October 2008 Archives

An image made popular in a later war.

Next Tuesday, November 4, is Election Day. I have exercised my right to vote in nearly every election since I was 18 and in college at Miami of Ohio, missing only a few years when I was unexpectedly on the road and could not cast an absentee ballot or when I was ill. As Americans, I believe it is our civic duty to have our voice heard in the government, and it is a privilege that some in this world do not share.

The presidential election of 1864 occurred during the heart of the Civil War. A string of late summer / autumn victories by the Union army cemented President Lincoln's reelection over the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, George B. McClellan. Little Mac's influence and popularity among the troops had waned, and Lincoln won a solid majority of the military vote, including that of the 24th Michigan of the famed Iron Brigade, a regiment that fought at the Battle of Gettysburg.

In a recent post, I mentioned the fact that Company G of the 12th Pennsylvania Reserves was raised in York County in 1861 and fought the following year at Antietam. Yesterday at the York Borders store, I picked up a small book by Mark Nesbitt entitled The Gettysburg Dairies: War Journals of Two American Adversaries, chronicling the daily events of two soldiers in the Gettysburg Campaign -- one Union, one Confederate. This has been previously published as 35 Days to Gettysburg. I read it on an airplane flight yesterday and was pleased to discover that one of the two adversaries is from a soldier in Company H of the 12th. The contrast between his movements and those of a Georgian in Benning's Brigade is quite interesting.

I received a copy of Harold Holzer's latest book on Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln: President-Elect. This is, in my opinion, the finest analysis I have ever seen on the crucial four-month period between Lincoln's election and inauguration.

To read my review, click here.

Confederate artillery from the high ground along the Hagerstown Pike near Dunker Church helped repulse the early morning attack of the Union I Corps, which included a company of York Countians serving in the 12th Pennsylvania Reserves.

The Battle of Antietam has been termed "America's Bloodiest Day," with more than 22,000 American casualties falling on September 17, 1862. More Americans fell that day than at D-Day, any single day of World Wars I or II, any day during Viet Nam, or any other day in any war in the country's history. Among those men to fall during the savage encounter at Antietam were some locals from York County, Pennsylvania.

A. Lincoln

Honest Abe. The Rail Splitter. The Great Emancipator. The Buffoon. In his lifetime, Abraham Lincoln elicited many nicknames, most positive and some decidedly unflattering. Lincoln was a polarizing figure, with almost as many detractors as admirers. Newspapers of the period were biased, depending upon political backing, and hundreds of anti-Lincoln cartoons exist.

Speaker Andrew Martin will present what promises to be a fascinating talk on the life of Lincoln at the next meeting of the York Civil War Round Table on Wednesday, November 19 at 7 p.m. at the York County Heritage Trust in downtown York. The meeting, as always, is free to the public, so be sure to mark your calendars! His presentation is entitled "Abraham Lincoln as Seen Through the Eyes of Many Historians."

Background post: New book from Scott Butcher!

Here is a message sent to me from author and fellow blogger Scott D. Butcher...

I'm excited to announce publication of my first full-color coffee table book!

York: America's Historic Crossroads is being released by Schiffer Publishing. This is the first of three photo books that I'm doing with them (next Spring will see the release of Delaware Reflections - 250 photos of the Delaware Coast from Lewes to Fenwick Island). It has been over 15 years since the last full-color photo book of York City was published, and so much has changed.

Scott Hartwig, one of the very best park rangers at the Gettysburg National Military Park and a popular speaker, writer and tour guide, will be leading a FREE battlewalk of the Wheatfield for the members of two Civil War Round Tables, including the York CWRT. The tour will begin at 1 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2008. Meet at the Peach Orchard auto tour stop opposite the Excelsior Brigade monument. The walk will last around 2 hours.

Scott said to let everyone know to dress for the weather as we will go rain or shine ( unless it is a deluge). Also, if the weather is moderate, to advise everyone to spray for ticks. They still pick them up this time of year. Since Scott is doing the walk there is no charge for the program. He suggested that we make a donation to NPS to support the park research library.

The monument to the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry at the Loop on the Gettysburg National Military Park.

The men of the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry had been on the road for more than two weeks by the end of June, 1863. They had steadily tramped northward in alternating period of persistent downpours and intense sunshine. Men had dropped from the ranks suffering from heat exhaustion, sunstroke, badly blistered feet, and fatigue. Many hoped they would get some much needed rest and refreshment once they crossed the Mason-Dixon Line into south-central Pennsylvania.

Such would not be the case, however...

.

Charlie Fennell, because of an unfortunate scheduling conflict, is no longer available to lead the planned battlewalk on Saturday, November 1. Kathy Friel of the York CWRT reports that members interested in some outdoor exercise and walking still are to meet at the Peach Orchard parking lot at 1 p.m. The Wheatfield program will still go on as planned, but with a different focus and leader

Dr. Charles Fennell spoke this past Wednesday at the monthly meeting of the York, Pennsylvania, Civil War Round Table. A humorous and knowledgeable expert on the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Dr. Fennell will be leading a battlewalk on November 1.

The York Civil War Round Table will be hosting a Battlefield Walk at the Gettysburg National Military Park with Charlie Fennell on Saturday, November 1, 2008, beginning at 1 P.M. Charlie will lead a detailed tour on one of the bloodiest and most fought over sections of the battlefield, the Rose Wheatfield and the nearby Stony Hill. The event is open to the public - you don't have to be an attendee at York CWRT meetings.

Meet at the Peach Orchard to begin this interesting program. The cost is only $10.00, less than a movie and a soda, and the battlewalk and exercise in the great outdoors are better for both your mind and body than a stuffy theater and some overpaid actors! So, why not spend an autumn afternoon learning a little more about an important part of the Battle of Gettysburg?

Charlie Fennell is a licensed battlefield guide (LBG) at the Gettysburg National Military Park and a professor of history at Harrisburg Community College in Gettysburg (and a colleague of my son, who teaches history at several other HACC campus settings). This is the sixth year he has spoken to the York CWRT and guests.

A view looking westward on Pennsylvania Route 234 (East Berlin Road) at Plum Run, near Round Hill.

The quiet evening of June 30, 1863, was the final night on earth for more than a thousand soldiers in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, and a similar number for the I and XI Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Rodes' Division of Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps camped just north of Heidlersburg, Pennsylvania. Three miles east of the village was the camp of the division of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early, consisting of brigades from Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, and North Carolina, as well as artillery and cavalry.

Edwin Forbes' sketch of the Confederate attack on East Cemetery Hill at the Battle of Gettysburg

I am pleased to announce that I have signed a contract with LSU Press for the publication of my latest manuscript, A Spirit of Daring: The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, with an option for another book to follow. This manuscript contains perhaps the most complete account ever written of Harry Hays' attack on the West Fort at Second Winchester, as well as many previously unpublished eyewitness accounts of individual Tigers during the campaign, including their antics here in York County, PA. We expect this to be in print within 12-18 months. The Winchester maps are from Brad Gottfried.

A Sherman tank is positioned on a slight rise covered with white sand, meant to memorialize the U.S. Army attack on Omaha Beach.

Background post: U.S. Army Heritage Trail near Carlisle.

I am still reflecting on this past Saturday's walk around the U.S. Army Heritage Trail at the Army Heritage and Education Center (AHEC) near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The trail commemorates most of the Army's major wars, including the French and Indian War, American Revolution, Civil War, Indian Wars (a pair of wayside markers), Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and Viet Nam, with a modern display being built. Conspicuously absent are the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and Korea. I don't know if the army will add these over time, but there is plenty of room to do so.

A recreation of redoubt #10 is open to the public to explore. It has two artillery field pieces and two mortars, as well as a bombproof and rifle parapets.

I spent part of Saturday walking the U.S. Army Heritage Trail, whcih is located near Ridgeway Hall at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center just south of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The weather was glorious, soldiers were playing flag football on the parade grounds, and there were a fair number of tourists out strolling in the sunshine. Unfortunately, none the buildings along the trail were open due to the weekend (all were padlocked), so I will have to go back sometime when they are open for public view.

British troops barrelling through Maine on U.S. railroads. Russian, Union, and British naval vessels fighting it out near New York City. Citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, lining up behind P.G.T. Beauregard to greet a battered Royal Navy ship. Confederate flags flying freely over the Windy City of Chicago. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in his greatest battle since Little Round Top at Gettysburg. French troops march through Texas to relieve Union-held New Orleans. Lincoln and Stanton fighting a war on multiple fronts. Troops and ships rushing all over the map to confront one another.

My beloved father was a proud Army Air Force veteran of World War II. He depised anything that smacked of being unpatriotic, and had a real disdain for actress Jane Fonda, whose 1960s anti-war antics incensed him (and left me with a total disregard for the Atlanta Braves years later when she and Ted Turner owned them). Dad was not a fan of doing business with one's enemies.

That being said, it was common practice early in the Civil War for businessmen in both the North and South to figure out methods of maintaining some semblance of trade, despite government orders that forbade such activities. One such entrepreneuring merchant and industrialist was York County's own Arthur Briggs Farquhar, who owned a burgeoning business that produced and sold farming implements and machinery, including "new-fangled" steel plows. Farquhar wrote about how he was able to skip being in the army by paying a substitute (a common practice that even Abe Lincoln used as an example to others), and how he kept his business going despite the legislated loss of several Southern clients.

A delegation of ladies from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, volunteered to travel to the distant Gettysburg battlefield to help minister to the wounded soldiers being treated at a myriad of temporary field hospitals in and around the badly battered borough. One of the writers left her impressions of their brief pause in Wrightsville, and then a longer-than-planned sojourn in York.

She also gave a colorful word picture of their carriage ride from York to Gettysburg across what is today U.S. Route 30. It is a portrayal of pastoral beauty and serenity that is quite different than today's car ride across the modern landscape.

The ladies begin their day in Columbia, Pennsylvania, where they need to arrange for a boat to ferry them across the broad Susquehanna River because the Union militia had burned the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge.