The Battle of Gettysburg & The American Civil War

A New Beginning

2009-04-12T20:04:00.002-04:00

Hello,

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've decided to begin again but at a site directly affiliated with my web site brotherswar.com. If you'd like to have a look, please feel free to join me at brotherswar.com/CivilWarBookmarks.

I'll see you there.

Sincerely,

Randy

Post Script

2007-02-26T20:25:00.000-05:00

A few people have been kind enough to ask that I leave this blog on-line for future reference. I will do so. After some time passes, perhaps I will yet begin again.

Thank you.

Randy

Farewell, For Now

2007-02-25T08:24:00.000-05:00

Writers worldwide eagerly herald the creation of about 175,000 new blogs each passing day. With these new literary births, a smaller number simultaneously fades less dramatically into oblivion. As recent readers know, I have been considering adding this blog to the count of the latter. After much though, I have made my decision and I now mournfully and reluctantly set down my pen.

I reached my decision this week after much consideration of the responses to the blog articles that I have written these past few months. As I tended more to address the darker side of war, enthusiasm for my writings diminished. While I never sought to obtain an unfettered adulation from those visiting here, my concern increased over the lack of reader receptivity to the less "Currier and Ives" portrayals of our shared past. I also remain troubled that I may have inadvertently contributed to an overly romanticized image of perhaps one of the most tragic kinds of endeavors in human history. As I pondered my choices over the last several weeks, the words of Nathan Bedford Forrest rang progressively louder in my ears. "War means fighting," he proclaimed, "and fighting means killing."

Consistent with a change in the tone of the comments I have recently received, one example may serve to encapsulate them all. The very fine web site, Civil War Interactive, has over the last few months chosen to ignore many of my posts in their weekly reviews. I had grown accustomed to the lack of a response to my writings on the previously proposed casino at Gettysburg but grew troubled by the disregard shown for what I consider my darker posts. Instead of acknowledging any specific disapproval and despite the presence of new articles most weekends, they instead implied that I had ceased to write.

I have come to believe that avoiding the discussion of the more savage aspects of war damages the perception of both the degree of our ancestors’ incredible sacrifices and of the importance of the lessons we take from their excruciating ordeals. The continued lack of enthusiasm for the discussion of the brutal, raw side of war contributes to my concerns that avoiding such issues increases the likelihood that those who have not experienced combat may conclude that war is more glorious than is justified. Given that between 170,000,000 and 216,000,000 people have died during the wars of the 20th Century, the highest total in thousands of years of civilized human history, I can no longer satisfy my conscience while writing what may contribute to a sterilized, romanticized view of warfare. Questions broaching which soldier could have constructed a more efficient offensive or defensive strategy too often resemble the casual discussion of a football game rather than addressing how to avoid the massively tragic slaughter altogether.

Certainly I could continue to write regardless of the response and push ahead with discussing the horrors of war. At this point though, I have neither the energy nor the desire to continue with that struggle. I need only look inward for the source of this apparent shortcoming and, in acknowledging as much, I must accept responsibility for the portion of the diminished enthusiasm that originates from within.

Once I have had the time to develop a greater understanding of the origins, justifications, and costs of warfare and the degree to which my small corner of the cyber world influences individual opinions, I may again take my pen and breathe life back into the pages of this blog. For now, I maintain my continued unwavering respect for the veterans of all of America’s conflicts and wholeheartedly thank everyone who has stopped here to read and reflect.

God bless.

Randy

This writer acknowledges the right of the web authors noted above to conduct their web sites as they so chose. I intend no implied criticism by my interpretation of their actions.

My Struggle

2007-02-20T22:33:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I posted a message saying that I wished to take some time to think about the direction of this blog. For those who have been kind enough to visit here over the past few years, I feel that I owe you an explanation.

In a post some time ago, I mentioned that I came to my interest in the American Civil War in an entirely serendipitous manner. I stumbled upon Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, "Killer Angels", and was so moved that I immediately drove to Gettysburg to see the place where such deeds had occurred. Standing for the first time on Cemetery Ridge, I gazed across the mile wide open fields where Southern men advanced into the awaiting frenzied maelstrom of Union rifle and artillery fire. I could not fathom the courage such an act required and set about trying to comprehend.

For the better part of the last decade, I have walked the fields where our ancestors fought and marveled at the hardships they endured to forge the country we now call home. I began to think that perhaps I understood some of what occurred. I wrote blog articles implying as much, expressed opinions, and created a large web site with over 600 pages of photographs and information. I read constantly. The American Civil War became my obsession. Yet, despite all of my work, another chance event has made me question whether or not I have approached any real understanding at all.

Several weeks ago, I began to read more about later wars in American History, looking for evidence for or against the uniqueness of the internal conflict which had captured my fascination. Settling on World War II, I began to read about the primary events, the causes, and the staggering numbers of casualties. Despite some knowledge of the second Great War and the number of American casualties, I was stunned to read the estimates of 60 million people or more killed during WWII, with civilians making up more than half of those numbers. As I continued to read, my focus on the primary battles naturally led to June 6, 1944 and February 19, 1945.

On the morning of latter date, the United States forces set foot on the black sandy beaches of the island of Iwo Jima, a Japanese stronghold coveted by the Allies as a necessary staging area for their continued counter-offensive. The battle lasted over a month, much longer than expected, and resulted in slaughter on a horrific scale. Of the 22,000 Japanese who sought to defend their ground, almost all were killed. The Americans suffered about 26,000 casualties of which over 6,000 died.

Similarly, on June 6, 1944, the Allies launched their assaults on the beaches of Normandy. Serving as the beginning of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies would suffer about 10,000 casualties with some 2,500 dead on that fateful day. Estimates of German casualties on D-Day, although not verifiable, fall between 4,000 and 9,000 men.

These very familiar battles carved gut-wrenching suffering and pain into the hearts of thousands of families, into the psyche of those who braved the machine gun and artillery fire, and into the wounded soul of humanity worldwide. And yet, the human wreckage at Gettysburg paralleled and by some measures eclipsed these battles. Again, to anyone who has even a passing knowledge of our history, the casualty figures ring all too familiar.

I am not a veteran and have never seen combat. I realize that what I have read, what I have seen, and what I may imagine, cannot begin to approach true comprehension of the horror of battle. I cannot place myself in the boots of the American Servicemen who tenaciously fought a faceless, hidden enemy at Iwo Jima, one willing to die where he fought. I cannot fathom the staggering degree of courage required to surge forward on Omaha Beach in the face of such terrifying, horrific losses.

Although I cannot conceive of what these men endured, I have written for years about the great battles of the American Civil War, Gettysburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Fredericksburg among them. In each of these battles, men were torn apart by canister, shot, and shell. Minnie balls shattered bodies leaving the less fortunate to writhe in agony on the unforgiving ground. In some instances, soldiers died via the bayonet, rifle butts, rocks, or anything else which served to assault or defend. At Gettysburg, in just three days, ten thousand men died. Thirty thousand men emerged no longer whole. Another ten thousand were officially designated as missing. By some estimates, the killing at Gettysburg reached such a level of devastation that about as many mules and horses were killed at Gettysburg as Allies and Germans combined on D-Day.

As mentioned in a recent post, the 20th century saw about 200,000,000 people killed by war, a greater number than at any other time in human history. While I unquestionably admire the bravery of the United States servicemen and veterans, while I remain ever grateful for their contributions to the world that we now know, and while I will forever honor their memory, my questions are simple. I wonder about my responsibility for the impact on the children of today of what I write. I wonder about my responsibility to the men and women who are dying right now in yet another human war. By writing in a manner which to some degree glorifies and romanticizes the exploits which occurred during warfare, do I add my small voice to the chorus of those who may view war as acceptable or even desirable? If the answer is yes, do I then, even in a small way, contribute to the acceptance of the continuation of this human holocaust? I cannot help but wonder if by writing with such admiration and wonder about the soldiers of the American Civil War, I perpetuate the idea that war is somehow an acceptable mechanism to resolve conflict. At times, to fight is necessary. But should it ever be acceptable?

Perhaps I flatter myself. Perhaps what I write is ultimately irrelevant. And yet I fear that even in a small sense, I may contribute to an unnecessarily romantic image of what is one of the most brutal and unforgiving of human endeavors.

As the fires of each previous war flicker out, the echoes also fade of the countless wishes that this war will finally be the last. Perhaps, just this once, I should listen to the long, stilled hopes that our ancestors had for this country.

In "Killer Angels", Michael Shaara implies that we have within us a divine spark coexisting with something much darker. What I must decide is, have I perhaps inadvertently fed the latter.

With all due respect and sincerely,

Randy

Sources:
D-Day Museum
PBS.org
Military.com
IwoJima.com

A Short Break

2007-02-11T21:01:00.000-05:00

I'm going to take a short break from blogging. I need some time to consider the direction this blog will be taking.

Thank you and hope to be back soon.

Randy

An Obscure Question or Two

2007-02-04T20:46:00.000-05:00

I recently received an e-mail from a gracious reader. She mentioned that she had recently visited Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut. While touring the cemetery, a re-enactor mentioned that several of the Civil War veterans were buried standing upright as if at attention. An e-mail to the cemetery elicited a denial that this was the case. However, my question is whether or not this practice ever existed. Research on my part only revealed the occasional practice of vertical burials to save space.

My second question involves a piece of information I heard several years ago during one of my first tours of the Battlefield at Gettysburg. The guide mentioned while we toured Oak Ridge that there had once been an airstrip in the fields just south of Oak Hill. Since that time, I have not found any information concerning a runway at Gettysburg. Of course, the battlefield had once been the site of Camp Colt, a US Army tank training camp during World War I but I have not heard of an airstrip associated with that camp.

One point of interest. The single pine tree (above) along the Emmitsburg Road just west of the Angle at Gettysburg was planted by the soldiers of Camp Colt in honor of their Captain, Dwight D. Eisenhower. They planted the tree with soil from each of the then 48 states.

I would very much appreciate any clarification or information concerning either of the above.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

An Incident in 1913

2007-02-04T17:59:00.000-05:00

While reading a very interesting book, "The Gettysburg Gospel", I came upon a brief unexpected passage. The author, Gabor Boritt, parenthetically mentions an incident which occurred at the 50th Anniversary Veterans' Reunion at the Gettysburg Battlefield.

"As the thousands of Yankee and rebel soldiers celebrated together on the old battlefield, at the local hotel a nasty altercation took place. A man claiming to be the son of a Confederate general applied a "vile epithet" to Lincoln. A Union veteran, hearing it, struck the unrepentant rebel, who then went on a rampage, stabbing eight. The war was not over for all of the people."

Although I have not yet finished the book, I have enjoyed it a great deal. It offers multiple perspectives on the Gettysburg Address and how the American public has changed how it views this now sacred document over the decades since 1863. The book begins with a description of the condition of the battlefield and town that by itself is worth the read.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

The Stars and Bars

2007-01-21T15:32:00.001-05:00

While enjoying the songs and accompanying music on the Poetry and Music of the War Between the States web site, I found these intriguing lyrics and accompanying commentary from the June 21, 1861 edition of Vanity Fair.

Please forgive the vulgar language. No offense intended.

"Having understood that the Southern Confederated States of America were suffering for want of a patriotic song -- a national anthem -- to the stirring tones of which their chivalry might march gallantly to victory, or death, or both, we have set ourself to work to produce such a composition. This we do in pure charity and benevolence, without hope of reward or emolument from the new Republic of Fools. Republics are inevitably ungrateful.

The only national song that has attained any great popularity in the Federal, or United States, is the "Star-Spangled Banner" -- a song all about our flag. Very well: why not have a song about the Confederate flag? Sure enough -- but then, their flag is only a modification of ours -- a sort of bunting parody, as it were. Just the thing! They shall have a sort of fustian parody of our flag-song, to be in keeping; and its flowing numbers shall be chaunted far and near, wherever cotton is grown, corn-whiskey guzzled, and niggers licked.

Gentlemen of the Southern Confederated States, here is your national anthem."

THE STARS AND BARS
Anonymous (1861)

O say, can you see -- though perhaps you're too tight --
What so feebly we hailed at the twilight's last beaming --
Whose broad bars and few stars o'er our scurrilous flight
From the rumshops we filched, were so gaudily streaming?
When the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof, though we ran, that our rag remained there?
O, say, does that Bar-Strangled Banner still wave
O'er the land of the thief and the home of the slave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's honest host in its glory reposes,
What is that which the breeze -- while we fearfully creep
To escape deserved blows -- half-conceals, half-discloses?
Now it sullies the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In dishonor reflected now taints the pure stream --
'Tis the Bar-Strangled Banner, that foully doth wave
O'er the land of the thief and the home of the slave!

And where is that band who so truthfully swore
That the might of the law, and a stern retribution,
A hold for rebellion should leave us no more?
Their guns have ploughed up our footsteps' pollution!
Their protection we crave, both rebel and slave --
None other we hope for except in the grave,
And our Bar-Strangled Banner no longer shall wave
O'er the land of the thief and the home of the slave!

O, thus is it ever, when traitors may stand
Against a loved land and its administration;
In rout and destruction, our treacherous band
See the error we have made in arousing a nation;
Be conquered we must, for our cause is unjust --
They look but to God, while in Mammon we trust;
And their -- not our -- Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er South as o'er North, o'er the free as the slave!"

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

Source: Civil War Poetry

Development Still Threatens Battlefield

2007-01-17T07:12:00.000-05:00

An editorial from The Hanover Evening Sun

"We suspect a bunch of the no-casino folks have declared victory and marched home.

But we hope they stick around a bit longer - the fight to keep the battlefield safe is far from over.

One group that insists it's in the fight for the duration is the Civil War Preservation Trust, which spearheaded the national fight against the erstwhile slots parlor in Straban Township.

"The casino proposal itself was merely a symptom of a larger development problem plaguing Gettysburg," trust President Jim Lighthizer said after state gaming authorities denied the license application for local slots. "The ... trust is committed to working with other preservation groups to protect the Gettysburg battleground."

The CWPT is reportedly interested in helping to save Hunterstown, the village north of Gettysburg near the site of a ferocious cavalry battle July 2, 1863, the second day of the three-day battle.

Hunterstown activists say they've been trying to get the trust's attention for years. Maybe the casino controversy, together with the recent inclusion of Hunterstown within the American Battlefield Protection Program, are what put Hunterstown on the national preservation radar.

But it's probably too late for Hunterstown. The historic village is certainly worth preserving, but the battlefield itself will disappear in the next few years. A local developer has already received Straban Township approval for a development of about 2,000 homes, some of which will sit on the fields once fought over by blue- and gray-clad horsemen.

But on the other side of Gettysburg, it's not too late to save the Baltimore Pike, which will no doubt feel development pressure when the new visitors center opens near there in 2008.

The restaurants and trinket shops along Steinwehr Avenue that followed the current visitors center have forever obliterated a key portion of the Gettysburg battlefield. No amount of tree removal or historic fence installation can ever recapture the center of the Union line as it appeared in 1863.

Those who truly care about hallowed ground should work to ensure the same thing doesn't happen along the Baltimore Pike.

During the late great casino fight, a common rejoinder on the part of pro-casino folks was to ask the opponents where they were when the Wal-Mart was built, or Gateway Gettysburg, or any of the other projects that bring traffic and asphalt to this national shrine.

This is their chance to show their opposition was more about saving the battlefield than it was about the morality of gambling.

There will be those who insist such development is necessary, that it brings needed jobs and tax revenues. But the recent battle over the casino suggests there are some things more important in the minds of many. And they still have a real fight on their hands."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

Source: Hanover Evening Sun

Closing This Chapter on the Gettysburg Casino

2007-01-15T15:35:00.000-05:00

Now that Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has rejected the proposal for a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield, I am removing the list of links to articles that I have written concerning that near tragedy. I will leave on link to this page which lists all of the aforementioned articles. Thank you again everyone for your support in the effort to keep a casino from marring the grounds of the battlefield and exploiting the memories of the soldiers who died on those fields.

I suspect the Battlefield will face future threats from those who would seek to profit from the sacrifices of our ancestors. But for now, we can feel good about the results of our efforts knowing that the Battlefield can safely continue to honor those who helped to build this nation.

List of Articles:

Gettysburg Casino No Vote – More Good News
Thank You for Saving the Gettysburg Battlefield
Tomorrow’s Final Vote
Free Alcohol at Gettysburg Casino
Letter to the PGCB
Gettysburg Casino Update
$60 Million and Our Heritage Lost
The PGCB Dismisses Dissention
More Opposition to Proposed Casino
Gettysburg Casino Hearings
Last Chance to Testify
A Casino in Gettysburg - The Danger, The Truth
The Smothering Mantel of Irrelevancy
Letter to Governor Ed Rendell
A Vision Place of Souls

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

Short Story: One More Soul

2007-01-14T20:54:00.000-05:00

Traces of the bitter smell lingered in the still evening air, held there as a bleak reminder of what had occurred this day. The cool autumn wind which earlier had kept these fields free of sight-obscuring smoke had vanished, distancing itself from any responsibility for the carnage. The late October sun seemed to also retreat, moving effortlessly towards the distance horizon, painting the sky with glorious oranges and reds. Sadly, even this natural brilliance did little to recast the horror on which the light from the retreating sun would soon fade.

Having regained consciousness, and uncertain of the location of his regiment, a soldier rose slowly and gazed about at the host of prone, unmoving figures. He gently rubbed his head where something had hit him. No blood. Puzzled but relieved, he began to walk cautiously among the dead without thought to direction. Dry grass and fallen leaves crunched quietly under his feet as he looked at the shattered forms of what used to be men. Somewhat grateful for his mind’s partial numbness, he wondered at the absence of the familiar bobbing lanterns heralding the grim searches for the wounded.

Patches of surrounding brush still burned. The yellowish tint combined with the setting sun’s ebbing light to color the wispy smoke a hellish crimson. The slight tinge of red served to deepen the fiendish taint of the haze that mercifully obscured the full scene of catastrophic battle. Stopping, he took a deep breath. A fetid taste of death sourly permeated the life sustaining air. Touched with a sense of sad resignation, he continued forward, scanning the ground to avoid treading on the detritus of battle, not knowing in which direction he should go.

Elsewhere on the field lay an anonymous form, once vital and energetic, now bleeding more that life could long sustain. Yet the fluid that ebbed from his body did so slowly enough to allow the retention of sensibility. As he held on to precious life, he suffered the agony of a shattered leg and a rifle shot to the chest. Neither wound would allow the mercy of a quick death although the infliction of both ensured that eventual end. He wondered where his comrades had gone, if he would die here alone on ground so far from his home.

Looking up at the sky, he marveled that while God saw fit to take him from this world, He had at least offered him the final gift of a beautiful sunset. He took his breaths slowly, deliberately, to lessen the pain in his chest.

Through the tall grass that rubbed against his face, he noticed a figure moving towards where he lay. The burning smoke in his eyes did not allow him to focus. He could not distinguish the color of the man’s coat. At this point, perhaps that it matched his own blue uniform would not matter so much. He hoped that at least this man may have water to quench his growing, consuming thirst.

As the man moved closer, his vision cleared. Although the nearing figure wore gray, fear of the enemy seemed no longer relevant. "They can’t kill me more than once," he thought. He opened his mouth and, with a struggle, forced himself to call out, "Hello." His only response was the unmistakable taste of blood in his mouth. The raspy, weak utterance did not reach the approaching man’s ears but did add to the pain from the hole in his chest. Wincing, taking a deeper breath, the air drawing into his lungs mixed with the fluid filling them. He tried again. "Hello." This time, the man in gray turned his head, looking for the source of the single friendly word.

"Who?" he asked, puzzled, again rubbing his head. To this point, none of the fallen shapes had spoken to him.

"Here," the northerner gasped, the exhalation bringing more pain.

Glancing about, he saw a man in blue looking back at him from the ground. The Confederate quickly scanned the prostrate form, taking in the wounds that contributed to the glazed look in this beckoning man’s eyes.

"Need help," the Yank said with obvious exertion. "Water?"

After a reflective pause, the southerner reached for his canteen, then moved towards the fallen man. Kneeling slowly beside him as if the blood commanded reverence, he held out the container of water. "Can ya move?" he asked, looking closer at the growing stains on his woolen clothing.

"No" he said. "I’m afraid…I should soon die." Both winced at the anguish in his labored speech.

Moving closer, he tipped his canteen towards the wounded man. The water poured out, some into his mouth, some down the sides of his face. His sudden coughing forced out as much water as he took in, bringing another look of stabbing terrible pain. The agonizing waves swept across his powder stained face as he tried to remain still. He grabbed at the ground with both his hands.

After a moment passed, he again took in air preparing another effort. "Would you," he paused, stopping to take several short difficult breaths, "letters…my pocket." His body, more rigid as he spoke, relaxed once he finished as if just finishing some arduous task. As the southerner found and removed the bundle of letters, a photograph fell to the ground. He rescued the keepsake from the grass and, brushing off tiny bits of soil, looked at the faces. Two young girls and a woman looked back at him.

"Please?" The fallen man pleaded glancing at the picture. A compassionate hand held the photograph about a foot from his face. A different softer pain now overtook him. After several seconds, sorrow closed his eyes.

A few more breaths and he again tried to speak. "Please, could you," he inhaled again, "a note?" Seeing the kneeling man’s questioning look, he responded, "In the bundle." Quickly flipping through, he found a blank piece of paper. Seeing a name repeated on several envelopes, he looked at the man and asked, "Johnny?" The stricken man nodded. The unfortunate irony did not escape either man. He reached into his pack and pulled out a pencil.

With gasps, pauses, and great effort, the Federal uttered a brief letter. "My Darling Wife. I die for my country, but my last thoughts are of you." He took a longer pause to regain some strength and then said more clearly, "We will meet again." Looking up at the man writing, he pleaded, "Send it…please," then weakly gestured with his hand "in the bundle." The other man nodded, knowing he would find what he needed to send this last letter to a soon-to-be grieving family.

A few moments passed. The land continued to darken. The Confederate looked around the field wondering how many others still lived, fated to spend the night alone on the unforgiving ground. He signed deeply and, in seeming response, the other man spoke. "The pain," he panted. "Please. I cannot live." His eyes pleaded in a way his voice no longer could. The other man stood suddenly. "No," he said quickly, looking away as if searching for a place he would rather be.

"I…cannot live," the dying soldier repeated. The man in gray suddenly felt apprehension sweep through him. He glanced around rapidly, peering into the closing night. Hours ago, he fired as quickly as he could at the advancing, attacking blue lines, obeying ever officer’s command. Now, when this enemy wished death, he could not oblige. He looked down at the struggling man who now lay with his eyes closed, his shallow breaths bringing the only movement his body could tolerate. Once again, he heard the word, "Please." Taking his own deep breath, he looked over the cluttered ground, focusing on the numerous bodies lying nearby. Finally, seeing what he had feared he would find, he moved away.

Returning with his sad prize, he knelt over the man, took his hand, and with anxiety ensured all was in working order. Then, after whispering a brief prayer, the soldier in gray released his hand. The man uttered one last word. "Letter." "Yes. I will," was the reply. The Confederate soldier walked away, tucking the bundle of letters and newly written note into his knapsack.

After some time, a single shot broke the stillness of the battlefield. Were he close enough, he would have noticed the faint smell of sulfur, and the slightest hint of what might be a surprisingly peaceful smile. Allowing his thoughts to drift back for a moment, he silently mourned the loss of one more soul. Then, walking just a little faster, he once again sought to locate his regiment.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

War: A Commentary

2007-01-07T20:20:00.000-05:00

Over the last year, many of these blog entries have addressed the looming spectre of a casino on the outskirts of the sacred fields of Gettysburg. During that time, some who supported such a venture questioned the meaning of these grounds. Responses frequently discussed the soldiers' sacrifices and their impact on our future while rightfully underscoring our duty to honor the dead of our country. In focusing on such, we often avoid the issue of war itself for without war, without the colossal spilling of blood on these fields, few would view Gettysburg with such reverence.

A Small Section of Arlington National Cemetery
Throughout our history, witnesses to sanguinary struggles often expressed their desire that the conflict they experienced emerge as the last of its kind. Few would question these sentiments. During the American Civil War, casualty numbers eclipsed anything the nation had previously suffered. Single battles left dead and wounded in greater numbers than those produced by multiple combinations of previous wars. However, after sectional hostilities ended, the United States would continue their war with the Indians in a quest to control the lands between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. In the 1880s, a collection of Union and Confederate soldiers would volunteer to fight with a new wave of soldiers in the Spanish American War. With the birth of a new century, as Civil War veterans became fewer in number and the memory of their struggle faded, the United States would join the war to end all wars.

World War I, the Great War, produced devastation on a scale that, in comparison, relegated the American Civil War to a mere skirmish. Estimates for World War I vary but consistently range between 8 and 9 million deaths with a staggering overall casualty list of 30 to 35 million. In the summer and fall of 1916, the Battle of the Somme, which degenerated into a bloody struggle of attrition, would contribute over one million casualties to the angel of death's ghastly harvest. Civilian deaths added perhaps another 6 million or more to the war's grim total.

As the world suffered through the aftermath of World War I taking stock in what they had lost, the seeds of an even greater conflict already threatened germination. A few short decades later, the soul of humanity would cry out in sustained agony as over 60 million soldiers and civilians would lose their lives during World War II. At the end of the millennium, estimates for all wars conducted in the 20th century would range from between 170 and 216 million deaths worldwide.

Holocaust & Andersonville Camp Survivors
The Second World War will forever be linked with the atrocities of the holocaust. The temptation exists to view this immense tragedy as an event which, if remembered, will not occur again. But when viewing the skeletal forms of those who suffered through the years of Nazi persecution, one is reminded of the similarly emaciated forms of Civil War soldiers who emerged from our own prisoner of war camps. Motivations and intentions differed but this did not change the cruelty and suffering experienced by the individual prisoners.

In late July, 1861, as the press disseminated the casualty figures for the Battle of Manassas / Bull Run, many responded with horror that the conflict had killed over one thousand men in a single day. Less than one year later, Shiloh’s 23,000 casualties, with over 3,000 dead, would induce some to label General Grant a "Butcher" as Americans struggled to reconcile the costs of this expanding war. Antietam, Fredericksburg, Stones River, Chancellorsville, and then Gettysburg would bring new levels of horror as the countless lifeless forms laying on precious American soil exploded in number. Gettysburg’s 50,000 casualties with nearly 10,000 dead continued to shape how the populace viewed war. The shock after Bull Run had long since faded into a very distant memory.

The Overland Campaign of 1864 would numb the senses as the number of dead and wounded continued their ascent from the previous year. General Grant would lose 60,000 men between the Battles of the Wilderness and the initiation of the Siege of Petersburg. That dreadful count closely matched the total number of men General Robert E. Lee commanded when the campaign began. General Lee would likewise see some 30,000 of his men fall. Despite the sorrow that enveloped much of 19th century America, these terrible numbers served only as an omen of the conflagration yet to come.

The Dead of Cold Harbor
War is fraught with contradictions. General Stonewall Jackson, one of the south’s fiercest warriors, would offer in a letter to his wife, "People who are anxious to bring on war don't know what they are bargaining for; they don't see all the horrors that must accompany such an event." General Grant, although acknowledging the advantages of war, also stated in his memoirs, "But this war was a fearful lesson, and should teach us the necessity of avoiding wars in the future." Just a few paragraphs later however, he would also state, "We must conclude, therefore, that wars are not always evils unmixed with some good." After the war, General Sherman, whose forces devastated vast regions of the south, would offer to a gathering of Michigan students, "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell."

Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest, vilified by some with accusations of a ferocious lust for blood, would offer to his defeated countrymen, "Civil war, such as you have just passed through, naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings, and, so far as it is in our power to do so, to cultivate feelings toward those with whom we have so long contested, and heretofore so widely but honestly differed. Whatever your responsibilities may be to government, to society or to individuals, meet them like men." Of course, perhaps the most famous quote along these lines came from General Lee at Fredericksburg, site of an overwhelming Confederate victory. "It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."

Few could advocate successfully for the general desirability of war. Yet a similarly small number could discount its necessity as long as men pursue power on a vast scale at the expense of the lives and liberties of others. Perhaps the despair expressed at the loss of 3,000 US soldiers in the current Iraqi war serves as an encouraging indication that we have learned from experience. Regardless of the degree of support or disagreement with the current administration’s policies, as a nation, we express sadness at the loss of each life while supporting the soldiers who at this very moment risk death or dismemberment while we read this article.

We must preserve the relics and reminders of our history so that such lessons do not surrender to forgetfulness or indifference. Our Civil War battlefields must survive the pervasive threat of the developer’s shovel so that current and future generations can remember the lessons so painfully learned at the cost of so much of our ancestors’ blood.

Without the perspective of history, we cannot fully understand the context of today’s public affairs. Lacking both, we cannot act to the better good and will remain captive within the same prison of ignorance, violence, and retribution. With several thousand years of history, the human race, taking stock in all of the lessons learned, should prove capable of finding practical solutions to most interpersonal and international conflicts. Perhaps then and only then, will we yield to the better angels of our nature and end the slaughter of millions.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

Sources:
Project Gutenberg - Grant's memoirs
National Park Service
BBC: The Somme: Hell on earth
Wikipedia
A Path Divided
The Quote Database
Century, Bloody Century
Wars and Conflicts
AMG Publishers

Book Review: The Soldier’s Pen

2007-01-02T21:21:00.000-05:00

According to the jacket cover, author Robert E. Bonner, "has done something remarkable – he’s given us the ability to view a long-past war through the eyes of the average enlisted man." I would have to agree. Mr. Bonner combed through more than 60,000 documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection and chose for publication a fine sample of letters, drawings, and diary entries of enlisted men north and south, black and white. After initial introductions, he takes you on a journey following a unique collection of men from enlistment to either mustering out or, sadly in some cases, death. This allows the opportunity not only to hear the soldier’s thoughts at critical junctures of the war but also to watch the attitudes and beliefs expressed by each soldier change as the conflict progresses.

