★ HIKE SECOND MANASSAS ★ EXPLORE THE NORTH ANNA ★
J O S H U A
Chamberlain AT petersburg UNDISPUTED VALOR DISPUTED MEMORY
NEW! THE TRUTH ABOUT HIS HEROIC ATTACK CANADIAN CANNON ★ REBEL DIARY
APRIL 2017 HISTORYNET.COM
DIVERSIFY YOUR PORTFOLIO WITH PRECIOUS METALS TODAY:
GOLD SILVER AMERICAN EAGLE COINS
ly n O $
128
AMERICAN EAGLE COINS
ly n O $
00 EACH
1/10-Ounce U.S. GovernmentIssued $5 Gold American Eagles
1975
1-Ounce U.S. GovernmentIssued $1 Silver American Eagles
EACH
BUY U.S. GOLD ATCOST!
BUY U.S. SILVER ATCOST!
Starting today, U.S. Money Reserve is offering U.S. government-issued gold coins at cost for only $128 each—one of the best gold deals you’ll find anywhere. The gold market is currently at a level that presents a fantastic buying opportunity for these coins produced at the United States Mint. They can be yours at the special price of $128 per coin with no markup while supplies last or for up to 30 days. Stock up on gold for your portfolio today. This inventory is only available at this price for a limited time.
Our price is simply better. Get your silver today from U.S. Money Reserve where you can buy at cost with no markup. You can add up to 20 ounces of pure silver to your precious metals portfolio for just $19.75 per coin. Like the gold market, silver is currently at its most attractive price level in years. Stock up on silver coins now. Opportunities like this don’t last long. Call today to secure your order of U.S. government-issued silver coins at this special, limited-time price before it’s too late: 1-855-425-2404.
1 – Gov’t-Issued Gold Coin
$128.00
5 – Gov’t-Issued Silver Coins
$98.75
5 – Gov’t-Issued Gold Coins
$640.00
10 – Gov’t-Issued Silver Coins
$197.50
10 – Gov’t-Issued Gold Coins $1,280.00
20 – Gov’t-Issued Silver Coins
$395.00
Call Toll-Free Today:
1-855-425-2404 !" A$!A &A! $ AA %
One of the nation’s largest distributors of U.S. Gold & Silver.
Vault Code: CWT8 USMONEYRESERVE.COM
The markets for coins are unregulated. Prices can rise or fall and carry some risks. 7KHFRPSDQ\LVQRWDIŵOLDWHGZLWKWKH86*RYHUQPHQWDQGWKH860LQW Past performance of the coin or the market cannot predict future performance. Special offer is strictly limited to only one lifetime purchase of 10 at-cost gold coins (regardless of price paid) and 20 at-cost silver coins (regardless of price paid) per household, plus shipping and insurance ($15-$35). Minimum silver order of 5 at-cost coins. Price not valid for precious metals dealers. All calls recorded for quality assurance. Offer void where prohibited. Offer valid for up to 30 days or while supplies last. Coin dates our choice. 1/10-ounce coins enlarged to show detail. ©2017 U.S. Money Reserve.
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
60 WITHERING HISTORY Jericho Mill slowly molders away along the North Anna River.
ON THE COVER: Joshua Chamberlain became a brigadier general for his nearly fatal Petersburg bravado.
22
30
Features
22
Joshua Chamberlain at Petersburg
30
Norman Wiard’s Unique Cannon
36
Would P.G.T. lead the A.o.T.?
42
Places of Sacrifice and Courage
By Dennis A. Rasbach New information about the June 18, 1864, attack that almost killed the Union icon.
By Ronald D. Evans An ordnance expert from Canada just might have invented the war’s best cannon.
By Stephen Davis P.G.T. Beauregard was in the running for the top slot of the Army of Tennessee after the fall of Atlanta.
By David T. Gilbert Hiking trails at Second Manassas provide an intimate look at this important Confederate victory.
52
‘This Great Struggle’ By Susannah J. Ural
Confederate surgeon Dr. Francis M. Robertson’s diary details the grueling 1865 Carolinas Campaign.
Departments
12
6 8 10 12 14 18 21 60 66 72
Letters Huzzah for nurses News! Minnesota paintings stay put Details Union battery at Petersburg Materiel 5 drums of war Insight War in the Far West Interview Outlaw soldiers Editorial Joshua Chamberlain’s punishing war Explore Virginia’s North Anna River Reviews Ulysses Grant, ambassador to the world Sold ! Rebel carbine
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
3
MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER DAVID STEINHAFEL ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER ALEX NEILL EDITOR IN CHIEF
EDITORIAL DANA B. SHOAF EDITOR CHRIS K. HOWLAND SENIOR EDITOR SARAH RICHARDSON SENIOR EDITOR STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR BRIAN WALKER GROUP ART DIRECTOR JENNIFER M. VANN ART DIRECTOR MELISSA WINN SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR/SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR SHENANDOAH SANCHEZ PHOTOGRAPHER AT LARGE
UNFINISHED RAILROAD CUT AT SECOND MANASSAS
A handful of man-made topographical features affected the war’s outcome. A great example is “the abandoned grade of the Independent Line of the Manassas Gap Railroad.”
CHAMBERLAIN REVEALS THE WAR IN LETTERS HOME
Joshua Chamberlain’s correspondence with his wife during the war reveals a man plagued by the human foibles that confound us all.
UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE
Guerrilla warfare did not play a major role in the military outcome of the Civil War, but that isn’t to say it should be ignored.
VISIT SHOP.HISTORYNET.COM LET’S CONNECT Like Civil War Times Magazine on Facebook FOLLOW US @CivilWarTimes
GO DIGITAL Civil War Times is available on Zinio, Kindle, and Nook.
4
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
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
CORPORATE ROB WILKINS DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP MARKETING ROXANNA SASSANIAN FINANCE TOM GRIFFITHS CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT GRAYDON SHEINBERG CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT
ADVERTISING COURTNEY FORTUNE Advertising Services
[email protected] RICK GOWER Regional Sales Manager
[email protected] TERRY JENKINS Regional Sales Manager
[email protected] RICHARD E. VINCENT Regional Sales Manager
[email protected]
DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING RUSSELL JOHNS ASSOCIATES 800-649-9800
[email protected] © 2 0 1 7 H I S T O RY NE T , L L C
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 800-435-0715 and SHOP.HISTORYNET.COM Yearly Subscriptions in U.S.: $39.95 Civil War Times (ISSN 1546-9980) is published bimonthly by HistoryNet, LLC 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4038, 703-771-9400 Periodical postage paid at Vienna, VA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER, send address changes to: Civil War Times, P.O. Box 422224, Palm Coast, FL 32142-2224 List Rental Inquiries: Belkys Reyes, Lake Group Media, Inc. 914-925-2406;
[email protected] Canada Publications Mail Agreement No. 41342519, Canadian GST No. 821371408RT0001 The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of HistoryNet, LLC
PROUDLY M ADE IN THE USA
56/58 mm-1/30 Scale
TH[[LÄUPZO
31259
31258
The Hornet’s Sting Confederate Casualty Set, 2 piece set
Confederate Texas Brigade Standing Defending No.3
$36
$72
31187
31255
Confederate Infantry Color Sergeant Charging, 1st Texas Flag No.1
Confederate Drummer in Frockcoat No.2
$48
$38
Hand-Painted Pewter Figures
7KH+LVWRU\6WRUH Tel: 740-775-7400 www.thehistorystore.net
[email protected] 101 North Paint St. Chillicothe, Ohio 45601
0LFKLJDQ7R\6ROGLHU&R Tel: 248-586-1022 Toll Free: 1-888-MICHTOY www.michtoy.com 1400 East 11 Mile Road Royal Oak, Michigan 48067
*UHHQ·V&ROOHFWDEOHV 6LHUUD7R\6ROGLHU Tel: 973-627-4961 Tel: 408-395-3000 www.greenscollectables.com Fax: 408-358-3966 46 Warren Trail www.sierratoysoldier.com Denville, New Jersey 07834 29 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Los Gatos, California 95030
7UDLQVDQG7R\6ROGLHUV Tel: 800-786-1888 www.trainsandtoysolders.com 3130 S. 6th Street, Suite 104 Lincoln, Nebraska 68502
&URZQ0LOLWDU\0LQLDWXUHV US Tel: 603-552-5069 UK Phone: 02030048058 www.crowntoysoldiers.com 88 North Broadway Salem, NH 03079
The Toy Hobby Bunker 7UHHIURJ7UHDVXUHV 6ROGLHU&RPSDQ\ Tel: 781-321-8855 Tel: 866-394-2418 Tel: 1-888-825-8697 Fax: 781-321-8866 Outside U.S.: 1-507-545-2500 www.toysoldierco.com www.hobbybunker.com www.treefrogtreasures.com 33 Exchange Street 248 Sandstone Drive NW Malden, Massachusetts 02148 Eyota, Minnesota 55934
Call and mention this ad to receive a FREE catalog! WBA1216
©2016 THE GOOD SOLDIER The GOOD SOLDIER and
are registered trademarks of The Good Soldier, LLC, Holland, OH
★ FORTS AND SOUTHERN CHARM IN SAVANNAH, GA. ★
I found Catherine Clinton’s February 2017 article on the raid along the Combahee River fascinating. I have long despised Union Colonel James Montgomery after seeing his depiction during the raid on Darien, Ga., in the film Glory, and my own reading on his conduct. It was surprising to learn of Harriet Tubman’s success alongside him, especially given the depth of his racism. As frustrating as it is to see racist Union men such as him leading black regiments, it is always good to read about someone like Tubman defeating the odds against her. Emma Benun Lincoln, R.I.
FROM DIXIE TO JAPAN The Fearsome Ironclad “Stonewall”
NIGHT’ HAVOC ! 300 Rebels Smash a Union Outpost
BOTTOMS UP Civil War Inspiration for Craft Beer
“MOSES” MONTGOMERY?
“The Horrors I Have Witnessed” This nurse, known as “Mary,” served at one of Washington’s wartime hospitals.
★ NURSES’ POIGNANT LETTERS ★
ATLEE’S STATION CONNECTION
DECEMBER 2016 HISTORYNET.COM
HUZZAH FOR NURSES I enjoyed Chris Foard’s “Nurses’ Poignant Letters” article in the December 2016 issue. It’s nice reading a letter right from the pen of a nurse. Foard chose some fabulous letters with excellent content. I did not realize nurses assisted with the burial of soldiers. Thank you for the education and giving the public a better understanding of the roles nurses played during the war. Dale Rose, Lewes, Del.
FROM OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
Comments from our recent post about the 69th New York and the Irish Brigade:
Glenn Roberts: They were very brave soldiers but that bravery was exploited and their brigade was made expendable by Union Brass at Marye’s Heights. God Bless the Fallen. Joseph Maghe: Meagher’s penchant for the smoothbore musket loaded with buck & ball and his belief in “carrying with the bayonet” cost his regiments in some battles. Scott Bell: A shame these good Irishmen were in the wrong army. They should have been in the Confederate army.
6
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
I read with interest the excellent article “Victory in the Pitch Black” by Bruce Venter in the December 2016 issue about the fight that occurred at Atlee’s Station northeast of Richmond in early March 1864. That region has particular significance to my wife’s family. Her great-great-grandfather on her mother’s side, Captain Daniel Blauvelt, Company I, 8th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, was KIA three months later on May 31 in the Totopotomoy Creek area of Atlee’s Station, just prior to the Battle of Cold Harbor. I have read your magazine for many years and probably still have most if not all the copies that I received or bought saved somewhere in the house. You are continuing the tradition of publishing a great source of information on an important segment of our country’s history. Keep up the good work! Bob Langford Morristown, N.J.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU !
e-mail us at
[email protected] or send letters to Civil War Times, 1919 Gallows Rd., Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4083
Introducing The new and revolutionary
Jacuzzi® Hydrotherapy Shower. AGING = PAIN
For many, arthritis and spinal disc degeneration are the most common source of pain, along with hips, knees, shoulders and the neck. In designing the Jacuzzi Hydrotherapy Shower, we worked with expert physicians to maximize its pain relieving therapy by utilizing the correct level of water pressure to provide gentle yet effective hydrotherapy.
JACUZZI® SHOWER = RELIEF Four Jacuzzi® ShowerPro™ Jets focus on the neck, back, hips, knees and may help ease the pain and discomfort of:
The Jacuzzi Hydrotherapy Shower provides a lifetime of comfort and relief… safely and affordably. As we age, the occasional aches and pains of everyday life become less and less occasional. Most of us are bothered by sore muscles, creaky joints and general fatigue as we go through the day- and it’s made worse by everything from exertion and stress to arthritis and a number of other ailments. Sure, there are pills and creams that claim to provide comfort, but there is only one 100% natural way to feel better… hydrotherapy. Now, the world leader in hydrotherapy has invented the only shower that features Jacuzzi ® Jets. It’s called the Jacuzzi ® Hydrotherapy Shower, and it can truly change your life.
! Arthritis ! !
For over 50 years, the Jacuzzi® Design Engineers have worked to bring the powerful benefits of soothing hydrotherapy into millions of homes. Now, they’ve created a system that can fit in the space of your existing bathtub or shower and give you a lifetime of enjoyment, comfort and pain-relief. They’ve thought of everything. From the high-gloss acrylic surface, slip-resistant flooring, a hand-held shower wand, a comfortable and adjustable seat, to strategically-placed grab bars and lots of storage, this shower has it all. Why wait to experience the Jacuzzi® Hydrotherapy Shower? Call now… it’s the first step in getting relief from those aches and pains.
FRE
E
! ! !
Call toll free now to get your FREE special report “Tips on Living to be 100” Mention promotional code 102749.
1-844-594-5558
© 2016 Aging In The Home Remodelers
82028
®
PAINTINGS
STAY PUT IN ST. PAUL
Six turn-of-the-century paintings depicting Minnesota Civil War regiments will remain on display in the state capitol in St. Paul, following settlement of an October 2016 dispute. During a renovation of the statehouse, the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board recommended relocation of the paintings, supporting a request by Governor Mark Dayton, who felt other artwork would better represent the breadth of the state’s history. The paintings featuring Minnesota regiments at several notable engagements, such as Gettysburg and Vicksburg, had been on display for more than a century. But their proposed removal met resistance, as opponents argued they highlighted the state’s exemplary service in the nation’s worst war. Dayton contended the resistance was driven largely by supporters of another candidate for governor in the 2018 race. According to TwinCities.com, the Minnesota Historical Society ruled on December 8 that the paintings, following restoration, will be displayed in their original location.
Minnesota regiments assault Shy’s Hill on December 16, 1864, in Howard Pyle’s 1906 “The Battle of Nashville,” one of the disputed paintings.
8
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
LINCOLN FORUM
HONOREES AT THE 21ST ANNUAL Lincoln Forum, held in Gettysburg this past November 16-18, the following awards were announced. James I. “Bud” Robertson, Virginia Tech professor emeritus and Civil War historian, was given the Richard Nelson Current Award for Achievement. His most recent book, After the Civil War: The Heroes, Villains, Soldiers, and Civilians Who Changed America, is among more than 20 he has written on the Civil War. Gettysburg Foundation Chair Robert A. Kinsley and Vice Chair Barbara Finfrock were awarded the Wendy Allen Award for Institutional Excellence.
7,000 ACRES ! The 2,500-acre Petersburg Battlefield will gain more than 7,000 acres because of legislation passed by Congress on December 8, 2016. The act follows a 2005 National Park Service recommendation to incorporate 18 additional sites of combat that took place from June 1864 to April 1865. During this period, three Union armies fought two Confederate armies— with combined forces of about 180,000 men—and the area of combat totaled 567 square miles. The confrontation is also significant for the number of USCT troops involved: 16,000. A total of 15 of the 16 Medals of Honor awarded to USCT soldiers were for service at Petersburg, and 14 were earned for service in the Battle of New Market Heights. The legislation passed does not itself pay for the land but authorizes the National Park Service to acquire the land and expand the battlefield boundaries. The new boundary will include sites of the following five battles: Five Forks, Peebles’ Farm, Ream’s Station, the Crater, and the Petersburg Breakthrough.
IS THAT
NAT
Left to right: Harold Holzer, Lincoln Forum vice chairman; award winner “Bud” Robertson; and Frank Williams, Lincoln Forum chairman.
QUI Z
WHAT BATTLE ROARED AROUND THIS ELEGANT HOME? Send your answer via e-mail to
[email protected] or via regular mail (1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA, 22182-4038) marked “Western Bloodbath.” The first correct answer will win a book. Congratulations to last issue’s winners Josh Hepler of Cape Girardeau, Mo. (e-mail), and Arthur Trudel of Williamsburg, Va. (regular mail), who correctly identified the location of Brawner Farm, Va.
