Civil War Times April 2020

AFTER THE STORM In Gettysburg, Pa., on Independence Day 1863, the wounded and dead remained on the fields, in houses, in barns, and in hospital tents. bit.ly/GettysburgStorm A NEW INTRODUCTION Will the real George Custer please stand up? How the man has been overwhelmed by his myth. bit.ly/JudgingCuster WISCONSIN’S WAR Explore the Dairy State’s unparalleled contribution to the Union Cause. bit.ly/WisconsinWar HISTORYNET NOW Sign up for our FREE monthly e-newsletter at: historynet.com/newsletters LET’S CONNECT Like Civil War Times Magazine on Facebook FOLLOW US @CivilWarTimes GO DIGITAL Civil War Times is available on Zinio, Kindle, and Nook A Complete Civil War Times index from 1958 to present is available at aferguson.net…

The interview with Moss Rudley, director of the National Park Service Historic Preservation Training Center, in the February 2020 issue was an excellent and timely story to include in the magazine. There are many challenges Director Rudley, his staff, and volunteers face daily keeping many NPS historic sites in good condition considering the age and remoteness of many of them and a serious shortage of the availability of skilled workers. Yet there is more to consider! For many years I have been a member of The National Parks Conservation Association, worked as a paid staff member and volunteer at various NPS, state, and private historic preservation sites. Now at age 83, sadly I must pass my baton to others. Besides continuous preservation and safety issues needed, a cadré of trained specialists, volunteers,…

PHOTO SLEUTH DISCOVERY While researching Civil War-era photographers, Library of Congress conservator turned photographic sleuth Adrienne Lundgren found that a famous image of the March 1861 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln was taken not by Alexander Gardner, as long assumed, but by government photographer John Wood. Lundgren pieced together that in 1853 President Franklin Pierce had Montgomery Meigs, who would serve as the Union’s quartermaster general during the Civil War, supervise the expansion of the U.S. Capitol, including the wings and dome. Meigs hired Wood to take a photographic survey of architecture in Washington, D.C., and in 1857, Wood had also taken a photo of the James Buchanan 1857 inauguration from a vantage point that identically matched the Lincoln inauguration image. Moreover, the image itself, of which only three copies survive, was…

1. Candy maker Anthony Kale and his family owned this building at 706 Caroline Street from 1819 to 1904. Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, it housed Southern prisoners for a short time. Kale also owned the building next door at 708, which was used as a rental property. The buildings pictured here at 702 and 704 Caroline Street are no longer standing and serve as a parking area for the Fredericksburg Visitors Center, which is housed in 706. 2. This light-colored guidon could be a medical flag marking this building as a military hospital, which were required to distinguish themselves with a yellow flag. 3. This mounted soldier is also the Officer of the Day, one of two pictured here with their telltale sash. 4.. The Federals utilized the Exchange Hotel on the…

CONFEDERATE ARMIES NEVER LOST a battle because they lacked sufficient arms or ammunition. This achievement came despite formidable challenges and depended, to a significant extent, on the vision and efforts of Josiah Gorgas (1818-83). “In no branch of our service,” affirmed Jefferson Davis, “were our needs so great and our means to meet them relatively so small as in the matter of ordnance and ordnance stores.” The chief executive looked to Gorgas, “a man remarkable for his scientific attainment, for the highest administrative capacity and…zeal and fidelity to his trust,” to produce results “greatly disproportioned to the means at his command.” The Pennsylvania-born Gorgas graduated sixth in the Class of 1841 at West Point, served as an ordnance officer during the war with Mexico, and married the daughter of a former…

ON A CHILLY SATURDAY MORNING, with a three-quarter moon lingering in a deep-blue sky, Sam Elliott and I stand atop Orchard Knob, site of Maj. Gen. Ulysses Grant’s headquarters during the Battle of Missionary Ridge. To our right, in the far distance, rises majestic Lookout Mountain. In front of us, about a mile away, rises its smaller cousin, Missionary Ridge. As we discuss this pivotal battle, our only other companions are triumphant soldier figures atop Union monuments that dot this small hill in a working-class neighborhood in east Chattanooga, Tenn. It’s not surprising, Elliott, a Chattanooga attorney and historian, tells me. Despite the parklike setting, most locals avoid this historic ground, considering it more a cemetery than a recreational area. My objective is to explore the distant ridge, where hundreds of stories…