The letters include comments on issues too numerous to attempt to list comprehensively. However, some of the topics addressed include politics, religion, current battles, deserters, army life, arming slaves/free negroes, the health of friends, the Emancipation Proclamation, attitudes of the day, duty, patriotism, requests for needed items, sacrifice, and of course an incredible longing for home. Also included was the occasional angry admonishment directed towards those at home who did not vote for, or associate with, parties or persons that support the ideals for which the soldier now routinely risked his life or for which some of his friends had died.

Although not difficult to follow, the letters as presented offer a snapshot of the confusion many must have felt as they tried to understand the aspects of army life with which their loved ones contended in both the northern and southern armies. The collection offers varied points of view upon a great number of subjects but not in an orderly or necessarily predictable fashion. For example, after primarily asking for supplies from home, the next set of letters may discuss the resentment and anger felt towards deserters or the growing desire to pursue desertion. "The Soldier’s Pen" also occasionally includes something all too commonly lacking in much civil war literature. As can be seen from the picture below, the soldiers, despite their sometimes dire circumstances, could display a refreshingly lively sense of humor.

The text also included some rather interesting surprises. I quote part of the letter with one unexpected passage with the original spelling unchanged. "…we have taken some negro rebel prisoners. One was caught in a tree fireing at our scurmishers, there was a white reb also with him but they killed the white one and captured the black one and he declared if he was back there he would fight us just as hard again…" As can be seen, the author opted to leave the original wording and punctuation untouched. Although challenging to read at times, it offered an unsanitized vision of what the soldiers relayed to their loved ones at home. Mr. Bonner also included photographs of some of the letters and some very unique drawings by a creative but unfortunately anonymous soldier. In the center folds (see above), the reader finds several color photographs of paintings done by one soldier at various stages throughout his time in the field. Again, the changes in the imagery clearly indicate the progression of attitude and experiential change during the war.

Because he obviously could not include all of the letters that he read, Mr. Bonner offers his insights on trends and tendencies throughout his book, often relaying his opinions concerning the degree to which the letters included represented those in the larger collection. But the letters, and thus the soldiers themselves, rightfully never lose center stage. In this manner, the soldiers from north and south can once again speak to those willing to listen about their individual experiences during this long and complex war.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Personal note: As mentioned with previous reviews, in the interest of fair disclosure, I wish to note that I received a copy of this book specifically for review. As a condition for agreeing to write a review however, I stated that, if in my judgment I found this book unjustly biased or lacking the appropriate degree of scholarship, I would not write a negative review but would simply remain silent. The presence of the above is again my acknowledgment that I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T18:08:00.000-05:00

Edwin Forbes January 25, 1863
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the peace for which we all dream during this wonderful season.

May we always remember those who came before us and their sacrifices that have given us the world in which we live.

God Bless.

Sincerely,

Randy

The Gettysburg Casino No Vote - More Good News

2006-12-24T07:33:00.000-05:00

While reading an article concerning the recent vote by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board against a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield, I found the following encouraging statements.

"More should be known soon about the gaming board's rationale, because written opinions on the licensing decisions are due from the board in the coming weeks.

Crossroads then has 30 days to appeal to the state Supreme Court, but lead investor David LeVan said in a radio interview last week he has no plans to appeal."

Of course, they may yet change their minds but for now, this is good news.

Still more encouraging is how the Civil War community came together to save the battlefield from this serious threat. Elsewhere in the article it states, "With the battlefields nearby, opposition from local and national groups was vocal.

National preservation groups such as the Civil War Preservation Trust lined up against Crossroads, and just last week more than 100 Civil War historians signed a letter to the gaming board opposing the plan. They joined a local, grass-roots group named No Casino Gettysburg that fought the plan throughout the licensing process...'I think the (gaming) board listened to the community,' Gov. Ed Rendell said after the decision."

Good news indeed.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: Chambersburg Public Opinion Online

Thank You For Saving the Gettysburg Battlefield

2006-12-21T21:25:00.000-05:00

I want to take a moment to offer my sincere heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped to save the Battlefield at Gettysburg. Yesterday, we all heard the fantastic news that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has denied the application for a casino near the National Park's borders. I suspect that appeals will again raise the spector of a casino near America's hallowed ground but for now, the men who fought, bled, and died on those fields along with those who gratefully honor their memory can rest a little easier.

Thank you to everyone who wrote to the PA Gaming Control Board, testified at the hearings, posted their feelings online, and contacted their elected officials. You made this possible through each of your efforts and should feel justifiably proud. For what it is worth, whenever I walk the sacred fields at Gettysburg, I will recall my sense of gratitude for each of your efforts and unflinching support.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com.

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Tomorrow's Final Vote on the Gettysburg Casino

2006-12-19T05:54:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) will vote to award the remaining Pennsylvania slots licenses throughout the Keystone State. Despite overwhelming local and national objections to this proposal, the PGCB still may approve building a casino so close to the battlefield that no question remains of the damage it will cause. A casino so near the endangered ground of the Gettysburg Battlefield would seriously threaten the ability to protect and preserve one of America's most precious and revered historical locations.

Please, take a moment today to write to the PGCB and express your opposition. Your word does count but time has almost run out. If the investors build this casino, we will not be able to reverse the damage.

Please contact the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board at the link below.

Contact the PGCB.

For more information on the proposed casino and the associated dangers posed to the battlefield, please see the links in the right hand column of this page listed under the heading "The Gettysburg Casino".

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Mourners for the Dead

2006-12-17T12:12:00.000-05:00

Unhappy with General Don Carlos Buell, on October 24, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln elevated Major General William S. Rosecrans to the command of the Army of the Cumberland in the war's western theater. In the more politically sensitive east, he would wait another two weeks, just after the mid-term elections, to replace another General with whom he had expressed his displeasure. Major General George B. McClellan "had the slows" Lincoln had said, and so he placed McClellan's subordinate Major General Ambrose E. Burnside at the head of the grand Army of the Potomac. President Lincoln expressed to both Rosecrans and Burnside his dissatisfaction with what he viewed as both armies’ previous lack of aggressiveness. He expected a more vigorous campaign.

Fredericksburg's Reconstructed Stone Wall
Uncomfortable with having been ordered to accept overall command of the East's Army of the Potomac, its new leader began to move on Richmond. On December 13, 1862, General Burnside launched assault after bloody assault on the entrenched Confederate positions outside of the historic Virginia town of Fredericksburg. The slaughtered blanketed the cold December ground. The vast number of Union casualties appalled even some of their southern counterparts. Of the estimated 17,929 total for both sides, the Union lost about 13,353 men to the Confederates 4,576. Nine days after the battle, President Lincoln would write to his General and the men of his army.

"Executive Mansion,
Washington
December 22, 1862.

To the Army of the Potomac:

I have just read your commanding general's report of the battle of Fredericksburg. Although you were not successful, the attempt was not an error, nor the failure other than accident. The courage with which you, in an open field, maintained the contest against an intrenched foe, and the consummate skill and success with which you crossed and recrossed the river, in the face of the enemy, show that you possess all the qualities of a great army, which will yet give victory to the cause of the country and of popular government.

Condoling with the mourners for the dead, and sympathizing with the severely wounded, I congratulate you that the number of both is comparatively so small.

I tender to you, officers and soldiers, the thanks of the nation.

A. Lincoln."

About one month after accepting command of the Army of the Cumberland, General Rosecrans received a telegram from the General-In-Chief of all Union armies. It read in part, "If you remain one more week in Nashville, I cannot prevent your removal." Washington again found itself dissatisfied with a perceived lack of resolution. A few weeks later, shortly after the Union disaster at Fredericksburg, General Rosecrans would fight the bloody Battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro. This contest would see a higher percentage of casualties than any other battle during the entire war. Of the just over 80,000 men involved, almost 24,000, about one-third, were killed, wounded, or missing.

Like he had with General Burnside, President Lincoln would express his thoughts to General Rosecrans. "I can never forget, if I remember anything, that at the end of last year and the beginning of this, you gave us a hard earned victory, which had there been a defeat instead, the country scarcely could have lived over."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:
eHistory
American Battlefield Protection Program
NPS: Stones River Aftermath
NPS: The Battle of Stones River
Wikipedia: William Starke Rosecrans

Virtual Aerial Battlefield Tours

2006-12-17T09:14:00.000-05:00

With the coming of winter and the corresponding disincentives to travel, I thought I'd mention an option for those who either chose to stay at home but would still like to visit a battlefield or who find themselves confined to the great indoors. Microsoft's Virtual Earth, a feature of their Live Search, allows for a unique opportunity to tour several of the Nation's Civil War Battlefields without leaving your chair or having the dogs feel neglected. This virtual search allow you to view the battlefields from a perspective ranging from 15 to 60 yards above the ground. The interactive images offer a unique opportunity to study terrain, the layout of the battlefields, or anything else that you might find.

The Angle at Gettysburg
I have included a few of the images that I found while canvasing on-line. These are each directly from Virtual Earth. For those with a dial-up connection, please forgive the slow loading time. I uploaded larger images so that people could see the images as they appear on-line. Simply click on any of the ones I've included to see the larger, more interesting version.

For those not familiar with Virtual Earth, I'll give you a quick thumbnail sketch of how to find what you'd like to see. After clicking on the link above (which should open in a separate window or tab so that you can still refer to this article), you should see a map of the United States. Having cookies enabled helps with loading time, especially in Firefox. Once it loads, you can then double click on the sections of the map that you'd like to see (it'll zoom in with each double click). For an easier way to locate sites, enter the location of your choice in the second text box at the top of the screen. It should say, "Enter City, Address, or Landmark". Fortunately, the search engine treats spelling errors kindly as it will, with limited success, attempt to guess your intentions if you're a little off.

When you zoom in on a site that will allow for the "Bird' Eye View" feature, click on the box as seen in the above image. The bird's eye view allows you to zoom in closely on the battlefield and, in some instances, see some pretty decent detail.

Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery
Unfortunately, Virtual Earth does not yet have the Bird's Eye View for all of the Civil War Battlefields. Currently, they include images of Gettysburg, Balls Bluff, Chickamauga, Richmond, Arlington, Washington DC, and Stone Mountain. When viewing Richmond, you can find some nice views of the Tredegar Iron Works (below), and the Hollywood Cemetery. For the latter, if you know the cemetery grounds, you can find the grave sites of Jefferson Davis and George Pickett, among others, and several views of the Confederate pyramid. Virtual Earth only offered limited views of Manassas and just portions of Shiloh. As of my last search, I could not find Bird's Eye View images of Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Chattanooga, Malvern Hill, Cold Harbor, Gaines Mill, Antietam, or Harpers Ferry. They did however have the usual satellite imagery for each of these, but the quality suffers when compared to the other close-ups.

Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, VA
When zoomed in close, you can more easily navigate the various locations by either dragging the larger image as you would in an Adobe PDF document, or by using the small navigation pane on the left (pictured in the image above). When the dragged image does not refresh, as it tends to avoid doing just when you're getting close to what you want, using the small navigation pane sometimes resolves the issue.

One other interesting feature is the compass (also pictured above) which allows you to view a scene from at least four different directions. When looking at a Bird's Eye image, just click on one of the compass points and it will offer another view. For several sites, such as Stone Mountain, the compass comes in handy since at first Virtual Earth shows it upside down.

Expect to practice a little patience as Virtual Earth at times has difficulty rendering the images or apparently simply deciding if it'll let you see them at all. Using the compass may allow you to see an image that it initially said was not available. Some of the images are perhaps a year or more old since, for example, they still show the car dealership that the National Park Service has since removed from the Battlefield at Gettysburg.

If you decide to have a look, good luck and happy hunting.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Book Review: Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney

2006-12-12T21:29:00.001-05:00

The full title of this book, "Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney, Slavery, Secession, and the President’s War Powers", appears at first glance sufficiently comprehensive to cover the anticipated content of James F. Simon’s latest work. But soon after opening the cover, it became obvious that such assumptions would prove a pleasant underestimation of the book’s contents. What could have revealed itself as a rather dry treatise on the law and executive authority emerged as an engaging history of two men whose intertwined legacies and personal qualities helped to sharpen the emerging identity of our nation.

James F. Simon, author of six previous books, including "What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States", is the Martin Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus at the New York Law School. Through his current work, Mr. Simon states that he wishes to quot;…trace the long, sometimes tortuous journeys that brought Lincoln and Taney to their final judgments, and actions, on the issues that threatened the survival of the United States." He does just that.

Simon guides you through the complex lives of these two iconic yet very real men, giving the reader a clear sense of how each shaped, and was shaped by, the crises tearing apart a young nation. Moving easily through each page, the corresponding decades of history, and the intricate array of national conflicts, you become sadly resolved to the inevitability of the looming war. But far from simply being swept along by this irresistible tide, Simon discusses how each man contributed to the swirling vortex of national debate and eventual conflict. The increasingly frictional blending of slavery, economics, political ideology, regional animosity, and mutual distrust merge caustically to drive the North and South, Democrats and Republicans, abolitionists and conservatives to a resolute volatility that would shatter the lives of hundreds of thousands and yet save millions.

The author’s treatment of Roger Taney’s extensive political life, including his service as Attorney General under President Andrew Jackson, lends a degree of understanding to the evolution of the complex perspectives of a man too frequently mentioned only during discussions of Dred Scott or the challenging Lincoln’s suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus. During the engaging depictions of both Lincoln’s younger days and his eventful political career, the reader hears of how the future president’s early triumphs and failures, his unfailing determination, and gregarious personality shaped who he could become and how he would approach pursuing and executing his duties in public office.

From the Fugitive Slave Law, the Amistad decision, the Missouri Compromise, the decisions of Chief Justice Marshall, the Merriman and Vallandigham decisions, among others, Simon discusses how these legal opinions shaped, crystallized, and then polarized the sentiments of the nation. They irrefutably set the stage for the escalation of hostilities ranging from interpersonal disagreements to the eventual collision of armies.

Despite the wealth of intriguing biographical information, this is not simply a dual biography. For example, although he takes the time to mention details of Chief Justice Taney’s death, he does not pursue the familiar story of Lincoln’s. That is not the point of this book. Simon instead focuses on the journey taken by these two men and the nation they spent their lives serving and how each interacted dynamically to change the other.

On the back cover of "Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney", one finds a sadly relevant statement which further emphasizes the significance of this book. The few lines read, "The United States suffers an unexpected attack. The president deploys the armed forces and assumes extraordinary powers that go well beyond the Constitution. Hundreds of persons suspected of aiding the enemy are arrested and held without charge. James F. Simon discusses these tensions between the president and the Supreme Court, created not by 9/11, but those between President Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney during the Civil War. This well-written and engaging narrative is a primer for today's challenge of balancing national security and civil liberties." While avoiding indulging in minutia, James Simon successfully documents many of the significant crises of the mid 19th Century and succeeds admirably in clarifying how Abraham Lincoln and Roger B. Taney responded to "the issues that threatened the survival of the United States."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Personal note: In the interest of fair disclosure, I should add that I received a copy of this book specifically for review. As a condition for agreeing to write a review however, I had stated that, if in my judgment I found this book unjustly biased or lacking the appropriate degree of scholarship, I would not write a negative review but would simply remain silent. The presence of the above is my acknowledgment that I both enjoyed the book and found it a worthy introduction to the topics discussed.

They Would Rather Die

2006-12-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

While walking the fields of the Brawner Farm at the Manassas Battlefield, I came upon a narrow woodland trail, soggy with the recent heavy autumn rains. In the summer of 1862, just yards from this place, Union men marched east searching for the elusive Stonewall Jackson and his Corps of veterans. Jackson would remain out of site along the cut of an unfinished rail road, awaiting the opportunity to pounce on the prey that erroneously believed that they hunted him. As the blue coats passed along the road in his front, Jackson opened fire. Act one of the sanguinary drama had begun.

Looking to the wood line north of the road, Union Brigadier General John Gibbon ordered the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry forward to scatter what he mistakenly identified as Confederate horse artillery. Instead, he soon discovered his single regiment challenged Stonewall Jackson's entire command. Gibbon quickly ordered his brigade forward while the Virginians held firm, striving to obliterate their Federal foes.

Both sides shunned maneuver. Neither stood more than 80 yards apart, firing directly into each others' lines. Both endured incredible casualties. After several hours, the slug-fest ended with darkness appropriating the grimly contested ground. The men in blue withdrew to safer quarters and awaited tomorrow's fight.

In his official report, General Jackson would say only, "The loss on both sides was heavy..." John Gibbon's report more thoroughly underscored the reaper's ghastly harvest. "The total loss of the brigade is, killed, 133; wounded, 539; missing, 79. Total, 751." In just a few hours, he lost over one-third of his entire command.

Along the path on which I walked I found a small marker, faded, cracking, and seemingly forgotten. The lettering, light but readable, spoke to anyone who would hear of deeds some fourteen decades past. As the whispers of horror and heroism fade with time, this tiny sentinel cracks open a window into a time that violently forged our country's identity. The faded facade still bears the words of a nameless soldier, long since dead, who once more speaks of the events of that day.

"We soon found that we had to deal with General Ewell's whole division of picked men. We advanced within hailing distance of each other, then halted and laid down, and my God, what a slaughter! No one appeared to know the object of the fight, and there we stood one hour, the men falling all around; but we got no orders to fall back, and Wisconsin men would rather die than fall back without orders."

Many on both sides did.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Private George Warner, 20th Connecticut

2006-12-03T19:56:00.000-05:00

On Friday, July 3, 1863, the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the 20th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry advanced stubbornly towards the Confederates who had taken their earthworks the previous night. Since before dawn, Union artillery had been shelling the Southern lines adding to the effort to drive the boys in gray off of Culp's Hill.

The 20th received orders not just to dislodge their foes but to relay back to the Union artillery the position of their Southern adversaries. As the fire increased and men in blue began to fall, the 20th's Colonel William Wooster grew increasingly angry. His blood boiled not because of the stubbornly resisting Confederates but due to the Union shells that began to strike his own men. When an exploding round slammed into Private George Warner, Colonel Wooster sent word to the artillery that if they again harmed anyone in his care, he would order the 20th to turn about and charge the batteries.

The commander of the Brigade to which the Connecticut regiment belonged, Archibald L. McDougall described what the 20th endured. "Lieutenant-Colonel Wooster, who was in command of this regiment, had a difficult and responsible duty to perform. He was not only required to keep the enemy in check, but encountered great difficulty, while resisting the enemy, in protecting himself against the fire of our own artillery, aimed partly over his command at the enemy in and near our intrenchments. His greatest embarrassment was, the farther he pushed the enemy the more directly he was placed under the fire of our own guns. Some of his men became severely wounded by our artillery fire. "

In his own official report, Colonel Wooster would expand upon the trials his men faced. "...The enemy were endeavoring to advance through the woods, so as to turn the right flank of the Second Division, and were met and successfully resisted by my regiment. In this position I was enabled to repeatedly communicate to the colonel commanding the brigade and the general commanding the division the movements of the enemy in our immediate front, thereby enabling our artillery to more accurately obtain the range of the enemy and to greatly increase the effectiveness of our shells. At times it became necessary to advance my left wing to successfully repulse the advancing column of the enemy, and again to retire my whole command to save it from being destroyed by our own artillery."

In his official report, Colonel McDougall would ensure that the stalwart New Englanders received the praise they had so rightfully earned on this trying and historic day. "It is also my duty to acknowledge the brave and gallant manner with which Lieutenant-Colonel Wooster, commanding the Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers, as well as the officers and men under his command, while in action on the 3d instant, aided in the recovery of our intrenchments. For several hours, without flinching, they maintained a steady contest with the enemy, enduring part of the time an afflictive and discouraging, though accidental, fire of our own batteries."

Twenty years later, the men from Connecticut would erect a modest monument on the portion of Culp's Hill that they had helped to secure. Private Warner, who miraculously survived his grievous wounding, received the high honor of unveiling the 20th's monument. The task was not a simple one given that the Union artillery's misfires had cost him both of his arms. Still, the Connecticut veterans would not allow this to stand in the way of honoring Pvt. Warner. A rope tied around his waist and a specially rigged pulley allowed the hardy veteran, by simply walking backwards, to raise the veil on the monument honoring the sacrifices of Connecticut's sons.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:
Gettysburg: Stories of Men and Monuments
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.

Captain Henry T. Owen, CSA

2006-12-03T16:31:00.000-05:00

On July 3, 1863, Captain Henry T. Owen of Company C, 18th Virginia, marched with his men into the face of death. As players in Pickett's Charge, they stepped away from Seminary Ridge and, along with over 12,000 others, surged forward into a storm of artillery fire and the roar of several thousand muskets. Surviving the assault, Captain Owen would take command of the 18th after most of the regiment's other officers died or received disabling wounds. Some time later, he wrote to his wife of a dream that haunted him as the horror of that battle lingered on.

"Far away to the front, I saw the dim outlines of lofty hills, broken rocks, and frightful precepts which resembled Gettysburg. As we advanced further, I found we were fighting that great battle over again and I saw something before me like a thin shadow which I tried to get around and go by. But it kept in front of me and whichever way I turned, it still appeared between me and the enemy. Nobody else seemed to see or notice the shadow which looked as thin as smoke and did not prevent my seeing the enemy distinctly through it. I felt troubled and oppressed but still the shadow went on before me. I pushed forward in the thickest of the fray trying to lose sight of it and went all through the battle of Gettysburg again with this shadow forever before me and between me and the enemy.

And when I came out behind the danger of shot, it spoke to me and said, "I am the angel that protected you. I will never leave nor forsake you."

The surprise was so great, that I awoke and burst into tears. What had I done that should entitle me to such favor beyond the hundreds of brave and reputed men who had fallen on that day leaving widowed mothers and widowed wives, orphaned children and disconsolate families to mourn their fates?"

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source:
The War of Confederate Captain Henry T. Owen

Walt Whitman and the Wounded Soldiers

2006-11-28T21:09:00.000-05:00

I thought I might post a few excerpts from Walt Whitman's wonderful work "Specimen Days" about his time spent helping wounded soldiers during the war.

"Fifty Hours Left Wounded on the Field

HERE is a case of a soldier I found among the crowded cots in the Patent-office. He likes to have some one to talk to, and we will listen to him. He got badly hit in his leg and side at Fredericksburgh that eventful Saturday, 13th of December. He lay the succeeding two days and nights helpless on the field, between the city and those grim terraces of batteries; his company and regiment had been compell’d to leave him to his fate. To make matters worse, it happen’d he lay with his head slightly down hill, and could not help himself. At the end of some fifty hours he was brought off, with other wounded, under a flag of truce. I ask him how the rebels treated him as he lay during those two days and nights within reach of them—whether they came to him—whether they abused him? He answers that several of the rebels, soldiers and others, came to him at one time and another. A couple of them, who were together, spoke roughly and sarcastically, but nothing worse. One middle-aged man, however, who seem’d to be moving around the field, among the dead and wounded, for benevolent purposes, came to him in a way he will never forget; treated our soldier kindly, bound up his wounds, cheer’d him, gave him a couple of biscuits and a drink of whiskey and water; asked him if he could eat some beef. This good secesh, however, did not change our soldier’s position, for it might have caused the blood to burst from the wounds, clotted and stagnated. Our soldier is from Pennsylvania; has had a pretty severe time; the wounds proved to be bad ones. But he retains a good heart, and is at present on the gain. (It is not uncommon for the men to remain on the field this way, one, two, or even four or five days.)

The Wounded from Chancellorsville

May, ’63.—AS I write this, the wounded have begun to arrive from Hooker’s command from bloody Chancellorsville. I was down among the first arrivals. The men in charge told me the bad cases were yet to come. If that is so I pity them, for these are bad enough. You ought to see the scene of the wounded arriving at the landing here at the foot of Sixth street, at night. Two boat loads came about half-past seven last night. A little after eight it rain’d a long and violent shower. The pale, helpless soldiers had been debark’d, and lay around on the wharf and neighborhood anywhere. The rain was, probably, grateful to them; at any rate they were exposed to it. The few torches light up the spectacle. All around—on the wharf, on the ground, out on side places—the men are lying on blankets, old quilts, &c., with bloody rags bound round heads, arms, and legs. The attendants are few, and at night few outsiders also—only a few hard-work’d transportation men and drivers. (The wounded are getting to be common, and people grow callous.) The men, whatever their condition, lie there, and patiently wait till their turn comes to be taken up. Near by, the ambulances are now arriving in clusters, and one after another is call’d to back up and take its load. Extreme cases are sent off on stretchers. The men generally make little or no ado, whatever their sufferings. A few groans that cannot be suppress’d, and occasionally a scream of pain as they lift a man into the ambulance. To-day, as I write, hundreds more are expected, and to-morrow and the next day more, and so on for many days. Quite often they arrive at the rate of 1000 a day.

Bad Wounds—The Young

THE SOLDIERS are nearly all young men, and far more American than is generally supposed—I should say nine-tenths are native-born. Among the arrivals from Chancellorsville I find a large proportion of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois men. As usual, there are all sorts of wounds. Some of the men fearfully burnt from the explosions of artillery caissons. One ward has a long row of officers, some with ugly hurts. Yesterday was perhaps worse than usual. Amputations are going on—the attendants are dressing wounds. As you pass by, you must be on your guard where you look. I saw the other day a gentleman, a visitor apparently from curiosity, in one of the wards, stop and turn a moment to look at an awful wound they were probing. He turn’d pale, and in a moment more he had fainted away and fallen on the floor.

Death of a Hero

I WONDER if I could ever convey to another—to you, for instance, reader dear—the tender and terrible realities of such cases, (many, many happen’d,) as the one I am now going to mention. Stewart C. Glover, company E, 5th Wisconsin—was wounded May 5, in one of those fierce tussles of the Wilderness—died May 21—aged about 20. He was a small and beardless young man—a splendid soldier—in fact almost an ideal American, of his age. He had serv’d nearly three years, and would have been entitled to his discharge in a few days. He was in Hancock’s corps. The fighting had about ceas’d for the day, and the general commanding the brigade rode by and call’d for volunteers to bring in the wounded. Glover responded among the first—went out gayly—but while in the act of bearing in a wounded sergeant to our lines, was shot in the knee by a rebel sharpshooter; consequence, amputation and death. He had resided with his father, John Glover, an aged and feeble man, in Batavia, Genesee country, N. but was at school in Wisconsin, after the war broke out, and there enlisted—soon took to soldier-life, liked it, was very manly, was belov’d by officers and comrades. He kept a little diary, like so many of the soldiers. On the day of his death he wrote the following in it, to-day the doctor says I must die—all is over with me—ah, so young to die. On another blank leaf he pencill’d to his brother, dear brother Thomas, I have been brave but wicked—pray for me.

Unnamed Remains the Bravest Soldier

OF scenes like these, I say, who writes—whoe’er can write the story? Of many a score—aye, thousands, north and south, of unwrit heroes, unknown heroisms, incredible, impromptu, first-class desperations—who tells? No history ever—no poem sings, no music sounds, those bravest men of all—those deeds. No formal general’s report, nor book in the library, nor column in the paper, embalms the bravest, north or south, east or west. Unnamed, unknown, remain, and still remain, the bravest soldiers. Our manliest—our boys—our hardy darlings; no picture gives them. Likely, the typic one of them (standing, no doubt, for hundreds, thousands,) crawls aside to some bush-clump, or ferny tuft, on receiving his death-shot—there sheltering a little while, soaking roots, grass and soil, with red blood—the battle advances, retreats, flits from the scene, sweeps by—and there, haply with pain and suffering (yet less, far less, than is supposed,) the last lethargy winds like a serpent round him—the eyes glaze in death—none recks—perhaps the burial-squads, in truce, a week afterwards, search not the secluded spot—and there, at last, the Bravest Soldier crumbles in mother earth, unburied and unknown."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: Walt Whitman: Specimen Days

Free Alcohol at Gettysburg Casino

2006-11-25T07:32:00.000-05:00

The incongruity is obvious. "Gaming will be good for Pennsylvania" the gambling lobbyists say. Yet the Pennsylvania Legislature just voted to allow free alcohol from 7am to 2am in the Pennsylvania casinos. The Lebanon Daily News, located just east of Harrisburg, said the following:

"...the casinos ply every trick in the book to wedge a few more dollars out of the wallet and into the machines.

Pennsylvania Legislature has given casinos one of the most powerful tools available to do just that with their vote to allow unlimited free alcohol to gamblers at the coming slots parlors in Pennsylvania.

By current rule, horse tracks can’t serve any free drinks; taverns and other establishments have a one-free-drink rule by which they must abide.

That’s not good enough for the casinos, and now, depending on the whim of Gov. Ed Rendell, they’ll be able to ignore that rule. The rule for casinos will be to serve ’em up all day and most of the night — from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. — as fast as patrons can drain them."

If the proposed casino at Gettysburg is allowed to see the light of day, the patrons who lose everything will leave the casino with empty pockets and veins full of free alcohol. Broke, drunk, and despondent, they will be a danger to the other people on the road and the monuments in and around the park. Neither are replaceable.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will hold its final hearing for the Gettysburg casino on December 4, 2006. To express your opposition to the casino before this tragedy cannot be undone, please visit the links below.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Governor Ed Rendell

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Thanksgiving References in the Official Records

2006-11-22T14:16:00.000-05:00

A search for the word "Thanksgiving" in the Official Records revealed some interesting results. After reading through the various segments of the record, it appeared that people of the time primarily employed the term "thanksgiving" for at least three different purposes. Several quotes of course referenced President Lincoln's proclamation concerning a national day of thanksgiving. More frequently, soldiers and commanding officers used the term to express a general feeling of gratitude to The Almighty for victories won and as a plea for future success. For example, after the surrender of the Union garrison at Munfordville, Kentucky, General Braxton Bragg issued the following:

"General Orders,
No. 6.

Hdqrs. Army of the Mississippi
Munfordville, Ky., September 17, 1862

…Tomorrow, September 18, having been specially set aside by our President to be observed as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God for the manifold blessings recently vouchsafed to us and to our cause, the general commanding earnestly recommends to the army to devote the day of rest allotted to them to the observance of this sacred duty. Acknowledging our dependence at all times upon a merciful Providence, it is meet that we should m not only render thanks for the general success of our cause and of this campaign, but should particularly manifest our gratitude for a bloodless victory instead of a success purchased with the destruction of life and property. Braxton Bragg, General, Commanding"

General Robert E. Lee likewise issued similar orders following Confederate victory at Chickamauga.

"General Orders
No. 89.

HDQRS. Army of Northern Virginia,
September 24, 1863

The Commanding General announces to the army, with profound gratitude to Almighty God, the victory achieved at Chickamauga by the army of General Braxton Bragg.

After a fierce and sanguinary conflict of two days, the Federal forces under General Rosecrans were driven, with heavy loss, from their strong positions, and, leaving their dead and wounded on the field, retreated under cover of night on Chattanooga, pursued by our cavalry.

Rendering to the Great Giver of Victory, as is most justly due, our praise and thanksgiving for this signal manifestation of His favor, let us extend to the army that has so nobly upheld the honor of our country the tribute of our admiration for its valor, and sympathy for its suffering and loss.

Invoking the continuous assistance of Heaven upon our efforts, let us resolve to emulate the heroic example of our brethren in the south, until the enemy shall be expelled fro our borders and peace and independence be secured to our country.

R. E. Lee, General"

Even as fierce a general as Nathan Bedford Forrest followed suit.

"General Orders
No. 44.

HDQRS. Forrest’s Cavalry Department
Tupelo , May 14, 1864

The Major-General commanding, devoutly grateful to the providence Almighty God so signally vouchsafed to his command during the recent campaign in West Tennessee, and deeply penetrated with a sense of our dependence upon the mercy of God, in the present crisis of our beloved country, requests that military duties be so far suspended that divine service may be attended at 10 a.m. on to-morrow by the whole command. Divine service will be held at these headquarters, to which all soldiers who are disposed to do so, are kindly invited. Come one, come all. Chaplains in the ministration of the gospel are requested to remember our personal preservation with thanksgiving, and especially to beseech the Throne of Grace for aid in this our country’s hour of need.

By order of Major-General Forrest:
W. H. Brand, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General."

Union men employed the term thanksgiving in a like manner. Toward year's end in 1863, the Union's General-in-Chief sent the following to General Grant.

"War Department
Washington, November 26, 1863-11:15am

I congratulate you and your army on the victories of Chattanooga. This is truly a day of thanksgiving.

H. W. Halleck, General-in-Chief."

A few month's earlier, President Lincoln would give a similar message to the people asking for a day of prayer and thanksgiving.

"Executive Mansion,
Washington, May 9, 1863.

To the Friends of the Union and Liberty:

Enough is known of the army operations within the last five days to claim our especial gratitude to God, while what remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him, without whom all human efforts are in vain. I recommend that all patriots at their homes, in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God.

Abraham Lincoln"

His commanding generals would do similarly.

"General Orders
No. 123.

HDQRS Department of the Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio, August 5, 1863.

In accordance with the proclamation of the President of the United States, appointing Thursday, the 6th instant, as a day of thanksgiving for the signal advances made by the Union arms toward the suppression of rebellion, ad of prayer that they be continued, to the speedy restoration of peace with a once more united country, the commanding general directs that the day be kept sacred for these purposes by the forces under his command, and, abstaining so far as is practicable from all military business or movements, they observe this day in a manner worthy of the victories that have been granted us and of the cause we have espoused.

By command of Major-General Burnside:
Lewis Richmond, Assistant Adjutant-General."

On several occasions, Thanksgiving as a holiday became intertwined with the conflicts of the day. In one instance, its recognition served as a litmus test for loyalty to the Union.

"Lexington, April 25, 1865-7 p.m.

Major-General Dodge:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of telegram of this date inquiring by what authority I closed loyal man’s church, and what are the reasons for such orders, to which I would respectfully answer that I do not think I have closed a loyal man’s church. My reasons for closing the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of this place, are briefly these: On the 7th of April, from the well-known disloyalty of the churches of this place, I issued a post order that on the next Sabbath the pastors of the churches should return thanks for the late victories and prospect of peace. The pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church South did not do so. I passed the matter unnoticed until the evening of the 15th instant, when, not having opened or caused his church to be opened for the Thanksgiving service, in accordance with the proclamation of His Excellency Governor Fletcher, I informed that pastor that I should take the keys of the church until it could be occupied by a loyal preacher. I hope the general commanding will allow me the privilege of sustaining this action as a proper military necessity.

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
B. K. Davis, Major, Comdg. Fourth Sub-District, Central Division of Missouri"

On another occasion, the celebration of Thanksgiving became a point of conflict between a commander and his subordinate.

"Baltimore, November 21, 1864-1:15p.m.

General Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General:

I hope the permission, given by Hon. Mr. Dana., Assistant Secretary of War, to the Secessionists of Baltimore to feast the rebel prisoners in hospital will be withdrawn. I was not consulted. Had I been I would have objected to the making of such a request. The permission will be construed as a license to make manifest once more, the disloyalty, now completely cowed, in this city. I beg the sleeping fiend may be let alone.

Lew. Wallace, Major-General, Commanding.

---
Adjutant-General’s Office
Washington , November 21, 1864.

Maj. Gen. L. Wallace, U.S. Volunteers,

Commanding Middle Department, Baltimore , Md. :

Your dispatch in relation to feast to rebel soldiers has been shown to the Secretary of War. The request which was granted was that Union Ladies’ Committee might be authorized to receive contributions for rebel prisoners, as well as for our own men, all to be distributed by the Union Committee. No political demonstration was contemplated, and it is within your power to stop anything which would lead to such demonstration. The Secretary sees no objection to supplies for Thanksgiving being received and distributed to rebel prisoners by our Union Committee, provided our own men receive an equal share of all the contributions with the other prisoners. Acknowledge receipt. E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General.

---
Headquarters Middle Department
Baltimore , November 21, 1864.

Capt. Oliver Matthews,
Assistant Adjutant General, New York City :

A Thanksgiving dinner has been provided for the soldiers at each of the hospitals here. The ladies are also making arrangements to contribute additional supplies. Therefore, those so kindly offered by their New York friends will not be needed.

Saml. B. Lawrence, Assistant Adjutant-General."

The following quote, again as related to conflict, speaks for itself.

"Headquarters District of Southeastern Missouri,
Pilot Knob, Mo. , November 26, 1863.

Capt. V. Preuitt, Bloomfield,

McRae was reported at Doniphan, with a few hundred rebels, on Monday last, and was contemplating a raid either on Bloomfield or Patterson. He may move on you. If he does, he will only give the gallant First Missouri boys one more opportunity of demonstrating that they can’t be whipped. We shall re-enforce you from Cape Girardeau and Greenville , if you need. Keep me constantly advised, and, if you get in trouble, press every man, horse, and gun within reach, and give the rascals such a Thanksgiving welcome as the survivors will be apt to remember.

Clinton B. Fisk, Brigadier-General"

Finally, this quote notes both a plea to offer thanks and a recognition of the dreadful toll taken by this catastrophic war.

"General Orders
No. 4.

Headquarters Fourth Army Corps,
Greenville , East Tenn. , April 13, 1865.

The glorious success of the national arms under Lieut. Gen. U. S. Grant being no longer a matter of any doubt, the army under his command having killed, wounded, captured, and forced the capitulation of the entire principal army of the rebels, including their commander-in-chief, to-morrow, which is the day appointed by the War Department for the raising of the old flag over Fort Sumter, where it was first insulted and pulled down by insolent traitors, will be kept as a holiday and a day of thanksgiving in this corps. A salute of 100 guns will be fired at 12 m. under the direction of Major Goodspeed, chief of artillery. All military duty, excepting necessary police and guard duty, will be suspended. It is recommended that chaplains of regiments hold service in their respective places of worship to render thanks to Almighty God for His goodness and mercy in preserving us a nation and giving us this great victory over our enemies. Let us in our thankfulness remember in tears the many brave men who have fallen at our sides in this great and terrible war. Who among us has not lost a brother, a relative, or a dear comrade? Let us reflect, and we may profit by doing so, that great national, as great personal, sin must be atoned for by great punishments.

By command of Maj. Gen. D. S. Stanley:
WM. H. Sinclair, Assistant Adjutant-General."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Thanksgiving

2006-11-21T15:12:00.000-05:00

In just a few days, people throughout this great country will take a moment to sit together and give thanks for the blessings, large and small, bestowed upon them during the past year. Many will enjoy family, friends, and good food while they accept a welcome a respite from the perils of everyday life. This American tradition began four centuries ago in the settlements in New England. In the early 1620s, the pilgrims who came to this land to begin life anew set aside a day towards years end to thank God for the harvest that would allow for their survival through the harsh winters to come.

A century and a half would pass when, on October 3, 1789, after enduring years of warfare, privation, and loss, President George Washington offered the following proclamation to the young nation he so faithfully served.

"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness." Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."

Seventy four years later, President Abraham Lincoln served a nation torn apart by internecine war. Hundreds of thousands had died. Others would never again be whole. Those who had inherited the young nation threatened to destroy what their founding fathers had fought so hard to create. The American Civil War saw several ideologies bitterly struggling to define the type of nation within which their children would live. Despite the carnage and catastrophe, President Lincoln sought to bring the people of his wounded land together. He strove to emphasize the positive during a time so many had experienced overwhelming suffering and loss. On October 3, 1863, the same day Washington had issued his proclamation three quarters of a century earlier, Abraham Lincoln would address the American people.

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

A. Lincoln"

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:
Library of Congress
US Senate: History of Thanksgiving
Classical Library

Preserving Our Civil War Battlefields

2006-11-12T18:37:00.000-05:00

In 1993, the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission submitted to Congress a comprehensive report on the status, significance, and need to preserve our threatened Civil War Battlefield sites. Far from the usual, tedious, bureaucratic language, the committee, including members like Edwin C. Bearss and James McPherson, spoke from their collective hearts. A portion of their report follows.

"Why Save Civil War Sites?

More than 620,000 American soldiers, sailors, and marines died in the Civil War. If the same proportion of our population were killed today, five million Americans would die! The casualties at Antietam on September 17, 1862, totaled three times the American casualties on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The Civil War destroyed the Confederacy and the South sank from being one of the wealthiest to being one of the poorest regions in the United States.

This terrible trauma should not be celebrated, nor should it be blotted from the national memory. And for good reason. That second American Revolution of 1861-1865 radically changed America while settling two fundamental, festering issues left unresolved by the first Revolution of 1776: whether the precarious experiment of the democratic republic federated in a union of states would survive; and whether slavery would continue to mock the ideals of this boasted land of liberty.
The Civil War transformed a loose federation of states into a unified and confident nation that launched into the 20th century as the world's leading economic producer and foremost democratic nation.

Yet, while acknowledging all this, some have asked: Why do anything more to protect the battlefields? Are not the principal battlefields already preserved in National and state parks? Can we not understand the important political and social changes that resulted from the war without studying the battles? Does not this preoccupation with "hallowed ground" romanticize violence and glorify war? These questions deserve answers.

First, an understanding of military campaigns and battles is crucial to comprehending all other aspects of the Civil War. Lincoln said in his second inaugural address that on "the progress of our arms...all else chiefly depends." Individual battles swayed elections, shaped political decisions, determined economic mobilization, brought women into the war effort, and influenced decisions to abolish slavery as well as to recruit former slaves in large numbers as soldiers.

The Seven Days battles prevented an early Union victory and changed the conflict from a limited to a total war; Antietam forestalled European recognition of the Confederacy and prompted the Emancipation Proclamation; Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga reversed a tide of Confederate victories that had threatened the Northern will to keep fighting; Sherman's capture of Atlanta and Sheridan's victories in the Shenandoah secured Lincoln's reelection, confirmed emancipation as a Northern war aim, and ensured continuation of the war to unconditional victory. A different outcome to any of these as well as other battles might have changed the course of the war -- and perhaps of the world's history.

So the battles were important. But do we need to preserve the battlefields to appreciate that truth? Can we not learn by reading books about campaigns and battles? The Commission has concluded the answer is "No." In part, this is simply a matter of being able to visualize how geography and topography shaped a battle -- the pattern of fields and woods, hills and valleys, roads and rock outcroppings, and rivers and streams. This cannot be done if the historical landscape has been paved over, cluttered with buildings, or carved into a different shape.

Those who have read about the ill-fated Pickett-Pettigrew charge at Gettysburg, but have not seen the place where it occurred, cannot understand it until they go there. Not until they view the three-quarters of a mile of open fields and walk the ground those Confederate soldiers trod, can they truly comprehend the courage needed to press onward, and why the assault, which cost some 10,000 Confederate casualties, failed.

If they could similarly view and walk the attack route of Union troops against Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, they would be able to understand why that attack, seemingly more hopeless than at Gettysburg, succeeded spectacularly. Sadly though, Missionary Ridge now is built over.

But understanding Civil War battles is more than a matter of grasping their topographical and tactical details. Being present on a battlefield, we can experience an emotional empathy with the men who fought there. With a little imagination we can hear the first rebel yell at Manassas, imagine the horror as brush fires overtook the wounded at Wilderness, experience the terror of raw recruits at Perryville, share the anguish of the families of 800 or more unknown soldiers buried in a mass grave at Cold Harbor, or hear the hoarse yells of exhausted survivors of the Twentieth Maine as they launched a bayonet charge at Gettysburg's Little Round Top.

Every visitor to a Civil War battlefield has experienced such feelings. Proper educational and interpretive programs aid the visitor to visualize these dramatic scenes and to comprehend their meanings.

These experiences help us to understand what the Civil War was all about. This is not a matter of glorifying or romanticizing war. Quite the contrary; it is a matter of comprehending its grim reality. The battlefields are monuments to the gritty courage of the men who fought and died there. None condemned war more than those who suffered the horror and trauma of battle. In 1862, a Confederate veteran of Shiloh wrote home: "O it was too shocking too horrible. God grant that I may never be the partaker in such scenes again.... When released from this I shall ever be an advocate of peace."
Yet these men soldiered on through three more years of even bloodier battles than Shiloh. Most Civil War soldiers were volunteers. They fought not for glory, nor for money, but for a cause in which they believed deeply. They longed for peace and for a safe return to their families. But many of them reenlisted at least once, determined to fight for that cause even though they hated war.

A Confederate officer wrote in 1864 that "I am sick of war" but "were the contest again just commenced I would willingly undergo it again for the sake of our country's independence and liberty." An Ohio corporal in the trenches before Atlanta wrote, also in 1864: "There is nothing pleasant about this life, but I can endure its privations because there is a big idea at stake." And an African-American soldier wrote "If roasting on a bed of coals afire would do away with the curse of slavery, I would be willing to be the sacrifice."

These clashing convictions and the deadly determination to fight for them explain why the war lasted four long years and cost 620,000 lives. They also explain why Civil War veterans took the lead in creating the first National battlefield parks in the 1890s--not to glorify the war, but to commemorate the sacrifice of friends they had lost. "In our youth our hearts were touched with fire" wrote the thrice-wounded veteran Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., "It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing."

Americans cannot afford to forget this lesson. It is perhaps the most important legacy of the Civil War. And the battlefields are the tangible monuments of that legacy. The Civil War touched the lives of everyone at the time, and it continues to do so today. Americans by the millions visit those relatively few battle sites that are accessible. Most come to share in a renewal of values and to understand more about the war, its profound meaning for themselves, and its lessons for our diverse nation--such as our ideals of tolerance.

Today many people know, or would like to know, of specific battlefields where some three million of their own ancestors participated in the historic events. The ability for so many to identify such a personal connection with one of the most memorable events in the American consciousness sets the Civil War and its battlefield sites apart from most historical events.

Communities, too, take great pride in their proximity to battlefields. A connection exists between a community and large national themes. Relationships forged by the Civil War -- among its battlefields, its consequences, and our people and communities today -- form a seamless web of American values, traditions, and priorities.
And finally, as with many historic properties significant in our national history, the principal Civil War battlefields need to be preserved and protected as places to answer important questions not yet asked and for purposes not yet perceived.
In this manner, and for these reasons, Civil War battlefields are a crucial link in the historical traditions that bind our nation together -- today and for the future."

When discussing their recommendations the commission concluded, "The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission has found that of the approximately 10,500 armed conflict sites known from the Civil War, 384 of them, about 3.7 percent, were the principal battle actions. These are the events that influenced the outcome of the war, its major campaigns, or important local operations.

Today, many of these 384 principal battlefields are lost; others are in imminent danger of fragmentation and loss as coherent historic sites. Over the next ten years, the nation could lose fully two-thirds of the major Civil War battlefields unless preventive actions are taken."

Thirteen years later, the outlook remains fraught with both triumph and tragedy. The National Park Service and non-profit organizations have reclaimed land on the Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and other battlefields. Public and private entities have repaired and restored monuments and markers. Although much has been done to save and restore these grounds, the Civil War Preservation Trust, the nation’s preeminent civil war preservation organization, states sadly, " Thirty acres of Civil War battlefield land are destroyed every day. These battlefields are part of our national heritage; scenes of struggle and sacrifice where American soldiers lost their lives. CWPT is working to preserve these “hallowed grounds,” as Abraham Lincoln called them, so that future generations can learn from them and can learn to appreciate their hard-won freedom."

Much of the Battlefields at Fredericksburg, Chattanooga, Franklin, Chancellorsville, Nashville, Petersburg, the Seven Days, and so many others are now entirely and completely lost to current and future generations. The CWPT notes Gettysburg as being one of the top ten threatened fields in the nation due to the proposed casino. Consider the tragedy if Americans and people from around the world would never again have the chance to walk those fields and understand the events that transformed our nation like no other time in history.

We do have the chance, the obligation to save and preserve what remains of our past so that future generations can understand how we became what we are. For more information on how every individual can help, please see the links below.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields

The Civil War Preservation Trust

Preservation Organizations and Information:
Civil War Preservation Organizations

By Any Other Name

2006-11-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

In the mid 1880s, The Century magazine published a series of articles written about the various battles of the war by the men who led their armies into those conflicts. Confederate Lieutenant General Daniel Harvey Hill wrote a section concerning the Battle of South Mountain, just prior to the Battle of Antietam. Before discussing the fighting, he took a moment to relay his thoughts on why others might instead refer to these two battles as those of Boonsboro and Sharpsburg. He also did not miss the opportunity to take a shot at those who fanned the flames of war but kept their distance from the fire.

"THE conflict of the 14th of September, 1862, is called at the North the battle of South Mountain, and at the South the battle of Boonsboro. So many battle-fields of the Civil War bear double names that we cannot believe the duplication has been accidental. It is the unusual which impresses. The troops of the North came mainly from cities, towns, and villages, and were, therefore, impressed by some natural object near the scene of the conflict and named the battle from it. The soldiers from the South were chiefly from the country and were, therefore, impressed by some artificial object near the field of action. In one section the naming has been after the handiwork of God; in the other section it has been after the handiwork of man. Thus, the first passage of arms is called the battle of Bull Run at the North,---the name of a little stream. At the South it takes the name of Manassas, from a railroad station. The second battle on the same ground is called the Second Bull Run by the North, and the Second Manassas by the South. Stone's defeat is the battle of Ball's Bluff with the Federals, and the battle of Leesburg with the Confederates. The battle called by General Grant, Pittsburg Landing, a natural object, was named Shiloh, after a church, by his antagonist. Rosecrans called his first great fight with Bragg, the battle of Stone River, while Bragg named it after Murfreesboro', a village. So McClellan's battle of the Chickahominy, a little river, was with Lee the battle of Cold Harbor, a tavern. The Federals speak of the battle of Pea Ridge, of the Ozark range of mountains, and the Confederates call it after Elk Horn, a country inn. The Union soldiers called the bloody battle three days after South Mountain from the little stream, Antietam, and the Southern troops named it after the village of Sharpsburg. Many instances might be given of this double naming by the opposing forces. According to the same law of the unusual, the war-songs of a people have generally been written. The bards who followed the banners of the feudal lords, sang of their exploits, and stimulated them and their retainers to deeds of high emprise, wore no armor and carried no swords. So, too, the impassioned orators, who roused our ancestors in 1776 with the thrilling cry, "Liberty or Death," never once put themselves in the way of a death by lead or steel, by musket-ball or bayonet stab. The noisy speakers of 1861, who fired the Northern heart and who fired the Southern heart, never did any other kind of firing."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: eHistory.com: Ohio State University

Window Into McClellan

2006-11-04T13:51:00.000-05:00

While reading Stephen W. Sears excellent book "Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam", I reacted with surprise to one small sentence. Characterizations of General George Brinton McClellan typically paint him as exclusively a soldiers general, a great organizer, timid on the battlefield, and frequently directing his wrath at any government or army official foolish enough to challenge his authority. His men adored him like no other Union commander. This is perhaps why I reacted with surprise when I read on page 279 the general's response to the 79th New York, a group of Scottish soldiers who had refused to fight unless the army lifted the ban on wearing kilts. The sentence read,

"McClellan's response was to surround them with hardbitten regulars with orders to shoot if the volunteers did not promptly return to duty..."

This side of General McClellan seems rarely discussed.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Our Army is Generally Badly Cut Up

2006-11-04T13:31:00.000-05:00

After the Battle of Gettysburg, Captain J. J. Young of the 26th North Carolina wrote this grim assessment of the fighting to Governor Zebulon Vance.

The 26th North Carolina Marker
noting the point of the regiment's advance
just feet from the Union line on Cemtery Ridge.
"Near Gettysburg, PA., July 4, 1863.

My Dear Governor:

I will trespass a few minutes upon your indulgence to communicate the sad fate that has befallen the old Twenty-sixth. The heaviest conflict of the war has taken place in this vicinity. It commenced July 1, and raged furiously until late last night. Heth's division, of A. P. Hill's corps, opened the ball, and Pettigrew's brigade was the advance. We went in with over 800 men in the regiment. There came out but 216, all told, unhurt. Yesterday they were again engaged, and now have only about 80 men for duty. To give you an idea of the frightful loss in officers: Heth being wounded, Pettigrew commands the division and Major J. Jones our brigade. Eleven men were shot down the first day with our colors; yesterday they were lost. Poor Colonel Burgwyn, jr., was shot through both lungs, and died shortly afterward. His loss is great, for he had but few equals of his age. Captain McCreery, of General Pettigrew's staff, was shot through the heart and instantly killed' with them Lieutenant-Colonel Lane through the neck, jaw, and mouth, I fear mortally; Adjutant James B. Jordan in the hip, severely; Captain J. T. Adams, shoulder, seriously; Stokes McRae's thigh broken; Captain William Wilson was killed; Lieutenants John W. Richardson and J. B. Holloway have died of their wounds. It is thought Lieutenant M. McLeod and Captain N. G. Bradford will die. Nearly all the rest of the officers were slightly wounded. I. A. Jarratt I had forgotten to mention-in the face and hand. Yesterday, Captain S. P. Wagg was shot through by grape and instantly killed; Lieutenant G. Broughton in the head, and instantly killed, Alexander Saunders was wounded and J. R. Emerson left on the field for dead. Captain H. C. Albright is the only captain left in the regiment unhurt, and commands the regiment. Lieutenants J. A. Lowe, M. B. Blair, T. J. Cureton, and C. M. Sudderth are all of the subalterns. Colonel Faribault, of the Forty-seventh, is severely wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Graves and Major A. D. Crudup supposed killed. Colonel Marshall and Major J. Q. Richardson, of the Fifty-second, supposed to be killed. Lieutenant-Colonel Parks dangerously wounded; Colonel Leventhorpe badly wounded; Major Ross killed. Our whole division numbers but only 1,500 or 1,600 effective men, as officially reported, but, of course, a good many will still come in. The division at the beginning numbered about 8,000 effective men. I hear our army is generally badly cut up. We will fall back about 5 miles, to draw the enemy, if possible, from his impregnable position. It was a second Fredericksburg affair, only the wrong way. We had to charge over a mile a stone wall in an elevated position. I learn the loss of the enemy is terrible. We have taken 10,000 or 15,000 prisoners in all. Yesterday, in falling back, we had to leave the wounded; hence the uncertainty of a good many being killed late yesterday evening. I must close.

Yours truly,

J. J. Young, Captain, and Assistant Quartermaster.

His Excellency Gov. Zebulon B. Vance."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
The text appears as it does in the record minus 21 sets of brackets "[ ]" which made the reading difficult. The brackets were around the initials of the names noted above.

Short Story: All Hallows Eve

2006-10-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

Dedicated to a friend to whom I promised to write this story.
Happy Halloween CP.

--------------------------------

An unusually biting October wind howled through the near leaf-bare Virginia trees. The northern gusts blew the branches to and fro while the ancient trees fought back against them. The thin upper branches dug their fingers in the deepening autumn sky as if to brace themselves against a coming maelstrom. The cold rushing air seemed to mockingly boast of its victory over the life that had thrived throughout the passing vibrant summer. The dried now fallen leaves scattered along the forest floor, rustling throughout at the whims of the victorious gusts of fall.

He stood at his post in awe of nature’s spectacle. The forceful roar reminded him of the crashing waves near his distant Massachusetts home. The noisy rushing air would make vigilance all the more necessary. Because of it, he would likely see Rebels approaching before he could hear them. Not wishing the enemy to see him, he sat among a dense grouping of scrub oak, propping his musket against the sturdiest of the bunch. The wind continued to toss around the tops of the trees as if God roughly waved his hands through tall fields of grass. He could barely hear the leaves crunching under his shifting weight as he sought a comfortable spot to rest.

Taking advantage of the last few moments of sunlight, he pulled out a small book and pencil. The diary, a gift from his sister, had the familiar outline of his first home stamped into the soft leather cover. He traced the borders of Ireland with his finger, thinking of his birth home, Kathleen, and the rest of his family. He hoped to see them all soon. Glancing disapprovingly at the dull pencil tip, he took out his knife and, with short quick strokes, sharpened the point. Upon re-sheathing his knife, he brushed the shavings off his pant legs, turned to a blank page, and began to write.

"October 31, 1863. We marched only 12 miles today. The days are quickly getting cooler and shorter. We did not see any Rebs today although Andrew says he heard they are near. We don’t expect a fight but are ready if one comes." Gazing around the dimming landscape, he could think of no more to write. This last day of October proved thus far to be typical and unremarkable.

Closing the book, he slipped the small pencil into the gap between the cover and the bound edge of the pages. He placed the diary back into his sack and glanced around his temporary realm. Darkness had begun to stake its hold on the woods. "October 31st" he thought. "All Hallows Eve." A sad smile came to his face as he thought of the celebrations now well underway in Ireland. He could smell the familiar food and picture the army of carved turnips decorating the neighborhood homes. The sculpted vegetables seemed somehow vigilant, knowing of their mission to drive away the lost souls said to prowl the earth this one night. His new country thought this a child’s holiday, nothing to which a grown man should devote any attention.

With a slight sense of defiance, he felt around in his haversack and, making a careful choice, pulled out a small but adequately round turnip he had saved for a meal. Unsheathing his knife, he carefully cut out the neck from where the leaves had grown and severed the thin taproot from underneath. Digging out and eating the inside of the hard fleshy bulb, he carefully left enough of an outer shell for his next task. Racing the fleeting day’s light, he finished the portions he would eat and began carving a small sufficiently sinister looking face. After some time and careful struggle with the solid bulbous root, he finished.

Setting the hollowed bulb on the cool damp ground, hidden behind the large tree against which he sat, he fished out of his sack the small remains of a candle. Trimming the wick to limit its brightness, he placed it with nostalgic reverence inside. Once lit, the lantern along with the carpet of leaves, twisted roots, and the chill air completed the picture. He sat against the back of his tree with his new companion and listened to the night.

After a time, with the air growing still, he heard the sound of leaves under foot. Quickly looking to his small sentinel, he snuffed out the tiny candle, feeling slightly foolish for providing a beacon to his location. He caught a slight whiff of the smoke that he could not see in the near complete darkness. Feeling for his musket, he straightened his back against the tree and listened. In a few moments, he heard it again, the sound of a step or two. He needed his visitor to make a few more sounds to be sure of his approximate location.

He reached for his musket and as quietly as he could, loaded one ball. Another crunch came from the darkness, this time in his front right. "So there could be two", he thought trying to take control of his rising anxiety. "Do the others hear them?" he wondered. Peaking around his tree, looking between two smaller trunks, he peered into the enveloping darkness hoping to glimpse his visitor. As the night’s drifting clouds unveiled the half autumn moon, he began to discern the faint outlines of the trees to his front. Still seated, placing his rifle aside, he waited.

With his back to the tree, the next sound seemed to come from in front of him. "What’s this about?" he questioned silently, feeling his heart beat faster. No one had passed him. Of that, he felt certain. The breeze that had earlier taken its rest, again awoke stirring the leaves on the ground and rustling those still clinging above. A frigid chill possessed the air. He shivered somewhat but paid little attention. His eyes strained to see through the chill darkness, casting about as he turned his head, desperately trying to make out some form or shape.

"There!" The word shouted in his mind. "I see him." He stared at a figure, not too far from him, standing between some trees only about 20 yards in his front. He wanted to call out, command him to halt, ask for the counter sign, but others may be close. To be safe, he would wait.

Several seconds passed, then a minute, then two. His visitor remained silent and unmoving. He thought of reaching for his musket but opted instead for silence. Surely, the bleak darkness hid him from sight. Finally, the figure moved. Starting slowly at first, he seemed to glide among the trees. His heart pounded harder. His eyes widened as he realized that now, he heard no footsteps. Not a sound came from the figure as it approached. As his eyes focused, he could see it moving towards his right. "The others will see him," he thought.

The figured passed by, about 15 feet away, without the slightest hint that he was there except for the outline of his form. He could make out none of the man’s features, neither his face nor his uniform. Strangest of all, he carried no musket. Looking back to where the figure had come, he saw another man, closer, and moving. Peering intently into the blackness, he noticed another faint form with him. They both moved, silently, closer than the other to where he sat against his tree. Telling himself he would demand they halt once they passed, he leaned back, breathing faster through his mouth, chest expanding, trying to stay quiet. Glancing to his left, he saw two more, closer still. His heart pounded so that he thought it would surely give him away. He feared the whole woodland could hear him. He tried to control his breathing. "What is this?" he demanded silently. Looking again he saw more, many more, coming towards their lines, silently all, and without muskets. He could not count them now, nor would he. Panic gripped him as he tried to make sense of figures gliding faster through the night making not a sound. He closed his eyes and, with his free hand, rubbed hard.

