Minutes

June 2010 Meeting

By Travis Fuqua with photos by Bob Batten

On June 16, 2010, the SDCWRT was honored to have guest speaker, Mary Townsend present: “The Unknown General: Major General Peter Joseph Osterhaus” based on her book about her great-great grandfather entitled: “Yankee Warhorse: A Biography of Major General Peter Osterhaus”. Mrs. Townsend has spent the last several years researching her ancestor. Since he was a general, one would assume there would be a generous amount of information, but this was not the case and in fact, Mrs. Townsend only had some family documents and various other sources which were often contradictory. She sorted through the information to create her biography. She has discovered that he was amongst the best German immigrant soldiers of the war and had several key roles in the Western Theatre, but remains largely forgotten.

Mrs. Townsend and Major General Osterhaus

Major General Osterhaus was born in Koblenz in the Rhineland on January 4, 1823. After the Napoleonic Wars of the previous decade, the Rhineland had been incorporated into Prussia which would largely shape the future general’s life. Osterhaus had wanted to become a history professor, but the new Prussian laws mandated that he attend a military academy and he thus attended the Berlin Military Academy where he became a Prussian. Osterhaus was not fond of the Prussians and took part in the 1848 Revolution against Prussian rule. It was there he gained his military experience while fighting the Prussians, but when the Revolution failed, he was forced to flee to the United States in 1849 where he later became a citizen. He became a businessman in Illinois and joined the Republican Party. He once met Abraham Lincoln at a dinner in 1856. In 1860, he moved his wife and five young children to St. Louis.

In April of 1861, after Fort Sumter, Osterhaus joined the 2nd Missouri Volunteer Infantry and was so popular amongst his men that in the course of two weeks he was elected to captain and then major. On the last day of July he was appointed acting colonel of 12th Missouri Volunteer Infantry by Frémont. His deep voice, sense of humor, and great stature (6 feet 2 inches), likely contributed to his great popularity. He was helped by the fact that he was bilingual in a regiment composed of German immigrants. His first action was in the Missouri Campaign under Brigadier General Nathaniel B. Lyon where he fought at Camp Jackson on May 10, Booneville on June 17, and Wilson’s Creek on August 10. He did well in these battles and by the end of the year, he was appointed colonel.

The following year would see Osterhaus in the Arkansas Campaign under Major General Samuel R. Curtis. In January, he was made acting brigadier general. On March 7 and 8, he fought at Pea Ridge, Arkansas where he arguably saved Missouri from being taken by the Confederacy. Here, Osterhaus succeeded in disorganizing 8,000 Confederate soldiers (about half of their force) with 600 Federal soldiers by catching them during their attempted encirclement of the main Federal force. He did this by accident when he stumbled upon them and decided to ambush them by firing upon them from the nearby woods. The Confederate leadership in this detachment was killed and the soldiers fell in to disarray. With the majority of Confederate forces out of action, Federal forces won the battle and Missouri was saved.

In the middle of the year, Osterhaus went with General Samuel Curtis on his cross-country march which gave him valuable experience for his future involvement in Sherman’s March to the Sea. On this march, however, he contracted malaria and was not able to rejoin the fight until December. By then, he had been appointed brigadier general. In 1863, he was involved in the Vicksburg Campaign under General Grant. He fought at Arkansas Post on January 11, the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1, the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, the Battle of Big Black River on May 17, the two assaults on Vicksburg on May 19 and 22, and the siege of Jackson on July 9-16. Later in the year, he was involved in the Chattanooga Campaign fighting at the Cane Creek Skirmishes on October 20 and 21, and the Tuscumbia Skirmishes on October 26 and 27.

Not long after this, Osterhaus received word that his wife was near death and he rushed home in time for her funeral. He then made arrangements for the care of his children and returned to the war in time to fight at the Battle of Lookout Mountain on November 24, the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, and the Battle of Ringgold Gap on November 27. In this campaign, he served under General Sherman who came to like Osterhaus.

In the following year, Osterhaus would be involved in the Atlanta Campaign under General Sherman which involved his famous March to the Sea. Before that, however, Osterhaus again had malaria. In Sherman’s campaign, Osterhaus fought in the Battle of Resaca on May 14, the Battle of Dallas on May 28, the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, and the Battle of Jonesboro on August 31. In July, President Lincoln appointed Osterhaus major general against the desire of Sherman who did not want any promotions until after the capture of Atlanta. Lincoln did this because he wanted the German vote in the coming presidential election of 1864. When Sherman reacted, Lincoln noted that he only made the former temporary rank permanent. From that point on, however, Sherman no longer liked Osterhaus.

In the final year of the war, Osterhaus was transferred to the Mobile Bay Campaign in March and April of 1865 as the chief of staff for General Edward Canby where his experience in artillery was invaluable to the far less experienced general. With the war over, Osterhaus was made military governor of Mississippi in May. He was mustered out of the army on January 16, 1866.

In June of 1866, Osterhaus became the American Consul to Lyon, France and was there during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Here he found himself in a curious position when as a representative of his adopted nation which remained neutral, he witnessed a conflict between his former home and one of her enemies. In 1877, he left Lyon and returned to the recently unified Germany where he became a businessman. Later, he was the American Vice Consul in Manheim from 1899 to 1901.

He remained in Germany for the remainder of his life except for a short trip to the United States at the turn of the 1900s. One of his sons, Hugo, remained in the United States where he became an admiral and commanded the Atlantic Fleet under President Taft and was active in the Great War. Some of his other sons and daughters followed their father to Europe where a few of his sons had success in the German Army. With the Great War, Osterhaus would have seen his family on opposing sides of the conflict. Major General Peter Osterhaus died in Duisburg on January 2, 1917 at the age of 93 and was buried in Koblenz.

Mrs. Townsend went on to explain why Osterhaus has not been remembered and she noted that unlike his contemporaries, Osterhaus did not promote himself or write a memoir. He wrote a very short paper, but this hardly compares to others. He also did not have many political connections unlike his contemporaries. Due to these reason, Osterhaus’ great accomplishments were only recovered through the diligent work of his great-great granddaughter.

May 2010 Meeting

By Travis Fuqua with Photographs by Bob Batten

On May 19, 2010, Mike Schooling presented “Heritage Defense: Sons of Confederate Veterans”. Mr. Schooling is a member of both the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Sons of Union Veterans. He is involved with the Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC), which is the legal arm of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The purpose of the SLRC is to protect southern heritage.

Mr. Schooling

The majority of the SLRC advocacy presented by Mr. Schooling involved the public display of the Confederate battle flag on clothing and personal articles. One case was that of Timothy Castorina of Kentucky who was disciplined by his high school principal for refusing to turn his T-shirt, which had a Confederate flag, inside-out. The SLRC represented Castorina in court. In another case, Jacqueline Duty of Kentucky was prevented from going to her senior prom because her gown had a Confederate battle flag pattern. The SLRC represented her in court and won. Another case was of the DuPont Seven who were seven workers at the DuPont factory in Virginia who were disciplined by management for wearing Confederate symbols to work. The issue went to court and lost and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

In addition to the SLRC, Mr. Schooling presented on his trip to H.M.S “Warrior” in Portsmouth, England. The “Warrior” was the first iron-hulled warship in the world and was commissioned in 1861. She was built in response to the iron-plated (but wooden-hulled) French “La Gloire” of 1860 as there was a fear of a French invasion.

She is 420 feet long and displaces 9,200 long tons. She was powered by a horizontal trunk engine rated at 1,250 H.P. turning a single screw and had all of the machinery below the waterline for protection against enemy fire. There were ten boilers. She was among the fastest ships at that time with a top speed of 14.5 knots under steam alone and 17.5 knots with steam and sail. She was armed with 42 guns—26 muzzle-loading 68-pounder guns, 10 rifled breech loading (RBL) 110-pounder guns, 4 RBL 40-pounder guns, and 2 RBL 20-pounder guns. She also carried various arms for the crew. Her iron hull was protected in certain areas by an iron belt 4 ½ inches thick and backed by 18 inches of teak. Upon her completion, she was the most powerful and advanced warship the world had yet seen. Her total coast was £357,291 in 1861, the equivalent of about $1,750,000. By comparison, the Union ironclad “Monitor” of 1862 cost $275,000.

H.M.S. "Warrior"

During the American Civil War, she occasionally served as a deterrent to American and Confederate naval forces who might have taken the fight to British waters. Within a few years of her commissioning, however, the “Warrior” was made obsolete by rapidly advancing technology. She was removed from front-line service in the 1870s having never fired a shot in anger, and was then used as a storage hulk and depot ship among other roles before being neglected until the 1970s. By then she was Britain’s only surviving ironclad and beginning in 1979, the ship was restored to her original appearance by 1987. Today, the “Warrior” is open to tourists.

The “Warrior” is an excellent example of mid-nineteenth century naval engineering. Despite being much larger and vastly more powerful than anything produced in the United States during the Civil War-era, the “Warrior”, nonetheless, provides an example of what it may have been like aboard similar American ironclads such as the “Monitor” and “New Ironsides”.

April 2010 Meeting

By Travis Fuqua

On April 21, 2010, Gene Armistead presented “Charles Stewart”. It is a common belief that before the Civil War, there were no admirals. Many considerer the famous David G. Farragut to be the first admiral in the United States Navy, but Charles Stewart, a remarkable man in his own day, was actually the first American admiral. Today, Stewart has been largely forgotten, but if one were to ask a Civil War admiral who was the best officer, however, they would state it was Stewart.

Stewart was born in Philadelphia on July 28, 1778. It was claimed that in his youth he was acquainted with General Washington. At the age of thirteen, he entered the merchant marine as a cabin boy. He rose quickly and by the end of the decade, he was in command of the only American merchant ship allowed in Japan. On March 9, 1798, during the Quasi-War (1798-1800), Stewart was commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Navy. He was placed on the “United States” (one of the original six frigates) for a cruise to the West Indies. He was then given command of the 12-gun schooner “Experiment” on July 16, 1800 and captured three French ships and liberated an American ship captured by the French. Stewart also saved several Spanish civilians stranded from a wrecked ship and was later rewarded by the King of Spain.

After the Quasi-War, Stewart survived the naval reductions of President Jefferson and was given command of the “Chesapeake” in 1801 and then the “Constellation” (not the one today) in 1802. In the First Barbary War (1801-1805), Stewart was given command of the 16-gun brig “Syren” and sent to the Mediterranean. There, he took part in the destruction, on February 16, 1803, of the American frigate “Philadelphia”, which had been captured. Here, he worked closely with his old friend, Stephen Decatur. Stewart became the senior United States Navy officer afloat in 1804 and was named master commandant. He also took part in the first Marine assault outside the Western Hemisphere in Tripoli. Later, Stewart was given command of the “Essex” in 1805.

After the First Barbary War, Stewart survived further reductions to the Navy by President Jefferson, and in fact, was promoted to captain. Later, however, he was furloughed and went back to the merchant marine where he did well and became quite wealthy. With the outbreak of the War of 1812, Stewart sought a return to the Navy and with William Bainbridge advised President Madison against gathering the Navy in one port for it would have been blockaded by the British and America would have been helpless. The two were said to have saved the United States Navy from certain destruction. Stewart was given command of the “Argus”, the “Hornet”, and then the “Constellation” (not the one today). Stewart was a popular captain, because he was the only captain who did not use flog.

Since the “Constellation” was blockaded in the Chesapeake, Stewart was given command of the famous “Constitution” in Boston. He sailed on December 31, 1813 by disguising the ship as a British one. While at Boston for repairs at the end of 1814, Stewart condemned the Hartford Convention—a scheme by New England Federalists to secede from the union as they did not agree with the War of 1812. The failure of this convention led to the discrediting of the Federalist Party. Stewart commanded the “Constitution” longer than any other man. In early 1815, he had some of the greatest American naval success of the war. The Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812 had been signed the last week of 1814, but the United States Senate was yet to ratify the treaty and technically the state of war remained. On February 20, 1815, Stewart sighted two British ships—the H.M.S. “Cyane” and H.M.S. “Levant”. He engaged both of them and captured them, the first time since 1695 that one ship captured two Royal Navy ships at the same time. Curiously, the Treaty of Ghent had been ratified by the Senate a few days before, but as with the Battle of New Orleans, communications were slow and Stewart did not find out until April 28. He thus returned to Boston on May 15 to huge celebrations.

Stewart received a gold medal from Congress and earned the nicknames “Old Ironsides” and the “American Nelson”. Later that year, he briefly saw action in the Second Barbary War. In 1816, President Madison offered to make him the Secretary of War, but he declined for he did not wish to give up his naval career. That year, he was made Commodore (a functioning rank) of the Mediterranean squadron and served there until 1820 on the 74-gun ship-of-the-line “Franklin”. Whilst in the Mediterranean, he was engaged in some diplomacy. It was also on this cruise where he supported Uriah Phillip Levy—the first Jewish officer in the Navy. Several Civil War officers, including Confederate admiral Franklin Buchanan and Union admirals: David G. Farragut, Samuel F. Du Pont, and Louis M. Goldsborough served under Stewart.

From 1820 to 1824, Stewart was given command of the Pacific squadron. Whilst in the Pacific, he bought two more ships for his squadron with his own money. He also took part in some police action with Chile and Peru and served as diplomat. His essay on blockade law earned a commendation from Chief Justice John Marshall. When he returned however, he was subjected to a court marshal, but not for his conduct per se, but that of his spendthrift wife. He had married Delia Tudor in 1813 and settled on an estate named “Old Ironsides” in New Jersey. They had a son and a daughter. While he was gone on his cruises, she had gotten herself in to debt. Thus she was with him in the Pacific, but she still spent money. To make matters worse, she hid a Peruvian on board without her husband’s knowledge and when such was revealed, there was a diplomatic situation and thus the court marshal. During the court marshal, however, Stewart had the support of President John Quincy Adams and was acquitted and even given a commendation for his actions in the Pacific.

Stewart soon divorced and became friendly with a Margaret Smith whom for he provided, in addition to her children and the son he later had with her. They never married. Under the administration of Andrew Jackson with whom Stewart was not friendly, he was not in command of any ship but was a Naval Commissioner from 1830 to 1832. After Jackson in 1838, he was given command of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, among the most important naval yards in the United States and stayed there until 1841. After, he was given command of the razee (a ship-of-the-line with a deck removed) “Independence”. In the 1840s, there was even talk of his running for president, but keeping his naval career was too important and before he eventually decided to run for president, the election of 1844 was over and James K. Polk had won. Stewart was not very distressed by his slowness to act.

In 1846, Stewart returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for a year. In 1851, Commodore James Barron died making Stewart the senior officer in the United States Navy. Approaching his eightieth year, Stewart returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1854 where he remained in command until 1861. On March 2, 1859, Congress made Stewart “Senior Flag Officer” as recognition for his years of distinguished service. This rank was the equivalent to rear admiral (upper half). He was active at the onset of the Civil War in 1861, but as he was in his eighty-third year, his duties were diminished. He was a consultant to President Lincoln and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles during the endeavor to relieve Fort Sumter in April 1861. Not long after he was placed on the retired list. In May of 1862, Stewart went to Philadelphia to launch the “New Ironsides”—the first American ocean-going ironclad steam warship. This was a fitting honor to the man who had commanded “Old Ironsides” the longest.

 On July 16, 1862, he was made rear admiral the same day as Farragut, but since Stewart initially had a higher rank than Farragut, Stewart was technically the first rear admiral, albeit he was on the retired list and Farragut was active. On the funeral train for President Lincoln in 1865, Stewart served as a pallbearer in Philadelphia. Rear Admiral Charles Stewart died at his estate on November 6, 1869 at the age of 91.

Although Stewart has been largely forgotten today, his achievements in his day were unparalleled. His treatises were famous. His greatest achievement for our purposes was that many Civil War naval officers served under him as midshipmen or the like early in their careers. Three United States Navy destroyers and destroyer escorts (DD-13, DD-224, and DE-238) were named in his honor.

March 2010 Meeting

By Travis Fuqua with photos by Bob Batten

            On March 17, 2010, Phil Binks presented “Long Arms of the Civil War”. Before discussing the vast collection of muskets, rifles, and carbines that were present, Mr. Binks began with a brief history of firearm development in the decades leading up to the Civil War.

            Around 1830, the percussion cap and cartridge were developed. Percussion caps replaced the flintlock ignition system in firearms. This provided a far more reliable and easier way of firing guns. The cartridge ended the necessity to load the powder and then bullet by making them in the same package. Before the advent of cartridges, muskets, which were smoothbore, were .69 caliber, but the balls they fired were .54 caliber. This, of course, did not make for an accurate weapon as the wide windage, the gap between the bullet and barrel allowed for escaped energy with the smoothbore barrel not helping in accuracy. This great windage, however, was necessary as the powder residue would accumulate in the barrel and fill in the difference. Rifles had also been around at the same time as muskets and they had better accuracy, because of the rifling which made the bullet spin.

            In the first half of the nineteenth century, France was a major center of firearm development, metallurgy, and optics. One major obstacle in the early nineteenth century was the amount of time required to load a gun. One had to put powder in the priming pan, pour the remaining powder and ball down the muzzle, use the ramrod and compact everything, aim the musket, cock the hammer, and fire. This took quite a while and was even more difficult under enemy fire. A solution to the problem was the cartridge. There were several ideas for how to make the most efficient cartridge, but most ideas failed.

Mr. Binks Illustrating the Various Bullets of the Civil War-Era

            A French officer, Claude Minié, invented the Minié ball in 1847 fallowed by the Minié rifle in 1849. Minié balls were hollow bullets with grooves. The grooves greased the barrel and greatly improved aerodynamics over regular spherical balls. These bullets, like all bullets were made in molds. At this time, experiments were also held with exploding bullets. These bullets were put into paper or cotton cartridges and later metal ones. The cartridges which were produced over the coming years took many shapes and sizes as well as powder capacities. Sniper’s sights also improved.

            In the 1850s, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis sent a commission led by Alfred Mordecai to Europe to observe these modern weapons in use. The Americans thought their arms to be superior to those of the Europeans. Despite this, during the Civil War, both the Union and Confederacy faced shortages of rifles and muskets and bought firearms for firms across Europe, from Great Britain to Austria. Muskets were still preferred by some in the Civil War as they were far cheaper than the weapons developed immediately before the war. Union general, James Ripley, who was the Federal chief of ordinance, thought that smoothbore muskets were best for the quickly growing Federal army.

            Eli Whitney had introduced the mass production of guns and regulatory gauges to the United States at the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By the Civil War, guns were mass produced with men making the guns and women and children making the cartridges. When the guns were shipped, they were stacked in crates.

The Rifles and Muskets on Display

            During the Civil War, President Lincoln was very interested in Federal weaponry and took an active role in trying out new weapons. There were many kinds of weapons that were purchased by the Federal government during the war. The Federal navy also purchased many firearms, even rifles with leather around the barrel to protect it from rust. One must question, however, whether the barrel would have rusted if water got under the leather. Hundreds of companies sold weapons to the Federal Government, of which 875,000 rifles were purchased from Springfield alone. Most of the rifles cost the government between $17.50 and $20.00 each. The Federal Government also bought numerous carbines—94,000 from Spencer, 80,000 from Sharps, and 55,000 from Burnside to name a few. Colt also sold 130,000 pistols to the Federal Government. Many other accessories were also purchased, such as 131,000 cones, 2,500,000 Sharps primer, 26,000,000 pistol rounds, and 46,000,000 .58 caliber rifle cartridges.

More Rifles and Muskets on Display

In addition to the presentation, there were also a dozen and a half original firearms from the Civil War-era on display. These were brought by Mr. Binks and others. The oldest was an 1817 flintlock common rifle manufactured in Connecticut around 1829. This rifle was called “common” because it was a plain .54 caliber muzzle loading rifle. The next gun was an 1822 Whitney musket that was cut down and used by Indians on horseback. The musket was cut down as it was easier to carry by a rider. Another was an 1842 musket. There was also a .58 caliber Belgian rifle-musket with a bayonet which could also be used as a pike against cavalry. There was also an Austrian gun with a hexagonal breech and was similar to a French .54 caliber. There was an 1855 musket with a Maynard tape primer, which used a strip of paper with primer instead of conventional copper percussion caps. This system proved unreliable for the paper was not as durable as its inventor had hoped. There was an 1861 Colt Special rifle from New Jersey. There was also an 1863 Type 2 Colt Special with a simplified sight. A Norwich contract musket, which was used by civilians, was also present. Another 1861 Colt Special was also there.

The Carbines and Accessories on Display

            Amongst the carbines, there was a Burnside carbine with a snap hook for a leather strap to be worn by cavalrymen. This was an intricate weapon made with exotic metals. Some accessories were an original Burnside cartridge box, cleaning brush, and screwdrivers. A Sharps carbine, the most purchased of the war, was also in the group as was a Gallagher carbine and another Burnside. There was also a Spencer carbine owned by Mr. Haun. This was amongst the first repeating weapons as seven rounds were placed in a tube and then loaded into butt of the carbine. There were no caps involved. This method of loading may have been ideal in calm conditions, but in the field it was different and if the carbine were hit in the stock, the rounds would explode. The same would be true if it were dropped. In addition, loading the tubes would have been difficult when under fire. These were phased out in the decade after the Civil War with the advent of trap door carbines.

            There were also some unusual guns such as a Nelson Delaney target rifle used by sharpshooters and made in Redding, Pennsylvania in the 1860s. The stock was tiger stripe maple. There was also a heavy bench rifle, which as the name implies was fired from a bench as it was too heavy to carry as it weighed close to twenty pounds. They were used by sharpshooters and were carried in wagons and not by the soldiers. This particular one was made in New York by Lowell in about 1854-1855. There was a false muzzle which allowed for cleaning and loading without wearing down the barrel. It fired a .45 caliber picket ball. Another bench rifle was present and was made in New York in the 1860s.

            Here was a fantastic array of long arms at this presentation in a fantastic illustration of all the different weapons of this type used in the Civil War.

February 2010 Meeting

By Travis Fuqua with photos by Bob Batten

            On February 17, 2010, the SDCWRT was honored to have Joseph Wagner, M.D. present on Medicine in the Civil War. Dr. Wagner was an assistant clinical professor in the department of orthopedic surgery at the University of California Los Angeles and is a member of the Los Angeles Civil War Round Table.

Dr. Wagner Beginning His Presentation

            Another common procedure in the nineteenth century was amputation. What would constitute repairable injuries today such as shattered bones, amputation was seen as the only option. The focus was to amputate as quickly as possible, because there was no anesthesia and a quick operation would save the patient pain and facilitate recovery. There was a Scottish surgeon by the name of Sir Robert Liston (1794-1847) who was famed for the rapidity of his amputations, some only taking a half minute. In one case, there was a man with an injury on his upper thigh near the hip. Liston was so quick at his amputation that he cut the fingers off his assistant, the coat tails off a spectator, and more things than that poor man’s leg. The amputees died of gangrene and the spectator died of fright—perhaps the only operation with a 300 per cent mortality rate.

            By the second third of the nineteenth century, medicine made a great leap forward with the advent of anesthesia. For centuries, man had endeavored for a solution to pain. In 1845, a Harvard dentist by the name of Gardner Q. Colton (1814-1898) gave a public demonstration in which he used nitrous oxide (laughing gas). At this demonstration, he noticed one of the participants had a leg injury, but did not feel the pain because of the gas. Another doctor, Horace Wells (1815-1848), was present and saw the effects of the nitrous oxide. He later had Dr. Colton use nitrous oxide to remove his tooth later that year and he felt nothing. Wells was convinced he had discovered the solution to pain and convinced another doctor, John Collins Warren (1778-1856) to try it at a medical demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital. On January 20, 1845, Wells gave nitrous oxide to one of Warren’s students who needed a tooth extracted, but when Warren went to extract the tooth, the student felt every part and cried out in pain. The experiment was a failure and Wells was discredited. Although nitrous oxide does have some strength, it makes for weak anesthetic. 

            A former associate of Wells by the name of William Thomas Green Morton (1819-1868) was also working on an anesthetic and discovered the effects of ether. In September 1846, Morton performed a painless tooth extraction using ether. A Boston doctor named Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818-1890), a leader in hip anatomy and for whom the “ligament of Bigelow” is named, was impressed with Morton’s work and invited him to use his either in another demonstration by Dr. Warren at the Massachusetts General Hospital. On October 16, 1846, Morton used his ether and Warren removed a tumor of the unconscious patient in the first demonstration of general anesthesia in history. From that point on, anesthesia spread throughout the western world. In Great Britain, the infamous Dr. Liston immediately began using ether. A Scottish obstetric doctor by the name of Sir James Young Simpson (1811-1870) soon discovered chloroform’s use as an anesthetic and used it in childbirth. The Church of England objected stating that it was against the will of God, but this question was solved when Her Majesty, Queen Victoria used chloroform given by Dr, John Snow in the delivery of her eighth child, Prince Leopold in April of 1853. In the next year, Dr. Snow discovered the connection between polluted water and the cholera further adding to medical science.

            Another advancement made before the Civil War was the concept of hygiene and antiseptics. Although it was conceived in the 1840s and was likely one of the most important medical advancements in history, the concept of hygiene was not yet accepted in the 1860s. In 1847, an Austrian obstetric doctor in Vienna by the name of Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) made the connection between the doctor’s dirty hands and childbed fever. He noted how the midwives washed their hands and few women died under their care, but the doctors did not wash their hands and childbed fever was common amongst women in their care. When he suggested to his colleagues that they should wash their hands in a chlorinated lime solution, they were insulted for they did not believe that as doctors and gentlemen they could not carry disease with them. Semmelweis began to have those in his clinic wash their hands and the mortality rates dramatically fell. Semmelweis did not know why dirty hands caused childbed fever for Louis Pasteur’s work on the germ theory did not come out until after the Civil War.

            By the time of the Civil War in the 1860s, medical science at least had the benefit of anesthesia. Chloroform and ether were in common use by both armies where it was available and in 15,000 surgeries in the Confederacy made with anesthesia, there were no deaths and is comparable to modern standards. Chloroform was preferred over weaker ether. At the beginning of the war at First Bull Run, General “Stonewall” Jackson was shot in the middle finger and it was fractured (perhaps he was being impolite). When he was taken to the field hospital, the doctor wanted to amputate the finger which was unacceptable to Jackson. He went to a second doctor, Hunter Holmes McGuire, who placed the finger in a splint and it later healed. Also early in the war, it was decided between the two sides not to take doctors prisoner as their services were too important.

            In 1862, the medical director of the Army of the Potomac, Dr. Jonathan Letterman, introduced the modern army medical corps. He later became known as the “Father of Battlefield Medicine”, although many of his efforts were begun by D.-J. Larrey a half century before. Ambulances, which had only recently been fitted with springs, were removed from the quartermaster and placed under the medical director. In addition, officers were forbidden under penalty of punishment, from using ambulances for their own use—ambulances were for the sick and for medical goods only.

Dr. Wagner Explaining Civil War Medicine

            Although pain was no longer a concern in the medicine of the Civil War, hygiene was a major problem and many soldiers still died of disease. Although disease was not as great a concern as in the Mexican War, it was still prevalent, but would continue to decrease over time. Bacteria had been known since the seventeenth century, but knowledge of their potentially harmful nature remained a couple of decades away. During the Civil War, the best explanation for the spread of disease was “bad air”, but sometimes this was true in the case of malaria. The only treatment for malaria was quinine, of which nineteen tons were used in the war. During the war, doctors found that dressings for amputees made from horsehair seemed to have fewer infections than those of cotton. This was because the cotton was not usually washed, but the stiff horsehair was boiled to soften it and unbeknownst to the doctors it was also sterilized.

            Vaccination proved to be useful during the war, especially the vaccine for smallpox. The smallpox vaccine had been invented by the English doctor, Edward Jenner (1749-1823) in 1796. Jenner discovered that milkmaids who had the less fatal cowpox did not catch smallpox and thus he came up with the idea to inoculate people with cowpox. Vaccination against smallpox was dangerous, however, as the needles used were not cleaned. By the time of the Civil War, a great majority of the white population was immune to the pox and it was mandatory in both armies, but blacks were not immune and many died of the disease as well as the measles. In addition, President Lincoln was not immune either as he caught smallpox after Gettysburg. When the office seekers would not leave him alone even in sickness, he said that he finally had something to give all of them. Tetanus was also a problem during the war as it was found in horse manure (which was more than plentiful) and was a very painful disease. Vaccines for these diseases were some years away. Cholera and dysentery were common as soldiers often got their water from the same place into which their latrines emptied.

            Amputations were still very common during the war and several limbs were amputated when the bones were shattered or mangled as the lack of hygiene would cause gangrene and death. Thus, the only solution was amputation. Luckily, most of these were done with anesthesia. The amputations of the war also led to the introduction of blood transfusions. Scientists were not to discover the blood types and the troubles arising from mismatched blood types until the early twentieth century. In one case, a private was injured in the leg and it as amputated. He received a pint of blood through a gutta percha syringe and survived. Another private was injured at Petersburg in 1864 and the blood of a “strong, healthy German” was used and the private went from his deathbed to recovery.

            Surprisingly, 95 per cent of soldiers in Federal hospitals survived. Thus medicine in the Civil War was both modern and ancient—where modern techniques of anesthesia and modern knowledge of anatomy were beginning to come into use, but ancient ideas of bad air and the rejection of antiseptics and hygiene still hindered the care of the wounded. It would not be until World War II that soldiers would have most modern benefits—anesthesia, antiseptics, and antibiotics, but the Civil War was indeed a significant beginning stage for the advancement of medical science.

January 2010 Meeting by Travis Fuqua

Before the presentation on January 20, 2010, SDCWRT Preservation Chairperson, Carla Schwartz provided more information on the Wilderness in Virginia and Fort Gaines in Alabama, to both of which, the SDCWRT voted in September 2009 to send money for preservation.

Wilderness, Va.

Preservationists are trying to get Wal-Mart to move its proposed site for a Superstore to a nearby site elsewhere in the county. In the meantime, in September of last year, a lawsuit has been filed against the Orange County Board of Supervisors, who made a decision to approve a special use permit for a Wal-Mart Supercenter and associated development. While litigation is never a preferable outcome, the preservation community feels strongly that when an irreplaceable national treasure is at risk, it is our duty to exhaust all reasonable means of opposition before surrendering a site to sprawl. The Board failed to obtain critical information about the historic importance of the Wal-Mart site.  It relied exclusively of analysis provided by Wal-Mart, without securing independent review of those findings. The proposed Wal-Mart site, which would also include 100,000 square feet of other commercial development, is unprotected land within the historic boundaries of the Wilderness Battlefield and is immediately adjacent to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

Fort Gaines, Ala.
            In the Civil War Preservation Trust’s list of the most endangered battlefields, Fort Gaines remains in the top ten.

In addition to the information about the Wilderness and Fort Gaines, Mrs. Schwartz added that the SUVCW, Sgt. William Pittenger Camp 21, is collecting money to erect a State Historical Marker near Lake Henshaw, commemorating the “Civil War Affair at Minter’s Ranch”. They have asked for support from the Civil War community.

Acting upon the information, Mrs. Schwartz made the motion to have the SDCWRT send a check for $600.00 to the Civil War Preservation Trust, with the directive that $300.00 go to preservation efforts at The Wilderness, and $300.00 go to Fort Gaines. In addition, the SDCWRT will give $300.00 for the erecting of a State Historical Marker at Lake Henshaw. The motion was passed unanimously. 

Later in the evening, Mr. Dave Tooley gave a presentation on bookbinding and preservation. He has many years’ experience in bookbinding and preservation. He began with a brief history of how the book and later printing came to be. The book was invented in the western world in the Roman Empire when it was discovered that codices—the bound book as we know it today—was far easier for recording large works than scrolls which could stretch for hundreds of yards. During this time, most books were made of parchment, a stretched animal skin that is limed but not tanned; or vellum, a more refined and expensive stretched animal skin.

Moveable type was invented in the West by Johannes Gutenberg in middle of the fifteenth century. Moveable type was an advancement over hand writing for it was possible to cast individual letters in metal and then arrange them in a tray to make a page and multiple copies far more easily. It was possible to make anything with moveable type as the letters could be arranged for one page and then rearranged for another, and another. This process had been invented in China during the Ch’ing-li period (1041-1048).

Hardbound books are printed on large sheets of paper on which a number of pages in the book are printed on the same sheet. These large sheets are then folded to make a section of a book which is called a signature and may consist of 4, 8, 16, 32, or more pages of the book. A book which consists of 320 pages, for example, may consist of 10 signatures of 32 pages each. The pages in a signature are then sewn together and the other edges cut. The signatures are then placed together in order, and then cords are placed across their backs and then the signatures and cords are sewn together to make the book and the edges are evened out. It may be noticed in old books that there are a number of straps across the spine. These straps are the cords. The backs of the books are rounded to make opening easier. Finally a piece of cloth, such as muslin, is cemented over the back of the book covering the cords. Some modern books are not sewn, but glued together like a writing pad. Original hide glue will dry out, crack thus causing the book to fall apart over time. Additionally, this hide glue is silverfish food. 

With the pages in the book together, it is necessary to make the cover. Folded sheets of paper—the endpapers—are added to forward and end of the book. Endpapers may be marbleized paper which is produced by floating the paper over water filled with dyes. The endpapers are then glued to the cover boards. The spine is best attached to the ends of the cover boards and not the back of the book itself, because when the book is opened, the spine will not move with the pages and this will assist in the longevity of the spine. When the spine is glued to the back of the book, it will move when the book is opened and an old spine will crack and disintegrate when the book is opened. It is best in old books of this design to open the books as narrowly and as little as possible.

With the cover and spine completed, it is necessary to cover the book in leather or similar material. There is almost no limit to the materials that can be used to cover a book. High-quality books use leather and similar animal materials while lesser-quality and high-use books may use a cloth cover. There are several hybrids with cloth and other material as well as leather scraps cemented together. With the book covered in leather, or other material, the title and other information is pressed in the book with gold leaf. Cheaper books may use brass, etc. The title may also be placed on a separate piece of leather and then cemented to the book. With the title completed and impressed upon the book, the book is complete. 

Mr. Tooley also spoke of the various materials used in the bookmaking process. For cement, Mr. Tooley uses a modern compound that is designed to last for centuries. He does not use the more original hide glue for it draws insects and other creatures which likely contributed to the book’s poor condition in the first place.

The paper in the book changed after the advent of moveable type. Paper made of animal skins were of high-quality, but impractical for mass production and were relegated to high-quality books. Beginning in the seventeenth century, rags were soaked until they became soft and then pressed together to make paper. Rag paper is of good quality and many still retain their original color. In the Industrial Revolution, more books were required and printers turned to wood-based paper. This mid-nineteenth century to early twentieth century paper is of notoriously poor quality, because when it was produced, the makers used acid and did not thoroughly wash the paper allowing the acid to disintegrate the pages over time. Many books made in the nineteenth century have suffered such a fate and their pages are very brittle today. Modern paper is a mixture of wood and rags and is treated with chemicals which should not cause their degradation.

The boards used in the cover of a book may be of any material, such as wood and card paper, but most older books are made of a mixture of straw, wood scraps, etc. cemented together. Many other aspects of the books were made from animal products.

With the advent of half-tone printing—using various concentrations of dots to show shading instead of continual shading—photographs could be placed in books as separate plates. In some old books, it may be noted that there is a piece of tissue paper in front of the plates. This is done to prevent the very strong inks used in the production of plates from bleeding through to the other pages.

As for the preservation of books, Mr. Tooley said that the worst enemy of a book is moisture. Also, gravity is not kind to books when they are on shelves and he advises that large “coffee table” size books be laid flat, not stood as usual. When books are made and when Mr. Tooley preserves them, a large press is used when cementing the various parts together. Mr. Tooley also showed several examples of books which he had restored, or was in the process of restoring, to illustrate the process of bookbinding. Some books which are not restored to preserve originality are placed in specially made boxes. It was later revealed that the oldest book Mr. Tooley has restored was from the year 1510 and two of the examples present at the meeting were from the mid-eighteenth century. There were, of course, several examples relating to the Civil War. Such a presentation was essential to anyone who is interested in collecting books from the time of the Civil War and no one is more qualified than Mr. Tooley to present on antiquarian books.

The author would like to extend his gratitude to Mr. Tooley for his invaluable assistance in the compilation of the article.

December 2009 Meeting by Travis Fuqua

The San Diego Civil War Round Table would like to welcome its newest member, Sally Down of San Diego

This month’s presentation was a show and tell and various members of the Civil War Round Table brought their Civil War artifacts, books, and stories relating to Christmas. Below is a list and description of those who presented.

1. Sharon Tooley: a book entitled “Music and Musket: Bands and Bandsmen of the American Civil War” by Kenneth Olson. The book contained many stories about music in the war, but there was no mention of Christmas. There was, however, a very interesting story about a drummer boy in the war by the name of Johnny Clem. Clem was only ten when the war began and tried unsuccessfully to enlist as a drummer boy until he was accepted in the 22^nd Michigan in 1862. There exists a story where he was at the Battle of Shiloh and he was nearly killed and his drum destroyed. He also showed bravery during the Battle of Chickamauga and after the war, he continued with the Army. He advanced in rank until he retired in 1916, the last active duty officer to have served in the Civil War. He died in 1937 at the age of 85. Another interesting story was the one of Henry J. White who was a drum major in the early part of the war. His story was exceptional in the fact that he was 89 years old and was still as vigorous as the 20-year-old men around him!
2. Al Haun: an answer to the question about shipping containers for goods during the Civil War. As a re-enactor, Mr. Haun has the advantage of not only knowing the history but living it out as well. One might ask what was used to package Christmas packages being sent to the soldiers in the Civil War. At first one might think wooden crates would be the answer, and they would, but wood is heavy and since freight is charged by weight, it would be prohibitively expensive to mail goods in this manner, especially when the goods being sent are lighter than the packaging. The answer was cardboard, which is much lighter than wood. It is true that cardboard boxes were used during the Civil War, but not the corrugated kind we are used to today, but heavy card paper layered and cemented together which looks similar to the cardboard used in old book covers. This worked well as long as the package did not get wet. To illustrate his example, Mr. Haun had a cardboard box from the Second World War, but such was the same as those during the Civil War. Shipping in the 1860s was done by railroad and could take between a week and two months depending upon the destination.
3. Curtis Dryer: two poems from the Civil War relating to Christmas. The first poem was by Confederate soldier named William Gordon McCabe (Aug. 4, 1841-Jun. 1, 1920) and was about the recollection of the joys of being home for Christmas. He fondly illustrates how joyous it would be to go home instead of fighting in the war and how the halls would be decorated and his mother would be very glad to see him. He added that his friends also long to go home, but there is no home for him as he only has the bivouac (his army encampment). The second poem was by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and was entitled “Christmas Bells” and was written in 1864. This poem was about the misfortune of the joyous the sounds of peaceful church bells being drowned out by cannon fire. Longfellow then called for peace on Earth and an end to conflict and hatred. He ended with the fact that good will prevail.
4. Kathleen Bell: a Christmas poem by the Poet Laureate of the Confederacy, Henry Timrod (Dec. 8, 1828-Oct. 7, 1867). In the beginning of the war, Timrod had been an avid patriot whose patriotic poems roused the emotions of young men in the Confederacy to join the Confederate Army. He himself could not fight for long due to an illness, but he seems to have done his part with his inspirational patriotic poems. As the war wore on, his son died and later his youthful vigor gave way to depression. He wrote a poem entitled “Christmas” during this time and the theme is peace. Owing to his depression, the poem is depressed and written in a more formal English of older times.
5. Dave Tooley: an account of slaves during Christmas in the war after Lincoln’s Proclamation from a book, “The Civil War Song and Story” (1892) by Frank Moore. The account began early in the day with the slaves rising and gathering with one wearing a red coat. They then sang songs about salvation and manage to give correct lyrics despite the fact they were illiterate. Their quotations of scripture are also strikingly accurate and when asked how they could accomplish such without reading, they said they heard it once and repeated it over again until the learned the verse. In the end, they all looked forward to their pending freedom.
6. Bill Cooper: a story set in modern times that could easily apply to all soldiers in all wars. The story began with Santa Claus descending the chimney to find the house empty except for a young man sleeping on the floor. Santa was perplexed by such a situation and later found out that the soldier had served in the current Iraq War and he slept in such an austere manner for it was his wish and an honor to those still overseas. Santa then realized that today—as much as in the 1860s—we owe the fact that we can have a Merry Christmas to those who are fighting wars to maintain peace, democracy, &c.

November 2009 Meeting by Travis Fuqua

This month’s presentation was a show and tell and various members of the Civil War Round Table brought their Civil War artifacts, books, and stories. Below is a list and description of those who presented.

1. Phil Binks: Two Civil War-era revolvers. The first one was a .36 caliber Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. This was one of the most common guns of the time with about a quarter of a million being made between 1851 and 1873. The gun weighs only two pounds ten ounces. The cylinder features an engraving of two ships in battle. The .36 caliber of the gun became associated with the Navy. Mr. Bink’s particular gun was one of the forty thousand made in London. The other revolver was a Savage and North. This gun is rather unwieldy and heavy. It is of a more unique design in that there are two triggers—one to press the cylinder against the barrel and the second to fire. Since this gun was expensive (at $19), heavy, and slow to reload, there are not as many and fewer were produced. This gun was, however, was used in the West after the war. Both revolvers did not have fixed cartridges and thus required a cap, ball, and power to load. Mr. Bink’s also had holsters and other accessories.
2. Gene Armistead: A deed to land at the Gettysburg battlefield. Mr. Armistead acquired a deed to one square foot of land at the Gettysburg battle site when he was a young man in 1963 as part of a fund raising effort by the national park service for the centennial of the Battle of Gettysburg. In the deed, Mr. Armistead was only able to own the land for a set period of time and today, the land has since been returned to the Federal Government.
3. Curtis Dryer: Thirty-seven letters from a Civil War soldier by the name of Byron to his sister Sophia. Mr. Dryer read one of the letters in which this soldier went riding with some men to visit the church in which General Washington was supposedly married in 1759. This church was Falls Church in Virginia. There was also a reference to Issing Glass which was a kind of nineteenth century crude plastic. The letter was addressed from Miner’s Hill in Virginia and was dated November 5, 1862.
4. Al Haun: A book entitled “Eagles and Empire” by David Clary and copyrighted in 2009. This book is about the Mexican War and although its relation to the Civil War may seem dubious at first, it was in this war that several officers of the Civil War got their start, such as Generals Grant and Lee and even the future Confederate President Davis. In addition, the United States gained valuable experience in modern war with steamships and other nineteenth century inventions. Mr. Haun then read an excerpt about the colorful General Santa Anna who was leader of Mexico during the war and also during the Texan War of Independence. General Santa Anna was leader of Mexico on seven different occasions over twenty two years from 1833 to 1855.
5. Karen Hasman: Her great grandfather, George M. Bass, was a soldier in the Civil War. He was born in 1845 and enlisted at seventeen on August 14, 1862. He was a private in Company C of the 103 Regiment of Illinois. He later fought in General Sherman’s army in his March to the Sea. Private Bass fought at: Ritaches River, Miss. (1863); Jackson, Miss. (Jul. 6, 1863); Resaca, Ga. (May 13, 1864); Dallas, Ga. (May 23, 1864), New Hope Church, Ga. (Jun. 1, 1864); bayonet charges at Kennesaw Mountain, Ga. (Jun. 15^th and 25^th 1864), Battle of Atlanta (Jul. 22^nd and 28^th 1864); Jonesborough, Ga. (Aug. 31, 1864); and finally a bayonet charge at Lovejoy Station (Sep. 2, 1864). Sergeant Bass was later discharged June 21, 1865 and later died in 1918 at the age of 73.
6. Mike Schooling: He is a member of both the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Sons of Union Veterans. With the Sons of Confederate Veterans there is a Southern Legal Resource Center. The purpose of this center is to provide support for modern southerners who have had their rights violated. Mr. Schooling made a point that the right to display images and to believe in the Confederacy is a right that is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, regardless of how objectionable it may seem. He illustrated a point in which a southern girl wore a shirt with the Confederate flag to school and was punished heavily as a result. Another instance was when two schoolgirls had purses with the Confederate flag taken from them. This is contrary to the fact that other students are able to wear shirts and display images of figures such as Malcolm X whose actions destabilized the nation.
7. Father Dennis Mikulanis: Two Bibles from the Civil War era. Father Mikulanis had two pocket Bibles that were printed in the years preceding the Civil War and one was the entire Bible and the other was only the New Testament. The New Testament had writing in the front from a Civil War soldier from Massachusetts that indicated who it was from and a little history of the soldier’s history.
8. Mark Shapiro: A book by General Abner Doubleday entitled” Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie”. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1876. Dr. Shapiro was impressed by the book as it was a great example of early scholarship on the Civil war and was written by a man who was actually involved in the war. Dr. Shapiro added that such a connection was important as the book acts more like a primary source than many of the books that we read today by modern historians removed from the war by nearly a century and a half.
9. Dave Tooley: Several antique books related to the Civil War. The first two were a cartoon history of President Lincoln and reflected the contemporary and sometimes unfavorable view of Lincoln. The second book was the first volume of Francis Miller’s “Photographic History of the Civil War, in Ten Volumes” of 1911. This was an especially unique version as it was number 178 of 1000 in a special leather-bound edition. The next book was another of Francis Miller’s entitled “Portrait Life of Lincoln” from 1910. Mr. Tooley spent several years looking for this rare book. The last book Mr. Tooley brought was “The Century War Book” which is an 1894 book with a collection of grand lithographs that were later reproduced in many other books on the war.
10. Bill Cooper: A collection of artifacts relating to a relative who fought in the Civil War. The artifacts belonged to Mrs. Cooper’s great-great-grandfather Robert Horan of Illinois. There were also items relating to his brother John, but there is little about this relative as he died early in the war. Although the items belonged to Robert, there were, however, few pictures of him but many of John. One item was a campaign ribbon of President Lincoln and Vice President Hannibal Hamlin from 1860. The next item was a book entitled “Military Records of Robert Horan” and featured every campaign that Mr. Horan participated in. Another item was a book entitled “History of the 90^th Illinois” to which Mr. Horan contributed his diary to provide a realistic account of that unit from the soldiers’ perspective. There were also photographic albums with famous personalities such as Generals Sherman and Grant. Lastly there was a poster commemorating Mr. Horan’s induction into the Grand Army of the Republic. There were also artifacts that Mr. Horan actually used in the war. One such item was a leather cartridge bag which was preserved in all of its original magnificence. The top still opened and the leather was still flexible, almost as if as new. The other item was a cap box. The leather cap box was in excellent condition and as looked as if new. It still had almost every item in it that would have been present when Mr. Horan used it in battle 145 years ago. Another item was a canteen that still held its color and looked as new. Mr. Horan’s belt was also present with the buckle and the original leather belt was still wide and did not shrink greatly as leather tends to do over time. Lastly there was Mr. Horan’s rifle from the war. The rifle had been decorated sometime after the war, perhaps as a memento of Mr. Horan’s service, but also included the original bayonet. All of these items, especially the leather, were in museum quality condition and appeared as if they were a few decades old rather than a century and a half.

October 2009 Meeting by Travis Fuqua

            Mark Shapiro presented The Curious Case of Ambrose Bierce on October 21, 2009. Ambrose Bierce was a soldier in the Civil War who later went on to have a colorful literary career. His wirings show his contempt for the leadership during the Civil War as well as the horrors of battle told in all of its brutality and other stories told in great realism.

            Bierce was born in Ohio on June 24, 1842 and was the tenth of thirteenth children. He was not close to his father and he had had a very poor relationship with his mother. His parents were poor, but literate and wished him to take an interest in books and writing, which he would later develop after the war. Upon the outbreak of war, he enlisted with the Federal army soon after President Lincoln’s call for volunteers, and was one of the first to do so in his county. He saw extensive service in the war and fought in several battles. He was involved in the Battle of Shiloh and in Sherman’s March and on June 23, 1864, he was shot in the left temple by a Confederate sniper. Luckily for him, considering the medicine of the time, he survived, but the bullet remained in his temple and he suffered severe headaches for the rest of his life and even the slightest exertion would make them worse. His head wound ended his fight in the Civil War.

Amrose Bierce and "the Skull of a Former Freind"

         After the war, he continued in the army and went out to San Francisco where he later resigned with the rank of brevet major. He remained in California in San Francisco where he married in 1871. He had two sons and a daughter, of whom he outlived the sons and divorced his wife in 1904 after her questionable conduct several years before. His headaches were further complicated by his constant asthma.

            After settling in California, Bierce began his literary career. Around that time, he made friends with Mark Twain with whom he was about as close as possible for a man with his personality.  An early piece that brought him to prominence was an editorial he wrote in 1887 as a response to the Secretary of War’s efforts to return captured Confederate flags to their owners. Many objected, but Bierce did not see the need of the hatred and support the return, stating it was his place to voice and opinion as he helped to capture the said flags. Such editorials brought him to the attention William Randolph Hurst and he later went to work for his paper, the San Francisco Examiner where he wrote a regular editorial.

            Bierce was very confrontational and had a distaste for authority figures such, editors, despite being for a time. His dislike of authority figures was reflected in his writings. Bierce often attacked other writers, politicians, and even those who tried to be close to him. He even attacked Oscar Wilde and his work when the he visited San Francisco. Wilde and the public did not pay attention and Wilde remained vastly popular with the locals. Although his attacks were usually at people and might be seen as humorous by some, other writings were very discriminatory, such as one piece which was strongly anti-Semitic. His harsh criticisms earned him several nicknames including “Diabolical Bierce” and the most popular, “Bitter Bierce”, and his favorite, “The Wickedest Man in San Francisco”.

            Bierce’s work about the war was quite shocking for its day and remains so today. He described the battles very vividly and described all the horrors of battle. One description that distinguished Bierce was his description of the Battle of Shiloh. Bierce began writing about the war at a time when scholars were just beginning to take interest in the war, since it had only ended a couple of decades before. Another piece by Bierce that gained notoriety was An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge which was published in 1891. In the story, a Confederate sympathizer is about to be hanged for the sabotage of a railroad bridge for which he was not responsible. As he was to be hanged, the rope broke and he was able to escape under fire. He manages to make it back home undetected, but when he arrives, he feels a strong pain in his neck and all goes black. It turns out that he never escaped and was actually hanged in reality. This twist ending has become famous and has been repeated numerous times. It has been said that this story is a precursor of post-modern literature.

            Another famous work by Bierce is the Devil’s Dictionary which he complied over several years. This book takes the form of a regular dictionary, but its definitions are a satire. Below are some sample definitions:

1. Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous
2. Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
3. Mayonnaise, n. One of the sauces that serve the French in place of a state religion.
4. Politician, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.

            Bierce’s personality led to several clashes and his severe criticisms of other writers led their own against him. He took to carrying a loaded pistol with him at all times and on his desk he kept a human skull which he said came from a former friend. He was not close to many people and as a person would become closer to him, he would push them away again. One writer who was fond of Bierce received severe criticism from him. The author was Stephen Crane and his book, The Red Badge of Courage, was about the adventures and troubles of a soldier in the Civil War. Crane wrote realistically about war despite having been born after the war and never having been in combat. This fact and the fact he became more famous than the genuine veteran Bierce’s realistic descriptions gained Crane severe criticism from the former.

            Bierce was well known amongst authors for his literary work, but with the public, he was better known for his editorials as this was the days of sensational yellow journalism. One of his poems did, however, gain him national attention, albeit negative. In 1900, the governor of Kentucky was shot and killed and Bierce published an editorial in Hearst’s paper about the event. In the editorial, Bierce wrote that no one could find the bullet that killed the governor as it was on its way to killing President McKinley. There was little stir at the time, but when McKinley was shot and killed the following year, there was outrage against Hearst and his paper. The poem ended Hearst’s efforts to become president, but despite the setback. Hearst did not reveal Bierce as the author nor did he apologize for the incident. In actuality, Bierce’s poem was meant to show dismay rather than a call to kill McKinley.

Dr. Shapiro Speaking About the Life of Ambrose Bierce

            Bierce’s death was perhaps one of the most interesting events in literary history. In his seventy-first year in 1913, Bierce made a tour of his former battle sites from the Civil War and then headed to Mexico to observe Pancho Villa (before his murderous rampage in New Mexico in 1916) and watch the Mexican Revolution as it happened. He was not heard from again after December of 1913 and his fate remains unknown. Some say that he came back to kill himself at the Grand Canyon and others state that he was a spy for the Federal Government on Mexico—neither of which seem plausible nor have been proven.

            Bierce was one of the most controversial writers of his generation, but his realistic writing style foreshadowed that in the years after his death. He was a major influence on Ernest Hemmingway, both of whim did not like their mothers and were wounded in battle. In retrospect, many scholars argue that Bierce’s writings about his experiences in the Civil War are among the best on war, even better than those of Hemmingway and Stephen Crane’s work of fiction.

June Meeting by Travis Fuqua

The SDCWRT was honored to have author Larry Tagg present on his book, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln on June 17, 2009. His book is amongst the first of its kind to discuss the popularity of President Lincoln during his presidency. For those who grew up and were educated in the years after the Civil War, not a day goes by where we do not encounter the image of Lincoln, the demi-god. He is on our currency, in our monuments, and even in many of our hearts as among the best presidents we ever had—perhaps second only to the great General Washington himself. During his presidency, however, he was one of the most reviled men in the nation. His unpopularity in the Confederacy is a given, but he was no more popular in the North. The following is an account of the public’s perception of Mr. Lincoln in the North as seen mostly through newspaper editorials and other written accounts.

Mr. Tagg Presenting on His Book "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln"

            President Lincoln’s unpopularity began long before his time in the White House. It begins with the manner in which presidential candidates were selected in the years before 1972. In those days, there were no primary elections as there are now, but party bosses would gather and select a candidate who would in turn be that party’s nominee for the presidency. In the days before the Civil War, the nation was ablaze with the question of slavery and many parties found it difficult to nominate the famous candidates as their opinions on slavery would cause more controversy. This led to many mediocre candidates and presidents such as Franklin Pierce and James Buchannan, who has often been called the worst president ever for his handling of the secession crisis of 1860-1861. By the time of the 1860 election, many were cynical about the mediocrity of the candidates. The Republicans picked a relatively unknown candidate by the name of Abraham Lincoln who was a lawyer and had been in the House of Representatives some years ago and an unsuccessful candidate for the Senate. The only image that people had of him was the “rail splitter” and rural “man of the people” image that had been circulated. He did not speak during the campaign and did not actively campaign either, but nonetheless, he was elected in November of 1860. His unknown status was the first issue people had with him.

            The Election of 1860 had two candidates who split the Democratic vote along with a third independent candidate almost ensuring Lincoln’s victory. He only won with 39.8 percent of the vote, which is worse than the loser in many other presidential elections. As soon as he won, the South panicked and there were fears of what Lincoln would do as president. Many in the South feared that he would fill the government with abolitionists through the spoils system and then use these people to bring about greater pressure to end slavery. Others feared that Lincoln would be the culmination of the mediocre presidents of the previous decade and lead the United States to a path of decline. There were even others still who derided his appearance saying that he was too tall, too thin, to awkward, and even too ugly. People called him a “huge skeleton in clothes”. They criticized his posture, movements, and even the size of his hands and feet. There was little in the new president that people liked. To make matters worse, Lincoln did not take much care in his appearance and his clothes were often unkempt and people never failed to take note of such. This and his manners alienated the educated and cultured people of the East. The harsh comments about his appearance would be unthinkable today and make the editorials of today’s newspapers look sedate.

            By the beginning of 1861, President-Elect Lincoln had many obstacles before him other than the public’s perception of him. Several states in the Deep South had seceded from the union and President Buchanan’s actions (or lack of them) worsened the situation by the day. By the time Lincoln made it to office, the nation was very near to shattering and it needed another George Washington, not Lincoln, who they perceived as utterly incompetent. Lincoln’s popularity took an even further dip when he came to the City of Washington for the inauguration and slipped into the city under cover the of darkness to avoid a potential assassination plot. Even at that time, he was unpopular enough to have to worry about assassins. Many saw this secrecy as cowardice and many more editorials derided Lincoln for slipping into Washington. Upon his inauguration, Lincoln was just as unpopular coming into the office as President Nixon was upon resigning the office in the fallout of the Watergate Scandal.

            The war did not help with Lincoln’s popularity. The failure of many Federal campaigns cost him even more in popularity and many people openly felt that he was completely incompetent and unable to properly preside over the nation during the time of crisis. Following the Federal victory at the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It was obviously poorly received in the South, but it was just as poorly received in some areas of the North. Many felt that the war had been over the status of the union and not really slavery, but Lincoln’s attempt at emancipating the slaves would further drive the Confederate states away and further drive the nation apart. In addition, many people feared that such a declaration during a century when the president’s power was limited would undoubtedly lead to further despotism by Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation and further military losses later in the year were a blow to Lincoln and the Republicans as they lost many seats in Congress during the midterm election in November of 1862.

            When President Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation official on January 1, 1863, the divide became even greater. Many states in the North that relied upon slavery and the South began to question Lincoln and openly considered joining the Confederacy. Lincoln was threatened with the loss of many Midwestern states to the Confederacy and much of their support for the war effort dried up. This divide in the North allowed for the Democratic Copperheads to rise in power and question the Republicans’ management of the war. Also, due to a lack of manpower as a result of the Midwestern states lack of support, Lincoln had to create a draft program, which caused the Draft Riots in New York City in July of 1863. It may have seemed that the division of the nation in 1861 was the greatest danger to the country, but now many considered Lincoln was the greater threat. They saw his removal of rights and liberties as a threat to the Constitution and they feared that the nation and its Constitution would fracture and fail. Lincoln was only saved by the Federal victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863.

            Lincoln’s reprieve would not last. Following the reversals during the Wilderness Campaign in May of 1864 and others, Lincoln’s popularity dipped again. The nation began to fear that the war would never end. As the election neared, the Wade-Davis Manifesto was issued which spoke out against the despotism of Lincoln. Lincoln was re-nominated at the Republican Convention, though, but it was through his manipulation of the spoils system that he obtained such. His competition in the election was General George McClellan who called for peace. Lincoln began to worry about his chances of winning the election and August of 1864 was perhaps his lowest point. The fall of Atlanta in September of 1864 helped morale and helped Lincoln immensely. He was still worried about his chances of winning and helped Nevada join the union as it was loyal to him. It was feared that their state constitution would not reach Washington in time for the election if it was sent overland. Just over a week before the 1864 election, Nevada had its 16,500-word constitution telegraphed to Washington at the cost of $4,300, making it one of the longest and costliest telegraph transmissions ever. By the time of the election, however, conditions had changed for President Lincoln and Nevada’s impact on the election was negligible. In addition, for the first time, soldiers in the field were allowed to cast votes for president in some states and their votes greatly assisted Lincoln as he had gained their support with the draft. Lincoln ended up winning the election with a little over half of the votes.

            The beginning of 1865 began to look brighter for Lincoln and there were many signs that the war would end sooner than later. People began to attribute the turnaround to Lincoln, but there were those who did not. There were even those who feared another four years of Lincoln and began to call for ways to get rid of him—even through assassination. The war did finally end beginning on April 9, 1865 with General Lee’s surrender and Lincoln’s popularity began to rise. His moderate views on Reconstruction in the heated times did not help his popularity however. On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot in the head by southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth and died at 7:22 the next morning. He was the first president to be assassinated. Even in death, Lincoln was hated by some as they were happy he was gone so they could proceed with their more harsh Reconstruction schemes while others were glad the tyrant was dead.

            President Lincoln was largely unpopular throughout the whole of his presidency. He was saved by his assassination which caused people to see him as a martyr. They saw him along with Moses not being able to see the Promised Land of a free and reunited nation. In one popular print he was supposedly lifted to heaven by the great General Washington. Lincoln came to symbolize freedom while his southern assassin came to represent treachery. His funeral train back to Springfield, Illinois became a symbol of the fanaticism of Victorian mourning. Only then did Lincoln become the president that we adore today as a savior of our country and a symbol of freedom. Lincoln was a capable president according to Mr. Tagg, because he did more with the least political capital than any president before or since. He truly was a great politician.

Mr. Cooper Presenting Mr. Tagg with a Certificate of Appreciation After His Presentation