DECISIVE ROLE THAN
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purchase supplies out of his own pocket. Despite all that, Carondelet slid into the Mississippi River on October 12, 1861, followed by St. Louis, Louisville, Pittsburg, Cairo, Mound City and Cincinnati in the following weeks. The seven City-Class ironclads, named for the major Northern river cities and also referred to as Cairo-Class ironclads, would significantly bolster the Union naval presence in the West. Their hard outer casing and slow, methodical movements earned them the nickname “Pook’s Turtles,” or “Pook Turtles.” The vessels were 175 feet long, with a beam of 51.2 feet and a draft of 6 feet. Their flatbottomed hulls were laid across three keels, with the outer keels 10 feet apart from the center keel to support the wide beam. Their casemates rose above the waterline at a 35-degree angle and were plated with 2½-inchthick iron plating. The iron plates, 13 inches wide by 8½ feet long, were locked together with overlapping lips. The wood oak planking of the casemates, to which the iron plates were bolted, was 24 inches thick forward and 12½ inches on the sides and aft. Due to weight restrictions on what could be placed above deck, three vital areas could not be adequately armored: the stern, the quarterdeck and the roof of the casemate, known as the hurricane deck. A conical pilothouse was placed on the hurricane deck to protect the navigator. A single paddle wheel, 22 feet in diameter and 18 feet wide, was positioned in an opening in the vessel’s center, under the protection of the casemate. Five boilers, 3 feet in diameter and 25 feet long, with a brick furnace at each front end, were
positioned belowdecks to power the vessels. Steam drums, which captured the excess steam created by the boilers, had to be placed above the boilers on the gun deck. Each gunboat was armed with 13 guns: three on the bow, four on each side and two on the stern. Four of the guns were repurposed Army cannons that had been rifled, six were smoothbore 32-pounders and three were 8-inch Dahlgren shell guns. Together with the three timberclads, Benton (Eads’ old salvage boat, which would be converted to an ironclad in December 1861), and Essex (a ferryboat converted to an ironclad in November 1861), the new fleet gave U.S. forces a tactical advantage along the Western rivers, in addition to something perhaps more important: a symbolic show of force. The first ironclad vessels evolved through the ideas, ingenuity and resourcefulness of Lenthall, Pook, Eads, Rodgers, Merritt and many other nameless maritime workers and engineers—all promoted by the U.S. War and Navy departments. The rapid nature of their design and construction was an admirable accomplishment, but it also ensured there were some very serious design flaws in the new gunboats. As the designers assumed that the narrow confines of the rivers would result in a majority of frontal attacks, the bows were the most heavily armored portions of the gunboats. This left the vessels vulnerable in two respects: First, the top deck, or hurricane deck, was exposed to plunging fire from forts or artillery placed above it; second, the angled casemate was suited to deflect horizontal or broadside
The image at far left shows four of the City-Class armored gunboats, Carondelet, Louisville, Pittsburg and Saint Louis, under construction at St. Louis, Mo. Below, a portion of the Mississippi River fleet on the river at Mound City, Ill.
UNION’S CONSTRUCTION OF A BROWN-WATER NAVY PLAYED THE FEDERAL BLOCKADING FLEET ALONG THE COASTS’
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 43
James Eads’ gunboats pound Fort Henry during the 1862 Union campaign to drive down the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The brown-water flotilla was crucial in reducing that fort and its companion garrison, Fort Donelson.
fire from other boats, but it wasn’t designed to deflect descending fire from higher elevations—a weakness the Confederacy quickly learned to exploit. What’s more, the concentration of armament up front and along the paddle wheel left the steam drum, which had to be raised above the boilers, and a considerable portion of the gun deck exposed to enemy fire. Notwithstanding those flaws, the menacing Yankee flotilla caused its opponents great concern. Major General Leonidas Polk wrote to Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory requesting funds for three vessels that could be converted to armed gunboats, noting, “They are indispensable to our defenses.” And Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, worried about scant Confederate defenses along the Cumberland River, warned that the new Union ironclads “are very formidable; vastly more so than is generally considered.” Desperate to stop the iron turtles, Polk ordered obstructions placed in the Cumberland River to prevent navigation. Hulks were loaded with stones and sunk in the shallow passages. The Rebel leaders saw a glint of hope in early November 1861, when General Albert
44 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
Sidney Johnston reported to Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin that ironclad gunboats had been stopped by the obstructions in the Cumberland. A few days later, however, he reported that the gunboats had made it through once the river’s depth rose a few feet. The shallow-draft design proved its worth. Federal ironclads Essex and St. Louis were dispatched to thwart an attempt by Confederate steamers to bring artillery farther north from Columbus, then occupied by Southern forces. Polk’s forces, confined to their redoubt overlooking the Mississippi courtesy of the Union river navy, were unable to advance farther. As 1862 dawned, the Union Army—now poised to push into Tennessee—was aided significantly by the new fleet. Acting as a floating cavalry, the steamers provided invaluable reconnaissance role along the waterways. Armed with the information that the Southern army was moving guns into Fort Donelson, Commander Phelps recommended a swift assault on the garrison, especially considering that there were rumors of Confederate gunboats being constructed. With the Yankee flo-
tilla arrayed throughout the waterways of the Upper Mississippi Valley, intelligence poured in. It wasn’t long before General Ulysses S. Grant and Flag Officer Foote began to advocate for an amphibious operation against Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. The capitulation of those forts in the winter of 1862 shattered the Confederates’ Tennessee–Kentucky defensive line, clearing the way for the conquest of Nashville. The Battle of Fort Henry on February 6 was a complete naval triumph. General Tilghman confessed that once he saw the gunboat formation, “I had no hope of being able, successfully, to defend the fort against such overwhelming odds, both in point of numbers and in caliber of guns.” Tilghman ordered all his troops back to Donelson except for the artillerymen, who he hoped could delay the Federal fleet. While the Union gunboats did not fare so well against the elevated artillery of Fort Donelson, their presence was still imperative for the Union victory. Confederate Colonel Jeremy Gilmer reported that the threat from the gunboats forced his exhausted gunners to man their stations day and night. Numerous Rebel officers commented on being demoralized by the Yankee fleet in their post-battle reports. Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner’s argument for surrender, for example, was grounded in the flotilla threat. Union General Lew Wallace opined the gunboats were crucial to the victory, saying, “I fully believe it was the gunboats, the awful ironclads especially, that operated to prevent a general movement of the rebels up the river, or across it, the night before the surrender.” helps’ raid up the Tennessee in February 1862 laid to rest any remaining doubts about the Union fleet’s efficacy. After Fort Henry fell, Phelps’ squadron penetrated 225 miles behind enemy lines before turning around. In some places, towns were evacuated before the Union boats appeared, while in others women and children cheered the Federals. At Florence, Ala., citizens pleaded with Phelps not to harm their town; he did not. On the return trip, when a small Federal party landed at Savannah, Tenn., to raid a Confederate camp, word of the gunboats’ approach preceded the landing, and the Federals found only abandoned military stores and ammunition. In less than four days, three Union gunboats wreaked havoc up and down the Tennessee River, reaching into the Muscle Shoals area of northwest Alabama. One Southerner reported
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to Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin that, with favorable water levels, nothing could stop a Federal gunboat invasion of northern Alabama or Mississippi. Three Confederate boats were captured, including one, Eastport, that would be converted into a Yankee ironclad. Jefferson Davis’ Navy Department, struggling to check the Yankee onslaught, lost six steamers that were burned and an estimated 250,000 square feet of lumber that was confiscated. The raid was a complete success, proving the Tennessee River was entirely in Union control. After the fall of Donelson, the flotilla moved on to Clarksville, Tenn., finding Fort Defiance, the town’s river defense, abandoned. The formidable redoubt there, with cannons perched 200 feet above the river, could have caused problems for the gunboats, but news of the Union Navy’s approach had spread panic throughout the town. Clarksville’s leaders explained to Foote that the Confederates had retreated south and most citizens had already fled. The Yankee officer felt obliged to issue a proclamation of goodwill to reassure the remaining residents. News of the approaching Union fleet spread panic through Nashville as well. Governor Isham G. Harris absconded to Memphis and advised the state legislature to do the same. Chaplain Robert F. Bunting wrote home that most of the occupants were planning to move out, “with the threat of the Yankee gunboats prompting the greatest fear.” Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry had to quell food riots in the city. A Confederate rear guard burned Nashville’s railroad bridges and halfconstructed gunboats while the main Southern force retreated to Murfreesboro, Tenn. An unnamed Confederate captive confessed, “We had nothing to fear from a land attack, but the gunboats are the devil and we may as well look matters square in the face.” As the pivotal year of 1863 dawned, the Union Navy’s tentacles stretched from Cairo up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and down the Mississippi, with only Vicksburg and Port Hudson still in Confederate hands. The hastily built Union flotilla had without doubt proved its mettle, not only as a tool of war, but also as a symbol of technological superiority. The boats helped to quell secessionist activity and assure Union sympathizers in the border states that they were being protected. The brown-water flotilla was pivotal to breaking the Confederacy’s Tennessee–Kentucky defensive line and eventually securing the entire Mississippi River. ■
■ William Whyte is completing his Ph.D. at Lehigh University. His master’s thesis, “City Class Conquests: The Triumph of the Union River Navy in the Mississippi Valley, 1861– 1862,” focused on the early formation of the Union river flotilla.
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NEW GUNBOAT DESIGN FROM ENGLAND From the war’s start until its end, ideas for new weapons and warship designs arrived in Washington from across the North and Europe, many bearing fearsome names like “Tormentor” or “Annihilator.” Accompanying design plans ranged from crude sketches to elaborately detailed blueprints, with one of the most beautiful forwarded to America by Charles F. Adams, U.S. minister in London. John St. Clair Mulley of Portsmouth, England, offered his design for an “Invulnerable Gunboat” whose armor was different from anything previously adopted, with metal “ribs, taking the place of plates, resting on teak backing, the whole supported by iron standards.” These arrangements, Mulley promised, would “cause the projectile to leap off like an India rubber ball” and enable his vessel to “enter with impunity the strongest fortified harbor in the world.” Offered a small sum by the British Admiralty to retain the design, Mulley hoped instead that “a more liberal government, might take it up at its fair value.”
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Will That Thing
Work?
Northern inventors flooded the Navy with ideas for ships and weapons
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By David J. Gerleman
IN THE DECADE BEFORE Fort Sumter, iron and steam transformed naval warfare on a global scale. The war provided a laboratory in which new tactics, techniques and equipment could be tested. Northern inventors, who in the prewar years had produced the majority of new mechanical patents, turned to producing weapons to secure Union victory. Of the ideas that crossed Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles’ desk, some were practical, but many defied the realities of construction and operational physics. A few were ahead of their time. Designs flooded the U.S. Navy Department; those with merit were forwarded to the Naval Examining Board, which could recommend trials or building prototypes. Meanwhile the South struggled to meet the dual challenge of creating a navy and devising means to offset the North’s superiority in men and materiel. What creative solutions were sent to Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory? Sadly, we cannot know, as most Confederate Navy Department records were lost in 1865. Drawn from the National Archives’ files, here are some ideas sent to bolster the Union cause afloat.
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 47
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ORIGINAL MONITOR DESIGN SKETCH
The war’s most successful naval invention was John Ericsson’s revolving-turret ironclad USS Monitor, which radically altered naval design for the rest of the 19th century and into the modern era. Ericsson’s original 1854 design, which was offered to France’s Napoleon III during the Crimean War, shows a vessel with a freeboard so low that little more than the turret remained above water. Ericsson’s refined design proved to be of inestimable value to the Union Navy throughout the Civil War.
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STEAM PISTON RAM Equipping warships with steam engines enabled the revival of a naval tactic not widely used since ancient times— speed ramming. When in March 1862 one thrust from CSS Virginia’s metal prow sent the proud USS Cumberland to the bottom, naval designers took note, and the jutting ram bow became a standard feature on steam warships until the end of the century. However, John G. Hull may have been the first to suggest marrying steam power to an extendable metal ram that would enable Union vessels to punch holes in an enemy hull with the mechanical efficiency of 40 blows per minute. Seventeen feet long and 8 inches in diameter, the 3,000-pound ram was promised to be “easily applied to any vessel” and could also be used to ward off boarding attempts.
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STEAMBOAT MANEUVERING PROPELLER
TORPEDO FENDER AND TORPEDO RAKE Throughout the history of warfare, for every new weapon introduced, a means of countering its effectiveness was never far behind. When the Confederacy employed floating “torpedoes” to defend its waterways and counter Federal naval superiority, Union sailors and civilian inventors began devising ways to get around this latest nautical threat. To ward off enemy mines, the commander of the Federal Potomac Flotilla sent Washington a sketch of a “Torpedo Fender” that could be raised and lowered like a boom and which had “answered our purposes remarkably well, but can undoubtedly be improved upon.” With similar intent, W.B. Treadwell offered his “Torpedo Rake,” which was intended to be fired from a deck gun to dredge clear a path through dangerous waters by snagging mine-mooring cables.
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While the Navy Department usually received invention proposals intended for military application, there were also some that had civilian benefits. In January 1865, after successful demonstrations at Cincinnati on board Florence Miller, a group of steamboat captains, builders and masters wrote in to recommend “S.F. Covington’s Improved Steering Apparatus.” Testimonials agreed that this device would be highly useful to help steer stern-wheel steamers operating on Western rivers, especially during low water or when rounding-to at landings or, even more important, enable them to thrust away from shore even in the face a stiff wind blowing in the wrong direction. Such advantages would likewise benefit the Navy’s largely sternwheel-powered river gunboat fleet by enabling vessels to always keep their proper positions when in action.
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Two veterans of the 51st Illinois pose with loaves of bread stuck on their bayonets, reenacting their days of foraging during the March to the Sea. The image dates from 1865, during Reconstruction.
{EXCERPT}
William T. Sherman’s troops became expert foragers during the March to the Sea By Anne Sarah Rubin
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N A REGULAR CAMPAIGN, only a small proportion of the men would have been designated as foragers, and that was the basic idea in Sherman’s March as well. What complicates this was the expansiveness of Sherman’s orders, directing the army to “forage liberally on the country during the march,” and empowering commanders to destroy buildings and take livestock. While the foraging was supposed to be done by “regular foraging-parties,” encamped soldiers were also “permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp.” The result was an army of foragers, or “bummers.” Essentially, Sherman’s men took the title Bummer on as a point of personal pride. Many postwar reminiscences took pains to legitimate the foragers, minimizing their excesses with a sort of “boys will be boys” tone. One example of this came in General Horace Porter’s eulogy for Sherman, published in Harper’s Weekly. Porter described the bummers as “a novel feature of Sherman’s command… organized for a very useful purpose from the adventurous spirits which are always found in the ranks.” In Porter’s definition, the bummers served more like scouts and were “a regular institution.” One member of the 116th Illinois,
who fondly recalled his days along the March, quoted extensively from Sherman’s orders in order to claim that the bummers were a “necessity.” While he concedes that these “devil-may-care fellows” might have overstepped their bounds at times, they were isolated instances of disobedience, followed by punishment. Most foraging operations, he assured his readers, “were marked by a rigid adherence to the restrictions laid down in orders.” Although the March was largely unopposed by Confederate soldiers, the Union men still needed basic structures and protections. Thus the officially detailed foragers (as opposed to the more rough-and-tumble Bummers) also served as military scouts, often a day or two out ahead of the main column. This was the most dangerous position, for they sometimes skirmished with Home Guards or General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry, and risked occasional capture. Charles Belknap, who foraged with the 21st Michigan Infantry, told of 11 Union men being captured, “and all shot, their bodies being placed in a row by the roadside, that all passing that way might see them and take warning.” One might conclude it was rather effective, but the display might also have backfired, leading to greater anger and vengeance on the part of the Yankees. Nevertheless, the foragers did manage to insulate the FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 53
main columns with, as one veteran put it, “a wide-spread cloud of skirmishers, which the enemy could not push through.” No less an opponent than Confederate General Joe Johnston supposedly praised the foragers after the war, calling them “the most efficient cavalry ever known.” More significantly, Johnston also praised the men for their discipline, given that they spent so much time away from their commanders, yet always returned. Too, at least the official foraging details, like the one of 90 men led by Belknap, provided some valuable local intelligence, for Belknap recalled collecting “letters from the few post-offices in the country, maps hanging on the walls of village and country homes, newspapers old and new” and forwarding them all on to headquarters. Belknap and his fellow Bummers constantly sought to strike a balance in their stories of the March. The overarching story that they told was of the March as, in Lieutenant Marcus Bates’ words, “a delightful memory to every one privileged to have had a part in it.” Bates nostalgically 54 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
recalled living on “the fat of the land, the milk and honey of the confederacy,” with little thought for the original producers of that milk and honey. But at the same time, as they tried to paint the March as a party or a harmless lark, they realized that it was more than that, that when viewed from the perspective of Southern civilians, the March was no fun at all, and in fact was horrifying and destructive. One way to reconcile those two views was to claim that foraging was justifiable and legitimate. Union Brig. Gen. Adam Badeau did just this in his children’s story “The March to the Sea.” He began by reminding his young readers “that soldiers must eat” and that they needed to eat before they could fight. Once that was out of the way, Badeau explained that men were ordered to “forage liberally” and that they were able to load themselves down so bounteously because this part of the country had been untouched by war. Even Badeau must have realized how feeble his argument was when it came to household goods like furniture and clothing, for he ulti-
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word
“bummer” first appeared in print in an 1855 edition of the Portland Oregonian, meaning an idler, loafer or lounger, and appears to have derived from the German word bummler. This meaning held for the early years of the war, with bummer being an epithet hurled at thieving stragglers, and a distinction was often drawn between bummers and legitimate, organized foragers. Historian Joseph Glatthaar has argued that Eastern and Western troops had different definitions of the term, with the Easterners emphasizing the unauthorized or “self-appointed.” “Bummers” descend on a South Carolina plantation, a scene that also occurred frequently in Georgia. Cotton bales burn in the background, and the large cotton press will soon be destroyed.
