2 CIVIL WAR APPS: FIGHT THE WAR ON YOUR TABLET 2

THE VIOLENT,
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OF CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS

NIGHT
TREMORS
THE MUDDY MISERY OF
SPOTSYLVANIA

THAT’S ONE BIG GUN

THE GIANT RODMAN CANNON
DECEMBER 2015
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CIVIL WAR TIMES
DECEMBER 2015

32

ABOVE: Spotsylvania’s Bloody Angle did not look this pleasant and tranquil in May 1864.
ON THE COVER: An unidentified Union soldier poses in front of a flag tinted by the photographer.

26
FEATURES

26 In Their Heads
By Jonathan W. White
Erotic dreams and violent nightmares
haunted soldiers North and South
32 ‘Another Butchery’
By Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White
The last Federal assault on the ‘Bloody Angle’
did little more than swell casualty lists
40 Master Spy
or Scoundrel ?
By Julia Bricklin
Vigilante-turned-sleuth Lafayette Baker
inspired multiple scandals before he was finally
20 kicked out of the White House
46 Rodman’s Big Gun
By Andrew Masich
Thomas J. Rodman figured out how to build
a ship-killing cannon, the war’s largest gun
54 Tablet Wars
By Megan Kate Nelson
A young buff evaluates Civil War game apps
54
DEPARTMENTS

4 Editorial Island prison in Ohio

40 6 Letters
Battle flag flap, Liberty Ship Longstreet
10 News ! Preserving Virginia slave quarters

46 14
16
Details U.S. Colored Troops with a garrison cannon
Insight Southern staff officers’ memoirs
20 Materiel 5 Confederate kepis
22 Interview
Seminary Ridge Museum Director Daryl Black


58 Explore Battle of Cedar Creek
62 Reviews
Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg
70 Etc. Sherman on vigilante justice
72 Sold ! Prized 12-pounder
EDITORIAL

LAKESIDE REST
This handsome iron
gate stands on the
east, or Lake Erie,
side of the cemetery.
A Moses Ezekiel
statue serves as a
centerpiece for the
burial ground.


A LONG WAY FROM HOME
Some Rebel prisoners never left Ohio

MAJ. GEN. EDWARD “ALLEGHENY” JOHNSON was captured twice in 1864. The first time
occurred on May 12 at Spotsylvania (P. 32). He was paroled, but recaptured at the December 16 Battle of
Nashville. Johnson then made the long trek to Ohio and the Johnson’s Island Confederate prison camp,
located on an island in Lake Erie’s Sandusky Bay, which was reserved for Rebel officers. Over 9,000
prisoners moved through the depot during the war. Development has taken over most of the island, and
much of the prison is now gone, although an archaeological dig is being conducted on a portion of the site
(johnsonsisland.heidelberg.edu). More than 200 Confederate prisoners are still there, however, interred
in the Johnson’s Island Confederate Cemetery. This small spot of land is open to the public and very
well maintained by the Johnson’s Island Preservation Society (johnsonsisland.org). During a recent visit,
I was pleased to see a number of visitors touring the cemetery. It’s odd to contemplate the white marble
headstones while pleasure boaters zip by just offshore, their recreational fun marking a sharp contrast to
the confusion the POWs must have felt while facing death in that alien environment. We can’t say for sure
what those men dreamed about during their last days (P. 28), but it was likely of a home far away.–D.B.S.

4 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER
DIONISIO LUCCHESI PRESIDENT
WILLIAM KONEVAL ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

EDITOR IN CHIEF ROGER L. VANCE

DECEMBER 2015 Vol. 54, No. 6

EDITORIAL
DANA B. SHOAF EDITOR
JENNIFER M. VANN ART DIRECTOR
NAN SIEGEL MANAGING EDITOR
CHRIS K. HOWLAND SENIOR EDITOR
SARAH RICHARDSON SENIOR EDITOR
SARAH J. MOCK PHOTO EDITOR/SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

SHENANDOAH SANCHEZ PHOTOGRAPHER AT LARGE

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

2 CORPORATE 2
DAVID STEINHAFEL DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
CIVIL WAR
TIMES
STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR
KAREN G. JOHNSON BUSINESS DIRECTOR
ROB WILKINS DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP MARKETING
MICHAEL ZATALOV FINANCE

DIGITAL ONLINE
MICHAEL CLIFFORD DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
JOSH SCIORTINO ASSOCIATE EDITOR
BRIDGETT HENWOOD WEB EDITOR BRAXTON BRAGG RECONSIDERED
ADVERTISING The reviled Confederate general
(above) deserves more credit for his
BARBARA JUSTICE Senior Graphic Designer/Advertising Services [email protected] accomplishments
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MARYLANDERS FOR DIXIE
A photo portfolio of rare artifacts that
DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING belonged to the Maryland “Band of
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LETTERS

THE BATTLE FLAG

As expected, our October cover story generated considerable feedback:

To those who make the argument that the Confederate flag

celebrates a unique heritage in American history and not racism: ★ REAL REALIT
Y TV: KEN BUR
NS’ THE CIVIL
WAR ★
You should be very angry. Symbols will be interpreted by those using
them. When I see Confederate flags flying in upstate New York by
those with no connection to the South, I feel it is a subtle message
of white supremacy. When I see people at a rally using the flag in
concert with swastikas, their message is much clearer. Keep in mind,
the swastika was long a symbol of peace until appropriated by the
Nazis. Supporters of the flag with no hatred in their heart need to
steal it back from those who misuse it.
Brandon M. O’Connor
Grand Island, N.Y.

Cancel my subscription. The article on the Confederate flag

was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Up to this issue
I had always looked forward to reading the magazine from cover
to cover. I believe that the two people you had in the article who
gave their own opinion, Mr. Dabney and Mr. Prillaman, were a
poor choice. Clearly Mr. Dabney had an ax to grind for his hatred
of the flag and America itself and should not have been given this
forum. Mr. Prillaman, who I assumed was to be the counterpoint
of Mr. Dabney, came across weak and apologetic. One reason I
had looked forward to reading the magazine was it was a source OCTOBER 2015

that was free of the political correctness that is contributing to

the destruction of our society. Is nothing sacred?
Nick Perko III
Highland, Ind.

Here’s a sample of commentary on the flag article from our Facebook page:

Michael Kelter: Garry W. Roberts: Garland Holt: Ivan Carter: Shirley Holland
After 10 years I Thanks for posting Yes, this is very Good, informative, Goss:
will no longer be this! This is good. I like the read. Keep that I have my
reading Civil War one of the most statement: flag in museums Confederate
Times due to their informative, fair “Studying the where it belongs. battle flag and
policy of political and balanced flag’s full history It’s a relic of I will fly it
correctness. You articles on the also allows us to history. If folks proudly!
have killed my flag I’ve seen engage in a more want to fly it on
interest. everywhere. I constructive their property,
have two Civil War dialogue about its bumper sticker
ancestors, both proper place in the etc., so be it. Free
were great-great- present and in the country.
grandfathers, but future.”
on opposing sides.

6 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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In time for the holidays
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In a nation torn apart by Civil War,
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Three powerful tales of bravery and
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holiday price of just $65 for all three. The box at the right of the image belonged to photographer
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A gripping story of valor and visit Cape Cod for vacation, and there was what ing my August 2015
survival during World War II the locals called “the target ship in the bay” always issue of Civil War
and the Korean conflict. prominent on the horizon. On April 25, 1945, the Times, particularly
SS James Longstreet was deliberately sunk in Cape the article “7 Deadly
Also Hot off the Press! Cod Bay, to be used as a target ship by the U.S. Navy. Shells.” I read USS
Just in time for Christmas gift giving: This was discontinued in the early 1970s. The hulk Monitor crewman
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Read the memoir that Norman Marten times tried to visual-
General Lee was urged Bainbridge Island, Wash. ize artillery projec-
to write, but never got tiles. Thanks for the
to finish. This historical Always enjoy reading Civil War Times. After read- great photographs.
re-creation has been well-researched ing the article regarding Liberty Ship names from John E. Bishop
from Lee’s own notes and letters, WWII in the October 2015 issue, I thought I’d drop Virginia Beach, Va.
with insights and emotion that’s sure a note about one such vessel. The SS James Longstreet
was built and launched in Houston, Texas, on Octo-
to captivate fans and historians alike.


ber 31, 1942. She made three wartime voyages, car-

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your credit card or PayPal account. remains rest today, marked by Coast Guard hazard or send letters to
Or send check or money order to: buoys, the namesake of one of Lee’s stalwart lieuten- Civil War Times,
PO Box 1253, Banner Elk, NC 28604 ants rusting away in Northern waters. 19300 Promenade Dr.,
Leesburg, VA
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8 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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NEWS!

 RESTORATION
C L E R M O N T FA R M S L AV E Q U A R T E R S

Clermont Farm, just outside Berryville, Va., became the temporary home for
Historicorps volunteers this past summer as they worked to rebuild slave quarters
constructed in 1823. In addition to making foundation repairs, teams restored the
chimney, log framing, floor joists and sill logs, as well as exterior siding and the roof,
windows and doors. In the process of those repairs as well as an archaeological dig, the
staff uncovered the foundation of an additional slave quarters structure and a trove of
Civil War–era artifacts. Clermont, which was established on land in the Shenandoah
Valley surveyed by George Washington in 1750, has remained a farm ever since that time.
The property has been owned by just four families, remaining in the hands of the last
owners, the McCormick family, for 185 years. When the last private owner, McCormick
descendant Elizabeth Rust Williams, died in 2004, she donated it to the Virginia
Department of Historic Resources, establishing the Clermont Foundation to manage the
property. Thanks to her foresight, Clermont remains an active farm to this day—which
also functions as a research and training facility for history, historic preservation and
agricultural programs. To find out more about the farm, see clermontfarm.org

10 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 QUOTABLE

They couldn’t hit

an elephant
at this distance
— Union Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick,


exhorting his troops to ignore Rebel
sharpshooters while supervising
artillery placement at Spotsylvania…
moments before he was shot dead.

GENERAL
GEORGE G. MEADE

200th Anniversary
CELEBRATIONS
A rmy of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. George Meade
may have been overshadowed by General Ulysses Grant
at Spotsylvania (see P. 32) in 1864, but members of the General
Meade Society of Philadelphia have been dedicated to “preserving
the memory of the architect of the Union victory at Gettysburg” since
CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL the group’s founding in 1996. This fall and winter, to commemorate
the 200th anniversary of Meade’s birth in Cadiz, Spain, the society

AT ARLINGTON is sponsoring a series of events—some including champagne toasts

(bubbly was reportedly Meade’s favorite tipple):
Amid ongoing national debate about O C TOBE R 3
the heritage value of Confederate sym- Picnic on the grounds of the Meade Monument in Philadelphia
bols and monuments, conservators from
Conservation Solutions Inc. are restoring NOV E M BE R 6
the Confederate Memorial at Arlington Anniversary dinner at the Union League of Philadelphia
National Cemetery. The United Daugh- NOV E M BE R 20
ters of the Confederacy hired sculptor Meade Symposium in Gettysburg
Moses Ezekiel—a Southern veteran—to
create the 32-foot monument in 1910. DEC E M BE R 3 1
The memorial, now surrounded by the Birthday Celebration at Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery,
graves of 482 Southern veterans and fam- where Meade was buried.
ily members, was unveiled in 1914 before
a crowd including both Union and Con- TO LEARN MORE, CHECK OUT GENERALMEADESOCIETY.ORG.
federate veterans. —Kim A. O’Connell

DECEMBER 2015 11
NEWS!

URAL ON URLS: THE WAR ON THE NET

veterans has a colored arrow indicat-

ing their path. Click on the colored
arrows or the colored bars in the
timeline to read the veterans’ stories.
While Neatline does not allow for an
entirely smooth viewing experience,
it offers one of the best opportunities
we have found to map the routes
taken by Confederate veterans on
their long road home.
Some notable trends emerge from
the men’s writings. None mention the
assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln, for example. Perhaps they
could focus on nothing but their own
misery—or maybe they worried a
journal might be seized and accusa-
tions made against them by Union
forces. Then too, most veterans cut far
south toward Atlanta and then moved
westward, rather than traveling
through east Tennessee, a more direct
a l l a nb r a n s t it e r. n e t / L o n g R o a d H o m e /
n e at l i n e / f u l l s c r e e n /s a m p l e
route. Perhaps they feared tensions in
Unionist Eastern Tennessee, an issue
that surfaced for the two men who

 THE LONG ROAD HOME  bucked the trend and followed that
route. None of the men mentioned
continuing the fight with Confeder-
n mid-April 1865, four Texans wearing tattered Confederate uniforms ates in North Carolina. Lee’s veterans

I
walked south from Appomattox Court House bearing freshly printed Fed- were done with the war. Finally, Rebel
eral paroles promising free transportation and food, and the right to travel veterans’ attitudes toward Union
home unmolested. Two of those men, A.B. Green and Denis Rowe, had troops varied. Some interacted with
enlisted together in 1861. Green bore wounds from Second Manassas and Federals and sought food or protec-
the Wilderness, while Rowe was missing the middle finger of his right hand, tion from soldiers bent on revenge.
the result of an accidental shooting two springs before. John Calvert and John But other Texas Brigade veterans
Wesley, who accompanied them, had waited until 1862 to enlist. Those four went out of their way to avoid contact
Texans were among thousands of Confederates who marched away from Appo- with their old foes.
mattox and into obscurity, leaving very few records of their journey back home. To be clear, one of my doctoral
For the most part, we know little of the soldiers’ thoughts about defeat or students, E. Allan Branstiter, and I
surrender, or what routes they took. “The Long Road Home” was designed to created this website. Yes, it seems a
shed light on this brief but significant phase of postwar history by mapping the bit odd to write about myself in this
travels of veterans of John Bell Hood’s Texas Brigade from the moment they column. But there is a wealth of work
received their paroles on April 13, 1865, until they reached Texas and Arkansas. that needs to be done to document
Visitors to the site can slide the timeline bar (left click and hold, scroll to the the months that followed the war’s
right or left) to watch the journey. It’s also possible to zoom out from the open- end, and I hope this project can
ing view of the map (an 1870 railroad map overlaid on a modern Google map), inspire others to embark on similar
but don’t zoom out so far that you miss the details. Each veteran or group of undertakings. —Susannah J. Ural

12 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 Drought
Exposes
Soldier’s
Grave
Corporal John McBride
survived the war, but was shot 20 years
later during a squabble over stray cattle
at a California ranch. His grave—along
with the tiny town of Playto that he
once called home—was inundated in
1965 by what would be known as Lake
NATIONAL CIVIL WAR San Antonio. A cemetery for townsfolk
of the ghost town of Playto had been
MUSEUM EARNS HONORS relocated, but since McBride’s grave was
off by itself and no descendants could

H
arrisburg Magazine recently announced that the National Civil be found, the consensus was to let the
War Museum had earned its 2015 Readers Choice Award. Civil War veteran rest where he was.
Though such a tribute—generated by voting readers—would McBride would doubtless have been
always be welcome, the public recognition was especially significant forgotten to history were it not for
at a time when the NCWM has been caught up in political crossfire climate change—or whatever forces
in Pennsylvania’s capital, due to a conflict between current Harrisburg are behind the drought that has drawn
Mayor Eric Papenfuse and former Mayor Stephen Reed. down state reservoirs, including Lake
Acknowledging the Harrisburg Magazine award, Museum CEO San Antonio. According to the San Jose
Wayne Motts said, “All of us here are humbled and honored” by the Mercury News, a passing camper discov-
recognition by Harrisburg area readers. He added, “As a national and ered McBride’s headstone. Joseph Botts


international destination of choice for so many travelers from around Jr., a retired park ranger familiar with
the globe, to be honored on the home front is truly gratifying.” the gravesite, conjectured that McBride
The travel website TripAdvisor.com also currently lists top marks had probably ended up in Playto as
for the NCWM, describing it as “Not only a great museum for Harris- “an unemployed soldier looking for a
burg” but also the top “Civil War museum in the country.” quiet way of life in a peaceful valley.”

QUIZ: SMALL FIGHT

NAME THE LOCATION of this small but important fight

that triggered a congressional investigation and send your
answer via e-mail to [email protected] or via regular mail
(19300 Promenade Dr., Leesburg, VA 20176) marked “Small Fight.”
The first correct answer will win a book.

Congratulations to last issue’s winners, Stephen Borsh of Lusby, Md.,

(e-mail), and Gerald Smith of Homeland, Calif. (mail), who correctly
identified the August 1862 Chantilly battlefield in Chantilly, Va.

DECEMBER 2015 13
DETAILS

1
At Ease
THIS REMARKABLE IMAGE recently became
part of the Liljenquist Collection at the Library of
Congress. It shows Lieutenant Samuel K. Thompson
and soldiers of his 54th United States Colored Troops
posed next to a monstrous garrison cannon. Unlike in
many stiffly composed photographs of soldiers during
the war, the men seem relaxed and at ease with one
another—a snapshot, if you will, of the march of racial
progress. There is also a bit of mystery connected with
this photo. The 54th USCT, not to be confused with
the 54th Massachusetts of the movie Glory fame,
served in the Indian Territory and Arkansas, and
garrisoned posts like Fort Gibson and Fort Smith. But
the armament and brickwork visible in this photograph
are more indicative of a large seacoast fort.
1. Lieutenant 2. Rodman cannons, 3. The massive 4. Most of the men 5. A “photobomber”
Thompson is developed by U.S. cannon, which in the 54th USCT stands atop the
smartly turned out ordnance officer appears to be a were freed slaves. ramparts, which
in a straw boater Thomas Rodman 10- or 15-inch, sits The regiment are made of brick-
hat and white just before the war on a swiveling entered service in reinforced earth.
private-purchase (see P. 46), were cast-iron carriage. September 1863 as Also note that this
trousers. usually reserved for A rod was inserted the 2nd Regiment, image is beautifully
seacoast forts. through the ratchet Arkansas Volunteer tinted.
mechanism at the Infantry (African
breech to elevate Descent), but was
the barrel. redesignated the
54th in March 1864.

5
3

4
DECEMBER 2015 15
INSIGHT
By Gary W. Gallagher

‘MAKE ME A MAP’
Jedediah Hotchkiss,
Stonewall Jackson’s
topographer, created this
sketch of Chancellorsville,
Salem Church and
Fredericksburg.

RIGHT-HAND MEN (edited by R. Lockwood Tower), a major source


on Lee and the army’s headquarters.
The best memoirs include G. Moxley Sor-
Confederate staff officers had rel’s Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer,
a unique view of the war an unusually literate and revealing source on
James Longstreet and the First Corps; Henry
B. McClellan’s The Life and Campaigns of
Major-General J.E.B. Stuart, which remains
the best published source on the cavalry and its
STUDENTS OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA know that colorful commander; and Walter Taylor’s Four
staff officers left a great deal of wonderful testimony about prominent Years With General Lee and General Lee: His
generals, less famous officers, and the campaigns and battles in which Campaigns in Virginia, 1861-1865, two titles
they participated. Any list of essential works on the army would include that supplement Taylor’s letters. Other fre-
Jedediah Hotchkiss’ Make Me a Map of the Valley: The Civil War Journal quently cited postwar accounts by staff officers
of Stonewall Jackson’s Topographer (edited by Archie P. McDonald), which include Henry Kyd Douglas’ dramatic but often
includes indispensable material on the Second Corps; Thomas J. Goree’s unreliable I Rode With Stonewall, Heros von
Longstreet’s Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Goree (edited by Borcke’s equally exaggerated account of cavalry
Thomas W. Cutrer), a collection that includes wartime and postwar let- affairs titled Memoirs of the Confederate War for
ters relating to Goree’s Confederate service; and Walter H. Taylor’s Lee’s Independence and William Willis Blackford’s
Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862-1865 highly engaging War Years With Jeb Stuart.

16 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 Friction of the frontier between Europeans and the Native peoples Nothing could have been more terrifying to an isolated family or small
increased as more and more settlers moved westward clearing fields community on the frontier than the sudden appearance of a war party.
and building permanent communities. Harvest time was often the season that Europeans and Native peoples
Disputes on issues ranged from personal insults, unfair trade or alike made war, knowing that destroying the enemy’s food crop before
regional policy and often became violent. Few communities were winter would be devastating.
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A number of less well-known staff officers also wrote
memoirs that merit serious attention, including
George Campbell Brown, Francis W. Dawson
and Joseph Lancaster Brent. Brown’s memoir,
edited by Terry L. Jones as Campbell Brown’s Civil War: With Ewell and
the Army of Northern Virginia (LSU Press, 2001), takes readers into
the company of one of the army’s great characters. The son of Richard
S. Ewell’s wife Lizinka, Campbell, as he was known, chronicled his
his staff accompanied the general’s ambulance
away from the battlefield they met Lee. “I
shall not soon forget the sadness in his face,”
Dawson observed, “and the almost despairing
movement of his hands, when he was told that
Longstreet had fallen.”
Joseph Lancaster Brent, a native of Mary-
land who spent much of his antebellum career
stepfather’s operations from First Manassas through Sailor’s Creek in California, served as chief of ordnance on
(the Ewells were married in May 1863). Brown’s memoir does much John Bankhead Magruder’s staff during the
to humanize Ewell, who appears in many other accounts—especially Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days’ Bat-
Richard Taylor’s widely quoted Destruction and Reconstruction—as a tles. Brent’s Memoirs of the War Between the
deeply eccentric character, more comic relief than serious soldier among States, published in a limited private edition
the high command of Lee’s army. in 1940 and never reprinted, contains invalu-
Brown served alongside Ewell at Gettysburg and during the first able material about Magruder’s actions during
three weeks of the Overland Campaign, a period when Robert E. Lee the spring and early summer of 1862. Sympa-
decided Jubal A. Early would do a better job as head of the Second thetic to his superior, whom he described as
Corps. Bitter and despondent after Lee broke the news, Ewell believed “a most energetic commander” who prepared
that Early and perhaps others had conspired to force him out. Campbell “with care and precision for the contingencies
Brown, who remained at Second Corps headquarters after Early took which so often decide battles,” Brent none-
over, shared the general’s anger. “Old Early did not ask me how you theless sketched Magruder as an officer who
were,” Brown wrote Ewell on June 13, “but I made my speech so that he suffered serious physical and mental lapses at
will hear it….I intend seeing little of Early—& will get along finely. He crucial moments. The morning of the Battle
looks at me like a sheep-stealing dog, out of the corner of his eye.” of Glendale showed Magruder at his worst:
Dawson’s Reminiscences of Confederate Service was first published in an “General Magruder was on horseback, gallop-
edition of 100 copies in 1882 and reprinted by Louisiana State Univer- ing here and there with great rapidity,” remem-
sity Press with an introduction by Bell I. Wiley in 1980. An Englishman bered Brent. “He seemed to me to be under
who began his Confederate career in the Navy, Dawson joined Long- a nervous excitement that strangely afflicted
street’s staff as a lieutenant of ordnance in 1862, served with “Old Pete” him.” Brent asked the general if he was well,
for roughly two years and later transferred to Fitzhugh Lee’s staff in to which Magruder replied that he “was feel-
the cavalry. Dawson’s portrait of Longstreet combines praise with fairly ing horribly” due to a lack of sleep and the
strong criticism. “The reputation that Longstreet had as a fighting man effects of ingesting medicine containing mor-
was unquestionably deserved, and when in action, there was no lack of phine. According to Brent, Magruder thanked
energy or quickness of perception,” wrote the Englishman, “but he was him for his concern and “strove to assume his
somewhat sluggish by nature, and I saw nothing in him to make me ordinary deportment.” Brent’s depiction of
believe that his capacity went beyond the power to conduct a square Magruder provides an instructive comparison
hard fight.” to the many accounts of “Stonewall” Jackson’s
Dawson’s book includes memorable accounts of several famous inci- poor performance during the Seven Days’.
dents—including Robert E. Lee’s reaction to news that Longstreet had Readers looking for published primary
been grievously wounded in the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. “We lifted material on Lee’s army would do well to set
Longstreet from the saddle, and laid him on the side of the road,” Daw- aside a shelf for staff officers—and to reserve
son recalled of the moments after his chief was struck down: “It seemed space on that shelf for Brown, Dawson and
that he had not many minutes to live.” But Longstreet rallied, and as Brent as well as their more famous comrades. ✯

18 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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MATERIEL

5 CONFEDERATE
CAPS
MOST REBELS preferred wide-
brimmed “slouch,” hats, but the Confed-
eracy also issued kepis to its troops, hats
inspired by headgear worn in the French
army since the 1830s. Southern officers
in particular liked to customize their caps,
coats and trousers. Rebel kepis and their
derivatives came in assorted colors and
varied in quality of cloth and construction.

TALL TOPPER
This is a forage cap, the kepi’s
taller, floppier cousin. Made of
“jean cloth,” a blend of cotton and
wool woven in a Southern mill,
this officer’s hat is set off by a
black band, bullion tape and an
embroidered infantry bugle.

SARTORIAL SPLENDOR
The gunners of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, a unit
made up of the scions of the Crescent City’s upper class, might
have worn the best-looking cover of the war. This example retains
its “W.A.” and crossed cannons.

20 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 SPARE NO
EXPENSE
Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder was
nicknamed “Prince John” for, as
a fellow Rebel officer put it, the
“splendor of his appearance.”
This braid-encrusted kepi made
in Paris helped the prince live
up to his reputation.

FADE AWAY
The officer who wore this kepi would have cut a dashing
figure, with all that gold bullion and the elaborate
quatrefoil on its top. Though this cap has faded to
what is sometimes referred to as “butternut,” it
was likely dyed a shade of gray originally.

WAR SOUVENIR
A Union soldier reportedly brought
home this tall kepi variant, sometimes
called a “chasseur” cap, after those
worn by French light infantry units.
The badge on the front of the officer’s
cap consists of a wreath enclosing
“SC,” perhaps for South Carolina. Its
fine blue wool was likely imported
from Europe.

DECEMBER 2015 21
INTERVIEW

CWT: What are the Lutheran

Visitors can tour the Seminary’s cupola. Theological Seminary’s origins?
DB: It’s a seminary where abolition-
ists, ministers and scholars taught
classes and thought about the issues
that were dividing the country.
Samuel Schmucker, who founded the
seminary in 1826, was an abolitionist,
and that part of the story brings in
human interest, in addition to mili-
tary history and the moral and ethical
questions surrounding the conflict.

CWT: Why should visitors

come to your museum?
DB: This is where the fight starts.
The Seminary’s cupola is where John
Buford envisions the positioning of
his cavalry that brings the battle on.
It’s where infantry forces became
entangled in the struggle that spreads
beyond the imagination of anybody,
frankly. This institution interprets the


battle at a high level, tells the story
well and then gives the orientation for
what happened here on McPherson’s
Gettysburg artifacts fill the museum. Ridge and with the U.S. Army’s I
Corps. In a larger sense, this
institution sits in the middle of a
graduate Lutheran seminary, a
professional graduate school. We
STEP INSIDE A want to make this a place where


GETTYSBURG scholars and the public can come
together to think about religion and
the war—a fairly understudied area in

RELIC Civil War history. We want to help

lead the expansion of the study of
religion in the war.

CWT: What do you showcase

DURING THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, the that people won’t see elsewhere?
Lutheran Theological Seminary was used as a Union DB: The museum is organized to
observation post and later as a field hospital for both show the stories of medical history
Federals and Confederates. In 2013 the Seminary opened and the Civil War side by side. I
that historic building as a museum to showcase military think that visitors will be surprised
and medical perspectives on the engagement as well as by the treatment in terms of thinking
explore religion and race in antebellum history. Daryl about what the costs of war are, while
Black, the museum’s new director, points out that the also getting an explanation of what
Seminary also has ties to the tragedy at Emanuel Church happened to the men on the fields
in Charleston, where nine members were murdered on June 17, 2015. Daniel around the building, in addition to
Alexander Payne, a free black man from Charleston, attended LTS for his exploring race and abolitionism.
doctorate in divinity because he could not get an education at the seminary
in Charleston. After the war ended, Payne returned to Charleston to reestab- CWT: How is the museum organized?
lish Emanuel Church, which had been meeting in secret since 1834. DB: Visitors start at the fourth floor,

22 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 WE WANT
with the story of the first day’s to think through the dilemmas facing TO MAKE THIS
battle. We want them to think about Americans of the 1840s and 1850s, A PLACE WHERE
what was going on here before this and try to put yourself in the place
became the most famous small town of people making those decisions. SCHOLARS
in America. On the night of June 30, It helps us understand that people AND THE
Buford’s cavalry troops begin to de- have made decisions in the past that
ploy around the building, and the
Seminary itself becomes an observa-
shape the way we are today, shape
the people we can become—that we PUBLIC
tion spot for the Union army. Visitors hope to become. The second floor CAN COME
can take a cupola tour—go up and
stand where Buford stood and take
exhibits also include treatment of the
African-American community. About TOGETHER
in the view that gave the Union 220 African Americans lived in TO THINK ABOUT
a strategic advantage on June 30 Gettysburg during the conflict. Their
and July 1. It shows how the initial experience is instructive in thinking RELIGION
contact shaped the battle’s dynamic. about the war’s causes—the tenuous AND THE
We want visitors to think about position that free people had here, on
what happened on the first day—the the border of slavery and freedom. CIVIL WAR
sacrifices made by John Reynolds’
I Corps, for example: They march CWT: Is there a particular
into the battle with 9,500 men or so, artifact or feature you like most? the battlefield. That famous swale
and 6,500 or so are wounded or killed DB: There’s a letter by an Alabama between Seminary Ridge and Ceme-
or missing in action. That fight was soldier in one of the rooms of a house tery Ridge—from a distance it doesn’t
about buying an hour or two hours at here that says: “we might be gone seem like much of a terrain feature,
the end of the day to give Winfield now and remember that our families but when you actually get down in it
Hancock the opportunity to put homes are being destroyed now. Yours you realize how quickly it swallows
together the line on Cemetery Ridge. may be standing now but maybe next up people—a vast open space, with
It’s a really compelling story. year it won’t be.” What’s happening to very constricted sightlines. It’s a great
On the third floor visitors are con- many Southern farmers and Southern way for visitors to begin thinking
fronted with the cost of battle. What families is something we need to take about how eyesight shaped the battle,
does the aftermath look and feel very seriously. That raises all kinds of how this landscape affected the men
like, when men have been standing dilemmas regarding the way we think deciding where to put soldiers.
up in fields, shooting and clubbing about morality and the war’s effects.
each other and shooting mortars and Other favorites include one of John CWT: What is the museum’s position
cannons at each other? What does Burns’ guns, the original barn door on the current controversy over Con-
that do to the body physically? That with bullet holes from the McPher- federate monuments and flags?
is part of the war that sometimes son Farm, chairs from Thaddeus DB: We want to help facilitate a
gets overlooked. Then consider the Stevens’ office in Gettysburg, and a conversation about Confederate sym-
organizational technology, the Union surgeon’s kit. The great thing about bolism as it relates to the battle flag.
hospital service, and the ways that museums is they put you physically in A museum is the perfect environment
Dr. Jonathan Letterman put together the presence of objects from the past to speak to these issues. The fight
this complex system of hospitals, as in ways that nothing else does. over the flag says a lot about where
well as triage and the treatment of we are now as a nation. Perhaps the
the wounded on the battlefield. It’s a CWT: What about the tour of fight about symbolism is obscuring
sobering moment for a lot of people. the grounds? broader questions in American social
DB: As a part of the rehabilitation of and cultural life where discussion
CWT: Where do you address the Schmucker Hall and the museum’s is long overdue. The talk needs to
causes of the war? creation, the Seminary invested in a move beyond discussing the flag and
DB: The museum’s second floor takes walking trail—one mile around the focus on real history, and the real lives
you back to a much broader pro- seminary grounds. It tells the semi- affected by the conflict. The unfin-
gram—to look at the conditions that nary’s history and also takes you to ished business of the Civil War is very
caused the war to break out. There’s interesting parts of the battlefield present in everyday life today.
abolitionism, and the proslavery that are kind of difficult to get to. It’s
religion developing in the South. A particularly instructive to get up in Interview conducted by Senior Editor
wonderful interactive exhibit asks you the cupola and then go down onto Sarah Richardson

DECEMBER 2015 23
 THE CIVIL WAR IN
GEORGIA
2
RINGGOLD The Civil War’s impact on Georgia was greater than any other event in
the state’s history. Home to more than 400 Civil War sites, Georgia has
1 a wealth of battlefields, cemeteries, arsenals, museums, mansions,
trains, towns and parks, all with fascinating stories to tell!

From Chickamauga, the largest national military park and the

second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War, to the escape and
capture of Jefferson Davis, arguably the last major event
3 4 of the war, Georgia Civil War Audio Tours offer visitors
the opportunity to hear stories about all facets of the
war in Georgia.

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 Experience Georgia’s Civil War Audio Tours
Follow the action on GaCivilWar.org/audio-tours

1 2

THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN

Follow this play-by-play audio tour for one of the Discover why Chickamauga, in northwest Georgia,
most legendary events in Civil War history and was the location for the second-bloodiest battle in the
Hollywood: the April 12, 1862, Great Locomotive Civil War.
Chase across Georgia.

3 4

THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA

Retrace soldiers’ steps along the I-75 corridor as Follow Union forces as they cut a destructive swath
they battle to claim their ultimate prize: Atlanta, across Georgia in 1864 and carry out Gen. William
the transportation and manufacturing hub of the T. Sherman’s strategy to cripple the South’s ability to
Deep South. wage war.

5 6

GENERAL WILSON’S RAID JEFFERSON DAVIS’ ESCAPE

Hear about Union General Wilson’s raid through Listen to true accounts of Confederate President
Alabama and western Georgia that led to the capture Jefferson Davis’ escape path through Georgia as he
of the last Confederate fort and tested LaGrange’s all- tried to evade capture after the war.
female militia.
IN THEIR
HEADS

26 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 SOLDIERS DREAMED OF
BATTLE, LOVED ONES AND
INFIDELITY. AND CHEESE
By Jonathan W. White

PRINTS, ENGRAVINGS and postal

covers abounded with titles like The
Soldier’s Dream of Home, The Soldier’s
Dream of Peace or The American
Patriot’s Dream during the war. The
images in them were similar: A
sleeping warrior, dreaming of home.
Sentimental depictions like these
were especially popular with troops,
as they captured the kinds of dreams
so many young men experienced.
“Is not this beautiful,” enthused one
Ohio soldier to his fiancée in April
1862, referring to the poem “The
Soldier’s Dream.” A Confederate
man wrote his wife: “Did you ever see
HOMECOMING FANTASY a picture called the soldiers dream?
A sleeping warrior dreams of I have seen it somewhere, possibly
returning to his family, in an
illustration for sheet music of in an old magazine. The artist had
Cornelius Everest’s 1862 song certainly seen life in camps and had
“The Soldier’s Vision.” a wife and baby.”

DECEMBER 2015 27
S oldiers and their families not only found solace and comfort in such
poems and prints, they also relished sharing their own dreams—
sometimes even when doing so meant divulging insecurities or secrets.
In some cases this may have contributed to the sense of closeness that
endured between men and their families despite long separations.
Home was the most common dream theme for soldiers both North and South. For
example, one New York soldier wrote his wife, “Last night I dreamed of being at home
as I often do and sweet were the kisses what I took all around.” A 36-year-old Virginia
man told his 16-year-old sweetheart, “I dream about you som times three or four nights
TAKE FIVE
Bandsmen of
the 4th Vermont
Infantry take
a break to
read, write
and daydream
in a Virginia
encampment.
in succession.”
But sometimes rather than dwelling on loved ones, troops dreamed about things they
missed. In 1864 Private Chauncey H. Cooke of Wisconsin, camped in Georgia’s pine
woods, wrote his mother, “I dreamed last night about the cheese which you wrote about
in the letter I got three days ago,” and how much “I would like a taste of it.”

Pleasant dreams often turned to disappoint- tenant John V. Hadley of Indiana “awoke and
ment when the soldiers woke. “I dreamed of found nothing but the rough touch of Captain
huging and kissing you all night last night,” one Banta.”
Indiana man wrote his wife. “Oh, how happy I Dreams often revealed soldiers’ anxieties.
was but how bad I did feel this morning.” After One Virginia man was plagued by nightmares
having a dream that “I am hugging you to my about his pregnant wife until he received news
heart,” one Connecticut volunteer told his wife, that mother and baby were fine. “I have dreamed
“then I awaken and find myself lying in this about you several times lately,” Captain Jacob
damd place. it makes me swear some, but that Ritner wrote his wife in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. “I
does no good.” A private from Georgia wrote, dreamed the other night that I had you in my
“Dear Malinda, I dream of you often and oh, arms and was kissing you. I thought you were
what pleasure it is to be with you but when I just as pretty and sweet as ever, but that you
awake [and] find its all a dream, how sad I feel.” looked pale and thin, like you had been sick for
Dreams could also lead to awkward situa- a long time,” adding, “I hope you have taken
tions. One Georgia soldier wrote his wife that medicine and got over that bad cough.”
he “dream[ed] of hugging you” but woke up Guilt and anxiety frequently haunted
“hugging the boys” in his tent. After dreaming dreamers. Men feared their wives or sweet-
that his wedding day had finally arrived, Lieu- hearts might lose hope that they would return

28 CIVIL WAR TIMES

home, and some soldiers became convinced their lovers had my eyes.” She chastised him and “rejoined your two favorite
abandoned them. A few soldiers were remarkably candid beaux.” At this point Hardy “became enraged and deter-
about fears of abandonment. Captain Thomas Jefferson mined to settle the matter. I got my double barrel shotgun
Hyatt of the 126th Ohio Infantry related that he’d had sev- heavily loaded, and after killing both the young men, I drew
eral “very queer” dreams one night. “First I dreamed that a dagger and determined to terminate your life and my own
we had been married some years, and the time had run out with the same knife at the same time.” But before he could
and we were about arranging another term,” he wrote his execute “this horrible deed, I awoke.” Hardy attributed his
wife. But then “I dreamed you had abandoned me and had nightmare to having heard that a comrade’s wife had been
or was about to form an alliance with unfaithful, in addition to being “tired
Lt. [ Joseph C.] Watson of this Regt.” and worn down, completely exhaust-
At first, Hyatt went on, he was con- ed from a long and tedious drill.”
tent with this new arrangement, “as Women were also haunted by fears
I supposed I was free to go where I
chose.” But soon he “began to feel Guilt and of infidelity. Knowing their partners
were surrounded by other women—
very badly, and could not think of the
separation.” His wife seemed “offish,” anxiety including nurses and prostitutes—
wives and sweethearts worried the
he said, and he grew jealous of how
she looked at Lieutenant Watson.
But eventually she began “to regret
often haunted men might give in to temptation.
When an Irishwoman in New York
dreamed her husband left her and
the steps you had taken and began to
think I was a little better than your
dreamers, married “a nigger winch,” he play-
fully replied, “i am not as yet i dunt
second choice.” He added, “I just
then awoke, and behold it was all a especially now howe soon i may get one the[y]
are [as] plnty [as] cattle around.” He
dream, and I was very glad of it.”
In some cases, abandonment
dreams were very explicit. With-
when it came closed by saying, “give my love to
the children and a bushil of kisses to
each one and 2 bushil for your self.”
out a letter from his wife for almost
two months, Wisconsin soldier
"*?$)k'$"3 A New Hampshire soldier reassured
his wife: “I hardly know what to say
Miles Butterfield had a “very strange to your dream. I will not say you was
Dream” that he had gone home to silly to tell me of it, but you was silly
his wife and baby, but she would not to dream any such things about your
“take any notice of me.” Eventually he learned that she “did husband who loves you better than all the rest of the world.”
not intend to live with me anymore.” He pleaded with her Sometimes such fears resulted in bizarre imaginings.
to no avail, then walked to town and saw several friends, Emma Crutcher of Natchez, Miss., wrote to her husband,
including one named Cram, who said that “all knew that Will, telling him of the “maximized joy” she felt when she
you was going to leave me and they all looked at me so that dreamed he had been shot in the leg and had it amputated.
I did not know what to do and then Cram told me that he “Now, thought I, he will never leave me again, for he will
had been living with you about 3 weeks and that he was not be of no use, in the army, and—if I die, he will never marry
the only one that had been with you, but he was the one again, for no one but me would love a lame man—he is mine
that you was going off with.” Butterfield told his wife he now.” When she awoke, she breathed a sigh of relief that “it
could “forgive all and live with you as before,” but again she was not reality, lameness and all,” but assured him, “I had
rejected him, and left town on a train. “I was going to wait rather take you now, lamed for life, than wait for months
until the next train come along and I would put an end to and maybe years longer, with the chance of [not] having you
my Miserable life by lying down on the track and letting back with me.” At least Will could rest assured of Emma’s
the cars run over me, for now I had nothing to live for as abiding faithfulness. Of course, dreamers like these might
you and the Baby was gone, but I began to think how you have been trying to urge their spouses to remain faithful by
had been acting, and concluded that I would go back and let sharing their night visions. But it seems ironic that, even as
you go, and thought that it was a good thing that you had husbands and wives suffered from doubts about faithfulness,
gone as I did with one once before as you know.” Butterfield they were still inclined to share their insecurities.
concluded by pleading with his wife to write more often. Not all soldiers were monogamous in their dreams. One
Some dreams were filled with violence. On September Rebel officer dreamed of visiting a Miss Sallie. “She was
4, 1861, William Harris Hardy dreamed that when he re- standing on [the] porch,” he wrote. “I was coming in on
turned home to Mississippi, his wife Sallie “received me side-way….I cried out to Miss S., ‘Here comes your sweet-
cooly.” He watched her get into “a buggy with a young man heart.[’] She ran in the house. Met me at door. Went in and
and left in a gay and fastidious manner,” then followed them was having a nice time when awoke & ’twas all a dream.”
to a party, where he now saw her “in a fine glee, entertained Two nights later he dreamed of a different girl: “Suddenly
by two nice-looking gentlemen.” Sallie still ignored Wil- Miss Kate opened the door and came in looking beautiful
liam, so that his “heart sunk, and the tears gushed forth from as an angel. I spoke to her. Told me, she congratulated me

DECEMBER 2015 29
FAMILY TIES
Private Edward
A. Cary of the on being married. Told the miss she was mis- poaching eggs for me.” After eating “poor
44th Virginia taken, but if she was willing I’d soon be. Don’t quality” ginger cakes, a Georgia infantryman
Infantry posed for remember her answer.” And four days later he reported a series of dreams to his wife. First he
a wartime portrait dreamed that he was about to “pop the ques- was an instructor at a female military academy,
with his sister, tion” to a “Miss Frances.” then a member of the Confederate Congress,
Emma. Soldiers Some dreams were just incomprehensible. then an army surgeon, then he saw British
A South Carolinian dreamed that when he minister Lord Lyons, and finally he went home
most commonly
went to visit a former love interest, he found and impregnated his wife.
dreamed of the
her father “perfectly nude—scabs, scales, As might be expected, combat was
loved ones they
and dirt covered his entire body, and in this frequently a part of soldiers’ dreams. Some had
left behind. predicament he ushered me into the presence recurring nightmares of battles, perhaps due to
of his daughter.” A Wisconsin soldier dreamed guilt for having survived when others had not.
“there was a million angels in rebel uniforms, Captain Henry T. Owen of the 18th Virginia

30 CIVIL WAR TIMES

Infantry wrote his wife in December 1863 about a dream of another Belle Isle prisoner, several of his comrades “often
Gettysburg that tormented him night after night. Standing dreamed of eating and woke up to go through the motions
amid a long line of troops and looking off into the distance, frothing at the mouth.”
he “saw the dim outlines of lofty hills, broken rocks and POWs also dreamed repeatedly of escaping or prisoner
frightful precipices which resembled Gettysburg.” He and exchanges, as well as giant lice and death. After spending
his men marched forward, “fighting that great battle over three months at Andersonville, Corporal Samuel J. Gibson
again.” But in his dreams something was different: A “thin of the 103rd Pennsylvania reported a recurring dream. “I
shaddow” kept appearing between Owen and the Union thought I was in a steamboat in a deep & muddy river, the
troops amassed along Cemetery water ran wildly,” he wrote. “I thought
Ridge. No matter how he tried to get the Boat I was on was sinking & I
around it, it kept getting in front of sprang from the Hurricane deck
him. “Nobody else seemed to see or
notice the shaddow which looked as
thin as smoke, and did not prevent
Not surprisingly, upon the hurricane deck of another
Boat, which to my horror I found
was also sinking, springing from this
my seeing the enemy distinctly thru’
it.” When the guns ceased firing, the undernourished upon some pieces of broken wreck,
I got safely to shore dry shod, while
shadow spoke to him, saying: “I am
the angel that protected you. I will
never leave nor forsake you.” Owen
prisoners many of my comrades went under.” A
few weeks later, while suffering from
scurvy, Gibson mused that he hoped
reported that he awoke and “burst
into tears,” wondering why he should
dreamed of he would “outlive this misfortune
of being a Prisoner but I am not
be protected while so many of his
comrades had perished.
sumptuous made of iron; still I consider myself
pretty tough.” Then, referring to his
One night when an 8th Vermont
soldier yelled in his sleep, “The rebels
are coming!” the entire camp fell into
meals dream, he wrote that he would “try
to keep my head ‘Above water’ but I
am seeing my dream verified every
a panic. His regiment formed and day; by seeing scores of my fellows
waited 30 minutes for a Confederate carried out dead.” True to his dream,
attack while the colonel investigated. In the 12th Wisconsin Gibson survived the war, but he witnessed the burials of
Infantry’s camp, two bellowing oxen led a soldier to dream many comrades.
the camp was encircled by Rebels. After he shouted, “My Confederate POWs at Point Lookout, Md., clamored
God! we’re all surrounded!” his comrades began “a hurried for images of soldiers dreaming of home. Prisoner James T.
search for trousers, and a seizing of guns.” Wells of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry recalled, “There
Battle dreams could be intense, even for those who had were many portrait and landscape painters, and many fine
never come close to combat. In September 1864, after read- pictures were produced there. One, ‘The Prisoner’s Dream
ing about General William T. Sherman’s capture of Atlanta, of Home,’ was greatly admired and coveted by many, but
a Philadelphia woman dreamed she was in a hotel fighting money could not purchase it from the owner.” Perhaps in
several armed Confederates. “I was lying on the floor to pre- response, prisoner John Jacob Omenhausser of the 46th
vent their bullets striking me,” she wrote. “I know I expected Virginia painted several copies of a colorful scene he called
to be killed and I wondered if I would be much missed. I “The Rebel’s Dream in Prison.” Omenhausser found ea-
was just as cool as you please and wondered if everyone was ger buyers for his work among fellow prisoners—as well as
as cool when in action.” their guards.
Perhaps no one suffered more from wartime stresses As illustrated by Omenhausser’s success at Point Look-
than POWs. Not surprisingly, undernourished prisoners out, soldiers from North and South were fascinated by

often dreamed of sumptuous meals. A starving POW from their dreams, as were the loved ones back home. Nighttime
Michigan, incarcerated at the notorious Belle Isle camp visions were part of the experience of war shared by both
in Richmond, recorded in his diary: “Dream continually Unionists and Confederates alike. ✯
nights about something good to eat.” At Andersonville, Ga.,
months later, the same man wrote, “In our dreams we see
and eat bountiful repasts, and awake to the other extreme.”
A Pennsylvania cavalryman at Belle Isle remembered after
the war that his “hours of slumber were full of dreams, and Jonathan W. White teaches at Christopher Newport University
the burden of these visions was food—food!” In his dreams and is the author of several books, including Emancipation, the
the cavalryman “was always sitting down to tables that Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln, which
groaned under the choicest viands, and, although I appeared won the Abraham Lincoln Institute’s 2015 book prize and was
to partake freely of these, I never seemed to be surfeited.” also a finalist for both the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize and
But when morning came, “everlasting hunger was [still] Jefferson Davis Prize. He is writing a history of dreams during
upon me, from which there was no escape.” According to the Civil War. Check out his website: jonathanwhite.org.