TURNER’S
SKULL?
n
at Turner was killed in 1831 after leading a slave uprising in southern Virginia. Now a skull said to belong to the slave preacher is at the Smithsonian for genetic testing against DNA of his descendants, according to National Geographic. If the skull is determined to be Turner’s, it will be returned to his descendants, who intend to bury it. In the summer of 1831, Turner interpreted a solar eclipse and atmospheric disturbances as omens to initiate his uprising. The insurrection killed more than 50 whites and concluded with the retaliatory killings of some 200 blacks. Turner was eventually seized and hanged on November 11, 1831. A local doctor who handled Turner’s mutilated cadaver passed the skull along to his descendants. Eventually it reached Richard Hatcher, a civil rights activist, collector, and former longtime mayor of Gary, Ind. Recently Hatcher offered the skull to Turner’s descendants, and they approached the Smithsonian regarding DNA testing. APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
9
A DAY IN
THE SIEGE Mathew Brady and his team took several photos, including this one, of Captain Andrew Cowan’s 1st New York Independent Battery inside the siege lines outside Petersburg, Va. The New Yorkers were the new tenants of a sunbaked earthen fort known as Battery 5 that had once been a Confederate stronghold in the Dimmock Line, built between 1862-64 to protect Petersburg. Union troops captured the fort during June 15 attacks on the Dimmock Line. Battery 5, located northeast of Petersburg, was repurposed and the Federal artillerymen moved in on June 18, frequently exchanging fire with “rebel batteries beyond the Appomattox [River],” according to Cowan. This image was taken the day before the New Yorkers hitched up their guns and left for another location. The 1st New York had helped repulse Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, where Cowan had reportedly pitched in to help fire a cannon, and had seen action in most of the Eastern Theater’s big battles. On July 9, 1864, the unit left Petersburg’s stifling trenches to join in the campaign against Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley, but the Siege of Petersburg lasted until April 1865.
ON JUNE 20, 1864,
gunner
2
4 1 5 3
A C B
10
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
A.
Battery 5 was about a mile behind the frontline trenches. A number of Union troops stand fully exposed, suggesting they didn’t have to worry about enemy sharpshooters.
to canvas shelters. Artillerymen often appropriated these sturdy covers, intended to protect their cannons from the elements, for their personal use. Accoutrements and clothing, including a pair of drawers, are draped over the shelter’s frame. A wheelbarrow lies in the foreground.
heat—were posed in the act of loading their cannons. The gunner aimed the gun and called for certain types of ammunition. The No. 5 man placed a round in the leather haversack and ran it from the limber to the gun, handing the round to No. 2, who placed it in the muzzle to be rammed home by No. 1. The No. 3 man thumbed the vent, as he is doing here, to cut off sparks, and also pricked open the powder bag. No 4 , blurred in the image because he apparently moved during the exposure, pulled the lanyard that fired the weapon.
C.
D. The Nos. 6 and 7 men remained
B. A soldier reads a newspaper next
The battery’s four 3-inch ordnance rifles are visible in the image, and the gunners—most stripped to their shirtsleeves because of the
at the ammunition limber, preparing rounds, cutting fuses, etc., for No. 5 to carry forward. Just in front
of the limber, an officer sits in one of several camp chairs scattered about the scene.
E.
This man is probably battery commander Captain Andrew Cowan, who would lead all artillery in the Army of the Potomac’s 6th Corps by the end of the war. He was discharged as a brevet lieutenant colonel. To his right, another officer rests a telescope on a wooden stanchion.
F.
Mathew Brady’s trusted assistant, Timothy O’Sullivan, probably took this image. It’s definite that Brady did not, for he posed himself at the far right, resting against a limber.
E
F D 6
7 APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
11
5 DRUMS OF WAR
CIVIL WAR DRUMMERS deftly executed flams, paradiddles, and rolls on their instruments to play intricate beats that ordered soldiers to assemble in ranks, gather wood and water, and complete myriad camp tasks. Battle’s chaotic din, however, rendered drum calls mostly useless once the shooting started, and drummers were frequently detailed as stretcher-bearers during engagements. At the 1863 Battle of Rappahannock Station, recalled Captain Francis Donaldson of the 118th Pennsylvania, the drummers were ordered to put down their instruments and, “much against their will,” follow the battle line carrying stretchers. Nonetheless, drums fulfilled an important communication function throughout the conflict. After the war, drums became powerful symbols of camaraderie, and veterans often recalled when their staccato calls roused sleeping camps or energized tired legs during long marches.
Scenes of Union Maj. Gen. George G. Meade and Zouaves were painted on this drum after the war when it was used at Northern veteran reunions. The size of this example—17 inches in diameter, 14 inches tall—is typical for most of the 32,000 snare drums the Union Army ordered between 1861 and 1865.
12
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
Richmond’s Confederate Drum Manufactory made the 13th Virginia Infantry’s drum. Drummers could use the woven cord attached to the bottom rim as a sling when the instrument was not in use, and it also served as a back up tensioning system. When drums were being played, H.C. Hart’s 1861 manual New and Improved Instructor for the Drum stated that they should “rest against the left leg immediately above the knee.”
This 10th Connecticut drum provides a good look at the leather toggles that slid up and down on the ropes to tighten the drumheads, made of calf or sheepskin. Weather changes could affect the drumheads, and musicians sometimes had to dry them out over campfires during wet or humid conditions. Snares, strings stretched tautly across the bottom head, gave the drums their sharp crack, or buzz, when the top head was struck with sticks.
The 1st Minnesota listed its extensive battle honors on the regiment’s patriotically painted drum. Though the term “drummer boy” is common, and while most drummers were young, older men could also fill that role. Drummer Almon Laird of the 27th Massachusetts was 48 years old when he died in a Rebel prison, and drummer David Scantlon was 52 when he served as a musician in the 4th Virginia.
Seven stars, for the first seven Confederate states to secede from the Union, and an eagle decorate this Confederate drum captured in 1861 at Beaufort, S.C., by Private Daniel Reed of the 50th Pennsylvania. (Reed was later killed at the 1862 Battle of Ox Hill, Va.) Bored soldiers often used flat drumheads as tables for impromptu card or dice games.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
13
By Gary W. Gallagher
MASSACRE On November 29, 1864, U.S. cavalrymen attacked a Native American village at Sand Creek, Colorado Territory, killing dozens of Indians, including many women and children.
A CONFLICT
APART
BRUTAL BATTLES BETWEEN THE U.S. ARMY AND INDIANS WERE NOT CONSIDERED PART OF THE “REAL WAR”
THE CIVIL WAR WITNESSED numerous clashes between Indians and the U.S. Army and territorial military units. Three of the most notable involved the Sioux in Minnesota in 1862-63, the Navajo in Arizona and New Mexico in 1863-64, and a group of Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, Colorado Territory, in 1864. In his multiple-prize-winning Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek (2013), Ari Kelman usefully addresses whether these kinds of events should be considered part of, or largely separate from, the Civil War. He quotes an Indiana soldier writing from Petersburg, Va., in 1865 who, in Kelman’s words, considered Sand Creek “an aberration, a fit of frontier brutality that threatened to diminish glorious achievements hard won during a terrible but ultimately just war.” For Indians looking eastward, in contrast, Sand Creek fit into a Civil War waged for “empire, a contest to control expansion into the West.” 14
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
Kelman’s own measured view is that Sand Creek “should be recalled as part of both the Civil War and the Indian Wars, a bloody link between interrelated chapters of the nation’s history.” If asked to address this question, most residents of the United States likely would have pronounced encounters between U.S. military forces and Native Americans tangential to the fundamental issues of the Civil War. The more than 2,000,000 citizen-soldiers who shouldered muskets, as well as the civilian population, overwhelmingly waged a war to restore the Union. The nation’s political and military focus remained firmly fixed much farther east. Major General John Pope’s reassignment from Virginia to Minnesota in September 1862 is instructive. Exiled to a military backwater, Pope put on a stoic face. “I could tell a sad story to you tonight, of recent events,” he told a gathering in Chicago while en route to Minnesota, “but it is wiser and better that I should not tell it.” Pope soon learned the relative importance of deal-
This 4carat stunner was created from the aftermath of Mount St. Helens eruption!
What our clients are saying about Stauer Helenite jewelry: “My wife received more compliments on this stone on the first day she wore it than any other piece of jewelry I’ve ever given her.” – J. from Orlando, FL Stauer Client
Famous Volcano Has Strange Effect On Women Man and nature collaborate to create a glamorous green ring guaranteed to rock her world! Own it today for ONLY $99 plus FREE studs with ring purchase!
O
n May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, sending a column of ash and smoke 80,000 feet into the atmosphere. From that chaos, something beautiful emerged—our spectacular Spirit Lake Helenite Ring.
spectacular large carat weight jewelry. “It’s just recently that luxury jewelers have fallen in love with helenite,” says James Fent, GIA certified gemologist. “Clear green color in a stone this size is rarely found in emeralds but helenite has come to the rescue.”
Created from the superheated volcanic rock dust of the historic Mount St. Helens eruption, helenite has become the green stone of choice for jewelry and fashion designers worldwide. Helenite’s vivid color and immaculate clarity rivals mined emeralds that can sell for as much as $3,000 per carat. Today you can wear this 4-carat stunner for only $99!
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Bring home the Spirit Lake Helenite Ring and see for yourself. If you are not completely blown away by the exceptional beauty of this rare American stone, simply return the ring within 60 days for a full refund of your purchase price. It’s that simple. But we’re betting that once you slide this gorgeous green beauty on your finger, it will take a force of nature to get you two apart!
EXCLUSIVE
FREE
Helenite Studs a $129 value with purchase of Spirit Lake Ring
Our exclusive design highlights the visually stunning stone with a concave cut set in .925 sterling silver loaded with brilliant white, labcreated DiamondAura®. The classic pairing of colors in a vintageinspired setting makes for a statement ring that’s simply impossible to ignore! Beauty from the beast. Also known as “America’s Emerald,” helenite is not an emerald at all, but a brighter and clearer green stone that gem cutters can facet into
Spirit Lake Helenite Ring Total value with FREE studs $478* Now, Offer Code Price Only $99 + S&P Save $379!
18003332045 Your Offer Code: SLR41002 You must use this insider offer code to get our special price.
Stauer
® 14101 Southcross Drive W., Dept. SLR410-02,
Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 www.stauer.com
* Special price only for customers using the offer code versus the price on Stauer.com without your offer code. Rating of A+
4 carat Helenite center stone • Labcreated white DiamondAura accents • .925 sterling silver setting • Whole ring sizes 5–10
Smart Luxuries—Surprising Prices ™
ing with the Sioux and of commanding armies, as he had earlier in the Western and Eastern theaters. On September 23, from St. Paul, he informed superiors in Washington that he lacked wagons, mules, and men. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton replied that Pope should not “detain in your department any more troops than are absolutely necessary for protection from the Indians.” General in Chief Henry W. Halleck also weighed in, acidly observing that “organization of a large force for an Indian campaign is...not deemed necessary.” Like Pope, many soldiers serving against Indians nourished disappointment at being so far from what they considered the real war. Early in 1862, an Iowan affirmed that deployment in Dakota Territory “is not the height of our ambition. We are anxious to take an active part in this struggle for national existence, and distinguish ourselves… in maintaining our country’s rights and restoring peace and harmony to its now torn and distracted States.” Similarly, a member of the 4th Minnesota Infantry, a unit initially assigned to garrison duty on the frontier, recalled how “intimation that the Fourth would be home guards” provoked “a good deal of fun” directed “at the expense of those who enlisted in
MANY SOLDIERS SERVING AGAINST INDIANS WERE DISAPPOINTED AT BEING SO FAR FROM WHAT THEY CONSIDERED THE
REAL WAR the regiment.” The enlistees, however, held out hope for a chance to help save the nation: “Our men believed that the war would be a long one, and that they would have the opportunity to see all the fighting that they would desire.” Unlike Pope, who never returned to a major theater, the 4th saw action in Missis16
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
MORBID ENTERTAINMENT Soldiers form up and civilians gather to watch the hanging of 38 Sioux Indians at Mankato, Minn. Abraham Lincoln pardoned 250 more Native Americans. sippi and Tennessee later in the war. Evidence from inside Lincoln’s cabinet, including the papers of Gideon Welles, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, John G. Nicolay, and John Hay, underscores how little attention top policymakers accorded hostile Indians. Even the fighting in Minnesota in August– September 1862, the toll for which included more than 500 dead white civilians (almost certainly a higher number than Confederate civilians killed during all of Sherman’s Georgia and Carolinas campaigns), and the mass hanging of 38 Sioux at Mankato later that year received only passing mention. Indeed, the best-known aspect of the Minnesota drama relates to Lincoln’s commuting death sentences of more than 250 Indians. It is useful to interpret wartime struggles between Indians and the United States as utterly predictable—the kind of incidents that would have occurred, at some place and in some fashion, in the absence of the four-year slaughter triggered by sectional wrangling. They fit within a framework that connects innumerable episodes from the Chesapeake and Pequot wars of the 17th century to the conflicts between Native Americans and the U.S. Army during the post-Appomattox decades. A few examples illustrate the continuities. In New Mexico Territory, Kit Carson received orders to “lay waste the prairie with fire,” a variation on attempts to deny Indians food and shelter that
went back to “feed fights” of the Colonial era or, more recently, to Colonel William J. Worth’s actions during the Second Seminole War. The forced relocation of the Sioux in Minnesota and, more famously, “The Long Walk” of 8,000–9,000 Navajo from modern-day Arizona to the Bosque Redondo near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, (at least 200 perished on the 300-mile journey), recalled the “removal” of the “Five Civilized Tribes” from the Old Southwest to what is now Oklahoma. Wartime friction with Indians also spawned the kind of debate about methods that had arisen in virtually all earlier eras. One side, often dominated by white voices from frontier areas, called for unrestrained war against the Indians. Colonel John M. Chivington, who led the Colorado and New Mexico militia at Sand Creek, insisted “that to kill them is the only way we will ever have peace and quiet in Colorado.” Others called for less brutal methods, as when Senator Charles Sumner denounced Sand Creek, where approximately 150 Indian men, women, and children died, as “an exceptional crime; one of the most atrocious in the history of the country.” After Appomattox, many Regular Army officers returned to the kind of service against Indians they had experienced before Fort Sumter. Few found the satisfaction they had known in winning a war to save the Union and kill slavery. ✯
O EV ur ER Low D o es res n t P s W a C ri atc lass ce h! ic
Wear it today for only
$29
TAKE 85% OFF INSTANTLY! When you use your INSIDER OFFER CODE
Back Again for the First Time Our modern take on a 1929 classic, yours for the unbelievably nostalgic price of ONLY $29! ou have a secret hidden up your sleeve. Strapped to your wrist is a miniature masterpiece, composed of hundreds of tiny moving parts that measure the steady heartbeat of the universe. You love this watch. And you still smile every time you check it, because you remember that you almost didn’t buy it. You almost turned the page without a second thought, figuring that the Stauer Metropolitan Watch for only $29 was just too good to be true. But now you know how right it feels to be wrong.
Y
Our lowest price EVER for a classic men’s dress watch. How can we offer the Metropolitan for less than $30? The answer is simple. Stauer has sold over one million watches in the last decade and many of our clients buy more than one. Our goal isn’t to sell you a single watch, our goal is to help you fall in love with Stauer’s entire line of vintage-inspired luxury timepieces and jewelry. And every great relationship has to start somewhere... Tells today’s time with yesterday’s style. The Metropolitan is exactly the kind of elegant, must-have accessory that belongs in every gentleman’s collection next to his British cufflinks and Italian neckties. Inspired by a rare 1929 Swiss classic found at auction, the Metropolitan Watch revives a distinctive and debonair retro design for 21st-century men of exceptional taste. The Stauer Metropolitan retains all the hallmarks of a well-bred wristwatch including a gold-finished case, antique ivory guilloche
face, blued Breguet-style hands, an easy-to-read date window at the 3 o’clock position, and a crown of sapphire blue. It secures with a crocodile-patterned, genuine black leather strap and is water resistant to 3 ATM. Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. We are so sure that you will be stunned by the magnificent Stauer Metropolitan Watch that we offer a 60-day money back guarantee. If you’re not impressed after wearing it for a few weeks, return it for a full refund of the purchase price. But once the first compliments roll in, we’re sure that you’ll see the value of time well spent!
Stauer Metropolitan Timepiece— $199 Offer Code Price
$29
+ S&P Save $170
You must use the insider offer code to get our special price.
1-800-333-2045 Your Offer Code: MTW-02
Please use this code when you order to receive your discount.
Stauer
14101 Southcross Drive W., ® Dept. MTW-02
Burnsville, Minnesota 55337
Rating of A+ www.stauer.com Smart Luxuries—Surprising Prices™
Luxurious gold-finished case with sapphire-colored crown - Crocodile-embossed leather strap - Band fits wrists 6 ¼"–8 ¾" - Water-resistant to 3 ATM
with Matthew Hulbert
CWT: How did you get interested in guerrillas and Civil War memory? MH: A fascination with Frank and Jesse James, which led to John Newman Edwards, who was sort of the first architect of the way we remember guerrillas from the borderlands. Following that thread led to a broad, uncharted topic. CWT: What happened to Jesse James? MH: Jesse James joined up in 1863 with William Quantrill’s guerrillas. His brother Frank is already a guerrilla. Frank joins the regular forces early in the war and is paroled and comes home and joins up as a guerrilla. Jesse James witnesses his stepfather Dr. Reuben Samuel being tortured by essentially Union guerrilla hunters who are looking for Frank because they know he is riding with Quantrill. After that Jesse joins as a teenager. He’s in the war for 2 ½-3 years, and he’s wounded a couple of times. When it comes time to surrender, James falls in with men who were not going to do that—they are staying on the highway, staying in the bush. They gradually consolidate into a crime ring.
ROUGH RIDER Jesse James: A youthful face and an outlaw’s heart.
GUERRILLA
WARFARE MATTHEW HULBERT STARTED
with Jesse James and ended up exploring how the Civil War helped win the West. His 2016 The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory: How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West showcases how guerrilla warfare in Missouri was remembered, mis-remembered, or forgotten. “Most guerrilla conflicts happen out in the woods or on somebody’s front porch,” Hulbert says. “That’s much harder to deal with than, ‘Hey we’ll buy these acres of a battlefield and everyone can come visit and learn what happened here’.” 18
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
CWT: Why are the James brothers famous? MH: When the war in Missouri ends, it’s very apparent to everyone who waged it and experienced it in the borderlands that this does not look like the conflict that has been fought in the Eastern Theater. The Lawrence [Kan.] Massacre, the massacre at Centralia [Mo.], even the daily household violence where a few guerrillas burn and pillage a house, this doesn’t look like what we see at Gettysburg, Manassas, or Petersburg. John Newman Edwards is really the first propagandist who sees an opportunity to say, “Hey, we have a different story to tell…We might as well exploit that for political purposes rather than hide from it and sort of fabricate this past.” He does it in such a way that plays on their “irregularness,” or their otherness. The James go on to become arguably the most famous criminals in American history. They’re right up there with Bonnie and Clyde. CWT: Edwards promotes a Missouri Lost Cause. MH: He starts out as sort of the publicist for the James Gang, and he sees how easy
it is to morph them into Confederate heroes: They’re not stealing because they want the money; they’re not stealing because they’re greedy or lazy; they are doing this to get back at the Union. They are pro-Confederate terrorists. He sees how well that works, and he says I could do this with William Quantrill and all these other really well known guerrillas and I can blow this up into something really much bigger. And that’s exactly what he does. CWT: Were people eager to hear this? MH: People are eager to hear this. Missouri is split much in the way that Kentucky was—down the middle, about half Confederate sympathizing and half Union sympathizing. So when Missouri fails to leave the Union, all of those pro-Confederates are left in the lurch. They can leave the state or they can fight as guerrillas in the state, and people do end up doing both, but after the war, they are starved for a connection to the Confederacy proper, and Edwards gives them that connection and he does it in a way that doesn’t sell short their experiences. If you experienced the war as a guerrilla conflict, you know you didn’t experience it the same way as someone whose main experience was at Gettysburg or at Manassas. Edwards is telling you that’s fine. We can still be Southerners, we can still be Democrats, can still have a fighting past with the Confederacy. CWT: How does this shape perception overall of the West? MH: There’s a transition. It starts with what I call outlaw histories, which began competing with the John Newman Edwards narrative in the 1870s. These are very early histories of the war, before history is a professionalized [and carefully sourced]. Standards are not high. These guys start the process of pushing guerrillas out of the story or pushing them west. And those outlaw histories become the source or bedrock for dime novels, predecessors to comic books and cinemas. In illustrated dime novels, and in fictional stories that people assume are based on fact, the James
VERY FEW PEOPLE ARE
ARE FAMILIAR WITH
JESSE JAMES THE CONFEDERATE
GUERRILLA brothers are portrayed as cowboys. They’re in Texas, they’re in Mexico, they’re in Wyoming, they’re having gunfights at high noon, they’re fighting cattle barons. They’re doing all these things we expect of Western cowboys not Civil War soldiers. Dime novels gradually bleed over into cinema, and on film everyone knows Jesse James as the highwayman, the bank robber, the gunslinger, but very few people are familiar with him as a Confederate guerrilla. He is by far the best known figure and becomes the face of the movement to Westernize. CWT: What do you mean Westernize? MH: In the book, I am most interested in exploring how the West as an idea gets used to cleanse the war and its mainstream narrative of all those ugly things, of the Lawrence Massacre, of Centralia. There is a counter to Edwards: Edwards says it’s okay to have experienced the war this way, we should play it up. But we have these architects of memory in the East who say, that makes the war ugly and we’re turning the conflict into something honorable and chivalrous. We’re holding up guys like Lee and Grant who are heroes. We really don’t want William Quantrill and Bill Anderson running around scalping people and cutting off fingers and burning down houses with women and children in them, so we’re going to make them like cowboys. If we send them out West,
that’s exactly how we expect people to behave on the frontier. It’s not civilized yet, so guerrillas get repurposed. Rather than stock and trade Civil War soldiers, they’re the people who bring civilization in the rough and tumble way to the West because when you’re going to burn down and kill and scalp Indians or other nonwhite people that’s fine to audiences in the 1870s and 1880s; you’ re just not supposed to be doing it to other white people. CWT: What surprised you most? MH: I was surprised to find that if you’re in Missouri, you’re supposed to hold a grudge against Kansas, and if you’re in Kansas you’re supposed to hold a grudge against Missouri. A lot of people seemed to know that, but I was a little disappointed to find out that not very many people knew why. The grudge [dating from the states’ differing stances on slavery] has survived but not necessarily the reasoning behind it. Public history in the western borderlands, especially Missouri and Kansas, is just so difficult when you don’t fight on battlefields, when you’re not part of organized armies who have institutions behind them and can commemorate them after the war. CWT: You say the war was about more than emancipation. MH: There are scholars looking at this as a continental struggle: On one side we have a war for emancipation going on in the East, but the stakes of that conflict are so much higher when we realize that we’re not just deciding the slavery question in the eastern half of the United States, we’re also deciding who is going to control the rest of the country. What will it look like? Will it be Confederate? Will it be controlled by the Union? Someone is going to establish an empire out of this, and that is what we’re really fighting to control. Missouri is sort of the portal where those two halves get plugged in. Interview conducted by Senior Editor Sarah Richardson. APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
19
M
o ct N tra n o Fee N hly t
Co
Breakthrough technology converts phone calls to captions.
on
New amplified phone lets you hear AND see the conversation. The Hamilton® CapTel® Captioned Telephone converts phone conversations to easy-to-read captions for individuals with hearing loss.
A simple idea… made possible with sophisticated technology. If you have trouble understanding a call, captioned telephone can change your life. During a phone call the words spoken to you appear on the phone’s screen – similar to closed captioning on TV. So when you make or receive a call, the words spoken to you are not only amplified by the phone, but scroll across the phone so you can listen while reading everything that’s said to you. Each call is routed through a call center, where computer technology – aided by a live representative – generates voice-to-text translations. The captioning is real-time, accurate and readable. Your conversation is private and the captioning service doesn’t cost you a penny. Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS) is regulated and funded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and is designed exclusively for individuals with hearing loss. To learn more, visit www.fcc.gov. The Hamilton CapTel phone requires telephone service and high-speed Internet access.
WiFi Capable. Callers do not need special equipment or a captioned telephone in order to speak with you. Finally… a phone you can use again. The Hamilton CapTel phone is also packed with features to help make phone calls easier. The keypad has large, easy to use buttons.
SEE what you’ve been missing!
“For years I avoided phone calls because I couldn’t understand the caller… now I don’t miss a thing!” See for yourself with our exclusive home trial. Try a captioned telephone in your own home and if you are not completely amazed, simply return it within 60-days for a refund of the product purchase price. It even comes with a 5-year warranty.
Captioned Telephone You get adjustable volume amplification along with the ability to save captions for review later. It even has an answering machine that provides you with the captions of each message.
Call now for our special introductory price! Call now Toll-Free
1-888-796-5526 Please mention promotion code 105208.
The Captioning Telephone is intended for use by people with hearing loss. In purchasing a Captioning Telephone, you acknowledge that it will be used by someone who cannot hear well over a traditional phone. Hamilton is a registered trademark of Nedelco, Inc. d/b/a Hamilton Telecommunications. CapTel is a registered trademark of Ultratec, Inc.
81135
Do you get discouraged when you hear your telephone ring? Do you avoid using your phone because hearing difficulties make it hard to understand the person on the other end of the line? For many Americans the telephone conversation – once an important part of everyday life – has become a thing of the past. Because they can’t understand what is said to them on the phone, they’re often cut off from friends, family, doctors and caregivers. Now, thanks to innovative technology there is finally a better way.
PROFILE OF COURAGE Joshua L. Chamberlain’s bravery at Petersburg in 1864 earned him the brigadier general’s shoulder straps he wears in this image.
FOUR YEARS, FIVE WOUNDS MAINE’S FAMOUS COLONEL SUFFERED INCREDIBLE PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT
ACCORDING TO JACK D. WALSH’S Medical Histories of Union Generals,
Joshua Chamberlain received his first wound at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 when a bullet grazed his ear. That was trifle compared to what followed. A piece of shell pierced his right instep on the rocky slopes of Gettysburg’s Little Round Top, where he also suffered a deep bruise to his left leg when a slug smashed into his sword scabbard. Then came the ghastly wound at Petersburg on June 18, 1864 (P. 22). Incredibly, after five months of surgeries, fevers, and painful catheters, he returned to duty in November 1864, though he had to be re-hospitalized. And there was one last wound. On March 26, 1865, at fighting near the Quaker Road in Virginia, a bullet went through his horse’s neck, slammed into his chest, ricocheted off a pocket mirror, and skidded around his ribcage until it came out his back. He managed to stay in that fight, too. Chamberlain spent decades working in higher education, and it’s shocking to think of the enduring pain he suffered because of his four short years as a soldier. When he died on February 24, 1914, his death certificate claimed the ailments that killed him were caused by his 1864 “gunshot wound.” Fifty years later, the Minie ball that slammed into him at Petersburg had finally claimed its victim. –D.B.S. APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
21
at petersburg
JOSHUA CHAMBERLAIN
I
THE UNION COLONEL’S OWN
CLOUDED HINDSIGHT HAS LED TO CONFUSION ABOUT HIS 1864 HEROICS BY DE N N IS A . RA S B A C H
J
UNE 18, 1864, WAS A NOT A GOOD DAY FOR THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant had ordered another series of assaults against the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Va., hoping to capture the city before General Robert E. Lee could fully reinforce the thinly held Confederate trenches. Grant had about 67,000 men at his disposal to 20,000 for the Rebels, but confusion, miscommunication, and the Confederates’ adept juggling of reinforcements doomed the Union onslaughts. Rank after rank of blue troops faltered under withering gunfire. The Second Battle of Petersburg, which had opened on June 15, would end in Northern defeat and the beginning of a protracted siege that would last for months. Joining the June 18 attacks, on the far left of the Union lines in Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin’s 1st Division of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur Warren’s 5th Corps, was a brigade of Pennsylvania regiments under Colonel Joshua Chamberlain—the 121st, 142nd, 143rd, 149th, 150th, and 187th. Chamberlain was already famous in the Army of the Potomac for his Little Round Top heroics at Gettysburg the previous July, and when he returned to active duty in April 1864 after an extended illness, he was given command of the Keystone State regiments. As the brigade struggled ahead, its standard-bearer went down with a wound. Chamberlain grabbed the banner and, as he urged his men forward, a Minié ball
22
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
IN HARM’S WAY Artist Dan Nance’s depiction of Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain at Petersburg on June 18, 1864, wielding his brigade’s flag seconds before a Rebel bullet found its mark.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
23
HELD HIS GROUND Chamberlain was awarded this Medal of Honor for his defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.
slammed into his pelvis. “I was standing so firmly on the ground at the time that I did not fall at first,” Chamberlain recalled. “I thrust the point of my sword into the ground and balanced myself over the hilt and held myself in that position until the men of the first line had passed in charge. I knew that if they saw their leader fall it would discourage them, so with rigid features I held myself up although helpless in all other ways. They saw me standing there like a statue leaning on my sword, but did not dream that I had received a mortal wound….” When Grant heard of the colonel’s grievous wound, he promoted Chamberlain to Brigadier General on June 20. Chamberlain’s gallantry is undisputed. There are, however, two competing views on the location of the June 18 attack that nearly killed him. While the charge occurred near where the Baxter Road wound its way through the Confederate earthworks near Pegram’s (or Elliott’s) Salient, many histories of that day’s fighting place his charge and horrible wounding farther to the south near Rives’ Salient, not far from the Jerusalem Plank Road. Where did that second interpretation come from? From Chamberlain himself, it turns out—presenting an interesting case study of how cloudy memory can impact history.
C
hamberlain had recalled the events 35 years after the attack, in an 1899 memoir The Charge at Fort Hell. Interestingly, the actual text of Chamberlain’s manuscript makes no specific reference to Rives’ Salient, Fort Sedgwick, or “Fort Hell”; only the title alludes to this location. Chamberlain claimed his brigade charged and carried the position that subsequently became Fort Sedgwick, also known as “Fort Hell,” after which the brigade advanced from the south along the Jerusalem Plank Road against the permanent Confederate works at Rives’ Salient, under murderous enfilading fire from Fort Mahone to the west. But Fort Sedgwick did not exist when Chamberlain made his famous charge. Perhaps he was confused, or perhaps his intent was to offer a general point of reference with which others could connect, given the site’s subsequent notoriety. Chamberlain’s other speeches and writings during the final years of his life linked his charge with Fort Hell. Then a series of Chamberlain biographers picked up on his lead, embracing the viewpoint in writings spanning more than half of a century, including but not limited to Willard M. Wallace (Soul of the Lion: A Biography of General Joshua L.
24
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
Chamberlain, 1995); Alice Raines Trulock (In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain & the American Civil War, 1992); Mark Nesbitt (Through Blood and Fire: Selected Civil War Papers of Major General Joshua Chamberlain, 1996); Edward G. Longacre (Joshua Chamberlain: The Soldier and the Man, 1999); and Diane M. Smith (Chamberlain at Petersburg: The Charge at Fort Hell, 2004). With the exception of Smith’s book, the authors dedicated only a few pages to Chamberlain’s experience at Petersburg on June 18, 1864. Smith’s book is entirely devoted to the June 18 attack, and she based her book on the 1899 The Charge at Fort Hell, which had remained unpublished and largely forgotten in the Special Collections Library at Duke University until 2004. Smith’s extensive annotations and the fact that it purports to present an accurate account from Chamberlain’s pen gives Chamberlain at Petersburg an aura of authority that has influenced the historical record. Numerous websites, for example, promote as historical fact the idea that he was wounded near Rives’ Salient, including the National Park Service’s website for Petersburg National Battlefield, which is perplexing since other NPS documents support the Baxter Road site. Chamberlain was so badly injured that he did not leave a contemporaneous account of his movements or activities on June 18. The only official report of the action of Chamberlain’s 1st Brigade comes from Colonel William S. Tilton, who assumed command of the unit on the evening of June 18, and Chamberlain himself did not discuss his whereabouts at Petersburg that day for nearly two decades. He apparently did not revisit the battlefield until January 1882, while returning from a winter trip to Florida. He recorded his impressions in a letter to his sister, penned January 29. In that account, he described having spent four hours trying to identify the spot where he had fallen while leading his charge against the Rebel works. “All is changed there now,” he wrote. “What was a solid piece of woods through which I led my troops is now all cleared field, & the hillside so smooth there is now grown up with little clumps of trees….At last, guided by the [Norfolk & Petersburg] railroad cut & the well-remembered direction of the church spires of the city, I found the spot—or a space of 20–30 feet within which I must have fallen….I looked down & saw a bullet, & while stooping to pick it up, another & another appeared in sight & I took up six within as many feet of each other and of the spot where I fell.” Because of his unfamiliarity with features of the topography, Chamberlain resorted to using
MISSED OPPORTUNITY The unsuccessful Army of the Potomac attacks on June 18, 1864, were designed to invest the trenches protecting Petersburg before they could be completed. As this maps shows, the incorrect scenario for Chamberlain’s assault has his brigade moving left while skirmishing across a mile of open field toward Rives’ Salient, isolated from the rest of the army at least a mile to the north. APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
25
A BIT LATER Union troops pose inside Fort Sedgwick, or “Fort Hell,” after the Siege of Petersburg ended. Chamberlain frequently referred to the fort when describing the June 18, 1864, attack, but it did not exist at that time.
the railroad cut and Petersburg’s church spires to lead him to the spot where he fell. But the steeples are perhaps two miles from Chamberlain’s supposed Rives’ Salient attack position, and a mile and a half from the Baxter Road position. The similarity of perspective between the two sites, which are both southeast of the town, makes it difficult to fathom how he could achieve accuracy in pinpointing a precise location based on the distant landmarks. In September 1900, Chamberlain was featured in an article in a local Maine newspaper, the Lewiston Evening Journal. In it, Chamberlain provided his most detailed recounting of the events that had transpired 36 years earlier. It is important to reproduce it nearly in its entirety in order to fully understand this critical event and his memory of it: “During that summer, I had been assigned to a splendid brigade of six regiments, and on the morning of the 18th, I charged with this force 26
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
and carried the enemy’s advanced position in front of Petersburg, known as “Fort Hell.” There I had three batteries sent to me to hold my position, which was in close proximity to Rieeves’ [sic] Salient, so called, [which] was the enemy’s main entrenched line….With this force, I was more than a mile in advance of our army on the extreme right [sic]. At this moment, an aide dashed up and gave me a verbal order from the commanding general to charge and carry the enemy’s main works in my front. To say that I was astonished would be putting it mildly. I couldn’t believe it possible that they meant for me to do this with only one brigade….I immediately drew my note
book and wrote a letter to the commanding general, stating the situation and asking if there was a mistake in the order to charge. I gave this note to the aide and told him to carry it to General Grant at once, which he did. It was an audacious thing for me to do, and after the message was gone, I began to realize that I had risked my shoulder straps. It was a virtual disobedience of orders to attack an enemy, which under any circumstances is a hazardous thing to do. I expected to be placed under arrest at once, so I communicated to my subordinate officers informing them of my probable immediate arrest and removal…. In a short time, the staff officer who had taken my message to the general commanding the army returned. Instead of placing me under arrest, as I expected, he said that the general approved my course and the advice contained in my message. He also said the whole army would attack at once, but from my advanced position, it would be necessary for me to lead the assault. He asked when I would be able to attack, and I replied: At one o’clock.”
Chamberlain still had a copy of the letter he wrote to Grant, and transcribed it in entirety for the newspaper: “Lines Before Petersburg, June 18, 1864, I have just received a verbal order not through the usual channels, but by a staff-officer unknown to me, purporting to come from the General commanding the Army, directing me to assault the main works of the enemy in my front. Circumstances lead me to believe the General cannot be perfectly aware of my situation, which has greatly changed within the last hour. I have just carried a crest, an advanced artillery post occupied by the enemy’s artillery supported by infantry. I am advanced a mile beyond our own lines, and in an isolated position. On my right a deep railroad cut; my left flank in the air, with no support whatever. In my front at close range is a strongly entrenched line of infantry and artillery, with projecting salients right and left such that my advance would be swept by a cross-fire, while a large fort to my left enfilades my entire advance (as I experienced in carrying this position.) In the hollow along my front close up to the enemy’s works, appears to be bad ground, swampy, boggy, where my men would be held at great disadvantage under destructive fire. I have got up three batteries and I am placing them on the reverse slope of this crest to enable me to hold against expected attack. To leave these guns behind me unsupported, their retreat cut off by the railroad cut, would expose them to loss in case of our repulse.
The Worst Wound CHAMBERLAIN SERVED IN 21 BATTLES, had five horses shot from under him, and was wounded six times. His June 18, 1864, Petersburg wound, however, was his worst and caused him pain for the rest of his life. Shot through the pelvis with the Minié ball pictured at left, Chamberlain recalled his evacuation to the field hospital of the 1st Division, 5th Corps. “After a while, an ambulance came galloping up to the foot of the hill, and I was put into it and galloped through rough stumpy fields to a cluster of pines where our division had a rude field hospital..... The first thing done was to lay me upon a table improvised from a barn-window or door, and examine the wound. I remember somebody taking a ramrod of a musket and running it through my body...to discover the bullet, which they did not at first observe sticking up with a puff of skin just behind my left hip joint. This they soon cut out, and closed the cut with a bandage. Some slight dressing was put upon the round hole on the right side, and I was gently laid on a pile of pine boughs.” The bullet had severed Chamberlain’s urethra. The surgeons wanted to restore continuity of the drainage tract, but that was not successful. Joshua’s brother Tom, however, arrived on the scene with Dr. Abner O. Shaw of the 20th Maine and Dr. Morris Townsend of the 44th New York, surgeons from Chamberlain’s former 3rd Brigade. “The pain wore into a stupor,” Chamberlain later recalled. “Then through the mists I looked up and saw dear, faithful Doctor Shaw, Surgeon of my own regiment… .He and good Dr. Townsend sat down by me and tried to use some instrument to stop the terrible extravasations that would end my life. All others had given it up, and me too,” added the wounded officer. The doctors, continued Chamberlain, kept “Toiling and returning to the ever impossible task, the able surgeon undertaking to aid Dr. Shaw said, sadly, ‘It is of no use, Doctor; he cannot be saved. I have done all possible for man. Let us go, and not torture him longer.’ ‘Just once more, Doctor; let me try just this once more and I will give it up.’ Bending to his task, by a sudden miracle, he touched the exact lost thread; the thing was done. There was a possibility, only that even now, that I might be there to know in the morning.”— D.A.R.
LIFE SAVER The hospital ship Connecticut took Chamberlain to the U.S. General Hospital at Annapolis, Md., where he arrived on June 20.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
27
TOUCHED BY FIRE Chamberlain (circled), and other members of the Maine Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States at an October 2, 1902, gathering held in Portland. MOLLUS, as the organization was commonly called, was a veteran’s organization for Union officers.
Fully aware of the responsibility I take, I beg to be assured that the order to attack with my single brigade is with the General’s full understanding. I have here a veteran brigade of six regiments, and my responsibility for these men warrants me in wishing assurance that no mistake in communicating orders compels me to sacrifice them. From what I can see of the enemy’s lines, it is my opinion that if an assault is to be made, it should be by nothing less than the whole army.”
Chamberlain then continued his letter to the paper: “…At one o’clock, I sounded the signal, and moved my brigade in the lines of battle in front of my guns. The moment they could do so, my batteries opened an awful fire over our heads. The enemy replied with every missile known to war at pistol range. We were also enfiladed by the heavy guns from Fort Mahone, or “Fort Damnation,” as the boys called it. It was a case where I felt it my duty to lead the charge in person, and on foot. My flag bearer had been shot dead at once. I picked up the flag—a red Maltese cross on a white field—and with my entire staff went forward. At the foot of the slope between us and the rebel works we struck soft, spongy ground, where I saw that my men would be caught. Accordingly, I faced towards them and ordered an oblique to the left. As no mortal voice could be heard in such an uproar of fire, I was waving my sabre and flag in the direction I wished my men to take, when a Minié ball of the ten thousand that were darkening the air, struck me as I was half facing to give this command. The ball entered in front of the right hip joint, passing clear through my body and coming out behind the left hip joint.”
28
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
I
n October 1903, shortly after a second visit to Petersburg, Chamberlain presented a paper before the Commandery of the State of Maine, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, titled “Reminiscences of Petersburg and Appomattox.” In it, he recounted the “impressions made upon me by a recent visit to Petersburg and Appomattox Court House, Virginia, the first and last battlefields of the final campaign of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia.” Chamberlain readily admitted that he had not had the opportunity to revisit the site of his near-mortal wounding in the years immediately following the battle. In fact, he viewed this lack of opportunity in a positive light. The intervening 39 years, he thought, was “time enough to cool one’s blood, so as to gather the various data for mature judgment, more reliable perhaps than confused recollections of personal experience.” His recollections do seem reliable regarding the directions of his movements, and the substance of his conversations with other officers, but his grasp of the larger context of the fight is lacking. The 5th Corps arrived at Petersburg
less than 24 hours prior to its engagement there. The morning of the 18th found Chamberlain’s brigade advancing against a newly entrenched opponent on the high ground east of the city. Within a matter of just a few hours, the stricken colonel was being evacuated from the field in shock. He was then absent from the Army of the Potomac for five months. Chamberlain, understandably, may not have possessed an accurate grasp of precisely where he was on June 18, or of who was opposing him. Having learned, in retrospect, that Griffin’s division had initiated the construction of Fort Sedgwick, and knowing that he was in a fierce fight in the vicinity, Chamberlain may have assumed he was part of the assault that took and fortified the ground that “became famous throughout the siege as the hottest point of contact of the hostile lines.” In his later years, Chamberlain seems to have been driven to flesh out the larger context of the fateful engagement. He may not, however, have been terribly thorough in his preparation: There is no reference to the official reports of his own army, or those of his Confederate foes; there is no mention of an extensive correspondence with fellow officers to clarify specific details; there is no evidence of his having spent time consulting historical maps that survive to this day. During the 1903 visit, Chamberlain did go to the trouble of touring the battlefield with a local guide, consulting a lone, worn Confederate war map, collecting souvenir bullets, and exchanging reciprocal experiences with an anonymous old Confederate officer who may or may not have opposed him on the field of combat. His role, however, seems to have been more one of a spectator and casual sightseer rather than that of researcher. With the benefit of the supplemental information acquired on the second visit, Chamberlain composed his speech for the enlightenment and entertainment of comrades and admirers at the MOLLUS assembly. Given the purpose of the manuscript, it is not necessarily the most reliable of historical primary source documents. In “Reminiscences,” he speaks of his proximity to the Jerusalem Plank Road. He tells of his brigade having taken and fortified ground that afterwards became strongly entrenched under the name of “Fort Sedgwick.” He mentions having confronted the infantry of Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw’s Mississippians, Georgians, and South Carolinians, as well as Alabama troops who had replaced Maj. Gen. Bushrod Johnson’s Division in the trenches early the previous evening. (Review of the historical record will show that Kershaw relieved Johnson on the evening of June 18, not June 17.) Each
of these points becomes highly debatable as one carefully considers the historical record. The details of Chamberlain’s own account of his actions on June 18 regarding terrain, direction and distance of movements, landmarks, artillery placements, etc., conflict with his interpretation. Abundant external contemporaneous testimony from multiple other sources also seems to render untenable the scenario of an attack by Chamberlain’s brigade on Rives’ Salient from the south, along the Jerusalem Plank Road. The evidence strongly suggests that Chamberlain’s own false premise conceived the myth that has come down to us—a myth perpetuated through faithful repetition by a long line of biographers over many decades. ✯
A MILE AWAY AUTHOR DENNIS A. RASBACH, whose interest in the Petersburg Campaign was sparked by the service of an ancestor in the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry, exhaustively lays out the case for the location of Chamberlain’s Petersburg attack in his book, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Petersburg Campaign: His Supposed Charge from Fort Hell, His Near-Mortal Wound, and a Civil War Myth Reconsidered, from which this article is adapted. In March 2016, based on the information in Rasbach’s book, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, with the support of the National Park Service and other agencies and historians, relocated a Petersburg, Va., highway marker that discussed Chamberlain’s wounding and “on the spot promotion.” The marker was moved from the historical vicinity of Rives’ Salient nearly a mile to the split of Route 460 and the Winfield Road to more accurately designate the correct location of Chamberlain’s brigade’s attack. Rasbach, a surgeon, resides in Michigan.
HIGHWAY STAR Chamberlain’s marker celebrates his “on the spot” promotion, but Grant actually gave him the brigadier’s star on June 20.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
29
NORMAN WIARD’S UNIQUE
CANNON
a Canadian may have invented the civil war’s best fieldpiece BY RONALD D. EVANS
ALL SORTS OF NEW WEAPONS were developed during the Civil War. Breechloading rifles, repeating rifles, and metal-cased ammunition all made their mark on battlefields. But such innovations were not limited to small arms. One inventor in particular, Norman Wiard, developed a number of cannons and boat howitzers that incorporated new ideas. Two fieldpieces that he developed, a 6-pounder rifle and a 12-pounder smoothbore, were particularly ingenious and innovative. For example, Wiard applied the concept of interchangeable parts to the wheels of his gun carriages. Typical wheels were made as one unit, so if a wheel was damaged in battle or transit, it had to be replaced in its entirety. But Wiard’s wheels were made in a series of sections, with a set of spokes attached to a felloe, the arched pieces that made up the wheel’s circumference, which were held together by bolts and wedges. During a demonstration, Wiard handed an ax to an artillery officer and told him to destroy the wheels of his gun as fast as he could. The officer vigorously hacked away, but Wiard calmly unbolted the damaged portion of the wheel and replaced it with a spoke and felloe combination. Interchangeable parts for small arms were common during the Civil War, but no one had ever seen interchangeable wooden wheel parts. Wiard, a foundry foreman originally from Ontario, Canada, came from a family of blacksmiths and metalworkers, and had been an inventor his whole life. Before the war, he obtained a patent for a steam-powered boat that could transport passengers and cargo over ice and snowdrifts. He also patented a steamship boiler that he sold to the U.S. and Japanese governments for $72,000 and $80,000, respectively. The boiler was placed on all 32 U.S. warships. During the Civil War, Wiard served as the Union Army’s superintendent of ordnance stores, which placed him in intimate contact with the long arm of the battlefield. Frustrated that Federal forces were using “no less than nine different calibers of rifle and smooth-bore guns” he developed two unique cannons he believed would be viable alternatives to the North’s fieldpiece needs—a 2.6-inch 6-pounder rifle and a 4.62-inch smoothbore 12-pounder howitzer. The barrels were made out of what he called “semi-steel,” a mixture of low-carbon cast iron and scrap steel instead of just iron. That meant the tubes could withstand the enormous pressure of 110,000 pounds per square inch—far in excess of any comparable field gun of the day. The 6-pounder rifle, for exam-
Inventor Norman Wiard made both 6-pounder rifles, like this one, and 12-pounder howitzers. Both barrels could be used interchangeably on the same size carriage. Most contemporary cannons could elevate to five to ten degrees, but Wiard’s cannon could elevate to 35 degrees to fire shells like a mortar, due to the carriage’s unique construction. Both the front and rear sights contained crosshairs for accurate aiming, and the rear sight could be adjusted for windage.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
31
A MAN AND HIS GUNS Norm Wiard proudly poses with a few of his innovative cannons stored at the Washington Arsenal. Wiard employed more than 1,000 workers at his Trenton, N.J., foundry. Despite the advantages of his cannons, he sold only about 66 guns to the Union.
Union ordnance officers pose overlooking the Potomac River with two of Wiard’s 6-pounder rifles. 32
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
ple could fire a shell 800 yards with only one ounce of powder, and up to 1,200 yards with two ounces. With a 12-ounce charge of powder, the rifle could fire a shell for four miles, and the shell would remain airborne for 34 seconds. Wiard considered the physics of a cannon’s recoil. Objecting that carriage design had not changed much since the “French system of Gribeauval of 1765 ” and that many “axles are bent, broken, or twisted out and away from their fastenings” because of the gun’s tendency to recoil jarringly, Wiard designed his cannon carriage with a large flat steel plate on the bottom of the trail, with a perpendicular keel that would cut into the earth. The plate allowed the gun to slide freely when it recoiled, and the keel helped the gun recoil straight back. Wiard’s guns kicked back only an average of 20 inches—about half the recoil of a standard gun. The short distance, and the straight recoil, helped gunners return the cannon more quickly to its firing position and aim it for another shot. The carriages also had unusually high, widespaced curved cheekpieces that rested directly on the axles and permitted Wiard’s cannon bar-
rels to elevate to 35 degrees, much higher than the 5 and 10 degrees of elevation that most cannons could reach, allowing the howitzers to function like mortars. Another advantage was that both the 6-pounder and 12-pounder tubes fit on the same carriage. Wiard realized that by the second year of the war more than 600 types of ammunition were being used for Union artillery pieces. Wanting to standardize and economize such projectiles, he designed his own. His 6-pounder shell, for example, contained only 10 ounces of fine gunpowder—rather than the commonly used coarse powder—and produced a higher shrapnel count of 40–60 pieces. A further benefit was that Wiard’s 6-pounder shell could be produced at less of a cost than any other rifled projectile, and 80 of those rounds could be
Wiard was particular about the type of shells used by his cannons, and preferred Hotchkiss-style projectiles, like this one, which he claimed his 6-pounder rifles fired with “wonderful” precision. Hotchkiss shells used a lead sabot, or ring, to engage the rifling. APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
33
The illustrations on this page come from a treatise Wiard published in 1863 titled, Wiard’s System of Field Artillery. In it, Wiard discussed the features and advantages of his cannon system, which he said “had been approved by the ablest officers of the day, and which will, I think, if common sense prevails, revolutionize that worn-out routine system, which seems to act as a damper upon the inventive genius of the country....” He also took the opportunity to lambast Brig. Gen. James Ripley for the “wretched mismanagement which distinguishes the Army Ordnance Department....” His “Wiard wheels,” as he called them, were made out of separate parts held together by bolts and wedges. An artilleryman “with the aid of a suitable wrench,” claimed Wiard, could rotate a battle-damaged wheel until the mangled section was accessible, and then “insert new parts, which, after a proper setting up of the bolts, make the wheel as complete as before.” Wiard’s canister round, upper right, was carefully designed so it would not catch the spiral grooves of a rifled barrel, which would distort the pattern of the canister shot.
34
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
carried on a single limber chest as opposed to only 40 for standard guns. Firing canister from rifled guns had always been problematic, as centrifugal force caused the round to revolve with such velocity that the shot would spread in every direction after leaving the muzzle. But Wiard’s canister round consisted of two end-castings sandwiched around nine intermediate castings, with the shot completely encased within. A wire running internally through the length of the canister held the castings together, tightened at each end by bolts. The canister case was designed with rounded edges so that only a minute area touched the rifling when the gun was fired. Consequently, the charge would not expand into the rifling, distorting the shot’s pattern. Despite the proven advantages of Wiard’s cannons and carriages, both Brig. Gen. James W. Ripley, chief of ordnance for the Union Army, and Brig. Gen. William F. Barry, chief of artillery for the Army of the Potomac, preferred the more traditional Parrott rifles and 3-inch ordnance rifles, meaning only 11 Union batteries would be equipped with Wiard cannons. All saw heavy action, however. On October 1, 1862, Brig. Gen. Franz Sigel wrote to Wiard that the “mobility, accuracy, and range…together with their remarkable facility for adjustment and repair on the field, were the subject of
general remark among officers and men. In my judgement, the Wiard guns and equipment are superior to any field artillery I have ever seen in service.” Captain A.C. Johnson of the 12th Ohio used his Wiard guns at the 1862 battles of McDowell, Cross Keys, White Sulphur Springs, and Second Bull Run. At Cross Keys he reported firing at least 600 rounds from his Wiards. One had the wood cover of the iron axle, but the gun continued to fire another 200 rounds with no additional damage to the axle or the carriage. Johnson considered the accuracy of the guns unequaled, and also appreciated their shorter recoil. Although his guns were not widely accepted during the war, Wiard stayed in arms production after the conflict, and had a successful career. He died in 1896 at age 71. A number of Wiard guns survive and can be seen displayed on the battlefields at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Fredericksburg, Pea Ridge, Petersburg, and at West Point.
Ronald D. Evans writes from Hillsborough, N.J. He retired after 38 years on Wall Street, and enjoys competitive black powder shooting and historical research.
This drawing shows a Wiard cannon hitched to a limber. The “shoe” in front of the wheel was used as a brake to slow the cannon during descents. As illustrated, it could be slid under one wheel to stop its rotation. The curved cheekpieces set high above the axle allowed the barrel to elevate like a mortar. Interestingly, the elevating screw passing through the cascabel is a feature that is not found on surviving Wiard rifles.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
35
WOULD P.G.T. A.o.T.? LEAD THE
pierre gustave toutant beauregard almost took command of the army of tennessee in 1864. almost. BY STE P H E N DAV IS
“Atlanta gone,” Mary Boykin Chesnut wrote in her diary in early September 1864. “Well—that agony is over.” With that blunt statement, Chesnut summarized how many in the embattled Confederacy digested the news that General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee had evacuated Atlanta on September 1, allowing Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman to move in and capture the city the following day. To be sure, Hood had struck “manly blows” to somehow save Atlanta that summer, as President Jefferson Davis later remarked. Yet both Davis and Hood came in for their share of criticism for the disaster: Hood for not preventing Sherman’s forces from finally taking the city after a bloody, fourmonth campaign; Davis for his decision to relieve cautious General Joseph E. Johnston as Army of Tennessee commander on July 17 and replace him with the more aggressive Hood. General Robert E. Lee, who had commanded Hood in the Army of Northern Virginia earlier in the war, was among those not confident Hood was up to the task. As Davis began contemplating replacing Johnston, Lee expressed reluctance. When the president asked him about Hood, Lee pointedly answered that Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee had more experience. Then, on July 15, after the Confederate Cabinet had voted unanimously to relieve Johnston, Lee informed Secretary of War James Seddon that he was against the move, that if Johnston could not command an army, “we had no one who could.” Lee, however, held his tongue after Atlanta fell; others did not. Some historians have exaggerated this “storm of criticism” against Hood, as T. Harry Williams characterized it. In his 1955 biography of General P.G.T. Beauregard, Napoleon in Gray, Williams wrote without citing a source: “At Hood’s camp many of his generals said openly that he should be replaced by Johnston or Beauregard.” Yet Davis did in fact appoint Beauregard to a high position in the Western Theater. How that came about is an interesting story, one whose chief element has long been overlooked.
36
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
CREOLE COMMANDER Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard deserves more recognition for his capable leadership. His disagreements with Jefferson Davis helped to dim his reputation.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
37
BEAUREGARD HAD BECOME DISSATISFIED WITH HIS ROLE IN THE CONFEDERATE COMMAND STRUCTURE WELL BEFORE ATLANTA’S FALL IN SEPTEMBER. He wanted to lead a field army, as he had done in 1861-62 at places like Manassas and Shiloh. But he had been passed over since then. “My greatest desire has always been to command a good army in the field,” he wrote a friend on August 30, 1864. “Will I never be gratified?” By the fall of 1864, in fact, he would have settled for just about any departmental post beyond Virginia. As commander of the Department of Southern Virginia and North Carolina at this stage of the war, his headquarters were at Petersburg, Va., where he exercised no real authority with Robert E. Lee so close. Because Lee probably was aware of this, and might
ATLANTA IS GONE Iron wheels are about all that is left of General John B. Hood’s ordnance train, destroyed during the evacuation of the important Confederate city.
38
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
also have wanted to let him transfer from Virginia, he suggested in early September that Beauregard head to Wilmington, N.C., on an inspection tour. It was beneficial that North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance had expressed interest in having the Creole take charge of the Wilmington defenses. The administration’s uncertainty as to Hood’s future plans after the fall of Atlanta led to another possibility: Davis, as he had done with Joe Johnston in 1862-63, was considering creating a super-department in the West and putting Beauregard in charge of it—meaning, over Hood’s Army of Tennessee and also over Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor’s forces in Alabama and Mississippi. Not only would Beauregard get away from Virginia and Lee while gaining a position of respectable, though nebulous, authority, Davis would now have an experienced general to look over Hood’s shoulder. Some historians, such as Williams, Tom Connelly, and Jack Davis, claim that the president asked Lee to find out whether Beauregard would accept such an assignment. They base that claim, however, on suspect evidence, assuming that Davis asked Lee to talk with Beauregard because of a remarkable letter Lee had written to the president on September 19, 1864. Not one of Hood’s three principal biographers—O’Connor (1949), Dyer (1950), or McMurry (1982)—even mentions the letter (printed below), though it was an obvious effort
by Lee to persuade Davis to relieve Hood and replace him with Beauregard. “Mr. President. I have had conversation with General Beauregard with reference to the army and operations in Georgia,” Lee began his letter, indicating by his choice of words that he might well have approached Beauregard on his own.
Lee continued: I have endeavored particularly to explain to him the necessity of the commander in Georgia developing the latent resources of the department, drawing to him all absentees from the army, concentrating its strength, restoring its confidence, and, in a word, creating the means with which he must operate against the enemy and the impracticability at present of giving him any extraneous aid.
That pretty much sums up the Confederates’ situation in Georgia after the loss of Atlanta. Strengthening and bolstering his forces for future operations was what Lee had done after Gettysburg with the Army of Northern Virginia. His implication here, that General Hood lacked the administrative ability and energy to do the same for the Army of Tennessee, reminds one of Lee’s remark to Davis the previous July: “Hood is a bold fighter. I am doubtful as to other qualities necessary.” Of all this he is fully sensible, and while strongly impressed with the responsibility of the station and fearful of not being equal to the present emergency, being anxious to do all in his power to serve the country, he says he will obey with alacrity any order of the War Department placing him in command of that army, and do his best to expel the enemy.
The words “of that army” are important. If Davis and Lee had had any conversation about bringing Beauregard to Georgia, it would certainly not have been about his taking charge of the Army of Tennessee. Jefferson Davis had too much pride to admit that he had made a mistake in replacing Joe Johnston with Hood. Besides, as Robert Kean (head of the War Bureau in Richmond) had written a few months before, when the government wrestled over who could succeed Joe Johnston, “the only solution is to send Beauregard, but the President thinks as ill of him as of Johnston.” No, to change generals twice in two months was something Jefferson Davis was fundamentally incapable of doing. So if the president was not considering replacing Hood with Beauregard, one must conclude that this was Robert E. Lee’s own idea. Entering the realm of presidential decision-making was most uncharacteristic of Lee. That he evidently did so here suggests Lee’s sense of urgency for the situation in Georgia, and for the cause in general. Yet the mannerly way in which Lee couched his recommendation of Beauregard was very characteristic:
WHAT TO DO? President Davis, left, had a mess on his hands in the Western Theater. General Hood, center, had lost Atlanta and thousands of men with his aggressive tactics. Did the Army of Tennessee need a new commander? General Robert E. Lee, right, wrote a letter to Davis on September 18, 1864, preserved in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Vol., 39.2, p. 846, that indicates he thought Beauregard should lead that resilient force.
Should you deem, therefore, a change in the commander of the army in Georgia advantageous, and select General Beauregard for that position, I think you may feel assured that he understands the general condition of affairs, and the difficulties with which they are surrounded, and the importance of exerting all his energies for their improvement.
Two things seem evident here. By saying, “A change in the commander of the army in Georgia….and select General Beauregard for that position,” Lee wanted to make absolutely APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
39
Having made his recommendation that Beauregard be sent to Georgia, Lee took the additional step of suggesting that when the Louisianan went out west he take with him his chief of staff, chief quartermaster, and a few other officers. “His chief of staff and quartermaster are conversant with that army and country,” he added. (Notice that throughout his letter Lee has not named “that army,” much less identified General Hood as the commander to be replaced. But his intent is unmistakable.) Lee closed in his usual gentlemanly style: “Committing this whole subject now to your Excellency’s good judgement, I am with great respect, your obedient servant, R.E. Lee, General.”
R
OLD ARMY Beauregard was an 1838 West Point graduate with a good pre-Civil War military resume, including Mexican War service. In this image, taken early in the Civil War, he still wears his United States Army uniform with major’s shoulder straps. certain the president knew that he was not recommending Beauregard for a loose supervisory role over Hood, but that he was recommending that Beauregard replace Hood. By adding, “You may feel assured,” Lee wanted to convince Davis that Beauregard knew the challenges of the situation in Georgia and felt capable of facing them. 40
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
einforcing Lee’s remarkable letter is a memorandum drafted and signed by Beauregard himself on September 19. Probably at Lee’s request and after their conversation, Beauregard composed the memo, using just such language (“anxious to do all in my power”; “obey with alacrity”) as Lee used in his letter to the president. And like Lee, Beauregard never referred to the Army of Tennessee, stating only that he was ready to follow any War Department order “which may put me in command of that army.” There is no evidence that Davis acknowledged or replied to this letter, which arrived just as the president was preparing to leave for Georgia. In the last week of September, Davis would visit Hood and discuss strategic plans; deal with Gen. William J. Hardee’s request for transfer to another command; and deliver uplifting speeches to the people at whistlestops along the way. Coincidentally, on September 20, John B. Jones, the War Department clerk, entered into his diary after noting that Beauregard was in Wilmington, “[T]he whole country is calling for his appointment to the command of the army in Georgia.” Jones was no doubt being hyperbolic in declaring “the whole country,” but the fact that Robert E. Lee was calling for such an appointment is undeniable. Davis, however, was unswayed. It is apparent that even before he met with Hood, Davis had decided to appoint Beauregard as commander of a new Military Division of the West, comprising Hood’s Department of Tennessee with Richard Taylor’s Department of East Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Davis informed Hood of his decision during his visit to the Army of Tennessee at Palmetto, Ga., from September 25-27. Nevertheless, some of Hood’s men talked of a change in the army’s leadership. An Alabama officer, Benjamin L. Posey, who penned occasional columns for the Mobile Advertiser & Register, wrote the paper after Davis had left Palmetto. “I am informed by a friend, who has the run of Headquarters secrets,” Posey divulged, “that Gen. Hood is to remain in command. The reason assigned is, that time is precious, and there is not time to get a successor.” After explaining his idea for Beauregard’s military division to Hood, the president traveled to Montgomery, where he did the same to Dick Taylor. Then he headed back east, meeting Beauregard in Augusta, Ga., and laying out the plan. Despite his wish for a field command, the Creole accepted his new appointment. In the meantime, someone let the cat out of the bag. A Savannah newspaper, the Republican, reported that, accord-
ing to the Charleston Mercury, “President Davis has tendered to Gen. Beauregard the command of the Army of Tennessee. This result, it learns, has been brought about by the earnest intervention and counsel of General Lee.” “We hail with delight this announcement,” the Republican declared, “because the appointment of this gallant chieftain will have the effect of inspiring confidence among the troops of that army.” Others chimed in. “It is deemed certain that Gen. Beauregard will go to Georgia,” declared the Augusta Chronicle & Sentinel on September 30; “this is an auspicious sign.” But then the press backtracked. The Mercury opined on September 26 that “the President has gone to the army in Georgia to endeavor to arrange matters without putting General BEAUREGARD in command—that is, to reconcile, if possible, the army to General Hood’s continuation in its command.” That is exactly what happened. Davis kept Hood, and Beauregard watched over Hood’s next campaign, which would take the Army of Tennessee into its home state and to the battlefields of Franklin and Nashville.
W
e will never know whether Beauregard would have done better than Hood in command of the Army of Tennessee following Atlanta’s capture. A few years ago, the Civil War community was pleasantly surprised by news that a descendant, Stephen M. Hood, had discovered a previously unknown cache of John Bell Hood’s personal papers. Those papers have since been published, allowing us to learn a great deal more about Hood. We also will continue to learn even more about Hood by re-reading the documents that have already been before us for more than 100 years.
Longtime Atlantan Stephen Davis is author of several books on the Atlanta Campaign, including What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta (2012). Retired from his day job, he currently serves as book reviews editor for Civil War News, a monthly newspaper for enthusiasts.
JUST FOR MEN Beauregard suffered from a number of illnesses during the war, including a chronic throat ailment that required surgery in early 1862. The noticeable change in his hair color, evident in the two wartime images above, was not caused by illness or stress, however, but reportedly because the hardships of war played havoc on the regular delivery of his hair dye.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
41
STONE HOUSE
Used as a hospital at both Bull Run battles
42
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
P L A C E S
O F
SACRIFICE AND COURAGE SECOND MANASSAS HIKING TRAILS
TAKE YOU FROM RAILROAD CUTS TO BEAUTIFUL STONE HOMES
BY DAVID T. GILBERT
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
43
ROBERT TILNEY, A VETERAN OF
Army of the Potomac’s 5th Corps, perhaps said it best when he wrote: “How often the words ‘Cruel War,’ are uttered, and how glibly people beyond the reach of its influence talk of the misery caused by it…but not one thousandth part of the real misery is even guessed at by those who are not eye witnesses of its horrors.” Other soldiers shared this profound and deeply felt sentiment, including a Confederate veteran of Shiloh who wrote, “O it was too shocking too horrible. God grant that I may never be the partaker in such scenes again….When released from this I shall ever be an advocate of peace.” Historians estimate that about 10,500 engagements occurred during the Civil War, ranging from major battles to minor skirmishes. While only a small percentage of thousands of related sites have been preserved, hiking across these landscapes provides a crucial connection with the soldiers who fought there. By visiting these places and walking their trails, you are passing across the same fields and woods, hills and valleys, roads and rock outcroppings, and rivers and streams that significantly influenced the strategy and tactics of each battle. Connecting with battlefields and the stories they tell, and with the social, economic, and political events that swirled around them is essential to understanding their legacy. The Civil War touched the lives of every American at the time, and it continues to do so today. The legacy forged by the war forms a seamless web of American values, traditions, and priorities. Spend time in one of these places, read a book about the events that happened there, and walk in a soldier’s footsteps across a landscape once stained with blood. We should honor their commitment to battle by ensuring such a tragic war never happens again. The trails highlighted in this article will take you across the Second Battle of Manassas (Second Bull Run), a momentous fight that changed the course of the war.
44
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
ARTILLERY POSITION ON HENRY HILL
Union troops held this ground during the 1862 fighting.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
45
THE SECOND HALF OF 1862 WITNESSED INCREASINGLY
bitter, bloody battles. After Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s retreat from Richmond at the end of the Seven Days Battles, President Abraham Lincoln divided the Union forces in Virginia into two armies. He reluctantly left McClellan in charge of the Army of the Potomac, which had withdrawn to Harrison’s Landing along the James River. But he stripped Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell’s 1st Corps from McClellan and combined it with the armies of Maj. Gen. John Frémont and Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks from western Virginia, forming the Army of Virginia under Maj. Gen. John Pope. Confederate General Robert E. Lee, satisfied that McClellan’s army posed no further threat to Richmond, ordered Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s wing of the Army of Northern Virginia to block Pope’s advance toward Gordonsville and the Virginia Central Railroad. But Lee had larger plans in mind. Since the armies of both McClellan and Pope were now widely separated, he saw an opportunity to destroy Pope’s forces before turning his attention back to McClellan. When he learned that McClellan’s army was departing the Virginia Peninsula to join forces with Pope in early August 1862, Lee ordered Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s wing to join Jackson. In a daring move, Lee ordered Jackson to execute a sweeping flank march across the Rappahannock River and around Pope’s right on August 25. By sunset on the following day, the Confederates had completed a remarkable 55-mile march, striking the Orange & Alexandria Railroad at Bristoe Station in Pope’s rear and subsequently capturing Pope’s supply depot at Manassas Junction. With their line of supply in jeopardy, the Union forces abruptly abandoned their position along the Rappahannock and retreated north to pursue Jackson. As the Union forces advanced on Manassas Junction—scene of the bloody First Battle of Bull Run the previous year—Jackson slipped away, deploying his forces along an unfinished railroad grade north of the Warrenton Turnpike near Groveton. Longstreet’s column was just a day behind him. The two wings of Lee’s army totaled about 55,000 men. Pope’s Army of Virginia, composed of three divisions, totaled 51,000 men. Fighting at Second Manassas began about 6:30 p.m. on August 28, as a Federal column advanced east along the Warrenton Turnpike near John Brawner’s farm. Jackson, concerned that Pope might be withdrawing his army behind Bull Run to link up with McClellan, ordered his men to attack. Savage fighting at the Brawner Farm lasted until dark, with neither side gaining an advantage. Pope believed that Jackson was attempting to escape; he ordered his scattered forces to converge on the Confederate line along the unfinished railroad grade, where fighting
46
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
HENRY HILL
The current Henry House is a reproduction. It was a ruin by the time of Second Manassas.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
47
48
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
UNFINISHED RAILROAD CUT
Desperate Rebel troops held this position.
resumed on August 29. He was certain he could destroy Jackson’s forces before Lee and Longstreet could intervene. Throughout the day, in a series of uncoordinated attacks, Pope hurled his men against the Confederates. In several places the assaults momentarily breached Jackson’s line, but each time the Federals were pushed back. During the afternoon, Longstreet’s troops arrived on the battlefield and, unknown to Pope, deployed on Jackson’s right. Lee urged Longstreet to attack the exposed Union left flank, but “Old Pete” demurred, arguing that circumstances did not yet favor an assault. The morning of August 30 was quiet as Pope pondered conflicting reports on the enemy’s disposition and intentions. Around midday, still convinced that the Confederates were retreating, the Union commander ordered his army forward in pursuit. The “pursuit” ended quickly. Skirmishers found Jackson’s forces still ensconced along the unfinished railroad grade. Pope then ordered another assault against Jackson’s line, sending Maj. Gen. Fitz-John Porter’s 5th Corps, supported by Maj. Gen. John Hatch’s division, against the Confederate right flank at the Deep Cut, an excavated section of the railroad grade. The Federals succeeded in breaking the Confederate line, but the Stonewall Brigade rushed in to close the breach. In one of the most notable incidents of the battle, two Confederate brigades ran out of ammunition and began throwing large rocks at the 24th New York Infantry. Jackson’s men, with support from 18 artillery pieces on high ground near the Brawner Farm, finally repulsed the Union assault, throwing it back with heavy losses. At this moment, Lee and Longstreet seized the initiative and launched a massive counterattack against the weakened Union left flank. Longstreet’s wing, nearly 30,000 strong, swept eastward toward Chinn Ridge. A brief, futile stand by the 5th and 10th New York ended in slaughter. In five minutes the 5th New York lost 123 men—the greatest loss of life in any single infantry regiment in any battle of the war. Union forces on Chinn Ridge mounted a tenacious defense, which bought Pope enough time to shift troops onto Henry Hill and stave off disaster. At 8 p.m., Pope pulled his beaten army off the field and retreated eastward across Bull Run. Estimated Union casualties from the battle were 13,830 killed or wounded; the Confederates lost 8,350 men. With Union forces in total disarray, Lee grasped the opportunity to launch his first invasion of the North, advancing across the Potomac River into Maryland in early September. APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
49
THE DEEP CUT Scene of serious Second Bull Run fighting.