Upon opening his eyes, he recoiled back hard against the tree, rigid with fright. A man, no, something else, stood just a few feet in his front glaring at him. The menacing figure exuded a dark unmistakable hatred. Paralyzed, he sat motionless as it slowly yet deliberately reached out to him with both hands and, like a vise, gripped his head in a smothering grasp. He swung feebly at the figure, screamed aloud, but it did not move. Fear raced through him, consumed him, saturated every corner of his soul. He wanted to scream again but could not speak. He wanted to run but could not move. The powerful figure held him, seemed to blend with him, keeping him in place. Fear, anger, and hatred coursed through him as if thousands of tortured souls demanded the use of his body, his voice to wail their unremitting torment. Despite the pulsating vitriolic wrath, he sensed in the figure something else, something feeding the anger. He felt a deep undercurrent of crushing unrelenting sorrow.

Hosts of these figures now filled the dark woods, gliding faster, almost frantically, as if they feared not reaching their sinister destinations in time. None noticed him except his singular malicious tormentor. He gazed up at him and to his horror, saw the moon behind him, realizing he could see it through him. A volcanic rage possessed him, coursing from the figure through him. It gripped harder and leaned in, bringing its head to within inches. He could smell the foul wretched breath, the corrupt stench of death from so many battlefields and soldiers graves. The hideous, sulfurous smell threatened to consume him as its malevolence violated his very being. Yet he could feel them all, the countless souls in agonizing pain.

A voice, no thousands of voices screamed inside his head, unearthly shrieks that he seemed able to see, taste, and smell. The vile chorus howled in searing agony, the frenzied cacophony growing louder and louder still. Able to move his arms, he grabbed his head, tried to crush it between his palms, but the voices raged. He thrashed frantically in the air, yet the screaming grew. Able to speak he added his voice to the symphony of pain, flailing about in the darkness, begging it to stop. His hand hit against something at his side. Instinctively, desperately, he seized it and hurled it at the figure.

Like the sudden rush of air from a room, the woods instantly went silent. Not a sound reached his ears except the rustling of a few dry leaves. A faint autumn breeze softly caressed the slumbering landscape. Slight clouds drifted across a starry night’s sky. The figures had vanished.

On trembling legs, he stood, took up his musket, and peered into the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, he saw around him only the deep empty woods. An hour passed, then two. Not a sound echoed. Anxiety rose again. This time, he feared the punishment for sleeping at picket. He remained at his post alert and awake until the early November sun rose in the east, painting the tips of the trees with a warming orange light.

He said nothing to his friends, worried they would poke fun at his dream. With the boredom of winter camp looming, he did not wish to be the butt of a season’s worth of jokes.

As he walked through the woods with his comrades returning to camp, one of them stopped and looked towards his feet. Puzzled, the soldier lightly kicked what to him looked like a hollow skinned potato. As it turned over, he saw that it was a turnip, partially smashed as if thrown violently to the ground. He walked away swearing that, on one side, it had a face.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Women in the Civil War

2006-10-24T19:02:00.000-04:00

I stumbled upon a unique blog today concerning a segment of the 19th century population about whom I am embarrassed to say I know very little. The blog "Civil War Women" seems well worth the read, containing stories of a wide variety of well and not-so-well known women from that era. The author deserves a great deal of credit for the time spent to pay the respect due to the women who gave what they could and, along with the men of the time, suffered for their cause.

One of the unique heroines of the Civil War, Elizabeth Thorn lived in Gettysburg and experienced the horrors of war first hand. Her husband Peter had enlisted one year prior to the battle leaving her as the Evergreen Cemetery's sole caretaker, a position the two had shared until the 1862. Before the Battle of Gettysburg, Elizabeth had averaged about 5 burials a month. Her charge would increase dramatically when the Armies of General Robert E. Lee and General George Gordon Meade collided in the fields around her home. The human wreckage was indescribable. About 10,000 dead lay upon the newly christened battlefield.

Monument to Elizabeth Thorn in Gettysburg's Evergreen Cemetery,
holding a shovel in her right arm.

Elizabeth would work very hard to put her home back together and to bury a number of the dead. She would later state, "Well, you may know how I felt, my husband in the army, my father an aged man. Yet for all the foul air, we started in. I struck off the graves and while my father finished one, I had another one started." The soon exhausted Elizabeth sought help among her friends. None endured for long however, all leaving for their homes within days due to illness. Elizabeth and her elderly father found themselves alone facing this exhausting work. She said of her predicament, "By that time we had forty graves done. And then father and I had to dig on harder again."

Elizabeth's efforts proved truly remarkable given that, during this time, she was six to seven months pregnant. A short time later, Elizabeth Thorn gave birth to precious little "Rose Meade Thorn", named in part for the commanding general of the victorious Union Army.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: Beyond the Gatehouse. Gettysburg's Evergreen Cemetery. Brian A. Kennell, Evergreen Cemetery Association, 2000

Short Story: A Personal Casualty

2006-10-23T09:46:00.000-04:00

Leaning his head back, he sat against the base of a thickly gnarled elm away from the others in camp. The heavy roots jutting up from the cool soil seemed welcoming, as if forming a place of respite just for him. Staring blankly at nothing, he wished he could to draw strength from the stoic old tree, perhaps gaining its secrets on weathering life’s storms. Letting his head roll to the side, he somewhat involuntarily focused on the thick lines of bark, tracing them with his eyes, following the deeps grooves carved in its rough timeworn trunk. Seeing an old wound long since healed, he wondered if he would prove as resilient as this longtime tenant of the deep Virginia wilderness.

Although quite removed from the others, he remained safely within the protective line of their pickets. He was alone yet, to him, not alone enough. Tonight, he found his tent suffocating, the sides seeming to collapse in around him. The normally welcome comradery of the others now simply scratched at his pain. Images only a few hours old played in his mind, dangled in front of him by some malicious, unseen puppeteer. His struggle to slow, if not to altogether bury his thoughts, had thus far proved fruitless. Though he told himself that he knew of the inevitability of this moment, he had not anticipated the unbearable anxiety that now gripped him.

The government’s impassioned calls for men had eventually drawn him in. It seemed to him that the whole town had signed up. If not everyone, then at least most of those with whom he had spent his childhood had committed to fight. Sure, he shared their sense of the Union’s importance. He shared their patriotism. After all, he loved the land of his family’s birth. However, unlike the others who dreamed of adventure and glory, he dreaded what enlisting would eventually mean, what fighting would require of him. He had naively thought that he could anticipate and thus prepare for the trials of battle and that he could cope. He always considered himself an insightful thinker. But he could not have predicted the unexpected intensity of this painfully intolerable burden.

Although only a few hours had passed, it seemed lifetimes ago that his regiment settled in for the approaching spring night, cooking over a sprinkling of fires while talking of the likely events to come. Having spent the entirety of his short army career guarding the Capitol, he had wondered how he might face his first test in the field.

He had pictured orderly lines of battle, led by their Colonel as commanded by their Generals. The army would march, move, stand, and fight as a disciplined unit, advance as needed, and withdraw when compelled. They would follow their officer’s leads and force an end to this secessionist madness. Life could then continue as it had.

This idyllic fantasy surrendered to a grim reality when the men camped to their right came crashing through their ranks in a perfect unexplained panic. Something had gone terribly wrong. Understanding immediately what this portended, their experienced Colonel, in his thick German accent, ordered the men to form ranks, shift to the right, load, and fire. Despite his foreign tongue, his bearing commanded respect. They instantly understood and quickly obeyed. The enemy was almost upon them. This proved however, their last attempt at organized movement that day. Their gallant Colonel, leading his men from in front, fell to the ground the first casualty of the sudden conflict. Others began to fall as minie balls swarmed like hornets in the breezy evening air. After some fretful uncertainty, the men broke in harried unmilitary disarray. A few fired first. Most simply ran.

Although he had initially looked to his right and left to see who might stand with him, he too ran. Dense shrubs and forest debris proved no obstacle in his quest for safer ground. Running with his still loaded musket, a voice inside called him to remember his duty and fight honorably. Crashing through the brush running to save his life, he could hear the Rebels close behind him letting loose their spine chilling demonic screams. Jumping into a slight depression, he turned to gage his distance from his gray clad pursuers. A particularly energetic Johnny raced towards him, some yards in front of even their color bearer. Perhaps now had not been a good time to stop. As the Johnny began to point his musket towards him, instinctively, and for the first time, he lowered his own rifle, aimed at the man in gray, and fired.

As if appalled by this sudden violation, time seemed to suspend its energies on this now execrably christened field. All motion seemed to slow. His southern pursuer stopped suddenly, a look of shocked disbelief and resigned comprehension painfully etched in his young face. His expression bespoke no anger, no resentment, no accusation, just stunned disbelief quickly displaced by a longing, silent plea for help. The eyes of this man, startlingly more human than any into which he had looked before, fell as the gray clad soldier’s body hit the unforgiving ground. The growing stain on his loose cotton shirt spoke of this man’s inevitable fate. Staring transfixed at the man in mystified horror, some sense of self-preservation shocked him back into awareness, reminding him of the present approaching danger. With the now enraged Rebels closing quickly, he threw his musket aside and, lightened of its burden, once again fled.

Time rejoined the drama, seeming to push him on his way as if to make up for its delinquencies of the past few seconds. Filled with the energy of near frightened hysteria, he easily outpaced his yelling pursuers. Branches, twigs, and undergrowth crunched under the steady pounding of his quickly moving feet, blending with the crackling sounds of musketry and the booming thundering accompaniment of dueling artillery. After a time and with perhaps a mile of ground behind him, he joined the reformed blue lines and night mercifully closed on the carnage. Now, he sat near camp, tormented by the lingering images of this terrible day.

He had never killed a man, nor had he seen one die. He could only think of the Johnny as a man, not as a Reb, a traitor, or the enemy. Alone on the cold dead ground, his victim was only a man like him, minus the unique gift of the precious breath of life. His soul ached with the pain that his victim no longer felt. He thought that perhaps an angry God had taken from him the serenity that perhaps both men held earlier today. The admonishment “Thou Shalt Not Kill” broke repeatedly and forcefully into his tortured thoughts. “He would have surely killed me or at least tried,” he feebly argued in defense. He rubbed his rough dirty hands hard over his suddenly older face, trying to erase the pain. He could not bear this. “I did my duty!” his inner voice defiantly shouted in response to the agony that savaged his conscience. “I did what I had to do!”

Perhaps with time he might convince himself that he had violated no moral laws. Perhaps with time, the pain would subside. But for now, although far from that place, the imploring pleading eyes of that man remained with him, staring back at him. He could still see his eyes and, to his horror, could almost see through them. He envisioned the man’s family, perhaps the children who would never again run to him, and the wife he would never hold. He saw his parents, children, and friends, wracked with an intense, bitter grief over a loss they could do nothing to undo, a loss caused by his hand.

The evening winds gently swayed the treetops and, as if to provide a merciful distraction, the old elm dropped a few twigs to the ground nearby. Snatching one within reach, he mindlessly began peeling the bark in short strips. He thought of his father, a hard working farmer who had taught him the craft of slaughtering and butchering livestock. “This is hard for me Papa,” he recalled saying to his father, trying to hold back the tears after he had reluctantly killed his first lamb. The older man’s words rang clearly in his ears, pushing from the fore the eyes which threatened to consume him. “Son, when this becomes easy, you need to stop and look at who you’ve become.”

It was not cold, yet he tossed aside his twig and pulled his blanket tightly around him, wishing for the innocence of the safer childhood he mournfully recalled and for his father’s practical strength. He stared into the darkness, searching for the eyes that he could no longer see, fearing that he would see them again and also that he might not. “What had he become?” he wondered. “What would he do tomorrow?”

Although he laid down a mile away, he felt somehow that he shared the same ground as that where his personal casualty now rested. Though he yet lived, had emerged from the fight physically unscathed, he wondered how he would survive what he had done. “This is what this is all about,” he thought, to a degree chastising himself. “To engage in war you must kill, one person at a time. No matter how the illustrated papers say it, announcing the hundreds or thousands of dead, it happens with one man killing one other, one at a time.”

Wrapped in his blanket, he tossed about on the rough ground as if wrestling with some unseen foe. His mind raced through a haze of images from both this day and his past. The lessons of his parents, his schooling, and his church all danced furiously, colliding violently with today’s incongruous events. For a while, the directionless mental conflagration continued. Then suddenly, the storm passed. His mind cleared. He knew that he could kill no more. That night, he slipped quietly through the picket line, leaving the trappings of war behind, and walked into the darkness away from someone he could not become. As he traveled through the night-shrouded woodland, he gazed upward through the swaying trees towards the stars above and offered an earnest quiet prayer for the man whose life he had taken, asking for peace for them both and for us all.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

A Letter to the PGCB

2006-10-22T23:30:00.000-04:00

I include here a letter I recently sent to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board concerning the proposed casino at Gettysburg.

To Whom it May Concern,

I wish to express my displeasure with the continued manner in which the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) informs the public of both the correspondence and testimony offered concerning the proposed casino at Gettysburg. On April 5 2006, at the PGCB Hearing at Gettysburg College, the vast majority of the people who testified expressed their vehement objection to allowing Chance Enterprises to build a casino near the Battlefield. Of the 33 private citizens to speak, 29 opposed the casino. After listening to the others present, I left the hearings encouraged. Knowing the government’s charge of representing the will of the people, I felt that Gettysburg might emerge free of a scourge that threatened to desecrate and damage the grounds upon which our ancestors fought and died.

However, as time passed, I realized that the PGCB had made public none of what we said that day. I contacted your offices seeking transcripts of the testimony. After some time awaiting a reply, and receiving notification that you would not publish this on-line, you informed me that I would need to go through a private company to obtain the transcripts. Unlike other minutes that the PGCB freely and publicly posts on-line, I would need to pay for a copy of our public record. Much to my continued exasperation, the company to which you directed me declined to quote a price. In fact, they ceased to respond at all.

I felt some measure of resurgent optimism when I noticed that the PGCB had posted a series of casino related public comments on their site. However, instead of posting searchable, easily readable text, the PGCB instead chose to post massive files of collections of scanned copies of some of the original documents. In doing so, the PGCB has contributed to the impression of bias concerning this issue. The first four web pages of posted comments concerning the Gettysburg casino contain almost exclusively if not entirely letters in support of that casino. The final eight pages hold the letters and petitions containing hundreds of vehement objections.

Along with rendering the task of reading the comments arduous at best, the PGCB has padded the first files which people are likely to read with those comments in favor of the casino. Nothing on that web page notes or explains this. The reader scanning the first few pages of comments may naturally assume that the citizenry expressed an overwhelming degree of support for a casino at Gettysburg. The PGCB must be keenly aware that this is most certainly not the case.

If I counted correctly, as of four days ago, the PGCB site hosted 687 pages against the casino and 243 pages in favor. The pages expressing support for the proposal included letters from persons working for or linked to Chance Enterprises, the Company wishing to build the casino.
Of note, I did not see any of the correspondence that I sent to the PGCB nor did I see the transcript of my testimony that I submitted to your stenographer the day of the hearing.

I would hope that, when you submit your final decision, you will support the will of the people and not permit a casino anywhere near the sacred ground of Gettysburg.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Hoping Old Jackson Would Not Catch Him

2006-10-13T06:03:00.000-04:00

Richard Taylor, son of President Zachary Taylor, fought for the South throughout the American Civil War. Serving with General Thomas J. Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, he aptly noted in his memoirs, "An actor therein, accident of fortune afforded me exceptional advantages for an interior view." A wonderful writer, he offered an insightful, somewhat humorous description of Confederate General Richard Stoddert Ewell who in turn discussed his views on the brilliant but eccentric "Stonewall" Jackson. The excerpt below appears in Taylor’s memoirs "Destruction And Reconstruction: Personal Experiences Of The Late War"

"For the first time Ewell had his division together and under his immediate command; and as we remained for many days between the rivers, I had abundant opportunities for studying the original character of "Dick Ewell. " We had known each other for many years, but now our friendship and intercourse became close and constant. Graduated from West Point in 1840, Ewell joined the 1st regiment of United States dragoons, and, saving the Mexican war, in which he served with such distinction as a young cavalryman could gain, his whole military life had been passed on the plains, where, as he often asserted, he had learned all about commanding fifty United States dragoons, and forgotten everything else. In this he did himself injustice, as his career proves; but he was of a singular modesty. Bright, prominent eyes, a bomb-shaped, bald head, and a nose like that of Francis of Valois, gave him a striking resemblance to a woodcock; and this was increased by a bird-like habit of putting his head on one side to utter his quaint speeches. He fancied that he had some mysterious internal malady, and would eat nothing but frumenty, a preparation of wheat; and his plaintive way of talking of his disease, as if he were some one else, was droll in the extreme. His nervousness prevented him from taking regular sleep, and he passed nights curled around a camp-stool, in positions to dislocate an ordinary person's joints and drive the "caoutchouc man" to despair. On such occasions, after long silence, he would suddenly direct his eyes and nose toward me with "General Taylor! What do you suppose President Davis made me a major-general for?" - beginning with a sharp accent and ending with a gentle lisp. Superbly mounted, he was the boldest of horsemen, invariably leaving the roads to take timber and water. No follower of the "Pytchley" or "Quorn" could have lived with him across country. With a fine tactical eye on the battle field, he was never content with his own plan until he had secured the approval of another's judgment, and chafed under the restraint of command, preparing to fight with the skirmish line. On two occasions in the Valley, during the temporary absence of Jackson from the front, Ewell summoned me to his side, and immediately rushed forward among the skirmishers, where some sharp work was going on. Having refreshed himself, he returned with the hope that "old Jackson would not catch him at it. " He always spoke of Jackson, several years his junior, as "old, " and told me in confidence that he admired his genius, but was certain of his lunacy, and that he never saw one of Jackson's couriers approach without expecting an order to assault the north pole.

Later, after he had heard Jackson seriously declare that he never ate pepper because it produced a weakness in his left leg, he was confirmed in this opinion. With all his oddities, perhaps in some measure because of them, Ewell was adored by officers and men."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

You can see the above document in its entirety at "Documenting the South"

They state on their site the following copyright information. "Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998. © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text."

A Most Devoted Friend

2006-10-13T06:01:00.000-04:00

Some time ago, I stumbled upon a web site selling reproductions of two Civil War monuments. Along with one that proved very familiar, I found another involving Antietam that I had never before seen. The accompanying text offered the story of a Newfoundland dog that had wandered into the camp of the 6th Wisconsin. Captain Werner Von Bachelle of the 6th adopted him and soon they became inseparable.

Puzzled at not having seen this unusual monument, I wrote to the National Park Service at Antietam Battlefield asking about its location. Of course, much to my disappointment, they responded that it did not actually exist. However, I eagerly read more of the story that the ranger kindly included in his e-mail.

He wrote that Captain Von Bachelle lead his men into the cornfield during the Battle of Antietam only to be slain as they advanced. During their withdrawal, his men tried to no avail to coax the dog who had accompanied his friend into returning with them to safety. Two days later, Union soldiers found the faithful canine lying on top of his companion, both dead on the field. Rufus Dawes, then a Major in the 6th Wisconsin, reportedly lamented, "...it is probable he is joined in death by his most devoted friend on earth." The ranger added that, although unverified, the story asserts that the dog now rests along with Captain Von Bachelle in the Antietam National Cemetery.

The above picture shows Von Bachelle's gravestone marking the spot where the Captain now rests peacefully with at least 4,775 of his comrades. He is perhaps with one other who now happily walks beside him throughout all eternity.

You can see the monument mentioned above at 11th P.V.I. Preservation Foundation

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

A Minor Monumental Mystery

2006-10-12T06:16:00.000-04:00

While visiting the Battlefield at Monocacy, I noticed an oddity concerning the 14th New Jersey Monument. Gracing three of its sides I noticed a star, a cross, and a diamond, the insignia for the 12th, 6th, and 3rd Corps respectively. Wondering about this, I wrote to the National Park Service. I received a quick, courteous, and simple answer from the NPS staff at Monocacy National Battlefield.

They said, "The Monocacy Regiment was assigned to various units throughout the war including the 8th Corps, 3rd Corps, 6th Corps, and 12th Corps." They added that the veterans decided to honor the various Corps with which they had been assigned.

Not only the site of its namesakes battle, the battlefield also plays host to the Best Farm. On those grounds, General Robert E. Lee wrote Special Orders 191, a copy of which eventually fell into the hands of Union General George B. McClellan. This one unlikely occurrence drastically altered the immediate course of events leading to the Battle of Antietam.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Lee's Surrender & chat with General Meade

2006-10-10T21:53:00.000-04:00

While again looking through the Project Gutenberg website, I found the following about General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, written by one of his sons. Some rang familiar. Some I think we should never fail to re-read. The last segment revealed a surprisingly lighthearted interaction.

Recollections and Letters of General Lee
by Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son

"It is impossible to describe the anguish of the troops when it was known that the surrender of the army was inevitable. Of all their trials, this was the greatest and hardest to endure. There was no consciousness of shame; each heart could boast with honest pride that its duty had been done to the end, and that still unsullied remained its honour. When, after this interview with General Grant, General Lee again appeared, a shout of welcome instinctively went up from the army. But instantly recollecting the sad occasion that brought him before them, their shouts sank into silence, every hat was raised, and the bronzed faces of thousands of grim warriors were bathed in tears. As he rode slowly along the lines, hundreds of his devoted veterans pressed around the noble chief, trying to take his hand, touch his person, or even lay their hands upon his horse, thus exhibiting for him their great affection. The General then with head bare, and tears flowing freely down his manly cheeks, bade adieu to the army."

In a few words: "Men, we have fought through the war together; I have done my best for you; my heart is too full to say more," he bade them good-bye and told them to return to their homes and become good citizens. The next day he issued his farewell address, the last order published to the army:

"Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, April 10, 1865.

"After four years' of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them; but, feeling that valour and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain there until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection. With an increasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

R. E. Lee, General."

General Long says that General Meade called on General Lee on the 10th, and in the course of conversation remarked:

"Now that the war may be considered over, I hope you will not deem it improper for me to ask, for my personal information, the strength of your army during the operations around Richmond and Petersburg."General Lee replied: "At no time did my force exceed 35,000 men; often it was less."

With a look of surprise, Meade answered: "General, you amaze me; we always estimated your force at about seventy thousand men."

General de Chanal, a French officer, who was present, states that General Lee, who had been an associate of Meade's in the engineers in the "old army," said to him pleasantly: "Meade, years are telling on you; your hair is getting quite gray."

"Ah, General Lee," was Meade's prompt reply, "it is not the work of
years; YOU are responsible for my gray hairs!"

This entire book can be found on-line at the Project Gutenberg web site. As with all of their on-line texts, Project Gutenberg states, "This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Off Topic:A Little Girl's Courage & Self Sacrifice

2006-10-06T19:12:00.000-04:00

Several days ago, with sorrowful disbelief and a stifling sadness, people across our country watched in horror as reporters relayed the tragic events that occurred in a small Amish community in Pennsylvania. Tonight, I read a related news article that left me utterly speechless. A few days ago, I wrote an article while in effect pondering the essence human nature and our capacities for good and evil. Reading this, I no longer wonder but sit here in stunned amazement. We have all seen evil. But would we ever have expected to see such bravery, valor, and courage, such goodness, in one small little girl.

I have copied the article below in its entirety. I will warn parents and younger readers that the content may prove disturbing. Younger children should read this only with their parent's consent.

New Massacre Revelation Shows Amish Girl Asked To Be Shot First
Friday October 6, 2006

The Amish live in a world where self sacrifice is a way of life and doing the right thing is the only choice.

And now a new revelation that follows that gruesome schoolhouse shooting on Monday appears to show they follow those rules even in death.

According to those who survived the rampage by Charles Roberts near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, one of the victims who was fatally wounded asked to be shot first so she could save the others.

Roberts burst into the one room schoolhouse, ordered all the males out, took 11 young girls hostage and then lined them up to shoot them, execution style. His last bullet was saved for himself.

When it became clear the gunman intended to carry out his deadly mission, 13-year-old Marian Fisher stepped forward, pleading with him to shoot her first, hoping he might spare the others.

There's no word if Roberts complied with the request.

Her 11-year-old sister Barbie then followed her lead, asking to be shot next. She survived the ambush. Marian did not. Barbie was at her sister's funeral on Thursday, before returning to hospital for treatment of her injuries.

The revelations came from the younger sister, who confided the horror to the nurse-midwife that delivered her sister more than a decade ago. "She said Marian said, 'Shoot me first,'" Rita Rhoads reveals. "Apparently what she was trying to do was to save the younger girls.

"It was very courageous of the girls to offer themselves. God was really present to give the girls that kind of courage."

Fisher and four others were buried on Thursday. A fifth child was taken off life support and died late this week. She was laid to rest on Friday.

Roberts left a number of suicide notes behind, claiming he had molested some family members 20 years ago and 'dreamed' he would do it again. He also revealed a hatred for God and the world when his premature baby died just 20 minutes after being born.

Sincerely,

Randy

Source: City News CP 24 Toronto, Ontario

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

A Friendly Announcement from CWI

2006-10-04T20:04:00.000-04:00

I have the unexpected pleasure of mentioning that, a few days ago, CivilWarInteractive.com (CWI) contacted me to announce that "North & South Magazine" will be publishing a slightly edited version of CWI's This Week in Civil War Blogs. For those perhaps not familiar with this feature of their site, each week, CWI's tireless staff of thousands (perhaps a slight exaggeration) wade through the world of Civil War blogs and summarize the recent postings of those they deem worthy of mention. If I understand correctly, "Blue & Gray Magazine" will publish a version of CWI's initial summary of the various blogs they have selected. Given the quality of their own web site and of the other blogs noted, I am honored that they felt this blog worthy of inclusion.

Thank you CWI and North & South Magazine.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Commentary: Our Capacity for Gallantry and Brutality

2006-10-01T22:42:00.000-04:00

When I first created this blog, I announced my intention to fill these pages with responses to e-mails and questions that arose both from my postings here and from my primary website, brotherswar.com. Having strayed somewhat from that purpose, a recent reader has politely brought me back to center. He wrote, " I am intrigued by what you said in this blog: "Gettysburg is a good thing. It’s a symbol of what we were and could yet again become, in both a negative and positive aspect." Would you mind elaborating on that thought? I'd love to understand your perspective on the relation to Gettysburg and our future."

So many thoughts swirled in anticipation of answering this question that I struggled mightily with how to organize them. I did not know where to begin. Familiar sayings such as "Those who ignore the lessons of history are bound to repeat them" came to mind. While such wisdom resonates, (surely we cannot understand how we arrived here without studying from whence we came) even this thought seemed to trivialize the essence of Gettysburg. While considering the competing ideas contending for the privilege of defining this place, something continuously drew me back to the hallowed ground where ten thousand died and many more suffered wounds.

First and foremost, Gettysburg is a place where events occurred the depth of which I cannot fathom. A tremendous number of ordinary Americans, over 160,000, collided on these now peaceful fields. Most of these men knew intimately the horrors of war. They withstood the incomprehensible slaughter at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. The veterans of such conflicts saw men mowed down, thousands killed in what seemed mere moments. If not harmed themselves, certainly many tended to the grievously wounded or aided with burying the ever-growing number of dead. Still, with these images fresh in their minds, on the farms and fields of Gettysburg they again shouldered muskets and faced the enemy. On Cemetery Ridge, along the low stone row, men in blue gazed across the mile wide stretch of gently rolling fields, knowing what was to come. Standing now on the same ground, envisioning the long gray lines moving irresistibly in their direction, one cannot avoid wondering what drove men to risk never again seeing their wives, children, parents, and friends. By braving a hailstorm of deadly lead and exploding iron, they offered to forever sacrifice their hopes, dreams, and futures.

While the grisly depictions of battle ring familiar, how many dare to truly consider what these men faced? Most soldiers had seen first hand the devastation wrought by artillery rounds moving at over 1,000 feet per second. Solid shot continues through any man it hits. No mercy. No second chance. What just one ball touches, it shatters. As one soldier aptly stated, "The truth is, when bullets are whacking against tree trunks and solid shot are cracking skulls like eggshells, the consuming passion in the breast of the average man is to get out of the way." Shell and case shot, iron projectiles filled with gunpowder and iron balls, exploded in the ranks when burning fuses touched the powder inside or when percussion caps slammed violently into the ground. Iron flew in all directions, mangling anything in its path. When oncoming soldiers closed to within range, canister replaced long-range ammunition. Small iron balls packed in tin cans converted lines of cannon into a formidable array of massive shotguns. Soldiers described rows of men simply vanishing when a cannoneer unleashed canister, leaving only a faint red mist to drift away in the grim foul air of the now christened battlefield.

When considering Pickett’s Charge from the Southern point of view, if the men in gray survived the hell of the artillery fire, several thousand muskets leveled at the advancing line awaited only a target. An ounce of lead fired from a rifled musket shattered bones and tore flesh. Soldiers wounded by shot, shell, or ball that had first hit a man in their front at times needed to have pieces of that person removed from their own wounds. The soldiers with both Lee's and Meade’s army knew this, and yet they marched forward.

As the Confederates advanced, the waiting Union soldiers knew they faced perhaps the largest most successful army on the planet. Prior to the Civil War, the entire United States Army counted only about 16,000 soldiers in its ranks. Lee’s army would number about 75,000 with some 12,500 marching towards them in several lines, muskets loaded, eyes forward. In one year, Lee’s soldiers won victories on the Peninsula, Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Still the Federals held their ground, determined to fight.