DECEMBER 2015 31
‘
RAIN HAD SOAKED THE
GROUND FOR 5½ DAYS,
and the stench rising out of the gore-
tinged Virginia mud on May 18, 1864,
“was so sickening and terrible that
many of the men and officers became
deathly sick from it,” said William
Mitchell, a staff member for II Corps
commander Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott
Hancock. “[B]lack, bloated bodies
were sitting up and reaching out from
the earth,” wrote one Pennsylvanian.
Those were the remains of men who
had fallen on May 12, 1864, when for
22 consecutive hours in pouring rain
the Army of the Potomac and the
THE THIRD AND FINAL Army of Northern Virginia slugged
UNION ATTACK ON it out in mud up to their knees near
Spotsylvania Court House—the war’s
SPOTSYLVANIA’S most sustained hand-to-hand combat.
Now, six days later, the Federal troops
‘BLOODY ANGLE’ were assembling for another attack on
the stretch of earthworks known as
ACCOMPLISHED LITTLE the “Bloody Angle.”
Hancock’s battered corps had been
ASIDE FROM SWELLING Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s hammer of

CASUALTY LISTS choice, and Grant intended to swing

it again across the bloody landscape
to strike a Confederate position that
by Chris Mackowski he believed was too weak to resist.
and Kristopher D. White General Robert E. Lee, meanwhile,
needed to remain the unmovable
object—an ironic task considering his
army’s superior maneuverability over the previous two weeks.
The road to Spotsylvania began on May 5 some 12 miles to the
northwest, in the Wilderness of Orange and Spotsylvania counties.
That 70 square miles of second-growth forest was so thick it was a “wil-
derness in the most forbidding sense of the word,” said one of Grant’s
aides. The Union commander brought 123,000 men with him into the
campaign, while Lee countered with 66,000. From May 5-7, 2½ days
of stalemate bled some 30,000 men out of the armies. Grant decided to
try to maneuver Lee out of position to bring the Confederates to battle
on ground more favorable to the larger Union army. “Where Lee goes,

32 CIVIL WAR TIMES

FACE TO FACE
N.C. Wyeth’s grim painting
The Bloody Angle depicts
the brutal struggle at
Spotsylvania’s Mule Shoe.
you shall go too,” Grant ordered Army of the Potomac commander Maj. position that closed off the base of the Mule
Gen. George Gordon Meade. Shoe, and artillery fire discouraged any Federal
This reflected a significant shift in strategy. Formerly, Union armies pursuit. Despite 9,000 casualties—compared
had tried to capture Richmond and force the Southern government to 8,000 Confederate casualties—Grant had
to capitulate. Grant instead intended to use his superior numbers to little to show for his efforts.
“hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his He remained set on his course, however.
resources, until by mere attrition if in no other way, “I intend to fight it out
there should be nothing left to him....”
Grant sidestepped Lee with a May 7–8 over- ‘MUD WAS ALMOST along this line if it takes
all summer,” he had de-
night march, but Lee ordered his men to march
twice as far as the Federals and block the road to
the key junction of Spotsylvania Court House. By
KNEE clared, a comment that
made headlines across
the country. He had said
7:30 a.m. on May 8, Confederates filed into place
just in time to block the Union V Corps, which
then sent piecemeal attacks across Sarah Spindle’s
DEEP’
WROTE CAPTAIN planning another attack.
there would be “no turn-
ing back,” and he began

farm in a vain attempt to dislodge them. GEORGE BOWEN But miserable, muddy
Undeterred, Grant looked for ways to push roads hampered Federal
through to Spotsylvania Court House. The Confederates took advantage maneuvering. “The roads were simply awful,
of the topography to extend their line and stymie him. The Confederate rained continuously and mud was almost knee
position had one weakness, though: a salient that resembled and was deep in places,” wrote Captain George Bowen
nicknamed the “Mule Shoe,” which bulged forward from the main line of the 12th New Jersey. Rain, in fact, had been
in order to encircle and prevent the Federals from occupying a piece of a miserable accompaniment to nearly all the
high ground. fighting at Spotsylvania. “The whole country
Grant launched major assaults against the Mule Shoe salient on May is a sea of mud,” a Federal artillerist muttered.
10 using techniques developed by a VI Corps officer, Colonel Emory On May 17, a Federal reconnaissance
Upton. His plan called for forming an attack column—rather than a tra- probed down the Fredericksburg Road, which
ditional line of battle—and punching through the Confederate position ran into Spotsylvania from the northeast.
using speed and surprise. On May 10, his 7,000-man assault pierced the Grant had hope to find a weak spot south of
Mule Shoe, but was thrown back because of lack of support. Grant tried the Mule Shoe and launch a successful assault
the tactic again on May 12 with Hancock’s entire 20,000-man corps, into the town along the road that would split
supported by the 20,000 troops of Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright’s VI Corps. Lee’s army in two and make the Spotsylva-
That assault split the Confederate position wide open, and Lee had nia line untenable for the Confederates. The
to lead desperate countercharges to plug the gaping half-mile wound. By 3rd and 10th Vermont, both of the VI Corps,
the morning of May 13, Lee’s men had pulled back into a new defensive found the Rebels too well positioned, however.

MISERY ON MANY LEVELS Rain soaks Union troops waiting their turn to attack the Mule Shoe salient on May 12, 1864.
Alfred Waud, who sketched this scene, wrote on the back of his drawing that the engagement was the “toughest f ight yet.”

34 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 With the Fredericks- such a protracted struggle as we have been OPPONENTS
burg Road no lon- carrying on.” Maj. Gen. Winf ield
ger a viable option, As the Union troops slipped in and swore at Scott Hancock (seated
Grant looked back the mud, the Confederate Second Corps had above) and his
to the old battlefield been settling into its new defensive line south division commanders,
on May 10 and 12. of the Edgar Harrison Farm with a kind of from left to right,
If Lee’s right and mad zeal. They cut logs to hold up the earthen Generals Francis
center were strong, walls of their trenches and provide themselves Barlow, David
the Union leader rea- extra protection. They dug traverses—lines Birney and John
soned, Lee must have perpendicular to the main line—that pro-
Gibbon. Confederate
stripped his line some- vided additional cover and, if necessary, defen-
Brig. Gen. Armistead
where. He targeted Lee’s left, sive positions in the event of a breakthrough.
Long (left) massed
anchored on ground where the base Sharpshooters even built small towers to
of the Mule Shoe had been, which had already shoot from. “I never saw any like them,” one of artillery pieces that
gained the nickname the Bloody Angle. Meade’s staffers recalled. shattered Hancock’s
“The Second and Sixth Corps are to return In front of their position, Confederates May 18 attack.
to the old ground on the right and pitch in cleared open fields of fire all the way to the
there,” one Federal soldier learned. “[G]reat plateau of the Neil McCoull Farm, half a mile
things are hoped from it by Grant. I fear he in front of them. That open landscape, roll-
will not find Lee asleep.” ing with small swales and knolls, eventually
In a letter to his wife, Meade expressed a dropped into a marshy lowland before ascend-
degree of relief after days of fruitless marching. ing back toward the Confederate position.
“To-morrow we shall begin fighting again, Confederates had littered the ground with
with, I trust, some decided result,” he wrote, abatis, sharpened logs and stakes, to slow any
“for it is hardly natural to expect men to Federal advance. Twenty-nine artillery pieces
maintain without the limit the exhaustion of commanded by Brig. Gen. Armistead L. Long,

DECEMBER 2015 35
a practiced hand with a good eye, bolstered the Rebel position. The Army Gibbon’s and Barlow’s. The II Corps men lined
of the Potomac was preparing to attack the strongest field fortifications up along a sunken lane that led to a farm owned
yet seen in the Eastern Theater. by Willis Landrum. They were positioned to
To get his men into place for a dawn assault, Grant had to swing the cross over the same ground they had crossed
II Corps and the VI Corps from the extreme left of the army’s position only six days earlier, nearly to the hour. “The
to the extreme right. It looked easy on paper, but the muddy roads troops were in position before day light,” Brig.
mired the movement from the start. Complicating Gen. Phillippe Régis De
matters was the fact that Hancock’s II Corps had Trobriand of Hancock’s
moved farther out of position than Grant realized; DAYS OF WAR HAD corps recalled. “It was
unaware of Grant’s new plan, Hancock had still been TRANSFORMED THE hoped to surprise the
moving into a position assigned in previous orders.
He had to double back, compounding the delay. AGRARIAN enemy sleeping: but he
had his eyes open, and
Wright was ordered to the far right, stacking up LANDSCAPE INTO was protected by acres of
his divisions in massive assault columns similar to
the tactic proposed by Upton a week earlier. Brig.
FIELDS OF impenetrable abatis.”
Days of war had
Gen. David A. Russell would be on the far right,
Brig. Gen. James A. Ricketts in the center and
Brig. Gen. Thomas H. Neill on the left. Next to
DESTRUCTION transformed the agrarian
landscape into fields of
devastation “strewn with
Neill, Hancock would line up his divisions in traditional lines of battle. clothing, knapsacks, canteens, muskets, dead
Brig. Gen. John Gibbon would be on the right, linking up with Neill. On horses and broken artillery caissons, and the
Gibbon’s left, Brig. Gen. Francis Barlow’s division would advance in sup- trees were riddled with bullet, shot, and shell,”
port. Brig. Gen. Robert O. Tyler’s newly formed division would protect recalled a drummer boy with the 2nd New
the left flank, and Brig. Gen. David Bell Birney’s division would hang York Heavy Artillery, who had recently been
back as the reserve. Neill got into place, but Ricketts didn’t show. Neither added to Hancock’s corps from the Wash-
did Russell. Both divisions had been swallowed by the darkness and mud. ington Defenses. Grant had called for some
To Neill’s left, however, two of Hancock’s divisions had formed up— 30,000 reinforcements from the capital to
replace his mounting casualties, and the heavy
artillerists—trained as infantrymen to protect
and support the massive guns of D.C.’s defen-
THE PROBLEM WITH SALIENTS sive works—had just begun arriving.
Below, an image of the Mule Shoe salient. Salients are At 4 a.m., off to the left the boom of artil-
problematic because they jut out in front of the main line. lery announced the start of Maj. Gen. Ambrose
Defenders shooting outward have a difficult time con- Burnside’s diversionary attack. Hancock and
centrating their firepower, while attackers can focus their Wright dared not send their own men forward
gunfire on one spot, or bear down on the salient from yet, though—not without the missing Ricketts
three directions at the same time. Plus a breakthrough at and Russell. Finally, by 4:20, unable to wait any
any one spot puts attackers in the rear of nearly all the longer for fear of completely losing the element
defenders, making a position untenable once breached. of surprise, the corps commanders sent their
men forward.
“Early on the morning of Wednesday, May
18, the whizzing of shells announced that the
second great battle of Spottsylvania [sic] Court
House had been commenced,” wrote VI Corps
surgeon W.G.T. Morton. Under the cover of
“tremendous artillery fire,” said James Bowen
of the 37th Massachusetts, “the devoted lines
moved forward to the assault.” And with that,
one Rhode Islander wrote, “another butchery
has begun.”
“Smoke and mist hung pale, heavy and
motionless over the troops” as the infantry
advanced, Morton said. Federal pieces moved
up close behind them to offer as much support
as they could. Long’s artillery, protected in its
bunkers, responded. It was the largest bom-

36 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 WAR’S HORRORS
Thousands died in the Spotsylvania f ighting,
including this Confederate soldier shot dead
on May 19. Union troops hurled muskets
with f ixed bayonets at the Rebels during the
horrif ic Mule Shoe battle.

bardment in the East since Pickett’s Charge places, and had been pre-sighted by Confeder-
and the most effective use of artillery since the ate gunners.
two armies had entered the Wilderness two From that position, though, Barlow’s men
weeks earlier. attempted several runs at the Confederate
From the Confederate line, fog shrouded the works—only to be blasted back to the for-
oncoming wave, but skirmishers, falling back, mer Confederate trenches. As it was the only
signaled the Federal approach. Confederate available cover in the open field, they hunkered
artillery commander Major Wilfred Cutshaw, down and reversed the works. “Many brilliant
who knew the effect his artillery would have, efforts were made to penetrate the enemy lines,
was stunned. “All were astonished,” he said, “and but without success,” one II Corps officer said.
could not believe a serious attempt would be Less brilliant were the actions of the vet-
made to assail such a line as [General Richard] eran Philadelphia Brigade in John Gibbon’s
Ewell had, in open day, over such a distance.” division. Brig. Gen. Joshua T. Owen refused to
Once the Confederate skirmishers fell back, advance his men into the maelstrom, although
“the restrained tempest broke forth, and with in the confusion Gibbon hadn’t even noticed
shriek and scream and hissing, poured its death they were missing until Hancock called it to
blast in the faces of the Union soldiers,” said Gibbon’s attention. Embarrassed and angry,
Captain George Bowen of the 12th New Jer- Gibbon ordered Owen forward, but Owen
sey. The Federals were only 300 yards away as made only a half-hearted go of it before decid-
Long’s artillery poured canister and case shot ing the situation was too dangerous. His dis-
into them. “[T]heir artillery cut our men down obedience would eventually lead to charges
in heaps,” reported one member of the 2nd that resulted in his dismissal.
Rhode Island. New arrivals to the army tried to show
Hancock’s men pushed forward as far as their mettle to the veterans. Colonel Matthew
they could, but the Confederate abatis tangled Murphy’s brigade of four New York regiments
them midway between the McCoull Farm and anchored the left of Gibbon’s division. These
the new Confederate position. Barlow reported recent additions, coupled with Tyler’s heavy
to Hancock that the abatis was impenetrable. artillery regiments, increased the II Corps’
By Barlow’s estimates it was 100 yards deep in numbers by nearly 8,000 rifles. Despite the

DECEMBER 2015 37
38 CIVIL WAR TIMES
THREE STRIKES On May 10, Brig. Gen. Emory Upton’s attack pierced
the Mule Shoe, but he eventually had to turn back. Two days later
Hancock’s II Corps collapsed the salient, but the Confederates sealed off
the break. After fruitless, miserable countermarching on muddy roads, the Mule Shoe salient had become a killing
Hancock’s men lined up for one last attack on May 18. It too failed. ground. “After the fight, the battle field pre-
sented a horrible spectacle, some having their
heads and limbs torn away from their bodies,”
said one Confederate artillerist, whose work on
weight of their numbers and bravado, they too came to grief assaulting the guns had contributed to that horror.
Ewell’s heavily fortified line. Dr. Morton, writing years later, recalled a
Murphy advanced toward the Bloody Angle, but his brigade became sulphurous scene. “The smoke of battle of more
separated due to botched orders from Gibbon’s staff. His soldiers made than two hundred thousand men destroying
it to within a few hundred yards of the Confederate line, but wither- each other...filled the valleys, and rested on the
ing small-arms fire, mainly from Brig. Ben. Clement Evans’ all-Georgia hills of all this wilderness, hung in lurid haze
Brigade and the Stonewall Brigade, pinned them all around the horizon,
down. Confederate artillery, positioned on Mur- and built a dense canopy
phy’s right and left flank, swept the Union position
with a deadly crossfire. Hunkered down, all the
THE LAND overhead,” he wrote.
Grant had finally had
SURROUNDING THE
New Yorkers could do was call for help. enough. After weeks
To Hancock’s right, Wright’s attack met similar
results. Neill’s VI Corps division had not stepped
MULE of stalemate, unable to
break through or out-
off in concert with Gibbon’s men, nor had they
caught up. Brig. Gen. Frank Wheaton’s lead bri-
SHOE flank the Confederate
position, he decided
gade marched along the eastern face of the old
salient, scarred with deep trenches that wrecked its
SALIENT again to move left and

formation. In slight disarray, they swept down into

HAD BECOME A south in an attempt to
maneuver Lee out of
a swale that offered cover—but from which they
could not advance.
Their predicament resulted in an unfortunate KILLING position. That afternoon
he cut orders for a with-
drawal, set to begin on

GROUND
chain reaction. Colonel Oliver Edwards’ brigade the evening of May 19.
got backed up as a result, and that stacked up But Lee’s Second Corps
Brig. Gen. Daniel Bidwell’s brigade. The Vermont would delay that depar-
brigade of Colonel Lewis Grant, nearly bled-out ture by mounting a raid
weeks earlier at the Wilderness, were supposed to on the Federal rear near
bring up the rear, but the traffic jam forced them to the front. “We soon the Harris Farm, along Grant’s vital line of
overtook the front line and were kindly permitted to take the front,” supply, the Fredericksburg Road. The fight
a survivor noted wryly. The “bursting shell and rattling musketry” also would prove to be a bigger bite than Ewell’s
pinned them down. men could chew, however; after nearly getting
Confederates began slipping around the flank of the trapped brigades, overpowered, they managed to withdraw after
triggering an unsteady retreat by first Edwards’ men and then by Neill’s dark to the safety of their fortifications.
entire division. Their retreat took them “through the tempest of fire,” one And so the fighting around Spotsylvania
soldier said, back to “the sheltering earthworks from which it had come.” Court House drew to a close. Grant kept his

There, they found Ricketts’ division finally in place at its intended jump- word, fighting along the line that summer. But
ing-off point—but watching the carnage on the field, they in no way the exhausting warfare kept going into the fall
intended to jump off. Meanwhile Russell never showed at all. and winter, leading inexorably to Appomattox
To the east, Burnside’s diversion hit a heavily fortified Confederate the following April. ✯
position called Heth’s Salient, where the Federals never stood a chance
of success. Grant, keeping tabs on the stalemate, finally conceded by 10
a.m. that his grand assault was a failure and sent word to his corps com-
manders to call it off. Chris Mackowski, a former historian at Fred-
“This morning, we advanced...over essentially the same ground we ericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military
did on the 12th without accomplishing anything except to meet with Park, teaches at St. Bonaventure University.
very considerable loss,” groused Captain George Bowen. Indeed, North- Kristopher D. White is a former staff historian at
ern losses exceeded 1,500 dead, wounded and missing. Southerners, by Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP and an
contrast, suffered only 250 casualties. “We went it, lost some men and instructor at the Community College of Allegheny
came out again,” one Federal lamented matter-of-factly, “that is all there County. Co-founders of the blog “Emerging Civil
was to it!” War” (emergingcivilwar.com), they have collabo-
For the second time in the span of a week, the land surrounding rated on numerous books and articles.

DECEMBER 2015 39
SHADY SLEUTH
Vigilante-turned-
detective Lafayette
C. Baker assembled a
force of spies to help
eradicate rebellion in
Washington, D.C.

