Civil War Times Autumn 2022

I enjoyed the June issue Gettysburg reunion article. Here are some photos I have. Grand Army of the Republic 31st Encampment, August 23–28, 1897, in Buffalo, N.Y. My 2x great grandparents Matthew and Emily Kennedy and his brother David attended. I believe they are in the fourth row of the group photo, Emily in the big hat with Matthew on her right, David on her left. A Black veteran sits second from left, front row. The other photo is of the welcome arch on Buffalo’s main street. Matthew and David served in the 188th New York Infantry Regiment, were wounded in the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, recovered, and served until the end of the war. They were members of G.A.R. Gregory Post 649, in Prattsburg, N.Y, and are buried in…

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On June 1, 2022, Boston celebrated the restoration of the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Memorial with a ceremony on the Boston Commons, where the monument stands opposite the Boston State House. Begun in 2020, the $3 million restoration included replacement of the water-damaged foundation that holds the sculpture and conservation of the high-relief bronze sculpture itself. To honor the restoration, soldier reenactors marched to the memorial, originally dedicated in 1897. One of the nation’s first Black regiments, the 54th is most remembered for its valiant failed assault on Fort Wagner, S.C., on July 18, 1863. Shaw and many of the troops died in that effort, but Sergeant William Carney, though severely injured, saved the regiment’s flag. For that effort, he was awarded a Medal of Honor,—the…

DURING THE EVENING of July 2, 1863, on Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg, Brig. Gen. George Sears Greene’s brigade of the 60th, 78th, 102nd, 149th, and 137th New York regiments, about 1,350 men, hunkered down behind earthworks to hold off three Confederate brigades totaling more than 4,000 men for three long hours. Greene’s brigade had been left behind when the balance of the 12th Corps, five brigades, were ordered to move to reinforce Little Round Top. The ensuing fight that occurred on Culp’s Hill was desperate, lasting from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. before relief finally arrived. The stout defense by Greene’s men saved the right of the Union “fishhook.” ¶ In this image, a group of 60th New York veterans pose during the September 1907 dedication of the Culp’s Hill…

CONFEDERATE WOMEN are far better represented than their Union counterparts in published diaries, memoirs, and sets of letters. Accounts by Mary Boykin Chesnut, Phoebe Yates Pember, and Sarah Morgan, among others who wrote across the South, are widely known and cited. No Northern testimony has achieved comparable familiarity, or impact on historical writing, though Louisa May Alcott’s slim Hospital Sketches attracts attention because of its author’s fame as the creator of Little Women. Yet many fine titles illuminate the war from northern women’s perspectives, including two by a young African American who taught in South Carolina and the wife of a Democratic judge in New York City. Charlotte Forten was born in 1837 into a prominent Black family in Philadelphia, enjoyed a privileged youth, and worked in the abolitionist community during…

WHILE DIRK WARNER TOILS on his 127-acre farm—the heart of the Cumberland Church battlefield—he often envisions April 7, 1865. Cannons boom, musketry rattles, battle smoke lingers, soldiers shout, blood flows. Then a spade plunges into the rich Virginia earth. A soldier rolls a friend into a grave. The cycle of war and death. How benumbing. How timeless. Warner plans to be buried on the battlefield, too—“over by those redbuds,” he tells me as we walk his hallowed ground. Until then, Warner has a battlefield to nurture, protect, and interpret. Artifacts to unearth. A battle book to write. Dreams to turn into reality. A mystery to solve. I have one, too: Why did it take me so long to hear about the Battle of Cumberland Church? Before my journey to rural, south-central Virginia, I…