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Notes from the President 1/2017 Remember, we are always looking for was resurfaced. The contract was new members. Invite a friend to our managed by the National Park Happy New Year to the Members of meetings. Service Historic Preservation Training the BCWRT Center (HPTC). The Center was Historian and re-enactor Michael R. Ford founded in 1977 to meet the growing Schaffer will start 2017 on January demand for craft skills development 24 when he makes his Power Point for NPS employees tasked with based presentation on the Historic Burnside Bridge preserving the thousands of historic significance of the United States Restoration Project structures within the National Park Colored Troops (USCT). Historian Completed System. HPTC is currently located in and author Greg Clemmer looks into Frederick, Maryland within the NPS Press release December 2016 the life of CSA Gen. “Allegany” Monocacy National Battlefield. The Burnside Bridge restoration is Johnson on and on February 28 complete and the bridge is once , author will March 28 David Craig again open for visitors to cross. For take a different approach to the Civil $200,000 anonymous the last 15 months significant repairs war as he speaks on his latest book have been made to the historic donation to help restore which focuses on vintage postcards structure that will insure the iconic from Gettysburg. Fort Sumter cannons bridge's long term structural stability. By Dave Munday, Charleston Post The bridge was built in 1836 and was Our Annual banquet will occur on and Courier, Dec 6, 2016 made famous during the Battle of . The banquet speaker will be An anonymous $200,000 donation April 25 Antietam. In January of 2014 a announced in the near future. In will help restore Civil War cannons at section of the stone wall on the recent years, the banquet has barely one of South Carolina's most upstream side of the bridge broke even. This should always be a prominent visitor attractions. collapsed into Antietam Creek. profitable event for our organization. I The gift to the National Park Service's Temporary repairs were made and an will be seeking volunteers to work on Fort Sumter National Memorial was engineering assessment of the entire a banquet committee to achieve this made in the name of the donor’s structure was undertaken. The goal. The committee will work with father, a Citadel graduate, according investigation revealed substantial Don Macreadie on ticket sales, to the Fort Sumter-Fort Moultrie deterioration of the walls and publicity, etc. Historical Trust. significant water infiltration The donor asked not to be identified contributing to the structural instability In November and December, I publicly, trust coordinator Carlin of the bridge. presented and the body approved Timmons said Tuesday. The bridge was closed in October of initial participation in a project to form, "We were just blown away," Timmons 2015 for repairs. Phase I of the with a few Presidents of other said. "We were hand to mouth, that’s project focused on the on the in- roundtables throughout the country, really the truth." stream work, repairing and what is tentatively being called The trust has been raising money to strengthening the stone piers and the CWRT Congress. Unfortunately, I restore the cannons at Fort Moultrie arches. Portable dams were installed had to drop out of the project due to on Sullivan's Island and Fort Sumter in the creek that diverted the water recent health problems that will in Charleston Harbor since 2013. All while this work was completed. restrict some of my activities for about them at Fort Moultrie and some at During Phase II the bridge walls were six weeks. This will not interfere with Fort Sumter have been restored. The selectively dismantled and rebuilt. any BCWRT plans since we try to new six-figure donation will help Every stone was painstakingly plan well ahead of schedule. Don’t restore the remaining 11 Parrott rifles mapped, recorded and replaced as worry about me. I just won’t be at Fort Sumter. close as possible to its original making any battlefield charges during The cannons are called rifles location. the early part of 2017. I will keep you because of rifling in the barrels, Once the masonry work was informed of any CWRT Congress according to retired Fort Sumter complete, the wood coping was plans. historian Rick Hatcher. They fired completely replaced and the bridge

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER

100-pound elongated projectiles Contributions also made possible looked out over the fields again, and through barrels with a 6.4-inch bore. events that celebrated the park replied: 'Oh, pshaw! Well, I suppose I A big question Hatcher hopes the service’s 100th birthday this year, might as well give in,' " the New York restoration will help answer is where including a spring concert at Fort Times reported. "I am to be married the cannons were used during the Moultrie, a summer evening at Fort to Miss Dortch at noon on Civil War. They weren't moved to Fort Sumter, and the U.S. Mint's fall Wednesday in the Governor's Sumter until 1870, about five years release of a quarter honoring residence in . The honeymoon after the war was over, he said. Sergeant Jasper. The trust noted is to be spent in Porter Springs, sponsorships from First Citizens, where I hope you newspaper men will SouthState, Production Design leave an old man to the happiness he Associates, Fort Sumter Tours and has acquired." Eastern