The War Correspondent

Newsletter of the Ray Fawcett Chapter of the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable

July 2013 Vol. 23, No. 7

http://centralohiocwrt.wordpress.com

Puzzler: Where were Grant Event #5

and Sherman last together in The Battle of Chattanooga. The Greetings, battle? Battle of Chattanooga is really five Thanks to Sheryl Taylor, Dave different battles: Brown’s Ferry Delisio, and Patty Baker for creating Answer: Missionary (October 26); Wauhatchie (October the membership directory Ridge distributed at our June meeting. I 28); Orchard Knob (November 23); hope everyone takes time to review Lookout Mountain (November 24); and edit the directory and give us and Missionary Ridge (November their updates, corrections, etc. Also, 25). These five battles were the please note your dues status and rousing climax of the symphony that bring it up to date, if necessary. started in August with William Stark This month’s speaker, Phil Seyfrit, this month’s meeting Rosecrans’s brilliant campaign of will inform us about the battle of maneuver to cross the Tennessee Richmond, Kentucky, which, I River and seize Chattanooga understand, was the second largest date: (September 9), reached the heights battle in Kentucky and significant for Wednesday, July 10, 2013 of pathos and tragedy along the the Confederacy. I’m sure we will time: banks of Chickamauga Creek on find it very interesting. I hope 7:00 P.M. September 18 to 20, and endured members who have vacation location: the long third act of desolate experiences with Civil War sites will Towers Hall, Room 318 privation (on the Union side) with a share their thoughts and Otterbein University counterpoint of myopic infighting recommendations with us. Westerville, OH 43281 (on the Confederate side) during the See you on the 10th. speaker/topic: siege. The battles of Chattanooga Phil Seyfrit—Battle of Richmond, involved forces from each foe’s Kentucky armies (the Army of the (continued on page 2)

Potomac, the Army of the Cumber- in passing over Nathan Bedford administration, ever jittery, fired land, and the Army of the Tennessee Forrest for this job. Rosecrans based on the reports of on the Union side, and the Army of The slow trickle of supplies, while Charles Dana, a former newspaper Tennessee and the Army of North- enough to keep the Army of the correspondent who had been ern on the Confederate Cumberland alive, was not sufficient deputized by William Stanton as an side). to provide the food, munitions, assistant secretary of war. Grant, The Battle for Chattanooga replacement levies, and artillery who had recently recovered from a started when the last Union troops necessary for Rosecrans’s force to nasty fall off Cincinnati (the horse, straggled into the city tucked into a take the offensive and break the not the town), was languishing in the bend of the Tennessee River on siege. Rosecrans and George Mississippi Valley after Vicksburg, September 21 and 22, 1863, after Thomas devised a clever plan to with his large augmented force their defeat in the titanic Battle of float troops down the Tennessee being whittled away in a piecemeal Chickamauga. Rosecrans hastily River, around the loop called fashion by Henry Halleck and organized a robust defensive Moccasin Bend, and land them on Stanton. The defeat at Chickamauga position close to the city limits, the southern (really western) shore catalyzed the strategic focus of the which Braxton Bragg took one look opposite a ferry site operated by administration, and Grant was at and decided to conduct a siege. one Mr. Brown. The troops would ordered to assume overall command Based on the lack of success Union then use their pontoon boats to in Chattanooga, with the Army of armies had experienced in attacking form a pontoon bridge, which would the Tennessee ordered to follow him sieged positions at Vicksburg and connect the Union forces in the area there and help retrieve the situation. Port Hudson and Lee’s failure of northern Alabama and In addition, Joe Hooker was brought against field fortifications at Gettys- west of Sand Mountain (and their out of mothballs and given burg, Bragg’s decision seems logical precious railhead at Bridgeport, command of a combined force of on its face. However, if Bragg was Alabama) to Rosecrans’s besieged the 12th Corps and one division of hoping to re-create Port Hudson or army. Two infantry brigades the 11th Corps, and sent west to Vicksburg, he would have to starve practiced paddling the pontoons, Bridgeport with his force to help out. out the Union garrison, and he faced and the operation was readied to go Grant liked the Brown’s Ferry a very difficult challenge because forward. plan and ordered it into operation the Union forces controlled the Then Fate, in the form of U. S. on October 26. William Hazen’s north bank of the Tennessee River. Grant, intervened. The Lincoln Brigade carried out the daring Bragg entrusted his young cavalry nighttime operation flawlessly, commander Joe Wheeler with the seizing the far shore and establishing daunting task of interdicting the the pontoon bridge back to the overland supply routes from Central friendly, northern shore. William Tennessee. Wheeler was helped by Oates of the 15th Alabama detected the topographical nature of the area the landings and attacked but was between Tullahoma and wounded, and his leaderless Chattanooga, which was bereft of regiment could not effectively forage, meaning that any Union prevent Hazen’s gaining a strong wagon train would have to carry beachhead. (and eat) its own provisions as the Bragg was alarmed by the train wound its way through rough, Brown’s Ferry operation and news uninhabited mountainous terrain. of the approach of Hooker’s forces. Wheeler did not succeed in his James Longstreet was in command mission; even a “hater” like Mike of Lookout Mountain and the areas Peters would have to admit that to the west; Bragg ordered Bragg made a monumental mistake Longstreet to interdict the Union (continued on page 3) 2