mately threw up his hands and conceded that “war is often only organized robbery.” In the end, though, Badeau could not condemn the March and marchers, finally concluding that “the romantic character of the march is unsurpassed.” Not surprisingly, soldiers minimized the thefts of personal property. Occasionally items were returned in the years after the war, sometimes with great fanfare, sometimes quietly and anonymously. Stories circulated of Southerners recognizing family heirlooms on Northern wrists and fingers, and of soldiers showing off “vases and trinkets which they ‘picked up when they were in the army.’ ” When veterans remembered the March, they too emphasized its romantic character, easy pace and lighthearted tenor. These men were hardened fighters who had marched long and fought hard for up to three years, and they quickly realized that this expedition would be different. Colonel Charles D. Kerr recalled that “the brilliancy of the move lay alone in its conception. Its execution was simple and easy as a pleasure trip.” He described the
men’s unshakeable faith and confidence in Sherman and their belief that they were embarking on a grand adventure. His delight leaps off the page as he remembered that, marching out of Atlanta, “the men were cheering and singing patriotic songs, and fairly reveling in the excitement and novelty of the situation.” In an 1890 speech, General Henry Slocum, who commanded the Left Wing of the army, called the March “one great picnic from beginning to end” and regaled his listeners with stories of marching bands and dancing by firelight, with “just enough fighting and danger of fighting to give zest to the experience.” Charles Hopkins, of the 13th New Jersey, thought that the combination of high spirits, good weather, and abundant food turned the March into “one continual pleasure trip.” William Duncan described the combination of “good roads, pleasant weather, and practically no enemy,” along with plenty to eat, as “a picnic every day” as they marched toward Savannah, Ga. Part of pride in the March came in the form of pride in one’s foraging skills, and as veterans reminisced, they often provided primers. In a lecture presented at a MOLLUS (Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S.), “Marching Across Carolina,” Manning Force, a breveted major general who commanded the 3rd Division of the XVII Corps, described the foragers as performing “a service without which the army could not have advanced.” On the 54-day march from Pocotaligo, S.C., to Goldsboro, N.C., Force’s men were given 10 days’ rations before setting out, which translated into only three days of “hard bread” (hardtack) and some coffee and sugar. If they wanted more to eat, they were expected to procure it themselves. Indeed, those were the only supplies available, for Force’s supply wagons contained only 25 days’ worth of hard bread and 30 days’ of coffee. He carried no meat, and had only a few head of cattle, for Force preferred “trusting to the country for meat.” Charles Kerr echoed Force when he explained that there was no centralized system for the distribution of supplies. Rather, “so far as supplies were concerned, each regiment was a law unto itself.” Each regiment had its own wagon onto which its supplies would be loaded and taken to camp. Most veterans’ reminiscences dealt largely with the army’s movements or its occasional skirmishes with Confederates. These men might describe foraging, or they might not. But a few veterans took bumming or foraging as their main topic. Major Samuel Mahon was one of those who did, describing the process (at least as it functioned in the Carolinas) to the Iowa MOLLUS commandery in 1896. He stressed that there was some organization to the system, if for no other reason than to make sure that there was no interference or overlap among the foragers. Before finding food, the foragers had to find their own transportation, and thus they wound up on a motley assortment of animals, “from the humble donkey to the thoroughbred pet of the plantation and perhaps a zebra or two occasionally.” Their tack varied similarly, from “rope halter and corn FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 55
Field Orders No. 120 The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten days’ provisions for the command and three days’ forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but, during a halt or a camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. To regular foraging-parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road traveled. The text, above, is an excerpt from section IV of Sherman’s Special Field Orders No. 120—an attempt to structure foraging. Many of Sherman’s men went far beyond the letter of the order to bring in foodstuffs.
sack saddle” to gilt mounted bridles and family carriages, even the occasional lady’s sidesaddle. A forager, Mahon declared, faced danger and excitement and needed to excel at “woodcraft,” finding his way without roads, outriding enemies, and simply enduring long hours in the saddle. Once the men found a farm or plantation, according to Mahon, the real work would begin. Cattle were the preferred livestock, for they could be managed and driven back to the main column, whereas swine were far less compliant. The men would be pleased to find mules, but often had to repair the harnesses before they could be led away. “Flour, bacon, potatoes, corn meal, sorghum, poultry, rice etc. had to be loaded into vehicles, carts, plantation wagons, and even carriages before being impressed….Often the concealed supplies of the plantation had to be discovered before being taken, but the negroes were our allies here, as well as on every other occasion, and the supplies were soon found and exhumed from the pits where they had been consigned and carefully covered up from sight.” The best foragers were like 1st Lt. Richard Kennedy of the 13th Iowa, praised by his fellow soldiers for his audacity. In addition to having an eye for sweet potatoes and horses, 56 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
he claimed to have the best mules around. Kennedy and his teamster, Julius T. Chaffee, “could take a southern mule from a canebrake, and with a pair of sheep-shears transpose him to a government mule with the U.S. brand in five minutes so that his owner would not know him.” Charles Hopkins also proved a deft hand with livestock, skillfully butchering a flock of sheep, though he claimed that as a regular forager he was outclassed by the less-regimented Bummers, who “would probably have hunted up the owner of them…and have served a requisition on him for a wagon or two. If he had no farm wagon, a family coach, gig, or buggy would do.” Indeed, Hopkins pointed out that even though Southerners might hide their horses and mules, if they left the wagons behind, the foragers would know to search for the stock. Just as Sherman’s veterans painted portraits of the March as a picnic or a lark, so too did they use humor and exaggeration when describing their fellow soldiers. Henry Marcy stated it most simply: “There is a comic side to many of the stories of these adventurers.” By describing the soldiers as “adventurers,” Marcy and his fellow veterans created an image of the Bummer fully at odds with his Southern portrayal. Rather than terrorizers or thieves, these Bummers were rogues with raffish charms. In his piece “The Army Bummer and Good Night,” Captain Joseph G. Waters paid laughing homage to the Bummer’s “boundless per capita of utility and gall,” while declaring that “he was a larger book of strategy than De Jomini ever wrote, and beyond doubt he was the only personage of whom William Tecumseh Sherman ever had cause to be envious or afraid.” These conquests of comestibles were often accompanied by all sorts of other pilfering, most of which was described with winks and nods, and a sort of boys-will-be-boys attitude. That is, time and again, Sherman’s Bummers were praised for what would under other circumstances be regarded as simple theft. Thus Charles Hopkins provided listeners with a tongue-in-cheek discussion of the “professors of foraging,” who returned with “contributions” from a “kind and generous planter.” The veterans’ accounts seem to contain a sort of progression of taking: first food, which was clearly justifiable; then wagons and carriages to carry the food; and, finally, in Hopkins’s words, “anything that would contribute to the general frolic.” Stories abound of men riding into camp with carriages full of bacon, or feather beds thrown across the backs of mules. One 1866 account of the March condemned the Bummers for plundering and destroying personal property but ultimately undermined its argument by conceding that “some of the foraging stories are, however, full of humor, and could hardly be otherwise regarded than as excellent jokes, even by the sufferers themselves.” Veterans also used humor to mock themselves and their superiors. One tale repeated in an obituary for General Sherman took aim at the Bummer’s tendency toward wanton destructiveness. According to General Horace Porter,
Sherman’s veterans celebrated their foraging exploits in Georgia and the Carolinas in the postability to outsmart Sherman’s a Bummer in North Carolina was war years. The despoliation, however, resulted in Bummers, so too did Union troops found cutting the Union telegraph hardships for many poor white and black Southenjoy taking advantage of their lines that led out of Wilmington. erners that took years to overcome. enemies. Manning Force retold When asked what on earth he was one typical tale, where a sergeant doing, “The man cast an indigarrived at a plantation and asked if anyone had recently nant look at the questioner, and said, as he continued his died. While the family initially denied it, they finally admitwork, “I’m one o’ Sherman’s bummers, and the last thing ted that they had buried a slave boy the previous day. he said to us was, ‘Be sure and cut all the telegraph wires The sergeant then adopted a solemn tone and went on, “ ‘I you come across, and don’t go to foolin’ away time askin’ only wanted to let you know that I have opened that who they belong to.’ ” grave and taken out the corpse.’ There were loud expostuWhile this clearly mocks the lower-level soldiers, other lations then, for this corpse, so called, was the plantation tales turned the tables. One that appeared in a compilation supply of ham.” Score one for the Union in this instance. ■ of wartime stories came from the family of an Ohio soldier. A group of soldiers caught, butchered, cooked and ate a pig, burying the skin so they would not be caught. When a From Through the Heart of Southern woman came by the camp in search of her pig, Dixie: Sherman’s March “the Captain, who had a private tent the boys seldom and American Memory entered, said, ‘Oh, I’m sure you are mistaken. I haven’t a by Anne Sarah Rubin. boy in my company that would do such a thing. I’ll order Copyright ©2014 by the all tents searched.’ ” While he was occupied, “the boys” University of North Carolina slipped around and hid the meat in the Captain’s tent, Press. Used by permission which he had ordered searched along with the others: of the publisher, “And there they found the meat. The embarrassed captain uncpress.unc.edu. found it hard to explain.” Many of the funny stories are directed against white Southerners. Just as Southern whites took pride in their FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 57
The Song That
Marches On The obscure origins and history of America’s unofficial anthem BY JOHN STAUFFER
“ The Battle Hymn of the Republic ” is far more popular today than it was during the Civil War—beloved by Northerners and Southerners, conservatives and radicals, whites and blacks. The song’s origins have long been shrouded in obscurity. The tune is often attributed to William Steffe, a South Carolina native who settled in Philadelphia. Steffe claimed, decades after the fact and without any evidence, that he had composed it in the mid-1850s for a visiting Baltimore fire company, dubbing the tune, “Say, Bummers, Will You Meet Us.” Even today you see some sheet music and arrangements that attribute Steffe as the tune’s creator. ♦ But in research for our book The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On, Ben Soskis and I discovered the “Battle Hymn” tune actually dates back to early–19th century Southern camp meetings, open-air services attended by whites and blacks, slaves and free individuals, where the liturgy consisted mainly of hymns. ♦ The “Battle Hymn” tune was adapted from “Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us / On Canaan’s Happy Shore,” a Southern camp-meeting spiritual first published in an 1807 Virginia hymnbook by Methodist circuit-rider Stith Mead. “Grace Reviving in the Soul” soon became known as the “Say Brothers” or “O Brothers” hymn. It is a folk hymn, meaning that it adapted sacred words to a secular tune. Like other folk hymns, it was easily memorized, and it circulated orally. As a result, there were frequent, usually modest, changes in the published lyrics. Mead probably included the song in his hymnbook after hearing it sung in camp. 58 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
A 1930s poster advertises a play, funded by the Works Progress Administration, about abolitionist John Brown. The song “John Brown’s Body” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” were closely linked during and after the war years.
