Anniversary Events

The Friends of Manassas National Battlefield Park have posted the NPS flyer for events at the park this coming weekend.  Check it out.

Matthews Hill Trail and a Bonus

Craig over at To the Sound of the Guns has posted a great photo tour of the Matthews Hill Trail at Manassas Battlefield Park.  Check it out.  Thanks, Craig, for all the fine work you do.  But as often happens with thread pulling, this three sentence post has turned into something different.  (Follow the links please; this ain’t yer gandpa’s blog.)

Craig’s photo essay includes a shot of the George T. Stovall monument (see below, courtesy of Craig – notice that WordPress has prettied up our photos, but they’ve added some glitches to the image posting process).  I found this interesting tidbit, which sheds some light on how life continued on for those left behind.  George’s sister Louisa petitioned the court to appoint her husband trustee of railroad stock and four slaves in the wake of the death of the former trustee (George) and of her father who had originally bequeathed the duty to George.  It’s most interesting I think in light of the fact that the petition was granted on May 4, 1865!  Remember that Jefferson Davis was not captured until six days later, on May 10, near Irwinville, GA.  At least until then, it appears to have been business as usual in the courts of Georgia.

George T. Stovall Marker Detail

 

 

New Superintendent

 

Manassas National Battlefield has a new superintendent.  See the press release here.

Antietam Weather

 

High winds brought down some trees in the jewel of the NPS, Antietam National Battlefield, and environs.  Check out Mannie’s (and Mannie Part II) and John’s blogs, and the NPS website.  There doesn’t seem to be any monument or gravestone damage, but some buildings were damaged.

Tree Clearing at Manassas Part II

Craig Swain at To the Sound of the Guns has this article on the tree clearing at Manassas National Battlefield Park, particularly on Matthews Hill.  Click on the thumbnail in his article, then click on the image again and you should be able to read the sign.  See here for my post on an earlier Washington Post article.

Lee’s Real Plan Update

Gettysburg NMP Ranger Scott Hartwig had this to say about my post from Tuesday and the comments that followed:

I’ll have to let my seminar essay present my argument.  This will be available next year when we publish the seminar proceedings.  I know there are several theories out there but I am quite certain that the July 3 assault struck the Union line exactly where Lee intended it to.

Until next year, then: unless anyone who attended Scott’s presentation wants to weigh in.

I’ll be posting a few ORs next.  Then I’ll have more on the fascinating family ties of Hugh Judson Kilpatrick; some developments concerning the history of the 30 pounder Parrott rifle that opened the First Battle of Bull Run; and hopefully a bit on Cadet John Rodgers Meigs.  The interview with Jake Pierro is on hold.  He’s a little under the weather; I wish him a speedy recovery and hope you will do the same.  Look for a little something about a new book on the Army of Northern Virginia, and also an update on the continuing saga of the naming of the Black Horse Troop (here and here).

Lee’s Real Plan

In this post over at Civil War Librarian, Rea Redd recapped his weekend at the 12th Annual Gettysburg National Military Park seminar, The Fate of a Nation: The Third Day at Gettysburg.  I found this snippet interesting:

Scott Hartwig: Heroes, Myth and Memory at the High Water Mark

Three major Confederate generals who participated in the assault said in the late 1880’s that Cemetery Hill was the objective.  Zeigler’s Grove was cut down immediately after the battle: John Batchelder [sic] mistook The Copse of Trees which had added ten feet of height in the 20 years since the battle for Zeigler’s Grove.

For anyone who has been following this story since the publication of NPS ranger Troy Harman’s books on Lee’s plan for the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble assault on July 3 (here is the most recent edition), the above synopsis of the comments of the highly respected and far from controversial Scott Hartwig is not insignificant.  Harman’s theory, which challenges the conventional wisdom of the famous Clump (or Copse) of Trees as the focal point of the assault, has been raked over the coals in the Gettysburg cyber-community over the years, with its outnumbered, or at least less discreet, defenders being shouted down like minority members of Parliament, only much more rudely.

If you were present at this seminar, please tell me more!  I’ve toured and corresponded many times with Ranger Hartwig, and if there is anything to this perhaps I can entice him to expand a bit here.

See here for an UPDATE.

My photos of the Copse above, Scott Hartwig below top, and Troy Harman below bottom.

General Nagle’s Sword

 

Friend and Ranger John David Hoptak is moving ahead with his efforts to restore the statue of General James Nagle at Antietam.  He’s been missing his sword for some time.  You can read the story of Nagle here, and get info on how to help John at his blog.

Shiloh

 

The new Civil War Times (April 2008) is out.  This issue features yet another extract from Drew Gilpin Faust’s new book, an article about the song “Dixie” by fellow blogger Michael Hardy, and a cover story on Berdan’s Sharpshooters by R. L. Murray.  There is also a new Field Guide column, which I imagine will feature a different battlefield each issue, pointing out the “must sees”.  This month it’s Shiloh.  As I said earlier, I spent a few days this past June touring the place with friends, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to show some of the pictures I took on the trip.

We visited all nine of the spots listed in CWT.  I have pictures of seven of the nine, failing to snap any at the Indian Mounds (#9) or Hagy’s Catfish Hotel (#8).  Hagy’s was OK, but had been built up so much in my mind that a letdown was inevitable.  If you go there on a weekend, be prepared to wait a good while for a table.  And the restaurant was also the site of the only inhospitable moment of the trip, while waiting for a table: some old fella with a flat-top, who was sitting at the opposite end of an otherwise empty ten foot bench from me, told his wife that he would rather stand than sit near “that guy”, nodding toward me.  We had exchanged neither word nor glance for the 5 or so minutes I sat there.  The wife asked him why he didn’t want to sit, and he said “Ah don’t lahk ‘im”.  She asked why he didn’t like me, and he said “Ah jez don’t lahk ‘im”.  Then they walked away.  My friends were standing nearby, and assured me I did nothing wrong, and I had showered up and put on clean clothes after our stomp (which didn’t make me any better looking, however).  Weird.  The only other thing that came close was at a steakhouse in Corinth when some folks in the salad bar line thought that one of my travelling companions was Charles Manson.  I assured them that Charlie is neither half as tall nor half as nuts as Jim (just kidding Jim; you’re nowhere near twice as tall as Manson).

So, in order of their ranking in CWT, here are my photos:

#1 – Shiloh Church (Replica).

  

 

#2 – Shiloh National Cemetery.  Here are some shots at the 16th Wisconsin color bearers’ graves (from left to right, Mike Pellegrini, Jim Epperson, Dave Powell and Zack Waltz), Grant’s headquarters cannon & marker, and three buddies at the entrance gate.

   

 

#3 – The Putnam Stump.  This is a replica of the stump under which his comrades buried J. D. Putnam of the 14th Wisconsin.

  

 

#4 – The Defeated Victory monument.  We also called this the Excuses? We Got a Million of ‘Em monument, or simply the Monumental Excuse.

           

 

#5 – Corinth Interpretive Center.  See here.

#6 – Rhea Springs.  Perfect spot for a picnic.

 

 

#7 – Cherry Mansion.  This house in Savannah was Grant’s HQ, and also where W. H. L. Wallace died.

     

 

#8 – Hagy’s Catfish Hotel.

#9 – Indian Mounds.

For more on Shiloh, check out Shiloh Nick’s blog.  And here’s a site that has details on lots of Hardin County attractions.

Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center

In June of 2007 I met up with some good friends to spend a few hot days stomping the battlefield of Shiloh.  (I wrote a little bit about it here.)  Our base of operations was in Corinth, MS.  Corinth saw more than its share of action during the war, and is a pretty cool destination for the ACW traveler itself.  The NPS recently opened the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, and it’s one of the spiffiest NPS facilities I’ve seen.

The entrance to the building, situated on the site of Battery Robinett which featured prominently in the battle of October, 1862, is via a winding footpath, along which are strewn bronze replicas of the detritus of battle, like the cartridge box and shell jacket below (click on the thumbnails for larger image):

 

Just outside the entrance is a sculpture in relief of soldiers on the march.  I was told by the staff at the center – by the way, just about the prettiest staff I’ve seen at an NPS facility – that all of the figures are based on NPS employees at Shiloh.  Below is a shot of the group, and details of the Tim Smith and Stacy Allen based soldiers:

  

Inside the Interpretive Center is open, bright and airy.  It features multi-media presentations on Corinth in the Civil War and the battle of Shiloh.  There’s a bookstore, where I purchased a print that I later had framed and now hangs over the fireplace in my family room (I wrote about it here).  And there’s a research library for public use, with a full set of ORs and essential reference sets like the Southern Historical Society Papers and The Union Army.

There’s also a cool display of the colors of the 6th Missouri Infantry (Confederate).  The flag was sewn by the wife of Col. Eugene Erwin, who was wounded at Corinth and killed at Vicksburg in June 1863.  She smuggled the banner and her husband’s uniform jacket out of Vicksburg after the city fell on July 4.  Below are images of the flag, Col. Erwin, and his jacket (I apologize for the poor quality – I’m buying a digital SLR so stuff like this won’t happen anymore):

  

One of the most attractive aspects of the center is the water feature courtyard.  The feature consists of a water course, which begins with a waterfall flowing in 13 streams from a block etched with the words of the preamble to the Constitution.  The stream flows through tumbled blocks representing the major engagements of the Civil War, and ends with the reflecting pool of the reunited nation:

   

Outside the center are some monuments to and gravesites of Confederates who fell at Battery Robinett.  Prominent among them is an obelisk to Col. William P. Rogers, an Alabamian who led Mississippians in the War with Mexico, signed the Texas Ordinance of Secession and fell at the head of the 2nd Texas Infantry at Corinth.  Included below is the only known photo of Confederate dead in the Western theater.  Col. Rogers has been identified as one of the bearded men in the foreground (here’s a link to his diary and letters):

  

Learn more about the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center here and here.

Another interesting site in Corinth is the train station at the vital crossroads (nice museum inside):  

Also nearby is the site of the Corinth Contraband Camp, set up to accommodate the influx of African Americans into the Union occupied town after the issuance of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.  The Contraband Camp started out as a tent city in the fall of 1862, and by mid-1863 took on the characteristics of a small town with a church, hospital, and dwellings.  Many of the adult males enlisted for military service, and the camp residents who remained behind collectively farmed 400 acres with cotton and vegetables.  At its peak, the camp was home to an estimated 6,000 people.  When the army pulled out of Corinth in January 1864, most of the freedmen abandoned the camp to follow.  Here’s the entrance to what remains of the camp:

Taking nothing away from the charm of Savannah, TN (the other base used by Shiloh pilgrims), Corinth has lots to offer the ACW traveler.  Be sure to block out some time to tour the town when you visit Shiloh.