important creek crossings that exposed the left flank of Bragg’s Missionary Ridge position. Hooker and his men fought splendidly in capturing the imposing massif; unfortunately, Carter Stevenson’s Army of Tennessee division was hopelessly outnumbered and could not cover all the necessary strong points. On November 25, Grant unleashed his coup de grace, with his pet Army of the Tennessee ferrying across the river and attacking the far right of the CSA position on Missionary Ridge, while the Army of the Cumberland demonstrated in its front to hold forces and cut the supply line. The James Longstreet. The Army of the CSA forces in place. Grant’s plan Battle of Wauhatchie resulted on Northern Virginia veteran made went awry when Pat Cleburne’s the night of October 28. If you ever himself so distasteful to Bragg that division stoned the attack of wondered why Civil War armies Bragg ended up ordering Longstreet Sherman’s Army at Tunnell Hill, could not fight at night, study to undertake an independent even after some 11th Corps rein- Wauhatchie. In a series of bumbling operation to capture Knoxville, forcements were thrown into the assaults, troops marching past each depriving the CSA of forces at attack. Grant asked George Thomas other in the night, missed opportun- Chattanooga as Union numbers to have his Army of the Cumberland ities, massive confusion, and even swelled. increase the tempo of their more massive miscommunication, Grant carefully studied Bragg’s demonstration in an attempt to the Confederate forces were position on the heights around make Bragg pull forces from stopped in their attempt to cut off Chattanooga, and hatched a plan. Cleburne, and the veterans of and destroy Hooker’s force by the The Army of the Cumberland seized Rosecrans’s force took the initiative tenacious defense by George Orchard Knob, a small hill about and seized the picket line at the base Greene’s 12th Corps Brigade and a halfway between the city and of Missionary Ridge. But then one of spirited attack by Orland Smith’s Missionary Ridge, in a brilliant coup the most amazing events of the Civil 11th Corps Brigade on a pair of hills de main assault on the late after- War took place; the Union forces did held by the CSA. The successful noon of November 23. Orchard not stop. They ascended the steep, Union defense forced Longstreet to Knob gave the Union artillery an crenellated face of the ridge, hard abandon the valley west of Lookout excellent base to assist the assaults on the heels of the retreating Mountain, effectively allowing the on the main CSA positions. Bragg let skirmishers. The CSA forces had “cracker line” through Brown’s Ferry it go with barely a fight because he never really expected a frontal to operate with impunity. did not have enough troops to assault on the ridge, and their These actions opened the way defend it. positions were haphazard and not for supplies and the Army of the On November 24, Joe Hooker well engineered. In many places, Tennessee to flow into “besieged” swept forward from his position only a few defenders could actually Chattanooga. They also exacerbated west of the city and captured fire at forces climbing up because of the frayed relations between Bragg Lookout Mountain, continuing into the defilade provided by the slope of and his subordinates, especially the eastern valley and seizing the ridge, on which the CSA had (continued on page 4) 3

occupied the top, and not the lower started in early 1863, when Union The composition of Blunt’s force military crest or the reverse slope forces under the fiery is one of the great items of interest (which I think would have been the Jayhawker James Blunt drove CSA in this campaign. Blunt led three proper defensive position). forces from the northern portion of Indian regiments that had been The Army of the Cumberland . More importantly, organized by the federal govern- surged up the slope, knocking the Blunt’s campaign caused a schism in ment from the Five Civilized Tribes Confederates back from the ridge the Cherokee Nation (creating a (Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, top; Bragg had no mobile reserve to mini-Cherokee Civil War in the midst Seminole, and Chickasaw) in the use to launch a counterattack, and of the national Civil War), and many Territory, the famed 1st Kansas the demoralization quickly set in Cherokees rallied to Blunt’s banner. Colored Infantry (consisting of among his forces. Soon, the entire Confederate authorities saw the former slaves who had escaped to Army of Tennessee was skedaddling threat of Blunt’s force (now based at Kansas), the 2nd Colorado Infantry, away from Chattanooga, and they Fort Gibson in Indian Territory along the 6th Kansas Cavalry, the 3rd did not stop until they were beyond the Arkansas River in the eastern Wisconsin Cavalry and the 2nd and the mountains at Ringgold Gap. 3rd Kansas Light Artillery. Was there Georgia. ever fielded a more polyglot force in Grant cemented Rosecrans’s American history up to that time? capture of Chattanooga, thanks in Blunt marched his diverse large part to George Thomas and division from Fort Gibson as soon the men of the Army of the as he received intelligence of the Cumberland trained by Rosecrans. pending junction of CSA forces. It was a victory that had immense Blunt planned on reaching Honey strategic consequences: the Springs and defeating Cooper’s force Tennessee River now was a Union before Cabell joined Cooper. And on supply route and defensive line; the July 17, that is exactly what Blunt rail center of Chattanooga was now did. available to support the invasion of The CSA forces, protecting the Georgia; U. S. Grant was on his way supply depot, spent much of the to Washington to replace the battle with wet powder caused by execrable Henry Halleck; and portion of present-day Oklahoma) intermittent showers. (You have to Braxton Bragg had lost the best as a threat to Fort Smith, Arkansas, love the CSA’s absolute disdain for opportunity the Confederacy would and organized a counteroffensive. logistics). The battle see-sawed back have to retrieve its flagging CSA General Douglas Cooper, and forth through charges and fortunes. leading the CSA Indian forces in the countercharges, but Blunt’s forces territory, would rendezvous with our gradually gained the upper hand and friend from the Camden Campaign, drove Cooper from the field. General William Cabell and his Cooper’s demoralized (and largely brigade of Texas and Arkansas disarmed) force may have been Event Cavalry, at Honey Springs depot, a destroyed, but Tandy Walker’s 1st CSA supply point near present-day Choctaw-Chickasaw Mounted Rifles #5 Rentiesville, Oklahoma (as if that is conducted a brilliant rear guard The Battle of Honey Springs. The any help; it’s about fifty miles due action to (well) blunt Blunt’s attack. Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma, west of Fort Smith). The combined Blunt captured the Honey Spring was fought on July 17, 1863, and CSA army would then descend on depot, took what he could use, and kept the momentum going from the Fort Gibson and destroy Blunt’s destroyed the rest. This blow forced string of Union victories at Vicksburg outnumbered force. future CSA forces in Oklahoma to and Gettysburg. The campaign operate in small bands, and the (continued on page 5) 4

