Salient Points

Unconditional Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:55:00 +0000

Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant is generally given credit for the phrase of “unconditional surrender” at the Battle of Fort Donelson. However, Grant was not the first to use the phrase or the man who applied the term to the Confederate surrender.

Previous Unconditional Surrenders

An early use of “unconditional surrender” occurred after the Battle of the Trench in 627. The Muslims lead by Muhammad defeated an enemy faction, the Banu Qurayza. The Qurayza surrendered to Muhammad, which historians interpret as “unconditional.” All the men, except a few who converted to Islam, were beheaded, and the women and children were enslaved.

When Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from his exile on Elba, the delegates of the European powers at the Congress of Vienna issued a statement on March 13, 815 declaring Napoleon Bonaparte to be an outlaw.

Consequently when the “outlaw” Napoleon surrendered he was not protected by military law or international law as a head of state. Under these “unconditional” terms, the British had no legal obligation to either accept his surrender or to spare his life. The British choose a lenient sentence and exiled him to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena.

Civil War

General U. S. Grant

The most famous early use of the phrase occurred during the 1862 Battle of Fort Donelson in the Civil War. The widely accepted version is Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army received a request for terms from the fort's commanding officer, Confederate Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner Sr. Grant's reply was that "no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." When news of Grant's victory, one of the Union's first in the war, was received in Washington, DC, newspapers remarked (and President Abraham Lincoln endorsed) that Grant's first two initials, "U.S.," stood for "Unconditional Surrender," which would later become his nickname.

Future surrender of Confederate forces to Grant were not unconditional. When Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865, Grant allowed the Confederates to go home under parole and to keep sidearms and private horses. Generous terms were also offered to John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg and William Tecumseh Sherman to Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina.

Admiral Andrew H. Foote

Grant was not the first officer in the Civil War to use the term. When Confederate Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman asked for terms of surrender during the Battle of Fort Henry. Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote replied, "no sir, your surrender will be unconditional."

In 1863, Ambrose Burnside forced an unconditional surrender of the Cumberland Gap and 2,300 Confederate soldiers and in 1864, Union General Gordon Granger forced an unconditional surrender of Fort Morgan.

Charles F. Smith’s Role

When the Confederate commanders at Fort Donelson decided to surrender, the command devolved to General Simon Buckner. Buckner asked for “a pen, ink, and paper “and requested a bugler." Buckner regarded capitulation "as a necessity of our position" and was determined to remain with his men.

General Simon Bolivar Buckner

Buckner composed a note to Grant asking for terms. "In consideration of all the circumstances governing the present situation of affairs at this station I propose to the commanding officers of the Federal forces the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation of the forces and post under my command, and in that view suggest an armistice until 1 o’clock today." Buckner ordered Colonel John C. Brown, whose brigade was opposite General Smith's division, to deliver the message to Grant. Colonel Brown was wounded, and he delegated the mission to Major Nathaniel F. Cheairs, commander of the Third Tennessee. "Cheairs and a bugler went to the line and after a considerable time, in which the bugler blew every tune he knew, they finally managed to get the attention of the Union forces."

General C. F. Smith

On the Union side of the sector, Colonel Lauman heard a bugle and saw the Rebels waving a white flag. Lauman immediately sent Colonel Parrott from the Seventh Iowa to "ascertain the intent of it." Parrott reported that a Confederate officer wished to see the officer in charge. Lauman hurried to meet Major Cheairs, who presented the offer of capitulation. Lauman brought Cheairs to Smith who read Buckner's proposal. Smith bluntly told Cheairs: "I make no terms with Rebels with arms in their hands ̶ my terms are unconditional and immediate surrender!" Then Smith took Cheairs to Grant’s headquarters at the Crisp House.

General Grant was asleep in bed in the kitchen, and Surgeon John H. Brinton was curled up on the floor near the fire. An orderly entered with General Smith, who, according to Brinton, "seemed very cold, indeed half frozen." Smith immediately walked to the open fire on the hearth and briefly warmed his feet. Then he turned his back to the fire and faced General Grant who had gotten out of bed and was quickly putting on his outer clothes.

"There's something for you to read, General Grant," said Smith, handing him the letter. After Grant read the note he looked up at Smith and asked, "What answer shall I send to this, General Smith?" Smith did not hesitate and spoke plainly.

"No terms to the damned rebels," replied Smith.

Grant laughed and asked for some writing paper. Grant considered for about three minutes and wrote. Finally, he announced, "This is what I am writing, General Smith." Then he read his response, "Yours of this date, proposing armistice and appointment of Commissioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." Smith gave a short emphatic "Hm [sic]" and remarked, "It's the same thing in smoother words." Then Smith left the farmhouse and gave the letter to Major Cheairs.

Sources:

Wikipedia contributors, "Unconditional surrender," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Unconditional_surrender&oldid=936508148 (accessed February 17, 2020).
Allen H. Mesch, Teacher of Civil War Generals - Major General Charles Ferguson Smith, Soldier and West Point Commandant (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015), 224-225.

Edgar Allan Poe at West Point

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 17:54:00 +0000

Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. The orphaned child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. Tension developed in their relationship as John Allan and Edgar Poe argued over gambling and educational debts. Poe attended the University of Virginia but left after a year because he lacked money to continue his studies.

To support himself, Poe enlisted in the United States Army on May 27, 1827 under the assumed name "Edgar A. Perry." Poe claimed that he was 22 years old although he was only 18. Private Poe first served at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor for five dollars a month.

Tamerlane and Other Poems

During this time, he published a 40-page collection of poetry. He attributed Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) to an anonymous author "a Bostonian." Only 50 copies were printed, and the book was completely ignored.

Poe's regiment was posted to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina in November 1827. Poe was promoted to "artificer", an enlisted tradesman who prepared shells for artillery, and the army doubled his monthly pay. He served for two years and attained the rank of sergeant major for artillery. He decided to try to terminate his five-year enlistment ahead of schedule. He disclosed his real name and circumstances to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Howard. Howard would only allow Poe to be discharged if he reconciled with John Allan.

Poe and Allan reached a temporary agreement in 1829 after the death of Frances Allan on February 28, 1829. Allan agreed to help Poe's efforts to be discharged in order to receive an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Poe was finally discharged on April 15, 1829, after obtaining a replacement to finish the rest of his enlistment. Before entering West Point, Poe moved back to Baltimore where he published his second book Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829).

Charles F. Smith

Poe was admitted as a West Point plebe on July 1, 1830. During Poe’s time at the Academy, he was instructed and supervised by assistant tactical instructors Charles F. Smith (6/25/1829- 9/1/1831), Joseph L. Locke (9/8/1829-9/1/1831), Simon H. Drum (8/30/1830-6/18/32), and John F. Kennedy (11/1/1829-1/16/1830). There are many stories, anecdotes, and fantasies about Cadet Poe's exploits at West Point. He was notorious for cutting mandatory drills, skipping classes, and making "nocturnal visits to Benny Havens." One night Poe stumbled back to his barracks and sprawled on his back on the steps of his tactical officer's quarters. "When the tactical officer awoke and inquired as to who might be outside his door, Poe allegedly responded in verse: On Linden when the sun was low/All bloodless lay the untrodden snow/And dark as winter was the flow/Of I SIR, rolling rapidly!" Assistant Tactical Instructor Lieutenant Locke was one of the victims of Poe's humor: "John Locke was a very great name; Joe Locke was greater in short; The former was known to Fame, The latter well known to Report."

U.S. Military Academy at West Point

Poe decided to leave West Point by purposely getting court-martialed. Some attribute his discharge to his frequent trips to Benny Havens or his "uncontrollable urge to hurl baked potatoes across the Academy mess hall." Another story blamed his dismal on reporting to a parade naked except for his crossed white ammunition belts and hat. One account said that Poe, in a fit of rage, threw his tactical officer off a cliff into the Hudson River and was subsequently charged with murder. On February 8, 1831, he was tried for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders for refusing to attend formations, classes, or church. Poe tactically pleaded not guilty to induce dismissal, knowing that he would be found guilty.

Poe's time at West Point was certainly trying for C. F. Smith and his fellow "tacs." As serious military men, they were happy to see him leave. As former cadets, they probably enjoyed his outrageous behavior and the legends that grew out of his time at the Academy.

Sources:

1. George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. from Its Establishment, in 1802 to 1890 with the Early History of the United States Military Academy (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1891), Third Edition, Vol. I., Nos. 1 to 1000

2. James S. Robbins, Last in their Class: Custer, Picket and the Goats of West Point ( New York: Encounter Books, 1962), 20.
3. William F. Hecker, editor, Private Perry and Mister Poe, The West Point Poems, 1831, Facsimile Edition (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005), Introduction xvii-xviii.
4. Allen H. Mesch, Teacher of Civil War Generals - Major General Charles Ferguson Smith, Soldier and West Point Commandant (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015), 17-18.

Lincoln vs. Trump

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 22:02:00 +0000

A recent Economist/YouGov poll finds most Republicans (53%) think Donald Trump is a better president than Abraham Lincoln. However, there is a clear regional difference: 62% of Republicans in the South say Trump is the better President; 38% pick Lincoln. Those in all other regions are more likely to give credit to Lincoln. 54% of Republicans outside the South say Lincoln was better.

It doesn’t surprise me that Southern Republicans favor Trump over Lincoln. In fact, I am astonished that the numbers are not higher. Most citizens of former Confederate states still dislike/hate Lincoln. The percentage outside the South indicates Republicans in these states say Lincoln was a better president. Trump is only favored with 46% of these Republicans.

This may seem very strange because most polls place Lincoln at the top of the list of greatest presidents. A C-span poll presented in April 2019 of one hundred historians rank the top five as 1. Lincoln, 2. George Washington, 3. Franklin Roosevelt, 4. Theodore Roosevelt, and 5. Dwight Eisenhower. The bottom five presidents not including Trump are 43, James Buchanan, 42. Andrew Johnson, 41. Franklin Pierce, 40. Warren G. Harding, and 39. John Tyler. Three of the presidents were in office immediately before after the Civil War.

April 4, 1841- March 4, 1845 - John Tyler - Whig and Unaffiliated
March 4, 1853-March 4, 1857 - Franklin Pierce - Democrat
March 4, 1857-March 4, 1861 - James Buchanan - Democrat
April 15, 1865-March 4, 1869 - Andrew Johnson - National Union and Democrat
March 4, 1921-August 23, 1923 - Warren G. Harding - Republican

I performed my own “rough” calculation based on estimates of Republican voters.

Sources:

“Trump Better Than Lincoln,” YouGov, https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/02/greatest-republican-president
List of Presidents of the United States, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States
Historians Presidential Survey, C-Span, https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2017/?page=overall

Fort Stanton

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 22:11:00 +0000

Fort Stanton was built in 1855 by the 1st Dragoon and the 3rd and 8th Infantry Regiments of the United States Army to serve as a base of military operations against the Mescalero Apaches. Numerous campaigns were fought from 1855 until the 1880’s. It was established to protect Hispano and White settlements along the Rio Bonito in the Apache Wars. General John Garland issued an order on May 4, 1855 establishing Fort Stanton. The fort was named after Captain Henry Stanton who was killed on January 19, 1855 in an ambush by the Mescalero Apaches.

On August 2, 1861 Union soldiers abandoned Fort Stanton at the beginning of the Civil War. They set fire to the fort when they left. However, a rainstorm that night extinguished the flames. On August 10 a company of Confederate soldiers, taking as many supplies as possible that had been left by the departing Union soldiers. By September 10, 1861, the fort was again left vacant.

On September 1862, General Carleton ordered Colonel Christopher (Kit) Carson to take troops and reopen Fort Stanton. The first troops arrived on October 17, 1862 only to find the fort in shambles.

This U.S. military fortification was abandoned when the U.S. forces were withdrawn in 1896.

The fort was originally established in part as the Mescalero Apache reservation. In 1873 the reservation was moved thirty miles southwest to its present location. In 1899, President William McKinley transferred Fort Stanton property from the War Department to the Marine Hospital Service, converting the military reservation to America's first federal tuberculosis sanatorium.