National, as well as individual On Sept. 8, 1897, Longstreet and contributions. Dortch -- described as "pretty, 'The Fighting Lady': piquant and sympathetic," with blue eyes, blond hair and fair skin -- 's exchanged vows in the parlor at the remarkable second wife governor's executive mansion. By John Banks, January 7, 2017 Among those in attendance were the Nearly eight years after his first wife, Gainesville mayor, a large group of NPS Photo Mary Louisa, died, the man who once Longstreet's friends and the general's As layers of paint are stripped away, played matchmaker for Ulysses Grant four sons and daughter. "They all information on the barrels reveals was eager again for steady female warmly congratulated their new where and when the cannons were companionship. "Old men get lonely," stepmother," an account noted, made. So far, it appears they were 76-year-old James Longstreet told a "which should dispose of the story cast in 1862 and 1863. Hatcher newspaper reporter in late summer that there was any friction because of hopes to take that information to the 1897, "and must have company." the marriage." Dortch picked the National Archives to find out where Vilified throughout much of the South wedding date as homage to her they were used. after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee's husband, who, as an officer 50 years "It’s a possibility that during the Civil "Old War Horse" led an almost earlier, had heroically led his War these cannons were actually on solitary existence in his mansion set regiment at Molina Del Rey during the Morris Island shelling Fort Sumter among an extensive vineyard in Mexican War. and other places,” he said. Gainesville, Ga. The former Governor William Atkinson served as Confederate troops captured the fort Confederate lieutenant general's best man for Longstreet, who had from the Union in 1861 and repelled sons left after their mother's death, converted from Episcopalian to numerous attempts to recapture it and his daughter later married a local Catholic in 1877. "When the until 1865. school teacher, leaving Longstreet in officiating priest, after having asked The trust also noted significant the house with only the company of a the groom the question of assent, donations for the cannon restoration servant. turned to Miss Dortch to know if she from the Roanoke Civil War In late July 1897, Longstreet became would take James as her husband," a Roundtable and the American Civil smitten with Helen Dortch -- his newspaper reported, "it carried the War Roundtable UK, as well as daughter's college roommate and suggestion to the groom's heart that federal funds. 42 years his junior -- whom he had he was a boy again, paddling in the Donations also helped 4,000 students met in Lithia Springs, Ga. Soon, the Savannah River." from schools that serve low-income press caught wind of rumors that the Newspapers were quick to point out populations visit Fort Sumter, Fort well-known ladies' man might take the disparity in ages between the Moultrie and the Charles Pinckney another bride. Longstreet played coy former general and the accomplished historic site this year. The trust noted with a persistent New York reporter young woman, characterizing it as a grants from the National Park before he finally confirmed the news. "May and December" union. A Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank, Wal- "The General crossed his legs, Louisiana newspaper noted that Mart and Firefly Sunset Resort.

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER although Longstreet was "a gallant them. In addition to a large hotel in "I had to get the legislature to change and distinguished Confederate officer Gainesville, Longstreet owned a the law before I could assume office," during the war ... his apostasy since vineyard and winery, raised sheep she said of the so-called " Dortch has lost him the respect and esteem and turkeys and had authored two Bill." "A hundred thousand women of the Southern people." (Few books. And President William signed petition that the law be Southerners forgave Longstreet for McKinley, himself a Civil War veteran, repealed so I could be appointed." becoming a Republican and taking a had recently called on Longstreet to Shortly after her husband's death, position in Grant's administration, head the U.S Commissioner of President among other "sins.") Railroads. appointed Longstreet postmaster of From their wedding in 1897 until well Gainesville, a big-time position during after Longstreet's death at 82 in 1904, the era. "It is safe to say," the Atlanta Helen would do much more than help Constitution reported, "President "manage" her husband's Roosevelt could have made no interests. Fiercely protective of appointment that would have proved James Longstreet's reputation, she as universally popular." defended his memory the rest of her Throughout her life, Longstreet was life -- especially against critics who active in environmental and political argued he failed to do his duty at causes big and small. In 1910, she Gettysburg. And the woman was founder of a movement to erect a nicknamed "The Fighting Lady" led a monument to the slaves of the remarkable life herself, living well into Confederacy -- a long-shot effort if the 20th century. there ever was one. In an eloquent Born April 20, 1863 -- less than five speech, she said: months before Longstreet led a Rebel "I shall pray that I may live to see a army at Chickamauga -- Helen Dortch monument at every