Late Spring 1864: Grant wanted to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.  He had been trying to slip around the Rebels, but the wily Lee kept blocking him.

Now Grant made a wide swing to flank the Rebels and seize Cold Harbor.

Not a real town, Cold Harbor was just an intersection of roads, ten miles northeast of Richmond. It got its name because of a tavern where guests could “harbor,” but no hot food was offered. You can see the inn in the photo below, taken on the 4th of June, 1864.

Grant arrived, but again Lee had beat him to the punch.

No one was better at building fortifications than Uncle Billy and his battle-hardened Rebels. In just days, they had built six miles of artillery emplacements, trenches and fortifications.

Now Grant made a crucial mistake: he thought Lee’s army was on the ropes, “really whipped.”  Nothing could be further from the truth, as he was about to discover.

An all-out attack was ordered for the next day. That night Union Lieutenant Colonel Porter watched men writing their names on paper and pinning them inside their uniforms. The privates knew better than their commander what was in store.

The Federals advanced at 4:30 AM, through thick fog. Confederate cannon and rifle fire soon had most of them pinned down.

One of Yankees described the assaults as “a wild chain of doomed charges, most of which were smashed in five or ten minutes.”

Another later wrote, “We felt it was murder, not war…”

One man saw all of the men around him suddenly drop to the ground. Assuming orders had been given, he dropped too. It was only then he realized the other men were dead.

In the span of one hour, 7,000 Union men were killed or wounded. No other hour of the war saw such a loss. By 7 AM, it was obvious to the Federals on the field that the attack was hopeless. When Union Major General Smith received orders for his 16,000 men to advance further, he refused, calling it a “wanton waste of life.”

When the assault was called off, many of the Union men could not retreat for fear of being killed. They had to somehow dig in where they were, creating what protection they could.

The difference in casualties was staggering. A Union army of 108,000 had been stopped in their tracks: 1,844 dead, 9,077 wounded, 1,816 captured or missing.

The 62,000 men of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia suffered 83 dead, 3,380 wounded, 1,132 captured or missing.

The Union army remained for nine more days, the front lines sometimes only yards apart.

It was a mistake Grant remembered for the rest of his life: “I regret this assault more than any one I have ever ordered.”

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Lieutenant Alexander Douglas could it no longer. The cries stirred him to action.

Douglas had been born on Christmas Day of 1833 in South Carolina, a land that was first settled by the English in 1670.  Early Americans battled Redcoats there in the Revolutionary War, and later, in 1865, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burned two thirds of the beautiful city of Charleston. But I digress

Before the war, Douglas had been an attorney and had served as editor of the Spartanburg Express. But today he was a far cry from that world.

It was a hot day in July, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Douglas was in command of an ambulance corps.

Peering out from behind the fortification where he lay, Douglas spotted the source of the pleas: a Union soldier lying in the open field between the Confederate and Federal lines.

Douglas rallied four of his men. Together they dashed out into the open where the wounded enemy soldier pleaded for help.

Shots rang out, but somehow none of them found their mark. The five brave men reached the wounded man, lifting him onto a stretcher.  The firing stopped as the Yankees realized what the Rebels were doing. Douglas and his men carried the wounded man back to the Confederate lines where he could get water and treatment.

Douglas was on the fields of battle for two more years, and was there with Lee’s Army at Appomattox in April of 1865. And this despite his own battlefield wound sustained a year a year after Gettysburg.

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Union General McClellan had just come into some key intelligence. Now he thought he had Robert E. Lee right where he wanted him, in enemy territory with his forces divided:

“Here is a piece of paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home.”

What was that piece of paper?

On 13 September 1862, McClellan’s Union army was at Frederick, Maryland, camped in the same fields that had just been abandoned by Lee’s men. Private Mitchell was stacking rifles when he spotted three cigars on the ground, wrapped in a piece of paper.

The cigars were a good prize, but when Mitchell looked at the paper he saw, “Army of Northern Virginia, Special Orders No. 191.”

Within hours that paper was in the hands of General McClellan, who said, “Now I know what to do.”

Just the day before McClellan had wired his superior, “My columns are pushing on rapidly to Frederick. From all I gather, secesh is skedalleling, and I don’t think I can catch him unless he is really moving into Pennsylvania.”

That piece of paper changed everything. McClellan now knew that Lee had sent Stonewall Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry, and that other brigades had been sent to execute other actions. The paper showed that Lee’s forces had been split into five parts and scattered over a 30-mile stretch. At least eight miles separated each piece of Lee’s army, and McClellan was just a dozen miles from the nearest Confederate unit.

But McClellan had a problem: the orders were a few days old. He could not be sure whether Stonewall had returned or whether the other Confederate forces had rejoined the Confederates 12 miles away.

Still, McClellan knew where the enemy was, if not how strong he was. So he was cautious and advanced his 30 brigades so they were all available to attack the Confederates. Lee’s total force was only 14 brigades, so his caution should ensure victory.

But in fact, there were only five brigades 12 miles away. General D. H. Hill was in command of those brigades and later wrote:

“McClellan could have crushed my little squad in ten minutes but for the caution inspired in him by the belief that Lee’s main body was there.” 

Lee found out what the Federals were doing. He sent a division to reinforce his rear guard and delay McClellan. The resultant battle on 14 September slowed the Union advance enough for Stonewall Jackson to complete taking Harpers Ferry and race to join Lee along Antietam Creek on the 16th.

You can see a bridge over the creek in the photo above, where 450 Georgians under General Toombs held back several assaults by 14,000 men of  General Burnside’s Corps.

September 17th would be the bloodiest day of fighting in American history, as 75,000 Union troops attacked 38,000 Confederate troops. The Federals would call it the Battle of Antietam. Confederates called it the Battle of Sharpsburg.

No single day of battle in American history brought more casualties. The Union suffered 12,410 casualties, 25% of the Yankee force. The Rebels had 10,316, 31% of its men. But Lee’s army was able to cross the Potomac the next day.

The captured document could have given McClellan the opportunity to destroy Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, but it didn’t happen.

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A lot of folks tell us what the Civil War was all about. Professors and reporters and “very important” people tell us.

And with what conviction they tell us!

But I rarely hear from the scholars about why the man in uniform was fighting. Seems the soldier is simply forgotten. Sure, we hear “what the war was about,” and we hear the bad intentions of some assigned to the Confederate soldier.

As a historian, I most enjoy writing about individuals – people, men who were there and experienced what we call history.

Sure, I write about events, but when I do I like to brush in real people. I like to include what they said about what happened.

Private David Johnston (left) was 16 when he put on a Rebel uniform. Through hardship and serious wounds he fought, all four years of the war. He then went on to become a Congressman and a respected judge.

David wrote a book after the war, telling of his experiences. Towards the end of it he wrote this:

“In praise of the Confederate soldier, I do not for one moment mean or intend to detract from the laurels won by the heroic Union soldier, who stood in the firing line, faithfully discharging his duty; for he, as well as we, was contending for principles regarded sacred and for which we had risked our lives….

“All were American soldiers, and the glory and honor won by each is the common heritage of the American people, not to be obscured or clouded by the questions about which we differed. Each struggled to maintain the right as God gave him to see the right.

“We often talked along the skirmish lines with Union soldiers…. In opposition to our claim that we were fighting for independence—separate government—they insisted that they were fighting for the Union, a common, undivided country; did not want to see the country broken up by division; and I feel fairly safe in stating that this feeling and sentiment largely dominated the great majority of the Union soldiers.”

David’s words ring true, whatever the interests of the politicians and economic concerns of the times. Men fought for what they believed in, and hundreds of thousands sacrificed their lives “for principles regarded sacred.”

There were virtues on both sides, and people today remember them.

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 The 1^st Kentucky Brigade is also known as the Orphan Brigade. Six different Kentucky Regiments were in this brigade. (Confederate Brigades were composed of two to six regiments.)

Some Kentucky regiments used flags with a upright Latin/Christian cross on them. The most prominent are the blue flags with large red Latin crosses adorned by 13 white stars. You can see an surviving example to the left.

 

The 5th Kentucky used a different flag, as you see to the right.  

We know that some Alabama regiments did the same with Latin crosses, and of course there is the famous 1^st Missouri Cavalry Flag. (All still reproduced today, as is the 19^th Alabama and others). 

Latin cross flags met with objections in the South during the American Civil War. Some of the conservative Christian groups felt the upright cross misused their religious symbol. Some Jewish communities, loyal to their state, felt the upright cross was inappropriate on a battle flag.*

One letter, from an Arkansas soldier, ranted against what he felt was a “catholic” symbol. To make sure his wife knew what was meant, he drew the flag in color on the letter. 

