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THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER 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 Atlanta. 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 -- James Longstreet'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 Theodore Roosevelt among other "sins.") Railroads.