The question "why" frequently echoes in my head as I wonder about these men and ask how similar in capacity might we prove ourselves if in like circumstances. The soldiers of both armies came from the people of the land, laborers, farmers, professionals, lawyers, teachers, printers, writers, politicians, professional soldiers, landowners, and immigrants. They had families and futures. If for just a moment you could look into their eyes, grip their hands, you would see a person, no different from the people of any era including ours. The crude pictures and period clothes make distancing ourselves from them both simple and at times convenient. Yet still we ask, could we have braved the fatal fire? Would we have killed on such a horrific scale? Would we prove capable of the same gallantry, bravery, and brutality?

Looking past the horror of the battlefield, we easily find other possible parallels to our own time. The men of the army suspected treachery in the government. They missed home. Political parties created smear campaigns, spinning stories and using the media to attack their opponents. The country had massive war debt. The President sacrificed civil liberties on the altar of national security and victory in war. Common people came together to support the soldiers, even if they disapproved of the war. People of all quarters sacrificed. Riots erupted to protest perceived unfair treatment. In these instances, we know of our capacity to do the same.

Along with these issues, there remain countless relevant questions when considering the Civil War. What does it take for one human to consider enslaving another? Why would someone risk dismemberment or gruesome death to keep someone else’s slave in chains or likewise to shatter those shackles and set them free? How did this one massive battle with its 50,000 casualties impact the rest of the war and the country? How did the families cope with such overwhelming loss and sorrow? How did the war change our country? How did we overcome the intense animosity between the north and south, black and white, immigrant and citizen, republican and democrat? Did this war give birth to a strong centralized federal government? If so, what did we gain and what did we lose? How did we cope with the suspension of civil rights? How did we resolve the problems stemming from the tremendous war debt? What lessons could we learn from reconstruction? How did Lincoln benefit from assembling a cabinet comprised of members of both political parties, three of whom had run against him for President? Without the ability to study our history, we cannot answer these questions and apply the knowledge gained to current similar situations. In short, we could not learn from our past and would most certainly repeat the same mistakes while trying to gain what others had already achieved.

Despite the obvious benefits from pursuing these issues, several questions continue rise above the others. How could these men repeatedly face death? Do we all have the same capacity for such bravery? Likewise, how could men, who would typically never have considered such acts, riot, ransack, and plunder? Again, do we all have a similar capacity? Do we have within us what they had?

My quest to understand the American Civil War began serendipitously when by sheer good fortune I found and read the book Killer Angels. Within days I drove several hours to see Gettysburg and the fields where such unbelievable deeds transpired. I walked slowly onto the field of Pickett’s Charge and stood breathlessly looking out over the mile wide stretch of ground traversed by thousands, and defended by thousands more. Without the battlefield to inspire, without the firsthand opportunity to learn and ponder, not only would I not have the opportunity to seek the answers, I likely would not have asked the questions. If we do not learn from what our ancestors have done, for better or worse, we will make many of their mistakes again much to the detriment of the people with us today as well as those yet to come.

"Forget the past, and the future may now allow us time to repeat it. History is never antiquated, because humanity is always fundamentally the same." - Walter Rauschenbusch

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

John Brown & The Nation's Soul

2006-09-23T15:27:00.000-04:00

The old United States Armory Firehouse
now called John Brown's Fort
When visiting Harpers Ferry West Virginia, you notice with little effort the portrayal of competing images of the abolitionist John Brown. In 1859, John Brown led a band of men into Harper’s Ferry with the design to take weapons from the United States Armory and distribute them to the slaves he felt would flock to his side. With his newly formed army, he would then sweep through Virginia and free the slaves. His plans almost immediately went awry and, after mortally wounding a free black man, he tried to shelter in the armory’s firehouse. Colonel Robert E. Lee and a detachment of US Marines captured Brown who would eventually hang for his crimes.
The Heyward Shepherd Monument
At the corner of Shenandoah and Potomac Street in downtown Harpers Ferry stands a tall boulder placed near the original location of the armory’s firehouse, now commonly called John Brown’s Fort. Far from presenting John Brown as a hero, it mentions his name only in identifying the men who shot and killed the man now memorialized. The inscription reads:

ON THE NIGHT OF OCTOBER 16, 1859,
HEYWARD SHEPHERD, AND INDUSTRIOUS
AND RESPECTED COLORED FREEMAN
WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED BY JOHN
BROWN’S RAIDERS. IN PURSUANCE
OF HIS DUTIES AS AN EMPLOYEE OF
THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD
COMPANY, HE BECAME THE FIRST
VICTIM OF THIS ATTEMPTED
INSURRECTION.
THIS BOULDER IS ERECTED BY
THE UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE
CONFEDERACY AND THE SONS OF
CONFEDERATE VETERANS AS A
MEMORIAL TO HEYWARD SHEPHERD,
EXEMPLIFYING THE CHARACTER AND
FAITHFULNESS OF THOUSANDS OF
NEGROES WHO, UNDER MANY
TEMPTATIONS THROUGHOUT
SUBSEQUENT YEARS OF WAR, SO
CONDUCTED THEMSELVES THAT
NO STAIN WAS LEFT UPON A RECORD
WHICH IS THE PECULIAR HERITAGE
OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, AND AN
EVERLASTING TRIBUTE TO THE BEST
OF BOTH RACES.

Tablet on the side of John Brown's Fort
The reflection is of the monument across the street
marking the Fort's original location.
Just across the street, on one side of John Brown’s Fort, another marker tells the story with a different twist. It’s inscription reads:

THAT THIS NATION MIGHT HAVE
A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM
THAT SLAVERY SHOULD BE REMOVED
FOREVER FROM AMERICAN SOIL.
JOHN BROWN
AND HIS 21 MEN GAVE THEIR
LIVES.
TO COMMEMORATE THEIR
HEROISM, THIS TABLET IS
PLACED ON THIS BUILDING
WHICH HAS SINCE BEEN
KNOWN AS
JOHN BROWN’S FORT
BY THE
ALUMNI OF STORER COLLEGE
1918
These markers, placed by the descendants of those who saw our country torn apart, remind us of the sanguinary struggle for the nature of our Nation's soul.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

A Surprise Guest at Pickett's Charge

2006-09-23T08:49:00.000-04:00

When discussing the conspicuous feats of courageous gallantry during Longstreet's Assault on the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, we often describe with rhetorical flourishes the actions of the countless men who faced death without flinching. Some ten thousand would die on those fields while three times that number would suffer non-mortal wounds. Two weeks after the battle, Union Brigadier General Alexander Hays, who commanded the portion of Cemetery Ridge just above The Angle, would submit a report on those dead that his command buried in the wake of the slaughter. On July 3, 1863, General Hays' men resolutely held their ground, withstanding the potentially crushing wave of Generals Pettigrew and Trimble's portion of Pickett's Charge. General Hays’ report served as a simple yet grim statement of the work death had done on that day. It would include one unexpected casualty.

"HEADQUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS,

Sandy Hook, Md., July 17, 1863.

Brigadier General S. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General, army of the Potomac:

SIR: I have the honor to report the following number of dead buried at Gettysburg, Pa., by my command, from July 2 to 5, inclusive:

Forces.	Officers.	Enlisted men.	Total.
Union	18	369	387
Rebel	60	1,182	1,242
Total.	78	1,551	1,629

Remarks. - One female (private), in rebel uniform.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM HAYS,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Corps."

General Hays' uncomplicated summary gently reminds us all that, along with those who suffered on the home front, some women faced the horrors of battle, bled, and died as our country fought itself to determine the kind of nation it would become.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

What Has Become of Us

2006-09-12T21:10:00.000-04:00

I want to take a second to move away from what I typically do here and speak to you personally, US citizen to US citizen. When I write a blog entry, I usually take great care to try and post something that I feel is worthy of your time. I write something, set it aside, re-read it and write some more, set it aside again, and so on...until I'm satisfied. But tonight, I can't do that.

I received a very simple e-mail just about an hour ago. It said "Hi. I have a question. What is going to happen at Gettysburg? Are they building the casino or not? I certainly hope that the answer is no."

Now I have written perhaps 10 articles against the proposed casino. I have researched the dangers a casino represents to the Battlefield. I have spoken to many who are in opposition and some who are not. I have posted the e-mail addresses of those who will impact or make the decision to allow the casino, asking that people write to voice their opposition. I have testified at one of the hearings against the casino. I have written several times to the Governor, the Gaming Control Board, and my local representatives. I have posted on other blogs and discussion groups. But tonight, when I read this e-mail, I didn't know what to say. So instead, I e-mailed a good friend and expressed my exasperation. After venting to him, I re-read my e-mail and knew that what I wrote would be my answer to the young lady who e-mailed me. It wasn't eloquent. I didn't take my time making sure that I expressed myself exactly as I wanted. I just wrote.

I said to my friend, "Gettysburg is a good thing. It’s a symbol of what we were and could yet again become, in both a negative and positive aspect. Most importantly though, tens of thousands bled there to make our country what it is. What else need be said? Tens of thousands."

I can’t tell you of my frustration when I think that this casino may see the light of day and the battlefield where our ancestors fought will be forever scarred. If we can forget the men who shaped our country like very few others have, what does that say of us? Damn it what has become of us?

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

In Memory of the Fallen

2006-09-11T06:14:00.000-04:00

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

One Other Note on General McClellan

2006-09-10T09:35:00.000-04:00

Along with his shaky rapport with President Lincoln, Major General George McClellan also had a testy relationship with his immediate commander. This exchange (below) between General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck and General McClellan clearly shows the tension which existed between the two men. General McClellan received the correspondence noted from General Halleck three days after the Battle of Antietam.

WASHINGTON, September 20, 1862 2 p.m.

Maj. Gen. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN:

We are still left entirely in the dark in regard to your own movements and those of the enemy. This should not be so. You should keep me advised of both, so far as you know them.

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

General McClellan responded:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Near Sharpsburg, September 20, 1862 8 p.m.

Major-General HALLECK
General-in- Chief, Washington:

Your telegram of to-day is received. I telegraphed you yesterday all I knew, and had nothing more to inform you of until this evening. Williams' corps (Banks') occupied Maryland Heights at 1 p.m. to-day. The rest of the army is near here, except Couch's division, which is at this moment, engaged with the enemy in front of Williamsport. The enemy is retiring via Charlestown and Martinsburg on Winchester. He last night reoccupied Williamsport by a small force, but will be out of it by morning. I think he has a force of infantry near Shepherdstown.

I regret that you find it necessary to couch every dispatch I have the honor to receive from you in a spirit of fault-finding, and that you have not yet found leisure to say one word in commendation of the recent achievements of this army, or even to allude to them.

I have abstained from giving the number of guns, colors, small-arms, prisoners, &c., captured until I could do so with some accuracy. I hope by to-morrow evening to be able to give at least an approximate statement.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
Major-General, Commanding.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:

Official Records – Ohio State University

General McClellan's Horses

2006-09-09T20:09:00.000-04:00

In the interest of openly stating my biases, I thought I should mention the following before I continue. Neither have I heard nor read a discussion of Union Major General George Brinton McClellan without encountering an almost immediate treatise on his perceived faults. While not believing in his perfection as a field commander, I have always felt that his shortcomings received more emphasis than perhaps his service merited. I offer the following in that spirit.

Major General George B. McClellan
In late October 1862, President Lincoln continued to urge Major General George B. General McClellan to cross the Potomac and move on the enemy. Over a month had passed since the Battle of Antietam and Washington again grew impatient as the Army of the Potomac sat on the opposite side of its namesake’s river from the Confederate forces. To one of General McClellan’s reasons for not yet advancing, President Lincoln famously replied, "I have read your dispatch about sore-tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?"

In early October 1862, after Antietam and before the President sent his somewhat rhetorically flavored question, Confederate Cavalry Commander JEB Stuart had again ridden around the Army of the Potomac, as he had once previously on the Peninsula. Aware of this movement, McClellan sent the Union Cavalry in pursuit. Although unsuccessful in stopping Stuart, the bluecoats rode up into Pennsylvania through Hanover Junction and Gettysburg. On October 14, 1862, while reporting to General McClellan, Major General John E. Wool stated, "General Pleasonton, who was in pursuit of the rebel cavalry reports that they have been driven back, into Virginia, crossing the Potomac near the mouth of the Monocacy, and having marched 90 miles in the previous twenty-four hours, while Pleasonton, in pursuit, marched 78 miles in the same time." General McClellan wrote of this incident, " General Pleasonton ascertained, after his arrival at Mechanicstown, that the enemy were only about an hour ahead of him, beating a hasty retreat toward the mouth of the Monocacy. He pushed on vigorously, and near its mouth overtook them with a part of his force, having marched 78 miles in twenty-four hours, and having left many of his horses broken down upon the road." The Confederates, while at Chambersburg, also reportedly "supplied themselves on their route with 1,000 fresh horses" now unavailable to the Union Army.

General McClellan kept Washington informed of Stuart's raid and their pursuit. On October 12, he reported to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, "The rebel cavalry under Stuart, which left Chambersburg yesterday morning in the direction of Gettysburg, reached the Potomac, near the mouth of the Monocacy, at about 9 a.m. to-day, having marched about 100 miles in twenty-four hours. General Stoneman, who was at Poolesville, near where the rebels passed, was ordered by telegraph, at 1 o'clock p.m. yesterday, to keep his cavalry well out on all the different approaches from the direction of Frederick, so as to give him time to mass his forces to resist their crossing into Virginia..." He would also report, "Six regiments of my cavalry had been sent to Cumberland to prevent the rebel depredations upon the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which left us very deficient in cavalry here. As soon as Stuart's approach was known, however, one of these regiments was ordered back, but has not yet arrived."

On October 13, McClellan’s Chief-of-Staff (and Father-in-law) stated, "Governor Curtin reports that he has been informed that a force of rebels were within 8 miles of Concord, in Franklin Country, this morning, and that they stole 1,500 horses last night." Confederate General JEB Stuart would mention in his report to General Lee after the raid into Pennsylvania, " During the day a large number of horses of citizens were seized and brought along." and " We seized and brought over a large number of horses."

Given the above, the Government in Washington knew of the capture of horses available to the Union Army and of the activity of the Union Cavalry in pursuit of the Confederate forces. Multiple sources had also reported to Washington the concerns both with supplying remounts for the Army of the Potomac and with delivering supplies for their horses and mules. In mid-October, Union Quartermaster General Mongomery Meigs would write, "All the power of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and of the Cumberland Valley Railroad has been used, under the direction of Brig.-Gen. Haupt, invested by the Secretary with special and full powers to do anything necessary to expedite the forwarding of supplies to the army under Gen. McClellan. It is nearly impossible to supply such an army, having over 30,000 animals to feed, by means limited to two railroads. The canal will be repaired and ready for use in a few days. It was hoped that water could have been admitted to it to-day. This, if boats can be found to navigate it, will increase the power of this department to forward supplies considerably. I understand, however, that everything called for has gone forward. What has been intercepted and destroyed by the rebel cavalry in rear of the army at Chambersburg and on the railroad I have not yet learned."

General Meigs would later in the month relay other concerns. "A case is reported in which horses remained fifty hours on the (railroad) cars without food or water, were taken out, issued, and put to immediate service. The horses were good when shipped, and a few days' rest and food would have recruited them, but the exigencies of the service, or perhaps carelessness and ignorance, put them to a test which no horses could bear."

After the Battle of Antietam, General McClellan would write, " This overwork had broken down the greater part of the horses; disease had appeared among them, and but a very small portion of our original cavalry force was fit for service. To such an extent had this arm become reduced, that when General Stuart made his raid into Pennsylvania on the 11th of October with 2,000 men, I could only mount 800 men to follow him."

Although not written until February 17, 1863, Chief Quartermaster Colonel Rufus Ingalls also discussed the condition of the army's horses after the Battle of Antietam in his official report.

"Immediately after the battle of Antietam, efforts were made to supply deficiencies in clothing and horses. Large requisitions were prepared and sent in. The artillery and cavalry required large numbers to cover losses sustained in battle, on the march, and by diseases. Both of these arms were deficient when they left Washington. A most violent and destructive disease made its appearance at this time, which put nearly 4,000 animals out of service. Horses reported perfectly well one day would be dead lame the next, and it was difficult to foresee where it would end or what number would cover the loss. They were attacked in the hoof and tongue. No one seemed able to account for the appearance of this disease. Animals kept at rest would recover in time, but could not be worked. I made application to send West and purchase horses at once, but it was refused on the ground that the outstanding contracts provided for enough; but they were not delivered sufficiently fast nor in sufficient numbers until late in October and early in November. I was authorized to buy 2,500 late in October, but the delivery was not completed until in November, after we had reached Warrenton."

The above by no means represents a comprehensive literature search concerning this one seemingly small issue. My intent in posting this includes noting that, although frequently quoted, the statement from President Lincoln questioning the condition of McClellan’s horses, and by inference the General himself, could include a brief statement or two concerning at least the partial legitimacy of his concerns. We may then view the oft-maligned General in perhaps a somewhat more sympathetic and debatably more accurate light.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:

CivilWarHome.com
Official Records – Ohio State University
US National Park Service
Virginia Center for Digital History

Photographs from the National Archives & Records Administration and the Library of Congress respectively.

Slavery in a Free State

2006-09-07T19:15:00.000-04:00

While reading "Struggle for a Vast Future" one of the collection of articles noted that a few New Jersey citizens held slaves up until just shy of the beginning of the Civil War. A quick internet search found the quote below on the Slavery in the North web site.

For the entire text of the decision from which the web site authors took these excerpts can be found at the New Jersey Digital Legal Library.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Commentary: The Malevolent Dark Shadow

2006-09-05T22:05:00.000-04:00

When I was young and found myself with extra change, I often scurried downtown to visit Grants 5 & 10 Cent Store. Although a frequent visitor, a renewed joy always accompanied each jaunt into the old store, sustained by the oddly comforting creaks of the worn, uneven wooden floors. My eyes darted in constant search of some small treasure hidden inside an old ragged box somewhere on those magical shelves. Eventually emerging from the store and heading home, I passed a small unremarkable, seemingly abandoned, stone building. The dirty façade held a curious sign with initials whose meaning remained foreign to me. Despite the familiarity of its simple lettering, with each passing, I re-read the sign and wondered.

Decades later, long after Grant’s store lived only in memory, I would learn the significance of the three letters on that nearby building that told of the structure’s past importance. At the time, “GAR Post” only lent a vague sense that this building and those who entered under that banner held an importance that had long since, perhaps unjustly, faded. Each glance at the timeworn façade evoked a curious feeling of mournful loss, a sense whose validity I never doubted but whose origins I could not discern. The dirty windows, chipped paint, and worn door handle whispered yet of a past glory increasingly suppressed by present decay.

Not many years ago, when touched by a passion for the American Civil War, I would learn what I should have known then. Union veterans of the War of the Rebellion had joined the popular fraternal organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, and met in this place or countless other like it. The men of so many terrible campaigns past, and later their successive generations, would speak of the conflict, politics, the fallen, and of how to honor those taken by the war.

As a youth, I had seen those three letters elsewhere during my many exploratory excursions around my then small world. In the local church cemeteries, intermittent gravesites had as an added adornment a small bronze star with the letters GAR hovering above the numbers 1861 and 1865. On occasions progressively less frequent, that star also held a small American flag. Like the old building, most of these modestly sized stars had succumbed to the relentless effects of weather and neglect as the decades inevitably marched past. Few if any held any remnant of their original luster. Like many of the old cannons in surrounding town squares, oxidation had painted the markers with splashes of discoloring green, the remaining bronze now a deep brown.

A new sadness accompanies the full understanding of the significance of these stars and of that old building now gone. Sprinkled throughout northern cemeteries, each tiny shield silently marks the grave of a man who fought in the war that most defined our country. Each man had given a piece of himself, sometimes literally, to shape this nation. The piece the nation gave in return now struggles against decay. The realization that these men drift further into obscurity, all but forgotten, sustains the sadness.

Alongside the remaining stars, many gravestones lay broken or covered with weeds, their letters worn into illegibility. These men gave of themselves to build what we now have. They earned in return indifference and neglect.

"Not true!" some may indignantly protest. "We have beautiful grand memorials such as Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Manassas, Harpers Ferry, and other parks serving as permanent reminders of brave deeds past." However, as we have left many a veteran’s grave to decay, so now this preventable tragedy spreads as we ignore the fate of even our most majestic monuments and battlefields. The Chancellorsville Battlefield and those who love their grounds continue their battle against disfiguring, explosive development. Harpers Ferry has joined this fight struggling to hold an encroaching 3,400-unit development at bay. Manassas Battlefield suffers from ever-expanding traffic and the constant threat of the loss of park grounds to widened highways. Perhaps as tragic as any of these, Gettysburg now rests in the malevolent dark shadow of a looming casino, positioned to exploit the deeds of the men North and South who died in unheard of numbers on those scarred, threatened grounds.

Much of Fredericksburg Battlefield is gone. The same fate has befallen Franklin Tennessee and many other fields. The Civil War Preservation Trust, the largest and perhaps most respected American Civil War preservation organization, lists Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and the Shenandoah Valley in the top 10 of the most endangered battlefields in the country. They also mention continuing serious threats to Chancellorsville, Manassas, Kennesaw Mountain, and Cedar Mountain, among others.

The 620,000 men who died during this war, and the hundreds of thousands more who emerged from battle no longer whole, deserve a better fate. So do the men who gathered in the GAR hall whose door I can never again pass. I ask with all possible respect that each person do what they can to preserve these historic grounds and not allow the continued indifference displayed towards the deaths and sacrifices of so many of our country’s veterans to threaten that which we must preserve.

In a cemetery near to my home, local people have volunteered their time to restore some of the former luster and dignity to the old stones and GAR markers. New flags ripple in the breeze that gently caresses the old soldiers’ graves. Placards note the names of the deceased where gravestone lettering has surrendered to time. In that same northern cemetery, a Confederate veteran’s grave now bears a new star revealing a shared respect for all life lost. So too can we work to preserve and maintain the fields where our ancestors fought, bled, and died, while laying the stones in the foundation upon which we now live. So too can we preserve and honor their contributions and their memory. Perhaps by doing as much, one less youngster walking through town will wonder at the mysterious meaning of the lives now past and the sacrifices all too often forgotten.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

For more information concerning the proposed Gettysburg casino:

More Opposition to Proposed Casino

A Casino in Gettysburg - The Danger, The Truth

A Good Word for Longstreet

2006-09-04T18:12:00.000-04:00

During the last few weeks, while listening to some of Dr. Gary Gallagher's recorded lectures, I was reminded of a few quotes concerning Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet, Lee's Old Warhorse.

Both address only a small fraction of the events during Day Three of the Battle of Gettysburg. The first describes General Longstreet's behavior during the massive cannonade early afternoon on July 3, 1863.

"Longstreet rode slowly and alone immediately in front of our entire line. He sat his large charger with a magnificent grace and composure I never before beheld. His bearing was to me the grandest moral spectacle of the war. I expected to see him fall every instant. Still he moved on, slowly and majestically, with an inspiring confidence, composure, self-possession and repressed power in every movement and look, that fascinated me."

- Brigadier General James Kemper, Pickett's Division. [1]

The second is somewhat controversial but no less interesting. This appeared in Longstreet's memoirs.

"I was present, however, just after Pickett's repulse, when General Lee so magnanimously took all the blame of the disaster upon himself. Another important circumstance, which I distinctly remember, was in the winter of 1863--64, when you sent me from East Tennessee to Orange Court-House with some dispatches to General Lee. Upon my arrival there, General Lee asked me into his tent, where he was alone, with two or three Northern papers on the table. He remarked that he had just been reading the Northern reports of the battle of Gettysburg; that he had become satisfied from reading those reports that if he had permitted you to carry out your plan, instead of making the attack on Cemetery Hill, he would have been successful."

- Colonel T. J. Goree, Aide to Longstreet, in a post-war letter
as noted in the General's memoirs. [2]

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:

[1] The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America's Greatest Battle. Larry Tagg, DaCapo Press; July 1998

[2] Longstreet at Gettysburg: The Third Day

Outrage at Harpers Ferry

2006-08-26T07:14:00.000-04:00

According to the articles that I have read thus far, this outrageous act of greed and self-serving desecration has lead to neither an investigation nor arrests.

National Park Conservation Association Press Releases

For Immediate Release: August 23, 2006

Contact:
Joy Oakes, National Parks Conservation Association, 202-454-3386
Jim Campi, Civil War Preservation Trust, 202-277-8560

DEVELOPERS ILLEGALLY BULLDOZE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAND AT HARPERS FERRY
Historic School House Ridge Battlefield at Harpers Ferry Violated This Weekend

(Harpers Ferry, W.Va.) – The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) and the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) issued a statement today in response to the illegal bulldozing of a portion of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park this past weekend by a handful of local developers. Purposely and without permission, the developers dug a deep trench through historic land owned by the National Park Service and the American people.

"Beginning on the morning of August 19, 2006, a group of local developers moved heavy machinery and work crews onto the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and proceeded to lay water and sewer pipes on historic land where Stonewall Jackson launched one of the most brilliant tactical triumphs of the Civil War," said CWPT President James Lighthizer. "The developers had neither authority nor the permits necessary to do this."

The purpose of the water and sewer line is to facilitate a planned development of approximately 3,400 houses proposed for construction both inside and adjacent to the Park Service boundary. To date, the developers have not received any local approvals necessary for this development to proceed.

"These developers knowingly and defiantly ignored federal laws regarding construction on public land," said Joy Oakes, Senior NPCA Mid-Atlantic Regional Director. "Americans have a right to expect that land protected by the Park Service cannot be bulldozed outside of an orderly and legal review. We encourage federal and state law enforcement officials to pursue these violators to the fullest extent of the law."

For several years, CWPT and NPCA have been leaders in an extraordinary and successful effort to protect historic lands at Harpers Ferry. With the support of local business owners, civil rights leaders, conservationists, history buffs, recreation enthusiasts, heritage tourism interests, and elected officials, Congress expanded the park’s boundary in 2004. Millions in federal grants as well as private funds have been raised to purchase land from willing sellers to add to the national park.

"We are horrified at this premeditated and unprecedented desecration of School House Ridge," said Lighthizer. "For several years, CWPT and NPCA have been working with federal and state officials to protect this property. Last year CWPT appealed to our members to help raise the $1.5 million needed to acquire the site bulldozed this weekend for preservation. We are outraged, and expect immediate restitution from these developers."

As the developers were running their bulldozers last weekend, hundreds gathered from across the country to participate in a National Park Service-hosted commemoration of the centennial of a meeting at Harpers Ferry in 1906 that laid the cornerstone of the modern-day civil rights movement.

CWPT is a 75,000-member nonprofit battlefield preservation organization. Its mission is to preserve our nation’s endangered Civil War sites and promote appreciation of these hallowed grounds. Over the years, CWPT has saved more than 23,000 acres of hallowed ground, including 325 acres on the Harpers Ferry Battlefield.

Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has been the leading voice of the American people in protecting and enhancing our National Park System. NPCA, its 325,000 members, and partners work together to protect the park system and preserve our nation’s natural, historical, and cultural heritage for generations to come.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

For more information, please visit:

National Parks Conservation Association Media Center

Civil War Preservation Trust Newsroom

To express your outrage at this blatant desecration:

Harpers Ferry Local Government (Click on Town Council)

Governor Joseph Manchin

US Senators - West Virginia

US House of Representatives - West Virginia

West Virginia Government

General Lee's Bad Old Man

2006-08-25T20:51:00.000-04:00

General Jubal Anderson Early, whom General Lee affectionately labeled "My Bad Old Man" earned that nickname due to his infamously foul disposition. The ExplorePAHistory.com web site notes an interchange between Early and General Thomas J. Jackson that typifies this brash, self-confident Confederate's approach to life.

ExplorePAHistory.com says:

Early had served under Stonewall Jackson, who, one day, noticed a number of stragglers on the road in the rear of Early's marching column. When Jackson's adjutant sent a short note, inquiring why General Jackson had seen so many stragglers, Early replied as follows: "In answer to your note I would state that I think it is probable that the reason you saw so many of my stragglers on the march today is due to the fact that you rode in the rear of my division."Very few but the most confident and competent officers would have dared say as much.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Note: Please take the time to visit ExplorePAHistory.com.

General Lee’s Letter of Recommendation

2006-08-24T18:58:00.000-04:00

Confederate General Robert E. Lee wrote the following letter to President Davis a few weeks after the Battle of Antietam. In it, he recommends the promotions of James Longstreet and Thomas Jackson, both Major Generals in command of the right and left wings of the Army of Northern Virginia. As interesting as that is alone, especially since he does not qualify Longstreet’s recommendation, he also mentions Union General George McClellan’s dispositions, his concern for Richmond, and his belief that he cannot inflict damage to the Army of the Potomac as they currently stand.

From The War Of The Rebellion: A Compilation Of The Official Records Of The Union And Confederate Armies: Series 1, Vol. XIX, Part II, p 646

"HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
Washington Run, near Winchester, Va., October 2, 1862.

His Excellency President DAVIS,

Richmond, Va.:

Mr. PRESIDENT: I received last night your letter of the 28th ultimo, and am much obliged to you for the attention given to my requests. I have stated so frequently my opinion of the necessity of improving the discipline of our armies that I need not repeat it. I hope Congress will grant every facility in their power.

In reference to commanders of corps with the rank of lieutenant-general, of which you request my opinion, I can confidently recommend Generals Longstreet and Jackson, in this army. My opinion of the merits of General Jackson has been greatly enhanced during this expedition. He is true, honest, and brave; has a single eye to the good of the service, and spares no exertion to accomplish his object. Next to these two officers, I consider General A. P. Hill the best commander with me. He fights his troops well, and takes good care of them. At present I do not think that more than two commanders of corps are necessary for this army. I need not remind you of the merits of General E. K. Smith, whom I consider one of our best officers. As regards the appointments for major-generals and brigadier-generals for this army, I have already forwarded to you the names of those whose merits I think have earned promotion. Should you conclude to promote Generals Longstreet and Jackson, major-generals in their places will be required, but I believe you have sufficient names before you to fill the vacancies. Your own knowledge of the claims and qualifications of the officers will, I feel assured, enable you to make the best selection. I do not think it necessary to call your attention to the officers immediately around Richmond, as you are fully aware of their merits.

The returns of the 30th ultimo will show an increase of our strength. If completed in time, I will send them by this mail. But our reach have been restored to them. Strange to say, our sick are very numerous, and all the care and attention I can give to the subject do not seem to diminish the number. Until the regimental officers can be made to appreciate the necessity of taking care of their men, keeping them under control, attending to their wants and comforts, and enforcing cleanliness, &c., I fear the sanitary condition of the army will not improve. It is the want of this attention and provision for comfort that causes our men so soon to break down under hardship.

I have written to you in reference to General Loring's movements, and am glad to find my suggestions to him correspond in the main with your instructions.

General McClellan's army is apparently quiescent. He himself is at Sharpsburg; his main body in that vicinity. I think he is yet unable to move, and finds difficulty in procuring provisions more than sufficient from day to day.

General Sumner is strengthening himself at Harper's Ferry. The brigades over the Potomac are being reconstructed. My great anxiety is, lest, with other troops, General McClellan may move upon Richmond. As at present there is no way in which I can endanger his safety, I have been in hopes that he would cross the river and move up the valley, where I wish to get him, but he does not seem so disposed.

I have been endeavoring to move back to Staunton everything captured at Harper's Ferry and all of valley in Winchester, together with our sick and wounded, in order that I may be unembarrassed. As soon as this is accomplished-which I regret to say from our weakness in transportation progresses slowly-unless something more advantageous offers, I shall move toward the Blue Ridge, so as to be prepared for any advance toward Richmond on the part of the enemy. I think it advisable that such troops as are north of James River, and not required for the support of the batteries at Drewry's Bluff, should be posted on the Rapidan and North Anna. They will guard the railroad, and by their presence prevent aggressions by small bodies of the enemy.

Four thousand four hundred pairs of shoes arrived yesterday, and 2,000 pairs expected today, which I hope will cover the bare feet in the army.

I am delighted to learn that the prospect of affairs in Kentucky and Louisiana is so bright. As regards Maryland, she is so tightly tied that I fear nothing but extraneous aid can relieve her. The military government of the United States has been so perfected by the recent proclamations of President Lincoln, which you have no doubt seen, and civil liberty so completely trodden under foot, that I have strong hopes that the conservative portion of that people, unless dead to the feeling of liberty, will rise and depose the party now in power.

I wish I felt that I deserved the confidence you express in me. I am only conscious of an earnest desire to advance the interests of the country and of my inability to accomplish my wishes. The brave men of this army fully deserve your thanks, and I will take pleasure in communicating them.

I am, with the highest respect and esteem your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General"

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Note: You can find the Official Records at eHistory.com.

On a lighter note...

2006-08-15T21:16:00.000-04:00

Smithsonian Associates Disclaimer

The "Smithsonian Associates Civil War E-Mail Newsletter" contains this unusual disclaimer at the end of their free news letter:

"The Newsletter Staff takes sole responsibility for any inaccuracies and omissions, as well as for any good stuff you may find here. We regret that we are not staffed to answer extremely vague or extremely specific questions, to settle bar bets, to research esoteric topics, to do your homework, or to write term papers for you, even though any of that would be more interesting than our real jobs. But, we will try to answer all e-mails. (Allow a minimum of two weeks--if you don't hear back, then we can't find the answer either.)"

To visit their web site or to sign up for their newsletter, click on the following link - civilwarstudies.org. They more straightforwardly state that "The largest circulating Civil War digital newsletter includes advanced notice of popular Smithsonian Associates tours, seminars and local Civil War events, as well as a regular trivia quiz (with prizes), and original articles and essays."

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Short Story: A Darker Lingering Voice

2006-08-13T08:26:00.000-04:00

On the small rough-hewn oaken table, the tiny flame flickered effortlessly. The single glowing light cast disproportionately long dim shadows on the adjacent walls, each swaying to the fanciful whims of the waxy little sprite. The tiny light barely illuminated the textured leather cover of the treasured family bible that rested prominently aside the candle near the table’s center. The cool April air that fluttered the candle’s flame slipped under the slightly opened window and provided an excuse for the chill that the quilted blanket could not allay. Restlessly shifting his weight, he felt his feet move against the sheets as he tried to find comfort without disturbing his sleeping young wife. The fresh breeze whose budding spring fragrance eased away the winter’s musty air did little to sooth his fretful thoughts.

News of the fall of Fort Sumter had come a week past. He and his wife knew that with this dangerous line crossed, fate now dangled before him an inescapable dilemma, one he had discussed with his family. A practical, well-respected man, his father spoke earnestly of honor and the obligation to fight for one’s country. As much as he wished to obey this man’s wishes and remain in the warm light of his father’s pride, he knew of the terrible possibilities that war would hold. His mother felt likewise. The memory of his mother’s words pulled his thoughts to her beloved brother Stephen. He had fought in the Mexican War two decades past, yet the scars of glory won still burned at his soul. Stephen strode off to war on two strong legs, filled with a rousing patriotism and eagerness to prove himself worthy of the old flag. He came home victorious, but lost more than just the lower half of a formerly sturdy leg.

Shaking those thoughts away, he instead gazed at the flickering light that danced across the cover of the family bible. Just inside its familiar worn cover, a sturdy tree held the names of family members long since gone with a line drawn just above the generation who first laid foot on this untamed land. The margins proudly bore several scribbled notations of those who fought in the Revolution, their actions allowing for the formation of the country he loved; the country now apparently destined to tear itself apart. He wondered of his debt to them. Because his ancestors faced the horror of war, he and his family could enjoy the liberties of this young vibrant country. Uncle Stephen’s painful sacrifices purchased for him the chance to raise a family in this beautiful land.

Although looking away from her, he took reassurance from the gentle breathing that spoke to him of his wife’s presence. He thought of their recent wedding and the promises made to each other before the altar of God. What did he owe her? She eagerly anticipated a future filled with many healthy children and spoke with gratified satisfaction of his ambition to provide for them. He had the chance to take over his father’s business should he continue to prove himself the hard worker his father raised him to be. They had a bright future ahead of them, or so he had thought. Now, the decision he must make stood ominously at a fork in the once straight road that had lead directly to their happiness.

A slight anger rose within him as he thought of the brewing conflict. He had no part in creating this. He cared not how the country answered the Negro question that had widened the now unbridgeable chasm between the Northern and Southern States. He alone would work for his family’s future. The sweat of his brow and the strength of his back would bring his young family the security and stability that would allow for the many children his wife wanted and the joyful years he had known awaited them. Yet now he wondered what manner of country would remain after the bitter smoke of battle cleared. The older men in town thump their chests and take their turns swearing that we will win what they insist will be a short, decisive war. They boast of the certain valor of those who, in front of their aging eyes, have grown from playful lads into strong young men. Such men could never fail to gain success when put to the great tasks of defending their honor and protecting their homes and firesides. They spoke of their own wishes to once again embrace youth so they too could shoulder arms and gain the soldierly laurels of glorious battle.

But a darker lingering voice taunted him with another reality. His mother had spoken mournfully of Uncle Stephen’s suffering and his struggles to survive the brutal amputation that severed his shattered left leg below the knee and cost him his sense of self-worth. His intemperate manner, so much in contrast to the warmth of his younger self, had consumed him. He would have no man help him support his family, not even those who loved him. Uncle Stephen’s family often went hungry as they ate primarily from the fruit of the small parcel of land he could till. He drove away many who would have offered help gladly, too proud to let them see his anguish, his pain, his inextinguishable sorrow.

Again trying to keep such thoughts at bay, his eyes focused on the leather cover on the table. What would God desire of him? What did He command? Both sides claimed God’s protection and the advantage of His holy sword. He suspected God would remain distant for a while and, like a wise Father, let the siblings grow tired of the fight to eventually after much acrimony find their own peace.

Rising slightly and leaning forward, he gave a short puff, allowing sudden darkness to envelop the entire room. The intermittent April breeze washed silently over their bed. He wished his mind could go blank, as had the now lightless room. Rolling towards his wife, he searched the darkness for a glimpse of her soft, strong face, wondering where he would find the courage to fight when it came time. Fighting meant standing his ground, risking never seeing her again, touching her cheek, or smelling her long, brown hair. Yet, if he did not go, could he ever again gaze without shame into her eyes? Would she look upon him as she had before? Would she think him a coward if he sought the security of home? Although he could not yet admit as much, somewhere in his mind, he knew that he would go. He knew he would fight. He knew he would defend his home, his honor, and his State. Tomorrow, he would speak to her of going into Charleston. Tomorrow, he would become a Rebel.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Gettysburg Casino

2006-08-06T21:58:00.000-04:00

Update: August 10, 2006: After writing this article I have heard two other news reports stating that the PGCB aims to award the Pennsylvania casino licenses before the end of the year. They made no mention of initially reported September 2006 date previously discussed. However, the potential for damage to the battlefields remains. So please read on.

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On the radio this week, I heard the disquieting news that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, despite legislative pleas for a postponement, hopes to begin awarding casino licenses next month. If you feel as I do, that the attempt to exploit the name, memory, and men of Gettysburg by building a casino near the battlefield should never be, please let the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and other Pennsylvania officials hear your voice. If you would like more information about this issue, I have several links in the menu to the right.

I have included links to those who have influence concerning this issue. Please write to some or all of them so as not to allow the memory of the thousands who fought and died to suffer the taint of such disrespect and to avoid the resulting damage to the battlefield which so honorably serves as an eternal monument to their deeds and memory.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Governor Ed Rendell

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum

Lynn Swann - Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Candidate

Pennsylvania State Assembly

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Commentary: Were We the Good Guys?

2006-07-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

Some months past, while walking eagerly towards the Gettysburg Battlefield Visitor’s Center, I noticed a mother with her young daughter approaching me in the opposite direction. The little one, walking with a child's carefree light step, turned to her mother and asked innocently, "Mommy, were we the good guys or the bad guys." Clasping her hand, the smiling Mom announced proudly to her daughter, "We were the good guys." Although an unfortunately common sentiment, I have struggled to accept its complete accuracy for some time. Reconciling the notion that one group of people possessed an overall higher degree of morality remains a difficult task. Few would debate the despicable evil of slavery. Yet I could not easily accept the contention that, in a country with a similar heritage, history, and people, the entire collection of persons in one section had emerged so morally different from all of those in the other.

Long before the bloodiest war in US history turned against the Confederacy, the seceding states eagerly identified the institution of slavery as the primary justification for seeking to form their own country. Although many after the war touted the banner of states rights, the Southern states own initial brazened pronouncements declared otherwise. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina opted for the long threatened secession, severing her ties with the Union to which she had belonged since 1788. In the coming months, ten other Southern states would follow in her rebellious footsteps. Upon her separation from the United States, South Carolina’s delegates spoke of the initial negotiations when first entering the Union over 70 years earlier. " The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made."

A few weeks after, Mississippi followed her Southern sister’s lead stating emphatically, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world." Days later, Georgia added her voice as she also left the old Union for the new. Georgian representatives would throw a few more logs on the secessionist bonfire, accusing the new Republican Party of treachery. "The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded by its followers."

Despite initially arguing for maintaining the now fragile Union, in his famous Cornerstone speech, Confederate Vice-President Andrew Stephens offered, "The new (Confederate) constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution -- African slavery as it exists amongst us -- the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution…its (our new government) cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition…"

These statements seem damning enough. Yet, more must exist of this issue than the obvious failings of some on one side of this conflict.

In "The Negro’s Civil War", James McPherson notes that in the early 1860s, there existed those who specifically sought disunion and separation from the slave states. A country divided would absolve the Federal Government and private citizens from their legal obligation to assist in the recapture of runaway slaves. The North would become safe ground, eliminating the necessity of extending the journey for freedom to the region north of the United States’ upper border. Slaves successfully crossing onto free soil could then safely settle in the northern states.

Others apparently did not gaze fondly upon the idea of the North as a safe haven for former slaves. In the 1850s, some Northern states established Personal Liberty Laws in response to the Fugitive Slave Act to impede the re-capture and return of runaways to slavery. Others however passed legislation now known collectively as "Black Laws" which hindered or eliminated blacks' ability to move into their states. Although established prior to the 1850s, Ohio’s version of the Black Law stated ominously, "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that from and after the first day of June next, no black or mulatto person shall be permitted to settle or reside in this state, unless he or she shall first produce a fair certificate from some court within the United States, of his or her actual freedom." In the early 1850s, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana barred immigration of black persons into their states. Indiana’s Constitution, adopted in 1851, declared explicitly, "No negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution." The Illinois Historic Preservation Association notes that in 1853, their state deemed illegal the act of bringing "…a free Negro into the state."

In 1860, when South Carolina began the cascade of states seceding from the Union, some feared the beginning of a black exodus to the safe grounds of the North. Several states made known their displeasure with that possibility. In January of 1861, Pennsylvania said, "…That the people of Pennsylvania, entertain and desire to cherish the most fraternal sentiments for their brethren of other States, and are ready now, as they have ever been, to co-operate in all measures needful for their welfare, security and happiness, under the Constitution which makes us one people. That while they cannot surrender their love of liberty inherited from the founders of their State, sealed with the blood of the Revolution, and witnessed in the history of their legislation, and while they claim the observance of all their rights under the Constitution, they nevertheless maintain now, as they have ever done, the Constitutional rights of the people of the slaveholding States, to the uninterrupted enjoyment of their own domestic institutions."

Ohio added in their resolution, "…That the people of Ohio are inflexibly opposed to intermeddling with the internal affairs and domestic relations of the other States of the Union; in the same manner and to the same extent as they are opposed to any interference by the people of other States with their domestic concerns.". They continued, "…That it is incumbent upon any States having enactments on their statute books, conflicting with or rendering less efficient the Constitution or laws of the United States, to repeal them…". This seems a likely reference to the Personal Liberty Laws intended to counteract the Fugitive Slave Act.

New Jersey would declare, "…be it resolved, that the resolutions and propositions submitted to the Senate of the United States by the Hon. John J. Crittenden of Ky., for the compromise of the questions in dispute between the people of the Northern and of the Southern States, or any other constitutional method that will permanently settle the question of slavery, will be acceptable to the people of the State of New Jersey, and the Senators and Representatives in Congress from New Jersey be requested and earnestly alleged to support those resolutions and propositions. The first article of the Crittenden Compromise stated, "Slavery would be prohibited in all territory of the United States "now held, or hereafter acquired," north of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes. In territory south of this line, slavery was "hereby recognized" and could not be interfered with by Congress. Further, property in slaves was to be "protected by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance." States would be admitted to the Union from any territory with or without slavery as their constitutions provided."

New Jersey would also reference repealing the Personal Liberty Laws. "…And be it resolved, That such of the States as have in force laws which interfere with the constitutional rights of citizens of the other States, either in regard to their persons or property, or which militate against, the just construction of that part of the constitution that provides that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States," are earnestly urged and requested, for the sake of peace and the Union, to repeal all such laws."

In an address to the Confederate Congress, President Davis spoke of part of the process by which the North had earlier abolished slavery. "The climate and soil of the Northern States soon proved unpropitious to the continuance of slave labor, whilst the converse was the case at the South. Under the unrestricted free intercourse between the two sections, the Northern States consulted their own interests by selling their slaves to the South and prohibiting slavery within their limits." So while some strove to free their states of slavery, the slaves did not necessarily find themselves free. A percentage of former Northern Masters sold their now outlawed slaves into continued bondage in the Southern States.

Several states protested the Emancipation Proclamation which may have contributed to a northern migration. Individuals did likewise. Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, famously stated that he would do all he could to preserve the Union but blasted the Emancipation Proclamation. Others encouraged colonization, the emigration of black persons to lands outside of the United States, as a fair solution to the "Negro Question" of what to do with freed slaves. The Library of Congress summarized, "During the 1850s, the (American Colonization) society also received several thousand dollars from the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Maryland legislatures." Clearly, although many in the Northern States desired to see their individual regions free from the stain of slavery, some wished that the new birth of freedom would occur elsewhere.

Countless Northerners fought with unparalleled bravely to advance the cause of peace and save the Union that we now call home. Others worked tirelessly towards the noble end of complete and total abolition of the institution of slavery. Yet because of the above, for a little while longer, I will continue to struggle with blanket questions asking, "Who were the good guys?"

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

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Sources:

Causes of the Civil War
South Carolina Historical Documents
CivilWarHistory.com: Northern Black Laws
Tulane University: The Crittenden Compromise
Indiana Historical Bureau: Indiana Constitution of 1851
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency: African American Timeline
Library of Congress: An African-American Mosaic

Slave Narratives

2006-07-16T16:20:00.000-04:00

Hoping that this might be of interest, I have reproduced here a collection of excerpts from some of the many slave narratives found on the Project Gutenberg Web Site. This posting is longer than most because I wanted to include a sufficient number of excerpts to approach a representation of the entire text. What you will read are " typewritten records prepared by The Federal Writers' Project 1936-1938 assembled by The Library of Congress Project. Washington 1941."

Some of these may not be suitable for children or those who may be offended by what can be graphic descriptions of slave treatment.

Maryland
[--] 11, 1938
Rogers

CAROLINE HAMMOND, A fugitive.
Interview at her home, 4710 Falls Road, Baltimore, Md.

"…Mr. Davidson was very good to his slaves, treating them with every consideration that he could, with the exception of freeing them; but Mrs. Davidson was hard on all the slaves, whenever she had the opportunity, driving them at full speed when working, giving different food of a coarser grade and not much of it. She was the daughter of one of the Revells of the county, a family whose reputation was known all over Maryland for their brutality with their slaves."

"Mother with the consent of Mr. Davidson, married George Berry, a free colored man of Annapolis with the proviso that he was to purchase mother within three years after marriage for $750 dollars and if any children were born they were to go with her. My father was a carpenter by trade, his services were much in demand. This gave him an opportunity to save money. Father often told me that he could save more than half of his income. He had plenty of work, doing repair and building, both for the white people and free colored people. Father paid Mr. Davidson for mother on the partial payment plan. He had paid up all but $40 on mother's account, when by accident Mr. Davidson was shot while ducking on the South River by one of the duck hunters, dying instantly."

"Mrs. Davidson assumed full control of the farm and the slaves. When father wanted to pay off the balance due, $40.00, Mrs. Davidson refused to accept it, thus mother and I were to remain in slavery. Being a free man father had the privilege to go where he wanted to, provided he was endorsed by a white man who was known to the people and sheriffs, constables and officials of public conveyances. By bribery of the sheriff of Anne Arundel County father was given a passage to Baltimore for mother and me. On arriving in Baltimore, mother, father and I went to a white family on Ross Street--now Druid Hill Ave., where we were sheltered by the occupants, who were ardent supporters of the Underground Railroad."

"A reward of $50.00 each was offered for my father, mother and me, one by Mrs. Davidson and the other by the Sheriff of Anne Arundel County. At this time the Hookstown Road was one of the main turnpikes into Baltimore. A Mr. Coleman whose brother-in-law lived in Pennsylvania, used a large covered wagon to transport merchandise from Baltimore to different villages along the turnpike to Hanover, Pa., where he lived. Mother and father and I were concealed in a large wagon drawn, by six horses. On our way to Pennsylvania, we never alighted on the ground in any community or close to any settlement, fearful of being apprehended by people who were always looking for rewards."

"After arriving at Hanover, Pennsylvania, it was easy for us to get transportation farther north. They made their way to Scranton, Pennsylvania, in which place they both secured positions in the same family. Father and mother's salary combined was $27.50 per month. They stayed there until 1869. In the meantime I was being taught at a Quaker mission in Scranton. When we come to Baltimore I entered the 7th grade grammar school in South Baltimore. After finishing the grammar school, I followed cooking all my life before and after marriage. My husband James Berry, who waited at the Howard House, died in 1927--aged 84. On my next birthday, which will occur on the 22nd of November, I will be 95. I can see well, have an excellent appetite, but my grandchildren will let me eat only certain things that they say the doctor ordered I should eat. On Christmas Day 49 children and grandchildren and some great-grandchildren gave me a Xmas dinner and one hundred dollars for Xmas. I am happy with all the comforts of a poor person not dependant on any one else for tomorrow".

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Maryland
11/15/37
Rogers

CHARLES COLES, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Charles Coles at his home,
1106 Sterling St., Baltimore, Md.

"I was born near Pisgah, a small village in the western part of Charles County, about 1851. I do not know who my parents were nor my relatives. I was reared on a large farm owned by a man by the name of Silas Dorsey, a fine Christian gentleman and a member of the Catholic Church."

"Mr. Dorsey was a man of excellent reputation and character, was loved by all who knew him, black and white, especially his slaves. He was never known to be harsh or cruel to any of his slaves, of which he had more than 75."

"The slaves were Mr. Dorsey's family group, he and his wife were very considerate in all their dealings. In the winter the slaves wore good heavy clothes and shoes and in summer they were dressed in fine clothes."

"I have been told that the Dorseys' farm contained about 3500 acres, on which were 75 slaves. We had no overseers. Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey managed the farm. They required the farm hands to work from 7 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.; after that their time was their own."

"There were no jails nor was any whipping done on the farm. No one was bought or sold. Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey conducted regular religious services of the Catholic church on the farm in a chapel erected for that purpose and in which the slaves were taught the catechism and some learned how to read and write and were assisted by some Catholic priests who came to the farm on church holidays and on Sundays for that purpose. When a child was born, it was baptized by the priest, and given names and they were recorded in the Bible. We were taught the rituals of the Catholic Church and when any one died, the funeral was conducted by a priest, the corpse was buried in the Dorseys' graveyard, a lot of about 1-1/2 acres, surrounded by cedar trees and well cared for. The only difference in the graves was that the Dorsey people had marble markers and the slaves had plain stones."

"I have never heard of any of the Dorseys' slaves running away. We did not have any trouble with the white people."

"The slaves lived in good quarters, each house was weather-boarded and stripped to keep out the cold. I do not remember whether the slaves worked or not on Saturdays, but I know the holidays were their own. Mr. Dorsey did not have dances and other kinds of antics that you expected to find on other plantations."

"We had many marbles and toys that poor children had, in that day my favorite game was marbles."

"When we took sick Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey had a doctor who administered to the slaves, giving medical care that they needed. I am still a Catholic and will always be a member of St. Peter Clavier Church."

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Maryland
Sept. 20, 1937
Rogers

JAMES V. DEANE, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with James V. Deane, ex-slave,
on Sept. 20, 1937, at his home, 1514 Druid Hill Ave.,
Baltimore.

"…My master's name was Thomas Mason, he was a man of weak mental disposition, his mother managed the affairs. He was kind. Mrs. Mason had a good disposition, she never permitted the slaves to be punished. The main house was very large with porches on three sides. No children, no overseer."

"The poor white people in Charles County were worse off than the slaves; because they could not get any work to do, on the plantation, the slaves did all the work."

"Some time ago you asked did I ever see slaves sold. I have seen slaves tied behind buggies going to Washington and some to Baltimore."

"No one was taught to read. We were taught the Lord's Prayer and catechism."

"When the slaves took sick Dr. Henry Mudd, the one who gave Booth first aid, was our doctor. The slaves had herbs of their own, and made their own salves. The only charms that were worn were made out of bones."

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Maryland
Dec. 13, 1937
Rogers

PAGE HARRIS, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Page Harris at his home,
Camp Parole, A.A.C. Co., Md.

"I was born in 1858 about 3 miles west of Chicamuxen near the Potomac River in Charles County on the farm of Burton Stafford, better known as Blood Hound Manor. This name was applied because Mr. Stafford raised and trained blood hounds to track runaway slaves and to sell to slaveholders of Maryland, Virginia and other southern states as far south as Mississippi and Louisiana."

"My father's name was Sam and mother's Mary, both of whom belonged to the Staffords and were reared in Charles County…"

"…I have been told by my parents and also by Joshua Stafford, the oldest son of Mr. Stafford, that one Sunday morning on the date as related in the story previously Mrs. Stafford and her 3 children were being rowed across the Potomac River to attend a Baptist church in Virginia of which she was a member. Suddenly a wind and a thunder storm arose causing the boat to capsize. My father was fishing from a log raft in the river, immediately went to their rescue. The wind blew the raft towards the centre of the stream and in line with the boat. He was able without assistance to save the whole family, diving into the river to rescue Mrs. Stafford after she had gone down. He pulled her on the raft and it was blown ashore with all aboard, but several miles down the stream. Everybody thought that the Staffords had been drowned as the boat floated to the shore, bottom upwards."

"As a reward Mr. Stafford took my father to the court house at La Plata, the county seat of Charles County, signed papers for the emancipation of him, my mother, and me, besides giving him money to help him to take his family to Philadelphia."

"I have a vague recollection of the Staffords' family, not enough to describe. They lived on a large farm situated in Charles County, a part bounding on the Potomac River and a cove that extends into the farm property. Much of the farm property was marshy and was suitable for the purpose of Mr. Stafford's living--raising and training blood hounds. I have been told by mother and father on many occasions that there were as many as a hundred dogs on the farm at times. Mr. Stafford had about 50 slaves on his farm. He had an original method in training young blood hounds, he would make one of the slaves traverse a course, at the end, the slave would climb a tree. The younger dogs led by an old dog, sometimes by several older dogs, would trail the slave until they reached the tree, then they would bark until taken away by the men who had charge of the dogs."

"Mr. Stafford's dogs were often sought to apprehend runaway slaves. He would charge according to the value and worth of the slave captured. His dogs were often taken to Virginia, sometimes to North Carolina, besides being used in Maryland. I have been told that when a slave was captured, besides the reward paid in money, that each dog was supposed to bite the slave to make him anxious to hunt human beings."

"There was a slaveholder in Charles County who had a very valuable slave, an expert carpenter and bricklayer, whose services were much sought after by the people in Southern Maryland. This slave could elude the best blood hounds in the State. It was always said that slaves, when they ran away, would try to go through a graveyard and if he or she could get dirt from the grave of some one that had been recently buried, sprinkle it behind them, the dogs could not follow the fleeing slave, and would howl and return home."

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Maryland
Sept. 29, 1937
Rogers

REV. SILAS JACKSON, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Rev. Silas Jackson, ex-slave,
at his home, 1630 N. Gilmor St., Baltimore.

"…In Virginia where I was, they raised tobacco, wheat, corn and farm products. I have had a taste of all the work on the farm, besides of digging and clearing up new ground to increase the acreage to the farm. We all had task work to do--men, women and boys. We began work on Monday and worked until Saturday. That day we were allowed to work for ourselves and to garden or to do extra work. When we could get work, or work on some one else's place, we got a pass from the overseer to go off the plantation, but to be back by nine o'clock on Saturday night or when cabin inspection was made. Some time we could earn as much as 50 cents a day, which we used to buy cakes, candies, or clothes."

"On Saturday each slave was given 10 pounds corn meal, a quart of black strap, 6 pounds of fat back, 3 pounds of flour and vegetables, all of which were raised on the farm. All of the slaves hunted or those who wanted, hunted rabbits, opossums or fished. These were our choice food as we did not get anything special from the overseer."

"Our food was cooked by our mothers or sisters and for those who were not married by the old women and men assigned for that work."

"Each family was given 3 acres to raise their chickens or vegetables and if a man raised his own food he was given $10.00 at Christmas time extra, besides his presents."

"In the summer or when warm weather came each slave was given something, the women, linsey goods or gingham clothes, the men overalls, muslin shirts, top and underclothes, two pair of shoes, and a straw hat to work in. In the cold weather, we wore woolen clothes, all made at the sewing cabin."

"My master was named Tom Ashbie, a meaner man was never born in Virginia--brutal, wicked and hard. He always carried a cowhide with him. If he saw anyone doing something that did not suit his taste, he would have the slave tied to a tree, man or woman, and then would cowhide the victim until he got tired, or sometimes, the slave would faint."

"The Ashbie's home was a large stone mansion, with a porch on three sides. Wide halls in the center up and down stairs, numerous rooms and a stone kitchen built on the back connected with dining room."

"Mrs. Ashbie was kind and lovely to her slaves when Mr. Ashbie was out. The Ashbies did not have any children of their own, but they had boys and girls of his own sister and they were much like him, they had maids or private waiter for the young men if they wanted them."

"I have heard it said by people in authority, Tom Ashbie owned 9000 acres of farm land besides of wood land. He was a large slave owner having more than 100 slaves on his farm. They were awakened by blowing of the horn before sunrise by the overseer, started work at sunrise and worked all day to sundown, with not time to go to the cabin for dinner, you carried your dinner with you. The slaves were driven at top speed and whipped at the snap of the finger, by the overseers, we had four overseers on the farm all hired white men."

"I have seen men beaten until they dropped in their tracks or knocked over by clubs, women stripped down to their waist and cowhided."

"I have heard it said that Tom Ashbie's father went to one of the cabins late at night, the slaves were having a secret prayer meeting. He heard one slave ask God to change the heart of his master and deliver him from slavery so that he may enjoy freedom. Before the next day the man disappeared, no one ever seeing him again; but after that down in the swamp at certain times of the moon, you could hear the man who prayed in the cabin praying. When old man Ashbie died, just before he died he told the white Baptist minister, that he had killed Zeek for praying and that he was going to hell."

"There was a stone building on the farm, it is there today. I saw it this summer while visiting in Virginia. The old jail, it is now used as a garage. Downstairs there were two rooms, one where some of the whipping was done, and the other used by the overseer. Upstairs was used for women and girls. The iron bars have corroded, but you can see where they were. I have never seen slaves sold on the farm, but I have seen them taken away, and brought there. Several times I have seen slaves chained taken away and chained when they came."

"No one on the place was taught to read or write. On Sunday the slaves who wanted to worship would gather at one of the large cabins with one of the overseers present and have their church. After which the overseer would talk. When communion was given the overseer was paid for staying there with half of the collection taken up, some time he would get 25¢. No one could read the Bible. Sandy Jasper, Mr. Ashbie's coachman was the preacher, he would go to the white Baptist church on Sunday with family and would be better informed because he heard the white preacher."

