David's Dispatch, Volume 2, Number 7

Vol. 2, No. 7 Copyright 2016 July 2016 2016 NATIONAL REUNION COMMANDER’S CORNER July 13th – 17th, 2016 by Larry “Joe” Reynolds Renaissance Dallas Richardson Hotel Well summer is finally here, our 900 E. Lookout Drive weekend SCV activities are now Richardson, Texas few and far between because of the extremely hot See http://scv2016.org/ for full details. weather. This month we have also moved our th th July meeting to the 11 instead of the 4 because of the holiday. DAVIDRREYNOLDS.ORG The 2016 National Reunion is scheduled for July 13- I6 and I would like to encourage each of you This month the following changes have been made to attend. It will be held in Richardson and this to our web site: http://www.davidrreynolds.org will probably be the closest one we may ever I’ve updated our Guardian Page to include have. The last Reunion held in Texas was 50 years ago, and it may be that long before we see the latest Confederate Hero’s graves. another one. At the Reunion You get to meet I added a new Ancestor’s Bio for Compatriot SCV members from all over our country and even Dennis Gunn to our membership page. some from foreign countries. There will be I’m continually working on our e-books so vendors of all kinds and you can pick up items of that we may tell the true history about the every nature that interest you. Uniforms are not War of Northern aggression. normally worn at the Reunions so don’t let that stop you. I’m still looking for biographies of your Confederate Ancestor. Please try to come up with a short bio that we can put on-line. UPCOMING EVENTS If you have any suggestions, recommendations or comments you can send me an email to: [email protected] and I promise to Monday, July 11th, 7:00 p.m. give it my full consideration. Refreshments at 6:30 p.m. Old Union Community Center Hwy 67E, Mount Pleasant, Texas “The flags of the Confederate States of America were 4th OF JULY PARADE July 2nd, 2016 very important and a matter of great pride to those Orr City 4th of July Parade citizens living in the Confederacy. They are also a Muster at 10:00 Parade at 11:00 matter of great pride for their descendants as part of Muster on vacant lot on Peach Street, 1 Block East their heritage and history.” of Hwy 259. We need men to carry flags! Winston Churchill V Vol. 2 No. 6 Copyright 2106 Page 2 Southern effort to invade the North, and ultimately Our Charge… sealed the Confederacy’s fate. Scott P. Hippensteel, an associate professor of earth "To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for sciences at the University of North Carolina at which we fought. To your strength will be Charlotte, analyzed the geology of Gettysburg. He given the defense of the Confederate soldier's found that a mixture of harder diabase and softer good name, the guardianship of his history, the sedimentary rocks produced features such as Cemetery emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of Hill and Little Round Top, which provided strong those principles which he loved and which you defensive positions for the Union Army. love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish." Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations! Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans, Louisiana April 25, 1906 INFLUENCED BY ROCKS Photographer Matthew Brady and his contemporaries were the world's first true war photographers, taking A century and a half ago, the Civil War rocked America. advantage of a relatively new technology, tools of mass But as it turns out, the war itself — in particular, the production and the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history, one pivotal battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 — was in which more than 620,000 lost their lives. This influenced by rocks. photograph of a scene in Antietam, Md. shows bodies, possibly moved in order to keep the church in the background. The photograph was taken by Alexander Gardner, who worked for a time as an assistant to Matthew Brady. American Heroes Channel: America's Civil War But rock formations didn’t always necessarily benefit the Union side. Carbonates, limestone's and dolostones shaped the terrain of battlefields such as Antienam, the spot in Maryland where Confederate forces repulsed a Union attack in September 1862. Civil War re-enactors are shown here at the site of the battle of Stones River, one of the many battles where geology played a role in the outcome A just-published article in Geosphere, the journal of the Geological Society of America, details how rock formations helped to determine the outcome at Gettysburg, where Union forces stopped a desperate V Vol. 2 No. 6 Copyright 2106 Page 3 While there were images taken during the Mexican War The second kind of photo was the carte de visite. The of 1847 and the Crimean War in 1854, the Civil War saw carte de visite, or cdv, was also primarily a portrait an explosion of both techniques and photographers. In photograph, except it was made with a glass, wet-plate fact, both armies used photography to document their negative. The negative meant unlimited copies could be own soldiers as well as to collect information about created. Prints were made on albumen paper, according enemy forces. This photograph, also by Gardner, to the center. These portraits of generals, statesmen, documents a dead Confederate sniper in Gettysburg actors and other celebrities were mass produced and given out like trading cards in an effort to keep up “On many battlefields, outcropping limestone proved morale. Sergeant Cornelius V. Moore of Company B, beneficial for attacking troops,” Hippensteel writes. 100th New York Volunteers, a sergeant of 39th Illinois “Differential weathering within carbonate formations Regiment, a corporal of 106th New York Volunteers, and produced rolling terrain that limited the range and a private of the 11th Vermont Regiment pose in camp effectiveness of both artillery and small arms.” scene Other battlefields with such features included Stones River, Chickamauga, Franklin, Nashville and Monocacy, a July 1864 battle in which Union troops thwarted a Confederate assault on Washington, D.C. New techniques and commercialization led to the flowering of photography just before the Civil War JAMES MADISON GUNN started. The invention of the tintype, which was a metal image, and the ambrotype, printed on glass, allowed for PRIVATE mass production of small photographs usually kept by 9th LOUISIANA INFANTRY, CSA families in wooden or glass cases. Here, John E. Cummins of the 50th, 99th and 185th Ohio Infantry regiments poses in Union uniform next to a horse One example of the latter was the infamous “Sunken Road” at Antietam, where 2,600 Confederate troops managed to hold off a Union force of 5,500 for three- and-a-half hours, thanks in part to the terrain. The Union ultimately prevailed, but took heavy casualties. James Madison Gunn Private James Madison Gunn was one of 9 children born to James William Gunn (b 1791) and Harriet Quick. His Grandfather and Grandmother were both V Vol. 2 No. 6 Copyright 2106 Page 4 born in Scotland. His father was born in North the area between 1854 and 1855 was used to Carolina and his mother was born in South Carolina. transport the troops. Pvt. Gunn was born in 1834 in Alabama. He died in The Landrum Guards unit was organized in 1897 and was buried in Maud, Bowie County, TX. Shreveport in Sept 1861 and was comprised He and his wife Nancy Ann Westbrooks had 12 primarily of Irish railroad laborers. These men had children, most of whom were born in Smith County, been imported to build the railroad to Marshall but MS in the community called Gunn (now White Oak), were soon left stranded when the contractor went MS. His wife Nancy died in 1885 and was buried in bankrupt. They then hired themselves out to the the Dukes Cemetery in Gunn, MS. Confederacy as foot soldiers for the going rate of $40.00 per month. There was also a Scotch Rife In the late 1850s the family moved from MS to Guard and a Polish unit that served as part of the LA Livingston Parish, LA. We believe they moved there Infantry. to provide lumber and labor to the railroad that was being built through the area in the late 1850s between Summer of 1861, 1st Battle of Bull Run. New Orleans and Jackson, MS. He enlisted into the The Grey forces won the 1st Battle of Bull Run CSA from that Parish. (Manassas). That battle awakened the North to the Pvt. James Madison Gunn is believed to have lost task ahead. It stiffened their resolution to suppress two brothers in the Civil War. the rebellion. Private James Madison Gunn and the Civil War 15 March 1862, Enlistment. 27 May 1861. All of LA and the southern portions James Madison Gunn was 26 when the Civil War of MS and AL were designated as Department 1 of began and had been married to Nancy Ann the C.S.A. MG David E. Twiggs, 71 years old, was Westbrooks for 8 years, since 1854. They had 3 assigned as Commanding Officer of this children. He enlisted into the C.S.A. on 15 March geographical region of the War Department with his 1862 at Amite Springs, LA.

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