40 CIVIL WAR TIMES

MASTER SPY
SCOUNDREL
OR

LAFAYETTE BAKER, THE NATION’S FIRST FEDERAL
?
POLICE CHIEF, PLAYED ROUGH AND DIRTY
by Julia Bricklin

Among the many colorful characters thrust into the national

spotlight during the war, few have as checkered—and confusing—a story as Lafay-
ette C. Baker, the vigilante-turned-detective appointed by Winfield Scott to head
spying operations for the North. That agency, known as the National Detective
Bureau, was the federal government’s first formal intelligence-gathering operation,
and Baker had free rein in deciding how agents went about spying for the North
and rooting out Confederate sympathizers. ¶ Fast forward a century to the 1960s,
and Baker takes center stage in a controversial theory about a conspiracy to assas-
sinate Abraham Lincoln, headed by Secretary of State Edwin Stanton. Evidence
of such a scheme was based on a welter of details and documents, with the core
evidence being two coded messages in invisible ink—supposedly in Baker’s hand—
alluding to the plot and expressing fears for his life (see sidebar, P. 43). How
might such a theory, now discredited, emerge? Consider the duplicitous tac-
tics Baker employed throughout his life.¶ Baker’s Washington, D.C., career began
after Lincoln appointed Stanton secretary of war and Stanton hired the sleuth as a
special provost marshal. Stanton, who shared Secretary of State William Seward’s
passion for rooting out subversives, funded Baker in assembling a force to eradicate
rebellion in the capital. But Stanton’s staunch anti-subversive stance and Baker’s
thirst for respect and political power would prove to be an unhealthy union.

DECEMBER 2015 41
 The 1856 Committee of Vigilance dis-
banded in August, mostly because its
members had managed to get one of their
own, James Curtis, elected chief of police.
That December, when the city reor-
ganized its law-enforcement forces,

“
L
Baker made the cut. For two years he
immersed himself in crime-fighting.
By July 1857, Officer Baker routinely
appeared as a prosecution witness in City
AFE” BAKER was born on October 13, 1826, in Genessee Court. That August Curtis made him a
County, N.Y., to Remember and Cynthia Baker. Baker’s grandfather, also detective. On December 18, 1857, Baker
named Remember, was a cousin of Ethan Allan who helped capture Fort testified for the prosecution in the rape
Ticonderoga with Allan and the other “Green Mountain Boys” in 1775. case of 12-year-old Margaret Taylor, but
Lafayette’s father served as an officer to General Winfield Scott during the he did not support or refute either side.
War of 1812, and it seems likely that Baker used that family connection to Instead he suggested a third scenario, in
secure an interview with Scott when the Civil War broke out. When Baker which the youngster had been violated
was a teen, the family moved to Lansing, Mich. As a young adult, he traveled by a different person, whom he testified
to New York and then Philadelphia to establish a mercantile business. to having seen taking the girl for buggy
In 1853 Baker decided to try his luck selling goods to gold prospectors in rides away from public eye “at least ten
California. He worked as a paper mill machinist to pay the bills, eventually times.” The detective was apparently not
setting up a mercantile agency with a real estate agent and newspaper distrib- sanctioned at all when the rape story
utor. The two also served as consultants for merchants interested in advertis- turned out to be completely fictional—the
ing in San Francisco papers. Later “Baker & Hoogs” advertised their services girl’s father had made a false accusation
as debt collectors, “prepared to make Collections or demands of any nature,” against her stepfather, in retaliation for
throughout the Western states, territories and British Columbia. This taught not handing over money and property.
Baker how to shape stories for the press, and also enabled him to hone his Baker sometimes followed would-be
strong-arm tactics, always executed in the name of the “public good.” criminals around for days, retrofitting
It’s not surprising that Baker soon enlisted in what became information to make himself look bril-
one of the West’s most successful vigilante organizations. liant. On March 21, 1858, for example,
In the mid-1850s, San Francisco was plagued by the Daily Alta reported how
vice, corruption and crime. The San Francisco Baker nabbed shoplifters at
Committee of Vigilance, organized on June 14, a boot store: “Detective
1851, enrolled more than 700 members and Baker, who has had his
maintained a headquarters where suspects suspicions of certain well
were incarcerated, interrogated and tried known thieves, took it
without counsel and due process. By the time it into his head yesterday to
disbanded that September, the Committee had secrete himself into a room
arrested hundreds and executed four men. next to theirs, and boring
In 1856 the Committee reorganized with a a hole in the intervening
vengeance, partially in response to the murder of wall, awaited with his usual
a local newspaper editor, but largely because its patience their arrival.”
officers—many of whom had headed the 1851 When the alleged thieves
committee—saw an opportunity to cleanse the arrived, they apparently de-
city of Democratic Party influence and incorpo- tailed the entire theft ring to
rate its own “People’s Party.” The Committee of each other, but implicated some-
1856 enrolled about 5,000 men who patrolled SILVER one else entirely, one John Smith,
the streets, conducted investigations, held trials SHIELD alias “Old Man.” Baker subsequently
without benefit for the accused, deported citi- As head of the U.S. arrested Smith who, he said, was the cul-
zens and defied writs of habeas corpus. Military Detectives in prit he had suspected all along.
Jacob Mogelever, author of Death to Traitors: 1865, Baker helped track On April 29, 1858, Baker resigned for
The Story of General Lafayette C. Baker, Lincoln’s down John Wilkes Booth reasons that are unclear, though they might
Forgotten Secret Service Chief, writes: “Baker and Dr. Samuel Mudd. have had something to do with increasing
gloried in his service as a Vigilante. It gave him scrutiny of Curtis’ department, which was
a sense of power even though he never achieved a higher rank than that of accused of profiting from reward money
private….He ran with the pack, but he learned the twin arts of disguise and handed out by insurance companies and
deception.” Mogelever also notes that Baker thought a brain was better than a banks. That summer Baker drifted, seem-
gun, perhaps a kind nod toward Baker’s later avoidance of combat in the war. ingly unable to shed his cloak-and-dagger

42 CIVIL WAR TIMES

routine, and even telling the Sacramento Bee that he had
been hiding in a Nevada prison, disguised as an inmate so
he could gain further particulars from three men accused of
robbing a Wells Fargo stagecoach.
That August Yuba County officials arrested Baker for
receiving stolen property, though the charges were ulti-
LAFAYETTE BAKER
mately dropped. The ex-officer tried desperately to hold
onto his law-and-order image in civilian life, setting up a
telegraph office in downtown San Francisco and delivering
CONSPIRACY
what he deemed interesting updates to the newspapers.
Baker sailed for New York on the ship Golden Age on
January 1, 1861. He later claimed he had planned to attend
to some mercantile business back east for a short period.
THEORIST
Did Edwin Stanton engineer President
But Mrs. Baker accompanied her husband. Regardless of
Lincoln’s assassination, as part of a plot
his actual purpose, according to Edwin C. Fischel, author
to seize control of the U.S. government?
of The Secret War of the Union, Baker entered the service in
February 1861, perhaps as a detective for Charles P. Stone, Was Lafayette C. Baker, former chief
the new inspector general of Washington, D.C., under Scott. of Stanton’s National Detective Police
Initially, Baker was responsible only for helping secure Force, poisoned to ensure his silence
Lincoln’s safety in and around the capital. Even after the about that bizarre scheme?
inauguration and the commencement of war that April, his
THOSE QUESTIONS were raised by Robert H.
duties were fairly mundane: recovering government horses,
Fowler, then editor of Civil War Times Illustrated.
and securing shipping depots, train stations and abandoned
Fowler went so far as to devote his entire
Confederate property in Virginia. But meanwhile Scott
August 1961 issue to sensational theories
formed the National Detective Bureau, and on February based on research by Ray Neff, an
15, 1862, Secretary of State William H. Seward transferred Indiana State University professor and
the Bureau to the War Department, then under Edwin M. Civil War buff who claimed to have
Stanton. Baker brought nearly 60 subordinate detectives discovered two ciphered messages by
with him when he moved to the War Department. Baker in an 1864 volume of Colburn’s
C. Wyatt Evans, who has examined Secret Service United Secret Service Magazine.
accounts and written numerous articles on Baker, says the According to theories promulgated by
detective’s extensive travels and ability to hire so many sub- Neff and others during the 1960s, the plot came
ordinates so quickly were likely part of Seward’s efforts to about because Stanton, as well as Vice President
establish a network of agents in the major cities, ports of Andrew Johnson and Congressional Radicals, had
entry and along the Canadian border. On March 30, 1862, been furious that Lincoln planned to treat the South
Baker was appointed a special agent of the War Depart- leniently during Reconstruction—so they enlisted
ment, and the expenses paid to him and his network reveal Baker and Assistant Secretary of State Major
he was aggressively tracking down and arresting individuals Thomas Eckert to recruit a presidential assassin.
deemed disloyal—numbering in the hundreds. In the ciphers supposedly discovered by Neff,
But as the war continued, reports of Baker’s alleged written in invisible ink and resurrected using tannic
solicitation of bribes and unsubstantiated finger-point- acid, Baker detailed how Stanton plotted Lincoln’s
ing started to appear in the newspapers. Perhaps officials murder, conspiring with at least 11 members of
would have continued to look the other way—after all, the Congress as well as a governor. Baker also wrote of
“constantly being followed” and expressed fear for his
spies and contraband-movers flitting in and out of Wash-
life before dying in 1868. Conspiracy theorists seized
ington needed to be tracked—but he started to become a
on this story to speculate that Baker had actually
real nuisance. Baker’s men repeatedly ran afoul of military
died of arsenic poisoning rather than succumbing to
officers, according to Edwin Fischel. Brig. Gen. Marsena meningitis, as certified by his doctors.
Patrick finally complained to Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, The provenance of Neff’s ciphers has never been
saying, “[Baker’s] detectives have systematically robbed the confirmed, and numerous historians later criticized
officers and men of this Army of Clothing, subsistence, both Neff and Fowler for promoting unfounded con-
mess & other stores and necessaries.” He added, “…from spiracy theories in the magazine. And 20 years later
my knowledge of their Chief ‘Baker’ I believe him to be William C. Davis, a subsequent Civil War Times Illus-
capable of making any statement however false, & of com- trated editor, ran a series of editorials about the 1961
mitting any act, however criminal and damaging the Public article, effectively debunking many of the outlandish
Service to gratify his own passions.” Maj. Gens. Ambrose claims that had been promoted via the story.
Burnside and Joseph Hooker reportedly looked the other
way at Baker’s intrusions because the detective was aware of
their own indiscretions, involving prostitutes and gambling.

DECEMBER 2015 43
O N NOVEMBER 10, 1863, the Washington Evening Star
reported Baker’s provost marshal position had been eliminated. There were
rumors that the detective had attempted to gather intelligence on his own
boss, Stanton, by tapping telegraph wires—but it could also be that Bak-
er’s force was seen as superfluous. Baker himself was still paid by Stanton
subordinates for various duties, and he even headed his own “First District
Calvary” for awhile, though he was paid on an ad-hoc basis.
Shortly after Baker’s formal separation from the War Department, he
was indicted for trespass, as well as libel and false imprisonment of Treasury
employee Dr. Stewart Gwynne, whom he had accused of stealing and put in
Old Capitol penitentiary for three months. What Secretary of the Treasury
Salmon P. Chase had intended to be a perfunctory audit, under pressure from
New York Congressman James Brooks, turned out to be a disaster; Baker
interviewed and harassed the Treasury staff for weeks on end. According to
several newspapers, including the Chicago Times, Baker even hired prostitutes
to testify that they had participated in orgies with Treasury employees.
A congressional committee chaired by James A. Garfield that investigated
those charges in June 1864 found Baker was very active during the whole
investigation in assisting Brooks to find testimony, and that “nearly every wit-
ness summoned to prove the alleged immoralities in the Treasury was previ-
ously manipulated by him…a written abstract was made by him of what the
testimony would be.”
At one point just before Baker arrested Gwynne, he reportedly “arrested
a funeral procession, took from the coffin the corpse a young lady, late an
employee of the Treasury Department, charging that she had died in an
attempt to procure an abortion, the result of immoralities in the Treasury FORT VIGILANCE
Department.” Not surprisingly, Chase and Stanton did not lend any support During Baker’s membership in the San
to Baker when that episode came to light. But Baker was not punished— Francisco Committee of Vigilance, the
other than being fined $1. vigilantes incarcerated and interrogated
The court of public opinion turned against Baker after those revelations. suspects inside this converted warehouse
The once admiring San Francisco Bulletin reported: “He is sharp, shrewd, on Sacramento Street.
unscrupulous. He was for awhile our municipal police, while Curtis was
Chief, but was expelled for what particular offense we do not remember.
During his service, his house “was robbed” just as he had collected $1,000 of bizarre behavior in other cases could have
license money.” The article went on to say that Baker’s mercantile business supported such theories. It’s also worth
had solicited funds from businessmen and placed them on the “exchange in noting that Baker pursued a prolonged
New York, which turned out to be utterly worthless.” The paper also invited fight for the bulk of the reward money for
“the Administration” to look no further than San Francisco if it needed more capturing Booth in the press and with a
testimony to his wickedness or untrustworthiness. congressional committee, and this public
Baker’s public career might have ended then had it not been for Lincoln’s fracas undid any goodwill he had earned
murder. Desperate times call for desperate measures, however; Stanton with Booth’s capture. The resulting noto-
recalled Baker, who used his network to help corner John Wilkes Booth at riety also led to speculation the detective
Richard Garrett’s farm. Baker was promoted to brigadier general as a result. had produced a corpse in order to obtain
It is in connection with the assassination that the conspiracy theories the lion’s share of the reward.
involving Baker, Booth, Stanton, Seward and others later surfaced. One story Baker’s subsequent escapades provided
is that Baker’s men actually killed a fellow named Boyd, rather than Booth, the newspapers with even more fodder.
but succeeded in passing Boyd’s corpse off as the presidential assassin’s. The On November 16, 1865, a grand jury in
myriad details of that plot are hard to follow, but it’s easy to see that Baker’s the District of Columbia indicted him for

44 CIVIL WAR TIMES

unlawfully imprisoning Joseph Cobb on charges of pardon sion increased. In the process, she had various doctors write
brokering, and robbing Lucy, Cobb’s wife. On March 28, affidavits stressing virtually the same thing—that her hus-
1866, Baker was found guilty of some of those charges, but band had not been “afflicted with any mental aberration
once again was fined only $1 plus costs. That same month of the mind” between his discharge from service and his
he informed newspapers that he suspected Andersonville death. Yet she simultaneously sought to connect his death
prison chief Henry Wirz would try to take his own life to to “mental excitement to which he was subjected while in
martyr himself for the South. Then Baker claimed he had the service.” In retrospect, both types of testimonials seem
prevented Mrs. Wirz from slipping her husband a dose of to suggest that her late husband might not have been a very
strychnine while giving him a kiss in his Old Capitol cell. stable individual.
But Mrs. Wirz’s attorney produced affidavits from wit- The question remains: Did the former chief of detectives
nesses who swore that she had actually been hundreds of write ciphers in a detective manual that was penned after
miles away at the time. his dismissal, alluding to a government conspiracy against
The War Department eventually stopped paying Baker’s Abraham Lincoln? Maybe, maybe not. But it is all too
expenses. And in January 1866, President Andrew Johnson plausible, given the many enemies he had made during his

had Baker escorted from the White House, after discover- career, that Baker believed government agents wanted to kill
ing that the former detective had been spying on him too. him. If there was anyone in Civil War history who was likely
Baker moved back to Philadelphia sometime before May to make up such a story, it was Lafayette C. Baker—and he
1867 and began working on a book of his “remembrances” would have believed his own words. ✯
with the Rev. J.T. Headly, and probably a few others. During
many of his final days the former detective was often fever-
ish and bedridden. He died on July 3, 1868, at age 42, of
what his physician specified was meningitis. Julia Bricklin last contributed to CWT in December 2013,
Mrs. Baker would try for years to get her widow’s pen- when she profiled Thomas Brigham Bishop, “The Music Man.”

DECEMBER 2015 45
RODMAN’S

BIG GUN

A MASSIVE NEW UNION WEAPON

COULD SINK A SHIP WITH A SINGLE SHELL,
BUT WAS NEVER FIRED IN ANGER

BY Andrew Masich
SLOW SPIN
Thomas Rodman’s
huge 20-inch
cannon rests atop an
equally huge lathe
in the Fort Pitt
Foundry. Foundry
superintendent Joseph
Kaye sits at right.
T
HE MASSIVE CANNON belched smoke and VIP MISADVENTURE
flame, hurtling a 10,080-pound shell from its A 12-inch wrought-iron
cannon explodes (above)
barrel at more than 1,700 feet per second—nearly during a February 1844
twice the velocity of a Minié ball fired from a rifle. demonstration aboard
Nearby windows rattled and broke as the shock USS Princeton. That
horrif ic accident spurred
wave traveled from Fort Hamilton over Brooklyn, Lieutenant Thomas
N.Y. Then the gun crew reloaded the behemoth, Rodman to experiment
lowering the barrel to an elevation of 25 degrees. with a “water-core” casting
method (illustrated in the
This time the 20-inch ball hurtled through the air for a full 24 seconds, patent drawing, opposite).
splashing into the water 3½ miles away. Thomas J. Rodman’s ship-
killing cannon, the largest gun made during the Civil War, had spoken.

