Miscellaneous: March 2008 Archives

As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel room in southern Ohio. The birds are singing, and the day offers promise. Generally, I love mornings, as they offer a chance for reflection and meditation, and a chance to jumpstart my batteries for a long full day ahead. The moment is peaceful and relaxing, and the day offers interesting challenges and opportunities.

For many soldiers at Gettysburg, the mornings brought some sanity to the madness. I have been heavily researching the attack on East Cemetery Hill for a manuscript I just finished and submitted to a leading publisher. Most of the soldiers' descriptions of the morning of July 2, 1863, are consistent in describing the sense of peace and serenity that morning, despite the carnage of July 1 and the promise that this day would bring even more suffering and pain. But, for now, the morning broke with a calmness that offered hope.

Arlington National Cemetery (Robert E. Lee's antebellum home)
Royalty-free photo courtesy of Corbis

I noted in the York Daily Record recently that the death toll in Iraq has reached 4,000 U.S. soldiers. I am not here to make any political comments on the current situation, but, as an amateur historian, I want to point out some sobering statistics from the Civil War, which some called "the late unpleasantness," perhaps the biggest understatement in history.

Nearly 3 million Americans took up arms during the Civil War, and some 620,000 of them died (with disease killing twice as many as bullets). Considering how small the population of the country was between 1861-1865, that tragic number grows in magnitude when you consider that 620,000 is equivalent to more than 6 million men lost today. SIX MILLION in roughly five years!

As I sit in front of my warm fireplace this morning, I cannot help but think of the rich blessings in my life. God has been so good to me through the years, and I have been so undeserving of what He has poured out. Easter weekend has always been a time of celebration for our family, marked by mutual worship, sunrise services, family get-togethers and good food, Easter baskets for the kids, games and family activities, and thankfulness.

A few times over the two-plus decades we lived in exteme northeastern Ohio, Easter was also marked by something else - a blizzard! Even in late April a couple of times, we arose on Easter Sunday to find that more than a foot of snow blanketed the ground (it's easy to hide, but tough to find Easter eggs in the snow drifts!).

For one Pennsylvania infantry regiment, Easter 1863 also brought a blanket of the white crystals...

Recent news headline:
Tampa Sued for Nonpayment of $299.58 Civil War Debt

A Tampa, Florida, woman has sued the city to collect an old debt that dates back to the Civil War. Joan Kennedy Biddle is in possession of an old promissary note from the city that dates from June 1861 when her ancestor Thomas Pugh Kennedy sold implements and ammunition to help defend the town of 850 people from the Union army. Not having cash, the town issued the IOU, which has been kept in a safety deposit box.

Biddle filed suit to claim over $20 MILLION dollars that Tampa owes her in her opinion, figuring the original debt at 8% compound interest! The city government is citing the 14th Amendment, which essentially negated civic debts stemming from rebellion. It should be an interesting court fight. Stay tuned.

That brings up York and an old unpaid bill of its own...

During the Civil War era, by far the largest number of foreign-born soldiers on both sides came from Germany or Ireland, although dozens of countries were represented in the ranks, including a fair number of Scandinavians. Irishmen were prominent in both armies, and there were many tiomes in the war that all-Irish Union regiments battled Gaelic troops in gray.

An estimated 185,000 Irish-born soldiers fought in the Civil War, with the majority on the Federal side (145,000). Georgia and Louisiana had significant Irish units, and one almost all-Irish Confederate regiment camped in York.