What’s especially fascinating about this first known publication of “Say Brothers” is that it includes call-and-response directions: Question: O brothers will you meet me [repeat 2X], On Canaan’s happy shore? Ans: By the grace of God I’ll meet you [repeat 2X], On Canaan’s happy shore.
An illustration of an 1830s camp meeting captures the free-wheeling nature of these gatherings. Popular calland-response songs that helped inspire “Battle Hymn” were perfect for such outdoor venues.
Call-and-response directions between minister and congregants typified the basic form and structure of African-American spirituals. The black roots of the “Say Brothers” hymn are further supported by numerous eyewitnesses who described slaves singing “Say Brothers” in a ring shout, an African religious ritual in which people gathered in a circle and sang (or shouted), dancing in a counterclockwise direction and using a call-and-response structure. In addition, the “Glory, glory Hallelujah” chorus, which soon replaced “We’ll shout and give him glory,” was especially popular in black spirituals—and we know that Mead preached to slaves. The hymn’s call-and-response structure, the interracial makeup of camp meetings, Mead’s documented preaching to blacks, and eyewitness observers’ describing slaves singing the hymn in a ring shout all suggest the origins of “Say Brothers” were probably as much Afri-
60 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
can as white American. Whites and blacks interpreted “Say Brothers” quite differently in the antebellum South. For white Southerners, Canaan, a heavenly place, was “a metaphor of the South,” according to historian Christine Heyrman. “Canaan’s happy shore” offered deliverance from sin without touching slavery. It was a heavenly vision of whites’ own moral universe. But for slaves, “Canaan’s happy shore” meant deliverance from bondage; Canaan was both a heavenly place and a place in the world. For example, when Frederick Douglass first began working to escape from slavery, he and his conspirators repeatedly sang “O Canaan, sweet Canaan, / I am bound for the land of Canaan.” In this case Canaan meant “something more than a hope of reaching heaven,” Douglass noted; “we meant to reach the north—and the north was our Canaan.” “Say Brothers” reached the North via hymnbooks in the 1840s. By the late 1850s, it was especially popular in Boston, then the nation’s cultural and publishing center. Introduced to it through hymnbooks, without the call-andresponse structure, Northerners thought of it as a white spiritual associated with Methodists, owing to that sect’s explosive growth during that era. In 1861 one Northerner in particular would
become closely associated with “Say Brothers”: John Brown, infamous for his raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry with a small army of blacks and whites in October 1859. Federal troops led by Robert E. Lee had killed or captured Brown and his men, trying the survivors for treason and murder (except for five raiders who escaped), and executing them in December 1859 and March 1860. Brown’s violent legacy would result in the tune that had begun as a Southern spiritual spreading in the form of “John Brown’s Body. Following the South’s bombing of Fort Sumter in April 1861, the Massachusetts Infantry, 2nd Battalion, known as the “Tigers,” garrisoned Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. At the time, Brown’s raid was widely looked back on as a major catalyst leading to secession and war, with most Bostonians regarding Brown as a martyr. One of the Tigers—a Scottish immigrant also named John Brown—joined a choral group with some fellow soldiers at the fort. Brown’s comrades needled him about his famous name, often quipping: “This cannot be John Brown! John Brown is dead.” And sometimes another soldier would add, “His body lies mouldering in the grave.” As a result, the singing group’s version of “John Brown’s Body” soon grew to six stanzas, set to “Say Brothers,” one of the Tigers’ favorite tunes. In May 1861, the Tigers merged with the 12th Massachusetts Regiment, and “John Brown’s Body” (also known as “the John Brown song”) became the unit’s signature anthem. In June, Boston abolitionist C.S. Hall published the “John Brown Song” as a penny ballad, including the six verses and the “Glory, glory Hallelujah” chorus. Hall’s sheet quickly sold out. On July 18, the 12th sang “John Brown’s Body” on Boston Common while under review. When members of the regiment sang it again one week later, while marching down Broadway in New York City, observers reportedly went “crazy with enthusiasm and delight.” A reporter for the New-York Tribune published the lyrics, and by August 1861, “John Brown’s Body” was the most popular song in the Union Army. Its popularity coincided with the First Confiscation Act, authorizing the Union Army to confiscate all the slaves of Rebel masters who had managed to reach Union lines, effectively freeing them. Perhaps it wasn’t coincidental that “John Brown’s Body” became a mascot of the Union at the moment when the conflict became a war for emancipation, for the lyrics are unambiguous in their abolitionist message. The lyrics portray
John Brown as a martyr: His body “lies a mouldering in the grave,” but his soul is “marching on.” The second stanza is even more explicit: He’s gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, He’s gone, & c. He’s gone, & c. His soul’s marching on The fifth stanza seeks vengeance against slaveholders: “We will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree.” And the last stanza calls for “three rousing cheers for the Union”—at the moment in which a war for the Union was transformed into a fight for emancipation for slaves. Despite its growing popularity, however, “John Brown’s Body” was not thought of as a national anthem. The words were too coarse, and needed to be elevated. That happened in November 1861, after Julia Ward Howe traveled to Washington, D.C., with her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, who had joined the U.S. Sanitary Commission, in company with her Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke and Massachusetts Governor John Andrew—all of whom had actually known Brown. Clarke had introduced the abolitionist to Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. Samuel had been one of the “Secret Six,” leading fundraisers for Brown’s raid. As for Julia Howe, one of America’s most highly respected poets, she had even hosted Brown in her own home. While in Washington, Howe witnessed a review of troops across the Potomac being broken up by a Confederate raiding party, resulting in the equivalent of a 19th-century traffic jam. To pass the time as they inched their way toward the city, the Howes’ party joined the soldiers in singing “John Brown’s Body.” The troops were impressed with Julia’s beautiful voice, shouting “Good for you!” When the Reverend Clarke suggested that she “write some good words for that stirring tune,” the poetess replied that she had often thought of doing so, but had not yet received the inspiration. Inspiration came that same night at the Willard Hotel. As Howe later recalled, “I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind.” She jumped out of bed and scrawled her verses on Sanitary Commission stationery. In Howe’s telling, the suddenness of her inspiration suggested a supernatural visitation—echoing the sentiments of Harriet Beecher Stowe,
JULIA WARD HOWE BELIEVED A SUPERNATURAL VISITATION GAVE HER THE SUDDEN INSPIRATION TO WRITE “THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC”
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He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on.