"Twice each year, after harvest and after New Year's, the slaves would have their protracted meeting or their revival and after each closing they would baptize in the creek, sometimes in the winter they would break the ice singing _Going to the Water_ or some other hymn of that nature. And at each funeral, the Ashbies would attend the service conducted in the cabin there the deceased was, from there taken to the slave graveyard. A lot dedicated for that purpose, situated about 3/4 of a mile from cabins near a hill."

"There were a number of slaves on our plantation who ran away, some were captured and sold to a Georgia trader, others who were never captured. To intimidate the slaves, the overseers were connected with the patrollers, not only to watch our slaves, but sometimes for the rewards for other slaves who had run away from other plantations. This feature caused a great deal of trouble between the whites and blacks. In 1858 two white men were murdered near Warrenton on the road by colored people, it was never known whether by free people or slaves."

"When work was done the slaves retired to their cabins, some played games, others cooked or rested or did what they wanted. We did not work on Saturdays unless harvest times, then Saturdays were days of work. At other times, on Saturdays you were at leisure to do what you wanted. On Christmas day Mr. Ashbie would call all the slaves together, give them presents, money, after which they spent the day as they liked. On New Year's day we all were scared, that was the time for selling, buying and trading slaves. We did not know who was to go or come."

This entire book, "Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States. From Interviews with Former Slaves. Maryland Narratives" can be found on-line at the Project Gutenberg web site. As with all of their on-line texts, Project Gutenberg states, " This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net."

You can listen to audio recordings of similar narratives in the former slaves' own voices at Voices From the Days of Slavery from the United STtaes Library of Congress web site.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Who Can He Be?

2006-07-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

On the final page of his book, Lieutenant Colonel G. F. R. Henderson relates the following:

"Mr. W.P. St. John, President of the Mercantile Bank of New York,
relates the following incident: A year or two ago he was in the
Shenandoah Valley with General Thomas Jordan, C.S.A., and at the
close of the day they found themselves at the foot of the mountains
in a wild and lonely place; there was no village, and no house, save
a rough shanty for the use of the 'track-walker' on the railroad. It
was not an attractive place for rest, yet here they were forced to
pass the night, and to sit down to such supper as might be provided
in so desolate a spot. The unprepossessing look of everything was
completed when the host came in and took his seat at the head of the
table. A bear out of the woods could hardly have been rougher, with
his unshaven hair and unkempt beard. He answered to the type of
border ruffian, and his appearance suggested the dark deeds that
might be done here in secret, and hidden in the forest gloom. Imagine
the astonishment of the travellers when this rough backwoodsman
rapped on the table and bowed his head. And such a prayer! 'Never,'
says Mr. St. John, 'did I hear a petition that more evidently came
from the heart. It was so simple, so reverent, so tender, so full of
humility and penitence, as well as of thankfulness. We sat in
silence, and as soon as we recovered ourselves I whispered to General
Jordan, "Who can he be?" To which he answered, "I don't know, but he
must be one of Stonewall Jackson's old soldiers." And he was. As we
walked out in the open air, I accosted our new acquaintance, and
after a few questions about the country, asked, "Were you in the
war?" "Oh, yes," he said with a smile, "I was out with Old
Stonewall."'-- Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. xix page 371."

Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War. Lieutenant Colonel G. F. R. Henderson, C. B.

This entire book can be found on-line at the Project Gutenberg web site. As with all of their on-line texts, Project Gutenberg states, "This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net."

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

New Civil War Photo Blog

2006-07-08T17:00:00.000-04:00

I have started a new blog for those people who might prefer photos to the printed page. If you would like, you can have a look at Civil War Photos.

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do taking them.

Thanks.

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Exploitation of Gettysburg

2006-07-05T22:06:00.000-04:00

Recently, two unfortunate subjects have stolen time from the joy in writing about the American Civil War and, hopefully, the occasional interest readers have in the end results. The proposed Gettysburg Casino, a project designed to blatantly exploit the fame and associated sacrifice of the Battlefield at Gettysburg, lingers on as an insidious malignancy threatening to sicken the beauty of the now peaceful fields. The casino investors calculated choice of a location near the battlefield reeks of a sordid desire to capitalize on the deaths of the thousands of men who "gave the last full measure of devotion". Neither our ancestors’ storied past nor our shared national history should ever suffer the indignity of strangulation by a deliberately placed noose of avarice and greed.

The Ku Klux Klan now also seeks to exploit the hallowed ground of Gettysburg to satisfy their self-indulgent, hateful ends. As fated once before, Gettysburg will apparently follow in the footsteps of Antietam. The Klan defiled the sacred grounds of the Antietam National Battlefield just a few short weeks past.

Not despite, but because of the moral obligation to counter both message and messenger, I strongly support the strategy of not combating the Klan’s demonstration on this cherished, hallowed ground. These foul parasites hunger for controversy and feed on the publicity it spawns. They will endlessly seek to desecrate the fields of our shared heritage if the media, counter-protesters, and onlookers continuously, though perhaps unintentionally, quench their thirst for center stage. While we should ceaselessly challenge prejudice and hatred at every turn, each battle can and should adopt the strategy that best meets the immediate need. With all possible respect to those who find the Klan’s message similarly offensive, I urgently ask that no one give them that which they so desperately seek. If the well of publicity runs dry, they will have to dip their cups of hatred elsewhere. When no longer able to find an opportunistic pool, then perhaps we will celebrate the day that such evil crawls back into its fetid hole to die its deservedly slow and painful death.

The Battlefield at Gettysburg silently honors the 160,000 men who marched, fought, bled, and died that this nation might live. The rolling fields, craggy heights, and venerable monuments both memorialize and celebrate the lives and sacrifices of our ancestors while educating new generations about our history, errors, triumphs, and the values that shaped this nation. Given this unmistakable truth, no justification exists for ignoring the national insult of these attempted exploitations. Home to the ghosts of such staggering courage, this holy ground forever holds our storied past, consecrated with the blood of tens of thousands of Americans who helped to shape the nation whose privileges we enjoy today.

***************************

The article below discusses further the coming sad event.

"The Philadelphia Inquirer - July 4, 2006

Ku Klux Klan wins approval to protest at Gettysburg

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - The National Park Service granted a request by the Ku Klux Klan to rally and protest near the spot where a failed offensive by the Confederacy turned the tide of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Gordon Young of the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan obtained the permit Wednesday for about 100 people to participate in a Sept. 2 event on the lawn of the Cyclorama Center at Gettysburg National Military Park, near the site of Pickett's Charge. The purpose, according to the permit, will be to oppose the Iraq war and speak on "white unity between the North and South."

The permit was granted in light of the constitutional rights of free speech and peaceable assembly, Gettysburg park superintendent John A. Latschar said in a statement yesterday. About 30 members of Young's group and other white-supremacist organizations gathered June 10 at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md. About 30 counterdemonstrators and about 200 law enforcement officers were there, too.
The Battle of Gettysburg, which repelled a Confederate advance into Pennsylvania in July 1863, was the largest and bloodiest battle of the Civil War. More than 51,000 combatants disappeared or were killed, wounded or captured.- AP"

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Gettysburg Casino: $60 Million & our Heritage Lost

2006-07-04T15:39:00.000-04:00

The Philadelphia Inquirer printed the following on July 3, 2006.

Casino on battlefield would be a loss for all

By Jim Lighthizer and Tom Kiernan

In a high-stakes operation like a casino, there are always winners and losers. Build a casino at Gettysburg, and there would be one winner - the owner - while the losers would be too numerous to count.

Chance Enterprises, the investment group behind the proposed Crossroads Gaming Resort & Spa, wants to build a 3,000-slot casino one mile from the edge of the Gettysburg National Military Park. Casino officials tout the jobs and economic benefits the facility would provide, but these claims are overstated.

With about 1.7 million visitors annually, and with visitation growing steadily, Gettysburg is one of the top tourist destinations in Pennsylvania. Known for its quaint charm, downtown shops and restaurants, and, of course, the battlefield, Gettysburg is a pleasant, family-friendly place to visit. A casino would seriously detract from that enduring appeal.

In addition to conflicting with the historic character of a beloved national battlefield, the casino would divert a whopping $60 million from local businesses, according to a recent economic assessment by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT). The region's thriving heritage tourism industry, the quality of life for local residents, and the historic and natural resources that make Gettysburg a national icon would all suffer.

National parks are some of our nation's most endangered, irreplaceable resources - Civil War battlefields no less so than wild places such as Yellowstone or the Everglades. Sadly, due to their locations near growing population centers, many battlefields are especially vulnerable to inappropriate development. Today, the same landscapes upon which our nation was formed and tested are being consumed by fast-food restaurants, strip malls, and other forms of suburban sprawl. Nearly 20 percent of our historic Civil War battlefields already have been paved over.

When the Crossroads casino was first proposed, our primary concern was that it would damage the countryside that gives the Gettysburg battlefield meaning and character, and encourage more of the growth that is eating away at the park's edges. What has since been revealed is just how devastating the casino would be to the economy of the Gettysburg region.

During the April 7 hearing before the Gaming Control Board, economist Michael Siegel, who prepared an economic assessment of the casinos for the CWPT, seriously undermined the rosy picture investors have predicted for Gettysburg. Siegel testified that Gettysburg is one of the areas in Pennsylvania that would be most vulnerable to the adverse effects of a large casino.

His report takes issue with Chance Enterprises' reliance on Vicksburg, Miss. - a gambling hot spot with a Civil War past - as a positive model of how a casino might affect Gettysburg. In fact, in 1994, after the first year the casinos were open, visitation to Vicksburg National Military Park fell 21 percent. Since then, visitation rates have struggled back to pre-casino levels. Before the casinos opened, Vicksburg's visitation had been growing at about 5 percent a year.

In Warren County, where Vicksburg is situated, nonmanufacturing wage and salary employment fell by several hundred jobs following the opening of four casinos. There was a slight increase after 1997, but another decline in 2000. These jobs and visitation figures strongly suggest that tens of millions of dollars of economic activity were diverted from Vicksburg-area businesses to its casinos.

Like casinos, Civil War battles always had their winners and losers, but ultimately all Americans won. Our nation's founding principles of democracy and freedom were strengthened, and it is a blessing that we can still share those battlefields with our children. Yet, if this casino goes forward, we all stand to lose.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Lighthizer is president of the Civil War Preservation Trust. Tom Kiernan is president of the National Parks Conservation Association. Contact the writers at jlighthizer@civilwar.org and tkiernan@npca.org.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Short Story: The Devil's Malevolent Symphony

2006-06-25T20:47:00.000-04:00

Standing shoulder to shoulder with the determined, thinning ranks, he glared forward through the sulfurous haze lingering between the opposing lines. Shots battered his ears from both sides of the seemingly endless gray line. The fiery yellow sun, spotlighting the unfolding tempestuous drama, heated the stuffy humid air which oppressed the original optimism of their earlier advance. Quickly grabbing another cartridge, he tore the end with his teeth and emptied the contents down the simmering musket barrel. Fighting among the thousands, he felt both invincible and vulnerable out on the featureless, shelter-free fields. Picking another target not 80 yards to his front, he cocked the hammer, placed the cap, and aimed towards the blue-clad figures aiming at him. As he lowered his rifle, ominous puffs of smoke appeared almost at the time he felt the jarring shock. Spinning away from the pain, he fell violently, face first into the hot dry ground.

The frenzy continued mocking the apparent insignificance of his sudden removal from the contest. The muskets roared. Officers shouted. The battle raged. A riderless horse galloped past, hurrying away in blind directionless fear. But he could not see it; would not have seen it. A ball had collided with the bone in his lower left leg. The shattered useless limb had accelerated his decent into the unforgiving earth which he now tasted beneath him. Pain held him in its white hot grasp, begging him to reach for its source while instantly punishing any movement made to remedy the searing agony.

Unable to reach his wound, he lay still praying the pain would subside, yet knowing otherwise. The torment danced inside him making each short minute seem like endless, torturous days. He laid face down, chest heaving, leaden balls zipping around laughing at his misery while threatening to bring more. The confusing roar of battle thundered all around him. Hell’s orchestra played on, glorying in its deafening malicious furry with every terrible note.

He wanted to move, to turn towards the lines and see his comrades. He struggled to catch a glimpse of his friends. Like a ravenous demon, pain shrieked aloud with every attempt at shifting his weight, raking his nerves raw with agony. He lay still, hoping the pain would pass, letting his mind go elsewhere. Despite the thousands in their front, he knew they had gotten close. Victory waited just beyond the low stone wall that now scoffed at his feeble inability to advance. “Home” his commander had said, waited on the other side of that low unimposing boundary. The ground shuddered as a lanyard let loose a murderous blast from Union artillery adding a cymbal’s crash to the Devil’s malevolent symphony.

Wincing with pain he glanced down to see bone protruding through the badly frayed skin just below his knee. He needed a tourniquet but his head again fell forward hard onto the soil. He knew what was to come. One side would inevitably submit to the other. If the bluecoats held, they would plan for a counter stroke and march past his irrelevant form as he lay in the dust. If victory instead smiled south, the reserves would follow, focused clearly on the glorious rout of the fleeing enemy. Either way, for now he would lie anonymously on contested ground. Aid would come only with the white flag or a beneficent straggler, if either arrived in time. Then he would most certainly face the saw. But for now, the surgeon could wait. His one overwhelming desire became the growing, all consuming thirst which gripped him harshly by the throat. Each gasping breath intensified the insatiable, unbearable thirst swelling within.

While the sun scorched his prostrate form, no longer trying to think, an unexpected feeling startled him. The soil under his face suddenly felt damp and comparatively cool. On the side of his face, he could feel a pasty mud forming, replacing the dry parched earth which just moments ago caught his fall. He recognized the familiar taste however. He knew that like Christ on the cross, this vinegar would offer no relief. Feebly feeling around his shoulders and neck, his trembling hand returned to his field of vision, covered in blood. The sting on his neck spoke to the source as the fear grew that his waking moments might now be few. The blood from his neck, the increasingly unendurable thirst, and the reality of this day told him clearly he likely had little time left.

He recalled wondering what it would mean to be wounded. So many brave had marched into battle, only to suffer on fields of agony or under the surgeon’s knife. Yet thus far, that cup had passed from him. A kind Providence, he firmly believed, had watched over him, spared him. As the sound of battle faded, he wondered what he had done to offend the God who had until now so graciously kept him from harms eager grasp.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the blurry outline of a figure waving something thrust over his head, a hat perhaps, held boldly aloft. The questions of who or why did not come as his thirst and pain subsided. His world drifted into a silent darkness. Just before the light faded entirely, with an increasingly labored and shallow breath, he sought God’s forgiveness then whispered to his family that he loved them.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The PGCB Dismisses Dissention

2006-06-19T21:02:00.000-04:00

Several times I have contacted the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board asking when they would post the transcripts of the recent casino hearings. After having testified in Gettysburg on Wednesday, April 5 2006, I had hoped that the public would have access to the transcripts, especially given the overwhelming opposition stated.

After several months, I received their response. The PGCB said, and I quote the e-mail in its entirety:

"The transcripts of the public input hearings will not be posted on the
PGCB website. You are able to view these transcripts in the PGCB's
Harrisburg office. Please call to schedule an appointment.

PA Gaming Control Board
P.O. Box 69060
Harrisburg, PA 17106
717-346-8300"

As they clearly state, in order to obtain a transcript from these public hearings, the PGCB requires an appointment. Concerned citizens from both Pennsylvania and around the country who prove unable to travel to Harrisburg have no opportunity to read for themselves the testimony given during the proceedings. Since the PGCB regularly posts on-line the last few years of meeting transcripts, one can only assume that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board made their decision in order to keep opposing testimony out of the public eye. This becomes then another in the growing collection of very sad days for Pennsylvania politics.

For other articles concerning the proposed casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield, please see:

More Opposition to the Proposed Gettysburg Casino

The Gettysburg Casino Hearings

Last Chance to Testify Against Gettysburg Casino

A Casino in Gettysburg: The Danger, The Truth

The Smothering Mantle of Irrelevancy

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Not Shot But Bayoneted

2006-06-18T21:13:00.000-04:00

While the American Civil War offers endless examples of inspirational gallantry and heroism, we must not fall prey to the ever lurking temptation to romanticize this fascinating yet dreadful conflict. In a letter written to General John L. Hodsdon of Augusta Maine, Captain James Hall of the 2nd Maine Artillery speaks of the many facets of war. In this instance, he writes of the Battle of Gettysburg.

"We again bore the brunt of the battle at Gettysburg on the 1st day of July (and the first of the fight). I was the advance Artillery of the Army of the Potomac and was engaged for more than an hour before any battery came to our assistance. And you may well know we got badly hurt. 36 horses & 22 men in about one hour and a half - My loss in men was many of them slightly wounded and several taken prisoner so close was the action. We were so reduced in horses that we were obliged to drag two guns off by hand. The boys fought like the D-, never better. You may judge when I tell you that many of our horses were not shot but bayoneted that it was a close and desperate struggle for our guns, two of which they actually had hold of at one time. I have seen hard fighting before. And been badly smashed up, but I never saw a battery taken from the field and its guns saved in so bad a state as the Old Second came of that day. On Thursday and Friday we were engaged on Cemetery Hill and suffered only slightly. - The victory on our part on Friday the 3d was most glorious.

We are in line of battle and momentarily expecting a battle although I think at times Lee has escaped. - As soon as we get into camp, the monthly return for June will be forth coming.

I have the honor
to be very Respectfuly
Your Obt. Servt.
James A. Hall"

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: Maine State Archives

The Graves of our Dead

2006-06-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

The Blue & The Gray

The flow of the inland river,
Hence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day ;
Under the one, the Blue;
Under the other, the Gray.

These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Under the laurel, the Blue;
Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day ;
Under the roses, the Blue;
Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor
The morning sun-rays fall,
With a touch, impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue;
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the Summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain ;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Wet with the rain, the Blue;
Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done;
In the storm of the years that are fading,
No braver battle was won;
Under the sod aad the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlands, the Gray.

No more shall the war-cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day ;
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.

Francis Miles Finch (1827–1907)

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Review: Horses of Gettysburg

2006-06-06T21:18:00.000-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, I viewed with pleasure a rather uncommon documentary film on DVD concerning the Battle of Gettysburg and the American Civil War. Narrated by Ronald F. Maxwell, director of the epic films Gettysburg and Gods and Generals, the documentary film Horses of Gettysburg held my attention from beginning to end.

With eager anticipation, I placed the first DVD in the tray, sitting back comfortably in my chair, ready for whatever would come. Producer/Director Mark Bussler's beautiful cinematography immediately captured my attention as spectacular high- definition battlefield panoramas gracefully advanced in succession across the screen. Noble equestrian statues rose silhouetted against tranquil, kaleidoscopic sunrises while waves of early morning mists caressed the familiar, sacred landscapes. Gentle breezes subtly intensified the imagery as the fog shrouded grounds eerily mimicked the once ominous smoke covered fields of battle.

While relishing the pristine landscapes, magnificent horses came galloping, trotting, charging, and grazing. Cavalrymen guided their agile, powerful mounts through a trickling brook as the late morning sun slipped through the swaying leaves. Squadrons of mounted re-enactors charged their foes in chaotic cavalry clashes or attacks on stubbornly entrenched infantry. Beautiful horses of common and noble lineage surveyed their surroundings, endured examinations, or gratefully accepted a handful of oats. Although the photography proved the initial source of captivation, the perspectives on the animals and their contributions soon made this production complete.

After the initial majestic vistas set the stage, the production progressed, offering intriguing perspectives on the war. The film amply met the challenge of presenting unique viewpoints with which to consider this crucial yet so familiar battle. According to the narrative, an estimated 72,000 horses and mules brought the Southern and Northern forces to battle on these now consecrated grounds. About 5,000 lay dead when the conflagration receded at day’s end on July 3, 1863. This battle, this war, could not have progressed as it did without the horses.

The documentary guides you through a brief summary of how horses and their kin impacted society and warfare throughout human history. Progressing to the 19th Century, Horses of Gettysburg adeptly addresses how soldiers on both sides acquired, examined, cared for and trained their horses to adjust to the thunder of artillery, the firing of musketry, the beating of the regimental drums, and the overall pandemonium of deadly battle. A wonderful variety of old photographs, sketches, and paintings cascade across the screen to illustrate the various points made. Interwoven among these vintage photos, the scenes of re-enactors and their animals easily transport you to another time some 140 years past.

Continuing on, you enjoy discussions of how the armies employed the animals, horses and mules alike, to satisfy the many military necessities of the day. Given this film’s title, you also witness lively re-enactments of the roles these animals played, depicting the accomplishments of individuals on horseback, battalions, brigades, or the contributions of mule teams and their drivers. The efforts of Buford’s men on Day 1, J.E.B. Stuart’s and Custer’s cavalry brawl on July 3, 1863, a mule team’s rush of ammunition to desperate troops, Captain Bigelow’s heroism on Day 2, General Farnsworth’s fatal charge, Frank Haskell’s view from the saddle and many other stories make the time immersed in this DVD pass all too quickly. The occasional stubborn mule and their eccentric handlers add a touch of levity and balance to the occasionally somber tales.

As your journey with Disc 1 winds down and the credits roll by, still more awaits the fortunate viewer. During the next several minutes, Mark Bussler adds a wonderful collection of old shots of the battlefield, postcards, photographs and other scenes which keep you glued until the final slide. Then comes Disc 2 which contains over 3 hours of additional special features including 3 personal interviews, 3 documentaries on horses in American history and several Inecom trailers.

Producer/Director Mark Bussler's depictions of fog shrouded fields, frenzied cavalry charges, magnificent horses, compelling stories of sacrifice, playful moments and somber depictions of devastation and tragedy impact on all levels. Along with Ronald F. Maxwell's respectful, authoritative narration, each segment clearly manifests a sense of reverence for the animals, the men and events which so dramatically shaped the country that we call home. The beautiful cinematography inspires. The unique perspective informs. Combined as they are here, I suspect you will do as I did and watch Horses of Gettysburg again.

For more information about "Horses of Gettysburg", please visit www.inecom.com

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Short Story: Coward

2006-06-04T21:51:00.000-04:00

Last nights few hours sleep did not lift the burdensome cloud of fatigue. Neither did the rain that now pelted anything unlucky enough to be out in this weather. Moving forward to his assigned position, he sloshed through growing streams of muddy runoff swelling in the streets and then over the soggy fields past town.

Trudging on, he thought that their battles always seemed to end like this as if nature wished to separate herself from the deeds of men by washing the stains of war from her soil. He wondered if perhaps God commanded a drenching, belated baptism to save the numerous dead. He walked on. The rain, normally a nuisance, provided some welcome relief from the past days sweltering heat. The downpour cleansed his clothing, skin, and hair of the thick dust and acrid smell of sulfur. That it soaked everything he wore seemed a necessary price to pay.

Taking his place on the picket line, he sat on a rock, his thoughts wandering as his eyes panned the open spaces to his front. He wondered if a similar man in gray looked back at him, rifle at hand. They would soon move in pursuit, he supposed, but for now, the three days of hell had ended. Their adversaries had silently withdrawn during the night, leaving the good townspeople to eagerly encourage them back onto the streets through which they had retreated just a few days earlier.

Gazing around him, he thought that perhaps the cooling rain would slow the bloating of the thousands of poor souls who now lay dead on the recently contested ground. "May it also soothe those", he prayed to himself, "who among them still held to life." Battle was an old acquaintance, a familiar but unwelcome guest who always returns, invited or not. But the scale of these fights continued to grow. He had seen battle before, but not like this. Just three days ago, they had proudly marched through town in orderly, disciplined columns, determined to erase the taint on their name that seeped deeper than the chill from this pelting rain. Two months prior, the foe put them to flight, an inglorious, unmistakable rout. They had failed at their primary task to secure the right flank of the Union Army. Thankfully, the townspeople either did not know about or had forgiven their lapse. The local citizens had welcomed them on Wednesday as they strode for the fields north of town.

That they continued to be called cowards seemed unjust and stoked a simmering anger that he fought to keep hidden. But even this downpour could not entirely extinguish the flames of resentment which that name, that insult fanned. They had not been so well led if you asked him. He certainly could not have changed their disposition on that Saturday in May. With thousands of screaming men in butternut and gray bursting upon them from the dense woods, leaden messengers of death whistling by, swarming like angry hornets, what could he have done? He had tried to fight. He stood his ground. But despite his determination, the crushing numbers compelled him to leave. At least he had not blindly run through friendly into enemy lines as some others had. Nor had many of those who tried to stand with him. Yet, he now had the humiliating brand of coward, as yellow as newly churned butter. Without thought, he griped his musket tighter, pulling it closer to him. Water continued to drip unnoticed down his back.

Did his army comrades look upon the dead of his Corps as cowards? Did collision with a bullet save the fallen from that taint? What of his once boyhood friend who, during the battles in the Valley, had pulled him to safer ground after a ball pierced his thigh? Three days ago, on these fields, he had watched his friend collapse in agony to the ground, shot to the stomach, and could not help him. The man who had saved his life lay nearby writhing in pain. Yet he continued to load and fire as ordered. When they fell back, he knew that leaving his friend doomed him to the slow agonizing death typical of those gut shot. Did the bullet or the suffering remove his friend’s stain of cowardice?

And what of the wounded? Could anyone justly call men cowardly who now missed a hand, arm, or leg? Did those who survived the butchery of the surgeon’s tent rightly deserve such aspersions? What of the long marches, 20 or more miles a day, at times without water or food? He recalled the thirst and the layers of dust on his teeth as they endured these forces marches, as blind to their destinations as to the trials to be asked of them. The rain now would have been very welcome then.

Just a few days ago, this place offered the chance to earn anew the privilege of holding their heads high. After the fight to come, no longer would others call any member of his Corps yellow dogs. Thoughts drifted to his family. How he missed them. As much as he loved them, since May, he could barely stand the thought of writing to them as he had done so faithfully since he enlisted. He recalled the decision to fight for his adopted country to earn their acceptance, along with the needed $13 a month in pay. One year ago, he thought to fight to shed himself and his family of the tag "immigrant". Now, he would fight to erase the name "coward" as well. He sadly remembered the letters from home that he had so eagerly sought with each mail delivery. Now they scared him. What if they too thought him a coward, not quite a man, lacking in honor?

Eager to rid his mind of these torments, he forced himself to look up and out over the rain battered fields. Could any of the small nameless shapes scattered about the muddy, wet ground yet hold life? How much better off than they was he? Glancing back down at his shoes, the troubling words crashed back into consciousness. Yet now, defiance swelled in his breast. Damn it, he was not a coward. Their Corps had fought Stonewall Jackson in the Valley. They saw over 1,600 of their own fall at 2nd Bull Run and more than 1,500 at Chancellorsville. No. These were good men.

This battle could have brought them salvation. This battle could have made things right. But, despite their losses, no one granted them the laurels given the rest of the army. How could they be so deprived of the honor they deserved, the honor they earned? On the first day, their commander ordered them to take position to the right of Reynolds’ Corps in an open field void of protection. Resolutely, they marched into those fields. But, the artillery fire on that blasted hill kept them from joining with their comrades to their left. That left a gap, dangerously exposing their left and right flanks. When the assault came, nothing but clear space stood between them and the surging force he had known waited beyond the trees in their front.

Men in gray and butternut waved flags and shrieked as they always did, the sound penetrating as solidly as the balls. The dull thuds of bullets hitting flesh sounded as numerous then as the rain that now fell. He grimaced as he recalled the slashing shards of exploding shells that gashed and tore men’s flesh. The agonizing cries. The pleas for help. The blank empty eyes that stared skyward. The irreparable sorrow enfolding another family, now without a father, brother, or son.

The deadly battle re-appeared to him as if he again held his musket towards the onrushing gray lines. Their own blue ranks stretched thin, they could not hold their ground. With southerners again coming on their right, surging in their front, and moving on their left, they gave way, some fighting, others running through the town on whose streets they had so proudly marched just a short time ago. He again felt the stain growing, the name ringing in his head. Coward. He had not heard the numbers but he knew that they had lost in both killed and wounded more that they had in any other battle. He knew from the ominous silence that came in response to the names called at roll. So many now gone. If these men were cowards, then with pride he would call himself one of them.

He pulled his hat down over his face. The saturating rain continued. Next time, he would show them all that he was worthy of the uniform, of the 11 Corps’ insignia, and of being a United States Volunteer. He was no coward.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Such is War

2006-05-28T22:57:00.000-04:00

20th Connecticut Monument on Culp's Hill
Gettysburg National Military Park
After the fighting ended on July 3, 1863, the grim task of caring for the wounded and of burying the dead occupied the time of the soldiers until ordered to move from the battlefield. Corporal Horatio Chapman, 20th Connecticut, described it thus.

"We built fires all over the battle field and the dead of the blue and gray were being buried all night, and the wounded carried to the hospital. We made no distinction between our own and the confederate wounded, but treated them both alike, and although we had been engaged in fierce and deadly combat all day and weary and all begrimed with smoke and powder and dust, many of us went around among the wounded and gave cooling water or hot coffee to drink. The confederates were surprised and so expressed themselves that they received such kind treatment at our hands, and some of the slightly wounded were glad they were wounded and our prisoners. But in front of our breastworks, where the confederates were massed in large numbers, the sight was truly awful and appalling. The shells from our batteries had told with fearful and terrible effect upon them and the dead in some places were piled upon each other, and the groans and moans of the wounded were truly saddening to hear. Some were just alive and gasping, but unconscious. Others were mortally wounded and were conscious of the f act that they could not live long; and there were others wounded, how bad they could not tell, whether mortal or otherwise, and so it was they would linger on some longer and some for a shorter time-without the sight or consolation of wife, mother, sister or friend.

I saw a letter sticking out of the breast pocket of one of the confederate dead, a young man apparently about twenty-four. Curiosity prompted me to read it. It was from his young wife away down in the state of Louisiana. She was hoping and longing that this cruel war would end and he could come home, and she says, "Our little boy gets into my lap and says, `Now, Mama, I will give you a kiss for Papa.' But oh how I wish you could come home and kiss me for yourself." But this is only one in a thousand. But such is war and we are getting used to it and can look on scenes of war, carnage and suffering with but very little feeling and without a shudder."

