And Forever in Peace May It Wave

I was ready with a light hearted "Happy Fourth of July" post with some flowers.  If you want light hearted only, here are some flowers for you, and I'll caution you not to read any further.

Three cheers for the red...

...white...

and blue.

For those of you who remain, a Facebook friend told me (yesterday) about something trending on Twitter - a hashtag, #SecondCivilWarLetters.

I rarely blog about politics,  and I didn't mean to today, when we are supposed to be celebrating our Independence Day and remembering what the price of freedom is.  But I was intrigued and decided to read some of these tweet "letters", as I am an occasional student of the American Civil War.

During the 150th anniversary (2011-2015) I had a weekly Civil War Sunday feature - you are welcome to look it up and read my posts, if you are so inclined.  I am not a "buff", nor a historian - just someone who enjoys history.

For those who haven't heard the story of how Second Civil War Letters came to be on Twitter yesterday, a brief summary:  a man (I refuse to name or link to him) declared, on Monday, that the Democrats were going to start a Civil War today, the 4th of July, the day we in the United States celebrate as our Independence Day.

The Twitterverse quickly took revenge - people tweeting out "letters" in the style of letters written by soldiers of the first (and hopefully, only) American Civil War.  Some were literate.  Some, in fact, were pretty well done.  Some poked fun of liberals, all poked fun at the "other side" and some were just plain mean.

OK, I get it.  The Battle of Bowling Green (aka the "Bowling Green massacre"), the liberal's love of avocados and Starbucks, the dreaded covfefe.

I learned what "kek" meant.  I had just heard about the Space Force and learned more about various memes than I ever wanted to. 

But after a few too many "letters" especially one describing the (satirical) last words of a dying "alt right" soldier, I sobered up and stopped laughing, because, in fact, a second Civil War is no laughing matter.

My ancestors did not come to the United States until well after the Civil War ended.  It is in my DNA, though, as a third generation American.  I was born and raised in New York City, but I have lived parts of my life in the South - the former Confederacy - in Florida, Texas, and Arkansas, to be exact.  And Kansas - once known as Bloody Kansas.  The Civil War lives on in these places.

A monument to Confederate soldiers, Charleston, South Carolina

When I lived in Arkansas, my daily commute to work involved driving through one Civil War battlefield (Prairie Grove, now an Arkansas state park) and near another one (the Battle of Cane Hill).

Some facts:
The death toll from the Civil War is hard to know, but estimates vary from 620,000 to 850,000 for military- possibly two percent of the then-population of the United States.  The 620,000 figure comes from a study done around 1889  The higher figure is more recent.

The number of "casualties" at Gettysburg - a three day battle that concluded on July 3, 1863 - dead and injured - 51,000.  That's more than the population of Binghamton, New York, where I work.

Let's not forget those taken prisoner in the war (I know someone descended from one of them).  Andersonville (South Carolina). Elmira (New York) and many other prisoner of war camps, on both sides stand as monuments of horror today, as Americans descended to depths we would hope we would never descend to again.

One hundred fifty seven years later, we still can't even agree about the causes of that war.

I fear we are heading towards a second American Civil War, as we turn against our neighbor, against our relatives, against our co-workers.  We can not seem to have any civil (no pun intended) conversation anymore.  Fake news rules.  People receive death threats on social media for expressing their opinions.

Neo-Nazis and their sympathizers can openly deny the Holocaust and be taken seriously.  They were allowed to gather near a synagogue in Charlotteville, Virginia on the Jewish Sabbath one August Saturday (the Charlottesville police having turned away the synagogue's requests for protection) hours before one of their kind allegedly rammed a car into a crowd of counterprotestors.

On this, the 242nd anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, I implore you to think twice about a second American Civil War.  Let us remember the toll of the first.  Let us remember how the trauma still lives with us today.

It's good to laugh for a few minutes.

But then, there is work to be done to make sure the Second Civil War never happens.  One of those opportunities may come soon to a community near you, and will certainly come in November.

Write your Congressperson or Senator. Subscribe to you local newspaper and read it.  Become informed.  Be respectful, always.

And then, VOTE.

Day four of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

The Angel of the Battlefield and the Clerk of the Dead

Although we have reached the end of the 150th anniversary commemoration of the United States Civil War, I have decided to continue my Sunday Civil War feature.  Thank you, all who commented on my blog when I asked if this feature should continue.

After the war was over in 1865,  the job of identifying those who had died in the camps remained.  Letters from families whose loved ones never returned from war started to pour in, begging for help in locating

About five years ago, I visited perhaps the most famous Civil War prisoner of war camp, Andersonville  (Camp Sumter) in the Confederate state of Georgia.  During the 14 months the camp existed, some 13,000 Union prisoners died in unbelievably horrendous conditions.

Looking at the remains of the wells prisoners attempted to dig with their bare hands, and freely crossing the "deadline", the line that prisoners could not cross without being shot dead, was an unforgettable experience.

About 40% of the total Union POW death toll occurred at Andersonville.   The Union, of course, wasn't blameless.  One notorious Union POW camp, Elmira, was located about an hour from where I live in upstate New York.  Elmira will hold special ceremonies held in July of this year to mark the 150th anniversary of the closing of the camp.

Here are some facts about two of the people who tolled to identify the war dead.

One was a woman called the Angel of the Battlefield - Clara Barton, who was famous as a battlefield nurse during the Civil War later went on to found the American Red Cross.

The other was a prisoner at Andersonville, Dorence Atwater, of the 2nd New York Calvary.  Atwater worked in the camp hospital, and had secretly maintained a list, as best he could, of the dead prisoners.  In June of 1865, he contacted Barton, who, in turn, joined an Army expedition to find out the fate of missing soldiers and mark as many graves as they could. In June and July, they reviewed letters, then spent even more time, heading into August, writing to the affected families.

Atwater became known as the Clerk of the Dead.  This is, online, his list, published by the New York Tribune newspaper in 1866.

It is sobering to recall the time when the people of the United States were at war with each other between 1861-1865.  May this never, ever, happen in our history, ever again.

Civil War Sunday -Worse than the Titanic

It took more lives than the sinking of the Titanic, but many people today have never heard of this disaster.

And we still don't know exactly why it happened.

What was this secret disaster that was related to the United States Civil War?

It barely made headlines on April 27, 1865, because this disaster took place during April of 1865.  So much had already happened in this incredible April, perhaps the most incredible April in the history of the United States.  But April, 1865 was not yet done with our country.

Let's recap:

The Civil War had effectively ended.  Richmond, the Confederate capital, had fallen on April 3.  On April 9, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General U.S. Grant.  On April 14, President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head while watching a play, and his Secretary of State, at a different location, was seriously injured. The President died early the next day, changing the course of our nation post-war.  Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, escaped, but was cornered in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia on April 26, and was mortally wounded.  And, also on April 26, the largest Confederate surrender occurred at Bennett House, near Durham, North Carolina.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles from North Carolina, Vicksburg, Mississippi had become a gathering place for former Civil War soldiers in transit.  Many of them were released prisoners of war, some survivors of one of the most notorious POW camps, Andersonville (Camp Sumter) in Georgia. All were eager to go home.

The Mississippi River was at flood stage. Many levees had been destroyed during the war.  In the best of times, the Mississippi was a treacherous river to navigate.  Riverboat pilots were well trained.  The best known perhaps was Samuel Clemens, who later became famous as author Mark Twain.

Under the circumstances, the river was even more dangerous than usual.

With the crush of soldiers waiting for transit, a luxury steamboat called the Sultana was pressed into service. Built in 1863, it had a legal capacity of 376.  But when it left Vicksburg it was crammed with over 2,100 soldiers.  Many were weakened by their recent POW experiences.

On April 26, the Sultana arrived in Helena, Arkansas, having successfully navigated the flooding river.   Perhaps the last known photos of the ship was taken there, clearly showing the overcrowded conditions.  From there, the next stop was Memphis, Tennessee.  The Sultana arrived in Memphis around 7pm on April 26 and left Memphis about midnight.

Around 2am, the Sultana, by then only about seven miles north of Memphis, exploded.  Many survivors were just too weak to save themselves.  Others were severely burned, or suffered from hypothermia in the ice cold river.   Hundreds went down, clinging to each other.  Others survived by clinging to trees jutting out of the flooded river.

The exact death toll is not known, as some bodies were never recovered, but the official death toll stands at 1,800 (mostly men, but also a handful of women).  Some survivor accounts are available online, if you are interested, and there are other resources available online, and on Facebook.