capital in the was a woman years ahead of her south to the slaves of the time. In an account of her wedding to confederacy. They wrote a story of Longstreet, she was described as devotion and loyalty that has no "one of the most conspicuous among parallel in the history of man. While the progressive women of the new their masters were engaged in that south." struggle, the results of which would At 15, she became a newspaper leave a helpless race free or in reporter and editor at the shackles, they worked for, guarded weekly Carnesville (Ga.) Tribune -- and defended the children of the employment that was almost confederacy with a fidelity that should exclusively limited to men at the time. be recorded letters of gold across the "Her early journalistic experiences bosom of stars." were not pleasant," an account noted, Not surprisingly, the monuments were "but she pluckily went forward ..." She never built. later became editor and publisher of For years after her husband's death, the Milledgeville (Ga.) Daily Chronicle. Longstreet also backed efforts to A champion for women's rights, have a monument placed in her Longstreet led an effort to open the husband's honor in Gettysburg. That Normal Industrial Training School for effort, too, failed during her lifetime. girls in . In 1894, she became During the height of World War II in Helen Dortch Longstreet the first woman to hold office in 1943, Longstreet took a job a riveter Another publication mentioned the Georgia when she was appointed in a B-29 aircraft factory in Marietta, general's varied interests, and assistant state librarian. Ga. Described as "frail but vivacious," believed that his new bride, "a bright she was 80 at the time. young woman," could help manage

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER

"This is the most horrible war of them and "unhood the ruffians" of the Ku How Do You Memorialize all," she told a reporter. "It makes Klux Klan. General Sherman look like a piker. I "I'll make this state a place where the a Mob? want to get it over with. I want to build humblest Negro can go to sleep at Gainesville, Texas, is a patriotic small bombers to bomb Hitler." She refused night," the 87-year-old candidate said, town. It's also the site of one of the to give her age to the reporter, only "and be assured of waking up in the nation's worst acts of mob violence— saying she was "older than 50." morning, unless the Almighty calls." a history some citizens would like to "Never mind my age. I can handle Naturally, Longstreet ran as an forget. that riveting thing as well as anyone," independent, but she lost badly. By Abby Rapoport, Texas Observer, Longstreet said. "I'm intending to Talmadge won the election with 98.44 November 17, 2016 complete in five weeks three courses percent of the vote. On the gray, rainy morning of Oct. 1, which normally take three weeks." In the last 10 years of her life, 1862, about 70 men were roused She lived in a trailer camp near the Longstreet's health gradually declined, from their homes in Gainesville and factory and spent long hours in and by her early 90s, she was corralled inside a vacant store, under training to learn her craft. completely deaf. After a visit to a arrest on suspicion of treason. Within "I could stay out of this war," she said. relative in Georgia in 1956, she took 13 days, approximately 80 more men "It's not the soldiers fighting soldiers a bus trip back to a health resort in had been captured. The town’s like it used to be. It's a war on Danville, N.Y., where she often lived. citizen’s court, made up of prominent helpless civilians, on children and the During a stopover in Pottsville, Pa., community leaders, immediately infirm. They are the ones who suffer. she told stories of "her husband's found seven men guilty by majority "Lee, my husband, and many another exploits and was given a big hand vote and promptly hanged them from southerner proved that Americans when she left." Donning her best hat, an old tree. As tensions mounted, a surrender only to Americans, so we she posed for photographers. mob grew angrier outside the store, are bound to come out victorious." "I'm just 39," she said as she worried that the remaining men were Her work was praised by plant departed, "... still a young belle." not just seditious but bandits, John officials, but a union, with which she Probably suffering from dementia, Brown supporters, or friendly to the had some difficulty, called her a "very Longstreet was removed from the bus Indian tribes that frequently attacked old lady" and accused the company in Elmira, N.Y., after the driver told the area. of hiring her as a publicity stunt. authorities she was annoying Within a little over a week, 40 men Nevertheless, Longstreet stuck it out passengers. Taken in by the had been hanged and another two for nearly two years, and a foreman Travelers Aid Society, she wandered shot trying to escape the rope. The said her work ranked among the best away and later was taken into Great Hanging of Gainesville entered done at the plant. custody by police for her own history as the largest act of mob A tad eccentric, Longstreet touted the protection. A city health officer said violence in American history. benefits of eating the residue of bee Longstreet seemed "irrational and Memories of the event almost hives to live longer. In 1946, she tried incoherent." She was hospitalized in immediately began to fade. Families to persuade a Confederate veteran New York and sent back to