48 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 The genesis of that gun and the new gen-
eration of armament it inspired was rooted in
a tragic mishap on February 28, 1844, when
Commodore Robert Stockton hosted a who’s
who of Washington society. He had invited
some 400 guests for a Potomac River cruise
aboard USS Princeton, including President
John Tyler, Secretary of State Abel Upshur,
Navy Secretary Thomas Gilmer, Senator
Thomas Hart Benton and former First Lady
Dolley Madison. The VIPs were to be treated
to a demonstration of the fleet’s most powerful
cannon, dubbed the “Peacemaker,” a 12-inch
wrought-iron gun with a reinforcing band
shrunk onto its breech, designed by John Erics-
son. Though skilled British workers had forged
a prototype to Ericsson’s exacting specifica-
tions, the Peacemaker commissioned by Com-
modore Stockton was an American-made copy
that did not measure up to those standards.
When the gun captain pulled the lanyard
aboard Princeton, an explosion rocked the
ship, killing six people and seriously wounding
another 20. The gun had been blown to pieces,
along with the closest dignitaries, including
Upshur and Gilmer.
Ordnance Department Lieutenant Thomas
Jackson Rodman, then only three years out of
West Point, set out to get to the root of the
accident. He would focus his considerable tal-
ents on finding a solution to the problem of
catastrophic failure in large-caliber guns. Rod-
man recognized that wrought-iron and bronze
weapons could not withstand the high stresses
demanded of Columbiads—America’s largest
class of guns, introduced by Colonel George
Bomford in 1811 for seacoast defense—and
warship cannons. Though iron had been used
to manufacture cannons for hundreds of years,
large-caliber guns made of that metal had
earned a reputation for blowing up.
Rodman theorized, however, that the fault the inside out. He would cast the guns hollow, pouring molten metal into
lay not with the iron itself but the casting a mold around a hollow iron core, an iron pipe through which air and
process. As a newly cast cannon cooled in its cold water could be pumped, to cool the casting from the inside.
mold, it hardened from the outside, until the But when Rodman explained his proposed manufacturing method at
molten core finally set up. The gun was then Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Arsenal, where he was stationed, and also to then
laboriously bored to the desired caliber and Chief of Ordnance Colonel Bomford and General George Talcott, there
finished on the outside. Raised rings known as was little interest. The lieutenant was told that the Army was not inter-
reinforces, positioned where the gun telescoped ested in his idea—though he was free to pursue it on his own.
from the thickest part of the breech down to
the narrowest part at the muzzle, were believed ON AUGUST 14, 1847, Rodman was awarded Patent No. 5,236 for
to strengthen the weapon. Speculating that his cannon. By 1849, he had worked out a partnership with Pittsburgh’s
air-cooling made the guns harder and denser Charles Knapp and William Totten, owners of the Fort Pitt Foundry,
on the outside and left them relatively soft and assigning his patent to them. In exchange for their funded research and
weak in the center, Rodman found he could development of his weapon, they agreed to pay him a half cent per pound
drive a cold chisel its entire length into the for every finished cannon cast using his system. The foundry soon cast a
cast-iron core as easily as if it were wood. prototype 8-inch Columbiad on Rodman’s principle, followed by 10-inch
He opted instead to cool the casting from Columbiads. Finding that cracks usually occurred at any spots where a

DECEMBER 2015 49
gun’s exterior contour abruptly changed, Rod-
man eliminated any reinforces. His cannons
took on the smooth “soda bottle” shape that
became their most distinguishing character-
istic. Testing with double charges and double
shots, followed by repeated firing with service
Thomas
loads, demonstrated the design’s efficacy. A
solid-core gun cast from the same batch of iron
Jackson
burst after only 74 test rounds, while Rodman’s
“water-core” gun showed no discernable wear
Rodman
to the bore, chamber or vent after 1,300 rounds.
By 1860, the Ordnance Department had
ordered 8- and 10-inch Columbiads, as well
as a 15-inch version with a 16-foot-long bar-
rel weighing nearly 50,000 pounds. The largest
gun cast in America to that time, it was dubbed
the “Union Gun” and sent to Fort Monroe, Va.,
for further testing in March 1860.
As Southern states began seceding from the Thomas Jackson Rodman was born in 1816 near Salem, Ind., the son
Union in 1861, the War Department ordered of James Rodman and his Virginian wife, Elizabeth Burton. Entering
the U.S. Military Academy in West Point in 1837, Thomas would
Rodman guns in 8-, 10- and 15-inch calibers.
graduate seventh of 52 cadets, and in 1841 was appointed a brevet
On April 15, soon after Confederate guns
second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Ordnance Department.
blasted Fort Sumter into submission, Rod- At Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Arsenal, Rodman built the first machine
man signaled that he could cast an even bigger capable of making Minié balls and other bullets by compression
weapon—weighing more than 100,000 pounds rather than casting molten lead. He received patents for hollow
and capable of hurling a 20-inch, half-ton iron casting large cannons as well improvements in cartridges for breech-
ball up to five miles and destroying a ship with loading small arms. His progressive-burning perforated cake gun
a single shot. But initially the need for 8-, powder for seacoast and naval artillery is still used today.
10- and 15-inch weapons to protect cities— Rodman spent most of the war years commanding the Watertown
including Washington—and seacoast defenses Arsenal in Massachusetts, and his inspector’s initials can be seen
took precedence over the 20-inch project. stamped on the muzzles of U.S. ordnance ranging in size from the
diminutive 12-pounder mountain howitzer to the largest Rodman
BY LATE 1863, Rodman’s hollow-casting Columbiads. By the war’s end, he was still an “unconfirmed major,”
technique was standard for Model 1860 Co- according to his own testimony before Senator Ben Wade’s Joint
lumbiads of his own design as well as other Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, which was
cannons, including Admiral John A. Dahl- investigating charges of war profiteering and disloyalty.
gren’s 9-, 11- and 13-inch naval shell guns. Suspicions about Rodman likely resulted from jealousy within the
Though Fort Pitt Foundry was still producing Army over royalties (a half cent per pound) he supposedly received
most of the big guns, the West Point Foundry for the guns cast using his hollow-casting method. But enemies and
in New York, Boston’s Cyrus Alger works and competitors questioned his loyalty when he failed to fire salutes at
Seyfert, McManus & Co. in Reading, Pa., also the war’s end—and the fact his mother was a Virginian could also
began manufacturing siege guns, mortars, naval have raised concerns (she may have been a relative of Confederate
chief of armories James H. Burton). Though admired for his work in
guns and Columbiads using Rodman’s process.
the Ordnance Department, Rodman spent many years defending
When Rodman was finally authorized to
his conduct. He ended his career as commander of the Rock Island
create a 20-inch weapon, Charles Knapp and Arsenal in Illinois, where he died in 1871.
new partner H.F. Rudd supervised 280 work-
ers at the Fort Pitt Foundry who excavated a
casting pit so deep that it had to be shored up and lined, to prevent the into the mold at 10 a.m. The foundry men
water table from filling it. The pit was engineered to accommodate a pumped water down through the core at a rate
multi-piece iron flask containing a sand mold formed on an oversized of 60 gallons per minute, then captured the
wooden model measuring 6 feet, at it widest point, by 25 feet. Five fur- heated water as it returned to the top through
naces burned for five hours to melt the 105 tons of “Juniata” pig iron flutes scored into the fire clay coating that sur-
needed for the continuous pour. Two smaller furnaces stood by as back- rounded the core barrel. Two days later the
ups, while the three primary furnaces were connected by troughs, to pool water was shut off and cold air was forced
their molten streams in a clay-lined collector before the molten metal through the core. Four days after that, cranes
was funneled into the mold. hoisted the cooled casting from the pit and
On February 11, 1864, Rodman joined ordnance officers and observ- moved it to the boring machine, which enlarged
ers from England and Italy to watch as the red-hot metal began flowing the bore from 17 to 20 inches. A mammoth

50 CIVIL WAR TIMES

‘FORGE OF THE UNION’
Vignettes published in Harper’s Weekly in 1862
show Fort Pitt Foundry’s skilled workers at a
number of their tasks. From right: Ironworkers
f inish the trunnions that attach the barrel to
a carriage; molten iron pours into a vertical
cannon mold and a huge lathe slowly rotates
a Rodman tube as it is bored out. The last
illustration shows the molds used in casting one
of USS Monitor’s Dahlgren cannons.

DECEMBER 2015 51
 lathe then turned and smoothed the 80-ton
casting into a finished gun more than 20 feet
Rodman’s Huge cannon long and weighing 116,497 pounds.Twen-

returns to Pittsburgh ty-four horses and an army of foundry workers

maneuvered the barrel to a railroad spur, where
two flatcars with double trucks (iron wheels)
waited. The journey to Brooklyn’s Fort Hamil-
ton took nearly a month, moving at a crawl, to
avoid excessive friction on the rails.
Rodman had an 18-ton, front pintle, iron
barbette carriage fabricated at the Watertown
Arsenal that was placed at Fort Hamilton’s
lower battery, alongside the 15-inch Rodmans
overlooking the mouth of the Hudson River.
The upper portion of the riveted iron carriage
that would cradle the gun was designed to slide
on rails pitched at a 15-degree angle, but the
huge barrel was expected to absorb most of the
recoil. Rodman was so confident the powder
charges would not budge the barrel from its
balance point that the oversized pivoting trun-
nions were not even capped.

THE BIG GUN would be fired only six times

during the war, using charges of slower-burn-
ing gunpowder (each grain measured nearly
an inch across)—also designed by Rodman—
varying from 50 to 150 pounds (regular can-
non powder was too fine-grained and would
burn too rapidly, creating dangerously high
pressures even for Rodman’s guns). To make
the powder burn more thoroughly and pre-
Well, to be fair, it’s actually a pride for Pittsburghers during the dictably, the inventor formed cylindrical and
copy of the original, but still Civil War. Some residents were hexagonal cakes of compressed powder, pierced
majestic. In 2013, the LF Creative even concerned that General with wires: perforated cake powder that would
Group created a styrofoam Robert E. Lee’s 1863 Pennsylva- burn progressively, to ensure internal pressures
model, reinforced with steel and nia campaign might turn toward remained within the safe range while impart-
coated with black fiberglass, of Pittsburgh in an effort to destroy ing maximum propellant force to the projectile.
Thomas Rodman’s enormous its military industry. Their fears, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton attended
20-inch cannon that was placed of course, were unfounded. the test firing, as a nine-man crew loaded the
on display at the Senator John Current residents and visitors gun with a 100-pound blank charge. The first
Heinz Regional History Cen- to the museum can share in that shot was a misfire, since the standard friction
ter (heinzhistorycenter.org) sense of pride when they take in primer was not strong enough to send a flame
in downtown Pittsburgh. The the stunning size of the cannon the full 24-inch length of the vent hole drilled
massive barbette carriage that exhibit. As author Andy Masich, through the cannon’s thick iron breech, known
supported the gun was also who is also the president and as the “preponderance.” Once the charge was
re-created. Together the repro- CEO of the Heinz History Cen- pulled and the vent cleared by a volunteer,
duction items weigh an impres- ter, said in an interview when who crawled 20 feet down the bore and con-
sive 18,000 pounds. the facsimilie went on display, firmed the primer flash had been inadequate,
The images above show the “Pittsburgh was the arsenal for
the gun was reloaded and its vent filled with
re-created barrel being installed the Union, and factories here
fine-grained powder. The roar was deafening
and displayed. The Heinz History could do things that could not be
Center is located very close to done anywhere else in the world. when the lanyard was yanked this time, report-
the original location of the Fort Nothing epitomizes that better edly breaking windows in Brooklyn. The bar-
Pitt Foundry, a source of local than a 20-inch Rodman cannon.” rel remained in the iron cheeks, but the entire
upper carriage recoiled 6 feet 10 inches, sliding
back along the iron rails as envisioned.
Once they saw Rodman’s big gun worked,
however, officials apparently lost interest. Fur-

52 CIVIL WAR TIMES

ther testing was not carried out until 1867, CELEBRITY ORDNANCE The big Rodman commanded attention for
when—loaded with 200-pounds of Rodman’s years after the Civil War. This image shows it at the 1876 Centennial
improved cake powder—the half-ton ball flew International Exposition in Philadelphia. The loading crane holds a
nearly five miles, obliterating a target ship. 1,080-pound solid shot, which the cannon could f ire as far as 4½ miles.
Rodman went on to design devices to more
accurately measure projectile velocities (1,735
feet per second), and the internal and exter- the ball and load the gun, as well as a variety of 20-inch rounds: explosive
nal forces exerted by his weapons. Though his shells (each capable of holding a 25-pound bursting charge), solid shot
20-inch gun was never deployed against an (weighing 1,080 pounds each) and “cored shot” (with a small hollow
enemy—and only two of the giant cannons cavity to reduce weight and extend the gun’s range).
were cast—Rodman’s guns were regarded as a The Ordnance Board eventually tried to upgrade the big smooth-
potent symbol of the North’s industrial might. bores by reducing the bore diameter with inserted rifled sleeves, creating
elongated projectiles and designing more easily traversed gun carriages,
IN 1876, when America celebrated its cen- but by the 1880s most ordnance experts realized that built-up guns fab-
tennial with an exposition in Philadelphia, ricated from steel were the future.

one of every Rodman weapon was exhibited, Though Rodman’s mammoth guns never fired a shot in anger, they
including one of the 20-inch guns, which had were spared the scrap drives occasioned by subsequent wars. The largest
formerly guarded Norfolk, Va., and Hampton iron cannons ever cast, they can still be seen today at Fort Hamilton and
Roads. Getting the biggest gun to the expo- across the Narrows at Sandy Hook, N.J. ✯
sition was no easy task. The 100-ton ship on
which it was loaded nearly capsized when the
crane operator failed to center the big gun on
the deck. The big gun was the hit of the expo- Andrew Masich is president and CEO of the Senator John Heinz History
sition. Displayed with it were the 20-foot long Center, the largest history museum in Pennsylvania, and chairman of the
rammers and hook-shaped winch used to hoist Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

DECEMBER 2015 53
 TABLET WARS
CIVIL WAR APPS LET YOU
ENTER THE FIGHT FROM THE
COMFORT OF YOUR COUCH
review by Megan Kate Nelson

There are several different kinds of Civil War apps out there. Mostly they fall into four categories:

1 BATTLEFIELD GUIDES
Download these before a visit to
a battlefield park, and the app
3 RANDOM CONTENT
DELIVERY SYSTEMS
There are several of these.
4 GAMES
Surprisingly few and
far between, Civil
provides an interactive 3D map I downloaded one: a Civil War War game apps put
and guide. Photographs app, which launched the player “on the
into a very basic interface ground” in a series

2 EDUCATIONAL TOOLS
Want to test your own knowledge
about the war? Or need an
displaying more than 50 images
(likely cribbed from the Library
of Congress website). They are
of battles. They
require multiple
tasks, but mostly the
intuitive app to help your kid organized into thematic sections player moves troops
study for a history test? These are but include no citations, context around and shoots
the apps for you. or actual historical content. to kill.

T
hat last category of apps interested me most, as single and
multi-player games seem to be the most creative use of app
technology for (potentially) historical purposes, with the
widest audience appeal. So on a dreary Saturday in March I
sat down on a couch with a 10-year-old boy named Caleb and handed him my
iPhone. I would not do this in the ordinary course, you understand. But I am not
what one would call a “gamer,” and I needed an expert in such matters—who
also happens to be a pint-sized Civil War buff—to try three different game apps,
which I downloaded from the Apple App store. Caleb agreed to help out, and we
settled in for the greater part of the afternoon.

54 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 F
CANNON irst up was Cannon Shooter: American Civil War (Onteca
SHOOTER: Ltd., 2014), a simple, single-shooter game in which the
AMERICAN player is an artilleryman, adjusting the cannon’s height and
CIVIL WAR direction in order to blow away groups of enemy soldiers approaching
from all directions.
The game did not get off to a good start; yellow boxes appeared
where I presume text or images should have been. We could only guess
that these were options for battle sites and situations. Caleb: “I’m
already not liking this much.”
After some random pressing and swiping on different boxes, we
were suddenly in the action. The battery was on a low ridge overlooking
a valley, with a high railroad bridge soaring up over it in the far left
“The graphics distance. Caleb figured out how to play the game pretty quickly and
proceeded to take out groups of enemy soldiers. When the shells
are really bad. landed, the explosions catapulted the digital bodies into the air. Some
The shooting never returned, others landed with an audible thud on the ground. The
itself was player must keep sweeping the area, as enemy combatants continue to
too easy.” appear. You accumulate points with kills, of course. But we are not sure
how the game comes to a natural end, for ours ended with a pop-up ad.

CIVIL WAR:
N
ext we uploaded Civil War: 1864 chose the first on the list, probably for expedi-
1864 (Free version, Hunted Cow Stu- ency’s sake. This one is called “Ascension,” for
dios Ltd., 2014), a game that’s no apparent reason. Finally, the player chooses
much more complicated than Cannon Shooter. to make the game “easy,” “standard,” or “hard.”
We also moved from the iPhone to my com- Caleb chose “easy,” as it was his first time.
puter, although this game is probably ideal for In this initial foray into the game, however,
an iPad. There’s martial music from the start he did not bother with the tutorials. This led
(heavy on the trumpet and drums) and sophis- to some nice surprises as the game unfolded,
ticated graphics. And there is some attempt and as he figured out how to move his troops
to bring actual history into it—although you around and fire guns and artillery. The player
have to click through to the Game Summary has only a certain amount of time to do this;
“Easy to and “1864” to read a very short explanation then the “enemy” (the program) takes its turn.
control, but of the events during that year. The summary Note that the screen did not capture the entire
the game is emphasizes Grant’s war of attrition, Sherman’s battlefield, so every now and again an enemy
hard because campaign in Georgia and the fact that at this unit popped up, seemingly out of nowhere.
there are point “the Confederacy was ultimately fight- Caleb: “Whoa! What was that? Man!”
time limits.” ing and losing a defensive war.” It did not take him very long to get wise
Civil War: 1864 is a tactical game in which to these tactics, though, and he scanned the
the player moves infantry, cavalry and artillery battlefield whenever he wasn’t moving troops
around in order to defeat the enemy on
an unspecified battlefield. The fights are
in close quarters, with massed troops of
only about 100 soldiers on each side.
First the player chooses a side,
Union or Confederate. Caleb clicked
on “Union” without hesitation. He had
no explanation for his choice, but it was
likely because he is a Massachusetts boy,
born and bred.
Next the player chooses a cam-
paign—but actually there is no choice
if you don’t want to pay. You can play
“Division” for free but must purchase
the right to play “Cold Steel,” “Duty
and Pride,” and “Blockade.” The free
play offers four different games; Caleb

56 CIVIL WAR TIMES

or firing on Confederates, guessing where the nating all of the enemy’s soldiers; by killing
next group of enemy infantry would appear. the opposing general; or by protecting the
Most of the time he was right—and he started majority of his own troops by the time the
talking back to the game: “I did NOT see that game reaches its 20th “turn.” Caleb lost the
coming! BOOM! Neither. Did. They.” first game—an artillery assault took out his
The player can win Civil War: 1864 in general—and that stoked the fire. “I want to
several different ways: by completely elimi- try again,” he said. “This game is more like it.”

“Because I feel like it,” he said with a shrug.


Next up: difficulty level. The options here
ULTIMATE are nuanced and offer a range of strategic
GENERAL: attitudes, from “cunning” to “dynamic” to “bal-
GETTYSBURG anced.” Caleb chose “cautious,” again because
it was his first game. He also skipped the tuto-
rials and went straight to the game; therefore, RECAP
it took a little while for him to figure out how
“A ton easier to control, to move his troops in and out of position. ★★★★★
graphics are great.” Me: “How are you doing that?” Caleb: “I have Ultimate General:
no idea.” Gettysburg:
“There are no turns, But moving troops around—and learning 5 out of 5 stars
everybody is moving all from your mistakes—is the entire point of “Great. Amazing.
the game. The player controls several differ- Greatazing.”
the time, like a real battle.” ent units on the battlefield, enabling them to
charge or fall back, firing rifles or artillery. The ★★★★★
game progresses in something approximat- Civil War: 1864:
3 out of 5 stars

T
he final game of the day was ing real time: about 10 seconds of game per
Ultimate General: Gettysburg minute of battle, on either July 1, 2 or 3. There “Not a total
(version 1.1.2; Gamelabs LLC, is a clock running, and a bar in the upper left nightmare.”
2015). You must pay for this game, and it’s corner of the screen keeps tabs on casualties,
pricey: $14.99, and downloadable to your troop morale and ammunition availability. ★★★★★
computer or iPad. The graphics and music are Other updates appear in pop-ups: “9:52 a.m. Cannon Shooter:
American Civil War:


impressive. The map of the town of Gettys- General Wadsworth’s division has arrived
0 out of 5 stars
burg and the battlefield are incredibly detailed from the south. The Iron Brigade will teach
“Horrible. Don’t buy
and look to be accurate. As in Civil War: 1864, the Rebels a good lesson!”
it, even if it’s free.”
first the player chooses a side. In Ultimate There are no points to accumulate in
General: Gettysburg, though, there are expla- Ultimate General: Gettysburg, no real way of
nations: comparing your tactical skill to John Buford’s
“The Union deploys efficient artillery, bet- or George Meade’s. The player’s actions and
ter drilled infantry, and better equip-ment…. achievements depend on the side, the day (and
However, most Union generals are uninspir- time of day), and the portion of the battlefield.
ing comparing [sic] to the Confederate army On the morning of July 1, Caleb’s job was to
leaders. This causes poor performance in close delay the Confederate advance and protect
contact and average morale.” his reinforcement and supply line. He was
“Confederate soldiers are universally high transfixed.
spirited and courageous. They are able to sus- When the first part of the game came to
tain heavy fire without breaking and are hard, an end (around noon on July 1), he frowned.
experienced troops. Confederate equipment is “I really like this one! I want to keep going!”
though [sic] less advanced and they lack pro- His parents let him play into the afternoon of
fessional military training, leading to disad- the 1st and he blissed out, using the track pad
vantages in prolonged engagements at range.” to trace arrows on the battlefield, directing
There are many sweeping generalizations in regiments back and forth, yelling periodically.
these descriptions, and they hew quite closely When dusk ended the battle for the day (both
to the tenets of the Lost Cause narrative. Based digitally and in real life), it was time for me to
on these portrayals, I think the programmers shut down the game, pack up my laptop and
are steering you toward the Confederates. go. Caleb was mournful. “I’m sad to have it
But once again Caleb chose the Union. Why? leave,” he said. ✯

DECEMBER 2015 57
EXPLORE

REBEL CROSSING
Maj. Gen. Joseph Kershaw’s
Confederate division splashed
across Bowman’s Mill Ford on
Cedar Creek during its night
march to surprise the Union army.


CEDAR CREEK
Desperate Struggle in a Beautiful Place

THE OCTOBER 19, 1864, Battle of Cedar Creek was one of the war’s great seesaw affairs. Lt. Gen.
Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley boiled out of the early-morning darkness and slammed into Maj. Gen.
Philip Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah, camped across high ground above Cedar Creek, a picturesque
Shenandoah Valley stream just south of Middletown, Va., routing the Union troops. But by mid-morning
Sheridan, who had been away in Washington, arrived from Winchester in time to rally his troops for a
counterattack that carried the day for the Union. That victory came three weeks before the Northern
presidential contest and helped secure Lincoln’s reelection. The battle was a sprawling affair that traversed
some eight miles of ground along the Valley Pike, on which Middletown sits, and which today is known
as Route 11. Despite the site’s significance, not a lot of the land was protected until 1988, when the Cedar
Creek Battlefield Foundation bought a section of the core battlefield. Several organizations now partner
to protect the Cedar Creek battlefield, with more acreage saved every year. Despite being located just 20
minutes south of Winchester and near the intersection of busy Interstates 81 and 66, Middletown remains
a quaint town with one stoplight, great mountain views and restaurants to reenergize battlefield explorers.

58 CIVIL WAR TIMES


Maj. Gen. Stephen Dodson Ramseur, one
of Jubal Early’s division commanders, was
mortally wounded during the Union’s afternoon
BELLE GROVE Before the battle, Sheridan pitched counterattack at Cedar Creek. Federal cavalrymen
his headquarters tents at the stately home that Isaac Hite captured Ramseur’s ambulance and brought him
Jr. and his wife Nelly, James Madison’s sister, built in 1797 back to Belle Grove. A number of Northern friends

out of local limestone—with features inspired by Thomas from his days at West Point, including George
Jefferson’s Monticello. Newspaper correspondent and sketch Custer, came to pay their respects before he died,
artist James E. Taylor recalled that by 1864, “ruthless war a scene depicted by James Taylor.
had already made a waste of the ornate grounds.” Things
got worse on October 19, when the Confederate attack tore
through the XIX Corps camps on Belle Grove’s front lawn.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Belle
Grove Plantation Foundation have restored the home to
its former glory. The view of Massanutten Mountain is
magnificent, but also remember to look for the bullet-struck SHERIDAN’S TRUSTY
column at the mansion’s front entrance. bellegrove.org
(and stuffed) STEED
Sheridan’s incredible ride to regroup his army
NPS VISITOR STATION RIENZI KNOLL ROAD was glorified in song and poem in the North. If you
Start your visit at the A Route 11 highway visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American
National Park Service marker on the north end History in Washington, D.C., you can see the stuffed
Visitor Contact Station for of Middletown marks
hide of the steed that made it possible.
the Cedar Creek and Belle the spot where General
Grove National Historical Sheridan arrived from Sheridan changed Rienzi’s name to
Park located at 7712 Main Winchester riding his Winchester after their famous ride.
Street in Middletown. black horse Rienzi at about
A narrated electric map 10:30 in the morning. He
explains the course of the rode down the adjacent
October 1864 battle. Pick farm lane to a knoll where
up the park’s excellent he conferred with his
driving tour of the battle officers and then set off
and accompanying CD on his famous ride to rally
narration here. It takes you his retreating troops. The
on twisting gravel roads Civil War Trust preserved
past areas of heavy fighting, 64 1/2 acres on the west
beautiful antebellum farms side of the Valley Pike at
and along the scenic Cedar this location that is leased
Creek and the North Fork for farming and open for
of the Shenandoah River. special tours and events.
(nps.gov/cebe) (civilwar.org)

DECEMBER 2015 59
SIGNAL KNOB Massanutten Mountain rises from the Valley floor south of Middletown. Early and his generals
observed the Union lines and planned their attack from Signal Knob, on the mountain’s north end.
Today Signal Knob is part of the 1.1-million-acre George Washington National Forest. If you’re up for a strenuous 10-mile
hike, you too can enjoy the vantage point’s stunning views from its heights. hikingupward.com/GWNF/SignalKnob

CEMETERY DOWN THE ROAD

STRONGHOLD Strasburg, just down the
Despite withering artillery road from Middletown and
fire and Confederate Hupp’s Hill, also has Civil
attacks, a beleaguered War sites, as well as antique
Union division command- shops, cafes and lodging.
ed by Brig. Gen. George It’s well worth a visit, and
W. Getty held onto high will be the subject of a
ground occupied by Mt. future “Explore.”
Carmel Cemetery, on the
northwest corner of VALLEY THUNDER
Middletown, to stop the The Cedar Creek Bat-
Rebels’ morning advance. tlefield Foundation hosts
Mt. Carmel is still an active the largest reenactment
cemetery; please respect fu- in Virginia every October
neral services during visits. on a weekend close to the
anniversary of the battle.
HUPP’S HILL Thousands of reenactors
The Cedar Creek Battle- participate each year to
field Foundation operates reenact Cedar Creek on
the Hupp’s Hill Civil War a portion of the original
Park and Cedar Creek ground that borders Route
Museum, located south of 11, one of the first tracts
Middletown. The museum of land bought by the
END OF THE LINE interprets the 1864 Valley foundation.
The 128th New York monument, on the west side of Campaign and features a
Route 11 south of Belle Grove, honors the regiment large topographic map of SAD TALE
that held the left end of the XIX Corps line. The the area. Union earthworks The Heater House, owned
Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation preserves 123 built after Cedar Creek to by Solomon and Caroline
acres behind the monument that feature original prevent another rout are Heater during the war, still
XIX Corps trenches. Passes for touring the site preserved on the grounds. stands on the ground where
are available at the CCBF headquarters. (ccbf.us) the reenactment occurs.

60 CIVIL WAR TIMES

Solomon sided with Vir-
ginia, while Caroline was
a Unionist. Two of their Confederate General
three sons served in the 7th JOHN B. GORDON


Virginia Cavalry, and both describes the
died while fighting for the Battle of Cedar Creek
Confederacy. in his 1903 memoirs:
PARTNERS IN
PRESERVATION
A number of partners have
banded together to own “Other days during
and protect portions of this our war witnessed a
sprawling battle site. They brilliant triumph or
include the National Park
Service, the Cedar Creek a crushing defeat for
Battlefield Foundation, the one army or the
the Civil War Trust, the other; but no other
National Trust for Historic single day saw each
Preservation, Belle Grove
Inc., and the Shenandoah
of the contending
Valley Battlefields Asso- armies victorious
ciation (shenandoahatwar. and vanquished on
org). Thousands of acres the same field and
still remain unprotected, between the rising
however, many of them in
areas that are vulnerable and setting of
to ongoing development. the same sun.”
Continued vigilance and
oversight in this entire area
of the Valley is vital.

TAKE A Middletown’s Wayside Inn, founded in 1797, claims to be one of the oldest continually operating inns in the
BREAK United States. Don’t miss the small monument to Brig. Gen. Charles Russell Lowell III, an esteemed Union
officer who was mortally wounded at Cedar Creek, that stands in front of the inn. (waysideinn1797.com)
Nana’s Irish Pub, also located in Middletown, serves local craft brews and gets great Yelp reviews for its fish and chips.
Both restaurants are excellent bets for historic travelers in need of sustenance between battlefield visits in the Valley.

Wayside Inn

Nana’s Irish Pub

DECEMBER 2015 61
REVIEWS

Slow But Steady Wins

Reviewed by Timothy B. Smith

T
he Western Theater remains underrepresented in both academic
and popular thought, but at least Vicksburg has recently
received significant attention—only fitting, because it was one
of the war’s most decisive campaigns. But in such a long and
complex campaign, certain events still get short shrift, and the Union siege
of Vicksburg itself is one of those often-overlooked events. Most historians
prefer to analyze the thrilling lead-up to the siege rather than detailing the
mundane watching-and-waiting of that midsummer standoff.
In Engineering Victory, Justin Solonick has produced a first-rate piece
of scholarship that focuses on the engineering aspects of the Union’s
siege against Vicksburg. He argues that many factors influenced the siege,
including terrain, the West Point training of the engineers attached to the
Army of the Tennessee, and the western soldiers’ ingenuity. He explains how
the siege moved from one step to the other in theoretical manner, augmented
by the ingenuity of nonprofessionals, and concludes that engineering efforts,
not a lack of food or other factors, really doomed Vicksburg. Though there is Engineering Victory:
some repetition to be found, it serves to drive Solonick’s point home. The Union Siege
It is curious that Solonick chooses to use George McClellan’s “quasi- of Vicksburg
siege” as a contextual example leading up to Vicksburg when much better Justin S. Solonick
examples could perhaps have been found in the attempts to hem in and Southern Illinois
approach Confederate lines at Fort Donelson and Corinth, where Grant and University Press,
$37.50
many of the officers with him in 1862 dealt with some of the same problems


facing them the next year at Vicksburg. Those concerns aside, Solonick
should be congratulated for crafting a unique study that is both fascinating
and educational. One hopes he will now turn his attention to writing a
corresponding volume on Confederate siege activities at Vicksburg.

The Final Four Months

Reviewed by Gordon Berg men in the Union’s armies. example of how to analyze a
General Orders No. 35 of complicated action in engag-

T he Sesquicentennial’s
last year has spawned
a tsunami of books covering
June 28, 1865, issued by Lt.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, suc-
cinctly stated the reality: “By
ing yet incisive prose. After
months of dodging Gen-
eral William T. Sherman’s
1865. Some focus on particu- virtue of Special Orders No. juggernaut through three
lar theaters of conflict or spe- 339, current series, from the states, Rebel General Joseph
cific armies, while others try Adjutant-General’s Office, Johnston gamely turned and
to capture the chaos, death this army, as an organization, blocked the Goldsboro Road,
Their Last Full and destruction of those final ceases to exist.” attacking part of Sherman’s
Measure: The Final
Days of the Civil War four months. Joe Wheelan But even as the conflict XIV Corps. Johnston suffered
Joseph Wheelan has produced one of the most wound down, the bloodlet- 2,606 casualties, about 1,000
readable accounts of the ting continued. Wheelan’s more than Sherman. While
Da Capo Press,
$26.99 latter type by describing the analysis of the March 19-21 the Confederates slipped
major events of each month, Battle of Bentonville, the away, Sherman’s bummers
ending with the demobiliza- largest engagement fought in foraged the countryside on
tion of more than a million North Carolina, is a textbook their way into Goldsboro.

