America's Civil War January 2022 by HistoryNet

Outdueling the

Gray Ghost Union troopers hand John Mosby and his Rangers a rare setback

Plus!

Unlikely Peacemaker Sherman tries to end the war

Get Vaxxed! The armies battle smallpox

Known for their swashbuckling looks, Mosby and his Rangers wreaked havoc throughout Northern Virginia.

JANUARY 2022

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January 2022

‘Horrors Exceeding the Imagination’ One Union surgeon had already seen war at its worst. Even he was unprepared for Stones River Edited by Daniel A. Masters

AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION; NATIONAL ARCHIVES; BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; RETA PASS AUCTIONS; COVER: PHOTOS: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRIAN WALKER

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Departments 6 LETTERS More on Confederate Potomac River crossings 8 GRAPESHOT! Unlucky in war and love—but a steady hand for detail 14 LIFE & LIMB Smallpox didn’t pick a side during the war 18 HIDDEN HEROES Opposing looks at a small battle that changed the war in the West 20 FROM THE CROSSROADS Rousing prologue for Union cavalry outside Sharpsburg 56 TRAILSIDE Civil War–driven rebuild in Kinston, N.C. 60 5 QUESTIONS Bob Zeller finds new angles in historic photography 62 REVIEWS Copperhead icon gets a long-awaited opus 64 FINAL BIVOUAC A conspicuous end for one Union veteran

Rebel In-Fighting

Sherman is handed an unexpected chance to spare Georgia his March to the Sea By Stephen Davis and Tom Elmore

30 Branded

Savage Showdown

The outcome usually seemed predetermined whenever Mosby’s Rangers faced Union cavalry. Not so in one 1864 clash near Harpers Ferry

General Robert Milroy’s definitive battle was for his reputation By Jonathan A. Noyalas

Smile!

Dental care wasn’t necessarily an afterthought for some Civil War soldiers

By Eric Buckland

By Robert Murphy

ON THE COVER: COLONEL JOHN SINGLETON MOSBY AND HIS PARTISAN RANGERS REDEFINED GUERRILLA WARFARE IN THE EASTERN THEATER.

JANUARY 2022

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Michael A. Reinstein Chairman & Publisher David Steinhafel Publisher Alex Neill Editor in Chief

Vol. 34, No. 6 January 2022

HISTORYNET.com/ AMERICAS-CIVIL-WAR

SHERIDAN’S RISE

The Battle of Stones River catapulted “Little Phil” to military fame. https://bit.ly/SheridanFame

MOSBY’S MEN

Tough Partisan Rangers had a big hand in bringing the “Gray Ghost” plenty of glory. https://bit.ly/MosbyLegends

CALL TO ARMS

Why Abraham Lincoln decided war with the South was his only choice. https://bit.ly/CallToForce

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LETTERS

righting the record Thank you for publishing the fascinating reminiscence by Confederate Private Alexander Hunter in the September 2021 issue (Crossing the “Rubicon”). I’d like to comment on the images of Rebel troops crossing the Potomac River that appeared on page 37. According to artist Alfred R. Waud’s diary, he produced the top image on September 8, 1862, two days after he had crossed the Potomac with James Longstreet’s men on September 6. The drawing, later rendered as a watercolor, probably does not show White’s Ford as the caption states. Rather, it likely depicts the crossing of Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton’s cavalry at Conrad’s Ferry (known after the war as White’s Ferry)

on September 5. Hampton completed this crossing after nightfall and in bright moonlight at a place close to Ball’s Bluff, the site of a Confederate victory in October 1861. Troopers with the 1st Virginia Cavalry scooped up Waud in Maryland on September 7 and it was probably those men (or other Rebels) who described their crossing to the artist. Waud then produced his drawing based on what he was told, not on what he saw. The shoreline of the Potomac near White’s Ford, where Waud crossed, is much flatter than depicted. Moreover, Waud crossed during the daylight, not by moonlight. It is also clear from the image that the men crossing are

mounted, so they are not infantry. I am certain Waud drew his image after discussing the river crossing with Confederates in Maryland. Waud interpreted the crossing as taking place at Conrad’s Ferry with Ball’s Bluff shown as tall hills sloping down to the river. These hills are located south of Conrad’s Ferry, which puts them precisely where Waud drew them—behind and to the south of the crossing Confederate column. Waud then added the “Previous to Antietam” caption to his drawing after September 17. The caption also mentions that the Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac over three days, from September 5-7. The first elements of D.H. Hill’s command actually crossed on the afternoon of September 4. Lastly, Confederate veteran Allen C. Redwood created the image at the bot-

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE PAGE: GRANGER, NYC

As Memory Serves The images here accurately show Rebel troops crossing the Potomac. A.R. Waud, however, was incorrect in claiming his sketch depicts White’s Ford, and the painting opposite should be dated June 1863.

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LETTERS

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE PAGE: GRANGER, NYC

tom right on page 37 showing Stonewall Jackson’s men crossing at White’s Ford. Redwood produced his image in 1887 for The Century Magazine. It can be found on page 621 of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Volume 2 in the “Stonewall Jackson in Maryland” article by Henry Kyd Douglas. Redwood himself did not cross the Potomac with his comrades in September 1862 because he had been captured in August and sent to a Union prison camp. He did, however, participate in the June 1863 Potomac crossing during the Gettysburg Campaign after being exchanged. He then used this experience as the basis for his 1862 image, demonstrated by the slightly altered version of the image labeled “Confederates at a Ford” seen on page 250 of Volume 3 of Battles and Leaders. General Jackson’s men also took a hard left up the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal towpath immediately after crossing in September 1862. Redwood clearly did not know this and instead depicted the column marching off into the distance. This confirms that he substituted his 1863 experience for 1862 when composing his image. Alexander B. Rossino Boonsboro, Md. Editor’s Note: Alex is the author of Their Maryland: The Army of Northern Virginia From the Potomac Crossing to Sharpsburg in September 1862, now available from Savas Beatie (savasbeatie.com). For more on this topic, go to bit.ly/PotomacCrossing.

Remarkable Woman

Kudos to the article by Ron Soodalter in the September 2021 issue on Corne-

lia Peake McDonald (“War at Her Door”). In her writings, A Diary With Reminiscences of the War and Refugee Life in the Shenandoah Valley 18611865, Cornelia understood and wrote about the Civil War and its impact on the nation as well as the terrible impact it had on her family. But it was the death of her infant daughter, Bess, that truly brought the horror of war and isolation to the reader, and to me as well. So much so, Cornelia as an inspiration appears in my writings, my April 2021 poetry essay book The Nameless and the Faceless Women of the Civil War. The poem is called “Winchester, VA 1862.” Thank you for bringing this article forth, a reminder of the suffering, strength, and fortitude of the women of the Civil War. Lisa G. Samia Via e-mail

Trusted Recall

Regarding your article on General Fitz John Porter in the July issue (“Such a Splendid Soldier”), I thought it would be of interest to see a very prominent Confederate who testified during the special commission held to exonerate the court-martialed Porter in September 1878. Below is an article that appeared September 14, 1878, in the New Orleans Daily Democrat mentioning the testimony of Colonel John S. Mosby in the Porter inquiry. Mosby, an attorney, was always very careful in any of his verbal and written historical recounts, not willing to leave the matter merely to memory. He did, however, seem to have what we would call a “photographic memory,” enabling him to precisely recall even relatively unimportant incidents from years in the past. Army of Virginia commander John Pope had charged Porter with insubordination for not attacking Confederate General James Longstreet’s position, as ordered, during the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 29, 1862. The 1878 commission, however, determined that Porter had made the right decision not to launch an attack that

second day of the three-day battle, ultimately a Confederate victory. As the Daily Democrat reported: In speaking of the Fitz John Porter inquiry, Col. Mosby says that Gen. Pope is right in his statement that a battle took place on the twenty- ninth. In reply to the statement that a dozen or more witnesses have sworn that there was no battle, Col. Mosby said: “I know they have and they have all made a mistake. These witnesses have been describing what occurred on our Confederate right, and there was no battle there on that day. The engagement was on our left. I know it was a heavy one, for I was in it on the extreme left. Jackson, A.P. Hill, and Stuart fought there, and Hill’s corps was a large one, numbering perhaps 10,000 men. Longstreet was on the right and had just got his men up and there was no fighting on that part of the line. The witnesses are honest. They really believe they reported the situation correctly, but they did not know what was going on on the extreme left. To assure myself that I could not be mistaken, I recently examined the reports of General Hill and his subordinate officers. The reports confirmed my recollection of the date. They reported a heavy engagement on our left that day. Pope was right about that. I was captured in Pope’s campaign and by that incident I have a pretty clear recollection of the events which occurred about that time. I have no special friendship for General Pope, but that is the truth.” Valerie Protopopas Deer Park, N.Y.

WRITE TO US Send letters to America’s Civil War, Letters Editor, Historynet, 901 North Glebe Road, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203, or e-mail acwletters@ historynet.com. Letters may be edited. JANUARY 2022

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GRAPESHOT!

A Blast of Civil War Stories

CONVERSATION PIECE

Pewter Legacy

wife of 42 years had left him; they had no children. He lived alone in his hometown of Cutler, owning his house outright and not requiring a pension from the government for financial support. This plate is all that remains of his life. —Lawrence Lee Hewitt The Finer Touches James H. Conner, a Union soldier from Maine, made the multiple engravings on this pewter mess plate while confined to a hospital in the Civil War’s second year.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; COURTESY OF THE BURNS ARCHIVE

Irish parents, he attended elementary school in Cutler, Maine. He stayed behind when his neighbors organized a company in the fall of 1861 and marched off to war as Company B, 11th Maine Infantry. After fighting in the Seven Days Battles, the regiment went into camp at Yorktown, Va. On August 19, 1862, Conner, then 19 and single, volunteered and proceeded to Yorktown. As with so many new recruits, he quickly fell ill and found himself confined to a hospital. While a patient, he passed the time engraving the pewter mess plate shown here. He caught on quickly and appears to have started with a single “A” on the back rim, then switched to the front rim, carving “A A J L A B A J G G.” Flipping again to the back of the mess plate, he engraved the entire alphabet in a circle spiraling inward. In the very center was a “K,” surrounded by some unusual doodles and “The Line.” Returning to the front rim, he professionally engraved “James H. Conner.” In the remaining blank spaces, he added “No. 188” and “Union St and G H B.” If he drew any blood while in uniform, it was his own. He received a medical discharge on November 3, 1862. Conner fared no better in love than in war. By 1910, his

COURTESY OF LAWRENCE LEE HEWITT

Little is known about James H. Conner. Born in 1843 to illiterate

EXTRA ROUND

‘Life finds a way’ Researchers involved in studying the virus used in Civil War–era vaccinations against smallpox from five vaccination kits found at a medical museum in 2016 are hoping the techniques they used could lead to further such discoveries. Using methods that didn’t harm the artifacts, scientists at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, showed that DNA could be sequenced from inorganic objects such as the lancets, glass plates, and tins found in the kit. [For a fuller look at Civil War vaccination efforts, see P.14.] This could convince medical museums and other facilities to broaden such testing. “All of a sudden, a world of inorganic objects are available for sampling,” said Ana Duggan, adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at McMaster and a lead author of a July 2020 report on the research. The researchers found that vaccinia virus was used to vaccinate against smallpox as far back as the mid-19th century. Vaccinia, a distant relative of the virus that causes smallpox, variola, is relatively harmless to humans, whereas smallpox was debilitating and deadly. Later strains of vaccinia were used in the vaccination campaigns that eradicated smallpox globally by 1980.

Stone

QUIZ

The Blame Game Match the general to the battle that he is usually blamed for losing. A. Irvin McDowell B. John Bell Hood C. John Pope D. Robert E. Lee E. Oliver Otis Howard F. A.P. Hill G. Charles P. Stone H. Jubal A. Early’s troops

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; COURTESY OF THE BURNS ARCHIVE

In the mid-19th century, vaccination Special Set of Skills was far different from today. Scabs and A Northern contract surgeon fluids were taken from the skin of a in his tent. Likely, this person already exposed to a virus used surgeon was involved in in vaccination, then used to expose the vaccination efforts in the next person in the vaccination chain. Union Army. That the kits were even found was fortuitous. They had been mistakenly placed in a drawer for blood-letting materials at the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and were found when Robert Hicks, the facility’s director at the time, opened the drawer while giving an employee a tour. Hicks said that though it’s not clear whether the kits were used during the Civil War—he estimates they date from 1859 to 1873—they are consistent with wartime vaccination practices. Anna Dhody, director of the Mütter Research Institute, said the museum has reached out to other facilities about the non-destructive techniques used in the research to encourage testing of medical artifacts. —Phil Kushin

(by his own admission)

J. Sterling Price

1. Westport 2. Chancellorsville 3. Cedar Creek 4. First Manassas 5. Cheat Mountain 6. Second Manassas 7. Bristoe Station 8. Cold Harbor 9. Ball’s Bluff 10. Franklin Answers: A.4, B.10, C.6, D.5, E.2, F7, G.9, H.3, I.8, J.1.

COURTESY OF LAWRENCE LEE HEWITT

(according to Early)

I. Ulysses S. Grant

JANUARY 2022

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GRAPESHOT!

The Fighting Adams Family is not a unique Civil War weapon. The story surrounding its owner, however, is intriguing. This fluted pistol (fluted refers to the way the revolving cylinder is designed) was just one of approximately 4,000 Army models produced before the war at the Colt Armory in Hartford, Conn. It came into the possession of a Virginia cavalryman, who acquired it in Richmond on April 16, 1861. The gun can be seen above in the bottom ambrotype, featuring Confederate cavalryman Stephen Clinton Adams. Adams, born in 1836, enlisted as a private in Company K of the 6th Virginia Cavalry on May 22, 1861. The 6th Virginia would have a storied Civil War history, fighting primarily in J.E.B. Stuart’s command. It saw its first major action during Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign of May–June 1862 and also participated in Stuart’s legendary “First Ride Around McClellan” on June 13-15. Adams was captured during the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862. After being exchanged in November 1862, he was promoted to sergeant. The story behind the individual in the other ambrotype above is somewhat murkier, however. That image (seen in detail at right) shows another Company K trooper who went by the name Thomas F. Adams. Both ambrotypes, as well

Sweet but Deadly This mysterious, fair-faced 6th Virginia Cavalry trooper, identified as Thomas F. Adams, posed with two belt-mounted pistols.

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GRAPESHOT!

BATTLE RATTLE

“Sherman’s army is now somewhat in the condition of a ground-mole when he disappears under a lawn. You can here and there trace his track, but you are not quite certain where he will come out till you see his head.” –Ulysses S. Grant

Y s b a a t fe y t

O m t h s O t b t t h b p

CIVIL WAR ILLUSTRATED The Confederate Congress passed the First Conscription Act in April 1862; the U.S. Congress the Enrollment Act of 1863 on March 3, 1863. In the North, registration applied to men ages 20 through 45, and as this cartoon teases, the prospect of donning a uniform and facing enemy troops in battle left plenty fretful and inconsolable. “Yes, Maria, drafted!” declares this man, clearly not yet in fighting shape. “And I’m so short! If they shoot at my Legs they’ll hit me in the head!”

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; GRANGER, NYC

the Colt revolver, were recently discovered among Adams family effects and validated as authentic by noted Confederate memorabilia authority Shannon Pritchard. This is not the first time that Stephen and Thomas Adams were pictured together. They sit side by side in a photograph published in William C. Davis’ The Images of War, 1861-1865 series and available at the Library of Congress (in which Thomas is labeled “an unknown associate”). In both that image and the ambrotype here, Thomas is dressed in fanciful cavalry garb, carrying revolvers. Most striking are his notably delicate features—and that is where our story takes a fascinating turn. Apparently “Thomas F. Adams” was actually Elizabeth Nichols, who would marry Stephens Clinton Adams after the war. Accounts of women who fought during the war disguised as men are plenty, but this is a rare instance where a woman purportedly served as a Confederate cavalryman. There were suspicions that Elizabeth Nichols was actually Stephen Adams’ wife when she joined him in the 6th Virginia Cavalry as Thomas Adams. But, according to genealogical hobbyist Patricia Grove, the two were not married until 1868. It does stand to reason that the two knew each other before the war and were perhaps already romantically linked. With her fair features—not uncommon among younger soldiers at the time—it is possible that Stephen introduced Elizabeth as his younger brother. She was, after all, reportedly only 13 years old in 1861. How much actual combat Elizabeth Nichols saw—if any—is unknown. But Stephen did fight, and found himself in Federal custody a second time in March 1865, sent to the Point Lookout Prison Camp in southern Maryland. He was eventually released on June 22, 1865. After Elizabeth Nichols officially became Elizabeth Adams, the couple had two sons and a daughter and lived in Virginia. Stephen died in 1877 and is buried in Leesburg Union Cemetery. Elizabeth lived until 1934, apparently never revealing the full story of her supposedly adventurous life. Her photographs, however, remain the only known images of a woman armed and dressed as a Confederate trooper. — Jay Wertz

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LIFE & LIMB

Common Enemy VACCINATION EFFORTS BECAME STANDARD FOR BOTH ARMIES DESPERATE TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF DEADLY SMALLPOX

disease in the early to mid-19th century, but by the 1840s, Americans were beginning to neglect vaccination, and there was a generation that had never been exposed to the disease. As a result, the incidence of smallpox began to rise in the decades before the Civil War. From May 1861 to June 1866, 12,236 cases of smallpox were reported among White troops in the U.S. Army (5.5 per 1,000 men annually) and 6,716 among U.S. Colored Troops (36.6 per 1,000 men annually). For White troops, the death rate from the disease was approximately 23 percent; 35 percent for Black troops. The prevalence of vaccines meant that while smallpox stacked up among the deadliest diseases of the Civil War, it was not among the most common, ranking among the least-frequent diseases for White soldiers and middle of the pack for Black troops. That Black soldiers suffered a higher mortality rate from smallpox (and

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MCMASTER UNIVERSITY

The nonprofit NMCWM, based in Frederick, Md., explores the world of medical, surgical, and nursing innovation during the Civil War. To learn more about the stories explored in this and future columns, the museum hosts walking tours to the city’s Civil War hospital sites on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. from April to October. For more, visit civilwarmed.org.

