Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table Newsletter

February 2012, Volume 9, Issue 2

Speaker:         Phillip Greenwalt

Topic:             “Orphans of the East: George Hume “Maryland” Steuart and The Maryland Confederates”

When:             Monday, February 13, 2012

Location:        Brock’s Riverside Grill

Times:            Social Begins 6:00 pm, Dinner 6:45 pm, Meeting Begins 7:30 pm

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Abstract On Our Scheduled February Speaker Phillip Greenwalt

By Jim Smithfield

This month’s scheduled speaker is Phillip Greenwalt,  He is currently employed as a historian with the National Park Service at George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Westmoreland County, Virginia and Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Charles County, Maryland.   Phillip Greenwalt graduated in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in history from Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia.  Then, in 2011 he graduated with a masters in American History from George Mason University.   He’s been with the National Park Service for the last four years, following a summer as an interpretive historical intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.  Phillip Greenwalt currently resides in Montross, Virginia, along with his wife Adel, who is an elementary school teacher.

Phillip Greenwalt’s presentation highlights the contributions of Marylanders to the Southern Cause.   Although, considered a Southern state, Maryland did not secede from the Union and reactions about the allegiance of the state were questioned by both sides.  However, countless native Marylanders chose to cast their lot with the South.  In the process they sacrificed everything; homes, and the chance to return to their homes.  During the war they lost loved ones, and their families and friends split.   The commitment, zeal, and battlefield record of these loyal Marylanders, with Steuart as the specific example, is unsurpassed in the Confederate military of the east.  Even though they were “orphans” from their home state, they adopted the cause of the Southern Confederacy in earnest, and never wavered from their commitment to their new “home.”

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Lieutenant George Chandler, 5th Maine Infantry

Presented By Chuck Heath

A Review of Our January Program by Greg Mertz

Chuck Heath knew very little about his family history!  However, that all changed after his retirement.  Chuck was able to trace his roots back to the Mayflower and far beyond because his family came from England rather than war-torn portions of Europe where many of the genealogical-type documents had been destroyed.  His discovery of a Civil War ancestor sparked a new passion and Heath now visits schools and groups of seniors, donning a ‘Union Officer’s Uniform’ and giving a power-point supported talk, portraying his forefather in the first-person. . .

Chuck Heath’s ancestor was George Chandler, a member of the 5th Maine Infantry, which was assigned to the Sixth Corps!  It was one of the first units raised after the firing on Fort Sumter and served from June 1861 to July 1864, participating in all of the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac until the veterans of the unit were pulled out of the Petersburg siege lines. The regiment’s story is memorialized in the 5th Maine Regiment Memorial Hall and Museum on Peaks Island near Portland, Maine.

George Chandler was the son of a carpenter, and George was himself a carpenter’s apprentice.  His mother had been a teacher and she taught her family at home.  George’s education and his skills in drafting plans for carpentry projects gave him some specialized abilities that were put to good use in the Union Army and they earned him a relatively high rank upon his enlistment.  Even though the 5th Maine had been in the field for more than a year before George joined the regiment at Harrison’s Landing, just east of Richmond, on August 15, 1862.  Chandler became a sergeant and saw his first combat during the Maryland Campaign at Crampton’s Gap.  After the Battle of Fredericksburg, George was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.  Overall,

Chandler’s field service as an officer was limited to the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg Campaigns.  In the aftermath of the Gettysburg Campaign, Chandler’s career on the battle front came to an end.  This occurred as the Federal army advanced back into Virginia, the 5th Maine found itself near White Plains (today called “The Plains) on July 24, 1863.  This area of White Plains was also in the heart of John S. Mosby’s Confederacy.  Chandler was foraging for food near White Plains when a band of about eight of Mosby’s Rangers captured him.  Chandler was one of twenty officers escorted by Fountain Beattie -- Mosby’s most intimate friend – they went first to the Bull Run Mountains, and then on to Gordonsville, from which he was taken by rail to Richmond and to its notorious Libby Prison.

Prisoners were confined to the top floor of the three-story former tobacco warehouse converted into an inadequate prison for some 1200 - 1600 Federal officers.  The exterior walls below the prison floor were painted white to make it easier for Confederated guards to spot prisoners attempting to escape by climbing or rappelling down the sides of Libby Prison.  The second floor was kept empty and the prisoners believed that the floor contained explosives to further deter escapes.  Confederate officers had offices and guards had living quarters on the first floor.   The basement was the prison morgue.  Conditions there were awful.  Libby was overcrowded and sanitation was poor.  Food rations were small and of a poor quality. Sickness ran rampant and the death rate was high.  In the spring of 1864, the women of Richmond planted flowers outside of Libby Prison to offset the stench.

By the spring of 1864, the Confederates decided that Libby Prison was vulnerable.  One of the major objectives of the ‘Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid’ in February and March of 1864 was to liberate Federal prisoners held in Richmond prisons.  Though the cavalry raid failed, Federal horsemen reached the Richmond outer defenses.  Soon thereafter the Confederates began sending prisoners to central Georgia, and Libby would become only a temporarily holding facility of prisoners for the remainder of the war.  George Chandler was one of those eventually sent away that spring.

From May 17 to July 29, 1864, Chandler was held at Camp Oglethorpe in Macon, Georgia.  However, just as the security of Libby Prison was questioned after the Dahlgren Raid, so also was William T. Sherman’s advance on Atlanta that spring and summer!  This brought Federal troops too close to Camp Oglethorpe.  Therefore, Chandler was next sent to Savannah, Georgia, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.  Chandler’s tenure at the Savannah Prison Pen ran from July 30 to September 13, 1864.   After taking Atlanta, Sherman began his March to the Sea, heading for Savannah, and the prisoners were once again transferred.  This time Chandler was sent to the grounds of the Charleston, South Carolina City Jail, where he was confined from September 15 to October 5, 1864.   Even though the rationale for the transfer was to keep the prisoners away from Sherman’s Federal troops, interestingly Chandler and others were purposely placed in a close proximity to the Federal forces at Charleston.  They were intentionally placed in harm’s way of Federal artillery fire in an attempt to get the blue-clad gunners to stop bombarding the city.  Only when Federal authorities threatened to do the same with captured Confederate Officers did the practice end.

Chandler was moved once again, this time to a bare plot of land near Columbia, South Carolina, called Camp Sorghum, where he was retained from October 7, 1864, to February 1, 1865.  The prisoners were put to work building the stockade that would contain them, constructing quarters for the guards, and assembling crude lean-to shelters for themselves with the remaining materials. The prisoners constructed their stockade in such a way as to allow the men to escape, and Chandler did -- for four days before being captured again.  He was returned to Camp Sorghum and beaten in front of the other prisoners as an example. 

After a short stay at Camp Asylum also in Columbia, which ended on Valentine’s Day, 1865, Chandler was among a group of prisoners sent by train to Charlotte, North Carolina. The prisoners bivouacked in a field rather than an enclosure and Chandler escaped with four other officers.  They stayed with slaves and made their way to Federal forces rumored to be in the area.  Chandler was discharged on March 20, 1865.  While the war was over for Chandler, he would likely have fared even better had he stayed with his fellow prisoners at Charlotte; the men who remained continued by train to Danville and were paroled.  George Chandler would very likely have been home sooner had he not escaped.

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Graffiti House

By Jim Smithfield

During the Civil War, varied groups of both Confederate and Union soldiers had a very interesting thing in common.  That thing is that their names were written on a wall in what is today known to us as the Graffiti House.  The Graffiti House is located at Brandy Station, Virginia, and maintained through the Brandy Station Foundation..  This structure was built in 1858 and holds many fascinating stories about how the Confederate and Union soldier’s whose names came to be written on the wall.  Celebrate Culpeper's rich history one winter weekend by touring the Culpeper area and include a visit to the Graffiti House. . .

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Membership Deal

By Jim Smithfield

            We’ve still got a great deal for you? Remember that if during the course of any calendar year, you bring in two new members, we will then buy your dinner and that’s even if you choose to order from Brock’s downstairs menu. . .

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Central Virginia Battlefields Trust Presents

Battlefield Preservation Weekend; February 11th and 12

(Come out and help the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust preserve Dirt & Grass)

Join Us!  Get out of the cold for a weekend of fun at the Village 12’s Premiere Theaters and Splitsville.  Food befitting a fine restaurant and theater seating you won't want to get out of!  At the same time help preserve our areas endangered Civil War battlefields and open spaces. . .

Saturday, February 11

Come see your favorite classic movies at the Village 12’s Premiere Theaters!  Your cost: $5.00 cash donation with all proceeds benefiting the CVBT.  Saturday movies are an on-site cash donation.

•    Noon - 4pm     –  Gone With the Wind

•    4:30 - 6:30pm  –  Glory

•    7pm  -11pm     –  Gone With the Wind

 Sunday, February 12th @ 2pm - 4pm

Bowling for Battlefields at Splitsville with 100% of ticket prices benefiting the CVBT.  Ticketed Event

Covers the following:

•   Open bowling

•   Heavy Appetizers

•   Soft Drinks

•   $20.00 per person; children under 12 are free when accompanied by a paid adult.

For tickets/sponsorships, please call 540-374-0900 or visit www.cvbt.org or send e-mail to comdir@cvbt.org.  Register by credit card for "Sundays Event Only" 

Sponsorships for the Bowling for Battlefields Event are Available:

 Includes: Full colored banner on each sponsored lane during the event plus for one additional week, for   

     movie and bowling event tickets, and recognition in all promotional materials; including e-blasts and    

     Facebook to 5000+ people. Table set up for promotions upon request. For tickets & sponsorships, please

     call 540-374-0900, visit www.cvbt.org or email comdir@cvbt.org.   Sponsorship cost is $500.00.  The CVBT

     is a 501(c)(3) organization. . .

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Remember: Save A Buck - Contact Bob Jones To Order Your Dinner In Advance

To Confirm Reservations; Telephone 540-399-1702 Or e-mail 3dognight@Bigplanet.Com

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Information Provided This Month Is From Frank Bittner Of The Anne Ella Carroll Society

Supplied By Joyce Darr

“The Case Of Anna Ella Carroll”

Summary:

Over the years since her death, American scholars have continued to deny Anna Ella Carroll any role in the Tennessee River Campaign!   This campaign was defined as the combined movement of army and naval forces down the Tennessee River Valley in February 1862, commanded by Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote.  The campaign resulted in the capture of Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson on February 6 and 16, 1862, respectively.  As Major General William T. Sherman stated, these were the “first real” victories for the Union in the Civil War and they constituted the major line of invasion into the Confederacy by Union forces in the West.

Scholars have continued to question Carroll’s advisory role within the Lincoln administration itself, i.e., given that only four letters are extant between Lincoln and Carroll.  In particular, writers have most often misstated the facts of an August 14, 1862, letter to Lincoln concerning a request for $50,000 for a publication program.   A July 2nd draft by Carroll confirms her intent.   Writers have also failed to note letters written to Carroll by other officials and members of the Lincoln administration.   It is also an indisputable fact that over the years many of Carroll’s letters have been stolen or destroyed.

Given the above, this article demonstrates that:

Re: The Tennessee River military campaign of 1862:

·       Anna Ella Carroll was the only one to have placed a strategic plan for the West into the hands of President  Lincoln that was adopted by his administration in January 1862.  This was implemented under War Order Number One, effective date, February 22, 1862.

·       Physical proof of the existence of her plan exists, viz., a primary document along with the statements of Carroll’s biographer Sarah Ellen Blackwell.  Blackwell explains that Carroll’s war memoranda were abstracted from congressional files, but ordered to be printed by succeeding committees from copies made from Carroll’s originals, making those official printings the same as original copies.  Carroll’s legislative files are held by the National Archives.

·       Corroborating evidence of Lincoln’s personal involvement in the planning and direction of the Tennessee River advance confirms that the administration adopted Carroll’s plan; this includes confirmation of Hollister Noble’s reading of secret agent Judge Lemuel D. Evans’s “confidential notes,” per Evans’s congressional testimony.

·       Claims by other scholars that Edwin M. Stanton was not appointed Secretary of War to implement Carroll’s plan and that Senator Benjamin F. Wade’s letter of April 4, 1876, stating this, was forged by Carroll, are inaccurate. This conclusion is based on actions taken by Lincoln, Wade, and Stanton; testimony of Asst. Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott; the report of the military committee of General E. S. Bragg hearing Carroll’s case in 1881, and the fact that these claims are not confirmed up by other facts. Further, scholars’ claims that dispute Scott’s and Wade’s actions are ultimately based on a necessary conclusion that they, being high appointed and elected officials of the U.S. government, and former Texas Chief Justice (secret agent) Lemuel D. Evans had committed perjury by submitting false testimonial letters and in oral testimony. These authors’ claims are further argued by impugning Carroll’s, Wade’s and Evans’s characters. No reasonable person would come to these conclusions. They represent a sad grasping at straws and seem based on questionable motives.

·       The major fact of Anna Ella Carroll’s claim for compensation due her from the U.S. Government for remaining monies owed under an oral agreement.  This agreement was entered into with Asst. Secty. Thomas A. Scott for her general wartime services.  Four military committees of the U.S. Congress over a period of twenty years all voted in her favor. These committees continued to

meet only because the Congress as a whole failed to pass the compensation bills that the committees had prepared and submitted for passage. There was never a dispute in the Congress as to the facts that Carroll or others claimed in her memorials. (These committees did not dispute the facts of her case, but did not recommend compensation for spurious reasons. This author has not researched for floor debates on these bills; yet Carroll’s lawyer, William Warden, wrote in private correspondence that he thought the reason the bills were not being passed was because of Carroll’s identification with the suffrage movement which supported her.  Some have speculated similarly that the reason members did not vote for Carroll’s bills was that she was the perfect example of why women should get the vote.)

Re: Anna Ella Carroll’s general involvement with the Lincoln administration is verified by Lincolns own

      words and by his quotes verifying his high regard for Carroll’s political/legal writings. . .

·       Attorney General Edward Bates demonstrated his unqualified support for Carroll’s obvious knowledge of constitutional law; her ongoing correspondence with other officials demonstrates Carroll’s activities within the Lincoln administration.

·       Carroll’s request for $50,000 is made clear by the text of her letters, all are written in her own hand writing!

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Did You Know. . .

By Jim Smithfield

that. . .although, he was not enrolled as a drummer for the Twenty-second Michigan, nine-year old Johnny Clem of Ohio received thirteen dollars pay every month?  This amount was contributed by the officers and enlisted men of the Twenty-second Michigan.  Thirteen dollars a month was the same pay as a soldier’s. . .

that. . .Tennessean, Samuel Powhatan Carter, while serving as a Major General of U.S. Volunteers, was promoted to a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy?  Carter later retired as a Rear Admiral. . .  

that. . .Senior Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet often would inspect his gun crews while wearing carpet slippers?

that. . .Commander David D. Porter rigged a fake warship to confront the enemy on the Mississippi, arming it with craved logs?  He then bluffed commanders of enemy vessels into believing they were out gunned!  It wasn’t long after doing this, that the leaders in Washington determined to make Porter’s temporary rank of Rear Admiral permanent. . .

that. . .Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart kept a full time banjo player on his headquarters staff?  On many occasions Stuart along with his mounted Brigade’s of horsemen would ride through the countryside all singing along to banjo music.  This certainly must have been a strange sight to witness, yet Stuart himself must also have been a sight to see.  Stuart rode into battle wearing a large ostrich plume stuck into his hat and a gray cape with a bright scarlet lining. .

that. . .Stuart must have looked drab by comparison, i.e., to Union Major General George Armstrong Custer, who distained clothing issued by a Quartermaster?  Custer wore a tailored uniform made of blue velvet, heavily trimmed with gold and sporting a bright red neck bandana. . .

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Upcoming RVCWRT Speaker for March 2012

By Jim Smithfield

March 12th – Virginia Morton: “Unconquerable Love: Confederate Scout Frank Stringfellow and Emma Green” 

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Who we are?

            The Drum and Bugle Newsletter is published monthly, by the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table, Post Office Box 7632, Fredericksburg, VA 22404.  Each month, The Drum and Bugle newsletter is placed on our web-site, www.RVCWRT.org.  Yearly membership dues are $30.00 for individuals, $40.00 for families, and it’s only $7.50 for students.  Membership is open to anyone interested in the study of the Civil War and the ongoing preservation of Civil War sites.