This was not a minor issue.  In fact, it was a key point in the design of the Southern Cross Battle Flag, first used in Virginia after the Battle of First Manassas.  The earliest design of the flag that later became the Battle Flag had an upright cross, not a diagonal one.  (I cover this more thoroughly in my articles on the Confederate Battle Flag of the Southern Cross, available on request.)

The 5^th Kentucky saw significant action at Chickamauga, the second bloodiest battle of the war (only Gettysburg had more casualties).  They acquitted themselves well.  One of the after-action reports contains the following:

On September 18, our forces advanced in several columns to cross the Chickamauga and give battle to the Federal army under General Rosecrans….

It was now moonlight, and Kelly returning to his command after a few minutes’ absence from it, the fire reopened, and continuing for a short time, ceased. It was the last fire of the day, and closed the battle. In the last attack made by Trigg and Kelly, Colonel Hawkins, of the Fifth Kentucky, a brave and skillful officer of Kelly’s brigade, captured 2 colonels, 1 lieutenant-colonel, a number of company officers, and 249 prisoners. The Twenty-second Michigan, Eighty-ninth Ohio, and part of the Twenty-first Ohio Regiments were captured by Trigg’s and Kelly’s brigades, and five stand of colors were taken by Sergeant Timmons, of the Seventh Florida Regiment, and by Privates Honaker, Harris, Hylton, and Carter, of the Fifty-fourth Virginia. Colonels Carlton, Le Favour, and Lieutenant-Colonel Glenn were among the prisoners.

*Jewish Southerners rallied to their states.  The first Jewish residents of Charleston, SC, arrived 1695 and, by 1800, the largest Jewish community in America lived in Charleston (the oldest synagogue in America, K. K. Beth Elohim, was founded in Charleston). By 1861, a third of all Jews in America lived in Louisiana. A prominent Jewish figure, Judah P. Benjamin served as Confederate Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State.  Jewish officers served as the Quartermaster of the Confederate Army and the Surgeon General of the Army, and many gallant Jewish Southerners sacrificed their lives in battle. Anti-semitism existed in the South, but it was even worse in the North. General Grant issued his infamous General Order Number 11, expelling Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Lincoln had to order Grant to revoke his order.

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The Civil War produced many fine shooters, and some made their way into sharpshooter units.

Champion marksman Hiram Berdan of New York raised a Union sharpshooter unit. To qualify, volunteers had to put ten shots in a circle of 10 inches from 200 yards.

Berdan’s Sharpshooters wore green uniforms, like the reenactor above.

Sharp’s rifles, used by the Federals, were deadly at 600–800 yards. Custom-made rifles used by both sides could reach to 1000 yards.

The British Whitworth was smuggled in by Confederates (see image below). It was slower to load but accurate to twice the distance.

Whitworth bullets were hexagonal, not round, and made a distinctive whistle as they sliced through the air. A soldier who heard it was smart to take cover.

Union General Sedgwick was correcting placement of his troops near an artillery unit. Artillery was a favored target of sharpshooters.

Sedgwick’s aide wrote:

“A few seconds after, a man who had been separated from his regiment passed directly in front of the general, and at the same moment a sharp-shooter’s bullet passed with a long shrill whistle very close, and the soldier, who was then just in front of the general, dodged to the ground.

“The general touched him gently with his foot, and said, ‘Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way…They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.’

“The man rose and saluted and said good-naturedly, ‘General, I dodged a shell once, and if I hadn’t, it would have taken my head off. I believe in dodging.’

McMahon explained that as the man went off, another “shrill whistle, closing with a dull, heavy stroke, interrupted our talk.”

Sedgwick fell, mortally wounded.

President Lincoln got a taste of this. When he was inspecting fortifications near Washington DC, he came under fire from Confederate sharpshooters. He made a rapid retreat to the White House.

The longest shot we know of during the war occurred in the same place it all started, at Ft. Sumter. In 1864 Union soldiers manning artillery were firing on the fort from nearby islands. One of them showed himself at the wrong moment, and was shot by a Rebel sharpshooter from 1390 yards, 14^th longest confirmed hit in history.

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When the battle wasn’t raging, Yankee and Rebel soldiers were known to get along with each other.

Confederate Private Sam Watkins tells a story about a Sunday after the Battle of Chickamauga. He came and his buddies came to relieve some sentries on the Tennessee River. There was a Union outpost on the opposite riverbank.

“When we were approaching we heard the old guard and the Yankee picket talking back and forth across the river. The new guard immediately resumed the conversation. A Yankee hallooed out, “O, Johnny, Johnny, meet me half way in the river on the island.”

Sergeant John Tucker swam out to meet the Yankee, taking some Southern newspapers with him. Sam explains, “They got very friendly, and John invited him to come clear across to our side, which invitation he accepted…. Well, they came across and we swapped a few lies, canteens and tobacco, and then the Yankee went back.”

Sergeant Gibson of the 78^th Pennsylvania Infantry described similar things, saying the picket lines often stood less than 100 feet apart and “were on the best of terms and conversed frequently on various subjects.”

Union and Confederate troops would regularly trade what they had, like Southern tobacco for Federal coffee. This was frowned on by the brass, but even they were known to raise a flag of truce for something really important, like negotiating for whiskey.

For a while in Vicksburg, Mississippi, there was a daily exchange under a flag of truce. A Union boat would go into Vicksburg to discuss the “exchange of prisoners,” but the real business at hand was the exchange of newspapers and other items. The Federals always brought some bourbon to be “freely dispensed to the gray-coated deputation that meets us.”

Soldiers were pretty honorable about these things. Sam Watkins tells another story about standing picket on a small stream:

“We heard a Yankee call, ‘O, Johnny, Johnny Reb!’

“I started out to meet him when he hallooed out, “Go back, Johnny, go back; we are ordered to fire on you.”

“What is the matter? Is your army going to advance on us?”

“I don’t know; we are ordered to fire.”

I jumped back into the picket post, and a minnie ball ruined the only hat I had.”

But fair warning had been given, and Sam lived to tell the tale!

If you have spent much time reading here, you probably know Private Sam Watkins of Company H, First Tennessee Infantry. Sam had a keen eye for nonsense, and his tales were often told with humor. He saw things as the man on the firing line, from the bottom of the totem pole. In his words: “Ah! reader, there is no glory for the private soldier, much less a conscript…. Glory is for generals, colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants, and when the poor private wins battles by dint of sweat, hard marches, camp and picket duty, fasting and broken bones, the officers get the glory. “The private’s pay was eleven dollars per month, if he got it; the general’s pay was three hundred dollars per month, and he always got his…. Men who never fired a gun are today the heroes of the war.” As a historian, I sometimes wonder how it is that certain senior officers get so much attention in the historical records. There I am reading about General Stuffed Shirt, thinking to myself, “But this guy was canned for relentless incompetence. Why are the “experts” going on and on about him, quoting his memoirs and giving him notoriety for being a fool?” Let me quote Sam Watkins on this: “Now, I tell you what I think about it: I think that those of us who fought as private soldiers and those of us who stuck it out to the last, deserve more praise than the general who resigned because some other general was placed in command over him. A general could resign. That was honorable. A private could not resign, nor choose his branch of service, and if he deserted, it was death.” Don’t get me wrong, countless officers high and low are worthy of the highest praise. And the private or sergeant that gets the medal is surely heard about – and should be! But many an anonymous private performed the bravest of deeds, time and time again. Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

It was July 31st, 1861. Federal troops were just north of Manassas, Virginia. There were many who thought they would send the Rebels reeling, putting an end to the rebellion.

The day was Sunday, and a throng of civilian sightseers had come down from the U.S. capitol, just 25 miles away. Lieutenant Tibdall commanded a section of artillery at the battle, and described what he s

“They came in all manner of ways, some in stylish carriages, others in buggies, on horseback and even on foot…. All manner of people were represented in this crowd, from the most grave and noble senators to hotel waiters.”

Many had packed picnic baskets, and some enterprising folks brought carts of food to sell.

William Russel of the London Times was present. He tells us there was “an unusually heavy discharge of artillery. A lady with an opera glass who was near me was quite beside herself, exclaiming, ‘Oh my! Is not that first rate? I guess we will be in Richmond to-morrow.’ ”

A Federal officer rode up and hollered, “We have whipped them on all points.”

Some of the Sunday tourists wanted to get a closer look, and moved toward the battle. The group included four Senators and two Congressmen.

As they neared the battle lines, the road became filled with soldiers, horses, and wagons.

But they were going in the wrong direction!

Union soldiers hollered at the spectators, “Turn back, turn back, we’re whipped.”

Not all of the civilians were bright. Michigan Senator Zachariah Chandler tried to barrier the road in an effort to stop the retreat. Senator Ben Wade of Ohio picked up a rifle, threatening to fire on the fleeing soldiers.

It was useless. The retreat could not be stopped.

A Confederate shell destroyed the buggy of Senator Henry Wilson, and he had to escape on a mule. Iowa Senator James Grimes barely avoided capture (and swore he would never to go near another battlefield).

New York Congressman Alfred Ely got too close to the fighting and was captured by the 8th South Carolina Infantry. He succeeded in reaching the Confederate Capitol of Richmond, where he spent the next five months in prison.

The reality of war had begun to sink in.

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It was July 31st, 1861. Federal troops were just north of Manassas, Virginia. There were many who thought they would send the Rebels reeling, putting an end to the rebellion.

The day was Sunday, and a throng of civilian sightseers had come down from the U.S. capitol, just 25 miles away. Lieutenant Tibdall commanded a section of artillery at the battle, and described what he saw:

“They came in all manner of ways, some in stylish carriages, others in buggies, on horseback and even on foot…. All manner of people were represented in this crowd, from the most grave and noble senators to hotel waiters.”

Many had packed picnic baskets, and some enterprising folks brought carts of food to sell.

William Russel of the London Times was present. He tells us there was “an unusually heavy discharge of artillery. A lady with an opera glass who was near me was quite beside herself, exclaiming, ‘Oh my! Is not that first rate? I guess we will be in Richmond to-morrow.’ ”

A Federal officer rode up and hollered, “We have whipped them on all points.”

Some of the Sunday tourists wanted to get a closer look, and moved toward the battle. The group included four Senators and two Congressmen.

As they neared the battle lines, the road became filled with soldiers, horses, and wagons.

But they were going in the wrong direction!

Union soldiers hollered at the spectators, “Turn back, turn back, we’re whipped.”

Not all of the civilians were bright. Michigan Senator Zachariah Chandler tried to barrier the road in an effort to stop the retreat. Senator Ben Wade of Ohio picked up a rifle, threatening to fire on the fleeing soldiers.

It was useless. The retreat could not be stopped.

A Confederate shell destroyed the buggy of Senator Henry Wilson, and he had to escape on a mule. Iowa Senator James Grimes barely avoided capture (and swore he would never go near another battlefield).

New York Congressman Alfred Ely got too close to the fighting and was captured by the 8th South Carolina Infantry. He succeeded in reaching the Confederate Capitol of Richmond, where he spent the next five months in prison.

The reality of war had begun to sink in.

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The destruction of Confederate Monuments, while believed to be justified (cultural cleansing), is both ignorant and insensitive. Those who destroy the monuments think that removing such monuments will remove the reminder of racism from society. However, the removal of such monuments provokes anger and injustice by saying the events of racism never occurred, and also does not allow society to mourn and honor its deceased.

Key Takeaways:

• As president of a cultural heritage organization, I feel obligated to weigh in on the current controversy over Confederate monuments. The semi-hysterical push to remove them is, I strongly believe, a mistake, a dangerous precedent, and an exercise in ignorance. Mobs pull statues down. ISIS destroys monuments. Fanatics rewrite history to edit out the bits they don’t like. Our country should not be walking down that road.
• My nonprofit helps people in conflict zones protect their endangered heritage sites or rebuild them if they were damaged by war or terrorism. For example, we are working to restore the last remaining Judaeo-Christian pilgrimage site in the vicinity of Mosul, the only one that was missed by ISIS in its rampage. From my vantage point, the idea that the way to deal with history is to destroy any relics that remind you of something you don’t like, is highly alarming. It’s bad enough when some insane bunch of fanatics has this idea
• To the Taliban, the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan were impious remnants of a pre-Islamic age, idols that deserved to be blown up. Now these irreplaceable, priceless and beautiful statues are gone, lost to the world. ISIS dynamited Palmyra (“a heathen site”) and many other beautiful and valuable places

“Remove its reminders from public spaces, and you are helping to remove it from society.”

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We live in an age where people becoming offended is taking away our freedom of speech. Instead of just ignoring opinions that they don’t believe in, people instead seek to silence voices they don’t want to hear. America was founded on the idea that anyone can believe what they want and that freedom is in jeopardy.

Key Takeaways:

• Giving people labels takes away the uniqueness from them and their point of view.
• We have elevated our right to be offended over our right to express ourselves freely.
• Are you secure enough in what you believe, and open minded enough to allow others who have views that are different than yours, their right to hold and express those views?

“Now, we are on the verge of erasing parts of our history that we find offensive. While we may not be proud of some chapters in our history, does that give us the right to rewrite the history books and lessons from it? How then would we measure our progress…or sadly…our regress. In the world of rapidly increasing intolerance, I leave you with a question”

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