62 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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hub, and our Civil War story. www.visitroswellga.com Southern destination—Columbus, MS. www.visitwinchesterva.com
History surrounds Cartersville, GA, Tennessee’s Farragut Folklife Museum Seven museums, an 1890 railroad, a British Through personal stories, interactive There’s a place where a leisurely stroll
including Allatoona Pass, where a fierce is a treasure chest of artifacts telling the fort and an ancient trade path can be found exhibits and a 360° movie, the Civil War might lead to an extraordinary historic
battle took place, and Cooper’s Furnace, history of the Farragut and Concord on the Furs to Factories Trail in the Ten- Museum focuses on the war from the home, a beautiful monastery or a lush
the only remnant of the bustling communities, including the Admiral nessee Overhill, located in the corner of perspective of the Upper Middle West. peach orchard. That place is Georgia.
industrial town of Etowah. David Glasgow Farragut collection. Southeast Tennessee. www.thecivilwarmuseum.org ExploreGeorgia.org/HistoricHeartland

ALABAMA HISTORICAL COMMISSION

Confederate Memorial Park is the site of Williamson County, Tennessee, is rich in Explore the Natchez Trace. Discover Come to Helena, Arkansas and see Join us as we commemorate the 150th
Alabama’s only Home for Confederate vet- Civil War history. Here, you can visit the America. Journey along this 444-mile the Civil War like you’ve never seen it anniversary of Knoxville’s Civil War forts.
erans (1902-1939). The museum interprets Lotz House, Carnton Plantation, Carter National Scenic Byway stretching from before. Plan your trip today! Plan your trip today!
Alabama’s Confederate period and the Ala- House, Fort Granger and Winstead Hill the Mississippi River in Natchez through www.CivilWarHelena.com www.knoxcivilwar.org
bama Confederate Soldiers’ Home. Park, among other historic locations. Alabama and then Tennessee. www.VisitHelenaAR.com

Cleveland, TN

Near Chattanooga, find glorious Historic sites throughout the county Sandy Springs, Georgia, is the perfect Treat yourself to Southern Kentucky Hip and historic Frederick County
mountain scenery and heart-pounding throw their doors open the first Saturday hub for exploring Metro Atlanta’s Civil hospitality in London and Laurel boasts unique shopping and dining
white-water rafting. Walk in the footsteps of every month through October. Free War sites. Conveniently located near County! Attractions include the Levi experiences, battlefields, museums,
of the Cherokee and discover a charming admission! major highways, you’ll see everything Jackson Wilderness Road State Park and covered bridges, and abundant outdoor
historic downtown. www.visitqueenannes.com from Sandy Springs! Camp Wildcat Civil War Battlefield. recreation. Request a free travel packet!

Alabama Gulf Shores

If you’re looking for an easy stroll through Southern hospitality at its finest, the Known for its important role in the 1864 Just 15 miles south of downtown Atlanta St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Visit Point
a century of fine architecture or a trek Classic South, Georgia, offers visitors a Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay, Fort lies the heart of the true South: Clayton Lookout, site of the war’s largest prison
down dusty roads along the Blues Trail, combination of history and charm mixed Morgan stands today as a testament to County, Georgia, where heritage comes camp, plus Confederate and USCT
you’ve come to the right place. with excursion options for everyone from perseverance and resolve. See history alive! vv monuments. A short drive from the
www. visitgreenwood.com outdoorsmen to museum-goers. come alive. nation’s capital.

CIVIL WAR MUSEUM

of the Western Theater

Vicksburg, Mississippi is a great place Follow the Civil War Trail in Meridian, Fitzgerald, Georgia...100 years of bring- Hundreds of authentic artifacts. Voted Come to Cleveland, Mississippi—the
to bring your family to learn American Mississippi, where you’ll experience ing people together. Learn more about fourth finest in U.S. by North & South birthplace of the blues. Here, you’ll find
history, enjoy educational museums and history first-hand, including Merrehope our story and the commemoration of Magazine. Located in historic Bardstown, such legendary destinations as Dockery
check out the mighty Mississippi River. Mansion, Marion Confederate Cemetery the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s Kentucky. Farms and Po’ Monkey’s Juke Joint.
and more. www.visitmeridian.com. conclusion at www.fitzgeraldga.org. www.civil-war-museum.org www.visitclevelandms.com

Historic Bardstown, Kentucky

Destination
Jessamine, KY
Prestonsburg, KY - Civil War & history Search over 10,000 images and primary History, bourbon, shopping, sightseeing Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury, STEP BACK IN TIME at Camp Nelson
attractions, and reenactment dates at documents relating to the Civil War Battle and relaxing—whatever you enjoy, you’re Alabama, commemorates the Civil War Civil War Heritage Park, a Union Army
PrestonsburgKY.org. Home to Jenny of Hampton Roads, now available in The sure to find it in beautiful Bardstown, KY. with an array of historic sites and arti- supply depot and African American ref-
Wiley State Park, country music enter- Mariners’ Museum Library Online Catalog! Plan your visit today. facts. Experience the lives of Civil War ugee camp. Museum, Civil War Library,
tainment & Dewey Lake. www.marinersmuseum.org/.catalogs www.visitbardstown.com soldiers as never before. Interpretive Trails and more.
 Wheelan rightly includes events
behind the battle lines, like the Hamp- Essays on Greatness
ton Roads peace initiative in February
and the last conference among President Reviewed by Louis P. Masur
Lincoln, his military leaders and Con-
federate emissaries, held on March 28
aboard the steamer River Queen. At the
March conference, for example, Lincoln
T he Lincoln Forum, an annual No-
vember gathering in Gettysburg,
has been going strong for 20 years. In
asked Sherman and asked the general Exploring Lincoln, Harold Holzer and
if he knew why the president “took a Frank J. Williams, two of the founders,
shine to Grant and you.” Then he added, and Craig L. Symonds, a regular par-
“Well, you never found fault with me.” ticipant, gather some of the work pre-
The Confederate home front sented over the past few years.
gets equal billing, as when Wheelan Many of the essays serve as précis
describes the evacuation of Richmond for notable books that have since been
and Petersburg during the night of April published by the authors (Eric Foner’s
2: “The tread of marching men, the The Fiery Trial; Amanda Foreman’s A
clatter of cavalry horses, and the creak of World on Fire; and Craig Symonds’ Lin-
wagons, filled the streets of Richmond coln and His Admirals). Others discuss
and Petersburg as the long-suffering such issues as the alleged Baltimore
Army of Northern Virginia converged plot to assassinate President-elect Lin- Exploring Lincoln: Great
on the bridges over the James and coln in February 1861, the origins of Historians Reappraise
Appomattox Rivers.” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Our Greatest President
Good works of historical synthesis and the personal losses suffered by both Edited by Harold Holzer,
rarely get the accolades they deserve. Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Craig L. Symonds and
At best, they can engage specialists and Especially valuable are pieces that Frank J. Williams
general readers alike. The root of “his- discuss Lincoln’s relationship to peo- Fordham University Press,
tory” remains the “story”—and Wheelan ple and places. Walter Stahr shines a $21.29
tells a good one. light on Lincoln and William Seward,
exposing as myth the story that the two
shared a hotel room in Worcester, Mass., in 1848 after they first met while
campaigning for Zachary Taylor. It would be 12 years before they met again.
Seward, of course, would serve as secretary of state, and though the two dis-
agreed on such issues as compromise and Fort Sumter at the war’s beginning,
their working relationship was so close that it engendered jealousy among
other Cabinet members.
John C. Waugh focuses on Lincoln’s relationship with George B. McClel-
lan, a self-made man who, as John Bright once quipped in another context,
worshipped his creator. McClellan dismissed Lincoln as a “well meaning
baboon,” and in November 1862, after more than a year of frustration with
the recalcitrant general, Lincoln dismissed McClellan. Waugh cites several
reasons for McClellan’s failure—he was pedantic, misjudged Northern opin-
ion and treated Lincoln as an enemy. Some, including Robert E. Lee, judged
him a great general, but most people then as now side with Ulysses S. Grant’s
assessment: “McClellan to me is one of the mysteries of the war.”
Holzer explores a different kind of relationship in “Lincoln and New
York,” calling the connection “complex and curiously conflicted.” The
reasons were political, as New York City voted Democratic whereas upstate
New York endorsed the Republican Party. In 1863 both the Draft Riots
and Democratic opposition in Albany to military arrests caused Lincoln
concern. The latter elicited one of his finest letters, to Erastus Corning. In
it Lincoln asked: “Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts,
while I must not touch the hair of a wiley [sic] agitator who induces him
to desert? I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the
boy, is not only constitutional but a great mercy.” A year later, he sent the
Albany Fair the manuscript of his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address on February 27, 1860, had helped make
him president; on April 24, 1865, Lincoln’s casket arrived in New York, and
the city that had opposed him now draped itself in mourning black.

66 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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 A Bohemian
Revolution
Rebel
Souls: Walt
Whitman and
America’s
First
Bohemians
Justin Martin
Da Capo
Press, $27.99

Reviewed by Gordon Berg

I n World War II Casablanca,

everyone came to Rick’s
nightclub. In Civil War New York,
artists, actors, writers and journal-
ists congregated at Pfaff ’s Restau-
rant and Lager Bier Saloon, hidden
underground at 647 Broadway.
There, Henry Clapp Jr. sought to
re-create la vie Boheme.
Justin Martin’s descriptions
of Pfaff ’s denizens—including
Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of The
Hasheesh Eater; “actresses” Adah
Isaacs Menken and Ada Clare;
journalist Fitz-James O’Brien;
comic Artemus Ward and poet
Walt Whitman—paint a picture
of intellectual life in Manhattan.
The war, Martin maintains, pushed
these eclectic personalities “in
unexpected directions.” He also
describes how these outsized per-
sonalities carried “the Bohemianism
forged in that underground saloon
out across the land.”
Readers seeking incisive literary
analysis or prescient cultural
insights in Martin’s book should
probably look elsewhere. These
would be antithetical to the irrev-
erent wraiths that might very well
still haunt the basement recesses of
the woman’s shoe store which now
occupies Pfaff ’s former premises.
Martin has clearly heard those
American originals whispering, and
through the pages of Rebel Souls he
invites readers to eavesdrop on their
lively repartee.

68 CIVIL WAR TIMES

 With Pride We Honor The Brave Men Of the
Union Who Fought The Civil War.
With Patience We Preserve Their Memory,
Their Monuments, and Their Legacy.
With Persistence We Educate The Children of
<WLIaIJW]\\PM;IKZQÅKM[WN <PM8I[\
With Passion We Promote A Sense of Patriotism
and Citizenship For The Common Good.

If you share our goals of Education, Preservation,

Honor, Patriotism, and Citizenship:
THE SONS OF UNION VETERANS OF
THE CIVIL WAR WANT YOU!
Both Regular and Associate Membership
Applications as well as information are available
at: http://www.suvcw.org/member.htm

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ETC.


Vigilante Critic

Union General William T. Sherman

witnessed the San Francisco vigilante
movement described in the Lafayette Baker
story on P. 40. Sherman, who distrusted
the vigilantes, wrote in his memoirs that
“the world generally gives them the credit
of having purged San Francisco of rowdies
and roughs; but their success has given
great stimulus to a dangerous principle, that
would at any time justify the mob in seizing
all the power of government; and who is to
say that the Vigilance Committee may not
be composed of the worst, instead of the
best, elements of a community?”

 STILL AROUND 
ortunately, Thomas Rodman’s two massive 20-inch cannons (P. 46)

F were never thrown on the scrap heap. Today the barrel pictured
above is located in Fort Hamilton Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., keeping
watch over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. “No. 1, FORT PITT, PA.,
S.C.L., 1864, 116497 lbs.,” is stamped on its muzzle. “S.C.L.” are the ini-
tials of Stephen Carr Lyford, an inspecting ordnance officer who served Civil War Times’ first col
or cover,
at the arsenal. The second Rodman 20-inch cannon, which was cast in April 1962, featured Thure
de
1869, not long after the war, can be seen at Fort Hancock, in Sandy Hook, Thulstrup’s painting of the
Mule
N.J. It’s shocking to think that these barrels each weighed about 60 tons, Shoe at Spotsylvania (P.
32).
which is nearly the same weight as a modern M1 Abrams tank.

CREDITS Cover: Library of Congress; P. 2: Shenandoah Sanchez; P. 3: From Top: Library of Congress; Heritage Auctions, Dallas, TX; Jennifer E. Berry;
Cowan’s Auctions, Cincinnati, OH; Library of Congress; P. 4: Counselman Collection; P. 5: Library of Congress; P. 8: Library of Congress; P. 10: Sarah J. Mock (2);
P. 11: From Left: Tim Evanson; Brian Hunt & Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee; P. 12: Courtesy Long Road Home; P. 13: From Top: National Civil War Museum;
Google Earth; P. 14-15: Library of Congress; P. 16-18: Library of Congress (2); P. 20-21: From Top Right: Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, VA; Heritage Auctions,
Dallas, TX (4); P. 22: Courtesy of the Seminary Ridge Museum (3); P. 26-31: Library of Congress (3); P. 33: N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945), The Bloody Angle, 1912, oil on canvas,
46 1/4 x 33 1/4 inches, Brandywine River Museum of Art, Gift of Charles S. Crompton, Jr., in memory of his wife, Milbrey Dean Crompton, 2014; P. 34-35: Library of Congress (3);
P. 36: Library of Congress; P. 37: From Top: Library of Congress; Missouri History Museum; P. 40: Cowan’s Auctions, Cincinnati, OH; P. 42: Heritage Auction, Dallas, TX;
P. 43: Library of Congress; P. 45: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library; P. 46-47: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Department; P. 48: Library
of Congress; P. 49: National Archives; P. 50: Harper’s Weekly, November 19, 1864; P. 51: Harper’s Weekly, August 23, 1862; P. 52: Courtesy of the Heinz History Center (2);
P. 53: Free Library of Philadelphia/Bridgeman Images; P. 55: Jennifer E. Berry; P. 56: Courtesy HexWar Games Ltd; P. 58: Sarah J. Mock; P. 59: From Top Left: Sarah J. Mock;
Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH; National Museum of American History/Smithsonian Institution; P. 60: Sarah J. Mock (2); P. 61: Clockwise from Top: Library
of Congress; Courtesy of Nana’s Irish Pub; Courtesy of Wayside Inn; P. 70: Left: Leonard Zhukovsky/123RF; P. 72: Courtesy of Skinner Auctions, www.skinnerinc.com

70 CIVIL WAR TIMES

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SOLD !

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

$ 2,952
The Union government purchased or produced 1,674,163 projecticles
for smoothbore cannons like the 12-pounder case shot pictured here,
which would have been fired by a bronze Napoleon cannon. The
Confederacy used hundreds of thousands more. Though surviving
examples of these bombs are relatively common, this one, which
came from the Gettysburg battlefield, was beautifully engraved with
the name and year of the battle, greatly increasing its value. 2

72 CIVIL WAR TIMES

“This should be considered the “Filled with impressive research and “A detailed and fascinating analytical “Reads like a staff ride organized
definitive biography on Stanton superb writing, this book provides narrative. . . . A model of well- by an officer intimately familiar
. . . Incredibly researched, wholly new perspectives on Grant’s written Civil War History.” with the area’s topography. . . .
amazingly written and packed Overland campaign and stands as —Library Journal Hess makes a convincing case
to the seams with information, a vital contribution to our under- for the importance of this still
it should be on the shelf of every standing of the Civil War.” unappreciated battle.”
Civil War historian.” —Steven E. Woodworth, —Civil War Times
—Gettysburg Chronicle Texas Christian University

“Offers compelling and important “This is the best published recollec- “Captain Hinrich’s character sketches “An extremely useful resource for
ideas that challenge our assumptions tions we have of a Virginia artillery of the legion of Southern generals making one’s way intelligently
about post–Civil War America. An commander. Superbly edited, whom he came to know intimately across the battleground as well as
exceptional work.” this book is a necessary source are among the most penetrating I a stirring account of the battle and
—Aaron Sheehan-Dean, author of for any study of the Army of have ever read. This book is sure to its varied meanings in the past
Why Confederates Fought Northern Virginia.” become a Confederate classic.” and present. . . . no matter how
—James I. Robertson Jr., author of —Peter Cozzens, limited or extensive one’s Civil
Stonewall Jackson author of Shenandoah 1862 War library, it deserves a special
place on the shelf.”
—Civil War Monitor

Omnibus
Best-selling books in one convenient Ebook.
The official journal of the Visit www.uncpress.unc.edu and search for Omnibus.
Society of Civil War Historians
Most UNC Press books are
Journal of the also available as E-Books.
Civil War Era UNC Press books are now available through Books @ JSTOR
and Project Muse – and North Carolina Scholarship Online
visit journalofthecivilwarera.org (NCSO) on Oxford Scholarship Online.

the university of north carolina press

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