1998 2016

VOLUME NO. 18 ISSUE NO. 1 JANUARY 2016 MCHENRY COUNTY, ILLINOIS

MCHENRY COUNTY WOULD LIKE TO CONVEY CIVIL WAR DISCUSSION GROUP WISHES OF A HAPPY AND ROUND TABLE AT THE PANERA BREAD COMPANY PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO NOW CELEBRATING 6000 NORTHWEST HIGHWAY ONE AND ALL CRYSTAL LAKE, ILLINOIS AND AN INVITATION TO JOIN US IN CELEBRATING SERVING THE COMMUNITY OUR 18TH YEAR AND MCHENRY COUNTY SINCE IT’S FOUNDING SERVING THE COMMUNITY AT UNION, AND MCHENRY COUNTY McHENRY COUNTY, ILLINOIS WE LOOK FORWARD IN SEPTEMBER OF 1998 TO SEEING YOU AT ONE OR MORE OF OUR EVENTS DURING OUR PRESENTATION SEASON

AND WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT MISSION STATEMENT

MCHENRY COUNTY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED TO PROMOTE AND FOSTER EDUCATION, DISCUSSION, AND ANALYSIS OF THE WE HOPE THROUGH LEARNING ABOUT THE PAST, WE WILL BE ABLE TO MORE COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT AND HAVE A POSITIVE, BENEFICIAL EFFECT ON OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO OUR MEMBERS ______

PLEASE NOTE: MCCWRT WILL NOT HAVE PRESENTATIONS/MEETINGS DURING JANUARY OR FEBRUARY

DISCUSSION GROUP WILL MEET

VISIT OUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET www.mchenrycivilwar.com MR. DON PURN WEBMASTER

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KENOSHA ItDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD may surprise most people today Civil that War, Nativesoldiers Americans celebrated joinedby decorating in this battle. their camp CIVIL WAR MUSEUM Christmas trees with hard-tack and salt-pork ANNOUNCEMENTS Through diplomacy, the Confederacy had promisedand singing a carolsmeasure decorating of autonomy for Native JANUARY 13, 2016 Americans and some restoration of land. SPECIAL PREVIEW SCREENING their camp Christmas OF treesThose Native with Americans, After who General chose to fight with the Union, hoped to improve their lot by Williamrising through theSherman ranks of the military. NEW MPTV SERIES captured“All together, more Savannah than 10,000 Indian ins— JERRY REECE 7:00 P.M. some put the figure as high as 15,000— Decemberparticipated directly ofin the 1864 Civil War their on one side or the other. KANKAKEE VALLEY JANUARY 16, 2016 horses up like reindeer Most served west of the Mississippi. CWRT by attaching branches JANUARY 6, 2016 The Confederacy regularly enlisted at least to5,500 their [as] cavalrymen. headgear and A SOCIAL NETWORK OF SOLDIERS Somedelivered 4,000 Indians food are known and to have served in the Union infantry. By Steve Pasquale 10:00 A.M. supplies to hungry familiesAs the figures indicate,in the war split the JANUARY 18, 2016 tribes as well as the states. Many were torn CHICAGO CWRT by doubts and questions of allegiance,” JANUARY 8, 2016 Ashley Halsey Jr. writes in the 1961 Post article “The Braves in Blue and Gray.”

A SOCIAL NETWORK OF One such Native American who volunteered to fight was Seneca chieftain Donehogawa. SOLDIERS He was coldly turned down by Secretary of By David Moore 10:00 A.M. War Edwin M. Stanton.

SALT CREEK CWRT This didn’t discourage Donehogawa, Halsey

JANUARY 15, 2016 JANUARY 25, 2016 writes, as he was accustomed to being turned down “for simply being an Indian.” Donehogawa (whose “white name” was Ely S. Parker) went on to study civil engineering and took a government job in Galena, A SOCIAL NETWORK OF Illinois.

SOLDIES There, Halsey writes, “he befriended a By Rob Girardi 10:00 A.M. former Army officer who was so down on his luck that he worked as a humble clerk.”

LINCOLN/DAVIS CWRT THE NATIVE AMERICAN When he returned to his tribal reservation in New York, Donehogawa yet again JANUARY 19, 2016 WHO requested to fight for the Union. And again BECAME A GENERAL he was turned down, this time by the governor of New York.

Although lithographer Louis Kurz was a veteran “The governor, perhaps mindful that there of the war, his prints were not truly accurate were still some voters whose parents had depictions of its battles because they were been tomahawked in past wars, flatly highly romanticized. But Kurz did get something declined to send [him] on the warpath even By Phil Greenwalt right in his depiction of the : to save the Union.” Native Americans did fight in the war. SOUTH SUBURBAN Not until 1863 (two years into the war) did he “manage to wangle a commission as a CWRT captain of engineers,” Halsey writes. JANUARY 28, 2016 “Quite likely the clerk whom he had befriended at Galena helped him. For by now the former clerk spoke with authority and influence.

His name was Ulysses S. Grant.” From that point on, Lieutenant General Donehogawa rode beside Grant in battle as Grant’s Lithograph of the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, military secretary. By Leslie Goddard March 7-8, 1862

and occasionally published engravings.

Engraving of the , Maryland Unknown Artist October 18, 1862

General U.S. Grant, far left, and Lt. General Donehogawa, far right. The intricately detailed battle scene above was published a month after the Battle of “Fate reserved a modest place in history for Antietam took place. the hawk-faced Indian, LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS The original caption from the October 18, ” Halsey writes. “During the surrender at ABOUT 1862, issue reads: “Battle of Antietam, Appomattox, the senior adjutant, Colonel T. THE CIVIL WAR Maryland. S. Bowers felt so overcome by emotion that his hand shook. He could not write. The above, engraved expressly for the Post from ‘Frank Leslie’s Paper,’ [an Did you know? President So [Donehogawa] took the penciled draft of wanted Robert E. Lee as his commanding illustrated newspaper of the period] the surrender terms, as set down by Grant, General? represents Burnside’s division carrying the and ‘transcribed in a fair hand the official stone bridge over Antietam Creek, and copies of the document that ended the Civil To say Robert E. Lee’s Virginian roots were deep storming the rebel position in front of the left War.’” Would certainly be an understatement. wing of our army.”

Reflecting on the time of surrender, His ancestors had helped colonize the state.

Donehogawa said, “After Lee had stared at me for a moment, He was related to Virginia-born founding father he extended his hand and said, ‘I am glad to Thomas Jefferson (by blood), and George see one real American here. Washington (by marriage). Lee’s own father “Light Horse Harry Lee, was quite the Cavalry Officer ’ I shook his hand and said, ‘We are all who served under during the Americans.’” Revolution. And there had even been land named after his family,” Leesylvania”, which today is a national park. PRESIDENT: ROBERT FRENZ President Lincoln had hoped Lee, who had VICE PRESIDENT: CHARLIE BANKS distinguished himself in the U.S. Army in his 32 TREASURER: DONALD PURN years of service, would lead the Union forces if the South were to secede. However, Colonel Lee SECRETARY: GLORIA MACK chose to remain loyal to his home in the War MEMBERSHIP: SANDY KUPSTIS Between the States.

After resigning his commission in the U.S. Army in 1860, he wrote his brother in Virginia saying, “I JIM KEEFE am now a private citizen, and have no other JIM STANNIS ambition than to remain at home. Save in defense of my native state, I have no desire ever again to draw my sword. www.mchenrycivilwar.com 19TH CENTURY WEB MASTER: DONALD PURN WAR REPORTING

It is well known that the Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day of the Civil War, with approximately 4,000 deaths and an overall casualty rate of more than 23,110. The Saturday Evening Post, which had already been around for 40-plus years by EDITOR KEITH M. FISHER then, did not offer a “blow-by-blow” of daily events as a paper would today. Instead, it gave weekly summations of the battles and fighting.

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