Confederates would never again The story of Arlington starts with wealth allowed the couple to greatly confront Union forces in the Martha and George Washington and expand the size of Mount Vernon. territory in an open field battle. proceeds through her children and Following the Revolutionary War, Even more importantly, the grandchildren. A vengeful a grateful nation bestowed 1,100 Confederacy was compelled to quartermaster general of the Union acres at Arlington Heights on evacuate Fort Smith, which Blunt army, bent on revenge over Robert General Washington. With an then occupied (and which, of E. Lee’s treason, would forever expanding Mount Vernon and course, the Confederates would transform the estate on Arlington Martha’s inheritance, the couple later unsuccessfully attack). Heights. needed the Arlington grant like a Martha hole in the head. Dandridge The Washingtons conveyed the was born Arlington land to Martha’s only male June 2, grandchild, George Washington 1731, on Parke Custis, known as “Wash” or Chestnut “Tub,” son of the late Jacky. Custis Grove began construction on his mansion plantation on the hill in 1802, following the in New Kent County, Virginia. At age deaths of George in 1799 and eighteen she wed Daniel Parke Martha in 1802. Likely modeled on

Custis, a wealthy plantation owner. the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, Hallowed burial ground born of They would have four children English architect George Hadfield bitterness and controversy, before Custis’s death in 1757. designed eight five-foot-diameter ‘a field of carnage’ Martha inherited slaves and a major columns that distinguish the

interest in her husband’s 15,000- mansion. Interrupted by the War of Not in her wildest dreams could acre estate on the Pamunkey River 1812, construction was not Martha Washington have imagined near White House. Tragedy would completed until 1815. the fate that would befall the mark the lives of the four children. Custis married Mary Lee graceful Arlington Heights property Two died in childhood. Daughter Fitzhugh. with a commanding view of the Martha, who was known as Patsy, Their only growing nation’s capital across the suffered from epilepsy and died in surviving Potomac River. her teens following a seizure. John adult child America’s most hallowed ground, Parke “Jacky” Custis, an aide to his was Mary Arlington National Cemetery, with stepfather George Washington, died Anna its unknown warriors and solemn of camp fever (likely typhus) in 1781 Randolph military funerals, was born in the at Yorktown, following the final Custis, who utmost bitterness spawned by the battle of the Revolutionary War. grew up in the Civil War. Martha married Custis Well-known reenactor and Washington, commander of the 1st mansion. speaker Harold George, making his Virginia Regiment in the French and Wash Custis third appearance before the Indian War, on January 6, 1759. collected and Roundtable in June, discussed some Despite her vast inherited land displayed of the background and history of the holdings, the couple moved to many mementoes of his illustrious nation’s burial ground. His earlier Mount Vernon on the Potomac stepfather, including battle tents presentations focused on Civil War River, which George had leased and from the Revolutionary War. Mary monuments in Ohio and George then inherited from his half- Custis was married in the mansion to Armstrong Custer’s massacre at brother’s widow in 1761. Martha’s a young army officer named Robert Little Big Horn in 1876. E. Lee on June 30, 1831, only two (continued on page 6) 5

commissions. Among them was General Joseph E. Johnston, who had been quartermaster general. Succeeding him was Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, a Georgian who had served under Lee but considered Lee, especially, a craven coward and traitor for whom death by firing squad would be too good. Meigs’s mission was to supply, feed, and transport a growing army, a task he undertook with relish. As Mary Lee prepared to leave, she gave keys to a slave and predicted that “my beautiful home years out of West Point at that time. Lee mansion. But her days were endeared by a thousand associations While the Lees traveled extensively numbered on the beloved heights. may become a field of carnage.” as the young officer was transferred In early May Lieutenant Orton On May 23, 1861, Virginia voters about the country, the mansion was Williams, Mary’s cousin and private approved an ordinance of secession. home to the growing Lee family as secretary to General-in-Chief At 2:00 A.M. the following day some six of seven children were born Winfield Scott, scrambled up the hill fourteen thousand Union troops there. Wash Lee left the property to to the mansion to warn Mary that started crossing the Potomac for the his daughter upon his death in 1857. the U.S. army was coming. He heights. The army proceeded to turn His son-in-law took a leave from the excitedly advised her to pack and the graceful estate into an armed army until 1860 to make needed leave immediately. What followed camp. Trees were felled for improvements to the farm. was a mad scramble by Mary and breastworks and cleared to open up But the Lees would not long some of her 196 slaves to pack fields of fire for artillery. The place enjoy those improvements as prized possessions and many crawled with Yankees. tensions over slavery escalated valuable papers for the trip south. between North and South. On April After a fitful night of no rest for 17, 1861, just three days after U.S. Mary, Williams returned at dawn to forces surrendered at Fort Sumter in report that the army’s advance had Charleston, a convention in Virginia been delayed. Granted a reprieve, voted to secede from the Union. The Mary lingered again for several days, next day Colonel Lee, who had drinking in all the pleasures of the served in the army for thirty-five beautiful grounds. She wrote Lee years, was offered command of the about her flowers and the perfumed . While he opposed scents they radiated but noted “a secession, Lee, nevertheless, could death-like stillness prevails In April 1862 Congress freed all not bear arms against his state. He everywhere.” slaves in the District of Columbia. declined the offer of command and Not for long. An anxious Lee A tidal wave of blacks descended on resigned his commission on April 20. wrote Mary, “You have to move and the city from Virginia and other Lee left for Richmond almost make arrangements to go to some states. Lodging for this onslaught immediately to join the Confederate point of safety . . . War is inevitable, was quickly overwhelmed. The cause. He would never return to his and there is no telling when it will army’s solution of overcrowding was beloved home. Mary lingered in burst around you.” Many other army to designate part of the Lee estate what was then known as the Custis- officers also resigned their for former slaves in May 1863. Thus (continued on page 7) 6

was Freedmen’s Village established, from the burial ground for 3,800 reported them to Meigs. Not a teeming enclave for some 1,500 former slaves. surprisingly, Meigs exploded and people that lasted until 1900. One Union officers occupying the vowed that the federal government Washington newspaper cheered, mansion did not want graves near would never relinquish the land. with the headline “Gen. Lee’s Lands the home. When Meigs learned of Robert E. Lee died at age sixty- Appropriately Confiscated.” this, he was livid. In quick order, he three in Lexington, Virginia, on In June 1862 Congress allowed evicted the officers from the house October 12, 1870, where he is county officials to levy and collect and immediately started burying buried at Washington & Lee taxes on real estate in officers in Mrs. Lee’s gardens near University. His widow petitioned “insurrectionary districts” to punish the house. The first of these was Congress to estimate the cost of turncoats like Lee. A tax of $92.07 Albert Packard of the 31st moving the bodies. She was was levied on the Lees’ estate. It had Maine Infantry. Packard had been blistered from the floor of the to be paid in person, or the land shot in the head at the Wilderness, Senate, which voted 54–4 to defeat could be sold. Mary Lee, in declining survived, but died in a Washington her petition. Mary Lee managed a health, sent her cousin Philip Fendall hospital. He was laid to rest on May final trip to Arlington in June 1873. to pay the tax. No good. 17, 1864, at the foot of Mrs. Lee’s All the changes convinced her to Commissioners required that Mary favorite sitting place. By the end of drop her claim to the property. She Lee appear in person and pay. This, 1864, some forty additional officers died five months later at age sixty- she could not do, so the property would join Packard. five. was declared in default and put up Union dead became bitterly Mary’s eldest son, Custis Lee, for sale. At auction on January 11, personal for Meigs when his son, took a different tack, seeking fair 1864, the federal government Lieutenant John Rodgers Meigs, was compensation for the taking of the acquired the property it was already killed in October 1864 during a three property. Ultimately, in December occupying for $26,800. -person patrol at Swift Run Gap in 1882 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled By the spring of 1864, well into the Shenandoah Valley. Meigs in a 5–4 decision that the tax was General Ulysses Grant’s Overland insisted, despite the evidence, that unconstitutional and invalid. But by campaign to Richmond, the bodies his son had been murdered after this time there were twenty of dead Union soldiers were piling capture. thousand graves on site. Eventually, up. Time to start burials in Mrs. After Lee’s surrender, Meigs the two sides settled on a price of Lee’s rose garden at Arlington in wanted Lee tried and executed. Lee $150,000, which Congress quickly earnest. Harold George told the sad was charged with treason, but with appropriated. A deed was signed on tale of the first Union soldier laid to President Andrew Johnson, Grant March 31, 1883. rest in Arlington. He was Private interceded on Lee’s behalf to have Among the facts and statistics William Christman, twenty-one, of the charges dropped. Harold George cited are these: the 67th Pennsylvania infantry, who The Lee family wanted to regain enlisted late in the war due to what the beloved estate despite all the • Graves for enlisted dead bear the he considered a personal obligation. changes and federal acquisition of familiar marble headstone; officers Like many other soldiers, he fell the land. Lee quietly retained a can have a customized marker. victim to disease, peritonitis in a lawyer to explore acquisition and • 482 Confederates are buried at Washington hospital. Christman sent his older brother Smith Lee, Arlington, including two generals, never saw a minute of action. who served in the Confederate navy, Joseph Wheeler and Marcus Wright, Christman and other enlisted to Arlington. Smith Lee thought the who fought in the Spanish American soldiers, whose families were too family could reoccupy the house if a War. poor to have their bodies sent wall were built to shield the graves • 1,000 graves are for soldiers who home, started filling the lower closest to the house. Lee made his fought in the Indian wars; Captain cemetery (Section 27) across a lane thoughts known to the cemetery Frederick Benteen, who died in superintendent, who dutifully (continued on page 8)

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1898, fought under Custer at the Society (SHS) late in April 1869. The Little Big Horn and survived. men appointed Benjamin Morgan • 2,400 graves are for veterans of Palmer president and Dr. Joseph the Spanish American War, including Jones secretary-treasurer and 267 who died in the explosion of the selected other prominent battleship Maine, which sparked the Associate professor of history Confederates as vice presidents of war. The Maine’s mast is in the and author Caroline Janney has the each Southern state. Although the cemetery. best definition: “The Lost Cause is an SHS had a regional scope, Virginia • 116,000 dead are from World interpretation of the American Civil held a powerful base, as a War I. General John J. (Black Jack) War that seeks to present the war, substantial number of the members Pershing, who lived until 1948 and is from the perspective of hailed from the state—including only the second officer (George Confederates, in the best possible Maury, Governor John Letcher, Washington is the other) to wear six terms. Developed by white General Fitzhugh Lee, General stars, chose a simple enlisted Southerners, many of them former Thomas T. Munford, Reverend J. soldier’s headstone for his grave. Confederate generals, in a postwar William Jones, and General Jubal A. • 404,000 dead are from World War climate of economic, racial, and Early. Although the SHS mailed six II, including the most decorated gender uncertainty, the Lost Cause thousand circulars across the South, soldier Audie Murphy, who parlayed created and romanticized the ‘Old during 1869 the society gained little his heroism into an acting career of South’ and the Confederate war support outside of New Orleans, forty-seven films. effort, often distorting history in the Louisiana. • Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln process.” is buried there. Let’s review the timeline. On In 1876 the Southern Historical • Only two presidents are in April 10, 1865, Robert E. Lee Society started publishing the Arlington, William Howard Taft and addressed his Army of Northern Southern Historical Society Papers. John Kennedy. Virginia troops for the last time. He Every Confederate action was • Plans for the Unknown Soldier praised their “unsurpassed courage defended as just. Some prominent memorial were hatched in Paris in and fortitude” and said they lost rebel soldiers, such as Longstreet, 1920, following World War I. because the enemy had “over- JEB, and Ewell, were sacrificed for whelming numbers and resources.” the good of the Cause. In 1893, In 1866, Richmond Examiner editor Sumner Archibald Cunningham Edward Pollard published The Lost established the Confederate Veteran Cause: A New Southern History of magazine, a biased disseminator of the War of the Confederates. In the gospel. It’s your pulpit, brother! 1869, the Southern Historical Don’t be shy! Stand up, and testify Society was formed in New Orleans. for all subscribers to hear. You were Online information explains, there! The last issue was published in 1932. In the spring of 1869, a handful of Let’s see, How do we spin this? former Confederate military leaders Southern soldiers were brave, issued a call for a meeting to discuss honorable, civil, and always fought the establishment of a Confederate fairly. Marquess of Queensberry historical society to shape how Rules, of course! Northern soldiers future generations would bit, gouged, and kicked below the understand the war. Dabney H. belt. The Union soldier was a villain Maury, Richard Taylor, Braxton with free reign, running amok and Bragg, and several others formally unopposed through the Southland— organized the Southern Historical (continued on page 9)

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Snidely Whiplash tying Nell Fenwick commented, “Whenever I hear there is the instant when it’s still not to the RR tracks while Dudley Do anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a yet 2 o’clock on that July afternoon Right is away. Grant was a drunk strong impulse to see it tried on him in 1863, the brigades are in position and a “butcher.” Sherman was the personally.” And finally my favorite, behind the rail fence . . .” It is special Devil! His soldiers were “thieves, the South lost because the Union to me because of Private William murderers, rapists, arsonists, and had more manpower and Peters, 57th VA Infantry, one of trespassers.” Wheeler’s boys had resources—David versus Goliath those waiting behind the fence. some Zippos of their own. But let’s with an alternative ending. And Faulkner implies that Gettysburg, not go there. Stay focused! R. E. Lee, knowing this, you still knocked the and more specifically Pickett’s Stonewall, and Nathan Bedford battery off of Robert Conrad’s Charge, was a turning point in the Forrest could do no wrong. These shoulder? Not too bright. war and the “high water” mark of were the best military minds ever! I have little use for historical the Confederacy. I don’t agree but Throw in Jeff Davis and you have a fiction. I have enough trouble understand the origin of his view. He quartet worthy of a Borglum figuring out what actually happened. was born in New Albany, Mississippi, sculpture. Oh yes, if “Marse Robert” There are only five works of fiction in a part of our country steeped in lost, it was someone else’s fault. in my collection, less than half a the Lost Cause. Remember, We’ll not call it the Civil War or the percent of my library’s total number. Gettysburg was a loss, and Lee is War of the Rebellion. It’s the War The minority is represented by The perfect. Incompetence or betrayal Between the States or, better yet, Killer Angels, The Red Badge of by his officers caused the defeat. In the War of Northern Aggression. I Courage, Andersonville, Corporal Si this instance, “Old Pete” is the like that! It doesn’t matter that we Klegg and His “Pard,” and Bullet and scapegoat. Longstreet dragged his fired first. We were defending our Shell, written by a Zouave soldier. feet, took too much time initiating land, our way of life, our women, But the numbers are much larger the Charge. I’ve always agreed with “women sanctified by the sacrifice when one considers the influence of Pickett. The Union boys had of their loved ones.” Good! Our Pollard, Maury, Cunningham, et al. something to do with it. Southern Belles need proper At one of our annual January People can’t seem to get enough representation. Secession was discussions, I argued that these were paintings featuring Confederate justifiable and constitutional. The the most influential men of the Civil themes. St. Andrew’s Cross sells war was about states’ rights and War. Esteemed member Brian Hall more than the Stars and Stripes, Lee never slavery. Don’t believe what agreed. A century and a half later more than Grant, Pickett’s Charge you read in the constitutions of the and their deception is still evident. more than Sherman’s March. Prolific Confederate states. Slavery was a You lie long enough, you start to Mort Künstler might be the most benign institution. Slaves were loyal believe. The lies become footnotes. popular Civil War artist. I have one and faithful to benevolent masters The footnotes are taken as of his works depicting Barksdale’s and unprepared for freedom. From scholarship. Charge over the Sherfy farm, framed the pages of the Confederate If I were to review Faulkner, I because of subject and not style. I Veteran, “In his native land he has would give him low marks for run-on lean more toward Rocco and Troiani, never reached the dignity of a sentences and punctuation. The with Bradley Schmehl gaining on the civilized being, and he has never man had a love affair with the back stretch. I find Künstler’s been civilized until transplanted into comma. William, it’s OK to use the Gettysburg soldiers look more like slavery. Whatever of eminence any period. But he would score off the the actors who played them in Ron individual of the race has attained, charts on content. Like many Civil Maxwell’s film than the actual is due directly or indirectly to the War junkies, I am most fond of the soldiers they are supposed to civilizing influence of the institution oft-quoted portion of his 1948 portray. Why do those buying Civil of slavery.” Keeping them illiterate Intruder in the Dust: “For every War art prefer Confederate themes? is not my definition of a civilized Southern boy fourteen years old, History professor Gary Gallagher society. Of slavery, Lincoln not once but whenever he wants it, writes, “Many collectors with no (continued on page 10) 9

ancestral ties to the Confederacy Works. Check out a picture on our Even though I watch all Civil War simply find Lee, Jackson, and other Round Table’s web page. Lincoln and movies, I find fault with most of Confederates more appealing, or son Tad sit on a bench. Behind them them, even with the critically interesting than their Union is the phrase: “To bind up the acclaimed Glory. The script should counterparts.” That’s because we’ve nation’s wounds.” Others prefer a have educated the viewers. We are been told they are more appealing festering scar. The most vehement not told that Sergeant William and interesting. Sickles, Lew objection to the statue came, as one Carney, for actions at Battery Wallace, and “Jon” Buford are quite might imagine, from the Sons of Wagner, earned the Medal of Honor compelling in their own right—the Confederate Veterans. The Virginia or that Frederick Douglass’s sons scoundrel, the scholar, the soldier. Division Commander called the fought with the 54th. I do enjoy Gallagher goes on to say there is a statue “a slap in the face of a lot of Audie Murphy in The Red Badge of “romantic underdog aura of the brave men and women who went Courage and a small dose of Confederate war that transcends through four years of unbelievable Gettysburg every now and again. I’m geography.” Historian James I. “Bud” hell fighting an invasion of Virginia not a fan of Gone with the Wind. Robertson Jr., who wrote the text led by President Lincoln.” Angry Sorry, Mom. Too much melodrama for Künstler’s Jackson and Lee: protesters at the sculpture’s for me. D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Legends in Gray, states “Sometimes dedication compared Lincoln to Nation makes me nauseous. Sorry, there is honor in tragedy and Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. Calling Woodrow Wilson. In the 1915 silent inspiration in defeat.” Our society the North’s response to being fired film, African American men are does show an affinity for the on at Fort Sumter an invasion has played by whites in blackface, and underdog. We frequent “mom and always baffled me. Granted, Lincoln the KKK comes across as heroic. Pass pop” restaurants, pull for was not perfect. I do find fault with the emesis basin, please. The only journeyman Rocky Balboa to knock him for suspending the writ of cool thing about the movie is that out Apollo Creed and for the long- habeas corpus. But this was a actors portraying rebel soldiers suffering Cubs to win the World national emergency, so I’ll cut him actually wear Confederate surplus Series. But I think this particular some slack. Whatever your beliefs uniforms. It was the highest grossing phenomenon is more Lost Cause on Lincoln, the Nazi/al Qaeda movie until Gone with the Wind than “Shoeshine Boy.” comparison is ludicrous and quite came along in 1939. Score a couple An article in the Confederate pathetic. victories for the Lost Cause. Veteran proposed a monument, to (continued on page 11) be built in Montgomery or Richmond, dedicated “to the memory of the old-time Southern negro. The loyal devotion of the men and women who were slaves has had no equal in all history.” In more modern times, there was much opposition to placing a statue, honoring Arthur Ashe, a descendant of slaves, in Richmond. Personally, I don’t object to a statue of the tennis star in the Confederacy’s capital, just to its Monument Avenue location, adjacent to soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Lost Causers also objected to a Lincoln sculpture located at Richmond’s Tredegar Iron

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If I may, let’s delve a little into combat effective.” You didn’t tell things are equal, because you the “overwhelming numbers and us that. possess “Southern guts and zeal,” resources” tenet. Steven H. Newton, It comes as no surprise that you can’t be whipped. Early in my history professor and author of Lost Waylon Jennings sang Civil War studies, I remember reading some- for the Cause: The Confederate Army songs arranged in the key of Lost thing about a “one Rebel can beat in 1864, writes, “The primary truism Cause. He also had Southern roots, ten Yankees” ratio. In my best Dr. about the campaign from the being reared in Littlefield, Texas, and Phil, how’d that work out for you? Wilderness to Petersburg, repeated even narrated a television show I don’t want this to evolve into a so often that it has taken on the where a car, named “The General “Ronnie Van Zandt vs. Neil Young” patina of incontestability, is that Lee,” was a co-star. What boy didn’t skirmish. I’m a big fan of Faulkner, U. S. Grant’s main success in two like the speed of that 1969 Dodge Waylon. Many of my kinfolk fought months of campaigning had been Charger and the shorts worn by Ms. on the losing side. One died at the carnage which consumed Daisy Duke? I thought the horn Gettysburg, another lost a leg in the irreplaceable Southern soldiers.” playing “Dixie” was a little over the Knoxville Campaign, and one was Douglas Southall Freeman talks top. Waylon’s recording career imprisoned and interred at Camp about this in 1935, “Lee was as started with “Jole Blon,” produced Chase. You can visit Jacob Huffman heavily handicapped as a general by Buddy Holly in the late fifties. just inside the gate, not far from the well could be: His numbers were He was elected to the Country Music Vicksburg cannon ball. I just want scarcely more than half those of his Hall of Fame in 2001. During that them treated fairly. I want the truth. opponent; he had no prospect of span, he had sixteen number 1 I can handle it, Mr. Nicholson. At the any large reinforcements . . .” This is singles, won two Grammys, and 1895 dedication of the Chickamauga also reported by Clifford Dowdey in pioneered a new music genre— battlefield, Lew Wallace eloquently 1960 and by William Matter in 1988. Outlaw Country. The “Outlaws” stated, “Remembrance! Of what? As late as 1994, Gordon Rhea writes, wanted to record where they Not the cause, but the heroism it “Fallen men could not be replaced.” wanted, when they wanted, how invoked.” Exactly! Be proud of your This was not the case. The Overland they wanted, and with whom they Confederate soldiers. That they lost Campaign took its toll on both wanted. The establishment had total does not make their service less armies. The rebels won May and control. On one recording, they even honorable. You dishonor them by June, but their casualties, so says the refused to let Waylon use a representing them falsely. OSU myth, caused dwindling numbers. particular guitar. His 1976 album, Professor Walt Seifert told his Not true. Again from Newton, “By Wanted! The Outlaws, with wife classes that public relations were the time the lines had somewhat Jessi Colter, Willie Nelson, and nothing more than “doing good and stabilized around Richmond and Tompall Glazer—done HIS way—was making sure you get caught at it.” Petersburg, the Southerners still the first country album to go The Lost Cause has had a powerful, retained their original ratio of force platinum. Nothing like rubbing their aggressive, and unethical campaign to the Union Army, even after the noses in it. in place for years. Make us look detachment of four small infantry The Lost Cause is most evident in good, no matter the cost. Let divisions to the Shenandoah Valley Waylon’s “An Old Unreconstructed.” nothing cast a bad light upon us! It’s without any corresponding Federal It starts out, “I rode with old JEB only about the message. Nothing is movement.” And Lee’s reinforce- Stuart and his band of Southern more important. Emphasize the ments came in “organized divisions horse / There never were no positive, spin the negative, and and brigades.” Grant’s bench con- Yankees who could beat us force to attack the nonbelievers to get your tained a “hodge-podge of individual force.” Later in the lyrics, “We rode point across. By whatever means regiments of varying size and quality our worn out horses and we ate old necessary. Lie if you must. Pound which had to be integrated into plain corn meal and we licked ‘em the table, and yell like hell if need shattered brigades of weary where we caught ‘em with Southern be! Waylon Jennings’s song, A Long veterans before they became truly guts and zeal.” So let me see, if all Time Ago, contains the following: (continued on page 12) 11