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

More of this quote and further information on the 20th Connecticut can be found at 20th Connecticut Infantry Volunteers

Vandals Still Sought

2006-05-22T06:49:00.000-04:00

The article below is reprinted from the York Daily Record. For more information, please refer to this earlier blog entry (The Sad Damage & Needed Assistance)

Search Continues for Gettysburg Statue Vandals
In two cases, repairs prove difficult.
By ANGIE MASON
Daily Record/Sunday News

May 21, 2006 — Gettysburg park officials hope information about civil war monuments vandalized three months ago will turn up but have researched options to repair two of the statues if missing pieces aren't recovered.

Gettysburg National Military Park officials have taken leads since three monuments - honoring the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the 11th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and the 4th New York Battery - were the targets of vandals Feb. 16, but are still looking for information to help lead them to the responsible party.

The Pennsylvania statue was fixed and returned to its base in March, and repairs to the historic cast iron fence around it are more than half finished, said Katie Lawhon, spokeswoman for the park.

Figuring out how to repair the other monuments has taken a little more investigation.

Internet research led to a monument in New Hampshire that contains an artilleryman identical to the one depicted in the New York monument at Gettysburg, where the statue's head and rammer were stolen, Lawhon said.

Although they hope the parts will be recovered, park officials could make a mold from the New Hampshire statue and cast new bronze parts, she said.

Repairing the Massachusetts monument, a carved granite arm holding a sword, is proving more challenging. The arm was shattered and parts, including the sword, stolen.

The park already had a pattern for the bronze sword, which had been stolen before. However, the arm is harder to replace.

"Sculpting the new granite arm will be very difficult without a model," Lawhon said, noting that the park has even tracked down descendents of the original granite company that made the statue but couldn't find a useful model.

"We're sort of still hoping something will come to light on that," she said.

A $36,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the vandals is still being offered.

"We're still hearing from people anxious to see justice served," said Dru Anne Neil, spokeswoman for Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, which contributed $30,000 to the reward fund. "We just hope somewhere somebody knows something."

Tourists can still visit the monuments. The Pennsylvania monument has a little red caution tape around the broken fence, Lawhon said, but otherwise looks "pretty darn good."

At the other two monuments, visitors can still read the inscriptions on the granite pedestals that once supported the statues, she said.

"There may be some visitors who aren't aware a figure is missing," she said.

Seeking tips

Anyone with information about vandalism to monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park can call the park at (717) 334-0909 or Adams County Crime Stoppers at 800-869-8057.

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

A Soldier's Grim Remembrance

2006-05-14T20:53:00.000-04:00

Oft times, the glory of war fades when confronted with a soldier's grim reality.

"The hoarse and indistinguishable orders of commanding officers, the screaming and bursting of shells, canister and shrapnel as they tore through the struggling masses of humanity, the death screams of wounded animals, the groans of their human companions, wounded and dying and trampled underfoot by hurrying batteries, riderless horses and the moving lines of battle-a perfect Hell on earth, never, perhaps to be equaled, certainly not to be surpassed, nor ever to be forgotten in a man's lifetime. It has never been effaced from my memory, day or night, for fifty years."

Reminiscences of the Rebellion - William Archibald Waugh

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Yankees are Coming

2006-05-14T17:28:00.000-04:00

Before proceeding, I must apologize for the lack of a noted source for this article. Only to my apparent carelessness can I attribute not writing down the source of this excerpt when first obtained. If anyone knows of this article's origins, please let me know and I will give the proper credit.

Still, I hope a few will find this interesting, especially those curious about civilian life during the war.

"In the fall of 1863 we were very much menaced by General Rosecrans' army up about Dalton and Resaca, and every little while we would have an alarm that a raid was coming. A raid was a very amusing thing, or rather, it is amusing to think of now. We would wake up out of our sleep and every- body would spring out of bed saying, "The Yankees are coming; they are only 10 miles out of town; they are coming with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other." That was the watchword. Then we would all try to think what we had that was valuable, although at that time we didn't have much except the family silver and furniture, which were rapidly wearing out. The supply of bed linen was also getting small. The blankets had been all sent to the soldiers long before. Very few housekeepers had blankets as late as 1863. On these occasions the ladies would put on three or four dresses and tie around under the dresses everything that could be suspended and hidden in that way. Hams would be jerked out of the smoke-house, and holes would be dug and every- thing thrown in pell mell. Then we would begin to imagine that because we knew where those things were, the first Yankee that appeared would know, too, and often we would go and take them all up from there and dig another hole and put them in that; so that our yards came to look like graveyards. It is very funny to think of now, but it wasn't funny then-to be flying around in the middle of the night that way. Then, to add to the confusion, the children would wake up and would stare around with a vacant look, and begin saying, "What is the matter? What is the matter?" And then we would tell them "The Yankees are coming."...

The ideas of the children about the Yankees was very funny. As soon as they heard the Yankees were coming they would jump up and get under the bed, or run out of the house. In fact they would have no idea of what they ought to do to preserve themselves. If you told them the house was on fire of course their first impulse would have been to get out of the house, but when you told them the Yankees were coming they didn't know what to do or which way to turn-whether to run out of the house or to get under the bed or go up the chimney.

I remember one night-all these things come up to me now so vividly-1 remember just such a night as I have been describing, when all the children jumped up and got under the bed. We asked what was the matter. Well, "the Yankees were coming." There was one little girl who was terribly frightened. She had no idea whether the Yankees were men, or horses, or what kind of animals they were. She just knew that they were something dreadful. That business went on through the whole of that night; we would hear that the Yankees were six miles off; that they were two miles off, and every sound we heard, whether it was the baker's cart, or anything else, we would think it was the Yankees; that they were actually in town.

On these occasions, after we had secured the things, as we thought, there would be consultations as to which of the servants would be the most trustworthy to do the manual labor -which ones we could take into our confidence, for of course it was necessary to have a Negro man around to lift things. We were obliged to take them into our confidence, and yet we mistrusted them on such occasions, because this was in 1863, and by that time there had been a great many stories told among us of the disloyalty of servants in such emergencies.

On the night I am now speaking of this excitement continued until morning came. Everybody had been up all night, and it would have been a relief to us to have known that the Yankees had come; but after awhile we ascertained that it was an unmistakable demonstration; that the Yankees were really down here about Gadsden, and that the report brought to Rome had come from a very reliable man, who had traveled all night to carry the news. The first alarm came from somebody who had heard of the matter but was not able to report the entire truth. That night and the next morning all was suspense...

Just as we were all expecting the Yankees to come in, and expecting that we were just literally going to be butchered- in fact I don't know what we did think-a courier came rushing into town with the news that Forrest had captured the Yankees and was bringing them in with him as captives. Then there was a reaction, and the excitement was worse than any camp-meeting you ever saw. Everybody was flying from one end of the town to the other. Suppers that were just ready to be cooked were never cooked or eaten; there was a general jollification. Everybody in town felt relieved from a terrible pressure. Forrest came into town and every lady insisted on going up and speaking to the general and shaking hands with him and his forces. My daughter Minnie was a baby at the time, and I took her with me and went up and spoke to him and he took her and kissed her. He told us that his prisoners were coming into town, and he wanted them to eat at once. Everybody went home and there was just a regular wholesale cooking of hams and shoulders and all sorts of provisions that we had, and everything was sent down to the respective camps. We were quite willing to feed the Yankees when they had no guns.

-Testimony of Mrs. Mary A. Ward”

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

History's Familiar Ring

2006-05-07T20:16:00.000-04:00

Occasionally, I receive a strange look or awkward glance when I mention my passion for the American Civil War. The inevitable question soon follows concerning the relevance of events some 140 years past. That history forgotten repeats itself may appear too trite a response. Yet, consider this comment by Frank Haskell, an Army of the Potomac veteran and soldier at the Battle of Gettysburg. His sentiments possess a very familiar ring.

Cemetery Ridge south of the Copse of Trees,
part of the ground Lt. Frank Haskell helped to defend.
"But men there are who think that nothing was gained or done well in this battle, because some other general did not have the command, or because any portion of the army of the enemy was permitted to escape capture or destruction. As if one army of a hundred thousand men could encounter another of the same number of as good troops and annihilate it! Military men do not claim or expect this; but the McClellan destroyers do, the doughty knights of purchasable newspaper quills; the formidable warriors from the brothels of politics, men of much warlike experience against honesty and honor, of profound attainments in ignorance, who have the maxims of Napoleon, whose spirit they as little understand as they most things, to quote, to prove all things; but who, unfortunately, have much influence in the country and with the Government, and so over the army. It is very pleasant for these people, no doubt, at safe distances from guns, in the enjoyment of a lucrative office, or of a fraudulently obtained government contract, surrounded by the luxuries of their own firesides, where mud and flooding storms, and utter weariness never penetrate, to discourse of battles and how campaigns should be conducted and armies of the enemy destroyed. But it should be enough, perhaps, to say that men here, or elsewhere, who have knowledge enough of military affairs to entitle them to express an opinion on such matters, and accurate information enough to realize the nature and the means of this desired destruction of Lee's army before it crossed the Potomac into Virginia, will be most likely to vindicate the Pennsylvania campaign of Gen. Meade, and to see that he accomplished all that could have been reasonably expected of any general of any army."

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Commentary: A Southern Victory at Gettysburg

2006-04-30T20:22:00.000-04:00

A gentleman from England who had a short time ago toured the Battlefields at Gettysburg sent me a question. It read in part, “Our guide on the tour gave us a talk on the build up to the civil war and talked about what might have happened. Simply put he pointed out that if the confederates had won at Gettysburg they might have forced Lincoln to sue for peace and there would have been two Americas, USA AND CSA. Supposing that had happened. How do the think these two countries would have developed. I have heard the point of view that they would have inevitably drifted back together again. Others say that in a way the war is still going on and therefore they would have stayed apart.”

Honestly, I find the answering of "what if" questions difficult primarily because I do not believe anyone can provide an adequate answer. To attempt such, one must decide which of the infinite number of factors which had contributed to the original outcome would remain constant and which would change in an expected or defined manner. Millennia of efforts have failed to develop a reliable strategy for predicting the actions of one person over short periods of time in somewhat controlled situations. How much more complicated then would we find the task of predicting the outcome of events with an entire country at war?

The danger with choosing the factors on which to focus stems in part from the temptation to selectively emphasize those that, even subtly, support preconceived views and biases. Even when assuming some measure of objectivity, too many questions vie for priority on the list of considerations to permit accurate forecasting. First, if you accept the necessity of a Southern victory at the Battle of Gettysburg to winning Southern independence, a point debatable on its own, the question remains whether or not it would have proven sufficient. Yet even with this somewhat basic question, the pitfalls emerge. I find unrealistic the assumption that casualty figures would have remained the same if the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg differed. After General Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, he had several major strategic victories where he took the offensive. However, the Southern casualty figures tended to be higher in either number or percentage than the Federals with each costly success. The Sevens Days and Chancellorsville, where he repeatedly assumed the aggressive, serve as prime examples.

More questions emerge. Would a victory at Gettysburg then have allowed for a sufficient number of Southern commanders remaining to permit the Confederate government to successfully prosecute the war? Such hypotheticals proposed prior to the Battle of Chancellorsville would doubtfully have included the possibility of General Thomas J. Jackson's death. Likewise, when considering similar questions for Gettysburg, how many would include in the discussion the possible death of James Longstreet, JEB Stuart, or even General Lee as they followed up their success?

If Lee had won at Gettysburg, would Longstreet's detachment have gone on to support General Braxton Bragg and contribute to the Confederate victory at Chickamauga or would Lee have decided that he needed Old Pete to follow up his recent success? If Longstreet remained with the Army of Northern Virginia and Union General William S. Rosecranz at least did not suffer defeat at Chickamauga, would the following siege at Chattanooga have occurred? If not, would the lack of an opportunity for Ulysses S. Grant to raze the siege have meant that President Lincoln would not have opted to elevated him to General in Chief? Would Lincoln have moved Grant north to confront Lee without this promotion? Would William T. Sherman still have waged his lethal March to the Sea if instead General Rosecranz moved into Georgia after a Union victory or even a stalemate at Chickamauga?

If the Confederates had won at Gettysburg, would European powers have intervened or had the Union’s narrow victory at Antietam significantly diminished that likelihood? Would the Union victory at Vicksburg, and perhaps Chickamauga if Longstreet was not with Braxton Bragg, have held England and France at bay?

With a Union loss at Gettysburg, would the possible cries for General George B. McClellan have returned him again to the Eastern Theater and if so, would he have then still run for president in 1864? If not, would the Democratic party have chosen another candidate who could have more clearly defined a unified Democratic platform? If so, could that person have defeated Lincoln especially given the potential decline in Northern morale with a loss at Gettysburg?

If the south appeared on the verge of winning, would other northern states have seceded and formed their own Union as some had threatened? With a Southern victory, would foreign powers have invested in a devastated Confederacy allowing the necessary degree of reconstruction for an expeditious re-birth? Would the Northern businesses have again eagerly imported Southern cotton, reviving the devastated economy while rekindling the need for slave labor? Would the south have moved on to conquer or purchase Cuba and other land south of the existing borders in order to perpetuate slavery? Would they have then clashed again with the North for the remaining territories to continue to acquire land with a cotton friendly climate?

If Lincoln won re-election despite the hypothesized Southern successes, would John Wilkes Booth have played the role of assassin? If not, what would the impact of a still determined Lincoln have had on the war effort?

Then we consider the question of black Americans, both freed and still in bondage. They certainly would not have become passive actors in this postulated play. Even if the Confederates emerged from the conflict victorious, would enough white men have survived the war to sustain the institution of slavery? University of Virginia Professor Dr. Gary Gallagher has argued that the relationship between slave and master changed significantly as the war progressed due to the absence of white men to manage the plantations. Would those slaves who remained in bondage but assumed greater degrees of authority have acquiesced to the loss of their new found power, limited as it was? What actions would the veteran United States Colored Troops, over 100,000 strong, have taken after their mustering out of the Army should the South have won?

Obviously, this could continue indefinitely but would serve no useful purpose except to perhaps continue to evade drawing hypothetical conclusions. Those offered would draw critical responses based on those factors on which the critic chose to focus. Debate still rages about the impact of specific tactical decisions made or not made during the battle itself. Given the lack of agreement on events of a much smaller scale, the potential results of a Confederate victory during the Battle of Gettysburg will likely continue to elude us all.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Antietam's Fleeting Stain

2006-04-27T21:14:00.000-04:00

With sadness, I read the news that the Ku Klux Klan received approval to march on the hallowed grounds of the Antietam National Battlefield. Some will understandably say that these hooded men and their message must be challenged. On the same fields where so many died for their beliefs, we could do no less. Others will plead that we ignore their display to deprive them of the publicity they so desperately seek. Lacking the desired conflict and confrontations needed to attract and recruit others, their numbers will fall and their mission fail.

I say that I am saddened by the presence of a group so inextricably linked to hatred and by the coming act which detracts from the focus of those beautiful, sacred grounds. On September 17, 1862, thousands of men lost their lives as our country struggled to save its immortal soul. Countless more emerged from the fog of battle no longer whole in mind and body. The fields of Antietam serve to remind us of their desperate sacrifice and our storied heritage. This offensive stain, while mercifully fleeting, does neither the veterans of that field nor our shared history the justice they have both earned and deserve.

For more information, please click here.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Antietam - Gods and Generals Cut Scene

2006-04-23T13:42:00.000-04:00

About one year ago when I started this blog, I included a plea to anyone who may know how I might obtain a copy of the Director's Cut of the movie "Gettysburg". Having seen the entire uncut film several times, I can honestly say the extended version is both powerful and moving, even more so than the version released to the general public.

Like its cousin, the movie "Gods and Generals" also received its fair share of edits. Below I have posted a link to a clip of the fighting at Antietam which, although filmed for the movie, did not make the theatrical version released a few years ago. The movie had received a fair amount of criticism for what some viewed as its overly romantic flair. This clip available at the link below, if left in the movie, perhaps would have forestalled such talk.

If prompted to download a plug-in, you must proceed at your own risk since I cannot vouch for the safety of any downloads. Also, due to the clips small size you may wish to double its size by clicking on the "2X" that appears when you place your mouse on the viewing screen. You must have RealPlayer to play this clip.

If anyone knows where or how I can obtain a copy of either the Director's Cut of "Gettysburg" or Gods and Generals", I would be forever grateful for such information. You can e-mail me by clicking on the link in the right hand panel of this page.

This clip may not be appropriate for young children.

Gods and Generals: Antietam

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Tredegar Iron Works

2006-04-15T14:34:00.000-04:00

A trip to Richmond, Virginia last year gave witness to one of the wonders of the Confederacy. Tredegar Iron Works, situated along the James River and now the home to the National Park Service Visitor's Center, turned out about 1,000 cannon during the war, nearly half of that produced in the south. I've included a few pictures below. If you are interested, the National Park Service has a nice, brief summary of the role played by Tredegar on their web site at Tredegar Iron Works: An Introduction.

In a few of the pictures, I edited out signs or other modern intrusions. Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

More Opposition to Proposed Gettysburg Casino

2006-04-14T13:56:00.000-04:00

This article speaks for itself.

"Trust's Report Assails Casino Application"

******************

Update: April 19, 2006

I re-checked the above link today and noticed the link is now broken. Since the Evening Sun apparently does not archive their articles for more than a few weeks, I have included below a copy of the article from the Civil War Preservation Trust web site.

******************

"For Immediate Release: 4/4/2006
Contact: Jim Campi, 202-367-1861
NEW GETTYSBURG CASINO STUDY REVEALS SERIOUS PROBLEMS IN CHANCE IMPACT REPORT

Independent report finds that a Gettysburg slots parlor poses risk to hundreds of local businesses

Gettysburg, Pa. - The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) today released an independent report on the impact of a large casino on Gettysburg and the surrounding region. The report, entitled The Impact of a Large Casino on the Gettysburg Area – A Realistic Assessment, found that Chance Enterprises, the investment group behind the proposed Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa (renamed Crossroads Gaming Resort and Spa to obscure its location just one mile from the battlefield), greatly exaggerates the benefits their venture would bring to the community and ignores the serious negative consequences to existing businesses and the battlefield.

“We have long suspected that Chance Enterprises was vastly overstating the benefits of a Gettysburg slots parlor,” observed CWPT President James Lighthizer. “Now we have the facts to support that view. The new report confirms that a casino in Gettysburg is not just bad for history, it is also bad business.”

Most of Chance’s claims were first made public in the group’s local impact report (LIR), a formal piece of their legally required application released in December 2005. Mr. Michael Siegel, the author of A Realistic Assessment, found the Chance LIR to be unreliable and misleading in several critical aspects. Siegel, the principal of Public and Environmental Finance Associates, is a 28-year veteran in the field of public and environmental finance and impact analysis. Based on his analysis of the LIR, Siegel concludes, “It would be difficult to find an area in Pennsylvania that is more vulnerable to the adverse effect of a large casino. The Gettysburg area’s economy is too large to escape the proposed casino’s adverse impacts, but not nearly large enough for them to be of relatively little consequence.”

VICKSBURG’S POST CASINO EXPERIENCE: THE MODEL FOR GETTYSBURG?

Chance’s LIR relies in large part on Vicksburg as a model of how its casino would affect Gettysburg and the surrounding area. One of Chance’s key assertions is that visitation to Vicksburg National Military Park (NMP) was unaffected by the introduction of gambling to the area. This is not the case. In 1994, the first full calendar year after the opening of Vicksburg’s first casinos, visitation to Vicksburg NMP fell 21 percent. Through 2004 there were only two years when visitation to the park equaled or slightly exceeded the 1993 level, when gambling first came to town. In the five years previous to the casinos’ introduction, Vicksburg’s visitation had been growing an average of five percent per year.

In contrast, visitation to Gettysburg National Military Park has increased by 21 percent over the same time period. Given the importance of tourists to Adams County and the Borough of Gettysburg, this misleading portrayal of Vicksburg’s visitation numbers is of utmost concern. As the Realistic Assessment notes, “people’s wallets usually accompany them.”

The LIR’s economic analysis is based on the odd proposition that if it omits spending by existing visitors and residents at the casino in its calculations, then none of Gettysburg’s existing business will be hurt when this money goes elsewhere. As the Realistic Assessment points out, this poses a real and serious adverse impact to the Gettysburg area. In Warren County (Vicksburg), Mississippi, nonmanufacturing wage and salary employment fell by several hundred jobs following the opening of its four casinos. Not only did these casinos fail to generate a single net new nonmanufacturing wage job outside the gambling establishments themselves, they may have actually destroyed such jobs. Together with the Vicksburg Battlefield’s visitation data, this strongly suggests that tens of millions of dollars of economic activity was transferred and diverted from existing Vicksburg-area businesses to its casinos.

Chance also uses Vicksburg for its assertion that the proposed casino would have no adverse social impacts. In reality, the crime rate in Warren County, Mississippi after the introduction of casinos, increased at a far greater rate than it did in Mississippi overall. While Warren County’s crime rate was soaring, the national crime rate was also falling.

MORE MISREPRESENTATIONS IN THE LIR

A Realistic Assessment details numerous other serious deficiencies in the Chance LIR. Among them:

Damage to Existing Businesses: The Chance LIR fails to address the damage the casino will cause to existing businesses by the diversion and transfer of local resident and existing visitor expenditures to the casino. Siegel’s report roughly estimates that about $60 million of spending by existing visitors and residents would be diverted and transferred from existing establishments to the proposed casino. This represents a sizable share of Adams County’s service and retail sector spending..

Job Creation and Overnight Stays: The LIR assumes half a million or more new overnight visitors who cannot be reasonably accounted for. The level of overnight stays presumed by the report is only achieved by two mega-resort gambling destinations: Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Reputable industry studies indicate that no more than between four and eight percent of the casino’s visitors from within two hours drive time will stay overnight in Adams County. In Charles Town, W.V. (home to a similarly sized slots facility) only about five percent do so.

Failure to Fully Consider Competitive Disadvantages: A Gettysburg casino would have a disadvantaged location relative to the three other casinos it will have to compete with for market share. The three competitors are within a two-hour drive from Gettysburg. As the Realistic Assessment points out, drive times to Gettysburg from the large population centers in the Washington–Baltimore area are significantly longer than to other competing casinos. A University of Massachusetts study on visitation patterns to the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut found that a 10–15-minute travel difference caused three to four times as many Rhode Islanders to pick the closer location. Because Chance omits key data and assumptions about its market study, it does not appear that they have given proper consideration to this effect.

Tourism to Gettysburg: With approximately 1.7 million visitors annually, Gettysburg is one of the top overall tourist destinations in Pennsylvania. Its location makes it a gateway to visitors from across the nation. Locating a casino in Gettysburg amounts to brand pollution and will have negative consequences for Pennsylvania that will not be confined to the Gettysburg area. Leisure tourism is Pennsylvania’s second-largest industry, and heritage tourists tend to be the biggest spenders among leisure visitors.

With findings this dramatic on these and related topics, the Realistic Assessment should be carefully read and considered by those seeking to fully understand the potential impacts that a casino would have on the region, according to Rodney Cromeans of the coalition Businesses Against the Casino in Adams County. Believing that the information presented in the Realistic Assessment is a vital part of the dialogue and must be fully heard, Businesses Against the Casino has invited its author to present his findings on the organization’s behalf during the Gaming Control Board’s public hearings. “The data in this report are crucial for a full understanding of the issues at stake with this casino. As a Gettysburg businessman, I can truly relate to what these numbers mean for my bottom line,” Cromeans said.

With 75,000 members, CWPT is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States. Its mission is to preserve our nation’s remaining Civil War battlefields. Since 1987, the organization has saved more than 22,300 acres of hallowed ground, including 591 acres at Gettysburg. Most recently, CWPT partnered with the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association to protect the Daniel Lady Farm at Gettysburg. CWPT’s website is located at www.civilwar.org.

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(A copy of A Realistic Assessment is available online at http://www.civilwar.org/news/realistic_assessment.pdf )"

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Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

About the Trees

2006-04-08T14:18:00.000-04:00

This last Wednesday, I found myself once again happily tramping across the fields of the Gettysburg Battlefield, eager to see the National Park Service’s most recent restorative efforts. Their unrelenting determination continuously moves the park’s sacred grounds towards their 1863 appearance. Having read of the most recent works, I enthusiastically moved from Seminary Ridge towards a particular point of interest. The Peach Orchard, for years reliably home to a small collection of fruit trees, revealed the most dramatic changes. The fields, meticulously plowed and tilled, now housed not one tree.

Monument to the 68th Pennsylvania Infantry
framed by the now empty Peach Orchard
Captivated by the vegetative vacuum, I walked slowly around the edges of the barren field, careful to avoid stepping on what seemed a still tender portion of the now wounded battlefield. With anticipatory delight, each step inspired visions of how these same grounds would appear just two years hence when fresh, healthy trees reached again towards the sun. Strong, healthy peach trees would soon proudly take the place of those which had so steadily adorned these fields for decades. Camera in hand, I snapped as many pictures from as many angles as the evasive, cloud shrouded sunlight would allow. After collecting a sufficient number of photos, I walked back towards my car expecting no further surprises.

Then I walked out onto the Emmitsburg Road. Stopping to investigate an old isolated marble obelisk, I took the time to read the fading inscription worn by a century of snow, wind, and rain. The sounds of the highway behind me, the bite of the still chilling spring winds, and the visions of the surrounding fields melted away. The marble carved words held my complete attention.

ERECTED BY THE SURVIVORS
OF THE 68TH REGT. P. V.
SCOTT LEGION
COL. A. H. TIPPIN COMMANDING
1ST BRIGADE 1ST DIVISION
3RD ARMY CORPS
IN MEMORY OF
183 OF OUR COMRADES
WHO FELL ON THIS FIELD
JULY 2ND AND 3RD 1863.
This silent stone sentry spoke clearly of what I should have known all along. I came here to see the restorations as the grounds steadily regressed to their condition 142 years past. But neither the stark changes to the landscape nor the crisp, nurtured beauty of the battlefield could ease the gut wrenching feeling produced by a few small words. The inscription said, “183 of our Comrades”. The men of this battle still spoke. They say to those who would pause to listen, “It never was about the trees“.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Gettysburg Casino Hearings

2006-04-06T14:18:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, April 5, I had the privilege of testifying at the initial Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hearing concerning the proposal to build a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield. I left feeling cautiously upbeat after hearing a majority of presenters express their displeasure with the idea. Twenty-four hours later, that day's optimism became tainted with dismay as I both read and heard how the news media portrayed the proceedings. The straightforward hearing format allowed those seeking the casino license to testify first, followed by governmental officials, non-profit and private organizations, followed by individual citizens. I witnessed the entire hearing, took pages of notes, and heard each presenter.

Chance Enterprises and their CEO David Levan spoke first, stating their position that the casino would benefit the local economy, would not negatively impact the battlefield, and would not rest on any "hallowed ground". When they finished, various governmental representatives spoke with the numbers for and against the proposal about evenly distributed. The private and non-profit groups spoke next, all of whom voiced their strenuous objections to the proposal with the noted exception of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association. My surprise at their declaration of support faded somewhat as I heard talk that they allegedly had received significant contributions from Mr. Levan.

Of the 33 individuals who spoke, all area residents except two, 29 stated their opposition including a descendent of the family of Major General John Fulton Reynolds and one of Miles Standish. Groups who sent representative to this hearing who also objected to the proposal included:

The Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg
Concerned Citizens of Straban Township
No Casino Gettysburg
Gettysburg College Parents Advisory Board
The Civil War Club of Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College Faculty

The gentleman who spoke for the Gettysburg College Parents Advisory Board, currently numbering 62 parents, emphasized that the vote against the casino was not just by majority but unanimous.

Despite the above, thus far, both televised and print media concerning this hearing seem to imply or represent that those testifying presented an equivalent number of positions both in opposition and in support. I have seen no mention of the 60,000+ petition signatures offered by the Civil War Preservation Trust and the group No Casino Gettysburg which publicly document both local and national opposition. In the reports I have seen, the print and broadcast media mentioned views in support of the casino prior to noting any specific objections, if they noted any at all. At the risk of painting myself with cynicism, I can only guess that these media outlets, all local to Pennsylvania, seek the advertising revenue a casino might offer.

As for my testimony, below I include a copy of the text from which I read excluding the specific contact information I provided to the Board.

"I was born, raised, and still live in Pennsylvania. I visit Gettysburg frequently, have friends here, and had family who fought here.

On June 28, 1865, Union Major General George Gordon Meade said farewell to the Army of the Potomac. A man of comparatively few words, he would say to the survivors of this war, "It is unnecessary to enumerate here all that has occurred in these two eventful years, from the grand and decisive Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the war, to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. Suffice it to say that history will do you justice, a grateful country will honor the living, cherish and support the disabled, and sincerely mourn the dead."

It pains me to consider that this country may not be as grateful as it once was. Today we debate this plan by a few to exploit the name and sacrifice of Gettysburg for their own ends. Those who seek to build this casino would not do so at such a cherished site but for the millions who travel to Gettysburg every year to remember the men and women who gave so much for this country. A casino so close to the battlefield, the sacred grounds where our ancestors decided the fate of this nation, seeks only to profit from those who journey here to ponder and remember.

I wish now to state in the strongest possible terms that this cannot, this must not happen. The casino, if it sees the light of day, will scar the very fields we seek to protect.

But even without the increase in crime and costs to the community, building a casino near this battlefield remains as unconscionable a decision as building an amusement park at Pearl Harbor. The men who died here and their descendents deserve far better.

The great state of Pennsylvania along with people from all over this country will soon join in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. We will proudly remember that, on those three fateful days, tens of thousands of Americans, including 35,000 Pennsylvanians, saved our nation. I say to you today, do not soil their memory by allowing this blatant exploitation of their sacrifice. We owe them. In those three days, thousands of men gave their lives that this nation, our nation, might live. Tens of thousands of others emerged from this conflict broken and shattered, their bodies no longer whole, their legacy forever written in blood in the book of honor.

Ladies and gentlemen of this board, how will we repay these men? Who speaks for the dead of Gettysburg?"

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved