Civil War Times June 2018

APRIL “DETAILS” When I receive my issue of CWT, I go right to the “Quiz,” then I move on to “Details.” I was wowed by the photograph of the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry in the April issue. Photographs like this reveal so much about soldiers in camp or on campaign. Several different firearms were pointed out in the image: The Burnside carbine, the Merrill carbine, and the Colt revolving rifle. I also believe the trooper just left of No. 3 and standing on the extreme right of the file next to the short trooper is carrying a .50-caliber Smith carbine. Notice what looks to be the ring used to attach the carbine to the carbine sling. The barrel band and stock also resemble that of a Smith. The various calibers of the…

Six rare photographs of the Antietam battlefield were obtained in January by John Banks, a Civil War Times contributer and a board member of the Center for Civil War Photography, from a New Jersey couple who discovered them while cleaning a deceased uncle’s closet. The images of the East Woods area were taken in September 1891 by Oliver Cromwell Gould, son of 10th Maine veteran John Mead Gould. ¶ The photos have excited students of the battle. “The 1891 Gould images offer an early, pristine view of Antietam battlefield that many of us never thought we would see,” said Stephen Recker, author of the 2012 book Rare Images at Antietam. Collaborating with 10th Maine expert Nicholas Picerno and Antietam historian Tom Clemens, Recker pieced together the story of the Gould…

A CONTROVERSIAL PLAN for redevelopment of land adjacent to the Civil War–era Fort Negley in Nashville has been halted following an archaeological survey of the site. Land near the fort, where Greer Stadium was built, was known to be a burial ground, and the study by Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research concluded that the presence of pre-WPA deposits spotted under asphalt and rubble “indicates a strong possibility of burials still being present.” The report identifies archaeologically sensitive areas that should be preserved and reintegrated into the Fort Negley site, and recommends the presence of a trained monitor during any land disturbance. An estimated 600–800 black workers died during the fort’s construction, and three contraband camps sprang up where Union officers described dreadful conditions and horrifying death rates. One commander of a…

On February 16, 2018, descendants of Thomas Jackson, an English-born businessman in Reading, Pa., donated his extraordinary letters to the Library of Congress. The letters span from 1856 to 1874. In an 1862 letter, Jackson recounts a prewar auction of slaves; in 1863, he describes the ragged appearance of captured Confederate troops in Harrisburg, “no two of them had any thing like uniforms except in filthiness,” and in 1865, he learns of the assassination of President Lincoln and tells of the mourning that followed: “Strong men stood weeping in the streets, and women shrieked with horror at the heinous crime. The poor blacks take it very hard and seem entirely inconsolable.” John Paling, a Jackson descendant, has posted the letters online. A retired scientist and filmmaker, he views himself as…

LONG FORGOTTEN IN STORAGE, the cardboard box, six inches long and covered with a pane of glass, held a small white rosebud, and when Sandy Vasko, director of the Will County Historical Society in Lockport, Ill., turned it over she found an inscription indicating the flower was taken from Abraham Lincoln’s Washington, D.C., funeral bier in 1865. Wording on the box stated that General J.S. Todd gave it to General I.N. Haynie, who in turn gave it to Mrs. Ellwood, wife of General James Ellwood. Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, had organized the president’s funeral in Washington; Haynie had organized the memorial service in Springfield; and James Ellwood was the mayor of nearby Joliet, Ill. The flower was displayed at a special fundraising dinner on February 17, 2018,…

www.shsmo.org “John was 1st Lieutenant… [and he] commanded the…admiration of the whole company. In the death of John we feel that we have lost a kind and generous Officer and our best friend….when we were despondent he would always endeavor to revive us for he was ever cheerful And long will we gratefully remember our friend and comrade….” Those words of condolence were signed by six men who served in Lieutenant John Sterne’s company, and they informed his father, Major Charles Sterne, of Carroll County, Mo., of John’s death at the Battle of Corinth in October 1862. Their letter is just one of the hundreds of items that the State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO) has digitized from its “American Civil War Collection” and placed online for the public to enjoy. Digitized…