A “New” Photo of Rob Wheat

The December issue of Civil War Times is out, which has an article by Mike Musick on his discovery of a previously unpublished ambrotype (above left), the subject of which appears to be Chatham Roberdeau Wheat, commander of the 1st Special Louisiana Battalion at Bull Run (I wrote about him here).  Once the article is put up on the magazine’s website I’ll post a link to it here, but for now you might want to head to your newsstand and get the hard copy.

Above right is a picture that is generally accepted to be Wheat, taken around the time of the outbreak of the Civil War.   Musick’s ”new” image is thought to have been taken during Wheat’s earlier filibustering days.  Click the images above for larger images (you’ll get a super large image of the new photo if you click the first larger image a second time).   What do you think?  Same guy?

That shirt sure looks familiar.  Especially the sleeves.

Thanks to CWT for permission to post the new photo of Wheat.

See foloow up post here.

Family Ties – Kilpatrick Part V

Here’s an update to the Kilpatrick Family Ties series.  I found this site the other day, which has confirmed some of the information I already had and also alerted me to a few other tidbits.  To quote the Dude: Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous, lotta strands to keep in my head, man.

You’ll notice some stuff that expands a bit on Part II and Part III.  I found it really interesting that Kilpatrick granddaughter Consuelo Morgan’s husband Benjamin’s father, Benjamin Thaw, Sr, Harry K.’s half brother, was married to a woman named Elma Ellsworth Dows, born in October, 1861.  Elmer Ellsworth, the first Colonel of the 11th NY Fire Zouaves, was one of the war’s first martyrs (see here), and there was a multitude of babies born across the North in following years named for him.  This is the first time I’ve run across what appears to be a female namesake!

You’ll also see that Consuelo is buried in the Thaw plot in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Cemetery.  I didn’t notice her grave when I made my trek there (see here), and didn’t think to look for her because she remarried after the death of Benjamin Thaw, Jr.  It turns out that she is buried not far from her other grandfather, Philip Hicky Morgan.  I guess I need to go back there.

The site has lots of interesting stuff about the Thaws that I didn’t know – though you can probably fill a thimble with the stuff I do know about them.  For instance, the family supplied two aviators to the American forces in WWI, one of whom died in action.  It seems a shame they’re remembered almost exclusively for nutcase Harry Kendall Thaw – of Pittsburgh.

First Bull Run Atlas

Thanks to this announcement from Drew, I now know that Savas-Beatie will be publishing a new book on Bull Run as Volume 2 of its Civil War atlas series.  It will be authored by Bradley Gottfried, who wrote the Volume 1 on Gettysburg.  As I commented on Drew’s site:

I have to worry a bit about an atlas of First Bull Run, because there are some big questions about who went where and when, particularly during the Henry House Hill phase of the fighting. There are missing ORs for some key regiments (like the 11th NY and all of Jackson’s brigade). Joanna McDonald has a ton of maps in her book, and in fact wrote a tour book for that part of the fighting, but I don’t know that there is enough data available to produce maps that one could call definitive. This should be interesting.

The book is scheduled for release in Spring, 2009.  I’m going to see what I can do about getting an interview with Mr. Gottfried.