Two John Browns: Above, the notorious raider of Harpers Ferry is at left, while John Brown of the Massachusetts “Tigers” stands at right. Right: Published in 1807, this hymnal was one of the first to print “Say Brothers,” the song that lent its tune to the “Battle Hymn.”
who claimed, “I didn’t write” Uncle Tom’s Cabin; “God wrote it.” Howe’s lyrics are deeply indebted to the Bible’s book of Revelation. The first stanza comes directly from Revelation 14, in which an angel “gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” Throughout that section, God or his angels are casting lightning bolts and thunder into the earth, inducing an earthquake. But Howe places the narrator of her poem within Revelation, personalizing its phantasmagoric imagery and turning it into a narrative lyric: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: 62 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
Howe’s familiarity with Revelation’s verses was representative, reflecting the degree to which most Americans interpreted the Civil War in apocalyptic terms. Revelation explained the ravages of war in religious terms and offered hope for the future. If the war was the apocalypse, then a new age of peace and harmony was not far away. The version of “Battle Hymn” published in February 1862 on the front page of the Atlantic Monthly was largely unchanged from Howe’s original scrawl, with one notable exception: She had omitted the sixth and last stanza—appropriately, I think, because in doing so the song ends with the climactic power of the fifth stanza. The “Battle Hymn” was never as popular during the war years as “John Brown’s Body,” largely because of the “Battle Hymn’s” more sophisticated lyrics. Soldiers on the march found it more difficult to memorize, and even today few people know the whole song by heart. Moreover, Howe squeezed a lot of words into each bar of music, requiring singers to enunciate the lyrics quickly. The words are almost too big for the music. The wartime popularity of “John Brown’s Body” stemmed partly from the fact that is a simple ballad, easy to memorize and soothing to march to. Then too, by 1860 sheet music was the most profitable printed medium. Publishers realized that “John Brown’s Body” would make money; as a result, the ballad rolled off the presses in countless variations. The “John Brown” song was also open-ended enough to be interpreted in a variety of ways. It was a heroic song, an inspirational song, a revenge song and a comradeship song. It inspired soldiers to fight, and possibly die, for the abstract causes of freedom and Union. But it also helped build esprit de corps, encouraging troops to seek revenge for a friend who had been killed. One Union officer said that the ballad “made heroes of all his men,” while
another required his troops to sing it every day, in hopes of imbuing them with “Cromwellian earnestness.” A New Hampshire lieutenant noted: “The effect of ‘John Brown’s Body’ when heard in camp or on the march was simply indescribable.” There is one final explanation for the popularity of a song that enshrined an abolitionist who had been hanged for murder and treason. “John Brown’s Body” became popular when a war being waged to preserve the Union had also been transformed into a war to abolish slavery. The two discrete aims had converged into one: Preserving the Union required abolishing slavery, and vice versa. Understandably, “John Brown’s Body” was especially popular among African Americans. The soldiers of the 1st Arkansas (Colored) Regiment created a new adaptation, which Sojourner Truth sang to inspire recruits. In February 1865, when the Massachusetts 55th Colored Regiment marched triumphantly into Charleston, S.C., they were cheered on by thousands of freedmen and women as they sang “John Brown’s Body.” For many Northerners, that marked the symbolic end of the war. The “Battle Hymn” was widely promoted by Charles McCabe, a Methodist minister and chaplain of the 122nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, who was so taken with Howe’s poem in the Atlantic that he memorized it. But it was not until McCabe heard the “Battle Hymn” sung at a war rally that he realized the poem had been written to accompany the tune of “John Brown’s Body.” In June 1863, McCabe was captured by Confederate troops and sent to Richmond’s Libby Prison. A month later, when the prisoners heard rumors a great battle had been fought at Gettysburg, they were initially informed it had been a decisive Confederate victory. But after a slave who sold newspapers told them the truth about the “Great news in de papers!” McCabe jumped up onto a box and led the rest of the POWs in the “Battle Hymn.” It was reported that “the very walls of Libby quivered in the melody as five hundred” prisoners sang the “Glory, Hallelujah” chorus. McCabe himself likened the scene to a mass resurrection. In 1864 McCabe, who had a rich baritone voice, turned Abraham Lincoln into an ardent fan of Howe’s song. Released from Libby after a bout of typhoid fever, the minister sang the “Battle Hymn” at a Christian Commission meeting at the U.S. Capitol, with the president in attendance. Lincoln was reportedly
very moved by the fifth stanza, which equated Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross with the Union troops’ sacrifice on the battlefield. Increasingly, “John Brown’s Body” was sung only by blacks and radicals. That change opened the way for the “Battle Hymn” to be reinterpreted. Whereas the original song evokes the memory of a militant abolitionist and calls for hanging Jeff Davis, the “Battle Hymn” lyrics are wonderfully vague and thus adaptable. God is the main actor, advocating freedom. Southerners believed that they too had fought for God and freedom. As a result, the University of Georgia adopted the “Battle Hymn” as its anthem in the 1890s, and
it remains the school’s anthem today. In 1911 an early silent film, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, gained popularity in the South. The movie focused on the hymn’s millennialist themes, while its artistic innovations helped to revitalize the “Battle Hymn” for a modern age. The “Battle Hymn” also had many other legacies. At the turn of the century, it became a Progressive Party anthem. Theodore Roosevelt treated it as his personal anthem, encapsulating his advocacy of a sacred, strenuous life. Though he led a campaign to adopt the song as the official national anthem, he could not convince enough Southern politicians to make that a reality. America’s entry into World War I further
Julia Ward Howe wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the suggestion of a friend. This image of Howe dates from 1861.
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LIKE THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, “THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC” ENCOURAGES INDIVIDUALS TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR A GREATER GOOD
helped nationalize, and indeed internationalize, the hymn. It became the anthem of countless Northern and Southern soldiers who fought in that conflict, as well as Britons. The “Battle Hymn” was also transformed into the workers’ anthem in 1915, when Ralph Chaplin, a leading Wobbly (the common name for Industrial Workers of the World or I.W.W.) wrote “Solidarity Forever” to the tune of “John Brown’s Body” and “Battle Hymn.” Wobblies defined themselves as “the modern abolitionists, fighting against wage slavery.” Like abolitionists, they were racial egalitarians and millennialists. Chaplin retained the note of millennialism in his version of “Solidarity Forever,” reflected in the song’s last lines before the refrain: “We can bring to birth the new world from the ashes of the old, / For the Union makes us strong.” Throughout the 20th century, the “Battle Hymn” has also been used as an evangelical anthem, serving as the theme song of immensely influential ministers such as Billy Sunday and Billy Graham. The “Battle Hymn” was the perfect anthem for Sunday’s revivals, for it fit his militant, patriotic style of “muscular Christianity.” A former professional baseball player, Sunday brought his athleticism to his sermons, shadow-boxing Satan, sliding home to Jesus and climbing atop the pulpit to wave an American flag while his orchestra performed “Battle Hymn”—garnering a terrific response. During Sunday’s 1917 revival in New York, he preached to one-quarter of the population. For several decades, millions of listeners also heard “Battle Hymn” on Billy Graham’s weekly radio program. Graham’s love of the song reflected his background as a Southerner haunted by the Civil War. Both grandfathers had been wounded as Confederate soldiers; his maternal grandfather lost a leg and an eye at Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg, and his paternal grandfather died with a Yankee bullet in his leg. The young minister’s mother had recommended the “Battle Hymn” as his theme song, and just as the hymn had transcended its Northern, abolitionist origins, it helped Billy Graham transcend his roots and become a renowned revivalist rather than just another Southern preacher. The “Battle Hymn” was also a Civil Rights anthem and one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite songs. In March 1965, after King led a group of 25,000 blacks and whites from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., he delivered a speech ending with a millennialist vision of racial justice.
64 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
“How long?” King asked. Not long, because: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. Progressives, Wobblies, Evangelicals and Civil Rights activists were never united in their vision of America. Many evangelicals (though not Graham) opposed Wobblies and Civil Rights radicals, and Progressives hated the Wobblies. Despite their lack of unity, however, Progressives, Wobblies, Evangelicals, and Civil Rights activists especially, are the legacies of the abolition movement—but those legacies have largely been ignored or downplayed. Members of these groups, like abolitionists, saw themselves as holy warriors, uniting religious faith with their visions of social reform. And much like abolitionists, they spoke truth to power and were willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause of freedom. Wobblies and Civil Rights activists also advocated, as abolitionists did, equality under the law for all people. These legacies also highlight the degree to which the “Battle Hymn” has become America’s unofficial anthem. Perhaps it is a blessing that it is not the national anthem, since it has been freed from obligatory performance at sporting events. Instead, the hymn’s influence is apparent at more solemn occasions. For decades it has been sung as the finale of the National Democratic and Republican conventions. And it was performed at the funerals of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Reagan, along with those of Robert and Ted Kennedy. More recently, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir performed “Battle Hymn” at President Obama’s Second Inaugural. The hymn served as the finale of the 9/11 Memorial service at Washington National Cathedral, where Billy Graham delivered one of his last public sermons. It also has a physical presence in America’s unofficial church: In the National Cathedral’s Lincoln Bay, seven ornamental keystones depict the “Battle Hymn’s” most vivid images, including grapes of wrath being trampled and lightning loosed; trumpets sounding forth; lilies growing where Christ was born; and soldiers singing the Hallelujah chorus. Why has the “Battle Hymn” served as a
national anthem for so long? First, it manages to both unite and divide Americans, distinguishing “us” from “them,” and clarifying a sense of national identity. It is ideal for a nation at war, which is when it has been most popular— and the U.S. has been at war for most of the last century. Like the Gettysburg Address, it encourages individuals to sacrifice themselves for a greater, collective good. The fifth stanza brilliantly emphasizes the theme of sacrificing oneself for freedom: In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, His truth is marching on. Second, the “Battle Hymn” has long functioned as a template of the United States’ “civil religion,” in which Americans act out what they believe is God’s will for their country. As the fifth stanza implies, Christ is both an exemplar and an object of faith. And since He (rather than humans) is the catalyst of social change, He lightens reformers’ burdens. Third, the song has been immensely adapt-
able. It has served violent and nonviolent, postmillennial and premillennial, Northern and Southern, conservative and radical ends. Fourth, it exploits the millennialist strain in American culture, revealing the degree to which the U.S. is exceptional among developed nations; it stands apart from Europe and Canada in its religiosity. Fifth, it is aspirational, much like the Declaration of Independence. “The Battle Hymn” envisions a future good society, a reign of peace and harmony. The song evokes a terrible delight; it unites afflictions of the present with future joy. Perhaps most important, the “Battle Hymn” is a musical masterpiece, especially when performed in largo—a slow, dignified tempo—as it was recorded by the U.S. Army Chorus, for example. In arrangements such as this, the melody notes have been expanded to allow the words the chance to express themselves. Even listeners who disagree with the song’s apocalyptic message cannot help but be transported by its aesthetic power. ■
A Winslow Homer engraving depicts Union soldiers marching off to war while singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
John Stauffer, who teaches at Harvard University, is the co-author with Ben Soskis of The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On. FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 65
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Books&Media An Unflinching Look at Death, Injury and Healing REVIEWED BY KIM A. O’CONNELL
a new exhibition on injury, death and healing in the Civil War, a display on 19th-century surgical tools receives innovative treatment. Instead of merely showing a velvet-lined medical kit— although the exhibit has one of those too—the organizers have included a fine anatomical drawing of a human body and mounted period tools so that they are suspended above the exact places where they might have been used in an operation: forceps over the chest, a saw and curving surgeon’s needles over a leg. ♦ Another display offers a grisly array of human bones, including splintered femurs and shattered elbows, some of which still hold the Minié balls that did the damage (right).
Still others showcase a dysenteric colon and an intestine infected by typhoid, a scourge known as “camp fever.” For all its brute muscle, this exhibit reminds us the human body is a fragile vessel for war’s traumas. This kind of unflinching approach is typical of the Mütter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a private medical society dating to 1787. The museum, which opened in 1863, is perhaps best known for the Hyrtl Skull Collection, an impressive array of skulls acquired from a Viennese anatomist in the 1870s that are displayed along one wall. In planning this special exhibition, museum officials knew that a study of Civil War injury, death and medicine could have focused solely on hospital design or highlighted famous patients, surgeons or nurses. Instead,
they opted to tell the story of the Civil War body specifically—how it was injured, and how it was healed. The overall effect of this approach is to humanize soldiers. This hits home in an interactive booth, dressed up with a velvet curtain like a photography parlor, in which visitors stand before a mirror and have an arm “amputated” through special effects. Watching gangrene spread up your own arm is a powerful experience, to say the least. The exhibition tells the stories of actual soldiers as well. One of these is Colonel Henry S. Huidekoper, who earned a Medal of Honor at Gettysburg, where his wounds warranted amputation of his right arm. In 1906 he typed a letter to Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, who had treated him. “As with everybody else who has lost a
➧
I
N “BROKEN BODIES, SUFFERING SPIRITS,”
Broken Bodies, Suffering Spirits: Injury, Death & Healing in Civil War Philadelphia The Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, through 2018 muttermuseum.org
limb, the fingers are distinctly felt, and pains occur oftentimes to various parts of them,” Huidekoper wrote more than 40 years after his injury. “When I ride, or drive, or cling to limb[s] on the trees, or write, in my dreams, I always have the use of both of my hands.” To accompany the exhibit, the museum has produced an informative series of online videos starring museum director Robert D. Hicks, which is available at http://mutter museum.org/videos/broken-bodiessuffering-spirits-archive/. FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 67
America Remembers® Presents
The Civil War Sesquicentennial Tribute Rifle Honoring the 150th Anniversary of the War Between the States “We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” -- President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address History was made early in the morning on April 12, 1861 when the fateful first shot of the Civil War rang out at Fort Sumter. Over the next four years, the war would split America along a jagged and bloody battle line that pitted North against South, neighbor against neighbor and brother against brother. More than three million men fought for freedom and by war’s end in 1865, the struggle had claimed the lives of more Americans than any other war in history. ■ Both sides But even as the Civil War remains America’s greatest tragedy, it also stands as one of its most remarkable triumphs. The sacrifice and courage of the receiver on both sides helped fulfill a destiny and forge what was to become the true United States of America. feature a pair of crossed flags As America marks the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States, America Remembers is extremely proud to introduce the Civil decorated in brushed War Sesquicentennial Tribute Rifle. This Tribute recalls the beginning of the war, through the four years of fighting and culminating with nickel. On the left is Old the historic end of the war at the Appomattox Courthouse. For the Tribute, a working reproduction of the legendary Civil War Henry Glory, the famous “Stars and Rifle in caliber .44-40 was selected as the perfect historic firearm to commemorate one of the most significant events in American Stripes” flag hoisted into battle history, along with all of those who paid the ultimate price in the struggle for freedom. by the Union. On the right is the Confederate battle flag, sometimes known The classic, lever-action Henry rifle is regarded by many as the most technologically advanced rifle available as “Beauregard’s flag” or “the Virginia during the Civil War, so naturally it was the first choice for this historic Tribute. This legendary rifle was coveted by battle flag.” ■ Also featured on both sides is a flowing soldiers on both sides of the conflict, and it remains a favorite of collectors today. Though not as widely distributed banner identifying the Tribute as the “Civil War as the Springfield or Enfield, the Henry rifle was often purchased by Union soldiers at their own expense. Sesquicentennial.” This rarity made the revolutionary rifles that much more of a treasure when captured by Confederate forces. ▼ Right side prominently features Union and Confederate Each Tribute available in the edition is a meticulously-detailed recreation of the legendary 1860 soldiers engaged in fierce combat during the Battle of Antietam. Henry rifle, created by the incomparable craftsmen of A. Uberti. For decades, their craftsmen have The showdown between the Northern forces of General George combined modern high-grade materials with the time-honored methods of finishing to create McClellan and the Southern soldiers under General Robert E. Lee was exquisite, working reproductions of history’s greatest firearms. Craftsmen commissioned the bloodiest single-day battle of the war. To the right is an iconic portrait specifically by America Remembers decorate each rifle in lustrous 24-karat gold and of a Confederate soldier above the designation ‘CS,’ for Confederate States. nickel with a blackened patinaed background to highlight the details of the Also featured is a scene depicting the April 9, 1865 meeting of General Robert E. artwork, honoring major battles, pivotal moments, ordinary soldiers and iconic Lee and General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse, when the war was symbols of the war in portraits and scenes on both sides of the receiver. ended and peace was restored in America.
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The Civil War remains a truly significant era in American history. It is an unsurpassed national tragedy, but one that led to a stronger, more unified America – a unity forged on democracy and liberty for all. Only 500 Tribute Rifles will be issued in this strictly limited edition available exclusively through America Remembers. Now is your opportunity to add this once-in-a-lifetime historic masterpiece to your collection. The war that divided a nation 150 years ago will forever be a part of what defines America. It was a dark time that transformed the homeland into a battlefield, but it was also a shining time when farmers, citizens and soldiers took up arms to fight for freedom. Today, the stories of the Civil War’s heroes and battles continue to be told in order to make sure that its lessons are never forgotten. This Tribute Rifle will surely stand as a reminder for future generations of what it means to be a proud citizen of the ▲ The left side features the legendary “Attack On Fort Sumter,” which sparked the Civil War. The dramatic scene depicts Confederate troops firing United States cannons and mortars onto the fort, which can be seen in the distance engulfed in flames and towers of smoke. Prominently featured is Edmund of America. Ruffin, a passionate Southern activist who is often credited with firing the first shot of the Civil War. To the right is an iconic portrait of a Union soldier above the designation ‘US,’ for United States. The center features a highly detailed scene reminiscent of battles which took place across America. Confederate and Union forces engage in close quarter fighting as men and horses rush forward in mass waves.