During World War II, Fort Stanton was used as a detention center for German and Japanese Americans arrested as "enemy aliens," and 411 German nationals taken from the luxury liner Columbus in 1939 (officially recorded as "distressed seamen paroled from the German Embassy" since the U.S. was still technically neutral at the time of their capture). The "enemy aliens" were mostly immigrant residents of the U.S. who had been taken into custody as suspected saboteurs shortly after the U.S. entered the war, despite a lack of supporting evidence or access to due process for most internees. The thirty-one German American internees, labeled "troublemakers" by the Department of Justice, were kept separate from the seventeen Japanese American "troublemakers"

We visited the fort in 2019 and took the following photographs.

U.S. Health Service Cemetery

Hospital Administration/Museum

Guard House

Fort's Administration

Laundress Quarters

Protestant Chapel

Officer's Quarters #13

Commanding Officer's Quarters

TB Tent Cottages

Fort Stanton is north of Ruidoso, New Mexico. Please visit this interesting multi-use facility.

References:

Fort Stanton - Wikipedia
Fort Stanton, New Mexico - official site

Independence Day and Civil War History

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 16:57:00 +0000

There were a number of Civil War related battles and events in the days around July 4. Some are critical battles such as Malvern Hill, VA, Vicksburg, MS, Port Hudson, LA, and Gettysburg, PA. Important events include Lincoln vetoes Wade-Davis Bill and supports more lenient policy toward Confederate states and eight people were convicted by a military commission of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Lincoln.

July 5, 1861 - Carthage, MO - Operations to Control Missouri

July 1, 1861 - In order to fill the need for Federal troops, the War Department decrees that recruits will be sought in Kentucky and Tennessee.

July 2, 1861 - New legislature convenes for West Virginia.

July 4, 1861 - Lincoln blames Southerners for Fort Sumter affair in cabinet meeting.

July 1, 1862 - Malvern Hill, VA - Virginia Peninsular Campaign - Seven Days Campaign

July 1, 1862 - General Lee ends Seven Days Campaign after defeat at Malvern Hill, VA.

July 2, 1862- President Lincoln signs the Morrill Land Grant Act giving land to states to build agricultural colleges.

July 4, 1862 - Colonel John Hunt Morgan begins Confederate raids in Kentucky.

May 18-July 4, 1863 - Vicksburg, MS - Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg Campaign

May 21-July 9, 1863 - Port Hudson, LA - Siege of Port Hudson

June 30, 1863 - Cavalry battle between Union forces under Kilpatrick and Confederate troops under J.E.B. Stuart at Hanover, PA.

July 1-3, 1863 - Gettysburg, PA - Gettysburg Campaign

July 4, 1863 - Helena, AR - Grant’s Operations against Vicksburg Campaign

June 30,1864-July 13, 1864 - Confederate General Early's troops attack Washington, DC and demand levies on Hagerstown, MD and Frederick, MD.

June 27-July 1, 1864 - Kennesaw Mountain, GA - Atlanta Campaign

July 4, 1864 - Lincoln vetoes Wade-Davis Bill and supports more lenient policy toward Confederate states.

June 30, 1865 - Eight people were convicted by a military commission of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Lincoln.

June 30, 1936 - The Civil War novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was published by The Macmillan Co. in New York.

Texas Civil War Museum

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 15:56:00 +0000

The Texas Civil War Museum holds free lectures on Saturdays in June and July.

This summer’s program:

Richard B. McCaslin – June 8^th – “Pompeo Coppini - Confederate Memory in Texas”
Randy Gilbert – June 15^th – “Trans-Mississippi Prisoners of War”
Luke Salisbury – June 22^nd – “No Common War”
Scott Bowden – June 29^th – “Robert E. Lee’s Art of War”
Jim Davis – July 6^th – “The Cypress Rangers in the Civil War”
Vicki Tongate – July 13^th – “Another Year Finds Me in Texas – Dairy of Lucy Pier Stevens”
Allen Mesch – July 20^th – “Preparing for Disunion”
Tom Holder – July 27^th – “Molli Mac Gill Rosenberg – Angel of the Confederacy”

Please see Upcoming Events at the Museum for more information.

I hope you can attend one or several of these lectures.

Plan to visit the museum while you are in Fort Worth. The museum is home to many current exhibits and permanent collections.

Thank You

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Mon, 27 May 2019 16:15:00 +0000

What if the ….

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 22 May 2019 15:34:00 +0000

There are several books containing predictions of what might happen if events in the Civil War were decided in the South’s favor.

Alternative Histories

Wikipedia contains a list of books that contain Civil War alternate histories typically focus on a Confederate victory. Other fictional accounts present scenarios such as a Civil War being averted, British intervention in the conflict, a Unionvictory occurring under different circumstances, a massive slave revolt occurring without the Emancipation Proclamation, or Lincoln never being assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

For example,

If the South Had Won the Civil War by MacKinlay Kantor
Gray Victory by Robert Skimin
The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove
The Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove
If It Had Happened Otherwise
How the South Preserved the Union by Ralph Roberts
Shattered Nation: An Alternate History of the American Civil War by Jeffrey Evan Brooks
Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen, and Albert S. Hanser
Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen
Gettysburg: An Alternate History by Peter Tsouras
Grant Comes East by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen, and Albert S. Hanser
The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln” by Stephen L. Carter
Stonewall Goes West: A Novel of the Civil War and Mother Earth, Bloody Ground: A Novel of the Civil War and What Might Have Been by R.E. Thomas
If the Lost Order Hadn't Been Lost by James M. McPherson

Knowing the Outcome

Let me pose a different question. Would the South have gone to war if they knew the costs and outcome of the Civil War?

Confederate Dead at Gettysburg

The approximately 10,455 military engagements resulted in total casualties of 1,094,453 during the war. The Confederates lost approximately 94,000 in battle and another 164,000 from disease. Confederate records estimate 194,026 wounded. Hidden in these numbers are the loss of future economic and political leaders.

Almost all the physical devastation was in the South. Homes, buildings, and cities were burned. Both sides robbed farmers of crops, livestock, and other “necessities of war.” Union and Confederate armies destroyed bridges, docks, and railroads. Industrial develop in the South ground to a halt when Union forces destroyed factories, mines, and manufacturing plants. or plundered homes, pillaged countryside, untold losses in crops and farm animals, ruined buildings and bridges, devastated college campuses, and neglected roads all left the South in ruins. <1>

Richmond After the Fire

What was the cost of this conflict? Researchers Claudia Goldin (1978) and Frank Lewis (1975) estimated the costs of the war to the South of $3,286 million in direct costs and $2,560 million in indirect costs for a total of $5,846 million. In comparison, the war cost the North $3,336 million in direct costs and $1,149 million in indirect costs for a total of $4,515 million. The direct costs include the expenditures of state and local governments plus the loss from destruction of property and the loss of human capital from the casualties, and indirect costs include the subsequent implications of the war after 1865.

The per capita costs indicate that the South endured more; $670/person compared with $199/person for the North. Additionally, real wages in the South and North declined from a base of 100 in 1860 to 77 in the North and 11 in the South in 1864. Inflation hit both parts of the country; the Northern price index increased to 176 in 1864 while the Southern index rose to 3,992.

Fugitive Slaves

The major issue leading to the war was the enormous financial stake the South had in its slave labor force. In 1805 there were just over one million slaves that were worth about $300 million; fifty-five years later there were four million slaves worth nearly $3 billion. This translates to $300/slave in 1805 to $750/slave in 1860. In the eleven states that eventually formed the Confederacy, four out of ten people were slaves in 1860, and these people accounted for more than half the agricultural labor in those states. In the cotton regions the importance of slave labor was even greater. The value of capital invested in slaves roughly equaled the total value of all farmland and farm buildings in the South. <2>

Rich Man’s War

The key question is whether the South would go to war over the of $3 billion in human assets. If their view of the future extended into the 1870s, they would see the temporary Republic governments and the creation of economic bondage. If the wealthy and powerful planters could foresee the destruction of their economic base. Much of war’s indirect costs would be shouldered by the former wealthy property owners. These additional expenses might have convinced them to resolve the disagreements before the conflict began. The South would realize that their assumptions about a brief three-month war won by their military superiority were grossly inaccurate. However, if the Southern leaders felt that their lifestyle and honor were at stake, they might have pursued the war with full knowledge of its destructive outcome.
Sources:
<1> Costs of the Civil War
<2> Economics of the Civil War

End of Confederate Heroes Day?

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Thu, 09 May 2019 15:36:00 +0000

Once again Jacob Hale (Mr. Hale Goes to Austin) has returned to Austin to urge legislators to remove Confederates Heroes Day from Texas calendars. Representative Jarvis Jackson (Democrat) is sponsoring the effort with the help of Hale and support from the Washington lobbying firm Akin Gump. The bill is opposed by Republican legislators and is considered a long shot of passing in the GOP controlled legislature.

Confederate Holidays

(WeirdAtlas.com)

According to CNN, Texas is among several states which celebrate the day. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Heritage Month and Confederate Memorial Day to “honor those who served in the confederacy.” Ocala, Florida celebrates Confederate Memorial Day as “simply a memorial for Confederate soldiers who were veterans.” The celebration is held in several states including Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. South Carolina legislators also named the Confederate flag as "a symbol of American History, heritage and honor."

The day is often celebrated on April 26 in remembrance of the day when Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrendered to Union General William Sherman. Other dates employ the day Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson died from pneumonia and the day Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops.

The issue is whether states or cities should hold such a holiday, whether it is an official state holiday, and whether state funds are used to fund celebrations. Should the state officially sanction the event and, in doing so, should fund its celebration?

The state and/or city needs to consider the day’s impact on its current and future residents. Does this decision reflect the wishes of the electorate or community? Will this holiday discourage major companies from moving operations to the area? Do legislators really care about any negative fallout from their decision?

These questions at the heart of the issue. It is not a question subject to national debate. Voters in Texas or South Carolina should decide the issue not citizens of California, New York, Iowa, or any other state.

_________________________________________________

Dear Blog Followers,

It's been some time since I posted. My last post was in February. My absence was due to completing the manuscript for my book on Ebenezer Allen and some health problems. I hope to return to some sort of weekly or bi-weekly posts.

Thanks for your support.

Allen

USCT - United States Colored Troops - African American Civil War Museum - Black History Month

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 23:47:00 +0000

Perhaps there is no better way for Civil War historians to celebrate Black History Month than to visit the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC. This post contains photographs taken on my 2018 visit to the museum.

Mission

According to the museum web site,

The mission of the African American Civil War Museum is to correct a great wrong in history that largely ignored the enormous contributions of the 209,145 members of the United States Colored Troops. It tells the stories and preserves for posterity the historic roles these brave men of African, European, and Hispanic descent played in ending slavery and keeping America united under one flag. The Museum uses a rich collection of artifacts, documents, primary sources and technology to create a meaningful learning experience for families, students, Civil War enthusiasts and historians about the period from the American Civil War to Civil Rights and beyond.

United States Colored Troops

The United States Colored Troops made up over ten percent of the Union or Northern Army even though they were prohibited from joining until July 1862. They comprised twenty-five percent of the Union navy. Yet, only one percent of the Northern population was African American. Clearly overrepresented in the military, African Americans played a decisive role in the Civil War.

In July of 1862, Congress passed the Militia Act of 1862. It had become an “indispensable military necessity” to call on America’s African descent population to help save the Union. A few weeks after President Lincoln signed the legislation on July 17, 1862, free men of color joined volunteer regiments in Illinois and New York. Such men would go on to fight in some of the most noted campaigns and battles of the war to include, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign.

On September 27, 1862, the first regiment to become a United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiment was officially brought into the Union army. All the captains and lieutenants in this Louisiana regiment were men of African descent. The regiment was immediately assigned combat duties, and it captured Donaldsonville, Louisiana on October 27, 1862. Before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, two more African descent regiments from Kansas and South Carolina would demonstrate their prowess in combat.

After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, the War Department publicly authorized the recruiting of African Americans. The first regiment raised with such authority was the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. By the end of 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant viewed the African descent population armed with the Proclamation as a “powerful ally.”

African Americans fought in every major campaign and battle during the last two years of the war earning twenty-five Medals of Honor. USCT regiments captured Charleston, the Cradle of Secession, and Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. Lincoln recognized their contributions. He declared, “Without the military help of the black freedmen, the war against the South could not have been won.” And without the Emancipation Proclamation, these soldiers and sailors would have had little reason to fight for the Union.

African-American Civil War Museum Station

Entrance to African-American Civil War Museum

Civil War to Civil Rights

Seizing the Blessings of Liberty

Slavery and the Union

African-American Troops Fought to
Preserve the Union and to End Slavery

USCT Camps

Teaching the Negro Recruits to Use the Mini Rifle

Drawing Rations at Military Prison

No Quarters Were Given to USCT

These are images are but a sampling of the story of the USCT revealed at the African American Civil War Museum.

Across the street from the museum, you will find the African American Civil War Memorial.

Front of Memorial

Back of Memorial

Detail of African-American Sailor

Detail of African-American Soldier

Sherman on War

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 17:48:00 +0000

General William T. Sherman
(Mathew Brady)

General William T. Sherman is best remembered for his "war is hell" observation, but I recently discovered many more of his quotes on war in The Oxford Dictionary of Civil War Quotations.

"You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing!" --- Sherman to Professor David F. Boyd on December 24, 1860
"I have seen enough of war not to be caught by its first glittering bait, and when I engage in this it must be with a full consciousness of its real character." --- Letter to Thomas Ewing Jr., January 23, 1861
"A fatal mistake in war is to underrate the strength, feeling and resources of an enemy." --- Letter to Thomas Ewing Jr., May 23, 1861
"The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war. Mangled bodies, dead dying in every conceivable shape, without heads, legs; and horses!" --- Letter to Ellen Sherman (his wife), April 11, 1862
"I deplore the war as much as ever, but if the thing has yo be done, let the means be adequate." --- Letter to Senator John Sherman of Ohio (his brother), August 13, 1862
"I see no end, of even the beginning of the end (of the war)." --- Letter to Senator John Sherman, January 1863
"Obedience to law, absolute - yea, even abject is the lesson that this war, under Providence, will teach the free and enlightened American citizen." --- Letter to Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, September 17, 1863
"I would make this war as severe as possible..." --- Letter to Brig, Gen. John Rawlins, September 17, 1863
"To make war we must and will harden our hearts." --- Letter to Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana, April 21, 1864
"War, like the thunderbolt, follows its laws and turns not aside even if the beautiful, the virtuous and charitable stand in its path." --- Letter to Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana, April 21, 1864
"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want." --- Letter to James Guthrie, August 14, 1864
"The only principle in this war is which party can whip." --- Letter to James Guthrie, August 14, 1864
"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." --- Letter to Atlanta mayor James M. Calhoun, September 12, 1864
"You might as well appeal against the thunderstorm as against the terrible hardships of war." --- Letter to Atlanta mayor James M. Calhoun, September 12, 1864
"I will take infinitely more delight in curing the wounds made by war than in inflicting them." --- Letter to Mrs. Caroline Carson, January 20, 1865
"The legitimate object of war is a more perfect peace." --- Speech in St. Louis, July 20, 1865
"War is at best barbarism … Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot, nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded, who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell." --- Speech at the Michigan Military Academy, June 19, 1879
"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell." --- Quoted in Ohio State Journal, August 12, 1880

General Sherman with Generals Howard, Logan,

Hazen, Davis, Slocum and Mower

(Mathew Brady, May 1865)

March to the Sea

(Alexander Hay Ritchie, 1868)

William Tecumseh Sherman Monument
(Washington, DC, 1903)

Colonel David Ireland - Binghamton's Civil War Hero

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 23:06:00 +0000

Colonel David Ireland

David Ireland was born on May 9, 1832, in Forfar, Scotland. His family emigrated to New York in 1840. David was apprenticed to his father Charles, a tailor in New York City. In 1858 he joined a regiment of militia, the 79th Cameron Highlanders, officially recognized by New York State on June 9, 1859. Listed in the 1860 census as "Clerk in Express", living at Washington and Gansevoort Street in lower Manhattan. Ireland was named Adjutant of the 79th NY, serving under Colonel James Cameron. The regiment was mustered into Federal Service on May 29, 1861 and retained their designation as the 79th New York Volunteers.

Major General
George B. McClellan

Ireland served as lieutenant and adjutant of the 79th regiment. He fought with the regiment in William T. Sherman's Third Brigade in the First Battle of Bull Run. After James Cameron was killed in action, many of the unit's officers resigned and some of the men mutinied. Major General George B. McClellan put down the mutiny and took away the unit colors. McClellan assigned Ireland command of the 79th New York. On September 11, 1861, he led the regiment in an ambush of Confederate troops at Lewinsville, near Falls Church, Virginia. In recognition of this victory, General McClellan restored the regiment's colors and promoted Ireland to captain of the 15th U.S. Infantry regular army regiment.

The Army transferred Ireland to Newport Barracks in Newport, Kentucky to train new regiments for General Sherman's Department of the Ohio. In December 1861, the Army ordered Ireland to New York State to recruit soldiers for the 15th Infantry. He recruited in New York City in January 1862. Ireland moved to Binghamton, New York, where he had rail and canal access to recruit men in the surrounding communities in New York and Pennsylvania.

137th New York Infantry

Regiment National Flag

In the summer of 1862, Ireland was mustering officer for new regiments training in Binghamton. The governor of New York appointed Ireland colonel of the new 137th New York Infantry Regiment. The governor cited Ireland’s "military experience and ability" and regard as “a kind and gentlemanly officer and a brave soldier." Ireland rigorously trained the regiment at Camp Susquehanna in Binghamton. On September 27, 1862, the 137th New York traveled by train to Washington, D.C.

The military sent Ireland and his regiment from Washington to join McClellan's Army of the Potomac. McClellan’s army was recovering in camp near Frederick, Maryland after the Battle of Antietam. McClellan assigned the 137th to XII Corps under the command of Brigadier General Alpheus Williams. The XII Corps was part of the reserve during the Battle of Fredericksburg and remained as a reserve unit to the end of 1862.Ireland’s regiment made several raids from its camp at Bolivar Heights above Harpers Ferry, Virginia into northern Virginia in late 1862.

Brigadier General
George S. Greene

The first major combat service for the 137th was as part of the Third Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General George S. Greene, in the Second Division of the XII Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

During the Battle of Gettysburg, Ireland's regiment was at the far right of the Union line, defending the trenches on Culp's Hill on July 2, 1863. They withstood numerous attacks by the larger Confederate forces of Major General Edward "Allegheny" Johnson on a vital position in the line. Units from other Union corps aided Ireland's regiment, but it remained at its dangerous post until after the last Confederate assault after 10 p.m. on July 2.

Union Defenses on Culp's Hill on July 2, 1863

The Confederate attack ended that night ended when the 137th New York made two bayonet charges that stopped the Confederate advance. The casualties in the 137th at Gettysburg exceeded those of any other regiment in the corps. The regiment lost forty killed, eighty-seven wounded, and ten missing, including four dead officers. Colonel W. F. Fox, in his account of this regiment, says: "It won special honors at Gettysburg, then in Greene's brigade, which, alone and unassisted, held Culp's hill during a critical period of that battle against a desperate attack of vastly superior force. amounting to 40 killed, 87 wounded and 10 missing. The gallant defense of Culp's hill by Greene's brigade, and the terrible execution inflicted by its musketry on the assaulting column of the enemy, form one of the most noteworthy incidents of the war."

Union Defenses on July 2, 1863

Brigadier General
John W. Geary

In the fall of 1863, the Army sent the XII Corps to relieve the surrounded Union army at Chattanooga, Tennessee. After General Greene was wounded at the Battle of Wauhatchie, Ireland was placed in command of the Third Brigade. Ireland's brigade served under Brigadier General John W. Geary in Major General Joseph Hooker's attack during the Battle of Lookout Mountain in the Chattanooga Campaign. During the pursuit of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, Ireland's brigade attacked Major General Patrick Cleburne's position at the Battle of Ringgold Gap. This last battle drove the Confederates into north Georgia for the winter.

When the XI Corps and XII Corps were combined into the XX Corps, Ireland retained command of Third Brigade, Second Division under General Geary. On May 15, 1864, Ireland was wounded by a shell fragment at the Battle of Resaca, Georgia. The Army placed Colonel George A. Cobham, Jr., in temporary command of the brigade.

Battle of Peachtree Creek

Ireland returned to his brigade on June 6, 1864 and led his men at the crossing of Peachtree Creak on July 19, 1864 and at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. After Ireland commanded his brigade into Atlanta on September 2, 1864, he contracted dysentery and died on September 10, 1864.

General Geary expressed regret over Ireland’s death in his report on the Atlanta Campaign. Colonel Ireland's fellow officers mourned "his untimely death … on the field of his fame and glory."

Ireland is buried in Binghamton at Spring Forest Cemetery. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War named Camp 137 in Binghamton the Colonel David Ireland Camp.

David Ireland Gravesite

td>

New Year - Fading Hopes

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 22:04:00 +0000

Mary Chestnut in the 1860s

January 2, 1861 – Major Anderson Decides to Hold Fort Sumter <1>

Before the war had officially begun, Mary Chestnut expressed her concerns in her diary entry on February 18, 1861.

I do not allow myself vain regrets or sad foreboding. The Southern Confederacy must be supported now by calm determination and cool brains. We have risked all, and we must play our best, for the stake is life or death. … Lincoln was elected and our fate sealed. <2>

January 1, 1862 – Union Batteries Fire on Confederate Batteries at Pensacola <3>

On New Year’s Day of 1862, Mrs. Chestnut wrote,

A happy new year to the distant brave
Who combat the foeman or battle the wave:
For each in his home, there is a heart that still burns;
God send them say I ̶ many happy returns.

Sentiment better than the versification. <4>

January 1, 1863 – President Lincoln Signs Emancipation Proclamation <5>

December 31, 1863 – Richmond Examiner reports “Today Closes the Gloomiest Year of Our Struggle” <6>

Mary Chestnut’s next entry was on January 1, 1864.

After the battles around Richmond, hope was strong in me. All that has insensibly drifted away. I now long, pine, pray, and grieve ̶ and ̶ well, I have no hope. <7>

December 30, 1864 – Francis Blair Begins Efforts Leading to Hampton Roads Conference <8>

In January 1865, Mary “… broke down ̶ gave way to abject terror.”

The news of Sherman’s advance ̶ and no new of my husband. Today ̶ wrapped up on the sofa too dismal for moaning, even. There was a loud knock. Shawls and all, I rushed to the door. Telegram from my husband. “All well ̶ be at home on Tuesday.” It was dated from Adams Run. I felt as lighthearted as if the war were over. Then I looked at the date [place] ̶ Adams Run. It ends as it began. Bulls Run ̶ from which their first sprightly running astounded the world. Now if we run who are to run? They ran full-handed. We have fought until maimed soldiers and women and children are all that is left to run. <9>

Mrs. Chestnut’s diary entry on April 22, 1865 contains a prophetic line.

Lincoln old Abe Lincoln killed murdered Seward wounded! Why? By whom? It is simply maddening, all this. See, our army are deserting Joe Johnston. That is the people’s vote against a continuance of the war. And the death of Lincoln ̶ I call that a warning to tyrants. He will not be the last president put to death in the capital, though he is the first. <10>

Footnotes:

<1>Johns Bowman, The Civil War (East Bridgewater: World Publications Group, Inc., 2006), 22.

<2>C. Vann Woodward, ed., Mary Chestnut’s Civil War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 3.

<3>Bowman, 52.

<4>Woodward, 273.

<5>Bowman, 90.

<6>Bowman, 133.

<7>Woodward, 519.

<8>Bowman, 185.

<9>Woodward, 702-703.

<10>Woodward, 791.

Christmas During the Civil War on the Web

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 21:24:00 +0000

Season's Greetings

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season with some links to Christmas During the Civil War.

Christmas in the American Civil War -Wikipedia

Christmas During the Civil War - Battlefield Trust

Christmas During the Civil War - Civil War Saga

Christmas in the Civil War - HistoryNet

Civil War Christmas - Civil War Women

Civil War Christmas Traditions - C-Span - Catherine Wright

Christmas During the Civil War - YouTube - Gods And Generals Christmas 1862 Civil War Billy Yank, Johnny Rebel

I Hear the Bells on Christmas Day - YouTube

Have a great holiday and happy and healthy 2019.

Allen

Preparing for Disunion

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 22:48:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce that Preparing for Disunion - West Point Commandants and the Training of Civil War Leaders is now available from McFarland Publishers, Inc. and Amazon.

U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY

Between 1817 and 1864, sixteen officers were assigned as Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy. They played an important role in training the officers who would serve as senior commanders in both Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. Six former commandants also served as general officers in the Civil War - Maj. Gen. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Maj. Gen. Charles F. Smith, and Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds for the U.S. Volunteers and Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee, Maj. Gen. William H. T. Walker Major, and Brig. Gen. Robert S. Garnett in the Confederate States Army.

U.S. Military Academy Cadets in mid-1800s

Historians criticize the West Point military program as antiquated for its time - a course in Napoleonic strategy and tactics that failed to account for the advent of rifled weapons or the scope and terrain of the Civil War battlefield. Yet these commandants made changes to the program, developed new textbooks, and instructed many cadets who became field generals during the Civil War.

U.S. Military Buildings in 1855

Preparing for Disunion presents the commandants’ biographies, their significant contributions to the military instruction, and the notable cadets they trained in drill on the West Point plain and in the military academy classroom.

Cadet Monument at the U.S. Military Academy

Please contact me if you are interested in a presentation on Preparing for Disunion for your organization.

Those Simon-pure Democrats and Republicans

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 23:36:00 +0000

I recently discovered the term simon pure or simon-pure in a magazine. The article explained that the term was used around the Civil War to describe certain political groups. After some quick research I discovered the meaning and etymology of the phrase.

Definition and Etymology

Simon-pure has two definitions which appear to be opposite of each other. The first definition says the phrase describes something or someone of “untainted purity or integrity” or “absolutely genuine, pure, or authentic.” The phrase can also be used to describe something or someone who is pretentiously, superficially or hypocritically pure or virtuous.

This expression comes from the name of a character in a, Susannah Centilivre's play, A Bold Stroke for a Wife. Centlivre's 1717 play has a character named Simon Pure who is the victim of an impersonation but turns up in the end and proves that he is "the real Simon Pure." A Bold Stroke for a Wife was first performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields theatre, on February 3, 1718. The play ran for six nights and was considered a “substantial success.”

During its long life the play became very popular in the United States. It was produced as early as 1782 in Baltimore. In 1786 a Charleston, South Carolina, journalist commented that "The Bold Stroke for a Wife … is one of the few comedies that has stood the test of time … it is full of business and intrigue and abounds with such a variety as always arrests and keeps up the attention of the audience until it ends." The play continued to be performed for American audiences into the nineteenth century, and it was billed as a "fine old comedy" when it was presented at Wallack's Theatre on Broadway in 1863. The phrase began to be used in America around 1840.

Some Civil War Era Examples

“The Fourth of July dinner at Host Decker's Hotel was the simon-pure thing.” - describes a dinner held on July 4 as reported in the Ulster County, New York Newspaper

“… his friends were exceedingly nervous, and exhibited symptoms of spasms at any allusion to his not being a Simon Pure Democrat - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), August 27, 1859, 1

“The members of this of this troope are all from Georgia, where they were slaves till liberated by the glorious emancipation of the colored race. They are the only ‘Simon Pure’ negro minstrels travelling, the rest all requiring the aid of burnt cork to develop the needed snootiness of the Ethiopian.” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), September 20, 1865, 4

“Inquiries into the antecedents of the Light Brigade making this charge upon John Minor, show that seventeen of them are ‘simon pure’ Unionists, men who were such when property, liberty and life itself were put in Jeopardy by being such.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1865, 4

“The Simon-pure Copperheads have chosen the following named persons to represent at the time and place…” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), August 16, 1866, 2

“The plaintiff claims that he represents the simon-pure and original ‘Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church,’ while the others represent the new society, called the ‘West Side Presbyterian Church.’” Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), October 25, 1859, 1

“Mr. Eaton is a citizen of Ohio, but a simon pure Border Ruffian in political sentiment.” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), April 29, 1857, 2

“The Wood faction profess to be the only Simon Pure Democrats; say that the other faction has deserted the principles of the party, &c.” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), December 14, 1863, 1

“The Simon pure Copperheads had it all their way in the Convention for city officers.” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), April 20, 1863, 1

“It produced quite a flutter in town, but on the succeeding morning the papers teemed with cards from the Democrats and ex-Confederates, disavowing all connection and fellowship with any party save the simon pure Democratic party.”- Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), March 28, 1868, 2

“The political canvass in this State is progressing with the chances in favor of the simon-pure Union Republic party against the Democratic Republican Union part.”- The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), October 29, 1865, 9

“There are two wings of the Democracy, and an inevitable split in the Republican party. The former party is headed by Toombs on the part of the original simon-pure, unforgiving, and unrelenting Ku-Klux rebel Democracy…” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), September 1, 1870, 2

“…but the b’boys propose to select simon-pure, shoulder-hitting Democrats to Congress from New York, Brooklyn, and the other Democratic districts.” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), September 21, 1866, 2

“I wish to explain my vote. I vote no because I consider the resolution a real simon-pure Republican resolution, and I will not endorse republican doctrines.” - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), February 12, 1859, 2

Thank You, Sarah Hale

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 19:41:00 +0000

Before you sit down to turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, you should say thanks to the person who helped make the day a national holiday.

Sarah Josepha Hale

Sarah Josepha Hale was the daughter of Gordon Buell and Martha Whittlesey. She was born in Newport, New Hampshire in 1788. When Sarah was twenty-five, she married scholar and attorney David Hale. They studied together and when he died in 1822, Sarah began her literary career. She published her first book Northwood in 1823. The novel was one of the first novels written by a woman to be published in America. The success of the book led to her appointment as editor of the Ladies Magazine published in Boston. In 1841, she teamed with publisher, Lewis Godey, as editor of Godey's Ladies Book. Sarah used her editorial position as a platform to gently but persistently advocate for measures that she believed would improve family life in America. She fought for property rights for married women and improvements in women’s wages.

Thanksgiving in Camp,
Alfred Waud,
November 28, 1861

In addition to her editing responsibilities, Mrs. Hale wrote thirty books and poems. She was a champion of women’s rights. However, it was her children’s poem, "Mary Had A Little Lamb,"that made her world famous.

Thanksgiving had long been celebrated in New England. In 1837 Sarah wrote the first of her Thanksgiving editorials. Praising the holiday for its domestic and moral influence, she suggested that it “might, without inconvenience, be observed on the same day of November, say the last Thursday in the month, throughout all New England; and also in our sister states, who have engrafted it upon their social system. It would then have a national character, which would, eventually, induce all the states to join in the commemoration of 'Ingathering,' which it celebrates."

Sarah renewed her Thanksgiving advocacy in 1842. In 1847, Sarah began her crusade for a national Thanksgiving.

The Governor of New Hampshire has appointed Thursday, November 25th, as the day of annual thanksgiving in that state. We hope every governor in the twenty-nine states will appoint the same day -- 25th of November -- as the day of thanksgiving! Then the whole land would rejoice at once.

She followed her first editorial with editorials in 1848 and 1849. She did not write in 1850, but Sarah resumed her Thanksgiving editorials in 1851 and continued them, without interruption, for more than 20 years. In 1851 she proclaimed, "There would then be two great American national festivals, Independence Day, on the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving Day, on the last Thursday in November." She explained her choice of the last Thursday in November, “The last Thursday in November has these advantages -- harvests of all kinds are gathered in -- summer travellers [sic] have returned to their homes -- the diseases that, during summer and early autumn, often afflict some portions of our country, have ceased, and all are prepared to enjoy a day of Thanksgiving.”

In response to the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861 that started the Civil War, Sarah wrote "this National Feast Day was celebrated in twenty-four States and three Territories; all these, excepting the States of Massachusetts and Maine, held the Festival on the same day the last Thursday in November." The “missing” states were members of the Confederacy.

In 1863 in the midst of the war, Sarah suggested,

Would it not be of great advantage, socially, nationally, religiously, to have the DAY of our American Thanksgiving positively settled? Putting aside the sectional feelings and local incidents that might be urged by any single State or isolated Territory that desired to choose its own time, would it not be more noble, more truly American, to become nationally in unity when we offer to God our tribute of joy and gratitude for the blessings of the year? Taking this view of the case, would it not be better that the proclamation which appoints Thursday the 26th of November (1863) as the day of Thanksgiving for the people of the United States of America should, in the first instance, emanate from the President of the Republic to be applied by the Governors of each and every State, in acquiescence with the chief executive adviser?

Thanksgiving Festivities at
Fort Pulaski, Georgia
November 27, 1863

On September 28, 1863, Sarah Hale wrote to President Abraham Lincoln. In her letter, she asked

As the President of the United States has the power of appointments for the District of Columbia and the Territories; also for the Army and Navy and all American citizens abroad who claim protection from the U. S. Flag -- could he not, with right as well as duty, issue his proclamation for a Day of National Thanksgiving for all the above classes of persons? And would it not be fitting and patriotic for him to appeal to the Governors of all the States, inviting and commending these to unite in issuing proclamations for the last Thursday in November as the Day of Thanksgiving for the people of each State? Thus the great Union Festival of America would be established.

After more than twenty years, Sarah’s letter encouraged President Lincoln to act. On October 3, Lincoln issued a proclamation that urged Americans to observe the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving.

She also championed elementary education for girls equal to that for boys and higher education for women. She was the first to advocate women as teachers in the public schools. With Matthew Vassar, she helped organize Vassar College. She began the fight for property rights for married women. She fought for improvement in women's wages, reduction of child labor, and physical training for women. Her community service included: advocating for public playgrounds, raising funds to finish Bunker Hill Monument, and fighting to preserve Mount Vernon as a national memorial.

Source: "The Godmother of Thanksgiving: The Story of Sarah Josepha Hale," Peggy M. Baker, Director; Librarian, Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum, 2007.

Non Sibi Sed Patriae

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 22:58:00 +0000

The Texas Monument at Vicksburg

While I was doing some research, I discovered Mrs. B. A. C. Emerson’s collection of Historic Southern Monuments. The collection was published by The Neale Publishing Company in 1911. Historic Southern Monuments contains pictures of Confederate Civil War Monuments and the inscriptions on them. Some of the monuments had simple words, like the Neosho, Missouri Confederate Monument (1902) − In memory of Confederate dead. Others had lengthy statements about the soldiers and officers the monuments honored. There were, of course, monuments to Confederate heroes like Davis, Lee, Jackson, Stuart, Beauregard, and Forrest. Local men were also honored like the tributes to Nunnally (Monroe, Georgia), Stephen Lee (Vicksburg, Mississippi), Zebulon Baird Vance (Ashville, North Carolina), and Wade Hampton (Columbia, South Carolina), Sam Davis (Nashville, Tennessee), Tom Green (Austin, Texas), and Turner Ashby (Harrisonburg, Virginia). The monuments were on battlefields, city squares, and cemeteries.

The following, randomly selected, inscriptions illustrate remembrance of Confederate dead, statements about the honor of Confederate soldiers, and exclamations about what they died for.

West Point, Mississippi
Monument

West Point, Mississippi Confederate Monument (1907) − "No nation rose so white and fair or fell so pure of crime." Clay County holds in proud and grateful remembrance her brave and loyal sons who preferred death to a betrayal of her dearest principles! Might overcame! Let not her sons forget that these unsullied heroes fought for right.

Fredericktown, Missouri Confederate

Monument − In memory of Confederate soldiers at Fredericktown. October 21, 1861. − We know not whence they came, dear is their lifeless clay: Whether unknown or known to fame. They died, and wore the gray.

Springfield, Missouri Confederate Monument (1901) − To the memory of the Missouri soldier in the Army of the Confederate States of America. Those who die for a right principle do not die in vain. They fought for the right of self government.

