Appomattox-original

General Grant at the Surrender at Appomattox

General Grant at the Surrender at Appomattox

Here is where I played General Grant at the Surrender at Appomattox. I should have cut my hair I guess :>)

Provost Tent

Reb flag

Reb flag

"Firsts” of the civil war

"Firsts” of the civil war

Railroad Artillery                                              U.S. Naval Admiral
A Successful Submarine                                    Electrically exploded bombs and Torpedoes
A “Snorkel” Breathing Device               The Wigwam Signal Code in Battle                  
The Periscope, For Trench Warfare                  Wide-scale use of Anesthetics for the
Land-Mine Fields                                                         wounded
Field Trenches On A Grand Scale                     Blackouts and Camouflage Under Ariel
Flame- Throwers                                                          Observation
Wire Entanglements                                          Commissioned American Army Chaplains
A Military Telegraph                                         Department of Justice (Confederate)
Naval Torpedoes                                              American President Assassinated
Aerial Reconnaissance                          The Bugle Call “Taps”
Anti-Aircraft Fire                                              American Bread Lines
Repeating Rifles                                                Ironclad Navies
Telescopic Sights For Rifles                              Revolving Gun Turrets
Long Range Rifles For General Use                  A Steel Ship
Fixed Ammunition                                             Military Railroads
Organized Medical and Nursing Corps  The Income Tax
Hospital Ships                                                  The Medal of Honor
Army Ambulance Corps                                   A Workable Machine Gun
Legal Voting For Servicemen                            Cigarette Tax
U.S. Secret Service                                          American Conscription (Draft)
A Wide-Ranging Corps of Press                       Photography of Battle
Negro U.S Army Officer (Major M.R.  Correspondents In Battle Areas
Danby)

*As Compiled from “The Civil War Strange and Interesting Facts”, By Burke Davis
1982 The Fairfax Press

Civil war medicine

Civil war slang

Confederate Navy Organization

Confederate Navy Organization

At the outset, in the making up of the Confederate Government, there was formed a Navy Department whose accomplishments, struggling against the difficulties that confronted it, were little short of marvelous, considering the limited time, available for preparation, in a country almost barren of ship-yards and other means of providing and equipping sea-going vessels, not to mention warships.
The South was immeasurably handicapped in more ways than one, but principally by its utter lack of any war-ships, and its dearth of even the nucleus of any naval force.
Without a treasury, without an army, and without a single gunboat, President Jefferson Davis appointed his cabinet, and assigned the post of Secretary of the Navy to Stephen R. Mallory, of Florida, who had served his state in the United States Senate, and for years had been chairman of the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives, an experience that stood him in good stead.           

The problems that confronted the other ministers were perplexing, but that which faced the new Secretary of the Navy was the most monumental of them all. The South did not own a vessel capable of being fitted out as a ship of war. There were only 2 navy-yards in the South--one at Norfolk, Virginia, which state had not then cast her lot with the secessionists; the other navy-yard was at Pensacola, Florida, and was not fitted for construction work but intended only for repair and shelter. Even though it had been perfectly adapted to the construction of ships of war, the Federal Government held the fortifications that guarded the entrance to the harbor, and blockading squadrons could have stopped or destroyed any vessel that attempted to pass out to sea. There were a few small private shipyards scattered throughout the South, but not one with the plant necessary to build and equip a warship of even moderate tonnage.
In addition to this, there was but one manufacturer in the South who could construct an engine of

 sufficient power properly to propel a serviceable gunboat; there was a scarcity of iron, and there were no factories equipped to roll the 2.5-inch plate that served to armor the ironclads soon to replace the wooden ships. There was but one plant in the South that could supply large-caliber guns, and that was the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, which was out of the jurisdiction of the Confederate States until after the firing on Fort Sumter. There was wood enough in the South to have built a mighty fleet of ships, but it was standing in the forests, uncut and unseasoned, and in everything necessary for the equipment and construction of serviceable war-ships, the South was lacking or very poorly supplied. There was no money in the Confederate coffers to buy all these necessities, and while the existence of the Confederacy as a revolutionary body was recognized by the world-powers, its stability as a Government was not acknowledged, and its credit was not established.        

An additional obstacle in the path of the formation of a Confederate navy was the fact that the great powers of Europe issued proclamations of neutrality almost immediately after the first gun had been fired at Fort Sumter, and the lesser powers soon followed the lead of the greater ones. In substance, these proclamations allowed ships of either navy harbor for the purpose of making repairs or of securing supplies. No ship might reinforce her crew in any of these foreign ports or make any alterations other than repairs necessary to make their crafts seaworthy; they were to receive on board no ordnance Supplies or any other "contraband" articles; they might not take on board more than enough coal to carry them to the nearest port in their own country, and they could not coal in the harbor of any one power more than once in 3 months, except by special permission.        

 This was the situation that faced the Secretary of the Navy of the Confederacy after the opening of hostilities. But even before the war cloud had broken over the Nation, Secretary Mallory had started to build up his organization, undismayed by t to contend against. There were many Southerners in the Union navy whose sympathies were with the new Confederate Government, and their resignations were daily being handed to the authorities at Washington, D.C. and their services tendered to the Confederate States.
           

 Sixteen captains, 34 commanders, and 76 lieutenants, together with 111 regular and acting midshipmen, resigned from the United States Navy. To make provision for these officers, the Confederate service was increased by the Amendatory Act of April 21, 1862, and made to consist of:

Four admirals, 10 captains, 81 commanders, 100 first lieutenants, second lieutenants, 20 masters, in line of promotion; 12 paymasters, 40 assistant. paymasters, 22 surgeons, 15 passed assistant surgeons, 30 assistant surgeons, 1 engineer-in-chief, and 12 engineers.
That all the admirals, 4 of the captains, 5 of the commanders, of the first lieutenants and 5 of the second lieutenants shall be appointed solely for gallant or meritorious conduct during the war. The appointments shall be made from the grade immediately below the one to be filled and without reference to the rank of the officer in such grade, and the service for which the appointment shall be conferred shall be specified in the commission. Provided, that all officers below the grade of second lieutenant may be promoted more than one grade for the same service . . .

One of the first Southern naval men to resign from the Federal Naval Department was Commander Raphael Semmes, who at once went south to enter the service of the new Government. He was sent to the North to secure what arms and ammunition he could, to contract for the delivery of more, and, if possible, to find ships that might serve as a nucleus for the navy of the Confederacy. A large amount of ordnance supplies was delivered or contracted for, but no vessels could be found that would be in the least adapted to service on the high seas, and with this portion of his mission unfulfilled, Semmes returned to Montgomery, twelve days before the firing on Fort Sumter.

Meanwhile, other agents of the Government had been attempting to find suitable ships in the Southern harbors that might be bought. All of these were reported as unsuitable for service as naval vessels, but Commander learning the qualifications of one of them, asked the Secretary of the Navy to secure her, have her altered, give him command, and then allow him to go to sea. The secretary acceded to this request, and the little boat was taken into New Orleans and operations were started to transform her into a gunboat, which might fly the Confederate colors and, by harassing the commerce of the North, do her share in the work of warfare. The plans for the reconstruction of the vessel had scarcely been completed when the word was flashed around the world that Fort Sumter had been fired on and had fallen, and the ship, the first of a navy that was to contend against the third largest navy in the world, was christened after the first fort to fall into the hands of the Confederacy, the Sumter.
 
 The Navy Department of the South now redoubled its efforts to provide the ships necessary for the defense of its coast and inland rivers. Almost any craft that could be fitted to mount a gun was pressed into service, and as quickly as the means would allow, these boats were prepared for their work, and officers and crews assigned to them.    

As soon as war had been declared it became evident that Virginia would join the seceding States, and before the hasty and ill-advised evacuation of the great navy yard at Norfolk, the Federals destroyed as much of the property as they could. Six of the seven ships that were then in the Gosport yard, on the 20th of April, when the destruction was commenced, were totally destroyed, but the seventh, the screw frigate Merrimac, after being burned almost to the water-line, was saved after the Federals had left, and the Confederate authorities, under the direction of John M. Brooke, late lieutenant, United States navy, immediately started the reconstruction of the wreck on plans that were new to naval warfare. On the 8th of March, in the following year, the armored Merrimac, rechristened the Virginia, raised the hopes of the Confederacy, and closed the day of the wooden battle-ship by the sinking of the Cumberland and the destruction of the Congress in Hampton Roads, Virginia. The hopes she had roused, however, were shattered on the day following by the advent of Ericsson's Monitor.       

A number of other Federal ships were seized after the opening of hostilities, among which were the revenue cutters Aiken, Cass, Washington, Pickens, Dodge, McClelland, and Bradford. All of these boats were fitted out for privateering as quickly as possible, and went to sea with varying fortunes. The Aiken was rechristened the Petrel, and the United States frigate St. Lawrence, from which she was attempting to escape, soon ended her career.     

The treasury of the Confederacy was soon supplied with enough currency to start operations, and with the share allotted to it the Navy Department commenced to make its small fleet as formidable as possible. All the shipyards that had been taken possession of or could be secured from private parties were equipped to handle the work of construction and refitting. Every ship that could be found that might answer any of the purposes of the navy was purchased, and before the close of the first year of the war thirty-five steamers and sailing craft of various dimensions, classes, and armaments had been any others were in the process of construction. Of those in commission, twenty-one were steam vessels, most of them small, and chosen for speed rather than power. The armament of all was very light in comparison with the war-ships of the Union fleets. Several of them carried but one gun, others carried two, and the majority carried less than five.
           

Quite wonderful was the advance made in other departments than that of shipbuilding. The Navy Department had erected a powder-mill, engine-, boiler-, and machine shops, and five ordnance workshops. There had been established a ropewalk capable of making all kinds of cordage from a rope-yarn to a 9-inch cable and able to turn out 8,000 yards per month. This was in addition to the 18 shipbuilding yards already planned and in operation. The ladies of Georgia had presented to the Confederate States a floating battery that was partially finished at the end of the first year of the war. The State of Alabama had turned over an ironclad ram as a gift to the Confederate service.
           

Most of the ships that had been completed at the close of the first year of the war were sent to sea as privateers to hamper the Northern merchant marine. Others were used to guard the mouths of the rivers of the Confederacy, while several of them moved on the offensive in the rivers. The George Page (renamed the Richmond), a small steamer, lightly equipped, soon became well known to the Federals for its continual menacing of the forts on the Occoquan River and Quantico Creek, often-advancing close and firing shells into them.
           

 Soon after the commencement of the war, the Confederate privateers became such a menace that President Lincoln issued a proclamation that all the privateers would be regarded as pirates, and that their crews and officers would be subjected to punishment as such. Six months after the issuing of this order the crew of the captured privateer Savannah was tried for piracy, but the jury disagreed. While awaiting a new trial, the Confederacy imprisoned an equal number of officers of the Union army, who were held as prisoners of war, and notified Federals that whatever punishment was inflicted upon the privateers men would be imposed upon the officers who were held as hostages. The great nations of the world refused to accept the ultimatum of the Union that the privateers were practicing piracy, and from that time to the close of the war the men captured on privateers were treated as prisoners of war.
           

Now took place, on the part of the Confederate Navy Department, a most important move that opened a new chapter in naval history. On the 9th of May, 1861, Secretary Mallory, convinced that the resources of the Confederacy were not sufficient to complete a navy that would be adequate to maintain the defenses of the waterways of the South, commissioned James D. Bulloch to go to England and attempt to have some suitable ships constructed there, informing him at the same time that the necessary funds would be secured and placed at his disposal by the representatives of the Confederacy in England. The matter of building war-vessels in England presented many difficulties, for, under the British policy of' neutrality, any ship of either of the warring powers that took on any armament or other equipment that was classed as contraband, was guilty of a breach of the neutrality agreement, and might be taken possession of by the British Government.
           

 Capt. Bulloch, a graduate of Annapolis, was well suited to the task, and he at once entered into negotiations for the building of two ships, which were to be delivered to him personally as his property. While built on the general lines of ships that would be suitable for privateering, they were not to be armed or in any way equipped as battle-ships by their makers. In spite, however, of all the precautions taken, the ships were not more than half completed before the suspicions gents were aroused. But, though they were morally certain that the ships were to serve in the Confederate navy, there was no tangible evidence upon which they could be detained, and both boats were completed and sailed out of English waters without any contraband stores aboard them. They were later equipped at other ports from ships that had carried out their arms and ammunition. Bulloch remained in Europe during the greater part of the war, and was a valuable assistant to the Secretary of the Navy of the Confederacy.
           

 During the time in which he was superintending the gathering of this foreign-built force, Secretary Mallory was also organizing his department for efficient work in providing for the needs of all naval forces. He organized a bureau of orders and details, a bureau of ordnance and hydrograph, a bureau of provisions and clothing, which also had charge of the paying of the naval forces, and a bureau of medicine and surgery. Competent men headed these bureaus, and the detailed work of the department was soon being carried on in a thorough, business-like manner.
           

The matter of securing recruits was easily handled; there was no time when the number of men enlisted was not more than was necessary to man all the ships in the service. The men enlisted in the navy who could not be sent to sea were usually assigned to garrison the forts on the coast and along the rivers, while at times they were called upon to serve in the field with the regular army.
           

Most of the ships that were built for the Confederacy abroad were manned largely by recruits gathered on foreign shores, some of them being natives of the Confederate States, and others men who sympathized with the cause sufficiently to fight under its colors. The danger in running these boats through the blockading squadrons that lined the Confederate shores and the impossibility of getting men out of the ports on other ships, made it necessary to take what men could be secured. These vessels are always officered by Confederates bearing Government commissions.
 
 PAY
Officer Pay- Sea Duty
Admiral.................$6,000/year
Captain..................$4,200/year (when commanding a squadron...$5,000)
Commander...........$2,825/year
Lieutenant..............$2,550/year
1st Lieutenant .......$1,500/year
2nd Lieutenant.......$1,200/year
Surgeon..................$2,200/year
 
While on shore duty, the officer’s page was about 20% less.
Pay for the Enlisted crewmembers were about the same as the Union Navy.
The pay of the officers would increase when length of service increased.  The pay
of the Confederate navy was based on a sliding scale, regulated by the length of service and the occupation of the officer, as was the law in the Union service.
The Confederate States Naval Academy was established at Richmond, Virginia. The naval officers would be trained here before getting their commission. The school was established by Secretary Mallory and placed under the command of Lt. William H. Parker, a former officer of the United States navy, who, at the outbreak of the war, had already seen 20 years of service.

Desertion In The Civil War Armies (Confederate Army)

Desertion In The Civil War Armies

Confederate Army

Desertion at the South, though less extensive than in the North, were a factor of large significance; and a study of the causes that produced it goes far toward revealing the conditions, which made the war intolerable to thousands among people and soldiers.

As explained by Miss Loun, backwoodsmen and crackers were drawn into the army who had no sympathy with slavery and no interest in the issues of a struggle that they did not understand. The conscript net gathered in even Northerners and Mexicans, whose tendency to desert was natural enough. Many of the deserters were mere boys. Poor food and clothing, lack of shoes and overcoats, and insufficient pay inevitably produced disaffection.

Sometimes the pay was fourteen months behind; often a soldier on leave could not pay the transportation to return to his command. Unsanitary camp conditions had their debilitating effect. Soldiers kept in unwholesome inaction were more than commonly subject to homesickness and depression. Often the alternative was abandonment and neglect of wife and children or departure from the army - in other words a choice between two kinds of desertion, a dilemma in facing conflicting loyalties.

Men felt that their services were actually more needed at home than in the army. Not a few Southern soldiers found themselves in the situation of an Alabaman who deserted the army when his wife wrote him: "We haven't got nothing in the house to eat but a little bit o meal. . . . I dont want you to stop fighting them Yankees . .but try and get off and come home and fix us all up some and then you can go back." Some Arkansas soldiers deserted when informed that Indians were on a scalping tour near their homes.

Indignant at extortioners and profiteers, soldiers would become disgruntled at the "rich mans war and the poor mans fight." There were occasions when "whole companies, garrisons, and even regiments decamped at a time." In some cases deserters banded together, roamed the country, fortified themselves in the mountains, and made raids upon settlements, stealing cattle and robbing military stores. Some lived in caves. Forces had to he detached from the Confederate armies to run down such groups, whose retreats were inaccessible and whose courage in fighting off attack was formidable. Had it not been for Mosby’s Rangers, as Miss Lonn had pointed out, many defenseless residents in Virginias debatable land between the shifting armies "would have been at the mercy of the roving hands of deserters, turned bushwhackers, who had been left in the wake of both armies.

At critical times in the war the extent of desertion prevented the South from following up victories or half-victories in the field; it was both the cause and effect of lowered morale; the amount was "appalling, incredible." Many who withdrew from the army "had little conception of the gravity of their offense." For such men desertion bore no stigma; and, in some, it appears that this factor (which, after all, was but a reflection of many other factors) "contributed definitely to the Confederate defeats after 1862 and to the catastrophe of 1865.”

Source: "The Civil War and Reconstruction" by Randall and Donald

Desertion In The Civil War Armies (Union Army)

Desertion In The Civil War Armies

Union Army

In view of the conditions, which prevailed in the war department and in the Union army, it is not surprising that desertion was a common fault. Even so the actual extent of it, as shown in the official reports, comes as a distinct shock. Though the determination of the fully number is a bit complicated, the total would seem to have been well over 200,000. From New York there were 44,913 deserters according to the records; from Pennsylvania, 24,050; from Ohio, 18,354.

The daily hardships of war, deficiency in arms, forced marches (which sometimes made straggling a necessity for less vigorous men), thirst, suffocating heat, disease, delay in pay,~ solicitude for family, impatience at the monotony and futility of inactive service, and (though this was not the leading cause) panic on the eve of battle - these were some of the conditioning factors that produced desertion. Many men absented themselves merely through unfamiliarity with military discipline or through the feeling that they should be "restrained by no other legal requirements than those of the civil law governing a free people"; and such was the general attitude that desertion was often regarded "more as a refusal to ratify a contract than as the commission of a grave crime."

The sense of war weariness, the lack of confidence in commanders, and the discouragement of defeat tended to lower the morale of the Union army and to increase desertion. General Hooker estimated in 1863 that 85,000 officers and men had deserted from the Army of the Potomac, while it was stated in December of 1862 that no less than 180,000 of the soldiers listed on the Union muster rolls were absent, with or without leave.

Abuse of sick leave or of the furlough privilege was one of the chief means of desertion. Other methods were: slipping to the rear during a battle, inviting capture by the enemy (a method by which honorable service could be claimed), straggling, taking French leave when on picket duty, pretending to be engaged in repairing a telegraph line, et cetera. Some of the deserters went over to the enemy not as captives but as soldiers; others lived in a wild state on the frontier; some turned outlaw or went to Canada; some boldly appeared at home; in some cases deserter gangs, as in western Pennsylvania, formed bandit groups.

To suppress desertion the extreme penalty of death was at times applied, especially after 1863; but this meant no more than the selection of a few men as public examples out of many thousands equally guilty. The commoner method was to make public appeals to deserters, promising pardon in case of voluntary return with dire threats to those who failed to return. That desertion did not prevent a man posing after the war as an honorable soldier is evident by a study of pension records. The laws required honorable discharge as a requisite for a pension; but in the case of those charged with desertion Congress passed numerous private and special acts "correcting" the military record.

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

Controversy surrounded Mary Edwards Walker throughout her life. She was born on November 26, 1832 in the Town of Oswego, New York, into an abolitionist family.  . Her birthplace on the Bunker Hill Road is marked with a historical marker. Her father, a country doctor, was a freethinking participant in many of the reform movements that thrived in upstate New York in the mid 1800s.  He believed strongly in education and equality for his five daughters Mary, Aurora, Luna, Vesta, and Cynthia (there was one son, Alvah). He also believed they were hampered by the tight-fitting women's clothing of the day.  His daughter, Mary, became an early enthusiast for Women's Rights, and passionately espoused the issue of dress reform.  Mary Edwards Walker discarded the unusual restrictive women's clothing of the day. Later in her life she donned full men's evening dress to lecture on Women's Rights.
 
In June 1855 Mary, the only woman in her class, joined the tiny number of women doctors in the nation when she graduated from the eclectic Syracuse Medical College, the nation's first medical school and one which accepted women and men on an equal basis.  She graduated at age 21 after three 13-week semesters of medical training which she paid $55 each for.

In 1856 she married another physician, Albert Miller, wearing trousers and a man's coat and kept her own name. Together they set up a medical practice in Rome, NY, but the public was not ready to accept a woman physician, and their practice floundered. They were divorced 13 years later.
When war broke out, she came to Washington and tried to join the Union Army. Denied a commission as a medical officer, she volunteered anyway, serving as an acting assistant surgeon -- the first female surgeon in the US Army.  As an unpaid volunteer, she worked in the US Patent Office Hospital in Washington. Later, she worked as a field surgeon near the Union front lines for almost two years (including Fredericksburg and in Chattanooga after the Battle of Chickamauga).

In September 1863, Walker was finally appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland for which she made herself a slightly modified officer's uniform to wear, in response to the demands of traveling with the soldiers and working in field hospitals. She was then appointed assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry. During this assignment it is generally accepted that she also served as a spy. She continually crossed Confederate lines to treat civilians. She was taken prisoner in 1864 by Confederate troops and imprisoned in Richmond for four months until she was exchanged, with two dozen other Union doctors, for 17 Confederate surgeons.

She was released back to the 52nd Ohio as a contract surgeon, but spent the rest of the war practicing at a Louisville female prison and an orphan's asylum in Tennessee. She was paid $766.16 for her wartime service. Afterward, she got a monthly pension of $8.50, later raised to $20, but still less than some widows' pensions.

On November 11, 1865, President Johnson signed a bill to present Dr. Mary Edwards Walker with the Congressional Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service, in order to recognize her contributions to the war effort without awarding her an army commission. She was the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor, her country's highest military award.

In 1917 her Congressional Medal, along with the medals of 910 others was taken away when Congress revised the Medal of Honor standards to include only “actual combat with an enemy” She refused to give back her Medal of Honor, wearing it every day until her death in 1919. A relative told the New York Times: "Dr. Mary lost the medal simply because she was a hundred years ahead of her time and no one could stomach it." An Army board reinstated Walker's medal posthumously in 1977, citing her "distinguished gallantry, self-sacrifice, patriotism, dedication and unflinching loyalty to her country, despite the apparent discrimination because of her sex."

After the war, Mary Edwards Walker became a writer and lecturer, touring here and abroad on women's rights, dress reform, health and temperance issues. Tobacco, she said, resulted in paralysis and insanity. Women's clothing, she said, was immodest and inconvenient. She was elected president of the National Dress Reform Association in 1866. Walker prided herself by being arrested numerous times for wearing full male dress, including wing collar, bow tie, and top hat. She was also something of an inventor, coming up with the idea of using a return postcard for registered mail. She wrote extensively, including a combination biography and commentary called Hit and a second book, Unmasked, or the Science of Immortality. She died in the Town of Oswego on February 21, 1919 and is buried in the Rural Cemetery on the Cemetery Road.