50
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
MANASSAS NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD PARK has more than 40 miles of trails, traversing key areas of both the First and Second Manassas battlefields. Opportunities exist for both short and extended hikes. The hikes are easy to moderate, with steep climbs along the banks of Bull Run, and many include trailside interpretive markers describing the battle action that occurred at a particular spot. Hikers should begin at the visitor center on Henry Hill.
SECOND MANASSAS TRAIL (6.2 MILES) This walking trail leads visitors through the climactic stages of the Second Battle of Manassas. The trail begins at the visitor center and heads north past the Stone House (open seasonally) to Buck Hill, where General Pope established his headquarters. From Matthews Hill, visitors can look west to the area of the unfinished railroad where “Stonewall” Jackson placed his Confederate forces. The trail continues along this unfinished railroad bed, leading to a clearing at the Deep Cut—the scene of a bloody battle where Jackson’s troops turned back a major Union assault. The trail then turns south and passes the Lucinda Dogan House (one of three surviving Civil War–era structures in the park). Moving across the road, the trail winds uphill toward New York Avenue. Monuments mark the site where the 5th and 10th New York Infantry were slaughtered in a massive Confederate counterattack that swept eastward toward Chinn Ridge. After touring the Chinn Ridge area, the trail leads back to Henry Hill, where the last fighting of the three-day battle occurred.
BRAWNER FARM LOOP TRAIL (1.6 MILES) This trail begins at the Brawner Farm parking area off Pageland Lane (Auto Tour Stop 1). It crosses historic farmland and the scene of some of the deadliest fighting on the battle’s opening day. The trail follows a paved path down to the Brawner Farm Interpretive Center (open March–November) and then continues east along the Union battle line. A short side trail leads up to Battery Heights, where Captain Joseph Campbell unlimbered the cannon of the 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery B. The trail loops back via the Confederate position, following the battle line once occupied by the Stonewall Brigade. CHINN RIDGE TRAIL (1.0 MILE) This trail begins at the Chinn Ridge parking area (Auto Tour Stop 10). The paved path, which is wheelchair accessible, traverses an area that witnessed heavy fighting on August 30. Interpretive signs tell the story of Union troops who made a desperate stand on Chinn Ridge and blunted Longstreet’s massive Confederate counterattack. Near the conclusion of the trail, visitors pass a monument dedicated to Colonel Fletcher Webster of the 12th Massachusetts, killed in action on Chinn Ridge. He was the son of noted orator Daniel Webster. The paved trail returns to the parking lot via the same path.
DEEP CUT LOOP TRAIL (1.2 MILES) This trail, which starts at the Deep Cut parking area (Auto Tour Stop 7), passes through the unfinished railroad bed to a clearing at the Deep Cut—the scene of a bloody battle in which Stonewall Jackson’s troops repulsed a major Union assault on August 30. It was here that the Confederate brigades of Colonels Bradley Johnson and Leroy Stafford ran out of ammunition and resorted to throwing large rocks at the men of the 24th New York Infantry, prompting some of the surprised New Yorkers to throw them back. UNFINISHED RAILROAD LOOP TRAIL (1.2 MILES) This trail begins at the Unfinished Railroad parking area off Featherbed Lane (Auto Tour Stop 6). It then heads northeast along the unfinished railroad bed, where Jackson placed his Confederate troops. Interpretive markers discuss the bayonet charge by Brig. Gen.Cuvier Grover’s Union brigade on August 29, which briefly punctured the Confederate defensive line. Before looping back to the parking lot, hikers have the option of continuing down the railroad bed via the Sudley Connector Trail to Sudley Church, which served as the Confederates’ left flank at Second Manassas. This article is excerpted from Civil War Battlefields: Walking the Trails of History, by Rizzoli International Publications Inc., www.rizzoliusa.com. © 2017. An avid hiker, Winchester, Va., resident David T. Gilbert has previously written about hiking trails and early industry at Harpers Ferry, W. Va.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
51
The war in their words
A CONFEDERATE SURGEON KEPT HIS FAITH IN HIS CAUSE DURING THE WAR’S LAST DAYS BY SUSA NNAH J. URAL r. Francis Marion Robertson was a prominent figure in Charleston, S.C., when the Civil War began. A politically active Whig and friend of Henry Clay, Robertson was an early supporter of secession who would serve the Confederacy along with his five sons. Robertson had some military training—he attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1822 to 1826, though he did not graduate, and he led a militia company in the Second Seminole War. Much of his adult life, however, was dedicated to studying medicine, first under a physician in Augusta, Ga., later at Charleston’s Medical College of South Carolina, and finally in his own thriving practice in Charleston, where he emerged as a leading researcher in the anesthetic uses of chloroform and ether and often lectured on obstetrics.
52
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
When the Civil War began, Robertson served as a surgeon of a militia company, and then in the larger Confederate Medical Department. He joined the Army Board of Medical Examiners in 1862, and was head of medical care at Fort Wagner later that year. By that fall, Robertson was assigned the responsibility of advising army doctors on major surgeries. In the final months of the war, Robertson evacuated Charleston with the Confederate forces that rushed northward to join General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. Robertson kept a diary of these final months of the war, during which he journeyed more than 900 miles, making his way to Richmond, Va., only to be sent home again. His writings capture the collapse of the Confederacy, the Christian faith that had sustained him throughout the war, his concerns for his family’s future, and his growing frustration with Confederate leaders and with waning civilian support.
WAR AT THE DOORSTEP Dr. Francis M. Robertson watched as Union armies marched into his beloved Carolina Lowcountry and headed toward his Charleston home.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
53
N 2015, F.M. Robertson’s great-great-grandson, Thomas Heard Robertson Jr., published his relative’s 1865 diary. The following are excerpts from that publication, Resisting Sherman: A Confederate Surgeon’s Journal and the Civil War in the Carolinas, 1865.
Saturday, February 11 “The movements of Sherman in the direction of Columbia rendered the evacuation of Charleston a military necessity. If he intended to cut the communications with Charleston, by the different Rail Roads, we were shut up in Charleston, cut off from all supplies, and the loss of the army would be inevitable. Hence, in this event, the evacuation was necessary; and its prompt execution became a matter of great importance. If on the contrary, it was Sherman’s design to push on to Columbia, destroy every thing there and make a rapid march upon Genl Lee’s rear, and cut his communications by Rail Road, the evacuation was still more important, in order to combine and concentrate our forces to give him battle, and check his further progress. The evacuation having been determined on, our Board [of Medical Examiners] was ordered to Columbia. Events were hurried so rapidly upon one another, that I was compelled to go to Cheraw, and then await the movements of Genl Hardees army.
Sunday, February 19 (two days after surrender and burning of Columbia) I walked alone in the woods toward sundown….The laws of nature seemed to be in harmonious action….How great the contrast on turning to that moral world, in which man stands preeminent, among God’s creatures for good or for evil. What sin—what wickedness—what discord— what a conflict of the baser passions—what strife—what bloodshed—Oh that the wickedness of the wicked would come to an end! It was during this solitary walk that I felt the full force of the sudden and rude shock which had, in a moment, severed all my domestic ties and driven me as a wanderer and refugee from my home and all its comforts, and those earthly endearments, which approximate the domestic circle, on earth, to that Heavenly inheritence [sic] which the blessed Redeemer has promised to His followers. When I thought of my afflicted wife, broken in spirits and bodily health; of my dearest [daughter] Marion and darling Annie [a young woman who lived in their household] left in the power of a relentless enemy, with no means of ascertaining their condition—when I thought of my dear boys—one in the hands of the enemy, the others in different parts of our Army—of my young and tender [son] Duncan, with the physical frame of a mere child; of Joe [young man who lived in their household] almost left alone and helpless without a friend, of [sons] Righton and Henry, separated from their dear families—of 54
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
‘MY SOUL WAS
SHAKEN
WITH ANGUISH,
AND I WEPT AS FOR A
DEPARTED
FIRST
BORN’
CONFLAGRATION Major General William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Columbia, S.C., on February 17, 1864, and much of the town burned. Retreating Rebels likely started most of the blazes, but Federal troops also played a hand in some of the destruction.
[son] Jimmy, in command which would be made to bear the brunt of battle in case of an engagement—my soul was shaken with anguish, and I wept as for a departed first born. Amid this solitude…I poured out my soul in earnest prayer to that God Redeemer who is ever gracious to the repentant and contrite sinner. He, and He, alone, knows when, if ever, upon earth these broken ties are to be reunited. Let us abide His time and bow to His dispensations and chastenings [sic].
Friday, February 24 Some soldiers belonging to the 5th, 32nd, and 47th Georgia Infantry came to the house yesterday evening asking for something to eat, and offering to purchase potatoes &c. The family kindly furnished them with food. If these men are without food, then there is a great fault somewhere and it should be speedily corrected, as the whole country has been
stripped of subsistence by the government, and commissary stores are now accumulated in large quantities at Florence and this place. This matter should be looked into and the people, who have barely reserved sufficient subsistence for the non combattants [sic] thrown upon them, should be relieved from the straggling bands, by proper enforcement of discipline and care, on the part of the officers….I fear, from what I can gather from the straggling soldiers, that our troops are greatly dispirited, and are beginning to fail in self reliance. Oh for a living and energizing faith to bring our people up to the high standard of our cause.
Friday, March 3 I was aroused at half past one o’clock A.M. by a message… that trains were in motion….I packed in a hurry, and was off in a moment, for the field—crossed the brigade [over APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
55
‘WHAT A TERRIBLE THING WAR IS.... IT SEEMS TO WIPE OUT THE EXISTENCE
OF GOD
AND THE SABBATH’
the Great Pee Dee River] at daylight—made four miles over terrible roads and stopped to feed and breakfast at 10 o’clock A.M. We had scarcely unhitched our animals when heavy artillery firing, with musketry, was heard in the direction of Cheraw. Supposed to be an engagement between our rear guard and the advance of Sherman. We resumed our march at 12 o’clock and continued it until 2 o’clock P.M., when we encamped for the night, to allow the trains, and troops in the rear, to come up.
Sunday, March 5 Resumed my journey with the Army toward Bostwicks Mills, about fourteen miles from Rockingham, in the direction of Asheboro. Weather clear windy and cold. Heard artillery firing in our rear about 11 o’clock. What a terrible thing war is—and above all this war. Besides the destruction of human life, and the utter devastation of the Country, it seems to wipe out the existence of God and the Sabbath. I was surprised at the number who did not really know that it was the Sabbath. Swearing is a crying sin in the Army. How shocking, on this sacred day, to hear the terrible oaths that are poured forth on all sides.
Wednesday, March 8 Left the renowned city of Carthage at 6 1/2 o’clock A.M. and bid adieu to the consuming of apple jack and feminine representation of the [snuff ] dipper class. The road to Fayetteville had once been a plank road, but was now in a dilapitated [sic] condition; but with the labor of the pioneer corps under the engineers, which preceded us, it was better than the ordinary dirt road. It rained all day. Made nineteen miles and encamped at a place called Johnsonville. It consisted of one house and a store. It rained and blew at such a rate that we could, with difficulty, get dinner and supper, which are usually compressed into one. Our mess had purchased some chickens at $5 a piece, and eggs at $3 per dozen—and we finally had rather a better dinner than usual. The house was occupied by a Mrs. Morrison, whose husband was in Genl Lee’s army. She kindly gave Major [S.L.] Black and myself a bed to sleep in, and put Major [ John H.] Scriven on the floor on a comfortable pallet, and would not receive a cent from either of us. This was very kind, but she not only dipped but actually had a quid of the genuine Virginia weed stored away in her cheek. I was on the point of asking her if she had a tumor in her cheek, when it suddenly shifted to the opposite side, and save me from an unpleasant dilemma. 56
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
Sunday, March 12 [approaching Raleigh] Arrived at Mrs. Banks’ at 3 o’clock P.M. Like all persons on the road she was evidently expecting to be plundered by the Yankees and seems to have stripped her house of all the good furniture and bedding, leaving just sufficient to give the house and premises the appearance of belonging to a person in very moderate circumstances. She had secreted all her valuables and provisions, merely leaving sufficient to make a fair show, as she intended to remain herself. She had several sons and one son-in-law, who should have been in the regular army. They are fine-looking, hearty, robust and young. They belong to what is termed, in North Carolina, “the home guard,” and I have no doubt they will guard their homes until the Yankees come, and then take their heels and skulk in some hiding place instead of meeting the foe like true men. The old lady asked my opinion about the ultimate success of our cause. I unreservedly expressed my firm belief in our ultimate triumph, and spoke in terms of censure of those who for a respite from the present hardships of the war were willing to surrender, and go back into the old union. She replied, evidently looking upon the dark side, that she hoped we would succeed, but she always thought it was wrong to remove the old flag. God said we “must not remove the ancient landmarks.” This remark and an attempt to justify it by a bungling quotation from scripture, shows the superficial view that many take of this great struggle.
Monday, March 13 Arrived at Raleigh at 2 o’clock P. M. and stopped at the Yarborough House. Had a tolerable dinner but it is a dirty and filthy Hotel. I reported to Genl Johnson immediately. He gave me an order to report to the Surgeon General in Richmond; I shall probably leave tomorrow at 1 o’clock P.M.
Thursday, March 16 At daylight had only progressed eleven miles from Danville. Still raining and blowing. It commenced clearing off before midday, and it was a great relief to the respiratory organs to raise the [train] windows and inhale the pure air. When we approached the junction of the Southern Rail Road from Petersburg, with the Richmond & Danville Road, we saw the evidences of strife in the burnt houses, tanks and bent iron….Arrived at Richmond at 1 o’clock P.M.
Friday, March 17 Reported to the Surgeon General at 10 o’clock this morning. He was polite….I took a seat and had a long chat with him. Upon receiving my communication from Florence enclosing [Dr. James Edwards] Holbrooks resignation and stating that I could not get to Columbia, the board was dissolved and Dr. [Francis Turquand] Miles and myself ordered to report to [Dr. N.S.] Crowell for hospital duty. I told him it was probable I should not be able to find Dr. Crowell. He directed me to go to Chester, and if I could not find Crowell, to report back to him by letter. He voluntarily told me that, as I had been broken up in my family arrangements, I could take as much time as I desired to arrange my affairs. He gave me
ON THE MOVE The dots on the map indicate locations Dr. Robertson mentioned in his diary. Major General William T. Sherman began his Carolinas Campaign in early February 1865, leading three armies of about 90,000 men against 15,000 Confederates. The Battle of Averasboro, N.C., took place on March 16 and resulted in some 1,500 casualties, including Robertson’s son, 2nd Lt. James L. Robertson, who was shot in the leg.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
57
CHILDREN Dr. Robertson fretted for his family’s safety. His daughter, Henrietta Marion Robertson, was at home during the war. Son James, or “Jimmy,” served in the 1st South Carolina Regular Artillery. Dr. Robertson had the odd experience of treating his wounded son after the Battle of Averasboro.
I AM THANKFUL TO THE GOOD PROVIDENCE
THAT HAS SPARED JIMMY’S LIFE
IN A CONTEST IN WHICH SO MANY HAVE
FALLEN
TO RISE NO MORE
transportation to Chester. I wrote my dear wife a short open letter—all that was admissible, through Coln [Robert] Ould, the commissioner of exchange, to go by way of New York, by the flag of truce boat. God grant that it may get to her. Called upon the paymaster and Quarter Master, and drew my pay up to the 1st of March and commutation for quarters and fuel up to the day I left Charleston. This was a lucky hit.
Saturday, March 18 Settled my bill at the Spotswood, which was $105 for self and servant [slave, Henry Sutcliff ], and left Richmond yesterday evening at half past six o’clock. Cars literally packed, inside and out, with returned prisoners, who have just arrived by the flag of truce boat. Fell in company with Mr. Baggot from our City who had been in prison sixteen months, also Lieut. [ J.] Hopkins and Mr. Williams, both of Charleston, who had just been released. I was indebted to them for a seat. When the cars were opened, Williams & Hopkins rushed in, secured seats and then hoisted the window and drew Baggott and myself through it into the car. Without a resort to this expedient, I should have been left in Richmond another night.
Sunday, March 19 The Raleigh train arrived at one o’clock P.M. and, to my surprise, I found [son] Jimmy on board, with a number of others, wounded. There had been a severe engagement near Averysboro [sic] about twenty-eight miles 58
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
from Fayetteville on Thursday the 16th inst. lasting about six hours… Jimmy was wounded by a minie ball…passing obliquely through the calf of the left leg. The wound is painful but, I trust, not dangerous. I am too thankful to the good Providence that has spared his life in a contest in which so many have fallen to rise no more. It was providential that I was detained here, as it will enable me to take him on with me to Chester, and take charge of his case myself. Liets. [Eldred S.] Fickling and [Thomas Price] Mikell, Mr. Jenkins Mikell’s son, determined to go on with us. Fickling was wounded in the leg below the knee, and Mikell in the foot, by a fragment of shell.
Sunday, March 26 Jimmy had a bad night, until I gave him half a grain of sulphate [sic] of morphine. He then rested well, but had considerable fever during the night. The wound is suppurating freely at both orifices, but there is an erysipelatous blush for some distance around the orifice exit which I do not like.
SURVIVORS Postwar images of Dr. Robertson and his wife, Henrietta Toomer Righton Robertson. Their Charleston house survived the war intact, and Robertson returned to his work at the Medical College, helping to restore the school’s viablility. He retired from it in 1873, but stayed active in medicine until 1881. Robertson died in 1892,
Tuesday, March 28 Jimmy continues to improve, and is about the house on his crutches.
Thursday, April 6 The report of the evacuation of Richmond was confirmed today. The mere occupation of Richmond by the enemy is nothing, but its suddenness and the defeat of a portion of our army, with the inevitable loss of life, and wounded and capture of prisoners, makes it a disaster. This again shows the want of decision of character and delay in our authorities.
Saturday, April 8 A large number of refugees from Richmond and Petersburg arrived in the Charlotte train today, Government officers, Senators and members of Congress—Many of them with families and an immense amount of baggage. What a leveller [sic] war is. All had to take the same mode of conveyance—a common quartermasters waggon [sic]….Senator [Louis T.] Wigfall’s family crammed into one, with as little ceremony as a camp woman and her brats….
Sunday, April 9 [H]ow full of grief and trepidation are our hours of prayers and meditation. An exile from my home, with no intelligence from those loved one who are in the enemies lines, my mind is constantly agitated and troubled with doubts and fears. Their hearts, too, must be a prey to untold anxieties and fears in relation to the safety of the boys and myself.
n Sunday, April 16, 1865, one week after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, Dr. F.M. Robertson reached Augusta, Ga. He closed his journal a week after that, commenting “I shall make no comment, at present, upon the Sad condition of our cause, but leave it in the hands of God who works in His own mysterious ways. Oh that He may preserve my darling wife and dear children, and bring us together again.” Robertson and his family would reunite later that year in Charleston; somehow he and all five sons survived the war, with only two of them receiving wounds. Robertson returned to his prewar career and served as a professor of obstetrics at the Medical College of South Carolina in the late 1860s, and later as Dean of the College, until his retirement in 1873. A former Whig, he became active in Democratic Party politics, especially at the local and state level. He died in 1892, at the age of 86. His diary offers superb insights into elite white Southerners’ determined loyalty to the Confederate war effort, frustrations with military and civilian leaders, the faith that sustained Southern families, and the chaotic collapse of the Confederacy.
Susannah J. Ural is co-director of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. Resisting Sherman: A Confederate Surgeon’s Journal and the Civil War in the Carolinas, 1865, is edited by Thomas Heard Robertson Jr., and available from Savas Beatie books. APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
59
CHALLENGING TOPOGRAPHY Unlike many sluggish, marshy rivers that flow east through the flat Tidewater, the North Anna River traverses a deep valley.
OPPORTUNITY
LOST VIRGINIA’S NORTH ANNA RIVER is better remembered for what did not
happen there during the war than for what did. Exhausted by three unrelenting weeks of brutal fighting during the Overland Campaign in early May 1864, the Army of the Potomac stumbled into a nearperfect trap set by the Army of Northern Virginia. The campaigning, however, had taken N O RT H ANNA a toll on Confederate commander Robert E. Lee, who at the height of action found himself confined to a sickbed in his tent. “We must strike them a blow!” he muttered deliriously. But with his senior command staff likewise ravaged, Lee had no one capable of springing the trap. The Federals, eventually realizing their precarious situation, avoided disaster—and so the great Battle of the North Anna River never unfolded. Compared with the earlier engagements in the campaign at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, as well as the subsequent clash at Cold Harbor, the 4,640 total casualties at North Anna from May 23-26 seemed more like a heavy skirmish. North Anna remained unpreserved for a century and a quarter, but efforts in the past two decades have saved significant portions of the battlefield, and other key areas, though not formally protected, remain undeveloped. I-95 and U.S. Route 1 both run through the battlefield and provide easy access. Many landmarks are visible from local roads, but please respect private property while touring the sites. –Chris Mackowski 60
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
NOT ENOUGH
Lee was initially convinced the Federals would pass farther to the southeast, and left only a token force on the river’s north bank. The subsequent Union assault overwhelmed defenders and gave the Federals control of the important Chesterfield Bridge. Today, the remains of the earthen walls of the Confederate Henagan’s Redoubt remain in the treeline on the edge of a farm field along Oxford Road. To the east of the redoubt, the trace of the original Telegraph Road runs out of the woods on the north side of the road and descends to the river.
UNGODLY’ INSULT Hanover Junction
NATURAL BARRIER Next to the northbound lane of the Route 1 bridge, a boat landing on the south bank of the river offers good perspective of the North Anna’s steep banks, which made it such a formidable barrier. Here, the Union-held bank dominates, but elsewhere, Confederates had the topographical advantage.
CLOSE CALL The Fox House, private property that can be glimpsed from Route 1, bears scars of the artillery bombardment that collapsed a chimney onto one of Lee’s staffers. Lee had
been drinking a glass of buttermilk on the home’s front porch—which today serves as its back porch, facing away from the modern highway—when the Federal gunners began firing.
“If you want a horrible hole for a halt, just pick out a Virginia church, at a Virginia cross-roads, after the bulk of an army has passed on a hot, dusty Virginia day!” said a Union staff officer when Ulysses S. Grant and George Meade made their headquarters at the Mount Carmel Church May 24. The church “looked precisely like a town-hall, where people are coming to vote, only the people had unaccountably put on very dusty uniforms.”
VITAL DEPOT At Hanover Junction, the northsouth Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad met with the Central Virginia Railroad, which ran west from Orange. Both railroads brought vital supplies to Lee’s army during the spring of 1864, making the junction a vital spot to defend. Just north of the APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
61
“How we longed to get away from the North Anna, where we had not a bit the slightest chance of success.” Pvt. Frank Wilkeson, 11th New York Light Artillery
junction, in the woods to the east of the tracks, earthworks of the Confederate right flank parallel the railbed.
JERICHO MILL On May 23, the Federal 5th Corps crossed the river uncontested at Jericho Mill, then beat back an understrength Confederate assault ordered by Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill. “Why didn’t you throw your whole force on them and drive them back as Jackson would have done?” Lee later scolded. In 2014, the Civil War Trust purchased more than 650 acres to preserve the site. Richmond National Battlefield now administers the property, but it is closed to the public except for occasional special events. The park’s website (nps.gov/rich/planyourvisit/calendar.htm) is a valuable resource for updated information.
FANTASTIC EARTHWORKS Union successes at Jericho Mills and Chesterfield Bridge forced Lee to reconfigure his line into an inverted “V”—his most ingenious 62
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
Jericho Mill, on the river’s north bank
A view of the North Anna River from the boat ramp accessible from Route 1. Ox Ford, a Confederate strongpoint and the center of Lee’s inverted “V” defense, is less than a mile to the west.
earthworks in the East. Six miles of hiking trails—some over difficult ground—offer a great opportunity to explore. (hanovercounty. gov/Parks-and-Rec/North-AnnaBattlefield-Park)
CONFEDERATE “V”
defense of the war. Anchored at Ox Ford, the line would split the Union army in two, making both sides vulnerable to a killing blow. Hanover County’s North Anna Battlefield Park preserves this Confederate linchpin as well as some of the most magnificent
Accessible from Verndon Road, Route 720—N. Telegraph Road— soon turns to gravel. Follow the sign to the Richmond Pet Cemetery. In the woods nearby, impressive earthworks reveal the shape of Lee’s original line, parallel to the Central Virginia Railroad, and his reconfigured line, which angles away toward Ox Ford. Chris Mackowski, editor-in-chief of Emerging Civil War, is the author of Strike Them a Blow: Battle Along the North Anna River.
LOCAL COLOR Squashapenny Junction, a oneof-a-kind antique store, crammed full of unique goodies, takes its name from a local tradition: Kids once put pennies on the rails for trains to flatten.
APRIL 2017 CIVIL WAR TIMES
63
HERITAGE TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE SHOWCASE
For free information about these advertisers, fill out the attached reply card.
Explore Maryland with once-in-alifetime commemorations—all at one destination. Create your family history by exploring ours. Go to visitmaryland. org to plan your trip today.
There’s no other place that embodies the heart and soul of the True South in all its rich and varied expressions— Mississippi. Find Your True South.
To discover more about Tennessee and to order your free official Tennessee Vacation Guide, visit: TNVACATION.COM or call 1-800-GO2-TENN
Known for sublime natural beauty, captivating history and heritage and warm hospitality, West Virginia really is the great escape. Start planning your getaway today.
Walk where Civil War soldiers fought and died. A short trip from Nashville and a long journey into America’s history! Call (800) 716-7560. ReadySetRutherford.com
Join us for our Civil War Anniversary Commemoration including attractions and tours, exhibitions, memorials and a selection of artifacts from Fort Fisher.
Lebanon, KY is home to the Lebanon National Cemetery, its own Civil War Park, and it’s part of the John Hunt Morgan Trail. VisitLebanonKY.com today.
History lives in Tupelo, Mississippi. Visit Brice’s Crossroads National Battlefield, Natchez Trace Parkway, Tupelo National Battlefield, Mississippi Hills Exhibit Center and more.
“Part of the One and Only Bluegrass!” Visit National Historic Landmark, National Civil War Trust tour, historic ferry, and the third largest planetarium of its kind in the world!
North Little Rock, Arkansas, is one of only two places to have two vessels that bookend World War II: tugboat USS Hoga and submarine USS Razorback. www.AIMMuseum.org
A vacation in Georgia means great family experiences that can only be described as pretty sweet. Explore Georgia’s Magnolia Midlands.
Experience the Civil War in Jacksonville at the Museum of Military History. Relive one of Arkansas’ first stands at the Reed’s Bridge Battlefield. jacksonvillesoars.com/museum.php
Explore the past in Baltimore during two commemorative events: the War of 1812 Bicentennial and Civil War 150. Plan your trip at Baltimore.org.
Are you a history and culture buff? There are many museums and attractions, Civil War, and Civil Rights sites just for you in Jackson, Mississippi.
Experience living history for The Battles of Marietta Georgia, featuring reenactments, tours and a recreation of 1864 Marietta. www.mariettacivilwar.com
Experience the Old West in action with a trip through Southwest Montana. For more information on our 15 ghost towns, visit southwestmt.com or call 800-879-1159, ext 1501.
The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area highlights the historic, cultural, natural, scenic and recreational treasures of this distinctive region. www.mississippihills.org
Once Georgia’s last frontier outpost, now its third largest city, Columbus is a true destination of choice. History, theater, arts and sports—Columbus has it all.
Over 650 grand historic homes in three National Register Historic Districts. Birthplace of America’s greatest playwright, Tennessee Williams. The ultimate Southern destination—Columbus, MS.
Six major battles took place in Winchester and Frederick County, and the town changed hands approximately 72 times— more than any other town in the country! www.visitwinchesterva.com
Home to more than 400 sites, the Civil War’s impact on Georgia was greater than any other event in the state’s history. Visit www.gacivilwar.org to learn more.
Greeneville, TN Founded in 1783, Greeneville has a rich historical background as the home for such important figures as Davy Crockett and President Andrew Johnson. Plan your visit now!
Richmond, Kentucky
H I S T O R I C
Roswell, Georgia
Tishomingo County, MS Fayetteville/Cumberland County, North Carolina is steeped in history and patriotic traditions. Take a tour highlighting our military ties, status as a transportation hub, and our Civil War story.
Whether you love history, culture, the peacefulness of the great outdoors, or the excitement of entertainment, Roswell offers a wide selection of attractions and tours. www.visitroswellga.com
With a variety of historic attractions and outdoor adventures, Tishomingo County is a perfect destination for lovers of history and nature alike.
History surrounds Cartersville, GA, including Allatoona Pass, where a fierce battle took place, and Cooper’s Furnace, the only remnant of the bustling industrial town of Etowah.
Relive history in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and explore Jefferson Davis’ birthplace, the Trail of Tears Commemorative Park and the vigilante rebellion of the Black Patch Tobacco War.
Seven museums, an 1890 railroad, a British fort and an ancient trade path can be found on the Furs to Factories Trail in the Tennessee Overhill, located in the corner of Southeast Tennessee.
Through personal stories, interactive exhibits and a 360° movie, the Civil War Museum focuses on the war from the perspective of the Upper Middle West. www.thecivilwarmuseum.org
The National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, GA, tells the story of the sailors, soldiers, and civilians, both free and enslaved as affected by the navies of the American Civil War.
Harrodsburg, KY—The Coolest Place in History! Explore 3000 acres of discovery at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill and 1774 at Old Fort Harrod State Park. www.HarrodsburgKy.com
Williamson County, Tennessee, is rich in Civil War history. Here, you can visit the Lotz House, Carnton Plantation, Carter House, Fort Granger and Winstead Hill Park, among other historic locations.
Explore the Natchez Trace. Discover America. Journey along this 444-mile National Scenic Byway stretching from the Mississippi River in Natchez through Alabama and then Tennessee.
Come to Helena, Arkansas and see the Civil War like you’ve never seen it before. Plan your trip today! www.CivilWarHelena.com www.VisitHelenaAR.com
Join us as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Knoxville’s Civil War forts. Plan your trip today! www.knoxcivilwar.org
Charismatic Union General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick had legions of admirers during the war. He just wasn’t much of a general, as his men often learned with their lives.
Sandy Springs, Georgia, is the perfect hub for exploring Metro Atlanta’s Civil War sites. Conveniently located near major highways, you’ll see everything from Sandy Springs!
Treat yourself to Southern Kentucky hospitality in London and Laurel County! Attractions include the Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park and Camp Wildcat Civil War Battlefield.
Hip and historic Frederick County boasts unique shopping and dining experiences, battlefields, museums, covered bridges, and abundant outdoor recreation. Request a free travel packet!
Just 15 miles south of downtown Atlanta lies the heart of the true South: Clayton County, Georgia, where heritage comes alive!
St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Visit Point Lookout, site of the war’s largest prison camp, plus Confederate and USCT monuments. A short drive from the nation’s capital.
Cleveland, TN
Near Chattanooga, find glorious mountain scenery and heart-pounding white-water rafting. Walk in the footsteps of the Cherokee and discover a charming historic downtown.
Alabama’s Gulf Coast
If you’re looking for an easy stroll through a century of fine architecture or a trek down dusty roads along the Blues Trail, you’ve come to the right place. www. visitgreenwood.com
Southern hospitality at its finest, the Classic South, Georgia, offers visitors a combination of history and charm mixed with excursion options for everyone from outdoorsmen to museum-goers.
Relive the rich history of the Alabama Gulf Coast at Fort Morgan, Fort Gaines, the USS Alabama Battleship, and the area’s many museums. Fort-Morgan.org • 888-666-9252
CIVIL WAR MUSEUM of the Western Theater
Vicksburg, Mississippi is a great place to bring your family to learn American history, enjoy educational museums and check out the mighty Mississippi River.
Follow the Civil War Trail in Meridian, Mississippi, where you’ll experience history first-hand, including Merrehope Mansion, Marion Confederate Cemetery and more. www.visitmeridian.com.
Fitzgerald, Georgia...100 years of bringing people together. Learn more about our story and the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s conclusion at www.fitzgeraldga.org.
Hundreds of authentic artifacts. Voted fourth finest in U.S. by North & South Magazine. Located in historic Bardstown, Kentucky. www.civil-war-museum.org
Come to Cleveland, Mississippi—the birthplace of the blues. Here, you’ll find such legendary destinations as Dockery Farms and Po’ Monkey’s Juke Joint. www.visitclevelandms.com
Historic Bardstown, Kentucky
Destination
Jessamine, KY Prestonsburg, KY - Civil War & history attractions, and reenactment dates at PrestonsburgKY.org. Home to Jenny Wiley State Park, country music entertainment & Dewey Lake.
Search over 10,000 images and primary documents relating to the Civil War Battle of Hampton Roads, now available in The Mariners’ Museum Library Online Catalog! www.marinersmuseum.org/catalogs
History, bourbon, shopping, sightseeing and relaxing—whatever you enjoy, you’re sure to find it in beautiful Bardstown, KY. Plan your visit today. www.visitbardstown.com
London, KY–The reenactment of the Battle of Camp Wildcat, Camp Wildcat Historic Site, Wilderness Road Trail & Boones Trace Trail, & antique and flea market shopping. www.LaurelKyTourism.com
STEP BACK IN TIME at Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park, a Union Army supply depot and African American refugee camp. Museum, Civil War Library, Interpretive Trails and more.
