Monthly Meetings

Coming Attractions SDCWRT

Apr 21    Gene Armistead. “Charles Stewart: First Admiral & Forgotten Hero.”

May 19    Mike Schooling. “Heritage Defence: Sons of Confederate Veterans.”

Jun 16     Larry Tagg (Author). “The Unpopular Mr. Lincoin.”

July 21        OPEN

Aug 18      Barbara Hemmingsen. “Chattanooga.”

Sept 15       ROUND TABLE SOCIAL.

Oct 20       Rich Marcell. “Another Look at Robert E. Lee.”

Nov 17       Pedro Garcia. “Men Really Do Go Mad: Slavery, Secession, Seward & Sumpter.”

Dec 15         OPEN

March Program

On Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 7:30 pm the SDCWRT will hold its 283^rd meeting at Palisades Presbyterian Church, 6301 Birchwood St, San Diego, CA 92120.

Our meeting this month “Civil War Weapons Pt. 1,” will be presented by Phil Binks. Phil will be speaking on the many types of long arms used in the Civil War. Phil will be bringing a dozen long arms from his own collection. These will include rifles, muskets and carbines.

Phil being the clubs expert on weapons of the Civil War is encouraging anyone having any questions about a rifle, musket or carbine, they might have, to bring it to the meeting. Phil will most likely be able to answer their queries. This should be a very interesting demonstration of what the Troops on both sides used during “The Great Unpleasantness.”

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.

FEBRUARY MEETING

On Wednesday February 18, 2010 at 7:30 PM the SDCWRT will hold its 283rd meeting at Palisades Presbyterian Church, 6301 Birchwood St., San Diego CA 92120.

This month our guest speaker will be Dr. Joe Wagner on “Civil War Medicine.”

The state of medical and surgical practice during the American Civil War remained primitive with almost no scientific foundation.  Based entirely on experience with what worked in previous centuries, doctors were surprisingly effective in the care of the sick and wounded.  New discoveries in science and technology were not far off, but still just beyond their horizon.  The existence of bacteria remained unknown. The germ theory of disease was yet to be determined.  X-rays not yet discovered

His initial curiosity in exploring this subject was the matter of anaesthesia.  The first successful public demonstration of anaesthesia took place at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846.  When the Civil War began 15 years later, did the surgeons know about and  use anaesthesia? 

 We will see the answers to those questions during this presentation on “Civil War Medicine”.

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.

January 2010 Program: Historic Book Preservation 101

On Wednesday January 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm the SDCWRT will hold its 281st meeting at Palisades Presbyterian Church, 6301 Birchwood St., San Diego, CA 92120.

Our speaker for this meeting will be our President and Leader, Dave Tooley. Dave in his past life has been a respected Bookbinder and will speak on both how those old books that we all have were bound and with what materials they used when first published. He will also explain how he restores antique books in need of help. Last but not least how to care for these treasured volumes, so future generations will be able to enjoy and learn from them. This will be a very informative presentation, so please don’t miss it.

PUT ON YOUR THINKING CAPS.

I have had several requests to have a program where we have a debate on a battle, political decision, Man against Man or anything that will make for interesting evening. Maybe even change some minds or at the least make walk away with something you didn’t know when you arrived at the meeting.

If you have an idea of something you would like to see or be a part of the debate please e-mail me at trolley@cox.net or see me at our meeting.

Bill Cooper, Program Chairman

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.

Coming Attractions: SDCWRT 2010

Feb. 17- Dr. Joe Wagner “Civil War Medicine”

Mar. 17- Phil Binks “Civil War Firearms”

Apr. 21- Gean Armistead “Charles Stewart: First Admiral & Forgotten Hero”

May.- Mike Schooling TBA

Jun.-TBA

Jul.-TBA

Aug.-TBA

Sep.16-Social

Oct. 21-TBA

December 2009 Program

On Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm the SDCWRT will hold its 280th meeting at Palisades Presbyterian Church, 6301 Birchwood St. San Diego, Calif. 92120. This year we shall have a meeting in December for the first time in several years as Christmas is more than a week away. To honor Christmas and the holiday season, we are going to have a show and tell about Christmas. All members are encouraged to participate by bringing anything that relates to Christmas and the Civil War. This could include any memorabilia, books, stories, songs, etc. that are related to Christmas. For example, there can be anything about what the soldiers did to celebrate Christmas, what kind of presents were given, what songs were sung, or what a Christmas at the Lincoln White House was like. The only limit is your imagination.

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.