THE SOLDIERS MOSTLY CARRIED Springfield, Enfield, or Lorenz rifled muskets rather than M4 carbines, wore blue or gray rather than green or tan combat uniforms, and they might have seen balloons flying overhead rather than drones, but among American forces, one similarity between military life in the Civil War and today was in a simple requirement: Get vaccinated. COVID-19 was far in the future; the requirement was for the smallpox vaccine. At the time, vaccination was relatively new and viruses, such as the one that causes smallpox, wouldn’t be discovered for 30 more years and wouldn’t be seen by the human eye until after the first electron microscope was built in the 1930s. The first vaccine was developed in 1798 by Edward Jenner, an English country doctor, and it was against smallpox. Preventive measures of vaccination and isolation had drastically reduced the occurrence of the

EVERETT COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

By Terry Reimer

LIFE & LIMB send large numbers of men into battle. Since there had been no systemic vaccination of the civilian populations, many of the recruits had never been vaccinated or exposed to smallpox. For those who were vaccinated, re-vaccination was recommended after seven years—or when men were directly exposed to the disease. Prior to the development The best and purest source for the vaccine was from of vaccination, another form cows or calves. The crust from the cowpox pustules was of inoculation—variola- used as the source for the inoculation, though in at least tion—was used to combat one instance, crusts came from calves infected with the smallpox. That treatment is the introduction of disease “humanized” virus, not naturally occurring cowpox. The agents into the body to produce a mild form of the dis- pressing demands of war often led authorities to instiease—usually by using pus or scabs from infected per- tute programs that obtained the scabs from vaccinated sons and administering them to the patient through humans. The Union medical dispensaries of the Northsmall cuts made in the skin. It was intended to confer ern cities supplied vaccine virus in the form of crusts immunity by producing a mild case of the disease. taken from vaccinated infants, each with a certificate Unfortunately, not all cases were mild, and deaths were listing the dispensary and the child’s name. In the Conassociated with the treatment, though at a far lesser federacy, many programs were set up to ensure an aderate than among those naturally acquiring the disease. quate supply of vaccine scabs for the Army. Every Variolation was in widespread use as early as the 1720s hospital had a medical officer whose job was to search and, despite the danger, continued to be widely prac- the surrounding populace for children in whom they could propagate cowpox. Ads were taken out in local ticed throughout the 18th century. Jenner’s breakthrough was to use cowpox serum. newspapers offering free vaccination to children if the Cowpox, a closely related disease, is rarely fatal to crusts were then allowed to be harvested. Both White humans, but it created a resistance to smallpox. As with and African American children were used to supply variolation, the vaccine was administered through a scabs, and in at least one instance, a small group of Afriseries of small cuts in the can American children were skin, usually in the arm. The kept vaccinated to provide usable material. The chilcowpox virus was obtained dren were vaccinated in six from animals infected with places in each arm. In two cowpox. By the 1830s, vacciweeks, the crusts were nation was widely accepted, especially among physicians. removed, wrapped in tin foil, Variolation was still practiced and shipped to army surgeons. Late in the war, a in some places until it was Tools of the Trade shortage of virus material outlawed by individual states. A Civil War vaccination kit recently discovered at Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum. [For more on the led to an authorization to The bans were based on the discovery, see “Extra Round” in Grapeshot!, P.9.] pay private physicians $5 fear of spreading the disease through inoculated persons per usable scab. since they were infectious, unlike vaccinated persons. Children and cows were the safest sources for crusts, By the outbreak of the Civil War, variolation was illegal but other methods were used as well. Surgeons often in most places, but still occasionally practiced. used the scabs from recently vaccinated men to vaccinate other soldiers. Soldiers did the same among themQuarantine, vaccination, and the destruction of selves, sharing the crusts and using knives to make the infected clothes and bedding were the primary tools incisions in their arms. Some men even sent scabs used to control smallpox’s spread in the armies during home for the use of their families. In most of these the war. Most hospitals had a separate ward, or even a cases, guidelines involving the appearance of the scab separate facility, in which to isolate smallpox patients and the proper number of days to wait to harvest the because of the disease’s well-known contagiousness. crusts after the initial vaccination were not followed. Both Union and Confederate regulations required the vaccination, and re-vaccination if necessary, of all Unfavorable results from vaccination, or spurious troops. However, many soldiers weren’t vaccinated vaccinations, were all too common. Even pure vaccine, because most regiments were raised by the individual obtained from official Army dispensaries, sometimes states and the regulation was disregarded in the rush to caused complications. Sometimes, faulty preservation of

MCMASTER UNIVERSITY

EVERETT COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Health Mandate Mass vaccinations of soldiers against smallpox during the war led to similar postwar efforts for the public. Here, in 1872, New York City residents get vaccinated.

most other diseases) likely demonstrated the impact on their nutrition and health from being enslaved—a recent factor for many.

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who had obtained vaccination matethe crusts could have compromised Comparable their effectiveness. As is the case rial from a woman who likely had These 19th-century watercolor even with modern vaccines today, syphilis. drawings portray the marked occasionally, the vaccine did not The Confederate Medical Departsimilarity between a smallpox take, failing to produce the major inoculation on the left (variolation) ment attempted to prohibit soldier-to-soldier vaccination to limit reaction at the vaccination site that and a cowpox inoculation these damaging effects. Even civilwas expected. In other cases, the site (vaccination) on the right. of the vaccination became overly sore ians were discouraged from self-vacand swollen, and abnormal pustules developed, leaving cination, as the consequences of spurious vaccine had surgeons to question whether those vaccinations had spread to the general population as well, leading to a been effective. mistrust of the vaccination process. Complications from using a scab from a recently vaccinated adult were even more deleterious. Since many Research into the history of smallpox vaccinations led vaccinations took place in hospitals, crusts from men to the discovery that the actual virus used in vaccinawho were sick with other conditions were occasionally tions was the vaccinia virus, of the same family as the used unintentionally, spreading disease rather than pre- smallpox (variola) and cowpox viruses, but genetically venting it. Often, soldiers in a hospital or prison didn’t distinct. The origins of the vaccinia virus are unknown, get vaccinated until smallpox had already appeared in but it is believed to have originated in the 19th century. The preventive measures of vaccination and isolation the facility, increasing the risks for some who might not have otherwise been exposed to the disease. taken by the Union and Confederate medical departPerhaps the worst, and unfortunately common, form ments curbed the occurrence of smallpox during the war of spurious vaccination was the use of scabs that were and averted any major outbreaks. The success of the syphilitic in nature. This occurred both in the hospitals vaccination of soldiers during the war led to widespread and among the soldiers who self-vaccinated. Misdiag- postbellum vaccination of the civilian population, furnosing a scab or harvesting crusts from the arm of a sol- ther helping to control this serious disease. dier who had syphilis would spread this disease to everyone vaccinated from that source. In one notable Terry Reimer is director of research at the National case, two brigades were affected by a vaccination infec- Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md. She tion that was thought to be syphilitic in nature. The has more than 20 years of experience in historical men were so sick that the brigades were unfit for mili- archaeology and research, specializing in 17th-, 18thtary service. The epidemic was traced to a single soldier and 19th-century American sites.

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HIDDEN HEROES

THE STEALTH UNION CAPTURE OF BROWN’S FERRY CHANGED THE WAR IN THE WEST By Ron Soodalter AFTER THE DEVASTATING UNION DEFEAT at Chickamauga, Ga., on September 19-20, 1863, roughly 41,000 Army of the Cumberland troops retreated frantically into nearby Chattanooga, Tenn. They soon found themselves trapped by General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, boasting approximately 52,000 effectives. By late October 1863, the Federal army faced two unpalatable choices: starve or surrender. Although Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas declared his intention to starve first, his superior, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, found neither option acceptable. The store of ammunition, food, and fuel, as well as forage for the horses and mules, was being depleted rapidly—at one point down to perhaps a five-day supply on hand—so time was not a luxury. Grant adopted an ambitious plan originally proposed by Thomas’ predecessor, Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans. The objective was to reduce by half the 60 miles of

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ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Sleight of Hand

treacherous, rain-gutted roads from the Union supply center at Bridgeport, Ala., to Chattanooga by establishing a new route. Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry had already shown the old route’s vulnerability with his Sequatchie Valley Raid in early October, and access through Walden Ridge had also been effectively shut down. What would become known as the “Cracker Line” was to begin with the building of a bridge across the Tennessee River. Rosecrans proposed floating flatboats down the river out of sight of enemy guns on Lookout Mountain to establish a bridgehead on the south bank and allow a landing in force. Once the river was spanned, a 15,000-man force under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker would arrive and proceed to Chattanooga with supplies. Brown’s Ferry was determined the optimal place to cross, as it led directly to a gap between two defensible hills. The trick was to navigate the river without alerting the Confederates—a desperate plan, but, if executed properly, it had a reasonable chance of success. Command of the operation, scheduled for pre-dawn October 27, went to Brig. Gen. William Hazen, who chose to divide his 1st Brigade in two. One contingent would include 50 flatboats (each with 25-man crews) to make the initial landing and build the bridgehead. Those flatboats were to follow a larger boat—consisting of about 50 men of the 23rd Kentucky under Lt. Col. James Foy. Hazen’s remaining troops would then cross once the bridgehead was secured. Among those in the lead boat was Corporal Arnold Brandley, who wrote: “All went well until we passed under a tree that had fallen out from the bank and was still hanging by the roots just high enough to allow the

HARPER’S WEEKLY

Riverside Clash Union troops packed on flatboats arrive and disembark at Brown’s Ferry during the critical October 1863 attack outside Chattanooga.

HIDDEN HEROES boat to pass under; the order was whispered, ‘Everybody down.’” A sergeant named Reeves tried to jump over the tree, but, Brandley wrote, “was not quick enough and… was swept into the cold stream,” adding that Reeves never cried for help. “[W]e passed on in doubt of whether we would ever again see our comrade.” (They would.) Spotting a picket fire on the bank downriver, Brandley recalled, “Gen. Hazen sent the word to steer for that light, which we did hurriedly.” Hazen’s order, however, was heard by a Rebel picket, who promptly sounded the alarm, “Fall in, the Yanks are coming!” With the boat a mere 30 feet from the bank, Brandley noted, “I heard the officer of the guard give the command, ‘Ready, aim, fire!’ One of the oarsmen, an 18th Ohio boy, dropped his oar with a rebel bullet in his arm. We were thoroughly aroused and anxious to fire back, but we remembered our orders….With one of our oars being gone, the boat swung around as if on a pivot.” Grabbing a collection of willow branches, an officer steadied the boat, allowing the men to hastily disembark and wade to shore. Recalled Brandley:

secure in our warm beds, that the cracking of guns began in rapid succession....Our company…hurried to the support of Company ‘B’ in double quick time. We left all our camp equipage, including our tents, oil cloths, blankets, cooking utensils and clothing, except what we had on…. The Confederates, McClendon noted, were soon “contending against great odds, and our companys [sic] deployed and went at them firing volley after volley into their crowded ranks, but there was a whole brigade of them, eighteen hundred strong….[T]hey had landed and gained a foothold so strong that we could not drive them back. We fought at close quarters for awhile.” Finally, relented McClendon, they were ordered to fall back: “[T]he Yankees were in force below us and our capture for a time seemed a certainty, but we made our way without any confusion, and recrossed Lookout Creek, and took position at the foot of Lookout Mountain.” As other Union forces arrived, the Yankees soon had control of both hills and could build the bridge. On the 28th, Hooker arrived to officially open the Cracker Line.

ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

HARPER’S WEEKLY

The rebs were in and about a log house at the edge of what is known as Browns Gap; there was no chinking between the logs, and we could see their movements very plainly. They were trying to organize, but before they were able to do so, we charged on them through the darkness, firing as we went. The handful of Rebels scattered, but were soon reinforced and staged a counterattack, driving the landing party back to the shore. But reinforced by men of the 6th Indiana and the rest of the 23rd Kentucky, Foy’s men reorganized and charged yet again—“driving the enemy once more through the Gap where they were cooking a large kettle of beef,” Brandley wrote. Now daylight, the men halted at the kettle, “grabbing for the beef—running hands and bayonets into the hot water, gobbling up the delicious pieces of half-done beef—and around this old kettle the battle of Brown’s Ferry and the charge of the first boat’s crew ended.” With 17 killed or wounded, the squad did not emerge unscathed. Brandley would later write, amused: “Col. Foy was shot through his new hat. He lamented very much...he did not bring his old hat in place of this one.” One regiment doing its best to stem the Yankee tide was the 15th Alabama, which had earned notice back in July for its determined Little Round Top fighting at Gettysburg. Wrote Sergeant William A. McClendon: Our pickets [had] increased their vigilance, so as not to be taken by surprise….[W]e felt sure that we could defeat any attempt to land that the Yankees would make....It was at early dawn when we felt

Opposing Commanders Colonel William Oates of the 15th Alabama (left) and Union Brig. Gen. William Hazen. Oates was among the Confederates wounded during the engagement. The next evening, as Hooker’s corps, now combined with troops from the Army of the Cumberland, marched toward Chattanooga, a Rebel force under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet attacked Brig. Gen. John W. Geary’s rearguard at Wauhatchie Station. After three hours of bitter fighting, Longstreet’s men retreated. There would be more fighting along the way, but within days, the beleaguered Federals in Chattanooga were being reinforced by 40,000 troops—and thankfully resupplied. Grant, however, still needed control of the city. It would take nearly a month, culminating in a three-day series of battles, before that could be achieved. Ron Soodalter writes from Cold Spring, N.Y. JANUARY 2022

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FROM THE CROSSROADS

Pop! Pop! Pop! Union troopers use their carbines to keep Confederates at a distance during the Maryland Campaign, in an A.R. Waud sketch.

Making Strides

A VIOLENT LITTLE 1862 CAVALRY CLASH AT BOONSBORO, MD., SENT CONFEDERATES A MESSAGE THAT UNION TROOPERS COULD FIGHT

that is an essential ingredient in the success of any military organization.” Although George McClellan took a step toward improving that at the campaign’s start by concentrating most of his cavalry in a division under Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, it was deceptive. Forty-six companies, the equivalent of four regiments, were still detached as escorts, couriers, provost guards, and such—dispersed across the army. Many regiments in the division lacked carbines and were armed only with pistols and sabers. Even among those who had been issued carbines, few had training in fighting dismounted, which was the most effective way to employ the weapon. Although Pleasonton’s cavalry would fight bravely, they were routinely bested or stymied by Stuart’s cavalry in engagements at Maryland locales such as Poolesville, Frederick, and Middletown. But two of Pleasonton’s regiments, the 8th Illinois and 3rd Indiana, were well-equipped and trained, with good leadership—and on September 15, the 8th Illinois

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

IN HIS POSTHUMOUSLY PUBLISHED memoir War Years With Jeb Stuart, Confederate Lt. Col. W.W. Blackford noted that, in September 1862, “The truth was that their [Union] cavalry was afraid to meet us….[U]p to this time the cavalry of the enemy had no more confidence in themselves than the country had in them, and whenever we got a chance at them, which was rarely, they came to grief.” This wasn’t typical postwar bluster. As Blackford, who served under Stuart from June 1862 until Stuart’s death in May 1864, fully realized, the bulk of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry during the Maryland Campaign was of mediocre quality. It was not the troopers’ fault, but rather the culture in the army at that time in tending to consider cavalry not as an offensive weapon but as couriers, escorts, orderlies, and such. The result, Stephen Starr writes in The Union Cavalry in the Civil War, was a “crippling effect on the discipline and training of units that had not been together long enough to acquire much of either, or to develop the esprit de corps

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

By D. Scott Hartwig

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

FROM THE CROSSROADS gave Stuart’s cavalry a taste of what to expect when the 3rd’s mounted rear guard collided with “our already Federal mounted arm gained greater proficiency. confused columns [and] the street became packed with When the Army of Northern Virginia retreated from a mass of horses and horsemen, so jammed together as South Mountain to Sharpsburg on September 15, Brig. to make motion impossible for most of them.” Gen. Fitz Lee’s cavalry brigade drew the assignment as Some of Boonsboro’s staunchly Unionist residents rear guard. Lee placed a section of horse artillery east of added to the chaos by firing from windows into the millthe village of Boonsboro in a commanding position along ing mass of horsemen. The Illinois troopers pressed the the National Turnpike and posted the 3rd Virginia Cav- attack and, as one Confederate conceded, “in the twinkalry, mounted, on either flank as support. Dismounted ling of an eye” the entire brigade deteriorated into a skirmishers covered the front, and the 4th and 9th Vir- mob, with each man “rushing wildly back along the rock ginia formed in column in rear of the artillery. Early ribbed Pike, as if he was determined he would win the that morning, the Confederate troopers watched Union race.” By this point, the 5th New Hampshire had joined infantry descend the mountain along the turnpike. Lee the fray, adding to the mayhem. conducted a textbook rear-guard action, skirmishing Crowded together, the Rebels were driven pell-mell to with the Federals and lobbing some shells, forcing them the north, churning up clouds of dust that obscured piles to deploy and slowing their advance. Having achieved of rocks placed along the road for repairs. Riding upon his mission, Lee slowly withdrew toward Boonsboro, them, Southern troopers and horses were hurled to the sending his guns into town followed by the 4th and 9th ground. His horse shot from under him, Rooney Lee was Virginia and then the 3rd Virginia, contesting each step. sent sprawling beside the road “dazed and helpless.” Elements of Fitz Lee’s Brigade rallied to temporarily The process was relatively routine, but Lee’s troopers were exhausted from a night in the check the relentless pursuit, but when the Federals brought up a saddle, and when the 4th and 9th horse artillery battery and began Virginia reached Boonsboro, the shelling the grayclad enemy, the men were allowed to dismount and rout was renewed. “This was an stretch their legs or snatch some awful day for our Brigade,” sleep. The 3rd Virginia, meanwhile, skirmished its way back to observed one of Lee’s officers. the village. The pressure increased How had six companies of cavwhen the Federals advanced the alry routed three regiments? It was veteran 5th New Hampshire Infanan action Blackford discreetly ignored when he assessed combat try to the front, but the Southern between Union and Confederate horsemen seemed unfazed. Their cavalry in the Maryland Cammobility enabled them to keep the paign. Several factors accounted enemy soldiers a comfortable disfor the lopsided success: The 8th tance away. The terrain, however, kept Lee’s Illinois had achieved complete surtroopers from detecting that Union prise; the Confederates were overcavalry had joined the pursuit: six confident and couldn’t imagine companies of the 8th Illinois under they would be challenged by Union aggressive Colonel John F. Farnscavalry; and, because of this, Fitz Lee had allowed his regiments to worth, who likely was unaware just Warrior Politician crowd too close together in Boonshow strong a Confederate force he Colonel John Farnsworth resigned faced. His men trotted up next to boro so that when the 3rd Virginia from the U.S. Army in March 1863 the 5th New Hampshire; placing was driven in upon the others, to resume his congressional career. himself at the head of the column, maneuverability was lost. CasualFarnsworth ordered a charge. ties were likewise lopsided: at least Caught by surprise, the mounted and dismounted 44 Confederates killed, wounded, or captured as opposed skirmishers of the 3rd Virginia tumbled back into to only one Federal trooper killed and 23 wounded. Boonsboro. Standing beside his horse in the village, 9th Although the Boonsboro clash was relatively minor, Virginia Lieutenant George W. Beale heard a rapid fir- it was a harbinger of things to come in 1863, when Feding of pistols and carbines, then shouts of “Mount! eral cavalry achieved the same proficiency the 8th IlliMount!” from his commander, Colonel W.H.F. “Rooney” nois had shown in September 1862. Lee, who had witnessed the fervent Union charge. It was too late. “Retreating at full speed,” Beale wrote, the Scott Hartwig writes from the crossroads of Gettysburg. JANUARY 2022

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Par for the Course Cavalry clashes in “Mosby’s Confederacy” typically resulted in captured Union troopers left to the mercy of John Mosby and his Partisan Rangers—the vaunted 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry.

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SavAge showdOWn Partisan Rangers, Cole’s Cavalry spent early 1864 in a bitter struggle for the upper hand in “Mosby’s Confederacy” By Eric Buckland

DON TROIANI (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

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[O]n January 1, 1864, a detachment of Cole’s Battalion, composed of a detail of twenty men from each company, numbering in all about eighty men, under command of Captain A.N. Hunter, came in a search from Harper’s Ferry of Mosby’s men….We had orders to meet in Rector-

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF MARK DUDROW (2); USAHEC

n late December 1863, Confederate Major John Singleton Mosby and his 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry were operating in and around Loudoun County in northern Virginia. At the same time, Union Major Henry A. Cole was conducting patrols and raids in the same region with his 1st Maryland Cavalry Battalion, Potomac Home Brigade, better known as “Cole’s Cavalry.” A clash of some sort between the two enemy units was inevitable, and, in fact, three short yet brutal engagements would occur over the first seven weeks of 1864. The series of showdowns began December 30, as Captain Albert Hunter and about 60 members of Cole’s Cavalry departed their Loudoun Heights camp near Harpers Ferry, W.Va., on a patrol toward Rectortown, Va. As his troopers advanced south into “Mosby’s Confederacy”— an area encompassing Virginia’s Loudoun, Fauquier, Clarke, and Warren counties—Hunter knew it was likely his adversary would soon receive reports of his venture. Hunter’s patrol spent the first night in Lovettsville, about 10 miles southeast of Loudoun Heights. The next morning as they continued to push south, the weather turned increasingly wretched. Low temperatures chilled the men—and snow, sleet, and rain soaked both them and their equipment. The men found some protection from the elements at a farm and rested New Year’s Eve in tolerable comfort. When the troopers awoke the morning of January 1, they were greeted with sunny but cold weather. Mounting, they continued heading in the direction of Middleburg, where the New Year’s Day calm was disrupted by a brief skirmish with some of Mosby’s Rangers. One Union trooper, Private Jason McCullough, was wounded, but Hunter’s men captured three Rebels. Hunter decided to send McCullough and the three prisoners back to Loudoun Heights with a small escort. The remainder of the

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Timekeeper Mosby’s gold pocket watch, with a stem wind. The colonel—an accomplished lawyer both before and after the war—was reputed for his punctuality.

detachment continued toward Rectortown, just south of Middleburg. New Year’s Day also marked a rendezvous of some of Mosby’s men, and, as fortune would have it, Rectortown was their destination, too. Upon their arrival on the outskirts of town, the Rangers, commanded by Captain William “Billy” Smith, were surprised to discover the presence of Hunter’s detachment. Smith ordered his men to watch their foes’ activities, but to avoid an engagement. Hunter, though, had seen the shadowy figures of the Rangers, about 30 total. Concerned their numbers might continue to grow and satisfied the mission to reach Rectortown had been completed, Hunter decided a return to the main Loudoun Heights camp would be the most prudent option. Hoping, however, to confuse his enemy of his actual destination, Hunter initially moved south toward Salem (today’s Marshall) before turning north to head back to camp. The Rangers followed Hunter’s troopers and quickly saw through their deception. Smith directed his men to cut across nearby fields to get in front of the Federal force. Three Rangers comprised Smith’s lead element: Richard Paul Montjoy, Henry Stribling Ashby, and John Carter Edmonds, all eager to engage the enemy. Coming upon the rear of Hunter’s formation near an intersection of five roads, known by the locals as “Five Points,” they attacked. Smith heard the noise of the initial assault and hastened the rest of his command forward to join the fray. His horse killed, Hunter would be captured early in the clash, and though the Union troopers momentarily held their ground and blunted the Rangers’ initial assault, their defense soon collapsed. Realizing their leader was now out of the fight and that their revolvers wouldn’t fire because of damp powder, they lost all semblance of military discipline and rode off in fear and panic. Describing the “Five Points Fight” in a letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch—published nearly 50 years later, on February 16, 1913— Ranger Thomas William Smith Lake wrote:

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF MARK DUDROW (2); USAHEC

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Hard Riders in Blue Above: An ambrotype of 2nd Lt. Samuel B. Sigler, Cole’s Cavalry, on his horse “Bill.” Right: Henry A. Cole enjoyed a steady rise in command with the 1st Maryland Cavalry Battalion, Potomac Home Brigade, after joining as captain of Company A in August 1861. He was promoted to major when the 1st was consolidated as a battalion in August 1862 and then to colonel in February 1864. Far right: Captain Albert Hunter proved one of Cole’s most dependable subordinates, serving until he mustered out in June 1865. In 1890, he would write a four-part personal history of the war. JANUARY 2022

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Have You Seen the Gray Ghost? Due to the 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry’s success, the unit’s home turf in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains fittingly became known as “Mosby’s Confederacy.” Above left: Ranger Private Lucien Love, Company D.

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The Federal casualty count was dreadful, with at least four killed and another dozen wounded. Various reports listed 30–40 Federals captured, what was perhaps the worst defeat for “Cole’s Cavalry” the entire war. (A sobering postscript to the fate of the Union men captured that day reveals that 24 later died in Confederate captivity. Hunter was not one of them, however, as he had escaped his captors while the battle swirled around them.) The Rangers, meanwhile, came through the New Year’s fight virtually unscathed, with only two wounded. The first Mosby–Cole

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town that day….We got off on a hill and watched their movements when our men began to gather in. Finally, Captain Smith came in, and with about twenty men we followed in the rear to near a place called Five Points, a place where five roads converged. We had gathered there twentyeight men. Captain Smith said, “What shall we do, fight them or not? Captain Hunter had time to form his men in a field that once belonged to my father; or, in other words, we were on our own dunghill and felt a good deal like fighting. Just as we reached the top of the hill in sight of their column, Captain Smith was on the left, and I on the right in the first set of twos. Captain Smith jumped his horse over a gap on the left; the enemy was on our right side. But it was not long before I had a companion brave as the bravest, John Gulick, by my side, and we made straight at them, receiving a galling fire, and they stood till we could see the whites of their eyes, and going up to them, Gulick was shot in the shoulder. But they could not stand those Indian yells and soon broke and ran. There was a marshy place just in their rear they knew nothing about and ran into that. A good many got unhorsed and were captured there. Then we had a running fight for some six or seven miles, in which they used their drawn sabres to put more motion to their horses, a good many of which gave out and they were captured….”

Sowing Mayhem This Alfred Von Erickson watercolor portrays Mosby’s Rangers attacking a Union wagon train. After the war, Private J.G. Beckham, a former Ranger, reportedly used the painting as the basis for a woodcut in a book he wrote about Mosby.

engagement had been a lopsided victory for the man to become known after the war as the “Gray Ghost.” The tables soon turned, however.

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n January 7, Confederate scout Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Stringfellow informed Mosby that he had conducted a reconnaissance of Cole’s Loudoun Heights camp and that he believed a surprise raid on it was certain of success. Mosby and Stringfellow had served together earlier in the war as scouts for Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, with the two holding an abiding trust and respect in each other. Based on Stringfellow’s report and recommendation, Mosby agreed to meet him near Cole’s camp on January 9 to conduct the raid. Gathering about 100 men, Mosby left Upperville and proceeded to the northeast. The weather was frigid and the temperature continued to drop as the men headed toward their objective. Further exacerbating the already cold conditions, a brisk wind made the ride almost unbearable and the men stopped twice to warm themselves. The first respite was at “Woodgrove,” home of James Heaton, whose son, Harry, rode with Mosby; the second at St. Paul’s Church on the Harpers Ferry Road. The Rangers welcomed the breaks from the cold, though any feelings of warmth were fleeting. Ranger accounts of the ride to Loudoun Heights describe men having to dismount and walk to prevent their feet from freezing. While walking, many also slipped their hands under the saddle blankets of their Stringfellow mounts to regain feeling in their fingers. The

demanding trek clearly degraded the men’s mental alertness and physical dexterity. Despite the circumstances and punishing weather, Mosby and his men remained undetected and met with Stringfellow a few miles from Loudoun Heights. Stringfellow had gone ahead to scout the enemy camp and reported that all was quiet within. The raid appeared destined for success. Following a route suggested by Stringfellow, Mosby circumvented Union pickets and moved closer to Cole’s position. The raiders continued moving without detection, even when they had to negotiate a steep climb in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Forced to dismount and lead their horses, men slipped and fell, resulting in such nerve-wracking commotion that their stealthy approach seemed in jeopardy. Yet all remained quiet within the enemy camp site. Finally gaining a position from which they would attack, the Rangers had literally caught Cole’s Cavalry napping. In his report of the raid, Mosby would write: “On reaching this point without creating any alarm, I deemed that the crisis had passed and the capture of the entire camp of the enemy a certainty.” Preparing to launch his strike, Mosby gave JANUARY 2022

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“Colonel Mosby, their old antagonist…had crossed the mountain and fell upon the camp, and then fired a volley into the tents where Cole’s men lay sleeping, many of them no doubt dreaming of their sweethearts and loved ones at home. No one who has not experienced a night attack from an enemy can form the slightest conception of the feelings of one awakened in the dead of night with the din of shots and yells coming from those thirsting for your blood. Each and every man in that attack, for the time, was an assassin.

DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION; COURTESY OF ERIC BUCKLAND; COURTESY OF MARK DUDROW

Mosby’s Young Pursuers Above: Two unidentified members of Cole’s Cavalry. Below: Officer’s kepi worn by George Owens of the 1st Maryland Cavalry Battalion, Potomac Home Brigade, now on display at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa.

Stringfellow and his small band of scouts the honor of attacking the house on Loudoun Heights where Cole had his headquarters. Within minutes of Stringfellow’s departure, however, everything unraveled. As Stringfellow’s little detachment closed in, a shot echoed in the dark. Whoever fired that solitary round was never determined, but bedlam immediately erupted inside Cole’s camp, spurring Stringfellow’s men to pull away with much greater noise and recklessness than they had during their approach. Their retreat took them directly into the path of the Rangers, who had been ordered hastily forward by Mosby because of the shot. Believing they were being attacked by Cole’s men, those Rangers fired directly at Stringfellow’s men, leading to a number of friendly fire casualties. Mosby’s surprise and certainty of victory had vanished in an instant. Disoriented by the commotion, Cole’s troopers poured out of their tents just as Mosby’s men surged into their camp. Although the halfdressed, some barefoot, and bleary-eyed Federals were at first confused, they quickly steadied themselves and unleashed a shower of carbine and revolver fire into the midst of the Rebel intruders. One quick-minded Union soldier, never identified, called to his comrades to shoot anyone who was mounted. That command and subsequent lethally accurate fire from the Union troopers was devastating. Highlighted against the dark night sky by the glow of burning tents, Mosby’s men were unmistakable targets. The snow covering the campground was quickly stained with blood. Mosby soon realized his situation was untenable, any recent thoughts of victory replaced by the knowledge that he had to promptly extract his beleaguered men to avoid further loss. He ordered a withdrawal. For a unit used to prevailing with minimal casualties in such confrontations, the Rangers soon faced the sad truth that five men had been killed and six wounded. Three of the six wounded later died from their wounds. One Ranger was captured. Among those killed in the Loudoun Heights clash was “Billy” Smith, who only days before had performed so magnificently at Five Points. Lieutenant William Thomas “Prince George’s Tom” Turner was mortally wounded, dying a week later. Both were favorites of Mosby and highly respected and revered by their comrades. In writing about them later, Mosby cited them as “two of the noblest and bravest officers of this army, who thus sealed a life of devotion and of Smith sacrifice to the cause they loved.” Not surprising, in his report about the disastrous raid, while still pained by the deaths of Smith and Turner, Mosby wrote that his losses were “more so in worth than the number of the slain.” One of Cole’s troopers, C. Armour Newcomer, recounted the Union victory in his Cole’s Cavalry; or, Three years in the Saddle in the Shenandoah Valley:

But we should remember that war means to kill; the soldier in the excitement of battle forgets what pity is, and nothing will satisfy his craving but blood. The rude awakening brought Cole’s hardy veterans out into the deep snow covering the mountain, and they promptly picked up the gauge of battle. Long experience in border warfare had taught these gallant Marylanders to shoot at the horsemen, and not attempt to mount their own faithful chargers…. During the fight every man was for himself. There was no time to wait for orders, the cry rang out on the cold frosty air “shoot every soldier on horseback.” Many of the Confederates who were killed or wounded were burned with powder, as Cole’s men used their carbines. It was hand to hand, and so dark, you could not see the face of the enemy you were shooting. It was a perfect hell!.... Mosby had been badly used up; our comrades who had lost their lives on the last New Year’s day, and in other engagements, where he had been defeated, were now avenged. It was difficult to tell how many had been lost until after daylight.”

COURTESY OF ERIC BUCKLAND (2)

DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION; COURTESY OF ERIC BUCKLAND; COURTESY OF MARK DUDROW

or the Rangers, the bitter loss at Loudoun Heights dramatically overshadowed their Five Points triumph. One engagement between the two forces remained, however. On February 20, Major Cole and 200 troopers departed Loudoun Heights on another scouting expedition into Mosby’s Confederacy. Reaching Upperville, they surprised and captured 11 Rangers. Mosby, staying a few miles away, promptly learned of the Union incursion and dispatched a few men to alert the other Rangers in the area to the threat and to order them to assemble as rapidly as possible. As Cole’s men continued south to Piedmont Station (today’s Delaplane), the Rangers mounted and set off to rendezvous with their commander. After reaching Piedmont Station, Cole decided to return to Upperville and then, ultimately, Loudoun Heights. By that time, Mosby had assumed a position where he could both maintain surveillance on Cole’s element and await the arrival of more Rangers. When Cole turned his men around and began his return trip to camp, Mosby followed. Soon, small groups of Rangers had joined Mosby, and when he reached the outskirts of Upperville, the major had gathered nearly 50 men. Seeing that Cole had stopped his men in the little town to water their horses, Mosby decided to attack. Unprepared to receive an enemy charge, the Federal troopers were quickly pushed out of the town, pressed by the Partisan Rangers. During the pursuit, Private Montjoy engaged and killed one of Cole’s officers, Captain William L. Morgan, in an informal duel. “Montjoy earned his bars today!” Mosby would exclaim, officially promoting him to captain a few weeks later. Cole tried to hold his men together as they fell back to their camp, but the Rangers’ pressure was relentless. Finally, he rallied his men behind the protection of a stone wall near Blakeley’s Grove School. There, the steadfast Cole hoped to make a stand and drive Mosby away. The tactic was initially successful as multiple charges were stifled. But Mosby, seeking an advantage, ordered some of his men to attack Cole’s flank. Suddenly confronted by enemy from two directions, Cole and his men were forced from their position. The Federals lost any semblance of an organized delaying action, their sole mission now an escape from the onslaught and a safe return to their camp. After harrying Cole’s men for a few more miles, the Rangers broke off the chase, satisfied with their victory. Blakeley’s Grove School marked the last fight between Mosby’s and Cole’s men. Despite victories there and at Five Points, the painful

‘Montjoy earned his bars today!’ On February 20, 1864, during a running duel with Ranger Richard Paul Montjoy (right), Captain William L. Morgan (left) would be killed. Mosby would reward Private Montjoy with promotion to captain. losses Mosby suffered at Loudoun Heights could not be forgotten. Indeed, as he had stated, the loss of “quality” that day left a void never fully refilled.

osby, eventually promoted to colonel, continued operating in northern Virginia for the duration of the war, remaining an annoyingly persistent and painful thorn in the side of Union commanders. Cole also achieved the rank of colonel, and his 1st Maryland Cavalry Battalion grew into a regiment. After the Blakeley’s Grove School fight, Cole’s Cavalry commenced operations in the Shenandoah Valley as part of the greater Union effort there. In 1895, Mosby penned a heart-felt, cordial reply to an invitation to attend a reunion of Cole’s Cavalry: “I did not receive until too late your polite Invitation to attend the reunion of Cole’s Cavalry. It would have given me great pleasure to meet my old antagonists around the festive board, but it is now too late for me to make arrangements to go or to give notice to the members of my old command of your invitation to them. I give you the assurance of my best wishes.” Eric Buckland retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel after spending the majority of his 22-year career in Special Forces. An officer of the Stuart–Mosby Historical Society in Centreville, Va., Buckland has written several books and frequently delivers presentations focused on the “men who rode with Mosby.” He can be contacted at info@mosbymen.com. JANUARY 2022

