Recently in Civil War people Category

This years marks the 150th anniversary of the celebrated raid on the U.S. Arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) by abolitionist John Brown and his followers, which included a Pennsylvania free black man named Osborn P. Anderson who had been a Canadian congressman. Anderson was one of five of Brown's group to escape, eventually making his way here to York, Pennsylvania, where wealthy black businessman William C. Goodridge gave him shelter in his Philadelphia Street home (and his Centre Square business as well) and later smuggled him in a rail car across the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge. Anderson was never captured.

As part of the regional events commemorating the 1859 raid, Wayside Theatre in Middletown, VA will present the production "Robert E. Lee and John Brown; Lighting the Fuse" beginning August 29 through September 26, 2009. The play is written by Warner Crocker and with music Steve Przybylski. The production is one of the events of the Quad State 150th Anniversary of John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. The play tells the story of John Brown's dramatic raid on Harper's Ferry and paints a picture of that tumultuous time in our nation's history. The play brings these two important historical figures face to face using many of their own words to tell the story that concluded with Lee's refusal to accept command of the Union army in 1861.

Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 Pm and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 PM. Except Sunday, August 30, when the official opening performance is at 6:30 PM. Cost is $25-$30 for adults. Children 17 years and younger are $10.00 for any performance.

Call the box office at (540) 869-1776 to reserve your seats, or reserve them on-line at www.waysidetheatre.org

Cephe F. Place
Sales & Outreach Coordinator
Wayside Theatre
P.O. Box 260
Middletown, VA 22645

cephas@waysidetheatre.org

I lived for many years in Perry, Ohio, a rural community about an hour east of Cleveland in the heart of Ohio's "snow belt." Perry was notable for several things, including vast acres of prime nurseryland and a towering nuclear plant whose owner enticed the citizens to allow its construction by building one of the finest high school facilities in the Buckeye State. Perry was also the home of Hugh Mosher, who served as the model fifer for Archibald W. Willard's classic painting, the "Spirit of '76."

History of the Western Reserve, Upton.

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.

I am fortunate to have several Civil War veterans in my lineage, including my great-great-grandfathers William Sisson of Dover, Ohio, who fought in the 51st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and John Fauley of Fultonham, Ohio, who fought in the 5th U.S. Regulars. My great-uncles, the Chambers boys, fought in the 7th West Virginia on East Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg and participated in the famed charge on the Sunken Road at Antietam.

Another great-uncle, Aaron Barnhill, was in the 141st Ohio, a National Guard regiment that served for 100 days in the summer of 1864 when the U.S. War Department enrolled tens of thousands of men for temporary duty for an all-out push to win the war. These "Hundred Days Men" in the 141st served on garrison duty at Charleston, West Virginia, allowing the release of veteran troops to man the front lines.

Several descendants of Michigan Brigade soldiers and other interested persons donated money to acquire a small piece of land at Hunterstown and erect one of the country's newest Civil War monuments. This marble slab and bronze relief is dedicated to Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, who led the Michigan Brigade (the "Michigan Wolverines") into action at Hunterstown against the troops of Wade Hampton III of the Confederate cavalry during the Gettysburg Campaign.

Sunday dawned bright and early on June 28. Most townspeople in York went about their daily routines, including dressing nicely for worship, strolling the sidewalks, and visiting friends and relatives. While church was in progress at St. Paul's Lutheran, the vanguard of the Confederate division of Jubal Early marched into York, preceded by the pioneer corps and advance pickets from the 31st Georgia. Rebels hauled down the large flag in the Center Square, as well as a smaller one from a nearby shop. York was now under Confederate control. The lead brigade, the Georgians of John Gordon, moved on to Wrightsville, while Jubal Early ringed York with artillery and established a series of camps.

Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's veteran Confederate division, one of the hardest fighting units in the Army of Northern Virginia, departs from camps near Mummasburg, Gettysburg, and Hunterstown and heads eastward toward the prize they had been ordered by Richard S. Ewell to capture - the prosperous town of York. Early's main column - 3/4 of his artillery, all but one company of the 17th Virginia Cavalry, and the brigades of Ike Avery and Extra Billy Smith trudged from Mummasburg toward Hunterstown, picking up the Louisiana Tigers en route. John Gordon's Georgians left the Wolf farm just east of Gettysburg and marched out the turnpike (today's U.S. 30). It would be a leisurely march for these two columns this day, one that would end at Big Mount and Farmers, respectively.

It was the third column that would create the military excitement on this day - White's Comanches which had terrorized much of northern Maryland and had earned a reputation for lightning raids on Union supply lines. Now, their war whoops would be heard in southwestern York County...

Robert E. Lee,
General Orders, No. 73

Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
June 27, 1863

The commanding general has observed with marked satisfaction the conduct of the troops on the march, and confidently anticipates results commensurate with the high spirit they have manifested.

No troops could have displayed greater fortitude or better performed the arduous marches of the past ten days.

Their conduct in other respects has with few exceptions been in keeping with their character as soldiers, and entitles them to approbation and praise.

There have however been instances of forgetfulness on the part of some, that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the army, and that the duties expected of us by civilization and Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own.

The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed, and defenceless [sic] and the wanton destruction of private property that have marked the course of the enemy in our own country.

Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and all connected with them, but are subversive of the discipline and efficiency of the army, and destructive of the ends of our present movement.

It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemies, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain.

The commanding general therefore earnestly exhorts the troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury to private property, and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who shall in any way offend against the orders on this subject.

R. E. Lee
General

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SOURCE: Clifford Dowdey, editor, The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee (New York: Bramhall House, 1961), pages 533-534.

Last night at York's Patriot Days celebration panel discussion at the York County Heritage Trust, four authors with York ties along with author and newspapermen Jim McClure briefly discussed whether York should have surrendered to Maj. Gen. Jubal Anderson Early of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. There was no military reason to defend York, and the army did what it felt was prudent tactically to withdraw to the Susquehanna River, which they had been ordered to defend. The key issue was the controversial decision of York's leaders to seek out the Rebels and negotiate for the safety of the town, as act some Yorkers of that day felt was treasonous, while others strongly believed it saved the town from destruction.

One important point brought up by the panelists was that Jubal Early would likely have been court-martialled had he wantonly torched a Northern town against Robert E. Lee's orders. Targets of military value such as warehouses, railroads, bridges, telegraphs, etc. were allowable, but private property was not to be touched. Lee has issued very stern (for him) orders regarding his men's behavior, and it is incomprehensible to me that a major general, one of Lee's personal acquaintances and most trusted fighters, would have taken such a daring risk. True, Early had burned Congressman Thaddeus Stevens' Caledonia Iron Works, but Early had rationalized that this was fair game in retaliation for Stevens' open encouragment of the destruction of property in the South.

Here is the text of Lee's General Orders #72, which governed the behavior of his troops while in Pennsylvania. Read them, and you decide if Jubal Early would have been in trouble had he burned down York...

I used to work for a couple of decades for office products and self-adhesive labelstock giant Avery Dennison when I lived in the greater Cleveland area. One of their largest factories was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a town I frequented on many business trips to run trials there or to meet with paper suppliers. Fort Wayne is also the home of the Lincoln Life Insurance Company, which for many years has managed an excellent museum on the life of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.

Recently, the insurance company announced plans to close the Lincoln Museum on June 30 and they are trying to give away the collection. It's a great little museum and an outstanding collection of documents and artifacts, and, to me, it's the passing of an era for Fort Wayne. The curators are trying to find a suitable institution or group that will exhibit the collection in a larger and better venue, hopefully in time for the Lincoln celebrations that are coming up in a couple of years.