Why did the Sultana explode?  Was it due to the overcrowding?  Or, was it, as some believe, sabotage? Or was it due to the design of the tubular boilers that powered it, a design known to be dangerous?  There has been speculation over the years, not only about the explosion, but why the Sultana was so overcrowded.   Who benefited financially from the overcrowding? There are many online sources filled with information about this disaster - I invite you to read more (and the purpose of this blog post is not to speculate.)

Why is this disaster not well known today?  I speculate that, in the four years prior, we in the United States had become inured to massive death tolls in Civil War battles.   Gettysburg.  Chickamauga.  Spotsylvania Court House. The Wilderness. Chancellorsville. Shiloh.  Stones River. Antietam.  When you have 51,000 casualties (dead, injured, captured) in one battle (Gettysburg), what is 1,800 in comparison?

And, with the war basically over, people were still dying.  On the Sultana, some 1,800 humans died, not due to battle or POW camp, but because of a maritime disaster unknown to many today.

Perhaps the 150th anniversary tomorrow will change that.

Civil War Sunday - Andersonville - August 17, 1864

Photos are such an everyday part of our life, in the year 2014. 

Many of us own cell phones.  No part of our lives go undocumented.  Anything newsworthy is sent to social media almost instantly, or so it would seem.  Instant pictures, instantly.

Not so, during the American Civil War, 1861-1865.

Photography was in its infancy 150 years ago today.  It was a complex process, and one only undertaken by skilled people using expensive equipment. 

I have read that that our Civil War is considered the first war to be extensively photographed.  War, in all its horrors, was finally brought to the everyday citizen, as photographers published and sold those photographs.

Prisoner of war camps were no exception.  Even in Andersonville (Camp Sumter, Georgia), perhaps the most famous prisoner of war camp ever, photos were taken.  And sold to the curious.

Think:  over 30,000 prisoners held on 32 acres.

A famous series of Andersonville photos were taken on August 17, 1864, 150 years ago today.
(If you follow the link, you can download, as a PDF, the photos, from the Digital Library of Georgia.) Who would have thought, 150 years ago, of being able to do that?

The set of seven views could be yours for only $2.00.  I don't know what $2.00 in 1864 was worth today, but $2. in 1913 (according to an online inflation calculator) had the buying power of $48.15 today.  In other words, it wasn't cheap to buy these photos.

Even today, you can get prints of these photos on various websites.

According to a card of explanation, there were 33,000 prisoners (Union POWs) housed on 32 acres.

One of the photos was of a burial party.

It was so sobering (when I visited Andersonville several years ago) walking those same 32 acres freely, not having to worry about what was called the "dead line" (cross it, and that's what you were.  More than a few prisoners did that to end their sufferings.)  And even more sobering to know there were other prison camps, on both the Union and Confederate sides, where brother held brother prisoner in the most deplorable of conditions.  Even an hour from where I live, in the POW camp holding Confederates (Camp Chemung) also called "Helmira", suffering we can't imagine took place.

War, and the suffering of war, was no longer romantic, but war goes on.

We have instant photos and videos today, and still war happens.  Still, the innocent die.

Look at those photos, taken 150 years ago today, if you are able to download the pdf, and wonder if we are any more civilized today than we were on August 17, 1864.

Civil War Sunday - Christmas Bells

As we close out 2013, I ponder whether to continue my Civil War Sunday posts into the New Year.  Like many in the United States/Confederate States of America in December of 1863, I am weary of the war, even if it was fought 150 years ago.

Unlike the people of 1863, I know what is to follow. As horrible a turn as the Civil War took in 1863, it was not going to get any better.

Civil War prison of war camps such as Camp Douglas, Elmira, Ft. Sumter (better known as Andersonville)....The Battle of Ft. Pillow...Spotsylvania Court House and the Bloody Angle....Sherman's March to the Sea. Should I give up, knowing the horrors to come, and leave the writing to the historians and the true Civil War buffs?

What helped me decide? A Christmas carol written in 1863 that I never realized, until this year, had a connection to the Civil War.  The Christmas carol is called "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".

The poem the song is based on is "Christmas Bells", written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  His son Charles had been seriously wounded in a Civil War skirmish in late November,1863.  This poem is the anguished result. 

Tragedy was no stranger to Longfellow.

Longfellow wrote, in part:

"And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Longfellow could not withdraw from the tragedy of the Civil War, a tragedy that still echoes in our United States 150 years later.

Perhaps, I shouldn't either.  I will keep on going, at least for now, although I may not be able to do a Civil War post every Sunday in January.

And yes, Longfellow's son Charles survived his injuries, and the war.