Atlanta. of the men who’d been hanged who had recently celebrated his Six years later, on May 3, 1962, moved away or stopped talking about 100th birthday to eat the odd food. Helen Dortch Longstreet died in it. Newcomers flooded the town, (No word if the old soldier lived until Milledgeville (Ga.) State Hospital. which grew from 250 residents during he was 150.) According to doctors there, she the Civil War to more than 12,000 by After the war, Longstreet was also a seemed "perfectly happy." The the turn of the century. While two vocal supporter of civil rights for woman who defied convention and men—one a member of the jury and blacks, and, in 1950, she ran for never liked to talk about her age was the other with full access to court governor of Georgia as a write-in 99. records—wrote accounts of the candidate. In challenging incumbent hanging in the 1870s and 1880s, , the "scrappy neither account was publicly available widow" vowed to stand up for blacks until the 1960s. Court records of the trial were lost by the 1920s. Around the 100th anniversary of the Civil War,

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER in 1964, the Texas Historical playing the men involved in the owned slaves, according to Richard Commission erected a pink granite hanging. Finally, at 3 p.m., everyone McCaslin, chair of the history marker conveying an account arrived at the new memorial for the department at the University of North sympathetic to the mob, based on dedication. Texas and author of 1994’s Tainted what is now known to be incomplete As imposing as the memorial looks, Breeze: The Great Hanging at information. Over time the marker has it’s impossible to miss the shabbiness Gainesville, Texas, 1862, the first become largely illegible. of the park’s surroundings. The tree comprehensive study of the incident. Nathaniel Clark, one of the men killed where 40 men met their deaths has Despite the boom, Gainesville was in the Great Hanging, is buried in long since been cut down or burned still close to the frontier during the Gainesville’s Clark Cemetery. His down (accounts differ). The parcel Civil War, and fear for safety and tombstone notes that he was borders an auto repair shop, and security ran high. As McCaslin “murdered by a mob.” when facing the memorial, you also explains in Tainted Breeze, raids by Gainesville, meanwhile, has chugged face the shop’s aluminum sheds with nearby Comanche and Kiowa were along as a charming small Texas “Eddie Dulock Paint and Body Shop” frequent, and there was enormous town. In 2012 Rand McNally named painted in red. The few trees fail to fear of Kansas’ radical abolitionists, Gainesville the “Most Patriotic Small block the sight of traffic traversing particularly John Brown, who Town in America.” Each year the one of Gainesville’s pretty new infamously went on to attack Harpers town invites some 30 Medal of Honor yellow-and-brick-red bridges. There’s Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. recipients on an expense-paid trip to no designated parking, no fence, and “These are good people. They want Gainesville, allowing the town to call just the memorial to distinguish the their town to look good. You want to itself the nation’s only Medal of Honor park from a vacant lot. live in a town you’re proud of. That’s Host City. There’s a historical marker Among the crowd were descendants not a bad thing. Where does the to honor the pioneers who first of eight men who died in Gainesville’s Great Hanging fit into that? The town brought cattle to the area and Great Hanging, as well as killed 42 people. It’s kind of a established the town, and the old descendants of the earliest advocates clunker.” State Theater movie house still for memorializing them. To them, this While there was widespread stands on East California Street, park marks the end of a long struggle disagreement on the question of though it no longer shows movies. and, if not closure exactly, at least a secession, most town leaders were Leonard Park features baseball promise finally kept. slaveholders and residents generally diamonds, a pool with water slides Gainesville hadn’t been had little regard for the anti-slavery and a small zoo that grew out of a around long when the Civil War came movement. Those living in the area volunteer community circus. A to Texas. The area had initially been often relied on vigilantism to keep the Confederate memorial greets visitors a pit stop for travelers on their way to peace and force out troublemakers at the entrance. Downtown, the California, and by 1850 it boasted a and dissidents. Mob hangings Cooke County Courthouse boasts smattering of homes, a dry goods became increasingly common as talk memorials to Confederate soldiers store and a saloon. In 1858, the of war continued. A Northern and to veterans of World War II. Butterfield Overland Mail, a semi- Methodist Episcopal elder was On Oct. 18 this year, 152 years weekly service for passenger lynched based on a forged pro- after the Great Hanging, a new stagecoaches and mail, arrived. abolition letter in 1860, and a series memorial was dedicated just a few Immigrants began flooding the area of fires around the state over the feet from where the original incident (and the state). By 1860, two-thirds of summer had only ratcheted up took place: two gray granite slabs, Texans had been born in another anxieties, as many blamed each 5 feet high and 6 feet wide. One state. In North Texas, near abolitionists. slab offers a new account of the Gainesville, most immigrants came When Texas held a vote on the Great Hanging. The other shows the from “Upper South” states including Ordinance of Secession in 1861, names of the 42 men who died. Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky Cooke County, along with several Unveiling day began with a luncheon and “Deep South” states including nearby counties, voted against at North Central Texas College and Mississippi and Georgia. Only about leaving the Union, though included a performance by actors 11 percent of the area’s households Gainesville’s slaveholding elite were