Fayetteville, North Carolina Confederate Monument Cross Creek Cemetery (1868) − In memory of the Confederate dead. Woman’s record to the heroes in the dust "On fame’s eternal camping ground their silent tents are spread." "Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, dear as the blood ye gave." "Nor shall your glory be forgot, while fame her record keeps, or honor points the hallowed spot where valor proudly sleeps."

Windsor, North Carolina Confederate Monument (1895) − We responded to our country’s call, we fought an honest fight. We kept the southland’s faith. We fell at the post of duty. We died for the land we loved.

Anderson, South
Carolina Monument

Anderson, South Carolina Confederate
Monument (1901) − The spirit of chivalry was not dead in 1861, when the soldiers of the Confederacy went forth to battle for home and love of country, and for the preservation of constitutional liberty. How well they acted their part in the gigantic drama of war which for four years convulsed the American continent and held the attention of all the world, let the truthful and impartial historian tell! Let him record how they wrested victory from foes who far surpassed in numbers. in excellence of arms and equipment, and in all the provisions and munitions of war. and who were supported by the material, moral and political power of almost the entire civilized world: Let him record with what fortitude they endured sickness and imprisonment, with what unfailing cheerfulness they sustained privations and suffering: and above all let him record with what sublime endurance they met defeat and how in poverty and want, broken in health but not in spirit, they have recreated the greatness of the South, and made it again the sweetest land on earth. In grateful acknowledgement of their prowess in war and their achievements in peace, this monument is erected: that it may teach the generations of the future the story of the matchless, unfading and undying honor which the Confederate soldier won. “Though conquered we adore it, love the cold dead hands that bore it.”

Chester, South Carolina Confederate Monument (1905) − This monument guards the memory of the men of Chester District who, obeying the call of their state, died for the Confederate cause 1861-1865. Time may crumble this monument into dust but time cannot dim their glory, their valor, their patriotism, their faithfulness and their fame remain forever the heritage of their countrymen Non Sibi Sed Patriae [Not for self, but for country.] Their fame increases like the branches of a tree through the hidden course of time.

Columbia, South Carolina
Monument

Columbia, South Carolina Confederate Monument (1879) − To South Carolina’s dead of the Confederate Army.1861-1865. Erected by the women of South Carolina. This monument perpetuates the memory of those who, true to the instincts of their birth. faithful to the teaching of their fathers, constant in their love for the state, died in performance of their duty; who have glorified a fallen cause by the simple manhood of their lives, the patient endurance of suffering, and the heroism of death; and who in the dark hours of imprisonment, and the hopelessness of the hospital, in the. short, sharp agony of the field, found support and consolation in the belief that at home they would not be forgotten. Let the stranger, who may in future times read this inscription, recognize that these were men whom power could not corrupt, whom death could not terrify, whom defeat could not dishonor and let their virtue plead for just judgment of the cause in which they perished, let the South Carolinian of another generation remember that the state taught them how to live and how to die, and that from her broken fortunes she has preserved for her children the priceless treasures of their memories; teaching all who may claim the same birthright. that truth. courage. and patriotism endureth forever.

Lancaster, South Carolina Confederate Monument (1909) − Confederate Soldiers. The arms are stacked, the flags are furled, the sound of battle no longer falls; but our soldiers showed to a waiting world how to answer when duty calls. From north to south, from east to west. Their ashes scattered lie; but in the regions of the blest their spirits sing on high. God holds the scales of justice. He will measure praise and blame: The South will stand the verdict; and will stand it without shame. Worthy, the Confederate soldiers to be hallowed and held in the tender remembrance: worthy, the fadeless fame which Lancaster soldiers won in defending the honor of the South, the rights of the states, the liberties of the people, the principles of the Union as they were handed down to them by the fathers of our common country. No country had more loyal sons. No cause, nobler champions. No people, bolder defenders, No principle, truer martyrs.

Newberry, South Carolina Confederate Monument (1893) − This is a record of sacred dead. They were the soldiers of the southern Confederacy, from Newberry District, South Carolina, who battled for right and perished, thus their living comrades and those who love them memorize their lives.

Clarksville, Tennessee Confederate Monument (1893) − In honor of the heroes who fell while fighting for us in the army of the Confederate States, 1861-1865. Through adverse fortune denied final victory to their undaunted courage, history preserves their fame, made glorious forever. though men deserve.

Fayetteville, Tennessee Confederate Monument (1906) − This carven stone is here to tell to all the world the love we bear to those fought and fell, whose battle cry was do and dare. Who feared no foe. but faced the fray − Our gallant men who wore the gray.

Lebanon, Tennessee Confederate Monument − Sacred to memory of Confederate soldiers who sleep in this cemetery and to their surviving comrades who shall rest here. Immortal heroes! Your unparalleled courage. Your blood, your patriotism, have bequeathed to all generations an example of sublime heroism, and to your country an eternity of fame. The Confederacy without an army, navy, or government, 600.000 volunteers sustained the assault of 2,778.304 men, supported by the strongest government in the world for four years. Its destruction rendered necessary a public debt of $2,708.393,885, the sacrifice of 349,944 lives and 1,366,443 pensioners.

Corsicana, Texas Confederate Monument (1908) − “It is the duty we owe to the dead. The dead who died for us, but whose memories can never die. It is a duty we owe to posterity to see that our children shall know the virtues and rise worthy of their sires.” − Jefferson Davis. The soldiers of the Southern Confederacy fought valiantly for the liberty of state bequeathed them by their forefathers of 1776. “Who glorified their righteous cause and who made the sacrifice supreme in that they died to keep their country free.” “Tell it as you may, it never can be told; sing it as you will it can never be sung the story of the glory of the men who wore the gray.”

Jefferson. Texas, Confederate Monument (1907) − “Soldiers, you in the wreck of gray with the brazen belt of the С. S. A., take our love and tears tоday. Тaке. Then, all that we have то give, and by God’s help while our shall live it shall keep in its faithful way the camp fire lit for the men in gray − Aye, till trumpet sound far away and the silver bugle of heaven play and the roll is called on judgement day.” Nо more they hear the rebel yell, where battle thunders rose and fell, Tis’ now a welcome and a cheer to friends, to foemen far and near: and peace, sweet peace, born of despair; walks forth and sheds her radiance fair upon lost fields of honor.”

Paris, Texas Confederate Monument (1903) − Their own true hearts and dauntless arms have covered them with glory; and while a Southerner treads the soil they live in song and story.

Harrisonburg, Virginia Confederate Monument (1876) − In memory of men who with their lives vindicated the principles of 1776. This monument is erected by the Ladies’ Memorial Association in grateful remembrance of the gallant Confederate soldiers who lie here. They died defending the rights of the South in the War Between the States from 1861 to 1865.

Martinsville, Virginia Confederate Monument ( 1901) − And now, lord, what I for? My hope is in thee. “Nor shall your glory be forgot while fame her record keeps.” Never braver bled for brighter land nor brighter land had a cause so grand.

New Market, Virginia Confederate Monument (1898) − Our Confederate heroes “sleeping but glorious.” Names of soldiers and cadets who fell in the battle. They died for the principles upon which all true republics are founded. At the call of patriotism and duty, they encountered the perils of the field, and were faithful unto death. They fought for conscience sake and for right.

Confederate Monument at
Arlington National Cemetery

Let the Horse Rest in Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 15:56:00 +0000

Wilson, NY in Niagara County may not be the first place you think of when discussing memorials to the Confederacy. In fact, many of the town’s ancestors were part of the First Regiment New York Light Artillery that was raised in nearby Lockport. Battery M was part of the regiment that was assembled in Rochester, NY and sent to Washington to defend the Capitol. The Chief Bugler for this regiment was Private. Lorenzo Pratt of Wilson. Pratt served in the War three and a half years and survived to return home. Pratt and Battery M saw action in almost every major battle and campaign including Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Peach Tree Creek, the March to the Sea, and the campaigns of the Carolinas.

During the Battle of Chattanooga in November 1863, Pratt captured a Confederate horse and named him “Billy Sherman” after William Tecumseh Sherman. Billy was a dark bay and stood 15 hands high. Pratt rode his new horse for the duration of the war and proudly brought him back to Wilson in June 1865.

General William T. Sherman

Lorenzo Pratt returned to his life as a farmer on the Wilson-Burt Road. Billy became his chief workhorse as well as a much-loved friend. Every year on Decoration (Memorial) Day and other patriotic holidays, Billy would be decked out in equestrian military regalia and join in the local parades. He was a favorite attraction with children and with the aging members of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Billy continued to work on the farm until three days before he died on September 1, 1887. It was estimated that Billy was at least thirty years old when he passed away. The folks in Wilson had a funeral for the local Civil War veteran. An Army blanket was placed over his body and an American flag over his head. A poem about Billy was read aloud and then he was buried on the Lorenzo Pratt’s farm. For many years, the Pratt family maintained Billy’s grave and the GAR placed a flag there every Decoration Day.

Gradually, those custodians either moved or died. Billy’s grave was almost lost to history, until, on September 1, 1973, 86 years after his death, the Wilson Historical Society placed a boulder with a historic marker on the side of the road not far from his grave. At some point later, three small, wooden flags were added: the American flag, the Tennessee state flag and the Confederate flag to the site.

Things seemed to be going well, until Randy Beresford from West Virginia bought the property and found himself in the middle of a controversy. In late May 2018, a man who didn't give his name called Wilson Town Hall to complain about the presence of the Confederate flag. Now Beresford and the Wilson Historical Society had to explain what the monument honored and why it won't be taken down, despite the nationwide removal of Confederate flags and monuments. "As a historical organization, we do not feel that the current display is in any way glorifying of or condoning a political message − not that a horse has any politics," said John Sinclair, president of the Wilson Historical Society. "There is indeed a part of society that glorifies the negative side of the Confederacy, with racial undertones," Sinclair said. "This display and gravesite nearby, which is tended to by our local VFW post to honor the service of the horse, its rider and all the men of Battery M, who served and died fighting against what the South stood for, is not one of them."

Beresford has no plans to change the monument to the horse.

Sources:

Thomas J. Prohaska, “Burial site of Civil War horse prompts question: What about Confederate flag?” July 5, 2018 , Updated July 6, 2018, Buffalo Evening News.

“Billy Sherman, The Confederate Horse from Wilson,” Niagara County Historical Society Bicentennial Moments, http://www.niagara2008.com/history96.html.

Louis Froelich - Arms Maker to the Confederacy

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:00:00 +0000

Louis Froelich - Arms Maker to the Confederacy is an excellent book with information on Mr. Froelich and excellent photographs of the weapons he produced. John W. McAden, Jr. and Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr. have produced “a useful reference book in the field of Confederate edged weapons.“ The American Society of Arms Collectors said, “It is a factual and informative work for both collectors and historians and is recommended for this field of American arms history.”

The book begins with a detailed biography of Louis Froelich. Froelich was a Bavarian mechanic who immigrated to the United States. After working in New York City, he moved south with his family and started working in Wilmington, North Carolina. When the Civil War began, Froelich started working as a foreman at the North Carolina Button Manufactory in April 1861. In late 1861, he and his partner, Colonel B. Estevan, started the CSA Arms Factory. The facility began operation in Wilmington and later moved to Kenansville, North Carolina. The factory supplied “a significant number of sabers and swords” to the Confederate forces.

Froelich's New Weapon
The Daily Journal, May 17, 1862

Froelich dissolved the partnership after he learned that Estevan lied about his military experience in Hungary. Froelich worked to rehabilitate the Wilmington company's reputation. He presented arms innovations to the Confederate military that were so far ahead of its time that the Confederate government refused to award him a contract.

Froelich Ends Partnership
Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer, April 28, 1862

After a yellow fever epidemic killed many armory workers and a fire destroyed a large part of the factory, Froelich moved his operations to Kenansville. In late 1863, a Union raiding party attacked the town and destroyed most of the factory and its production.

On January 1, 1864, Froelich sold a co-partnership to Jacob W, N. Cornehlson. The business operated under the name Louis Froelich & Co. in manufacturing of arms, accoutrements, and horse shoes. Froelich’s valuable contribution to the Confederacy is recorded in The Wilmington Journal of April 28, 1864:

HOME INDUSTRY − We learn from the Confederate that at the manufactory of Messrs. L. Froelich & Co., Kenansville, N. C, from April 1, 1861 to March 1st. 1864, this establishment has furnished 18 sets of surgical instruments, 800 gross military buttons, 3,700 lance spears, 6,500 sabre bayonets, 11,700 cavalry sabres [sic], 2,700 officer's sabers, 600 navy cutlasses, 800 artillery cutlasses, 1,700 sets of infantry accoutrements, 300 sabre belts, and 300 knapsacks. Froelich’s work earned him the nickname the "Sword Maker for the Confederacy."

After the war, Froelich became a farmer in Kenansville. In the 1870s, Froelich’s family moved to Halifax County, where he died in October 1873.

Froelich Grows Grapes
The Daily Journal, October 16, 1987

Following Louis Froelich’s extensive biography, the authors present a series of full-color photographs of the swords, sabers, Bowie knives, lances, saber bayonets, lances, and belts and buckles Mr. Froelich manufactured for the Confederate military.

The Authors

John W. McAden owns one of the finest collections of Froelich-made edged weapons. The book contains photographs of his collection for others to enjoy and study. Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr., a professor of Civil War history at UNC Wilmington, “scoured newspapers, manuscripts, and official documents for information on Louis Froelich’s business operations and personal life.”

Ambrose Burnside and the National Rifle Association

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 12:00:00 +0000

General Ambrose Burnside

Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 - September 13, 1881) was an Army officer, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from. He was governor of Rhode Island and United States Senator. He was Union Army general in the Civil War and conducted successful campaigns in North Carolina and East Tennessee. Regrettably, Burnside is remembered for the delay in crossing the “Burnside Bridge” at Antietam, and his disastrous defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg and Battle of the Crater. His distinctive style of facial hair became known as sideburns, derived from his last name. He was also the first president of the National Rifle Association.

Civil War

When the Civil War began, Burnside was a brigadier general in the Rhode Island Militia. He raised the First Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was appointed its colonel on May 2, 1861. Two companies of this regiment were armed with the Burnside Carbines he invented. First Battle of Bull Run A month later, the Army assigned him to command a brigade in the Department of Northeast Virginia. He led the brigade without distinction at the First Battle of Bull Run in July. He took temporary command of the division after Brigadier General David Hunter was wounded.

After the First Rhode Island completed its ninety-day enlistment, the Army promoted Burnside to brigadier general of volunteers on August 6 and assigned him to train provisional brigades in the Army of the Potomac.

North Carolina Expeditionary Force

Burnside commanded the three brigades of the Coast Division or North Carolina Expeditionary Force from September 1861 until July 1862. He directed the successful campaign that closed more than eighty percent of the North Carolina sea coast to Confederate shipping. The Army promoted Burnside to major general of volunteers on March 18, 1862 in recognition of his successes at the battles of Roanoke Island and New Bern. In July, his forces became the IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside was offered command of the Army of the Potomac following Major General George B. McClellan's failure in the Virginia Peninsula Campaign. He refused the promotion because of his loyalty to McClellan and recognition of his own limited military experience.

Battle of Antietam

Burnside's Bridge

Burnside commanded the Right Wing of the Army of the Potomac (the I Corps and his own IX Corps) at the start of the Maryland Campaign. At the battle of Antietam, McClellan divided Burnside's two corps, placed them on opposite ends of the Union line, and reduced Burnside's command to only the IX Corps. Burnside refused to relinquish his authority and continued to act as if the I Corps commander reported to him. This cumbersome arrangement contributed to his slowness in attacking and crossing "Burnside's Bridge." Burnside added to his problems by failing to conduct adequate reconnaissance around the bridge and to take advantage of several easy fording sites out of range of the enemy. His troops made repeated assaults across the narrow bridge defended by Confederate sharpshooters. The IX Corps eventually crossed the bridge, but the delay allowed Major General A. P. Hill's Confederate division to arrive from Harpers Ferry and drive the Union forces back over the bridge.

Battle of Fredericksburg

Burnside at Fredericksburg

After McClellan's failure at Antietam, the Army appointed Burnside to command the Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862. President Lincoln pressured Burnside to take the offense and approved the commander's plan to capture Richmond, Virginia. This plan led to a humiliating and costly Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13. Burnside's forces rapidly advanced to Fredericksburg, but the attack was delayed waiting for pontoon bridges to cross the Rappahannock River. He was also reluctant to send portions of his across the river at fording points. The delay allowed General Robert E. Lee to concentrate his forces along Marye's Heights west of town and easily repulse the Union attacks. In addition to the delays and refusal to use fording points, Burnside mismanaged the Union attacks and failed to support Union breakthroughs. The failure of repeated piecemeal frontal attacks on Marye's Heights and the high number of casualties earned him the nom de guerre "Butcher of Fredericksburg."

Battle of Fredericksburg

In January 1863, Burnside's second offensive against Lee bogged down in the winter rains. The "Mud March" was another failure, and Burnside asked be relieved of duty, tried by a court martial, and offered to resign.

General Order No. 38

Lincoln refused to accept Burnside's resignation, but the president decided to reassign him to "a quiet area with little activity" where Burnside "could not get himself into too much trouble." Burnside returned to command the IX Corps and placed in charge of the Department of the Ohio (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois). This department might have been away from the front lines, but antiwar sentiments were high. Burnside was disgusted by the antiwar attitude and issued a series of orders forbidding "the expression of public sentiments against the war or the Administration" in the department. Finally, Burnside's orders resulted in General Order No. 38, which proclaimed that "any person found guilty of treason will be tried by a military tribunal and either imprisoned or banished to enemy lines."

Burnside's ordered the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of Ohio Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham. Burnside followed this action by closing the Chicago Times, a leading opponent of the war and President Lincoln. A military court found Vallandigham guilty of violating General Order No. 38 and sentenced him to imprisonment for the duration of the war, and was turned into a martyr by antiwar Democrats. Burnside next turned his attention to Illinois. Lincoln intervened and released Vallandigham to Confederate forces, ordered the Chicago Times to be reopened, and disciplined Burnside for exceeding his authority.

Knoxville Campaign

Burnside led troops in the Knoxville Campaign. His forces bypassed the Confederate-held Cumberland Gap; advanced to Knoxville, Tennessee; captured the city; and forced the Confederates to abandon Knoxville. After occupying the city, Burnside sent troops back to the Cumberland Gap and forced the Confederate forces to surrender.

Overland Campaign

Burnside took the IX Corps back to the Eastern Theater where they fought in the Overland Campaign. The IX Corps fought at the battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, where Burnside performed poorly. After the battles of North Anna and Cold Harbor, his command served in the siege lines at Petersburg.

The Battle of the Crater

Battle of the Crater

The two opposing armies were stalemated in trench warfare at Petersburg in July 1864. Burnside agreed to a plan suggested by a regiment of former coal miners in his corps. The 48th Pennsylvania would dig a mine under Elliot's Salient in the Confederate entrenchments and ignite explosives to destroy the Confederate earthworks. Burnside planned to use a division of specially trained black troops to take advantage of explosion. and achieve a surprise breakthrough. At the last moment, General Meade ordered Burnside not to use these soldiers. The fort was destroyed on July 30 in what is known as the Battle of the Crater. He was forced to use untrained white troops instead. He could not decide which division to choose as a replacement, so he had his three subordinate commanders draw lots.

The division chosen by chance was that commanded by Brigadier General James H. Ledlie, who failed to brief the men on what was expected of them and was reported during the battle to be drunk well behind the lines, providing no leadership. Ledlie's men entered the huge crater instead of going around it, becoming trapped, and were subjected to heavy fire from Confederates around the rim, resulting in high casualties.

General Grant relieved Burnside of command on August 14 and placed him on "extended leave." Burnside was never assigned to duty during the remainder of the war. A court of inquiry blamed him for the Crater fiasco on Burnside and his subordinates. He finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865, after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Career After the Civil War

After his resignation, Burnside was president of the Cincinnati and Martinsville Railroad, the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad, the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad, and the Rhode Island Locomotive Works.

Burnside returned to politics and was elected to three one-year terms (May 29, 1866 to May 25, 1869) as Governor of Rhode Island.

Burnside was a Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society of Union officers and their descendants, and served as the Junior Vice Commander of the Massachusetts Commandery in 1869. He was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans' association from 1871 to 1872 and Commander of the Department of Rhode Island of the Grand Army of the Republic.

During a visit to Europe in 1870, Burnside attempted to mediate between the French and the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1876 Burnside was elected as commander of the New England Battalion of the Centennial Legion, a collection of militia units from the original thirteen states. The units participated in the parade in Philadelphia to celebrate the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1874 the Rhode Island Senate elected Burnside as a US Senator from Rhode Island. He was re-elected in 1880, and served until his death in 1881. During that time, Burnside, who had been a Democrat before the war, ran as a Republican, playing a prominent role in military affairs as well as serving as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in 1881.

National Rifle Association

A few months after the Civil War began, a group of Americans living in England proposed a "national rifle association." R.G. Moulton and R.B. Perry sent a letter to President Lincoln that recommended forming an organization patterned after the British National Rifle Association. The British organization was formed a year and a half earlier. Moulton and Perry suggested building a shooting range on Staten Island. They proposed holding a shooting competition using Whitworth rifles. They recommended organizing a provisional committee including President Lincoln, Secretary of War, officers, and other prominent New Yorkers to form the Association.

The Civil War delayed the organization of the National Rifle Association November 16, 1871. William C. Church, editor of the Army and Navy Journal, and Captain George W. Wingate chartered the first chapter in New York. On November 25, 1871, the association elected its first corporate officers. They selected General Ambrose Burnside as president; Colonel W.C. Church as vice president; Captain Wingate as secretary; Fred M. Peck as recording secretary; and General John B. Woodward as treasurer. Burnside’s experience as a general officer and gunsmith made him an obvious choice. When Burnside resigned on August 1, 1872, Church succeeded him as president.

Union Army records for the Civil War indicated that its troops fired about 1,000 rifle shots for each Confederate hit. General Burnside complained, "Out of ten soldiers who are perfect in drill and the manual of arms, only one knows the purpose of the sights on his gun or can hit the broad side of a barn." The problem was attributed to the use of volley tactics using smoothbore muskets.

Captain Wingate recognized the need for better training and sent representatives to Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany to observe militia and armies' marksmanship training programs. Using Wingate’s plans, the New York Legislature financed construction of a modern shooting range at Creedmoor, Long Island that opened on June 21, 1873. Captain Wingate wrote a marksmanship training manual based on his research and field exercises.

The NRA organized rifle clubs in other states and many state National Guard organizations asked the NRA’s advice to improve members' marksmanship. Wingate's marksmanship manual developed into the US Army marksmanship instruction program.

Burnside was not the only Civil War officer to serve as NRA president. Former President and General Ulysses S. Grant, General Philip H. Sheridan, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Medal of Honor winner General Alexander Shaler all were chosen as NRA presidents. In addition to Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Donald Trump were both NRA and United States presidents.

Winfield Scott Hancock

U. S. Grant

Philip H. Sheridan

Alexander Shaler

The US Congress created the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice in 1901 that included representatives from the NRA, National Guard, and US military services. Congress authorized annual rifle and pistol competitions and a national match open to military and civilian shooters. In 1903, Congress approved the Civilian Marksmanship Program to train civilians who might later become soldiers in the US military.

In 1907, NRA headquarters moved to Washington, DC to assist the organization's advocacy efforts. The NRA formed its Legislative Affairs Division to update members with facts and analysis of upcoming bills after Congress passed the first federal gun-control law, the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). Karl Frederick, NRA President, testified during congressional NFA hearings in 1934, "I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one. ... I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses." The NRA supported the NFA along with the Gun Control Act of 1968, which together created a system to federally license gun dealers and established restrictions on particular categories and classes of firearms.

Until the middle 1970s, the NRA focused on sportsmen, hunters and target shooters, and downplayed gun control issues. However, passage of the Gun Control Act incited a growing number of NRA gun rights activists. In 1975 in response to increased oversight, the NRA started to engage in gun legislation and politics. The NRA began lobbying as the Institute for Legislative Action. Its political action committee, the Political Victory Fund, was started in time for the 1976 elections. After 1977, the organization expanded its membership by focusing heavily on political issues and forming coalitions with conservative politicians.

Since 1977, the NRA has championed and defended the Second Amendment. In 1872, the NRA’s mission was to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis." Today, the -NRA’s primary goals are to “promote opposition to gun control laws.”

Sources:

Ambrose Burnside, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_BBururnside.

National Rifle Association, Wikipedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rifle_Association. Burnside carbine, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnside_carbine.

How accurate is the average soldier in combat? “It appears that a soldier’s ability to hit a given target is typically reduced by a factor of ten or so when he is moved from a static rifle range to a field firing area where he has to select cover, move, shoot and so on. It is reduced by a further factor of ten or so if there is an enemy firing back at him. It is reduced by another factor of ten if the enemy has machine guns, or if he has tanks; and by a hundred if he has both.” - Dr. Jim Storr quote in https://www.quora.com/How-accurate-is-the-average-soldier-in-combat.

Confederate Plaque Still Hangs in the Texas Capitol

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 12:00:00 +0000

Texas’ top two elected leaders are dancing around the debate surrounding the Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque that hangs in the Texas Capitol. Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick refuse to respond to questions concerning who can remove the marker.

Children of the Confederacy Creed

The Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque was dedicated in 1959 in the midst of the civil rights movement and rising public awareness about slavery foster by the Roots television series. The plaque’s hanging occurred before the centennial celebration of the Civil War. The 1961-1965 remembrance has been widely criticized for ignoring slavery and focusing more on honoring the Union and Confederate forces. The recent sesquicentennial worked hard to avoid omitting slavery and the role of African Americans in the conflict.

Children of the Confederacy Creed

Because we desire to perpetuate, in love and honor, the heroic deeds of those who enlisted in the Confederate Army, and upheld its flag through four years of war, we, the children of the South, have united in an organization called "Children of the Confederacy," in which our strength, enthusiasm, and love of justice can exert its influence.

We therefore, pledge ourselves to preserve pure ideals; to honor our veterans; to study and teach the truths of history (one of the most important of which is that the war between the states was not a rebellion nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery), and to always act in a manner that will reflect honor upon our noble and patriotic ancestors.

Erected by the Texas Division
Children of the Confederacy
August 7, 1959

The statement saying that slavery was not the underlying cause of the Civil War ignores the documents associated with Texas secession, which clearly indicate that defense of slavery and preservation of white supremacy were the reasons Texas left the Union. (See Declaration of Causes: February 2, 1861.)

Adding to the plaque’s notoriety, Texas lawmakers celebrated its erection with a resolution noting how Texas "proudly entered "the Confederacy and "contributed significantly to the cause of that gallant nation through the period of the War for Southern Independence."

Now the debate about historic accuracy and offensive language has commenced with opposing forces drawn from both parties.

In May 2018, Attorney General Ken Paxton was asked to determine who has the legal power to remove the Children of the Confederacy plaque. Paxton asked Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and several other people to submit briefs "if they have a special interest or expertise in the subject matter." Abbott, Patrick and other representatives from the Texas Preservation Board did not submit briefs.

Paxton is expected to issue his opinion in October, less than two weeks before election day.

Abbott wants the legislature to decide the issue, but House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, and Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas believe that the State Preservation Board has the authority to remove the plaque. Representative Straus reminded Paxton the claims that the Civil War was not fought to sustain slavery was removed from the Children of the Confederacy's creed a few years ago. Straus’ response said, “The plaque should either be removed or relocated to a place where appropriate historical context can be provided."

The State Preservation Board (SPB)

The State Preservation Board has six members − Abbott, Patrick, Straus, Lois Kolkhorst (Senate), Charlie Geren (House), and Althea Swann Bugg. Only the governor can call a meeting of the governing board.

Mission − The State Preservation Board preserves and maintains the Texas Capitol, the Capitol Extension, the 1857 General Land Office Building that now houses the Capitol Visitors Center, other designated buildings, their contents and their grounds; provides facilities and grounds keeping services for the Texas Governor's Mansion; and operates the Bullock Texas State History Museum and the Texas State Cemetery. The SPB provides educational programs related to Texas history, government and culture to benefit the citizens of Texas and visitors to the state.

Philosophy − The SPB acts in accordance with the highest standards of achievement, accountability, and ethics. We manage our resources wisely as public servants and stewards of some of the State of Texas's most important historical and architectural resources. We strive to maintain a productive working environment where each person is valued and where all staff can work together positively to accomplish common and individual goals. We are driven by our commitment to excellence and our appreciation of the lessons of history and the value of the past as a teacher for the future.

I have italicized two phrases that refer to the historical education role of the Board. Clearly, if the wording on the plaque is incorrect, the Board has the responsibility to correct the historical errors.

While universities and colleges, city and county offices, and schools have removed Confederate memorials, about a dozen monuments remain at the state Capitol. These include three large monuments on the grounds, one of which features the Confederate flag and another which honor fallen Confederate soldiers. (Please see “The Hidden Confederate History of the Texas Capitol: An Unofficial Guide” for more information.

The Relic Tower of the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 18:34:00 +0000

While visiting the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA, I discovered a interesting artifact. During their service in the Civil War, members of the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment collected various mementos, souvenirs, and relics from the battles they fought in.

The Seventh Cavalry Regiment at Chickamauga Battlefield

Overview

The Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry was organized at Camp Cameron in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during September through December 1861 and mustered in for a two-year enlistment on December 19, 1861, under the command of Colonel George C. Wynkoop. The regiment was recruited in Allegheny, Berks, Bradford, Centre, Chester, Clinton, Dauphin, Luzerne, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill, and Tioga counties.

Service of Battalions

The regiment served unattached, Army of the Ohio, to March 1862.
Negley's Seventh Independent Brigade, Army of the Ohio (First Battalion).
Post of Nashville, Tennessee, Department of Ohio (Second Battalion).
Twenty-third Independent Brigade, Army of the Ohio (Third Battalion), to September 1862.
Cavalry, Eighth Division, Army of the Ohio (First and Second Battalions), Unattached, Army of the Ohio (Third Battalion), to November 1862.
First Brigade, Cavalry Division, Army of the Ohio, to January 1863.
First Brigade, Second Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to November 1864.
Second Brigade, Second Division, Cavalry Corps, Military Division Mississippi, to July 1865.

Engagements and Assignments

Assignments and Battles in 1861

Organized at Harrisburg - September to December 1861
At Camp Cameron, Harrisburg - until December 19, 1861
Moved to Louisville, Kentucky -December 19
Ordered to Jeffersonville, Indiana
At Jeffersonville performing various duties - until February 1862

Assignments and Battles in 1862

Service of Battalions in 1862
Served unattached with The Army of the Ohio to March 1862
First Battalion (Cos. "A," "D," "H" and "I") - Negley's Seventh Independent Brigade, The Army of the Ohio - Cavalry, Eighth Division, The Army of the Ohio [Sent to Columbia, Tennessee; Expedition to Rodgersville - May 13-14; Lamb's Ferry, Alabama - May 14; Advance on Chattanooga - June 1; Sweeden's Cove - June 4; Chattanooga -June 7-8; Occupation of Manchester - July 1; Paris - July 19; Raid on Louisville & Nashville Railroad - August 19-23; Huntsville Road, near Gallatin - August 21; Brentwood - September 19-20; Near Perryville - October 6-7; Chaplin Hills - October 8; and Expedition from Crab Orchard to Big Hill and Richmond - October 21]
Second Battalion (Cos. "C," "E," "F" and "K") - Nashville, Tennessee in Department of the Ohio - Cavalry, Eighth Division, The Army of the Ohio [Under General Dumont in garrison at Nashville, Tennessee and Scouting around Nashville - until November]
Third Battalion (Cos. "B," "G," "L" and "M") - Twenty-third Independent Brigade, The Army of the Ohio - until September 1862 - Unattached, The Army of the Ohio until November 1862 [In Duffield's Command; Scouting in West and Middle Tennessee; Lebanon and pursuit to Carthage - May 5; Readyville - June 7; Murfreesboro - July 18; and Sparta - August 4-5 and 7]
Regiment reunited - November 1862
Nashville - November 5
Reconnaissance from Nashville to Franklin - December 11-12 [Wilson's Creek Pike - December 11 and Franklin - December 12]
Near Nashville - December 24
Advance on Murfreesboro - December 26-30 [Lavergne - December 26-27]
Battle of Stone's River - December 30-31
Overall's Creek - December 31

Assignments and Battles in 1863

Battle of Stone's River - January 1-3
Manchester Pike and Lytle's Creek - January 5
Expedition to Franklin - January 31-February 13 [Unionville and Rover - January 31; Murfreesboro - February 7; and Rover - February 13]
Expedition toward Columbia - March 4-14 [Unionville and Rover - March 4; Chapel Hill - March 5; Thompson's Station - March 9; and Rutherford Creek - March 10-11]
Snow Hill, Woodbury - April 3
Franklin - April 10
Expedition to McMinnville - April 20-30
Middletown - May 21-22
Near Murfreesboro - June 3
Operations on Edgeville Pike - June 4
Marshall Knob - June 4
Shelbyville Pike - June 4
Scouting on Middleton and Eagleville Pike - June 10
Scouting on Manchester Pike - June 13
Expedition to Lebanon - June 15-17
Lebanon - June 16
Middle Tennessee or Tullahoma Campaign - June 23-July 7
Guy's Gap or Fosterville and capture of Shelbyville - June 27
Expedition to Huntsville - July 13-22
Reconnaissance to Rock Island Ferry - August 4-5
Sparta - August 9
Passage of Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River, and Chickamauga, Georgia Campaign - August 16-September 22
Calfkiller River, Sparta - August 17
Battle of Chickamauga - September 19-20
Rossville, Georgia - September 21
Reenlisted at Huntsville, Alabama - November 28

Assignments and Battles in 1864

Atlanta Campaign - May to September
Demonstration on Rocky Faced Ridge - May 8-11
Battle of Resaca - May 14-15
Tanner's Bridge and Rome - May 15
Near Dallas - May 24
Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills - May 25-June 5
Near Big Shanty - June 9
Operations about Marietta and against Kennesaw Mountain - June 10-July 2 [McAffee's Cross Roads - June 11; Powder Springs - June 20; and Noonday Creek - June 27]
Line of Nickajack Creek - July 2-5
Rottenwood Creek - July 4
Rossville Ferry - July 5
Line of the Chattahoochie - July 6-17
Garrard's Raid on Covington - July 22-24
Siege of Atlanta - July 22-August 25
Garrard's Raid to South River - July 27-31
Flat Rock Bridge - July 28
Kilpatrick's Raid around Atlanta - August 18-22 [Flint River and Jonesborough - August 19; Red Oak - August 19; and Lovejoy Station - August 20]
Operations at Chattahoochie River Bridge August 26-September 2
Operations in North Georgia and North Alabama against Hood - September 29-November 3 [ Carter Creek Station - October 1; Near Lost Mountain - October 4-7; New Hope Church - October 5; Dallas - October 7; Rome - October 10-11; Narrows - October 11; Coosaville Road, near Rome - October 13; Near Summerville - October 18; Little River, Alabama - October 20; Leesburg - October 21; and Ladiga, Terrapin Creek - October 28]
Ordered to Louisville, Kentucky - Refit and duty there until - December 28

Assignments and Battles in 1865

March to Nashville, Tennessee, December 28-January 8, 1865
March to Gravelly Springs, Alabama - January 25
Duty at Gravelly Springs - January - March
Wilson's Raid to Selma, Alabama and Macon, Georgia - March 22-April 24 [Selma, Alabama - April 2; Occupation of Montgomery, Alabama - April 12; and Occupation of Macon, Georgia - April 20]
Duty in Georgia and at Nashville, Tennessee - until August
Mustered out at Nashville - August 13

Casualties

During their service, the Seventh Regiment lost eight officers and ninety-four enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and five officers and 185 enlisted men from disease. The total losses were 292.

Photo Gallery

National Civil War Museum

Relic Tower

Relic Tower of the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry
"Veterans of the 7th PA Cavalry collected these relics from the battlefields
where they fought in Tennessee and Kentucky. Towers such as this
were created and displayed in G.A.R. halls across the country."

Lettering with Mine Balls on Base of Relic Tower

Base of Relic Tower

Relic Tower

Mine Balls on Relic Tower

Relic Tower

You can learn more about the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment in the following book:

Source: 7th Cavalry Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, accessed April 18, http://www.pa-roots.com/pacw/cavalry/7thcav/7hcavorg.html, from Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion Compiled and Arranged from Official Records of the Federal and Confederate Armies, Reports of The Adjutant Generals of the Several States, the Army Registers, and Other Reliable Documents and Sources. Des Moines, Iowa: The Dyer Publishing Company, 1908

"In God We Trust"

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 20:12:00 +0000

One of the first found references of the motto “In God We Trust” is heard in the U.S. National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key wrote the poem in 1814, which the United States adopted as its national anthem. In the last stanza, Key wrote a similar phrase:

...And this be our motto: In God is our trust. And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Political rhetoric linking the United States with a divine power appeared on a large scale with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout persons throughout the country, urging that the government recognize God on United States coins. From Treasury Department records, it appears that the first such appeal came in a letter dated November 13, 1861. It was written to Secretary Chase by Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania.

Dear Sir: You are about to submit your annual report to the Congress respecting the affairs of the national finances.

One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins.

You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the goddess of liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the words PERPETUAL UNION; within the ring the all seeing eye, crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words GOD, LIBERTY, LAW.

This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.

To you first I address a subject that must be agitated.

James Pollock

Salmon P. Chase

As a result, Secretary Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto, in a letter dated November 20, 1861.

Dear Sir:

No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.
You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.

It was found that the Act of Congress dated January 18, 1837, specified the mottoes and devices that could be placed on United States coins. This restriction meant that the mint could make no changes without passing additional legislation by the Congress. In December 1863, the Director of the Mint submitted designs for new one-cent coin, two-cent coin, and three-cent coin to Secretary Chase for approval. He proposed that upon the designs either “Our Country; Our God” or “God, Our Trust” should appear as a motto on the coins.

Pollock suggested “Our Trust Is In God, Our God And Our Country, God And Our Country, and God Our Trust.”

In a letter to the Mint Director on December 9, 1863, Secretary Chase stated:

I approve your mottoes, only suggesting that on that with the Washington obverse the motto should begin with the word OUR, so as to read OUR GOD AND OUR COUNTRY. And on that with the shield, it should be changed so as to read: IN GOD WE TRUST.

Congress passed the Act of April 22, 1864. This legislation changed the composition of the one-cent coin and authorized the minting of the two-cent coin. The Mint Director was directed to develop the designs for these coins for final approval of the Secretary. “In God We Trust” first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin.

Another Act of Congress passed on March 3, 1865 allowed the Mint Director, with the Secretary's approval, to place the motto on all gold and silver coins that “shall admit the inscription thereon.” Under the Act, the motto was placed on the gold double-eagle coin, the gold eagle coin, and the gold half-eagle coin. It was also placed on the silver dollar coin, the half-dollar coin and the quarter-dollar coin, and on the nickel three-cent coin beginning in 1866. Later, Congress passed the Coinage Act of February 12, 1873. It also said that the Secretary “may cause the motto IN GOD WE TRUST to be inscribed on such coins as shall admit of such motto.” By 1909 it was included on most of the other coins.

"In God We Trust"

Putting the phrase on coins was just the beginning.

In 1864, a group supported by the North’s major Protestant denominations began advocating change to the preamble of the Constitution. The proposed language would have declared that Americans recognized “Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government.”

If the amendment’s supporters had succeeded in having their way, Christian belief would be deeply embedded in the United States government.

But, such invocations of God in national politics were not to last. Despite lobbying by major Protestant denominations such as the Methodists, this so-called Sovereignty of God amendment was never ratified.

Though “In God We Trust” was added to coins, it was not added to the increasingly common paper money. In fact, when coins were redesigned late in the 19th century, it disappeared from coins as well.

SOURCES:

David Mislin, “The complex history of ‘In God We Trust,’ The Conversation, accessed April 22, 2018, http://theconversation.com/the-complex-history-of-in-god-we-trust-91117.

“History of in God We Trust,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, accessed April 18, 2018, https://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx.

“In God We Trust,” All About, accessed April 22,2018, https://www.allabouthistory.org/in-god-we-trust.htm.

Lee Surrenders to Grant at Appomattox - April 9, 1865

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Mesch) — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 14:23:00 +0000

General Lee Surrenders to General Grant

For most people, General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House marked the end of the Civil War. The conflict had gone full circle from the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) near Wilmer McLean's home in Manassas to the surrender at Wilmer McLean's home in Appomattox. Unfortunately, the formal ceremony on April 12, 1865 did not end the war. The battle between North and South continues today.<1>

After peace was restored, Southern states moved to create a society that came as close as possible to antebellum life. Although formal slavery was abolished and black men had the right to vote, state and local laws limited freedom and denied rights. In the North, white laborers objected to blacks migrating into their community and taking their jobs. As it was from the beginning of the war at Fort Sumter, SC, Northern soldiers fought to preserve the Union and not to free slaves. Northern draft and race riots are prime examples.

Ku Klux Klan

The war entered a new phase of economic slavery with lynchings to enforce obedience to the new /old social and political order. The Lost Cause and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) furthered resurrected Southern pride and the recognition of white supremacy. Former Confederate states continued to maintain the social structure through Jim Crow laws formally enforced by courts and informally by the KKK. These laws led to segregation throughout Americas. Separate but equal regulations created a dual system of American society. Communities in the North and South maintained segregation and opposed busing to create an integrated school system.

The first Klan prospered in the in the late 1860s, then died out by the early 1870s. It tried to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South during the Reconstruction Era, especially by using violence against African-American leaders. With numerous autonomous chapters across the South, it was suppressed around 1871, through federal law enforcement.

The second group was founded in the South in 1915 and it flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, including urban areas of the Midwest and West. The resurrection of the Klan was inspired by D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation, which mythologized the founding of the first Klan. The Klan used marketing techniques and a popular fraternal organization structure. Many of the Klans were based in Protestant communities because it tried to maintain white supremacy, often supported prohibition, and opposed Catholics and Jews.

The third and current manifestation of the KKK appeared after 1950, in the form of localized and isolated groups that use the KKK name. They have focused on opposition to the civil rights movement, often using violence and murder to suppress activists.

The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to America's "Anglo-Saxon blood, hearkening back to 19th-century nativism .Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality, virtually every Christian denomination has officially denounced the KKK. <2>

Lynchings>

This repression of blacks produced a wave of lynchings that sweep across the South like a summer storm. Between 1882 and 1930 in just the ten southern states of Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina, 2,500 black people were lynched. That is an average of nearly one hanging every week.
Blacks could be lynched for a variety of reasons:

Throwing stones or skipping a rock across a lake.
Being unpopular in the community.
Blacks who were homeless and did not hold regular employment or made an income.
Injuring or killing livestock.
Trying to vote and/or not voting for the “right” candidate.
Acting or looking suspicious around whites.
Demanding to be treated with respect.
Practicing voodoo.
Being too loud or “disorderly” in public.
Gambling.<3>

Amendments to the Constitution

The question is whether suppression of blacks is part of the ongoing Civil War, a separate issue of racism,or both. After the Civil War, Congress submitted three amendments to the the Constitution that sought to establish the former slaves as citizens with rights equal to whites.

13^th Amendment - Abolishes slavery, and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.- January 31, 1865

14^th Amendment - Defines citizenship, contains the Privileges or Immunities Clause, the Due Process Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and deals with post–Civil War issues.- June 13, 1866

15^th Amendment - Prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, color or previous condition of servitude.- February 26, 1869

The white community, especially in the former Confederate states, sought ways to overturn these measures. Intimidation, obscure laws focused on blacks, and refusal by authorities to enforce Federal laws. The act of refusing or inhibiting the amendments constitutes a rebellion against government and is therefore a continuation of the Civil War or War of Rebellion.<4>

Segregation in the Military

This segregation was enforced in the United States military service. Senior officers believed that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites. Blacks were delegated to support, non-combat roles.

When World War I began, blacks were eager to enlist. By the war's end over 350,000 African-Americans had joined the American ranks. While they were eager to join the fight, the U.S. military was still segregated. The white officers didn't particularly like the idea of arming blacks and training them in how to use the weapons. Most African-American units were largely relegated to support roles and did not see combat.

When the Americans finally arrived in France, the allied commanders pleaded for soldiers. They already had competent officers – they just needed soldiers. The American commander General John J. Pershing refused to cannibalize any of his units nor send them into combat until they were ready. Instead he relinquished his black soldiers to their command.

During World War II, African-American enlistment was at an all-time high, with more than 1 million serving in the armed forces. However, the U.S. military was still heavily segregated. The marines had no blacks enlisted in their ranks. There were blacks in the Navy Seabees and the United States Air Force (Tuskegee Airmen). The army had only five African-American officers. In addition, no African-American would receive the Medal of Honor during the war, and their tasks in the war were largely reserved to noncombat units. Black soldiers had to sometimes give up their seats in trains to the Nazi prisoners of war.

In 1948 President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, officially ending segregation and racial inequality in the military.<5>

Desegregating the armed forces in the twentieth century was slow. While the US military was the largest minority employer during World War II, it remained segregated. Black enlistees were assigned to racially separate units and were typically relegated to combat support roles, like gravediggers, truck drivers, cooks and quartermasters. The few that made it into combat served with distinction, though in largely segregated platoons under the command of white lieutenants.

When African-American soldiers returned home, they encountered more racism and segregation. Rather than honor veterans who risked their lives protecting freedom and democracy, an ungrateful nation often rejected and ostracized them. Returning soldiers were routinely blocked from white neighborhoods, not only in the Jim Crow South but in sprawling northern developments like Levittown on Long Island. They encountered similar discrimination at universities and professional schools. In the end, black soldiers were fighting a double war — against America’s external enemies and the enemy within.<6>

Bryant Integrates Alabama Football

Coach Bryant

The next stage in the continuing Civil War, took place on the football field. Legendary Alabama coach, Bear Bryant, finally had his full of defeats by integrated teams. Bryant said he was unable to recruit black players because the prevailing social climate and the powerful presence of segregationist George C. Wallace. He was finally able to convince the university administration to allow him to recruit blacks after losing 42-12 to a strong University of Southern California team led by black fullback Sam Cunningham in the 1970 opening game. After that season, Bryant was able to recruit Wilbur Jackson as Alabama's first black scholarship player, and junior-college transfer John Mitchell became the first black man to play for Alabama. By 1973, one-third of the team's starters were black, and Mitchell became the Tide's first black coach that season. Now the war between the North and South moved to the living rooms of black families where Northern colleges competed against their southern rivals. The trend has continued and allowed Southern teams to compete for national championships in both men’s and women’s sports.<7>

Monuments

Removal of Robert E. Lee Monument

The war has been re-ignited over the presence and removal of statues honoring Confederate officials and officers. Although, this war focuses on memorials in the South, it is led by an alliance of local black and white citizens and outside supporters. The opposition is composed of a coalition of historians, descendants of Confederate soldiers and officers, and "white supremacy groups." While there are certainly more Southerners involved in the dispute, this has become part of a national dialogue on race in America.

Yes Virginia and Pennsylvania, we are still fighting the Civil War.

Notes:

1. Appomattox Court House - Lee's Surrender, Civil War Trust, https://www.civilwar.org/learn/civil-war/battles/appomattox-court-house
2. Ku Klux Klan, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan.
3. "Outrageous Reasons Black People were Lynched in America," http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/02/14/10-outrageous-reasons-black-people-were-lynched-in-america/10/

4."List of Amendments to the United States Constitution," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution
5. “Racism against African Americans in the U.S. military,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_against_African_Americans_in_the_U.S._military.
6.“Black Soldiers: Fighting America’s Enemies Abroad and Racism at HomeNew York Times, June 5, 2017,
https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/black-soldiers-double-war-fighting-for-freedom/
7. Bear Bryant, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Bryant.