Angel Glow

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Eireann

Here’s an anecdote of the battle of Shiloh I’d never heard before, with a really neat modern conclusion.

Some of the Shiloh soldiers sat in the mud for two rainy days and nights waiting for the medics to get around to them. As dusk fell the first night, some of them noticed something very strange: their wounds were glowing, casting a faint light into the darkness of the battlefield. Even stranger, when the troops were eventually moved to field hospitals, those whose wounds glowed had a better survival rate and had their wounds heal more quickly and cleanly than their unilluminated brothers-in-arms. The seemingly protective effect of the mysterious light earned it the nickname “Angel’s Glow.”

In 2001, almost one hundred and forty years after the battle, seventeen-year-old Bill Martin was visiting the Shiloh battlefield with his family. When he heard about the glowing wounds, he asked his mom – a microbiologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service who had studied luminescent bacteria that lived in soil – about it.

via Why Some Civil War Soldiers Glowed in the Dark – Mental Floss.

St Louis in Wartime

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Eireann

I’d procrastinated on reading this article, mainly due to its length, but it’s a fascinating read and entertainingly written – well worth the investment in time. While it eventually settles down into an examination of the German immigrant population and its effect on the border state, it’s introduced by a look at the city that Sherman and Grant called home, and by this rather fabulous summary:

The leading city in one of the nation’s most populous slaveholding states, St. Louis was a strategic prize like no other. Not only the largest settlement beyond the Appalachians, it was also the country’s second-largest port, commanding the Mississippi River as well as the Missouri, which was then navigable as far upstream as what is now the state of Montana. It was the eastern gateway to the overland trails to California. Last but far from least, the city was home to the St. Louis Arsenal, the biggest cache of federal arms in the slave states, a central munitions depot for Army posts between New Orleans and the Rockies. Whoever held St. Louis held the key to the Mississippi Valley and perhaps even to the whole American West.

The city and its surrounding state stood at a crossroads between the cultures of the North and the South, between slavery and freedom, between an older America and a new one. The old Missouri flourished in the region known as Little Dixie, the rich alluvial lands where black field hands toiled in the hemp and cotton fields. The new one could be found in St. Louis, where block after block of red-brick monotony— warehouses, manufacturing plants, and office buildings—stretched for miles along the bluffs above the river. Each year, more than 4,000 steamboats shouldered up to the wharves, vessels with names like War Eagle, Champion, Belle of Memphis, and Big St. Louis. The smoke from their coal-fired furnaces mingled with the thick black clouds belching from factory smokestacks, so that on windless days the sun shone feebly through a dark canopy overhead.

(Hands up if you knew that “second largest port” fact. My hand is decidedly lowered!)

Family Trees

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Eireann

Despite my posting this on April Fool’s Day (a “holiday” which I loathe) it’s entirely true:

Given how apoplectic J.C. was at the surrender negotiations, at the impropriety of Sherman’s offering only one glass of whiskey, we can only imagine how he’d react to his cross-dressing, sex-change-seeking, terrible actor of a great-grandson.

Bunny was immortalised (or at least had his infamy renewed) by Bill Murray in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood biopic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Breckinridge

Counter-feat

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Eireann

The New York Times’ “Disunion” feature keeps presenting essays on topics I considered for my podcast! Luckily (unluckily?) I couldn’t find a gap for the story of this master counterfeiter, whose story is notable. (Ahem, little money-printing joke, there…)

Upham didn’t look like a counterfeiter. He didn’t hide out in the woods or perform daring jailbreaks. He didn’t run from the police. He was a respectable small-business owner and devoted Northern patriot. He ran a store that sold stationery, newspapers and cosmetics. But he was also an entrepreneur with an eye for easy profit, and the Civil War offered the business opportunity of a lifetime: the ability to forge money without breaking the law. Confederate currency, issued by a government that was emphatically not recognized by the Union, had no legal status in the North, which meant Upham could sell his “fac-similes” with impunity.

Over the next 18 months he built the most notorious counterfeiting enterprise of the Civil War — one that also happened to be perfectly legal. His forgeries flooded the South, undermining the value of the Confederate dollar and provoking enraged responses from Southern leaders. He waged war on the enemy’s currency, serving his pocketbook and his country at the same time.

via A Counterfeiting Conspiracy? – NYTimes.com.

More Hockey Connections

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Eireann

After the Columbus Blue Jacket post yesterday, I noticed this article about then-coach Ken Hitchcock. Turns out Hitch was a Civil War buff even before he was hired by the team.

When the NHL locked out the 2004-05 season, Hitchcock made short commutes to Princeton, N.J., to do some voluntary work with the Princeton University hockey team. And he took that as an excuse to sit in on lectures presented by the eminent historian, Dr. James McPherson, who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work on the Civil War. One of McPherson’s books, Battle Cry of Freedom, is credited with the renaissance in interest about the conflict. Another of his prizewinning books is entitled: For Cause and Comrades. Why men fought in the Civil War.

Hitchcock also lunches, on odd occasions, with Jeff Shaara, a best-selling author of copiously researched historical novels. Shaara is best known for completing the Civil War trilogy that was started by his late father, Michael Shaara, whose masterpiece about Gettysburg, The Killer Angels, is a must read in the genre.

“I’ve had lunch a couple of times with the coach,” Jeff Shaara said in December. “We’re not close friends or anything because we don’t know each other that well. But I can say I enjoy his company, his interests. What I do is explore characters. He asks me about Grant, Lee, Jackson and other commanders. It makes sense from a logical point of view. The business he’s in, leadership is everything. You can talk all you want about strategy and tactics, but leadership is everything.”

I’ve read that Maple Leafs’ GM Brian Burke is also a buff. He’d be more than welcome to stop in to our Toronto Civil War Round Table events, hint hint!

http://civilwarcavalry.com/?p=435

The Hockey Connection

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Eireann

Being a longtime hockey fan and Civil War buff, I was aware (and tickled) that the Calgary Flames were so-called because Atlanta had once been burned by Sherman. I’ve fallen out of the hockey habit in the past few years, though, so I hadn’t realised that the Columbus Blue Jackets were named in honour of Ohio’s Civil War service. I’m tickled again! Even more so to hear the team fires a replica Napoleon at home games for effect.

The team logo is a stylized version of the flag of Ohio, which is a pennant. Previously used as an alternate logo, it became the primary logo as part of a Reebok-sponsored redesign for the 2007–08 season.[58] The team’s jerseys feature an alternate logo, a Civil War cap with crossed hockey sticks, on the shoulders.

A specialised branch of service, to be sure. I have images of the Canadian Corps all attired with crossed sticks on their képis.

The Blue Jackets unveiled a new third jersey in the 2010-2011 season, using a vintage hockey sweater design. In the spirit of its Civil War theme, it sports a union blue base with white stripes on the sleeves and on the shoulder padding. The crest features the team’s Civil War-era cannon. It honors the team’s founder, John H. McConnell, with his initials on the neckline, as well as its slogan “We fight, we march!” on the inside of the collar.

Sadly, with Calgary’s claiming the Flames and the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg, we’ve lost the promise of ever seeing BLUE JACKETS BURN ATLANTA as a headline. I suppose that wad was shot in 1864.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Blue_Jackets#Team_name

Escape Artist

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Eireann

Last month I watched the Bresson classic, A Man Escaped for the umpteenth time. The true story of a French Resistance member who pulled a MacGyver-like escape from a heavily-guarded Gestapo prison. Everytime I watch it, I’m struck anew at my total lack of resourcefulness or tenacity; Should I ever be imprisoned by Nazis, I’m done for. The escapes (note plural – they’re always plural for fellows like these) that John Pierson undertook weren’t quite as gobsmacking (few were), but show such determination as to be noteworthy.

Several days later, on March 18, they were recaptured by Confederates that had “orders to arrest any one, white or black, that was going north or south, east or west, that did not have papers to show who they were or where they were going,” Pierson noted. The Confederates transported Pierson and his comrades to a prison in nearby Jackson. “The jail was made of wood and lined with heavy timbers set endways and driven full of nails, so that a mouse could not have escaped. We fared well and had many visitors. All seemed sociable enough except one schoolma’am from the northern states. She thought we ought to be hung, possibly to keep herself from hanging.”

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/the-great-escape/?ref=opinion%2F%3Fsmid%3Dfb-disunion

The Blue Ridge Corps

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Eireann

Since the Ken Burns series rekindled public interest in the war, every diary keeper, North and South, whose writings were stashed away in attics has become a published author. Most of these accounts are repetitive or uninspiring, but I’m sure each one has at least one anecdote of interest. This account contained a term I’d not heard before, but which tickled me:

Charlie wrote about deserters and their ease of leaving the army by joining what he calls the “Blue Ridge Corps,” men who slipped over the Blue Ridge Mountains to escape army life.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20120114/NEWS01/201130314/Pieces-Past-Book-compiling-soldier-s-letters-provides-insight-into-Civil-War?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Connecticut Resistance

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Eireann

I am guilty of forgetting that the Union was not a big swath of blue: There were a number of dissenters to the war not named Greeley or Vallandigham. Turns out, a great many of them lived in Connecticut.

…when people think of the Civil War, very few people think of Connecticut right away. When people think of history and Connecticut they usually think of America’s Revolution and the Colonial Period.

“But Connecticut actually has a very deep Civil War history,” Mr. Warshauer said, and it wasn’t completely pro-Union or completely Abolitionist in sentiment.

“There was a lot of disagreement in Connecticut over the question of Southern secession,” he said. “We were not primarily an Abolitionist state. In fact, we were probably the most anti-Abolitionist state of all the New England states.”

http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/wiltonbulletin/news/localnews/113206-connecticuts-role-in-the-civil-war-history-holds-some-surprises.html

Parole

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Eireann

This article was short, but very helpful. I’m familiar with the prisoner exchanges and the idea of surrendered soldiers being “paroled”, but had never realised the “make an effort” component of it:

Following centuries-old precedent, the United States and Confederate governments used parole and prisoner exchange early in the Civil War, relying on the honor of the parties involved to comply with any terms.

On January 27th, 1862, in return for parole, Col. Milton J. Ferguson of Wayne County gave a pledge of honor to obtain the release of Lieutenant Colonel George W. Neff of Kentucky within 60 days or to surrender to the jailer in Ohio County.

In the interim, Ferguson could neither return to active service against the United States nor provide any aid or information to its enemies.

http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=23360

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