CIGAR
DIPLOMACY REVIEWED BY ALLEN BARRA
I
F ULYSSES S. GRANT was the most neglected figure in American history up to the end of the 20th century, that is being rectified with a vengeance. This decade alone has seen two superb volumes, Grant’s Final Victory by Charles Bracelen Flood, about his race against cancer to complete his memoirs, and H.W. Brand’s superb biography The Man Who Saved the Union. Edwina S. Campbell’s Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth is part of a series on the general and president by the Southern Illinois University Press, which picked a great subject for this volume: Grant’s world tour, from 1877 to 1879, introduced post–Civil War America to much of the world and, in turn, much of the world to America. Campbell, a former U.S. foreign service officer, was, because of her background in the practice and study of diplomacy, uniquely qualified to write “about a relatively unknown and largely misunderstood aspect of Grant’s service to the United States.” For two years, Grant was, in effect, “his country’s ambassador at large, the first practitioner of post-presidential diplomacy.” The overseas trek, begun just months after he left office, came at a time when America was sparsely represented overseas and, because of growing commercial and political interests, in dire need of a face to put before the world. Political opponents derided the two-year sojourn as an extended vacation comprised of sight-seeing and diplomatic dinners in his honor. They did not understand that Grant’s travels were, in the words of Campbell, “a sign of things to come.” Grant was on an official diplomatic mission in which he visited nearly every country north of the equator and met with prime ministers and other heads of state from Europe to Asia. For most of them Grant was the first American president they had ever seen; for some he was the first American they had ever met. “It is difficult to capture,” writes Campbell of Grant’s traveling to Egypt aboard the USS Vandalia, “in a century accustomed to the sight of Air Force One around the world, what an unprecedented situation this was for all concerned.” “You are honored,” read a letter, reprinted on the page before the table of contents, to the general from the address of American citizens residing in Peking, “as the highest representative of our country who has ever gone beyond her 66
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth: Ulysses S. Grant’s Post-Presidential Diplomacy By Edwina S. Campbell Southern Illinois University Press, $34.50
borders; and America is the more respected for having given birth to such a son.” Though Grant’s world tour has been largely lost to American memory, Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth is richly illustrated with photos and engravings from newspapers and magazines that illustrate the huge impact the event made on America’s own image of itself. My favorite is a full-page Thomas Nast drawing from an 1879 issue of Harper’s Weekly: Minerva, the goddess of (among many other things) commerce, crowns the former president—Grant dressed in a Roman-like toga—with laurels while Neptune is seen in back of Grant, steering a boat named Tokio (the name of the mail steamer the Grants took on the return voyage). This is one of the most fascinating books related to the war of the past few years, a fitting tribute to a man who “practiced diplomacy as he had once waged war, without hubris or fear, but with unwavering confidence in himself and in his fellow citizen’s ability to meet whatever challenges came their way.”
FATHERS AND SONS REVIEWED BY GORDON BERG n Battle of Wills, David Johnson makes a convincing case that R.E. Lee’s and Ulysses Grant’s experiences in the Mexican War and their respective fathers played the biggest roles in formulating their personalities and military tactics. From dogged and determined Jesse Root Grant, Ulysses learned “not to give in, not to be discouraged, and never give up or strop trying,” though Johnson goes a bit too far when he claims that without his father’s example, “Ulysses would never have become the victor of...Appomattox.” Grant’s primary influence from the Mexican War is General Zachary Taylor, who served as Grant’s model soldier. “Light Horse” Harry Lee’s influence on his son Robert was more complicated. The Lees were a prominent and wealthy Virginia family, but Robert lived under the cloud of his father’s absconding to the West Indies to avoid his substantial debts. A sense of duty to family and state were paramount in Lee’s life, and he gave up a brilliant military career to serve the cause of the Confederacy. Johnson’s accounts of military operations break no new ground, possibly because he relied heavily on first-person accounts written by participants. In fact, he often uses these accounts when quoting third parties, relying on the memory of aging veterans. His breezy writing style does condense a complex campaign into an easyto-read narrative, but this better serves the needs of beginner students of the war.
I
Battle of Wills: Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and the Last Year of the Civil War By David Alan Johnson Prometheus Books, $28
REINFORCEMENTS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!!
Shenandoah Civil War Associates presents:
Civil War Medicine and Gettysburg & Antietam Hospital Sites Tour dates:
June 16-18, 2017 Nobody even comes close to building a Civil War tent with as much attention to reinforcing the stress areas as Panther. Our extra heavy duty reinforcing is just one of the added features that makes Panther tentage the best you can buy! PANTHER’S Catalog No. 23 ... $2.00 131 pages of the best selection of historical re-enactment items from medieval era to Civil War era. Includes over 60 pages on our famous tents. Your $2. cost is refundable with first order. SEND for copy TODAY
Join the following noted Civil War medical historian as we explore the fascinating topic of medicine during the American Civil War. Friday lectures by: Dr. Guy Hasegawa: “Artificial Limbs in the Civil War” Dr. Jonathan O’Neal: “Confederate Medical Evacuation” Dr. Irvin Hess: “Dr. Hunter McGuire, Stonewall’s surgeon” Saturday we tour the National Civil War Museum in Frederick, Maryland and afterwards we will hear a presentation by Dr. Gordon E. Dammann whose collection of medical artifacts from the Civil War forms the core of the Museum’s holdings. Includes Saturday evening buffet and lodging at the Clarion Hotel in Shepherdstown, W.Va. Tours Saturday afternoon and Sunday of Antietam and Gettysburg hospital sites, led by renowned tour guides and historians Gary Kross and Steve Recker. View our Website: http://www.shencivilwar.org
For program information email The Best Tents in History P.O. Box 32C Normantown WV 25267 (304)462-7718 www.pantherprimitives.com
[email protected]
To register contact Bonnie Powell of Conference Services at James Madison University
(540) 568-8043
Invention of the Year PERSONAL SOUND AMPLIFICATION PRODUCTS (PSAPs)
THEY’RE NOT HEARING AIDS The unit is small and lightweight enough to hide behind your ear... only you’ll know you have it on. It’s comfortable and won’t make you feel like you have something stuck in your ear. Call now toll free for our lowest price. 81099
1-888-762-0110 Please mention promotional code 105209.
STEEN CANNONS Contact us to put your advertisement in front of thousands of history enthusiasts! 800.649.9800
[email protected]
Manufacturer of: Full Scale, Authentic Reproduction Artillery Phone/www 515 29th Street 606-326-1188 Ashland KY 41101 www.steencannons.com
Q WANTED Seeking any original letters, documents, images, personal artifacts, inscribed weapons, veteran’s items, anything identified to either the 10th or 29th Maine Infantry. Please email:
[email protected]
For information on placing a Direct Response or Marketplace ad in Print and Online contact us today: Civil War Times 800.649.9800 / Fax: 800.649.6712 /
[email protected] / www.russelljohns.com
EDITOR’S PICK
Being a random book favored by the editor
Gone for a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard Edited by David Herbert Donald Little, Brown and Company Out of print, but available on the Internet
David H. Donald is best known for his biographies, particularly of Charles Sumner and Abraham Lincoln, but in 1975 he also edited and published the soldier reminiscence Gone for a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard. Bellard came from a middle-class family, and he had a sense of history regarding his service with the 5th New Jersey Infantry. He wrote detailed letters home after he enlisted, and urged his parents to keep them for posterity. Bellard cribbed from those letters in the 1880s to write a history of his experiences that remained unpublished until it came to Donald’s attention. Bellard’s sprightly writing details camp life and battle with the Army of the Potomac. But it is his primitive, but expressive, illustrations accompanying his written material that make the memoir unique. The colorful illustrations add depth to our understanding of the common soldier’s experience. Many of Bellard’s depictions show the harsh side of army life, such as wounded soldiers suffering and the squalor of standing picket duty in the rain. He also chronicled the harsh punishments handed out to recalcitrant comrades. A Confederate bullet slammed into Bellard’s leg at Chancellorsville, and with words and images he chronicles his flight from the battlefield to a field hospital. After recovering, he was placed in the Veteran Reserve Corps until his service expired. Forty years after its publication, Gone for a Soldier remains one of the best memoirs out there. If you are interested in soldier life, get it.
CREDITS
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: 10/1/16. 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: HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. Contact person: Kolin Rankin. Telephone: 305-441-7155 ext. 225 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher, Michael A. Reinstein, HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182, Editor, Dana B Shoaf, HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182 , Editor in Chief, Alex Neill , HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 10. Owner: HistoryNet; 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 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 2016. 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: 49,489. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 53,506. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 27,599. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 27,081. 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: 5,568. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 5,824. 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: 33,167. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date; 32,905. 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: 1,035. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 980. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,035. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 980. F. Total free distribution (sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 34,202. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 33,885. G. Copies not Distributed. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 15,287. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 19,621. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 49,489. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing: 53,506. I. Percent paid. Average percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 97.0% Actual percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 97.1% 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: 33,167. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 32,905. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 34,202. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 33,885. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 97.0%. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 97.1%. I certify that 50% of all distributed copies (electronic and print) are paid above nominal price: Yes. Report circulation on PS Form 3526-X worksheet 17. Publication of statement of ownership will be printed in the February 2017 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: David Steinhafel, Associate Publisher. 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.
Cover: Left: Library of Congress; Right: National Archives/Photo Illustration: Brian Walker; P. 2-3: Clockwise From Left: Shenandoah Sanchez; Dan Nance, Patriot Art Inc.; Library of Congress; Private Collection/ Photo ©Don Troiani/Bridgeman Images; P. 4: North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy Stock Photo; P. 8: Courtesy the Minnesota Historical Society; P. 9: Clockwise From Top: Photo: Henry Ballone; National Geographic; Terra Metrics/Google Earth; P. 10: Library of Congress; P. 12: Top: The American Civil War Museum; Bottom: Courtesy James D. Julia Auctioneers, Fairfield, Maine, USA, www. jamesdjulia.com; P. 13: Clockwise From Top Left: Private Collection/Photo ©Don Troiani/ Bridgeman Images; Heritage Auctions, Dallas; Private Collection/Photo ©Don Troiani/ Bridgeman Images; P. 14: De Agostini Picture Library/Bridgeman Images; P. 16: GL Archive/ Alamy Stock Photo; P. 18: Private Collection/ AF Eisenbahn Archive/Alamy Stock Photo; P. 21: National Archives; P. 23: Dan Nance, Patriot Art Inc.; P. 24: Pejepscot Historical Society; P. 26: Library of Congress; P. 27: Pejepscot Historical Society; U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command; P. 28: Heritage Auctions; P. 29: Bottom: National Park Service; P. 30: Library of Congress; P. 32: Library of Congress (2); P. 33: Army of Tennessee Relics; P. 34-35: Wiard’s System of Field Artillery (3); P. 36-37: National Archives; P. 38: Library of Congress; P. 39: From Left: Library of Congress; Heritage Auctions, Dallas; Library of Congress; P. 40: Civil War Photograph Collection, United States Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, PA; P. 41: Kentucky Historical Society; Heritage Auctions, Dallas; P. 42-43: Shenandoah Sanchez; P. 44-45: Buddy Secor; P. 46-47: Shenandoah Sanchez; P. 48-49: Mike Talplacido; P. 50: Chris Heisey; P. 51: Steven Gordon, Cartagram, LLC; P. 53: Courtesy the Waring Historical Library, MUSC, Charleston, S.C.; P. 54-55: Harper’s Weekly; P. 57: The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War; P. 58: Left: Courtesy Thomas Heard Robertson; Right: Courtesy Isabelle Robertson Maxwell; P. 59: Courtesy Thomas Heard Robertson (2); P. 60-63: Shenandoah Sanchez (8); P. 72: Image courtesy Skinner, Inc. www.skinnerinc.com.
THE WAR ON THE NET
w w w. a c w m . o r g
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MUSEUM
The American Civil War Museum (ACWM) encompasses several entities: Historic Tredegar and the White House and Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, and the Museum of the Confederacy at Appomattox. Its website highlights these sites, their manuscript and artifact holdings, and a host of educational resources. Site visitors who follow the link from “Learn & Do” to “Online Resources” will find a few sections that are placeholders until the ACWM gets more material online. But if you dig a bit deeper into the “Online Exhibitions” page, you can tour 31 Conrad Wise Chapman paintings relating to wartime Charleston. Digital tourists can click on each painting to view details and learn more. “The Collection” features artifacts relating to social, military, and political affairs, with brief information on each item, and discusses the tireless flag restoration efforts of the ACWM.
The three sections not to be missed, however, are found in the ACWM’s searchable database, their video collection, and the ACWM blog. Keyword searches can access thousands of images and artifacts in the museum’s collection, while the “Random Search” option lets digital visitors browse the holdings. The video collection found in the “Online Resources” section features clips on everything from “Confederate Ersatz,” to a discussion of the divergent interests of new African-American male voters. Other videos address the complex history of the Confederate battle flag, feature famous and less famous military men, and offer a detailed discussion of combat wounds, amputations, and prostheses, all relating to ACWM collections. The museum’s blog highlights a different aspect of its holdings each month and places them within historical context. The ACWM—online and in Virginia— reminds us of all the digital future offers, while highlighting the continuing value of visiting historic sites in person. —Susannah J. Ural
CARBINE COPY $7,380
imported most of its weapons, but local firms also helped arm its soldiers. Bilharz, Hall, and Company, located in the southwest corner of Virginia in Pittsylvania Court House, today known as Chatham, made .58-caliber cavalry carbines for Southern troopers that were copies of the U.S. Model 1855 carbine. The company operated from 1863-64, and only about 1,000 of the guns, like this example sold by Skinner Auctions, were produced. 2 THE CONFEDERACY
72
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2017
ºÇº½²ÃÀÆÃÄЀϾϿЅ NOW IN OUR 16TH YEAR! April 19-23͕The Battle of Gettysburg. Follow historians Ed Bearss & Jeff Wert for 4 days as we examine the Battle of Gettysburg. We will walk the ground where troops clashed on July 1, 2, & 3, including the action at East Cavalry Field. We will visit sites pertaining to Lincoln’s visit to Gettysburg in 1863 for the dedication of the National Cemetery. One evening, we will make special arrangements for a private, behind-the-scenes tour of the Cyclorama.$695
April 27-30, The Maryland Campaign: South Mountain &Antietam. Spend 3 days with historians Ed Bearss & Tom Clemens as we cover the events that led to America’s bloodiest day in history. We will tour Harpers Ferry, the gaps of South Mountain, and the key sites of Antietam Battlefield including the North Woods, West Woods, Bloody Lane, and Burnside’s Bridge. $550
May 18-21, Chickamauga & Chattanooga. Join expert historians Ed Bearss & Jim Ogden as we devote 3 full days to the Battles of Chickamauga & Chattanooga. This in-depth tour will include stops at Reed’s Bridge, Snodgrass Hill, Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and the National Cemetery. $550
-XQH The 9LFNVEXUJ Campaign. 7UDYHOEDFNLQWLPHZLWKKLVWRULDQV(G%HDUVV 7HUU\:LQVFKHODVZHGHYRWHGD\VWR WKHUHPDUNDEOH9LFNVEXUJ&DPSDLJQ:HZLOOIROORZWKHDFWLRQRIWKHGUDPDWLFHYHQWV DVVRFLDWHGZLWKWKH%DWWOHVRI*UDQG*XOI3RUW*LEVRQ5D\PRQG&KDPSLRQ+LOODQGWKH %LJ%ODFN5LYHU%ULGJH,QDGGLWLRQZH¶OOH[DPLQHWKHVLHJHRSHUDWLRQDW9LFNVEXUJDQG VHHWKH866&DLURWKHLURQFODGJXQERDWGLVFRYHUHGDQGUDLVHGIURPWKH
ŚĞĐŬŽƵƌǁĞďƐŝƚĞĨŽƌŽƵƌĐŽŵƉůĞƚĞϮϬϭϳƚŽƵƌƐĐŚĞĚƵůĞ ĂŶĚĚĞƚĂŝůĞĚŝƚŝŶĞƌĂƌŝĞƐ͊ǁǁǁ͘ĐŝǀŝůǁĂƌƚŽƵƌƐ͘ŽƌŐ
ALL OF OUR 2016 TOURS SOLD OUT SO DON’T DELAY ΎKƵƌƚŽƵƌƐŝŶĐůƵĚĞĞǀĞŶŝŶŐůĞĐƚƵƌĞƐ͕ůƵŶĐŚĞƐ͕ƚĂĐƚŝĐĂůŵĂƉƐΘƚŚĞĨŝŶĞƐƚďĂƚƚůĞĨŝĞůĚŐƵŝĚĞƐ͊
ºÇº½²ÃÀÆÃÄͲW͘K͘Ždžϰϭϲ͕<ĞĞĚLJƐǀŝůůĞ͕DϮϭϳϱϲ ĞŵĂŝů͗ŝŶĨŽΛĐŝǀŝůǁĂƌƚŽƵƌƐ͘ŽƌŐ
dĞů͗;ϯϬϭͿϲϳϲͲϰϲϰϮ
ĞƐƵƌĞƚŽĐŚĞĐŬŽƵƚŽƵƌƐŝƐƚĞƌĐŽŵƉĂŶLJ͗
ϮϬϭϳ,ŝƐƚŽƌLJdŽƵƌƐŝŶĐůƵĚĞ͗dŚĞ&ŝƌƐƚtŽƌůĚtĂƌ͕dŚĞŚĞƐĂƉĞĂŬĞ͕ΘEĞǁzŽƌŬ^ƚĂƚĞ ĞŵĂŝů͗ƚŽƵƌƐΛƐŵŽƵŶƚĂŝŶĞdžƉĞĚŝƚŝŽŶƐ͘ĐŽŵǁĞďƐŝƚĞ͗ǁǁǁ͘ƐŵŽƵŶƚĂŝŶĞdžƉĞĚŝƚŝŽŶƐ͘ĐŽŵ
Proudly Serving the Military since 1936. GEICO salutes our Military members. We’ve made it our mission to not only provide you and your family with great coverage, but also to offer flexible payment options, numerous discounts, and overseas coverage to suit the demands of your unique lifestyle.
We stand ready to serve you. Get a free quote today.
geico.com | 1-800-MILITARY | local office Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states or all GEICO companies. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary.© 2016 GEICO