You can read a different story Presbyterian Church, the Richmond Until 2001, the Battle of In a lot of different books Masonic bodies, and many national, Richmond was barely a footnote in But even then you won’t really know state, and local Civil War preserva- Kentucky’s Civil War history. But How it was a long time ago. tion and history groups. He is also since then, Richmond has taken its past president of the Madison rightful place in the annals of Civil Which is exactly what Pollard, County Historical Society. War history. Maury, and Cunningham had in Seyfrit has been published in mind. The question has been asked several Civil War periodicals and for centuries. Pontius Pilate and enjoys visiting Civil War battlefields Johnny Cash, among others, have and related sites. Phillip portrays contemplated the meaning of truth. Federal Colonel William Link and

Peel the onion. Strip away the Confederate Colonel Preston Smith The War Correspondent veneer. Get down to the primer. at events relating to the Battle of Sheryl Taylor, Editor Remove the makeup. The final Richmond. He is program chairman product may not be as sexy, but of the Madison County Civil War Round Table Officers truth never is. It is plain, vanilla, Roundtable and is a member of the Jim Schultz basic, and yet essential. I’ll leave the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable and General-in-Chief superficial to others. Give me Mary Cincinnati Civil War Roundtable. 614-794-1247 Ann instead of Ginger. You know Seyfrit was elected as the inaugural [email protected] what you’ve got with the girl next president of the Central Kentucky Dave Delisio door, a natural and genuine beauty. World War II Roundtable in 2010 Inspector General The image-conscious Lost Cause will and was recently appointed by 740-879-3944 do anything to keep or supplement Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to [email protected] her looks—face lift, tummy tuck, and the Kentucky Civil War Tom Ayres liposuction. And it shows. She’s kept Sesquicentennial Commission. Adjutant General her girlish figure for almost 150 Plan to attend the COCWRT 614-939-4910 years. meeting in July and learn about the [email protected] most complete victory one side had Mike Peters over the other during the entire Historian General , the absolute 614-866-6766 Confederate victory at Richmond, [email protected] A lifelong Madison County, Kentucky, fought during the Patty Barker Kentucky, resident, Phillip Seyfrit is Kentucky campaign of the late Chief of Signal Corps a graduate of Model Laboratory summer/early fall 1862. Confed- 614-985-3353 School, Eastern Kentucky University, erate Major General Edmund Kirby Tim Maurice and the Mid-America College of Smith, along with Brigadier General Webmaster Funeral Service. After a twenty year Patrick Cleburne, advance into 614-361-7313 career in the funeral industry, in late central Kentucky and in the process [email protected] 2007 Phillip changed direction and utterly destroyed a hastily organized accepted the position of Historic army under Federal Major General War Council Members Properties Director for Madison William “Bull” Nelson. Kirby Smith’s Tim Maurice, County, which duties include army pressed on to capture War Council Commander management and proper interpre- Lexington and the state capital of Ed Chapdelaine tation of the properties relating to Frankfort—the only time a Federal Greg Drakulich the Battle of Richmond and the state capital fell during the entire Lowell Fauver other Madison County parks sites. war. And yes, the Buckeye state was Wendy Peters Seyfrit is active in Richmond’s First in the middle of it.

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Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne. We met again with 2013 COCWRT Thomas Gilmore, director of real CALENDAR estate for the trust, and with Jeff Rodek, national color bearer. These August 14, 2013 meetings included a review of the  Keith Kehlbeck—The Towles war history and specific locations of Brothers The numbers for June 2013 are Civil War events, as well as as follows: discussion of the Trust’s plans to September 11, 2013 further memorialize the Battlefield  Mel Maurer—Trans-MS Beginning checking account balance of Mansfield. Soldier Jesse James 6/1/2013 = $3,904.09 AEP and SWEPCO are in the June receipts = $223.00 process of completing an updated October 9, 2013 ($48 June book raffle; $175 dues) mining plan for the area. We  Chris Hartley—Stoneman’s June expenses = $263.55 complete these periodic plans to Raid ($175 June speaker fee, $27 to ensure appropriate management of Mike Peters for speaker mine and customer resources. We November 13, 2013 entertainment, $38.43 to Staples have asked that the Civil War refine  Charlie Knight—New Market for copies of rosters, $23.12 to its request regarding the Mansfield Sheryl Taylor for newsletters) Battlefield area. Additionally, we Ending checking account balance plan to share information from the Unless otherwise noted, all 6/30/2013 = $3,863.54 mining plan and meet again later meetings are held at this year to determine if there are 7:00 P.M. opportunities to meet everyone’s Towers Hall, Room 318 objectives. Otterbein University I am always pleased to hear from Westerville, OH 43281.

Member Ed Chapdelaine finds AEP shareholders. Thank you for the trust and investment you place in Dates and speakers are subject to continued success in his campaign to change. help protect threatened battlefield American Electric Power. sites. This time he discovered that Very truly yours, the coal mining operation Nicholas K. Akins threatening the battlefield in [President and CEO of AEP] Mansfield, Louisiana, is owned by AEP, of which Ed is a shareholder. With your support, The following is an excerpt from the we raised $48 from the June book response Ed received from AEP, raffle. Thank you! dated June 14, 2013:

Please know that AEP and SWEPCO [a local subsidiary of AEP] continue to be open to proposals from the Civil War Trust. There have What pet did R.E. Lee been two recent meetings to discuss keep with him during the the Mansfield Battlefield area. On Civil War? June 14, 2012, AEP and SWEPCO officials met with representatives of the Civil War Trust, along with

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