“While armies advance and retreat, while cannons roar, and while men of power pass before our eyes, the authors’ stories dwell on the landscape of the ‘human heart.’ Treat yourself to the joy of reading this remarkable book.” — EARL HAMNER, CREATOR OF THE WALTONS AND AUTHOR OF GENEROUS WOMEN Copyright © 1994, 1998, 2010 by C. Brian Kelly and Ingrid Smyer Cover and internal design © 2010 by Sourcebooks, Inc. Cover design by The Book Designers Cover images courtesy of The Library of Congress; © nicoolay/iStockphoto.com; Shutterstock.com Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems— except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.—From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trade- marks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor in this book. Published by Cumberland House, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410 (630) 961-3900 Fax: (630) 961-2168 www.sourcebooks.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kelly, C. Brian. Best little stories from the Civil War : more than 100 true stories / by C. Brian Kelly; with Ingrid Smyer.—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Anecdotes. I. Smyer-Kelly, Ingrid II. Title. E655.K25 2009 973.7—dc22 2009042114 Printed and bound in the United States of America. VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Other Books by C. Brian Kelly & Ingrid Smyer BEST LITTLE STORIES FROM THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION BEST LITTLE STORIES FROM THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WINSTON CHURCHILL BEST LITTLE STORIES OF THE BLUE AND THE GRAY BEST LITTLE IRONIES, ODDITIES & MYSTERIES OF THE CIVILWAR BEST LITTLE STORIES FROM THE WHITE HOUSE BEST LITTLE STORIES FROM THE WILD WEST BEST LITTLE STORIES FROM WORLD WAR II BEST LITTLE STORIES FROM VIRGINIA For our children, Beth, Charlie, Fran, Hal, Jimmy, Katheryn, Sid CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . ix SELECT GUIDE TO BATTLES & PERSONALITIES .................. xii PORTENTS............................................ 1 BEGINNINGS . 13 First Time Out ......................................14 Fresh Start Sought ....................................16 Who the South Was . 20 Fate Makes a Choice . 22 Racing to War . 24 Better Angels Invoked . .26 Social Notice Taken . 27 Lincoln Wins Rebel Debate . .29 Sumter’s Silence . .30 Stomach Pumping Questioned . .32 Robert and Mary . 33 Spy with a Future . 36 Swinging His Arms . .37 A “Bear” Installed ....................................39 Death of a Congressman................................42 Most Famous Shooter . .44 Perfect Storm of Bullets . 46 At Every Shot a Convulsion . .48 First Postmortem.....................................51 Sherman’s Threat Appealed..............................53 Head of the Passes ....................................55 Heart in the Throat ...................................58 Good Times…and Bad . 60 Staggering Stats......................................62 MIDDLES.............................................65 Hello, Washington . .66 No Panacea for Politicians . 68 Brave Deed Recorded . .71 Complete Conquest Required............................73 Secession from Secession . .75 Soldier A-Courting ...................................77 Battery Disbanded ....................................80 “Granny” Lee.......................................83 Stirring Words Found . .86 Jackson’s Odd Failure..................................87 Hello, Richmond . 91 Loyalty Charge Dismissed...............................95 Poignant Moments in Battle . .98 Unnecessary Tragedies ................................101 Knights of the Realm.................................105 Six-Year-Old’s Flight.................................108 Davises Everywhere..................................109 Capitalism at Andersonville.............................111 Jaws of Death ......................................113 Bride Left Behind . .115 Audible, Not Visible . .116 Spank the Boys .....................................120 Injury Added to Insult . 122 Family Affair . 124 Miss Kate’s Brief Run . 127 Escape from Success..................................130 Faces in the Crowd ..................................133 Red Shirt, White Shirt................................137 More Than a Few Ghosts ..............................139 “Shot for You”.....................................141 No Whizz, Bang Heard . .143 Women of the Times.................................146 Woman at the Lead ..................................150 Road to Gettysburg..................................151 Love Story ........................................154 Coincidences at Gettysburg.............................156 Old White Oak . 160 Black Faces in the Crowd ..............................161 Gettysburg Facts, Stats . 164 Lee Family Saga, Continued . 166 Three Generals Named Winfield .........................168 Cat Parties Ended . .170 The Fighting McCooks . .172 Sidling Down to Richmond . 173 Friendly Boost Given.................................175 “Down, You Fool!” . .176 Brave Men Spared...................................178 Christmas.........................................179 What Does a Slave? ..................................181 More Staggering Stats . 186 ENDINGS . .189 Old Abe the Soldier Bird . 190 Bleak Holiday......................................192 Unlucky John Bell Hood . 195 “On, Wisconsin...On!” . .198 Longest Siege ......................................201 Each to His Own Pathway . .205 Squint to His Eye . .206 Ugly Blows Exchanged . .207 They Also Served . .211 Story with a Kick . .214 Two More to Mourn.................................216 Embarrassing Outing .................................219 Surviving to Serve Again . 221 Hospital Town .....................................224 So Very Personal....................................226 No Opportunity for Surrender . 229 Parallel Spies.......................................233 Acquiring a New Name ...............................235 Close Connections . 237 Lee’s Final Order . .240 Julia Reads a Note...................................240 Freedom Still Denied.................................244 Surprisingly Kind Fate . 246 Always a Clear Course ................................248 War’s Sting Delayed . .250 Pair for Two . 252 Final Glimpses . .253 An Arlington Postmortem . .257 The Lincoln Memorial: A Postscript.......................260 The Civil War’s TWO FIRST LADIES . 265 Varina: Forgotten First Lady . 266 Mary Todd Lincoln: Troubled First Lady..................... 279 The Civil War—A SHORT CHRONOLOGY . .309 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . .311 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................312 INDEX..............................................317 ABOUT THE AUTHORS . .334 Introduction HERE ’S OUR PREMISE : HISTORY CAN BE TOLD IN LITTLE BITS AND PIECES AS WELL AS in heavyweight and multi-volume tomes. All too often, even the best recitals of great events can overlook the basic human story lurking behind those same great events. And that’s where our series of Best Little Stories historical books comes into the picture. That’s us— history as short, narrative bits. But...can that work? Reviewer Craig. K. Allen seemed to think so, seemed to catch both the intent and flavor of our approach in the Macon (Georgia) Telegraph when he described our Best Little Stories from the White House as “a genre not quite prac- ticed by anyone else” and said the book’s stories “possess the immediacy of a front-page newspaper article.” Also gratifying was the reaction of Bill Ruelhmann, Books columnist at the Norfolk (Virginia) Virginian Pilot, back in 2002 to our newly published Best Little Stories from the Wild West. Our digging for “historical gold” in “mundane earth,” he wrote at that time, had enabled us to “prise forth glittering nuggets of nifty narrative that, packed tight in the thick treasure boxes of their paperbound anthologies, make for truly priceless reading.” Thanks of course to Craig and Bill. But how does it work, you may be asking. Best Little Stories, we say? Exactly what does that mean? Well, as I wrote in an earlier edition of this, the first of our three Best Little Stories Civil War books, I once was a newspaperman. I always looked for the good, i.e., the best, story. Be it cheerful, light and frothy, or hard-hitting, sad, poignant—it didn’t matter. Just the good story. The kind the reader would read. No “message,” just the unusual, the obscure, the fascinating...the gripping, the touching human story. When I turned to history as the first editor of Military History and World War II magazines, I was inclined from the start to treat history as journalism—to look for the little nuggets gleaming with pathos, cheer, tragedy, irony—the human-interest stories