Throwback Sunday - Pictures of the Dead

I don't know how many of my readers have experienced war, either as civilian or military.  I never have.  But if I had lived in certain parts of the United States 154 years ago, I almost certainly would have experienced war.

For four years, 2011 through 2015, I blogged most Sundays about the United States Civil War, 1861-1865.  I may occasionally rerun one of those posts for my newer readers.

Yesterday was the 154th anniversary of what was the bloodiest day in the history of the United States.    More casualties than Pearl Harbor.  More casualties than 9/11.

Take a minute to put yourself in the place of these people near Sharpsburg, Maryland, as the Battle of Antietam (as named by the North)/Battle of Sharpsburg (as named by the South) begins.

You are in a state that has stayed with the United States as the country has been torn apart - but, right on the border, and, so much is at stake on this day.

Let me bring you, for a few minutes, to September of 1862.  This post is from the 150th anniversary, September of 2012.

Civil War Sunday - "Pictures of the Dead"

A week ago, I was inside this church building near Sharpsburg, Maryland, along with a crowd of people visiting for a certain anniversary.

As we heard cannons booming nearby, a speaker spoke to us:

Imagine yourself inside this church, 150 years ago this week.  You are a member of the Old German Brethren, called "Dunkers" by the locals.  Things have not gone easy since the War Between the States broke out almost 1 1/2 years ago.  Your home state, Maryland, is under military occupation by the Federals.  And the Confederates have invaded.  Rumor has it that they are nearby.  Everyone is nervous, at the Sunday service.  If you say the wrong things, you can be arrested.

But you, and your brethren, are pacifists.  What can you do?

A few days later, the church is empty.  It is early morning. 

Suddenly there is gunfire and a battle is raging around your church.

 (Photos taken 9/16/12 at the Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield near Sharpsburg, MD, courtesy of AM).

By the time darkness falls, there will be some 23,000. casualties on both sides (dead, injured, missing).  The name will live on in history....Antietam. 

We are so fortunate that this battlefield has been preserved (unlike so many others) and we can walk its fields.

Photographers were on the scene quickly and took pictures of the dead.  Mathew Brady exhibited the photos at his New York City studio in October of 1862.

For one of the first times, civilians could see the true horror of war.  One famous photo shows a dead Confederate gun crew with the Dunker Church in the background.

To quote from the New York Times review of the exhibition:

But there is a poetry in the scene that no green holds or smiling landscapes can possese. Here lie men who have not hesitated to seal and lamp their convictions with their blood, -- men who have lung themselves into the great gulf of the until own to teach world that there are truths [???] than life, wrongs and shames more to be dreaded than death. And if there be on earth one spot where the grass will grow greener than on another when the hunt, Summer comes, where the leaves of Antumn will shop more lightly which they fall like a benediction upon a work completed and promise fulfilled, it is these soldiers' graves.

The exhibition was called, simply, "Pictures of the Dead".

But it would not prevent the war from continuing.  Or, the issuing of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation 150 years ago yesterday, September 22, 1862, in the wake of that bloodiest of days.

That bloodiest of battles, that began at a church of people believing in peace.

Civil War Sunday - Then and Now

I've had to cut back my United States Civil War Sunday posts due to family obligations, as they take a lot of time to research.  But, today, I wanted to share something with you.

Online, recently, there has been a trend - dare I call it a meme? - to recreate photographs of the past. Some take old photos of their childhood and pose, as adults in the same places, in the same positions.  Others take historical photos, and go back to the site to photograph what is there now.

This photographer from the British paper The Guardian  went to Civil War sites (1861-1865) and photographed them as they appear today.

This is how he did it.

As you view each old photo, it dissolves into the photo of the same site today.

I've been to several of these sites - Ft. Sumter (where the war began), Antietam, Washington, DC, Gettysburg.  Viewing these photos, for me, is an emotional experience although none of my ancestors fought in the war.  My ancestors dd not come to the United States until the early 20th century but the Civil War, I sometimes feel, is embedded in my DNA.

Whether you are interested in the Civil War, or just history in general, this site is a must-view.

Have you ever tried to recreate historical photos?

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 - Just A Piece of Paper

It was just a piece of paper.

A 150 year old lost piece of paper, returned to near where it was found 150 years ago.  Big deal.  Well, to some of us, it is a big deal.

The losing and the finding may have changed history, although historians of the Civil War still debate that.

This piece of paper was written on around September 9, 1862, during Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland in what is now known as the Maryland campaign.  General Lee's decision to move the war into Federal territory was a gamble.  His goal was to move north, enlist the support of the people of state of Maryland (many of which had Confederate sympathies), and eventually capture Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

With Harrisburg captured, Lee planned to use the capture as a bargaining chip to end the war, with the Confederacy granted the status of a separate country. 