Caliber: .44-40 • Barrel Length: 24 ¼” • Edition Limit: 500 I wish to reserve ___ of the “Civil War Sesquicentennial Tribute Rifle,” a working rifle, at the current issue price of $2,395.* My deposit of $195 per rifle is enclosed. I wish to pay the balance at the rate of $100 per month, no interest or carrying charges. *All orders are subject to acceptance and credit verification Thirty-day return privilege. prior to shipment. Shipping and handling will be added to
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Books&Media Finding Whimsy in the Grim Business of War REVIEWED BY ROBERT K. KRICK
“I Am Busy Drawing Pictures”: The Civil War Art and Letters of Private John Jacob Omenhausser, CSA Edited by Ross M. Kimmel and Michael P. Musick Friends of the Maryland State Archives
n May 19, 1864, John J. Omenhausser of the 46th Virginia Infantry penned a letter to the woman he had just asked to marry him, writing from a position “In line of Battle” near Drewry’s Bluff. Four days later he wrote again, described his role in the struggle just ended—and echoed a universal lament: “I wish we were done with this fighting.” A few days more and he actually was done with fighting. Wounded near Petersburg on June 15, Omenhausser fell into enemy hands. He spent the next 12 months far from the musketry, as a hungry, restless, bored prisoner of war. Fortunately for the historical record, he stayed active through his long imprisonment with a brush and watercolors. Private Omenhausser’s war-weariness, while understandable, had infinitely less basis than did the angst afflicting most of the hundreds of thousands of other long-serving Confederate soldiers. His company (the renowned Richmond Light Infantry Blues) and regiment belonged to a brigade under General Henry A. Wise that had wandered all across the South and only rarely smelled gun smoke in any volume. In a few instances, the drawings that make this book remarkable illustrate infantry camps and service, but the vast majority depict life as one of thousands of Southern prisoners at Point Lookout, Md. [note that a portfolio of Omenhausser’s paintings, “Blacks & Whites in Color,” appeared in the December 2014 issue of CWT]. Omenhausser’s art frequently exhibits a touch of irrepressible sardonic humor, laced with quiet whimsy. Captions in balloons convey the tenor of his work: “Boys, thats my rat if you kill him, he been eating my bread for the last three days.” “Mr. did you put those flies in this beer for a flavor?” “Did you never see a man catching lice
O
before?” “Tell me how I can get out of this place, I want to fight the Ing-ins.” Although most of the paintings date from Omenhausser’s captivity, he wrote the bulk of the surviving correspondence while still in the field. Of the 40 letters printed in the book (seven written to Omenhausser, the rest by him), 17 are from after his capture, and 10 of those postdate Appomattox. The earlier missives, as might be expected, also run to far greater length than those he managed to post from Point Lookout. The editorial additions that support Omenhausser’s words and drawings in “I Am Busy” might be used as a model for that important literary art. Between them, veteran historian Ross Kimmel and legendary archival oracle Mike Musick searched out an impressive array of details that provide rich context and understanding. They tracked down Omenhausser paintings in nine institutions and six private collections. The publisher employed high-resolution technology that renders the paintings vividly, to the level of a coffee-table book. Private Omenhausser’s lively art, skillfully abetted by Kimmel and Musick and an adroit publisher, combine to produce one of the most unusual Civil War books in recent memory—a really splendid piece of work. Copies are available from the Maryland State Archives, 350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis, MD 21401, or by calling 410-260-6444. Q FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 69
Civil War Sites of Maury County,Tennessee A SELF GUIDED DRIVING TOUR
Books&Media High-Stakes Confrontation REVIEWED BY JON GUTTMAN
For iPhones & iPads
The Battle of Allatoona Pass: Civil War Skirmish in Bartow County, Georgia
For Androids & Tablets
Brad Butkovich The History Press
Download the FREE app & experience our history. Maury County Convention & Visitors Bureau 8 Public Square Columbia, TN 38401
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www. antebellum.com A special issue to commemorate the
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BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG!
Also Available in Digital! $9.99 Item: CWGB13 $11.99 (includes S&H) To order, call: 1-800-358-6327 Or go online: HistoryNetShop.com Weider History Group, PO Box 8005, Dept. CW502A, Aston, PA 19014 70 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (required by Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. Civil War Times 2. (ISSN: 1546-9980) 3. Filing date: 10/1/2014. 4. Issue frequency: Bi-monthly. 5. Number of issues published annually: 6. 6. The annual subscription price is $39.95. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. Contact person: Kolin Rankin. Telephone: 305-441-7155 ext. 225 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher, Eric Weider, Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500, Editor, Dana B. Shoaf, Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500, Managing Editor, Nan Siegel, Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. 10. Owner: Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. 11. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent of more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None. 12. Tax status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publisher title: Civil War Times. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: August 2014. 15. The extent and nature of circulation: A. Total number of copies printed (Net press run). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 65,512. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 62,300. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 35,837. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 34,574. 2. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 6,839. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 5,126. 4. Paid distribution through other classes mailed through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. C. Total paid distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 42,676. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 39,700. D. Free or nominal rate distribution (by mail and outside mail). 1. Free or nominal Outside-County. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 2. Free or nominal rate in-county copies. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other Classes through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 4. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,126. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 1,133. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,126. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 1,133. F. Total distribution (sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 43,802. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 40,833. G. Copies not Distributed. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 21,710. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 21,467. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 65,512. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing: 62,300. I. Percent paid. Average percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 97.4%. Actual percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 97.2%. 16. Electronic Copy Circulation: A. Paid Electronic Copies. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. B. Total Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. I certify that 50% of all distributed copies (electronic and print) are paid above nominal price: Yes. 17. Publication of statement of ownership will be printed in the February 2015 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: Karen G. Johnson, Business Director. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanction and civil actions.
ome Civil War encounters made up for their less than epic scale in their disproportionate intensity, and Brad Butkovich’s examination of the fight for Allatoona Pass on October 5, 1864—lent more intimate detail by the discovery of new firsthand reference material—is a case in point. A sideshow to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, it involved a vital link in the Western & Atlantic Railroad, for which 2,190 Union troops under Brig. Gen. John M. Corse fought off some 2,250 attackers of Maj. Gen. Samuel G. French’s Division of General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee. If the battle is remembered at all, it is for communications between Corse and Sherman that evolved into “Hold the fort—I am coming.” Sherman denied saying it that way, and Butkovich presents exchanges that come close, such as: “Hold the place. I will help you.” Regardless, Allatoona Pass was a confrontation with high stakes and high casualties, totaling 32 percent of the Union defenders and 40 percent for the Rebel attackers. Anyone looking for a gorefest will get his money’s worth in this book. ■
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Books&Media Passing Judgment on Jeff Davis REVIEWED BY ETHAN S. RAFUSE
n his previous works, particularly Tried by War, James McPherson presents a consistently positive assessment of Abraham Lincoln’s management of the Union war effort. In Embattled Rebel, McPherson turns his attention to Lincoln’s counterpart in Richmond and, while unapologetically unsympathetic to the cause of Southern independence, makes a determined effort to be empathetic toward Davis. Of course, any fair assessment of Davis’ presidency must acknowledge that he did not have an easy job. Moreover, given the vast disparity in manpower and materiel between the Union and Confederacy, and the
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Penguin Press
North’s determination to preserve the Union, it’s also fair to say he had less room for error than Lincoln. In addition, McPherson points out, Davis entered office in poor health and, due to personal proclivity and the immaturity of governing institutions in the South, shouldered so much work it is surprising he held up as well as he did. But hold up he did and, for the most part, McPherson concludes, probably did as good a job as anyone could have in managing generals and formulating strategy. As McPherson notes, Davis had to make many difficult decisions, and in hindsight the courses he did not take that have often captivated historians
The Evolution of Gettysburg REVIEWED BY TIMOTHY B. SMITH
ettysburg is a household name, and the historic battle normally produces several military studies a year. Nearly as many books have appeared concerning the aftermath of the battle, including Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the preservation of the battlefield. In addition to reports and histories by National Park Service staff, academic and popular historians have also paid attention to Gettysburg’s aftereffect, with writers like Jim Weeks, Thomas Desjardin and Amy Kinsel scripting the park’s history and its role in memory. Since most of those historians worked in the 1990s, their stories are dated; Jennifer M. Murray has provided an up-to-date assessment of many more recent changes at the battlefield. Murray traces Gettysburg’s growth and its role in memory from
Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief James M. McPherson
1933, when the NPS took over from the War Department, until the present. Thus her story is essentially an overview of the Park Service’s governance, and the agency does not always receive high marks. Murray’s work essentially revolves around the dual NPS desires to preserve and use the park at the same time, and she homes in on the superintendents who possessed almost dictatorial powers in swaying the park’s development the way they deemed fit. Questionable procedures emerged, such as the 1930s idea of planting trees to block views of the monuments. In effect, some superintendents treated the battlefield, until recently, more as a tourist attraction than a historic site to be preserved. Murray also keys in on the memory aspects of Gettysburg’s history, especially the long focus on the
and partisans of particular generals were often of questionable feasibility. This book is not intended for readers reasonably familiar with previous scholarship on Davis and the Confederacy by the likes of William Cooper Jr., Herman Hattaway and William C. Davis. Moreover, McPherson devotes relatively limited attention to Davis’ management of the diplomatic and economic aspects of the Confederate war. But for the general reader looking for a good overview of Davis’ efforts and the military conduct of the Confederate war, McPherson has produced an informative and readable work. Q
On a Great Battlefield: The Making, Management, and Memory of Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933–2013 Jennifer M. Murray University of Tennessee Press
“High Water Mark” military vision that has recently been replaced with the “New Birth of Freedom” social vision. She places the broadening of the battlefield’s interpretation squarely amid the recent growing progressiveness of the Park Service’s wider interpretative policy; the result is obvious in the new visitor center that opened in 2008, with its fresh, expansive interpretation. Murray’s book is solidly researched, well written and, perhaps of more lasting value, the only work to bring the battlefield’s history up to the present, incorporating the most recent changes. Q FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 73
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Books&Media Great Yarns From the West REVIEWED BY GORDON BERG Rebels in the Rockies: Confederate Irregulars in the Western Territories Walter Pittman McFarland
ony Horowitz may indeed have discovered Confederates in the attic, but Walter Pittman claims to have found Rebels in the Rockies, or at least irregular fighters scattered throughout the mountain Southwest who favored the Southern cause. Pittman concedes that he has “no intention…to claim that the events described here significantly influenced the outcome of the larger war.” Nevertheless, he posits that his research into the mostly undocumented wartime activities of this eclectic group of sagebrush adventurers, gamblers, cowboys and rugged mountain miners “led to the discovery of an entire shadowy world of Southern resistance in the West.” How much a reader enjoys this book will depend on how much he or she shares Pittman’s enthusiasm for the local lore he has uncovered. He’s
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a natural yarn spinner, and some of the characters he comes across would make Ned Buntline envious. With an antiquarian’s passion for detail, Pittman presents mountains of information, much of it probably gleaned from a close reading of the region’s newspapers, which thrived on stories about cattle rustling, Indian raids, murder and mayhem. Most of the men who formed the irregular bands of scouts and spies, with colorful names like the San Elizario Spies, Frazer’s Rangers, the Arizona Scouts and the Brigands, were gleaned from the ranks of adventurers and freebooters who rolled around the sparsely populated territory like tumbleweeds. The Confederacy’s eyes were on the northernmost Mexican states and gold-laden California from the war’s earliest days. That led the region’s Southern sympathizers to form a variety of underground movements and rag-tag bands of irregulars to harass isolated Union military units and civilians, steal horses and provisions and interdict commerce between California and the Northern states. All the while, they kept a wary eye on the region’s only really dangerous foe, bands of marauding Apache Indians. The irregulars did participate in a few pitched battles, mostly fought in what is now New Mexico, during the ill-conceived and star-crossed 1861-62 expedition of Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley and his mounted Texans. Pitt-
man includes workmanlike syntheses of these engagements, but the richest nuggets he uncovers can be found nearly halfway through the book, in gold-rush Colorado. Although Southerners made up a small percentage of Colorado’s rapidly growing Anglo population, Pittman concludes that “they were the most important single group,” including leading mine owners, businessmen and federal office holders. As the population split into Northern and Southern factions, Pittman contends that “Cells of secret Southern sympathizers were scattered throughout the mining camps…and attempts were made to organize, equip, and train them as soldiers.” Led by men like gambler and gunfighter Charley Harrison and former brigand George Harrison, these paramilitary bands plied their own type of warfare far from Richmond’s command and control. Later in the war, many Southern sympathizers joined the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi and fought in the 1864 Red River Campaign. When evaluating the overall effectiveness of the Confederate Western irregulars, Pittman ruefully concludes, “The almost total success of the Union in keeping the large and potentially hostile Southerner populations in the West under sufficient control meant that they never were able to constitute a major threat.” But they left behind some great stories. Q
CREDITS Cover: Courtesy of Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial/National Park Service; P. 4-5: National Archives; P. 9: Courtesy of Ed Thackston; P. 14: Top: Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War; Middle: Jay Getsinger; P. 15: Library of Congress (3); P. 16: Clockwise from Left: Matthew Fleming; Library of Congress; The Newberry Library/Newberry Case Wing E468.9.C65; P. 17: Left: Photographed by Cecil Williams; Right: Google Earth; P. 18: State Historical Society of Missouri, SHS#023422-1; P. 24-25: Library of Congress; P. 26-27: Courtesy of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln (2); P. 28: Left: Norman Wharton/Alamy; Right: tinygines/folklife; P. 29: Top: Photo by Michael Criswell; Inset: Thinkstock; Bottom: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, #2428; P. 31: MGM/Photofest; P. 32: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana; P. 34: Courtesy of Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial/National Park Service (2); P. 36: Top: Library of Congress; Middle: Sarah J. Mock; P. 37: Left: Kim O’Connell; Right: Courtesy of Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial/National Park Service; P. 38-39: Library of Congress; P. 41: Library of Congress; P. 42: National Archives; P. 42-43: Library of Congress; P. 44: Library of Congress; P. 46-51: National Archives (7); P. 52: Courtesy of Larry Strayer; P. 54: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, June 17, 1865; P. 59: Library of Congress; P. 60: The Granger Collection, NY; P. 62: Top Left: Library of Congress; Top Right: West Virginia State Archives; Middle: Collection of Richard H. Hulan; P. 63: Courtesy of John Stauffer; P. 65: Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861; P. 67: Courtesy of the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia; P. 69: Special Collection/Hornbake Library/University of Maryland; P. 81: Clockwise from Left: Neil Gilmour; Special Collections and Archives Division, USMA Library; National Archives; Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS-13547; Vicksburg National Park Service (2); P. 82: Courtesy of Skinner, Inc. www.skinnerinc.com. FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 77
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The Daring Cushing Boys The Cushing brothers of Delafield, Wis., certainly made their mark. Commander William B. Cushing earned the “thanks of Congress” for sinking CSS Albemarle (P. 14), and 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing helped stop Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. Commanding Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, Alonzo was shot during the Rebel artillery barrage before the charge, but still pushed his guns forward, dying while his men secured a vulnerable spot on Cemetery Ridge. First Lieutenant Howard Cushing survived the war, but died “gallantly leading his command” in a battle with Apaches in 1871. Alonzo was belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in a ceremony at the White House on November 6, 2014. As President Barack Obama noted, Cushing refused “to evacuate to the rear despite his severe wounds [and] directed the operation of his lone field piece continuing to fire in the face of the enemy….His actions made it possible for the Union Army to successfully repulse the Confederate assault.”
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Philadelphia native Maj. Gen. General George Gordon Meade remains one of the war’s underappreciated heroes 142 years after his death. In 1996 the General Meade Society of Philadelphia formed to try and change that. One of the society’s current goals is to have Meade’s equestrian statue in the city’s Fairmount Park moved to a more prominent location. As the society’s website notes: “It is unfortunate that the magnificent monument of our greatest Philadelphia war hero is now…in an obscure place where few if any can ponder Meade’s stellar career….” The society has begun a petition on its website (generalmeadesociety.org) to move the statue to the west front of Philadelphia’s City Hall, where it was originally intended to be when the park was first laid out. City Hall is also where statues of two other Union generals—John Reynolds and George McClellan—are located.
Historians and material culture aficionados have benefited from USS Cairo’s 102year stay on the bottom of the Yazoo River. Among the artifacts recovered from the Union ironclad when it was raised in 1964—now on display at Vicksburg National Military Park—were glass lamp globes still covered with soot from the last time they were used; medicine bottles filled with original compounds and liquids; sweet-smelling tobacco; a bottle of still-edible pepper sauce; and personal mess utensils and shaving kits.
In our April 2015 issue: Read the remarkable story of James Tanner, the disabled Union veteran who helped interview witnesses to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination as the president lay dying in the next room. Prison wall, Point Lookout, Md.
FEBRUARY 2015 | CIVIL WAR TIMES 81
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Gunner’s Greetings A 6-pounder spherical shell, foreground, and from left to right in the rear a 3-inch shell, a 12-pounder shell and a 12-pounder solid shot made up a heavy-metal lot recently offered by Skinner Auctions. The 12-pounders were found at Gettysburg. All the shells still contained their fuses, but they had long ago been rendered inert. 82 CIVIL WAR TIMES | FEBRUARY 2015
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