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Until his death, Union General Robert H. Milroy never stopped trying to redeem his reputation, badly scarred in defeat at Second Winchester

n the final hours of Union Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy’s life, with family gathered at his home in Olympia, Wash., the 73-year-old veteran had a singular focus—making certain that history did not judge him harshly for his defeat at the Second Battle of Winchester during the Confederate advance to Gettysburg in June 1863. On March 28, 1890—the day before his death—Milroy, according to a newspaper correspondent, “sat up all day…and dictated matter…touching upon the supreme event of his life, the battle of Winchester.” As Milroy spoke to A.S. Austin, a justice of the peace in Olympia, and May Sylvester, who was collaborating with Austin “in compiling a volume of the general’s military memoirs” (unfortunately never completed), the “Gray Eagle” stated emphatically that he was not ultimately responsible for the disastrous Union defeat at Winchester on June 13-15, 1863. Throughout Milroy’s occupation of Winchester in the first half of 1863, General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck fretted for the safety of Milroy’s command. On April 29, Halleck reminded Milroy’s immediate superior Maj. Gen. Robert C. Schenck, commander of the Middle Department headquartered in Baltimore, that Winchester and its immediate environs was “no place to fight a battle. It is merely an outpost, which should not be exposed to an attack in force.” One month later, in the wake of the Army of Northern Virginia’s momentous victory at Chancellorsville, Va., Halleck’s anxieties about the safety of Milroy’s garrison neared a fevered pitch. He warned Schenck that “forces at Harpers Ferry, the Shenandoah Valley, and Western Va., should be on the alert and prepared for attack.” Beyond Halleck’s warnings, Milroy’s Jessie Scouts—Union soldiers who donned Rebel uniforms and infiltrated Confederate lines to gather information—reported regularly in Chancellorsville’s aftermath that Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s army was on the move and that Milroy’s command should expect an attack of some form. Colonel Joseph

Warren Keifer, who “was given special charge” of these scouts in May, believed the evidence compelling. “So uniform were their reports as to the proposed attacks that I gave credence to them, and advised Milroy that unless he was soon to be largely reinforced it would be well to retire from his exposed position,” he explained. Milroy, however, refused to believe the reports. Intent on remaining in the lower Shenandoah Valley to protect the area’s Unionist civilians and to continue implementing the Emancipation Proclamation, Milroy was convinced the information was inaccurate. By the first week of June, intelligence gathered by scouts revealed that the Confederate forces would reach Winchester on June 10. Recalled Keifer: “I gave this information to Milroy, but he still persisted in believing the whole story was gotten up to cause him to disgracefully abandon the Valley.” When June 10 came and went without incident, Milroy was only further buoyed in his belief “that Lee would not dare to detach any part of his infantry force from the front of the Army of the Potomac.” But as the Gray Eagle nestled into a false sense of security, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps spearheaded Lee’s advance west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. While Ewell’s command marched toward the Shenandoah Valley, Schenck’s chief of

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By Jonathan A. Noyalas

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The Gray Eagle An Indiana native who attended military school in Vermont, Robert H. Milroy began the war as colonel of the 9th Indiana Infantry and spent most of the conflict fighting in western Virginia. After the war, he moved to Washington Territory and served as an Indian agent and the superintendent of Indian Affairs.

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PHOTO CREDIT

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staff, Lt. Col. Donn Piatt, arrived in Winchester to inspect Milroy’s position. After examining Milroy’s defenses—Star Fort, Fort Milroy (Main Fort), and West Fort—Piatt seemed convinced by the time he departed Winchester on June 11 that Milroy’s position was strong. “All looks fine,” he telegraphed Schenck. “Can whip anything the rebels can fetch here.” Although Piatt was initially confident in Milroy’s ability to defend Winchester, his perspective changed—undoubtedly because of a message sent by Halleck during Piatt’s return trip to Baltimore that noted, “Harpers Ferry is the important place, Winchester is of no importance other than as a lookout.” Piatt sent a note to Milroy instructing him to take steps for an immediate withdrawal from Winchester. Incensed, Milroy wired Schenck, “I think I have sufficient force to hold this place safely.” On June 12, Schenck ordered Milroy to “make all the required preparation for withdrawing,” but also instructed the Gray Eagle to “hold” his “position in the meantime… but await further orders.” As the telegraph lines buzzed with messages between Halleck, Piatt, Schenck, and Milroy on June 12, Ewell’s Corps appeared 15 miles south of Winchester in the small hamlet of Middletown—where in October 1864 Union forces would win a decisive victory at the Battle of Cedar Creek and end the Confederacy’s dominance in the Shenandoah Valley. Fighting with elements of Ewell’s command intensified on June 12 in Middletown, Kernstown and Winchester’s southern outskirts. The following day, Schenck was pressured by President Abraham Lincoln to “Get Milroy from Winchester to Harpers Ferry if possible,” and finally ordered Milroy’s withdrawal. Milroy, however, would never receive a critical series of messages from Schenck, as Ewell’s troops had torn down the telegraph lines. Without an opportunity to repair the lines, Milroy drew his command into his fortifications and awaited Ewell’s attack on June 14. After Maj. Gen. Jubal Early’s Division launched a successful attack against the smallest of Milroy’s defenses, West Fort, followed by hours of artillery bombardment between ConOutflanked and Ultimately Routed Milroy would be significantly outflanked by the dual Rebel advance through Winchester. His desperate withdrawal the morning of June 15 would be snuffed out at Stephenson’s Depot.

Fair Warning federate guns in West Fort and the BaltiThough informed by more Light Artillery battery in Star Fort, Colonel Joseph Keifer Milroy understood his situation was dire. (above left) that a Rebel About 9 p.m., the general held a council of force was headed his war with his brigade commanders, finally way, and ordered by his conceding that the withdrawal to Harpers superiors, Henry Halleck Ferry was the Federals’ best alternative. (above) and Robert Schenck (left), to depart After destroying what could not be carWinchester, Milroy felt ried and spiking the guns, Milroy’s comhe had enough to defend mand marched north in the early morning the city adequately. hours of June 15; however, Maj. Gen. Edward “Allegheny” Johnson’s Division intercepted Milroy’s command near Stephenson’s Depot. Although Milroy avoided capture, 4,030 of the troops in his 7,000-man command were not so fortunate that morning. In addition to the capture of more than half of Milroy’s force, 95 Union soldiers were killed and 348 wounded during the multiple-day battle. Confederate casualties totaled only about 2 percent of Ewell’s command: 47 killed, 219 wounded, and three missing. At about the time Milroy gathered his brigade commanders the night of June 14 to decide what should be done, Lincoln, Halleck, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles met to discuss the movement north of Lee’s army. Although there had been no communication with Milroy for two days and Johnson’s Division had not yet delivered the final crushing blow to the Federal force in Winchester, Lincoln had begun to fear that Milroy would inevitably suffer the same fate that Colonel Dixon Miles’ command had at Harpers Ferry during the Antietam Campaign the previous September. According to Welles, Lincoln informed the group: “It is Harper’s Ferry over again.” Welles suspected that if things indeed went badly at Winchester, Milroy would become “the scapegoat, and blamed for the stupid blunders, JANUARY 2022

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command,” and also asked the president to be permitted to publish his “official report” of what had transpired at Winchester, which Milroy had written on June 30. All his requests fell on deaf ears. Confined and silenced, Milroy’s reputation suffered significantly throughout the summer as newspapers across the North branded him a coward and contended that he was singularly responsible for the catastrophic defeat at Winchester. For instance, an Ohio correspondent identified only as A.B.M., noted that “the unaccountable defeat of Milroy in which he lost more than half of his command…smacks of cowardice…the fault lies with the commanding officer.” Comments such as these not only incensed Milroy, but also many of those whom he commanded at Winchester. Although some of Milroy’s men relented that his Second Winchester performance had been poor, plenty detested the criticisms leveled against him by the press. When a veteran of the 116th Ohio Infantry read A.B.M.’s remarks, the soldier, who identified himself as “For Milroy,” came to his former commander’s defense. “No one who knows Milroy will ever call him a coward. And no one will make this charge a second time in hearing of any of the men of his old Division.” Similarly, a contingent of officers from Milroy’s division sent a letter to Lincoln on July 23, 1863, hoping to convince the president of the genOne-Sided Affair Top: Federal troops, the road ahead blocked by Maj. Gen. Richard Ewell’s Confederates, begin a retreat. Above: Stephenson’s Depot on the Winchester & Potomac Railroad. The bulk of Milroy’s force was caught here and forced to surrender while marching out of town.

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neglects, and mistakes of those who should have warned and advised him.” Welles’ suspicion proved true when Halleck ordered Schenck to place Milroy under arrest on June 27. Now confined in Baltimore, Milroy began a fierce letter-writing campaign to secure his release. As Milroy penned letters to Lincoln, Halleck, and Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher—a fellow Hoosier—to restore him to command rather than keep him in “this disgraceful inactivity during the present terrible crisis of my country,” he watched events unfold in southern Pennsylvania and quickly recognized the significance of the Union Gettysburg victory. On July 13, 1863, Milroy opined in a letter to Lincoln that the Army of the Potomac’s victory “will complete the destruction of Lees [sic] army.” Milroy was incensed that his arrest had prevented him from participating in such a momentous battle. “Having been denied the privilege of participating in the glorious battle of Gettysburg…,” he wrote Lincoln, “adequate Justice cannot now be done me.” In the same letter, Milroy pleaded with Lincoln to “be restored to my old command” or appoint him to “some other

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eral’s value as a field commander. “We feel that we would rather fight under the leadership of this veteran soldier than that of any other commander,” the officers wrote from “Camp Milroy” in Sharpsburg, Md. The officers continued in praise that “no other man living can inspire the officers and men of this Division with the same amount of courage, zeal and enthusiasm in the work of crushing out this infamous rebellion.” In addition to refuting the charge that Milroy had acted pusillanimously, an unidentified veteran from the 116th Ohio argued, in a letter penned to an Ohio newspaper, the Messenger, from Martinsburg, W.Va., on August 23, 1863, that the fighting in which Milroy’s division engaged as early as June 12 proved significant in delaying the Army of Northern Virginia’s advance into Pennsylvania and that, had Ewell’s Corps not confronted any resistance, the outcome of the Gettysburg Campaign may well have been considerably different. “Was it cowardly to check the advance of Lee’s army for three days, and thus give the Potomac army time,” the Buckeye pondered. The Ohio soldier, who signed his letter to the Messenger “Yours for Milroy,” was not the only one to claim in Gettysburg’s aftermath that the general’s efforts were ultimately beneficial to the defeat of Lee’s army. On August 18, 1863, the 10th day of the court of inquiry investigating the Union commander’s conduct at Winchester, Milroy argued the same point. “I checked the advance of Lee’s army three days, that was certainly something for the country,” he stressed. “If they had been allowed to go on, they would have had three days longer for pillage and robbery in Pennsylvania, and probably ten times as much property as I lost would have been destroyed in that time.” Milroy and the 116th Ohio soldier could, of course, be accused of partiality, but Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt could not. Nearly one month after Milroy made that statement before the court of inquiry—a proceeding that summoned 16 witnesses—Holt penned his “Review” of the “Record of the Court of Inquiry Relative to the Evacuation of Winchester by the Command of Maj. Gen. R.H. Milroy.” The 12-page review not only exonerated Milroy, a conclusion President Lincoln affirmed on October 27, but seemed to suggest that the presence of Milroy’s force at Winchester had, as the Gray Eagle contended, proved beneficial. Holt concluded that the “strategic view” advanced by Milroy “may, perhaps have some weight.” Piatt echoed Holt’s sentiments in declaring, “The check that the rebels received at [Second] Winchester must have been of importance to us.” Despite Milroy’s exoneration and Lincoln’s statement in support of the inquiry’s findings “that serious blame is not necessarily due to every serious disaster,” the battle of public perception remained to be fought. Some histories of the war do little to bolster any of the claims made by Milroy, his veterans, or Holt. For example, William Swinton’s Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac entirely discounted the court of inquiry’s findings and charged that Milroy’s “defence of the post intrusted to his care was infamously feeble, and the worst of that long train of misconduct that made the Valley of the Shenandoah to be called the ‘Valley of Humiliation.’” For the remaining 27 years of Milroy’s life and beyond, those who fought with Milroy at Winchester vociferously

Milroy Gets Support Above: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt. Below: Letter to Lincoln, dated July 23, 1863, from 2nd Division, 8th Corps “field staff and line officers” requesting that the president restore the general to his former command.

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Valuable ‘Sacrifice’ William Walker, chaplain of the 18th Connecticut Infantry, was among those to defend Milroy’s conduct at Second Winchester.

Jonathan A. Noyalas, director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute and a history professor at Shenandoah University, is the author or editor of 14 books, including, “My Will Is Absolute Law”: A Biography of Union General Robert H. Milroy and Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JAMES E. TAYLOR SKETCHBOOK; WEST VIRGINIA AND REGIONAL HISTORY; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

defended his conduct and continued to advance the notion it was wrong to downplay the battle’s importance. Regimental historians such as the 116th Ohio’s Thomas F. Wildes, the 18th Connecticut’s William Walker, the 87th Pennsylvania’s George Prowell, and Frederick Wild of the Baltimore Light Artillery reiterated that claim. “Had it not been for the check given Lee’s army during the 12th, 13th, and 14th of June... Gettysburg would have been fought three days’ march further north,” Wildes penned in 1884. The following year, Walker, the chaplain of the 18th Connecticut, echoed that Second Winchester was “instrumental in checking the advance [of the] foe for three days, and thereby ensuring the Union army victory at Gettysburg.” Walker took the argument one step further, noting that had Milroy’s command “not stood fast…the enemy would have had comparatively an easy task to have reached Gettysburg three days sooner, and who could have

computed the results to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Baltimore?” In 1903, Prowell leaned on the court of inquiry report and Holt’s conclusion to cast the argument in Milroy’s favor. Nearly a decade later, Wild concluded in his history of the Baltimore Light Artillery that “it was for the best, after all, that we staid [sic] at Winchester as we did.” Veterans such as the 87th Pennsylvania’s John M. Griffith berated histories in an article he penned in the National Tribune in 1909 that did not properly credit “that little force at Winchester…with the important part it played in the Gettysburg campaign. The under dog in the fight seldom does receive much attention.” Several months later, R.H. McElhinny, a veteran of the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry, echoed Griffith’s criticism of histories that overlooked the fight at Winchester. “The historians say nothing about it,” McElhinny complained. “If Lee had slipped past Winchester quietly[,] Gettysburg would never have been a noted battlefield.” Despite the efforts of Milroy’s veterans to redeem their general’s reputation and in turn highlight their role in the Gettysburg Campaign, detractors continued to diminish Milroy’s reputation and downplay the role his command had played. Approximately two weeks after Milroy’s death, a columnist for the Morning Oregonian—at a time when newspapers eulogized Milroy and lauded his commitment to the Union’s preservation and slavery’s destruction—chastised those who defended Milroy’s conduct at Winchester and ridiculed the “claim that Winchester…fixed the fate of Gettysburg….The truth is that Milroy’s holding on at Winchester had no influence whatever upon the fate of the campaign except needlessly to swell its losses.” Historical judgments are difficult things. While the impact of Milroy’s defense of Winchester on the Union victory at Gettysburg could be debated to the point of exhaustion by modern-day historians, there is no denying that Milroy, individuals whom he commanded, and the inquiry that exonerated him believed there some strategic advantage to what Milroy’s command did at Winchester. The conundrum is quantifying the extent of that benefit. For John Laird Wilson, who authored Pictorial History of the Great Civil War in 1878, the middle ground seemed the best course. “General Milroy was severely taken to task for his conduct at Winchester” and “was vindicated by others,” Laird wrote. For Milroy and his allies, however, there was never any middle ground. They believed, as did 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry Captain Peter Bricker, that when “the past historian will review his work,” “the future historian pause, [and] reflect,” and “the great artist…dwell so rapturously upon the battle of Gettysburg” and “applaud its heroes” that they will mark Winchester “as the preliminary part of this famous battle” and “pause sufficiently long to write upon the surge and swell of the wave that humble name of one of the bravest of the brave, Milroy.”

JASPER COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY; COURTESY OF JONATHAN NOYALAS

Hero’s Welcome This 1863 poster announced Milroy’s return to his childhood home of Lafayette, Ind., and encouraged locals to greet the general warmly upon his arrival.

‘Heroes of the Highest Magnitude’

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JAMES E. TAYLOR SKETCHBOOK; WEST VIRGINIA AND REGIONAL HISTORY; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

JASPER COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY; COURTESY OF JONATHAN NOYALAS

As artist-correspondent James E. Taylor sat in Joseph Denny’s home in Winchester, Va., in early December 1864, conversing with several others in Denny’s sitting room, two men dressed, as Taylor recalled, “in Confederate uniforms and overcoats,” entered the room quietly, took a seat, and enjoyed “the comforting warmth of the blazing logs in the great open fireplace.” Taylor wondered about the “status of the mysterious visitors equipped for the warpath.” Denny, one of Winchester’s Unionist sympathizers, informed Taylor that they were “Jessie Scouts.” Formed in 1861 by Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont while in command of the Department of the West, the scouts wore Confederate uniforms, carried appropriate documents, and aided in gathering intelligence for Frémont. Named for Frémont’s wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, the Jessie Scouts were initially commanded by Charles C. Carpenter, who one Kansas newspaper correspondent wrote in the early autumn of 1861 could “[im]personate even the devil when necessary for the success of his schemes.” When Frémont took command of the Mountain Department in March 1862, he brought Carpenter and 25 Jessie Scouts east with him knowing “that the safety and efficiency of his army in a wild wooded and rugged region,” depended “upon the accuracy with which he received information of the plans and movements of the enemy.” In late June 1862, after Frémont resigned his command in protest of Maj. Gen. John Pope’s appointment as commander of the newly created Army of Virginia, the Jessie Scouts came under General Milroy’s command, which served as part of Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel’s 1st Corps.

Playing the Part Jessie Scout Captain William Lawton (left) poses in full splendor. Right: Private Archibald Rowand later garnered a Medal of Honor.

Fire and Rain As captured by the able pen of artist James Taylor, two Jessie Scouts warm themselves by the fire at a friendly Winchester home.

Although the Jessie Scouts’ connection with Frémont ended in late June 1862, various Union commanders who operated in Virginia and what in 1863 would become West Virginia—including Milroy and Brig. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan—understood the usefulness of such scouts who dressed in “the Rebel’s uniform, from hat to boots…[who] went through the country, through the [Confederate] army, in camp or on the march, gathering much valuable information…without creating any alarm.” Milroy used them throughout his half-year tenure in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Milroy’s Jessie Scouts not only provided him with valuable information, but one, Archibald Rowand Jr., saved Milroy’s horse, “wounded and hobbling,” during the Second Battle of Winchester. (In 1873, Rowand received the Medal of Honor for his gallant acts later in the conflict.) Feared and detested by Confederate soldiers and civilians alike, to those who supported the Union cause, the Jessie Scouts proved “heroes of the highest magnitude…a noble and courageous character…patriotic, quick-witted, intelligent and terribly in earnest.” —J.A.N. JANUARY 2022

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City in Ruins “Atlanta,” Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown would write to Jefferson Davis, “is to the Confederacy as important as the heart is to the body. We must hold it.” When this photo was taken in mid-November 1864, much of downtown Atlanta had been devastated and Maj. Gen. William Sherman had begun his March to the Sea.

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Rebel In-fighting Lincoln, Sherman hoped to leverage government unrest in Richmond and Georgia to secure an early peace deal after Atlanta fell By Stephen Davis and Tom Elmore

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D.C., September 17, 1864—10 a.m. Major-General SHERMAN: I feel great interest in the subjects of your dispatch mentioning corn and sorghum and contemplated a visit to you. A. LINCOLN.

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his short, cryptic message says more than it seems. Two days before, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman had telegraphed Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, the army’s chief of staff in Washington, D.C. Sherman had taken Atlanta and was residing in the city, making plans for his next campaign. “All well,” as he commonly put it; “troops in fine, healthy camps, and supplies coming forward finely.” Then he added: “Governor Brown has disbanded his militia, to gather the corn and sorghum of the State. I have reason to believe that he and Stephens want to visit me, and I have sent them a hearty invitation.” A couple of things are going on here. That Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown, an ardent champion of local defense, would—with a Yankee army of roughly 60,000 men encamped and unchallenged in northern Georgia—send his state militia home to gather crops was eye-catching. Even more important, why would the governor of Georgia and the vice president of the Confederacy (both widely known critics of the administration in Richmond) want to meet with Sherman? Lincoln, the master politician, could figure it out without knowing the background, and the prospect led him to contemplate (as he would write) making a trip to visit Sherman in Atlanta. He might have actually looked forward to seeing Stephens. The two, after all, had served together in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1840s. JANUARY 2022

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Senate seat, he referred to Stephens as “that giant in intellect” and “that great intellect of the South.” Even as the nation lurched toward civil war, Lincoln kept his eye on Stephens. And vice versa: Just days after Lincoln’s election to the presidency, Stephens addressed the Georgia legislature, cautioning that the Northern election results were not reason enough for Southern secession. Likening the Union to a worthy sea vessel, he counseled, “Don’t abandon her yet; let us see what can be done to prevent a wreck.” “The ship has holes in her,” someone yelled in the chamber. Stephens agreed. “But let us stop them, if we can; many a stout old ship has been saved with richest cargo after many leaks; and it may be so now.” Stephens’ speech was printed widely. Lincoln read it in a Springfield, Ill., paper, and wrote him, asking for a copy. Then, a month later, the president-elect was even considering asking Stephens to join his Cabinet, as Secretary of the Navy—though evidence of the Georgian’s ever having been to sea is hard to find. (Talk about relationship!) Yet for Lincoln, there was an irreconcilable debate with Stephens that ultimately wrecked their friendship. “You think slavery is right and ought to be extended,” Lincoln wrote Stephens a few days before Christmas 1860, “while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.” Long before the war, Stephens had acquired the reputation as “the Mephistopheles of Southern politics,” who wanted things his way. In the Montgomery, Ala., convention that organized the Confederate government, he let it be known that he would accept the presidency only if he could handpick a Cabinet whose members’ constitutional views accorded with his own. Stephens was passed over for the job but did land the No. 2 post. Although, as one observer noted, Stephens’ vice presidency was “a sop to get rid of a trouble maker,” it didn’t quite work. Publicly, Stephens withheld support of Davis’ proposals and began spending a lot of time away from Richmond, holing up at his mansion in Crawfordville, Ga. He allied himself with other anti-Davis politicians, such as Georgia’s Governor Brown. When Brown voiced opposition to Confederate conscription in 1862, Stephens was on the sidelines cheering. Later he argued that Davis had no power to declare martial law. When the president considered suspending the writ of habeas corpus, Stephens wrote his brother, Linton: “Better that Richmond should fall and that the enemy’s armies should sweep our whole country from the Potomac to the Gulf than that our people should submissively yield to one of these edicts.” Then, in mid-March 1864, Stephens delivered a passionate three-hour tirade against presidential abuse of power on the floor of the Georgia legislature. “Tell me not to put confidence in the President,” he warned. Many Southern newspapers reprimanded the vice president; Northern editors picked these up and gleefully reprinted their columns as signs of a weakening rebellion. Failed Partnership Joe Brown was not idle either. In an address to the state Perhaps Jefferson Davis believed in 1861 he would be legislature read on March 16, 1864, he roundly condemned able to work with Alexander Stephens, his combative VP. the administration in Richmond: “Probably the history of Their incompatibility was apparent throughout the war. the past furnishes few more striking instances of unsound

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In fact, young Abe may have looked up to the representative from Georgia. During the Mexican War, Alexander Stephens, who disliked James K. Polk, opposed the president’s plan to acquire territory from Mexico. On February 2, 1848, Stephens, a three-term congressman, delivered a speech in the House that denounced Polk’s war as “a wanton outrage upon the Constitution” and decried Polk’s policies as “disgraceful, ruinous and infamous.” Sitting on the floor that day was Lincoln, a first-term congressman from Illinois. Lincoln was so moved, that he wrote that very night to William Herndon, his close friend and law partner, “I just take up my pen to say, that Mr. Stephens of Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man…has just concluded the very best speech, of an hour’s length, I ever heard. My old, withered, dry eyes, are full of tears yet.” Lincoln’s respect for that “little, slim, palefaced, consumptive man” would continue. During the Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858, when the “Rail-Splitter” was fighting for a

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policy combined with bad faith.” But he added a kicker: The war should be ended through negotiations with the North. Henceforth, he argued, after every big Confederate victory, the South should offer peace terms to Lincoln. (Little could Brown envision that there would be no more big Confederate victories.) Because of their pronouncements, many Georgians viewed the governor and vice president as two peas in a pod—and unsavory ones at that. The Savannah Republican went so far as to assert that if Georgians were “ready to support Brown and Stephens…they have made up their minds to an act of suicide.” Sherman was probably unaware of all this Rebel in-fighting, but he certainly took advantage of it. Shortly after the fall of Atlanta, Joshua Hill, a well-known Georgia Unionist, visited Sherman at his headquarters, John Sherman’s Plan B? Neal’s stately house in the city’s downtown. Georgia Governor Joe Brown (left) proved an incessant thorn to Jeff Hill wanted to retrieve his son’s remains from Davis. Without authority to do so, William Sherman proffered a polia northern Georgia battlefield and asked pertical option to end hostilities and spare Georgia his March to the Sea. mission to get there (it was under Federal control). Sherman not only agreed, but also asked Hill to stay for dinner. settlement of the issues from the battle-field to the ballot-box, leaving each In his Memoirs, the general recalled their table-talk. “We naturally Sovereign State to determine for herself ran into a general conversation about politics and the devastation and what shall be her future connection, and ruin caused by war,” he remembered. Hill foresaw even more of this ruin for Georgians, to the point of hoping Governor Brown would “withdraw who her future allies, the present devastahis people from the rebellion.” tion, bloodshed and carnage will cease, Sherman jumped on this, declaring that if Brown seceded from Secesand peace and prosperity will be restored siondom, “I would spare the state” during his next campaign (he was to the whole country. On the other hand, already thinking of a march to the sea). Sherman went so far as to ask if this is not done, the war will last for Hill to meet with Governor Brown and invite him to Atlanta for a peace years to come…. meeting with Sherman. Through an emissary, Sherman also sent a meeting invitation to Alexander Stephens, then secluded at his home in The Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, a strong middle Georgia. supporter of the governor, commented approvTo be sure, Cump was acting on his own, without authorization from ingly on his “admirable reply,” declaring, “the his government to involve himself in political matters. (It would not be public…have been anxious to know what reply the last time he overreached, though; recall the trouble he got himself was made by his Excellency. Their curiosity into in April 1865 when he discussed with General Joseph E. Johnston can now be gratified,” the editor commented in the surrender of all Confederate forces.) It didn’t matter. Sherman saw a virtual sigh of relief. his diplomatic maneuvering as “a magnificent stroke of policy.” As for Sherman’s invitation, the vice presiAs it turned out, Brown never met with dent declined on the same grounds as the govSherman, feeling he had no power to enforce ernor, stating that he would meet Sherman any agreement even if they reached one. “As only “with the consent of our authorities.” Privately, Stephens was being warned of Yankee our interview could therefore result in nothing practical I must decline the interview,” Brown chicanery. Robert Toombs, like “Aleck” no fan wrote. In a public letter he argued that Georof Jeff Davis, cautioned: “If Sherman means to do anything, he means to detach Georgia from gia had the right to make a separate peace, but the Confederacy.” would not leave her sister states in the lurch. When word of Sherman’s peace plot got out, Many Confederate newspapers as far away as Richmond printed the governor’s letter, in the Georgia press went wild. The Columbus which Brown had written: Daily Times on October 6 declared, “the mere whisper of…peace is criminal—he who would If President Lincoln and President Davis entertain it with no abatement by the foe, is a will agree to stop the war and transfer the traitor”—strong words indeed when you’re

“History furnishes few more striking instances of unsound policy combined with bad faith”

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Nothing to Lose William Seward (far left) and “Aleck” Stephens (second from right) listen as Lincoln talks at Hampton Roads. John Campbell and Robert Hunter are seen from behind (L-R).

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NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2)

Stephen Davis, who writes from Cumming, Ga., is a frequent contributor and member of the America’s Civil War Editorial Advisory Board. Tom Elmore, who writes from Columbia, S.C., has a B.A. in history and political science from the University of South Carolina. He is the author of four books and numerous magazines articles dealing with South Carolina during the Civil War. His article “The Myers Letter,” examining the story of a document often propagated as a hoax, appeared in America’s Civil War’s January 2005 issue.

BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

talking about a governor and the vice president. Brown had replied to Sherman by September 30; Stephens’ letter was dated October 1. President Lincoln learned of these disappointments only later. Indeed, on September 27, Lincoln remained hopeful. Upon hearing that Jeff Davis was traveling to Georgia, Lincoln wired Sherman, “I judge that Brown and Stephens are the object of his visit.” John B. Jones, a senior clerk in the Confederate War Department, wrote on September 20: “There is a rumor that Sherman has invited Vice-President Stephens, Senator H.V. Johnson, and Gov. Brown to a meeting with him, to confer on terms of peace—i.e., the return of Georgia to the Union.” Two days later, Jones wrote in his diary: “It is said the President has gone to prevent Governor Brown, Stephens, H.V. Johnson, Toombs, etc., from making peace for Georgia with Sherman.” [Robert Toombs and Herschel Johnson were the uninvited Georgia senators.] So the rumor of a Sherman-Stephens-Brown meeting had reached the level of Richmond gossip. Mary Boykin Chesnut, the famed diarist, wrote in her journal that she had heard Toombs “Joe Brown, the governor of Georgia…wanted

a peace conference. They mean to ignore Jeff Davis and Lincoln and settle our little differences themselves.” (Only Mary Boykin Chesnut could wryly refer to America’s bloody civil war as “our little differences.”) During his visit to Georgia on September 22-27, Davis did not meet with Stephens or Brown. But the notion of the Confederate president having to quash two wayward underlings was a lip-smacking one to Old Abe. Nevertheless, those pesky Georgia politicians wouldn’t go away. Linton Stephens, the VP’s brother, was a member of the General Assembly. On November 9, he introduced a resolution urging the Davis administration to call a convention of the states to discuss a path toward peace. The Confederate president’s response can be imagined; Davis called the idea “another form of submission to Northern dominion.” Two and a half months later, Lincoln (and Seward) ended up meeting with Stephens (as well as Confederate Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell and Confederate Senator Robert M.T. Hunter of Virginia) at Hampton Roads, Va. to talk peace—though no agreement was reached. It was cold that day in early February. As “Little Aleck,” known for his scrawny torso, peeled himself out from a layer of coats, Lincoln quipped that he had never seen such a small nubbin come out of a big shuck. Shucks, indeed. The meeting never happened and Lincoln never traveled to Atlanta. But the idea that a Georgia-based armistice might somehow have brought an earlier end to the war is a counterfactual thought worth pondering.

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BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

When Abe Met ‘Aleck’ at Hampton Roads As 1865 began, the Confederacy was teetering toward collapse. Its main Western force, the Army of Tennessee, had been routed at Nashville in midDecember, and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia huddled in the Petersburg, Va., trenches—“Lee’s Miserables” were shivering and starving. So why would Abraham Lincoln, reelected to carry the war to victory, decide to meet with Confederate commissioners to talk about peace? And what did those commissioners, with so little to offer in return, hope to get out of the talks? These are the questions that make the Hampton Roads Conference, which took place on February 3, so intriguing. It would not have happened without Frank Blair, the influential 73-year-old newspaperman and adviser to Lincoln. Blair was so eager for peace that in January he persuaded the president to give him a pass to Richmond to meet with Jefferson Davis. Lincoln complied, but he also cautioned Blair that he was acting strictly on his own. An old friend of Blair’s, Davis quickly agreed to the meeting. Upon arriving in the Confederate capital, Blair received a hug from First Lady Varina Davis, who exclaimed, “Oh, you rascal, I am overjoyed to see you.” The men then settled in the library. Blair’s idea—a rather wild one, honestly—was to get the North and South to stop fighting long enough to enforce the Monroe Doctrine and kick French troops Blair out of Mexico, where Emperor Napoleon III had installed a puppet ruler. Though skeptical, Davis agreed to send a peace commissioner to Washington. He wrote a letter Blair could take back to Lincoln: The commissioner would “enter into conference with a view to secure peace to the two countries.” Therein lay the rub, as Old Abe would say, for when Blair returned to Washington, Lincoln told him that he would only receive a Southern agent if the talks were about “securing peace to the people of our one common country.” Undaunted, Blair rushed back to Richmond in what we would today call shuttle diplomacy. Davis called a Cabinet meeting. All realized the fruitlessness of a peace mission, yet Davis decided to send three commissioners anyway: Vice President Alexander Stephens, former U.S. Senator Robert M.T. Hunter, and ex-Supreme Court Justice John A. Campbell, the assistant secretary of war. The meeting would take place at Hampton Roads on the steamboat River Queen. Lincoln and his secretary of state, William H. Seward, received the three Southerners, with Lincoln stressing that no notes were to be taken. This would be a strictly informal conversation.

“Peace” Conference Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell (above) joined Stephens and former U.S. Senator Robert Hunter at the Hampton Roads conference with Lincoln and U.S. Secretary of State William Seward aboard River Queen.

As for what was actually said during the fourhour talkathon, one can look through Stephens’ laborious A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States (1868) for the meeting’s most detailed account. Quicker, and surely more entertaining, is the four-minute sequence near the end of Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), in which Lincoln insists the South give up and return to the Union, plain and simple. With that, the conference falls apart, but not before the president, plying present parlance, flatly declares, “Slavery, sir—it’s done.” The Confederate commissioners had agreed to meet because the South had nothing to lose in pushing an armistice to end the war. Why Lincoln acceded had to do more with his herculean efforts to get the House of Representatives to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation had been issued as an executive war measure; once the war was over, Lincoln worried the courts would strike it down. Hence, the need for a constitutional amendment. The Senate had passed the 13th months before, but it had failed in the House. For this second effort, Lincoln needed 20 Democratic votes, and he used the Confederate commissioners to get them. Antiwar Democrats wanted peace talks with the Southerners; if he refused to meet them, wavering Democrats might vote “No” on the amendment. When asked, Lincoln—who knew they were on their way to Fort Monroe—cagily declared, “So far as I know, there are no peace Commissioners in this City, or likely to be in it.” Without this clever evasion, one Republican representative believed, “the proposed amendment would have failed.” So Lincoln saw the Southerners, the peace talks failed, and slavery was “done.” Maybe it’s time to pull out that Spielberg DVD again. —S.D. JANUARY 2022

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‘HorRors ExceEding Imagination’ An Illinois surgeon wasn’t prepared for what unfolded before him at Stones River Edited by Daniel A. Masters

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n the aftermath of the Battle of Stones River, fought December 31, 1862–January 3, 1863, surgeon Edward H. Bowman of the 27th Illinois reflected on the horrors he had experienced over the previous week. “Through the good providence of God, I have been preserved in safety,” he wrote to his wife, Elizabeth, on January 6, 1863. “I have suffered much hardship but feel nothing but thankfulness to God that I am spared and have thus been instrumental in assisting and relieving some hundreds of my suffering fellow countrymen.” Bowman’s regiment had played a key role in Brig. Gen. Phil Sheridan’s defense of the Wilkinson Pike, and while the men had fought well, the butcher’s bill was ghastly. Every brigade commander in the division had been killed; Surgeon Bowman took charge of burying one of them: Brig. Gen. Joshua W. Sill of Ohio. Colonel Fazilo A. Harrington, Bowman’s regimental commander and close friend, had his mouth shattered by a musket ball, dying the following day. Of the 1,500 men of the brigade who went into action on December 31, 1862, more than a third became casualties in two hours of ferocious close-range fighting. The 27th Illinois alone lost more than 100 men, and Bowman was captured when his improvised field hospital was overrun by the advancing Confederate lines. For the doctor, that last event had been an almost surreal experience. Bowman had found a sinkhole behind his regimental lines and set up four red flags to mark the depression as the regimental hospital. “The balls and shells were crashing frightfully through the cedars and exploding. It seemed as if escape was impossible. All the surgeons had run back but I would not go and as I could do nothing to ensure my safety by running, I had only one other course: to do my duty commending myself to God’s care and disposal. I soon began to forget personal considerations and found opportunity to help others,” Bowman wrote. Among the first men he helped was Colonel Harrington, bleeding heavily from a leg with Holding Fast In this somewhat fanciful Kurz & Allison lithograph, Union artillery turns back a fierce Confederate charge at McFadden’s Ford late in the fighting on January 2, 1863.

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one wound while the blood poured from his half-severed tongue that hung from his mouth. “I dressed him and then began to dress the other wounded and was very busy when we heard yelling in our rear and firing, then heard the balls flying over and through us. Nearly everybody laid down. One of my hospital men caught me by the arm and pulled me down saying “Doctor, you’ll be killed if you don’t lay down!” I thought so, too, by that time and lay down by Colonel Harrington. The Rebs charged upon us and fired a volley right into us, killing several of our wounded men although we had four red flags up to indicate the place as a hospital. They swept over, taking everything that could walk as prisoners.” Perhaps recognizing her husband’s missive as one worthy of notice outside her family circle, Elizabeth Bowman shared the letter with the editor of the Rock Island Weekly Union who published the account in their February 4, 1863, issue. Bowman’s letter is reproduced here in full.

Surgeon Edward Hale Bowman, 27th Illinois Rock Island Weekly Union (Illinois), February 4, 1863 Murfreesboro, Tennessee January 6, 1863 Dear wife, Yesterday I dispatched to you a short pencil note to let you know that I was alive and well as you would be hearing through the papers of the Battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro and the terrible carnage. Not hearing from me would of course suppose that the same terrible vortex which had engulfed so many thousands had opened and taken me in also. Through the good providence of God, I have been preserved in safety. I have suffered much hardship but feel nothing but thankfulness to God that I am spared and have thus been instrumental in assisting and relieving some hundreds of my suffering fellow countrymen. I will give you in detail as well as I can a history of my progress from my last writing at Camp Sheridan. On the 24th of December, we were ordered under arms, tents struck, everything loaded, and we marched out about a quarter of a mile JANUARY 2022

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remain in the rear until the victory was won. It commenced raining very hard and soon poured down. I rode to the front with the medical director in this pouring rain. The men moved forward gallantly into line of battle; it was grand to see such masses of men steadily move to their place, expecting every moment to engage in the death struggle with the enemy. I was completely drenched, the fields were saturated, and everywhere the ground cut up into mud. But Bowman the Rebels had their faces to the storm and continued to skedaddle, which they did without coming to blows, leaving their ground which we occupied. We stopped all day in camp on Sunday [the 28th] and had a pleasant day, getting dry, and our men foraged industriously, and we enjoyed an overflowing abundance of meat with very little bread or anything else. Monday morning the 29th we moved out of camp, moved back a mile, and then took a hike across toward the Edmondson Pike. We passed through some beautiful country and over a high ridge from whence we had a most beautiful landscape view with the Cumberland Mountains in the background. We had a bad rocky road through a dense cedar forest that would be cheap up our way at $1,000 an acre, but here is left dying and rotting, unused. Monday night we joined with the center [corps], we being the right wing. There had been some cavalry fighting that afternoon on the spot where we reached in the evening. As we passed along, the fences all over the country were carefully laid open about every other panel and sometimes every fourth or fifth panel to permit the passage of cavalry. We marched till sometime after dark and bivouacked in order of battle without any fire. I slept, or tried to, between two decaying logs on wet, soppy ground. It rained during the night. We advanced on the morning of Tuesday December 30th and very soon our brigade, being in front, began to skirmish with the enemy posted in a cedar grove with a very rough rocky surface, almost a natural fortification. It soon grew into a severe fight of artillery and infantry. I was close to the front and being the senior surgeon of our brigade, I was not willing to set an example to the younger ones of retiring or keeping far to the rear. We were in reach and soon the balls came whizzing past and over us with the peculiar skeet sound that must be heard to be appreciated. Soon we had wounded men to care for and I took possession of a farmhouse [Harding House] a little more in advance of where I was giving me the most advanced hospital on the field. We dressed about 70 wounds that day; I slept in the hospital that night and had some good sleep. Early on the morning of the 31st we heard In the Ranks the cannon and musketry open and wounded Six soldiers of the 27th Illinois Infantry, surgeon Edward Bowman’s men began to come in and we were actively regiment, pose in an undated photograph. It is uncertain whether at work. Soon an order came to me to move any of these individuals—perhaps all did—fought at Stones River. back and take all the wounded possible who

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COURTESY OF DANIEL A. MASTERS (2)

when the order [to march] was countermanded and we marched back to our old camp and again pitched tents. Thinking that now we would stay sometime, we put our camp into first-rate order. We had a fine Christmas dinner consisting of oysters, turkey, sirloin beef, sweet potatoes, etc., and enjoyed it hugely. But that night order came to break up camp and be ready to march at daylight, prepared to meet the enemy. We marched on December 26th and made quite an advance, finding the advance of the enemy. Our regiment, the 27th Illinois, was in the advance and I was at the heels of the regiment with my ambulances. They had some skirmishing across Mill Creek, but none of our men were wounded. We drove the Rebels away and crossed the stream, a stream with rocky hills and cedars on our side and the same kind of hills and oak timber on the other side. We drove the enemy before us and they seemed to be easily persuaded to go. It rained hard that day and I got wet; my boots got full of water in spite of all I could do. I slept that night as well as I could with my wet feet and boots on, that is miserably enough. On Saturday the 27th we advanced having driven the Rebels through the hills, but at about 11 a.m. we found that the enemy had posted themselves on a range of hills in front of us. Our medical director Surgeon Clarke McDermont told me that we would have a sharp battle and that our ambulances would

Unparalleled Bloodshed Brigades under John Starkweather and Benjamin Scribner, in Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau’s 1st Division, fight in the Union center. Note the soldiers lugging a stretcher to the rear. The percentage of casualties— nearly 25,000 total out of 78,400 men engaged—was the highest for any major battle during the war.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

COURTESY OF DANIEL A. MASTERS (2)

“balls came whizzing past us with the peculiar skeet sound that must be heard to be appreciated”

could be moved and leave the balance in charge of an assistant surgeon. I loaded six or eight ambulances and sent them to the rear with orders to take the first right hand road as we were outflanked. I started the surgeons and my assistants and hospital men and then thought it my own personal duty to remain as the enemy was advancing on our flank in solid column and was in short musket range. I expected to be shot, but they did not think it worthwhile to shoot at one man when they would soon have plenty to engage. I got over our lines to the rear as they had changed front to meet the enemy. I got into cedars on the ridge in the apex of a triangle made by our line and the line of battle. The roar of cannon and musketry seemed to me to exceed Belmont tenfold and I have no doubt that it did. I presently found one of my hospital men and then my regiment. In a little time, our Colonel Fazilo Harrington was wounded by a musket ball through his upper jaw, horribly mangling him and cutting his tongue about half off. Another ball went almost through his thigh. I cut it out after we got into Murfreesboro. The balls and shells were crashing frightfully through the cedars and exploding. It seemed as if escape was impossible. All the surgeons had run back but I would not go and as I could do nothing to ensure my safety by running, I had only one other course: to do my duty commending myself to God’s care and disposal. I soon began to forget personal considerations and found opportunity to help others. I took Colonel Harrington into a depression on the ridge, a kind of sinkhole say four or five feet below the level and about 60-75 feet in diameter. I dressed him and then began to dress the other wounded and was very busy when we heard yelling in our rear and firing, then heard the balls flying over and through us. Nearly everybody laid down. One of my hospital men [Corporal Michael M. Sadler, Co. G,

27th Illinois] caught me by the arm and pulled me down saying, “Doctor, you’ll be killed if you don’t lay down!” I thought so, too, by that time and lay down by Colonel Harrington. The Rebs charged upon us and fired a volley right into us, killing several of our wounded men although we had four red flags up to indicate the place as a hospital. They swept over, taking everything that could walk as prisoners. Colonel Harrington was too valuable a prize to leave, so they determined to have him. I accompanied him with two of my hospital corps, Sadler and John Camp. By putting the colonel’s arms over our necks, between the two of us, we got him along a mile and a half from the placed we started but you must not suppose we had a safe time. The air seemed full of bullets until we got out of range of our own men’s guns; they were firing at the Rebel regiments that had charged over us. When we got out of danger from that source, we encountered a greater danger from our own batteries that were shelling the Rebels and sending grapeshot among them—some of them fell very close, but we escaped unhurt. When I got back out of range, I was walking ahead a few rods having been relieved by my two men. I was carrying two canteens. A Reb officer demanded one. “No sir,” says I, “you can’t have it. Unless you are a better man than I am.” He left me alone. Another wanted the cord and acorns on my hat. “No sir, you can’t have it,” says I. I went on ahead JANUARY 2022

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HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS

COURTESY OF DANIEL A. MASTERS (2)

used up everything that I could get to dress men with and then returned to the hospital where I left Colonel Harrington. I found him dying of an overdose of morphine given by one of the house surgeons who gave him a large dose at the colonel’s request. I felt awfully but could do nothing but close his eyes. I must say I suspect diabolical treachery. The doctor who gave the dose was the bitterest secesh I encountered and that same evening he commented on me so violently and unreasonably that my blood got up to any kind of heat you have a mind to call it. I found it necessary to remind him that we were not either a race of damned liars or idiots up North, and until he gave us credit for Butcher’s Bill having some knowledge and sense, I must Four of Phil Sheridan’s 3rd Division decline any further talk with him. I hope brigade commanders were killed at never to pass such another miserable night. Stones River, including Brig. Gen. In the morning, I again sallied out and got Joshua W. Sill (above) and Colonel an order for a coffin for my colonel. I went to Fazilo A. Harrington (left). the shop and found I would have to go to work myself if I was to get one that day. A Negro and I made the coffin; it was what they called an extra one, but and procured an ambulance for the colonel we would be ashamed to bury a pauper in such a coffin. But it was the and we got into town. We drove all around best the place afforded. I made a cedar headboard for Colonel Hartown and put down in the wrong place. I rington and General Joshua Sill, who had been killed and brought in found it was crowded, packed in the yard and by the secesh. They boasted, too I heard, of burying him with military tents full. No place to put the colonel but in honors. I wanted to bury Colonel Harrington beside General Sill and the operating room and this would not do. I got the same hearse to take out the body so as to be sure to get the left him with my two men and went to Soule right spot. I found General Sill’s coffin laying in a fence corner unburFemale College Hospital and got him a place ied—no grave dug for him or Colonel Harrington. I went to work with in a good room, got a litter and two men, my two men, got tools and with our own hands dug the grave to conreturned and carried the colonel there where tain both. We sadly lowered them into the grave ourselves and covered I dressed his wounds again and extracted the them up, putting up the boards I prepared with their names carved on ball from his leg. I slept but little that night. them, and returned to the city. The next day [January 1] I got up early and I was then a prisoner with no place to go to. We bought some pies started out to find some Rebel general’s headfrom a countryman and ate them with greediness for we were by this quarters and found the Reverend Major Gentime faint with hunger. I averaged about two biscuits in 24 hours for eral [Leonidas] Polk. I was well-treated and several days. I reported myself and my men to General John C. had some considerable talk and flattered Brown. He told me to look around and find a place where I could do myself that his reverend generalship got the the most good. I went to five or six places where there were wounded worst of the argument as I had facts and he Federals and finally concluded the place where I had worked the day had false hoods. I never had such a stiff back before was the spot where I was needed the most. A drunken assisand high head as while among the Rebs from tant surgeon was there. I walked right in, put him out by the order of December 31st to January 5th. I think some General Brown (the secesh Provost Marshal) and took charge, putting of them will remember me. I was treated as one of my men named Sadler as boss over the attendants. We orgawell as they had the means of treating me, nized the cooking and got every one of the 133 men something to eat but while they disclaimed holding me a pristhat night. Many of the men had not had a bite to eat in nearly three oner, they would not let me go. I could not get days. I laid about vigorously enough and got feed enough to ensure permission to take my colonel back. I found substantial military comfort and to scare away the danger of starvathat Colonel Harrington was doing so well tion. I had no blanket or bed clothing or any description whatever and that I left him at 10 o’clock after taking some if I had, I would have given it to the wounded men who were worse off strong tea which I made myself and started than I was. I was glad that for two nights I got a chance to sleep in a out to work among our wounded. I found a heap of straw procured for a secesh hospital. I had saved my overcoat. place where there was 121 of our men, all You cannot imagine how well it has paid me. Several secesh in town wounded and not a soul to do anything for have wanted to buy it; I told them $50 in gold would not take it from them. I worked until nearly dark and had

me nor $500 in Confederate scrip. I don’t know what in the world I would have done without it situated as I have been. Saturday night the enemy began to skedaddle and by Sunday morning we were quiet, only a few secesh cavalry remaining behind. We have won a great victory, but it is not so great or decisive as the papers will state it. On the 31st we had decidedly the worst of it, being outflanked on our right and outnumbered largely at the point of attack. But the loss of the enemy was terrible; they acknowledged this to me a loss of 5,000 on that day but they were exulting greatly and claimed they gained a great victory and that our forces were in full retreat to Nashville. But I told them we had more men who had not been engaged sufficient to fight a harder battle than had yet been fought. General Polk disputed my assertion. I told him wait awhile and he would find out. Sure enough, Thursday there was again heavy fighting, hosts of wounds, and secesh faces long and tongues quiet. Friday, more fighting and longer faces. Did I not thank God? Saturday, I saw symptoms of a skedaddle and that night in the rain and storm they started their weary way South. All night they were moving. I was over the battlefield yesterday, at least that part on which our division was engaged. It is no use to detail to you the horrors. I saw the brains of a man I knew well, laying over the ground where a shell had scattered them. You have heard of the mutilation of the bodies of the slain. I had heard of it but never expected its occurrence again, but the demons had cut off the ears and otherwise mutilated the bodies of our dead where they had a chance. I could fill a small volume but it would do no good. When we were outflanked on December 31st, we were swung around an arc of 90 degrees, leaving hospital wagons, ambulances, etc.[,] exposed. I lost my hospital wagon with everything in the shape of instruments, bedding, stores, and medicine. I have lost every particle of my bedding, have lost my horse, valise, and underclothes and have only the shirts and drawers I have on. I slept two nights in the deadhouse of a secesh hospital where there were from four to eight dead men. I was glad to get even there in the straw. I begin to feel as if the tension had been kept up about as along as practicable. Our folks are here and I am trying to get other men into my place so I can go to my regiment. My

back is now lame and I sit down with some pain and difficulty. This is a new feature with me. I don’t know whether it is rheumatic or the result of long continued nervous tension. At any rate, I feel as if I was letting down now that the excitement of battle is over. In Murfreesboro, the Rebels were very fierce in talking with me. I would not conde-

“I saw the brains of a man I knew well, laying over the ground where a shell had scattered them” scend to talk to the small fry, but the officers found a willing brain and a bold tongue. I told them we had taken the contract to restore the government and maintain its integrity and if it took 100 years we would put it through. My back has never been so stiff and straight, nor my head so high, nor my tongue so free as during the time I spent in this place among the secesh. I never let them get the better of me in civility, argument, or audacity. The surgeons with only one exception treated me remarkably well. One of them told me he hated us like hell politically but professionally he put that all aside. I said to him that if you can hate the Union cause any more than I do secession, I want to learn from you as so to be able to make progress. I am one of the firmest Union men that runs in all out-ofdoors. He laughed and asked me to help him tie some arteries which his assistants did not seem to do to his satisfaction. I tied them for him, they were the Sublingual. The poor man had his lower jaw nearly all shot away. I have seen horrors until reality seems to exceed imagination. You will get the general accounts in the papers, better than I can give you. Our army is now all south of Murfreesboro; how fast we will move on after them I know not. I am weary and have written this in snatches while warming my feet or resting. Give my love to all the children.

HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS

COURTESY OF DANIEL A. MASTERS (2)

Your affectionate husband, E.H. Bowman

In a Pinch Civil War medical personnel were equipped with kits of various sizes and utility. The one here, with fewer instruments, was likely carried by individuals in coat pockets for use in triage scenarios.

Daniel A. Masters, with several ancestors who fought in the Army of the Cumberland, including one mortally wounded at Stones River, writes from Perrysburg, Ohio. He is author of the “Dan Masters’ Civil War Chronicles” blog (dan-masters-civil-war.blogspot). JANUARY 2022

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SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY; COURTESY OF ROBERT MURPHY; UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM

Smile!

The evolution of dentistry during the Civil War By Robert Murphy

Top of the Line This remarkable artifact—the upper palate of a set of dentures—was reportedly discovered on the Shiloh Battlefield. Plenty of Civil War soldiers used dentures, but whoever owned this set was undoubtedly well off, as the palate is made of silver and the teeth themselves of porcelain or similar material. This model includes what are called “tube teeth,” invented in London about 1840. Each artificial tooth featured a vertical hole in the center to which a metal post was attached with cement.

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SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY; COURTESY OF ROBERT MURPHY; UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM

ooking behind the scenes of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s historic 1863 Vicksburg Campaign, The Dental Cosmos made a telling observation about the Union commander. “In starting on the movement [of his troops] the General disencumbered himself of everything, setting an example to his officers and men,” the medical journal offered in its August 1864 edition. “He took neither a horse nor a servant, overcoat nor blanket, nor tent, nor camp-chest, nor even a clean shirt. His only baggage consisted of a tooth-brush. He always showed his teeth to the Rebels. “He, like many of his officers, especially those who were practicing dentists in civilian life, knew the importance of good dental health.” In 1883, William Leigh Burton, who in 1864 was the first dentist appointed to the Confederate Medical Corps, reminisced in the American Journal of Dental Science: “It would be next to impossible to form an idea of the wretched condition of the teeth of Confederate soldiers. The great majority had been several years in service with out as much as having their teeth examined; and this neglect coupled with habits of carelessness, an absence of tooth brushes.” At the onset of the Civil War, dental services did not seem a priority for the U.S. government, with senior military officials believing in general that surgeons and hospital stewards were sufficiently capable for treating dental contingencies to keep soldiers in fighting shape. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Surgeon General Samuel Preston Moore, however, were leading advocates for establishing dental services for the Southern military. In fact, as secretary of war in the Franklin Pierce administration in 1853, Davis had supported establishment of an Army Dental Service. Now, as head of the Confederate government, he had the authority to turn that promise into reality. Nevertheless, by the war’s conclusion in 1865, most dental needs for the Union and Confederate armies had been handled by physicians and not dental specialists. The first appointment of a non-commissioned dental officer in the U.S. Army would not occur until 1872, and a separate U.S. Army Dental Corps would not be established until 1911, only a few years before World War I.

merican dentistry had made significant technological advances from 1840 to 1860. The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, founded in 1840, was the world’s first professional dental school. In 1846, a Massachusetts dentist, Dr. William T.G. Morton, successfully used anesthetic agents (sulfuric ether) in tooth extractions. Reduction of pain during dental surgery helped many patients overcome their fear of dentists. By 1860, two additional dental professional colleges were established in Philadelphia. Combined didactic and clinical training lasted 5–12 months. Mid-19th century American dental societies and dental school faculties actively employed scientific methods of inquiry to improve clinical practice, especially in dental hygiene and tooth restoration. When John Hugh McQuillen, MD, DDS, endorsed in The Dental Cosmos creation of a Dental Corps for the Union Army, he understood that the high cost of dental restorative materials and dental practitioners would be a burden to a federal government already expending $1.5 million per day to support the war. He suggested that highly trained dental surgeons educate military surgeons on extraction and diagnostic tech-

Confederate Luminaries Top: William Leigh Burton, the Southern Army’s first appointed dentist, joined an 1863 petition to the CSA Congress to give dentists equal status as physicians. Above: Surgeon General Samuel Preston Moore.

niques to differentiate teeth requiring extraction versus those needing restorative treatment. McQuillen criticized Dr. Samuel Gross’ neutral stance in the Manual of Military Surgery (1861) regarding the adequacy of the tooth extraction sets issued to military surgeons. Those sets contained only six instruments, whereas McQuillen noted that any competent JANUARY 2022

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PHOTOS BY RICHARD H. HOLLOWAY(2); TROIANI, DON (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

“If the soldier could only take reasonable care of his teeth himself, he would get on much better...”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SSPL/UIG/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; KORNBERG SCHOOL OF DENTSTRY; DVIDS

Gritty Work Dental kits sometimes came in velvet-lined mahogany chests, such as the one shown above. The instruments themselves were usually made of metal, wood, and ivory. The set of pliers pictured below, however, were all-metal.

dentist fully realized that a set of 12 instruments was needed to meet any contingencies seen in the field. McQuillen (pictured right) also was alarmed by the use of arsenious acid solutions to shrink the periodontia surrounding an aveolus (i.e., tooth socket) with recent extraction containing root fragments to allow root tips to be retrieved. A skilled dentist with the proper array of instruMcQuillen ments would not have to resort to the use of a dangerous drug or drugs to extract root fragments. Dr. William Roberts, editor in chief of New York Dental Journal, concurred with McQuillen’s assertion that the Union Army’s Medical Corps demonstrated a serious lack of knowledge of dental surgical procedures. Roberts, too, proposed a Dental Corps model for both the Army and Navy and enlisted the support of the newly created U.S. Sanitary Commission, a civilian-sponsored medical support service, to be an advocate for a formal service. On August 9, 1861, the American Dental Convention met in Philadelphia, and its leadership formed a committee to appoint dentists in the Army and Navy and to advocate for a Dental Corps. The Roberts organizational model called for creation of a separate department under the guise of a dental surgeon general, with dental inspectors appointed at the division or brigade level (serving 15 and five regiments, respectively) to supervise regimental dental and assistant dental surgeons. The inspectors would compile statistics and regulate dental supply logistics. In addition, regimental dentists would direct the services of “dental stewards,” and a board of dental examiners under the auspices of the dental surgeon general would conduct professional peer review and competency inspections to assure quality practices. As Roberts noted, “If the soldier could only take reasonable care of his teeth himself, he would get on much better…but a toothbrush is an article not in the regulations and sutlers don’t supply them. If there were a dentist in the brigade, with good tooth-brushes, at the usual prices, every decent soldier would have one and use it….” Union Army Surgeon General William Hammond was among those in favor of having dentists serve as commissioned officers in the military. He received delegates from the ADCcreated committee shortly after his appointment but unfortunately never followed through on assurances to discuss advocacy with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton considered the cost of dental services an extravagance due to the high cost of gold/silver restorative materials. He believed soldiers could seek local dental services in towns located near encampments or even get treated by soldier dentists at their own expense.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD H. HOLLOWAY(2); TROIANI, DON (B.1949)/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SSPL/UIG/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; KORNBERG SCHOOL OF DENTSTRY; DVIDS

Good Molar Maintenance Even by the then-modern advances during the Civil War era, the toothbrush was still a novelty item infrequently used across the country. Instead, residents would avail themselves of a chewing stick when the need arose. These were made by simply breaking a small limb off a tree, preferably a fruit tree for a slight bit of flavoring. The fresh wood was composed of many strands, and when it was chewed on and separated, it became useful in cleaning one’s teeth. The first toothbrush design appeared in Great Britain around 1780. It was a simple item using a bone from a cow carved down into the long rectangle shape like the current toothbrush. Initial designs contained only a couple of rows of bristles made from boar or horsehair. Nearly 64 years later, the toothbrush was revolutionized by adding another row of bristles. By the war’s inception in 1861, the toothbrush included a fourth line of hair. This configuration is still in use today. To have clean and healthy teeth became of premier importance during the sectional conflict. While it did not matter much to your average artilleryman or to some extent a cavalryman, in order to be a ground-pounding infantryman, a potential soldier had to have healthy teeth to tear apart the cartridge in order to load his weapon. Applicants attempting to enlist in the ranks of the infantry were examined to make sure, and have enough teeth on both their upper and corresponding lower jawbone to facilitate tearing the tough cartridge wrapping in order to pour the powder down the gun barrel. Tooth care was also important due to the lack of qualified dentists on either side. This fact was not more evident to anyone than to an officer in the 16th Michigan Infantry at Gettysburg in July 1863. When he went to a regular surgeon to pull a pesky tooth, the doctor “straddled him” while he lay on the ground, yanking at it with nippers until “either the tooth had to come out, or my head off.” Afterward, he vowed to “never go to a surgeon for a tooth-pulling matinee the day after a fight.” —Richard H. Holloway

Brush in Time The four-row bone toothbrush at left, minus its boar bristles, is an original excavated from a privy in Philadelphia; the one above is a modern replica. Above: A 2nd Wisconsin Infantry soldier demonstrates the tearing of a gunpowder cartridge with his teeth, the process involved in loading his weapon.

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In its July 1863 meeting in Philadelphia, the American Dental Association formed a fiveman committee to meet with President Abraham Lincoln and key congressional leaders on this issue. Not until July 1864, however, would Dr. Samuel S. White gain that audience with Lincoln. It was the president’s suggestion that White consult with Stanton, but, with Stanton unavailable, White instead sat down with Joseph Barnes, the acting surgeon general. In Barnes’ opinion, the time wasn’t right to proceed. After all, Army of the Potomac troops were currently engaged with Lee’s army at Petersburg, Va., and Maj. Gen. William Sherman’s Military Division of the Mississippi was advancing toward Atlanta. But Barnes promised to follow up should the war extend much longer. That would not occur.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; STEVE HAYDEN AUCTIONS

or the remainder of the war, Union dental services remained more or less at individual soldiers’ discretion. Hospital stewards or military surgeons would generally handle extractions or treat periodontal abscesses. As Stanton favored, soldiers who had practiced dentistry in civilian life and were willing to practice “in the field” could be used for treatment—even better, if a surgeon had received dual training as a dentist and physician. Some Southern towns were home to notable Confederate dentists, such as Findlay Y. Clark of Savannah, Ga. When Sherman’s forces reached Savannah in December 1864 to conclude the March to the Sea, Clark reported that hundreds of Union soldiers quickly sought the services of local dentists. Jefferson Davis’ hopes of establishing dental services for the Confederacy in field and general military hospitals never formally played out. Toothbrushes were at least distributed routinely to convalescing soldiers in Confederate hospitals, but resources such as precious metals, palliative materials, and dental surgical instruments remained either nonexistent or scarce. Not surprisingly, Confederates were denied access to the dental schools in Baltimore and Philadelphia during the war. Although a dental school was founded in New Orleans in March 1861, it was unable to graduate dentists until 1868. Otherwise, no accredited dental schools existed in the South. Rampant inflation made access to dental care for the average Confederate soldier virtually impossible. Dr. W.H. Morgan of Tennessee observed the wretched condition of the teeth of

REATA PASS AUCTIONS; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Teeth Pulled—Plus a Trim Above: This antique wooden chair, with suede seat and back, was used in the Civil War era both as a barber chair and for treating dental patients. It remains in full working condition. Below: Using a Bowie knife as a toothpick, as this unidentified Union soldier is doing, probably wasn’t a dentist’s first care option.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; STEVE HAYDEN AUCTIONS

REATA PASS AUCTIONS; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Essential Swag Wartime Manassas Junction, Va.: When Confederate soldiers captured this critical Union supply depot on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad in August 1862, toothbrushes reportedly were “prized booty.”

Rebel troops due to insufficient rations, poor oral hygiene, and lack of toothbrushes. It is interesting that when Confederate troops captured Federal trains at Manassas Junction, Va., in late August 1862, toothbrushes became prized “booty,” and several of “Stonewall” Jackson’s soldiers were known to place toothbrushes in the buttonholes of their uniform blouses in order to show off their most prized Coin Collector possessions. This privately minted Civil Across the South, the cost of a toothWar token, featuring a set of brush could be as high as $10 in Condentures on the obverse, was federate currency, representing more used as a form of currency by than 50 percent of an average soldier’s S.F. Snow, a dentist based monthly wages, and a single visit to a in West Unity, Ohio. professional dentist could conceivably run as high as an unfathomable $350. As discussed above, contract dentists were finally employed formally in the U.S. Army by 1872 and a Dental Corps was officially established by 1911. American dental professional organizations made strides in the latter half of the 19th century to promote safety and improve clinical

outcomes for patients, including the censure of incompetent clinicians. Dental office operatories became mechanized and electrified. The modern microbial theories of Pasteur, Lister, Koch, and Miller were adopted in dental practice to control iatrogenic infections and subsequent systemic diseases. Unfortunately, Civil War–era dentists did not receive the same respect as their 20- and 21st-century colleagues would. They struggled to earn their living from a public with a dubious regard to their skill sets. The creation of dental corps in the armies and navies was delayed by a lack of understanding the value of these services and the perceived notion that restorative dentistry contributed to malingering and excessive cost. Robert Murphy, whose Civil War interest began with a trip to Gettysburg in 1962, writes from Warminster, Pa. He has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s and Thomas Jefferson universities. JANUARY 2022

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10/12/21 4:33 PM

TRAILSIDE

Kinston, N.C.

Ironclads and Iron Skillets

the battle, the Confederate ironclad ram Neuse, which had been built and stored in Kinston, was scuttled to avoid capture. After a period of postwar prosperity and growth, history’s consequences continued to challenge this Southern town, which would suffer the effects of severe flooding during hurricanes in the late 1990s and in recent years has lost several vital industries that supported its economy. Today, it’s a city on the mend, and its Civil War history takes center stage. Recent investors have begun to rebuild the downtown, especially concentrating efforts on the town’s cultural aspects, including its wartime history, its African American music heritage, and art installations inspired by its bygone industries. It’s also home to nationally notable eateries such as Chef & the Farmer. The town is a gem and boasts several attractions that demand the attention of serious Civil War enthusiasts and promise an entertaining destination site for any heritage tourist. —Melissa A. Winn

AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR

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10/12/21 4:57 PM

PHOTOS BY MELISSA A, WINN (3)

Trailside is produced in partnership with Civil War Trails Inc., which connects visitors to lesser-known sites and allows them to follow in the footsteps of the great campaigns. Civil War Trails has to date 1,552 sites across five states and produces more than a dozen maps. Visit civilwartrails.org and check in at your favorite sign #civilwartrails.

In 1860, about 1,000 North Carolinians called Kinston home. Over the next five years, this unsuspecting town, the county seat of Lenoir, would be touched by war in almost every conceivable fashion. In early 1862, Camp Campbell and Camp Johnston were established nearby as Confederate training camps, and a bakery in the heart of downtown was converted to produce hardtack in large quantities. A factory here churned out shoes for the troops. In December 1862, Union Maj. Gen. John G. Foster swept through town as he led 10,000 infantry and cavalry troops from the Federal garrison at New Bern on a raid to the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad near Goldsboro. Foster met resistance in town and the Battle of Kinston raged on December 14, ending with a Confederate retreat and Federal occupation. In March 1865, as part of the Carolinas Campaign, Maj. Gen. Jacob Fox and about 13,000 Federal troops again met resistance in Kinston by Confederate divisions under General Braxton Bragg in the Battle of Wyse Fork. During

PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

CIVIL WAR HISTORY AND LOCAL FARE TAKE CENTER STAGE IN CAROLINA TOWN’S RENAISSANCE

TRAILSIDE

Town Center

Southwest Creek

118 N. Herritage St.

4044 U.S.-258

The Confederate ironclad CSS Neuse was moored near the King Street Bridge while it was outfitted in Kinston during 1863 and 1864. This full-size replica of the ram sits on the town square, the only full-size replica of a Confederate warship in the world. It’s open for tours on Saturdays and by appointment.

On December 13, 1862, as John Foster and his men approached Kinston, they ran into entrenched Confederates north of the creek here. The bridge had been destroyed. Foster’s artillerists posted their guns on the right side of the road and opened fire. Under intense fire, the 9th New Jersey Infantry pressed forward on the left, the 95th Pennsylvania on the right. They crossed the creek using felled trees and bridge fragments, and by swimming. After fierce fighting, the Confederates fell back toward Kinston.

Battle of Kinston 1400 Harriette Dr. About 2,000 Rebel troops under Brig. Gen. Nathan “Shanks” Evans withdrew to earthworks here after being forced back at Southwest Creek. Foster attacked the position about 9 a.m. on December 14. With superior numbers and heavy artillery fire, the Federals broke through the Confederate left flank. Remnants of the earthworks are still visible in the small battlefield park that stands here today. Monuments commemorate the men from Lenoir County who fought in the war as well as Wil King of the county’s battlefields commission.

Harriet’s Chapel 1430 U.S.-258 Because Harriet’s Chapel was a prominent feature on the landscape, it became “the principal point of attack” for Foster’s troops during the Battle of Kinston on December 14. The outnumbered Confederates withdrew, fighting as they pulled back toward Jones Bridge. After the battle, the church was “perforated with holes of all sizes from that of the minié-ball to the one caused by the 32-pound shell.” Dead and wounded soldiers lay all around the church and Union surgeons used it as a field hospital.

Battle of Wyse Fork 6045 Hwy 70, Wyse Fork Rd.

PHOTOS BY MELISSA A, WINN (3)

PHOTO BY MELISSA A. WINN

Jones Bridge 208 E. New Bern Rd. After Foster turned “Shanks” Evans’ left flank, the Confederates retreated across Jones Bridge over the Neuse River, just downstream from the modern bridge. In the confusion of battle, Evans mistakenly thought all his men had crossed the bridge and ordered it set on fire. Hundreds of his men had yet to cross and the Federals captured more than 400 of them. Union troops rushed the bridge and extinguished the flames. Foster and his men spent the night in Kinston and departed for Goldsboro the morning of December 15, re-crossing the bridge to the south side of the river and then burning the bridge behind them.

In March 1865, as General Jacob Cox and his 13,000 men moved through town en route to Goldsboro, Confederate General Robert F. Hoke’s Division blocked Cox’s route, resulting in the Battle of Wyse Fork. Several markers in town interpret the 1865 fight, which kicked off here on March 7. Down the road a Civil War Trails sign marks the site of the “Last Mass Capture of Union Troops,” where Hoke and D.H. Hill seized about a thousand Federal troops.

JANUARY 2022

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TRAILSIDE 1 2 4 6

5 7

1. Chef & the Farmer 2. Ironclad Replica 3. CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center 4. Mother Earth Motor Lodge 5. Jones Bridge 6. Harriet’s Chapel 7. Battle of Kinston Park 8. Wyse Fork 9. Southwest Creek

8 9

100 N. Queen St.

Opened in 2015 in the heart of downtown, the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center’s main attraction is the astounding display of the remnants of the ironclad ram CSS Neuse, which was pulled from the Neuse River in the 1960s. The full story of the ironclad’s trip to the bottom of the river and return from it is told here. The museum also offers interactive exhibits about common soldier history and the Civil War’s impact on civilian life. Open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Chef & the Farmer 120 W. Gordon St. In 2006, Vivian Howard opened Chef & the Farmer “with the hope that our restaurant might light a spark in our little town and help transition some of Eastern Carolina’s displaced tobacco farmers into food farmers.” The awardwinning restaurant has gained a national spotlight for its creative cooking rooted in the region’s ingredients and traditions.

Mother Earth Motor Lodge Motel 501 N. Herritage St. Because why shouldn’t a day of Civil War tourism end with a stay in a motel with a 1970s Malibu vibe? Take a different sort of trip back in time with the funky décor and amenities offered here, including free movie theater-style popcorn, a miniature golf course, and bike rentals.

CHEF & THE FARMER (2); PHOTOS BY MELISSA A. WINN (3)

CSs NEuse Center

AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR

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10/12/21 4:58 PM

CHEF & THE FARMER (2); PHOTOS BY MELISSA A. WINN (3)

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (required by Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. America’s Civil War 2. (ISSN: 1046-2899) 3. Filing date: 10/1/21. 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, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher, Michael A. Reinstein, HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203, Editor, Chris K. Howland, HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203, Editor in Chief, Alex Neill, HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. 10. Owner: HistoryNet; 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. 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: America’s Civil War. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 2021. 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: 27,851. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 30,851. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 12,883. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 12,239. 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: 3,809. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 3,301. 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: 16,692. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date; 15,540. 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: 685. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 706. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 685. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 706. F. Total free distribution (sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 17,377. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 16,246. G. Copies not Distributed. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 10,474. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 14,605. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 27,851. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing: 30,851. I. Percent paid. Average percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 96.1% Actual percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 95.7% 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: 16,692. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 15,540. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 17,377. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 16,246. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 96.1%. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 95.7%. 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 January 2022 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: Shawn G. Byers, VP, Audience Development & Circulation. 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.

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HOW MANY TIMES HAS THE DESIGN OF THE U.S. FLAG CHANGED? 27, 31, 36 or 40? For more, visit WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/ MAGAZINES/QUIZ

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

10/12/21 8:43 AM

11/18/20

5 QUESTIONS

Interview by Melissa A. Winn

Back of the Big House This recently discovered stereoview revealed the location of slave cabins near Fredericksburg that the National Park Service had been attempting to locate for decades.

History in Focus

Tell us more about Battlefield Photographer. From the beginning, the magazine has served a greater purpose than just being a newsletter. It doesn’t just focus on stuff the CCWP is doing, it focuses on historical articles. In nearly every issue of Battlefield Photographer, we publish a Civil War photo that has never previously been published on the printed page. The discovery of Civil War photographs is still happening on a regular basis. My biggest role at the center, in addition to running the organization, is being the editor of Battlefield Photographer. I’m a former newspaper journalist. We publish three times a year. If you’re not familiar with Battlefield Photographer, you’re not on the cutting edge of what’s the latest in the documentary photographs of the Civil War. It’s the discovery aspect of Civil War photography that excites me and keeps the passions burning for all of

AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR

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COURTESY OF BOB ZELLER

What was the genesis for the Center for Civil War Photography? In 1999, I was sitting around with the Gettysburg tintype photographer Rob Gibson and Confederate reenactor Al Benson and we started talking about, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a center or place devoted to Civil War photography?” In 2001, I met Garry Adelman, who was coming into the field at that time and was studying William Frassanito and his books about Civil War photographs. Chuck Morrongiello, another Civil War photo enthusiast and brilliant guitarist, Garry, Rob, Al, and myself are all co-founders of the organization. Garry said, “Hey, I can put on a seminar every year.” Chuck provided the money to get incorporated. Our first seminar was in Gettysburg in 2001. I was elected president when we started and Garry, vice president. We’ve always been small, 150–200 members. In 2003, we published our

first issue of Battlefield Photographer, which was considered to be our newsletter. At the outset we had an idea to open a museum, but we decided that we could do our best work as a virtual organization, with an annual seminar, a publication, a membership organization, and a good website. I think it has totally worked.

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY; COURTESY OF BOB ZELLER

On October 28, 1980, Bob Zeller saw his first Civil War stereoview, a photograph of Antietam’s Bloody Lane by photographer Alexander Gardner. Since the age of 13, Zeller had been a hobbyist collector of the 19th-century double image photographs meant to be seen in a viewer that blended the two side-by-side images into one so that they popped into 3-D. But this one was different. “It absolutely blew me away,” Zeller says. “I didn’t know that Civil War photographs had also been taken in stereo.” His hobby became a passion, which soon became a career devoted to the study and preservation of documentary Civil War photographs—“windows into history,” he calls them. In 2001, through a collaboration with fellow Civil War photography enthusiasts, Zeller co-founded the Center for Civil War Photography to pursue those same missions.

5 QUESTIONS the volunteer work I do. There’s a group of folks who got their first articles published in Battlefield Photographer. They are sort of amateur photo historians who are making these discoveries and advancing the field and this has been a place for them to get their work published. That’s the exciting thing to me. A lot of discovery is happening because some organizations are just now digitizing and putting their collections online. When the American Antiquarian Society put their stereoviews online, it included a group of 1866 stereoviews and a dozen stereo views that nobody was familiar with. One of our members, Keith Brady, saw them first and let me know. I sent a note down to historians John Hennessy and Eric Mink at the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, because one of the images was Ellwood Manor. The National Park service had been trying since the 1980s to figure out where the slave cabins had been on the property. They conducted radar studies and hadn’t succeeded. Eric Mink happened to be having a meeting that very day with one of the contractors who was going to be doing a new round of radar scans to see if there was any evidence of the foundations or footing for the cabins. He got my e-mail and one of the photographs showed the mansion and two slave cabins next to it. So, that’s where they were! That was a spectacular discovery.

COURTESY OF BOB ZELLER

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY; COURTESY OF BOB ZELLER

What are some of the projects on which the CCWP has worked? We’re an educational organization, but one of our missions is preservation. And the most applicable is preserving digital copies of the photographs. The Library of Congress doesn’t really have the funds to scan everything that they have. They have an enormous number of negatives and photographs. Along with the National Archives, they are the main repository for the original glass-plate negatives of these documentary photographs by Civil War–era photographers such as Alexander Gardner, Mathew Brady, and others. All of them at the Library of Congress have now been scanned at high resolution. The Library of Congress also has prints, made from the glass negatives. In some cases, the collection of prints has not been put online because they haven’t had the funding to do so. We’ve provided the funding to scan several collections that otherwise would not have been scanned, including 17 scenes of Richmond in April 1865 by the photographers Levy and Cohen; 23 photographs by Vermont photographer [George] Houghton; and 47 Brady album gallery cards.

How do you think technology has impacted or advanced the study of these photographs? The advent of high-resolution digital scanning has been huge. The photographic negative back then was done on a glass plate. So in the years before digital photography, the common photograph you would get was from 35mm film, these glass plates are 4 inches by 5 inches

Zeller enjoys a “4-D” photo experience at a Gettysburg Image of War Seminar.

for a half stereo and for individual images they are 7 inches by 9 inches. So you can get incredible detail. When you make a high-resolution scan of those, you can download the scan and take these journeys to the depths of the photographs. And that’s an area of discovery that’s just as active and exciting as finding new photographs—finding details within them. There have been controversies because of the exploration into these plates, such as “Where is Abraham Lincoln in the photograph of the Gettysburg Address ceremony scene?” I was involved with the discovery of the first Lincoln, and I will argue to the very end which one I believe is Lincoln, but another one in the crowd has also been identified as Lincoln. Controversies erupt because of the ability to look at these photographs in such detail and fully explore the contents. Bill Frassanito, with his Gettysburg book, A Journey in Time, in 1975, really pioneered this use of documentary photographs for the historical information they contained.

The CCWP Image of War Seminar is in its 20th year. What does the seminar offer? It’s not just about photos. If you come to the seminar, you will hear about the battle on the battlefields. The unique aspect about our Civil War conference is its focus on the photographs that were taken. We have always specialized in showing the 3-D photographs of the Civil War or photographs in 3-D at the locations they were taken. We have poster-sized anaglyphs of the photographs that were taken and we stick them in the ground right where the camera position was. We provide 3-D glasses and people can see the original photograph in 3-D at the spot it was taken. Garry Adelman likes to call it a 4-D experience, adding the element of actually being there where the photograph was taken. We always have a 3-D presentation, so it’s focused on the photography, but you’re also going to find out about the battle as you would in any Civil War or battlefield tour. It’s not just for photographers. It’s for everyone. JANUARY 2022

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10/13/21 10:11 AM

REVIEWS

‘Valiant Val’ Reexamined There is ample reason why Clement Laird Vallandigham’s turbulent life story has rarely been chronicled. He was an unapologetic pro-slavery racist. He was an anti-war Northerner—some called him “chief of the Copperheads”—a bitter critic of the ultimately martyred Abraham Lincoln, and a failure in his own quest for high office in his native Ohio. At most a footnote figure, he is chiefly remembered as the target of an aggressive federal crackdown on free speech. No wonder his first—and, for generations, only—biographer was his own brother. In fact, “Valiant Val,” as admirers dubbed him, has long cried out for a new look, and the task has been handsomely accomplished by Martin Gottlieb, retired columnist for the Daily News in Vallandigham’s onetime political base: Dayton. Born in 1820, Democrat Vallandigham Lincoln’s Northern became a state legislator at the age of Nemesis: The War 25—youngest in state history—and won Opposition and Exile of Ohio’s Clement a congressional seat in 1858. But he was Vallandigham ousted four years later, done in by his calls for peace, plus a bit of gerrymanBy Martin Gottlieb dering that titled his district Republican. McFarland & Co., 2021, $39.95 Then Vallandigham won his greatest

notoriety. After speaking out against the Draft in May 1863, he was arrested for “expressing treasonable sympathy.” Convicted by a military tribunal, he was sentenced to prison for the war’s duration. Lincoln (the man Vallandigham considered a despot) intervened and banished him to the Confederacy. Escaping his exile, Vallandigham fled to Canada and from there ran for Ohio governor. When he was soundly defeated, a relieved Lincoln proclaimed, “Glory to God in the highest. Ohio has saved the nation.” The ex-congressman managed a brief second act, not only attending the Democratic National Convention in 1864, but influencing adoption of a ruinous peace plank for the party platform. Lincoln’s re-election that November provided a resounding answer. Gottlieb is a highly entertaining writer. I sometimes wished he had not been quite so informal in some passages, but he is a gripping story-teller and has done much research into period sources, particularly Ohio newspapers. The result is a fresh, nuanced, and illuminating portrait. Gottlieb reminded me that the Vallandigham case encouraged Edward Everett Hale to write Man Without a Country, now far more famous than its inspiration. Had Vallandigham really “assumed racism in his audiences rather than fomented it,” as Gottlieb argues? I was more convinced by the author’s assessment of Vallandigham as a “slightly unhinged,” “long-winded” gadfly convinced that being “Republican Enemy No. 1” would earn him the legacy he coveted. Indeed, Vallandigham might have achieved enduring renown as the most prominent victim of government censorship had he not poisoned his reputation with his racist rants. Ironically, Vallandigham died after accidentally shooting himself while demonstrating a plausible explanation for a legal client’s alleged crime. One might say he shot himself politically and historically, too, letting prejudice and Southern sympathy override his one claim to fame. —Harold Holzer

HARPER’S WEEKLY

Anti-war, Anti-Lincoln Union soldiers arrest Clement Laird Vallandigham, leader of the Northern Copperhead movement during the war.

AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR

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REVIEWS

HARPER’S WEEKLY

UNIT HISTORIES WHILE MOST MISSOURI RESIDENTS either preferred to be left out of a shooting war altogether or remained loyal to the Union, a significant number had little difficulty deciding in 1861 to cast their lot with the Confederacy. Among them was Robert S. Bevier, a transplanted Kentuckian and attorney who had already made clear his sympathies during the “Wakarusa War” in neighboring Kansas. Bevier first received a commission in the proSouthern Missouri State Guard in 1861, then transferred to the Confederate ranks, seeing service at Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge, Iuka, Corinth, and Vicksburg. Bevier’s service with his fellow Missourians ended at Vicksburg, and, as a consequence, he did not share their trials and tribulations during the Atlanta Campaign or during John Bell Hood’s disastrous efforts in Tennessee. In 1879, Bevier published a book that is actually two separate works. The first chronicles the story of the first two brigades of conventional military force Missouri contributed to the Confederate war effort, with Bevier providing students with a useful source on their history and the campaigns in which they participated. (Like all works of its type, of course, it is one that must be used with some care.) The second part is Bevier’s memoir of his wartime experiences, which included a remarkable trip to Cuba in the winter of 1862-63 and, after Vicksburg, work in the ConfederHistory of the First and Second Missouri ate War Department. The latter Confederate enabled Bevier to provide an interestBrigades, 1861-1865 ing chronicle of life in Richmond and and From Wakarusa the experience of service on the front to Appomattox, A lines near the Confederate capital in Military Anagraph the war’s last year. By Robert S. Bevier Both parts of his book provide comBryan, Brand & pelling evidence of Bevier’s literary Company, 1879 education, sharp eye for observation, ability to tell a good yarn, and affinity for poetry. Yet Bevier and his work are very much products of their time and place. His interpretation of the war as a contest between Northern aggression and a noble South, not to mention his depiction of African Americans and slavery, is pure Lost Cause mythology. His accounts of personal interactions with Union soldiers are likewise in line with the “reconciliationist” narrative that emerged after Reconstruction. This makes this a book that not only provides entertaining reading, but also offers much to interest readers who want to understand how the White South wanted its experiences and the war remembered. —Ethan S. Rafuse

Meade and Lee at Rappahannock Station By Jeffrey Wm Hunt Savas Beatie, 2021, $32.95

This third installment of Jeffrey Wm Hunt’s outstanding post-Gettysburg series on George Gordon Meade and Robert E. Lee examines military actions in northcentral Virginia in the late summer and fall of 1863. Hunt makes a welcome evaluation of the decisions that Meade, Lee, and their respective officers made during this critical yet often-overlooked stretch of the war following the Confederate defeat at Bristoe Station on October 14. Hunt looks in detail here at how Meade handled the Army of the Potomac from October 21 to November 20. At this point, Lee had established his army on a formidable defensive line along the Rappahannock River and Meade was being pressured by government officials in Washington to attack and break that line. Although Meade pulled off an impressive victory over Lee at Rappahannock Station, wrecking two Army of Northern Virginia brigades in the process, the Confederate commander was able to withdraw south to safety beyond the Rapidan River. Hunt does address some of Lee’s questionable decision-making leading to that outcome. Hunt thankfully takes advantage of a great deal of fresh material, notably primary sources such as diaries, letters, newspapers, and unpublished manuscripts. Several excellent appendices enhance the text, and 38 illustrations and 27 original maps further make this a visually appealing effort for readers. Meade and Lee at Rappahannock Station is an intriguing, fast-paced narrative that enthusiasts, in particular, will have a hard time putting down. It is a fitting companion to Hunt’s earlier Meade and Lee After Gettysburg and Meade and Lee at Bristoe Station. —David R. Marshall JANUARY 2022

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10/12/21 10:25 AM

FINAL BIVOUAC

BREVET BRIGADIER GENERAL

In 1883, Delia A. Hooker had the with his service on the frontier, he body of her late husband, Ambrose feuded with fellow officers, such as Lt. Col. (later Maj. Gen.) William E. Hooker, exhumed and an autopsy performed following his unexplained Shafter, and took out his frustration sudden death. The widow suspected on the soldiers under his command. foul play and presumed he had been All signs pointed toward his Army poisoned by his brother, but she may career coming to an undistinguished conclusion by 1883. well have had an ulterior motive, as litigation against her brother-in-law While on leave visiting his brothover a herd of 400 cattle was pender’s ranch near Brewer, Neb., Hooker ing in Douglas County, Neb. Was suffered a stroke and died the mornDelia a grieving widow seeking jusing of January 20, 1883. His remains tice for her murdered husband or were transported to Fort Randall in merely a conniving opportunist tryDakota Territory, where after a ing to eliminate her only opposition respectful military ceremony he was buried on January 27. to a small fortune? The tale should have ended there, A native of New York, Ambrose Hooker was 20 when he moved to but a feud between Hooker’s widow California and entered the banking and brother ensued. Delia and Ambrose had separated a year earand mining business. Despite no military experience, Hooker was lier and she was living alone in New appointed lieutenant colonel of the York when he died. Learning of her husband’s passing, she hastened to 6th California Infantry in February 1863. He fought against American Nebraska. While waging a legal batIndians in northern California, and tle over her husband’s cattle in Dougafter the death of Lt. Col. Charles las County, she filed charges against McDermit, killed by Paiutes in his brother in adjoining Holt County. August 1865, Hooker assumed comHer husband’s brother, a local judge, mand of the 2nd California Cavalry was arrested for Hooker’s murder and the District of Nevada—brevetand put on trial in October. The phyted a brigadier general in March. sician who examined Hooker’s body, Hooker remained in the Army, however, found no indication he had commissioned a lieutenant in the 8th been poisoned. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Cavalry in July 1866 and then jury found the brother not guilty. filled a vacancy in the 9th U.S. Reportedly, Delia had a metallic Dakota Gravesite casket sent to the autopsy site in Cavalry in March 1867. Fort Randall closed nine years after O’Neill City, Neb., to have her husHis service on the frontier wasn’t Hooker’s death, but the cemetery is glamorous. An injury caused when still maintained. Shrouded Veterans band’s remains returned to New provided the headstone shown here. York for reburial, but Ambrose his horse tripped and rolled over him would instead be reinterred at Fort on one expedition left him suffering Randall, eventually closed in 1892. In 1906, Congress from neuralgia and migraines. His eyesight became so bad that the post surgeon said he would go blind without granted his widow a veteran’s pension of $30, which she received until her death in 1911. –Frank Jastrzembski treatment. Suffering from these ailments and unhappy Final Bivouac is published in partnership with “Shrouded Veterans,” a nonprofit mission run by Frank Jastrzembski to identify or repair the graves of Mexican War and Civil War veterans (facebook.com/shroudedvetgraves).

USAHEC; COURTESY OF FRANK JASTRZEMBSKI

Ambrose E. Hooker

AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR

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