So, around September 9, 1862, Lee formulated plans to split his army, the Army of Northern Virginia, into various parts.  Each part was given a goal.  Lee's adjunct, Robert Chilton, wrote the order, Lee endorsed it, and the orders were distributed to the various generals under Lee's command in this campaign.  Several copies of the order, each handwritten with Lee's plans.

There was just one tiny problem.

An extra copy was made.  There is some confusion concerning why, and who was responsible for losing it, but history records that on September 13, 1862, a corporal of the 27th Indiana Volunteers discovered this piece of paper, wrapped around two cigars (some accounts say three, but it is immaterial), near the Best Farm near Frederick, Maryland.  At first, no doubt the soldier and his companion thought they was greatly in luck in finding some cigars.

Then they started to read the paper.

That is the piece of paper, containing what is known as Special Orders, No. 191, that was quickly moved up the chain of Federal command and finally into the hands of Major General George McClellan, the head of the Army of the Potomac.

McClellan held the dream of any commanding general - the plans of his opponent.

Oops.  (and what happened after that is another story I will not get into today....but the end result was the bloodiest one day in the history of our country, the Battle of Antietam.)

But then, as a famous commentator of the 20th century liked to say, there is the Rest of the Story, the part I really like.

General McClellan kept what historians now call the Lost Order, in his own private collection. After he died, his son donated it to the Library of Congress.

And, this past September, I was privileged to see the Lost Order, on a rare public exhibit, at the Monocacy Battlefield.

You see, that Best Farm ended up in the midst of an 1864 battle, the Battle of Monocacy (named after a nearby river), a small battle that is sometimes overlooked, but although a Confederate victory, prevented a Confederate invasion of Washington, DC.

Photography of the Lost Order was not permitted but if you go to both Monocacy and to Antietam, you will see plaques with pictures of the order.  The handwriting is hard to read, but it is worth the time to decipher it.

I still get goosebumps over the fact that I was able to view this piece of Civil War history.

You can see it, too, but you need to get to Monocacy before October 31.  (I highly recommend a visit to Monocacy and the best part it - admission is free.)

If you can't make it to this Maryland battefield, this is a copy of the Special Order.

What if......

Civil War Sunday - "Pictures of the Dead"

A week ago, I was inside this church building near Sharpsburg, MD, along with a crowd of people visiting for a certain anniversary.

As we heard cannons booming nearby, a speaker spoke to us:


Imagine yourself inside this church, 150 years ago this week.  You are a member of the Old German Brethren, called "Dunkers" by the locals.  Things have not gone easy since the War Between the States broke out almost 1 1/2 years ago.  Your home state, Maryland, is under military occupation by the Federals.  And the Confederates have invaded.  Rumor has it that they are nearby.  Everyone is nervous, at the Sunday service.  If you say the wrong things, you can be arrested.

But you, and your brethren, are pacifists.  What can you do?

A few days later, the church is empty.  It is early morning. 

Suddenly there is gunfire and a battle is raging around your church.

 (Photos taken 9/16/12 at the Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield near Sharpsburg, MD, courtesy of AM).

By the time darkness falls, there will be some 23,000. casualties on both sides (dead, injured, missing).  The name will live on in history....Antietam. 

We are so fortunate that this battlefield has been preserved (unlike so many others) and we can walk its fields.

Photographers were on the scene quickly and took pictures of the dead.  Mathew Brady exhibited the photos at his New York City studio in October of 1862.

For one of the first times, civilians could see the true horror of war.  One famous photo shows a dead Confederate gun crew  with the Dunker Church in the background.

To quote from the New York Times review of the exhibition:

But there is a poetry in the scene that no green holds or smiling landscapes can possese. Here lie men who have not hesitated to seal and lamp their convictions with their blood, -- men who have lung themselves into the great gulf of the until own to teach world that there are truths [???] than life, wrongs and shames more to be dreaded than death. And if there be on earth one spot where the grass will grow greener than on another when the hunt, Summer comes, where the leaves of Antumn will shop more lightly which they fall like a benediction upon a work completed and promise fulfilled, it is these soldiers' graves.

The exhibition was called, simply, "Pictures of the Dead".

But it would not prevent the war from continuing.  Or, the issuing of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation 150 years ago yesterday, September 22, 1863, in the wake of that bloodiest of days.


That bloodiest of battles, that began at a church of people believing in peace.

Civil War Sunday - Playing At War

War isn't make-believe.

I am down in Maryland visiting the South Mountain battlefield, (actually, scattered between two Maryland state parks and some sites on private land) and also, the Antietam battlefield for the 150th anniversary of  these battles.

Antietam was the bloodiest one day in U.S. Civil War history.  South Mountain is less well known, but was important in its own ways.

Yesterday, I went to the Antietam reenactment, about 2 miles from the actual battlefield.  It was very well put on (I thought) despite the large traffic jam to get in - and one thing they did impressed me very much.  (No pictures - sorry - I can't upload thanks to a balky internet connection.  Ah, travel....)

They (several times) honored the vets in the audience.  They honored a soldier just home from deployment and his two children, picked from the audience.  And they made the point, over and over, that war is not play. They don't put on the reenactments to entertain, but rather to teach.

I don't think I have ever been to a Civil War reenactment that has glorified war, but this one really brought the point home.

And today, I am linking this commemoration of battle in our United States 150 years ago as we fought for the survival of our Union (yes, I am a Northerner) with what is happening to one of my cousins.  My relative serves our country in the Foreign Service in an embassy in a country I will not name.  I blogged about this earlier this week in my post "Half a World Away". (I'm not linking, again, due to said internet problems.)  For what it is worth, this relative was born in a former Confederate state and grew up in a state that stayed with the Union.

But, we are all one, and I would like to tell the world we are one, despite our sometimes very verbal differences - especially in a Presidential election year.

My relative, after today, will be a little closer to home as this relative is being evacuated.  The embassy, let's just say, is a little the worse for wear.  Where it is is not in a state of war, but there has been war in several directions.

It seems a bit strange, visiting long-ago battlefields when a relative is in danger.  But I have to remember the lesson of the reenactors - they do not play at war.  Their business is serious, and it is to teach us the horrors of war and hate.  My relative is learning it first hand - hopefully I will never have to.

So, I would like to be lazy today and have a fellow blogger write my blog as things other than the Civil War are on my mind.  Well, not exactly writing for me.  I would love to introduce you to one of many fine Civil War blogs, John Banks' Civil War Blog. 

The John Banks blog contains a wealth of information about Antietam.  

Another blog of note about Antietam is one called Virtual Antietam.  I hate to call battlefields 'beautiful' but Antietam is a beautiful battlefield.  This will be my second visit there.

I hope to be able to bring you a current post in the very near future, Internet willing.
In the meantime, dear relative, stay safe.

Civil War Sunday - Onward, Reenactors

It's been a little over a year now since Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson fought at First Bull Run (First Manassas), the first "large" battle of the Civil War.  Both sides have learned the art of fighting against their once fellow countrymen.

You will note I call him Thomas, and not Stonewall.  Jackson felt his nickname of "Stonewall", given to him at First Manassas, was something only for the men he commanded to use), had seen a lot of action since that July, 1861 day near Manassas Junction. There was the Shenandoah campaign and the Peninsula Campaign.  And now, it is time to return to where the first major battle of the Civil War occurred for Round 2.

I'll be catching up with Thomas Jackson and his fellow soldiers at the 150th anniversary of Antietam in September.

But first, I want to talk a little bit about how reenactors have created and engaged my interest in the Civil War.  I've always loved history. But why the Civil War?

 (Picture courtesy of AM of Ramblin'with AM, taken this year in Elmira, NY)

Years back, in a visit to the Town of Binghamton, about an hour from Binghamton, I met a CSA general for the first time.  And, I dare say, it is because of him that I became as interested in the Civil War as I have become.

I went to that reenactment, at Pierce Creek, my first one, in August of 2009 and fell under the spell of a man by the name of Rich Gow, who played CSA General Armistead, who would later be mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Growing up in New York State (and living in NY much of my adult life, I had basically only heard "one side of the story".  Rich Gow told the other side with such passion that I was hooked.

Since then I've been to several reenactments and other Civil War events, including the 150th anniversary of First Bull Run.  But I didn't experience the historical passion (purely G rated, folks) of that day in 2009 until a day in early May this year in Elmira, New York, when I ran into Thomas Jackson.

He was perched on a flood wall, his voice booming.  He was talking to people in character.   I learned a lot about Jackson, and something about the reenactor - whose name I do not know.  In fact, he was so much in character that he asked the audience's permission to take off his heavy wool coat as the afternoon warmed up, and address us in his vest.  Back in those days, he explained that was an R-rated action, and needed the permission of ladies present.

This reenactor has played Jackson for some 10 years.  He said his life and Jackson's have many parallels, and he very much identifies with Jackson  He loves educating people and one of his main missions is to make sure that school children learn more about the Civil War, and Thomas Jackson in particular.  He talked about the feelings of the Confederates with such passion that all the onlookers were mesmerized.

What fascinating people those involved in the Civil War were, and Jackson was no different.

Jackson actually has a link to New York State, having been stationed at Ft. Hamilton for a time.

He became estranged from his sister, who was firmly on the side of the Union.  He died during the war, so we will never know what would have happened if both had survived the war.

Jackson was an extremely devout man.  It colored everything about him, including his bravery in battle, and even his official battle reports.  
And even his last words, spoken as he lay dying from wounds suffered by friendly fire - Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.


I believe the reenactment group that was at Elmira, NY that day in May will be at the Antietam reenactement in September, and I am looking forward to catching up with Jackson once again. And, A.P. Hill, and maybe even author Jeff Shaara.

Maybe some of the reenactors I met at the Battle of Charleston these past two years will be there, too.

I can't wait.