Dr Mary Edwards Walker

Financing The Confederacy

Financing The Confederacy

  Confederate Secretary of the Treasury Christopher G. Memminger assumed his duties in February 1861 by floating government loans and creating an instant national debt. In 1861 the Confederacy sold bonds worth $150 million in the so-called Bankers Loan, which secured much-needed specie. The government also tapped agricultural staples through the Produce Loan, in which planters pledged their produce in exchange for government paper. Against the receipts of these loans, Memminger issued Treasury notes, circulating paper money with which the government paid its bills. In August 1861 the Confederate Congress passed a War Tax on various kinds of property to increase government resources. Unfortunately Memminger's department was inefficient in collecting the produce subscribed to the Produce Loan, and he allowed taxes to be paid in inflated state currency. Consequently government paper money fed inflation, which served as an inverse tax on Confederate citizens.

By 1863 Memminger realized that inflation was threatening the government's ability to support itself and the war. Accordingly he proposed and Congress passed a graduated Income Tax and a 10% Tax In Kind on agricultural products. In March, 1863 the Confederacy accepted a $15 million loan from the French banking house of Emile Erlanger that yielded much less than its face value (about $8.5 million), but given the tenuous nature of Southern nationhood, the Confederates made the best deal possible. Still, Memminger's printing presses moved faster than the government could collect revenue, and inflation accelerated. In desperation, in 1864 Memminger imposed a Compulsory Funding Measure, which devalued those Treasury notes not exchanged for noncirculating government bonds. This failed too, as Confederates continued to exchange government paper for goods and services.

In July 1864 Jefferson Davis replaced Memminger with another South Carolinian, George A. Trenholm, but there was little Trenholm could do. The Confederacy never had more than $27 million of specie. The national debt ran over $700 million and the overall inflation was about 6,000%. That the Confederacy persisted as long as it did amid this financial chaos was a wonder.

Source: "Historical Times History of the Civil War"
 
                                                   
                                           Christopher Gustavus Memminger

General facts of the confederacy

General facts of the confederacy

SLAVERY:
Slavery in 1860: Only 25% of Southerners had a direct connection to slavery. There were 385,000 Slave owners. Of these slave owners:
 
          ·  88% held less than 20 slaves.
          ·  72% held less than 10 slaves.
          ·  50% held less than 5 slaves.
 
LAST CONFEDERATE VETERAN:
John Salling, 112 years old, died March 16, 1958
 
military draft:The first general American military draft was enacted by the Confederate government on April 16, 1862, more than a year before the Union did the same.  The Confederacy took this step because it had to; its territory was 90being assailed on every front by overwhelming numbers, and the defending armies needed men to fill the ranks. The compulsory-service law was very unpopular in the South because it was viewed as a usurpation of the rights of individuals by the central government, one of the reasons the South went to war in the first place. 

Under the Conscription Act, all healthy white men between the ages of 18-35 were liable for a 3-year term of service. The act also extended the terms of enlistment for all 1-year soldiers to 3 years. A September 1862 amendment raised the age limit to 45, and February 1864, the limits were extended to range between 17 and 50.  Exempted from the draft were men employed in certain occupations considered to be most valuable for the home front, such as railroad and river workers, civil officials, telegraph operators, miners, druggists and teachers. On October 11, the Confederate Congress amended the draft law to exempt anyone who owned 20 or more slaves.  Further, until the practice was abolished in December 1863, a rich drafted man could hire a substitute to take his place in the ranks, an unfair practice that brought on charges of class discrimination.  Many Southerners, including the governors of Georgia and North Carolina, were vehemently opposed to the draft and worked to thwart its effect in their states.  Thousands of men were exempted by the sham addition of their names to the civil servant rolls or by their enlistment in the state militias. Georgia and North Carolina accounted for 92% of all exemptions for state service.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR

Approximately 6,000 battles, both major and minor, were fought during the Civil War.
 
Many of the battles during the Civil War became known by two different names.  The reason for this was because the North would normally name a battle after a nearby body of water, while the South would name the battle after a nearby city or town.
 
EXAMPLE:

NORTH               SOUTH
Bull Run             Manassas

Antietam            Sharpsburg
Shiloh                Pittsburg Landing

Stones River       Murfreesboro
 
United States President Abraham Lincoln had four brother-in-laws who served in the Confederate Army.
 
There was a Jefferson Davis on both sides during the war, one the President of the Confederate States of America, the other a General in the United States Army.
 
Firing on both sides was so inaccurate that soldiers estimated that it took a man’s weight in lead to kill a single enemy in battle.  A Northern expert stated that each Confederate who was shot required 240 pounds of powder and 900 pounds of lead.
 
The Town of Winchester, Virginia, changed hands seventy (70) times during the war.
 
The main weapon of the Civil War was a single shot muzzle loading rifled musket, although the seven shot Spencer repeating rifle and fifteen shot Henry repeating rifle were both available to the North.  The Northern Ordnance Officers rejected them both on the theory that the soldiers would fire too fast and waste ammunition.  The Spencer was later purchased, but did not get into the hands of the Northern Army until near the end of the war, and even then it was issued primarily to the Northern Cavalry.
 
 
At the beginning of the Civil War the United States (Regular) Army consisted of five regiments of cavalry, four of artillery, ten of infantry, the Corps of Engineers, and administrative departments.  Its strength was 16,367 officers and men.  Of 198 line companies, 183 were scattered on the Western Frontier, and the remaining 15 were in garrisons along the Canadian border and on the seacoast.
 
The active officer corps numbered 1,080.  Of this number, 286 resigned or were dismissed, and entered the Confederate service.  West Point graduates on the active list numbered 824.  Of these, 184 were among the officers who went over to the South.  Of the approximately 900 graduates then in civilian life, 114 returned to the colors, while 99 others went into Confederate service.
 
Enlisted men of the Regular Army, having contracted to serve for a specified length of time, unlike the officers, could not resign.
 
The United States Navy consisted of 90 wooden craft of various categories, of which 42 were in active service.  Personal strength totaled 8,900 officers and men.
 
Navy enlisted men, like those of the Army, did not have the privilege of an honorable resignation.  Only a handful of sailors deserted.
 
The Confederate Army, at the start of the war, consisted of some 36,000 volunteers and militia already mustered and in the field; in addition, active recruiting went on after March 6, 1861 to obtain the full quota of 100,000 men authorized by the Confederate Congress at that time.
 
A Confederate Navy did not exist, except for those officers who had left the United States Navy.  Ships were purchased and built as the war progressed.  By February 1862, 47 vessels of various categories were in service, 14 under construction, and others planned.  Personnel strength by April 1864 numbered 753 officers and 4,460 enlisted men.  At least six large ironclads and ten ocean-going sea raiders actually operated at various times during the war, but the number of improvised gunboats and armed river craft (Confederate Navy), the various state navies, and privateers cannot be accurately enumerated. 
 
Most infantry rifles were equipped with bayonets, but few men wounded by the bayonet showed up at the hospital.  The conclusion was that the bayonet was not a lethal weapon.  One explanation is that opposing soldiers very rarely fought each other in hand-to-hand combat, and when they did they would use their rifles as clubs.  As a result, the primary use of the bayonet in the Civil War was a candleholder or tent peg.
 
Artillery was used in almost every battle of the Civil War, but only about 10% of the wounded were victims of artillery fire.
 
There were six million cases of disease in the Union Armies, which meant that on the average, every man was sick at least once.
 
The diseases most prevalent were dysentery (severe diarrhea), typhoid fever, malaria, pneumonia, arthritis, and the acute diseases of childhood, such as measles.
 
In the 79 National Civil War Cemeteries, 54% of the graves are those of unknown soldiers.  The second largest Civil War Cemetery is at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where 16,000 soldiers are buried, of these only 3,896 are known.  At the Confederate prison site in Salisbury, North Carolina, where 12, 126 Union Soldiers are buried, 99% are unknown.
 
Many authorities credit the 26th North Carolina Regiment as having incurred the greatest loss in a single battle during the Civil war.  At the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1963), it lost 85% of its total strength.  In one company of 84 men, every man and officer was hit.  The orderly sergeant who made out the report stated that he had a bullet wound in both legs.
 
The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery (recently converted to infantry) at the assault on Petersburg, Virginia in June 1864 lost 632 men killed or wounded in less than 20 minutes.  This was one of the first battles that they participated in.  In less than one year it lost 1,283 men killed or wounded out of the 2,202 men who were in the organization.
 
In a period of just 29 days in 1864, General Grant’s loss of men in killed or wounded totaled 54,900.
Many of the doctors who saw service in the Civil War had never been to medical school, but had served an apprenticeship in the office of an established practitioner.
 
The total dead on both sides was about 600,000.  Of these, 364,000 on the Northern side lost their lives, a third were killed or died of wounds, and two-thirds died of disease.
 
In the Peninsular Campaign during the spring of 1862, as many as 5,000 wounded were brought into a hospital where there were only one medical man and five hospital stewards to care for them.
 
The first organized ambulance corps for the Northern Army was used at the Peninsular Campaign and at Antietam.
 
At the battle of Gettysburg, 1,100 ambulances were in use.  The medical director of the Union Army boasted that all the wounded were picked up from the battlefield within 12 hours after the battle was over.  This was an improvement from the Second Battle of Bull Run, when many of the wounded were left on the battlefield in the rain, heat, and sun for three or four days.
 
Eighty percent (80%) of all wounds during the Civil War were in the extremities.
 
Most wounds were caused by an enlongated bullet made of soft lead, about an inch long, pointed at one end and hollowed out at the base.  It was called a “minie” ball, having been invented by Captain Minie of the French Army.
 
During the Battle of Antietam, Clara Barton tended the wounded so close to the fighting that a bullet went through her sleeve and killed a man she was treating.
 
Disease was the chief killer during the Civil War, taking two men for every one who died of battle wounds.
 
Confederate Nathan Bedford Forrest had thirty horses shot from under him and personally killed thirty-one men in hand-to-hand combat,  “I was a horse ahead at the end,” he said.
 
Over 2,000,000 Northern soldiers were twenty-one years old or younger, out of a total number of approximately 2,700,000.
 
Over 1,000,000 were eighteen or under.
 
Approximately 800,000 were seventeen or under.
 
Approximately 200,000 were sixteen or under.
 
Approximately 100,000 were fifteen or under.
 
Approximately 300 were thirteen or under, although most of these were fifers or drummers, but still regularly enrolled.
 
            During the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson marched his army of 16,000 men over 600 miles in 39 days, fighting five major battles and defeating four separate Union Armies totaling 63,000 men.
 
            Although General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was the symbol of Southern resistance, his sister Laura remained loyal to the North.  The soldiers of the North applauded her for her stand.  It is said that she once claimed that she could “take care of wounded Northern soldiers as fast as her brother Thomas could wound them”.
 
            Robert E. Lee was offered command of the entire Northern Army at the beginning of the Civil War, but as we know he turned it down to fight for the South, even though he was against slavery and secession.
 
            General William T. Sherman was in charge of a military academy in Louisiana when the war first broke out, and was offered a commission in the Southern Army.  He turned it down and became one of the greatest Generals in the Northern Army.
 
           
 
David Glasgow Farragut, of Tennessee, the hero of New Orleans and Mobile Bay, remained loyal to the North despite being a Southerner.  He later became the first Admiral in the United States Navy.
 
At Cold Harbor, Virginia in 1864, 7,000 Union soldiers fell in twenty minutes.
 
            Matthew Fontaine Maury, world famous “pathfinder of the sea”, resigned from the United States Navy and played a leading part in the development of underwater mines by the Confederate Navy.
 
            On July 4, 1863, after forty-eight days of siege, Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.  The Fourth of July was not celebrated in Vicksburg for the next eighty-one (81) years.
 
            During the battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), 12,401 Union men were killed, missing or wounded; double the casualties of D-day, eighty-two years later.  With a total of 23,000 casualties on both sides, it was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.
 
            Due to the vast inferiority of Confederate naval strength, its activities were confined to attempts that would break the Union blockade, defend rivers and sounds, plus the extensive use of commerce raiders preying on the unarmed Northern Merchant Marine.  Some naval engagements of note were the attack of the Confederate ironclad C.S.S Virginia (Ex U.S.S Merrimack before converted to an ironclad) on the Union blockading fleet at Hampton Roads, Virginia March 8-9, 1862.  This action ended in an indecisive single ship action with the Union’s ironclad U.S.S Monitor.  The engagement between the U.S.S Kearsarge and the C.S.S Alabama, ending with the sinking of the Alabama.  The Confederate ironclad C.S.S Tennessee’s action against Admiral Farragut’s United States force at Mobile Bay, which ended with the capture of the Tennessee.
 
            The United States Navy on the other hand played a major role in the Northern prosecution of the war.  It strangled the South by blockading Southern ports; participated in a number of joint amphibious Army-Navy operations, several squadron actions against fortified places, and river operations, which split the Confederacy along the line of the Mississippi river.  By the end of the war the United States Navy had risen to a strength of 670 ships, more than 60 of them ironclads, and a personnel strength of 6,700 officers and 51,000 men.
 
            The first United States Naval hospital ship, the “Red Rover”, was used on the inland waters during the Vicksburg campaign.
 
            The C.S.S Alabama captured 69 Northern merchant ships valued at six million five hundred thousand dollars ($6,500,000.00).
 
         
 
During the Civil War one small section of Virginia became America’s bloodiest battleground.  In three neighboring counties, embracing Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, more than half a million men fought in deadly combat during the war.  
 
            General Ulysses S. Grant was not fond of ceremonies or music.  He would say that he could only recognize two tunes, “One was Yankee Doodle, and the other one wasn’t”.
 
            Missouri sent 39 regiments to fight at the siege of Vicksburg; 17 to the Confederacy and 22 to the Union.
 
            At the start of the war, the value of all manufactured goods produced in the Confederate States added up to less than one-forth of those produced in New York State alone.
 
            In March 1862, European powers watched in worried fascination as the U.S.S Monitor and C.S.S Virginia battled off Hampton Roads, Virginia.  From then on, after these ironclads opened fire, every other navy on earth was obsolete.
 
          Senator John J. Crittendon of Kentucky had two sons who became Major Generals during the Civil War:  one for the North, and one for the South.
 
            After the Battle of Gettysburg the discarded rifles were collected and sent to Washington to be inspected and reissued. Of the 37,574 rifles recovered, 24,000 were still loaded; 6,000 had one round in the barrel; 12,000 had two rounds in the barrel; 6,000 had three to ten rounds in the barrel.
 
            Alfred Torbert held commissions in both the Northern and Southern armies at the same time.
 
            Every Southern state except South Carolina had troops fighting for both the Union and the Confederacy.
 
            "Stonewall" Jackson's cousin, General William Jackson's nickname was "Mudwall".
 
            The CSS Shenandoah was still fighting at sea for more than six months after Lee surrendered. Its captain finally surrendered on November 6, 1865 in Liverpool, England.
 
            Her cousin, Southern General James Longstreet, introduced Ulysses S. Grant to his wife Julia Dent.
 
            Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis served together in the Indian War of 1832.
 
            Adlebert Ames was the last Civil War General to die. He passed away in 1933.
 
            Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan fought only two separate days in the war, as he was wounded both times.
 
            Balloonist Thaddeus Lowe was the first person to direct an attack using aerial reconnaissance on September 24, 1861.
 
            Confederate Captain Richard Dowling fought off 15,000 Northern troops with only 43 men and six cannons, without losing a single man.
 
            Carrying the flag was a dangerous job, as it often provided an easy target. On one day alone, at Gettysburg, twenty-three flag bearers were killed from just two units.
 
            In April 1861, the New York Times assured its readers that the rebellion in the South would last less than 30 days.

Compiled From Various Sources

Jefferson Davis

Life In A Civil War Army Camp

Life In A Civil War Army Camp

       "If there is any place on God's fair earth where wickedness 'stalketh abroad in daylight' it is in the army," wrote a Confederate soldier in a letter to his family back home. Indeed, life in the army camps of the Civil War was fraught with boredom, mischief, fear, disease, and death.

        Army regulations called for the camps to be laid out in a fixed grid pattern, with officers' quarters at the front end of each street and enlisted men's quarters aligned to the rear. The camp was set up roughly along the lines the unit would draw up in a line of battle and each company displayed its colors on the outside of its tents. Regulations also defined where the mess tents, medical cabins, and baggage trains should be located. Often, however, lack of time or a particularly hilly or narrow terrain made it impossible to meet army regulations. The campgrounds themselves were often abysmal, especially in the South where wet weather produced thick mud for extended periods in the spring and summer; in the winter and fall, the mud turned to dust.

        In summer, troops slept in canvas tents. At the beginning of the war, both sides used the Sibley tent, named for its inventor, Henry H. Sibley, who later became a Confederate brigadier general. A large cone of canvas, 18 feet in diameter, 12 feet tall, and supported by a center pole, the tent had a circular opening at the top for ventilation, and a cone-shaped stove for heat. Although designed to fit a dozen men comfortably, army regulations assigned about 20 men to each tent, leading to cramped, uncomfortable quarters. When ventilation flaps were closed on cold or rainy days, the air inside the tent became fetid with the odors of men who had scarce access to clean water in which to bathe.
        As the war dragged on, the Sibley was replaced with smaller tents. The Federal armies favored the wedge tent, a six-foot length of canvas draped over a horizontal ridgepole and staked to the ground at the sides with flaps that closed. off one end. When canvas became scarce in the South, many Confederates were forced to rig open-air beds by heaping straw or leaves between two logs. In autumn and winter, those units that were able to find wood built crude huts, laying split logs on the earth floor and fashioning bunks with mattresses of pine needles.

        When not in battle, which was at least three quarters of the time, the average soldier's day began at 5 A.M. in the summer and 6 A.M. in the winter, when he was awakened by reveille. After the first sergeant took the roll call, the men ate breakfast then prepared for their first of as many as five drill sessions during the day. Here the men would learn how to shoot their weapons and perform various maneuvers. Drill sessions lasted approximately two hours each and, for most men, were exceptional exercises in tedium. One soldier described his days in the army like this: "The first thing in the morning is drill. Then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly drill."

        In the few intervals between drill, soldiers cleaned the camp, built roads, dug trenches for latrines, and gathered wood for cooking and heating. Finding clean water was a constant goal: the lack of potable water was a problem that led to widespread disease in both armies. At the outset of the war, the soldiers on both sides were relatively well-fed: the mandated daily ration for a Federal soldier in 1861 included at least 20 ounces of fresh or salt beef, or 12 ounces of salt pork; more than a pound of flour, and a vegetable, usually beans. Coffee, salt, vinegar, and sugar were provided as well. Supplies became limited when armies were moving fast and supply trains could not reach them in the field.

        When in the field, soldiers saw little beef and few vegetables; they subsisted for the most part on salt pork, dried beans, corn bread, and hardtack-a flour-and-water biscuit often infested with maggots and weevils after storage. Outbreaks of scurvy were common due to a frequent lack of fresh fruits and vegetables.

        By far, the most important staple in the minds of the soldiers was coffee. Men pounded the beans between rocks or crushed them with the butts of their rifles to obtain grounds with which to brew the strong drink. Although most Federals were well-supplied with coffee, the Confederates were often forced to make do with substitutes made from peanuts, potatoes, peas, and chicory.

        Most armies were forced at some point to live off the land. The Confederates, who fought mostly on home ground, tried harder to curb pillaging, preferring to request donations from townspeople rather than steal supplies or take them by force. Attached to most armies was the sutler, a purveyor of all goods not issued by the army, including tobacco, candy, tinned meats, shoelaces, patent medicines, fried pies, and newspapers. Sutlers were known for their steep prices and shoddy goods, but soldiers desperate for cigarettes, sweets, and news from home were willing to use their pay for these treats.

        Boredom stalked both armies almost as often as did hunger. When not faced with the sheer terror of battle, the days in camp tended to drag endlessly. The sheer tedium of camp life led the men to find recreational outlets. "There is some of the onerest men here that I ever saw," wrote a new recruit, "and the most swearing and card playing and fitin [fighting] and drunkenness that I ever saw at any place."

        When not drilling or standing guard, the troops read, wrote letters to their loved ones, and played any game they could devise, including baseball, cards, boxing matches, and cockfights. One competition involved racing lice or cockroaches across a strip of canvas. As hard as most commanders attempted to control vice in camp, both gambling and drinking were rampant, especially after payday. Confederate General Braxton Bragg concurred: "We have lost more valuable lives at the hands of whiskey sellers than by the balls of our enemies."

        Army regulations prohibited the purchase of alcohol by enlisted men, and soldiers who violated the rule were punished, but men on both sides found ways around it. Members of a Mississippi company got a half a gallon of whisky past the camp guards by concealing it in a hollowed-out watermelon; they then buried the melon beneath the floor of their tent and drank from it with a long straw. If they could not buy liquor, they made it. One Union recipe called for "bark juice, tar-water, turpentine, brown sugar, lamp oil, and alcohol."

        When not drinking or gambling, some men escaped the tedium of daily army life by enjoying "horizontal refreshments," as visiting prostitutes became known. Thousands of prostitutes thronged the cities in the war zones and clustered about the camps. By 1862, for instance, Washington, D.C., had 450 bordellos and at least 7,500 full-time prostitutes; Richmond, as the center of prostitution in the Confederacy, had about an equal number. Venereal disease among soldiers was prevalent and largely uncontrolled. About eight percent of the soldiers in the Union army were treated for venereal disease during the war and a great many cases were unreported; figures for the Confederacy are unavailable, but assumed to be about equal in proportion. With the invention of penicillin more than 70 years away, treating venereal disease with herbs and minerals such as pokeweed, elderberries, mercury, and zinc sulfate may have eased symptoms but did nothing to cure the disease.

        Even more pervasive than boredom, gambling, or venereal disease was homesickness. Men spent more time writing letters and hoping to receive them than any other leisure activity. Furloughs were rarely granted, and most soldiers had few opportunities to spend extended periods of time away from the army. Federal troops were often stationed too far from home to have time to get home, while Southern armies, short of manpower, needed every available soldier to fight. For better or worse, Civil War soldiers were forced to call camp home for the duration of their terms of service.

Source: The Civil War Society's "Encyclopedia of the Civil War"

Mary Edwards Walker Photo

Mary Edwards Walker

Music of the Civil War

Music of the Civil War

Music has always been an important part of American society and it was no different during the Civil War. Military bands were called upon to play at recruitment rallies and their patriotic marching tunes were sometimes a great incentive to inspire young men to enlist. When volunteer regiments were recruited, a regimental band was usually included as a part of that organization. The bands were needed to play for parades, formations, dress parades and evening concerts. Union and Confederate armies both authorized regimental bands. In the Union army, each artillery or infantry regiment could have one 24-member band and the cavalry was limited to a 16-member band. So many bands and the need for more disciplined organizations made officials in the Union War Department reconsider the regulations. In 1862, the Department ordered the dismissal of all brass ensembles that belonged to volunteer regiments. To replace discharged regimental bands, brigade bands were formed to serve the entire brigade of a division. Despite the order, some regimental officers were able to retain their bands. The musicians re-enlisted as combatants and were detailed by the colonel commanding the regiment into a regimental band.

Members of the 26th North Carolina Infantry Band

There were fewer Confederate bands because musicians were not quite as plentiful in the South and good instruments were expensive and very difficult to obtain. Quality brass instruments were rare because that metal was in short supply in the Confederacy and some of the best instrument makers were in the North. Like their Union counterparts, most Confederate bands were dismissed from service after the first year of the war though several organizations, including the 26th North Carolina Infantry, retained their bands and many southern officers were glad for it. Generals Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet were all serenaded by Confederate bands while in camp, and they enjoyed the music very much. Most officers, including General Lee, felt that the music supplied by these surviving bands was very important to keep up the morale of the men. The bands that remained with the army often used music borrowed from Northern songbooks and used captured instruments in place of the inferior Confederate-made instruments. Some Confederate bands were better than others and not all bands sounded that good. One Confederate soldier regarded the playing of his regiment's band "comparable to the braying of a pack of mules..."

A Union drum

Each company in an infantry regiment had a musician who was usually a drummer. They were relied upon to play drumbeats to call the soldiers into formation and for other events. Drums got the soldiers up in the morning, signaled them to report for morning roll call, sick call, and guard duty. Drummers also played at night to signal lights out or "taps". The most important use of drums was on the battlefield where they were used to communicate orders from the commanding officers and signal troop movement. Civil War drums were made of wood that had been cut into thin layers, steamed, and formed into a round shell. The outside of a Union drum was often painted and featured a large eagle displaying its wings with the stars and stripes flowing around it. Confederate drums were not quite as fancy, many just having a plain wood finish. The heads of the drum were made from calfskin and stretched tight by ropes.

A Union fifer

A fifer often accompanied drummers. The fife was a high-pitched instrument, similar to a piccolo, and usually made of rosewood. This hollow wooden instrument was played by blowing wind over one hole and controlling the pitch with fingers placed over other holes along the length of the tube. Fancier fifes had brass fittings and engravings on them. Like drummers, the fifers were also part of the regiment's band who was detailed as musicians.
Not all drummers, fifers and bandsmen were allowed to go into battle. When fighting appeared imminent, musicians were often ordered to the rear to assist surgeons and care for the wounded. Some brigade bands did accompany their commanders onto the field and played patriotic songs while under the battle raged all around them. Can you imagine the type of courage it took to play your instrument while bullets and shells flew thick and fast all around you?
Cavalry regiments did not use drums and fifes. Instead, they used bugles to sound the different calls in camp and on the march. The bugler was considered a cavalry regiment's musician. Cavalrymen became so familiar with their own musician and his bugle calls, that they could often distinguish his calls from that of another regiment. Like the cavalry, artillery units also used bugles in camp and on the battlefield. One could tell who was camped where by the sounds of drums or bugles being played.
Soldiers in both armies had their own favorite songs to sing and listen to. Sometimes they sang while marching to keep up their spirits. Union soldiers liked patriotic and sentimental songs. The Battle Cry of Freedom was a Union favorite. Some other popular tunes were The Battle Hymn of the Republic, John Brown's Body, Just Before The Battle Mother, Dixie's Land, Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground, The Vacant Chair, and Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!
Confederate Soldiers also had patriotic and romantic songs they enjoyed such as The Bonnie Blue Flag, Maryland, My Maryland, Lorena, and a southern version of The Battle Cry of Freedom
 
 
 
The "Battle of the Bands", Civil War Style 

During the winter of 1862-1863, Union and Confederate armies were camped near each other at Fredericksburg, Virginia, separated only by the expanse of the Rappahannock River. One cold afternoon, a band in the Union camp struck up some patriotic tunes to cheer the men. They were answered from across the river by a Confederate band. The Union band played another tune followed by the Confederates who also did their best to play the same song. Back and forth the musical duel went well into the evening hours. Soldiers in both armies listened to the musical battle and would cheer for their own bands. The duel finally ended when both bands struck up the tune of "Home, Sweet Home". It was then that the men of both sides who were so far from their homes, cheered as one.
 
Do you know of any familiar songs today that were sung during the Civil War? How about Goober Peas and The Yellow Rose of Texas?
When Johnny Comes Marching Home was another popular song that is closely associated with the Civil War. These were among the many favorite songs sung by soldiers that are still popular.
 
National Park Service
Gettysburg National Military Park
97 Taneytown Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325

On black confederates

On black confederates

1st Louisiana Native Guard 1861
 
            Black Confederates; why haven't we heard more about them? National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated, "I don't want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910" Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a "cover-up" which started back in 1865.  He writes, "During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where 'soldier' is crossed out and 'body servant' inserted, or 'teamster' on pension applications."  Another black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that blacks fought. He explains that "some, if not most, Black southerners would support their country" and that by doing so they were "demonstrating it's possible to hate the system of slavery and love one's country."  This is the very same reaction that most African Americans showed during the American Revolution, where they fought for the colonies, even though the British offered them freedom if they fought for them.
            It has been estimated that over 65,000 Southern blacks were in the Confederate ranks. Over 13,000 of these, "saw the elephant" also known as meeting the enemy in combat. These Black Confederates included both slave and free. The Confederate Congress did not approve blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers (except as musicians), until late in the war.  But in the ranks it was a different story. Many Confederate officers did not obey the mandates of politicians, they frequently enlisted blacks with the simple criteria, "Will you fight?" Historian Ervin Jordan, explains that "biracial units" were frequently organized "by local Confederate and State militia Commanders in response to immediate threats in the form of Union raids". Dr. Leonard Haynes, an African-American professor at Southern University, stated, "When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South”.
            As the war came to an end, the Confederacy took progressive measures to build back up its army.  The creation of the Confederate States Colored Troops, copied after the segregated northern colored troops, came too late to be successful.  Had the Confederacy been successful, it would have created the world's largest armies (at the time) consisting of black soldiers, even larger than that of the North.  This would have given the future of the Confederacy a vastly different appearance than what modern day racist or anti-Confederate liberals conjecture.  Not only did Jefferson Davis envision black Confederate veterans receiving bounty lands for their service, there would have been no future for slavery after the goal of 300,000 armed black CSA veterans came home after the war.
 
 
The "Richmond Howitzers" were partially manned by black militiamen. They saw action at 1st Manassas (or 1st Battle of Bull Run) where they operated battery no. 2. In addition two black "regiments", one free and one slave, participated in the battle on behalf of the South. "Many colored people were killed in the action", recorded John Parker, a former slave.
 
            At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer. James Washington, Co. D 35th Texas Cavalry, Confederate States Army, became its 3rd Sergeant. Higher-ranking black commissioned officers served in militia units, but this was on the State militia level (Louisiana) and not in the regular C.S. Army.
 
            Free black musicians, cooks, soldiers and teamsters earned the same pay as white confederate privates. This was not the case in the Union army where blacks did not receive equal pay. At the Confederate Buffalo Forge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, skilled black workers "earned on average three times the wages of white Confederate soldiers and more than most Confederate army officers ($350- $600 a year).
 
            Dr. Lewis Steiner, Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission while observing Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's occupation of Frederick, Maryland, in 1862: "Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number [Confederate troops]. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but also in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc.....and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army”.
 
            Frederick Douglas reported, "There are at the present moment many Colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having musket on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the rebels."
 
            Black and white militiamen returned heavy fire on Union troops at the Battle of Griswoldsville (near Macon, GA). Approximately 600 boys and elderly men were killed in this skirmish.
 
            In 1864, President Jefferson Davis approved a plan that proposed the emancipation of slaves, in return for the official recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France. France showed interest but Britain refused.
 
            The Jackson Battalion included two companies of black soldiers. They saw combat at Petersburg under Col. Shipp. "My men acted with utmost promptness and goodwill...Allow me to state sir that they behaved in an extraordinary acceptable manner."
 
            Recently the National Park Service, with a recent discovery, recognized that blacks were asked to help defend the city of Petersburg, Virginia and were offered their freedom if they did so. Regardless of their official classification, black Americans performed support functions that in today's army many would be classified as official military service. The successes of white Confederate troops in battle, could only have been achieved with the support these loyal black Southerners.
 
            Confederate General John B. Gordon (Army of Northern Virginia) reported that all of his troops were in favor of Colored troops and that it's adoption would have "greatly encouraged the army". Gen. Lee was anxious to receive regiments of black soldiers. The Richmond Sentinel reported on 24 Mar 1864, "None will deny that our servants are more worthy of respect than the motley hordes which come against us." "Bad faith [to black Confederates] must be avoided as an indelible dishonor."
 
            In March 1865, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary Of State, promised freedom for blacks that served from the State of Virginia. Authority for this was finally received from the State of Virginia and on April 1st 1865, $100 bounties were offered to black soldiers. Benjamin exclaimed, "Let us say to every Negro who wants to go into the ranks, go and fight, and you are free Fight for your masters and you shall have your freedom." Confederate Officers were ordered to treat them humanely and protect them from "injustice and oppression".
 
            A quota was set for 300,000 black soldiers for the Confederate States Colored Troops. 83% of Richmond's male slave population volunteered for duty. A special ball was held in Richmond to raise money for uniforms for these men. Before Richmond fell, black Confederates in gray uniforms drilled in the streets. Due to the war ending, it is believed only companies or squads of these troops ever saw any action. Many more black soldiers fought for the North, but that difference was simply a difference because the North instituted this progressive policy sooner than the more conservative South. Black soldiers from both sides received discrimination from whites that opposed the concept.
 
            Union General U.S. Grant in Feb 1865 ordered the capture of "all the Negro men before the enemy can put them in their ranks." Frederick Douglass warned Lincoln that unless slaves were guaranteed freedom (those in Union controlled areas were still slaves) and land bounties, "they would take up arms for the rebels".
 
            On April 4, 1865 (Amelia County, VA), a Confederate supply train was exclusively manned and guarded by black Infantry. When attacked by Federal Cavalry, they stood their ground and fought off the charge, but on the second charge they were overwhelmed. These soldiers are believed to be from "Major Turner's" Confederate command.
            A Black Confederate, George _____, when captured by Federals was bribed to desert to the other side. He defiantly spoke, "Sir, you want me to desert, and I ain't no deserter. Down South, deserters disgrace their families and I am never going to do that."
 
            Former slave, Horace King, accumulated great wealth as a contractor to the Confederate Navy. He was also an expert engineer and became known as the "Bridge builder of the Confederacy." One of his bridges was burned in a Yankee raid. His home was pillaged by Union troops, as his wife pleaded for mercy.
 
            As of Feb. 1865 1,150 black seamen served in the Confederate Navy. One of these was among the last Confederates to surrender, aboard the CSS Shenandoah, six months after the war ended. This surrender took place in England.
 
Nearly 180,000 Black Southerners, from Virginia alone, provided logistical support for the Confederate military. Many were highly skilled workers. These included a wide range of jobs: nurses, military engineers, teamsters, ordnance department workers, brakemen, firemen, harness makers, blacksmiths, wagon makers, boatmen, mechanics, wheelwrights, etc. In the 1920'S Confederate pensions were finally allowed to some of those workers that were still living. Many thousands more served in other Confederate States.
 
            During the early 1900's, many members of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) advocated awarding former slaves rural acreage and a home. There was hope that justice could be given those slaves that were once promised "forty acres and a mule" but never received any. In the 1913 Confederate Veteran magazine published by the UCV, it was printed that this plan "If not Democratic, it is [the] Confederate" thing to do. There was much gratitude toward former slaves, which "thousands were loyal, to the last degree", now living with total poverty of the big cities. Unfortunately, their proposal fell on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.
 
            During the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913, arrangements were made for a joint reunion of Union and Confederate veterans. The commission in charge of the event made sure they had enough accommodations for the black Union veterans, but were completely surprised when unexpected black Confederates arrived. The white Confederates immediately welcomed their old comrades, gave them one of their tents, and "saw to their every need". Nearly every Confederate reunion included those blacks that served with them, wearing the gray.
 
            The first military monument in the US Capitol that honors an African-American soldier is the Confederate monument at Arlington National cemetery. Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish Confederate, designed the monument in1914. He wanted to correctly portray the "racial makeup" in the Confederate Army. A black Confederate soldier is depicted marching in step with white Confederate soldiers. Also shown is one "white soldier giving his child to a black woman for protection".- source: Edward Smith, African American professor at the American University, Washington DC.
 
            Black Confederate heritage is beginning to receive the attention it deserves. For instance, Terri Williams, a black journalist for the Suffolk "Virginia Pilot" newspaper, writes: "I've had to re-examine my feelings toward the [Confederate] flag started when I read a newspaper article about an elderly black man whose ancestor worked with the Confederate forces. The man spoke with pride about his family member's contribution to the cause, was photographed with the [Confederate] flag draped over his lap that's why I now have no definite stand on just what the flag symbolizes, because it no longer is their history, or my history, but our history."
 
By Scott Williams

 
Resources:
 
Charles Kelly Barrow, et.al. Forgotten Confederates: An Anthology About Black Southerners (1995). Currently the best book on the subject.
 
Ervin L. Jordan, Jr. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (1995). Well researched and very good source of information on Black Confederates, but has a strong Union bias.
 
Richard Rollins. Black Southerners in Gray (1994). Excellent source.
 
Dr. Edward Smith and Nelson Winbush, "Black Southern Heritage". An excellent educational video. Mr. Winbush is a descendent of a Black Confederate and a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).
 
 
                          
       Unknown Black Confederates                           Monument at  Fort  Mill,  South
                                                                                     Carolina, dedicated to forgotten
                                                                                     Confederates.

Rose O'Neal Greenhow, 1817-1864

Rose O'Neal Greenhow, 1817-1864

Rose O'Neal Greenhow was born in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1817. "Wild Rose", as she was called from a young age, was a leader in Washington society, a passionate secessionist, and one of the most renowned spies in the Civil War.
 
Among her accomplishments was the ten-word secret message she sent to General Pierre G.T. Beauregard, which ultimately caused him to win the battle of Bull Run. She spied so successfully for the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis credited her with winning the battle of Manassas (also known as Bull Run).
 
She was imprisoned for her efforts first in her own home and then in the Old Capital Prison. Despite her confinement, Greenhow continued getting messages to the Confederacy by means of cryptic notes which traveled in unlikely places such as the inside of a woman's bun of hair. After her second prison term, she was exiled to the Confederate states where President Jefferson Davis received her warmly.
 
Her next mission was to tour Britain and France as a propagandist for the Confederate cause. Two months after her arrival in London, her memoirs were published and enjoyed a wide sale throughout the British Isles. In Europe, Greenhow found a strong sympathy for the South, especially among the ruling classes.
 
During the course of her travels she hobnobbed with many members of the nobility. She was received at the court of Queen Victoria and became engaged to the Second Earl Granville. In Paris, she was received into the court of Napoleon III and was granted an audience with the Emperor at the Tuileries.
 
In 1864, after a year abroad, she boarded the Condor, a British blockade-runner that was to take her home. Just before reaching her destination, the vessel ran aground at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. In order to avoid the Union gunboat that pursued her ship Rose fled in rowboat, but never made it to shore. Her little boat capsized and she was dragged down by the weight of the gold she received in royalties for her book.
 
In October 1864, Rose was buried with full military honors in the Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington. Her coffin was wrapped in the Confederate flag and carried by Confederate troops. The marker for her grave, a marble cross, bears the epitaph, "Mrs. Rose O'N. Greenhow, a bearer of dispatches to the Confederate Government."

Spies Of The Civil War

Spies Of The Civil War

Spying during the Civil War was no less hazardous for agents than at any time of armed conflict in history. Rewards and recognition were negligible on both sides, and, as often as not, information obtained at great risk was ignored by the commanders in the field.
 
While outcomes of the historic battles were not often determined by information obtained by spies, certainly the information, or lack of it, did have some influence, particularly in the last two years of the war. . The early spies were not held in high esteem. Prior to and during the early part of the war neither side had a formal intelligence branch, nor any thought to forming one or even training spies. Any spying to be carried out was usually done on behalf of individual generals with no regard to sharing information. Even noted railway detective Allan Pinkerton's information-- some provided by his secret agents to thwart a plot to either assassinate Abraham Lincoln or at least to forestall his inauguration, was sometimes ignored.
 
On the other hand, Pinkerton's people regularly over-estimated the Confederate forces arrayed against Union General George McClellan – sometimes more than ten times the actual number. In part on the basis of this erroneous information, McClellan so repeatedly refused to engage the enemy he was eventually relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac. Ironically, Pinkerton's spies, so superb at gathering raw information, were hopelessly inept at analyzing it.

Until he was captured and hanged in Richmond, the most effective of Pinkerton's agents was Timothy Webster. Webster played his pro-Confederate role so well; he was arrested in Washington as a suspected Confederate spy. His escape from custody secured him even more credibility in Confederate circles and he was eventually provided a passport to travel freely throughout Confederate territory.

When the Confederacy entered the Civil War it lacked any intelligence support even close to that provided by Pinkerton to the Union. Despite this disadvantage, Confederate operatives did have some notable successes. For example, even as Pinkerton was providing McClellan gross over-estimations of Confederate strength, an espionage ring organized by a spymaster, Thomas Conrad, in Washington provided Richmond with regular updates of McClellan's entire order of battle. At another point in the war, Conrad managed to have one of his spies on the staff of the Union's head of secret police, Lafayette Baker.

To the extent Baker was recognized for his ruthlessness, cunning and success, his Confederate counterpart, Brigadier General John Winder was reported to be incompetent, inexperienced, and susceptible to material blandishment, the last-noted often having to do with issuance of travel passes. Nor, apparently, was Winder as security conscious as might have been advisable. He had posted on his headquarters wall the order of battle of troops defending the Richmond peninsula, and at least once guards had to chase off a stranger diligently copying the lists.  The brigadier general also opened the door for one of the Union's most consistently productive spies, Elizabeth Van Lew, who in her diary emphasized how despicable, yet useful, she found his vanity.

Van Lew wore her pro-Union sympathies as openly as a corsage on her dress. She began her spying activities by gleaning information from Union prisoners of war in Richmond's Libby Prison. She devised a cipher code and used her servants, many of whom were former slaves, to act as couriers to get information through the lines to Generals Grant and Butler. So imaginative was she that managed to have one of her spies employed on the household staff of Jefferson Davis. As if in recognition of her wartime efforts, immediately after the fall of Richmond, General Grant took tea with Van Lew on her front porch in full view of the vanquished population.

Of all of the Civil War's generals, General Grant placed the most reliance on intelligence gathered by spies, so much so that he charged a brigadier general, Grenville Dodge, with setting up spy networks throughout the Confederacy. Almost reminiscent of Iran-Contra in contemporary times, Dodge used revenue from the sale of confiscated southern cotton to finance the activities of his agents.

The Confederacy was not without its prominent women spies, of whom Rose Greenhow was most notable. She was very well connected in Washington political circles, counting among her frequent visitors, then-President James Buchanan and Henry Wilson during his term as chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee. Information she provided acknowledged to have been the key to Confederate success at Bull Run.

More famous than Greenhow was Belle Boyd, achieving her fame more with her own flamboyance than by the intelligence product of her exploits. Late in the war, the Union deported the pesky lady to Canada.

By the end of the Civil War the value of intelligence gathering, its timely transmission, and its accurate analysis had been well proven. The telegraph and semaphore relay systems had undergone dramatic improvement. Codes and ciphers had become much more complex and sophisticated. Certainly agents in place being provided specific direction from higher authority was recognized as far more fruitful than the "catch as catch can" fragmented approach taken by both sides early in the conflict. Indeed, never again would the United States be without an intelligence branch.

Written by Arthur Montague
 Belle Boyd                  Elizabeth Van Lew            Pauline Cushman                  Rose O’Neal

Varina Davis

Varina Davis

       Varina Davis in the 1840’s                 Varina Davis in later years
 
The Wife and Influence Behind Jefferson Davis

She was born at "The Briars," in Natchez, Mississippi on May 7, 1826, and would become the wife of Jefferson Davis. When they married in 1845, Jefferson Davis could not have selected a better choice for his wife, considering that his future would take him to the presidency of the Confederacy.

Varina was a very religious woman, and very intelligent, who received little formal education, having been tutored privately and by a close family friend. In her teens she did attend a finishing school where her social graces were enhanced. When she married Jefferson Davis at the age of nineteen, her mother objected, as Jefferson was eighteen years older than she. But, their married turned out to be a long and most happy one.

Varina had a strong interest in politics, therefore her adjustment to the political life as the wife of a politician in Washington, D.C. was easy. She also was a consummate hostess, and an exuberant conversationalist and a storyteller. Unlike her husband, she handled condemnation well, which was an asset through the tough years as the First Lady of the Confederacy.

In 1862, when conditions in Richmond stated to deteriorate and food was becoming scarce, she found herself under public scrutiny for her entertaining at the White House of the Confederacy. Yet, others complained that her parties were not extravagant enough. Those who considered her influence on her husband too great chastised her. Some would also question her loyalty to the South because her father was born in the North. As history relates, these criticisms were not founded.

Jefferson and Varina would have six children together, one of whom was born during the troubled times of the war, and another who died tragically by falling off the balcony of the Confederate White House.
At war’s end, when Jefferson Davis was captured and arrested in Irwinsville, Georgia, Varina was with her husband. Upon his confinement at Fort Monroe, Virginia, Varina sent their children to Canada to live with their maternal grandmother to guarantee their safety. As Varina was prohibited by the Federal government from leaving Georgia, she spent this time campaigning to free her husband. These attempts being unrelenting, Jefferson was finally released in May 1867.

The Davis’s lived in Canada for a short while, in virtual poverty, until the early 1870s, when a friend arranged for them to purchase the Mississippi estate known as "Beauvoir." They retired here, and following Jefferson’s death in 1889, Varina remained to write her memoirs.
 
Varina eventually moved to New York City, and gave Beauvoir to the state of Mississippi to be used as a Confederate veteran’s home. While in New York, she supported herself by continuing to write articles for various magazines. Varina Davis died in New York City on October 16, 1905. Sadly, she was survived by only one of her six children.

Varina Davis Photo

Varina Davis

“Old abe” the war eagle

113th Pa Infantry Memorial, Ayers Ave, Gettysburg Battlefield

113th Pa Infantry Memorial, Ayers Ave, Gettysburg Battlefield

20th Maine Memorial on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

20th Maine Memorial on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

40th NY Infantry (Mozart Brigade), by Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

40th NY Infantry (Mozart Brigade), by Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Area around Spangler's Spring, Gettysburg Battlefield

Area around Spangler's Spring, Gettysburg Battlefield

Area around Spanglers's Spring, Gettysburg Battlefield

Area around Spanglers's Spring, Gettysburg Battlefield

Artillery shell still in building in town of Gettysburg.

Artillery shell still in building in town of Gettysburg.

Barn at Daniel Lady Farm that was used as battlefield hospital, Gettysburg Battlefield

Barn at Daniel Lady Farm that was used as battlefield hospital, Gettysburg Battlefield

Basement of barn used as battlefield hospital at Daniel Lady Farm, Gettysburg Battlefield

Basement of barn used as battlefield hospital at Daniel Lady Farm, Gettysburg Battlefield

Battle damage to Farnsworth House, town of Gettysburg.

Battle damage to Farnsworth House, town of Gettysburg.

Battle damage to Jenny Wade House, town of Gettysburg.

Battle damage to Jenny Wade House, town of Gettysburg.

Brig. Gen'l Crawford Memorial, Gettysburg Battlefield

Brig. Gen'l Crawford Memorial, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannon on 11th Corps line, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannon on 11th Corps line, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannon on 11th Corps line, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannon on 11th Corps line, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannon on Wheatfield Ave, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannon on Wheatfield Ave, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannons by Evergreen Cemetary, Gettysburg Battlefield

Cannons by Evergreen Cemetary, Gettysburg Battlefield

Close up of 73rd NY Fire Zoaves, Gettysburg Battlefield

Close up of 73rd NY Fire Zoaves, Gettysburg Battlefield

Daniel Lady Farm house, Gen'l Lee held council of war here. Gettysburg Battlefield

Daniel Lady Farm house, Gen'l Lee held council of war here. Gettysburg Battlefield

Defensive walls built on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

Defensive walls built on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

Defensive walls on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

Defensive walls on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l Hancock, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l Hancock, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l Meade's Headquarters, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l Meade's Headquarters, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l O.O. Howard, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l O.O. Howard, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l Slocum, Gettysburg Battlefield

Gen'l Slocum, Gettysburg Battlefield

Little Round Top viewed from The Wheatfield, Gettysburg Battlefield

Little Round Top viewed from The Wheatfield, Gettysburg Battlefield

Marker of the first shot of the battle, Gettysburg Battlefield

Marker of the first shot of the battle, Gettysburg Battlefield

Masonic Memorial, depicting Gen'l Armistead after receiving his mortal wound, Gettysburg Nat'l Cemetary

Masonic Memorial, depicting Gen'l Armistead after receiving his mortal wound, Gettysburg Nat'l Cemetary

Monument on Ayers Avenue as seen from Crawford Ave, Gettysburg Battlefield

Monument on Ayers Avenue as seen from Crawford Ave, Gettysburg Battlefield

Monument on East Cavalry Battlefield, Gettysburg Battlefield

Monument on East Cavalry Battlefield, Gettysburg Battlefield

Monument on East Cavalry Battlefield, Gettysburg Battlefield

Monument on East Cavalry Battlefield, Gettysburg Battlefield

Pen used by Gen'l Grant to accept Gen'l Lee's Surrender, note that the date on the card is incorrect, Visitor Center, Gettysburg

Pen used by Gen'l Grant to accept Gen'l Lee's Surrender, note that the date on the card is incorrect, Visitor Center, Gettysburg Battlefield

Recently repaired 114th Pa Volunteer (Collis Zoaves) Memorial. Statue had been vandalized and physically ripped from the foundat

Recently repaired 114th Pa Volunteer (Collis Zoaves) Memorial. Statue had been vandalized and physically ripped from the foundation, and head was removed. Gettysburg Battlefield

Rose Farm house, Gettysburg Battlefield

Rose Farm house, Gettysburg Battlefield

Sherfy House, note battle damaged walls, Gettysburg Battlefield

Sherfy House, note battle damaged walls, Gettysburg Battlefield

Slaughter Pen, Gettysburg Battlefield

Slaughter Pen, Gettysburg Battlefield

Soldier graffiti engraved in rock on Big Round Top. Gettysburg Battlefield

Soldier graffiti engraved in rock on Big Round Top. Gettysburg Battlefield

The Peach Orchard (recently replanted), Gettysburg Battlefield

The Peach Orchard (recently replanted), Gettysburg Battlefield

The Wheatfield, Gettysburg Battlefield

The Wheatfield, Gettysburg Battlefield

Tim on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

Tim on Big Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield

Unusual pic, copse of trees (look in the center) Gettysburg Battlefield

Unusual pic, copse of trees (look in the center) Gettysburg Battlefield

View of Union artillery positions facing the Rose Farm, Gettysburg Battlefield

View of Union artillery positions facing the Rose Farm, Gettysburg Battlefield

Witness Tree atop Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Witness Tree atop Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield

Graham Salisbury reenacting

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

Graham Salisbury reenacting photo

1st Nevada Cavalry

1st Nevada Cavalry

When Federal Troops where pulled out of the west to fight the Confederacy in the east, a void was created that needed to be filled. The 1st Nevada Cavalry was mustered in to help fill that void. Recruited in the Saloons of Viginia City and other mining towns that were working the Comstock Lode, the 1st Nevada Cavalry had many duties. Gaurding the mail route and Immigrant trails from hostile Indians,and keeping Confederate Sympathisers in Virginia City on a tight leash, just to name a few.

The Comstock Lode was a Large Silver Deposit isn what is know Western Nevada near the California Border. The Silver from the mines of the Comstock was vital to the Union War Effort. If the Comstock region was to fall into Confederate hands it would not have been a good thing. I actually have a theory about a proposed Confederate take over of the Comstock that will appear in greater detail in another article. It is more of a Conspiracy Theory than anything but it is very plausable and could easily have changed the outcome of the War. While never in the big battles of the East the 1st Nevada Cavalry served a very useful purpose in preserving the Union.

A trubute to my Gallant Adversaries the Confederate Cavalry!

A trubute to my Gallant Adversaries the Confederate Cavalry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rci-dF1bszo&feature=PlayList&p=F344E664AC8F2634

Cavalry Gear

M-1845 Mounted Shell Jacket Sack Coat

* Trousers (sky blue mounted pattern)

The Mounted Pattern had a double layer of wool in the seat and crotch so it would wear better in the saddle, These were held up by suspender

A Winter Coat known as a great coat was also issued. The Cavalry's Great Coat differed from the infantry's. I was set up for riding.

Guantlets were also worn by the Cavalry Trooper. They were crèam in color.

I must apologize the sword belt appears on an Artilleryman.
* Cap box, Revolver holster, cartridge box.

A cap box

A Carbine Cartridge Box

Flap Holster

Read More at page 2

Cavalry Gear Page 2

Cavalry Gear

The standard cap box worn by the infantry was used. Your Revolver was carried in a full flap holster. It was worn butt forward on your right side. This is awkward at first because we are used to Cowboy movies where the Revolver is usually worn butt to the rear in an open topped holster. The reason that the Military used this configuration was due to the Saber. The Saber was considered to be the Primary weapon of the Cavalry Trooper. The Saber was worn on the left hip for two reasons. It could be drawn with the right hand and also to facilitate mounting your horse. Think about it. You mount a horse on the right side. This goes back to the dawn of time when a warrior first used a horse in battle. Most People are right handed, so your sword would be carried to draw easily. If you mounted your horse on your left side your sword would drag across the horses rump. Horses don't like their rump messed with. You would be in the middle of a Rodeo quicker than quick.

A Cavalry Soldier used two Cartridge boxes one for his revolver and one for his carbine. Revolver cartridges were rolled in paper like a musket cartridge for ease of use, and would be stored in a box on your belt. Your Carbine Ammunition would be stored in a similar box. I have seen these carried on both the belt and on the Carbine sling.

 

Carbine sling with snap hook
The Carbine sling was a wide leather belt with a large snap hook that slide on it. it was carried over the left shoulder, allowing the Carbine to hang on your right side. It could be fired with the sling attached. If you had to drop your carbine to draw your Revolver or Saber your Carbine would remain at your side, ready for the next time you needed it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Canteen
The canteen varied in color Navy blue, Sky blue, Grey and brown. No the Color didn't signify Union or Confederate. It could be hung over the right shoulder and chest so it would hang on the left. This way it wouldn't interfere with the Carbine or Revolver. Alternately it could be hung by a special strap from the saddle.

 

 

 

 

WEAPONS
The Sword was usually an 1840 heavy Cavalry Saber called a "Wrist Breaker" or the 1860 light Cavalry Saber. In combat I think I would have preferred the 1840 Model. 

 

1840 Cavalry Heavy Saber

1860 Light Cavalry Saber

 

Remington or Colt Revolver. Either the 1851 or 1860 Model Colt. They were in .36 and .44 Calibers respectively. I think that the 1851 "Navy" Colt is one of the most elegant guns of the era. The 1860 Colt shot the heavier .44 caliber load. It is said of the Remington that a soldier would trade a box of Colts for one Remington. I would have to agree. The Remington is easier to disassemble, and clean, was an inherently stronger design with its closed top frame as opposed to the Colts open top design. Some would argue that the closed top design would cause the percussion cap to hang up and jam the action. I have fired hundred of rounds through both Colts and Remington s and have never found this to be a problem. Other makers also provided revolvers to the Army, including a very interesting weapon made by Savage Arms; but the Colts and Remington s where the most common.

1860 Colt Army Model

Colt 1851 Navy Model

1858 Remington Army Model

 

Sharps or Smith Carbine
These were the most common Carbines. There were so many different manufactures that you could do a whole article on just Carbine, and I think I will. Others were the Burnside, The Starr, and the Josyln. Some Cavalry Troopers even had repeaters such as the Spencer and the Henry. Here we will concentrate on the Sharps and the Smith. Both were ingenious designs. The Sharps was a lever action breech loading single shot and the Smith would break open at a hinge allowing the cartridge to be inserted in the breech.

 

Sharps Carbine, Smith Carbine Saddle Ring

 

HORSE TACK

*1859 McClellan Saddle
This saddle was developed by General McClellan and would see service over the next fifty years. It would be modified but would remain basically the same.
Leather Bridle, Halter, Lead Strap and Link Strap
These were made of black leather. Some times a Trooper would also have a Black Breast Collar with a brass heart on it.

 

 

 

 

Union Saddle Blanket

This was usually navy blue with an red stripe around the edge. It was a regular blanket and had to be folded before placing it on the horse. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One piece of Saddle Tack that is often overlooked is the “Surcingle”. This was a woolen strap that had buckles on the end. It went over the saddle and around the belly of the horse. It was used in addition to the Girth Strap to hold the Saddle onto the horse.

 

 

 

 

 

Saddlebags were also issued to hold the soldiers personal belongings, extra ammunition, or anything else they desired.

Great Cavalry Song

Great Cavalry Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1V3JW4HeBs&feature=PlayList&p=F344E664AC8F2634&index=0

Horse Soldiers

Horse Soldiers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cMcB9na3w&feature=related

My Cavalry Unit!

My Cavalry Unit!

1st Battalion Nevada Volunteer Cavalry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
1st Battalion Nevada Volunteer Cavalry
Active 17 June 1863 – 21 July 1866
Country United States of America
Allegiance Union
Branch Army
Type cavalry
Size 854[1]
The 1st Battalion of Nevada Volunteer Cavalry, or the Nevada Territory Cavalry Volunteers, was a unit raised for the Union army during the American Civil War. It remained in the west, garrisoning frontier posts, protecting emigrant routes, and engaged in scouting duties. The unit was disbanded in July 1866.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 References
3 Notes
4 See also

[edit] History
In the spring of 1862, recruiting for the army in the Nevada Territory began in Virginia City. These early volunteers were mustered into the 3rd California Cavalry, and occupied military posts within the territory. The following spring, Nevada was authorized to raise their own battalion of cavalry for three-years service. Recruitment offices were first opened at Gold Hill and Silver City[2], and the first men began mustering in on 17 June 1863[3]. Other recruiting stations were later opened in Aurora, Carson City and Genoa[4] and the battalion of six companies would be completed in April 1864.

The companies, or detachments of, would be engaged in various scouting missions and fort garrisoning during their service. Companies A and B left for the Utah Territory in 1864, where they encamped at Fort Bridger, Companies C and F manned Camp Douglas in Utah[5], while the other two were engaged in numerous skirmishes with hostiles throughout Nevada.

The Expedition to the Humboldt River would take Captain Wells and Company D on a 1,200 mile scouting operation, from their camp at Fort Churchill north and west to the California border and back. In the 84 days, they never engaged or saw any hostile Indians[6].

The Pyramid Lake, Walker Lake and Mud Lake operations in March 1865 involved Companies D and E investigating the murders of miners and the theft of cattle from settlers. The 10 March incident at Walker Lake with Capt Wallace and Company E was settled quickly, with the suspected murderers being handed over by the Paiute band. For Capt Wells and Company E, however, encountering the Smoke Creek Paiutes at Mud Lake (now Winnemucca Lake) on 14 March became a battle. Though only one man was wounded, twenty-nine Indians were killed in the action. Reports from both sides offer largely different versions of the incident.[7]

Table (or Godfrey's) Mountain, 20 May 1865. Capt Littlefield, with 35 men of Company D, while on a scouting run near Paradise Valley, encountered a large band of Paiute's. Largely outnumbered, he returned to camp to notify Captain Wells, who gathered up Co. E, and returned to the scene with a force of 65 soldiers. Chief Zeluawick, with 500 Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock warriors, held a position on top of a butte. Wells, Littlefield and 40 men (the remainder of the force keeping the horses) charge up the hill, and fought until night fall, when a retreat was ordered. Two soldiers were killed, and four wounded in the attempted assault.[8]

Skirmishes with these bands of Paiutes continued throughout the summer, with additional troops of the 1st Nevada Infantry and 2nd California Cavalry taking part. Companies D and E, along with a detachment from Company F, would be mustered out on 18 November 1865. Companies A, B and C would be mustered out of service on 12 July 1866, while the remainder of Company F stayed on until 21 July.[citation needed]

Opening theme from the John Wayne Movie "The Horse Soldiers"

Opening theme from the John Wayne Movie "The Horse Soldiers"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0eN8GsqOno

The Bold Fenian Men

The Civil War Moment

The day that turned the tide of the Civil War

The way it actually was

The way it actually was

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVRbEGlB4sc&feature=PlayList&p=F344E664AC8F2634&index=1

Unsung Soldiers of the Civil War!

Unsung Soldiers of the Civil War!

I met my first Black Confederate at a Civil War Reenactment in Fresno California. Here is a trubute to them.

http://www.youtube.com/user/writesong#p/c/6023FA129ECF4371/1/_GVIAypsnh8

Was Bigfoot a Civil War Secret Weapon

Was Bigfoot a Civil War Secret Weapon

Evidently Bigfoot raided a Civil War Reenactors Camp.

I found this on the Bigfoot Field Research Organization website. Their website is www.bfro.net. I want to know is Bigfoot a Yankee or a Reb? If we can find a big enough horse he can be in the Cavalry.

BFRO Home Reports Database New Report Additions FAQs
Media Articles Hypotheses & Projects About the BFRO
Geographical Index > United States > Washington > Pierce County > Report # 1600

Report # 1600 (Class A)
Submitted by witness on Sunday, June 29, 1997.
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Civil War Reenactor sees bigfoot cross railroad tracks
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YEAR: 1991

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: June

DATE: 8

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Pierce County

LOCATION DETAILS: Mineral lake near the town of Elbe and Mt. Rainier.

NEAREST TOWN: Elbe

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 7

OBSERVED: A Bigfoot-like creature was seen at a distance of 20 feet at midnight. Creature stepped out in front of person who was walking along some railroad tracks then the creature crossed the tracks and disappeared into the brush .

ALSO NOTICED: Later that night two reenactors came running down from a hill they were camping on saying they were shooting at a " banshee". At about 3 am that morning something came through the reenactor camp and threw things around and knocked things over.

OTHER WITNESSES: Witness was a Civil War reenactor and got lost while walking back to camp during a local Civil War reenactment that took place at the time.

ENVIRONMENT: Along some railroad tracks with brush and timber on both sides with an abandoned boxcar on some other tracks.

A & G References: Pg. 47, B6

April 9, 1865: The end of the civil war?

   There has been a gross inaccurate fact being spread to school children and the uninformed for quite some time. That inaccuracy is that when General Robert E. Lee (CSA) surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant (USA) at the Wilmer McLean house in Appomattox Court House, VA on April 9, 1865, it was the end of the American civil war. Those of us that study the war and are familiar with the events know that this is not the case. For those of you who are just starting to study this chapter in American history or are learning about this for the first time, allow me to give you the facts as have been documented and passed down through the years.

   To begin, I am in no way downplaying the surrender on any level. I have the utmost respect for all parties involved. It was indeed a historically significant event. However, the surrender of Lee to Grant on that Palm Sunday did NOT end the war. It was a major breakthrough to ending the war in that a lot of citizens (north and south) felt that Lee and his army were invincible. They had plagued the Union Army of the Potomac for four long years and sometimes beat them soundly. Also, they were a constant threat to the Union capitol in Washington, DC. As nice as that sounds, that was not the end. Lee just surrendered his portion of the Confederate army known as the Army of Northern Virginia or, more specifically, what was left of it (approx. 28,356 men).

   However, in the mid-west part of North Carolina, two other general were facing off. These were Major General William Tecumseh Sherman (USA) and General Joseph Eggleston Johnston (CSA). These two warriors were squaring off against each other for quite some time much like Lee and Grant. In fact, Johnston commanded the army that would become the Army of Northern Viriginia before he was replaced by Lee when he was wounded in 1862. Johnston never got the recognition or notoriety Lee recieved because he was not an aggressive fighter and was not liked by confederate president Jefferson Davis. When Lee surrendered, Johnston was just recently put back in charge of the Army of the Tennesee after having been replaced by Lieutenant General John Bell Hood (CSA). When Hood virtually destroyed the army by the debacles that became the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Lee (who effective February 1, 1865 became commander of all southern armies) put Johnston back at the helm. When word reached Johnston of Lee's surrender, he and Sherman met to discuss terms of a possible surrender. Sherman wrote up a negotiated settlement and sent it to then president Andrew Johnston on April 18. This caused outrage and scorn because Sherman basically said in the document that the south could go home and pretty much live the way they were before; like the war never happened. It was soundly rejected by the Johnson administration on April 24. Grant instructed Sherman on what terms he was to offer for surrender, but he was not to treat on the subject of peace. So, on April 26, Johnston surrendered his 29,924 (approx.) Army of the Tennessee at the Bennett Farm in Durham, NC on the same terms as Grant gave Lee. That was that after the men stacked their arms and surrendered their colors, they were free to go home after signing paroles stating they would not take up arms against the US government again.

   Even with the surrender of this army (which was the largest confederate army in the field at the time), all was still not over. The next major surrender came when, on May 4, 1865, Lieutenant General Richard Taylor (CSA) (son of the former president Zachary Taylor) surrendered his 12,000 -man Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and Eastern Louisiana to Major Generl ERS Canby.

   Officially, the last confederate army, the 20,000-man Trans-Mississippi Department commanded by General E. Kirby Smith (CSA) (made up of what was left of the confederate armies west of the Mississippi) was surrendered on May 26, 1865 by Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner (CSA). (Smith fled to Texas then to Cuba to escape prosecution for treason. He returned to take the Oath of Amnesty in Lynchburg, VA on November 11, 1865).

   Even though this effectively ended the Confederacy, the last confederate general to lay down his arms was a Cherokee chief who was a Brigadier General; Stand Waite. He surrendered his battallion (approx. 600-1500 men) of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, and Osages to Lieutenant Colonel Asa C. Matthews (USA). It was there, at Doaksville in the Choctaw nation in Oklahoma, on June 26, 1865 that the last chapter of the American civil war was closed.

   In closing, it is obvious that the war ended almost three months after Lee's surrender. Even though that period was the denouement of the war, it must still be recognized that the war did indeed go on past that April day. We owe it the memory of the men who died after April 9th, we owe it to history to remember it, but I think we owe it more to our fellow countrymen and their ancestors who wrote that chapter in history. Out of respect we cannot let this misinformation grow. It cannot grow in the text books, in the magazines, or on the TV. So, here's to the fighting men of the Confederate States of America who still had the dogged tenacity to hang on until the very end. And here's to the Union army who had the determination to see it through to the end. 

-thanks to angelfire and wikipedia

Welcome

Hello. I would like to welcome everyone to my page. I hope what I post here will be informative and inciteful. I am new to this and I will accept constuctive criticism and comments. Before I continue, I would like to thank Ann once again for giving me this opportunity. First, let me start off by saying that I have dedicated countless hours to reading about and visiting battlefields of the American civil war. I have been to Charleston and Ft. Sumter once, Bentonville, NC four times, Antietam/Sharpsburg once, and Gettysburg more times than I can remember. Although these sites are just a drop in the bucket of all the actions there were, I have read about numerous others. I am currently reading a book on the actions of the Army of the Cumberland. My passion and interest in this war actually started in 1997 when my friend and I were on a trip to North Carolina to visit a friend. While there, we took a trip to Goldsboro to see the hull of the ironclad CSS Neuse. Witnessing something tangible from that era and that war lit my desire to study that period further. With our subsequent trip to the Bentonville battlefield a couple days later, I knew this was going to be a great desire of mine. After that, I made yearly pilgrimages to Gettysburg (since that is the closest battlefield to where I live) so that I may pay may respects and take in the history. Well, the yearly trip became semi-annual when I got my family involved. They wanted to go to share what I felt. Even though it has been a while since I have been there, I long to go back. Well, I think I've rambled on long enough. I will submit something of value soon. Again, I just wanted to welcome everyone and give you all a little background on my interest in this era of American history.

A REASON TO REMEMBER

A REASON TO REMEMBER

Heritage News & Views

A REASON TO REMEMBER
By Bob Hurst

Recently I received a phone call from the commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans camp in Lake City, Florida inviting me to a headstone dedication for a Confederate who is buried in a family cemetery not far from Tallahassee.

I was pleased to attend the event (in uniform) and very pleased with the event itself. The cemetery is in a rural setting just over the county line in Jefferson County in a beautiful location that makes me think of the Old South. The good-sized crowd came from far and near with many in period clothing and Confederate uniforms.

There were two color guards, numerous flags, a cannon to fire salutes, ladies in black mourning clothes and a host of others dressed like any average Southerner of today. When I say they came from far and near I am not exaggerating. There were attendees from as far west as Gadsden County, as far east as Columbia County, as far south as Taylor County and as far to the southeast as Gilchrist County. Since I didn't meet everyone there, I might have missed some other out-of-towners. All in all it was a fine occasion.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, I spoke briefly to the assembled color guards of the importance of these occasions and of how necessary it is to remember our ancestors and the sacrifices they made fighting for a Cause they believed in. It was especially gratifying speaking to them since many of these young men in Confederate uniforms were young enough to be my grandson.

Both before and after the event, I told acquaintances about the occasion and, as frequently happens when I mention to others these ceremonies, I received "that" look and a question to the effect of "Why bother, that war was a long time ago and that person is not even part of your family". Well, the veteran honored that day might not be a part of my actual family line but he is certainly a part of my extended Confederate family - and that's important.

The good Lord created time so that everything wouldn't happen all at once. Our ancestors were here and they were real. They lived, they loved and, in the case of our Confederate ancestors, many of them sufferred terribly because of the atrocities committed by federal troops of the U.S. Army who invaded the homeland of people who only wanted to be left alone.

If we had true justice in this country, a great number of Federal generals, officers, troops and governmental leaders would be condemned as war criminals for the actions taken against Southerners (especially civilians) both during and after the War. This is one thing that I, personally, can never forget and something all Southerners should be aware of and remenber.

A book could be written (and thankfully some have) about these Northern-committed atrocities. Since there is not space in this article for that much information, I will write about SOME of the things that happened in just one state. I have chosen Missouri for several reasons.

Many Southerners are aware of what happened to our ancestors at Vicksburg, and in north Georgia during the reprobate Sherman's rampage, and how Columbia was burned to the ground. I chose not to repeat these episodes, awful as they were, but to discuss SOME of what happened in a state that is generally not even considered to be a part of the Confederacy. At least, you don't see Missouri on those maps in textbooks that show the states of the Confederacy.

Actually, the legitimate government of Missouri did adopt an Ordinance of Secession. This occurred in exile in Texas after the elected government of Governor Claiborne Jackson had been driven from the state in the spring of 1861 by federal troops. Missouri's Ordinance of Secession was officially accepted by the Confederate government and the state was admitted to the Confederacy. That's why one of the stars on the Confederate Battle Flag (and the Second National and Third National) represents Missouri.

Now, getting back to what happened to confederate sympathizers in Missouri.

When Abraham Lincoln, in April 1861, ordered each non-seceding state to supply troops for an invasion of the South, Gov. Jackson refused and sent a message to Lincoln saying: "Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, inconstitutional, and revolutionary in its object, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any such unholy crusade." This apparently raised the hackles of Lincoln and, as I have written about previously, he was not a very nice man.

The federal war on Missouri began about a month after Gov. Jackson refused Lincoln's order for troops. The Missouri militia had mustered in St. Louis for yearly training. On May 10 a federal force of about 8000 surrounded the training area and took prisoner the small Missouri guard of less than 700. As the prisoners were being led through the streets, outraged citizens heckled the federal troops who thereupon began firing on the citizens killing 28 (including women and children) and wounding 75. In addition, a number of the prisoners were killed. Despite this despicable performance (or perhaps because of it), the federal commander, Nathaniel Lyons, was promoted from captain to brigadier general by the Lincoln administration..

What followed in Missouri was one of the great examples of man's inhumanity to man.

Within a few months of the St. Louis massacre, Union general Henry Halleck issued orders that anyone known to be hostile to the Union would be taxed "in proportion to the guilt and property of each individual". Those who resisted were imprisoned and those who couldn't pay in cash had their furniture and property seized and auctioned. This began the rape and pillage of Missouri.

By requiring "loyalty oaths" and the posting of huge "performance bonds", the feds were able to extort millions of dollars from Missouri citizens. Orders were implemented forbidding citizen ownership of firearms for any purpose whatsoever in the state. Orders were passed establishing fines and assessments on local citizens if a federal soldier was killed or wounded in their neighborhood regardless of who was responsible. An order implemented in late 1862 required the arrest of anyone guilty of "disloyal conduct". Guilt was automatically assumed in these cases and there was no need for the gathering of evidence.

In the spring of 1863, by order of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Loan, no one would be allowed to grow crops or engage in business who was not considered to be loyal to the Union. Throughout the state, newspapers considered not loyal were shut down.

Union Brig. Gen. James H. Lane grandiosely stated the Federal policy: "We believe in a war of extermination. I want to see every foot of ground in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties burned over - everything laid waste." His troops were happy to comply burning 45 homes and buildings in Dayton (Cass County), 42 in Rose Hill, 20 in Greenfield, the entire town of Columbus and eventually 150 homes of suspected Confederate sympathizers in Johnson County.

Along with the financial theft and burning of homes, businesses, farms and fields, were the numerous and wanton murders of Missouri citizens even suspected of being Confederate sympathizers. A frequent ploy of Union horsemen was to ride up to a house at night and present themselves as Confederates. If the person answering the door was a male, or even a female who seemed to be Confederate-friendly, they were immediately executed. The house, of course, was then pilfered. This happened to ministers, doctors and leading businessmen of the various towns.

These type atrocities were committed so frequently that by war's end, because of the murders, thefts and arsons, much of the state was uninhabited.

One of the great ironies of this inglorious period of thievery and murder involved a Union lieutenant colonel named Daniel Anthony. After a season of raiding and thievery, Anthony wrote to his ABOLITIONIST father and sister back home in Massachusetts encouraging that his brother come to Missouri immediately since there was a lot of money to be made quickly. He also bragged about now having four black servants waiting on him. Oh, by the way, his sister's name was Susan B.

Well, there is so much, much more to be told about the atrocities committed against Southerners during the War and I will again visit this subject. Just consider that if this much inhumanity was vested upon the citizens of a border state, how much worse must it have been for those living in the Deep South. Let us never forget!

I encourage anyone reading this to make the effort to read more about the atrocities committed against Southerners both during and after the War. I highly recommend a book by the fine South Carolina author Walter Brian Cisco entitled WAR CRIMES AGAINST SOUTHERN CIVILIANS.

Oh, by the way, I contacted the larger-audience TV station in Tallahassee and the local newspaper about the headstone dedication ceremony. I know Saturday is always a slow news day and the media outlets are always looking for stories. Neither, however, apparently considered it newsworthy. Imagine that.

DEO VINDICE

Bob Hurst is a member of several heritage, historical and ideological organizations. He has a special interest in Confederate history. He is also Commander of Col. David Lang Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans in Tallahassee and 2nd Lt. Cmdr, Florida Division, SCV.

Three Brothers

Three Brothers

 As a young lad, I became very interested in the War of Northern Aggression. There was always rumor that we had Confederate ancestry. My grandmother was the source of much of this. I can still remember anytime she did not care for the rude or otherwise un-Southern actions of others, she would refer to that person or group as “Jayhawkers.” This was originally a derisive term for those who made war against the women and children of the South during the war, particularly in Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and other border states. The first elementary school I attended was Jefferson Davis Elementary in Dallas, Texas. Jefferson Davis had been the President of the Confederate States of America. With influences like this, was there any wonder that I would come to love and honor the traditions of the South? If that were not enough, I later found out about three brothers. My great-great grandfather was one of the three. I have yet to find pictures of any of the three, but in their memory, I have listed pictures of three men from their regiment.

Three Brothers

In accordance with a resolution of the General Assembly on December 20, 1862, a "Roll of Honor" was compiled to record the names of North Carolina's Confederate troops who served during the war years. The project was placed under the supervision of Major James H. Foote of the Adjutant General's Department. Nine volumes were completed before the project was abandoned in 1864. Each regiment and battalion was directed to complete a form similar to a muster roll but many apparently failed to do so. As a result, there is no roll of honor at all for many units and for others, only a fragmentary roll.

John Nathan Orr was born January 1, 1832 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He married Dorcas Catherine Starnes on December 3, 1857. John and Dorcas were blessed with two children, Amanda Elizabeth Orr and Laura Savannah Orr. Amanda Orr would eventually marry Wallace A. Biggers the line of which compatriot Michael Biggers would be born. John Orr enlisted in the Confederate Army at age 30 on Feb. 28, 1862. He mustered in as Private and was appointed Artificer in September of 1863. He was killed in action at Jack's Shop, Madison County, Virginia, which is now known as Rochelle, Virginia on September 22, 1863. He is listed on a Roll of Honor for the Regiment. John Orr had two brothers who also served the Confederacy. The Orr brothers all served in Company C, 9th Regiment., North Carolina State Troop. When the regiment was mustered into Confederate service, it was known as 1st Regiment, N. C. Cavalry, but referred to as the Mecklenburg Rangers!

David Karr Orr mustered into the Confederate Army as a corporal on June 12, 1861. He is listed as “Present” on all Company Muster Rolls except when on special detail or when wounded. He was admitted to the C. S. A. General Hospital in Danville, Virginia on July 27, 1864 with gun shot wounds to the feet. On February 22, 1865 he was retired to the Invalid Corps. He is listed on a Roll of Honor for the Regiment.

James Ira Orr mustered in as a private on July 29, 1861. He is listed as “Present” on all Company Muster Rolls except when on detached service when he was taking charge of horses that were purchased for the regiment. He was killed on August 1, 1863 during battle at Brandy Station, Virginia. He is listed on a Roll of Honor for the Regiment.

Cavalrymen often carried sword and pistol...

they were taught to ride with the reigns in their teeth so that both hands were free for weapons...

brave soldiers, all.

Unknown Soldier to be Re-Buried

Unknown Soldier to be Re-Buried

Unknown Soldier to be Re-Buried
Unknown Soldier Recovered from Franklin Battlefield

Mon Aug 17, 4:49 pm ET
Jay Sheridan

FRANKLIN, Tenn.
Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A construction project in the area where the calamitous Battle of Franklin was fought on Nov. 30, 1864, has disturbed the resting place of an unknown soldier who was buried in a shallow grave 145 years ago during the tragic last days of the Civil War in Tennessee.

The City of Franklin's Battlefield Task Force, along with local historians and government officials, led the recovery of the soldier's remains and will direct a funeral ceremony to re-inter his body at the Historic Rest Haven Cemetery in downtown Franklin, where other brave veterans - both Union and Confederate - were laid to rest. It is not known for which army the unknown soldier fought.

A coffin containing his remains will lie in state at St. Paul's Episcopal Church at 510 West Main Street in Franklin - the circa 1827 sanctuary which served as barracks for Federal troops during their occupation of the town in 1864 - from 8 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8 until the funeral ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10. One Union and one Confederate honor-guard sentry will be posted at the front doors of the church during the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. visitation period each day, and prior to the ceremony on Saturday morning.

The soldier will receive full military honors from re-enactors representing brothers-in-arms from both the Union and the Confederacy. On Saturday morning, a Union and a Confederate Chaplain will conduct a brief funeral service in the church. Following the service, the casket will be borne from the church by uniformed pallbearers (Union and Confederate) and placed on a waiting, horse-drawn caisson in front of the church. Accompanied by a color guard, honor guard, and Civil War-era bagpiper, the caisson will move north on Main Street, crossing Fifth Avenue, circling the Square, proceeding north on Third Avenue, and then west on North Margin Street to the Rest Haven Cemetery gates.

As the procession leaves St. Paul's and continues up Main Street, townspeople and visitors are invited to fall in behind the ranks of the marching re-enactors. After arriving at Rest Haven Cemetery, a brief eulogy will be delivered by the chaplains, and will conclude with period-appropriate military honors including a 21-gun salute and the playing of "Taps" by a uniformed bugler.

A Monument to The Unknown Soldier who died on the Franklin Battlefield will be unveiled as part of the ceremony. Active participation in the ceremonies at Rest Haven and at St. Paul's will be restricted to uniformed re-enactors only, but the public is invited to view the ceremonies from designated areas.

Any re-enactment unit that wishes to participate is encouraged to contact Robert Huff at (615) 500-8211, or via email at rghuff123@aol.com.
For information on Franklin and Williamson County, go to www.visitfranklin.com.

120th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment History

120th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment

Regimental History

SERVICE.--March to Charleston, Tenn., April 7-24, 1864. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign May 1 to September 8, 1864. Demonstrations on Dalton May 8-13. Rocky Faced Ridge May 8-11. Battle of Resaca May 14-15. Movements on Dallas May 18-25. Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5. Cassville May 27. Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2. Lost Mountain June 15-17. Muddy Creek June 17. Noyes Creek June 19. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Nickajack Creek July 2-5. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Utoy Creek August 5-7. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Lovejoy Station September 2-6. Operations in North Georgia and North Alabama against Hood September 29-November 3. Nashville Campaign November-December. In front of Columbia November 24-27. Battle of Franklin November 30. Battle of Nashville December 15-16. Pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River December 17-28. At Clifton, Tenn., till January 15, 1865. Movement to Washington, D.C., thence to Morehead City, N. C, January 15-February 24. Campaign of the Carolinas March 1-April 26. Advance on Kinston and Goldsboro March 1-21. Battle of Wise's Forks March 8-10. Kinston March 11. Occupation of Goldsboro March 21. Advance on Raleigh April 10-14. Occupation of Raleigh April 14. Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. Duty at Raleigh till May 10. At Charlotte and Greensboro, N. C., till August 21, and at Raleigh till January, 1866. Mustered out January 8, 1866.

Regiment lost during service 1 Officer and 26 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 140 Enlisted men by disease. Total 168.

Colonel James Brown Forman

Colonel James Brown Forman

He is Colonel James Brown Forman.  He was from Louisville, Kentucky.  He was referred to as the Boy Colonel by Gen. Rosecrans because he was only 19 when promoted from Captain to Colonel for heroism at the Battle of Perryville, Ky, where he rallied the regiment to a victory.  I will send his full story along later.  Let me know if you get the photo.  He was Union, 15th Ky. Inf.  He was killed in action at MurfreesboroDec.31, 1861, only two weeks after his 20th birthday.

The Boy Colonel James Brown Forman

The Boy Colonel James Brown Forman

This is a story of a remarkable young man from Louisville, Kentucky. James was born December 13, 1842 to the parents of Thomas Seabrooke Forman and Mary Brown Forman. His roots firmly placed in Mason County as it seems at the time of the War Between the States, three-fourths of the county were Formans or related to the Formans by marriage.
His grandfather, Ezekiel Forman, had been a farmer and the family had been on the land for a long time. Patriotism was an important part of his upbringing, for there were three Continental Army Generals in the family; General David Forman had his own regiment during the American Revolution, from Monmouth New Jersey, General Thomas Marsh Forman and General Jonathan Forman. Some also seeing service in the War of 1812 and the Whiskey Rebellion.
At the beginning of the War Between the States, many of the Kentucky young men were going with the South. Young James considered himself a Southerner, but had strong convictions that the Union must be preserved. He knew the South did not have the resources to sustain a war.
"I love and sympathize with the South as much as you, but I am a true Southerner. If the South does wrong, I say, try to win her backwith kindness. But -- that failing -- I am ready to go with sword in hand, though still with love in heart, to force her to submit to rightful authority." James B. Forman.
His life-long friend, William McDowell said, “I shall never forget once hearing him read to a party of young friends Daniel Webster's immortal speech on the "American Union." As he read that closing sentence of matchless eloquence commencing: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and disordered fragements of a once glorious Union," his voice trembled with emotion; and as he finished with the soul-inspiring "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," it was full of triumphant enthusiasm. His
hearers were many of them Southern sympathizers, but not a word was spoken -- all
were impressed.”
When Kentucky entered the war on the side of the Union, James B. Forman immediately enlisted in the regiment being formed by Col. Curan Pope. James set out with his friend William McDowell to recruit the company. William McDowell was elected Captain and James B. Forman Second Lieutenant. He was quickly promoted to First Lieutenant.
The young Lt. was admired, and loved by his men, and respected by his superiors. His military knowledge and keen leadership abilities made him seem older than his 19 years. He was promoted to Captain when Captain McClure was killed, and took command of Company C and the Regimental Color Guard.
The 15th Kentucky Regiment went into battle at Perryville with 500 men and were up against two and a half regiments of Braxton Bragg’s Rebels. The 15th suffered extremely high casualties, with 63 men killed, 11 of them, officers, and 136 wounded, which is a 40% casualty rate.
The 15th was being routed when the ninth color bearor was killed. The staff of the colors had been shot in two and the flag riddled with bullet holes. Captain Forman picked up the tattered colors. With the staff shot in two he had to climb the rail fence so he could hold the colors up for the men to see. He then began to shout for the men to rally and stop their retreat. He hollered encouragement for them to continue the fight. The youthful Captain totally disregarded his own safety and maintained his confidence and espoused of courage urging the men to hold their ground.
According to eyewitness accounts, approximately 15 rebs came out of the woods to capture the flag. They were out of amunition as was Captain Forman. Hand to hand fighting began to commence as the youthful Captain was losing his grip to overwhelming numbers, the men of the 15th rallied to their Captain and to their flag. The day was saved, the retreat was halted and the 15th held their ground. Company C had suffered the heaviest casualties of the battle, having 12 killed and 11 wounded. The battle lasted from noon until dark, on October 8, 1862.
The next morning the Confederates were gone, they had pulled out during the night. Captain J. R. Snyder took command of the Regiment. The regiment moved on to Nashville, Tennesse to rest and recoup.
On November 8, 1862, Governor J.N. Robinson of Kentucky, promoted Captain James B. Forman to Colonel of the Regiment and presented him with the flag he so bravely fought to save and used to rally the Regiment. Colonel James Brown Forman was on 19 years old and now a full colonel in command of an Infantry Regiment. Colonel J.B. Forman sent the flag back to Louisville with instructions to return it to Gov. Robinson for him to put it in the State Archives as he felt that it belonged to the people of Kentucky.
The 15th Kentucky Infantry was now in dire need of replenishing. While the Regiment rested in Tennesse, Color Forman returned to Louisville to recruit more men.
While in Louisville, on November 26, 1862 another flag was presented to the 15th from the loyal ladies. Here is the news article as it appeared in the Louisville Journal 11/26/1862:
THE FLAG PRESENTATION TO THE FIFTEENTH KENTUCKY INFANTRY
The elegent flag prepared by the loyal ladies of the city for the Fifteenth Kentucky infantry was presented to the regiment last evening through Colonel Forman. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, the attractions elsewhere, and the short notice given, a large and very respectable party of loyal ladies and gentlemen assembled in the Circuit Court room at the Court House at eight o’clock to witness the interesting exercises. The flag, which was of the finest silken fabric, embroidered with gold and appropriately inscribed, was presented by Edwin S. Craig, Esq., who alluded in eloquent terms to the eminent services that had been rendered by the regiment to the cause of the Union. The beautiful emblem was received by Col. Forman, the youthful guardian of the ‘orphan regiment,’ who replied in modest terms to the flattering eulogy passed upon the corps which he represented. Col. Forman will leave the city this morning to rejoin his regiment, and will bear with him to his gallant comrades this beautiful offering of the loyal ladies of Louisville.
This appeared in the Louisville Democrat 11/26/1862:
FLAG PRESENTATION- We were fortunate in being present on the occasion of the presentation of the magnificient silk flag, which through the liberal donations of the loyal citizens, and the untiring zeal and energy of Miss M.L. Richardson and Miss Lizzie M. Daniel, was gotten up as a present to the brave and gallant Fifteenth Kentucky regiment, who fought so well and won imperishable honors in the battle of Chaplin Hills, the late Colonel Curan Pope commanding, by whose lamented death the charge of the “Orphan Regiment” was bestowed on Col. James B. Forman. The presentation took place in the Circuit Court room. A large number of ladies and gentlemen were present. Mr. Edward Craig presented the flag in behalf of the fair donors in a most eloquent an happy manner. Col. Forman responded in a brief and elegant address. The flag bore the inscription “Fifteenth Regiment Kentucky Volunteers, Chaplin Hills, October 8, 1862.” The occasion, though solemn in the scene, was beautiful and sublime in the meaning. Long may the gallant Fifteenth, with the brave young Forman, live to fight in its defense, and may they ever remember, in peace or on the battlefield, from whose generous hearts and willing hands it came.
Colonel Forman returned the next day with new recruits and supplies and a beautiful new flag for the regiment which was bivouaced in Nashville, Tenn. The regiment re-officered where needed and was once more ready for the fray.
The regiment was now in the Fourteenth Army Corps, commanded by General George H. Thomas; First Division, commanded by General Lovell H. Rousseau; Third Brigade, by General John S. Beatty. The Brigade compromising in addition to the Fifteenth Kentucky, the Third and Tenth Ohio, Forty-second and Eighty-eighth Indiana regiments, always ready to march or fight at the bidding of the commander.
On the 26th of December the regiment left Nashville, and traveled via the Franklin and Granny White pikes, concentrating on the hills near Nashville, with the enemy close in front; but General Bragg drew off his army to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
“Well will Sunday afternoon, December 28, 1862 be remembered. The regiment was ordered out of its line on the hill-side, and commenced one of the hardest and darkest marches that can be imagined, toward Murfreesboro. All night, through Cedar thickness, roads almost impassible, only kept in the right direction by “beacon fires,” which were kept burning the entire night, we wended our way, hungry, foot-sore, wet, and wary, not knowing where we were going, but trusting implicitly that “Old Rosy” and “Pap” Thomas would lead us only to such places as they desired us to occupy, as we had entire confidences in those worthy and able commanders. In the morning we reached the Nashville and Murfreesboro turnpike, near Stewart’s Creek, and were again in our position in the center of the Army of the Cumberland, with Bragg’s army again confronting us.”
On the 29th and 30th the 15th Ky. moved forward until it almost reached the banks of Stone River. General Negley’s Division had skirmished for position on the right during the afternoon of the 30th and when night came on the 15th bivouaced and many spent the night in joking pleasantry, reveille on the 31st sounding to scores who had not slept. Rousseau’s division was the reserve division of the Fourteenth Corps. Marching along the road they passed General Rosecrans and staff, who seeing the flag-staff broken, banner torn and draped in mourning, called them his “orphan regiment,” a name which, before the sun of that day set, was doubly applicable.
Colonel Forman met with his officers and Major McDowell, who was serving as Chief of Staff to General Rousseau. Major McDowell writes, “Col. J. B. Forman was my friend from early boyhood. We were engaged together in raising Co. ‘C’ 15th Ky., I as captain and he as lieutenant, and were always fast friends. He had a very stylish black horse which I admired, and tried to buy from him. As I was riding with him and the field officers of the 15th to place the men in linve of battle at Stone River, he remarked: ‘Will, you have always wanted this horse; now it is my desire that after this battle you should have him. I will be killed in the fight, and I call on you gentlemen (addressing his field of officers) to see that he gets him.’ Major McDowell rallied him and said, “Jimmie, if you are going to be killed, let me have him now and take my horse,” but he answered, “I am in earnest; I know what I am talking about and I want you to remember: I will be killed, you will be wounded, and the horse will also be wounded, and I, want Major Allen to see that the horse is cared for and given to you.” All occurred as he said. He was killed and fell from his horse, the horse was wounded three times in the left hind leg, and major McDowell was wounded in the left arm. While home convalesing form his wound, Major McDowell was met in Louisville by Mr. William Anderson, Col. Forman’s brother-in-law, who informed that the horse was in a livery stable at his disposal. Major Allen having conveyed the request. Major McDowell writes that he kept the horse until his death.
The battle for the 15th began about 9:00AM. Colonel James B. Forman was riding up and down the line in front of the Regiment encouraging the men forward. The 15th was very much in the same position that they were in at Perryville, facing heavy odds and on orders to hold at all cost.
Major McDowell wrote: “About nine o’clock A.M. we came up close to the front and could see orderlies riding hurriedly hither and thither. A group of officers, composed of General Rousseau with his brigade and regimental commanders was formed in front of the Fifteenth, to whom orders and instructions were given, when, all returning to their commands, we were faced to the right and moved hurriedly to the cedar forest to stem the current of an almost irrestible storm in the cedar glades, where General McCooks (Twentieth) Corps had been violently attacked and were sorely pressed.
Passing in rear of General Sill’s division, our brigade got into the same kind of position as that held at Perryville; that is, one on the extreme right wing of the army, with the Fifteenth Kentucky on the right of the brigade. Here, with instructions to hold the enemy until the artillery could be gotten out of the thickett, we again met the enemy and stopped for a while his triumphant charges. We held the road until the last gun and caisson had passed safely, but for a terrible cost to the Fifteenth Kentucky, for in a short half hour we lost our brave and gallant young Colonel (shot from his horse), in the flower of his youth, being only a little past his twenty-first (actually 20th) birthday, and eighty others killed and seriously wounded on that fatal field of Stone River.”
No doubt, the brave young Colonel Forman presented an immensley beckoning target as he rode up and down the front of the regiment cheerfully shouting encouragement to the men to “move on forward, advance, take it to ‘em” with total lack of fear while he remained between the thickett of the woods which protected the Confederates, and his regiment on line in the charge. It was only ten minutes into the battle when the “Boy Colonel” was shot from his big black charger. How decimating this must have been for the whole regiment to witness in such an early part of the battle. Their beloved young colonel’s life taken with such brutal force of musketry as many Confederates concentrated their fire on the gallant and dashing young officer on the big black charger who dared to parade his gallantry so in their face.
The 15th held on long enough for the artillery to withdraw to safety, but the Confederates had taken the body of Colonel James B. Forman behind their lines. Under the veil of darkness a handful of men from the 15th crept behind the Confederate lines to find the body of their beloved fallen colonel. They were successful and found his body laid in a wagon in full accoutrement. They stealthily brought him back and took him home to Louisville.
The Louisville Journal 1/12/1863-
The remains of the late Colonel J.B. Forman, of the Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry, and Captain A.B. Ferguson, both of whom lost their lives in the recent battles near Murfreesboro, were interred yesterday; the former from the resident of his brother-in-law, Mr. W. J. Anderson, and the latter from his Walnut Street M.E. Church. In both instances the usual military escorts were in attendance and large concourses of mourning friends followed the remains of the gallant dead to their final rest.
The Louisville Journal 1/15/1863-
THE LATE COL. FORMAN-Among those noble spirits who sealed their patriotism with their life’s blood upon the battle-field at Murfreesboro, none will be more sincerely lamented than the youthful Col. James B. Forman, of the Fifteenth Regiment Kentucky Volunteers. At the outbreak of this unhappy war Colonel Forman, though but a youth, having just attained his twentieth year at the time of his death, formed a very decided opinion in regard to the causes and probable results of the seccession movement. When Kentucky took her position in favor of sustaining the Government, he entered the army as a second lieutenant in the Fifteenth Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers, then about being raised by the late Colonel Curan Pope. From this position he was shortly promoted to a first lieutenancy, and afterwards, by the death of Captain McClure, he assumed, by regular promotion, the command of his company. In this capacity he won the love of his men by his generous conduct on all occasions, and challenged the admiration of the entire regiment; by his display of military knowledge and great personal bravery. At the battle of Chaplin Hills he gained great applause, his deeds of noble daring being the theme of praise among all those who witnessed the desperate fighting of the then untried but now war-worn and glory-covered regiment to which he was attached. The regimental flag was on that occasion rescued by Capt. Forman after it had been shot down time and time again, and was by him borne aloft in proud defiance of the storm of shot and shell that was being mercilessly poured upon that devoted (it almost seemed doomed) regiment by the enemy. That flag, all riddled as it is, will be duly presented to the State of Kentucky as a worthy memento of the bravery of her sons. After the death of Col. Pope, and his assistant field officer, Capt. Forman was commissioned Colonel of the regiment, in acknowledgement of his eminent services and superior abilities. Wih high hopes and such ardor as only a man of noble impulses and conscious rectitude can feel, he entered upon the discharge of his duties, fully sensible of the responsibilities of his position and anxious to discharge them in such a manner as ould best promote the interest of the cause he had so heartily espoused. He has done all that could be done--he has sacrificed his life upon his country’s altar--he has fought his last fight, and now sleeps “the sleep that knows no waking,” but his name and memory will be cherished, for “The brave Die never. Being deathless they but change Their Country’s arms of more their “country’s heart.”

The Louisville Democrat 1/16/63

A WREATH TWINED IN MEMORY OF COLONEL J. B. FORMAN, OF THE FIFTEENTH KENTUCKY.

By Minnie Myrtle

"The good die first, while they whose hearts are dry as summer's dust burn to the
socket."
WORDSWORTH.

Colonel Forman! the field that covers with its warm flowery mantle so many of
earth's best and noblest hearts never garnered in its bosom one warmer, truer or
braver than thine.
The battle ceased. One by one, with hushed footseps and throbbing hearts, his
comrades departed, and left him, as it were, alone amid the solemn sanctuaries of
death.
Twilight soon spread her starry veil over stream and plain, and the last
sunshine of expiring day poured a flood of glory thwart the scene, like the
assuring smile of a departing Christian. All men appeared to feel and
acknowledge the mournful influence of the time and place. The bright and gentle
sisterhood of stars seemed to look down upon him in that calm and lonely hour,
from their blue and illimitable depths, like the kind spirit eyes of the loved
and lost, trembling with tears over the loss of so many noble souls. So good, so
brave, I cannot realize that you are no more. Everything around seems inbued
with the spiritual presence of the departed, now reposing locked in the
everlasting dream of death. The very air seems instict with the low reathings,
and every sound appears rather to enhance than disturb the melancoly influence of
the scene, the rustling leaf, struggling awhile in mid air, then floating gently
down upon the damp earth to die at last, a symbol of human destiny, the fitful
breeze sighing regretfully over the loveliness it was commissioned to destroy so
soon. The gentlest zephyr that whispers among the leaves seems to murmur in
memory's ear like the pleasant voices of friends long gone before, and every
rustle amid the tall, cool grass will seem the light tramping of beloved feet
that are now treading the dark valley of the shadow of death. Twilight
insensibly deepens into night, and the sun has receded far along its azure track,
and the majestic moon has reared her broad shield slowly from out her fleecy
cloud couch in the east, and the swirling roof of Heaven is sparkling with
stars. In my imagination I stand upon that bloody ground where so many of our
brothers have offered up their lives. One by one I call up the images of friends
whom I shall meet no more, save by the green pastures and the still waters of the
harvest home. I remember the parting with some who now sleep the sleep that
knows no waking -- the quivering lip, the sad smile, the last farewell.
The damp dews of the dark valley have gathered upon the pallid brow of the one
that "would not be forgotten"
When hope no longer o'er the heart
A single joy shall breathe,
And Envy, with her ventured art,
No fatal blow shall give.
When seraphs, from their heavenly sphere,
No more shall bless their lot,
And angels shed unhappy tears,
Then thou shall be forgot.

Journal 2/63

THE LATE COLONEL FORMAN
To the Editors of the Louisville Journal
January 26, 1863
GENTLEMEN If you do not deem it too unworthy, will you publish one more humble tribute to the memory of Kentucky's youngest Colonel, James B. Forman, from one who knew him?
He showed, from early youth, remarkable promise. Always seeking the society of,
and appearing equal to, those much older than himself, no one ever imagined,
until told, how young he was. From the age of sixteen, indeed, he seemed -- in
conversation, in business capacity, in intellect, and in strength and decision of
mind -- a man, and won "golder opinions" of his ability from his superiors in age
and experience. His principles were firm and unwavering. He understood
perfectly his own disposition and capabilities, and thus anything he undertook
was successfully performed. His influence over those for whom he cared was
unbounded, and his insight into the characters and motives of those he met was so
keen and true that it was marvellous.
He detected the fallacies in the "doctrine of secession" from the first, and
what is more noticeable, he never for an instant succumbed to the insidious and
-- to so many young Kentuckians -- irresistible appeal to their love for the
South. It is well known that sectional attachment is especially characteristic
of the young; they are never cosmopolitan in feelinng; one section, one place is
home, and is better than all others to them. This is one reason why the cry of
"The South" has attracted some of them more than that of "The Union." Many said, "We think the so-called right of secession radically wrong, but we are
Southerners -- we love the South, whatever her faults, better than the North,
and, if war comes, we will be on her side, right or wrong." But young Forman's
words were (in substance) "I love and sympathize with the South as much as you,
but I am a true Southerner. If the South does wrong, I say, try to win her back
with kindness. But -- that failing -- I am ready to go with sword in hand,
though still with love in heart, to force her to submit to rightful authority."
I shall never forget once hearing him read to a party of young friends Daniel
Webster's immortal speech on the "American Union." As he read that closing
sentence of matchless eloquence commencing "When my eyes shall be turned to
behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the
broken and disordered fragements of a once glorious Union," his voice trembled
with emotion; and as he finished with the soul-inspiring "Liberty and Union, now
and forever, one and inseparable," it was full of triumphant enthusiasm. His
hearers were many of them Southern sympathizers, but not a word was spoken -- all
were impressed.
When Kentucky, having tried in vain to mediate, declared herself unconditionally
and unalterably for the Union, and called her sons "to arms" to enforce the laws,
and drive the invaders from her soil, he obeyed the call. Giving up home,
friends, and all the comforts to which he was accustomed, he went to serve his
country, actuated by the purest and highest patriotism.
An article has already been published in your columns, narrating his successful
career in the army. He gained quickly the love and respect of his comrades in
arms; and was rapidly promoted until he attained, shortly before the battle
before Murfreesboro, in which he fell, the high position of Colonel of the 15th
Kentucky, as a reward for distinguished ability and personal bravery. His name
will be always associated with the battle of Chaplin Hills, in which he played so
noble a part. How were the hearts of his friends thrilled with pleasure and
exultation as they heard the story of his daring courage in the rescue of the
flag of the regiment on that memorable day!
And now that in this, his second battle, he has lost his life, let us not "mourn
as those without hope," but, while sincerely lamenting his early death, remember
that he himself was willing to lay down his life even for his country's welfare.
"Life is noble only when it is held cheap by the side of honor and of duty."

CAPT. ALFRED PIRTLE RECALLS WHAT HAPPENED AT STONE RIVER DECEMBER 31, 1862

DEATH OF COL. FORMAN

YOUNG LOUISVILLE SOLDIER HAD WON HIGH RANK BY CONSPICUOUS VALOR

At the holiday season there are mingled with my memories of childhood Christmas
times, reminiscences of Christmas week of 1862.
At that time I was ordnance officer of the First Division of the Center, Army of
the Cumberland, Federal Army, Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, commanding. Gen. Rousseau had been a citizen of Louisville for many years when the Civil War broke out, and he had early in the summer of 1861, gone over to Indiana, and on the banks of the Ohio, some two miles below Jeffersonville, raised more than a regiment of
infantry and a battery of artillery for the Union Army. His career had been
extraordinary, and in the fall of 1862, he had risen to the rank of major
general, and his command was the strongest division in that part of the Army of
the Cumberland, comanded by Maj.-Gen. George H. Thomas, commander of the Center, in Maj.-Gen. Rosecrans' army.
The army had been marching and at the same time fighting, since the morning of
December 26, with the Confederates under Gen. Bragg, and on the coming night of
December 30, both armies went into bivouac, not far from Murfreesboro, Tenn., on
the banks of Stone's river -- the battle is now known as Murfreesboro, and Stone
river -- it is likely the latter has been used the more.
I had under my charge, thirty-seven six-mule army wagons, fully loaded with
ammunition for small arms, and for cannon -- remember all this was for muzzle
loading pieces.
You shall not be detained with a general account of the battle, but I shall try
to give you some impressions of the battle as I saw it or had a part in it.
The whole army had been aroused before it was good daylight on Wednesday,
December 31. Very soon thereafter, the sounds of firing were borne to our ears,
from the westward, which was on the Federal right. Our division had been moving
southward on the turnpike that led into Murfreesboro from Nashville. As I had
been given orders to keep my train up within a short distance of the last troops
of our division, I was not far from them, when they moved into a dense grove of
cedar trees, on the west side of the road, and disappeared into what is now the
lustric "Cedars."
I guided my train, until it had moved up to the summit of a slight hill, from
which I had a clear view of the cleared ground in every direction. It gave upon
all sides an uninterrupted sight of the lay of the land. This view I had taken
of surroundings was of great value in the events that came soon.
The sounds of battle on the right grew louder and more marked, the small-arms
firing increasing every moment. For half a mile there was a cotton field to the
right, which had been picked clean, leaving only the dead plants. Across this a
few men stragled leisurely towards the way we had come, now our rear; an
ambulance came into view; a squad of soldiers followed it rapidly. I saw more
unhurt men every moemnt; it looked badly for us, as the crowd grew larger
quickly. A color bearer with the colors thrown carelessly over his shoulders
took his way to the rear, and the space before me became so full of men, so
disorganized, I feared it would become another Bull Run.
In no time there were hundreds of fugitives crowded along the ambulances and
cannon, intent on reaching the turnpike from the cedars and to take the route for
Nashville.
ROUSSEAU'S ORDERS
Out of the cedars came a battery at a walk, which I recognized as the First
Michigan Battery, Lieut. George W. Van Pelt. At this moment General Rousseau,
accompanied by only one orderly and no staff officer, advanced from the cedars at
a gallop, and towards him I spurred my horse, then turned towards my wagons and
said "General, shall I post the battery where my wagons are? It is the best
position on the field."
"Do it instantly. Tell Van Pelt I will get him infantry support." I rushed my
horse to Van Pelt, who was as cool as if on parade, and delivered the order to
him. He looked at the spot and nodded his understanding, while I rode to my
wagons, which I moved down the rear slope of the little hill where they would be
out of his way, and somewhat protected by the ground, parked them as closely as
possible, ordering the drivers to lie flat on the ground and keep as cool as they
could -- it was noticeable how promptly they obeyed.
In the few moments this consumed, the field in every direction had become
covered with troops much disorganized and visibly demoralized. Van Pelt had
opeend fire to his front, drawing some infantry shots in reply. Another of our
batteries had been posted to his right, which also fired a few shots to the
front.
I now became so much interested in the situation that, having had a look at my
wagons, I left them and took a place on the crest of the hill to the left of the
Micigan battery, to see what was coming. The other battery was Battery H, Fifth
United States Artillery, Lieut. Frank L. Guenther, of the regulars, a small
brigade in our division, which was supporting these two batteries on the right
and left, together with the Second Ohio Infantry on the right of the regulars and
some troops of Van Cleve's division on the left of the regulars. I never knew
what troops they were, but General Rousseau was proud to refer to the instant
support they gave at his request.
There was no one that I have ever met who was at this point, or at that time,
who realized what tremendous success General Bragg had had up to that moment,
about 930, since his men attacked our extreme right, more than two hours
before. Knowing the country, or provided with good guides, the Confederates had
taken positions during the night of the 30th that gave them great advantages when
they surprised our extreme right, which they disorganized at the very beginning,
and which condition spread largely to other commands as the battle continued and
Bragg kept up the onset on the line of the Federals, which he continued to
crumble up. There were commands that gave him fierce resistance, which detained
him now and then, and which gave the troops who held him great reputation among
their fellows, but the victorious rush of the enemy had not, until the planting
of the First Michigan Battery, been staged for any considerable length of time.
And on this small nucleus General Rosecrans began to form a new line of battle, a
most dangerous and diffuclt feat to accomplish, with men so largely demoralized
and half whipped, though Crittenden's Corps, known as the left, had not been
attacked and was hardly disorganized at all.
AWAITING THE ENEMY
Then came on of those strange lulls that happen in battle. This seemed to mean
some new move was to come on the part of the Confederates. But Rosecrans' men
were being put into line of battle as fast as they could be handled. I was
standing near a gun rather to the . . . Lying scattered on the surface of the
cotton patch were some dead men and some wounded ones, all in gray, and the
latter moved now and then, though not much; the cedars lay farther away, giving
no signs of life, but all eyes were directed there, for those shaded depths held
the enemy, and unless they came out we would have to go in there in pursuit.
As I looked an officer on foot, sword in hand, sprang into view with a shout;
instantly the edge of the timber was alive with men, with a mass of arms, legs,
heads, guns, waving swords, gray uniforms, brown uniforms, shirt sleeves and the
enemy were coming, yelling, leaping, running. For a few jumps not a shot, and
then a man or two stopped long enough to throw up his piece to fire at us, keep
yelling, and run forward to make up the ground he had lost. What order had been
given I had not heard, when the twelve cannons were filed as one, covering them
with an impenetrable cloud of smoke, into which the batteries fired as fast as
men could load.
HOW BATTERY WAS HANDLED
At this point in my narrative I will digress in order to put on record the
tactics of handling the guns of these two ba

The Boy Colonel of The Fifteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, U.S.

This is a story of a remarkable young man from Louisville, Kentucky. James was born December 13, 1842 to the parents of Thomas Seabrooke Forman and Mary Brown Forman. His roots firmly placed in Mason County as it seems at the time of the War Between the States, three-fourths of the county were Formans or related to the Formans by marriage.
His grandfather, Ezekiel Forman, had been a farmer and the family had been on the land for a long time. Patriotism was an important part of his upbringing, for there were three Continental Army Generals in the family; General David Forman had his own regiment during the American Revolution, from Monmouth New Jersey, General Thomas Marsh Forman and General Jonathan Forman. Some also seeing service in the War of 1812 and the Whiskey Rebellion.
At the beginning of the War Between the States, many of the Kentucky young men were going with the South. Young James considered himself a Southerner, but had strong convictions that the Union must be preserved. He knew the South did not have the resources to sustain a war.
"I love and sympathize with the South as much as you, but I am a true Southerner. If the South does wrong, I say, try to win her backwith kindness. But -- that failing -- I am ready to go with sword in hand, though still with love in heart, to force her to submit to rightful authority." James B. Forman.
His life-long friend, William McDowell said, “I shall never forget once hearing him read to a party of young friends Daniel Webster's immortal speech on the "American Union." As he read that closing sentence of matchless eloquence commencing: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and disordered fragements of a once glorious Union," his voice trembled with emotion; and as he finished with the soul-inspiring "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," it was full of triumphant enthusiasm. His
hearers were many of them Southern sympathizers, but not a word was spoken -- all
were impressed.”
When Kentucky entered the war on the side of the Union, James B. Forman immediately enlisted in the regiment being formed by Col. Curan Pope. James set out with his friend William McDowell to recruit the company. William McDowell was elected Captain and James B. Forman Second Lieutenant. He was quickly promoted to First Lieutenant.
The young Lt. was admired, and loved by his men, and respected by his superiors. His military knowledge and keen leadership abilities made him seem older than his 19 years. He was promoted to Captain when Captain McClure was killed, and took command of Company C and the Regimental Color Guard.
The 15th Kentucky Regiment went into battle at Perryville with 500 men and were up against two and a half regiments of Braxton Bragg’s Rebels. The 15th suffered extremely high casualties, with 63 men killed, 11 of them, officers, and 136 wounded, which is a 40% casualty rate.
The 15th was being routed when the ninth color bearor was killed. The staff of the colors had been shot in two and the flag riddled with bullet holes. Captain Forman picked up the tattered colors. With the staff shot in two he had to climb the rail fence so he could hold the colors up for the men to see. He then began to shout for the men to rally and stop their retreat. He hollered encouragement for them to continue the fight. The youthful Captain totally disregarded his own safety and maintained his confidence and espoused of courage urging the men to hold their ground.
According to eyewitness accounts, approximately 15 rebs came out of the woods to capture the flag. They were out of amunition as was Captain Forman. Hand to hand fighting began to commence as the youthful Captain was losing his grip to overwhelming numbers, the men of the 15th rallied to their Captain and to their flag. The day was saved, the retreat was halted and the 15th held their ground. Company C had suffered the heaviest casualties of the battle, having 12 killed and 11 wounded. The battle lasted from noon until dark, on October 8, 1862.
The next morning the Confederates were gone, they had pulled out during the night. Captain J. R. Snyder took command of the Regiment. The regiment moved on to Nashville, Tennesse to rest and recoup.
On November 8, 1862, Governor J.N. Robinson of Kentucky, promoted Captain James B. Forman to Colonel of the Regiment and presented him with the flag he so bravely fought to save and used to rally the Regiment. Colonel James Brown Forman was on 19 years old and now a full colonel in command of an Infantry Regiment. Colonel J.B. Forman sent the flag back to Louisville with instructions to return it to Gov. Robinson for him to put it in the State Archives as he felt that it belonged to the people of Kentucky.
The 15th Kentucky Infantry was now in dire need of replenishing. While the Regiment rested in Tennesse, Color Forman returned to Louisville to recruit more men.
While in Louisville, on November 26, 1862 another flag was presented to the 15th from the loyal ladies. Here is the news article as it appeared in the Louisville Journal 11/26/1862:
THE FLAG PRESENTATION TO THE FIFTEENTH KENTUCKY INFANTRY
The elegent flag prepared by the loyal ladies of the city for the Fifteenth Kentucky infantry was presented to the regiment last evening through Colonel Forman. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, the attractions elsewhere, and the short notice given, a large and very respectable party of loyal ladies and gentlemen assembled in the Circuit Court room at the Court House at eight o’clock to witness the interesting exercises. The flag, which was of the finest silken fabric, embroidered with gold and appropriately inscribed, was presented by Edwin S. Craig, Esq., who alluded in eloquent terms to the eminent services that had been rendered by the regiment to the cause of the Union. The beautiful emblem was received by Col. Forman, the youthful guardian of the ‘orphan regiment,’ who replied in modest terms to the flattering eulogy passed upon the corps which he represented. Col. Forman will leave the city this morning to rejoin his regiment, and will bear with him to his gallant comrades this beautiful offering of the loyal ladies of Louisville.
This appeared in the Louisville Democrat 11/26/1862:
FLAG PRESENTATION- We were fortunate in being present on the occasion of the presentation of the magnificient silk flag, which through the liberal donations of the loyal citizens, and the untiring zeal and energy of Miss M.L. Richardson and Miss Lizzie M. Daniel, was gotten up as a present to the brave and gallant Fifteenth Kentucky regiment, who fought so well and won imperishable honors in the battle of Chaplin Hills, the late Colonel Curan Pope commanding, by whose lamented death the charge of the “Orphan Regiment” was bestowed on Col. James B. Forman. The presentation took place in the Circuit Court room. A large number of ladies and gentlemen were present. Mr. Edward Craig presented the flag in behalf of the fair donors in a most eloquent an happy manner. Col. Forman responded in a brief and elegant address. The flag bore the inscription “Fifteenth Regiment Kentucky Volunteers, Chaplin Hills, October 8, 1862.” The occasion, though solemn in the scene, was beautiful and sublime in the meaning. Long may the gallant Fifteenth, with the brave young Forman, live to fight in its defense, and may they ever remember, in peace or on the battlefield, from whose generous hearts and willing hands it came.
Colonel Forman returned the next day with new recruits and supplies and a beautiful new flag for the regiment which was bivouaced in Nashville, Tenn. The regiment re-officered where needed and was once more ready for the fray.
The regiment was now in the Fourteenth Army Corps, commanded by General George H. Thomas; First Division, commanded by General Lovell H. Rousseau; Third Brigade, by General John S. Beatty. The Brigade compromising in addition to the Fifteenth Kentucky, the Third and Tenth Ohio, Forty-second and Eighty-eighth Indiana regiments, always ready to march or fight at the bidding of the commander.
On the 26th of December the regiment left Nashville, and traveled via the Franklin and Granny White pikes, concentrating on the hills near Nashville, with the enemy close in front; but General Bragg drew off his army to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
“Well will Sunday afternoon, December 28, 1862 be remembered. The regiment was ordered out of its line on the hill-side, and commenced one of the hardest and darkest marches that can be imagined, toward Murfreesboro. All night, through Cedar thickness, roads almost impassible, only kept in the right direction by “beacon fires,” which were kept burning the entire night, we wended our way, hungry, foot-sore, wet, and wary, not knowing where we were going, but trusting implicitly that “Old Rosy” and “Pap” Thomas would lead us only to such places as they desired us to occupy, as we had entire confidences in those worthy and able commanders. In the morning we reached the Nashville and Murfreesboro turnpike, near Stewart’s Creek, and were again in our position in the center of the Army of the Cumberland, with Bragg’s army again confronting us.”
On the 29th and 30th the 15th Ky. moved forward until it almost reached the banks of Stone River. General Negley’s Division had skirmished for position on the right during the afternoon of the 30th and when night came on the 15th bivouaced and many spent the night in joking pleasantry, reveille on the 31st sounding to scores who had not slept. Rousseau’s division was the reserve division of the Fourteenth Corps. Marching along the road they passed General Rosecrans and staff, who seeing the flag-staff broken, banner torn and draped in mourning, called them his “orphan regiment,” a name which, before the sun of that day set, was doubly applicable.
Colonel Forman met with his officers and Major McDowell, who was serving as Chief of Staff to General Rousseau. Major McDowell writes, “Col. J. B. Forman was my friend from early boyhood. We were engaged together in raising Co. ‘C’ 15th Ky., I as captain and he as lieutenant, and were always fast friends. He had a very stylish black horse which I admired, and tried to buy from him. As I was riding with him and the field officers of the 15th to place the men in linve of battle at Stone River, he remarked: ‘Will, you have always wanted this horse; now it is my desire that after this battle you should have him. I will be killed in the fight, and I call on you gentlemen (addressing his field of officers) to see that he gets him.’ Major McDowell rallied him and said, “Jimmie, if you are going to be killed, let me have him now and take my horse,” but he answered, “I am in earnest; I know what I am talking about and I want you to remember: I will be killed, you will be wounded, and the horse will also be wounded, and I, want Major Allen to see that the horse is cared for and given to you.” All occurred as he said. He was killed and fell from his horse, the horse was wounded three times in the left hind leg, and major McDowell was wounded in the left arm. While home convalesing form his wound, Major McDowell was met in Louisville by Mr. William Anderson, Col. Forman’s brother-in-law, who informed that the horse was in a livery stable at his disposal. Major Allen having conveyed the request. Major McDowell writes that he kept the horse until his death.
The battle for the 15th began about 9:00AM. Colonel James B. Forman was riding up and down the line in front of the Regiment encouraging the men forward. The 15th was very much in the same position that they were in at Perryville, facing heavy odds and on orders to hold at all cost.
Major McDowell wrote: “About nine o’clock A.M. we came up close to the front and could see orderlies riding hurriedly hither and thither. A group of officers, composed of General Rousseau with his brigade and regimental commanders was formed in front of the Fifteenth, to whom orders and instructions were given, when, all returning to their commands, we were faced to the right and moved hurriedly to the cedar forest to stem the current of an almost irrestible storm in the cedar glades, where General McCooks (Twentieth) Corps had been violently attacked and were sorely pressed.
Passing in rear of General Sill’s division, our brigade got into the same kind of position as that held at Perryville; that is, one on the extreme right wing of the army, with the Fifteenth Kentucky on the right of the brigade. Here, with instructions to hold the enemy until the artillery could be gotten out of the thickett, we again met the enemy and stopped for a while his triumphant charges. We held the road until the last gun and caisson had passed safely, but for a terrible cost to the Fifteenth Kentucky, for in a short half hour we lost our brave and gallant young Colonel (shot from his horse), in the flower of his youth, being only a little past his twenty-first (actually 20th) birthday, and eighty others killed and seriously wounded on that fatal field of Stone River.”
No doubt, the brave young Colonel Forman presented an immensley beckoning target as he rode up and down the front of the regiment cheerfully shouting encouragement to the men to “move on forward, advance, take it to ‘em” with total lack of fear while he remained between the thickett of the woods which protected the Confederates, and his regiment on line in the charge. It was only ten minutes into the battle when the “Boy Colonel” was shot from his big black charger. How decimating this must have been for the whole regiment to witness in such an early part of the battle. Their beloved young colonel’s life taken with such brutal force of musketry as many Confederates concentrated their fire on the gallant and dashing young officer on the big black charger who dared to parade his gallantry so in their face.
The 15th held on long enough for the artillery to withdraw to safety, but the Confederates had taken the body of Colonel James B. Forman behind their lines. Under the veil of darkness a handful of men from the 15th crept behind the Confederate lines to find the body of their beloved fallen colonel. They were successful and found his body laid in a wagon in full accoutrement. They stealthily brought him back and took him home to Louisville.
The Louisville Journal 1/12/1863-
The remains of the late Colonel J.B. Forman, of the Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry, and Captain A.B. Ferguson, both of whom lost their lives in the recent battles near Murfreesboro, were interred yesterday; the former from the resident of his brother-in-law, Mr. W. J. Anderson, and the latter from his Walnut Street M.E. Church. In both instances the usual military escorts were in attendance and large concourses of mourning friends followed the remains of the gallant dead to their final rest.
The Louisville Journal 1/15/1863-
THE LATE COL. FORMAN-Among those noble spirits who sealed their patriotism with their life’s blood upon the battle-field at Murfreesboro, none will be more sincerely lamented than the youthful Col. James B. Forman, of the Fifteenth Regiment Kentucky Volunteers. At the outbreak of this unhappy war Colonel Forman, though but a youth, having just attained his twentieth year at the time of his death, formed a very decided opinion in regard to the causes and probable results of the seccession movement. When Kentucky took her position in favor of sustaining the Government, he entered the army as a second lieutenant in the Fifteenth Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers, then about being raised by the late Colonel Curan Pope. From this position he was shortly promoted to a first lieutenancy, and afterwards, by the death of Captain McClure, he assumed, by regular promotion, the command of his company. In this capacity he won the love of his men by his generous conduct on all occasions, and challenged the admiration of the entire regiment; by his display of military knowledge and great personal bravery. At the battle of Chaplin Hills he gained great applause, his deeds of noble daring being the theme of praise among all those who witnessed the desperate fighting of the then untried but now war-worn and glory-covered regiment to which he was attached. The regimental flag was on that occasion rescued by Capt. Forman after it had been shot down time and time again, and was by him borne aloft in proud defiance of the storm of shot and shell that was being mercilessly poured upon that devoted (it almost seemed doomed) regiment by the enemy. That flag, all riddled as it is, will be duly presented to the State of Kentucky as a worthy memento of the bravery of her sons. After the death of Col. Pope, and his assistant field officer, Capt. Forman was commissioned Colonel of the regiment, in acknowledgement of his eminent services and superior abilities. Wih high hopes and such ardor as only a man of noble impulses and conscious rectitude can feel, he entered upon the discharge of his duties, fully sensible of the responsibilities of his position and anxious to discharge them in such a manner as ould best promote the interest of the cause he had so heartily espoused. He has done all that could be done--he has sacrificed his life upon his country’s altar--he has fought his last fight, and now sleeps “the sleep that knows no waking,” but his name and memory will be cherished, for “The brave Die never. Being deathless they but change Their Country’s arms of more their “country’s heart.”

The Louisville Democrat 1/16/63

A WREATH TWINED IN MEMORY OF COLONEL J. B. FORMAN, OF THE FIFTEENTH KENTUCKY.

By Minnie Myrtle

"The good die first, while they whose hearts are dry as summer's dust burn to the
socket."
WORDSWORTH.

Colonel Forman! the field that covers with its warm flowery mantle so many of
earth's best and noblest hearts never garnered in its bosom one warmer, truer or
braver than thine.
The battle ceased. One by one, with hushed footseps and throbbing hearts, his
comrades departed, and left him, as it were, alone amid the solemn sanctuaries of
death.
Twilight soon spread her starry veil over stream and plain, and the last
sunshine of expiring day poured a flood of glory thwart the scene, like the
assuring smile of a departing Christian. All men appeared to feel and
acknowledge the mournful influence of the time and place. The bright and gentle
sisterhood of stars seemed to look down upon him in that calm and lonely hour,
from their blue and illimitable depths, like the kind spirit eyes of the loved
and lost, trembling with tears over the loss of so many noble souls. So good, so
brave, I cannot realize that you are no more. Everything around seems inbued
with the spiritual presence of the departed, now reposing locked in the
everlasting dream of death. The very air seems instict with the low reathings,
and every sound appears rather to enhance than disturb the melancoly influence of
the scene, the rustling leaf, struggling awhile in mid air, then floating gently
down upon the damp earth to die at last, a symbol of human destiny, the fitful
breeze sighing regretfully over the loveliness it was commissioned to destroy so
soon. The gentlest zephyr that whispers among the leaves seems to murmur in
memory's ear like the pleasant voices of friends long gone before, and every
rustle amid the tall, cool grass will seem the light tramping of beloved feet
that are now treading the dark valley of the shadow of death. Twilight
insensibly deepens into night, and the sun has receded far along its azure track,
and the majestic moon has reared her broad shield slowly from out her fleecy
cloud couch in the east, and the swirling roof of Heaven is sparkling with
stars. In my imagination I stand upon that bloody ground where so many of our
brothers have offered up their lives. One by one I call up the images of friends
whom I shall meet no more, save by the green pastures and the still waters of the
harvest home. I remember the parting with some who now sleep the sleep that
knows no waking -- the quivering lip, the sad smile, the last farewell.
The damp dews of the dark valley have gathered upon the pallid brow of the one
that "would not be forgotten"
When hope no longer o'er the heart
A single joy shall breathe,
And Envy, with her ventured art,
No fatal blow shall give.
When seraphs, from their heavenly sphere,
No more shall bless their lot,
And angels shed unhappy tears,
Then thou shall be forgot.

Journal 2/63

THE LATE COLONEL FORMAN
To the Editors of the Louisville Journal
January 26, 1863
GENTLEMEN If you do not deem it too unworthy, will you publish one more humble tribute to the memory of Kentucky's youngest Colonel, James B. Forman, from one who knew him?
He showed, from early youth, remarkable promise. Always seeking the society of,
and appearing equal to, those much older than himself, no one ever imagined,
until told, how young he was. From the age of sixteen, indeed, he seemed -- in
conversation, in business capacity, in intellect, and in strength and decision of
mind -- a man, and won "golder opinions" of his ability from his superiors in age
and experience. His principles were firm and unwavering. He understood
perfectly his own disposition and capabilities, and thus anything he undertook
was successfully performed. His influence over those for whom he cared was
unbounded, and his insight into the characters and motives of those he met was so
keen and true that it was marvellous.
He detected the fallacies in the "doctrine of secession" from the first, and
what is more noticeable, he never for an instant succumbed to the insidious and
-- to so many young Kentuckians -- irresistible appeal to their love for the
South. It is well known that sectional attachment is especially characteristic
of the young; they are never cosmopolitan in feelinng; one section, one place is
home, and is better than all others to them. This is one reason why the cry of
"The South" has attracted some of them more than that of "The Union." Many said, "We think the so-called right of secession radically wrong, but we are
Southerners -- we love the South, whatever her faults, better than the North,
and, if war comes, we will be on her side, right or wrong." But young Forman's
words were (in substance) "I love and sympathize with the South as much as you,
but I am a true Southerner. If the South does wrong, I say, try to win her back
with kindness. But -- that failing -- I am ready to go with sword in hand,
though still with love in heart, to force her to submit to rightful authority."
I shall never forget once hearing him read to a party of young friends Daniel
Webster's immortal speech on the "American Union." As he read that closing
sentence of matchless eloquence commencing "When my eyes shall be turned to
behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the
broken and disordered fragements of a once glorious Union," his voice trembled
with emotion; and as he finished with the soul-inspiring "Liberty and Union, now
and forever, one and inseparable," it was full of triumphant enthusiasm. His
hearers were many of them Southern sympathizers, but not a word was spoken -- all
were impressed.
When Kentucky, having tried in vain to mediate, declared herself unconditionally
and unalterably for the Union, and called her sons "to arms" to enforce the laws,
and drive the invaders from her soil, he obeyed the call. Giving up home,
friends, and all the comforts to which he was accustomed, he went to serve his
country, actuated by the purest and highest patriotism.
An article has already been published in your columns, narrating his successful
career in the army. He gained quickly the love and respect of his comrades in
arms; and was rapidly promoted until he attained, shortly before the battle
before Murfreesboro, in which he fell, the high position of Colonel of the 15th
Kentucky, as a reward for distinguished ability and personal bravery. His name
will be always associated with the battle of Chaplin Hills, in which he played so
noble a part. How were the hearts of his friends thrilled with pleasure and
exultation as they heard the story of his daring courage in the rescue of the
flag of the regiment on that memorable day!
And now that in this, his second battle, he has lost his life, let us not "mourn
as those without hope," but, while sincerely lamenting his early death, remember
that he himself was willing to lay down his life even for his country's welfare.
"Life is noble only when it is held cheap by the side of honor and of duty."

CAPT. ALFRED PIRTLE RECALLS WHAT HAPPENED AT STONE RIVER DECEMBER 31, 1862

DEATH OF COL. FORMAN

YOUNG LOUISVILLE SOLDIER HAD WON HIGH RANK BY CONSPICUOUS VALOR

At the holiday season there are mingled with my memories of childhood Christmas
times, reminiscences of Christmas week of 1862.
At that time I was ordnance officer of the First Division of the Center, Army of
the Cumberland, Federal Army, Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, commanding. Gen. Rousseau had been a citizen of Louisville for many years when the Civil War broke out, and he had early in the summer of 1861, gone over to Indiana, and on the banks of the Ohio, some two miles below Jeffersonville, raised more than a regiment of
infantry and a battery of artillery for the Union Army. His career had been
extraordinary, and in the fall of 1862, he had risen to the rank of major
general, and his command was the strongest division in that part of the Army of
the Cumberland, comanded by Maj.-Gen. George H. Thomas, commander of the Center, in Maj.-Gen. Rosecrans' army.
The army had been marching and at the same time fighting, since the morning of
December 26, with the Confederates under Gen. Bragg, and on the coming night of
December 30, both armies went into bivouac, not far from Murfreesboro, Tenn., on
the banks of Stone's river -- the battle is now known as Murfreesboro, and Stone
river -- it is likely the latter has been used the more.
I had under my charge, thirty-seven six-mule army wagons, fully loaded with
ammunition for small arms, and for cannon -- remember all this was for muzzle
loading pieces.
You shall not be detained with a general account of the battle, but I shall try
to give you some impressions of the battle as I saw it or had a part in it.
The whole army had been aroused before it was good daylight on Wednesday,
December 31. Very soon thereafter, the sounds of firing were borne to our ears,
from the westward, which was on the Federal right. Our division had been moving
southward on the turnpike that led into Murfreesboro from Nashville. As I had
been given orders to keep my train up within a short distance of the last troops
of our division, I was not far from them, when they moved into a dense grove of
cedar trees, on the west side of the road, and disappeared into what is now the
lustric "Cedars."
I guided my train, until it had moved up to the summit of a slight hill, from
which I had a clear view of the cleared ground in every direction. It gave upon
all sides an uninterrupted sight of the lay of the land. This view I had taken
of surroundings was of great value in the events that came soon.
The sounds of battle on the right grew louder and more marked, the small-arms
firing increasing every moment. For half a mile there was a cotton field to the
right, which had been picked clean, leaving only the dead plants. Across this a
few men stragled leisurely towards the way we had come, now our rear; an
ambulance came into view; a squad of soldiers followed it rapidly. I saw more
unhurt men every moemnt; it looked badly for us, as the crowd grew larger
quickly. A color bearer with the colors thrown carelessly over his shoulders
took his way to the rear, and the space before me became so full of men, so
disorganized, I feared it would become another Bull Run.
In no time there were hundreds of fugitives crowded along the ambulances and
cannon, intent on reaching the turnpike from the cedars and to take the route for
Nashville.
ROUSSEAU'S ORDERS
Out of the cedars came a battery at a walk, which I recognized as the First
Michigan Battery, Lieut. George W. Van Pelt. At this moment General Rousseau,
accompanied by only one orderly and no staff officer, advanced from the cedars at
a gallop, and towards him I spurred my horse, then turned towards my wagons and
said "General, shall I post the battery where my wagons are? It is the best
position on the field."
"Do it instantly. Tell Van Pelt I will get him infantry support." I rushed my
horse to Van Pelt, who was as cool as if on parade, and delivered the order to
him. He looked at the spot and nodded his understanding, while I rode to my
wagons, which I moved down the rear slope of the little hill where they would be
out of his way, and somewhat protected by the ground, parked them as closely as
possible, ordering the drivers to lie flat on the ground and keep as cool as they
could -- it was noticeable how promptly they obeyed.
In the few moments this consumed, the field in every direction had become
covered with troops much disorganized and visibly demoralized. Van Pelt had
opeend fire to his front, drawing some infantry shots in reply. Another of our
batteries had been posted to his right, which also fired a few shots to the
front.
I now became so much interested in the situation that, having had a look at my
wagons, I left them and took a place on the crest of the hill to the left of the
Micigan battery, to see what was coming. The other battery was Battery H, Fifth
United States Artillery, Lieut. Frank L. Guenther, of the regulars, a small
brigade in our division, which was supporting these two batteries on the right
and left, together with the Second Ohio Infantry on the right of the regulars and
some troops of Van Cleve's division on the left of the regulars. I never knew
what troops they were, but General Rousseau was proud to refer to the instant
support they gave at his request.
There was no one that I have ever met who was at this point, or at that time,
who realized what tremendous success General Bragg had had up to that moment,
about 930, since his men attacked our extreme right, more than two hours
before. Knowing the country, or provided with good guides, the Confederates had
taken positions during the night of the 30th that gave them great advantages when
they surprised our extreme right, which they disorganized at the very beginning,
and which condition spread largely to other commands as the battle continued and
Bragg kept up the onset on the line of the Federals, which he continued to
crumble up. There were commands that gave him fierce resistance, which detained
him now and then, and which gave the troops who held him great reputation among
their fellows, but the victorious rush of the enemy had not, until the planting
of the First Michigan Battery, been staged for any considerable length of time.
And on this small nucleus General Rosecrans began to form a new line of battle, a
most dangerous and diffuclt feat to accomplish, with men so largely demoralized
and half whipped, though Crittenden's Corps, known as the left, had not been
attacked and was hardly disorganized at all.
AWAITING THE ENEMY
Then came on of those strange lulls that happen in battle. This seemed to mean
some new move was to come on the part of the Confederates. But Rosecrans' men
were being put into line of battle as fast as they could be handled. I was
standing near a gun rather to the . . . Lying scattered on the surface of the
cotton patch were some dead men and some wounded ones, all in gray, and the
latter moved now and then, though not much; the cedars lay farther away, giving
no signs of life, but all eyes were directed there, for those shaded depths held
the enemy, and unless they came out we would have to go in there in pursuit.
As I looked an officer on foot, sword in hand, sprang into view with a shout;
instantly the edge of the timber was alive with men, with a mass of arms, legs,
heads, guns, waving swords, gray uniforms, brown uniforms, shirt sleeves and the
enemy were coming, yelling, leaping, running. For a few jumps not a shot, and
then a man or two stopped long enough to throw up his piece to fire at us, keep
yelling, and run forward to make up the ground he had lost. What order had been
given I had not heard, when the twelve cannons were filed as one, covering them
with an impenetrable cloud of smoke, into which the batteries fired as fast as
men could load.
HOW BATTERY WAS HANDLED
At this point in my narrative I will digress in order to put on record the
tactics of handling the guns of these two batteries, which are much more
laborious and slower than those now used and pertaining to the breechloaders.
Seven men constituted a gun crew. "Aim the gun" is the order.
Then No. 1 stands at the right of the muzzle outside the wheel.
No. 2 stands at the left outside the wheel.
No. 3 on the right and in line with the breech.
No. 4 on the left and in line with the breech.
No. 5 stands on the left and half way between the gun and the limber (the limber
is the chest on the front axle that carried the ammunition).
No. 6 stands at the limber.
No. 7 stands behind the limber.
Then to "load," No. 3 jumps to the breech and placed his left thumb, protected
by a leather pad, over the vent (or touch-hole) and presses down so as to close
the vent so that air will not enter. No. 1 jumps inside the line of the wheel
and after seeing that No. 3 is in his place, thrusts the sponge end of the
implement into the water in the sponge bucket and then puts the sponge or swab
down the bore of the piece, and thus. No. 2 receives the load from No. 5 and
thrusts it into the muzzle, when No. 1 and No. 2, each having a hand on the
rammer, run the charge to the breech. No. 4 then jumps to the breech and,
inserting a steel pricker, pricks the cartridge (which is made of some woolen
material) tthrough the vent, and, drawing out the prick, inserts a
friction-primer, to which he attaches a stout cord (called a lanyard), held in
his right hand. The gun is now ready to fire, and when the corporal, who has
aimed the gun, signals with his hand that all is ready, the lieutenant, as soon
as the captain gives the order, repeats it, and the piece is discharged.
All this labor is performed under the eyes and observation of the officers and
naturally consumes time. When the charge began, the orders were understood to be
load and fire just as fast as possible.
EFFECTS OF THE FIRE
At the order they "ceased firing," and, as the curtain of smoke rolled up, not a
moving object beneath it came in sight, but the dreadful effects of the rapid
cannonade were visible. The number of the dead and wounded had been fearfully
increased, and cries and groans reached our ears. On our side men had been
wounded, some horses killed, others crippled, but no serious loss inflicted. At
my feet one of the Michigan gunners lay wounded, but refused to leave the field,
insisting he could stand it yet a while. I had over my shoulder a canteen well
filled with cold coffee, which he took, and it helped him a great deal . . .
Back to the front I went, to take in the scene, for I felt sure the enemy would
again charge, because a great victory seemed just within their grasp, after the
hours of unavailing effort on our part to stem the tide of their good luck, and
this was the first stubborn and successful resistance -- the position and the
batteries must be captured, Rosecrans driven from the turnpike and that road to
Nashville open to the Confederates and the Yankees perhaps routed.
The two batteries were commanded by Major Cyrus O. Loomis, of the Michigan
artillery. I heard him say to Van Pelt that the enemy was going to make another
charge and "you give them double shotted cannister as hot as hell will let you!"
He went then to the regular battery where Lieutenant Guenther and his Second
Lieutenant, Israel Ludlow, were preparing for the coming charge, and gave them
the same war-like orders. The interval this time was used by our men in getting
the guns depressed so as to rake the ground from the turnpike to the cedars; in
filling swab buckets, taking harness off of dead horses, replacing damaged
implements by sound ones, while care was given to the few wounded men. The enemy were reconnoitering our position carefully, keeping as much out of sight as
possible -- no large bodies of men being exposed at all, and the silence was deep
and ominous.
From the moment the troops had been halted after passing the front line of the
two batteries, the line of battle had been extended northward along the side of
the turnpike, keeping in line with the front as I have mentioned. The morale of
the army was rapidly being restored, just as soon as the men had reached the rear
of the First Michigan Battery looking towards the dark cedars, where the enemy
were, because of the fact that none of them were in sight on the old cotton
fields over which they had driven our men and none of our forces were beyond the
front formed by these two batteries and their supports.
A small space lay before us; then the turnpike, then a small patch of a cotton
field about three hundred yards wide.
As we faced this cotton patch we were looking west, and near the edge of, that
is toward the north, was a clumb of small trees, tall weeds and deep grass . . .
BATTERIES' GREAT WORK
While concealed in the cedars the enemy had formed for the third charge, in
several lines of battle, long enough to overlap the front of the two batteries;
how many lines there were, were soon hidden in the smoke. They came with a rush
and completely extended, at which instant our batteries opened on them with a
deafening roar, an incessant fire, unceasingly throwing twenty or twenty-four
pounds of bullets at each report across the small space between the coming charge
and the guns. I found myself at this moment between the two batteries in company
with Major Loomis and Major Carpenter, commander of the battalion of the
Nineteenth United States infantry and by seniority commanding the regular
brigade. Like me, they were fascinated by the rash bravey of our foes, who
seemed determined to have those guns, cost what it might. I never saw cannon
served as those guns where then. Before the recoil was expended the gunners
grasped the spokes and threw the pieces into position like lightning, the sponge
was run in, turned and withdrawn, the load sent home and the piece fired. Such a
roar was deafening and our little group communicated by signs . . .
When I first told my friends at home about this moment of thrilling interest,
some one asked me if I was afraid, knowing that I had never been under fire
before. To this I said, "I do not remember that I was afraid, or conscious of
the danger, but I was so filled with the sense of the great excitement and
importance of repulsing the enemy that I wished that they had but a single neck,
that I might cut it off with one stroke of my saber."
And the enemy! They were running across the field, firing and shouting. We
could not hear them, but we got a sight now and then of their waving arms and
weapons, while every moment a bullet hissed near us, or we could see some man in
the batteries fall, or perhaps a horse rear, plunge and drop. We kept our gaze
fastened on the charge coming, coming, coming on like the breakers of the sea,
always nearer at each succeeding wave.
But men were not yet born who could longer face that storm of iron sweeping
death and destruction to all in its path. They broke, they fled, some taking
refuge in the small clump of trees I have mentioned. Our fire ceased. And
cheers of victory rose from the manly throats of our brave cannoneers which was
taken up on the right and left as soon as it was seen that the charge had been
repulsed, followed by a general hand-shaking, that was changed into a frenzy of
cheers at the rush of the Second Ohio Infantry into the bunch of bushes that has
been spoken of, returning with a captured flag and a body of prisoners.
Turning my back on this scene I extracted my wagons from their crowded position
taken so hurriedly, and as officers were demanding ammunition, I issued it to all
comers, knowing that the siutation demanded no sticking on formalities. As each
wagon had painted on it, plainly, the caliber of the cartridges contained in it,
the distribution was rapid and correct. I was interrupted in issuing ammunition
by a battery of the enemy getting the range of the wagon tops, and the first
thing I knew shot began to fly around us, and one of them struck the wagon I was
issuing from. I lost no time, but sprange to the ground and spread myself out
about as thick as a sheet of paper, expecting that the load would explode, but it
didn't, and thereupon I took the hint and moved my train to a safe place in the
rear.
After this my duties kept me in the rear with my train, so that I saw but little
of the fighting, yet for two or three days the Confederate cavalry kept us moving
from place to place to keep in touch with the troops sent to protect us. In the
four days of the battle I issued 100,000 rounds of small-arm cartridges and
twenty wagonloads of fixed artillery ammunition. The recorded reports of the
Confederates show that there were engaged in attack on the batteries the Sixth
Tennessee Infantry, Col. Savage, which lost 207 men out of 402; the Eighth
Tennessee Infantry, Col. Moore (who died of his wounds), which lost 306 men out
of 425, and the Thirtieth Arkansas Infantry, which lost during the day
ninety-five men out of 266, making a striking demonstration of the bravey and
devotion of American soldiery.
COLONEL FORMAN SLAIN
You will remember that I have previously spoken of the stout and determined
resistance put up by the Federals during the long, straggling contest that had
lasted from almost the first attack of Bragg at daybreak. In one of those
afrays, just before the coming of Van Pelt's battery from the cedars, the
Fifteenth Kentucky Federal Infantry had a severe engagement and lost heavily,
having the terrible experience of losing their colonel, James B. Forman, and being
compelled to leave his body in the hands of the enemy. This remakrable young man
was a citizen of Louisville, where he was born and reared. At the outbreak of
the civil war, though not yet in his majority, he espoused the Union cause, and
in September 1861, at nineteen years of age, enlisted as a private in the
Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry, then recruiting on the turnpike to Shelbyville at
the fair grounds, which were on the grounds now lying between the German Orphan
Asylum and the Water Company's property on the north side of the turnpike. He
soon became a second lieutenant, and in that rank followed the fortunes of the
regiment in the campaigns of 1862 to Alabama and back to Louisville, and thence
in the campaign that ended at the battle of Perryville, Ky., October 8, 1862.
Here the fatalities had reached to so dreadful a pitch that all the field
officers had been killed or borne, disabled by wounds, from the field, so that
the captains and lieutenant seemed to have lost their presence of mind, when
Lieut. Forman mounted a fence and by his example and voice rallied the regiment
and thus saved what might have been a defeat.
His conduct was so admirable and had such splendid results that he became the
idol of the men, and when the time came to fill the vacancy caused by the death,
soon after the battle, of Col. Curran Pope, as the result of wounds received at
Perryville, the Governor of Kentucky commissioned James B. Forman colonel of the
Fifteenth Kentucky infantry November 8, 1862, when he was only about twenty-one
years of age. He was mounted in the battle of December 31 on a splendid black
charger, which made him a prominent mark for the enemy, as he was gallantly
trying at the head of his men to stem the flow of battle towards the rear. I
have heard it said he was not under fire in the cedars more than ten minutes.
Such was the vigilance and resistance of the enemy that no armed party of men
could gain entrance to the cedars during the daylight of December 31, yet his men
formed a small squad after the night had fallen, who, with great caution and
silence, made their way into the intense darkness of the forest, and after some
efforts found his body and slowly brought it into our lines with much labor.
I shall never forget how martial he looked, all accoutered as was his wont, he
lay like a marble statute in the bottom of an army wagon, in which the beams of a
lone candle strove to dispel the shadows.
After action report of General L.H. Rousseau
NASHVILLE, TENN., January 11, 1863.
SIR I have the honor to report the part taken by my command, the Third Division of the army, in the battle of Murfreesborough, begun on the 31st ultimo and ended on the 3d instant.
Early on the morning of the 30th ultimo, in obedience to the order of General Thomas, my division moved forward toward Murfreesborough from Stewartsborough, on the Nashville and Murfreesborough turnpike, about 9 miles from the latter place. On the march forward, several dispatches from General Rosecrans reached me, asking exactly where my command was and the hour and minute of the day. In consequence, we moved rapidly forward, halting but once, and that for only five minutes. About 10.30 a.m. we reached a point 3 miles from Murfrees-borough, where Generals Rosecrans and Thomas were, on the Nashville and Murfreesborough turnpike, and remained during the day and bivouacked at night.
At about 9 a.m. on the 31st, the report of artillery and heavy firing of small-arms on our right announced that the battle had begun, by an attack on the right wing, commanded by Major-General McCook. It was not long before the direction from which the firing came indicated that General McCook's command had given way and was yielding ground to the enemy. His forces seemed to swing around toward our right and rear. At this time General Thomas ordered me to advance my division quickly to the front, to the assistance of General McCook.
On reaching the right of General Negley's line of battle, General Thomas there directed me to let my left rest on his right, and deploy my division off toward the right as far as I could, so as to resist the pressure on General McCook. We consulted and agreed as to where the line should be formed. This was in a dense cedar brake, through which my troops marched in double-quick time, to get into position before the enemy reached us. He was then but a few hundred yards to the front, sweeping up in immense numbers, driving everything before him. This ground was new and unknown to us all. The woods were almost impassable to infantry, and artillery was perfectly useless, but the line was promptly formed; the Seventeenth Brigade, Col. John Beatty commanding, on the left; the brigade of regulars, Lieut. Col. O. L. Shepherd commanding, on the right; the Ninth Brigade, Col. B. F. Scribner commanding, was placed perhaps 100 yards in rear and opposite the center of the front line, so as to support either or both of the brigades in front, as occasion might require. My recollection is that, perhaps, the Second Ohio and Thirty-third Ohio Regiments filled a gap between General Negley's right and the Seventeenth Brigade, occasioned by the effort to extend our lines far enough to the right to afford the desired aid to General McCook.
The Twenty-eighth Brigade, Col. John C. Starkweather commanding, and Stone's battery of First Kentucky Artillery were at Jefferson Crossing, on Stone's River, about 8 miles below.
Our lines were hardly formed before a dropping fire of the enemy announced his approach. General McCook's troops, in a good deal of confusion, retired through our lines and around our right under a most terrific fire. The enemy, in pursuit, furiously assailed our front, and, greatly outflanking us, passed around to our right and rear. By General Thomas' direction, I had already ordered the artillery (Loomis' and Guenther's batteries) to the open field in the rear. Seeing that my command was outflanked on the right, I sent orders to the brigade commanders to retire at once also to this field, and, riding back myself, 1 posted the batteries on a ridge in the open ground, parallel with our line of battle, and as my men emerged from the woods they were ordered to take position on the right and left, and in support of these batteries, which was promptly done. We had, perhaps, 400 or 500 yards of open ground in our front. While the batteries were unlimbering, seeing General Van Cleve close by, I rode up and asked him if he would move his command to the right and aid in checking up the enemy, by forming on my right, and thus giving us a more extended line in that direction in the new position taken. In the promptest manner possible his command was put in motion, and in double-quick time reached the desired point in good season. As the enemy emerged from the woods in great force, shouting and cheering, the batteries of Guenther and Loomis, double-shotted with canister, opened upon them. They moved straight ahead for a while, but were finally driven back with immense loss.
In a little while they rallied again, and, as it seemed, with fresh troops, and assailed our position, and were again, after a fierce struggle, driven back. Four deliberate and fiercely sustained assaults were made upon our position and repulsed.
During the last assault I was informed that our troops were advancing on the right, and saw troops, not of my division, led by General Rosecrans, moving in that direction. I informed General Thomas of the fact, and asked leave to advance my lines. He directed me to do so. We made a charge upon the enemy and drove him into the woods, my staff and orderlies capturing some 17 prisoners, including a captain and lieu tenant, who were within 130 yards of the batteries. This ended the fighting of that day, the enemy in immense force hovering in the woods during the night, while we slept upon our arms on the field of battle. We occupied this position during the three following days and nights of the fight. Under General Thomas' direction, I had it intrenched by rifle-pits, and believe the enemy could not have taken it at all.
During the day the Twenty-eighth Brigade, Colonel Starkweather, was attacked by General Wheeler's cavalry in force, and some of the wagons of his train were burned before they reached him, having started that morning from Stewartsborough to join him. The enemy were finally repulsed and driven off with loss. Starkweather's loss was small, as will be seen by his report of the action. In this affair the whole brigade behaved handsomely. The burden of the fight fell upon the Twenty-first Wisconsin, Lieutenant-Colonel Hobart commanding. This regiment, led by its efficient commander, behaved like veterans.
From the evening of the 31st until the ensuing Saturday night no general battle occurred in front of my division, though firing of artillery and small-arms was kept up during the day, and much of the time, of small-arms, during the night. The rain on the night of the 31st, which continued, at intervals, until the Saturday night following, rendered the ground occupied by my command exceedingly sloppy and muddy, and during much of the time my men had neither shelter, food, nor fire. I procured corn, which they parched and ate, and some of them ate horsesteaks, cut and broiled, from horses upon the battle-field. Day and night, in the cold, wet, and mud, my men suffered severely, but during the whole time I did not hear one single man murmur at hardships, but all were cheerful and ever ready to stand by their arms and fight. Such endurance I never saw before. In this severe trial of their patience and their strength they were much encouraged by the constant presence and solicitous anxiety of General Thomas for their welfare.
On the evening of Saturday, 3d instant, I asked permission of General Thomas to drive the enemy from the wood on our left front, to which he gave his consent. Just before night I directed the batteries of Guenther and Loomis to shell the woods with six rounds per gun, fired as rapidly as possible. This was very handsomely done, and ended just, at dusk, when the Third Ohio Regiment, Lieut. Col. O. A. Lawson, and the Eighty-eighth Indiana, Col. George Humphrey, both under command of the brigade commander, Col. John Beatty, moved promptly up the woods. When near the woods they received a heavy fire from the enemy, but returned it vigorously, and gallantly pressed forward. On reaching the woods a fresh body of the enemy, attracted by the fire, moved up on their left to support them. On that body of the enemy Loomis' battery opened with shell. The fusilade was very rapid, and continued for, perhaps, three-quarters of an hour, when Beatty's command drove the enemy at the point of the bayonet and held the woods. It turned out that the enemy was posted behind a stone breastwork in the woods, and, when ousted, about 30 men were taken prisoners behind the works. This ended the battle of Murfreesborough.
On the morning of the 31st, six companies of the Second Kentucky Cavalry, Maj. Thomas P. Nicholas commanding, were ordered down to watch and defend the fords on Stone's River, to our left and rear. The cavalry of the enemy several times, in force, attempted to cross these fords, but Nicholas very gallantly repulsed them, with loss, and they did not cross the river. I should have mentioned that on Friday evening, late, I was directed by General Thomas to place a regiment in the woods on our left front as an outpost, and with a view to hold these woods, as they were near our lines, and the enemy could greatly annoy us if allowed to hold them. Our skirmishers were then just leaving the woods. I ordered the Forty-second Indiana, Lieutenant-Colonel Shanklin commanding, to take that position, which he did but early next morning the enemy, in large force, attacked Colonel Shanklin, first furiously shelling the woods, and drove the regiment back to our lines, taking Shanklin prisoner. It was this woods that was retaken on Saturday night, as before described.
The troops of my division behaved admirably. I could not wish them to behave more gallantly. The Ninth and Seventeenth Brigades, under the lead of their gallant commanders, Scribner and Beatty, were, as well as the Twenty-eighth Brigade, Colonel Starkweather, veterans. They were with me at Chaplin Hills, and could not act badly. The Twenty-eighth Brigade held a position in our front after the first day's fighting, and did it bravely, doing all that was required of them, like true soldiers. The brigade of United States infantry, Lieut. Col. O. L. Shepherd commanding, was on the extreme right. On that body of brave men the shock of battle fell heaviest, and its loss was most severe. Over one third of the command fell, killed or wounded; but it stood up to the work and bravely breasted the storm, and, though Major King, commanding the Fifteenth, and Major Slemmer (" Old Pickens "), commanding the Sixteenth, fell, severely wounded, and Major Carpenter, commanding the Nineteenth, fell dead in the last charge, together with many other brave officers and men, the brigade did not falter for a moment. These three battalions were a part of my old (Fourth) brigade at the battle of Shiloh.
The Eighteenth Infantry, Majors Townsend and Caldwell commanding were new troops to me, but I am now proud to say we know each other.
If I could, I would promote every officer and several noncommissioned officers and privates of this brigade of regulars, for gallantry and good service in this terrific battle. 1 make no distinction between these troops and my brave volunteer regiments, for, in my judgment, there never were better troops than those regiments, in the world. But the troops of the line are soldiers by profession, and, with a view to the future, I feel it my duty to say what I have of them. The brigade was admirably and gallantly handled by Lieutenant-Colonel Shepherd.
I lost some of the best and bravest officers I had. Lieutenant-Colonel Keel, commanding the Second Ohio, was killed. After he fell his regiment was efficiently handled by Maj. Anson G. McCook, who ought to be made colonel of that regiment, for gallantry on the field.
Colonel Forman, my brave boy colonel, of the Fifteenth Kentucky, also fell; Major Carpenter, of the Nineteenth Infantry, fell in the last charge. His loss is irreparable. Many other gallant officers were lost, whose names will appear in the list of casualties.
Of the batteries of Guenther and Loomis I cannot say too much. Loomis was chief of artillery for the Third Division, and I am much indebted to him. His battery was commanded by Lieutenant Van Pelt. Guenther is but a lieutenant. Both of these men deserve to be promoted, and ought to be at once. Without them we could not have held our position in the center.
I fell in with many gallant regiments and officers on the field not of my command. I wish I could name all of them here. While falling back to the line in the open field, I saw Col. Charles Anderson gallantly and coolly rallying his men. Colonel Grider, of Kentucky, and his regiment efficiently aided in repulsing the enemy. The Eighteenth Ohio, I think it was, though I do not know any of its officers, faced about and charged the enemy in my presence, and I went along with it. The Eleventh Michigan and its gallant little colonel (I do not know his name certainly, but believe it is Stoddart) [Stoughton] behaved well, and the Sixth Ohio Infantry, Col. Nick Anderson, joined my command on the right of the regular brigade, and stood manfully up to the work. I fell in with the Louisville Legion in retreat, Lieutenant-Colonel Berry commanding.
This regiment, though retreating before an overwhelming force, was dragging by hand a section of artillery which it had been ordered to support. A part of General McCook's wing of the army (it had fallen back with the rest, but through the woods and fields with great difficulty) bravely brought off the cannon it could no longer defend on the field. When I met it, it faced about and formed line of battle, with cheers and shouts.
To Lieutenants McDowell, my assistant adjutant-general, Armstrong, Second Kentucky Cavalry, and Millard, Nineteenth U.S. Infantry, inspector-general; Captain Taylor, Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry, and Lieut. Alf. Pirtle, ordnance officer, my regular aides, and to Capt. John D. Wickliffe, and Lieut. W. G. Jenkins, both of the Second Kentucky Cavalry, aides for that battle, I am much indebted for services on the field.
The wounded were kindly and tenderly cared for by the Third Division medical director, Surgeon Muscroft, and the other surgeons of the command. Captain Paul, my division commissary, rendered valuable services during the whole time of the battle. The musicians of the division carried the wounded from the field, faithfully and fearlessly.
Lieutenant McDowell was wounded. My orderlies, Damas Emerie, and the rest, went through the whole fight, behaving well; Emerie was wounded. Lieutenant Carpenter, of the First Ohio Infantry, one of my aides, was so badly injured by the fall of his horse that I would not permit hint to go on the field. Lieutenant Hartman, of the Seventy-ninth Pennsylvania Infantry, a member of my staff, was ill with fever and unable to leave his bed.
It should be mentioned that the Eighty-eighth Indiana, Colonel Humphrey commanding, being placed at one of the fords on Stone's River, where our forces were temporarily driven back, very opportunely rallied the stragglers and promptly crossed the river and drove the enemy back. In this he was aided by the stragglers, who rallied and fought well. The colonel was wounded by a bayonet thrust in the hand in the attack of Saturday night on the enemy in the wood in our front.
I inclose herewith the reports of brigade commanders, which will show the list of casualties.
I have the honor to be, &c.,
LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU,
Major-General.
Maj. GEORGE E. FLYNT,
Chief of Staff (Center), Fourteenth Army Corps,
Department of the Cumberland.

After action report of Colonel Beatty

HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION,
Murfreesborough, Tenn., January 9, 1863.
SIR In the recent engagement before Murfreesborough the casualties in my brigade were as follows(*)
Colonel Forman, Fifteenth Kentucky, was killed in the cedar woods on the morning of the 31st ultimo. He was a brave man and an excellent officer. Captain Bayne, of same regiment, fell at the same time, while urging his men forward.
Lieutenant Colonel Shanklin, Forty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, was surrounded by a superior force on the morning of January 3, and taken by the enemy. Col. George Humphrey, Eighty-eighth Indiana, was wounded on the night of January 3, in expelling the enemy from the woods in our front. He behaved gallantly throughout the fight. Capt. L. S. Bell, Third Ohio Infantry, wounded at the same time, conducted himself with great courage.
Lieutenant Colonels Lawson, Third Ohio, and Briant, Eighty-eighth Indiana; Capt. J. H. Bryant, Forty-second Indiana; Lieutenants Du-Barry and Wildman, Eighty-eighth Indiana; J. B. McRoberts, Third Ohio; Horrall and Orr, Forty-second Indiana; Mr. James K. Patterson, Evansville, and Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen. James S. Wilson, deserve especial praise. Capt. C. O Loomis and Lieutenants Van Pelt and Hale, of the First Michigan Battery, rendered most important service throughout the entire battle. No men could have conducted themselves with more courage and ability. There are other officers and men who should be mentioned favorably, but the reports of regimental commanders have failed to reach me, and it is impossible, therefore, to give them the credit they deserve.
My brigade had three separate encounters with the enemy on the first day. On the second and third days it was in front a portion of the time skirmishing.
On the night of January 3, two regiments, led by myself, drove the enemy from their breastworks in the edge of the woods in our front.
I trust the conduct of the brigade throughout may be satisfactory.
I am, captain, very respectfully,
JOHN BEATTY,
Colonel, Commanding Second Brigade.
Capt. M. C. TAYLOR,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, First Division

It is my belief that all the documentation that I have quoted and provided clearly indicate the bravery, gallantry demonstrated by Colonel James Brown Forman in the face of the enemy displaying all the qualities we Americans hold in the highest esteem. His actions at Perryville aka Chaplin Hills, in rescuing the regimental colors and lofting them to be seen by his retreating regiment by climbing a rail fence amidst shell and shot and encouraging his men to stop and hold their ground, and engaging in hand to hand combat with the flag in his grasp forcing his men to rally and standfast, thereby saving the day and reputation for the regiment. His actions clearly inspired his men to stop their retreat and hold.
Having read other citations for which the Medal of Honor has been bestowed for action during the Civil War, for far much less action, I think and urge all to this cause and bestow the Congressional Medal of Honor to Colonel James Brown Forman, 15th Kentucky Regiment of Volunteer Infantry.
Sources:
Louisville Journal November 26, 1862
Louisville Journal January 12, 1863
Louisville Journal January 15, 1863
Louisville Journal February 1863
Louisville Democrat November 26, 1862
Louisville Democrat January 16, 1863
Captain Alfred Pirtle Recalls What Happened at Stone River December 31, 1862
printed in the Louisville Journal January 26, 1863
“History of the 15th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry” by Willaim P. McDowell Adjutant
After Action Report of General L.H. Rousseau January 11, 1863 in Nashville, Tenn to
Major General George E. Flynt, Chief of Staff, Fourteenth Army Corps, Dept. of the Cumberland
After Action Report of Colonel John Beatty, Headquarters Second Brigade, First Division, Murfreesboro, Tenn. January 9, 1863
Photo: The United States Military History Institute Carlyle Army Barracks, Carlyle, Pa.

Respectfully submitted
Stephen D. Forman
2308 Ave H Apt. 803
Grand Prairie, Texas 75050
254-231-9964