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER divided. James Bourland, a former Chiles about efforts to attack militia several members didn’t show up. The state senator, was a proponent of arsenals. Bourland sent a spy to join missing men were replaced with secession, while the more the effort and learn more, and the two hardline Confederates. With no new conservative William C. Young, a brothers opened up about plans to evidence considered, 19 more men former U.S. marshal and the largest mount an armed insurrection. were hanged, one and two at a time. slaveholder in the county, opposed it. Bourland organized mass arrests on Two others were shot and killed trying (Together, Bourland and Young Oct. 1, targeting not only the men to escape. owned close to a quarter of the implicated by the spy, but others “I think where the story goes terribly slaves in Cooke County.) who’d failed to respond to a call for wrong is the decision not to turn them Once the state voted to secede, Confederate troops to muster. While over to the legal courts,” McCaslin however, most citizens fell in line. a few got away—two, notably, says. Young and Bourland both took up carrying mattresses on their backs, “There’s a national message to what military posts. Young carefully kept ostensibly to protect them from happened here,” he says. “People his recruits—mostly North Texas bullets—the rest prepared to stand need to know what the Civil War was farmers who were ambivalent about trial. Neighboring counties sent really like. It wasn’t Gone with the the Confederate cause—focused on similarly suspected men to Wind. We were just as ugly to each preventing Indian raids. Confederate courts, but Gainesville’s other as other countries that get But when the Conscription Act was leadership, headed by Young, pulled apart in civil wars. It’s part of passed in 1862, anger began to swell decided to form a citizen’s court. A us, it’s part of who we are, and we among the farmers of Cooke County. majority of the jury was composed of need to think about that and make The Confederate army’s fortunes had slaveholders, and the citizen’s court damn sure it doesn’t happen again.” begun to decline and troops were required only a majority to convict. The new Great Hanging memorial in desperately needed. The act Outside, the mob was ready to hang Gainesville comprises two authorized the drafting of white men all the prisoners. granite slabs. One is engraved age 18 to 35. There were new taxes After hearing evidence, the jury with an account of the 1862 incident, and the threat of initially convicted seven men who the other with the names of the 42 impressments. Young’s troops, were hanged over the course of the victims. which had been fighting Native next week. To placate two of its Lynette Pettigrew is a fourth- Americans close to home, were sent members, the jury decided it would generation Gainesville resident. Her east to join other Confederate henceforth require a two-thirds family arrived in the 1880s and has campaigns. Many simply went home majority to convict, and acquitted the been here ever since. “I just love this instead. rest of the group. But outside, tension community,” she says. “I’m the sort of McCaslin describes the situation as was rising. Two leaders—one of person that likes to go to the store “a pressure cooker.” whom McCaslin thinks was likely and run into people I know. I like for “You’re scared of Indians, you’re Bourland—demanded 20 more people to honk and wave as they go scared of abolitionists, you’ve been prisoners. A member of the jury by. … If you don’t want people to attacked by Indians, you’ve had a big handed over the list, from which 14 know your business, then you set of fires that summer that you’re names were chosen. They, too, were shouldn’t live in a small town.” convinced was John Brown and his hanged over the next two days. Pettigrew is the executive director of buddies,” he says. “And suddenly The rest of the prisoners were to be the town’s Chamber of Commerce, someone says we’ve got a problem confined for the week, with the jury and spends her days trying to support here amongst us.” hoping the mob might calm down in local business and increase tourism. The formation of a Peace Party came the meantime. A few days later, She and her husband are most at the same time that 30 men however, William C. Young was killed famous for spearheading allegedly signed a petition against the while investigating a murder. The Gainesville’s Medal of Honor program. Conscription Act. Bourland, a culprits were likely deserters, but the It’s the only program of its kind in the hotheaded leader, got word from a mob worried they might be country, and it generates enormous man who’d been approached by two abolitionists. When the jury town pride. Businesses advertise the brothers named Ephraim and Henry reconvened the following week, program in windows and on walls.

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER

“We’re very patriotic and we’re a very “These are good people,” McCaslin to place the crosses in the park proud community. We take care of says. “They want their town to look where the Great Hanging occurred. our own and we take care of our good. You want to live in a town Working with the Heritage Society’s nation’s heroes,” Pettigrew says. you’re proud of. That’s not a bad Steve Gordon and descendants of The Medal of Honor program helped thing. Where does the Great Hanging victims, Russell held a ceremony Gainesville get nominated—and then fit into that? The town killed 42 people. where all 42 names were read and a win—Rand McNally’s 2012 It’s kind of a clunker.” bell was rung. competition for “Most Patriotic Small Goldsworthy and Pettigrew both say It was the first public commemoration Town in America,” a designation the that while history is important, mass of the Great Hanging in modern times, town’s mayor, Jim Goldsworthy, loves mob murder is not what they want and has been an annual occurrence to mention. their town to be known for. Neither since. “You could not have found Colleen Clark Carri was 15, playing sees the Great Hanging as a tourism three people in Gainesville who’d the domino game Texas 42 in her opportunity. “We’re not running from heard of [the Great Hanging] before grandparents’ old farmhouse with our history, but I would rather we did that,” Russell says. cousins, when someone mentioned Gainesville be portrayed in the light of The push to commemorate the Great that his great-great-grandfather had the Medal of Honor city and most Hanging more permanently has been been hanged by a mob. patriotic city, which are the accolades ongoing for more than two decades. Around the time the town won the it deserves today in modern-day In 1993, the estate of Georgia Davis Rand McNally award, the Morton times,” Goldsworthy says. “The Bass gifted the city the land where Museum of Cooke County leased a commercialization of a horrific the Great Hanging had taken place. billboard to advertise a 150th wartime event is not one that I would The city’s beloved mayor, Margaret anniversary: “October’s Reign of want Gainesville to build tourism on.” Parx Hays, whose great-grandfather Terror, Commemorating the Great In fact there’s little around town to Wiley Jones had been on the citizen’s Hanging of 1862.” Within days, the inform anyone of the Great Hanging. court jury, planned to raise hundreds city’s mayor pro tem, Ray Nichols, The town’s tourism brochures don’t of thousands of dollars for a memorial, had voiced his disapproval. mention the incident (though it does but passed away before the ambition “Gainesville was voted most patriotic get a paragraph in the “History” could come to fruition. The effort city in America this year, and we are section of the town’s website). If the stalled after her death, and at one very excited about it and our Medal of history hasn’t been buried, exactly, it point the city used the park to store Honor Host City program. I think certainly isn’t shared broadly. construction supplies. those are important. That other thing? Leon Russell was in his mid-70s I don’t think that’s important to before he even heard about it. anybody,” Nichols told the Austin Russell grew up in Woodbine, an American-Statesman at the time. even smaller town close to Though no explicit demands were Gainesville, and now lives in Keller, made, the Cooke County Heritage closer to Dallas. Russell first heard Society pulled its sponsorship of the about the hangings from a Civil War anniversary event, according to buff friend in New York. “I felt like it former Heritage Society President had always been this really terrible Steve Gordon, for fear that city injustice that the town had turned its officials’ anger might mean funding back on. Forty-two widows and about cuts to the town’s history museum. 300 children,” he says. “I had wished Gordon, an Oklahoma native and that I could do something, at least Photo Pamela Henderson engineer who retired to Gainesville, letting it be known.” The new Great Hanging memorial in was livid. “This story’s got to come In 2007, Russell and his family Gainesville comprises two granite slabs. One up,” he says. “A lot of these people’s bought wooden stakes at Home is engraved with an account of the 1862 incident, the other with the names of the 42 [families] weren’t even here in 1862. Depot and set to creating 42 white victims. Why are they so upset?” crosses, one for each man killed. The City Council gave Russell permission

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER

But after the 2012 billboard debacle, was 19 at the start of the war, and event, it was the Clark family that more information about the city’s Clark hoped to keep him out of it. But came to the rescue, holding their obligations regarding the land came aside from his opposition to family reunion at the same time and to light. When Gordon and others secession, there’s nothing in the sponsoring a luncheon in presented plans for the new memorial historical record to suggest that Clark remembrance of the Great Hanging. featuring a history-based account of was seditious. Nonetheless, he was “I told the family at the family reunion, what happened, with all funds raised one of the 14 men handed over to the ‘All right, the last thing I’m going to privately, the City Council approved mob.“It’s the way Nathaniel did not ever beg you for is to attend this the effort unanimously. have a trial that has always been a memorial,’” Carri says. “After this I’m Now, Gordon and other memorial burr under my saddle,” Carri says. just going to show up at the Clark advocates are looking toward next Unlike many families of the hanged reunions and bring a baked pie and steps. Gordon imagines planting men, Clark’s family stayed in Cooke sit my little bottom down.” crape myrtles around the park, and County. Nathaniel’s portrait hangs in L.D. and Carri were sitting side by money for a parking lot. But for now, Carri’s home, which is on Clark Road, side in the audience when the City he says, “You don’t know what a thrill near the family cemetery where her Council voted unanimously to it is to get those 42 names down great-great-grandfather is buried. approve the memorial on Dec. 3, there.” According to his tombstone, his last 2013. Weeks later, L.D., who was 91 McCaslin says with or without the words were, “Prepare yourself to live years old, fell, and his health declined memorial, memories of the Great and die. I hope to meet you all in a quickly. He died in March. Hanging would never fully disappear. future world. God bless you all.” “I’m just grateful he was with me on He compares the incident to More is known about the Clark family Dec. 3 at the City Council, and he the massacre at Glen Coe in than any other involved in the Great knew it was going to happen,” Carri Scotland, or the massacre at the Hanging. James Lemuel Clark wrote says, tearing up. “But oh my. Not to Rock of Cashel in Ireland. “Ask the his recollections, and his grandson have him here in October.” Irish if they’ll ever forget who burned L.D. Clark—Carri’s uncle—edited Carri misses her more distant the Rock of Cashel. They’ll never them. L.D., an English professor at ancestors almost as much as she rebuild that. The wind moans and you the University of Arizona, also wrote a misses her uncle. “They both had think, ‘This is a haunted place.’ novel and a screenplay about such amazing roles,” she says of “Grief fades,” he says. “Memory Nathaniel Clark. Carri can recite from James Lemuel and Nathaniel. “They abides.” memory parts of the letter that James were amazing men and they were Colleen Clark Carri still Lemuel wrote to his mother when he patriots as far as I’m concerned.” remembers when she first heard got word of his father’s death. “It Supporters purchased paving stones about the Great Hanging. She was 15, begins, ‘Dearest mother, oh the for a path leading to the memorial, playing the domino game Texas 42 in horrors of my heart, no tongue can many with inscriptions. her grandparents’ old farmhouse with tell upon learning of my father’s My marker says ‘On Hallowed cousins when someone mentioned death.’ It’s poetry. It’s just pure Ground,’” Carri says. “Because I feel that his great-great-grandfather had poetry,” she says. that’s what this is. It’s almost like a been hanged by a mob. Carri and her husband retired to cemetery to me.” “I was like, ‘What are y’all talking Gainesville in 2008. In 2009 she “Ready for Mischief” Dr. about? We’ve never talked about moved L.D. to town to be closer. that,’” Carri says. “People were They both became outspoken Mary Walker and her always like, ‘Pappy still gets upset so advocates for a new memorial. Service during the Civil let’s not talk about this right now.’” I felt like it had always been this really Nathaniel Clark settled in Cooke terrible injustice that the town had War County with his wife and sons around turned its back on. Forty-two widows By Maureen Lavelle, National Civil 1857. He came from Missouri, where and about 300 children.” War Medicine Museum, December support for secession was tepid at In 2012, when the Cooke County 12th, 2016 best, and never owned slaves. His Heritage Society withdrew its At the outbreak of the American Civil eldest child, James Lemuel Clark, sponsorship of the 150th anniversary War, men across the country stepped forward to serve in the military and

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER were celebrated by their communities Walker bypassed the Capitol and be treated immediately on-site. She for demonstrating their bravery. traveled directly to the front. She gave orders to stretcher-bearers on Though the majority of men who arrived in the midst of a severe how soldiers should be handled in served had no training or fighting typhoid epidemic and immediately set order to prevent pain and discomfort. experience, they were enlisted to work caring for the men. Soldiers She spoke with such authority that without question by grateful noted her tireless efforts to treat the her commands were obeyed. governments and marked as heroes men, as well as her unusual During her brief time in Union Army for their selflessness. Unfortunately, appearance. Dr. Walker had taken to hospitals, Dr. Walker had seen women who stepped forward to serve wearing trousers and a military jacket serious wounds and illnesses, but her and support the military were not so for practicality and comfort. Her time on the front lines in lucky in their reception. startling appearance left a lasting Fredericksburg exposed her to Many women were eager to work as impression on the soldiers she horrific injuries. She noted one nurses and caretakers during the war, treated. She would continue to wear particular case of a soldier with a but endured opposition from male “man’s” clothing for the rest of her life. grievous head injury: leaders and scorn from their Dr. Walker was put in charge of “…a shell had taken part of his skull communities. However, faced with transporting men back to Washington away, about as large a piece as a persistent lobbying and intensifying and ensuring they received treatment dollar…I could see the pulsation of bloodshed, military leaders soon upon their arrival. She was praised the brain, and when he talked I could allowed women to serve as nurses. for her compassionate care and see a movement of the same, slight Though they were allowed to serve, started garnering interest among though it was. He was perfectly female nurses were still expected to leaders in Washington for her skill as sensible, and although I never saw live by traditional gender norms of the a surgeon. him after he was taken to Washington, nineteenth century. While most Almost immediately after Dr. Walker I learned that he lived several days.” women navigated the war effort and moved soldiers to Washington, the found gender-appropriate work for Union Army began the fateful themselves, Dr. Mary E. Walker of Fredericksburg Campaign, which New York embarked on a crusade to culminated in the bloody and become a surgeon in the Union Army. mismatched fight on December 13th, Dr. Walker was twenty-eight years old 1862. Dr. Walker quickly traveled to at the outbreak of Civil War and an the battlefield and set to work triaging accomplished doctor. She was the and treating the wounded retreating second woman in the country to have across the Rappahannock River. earned her medical degree and Treating soldiers in the aftermath of operated her own practice in Rome, the battle of Fredericksburg was the New York. In October 1861 Dr. first time Dr. Walker worked on the Walker made her way to Washington front lines. If the shrieking, groaning, D.C. in search of work in one of the bleeding and dying men unnerved her, many hospitals there. She found work Dr. Walker did not reveal this in her as an assistant surgeon at a hospital writings of the day. Though her inside the US Patent Office, but she written recollections of was never formally hired or paid. Fredericksburg are brief, they are Though she took satisfaction with her incredibly vivid. work, Dr. Walker was unable to Dr. Walker worked somewhere on the Dr. Mary Walker – wearing her Medal of support herself without a wage and grounds of the Lacy House (today Honor left Washington in early 1862. known as Chatham), likely close to By November 1862, Dr. Walker was Union pontoon river crossing just Dr. Walker’s exposure to battle at ready to head back to Washington. north of the house. She examined Fredericksburg did nothing to When she heard the army was soldiers, noting which ones should be dissuade her from working for the camped in Warrenton, Virginia, Dr. sent to Washington and which should Union Army; rather it fueled her

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER ambition to receive an official commission as a US Army surgeon. She lobbied generals and politicians persistently, and her efforts were rewarded in 1864, when she was commissioned and assigned to the Army of the Cumberland. Despite this achievement, Dr. Walker faced obstacles and harassment at every turn. Generals and doctors refused to work with her. Rumors were spread that she was a prostitute. She was captured while in Georgia and sent to a prison in Richmond. Adding insult to injury, Confederate newspapers reported rumors that she took prison guards as lovers until her release in August 1864. After the war ended, Dr. Mary Walker was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for her services to the US Army. Unfortunately in 1917, her award was rescinded, but Dr. Walker refused to return the medal and wore it proudly until her death in 1919. Dr. Walker’s medal was posthumously restored. She remains the only woman to have earned this prestigious decoration.

BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE