On May 17, 2014, as part of the 150^th Anniversary of the Battle of the Wilderness, the State of Virginia and Spotsylvania County dedicated a marker commemorating the 23^rd United States Colored Troops and its actions during the tail end of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. This action marked the first time a USCT unit faced Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

 

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable as National Park Ranger and historian Steward T. Henderson presents the story of the 23^rd USCT. This meeting will occur on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at our new meeting location- Hiss United Methodist Church, 8700 Harford Road, Parkville Md., 21234. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.

 

Steward Henderson is a park ranger/historian with the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.  He has been in this capacity since May 2007, after spending 2 years as a volunteer.  Steward retired from Sun Trust Bank as a Senior Vice President in the Retail Group of the Greater Washington Region in 2005, after a 35-year career in the financial services field.  He attended Howard University, the Institute of Financial Education, the American Bankers Institute, and the Consumer Bankers Association Graduate School of Retail Bank Management.  He has had a life-long interest in the Civil War and is a co-founder of the 23rd Regiment United States Colored Troops, which is affiliated with Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields and the John J. Wright Educational and Cultural Center Museum in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Steward is also a member of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers Co. B, the Civil War Trust, and the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust.

 

Be certain to join the BCWRT for the inaugural meeting at a new location (Hiss UM Church) for this informative meeting on the 23^rd USCT. If you can’t attend in person on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at 7:30 p.m., register for the Zoom:

 

 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIlcOGspzktEtAGMipE9n4JHlss-g6LTPyO

 

 

 

Minutes

Our November meeting was our 482nd.  The meeting had seven in-person attendees and three guests–one of whom, Ed Gantt–became a member.  Additionally, there were 15 attendees through Zoom.  

 

Our speaker was Steward Henderson, a park ranger and historian with the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.  Mr. Henderson’s presentation was entitled “The 23rd U.S. Colored Troops: Importance in the Civil War and Today.”  Mr. Henderson is a co-founder and past president of a modern day, living history version of the 23rd.  

 

Mr. Henderson began with a brief discussion of the military participation of African Americans in the Civil War, followed by a history of the 23rd.  Although initially excluded from fighting for the Union, General Order No. 143 authorized the creation of the United States Colored Troops (USCT).  The USCT fought in about 450 engagements.  Ultimately, about ten percent of the Union army and twenty-five percent of the navy was African American, and about 201,000 African Americans served in the U.S. military during the war, together with about 17,000 white officers in black units.  Additionally, according to Mr. Henderson, more than 1,000 Hispanics served on the Union side as well.  

 

Prior to the Army of the Potomac’s Overland Campaign (May-June 1864), Major General Ambrose Burnside was asked to reconstitute IX Corps.  His condition of adding a division of African American troops to the corps (which became the 4th Division) was granted.  Burnside outranked Major General George Gordon Meade–as a result, IX Corps was independent of the Army of the Potomac.  But this created an awkward situation.  On May 25, the corps was placed back under the army’s control.  

 

The 23rd USCT was organized at Camp Casey, Virginia (near the site of the present-day Pentagon).  On May 6, it arrived at the Wilderness, guarding wagon trains on the right flank.  On May 15, the regiment skirmished with the Army of Northern Virginia.  This was the first time an African American unit engaged in direct combat with the ANV.  The 23rd was called to help the 2nd Ohio Cavalry and succeeded in driving away Rosser’s Confederate Cavalry.  Marching double quick, the regiment occupied Piney Branch Church.  The 23rd lost between eight and ten men wounded in this engagement.  On May 19, the entire 4th division skirmished with the ANV.

 

On July 30, the 23rd participated in the Battle of the Crater.  According to Mr. Henderson, the regiment suffered heavier casualties than any other Union regiment during the battle.  In December 1864, the regiment was transferred to XXV Corps, Army of the James, under Major General Benjamin Butler.  This corps was composed almost entirely of African American troops and their white officers.  The 23rd was later sent to Texas under Major General Philip Sheridan because of the French military presence in Mexico.  On November 30, 1865, the regiment was mustered out.  

 

Mr. Henderson discussed the activities of the “new” 23rd in recent years.  On May 17, 2014, a Virginia state marker dedicated to the 23rd was unveiled.  The entire day was devoted to

 

a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the 23rd’s skirmish with the ANV.  In 2012 through 2017, the new 23rd led Memorial Day processions to Fredericksburg National Cemetery.  The

USCT, white Unionists, and Confederate reenactors had a joint honor guard.  The 23rd has been color guard for the Fredericksburg Cemetery Memorial Day Program since 2012.  The unit is also active on Decoration Day, on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.  

                      

Maryland Civil War Photo Extravaganza

Situated adjacent to the Confederacy, the Chesapeake Bay, the Keystone State, a new state, and the U.S. Capital, Maryland was bound to play a critical role in the Civil War. Major military and political events shaped its role in the Civil War and its future. These same factors resulted in substantial wartime and postwar photographic treasures. Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable as Garry Adelman weaves a visual story of Maryland’s critical role—and the areas adjacent thereto--in a manner available nowhere else! This meeting will occur on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, at 7:30 p.m., at the Parkville Senior Center.

A very animated speaker, Garry Adelman is a graduate of Michigan State University and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Garry Adelman is the award-winning author, co-author, or editor of 20 books and 50 Civil War articles. He is a founder and  vice president of the Center for Civil War Photography and has been a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg since 1995. He has conceived and drafted the text for wayside exhibits at ten battlefields, has given thousands of battlefield tours at more than 70 American Revolution and Civil War sites, and has lectured at hundreds of locations across the country including the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. He has appeared as a speaker on the BBC, C-Span, Pennsylvania Cable Network, American Heroes Channel, and on HISTORY where he was a chief consultant and talking head on the Emmy Award-winning show Gettysburg (2011), Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color (2015), Grant (2020), and Battles for America (2022).  He works full time as Chief Historian at the American Battlefield Trust.

The meeting begins at 7:30p.m. at the Parkville Senior Center, 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. (Enter parking lot from Hiss Ave. Use rear entrance to Center.) All are urged to attend in person. The fee is $5.00 for non-members. If you can't attend in person, register for the Zoom at

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYodOqspzosEtQUWtBpjWw4KvVNM_97Z9-y

 

Minutes

 

Our September meeting was our 481st.  Seven members attended in person, as did two guests.  There were twelve attendees on Zoom.  

 

Our speaker was Garry Adelman, Chief Historian at the American Battlefield Trust and Vice President of the Center for Civil War Photography.  Mr. Adelman presented a “Maryland Civil War Photo Extravaganza.”

 

The presentation consisted largely of displays of Civil War photos–most of them related to the battle of Antietam (also known as Sharpsburg) --with detailed explanations of their content and context, interwoven with discussions of general issues concerning Civil War photography.  

 

Mr. Adelman began with a brief discussion of events leading up to the war, including the Dred Scott decision and the 1860 presidential election.  After the latter, Union general Winfield Scott said that anyone who interfered with the counting of the electoral votes would be fired out of a cannon.  

 

During the war, Mr. Adelman said, photographers wanted the “real deal.”  They wanted photos that showed what the war was really like–such as pictures of graves and wounded soldiers being treated.  In total, 103 or 104 photos of dead on various battlefields were taken, including 20 at Antietam and four at Corinth (after the battle that occurred there on October 3-4, 1862).  Most of the dead seen in the photos are Confederates, because most Union soldiers had already been buried by the time they were taken.  Some of these give some of the best views available of what Confederate uniforms looked like.  The photos made a big impact when they were published.  Many of the dead Confederates at Antietam ended up being buried in Washington Cemetery.   

 

When photographers went into the field, they had a limited number of plates, and they generally had to bring all the other supplies they needed–including chemicals–with them.  They had to put the plates (4 by 10 inches) in a twin lens camera.  A plate was put in the sun for a few minutes before it burned its image onto the paper.  Often, a message was written on the back of the photo.  Photos were taken in 3D.  

 

Mr. Adelman encouraged people to go to the Library of Congress and download plates of things that interest them, and discussed techniques that can be used to enhance the value of Civil War photography.  Today, we can insert photos taken on battlefields onto images of the battlefields as they exist now.  Additionally, zooming in on photos often allows interesting and surprising details to be noticed–in one photo Mr. Adelman showed, for example, people can be seen smiling.   Using this technique on a photo of Knapp’s Battery (Independent Battery “E”, Pennsylvania Light Artillery), an American flag and a burial crew can be seen.

 

In September and October 1862, following the battle of Antietam, 60 photos were taken.  Mr. Adelman displayed some of them, including photos of the Dunker Church, the Roulette Farm, and Bloody Lane.  In one photo of Bloody Lane, a burial crew can be seen standing over dead

 

Confederates lying in the trench.  Soldiers may have been dragged into the trench before the photo was taken (it was common to move them before taking photos during the war).  He

also showed photos taken in the decades after the battle.  These included the remains of the Dunker Church after its destruction by a storm in 1921, a restaurant that was subsequently built on the site, Dunkers worshiping, the church being rebuilt (the rebuilding was completed in 1962), and a photo of Elmer Boyer (the man who had purchased the land and church ruins) standing next to the rebuilt church.  Mr. Adelman showed postwar photos of Bloody Lane that included veterans of the 130th Pennsylvania Infantry, markers, and Lohman’s Souvenir Stand.  

 

Mr. Adelman also showed photos of Matthew Brady’s attic and the Monocacy Aqueduct (for the latter, a lithograph as well as a modern picture).  He discussed the Elliott burial map, which has marks for burial locations of Union and Confederate soldiers.  He also said that the widespread claim that many important Civil War photos ended up being destroyed by being placed in greenhouses is a myth.

 

Thanks to Michael Shaara’s book, “The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War”, the name Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is very familiar to most devotees of the American Civil War. One who perpetuates the legacy of this hero of the actions at Little Round Top (Gettysburg) is Chamberlain’s cousin Theadore J. Chamberlain, PhD. 

Join the Baltimore Civil War Round as we present An Evening with Union Hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain featuring Ted Chamberlain. This meeting will occur on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.

Ted Chamberlain and his wife Faye (who reenacts Fanny Chamberlain) are natives of opposite coasts of the United States, Faye from Eastern Pennsylvania and Ted from Western Oregon.  However, only one year into their marriage, in 1967, they fell in love with the Midwest and have made Michigan their home for most of their 58 years of life together.  They received their bachelor’s degrees in Maryland (while Ted was serving in the military at Walter Reed Army Medical Center), their master’s degrees in Michigan and California, and Ted completed his doctoral studies at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California.  Both have been university professors and, more recently, business people.  

Faye is a member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, while Ted is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. He is a founder of the World Chamberlain Genealogical Society.  

For over 30 years, Ted has indulged his lifetime love of American history by portraying his cousin, Civil War hero General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (His career has closely followed that of his illustrious cousin: soldier, clergyman, professor, and businessman.).  Faye has recently joined him with her portrayal of the general's wife, Francis (Fannie) Caroline Adams.  When not traveling to Civil War venues they spend their time in Berrien County, Michigan, where Faye serves on the board of the Twin Cities Organ Concert Series and Ted has, for many years, been a member and officer of the board of the Berrien County Historical Association.  They also are officers of the Southwest Michigan Civil War Roundtable which they helped found.  They live in Saint Joseph, Michigan.

The meeting begins at 7:30p.m. at the Parkville Senior Center, 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. (Enter parking lot from Hiss Ave. Use rear entrance to Center.) All are urged to attend in person. The fee is $5.00 for non-members. If you can't attend in person, register for the Zoom at SEE NEW LINK ABOVE FOR RESCHEDULED MEETING.

                                                                                      

Minutes

 

Our meeting, scheduled for August, was rescheduled (due to the Parkville Senior Center being closed on the meeting day) and conducted on September 3, exclusively through Zoom.  The meeting had 19 attendees.

Our speaker was Ted Chamberlain.  Mr. Chamberlain, who holds a doctorate from the Claremont School of Theology and is a member of the Sons of Union Veterans, spoke about Union general Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain–a cousin of his and the man whom he has impersonated for more than thirty years.

Mr. Chamberlain discussed how he first became interested in his famous cousin.  Watching the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War when it premiered in 1990, he was awestruck by Joshua Lawrence.  His interest intensified with the 1992 publication of the book In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War.  He went on to discover that he and Joshua had a common ancestor.  

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was born on September 8, 1828, the eldest of five children.  He attended Bowdoin College and learned ten languages, including Arabic and Hebrew.  It was here that he met his wife, Fanny Adams, whom he married on December 7, 1855.  The couple had five children, only two of whom lived to adulthood.  Chamberlain became an instructor and, subsequently, a professor at Bowdoin.

In the summer of 1862, President Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 volunteers.  Chamberlain became lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry.  At Antietam, the regiment was held in reserve but saw the horrors of the battle.  At Fredericksburg, the 20th advanced against the Stone Wall.  During 1862-63, the regiment contracted smallpox from contaminated vaccine serum.  As a result, the 20th missed Chancellorsville.  Chamberlain said: “If we couldn’t do anything else we would give the Rebels the smallpox!”  

The 20th Maine is most famous for its contribution to the defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg.  Although other regiments also defended the hill, the 20th occupied the extreme left end of the Union line and was told to hold the ground at all costs.  The regiment withstood fierce attacks from the 15th Alabama, with Chamberlain (now colonel of the regiment) ordering the left side of the regiment to drop back, creating a “V” formation.

On June 18, 1864, Chamberlain was shot through the right hip at (according to Ted) Rives’ Salient, near Petersburg.  He collapsed, was given up for dead by everyone except his hometown doctor and was actually printed on the list of dead.  However, he recovered.

As commander of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps, Chamberlain participated in the Appomattox Campaign.  On March 29, 1865, he was again wounded (at Quaker Road).  At Appomattox, the day after the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, he was told that Grant had chosen him to receive the formal surrender on April 12,  Chamberlain decided to  give the Confederates the “Carry Arms” salute. Confederate General John B. Gordon had his troops reciprocate.  

In all, Ted said, Chamberlain was in 24 battles, had five horses shot from under him, and was wounded six times.

After the war, Chamberlain returned to Bowdoin.  Soon afterward, he was elected governor of Maine by the largest margin ever.  He served as governor from 1867 to 1871 and president of Bowdoin from 1871 to 1883.  As president, Chamberlain unsuccessfully argued for the admission of women (something that did not take place until 1969).  He became a speaker (which he was very good at) and a businessman (which he was not).  He was also heavily involved with veterans’ affairs for decades.  Chamberlain died on February 24, 1914.  Although it’s not certain whether he died from the wound he received near Petersburg, that wound was at least a contributing factor.  

According to Ted, Chamberlain was not a rabid abolitionist before and during the war.  After the war, he advocated leniency for the Confederates and spoke about reunification and the honor of his Southern counterparts.   

Dear BCWRT Community,

If you read the Notes from the President in the Old Liner for August (see attached) you know about the concern regarding future meetings at the Parkville Senior Center. There is an update our situation.

We are guaranteed to be located at the Parkville Senior Center through September 2024. Negotiations are underway to keep us there beyond that date (and for the foreseeable future). 

Our last contract, which expired at the beginning of 2024, was for $450.00. We have not been charged while waiting for the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks to establish their new policy on meetings at their facilities. We are waiting to hear what the new cost would be and if we can afford it.

In the meantime, if you have and location suggestion, please email me at rfordjazz@yahoo.com.  Any location must have free parking, room to accommodate our membership, Wi-Fi and be reasonably priced. (Hopefully around $450.00 per year).

See you at our meeting at the Parkville Senior Center on Tuesday, August 27, at 7:30 p.m.

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.   as Professor Frank P. Varney examines Grant’s relationship with three noted Civil War generals: the brash and uncompromising “Fighting Joe” Hooker; George H. Thomas, the stellar commander who earned the sobriquet “Rock of Chickamauga”; and Gouverneur Kemble Warren, who served honorably and well in every major action of the Army of the Potomac before being relieved less than two weeks before Appomattox, and only after he had played a prominent part in the major Union victory at Five Forks.

The meeting begins at 7:30p.m. at the Parkville Senior Center, 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. (Enter parking lot from Hiss Ave. Use rear entrance to Center.) All are urged to attend in person. The fee is $5.00 for non-members.

Frank Varney earned his undergraduate degree at William Paterson University and his MA and Ph.D. at Cornell University. He is a recently retired Distinguished Professor of US and Classical History and has been the recipient of multiple teaching awards. He is available to take student groups to historic sites, especially Civil War battlefields, and makes frequent speaking appearances before Civil War roundtables, historical societies, and other interested groups. Dr. Varney has also been the keynote speaker at several veterans’ memorial dedications and has made numerous radio and TV appearances. He resides in upstate New York with his wife, Nancy.

Remember, come join us Tuesday, July 23, at 7:30 p.m. If you can’t be there, register at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtf-qgrjguGd0LgGF_5ffry4ODPcStlyCe

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

    

Minutes

Our July meeting was our 479th.  The meeting had 7 in-person attendees and 10 attendees through Zoom.

 

Our speaker was Frank P. Varney, a recently retired Distinguished Professor of U.S. and Classical History.  Professor Garney spoke on the relationship between Ulysses S. Grant and other Union generals.  He is the author of General Grant and the Verdict of History: Memoir, Memory, and the Civil War.

 

Professor Varney primarily said that Grant wrote the history of the war through his memoirs.  However, he argued Grant’s memoirs have been given far too much credibility, for on multiple occasions he did not tell the truth.  

 

Grant claimed, for example, that at Shiloh he was not surprised by the Confederate attack.  This was untrue.  Prior to the battle, Grant had not entrenched his army.  When the Confederates attacked on April 6, 1862, he was eight miles from the army and not even in telegraphic communication with it.  As late as April 5, he had sent a telegram to his superior, Major General Henry Halleck, saying that he didn’t anticipate any Confederate attack.

 

Grant and General William S. Rosecrans had attended West Point together and had originally been friendly.  However, that changed drastically during the war.  

 

The first trouble between the two men came with Rosecrans’ victory at the battle of Iuka on September 19, 1862.  In Grant’s initial report about Iuka, he praised Rosecrans.  However, in a subsequent report he was quite critical of him.  Between the battles of Iuka and Corinth (also a victory for Rosecrans), a letter arrived at Grant’s headquarters written by Colonel Mortimer Leggett.  Leggett said that Rosecrans was responsible for some newspaper articles claiming that Grant had been drunk in command at Iuka.  The day after the letter was sent, Grant submitted his second report about the battle.  This time, he was highly critical of Rosecrans, and some of his accusations appear to have come from things said in Leggett’s letter.  

 

On December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, Rosecrans defeated Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee in the battle of Stone’s River (also known as Murfreesboro).  This was considered an important victory at the time, yet at a meeting with Lincoln, Grant denied it was a victory, a viewpoint Lincoln himself disagreed with.  Grant subsequently criticized Rosecrans for taking too long to begin the Tullahoma Campaign (June 24-July 3, 1863), even though during the campaign Rosecrans successfully maneuvered Bragg out of middle Tennessee with few casualties.  After the battle of Chickamauga (which, Professor Varney said, was not nearly the Union rout it has been portrayed as), Grant relieved Rosecrans (replacing him with George Thomas) for “no valid reason.”  

 

Grant’s relationship with Thomas was also rocky.  At Chattanooga, Grant had not intended for Thomas’ men to charge up Missionary Ridge, and was in fact furious when they did.  Yet in his memoirs, he took credit for it and said it had been part of his plan.  On December 15-16, 1864, at the battle of Nashville, Thomas defeated John Bell Hood after Hood launched a surprise invasion of Tennessee.  Grant attacked Thomas for supposedly being too slow, a charge that appears to have been unfounded.

 

Professor Varney concluded with a discussion of Grant and Major General Gouverneur K. Warren, who served as commander of the Army of the Potomac’s V Corps from the Wilderness Campaign through Appomattox.  Warren, he said, got into trouble with Grant because in the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of the Crater,  a congressional inquiry was held and Warren said under oath that someone should have been present who could have given orders to all of the units involved.  Warren apparently meant Grant.  

 

Professor Varney said that Grant never forgot this, with dire consequences for Warren.  At the battle of Five Forks (April 1, 1865),  Warren was sent to support Philip Sheridan. They attacked the Confederates and won.  However, Sheridan–at the behest of Grant–relieved Warren of command.  While Warren should have, according to army regulations, had his day in court within 30 days, it took fourteen years because of the power and influence of Grant and Sherman.  There were multiple charges against Warren, all of which were found by the court to be groundless.  The court acquitted Warren of all charges after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses, including Grant and Sheridan themselves.  However, Warren’s exoneration was not made public until after his death.  He never knew his reputation had been restored and was buried without military honors. 

Thomas Francis Meagher (August 3, 1823 – July 1, 1867) was much more than the man who organized the famous Irish Brigade during the Civil War. If anyone was ever a born revolutionary and born to fight it was Thomas Meagher.

Learn more about this Union General as Baltimore Civil War Roundtable member and writer Frank A. Armiger presents Thomas Meagher and the Irish at the BCWRT meeting om Tuesday, May 28, 2024’ The meeting begins at 7:30p.m. at the Parkville Senior Center, 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. (Enter parking lot from Hiss Ave. Use rear entrance to Center.)

Frank Armiger is a native of the Baltimore area. He was born in South Baltimore and grew up in north Anne Arundel County. He currently resides in Timonium with his wife Susan. Frank is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University where he earned a BA in Business and Industrial Engineering. He is currently self-employed as a health care antifraud consultant specializing in Medicare and Medicaid detection and prevention. Frank is a long time Civil War buff dating back to the Centennial celebration. He is particularly interested in the Battle of Gettysburg and has visited the battlefield many times over the past 50+ years. Frank is the Editor of the Maryland Line, the newsletter of the Maryland Military Historical Society (MDMHS) and the organizations Vice President.  He is also the President of the Curtis B Vickery Round Table of Military History where he has been a regular speaker.

Remember, come join us on as Frank A. Armiger presents Thomas Meagher and the Irish at the BCWRT meeting om Tuesday, May 28, 2024’ If you can’t attend in person, register for the Zoom at:

 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwudu2orz0iHNXGxrvsMSOktxpeJMBsbi5v

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

                                

                     

          Frank A. Armiger                                             Thomas F.Meagher  

MINUTES

Our May meeting was our 465th.  The meeting had 18 registrants and 14 participants–4 in person attendees and 10 who attended through Zoom.

 

Our speaker was Dr. Holly A. Pinheiro Jr., an assistant professor of African American history at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Dr. Pinheiro spoke on the challenges and hardships that African American soldiers and their families faced during the war.

 

Dr. Pinheiro is the author of The Families’ Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice, which examines the histories of 185 free-born soldiers from Philadelphia who served in the 3rd, 6th, and 8th USCT.  The book analyzes the experiences not only of the soldiers themselves, but of their families as well, and covers the postwar decades as well as the war itself.  All told, Dr. Pinheiro said, The Families’ Civil War touches on the lives of nearly 1,000 people.  

 

Dr. Pinheiro chose Philadelphia as the focus of the book because he believed it to be the ideal city in which to examine northern, free-born African Americans who lived in a city with volatile racial politics. In 1860, Philadelphia had one of the most important free northern African American communities.  During the decades before the war, there had been a great deal of racial hostility, including large scale race riots in which Black homes, schools, businesses, and churches were burned.  At the same time, Philadelphia also had some of the North’s most prominent abolitionist networks.  Camp William Penn, bordering the city, was the largest training camp for African American recruits.  

 

Dr. Pinheiro argued that the military service of African Americans in the war has rightfully received a good deal of scholarly attention.  However, he said, the effects of this service on the families at home have been far less studied.  These families often suffered severely.  Before the war, they had already been struggling economically due to racial discrimination.  During the war, the entry of able-bodied men into military service often greatly intensified their economic hardship.  In some cases, this situation did not end with the war itself–it spanned multiple generations. If their loved ones were killed or mortally wounded in battle, or died of disease, the families were left to fend for themselves permanently.  In other cases, veterans who returned with severe physical, emotional, and/or psychological problems largely relied on their families to care for them.  In addition, invalid veterans–or the surviving relatives of soldiers who had died–often had great difficulty obtaining government pensions.  

 

Dr. Pinheiro said that there is a wealth of primary sources concerning the fate of African American soldiers and their families, including Civil War pension records, military service records, regimental histories, published memoirs by USCT soldiers, city directories, the federal census, public speeches by prominent individuals, Union League organizational records, and newspapers (white as well as African American).  

 

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Dr. Pinheiro said, African American service in the war was downplayed.  In response, some black veterans made it their mission to publicize their service and published their own accounts and histories of African American participation in the war.  Among them were William W. Brown, William J. Simmons, Alexander H. Newton, Joseph T. Wilson, and George W. Williams.  Dr. Pinheiro said that The Families’ Civil War builds on the work of these men.

The border state of Maryland was not the scene of large number of Civil War battles, however, some of those battles (like Monocracy) had a major impact on the status of the war in general and the ideology of the entire nation. One such battle was Fox’s Gap.

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. as we feature author Curtis L. Older in a presentation of his book, Hood's Defeat Near Fox's Gap: Prelude to Emancipation. The meeting will take place at the Parkville Senior Center, 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. (Enter parking lot from Hiss Ave. Use rear entrance to Center.)

Curtis Older details this action, part of the September 14, 1862 Battle of South Mountain, rebuffing a significant amount of incorrect material published about this battle, this new account of the battle of South Mountain gives the reader the opportunity to re-examine and re-interpret the Maryland campaign. As a prelude to the Battle of Antietam, The United States ultimately received Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

One can order autographed hardbound copies of the Hood's Defeat Near Fox's Gap: Prelude to Emancipation for $20 and delivered to your home via Curt Older, 2417 Kinmere Drive, Gastonia, NC 28056.

Remember, come join us on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. as we feature author Curtis L. Older in a presentation of his book, Hood's Defeat Near Fox's Gap: Prelude to Emancipation.

If you can't attend in person, register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvcu2qrD0jGNFAFUUs1kwE6jlfY-JbtDIC

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

 

 

Minutes

Our April meeting was our 476th.  The meeting had 7 in-person attendees and 13 participants through Zoom.  There were also 3 nonmembers–Cliff Dawson and Dave and Luke Rodgers–who attended and expressed interest in becoming members.

 

Our speaker was Curtis Older.  Mr. Older discussed issues related to the Battle of South Mountain–particularly Fox’s Gap–covered in his book entitled: Hood’s Defeat Near Fox’s Gap: Prelude to Emancipation.  Mr. Older has spent the past 35 years researching Fox’s Gap (including its history outside of the Civil War), and has written several books on the subject.  

 

Mr. Older discussed his research methods, particularly the use of evidence.  He cited rules laid down by Elizabeth Shown Mills in her book entitled Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian.  These included: 1.) documentation (statements of fact which are not common knowledge must be supported by a reference) and 2.) analyzing evidence (the most reliable accounts of an event are from those with firsthand knowledge of the event).  

 

Mr. Older said he found no evidence to support the contention of Ezra Carman, Joseph Harsh, and others that Confederate General John Bell Hood and his two brigades attacked near the Wise Cabin or Miller’s Field.  However, he found three primary sources that provided evidence that a soldier in the 23rd North Carolina was responsible for the death of Union General Jesse Reno–not a soldier from a unit under Hood’s command, as has been claimed.  Mr. Older said that a quote from Union General Jacob Cox supports the notion that the battle ended at “Cox’s Intersection”--an area half a mile west of Fox’s Gap, at the intersection of Moser Road and Park Hall Road.  

 

Mr. Older said that many authors don’t emphasize the role of artillery in the battle, arguing that Hood couldn’t have “taken” any land in the area of the Wise Field and Wood Road, given the presence of Durrell’s six-gun Union battery as well as an additional six Union cannon in the area.  He emphasized the importance of the mountainous terrain on which the battle was fought, stating that the “Crest of the Heights,” the highest point on Moser Road (and west of the Mountain House on Turner’s Gap), is critical in identifying where Hood and his men were on the battlefield.  

 

Mr. Older argued that other authors have not adequately identified the Union objective in the battle, saying that that objective was NOT to go north along Wood Road and attack at Turner’s Gap.  He cited a quote from Union General Alfred Pleasonton in which Pleasonton said there were two roads–one on the right and one on the left of Turner’s Gap–that would “...assist us materially in turning the enemy’s position on both flanks.”  Mr. Older identified these as Zittlestown Road and Moser Road–not the Old Hagerstown Road nor the Old Sharpsburg Road.  These two roads connect with the Old National Pike west of Turner’s Gap.  With Union troops taking either of these intersections, combined with their control of Cox’s Intersection, the Confederates would be forced to retreat through Boonsboro.  

 

In his analysis of Hood’s advance, Mr. Older noted that Hood said he wanted to get as far as possible toward the Union left flank.  Mr. Older said that previous authors misunderstood Hood’s

 

statement that “The night closed in…with the mountain, on the right, within our lines.”  ALL other authors, he said, interpreted this to mean “with the mountain on the (Confederate) right flank within our lines.” But, he argued, what Hood actually meant was “with the mountain on ‘my’ right within our lines.”  The mountain on Hood’s right, Mr. Older said, was actually the West Ridge.  

 

Mr. Older argued that a “solid case” can be made that the battle of South Mountain, rather than Antietam, was what prompted Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862.  On September 13, the day before South Mountain was fought, the president had said he would issue the preliminary proclamation if the Union won the next battle.  According to Mr. Older, South Mountain was an “overwhelming” Union victory while Antietam was merely a draw.  He also noted that four presidents were at Fox’s Gap “on business”–George Washington, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, and Abraham Lincoln.