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Civil War

In U.S. history, conflict (1861-65) between Northern states (Union) and Southern seceded states (Confederacy). It is known in the South as the War between the States, and by the official Union designation of War of the Rebellion. Many causes over a number of years contributed to what William H. Seward called "the irrepressible conflict": sectional rivalry, moral indignation aroused by the Abolitionists, the question of the extension of slavery into new territories, and a fundamental disagreement about the relative supremacy of federal control or States' Rights. The Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Compromise Of 1850 were unsuccessful efforts toward a peaceful solution. The election of Lincoln as president and the secession (Dec. 20, 1860) of South Carolina, soon followed by six other Southern states, precipitated war. Hostilities began when federal troops were moved to Fort Sumter, S.C., and Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard obeyed orders to fire on the fort (Apr. 12, 1861). Four more states seceded, making an 11-state Confederacy. Early battles were Confederate victories. Beauregard defeated Irvin McDowell (July 21) at the first battle of Bull Run. In 1862, G.B. Mcclellan's Peninsular Campaign was foiled by Confederate commander Robert E. Lee. In September, however, Lee's Antietam Campaign was checked by McClellan, and Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. The year ended with a Union defeat (Dec. 13) at Fredericksburg, and spring brought a resounding Confederate victory (May 2-4, 1863) at Chancellorsville, where Lee, however, lost his ablest general, "Stonewall" Jackson. Confederate fortunes turned when Lee undertook the disastrous Gettysburg Campaign (June-July 1863). Meanwhile, the Union navy had blockaded the Southern coast, and D.G. Farragut captured New Orleans (Apr. 1862). The introduction of the ironclad warship (see Monitor And Merrimac) had ended the era of the wooden battleship, but Confederate cruisers, built or bought in England, were causing great losses to Northern commercial shipping. In the West, Grant's great victory (Feb. 1862) at Fort Donelson was followed by a drawn battle (April 6-7) at Shiloh. Union gunboats on the Mississippi opened the way for Grant's successful Vicksburg Campaign. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg was checked at the end of the Chattanooga Campaign (Aug.-Nov. 1863) and was driven back to Georgia. In the Wilderness Campaign (May-June 1864), Grant forced Lee toward Richmond, and besieged Petersburg. Union Gen. W.T. Sherman won the Atlanta Campaign (May-Sept. 1864) and led a destructive march through Georgia to the sea. The Confederates evacuated Richmond after P.H. Sheridan's victory at Five Forks (Apr. 1, 1865). With his retreat blocked, Lee was forced to surrender to Grant at Appomattox (Apr. 9, 1865). The Union victory was saddened by the assassination of Pres. Lincoln (April 14), and by the deaths of more Americans than in any other war. But the Union was saved, and slavery was abolished. The seceded states were readmitted to the Union after Reconstruction.

Confederacy

Name commonly given to the Confederate States of America (1861-65), the government established by the southern states of the U.S. after their secession from the Union. When Pres. Lincoln was elected (Nov. 1860), seven states-South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Texas-seceded. A provisional government was set up at Montgomery, Ala., and a constitution was drafted; it resembled the U.S. Constitution but had provisions for States' Rights and Slavery. After the firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, four more states-Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee-joined. Richmond, Va., became the capital, and Jefferson Davis and A.H. Stephens were elected president and vice president. The story of the Confederacy is the story of the loss of the Civil War. Its loyal citizens bore privations and invasion with courage. It was refused recognition by England and France. Volunteers for its army were insufficient; conscription was used but opposed. Financial troubles were heavy, and its paper money became worthless. Mounting Union victories made defeat inevitable. The Confederacy fell after R.E. Lee's surrender in Apr. 1865.

Lincoln, Abraham

1809-65, 16th president of the U.S. (1861-65); b. Hardin co. (now Larue co.), Ky. Born in a log cabin in the backwoods, Lincoln was almost entirely self-educated. In 1831 he settled in New Salem, Ill., and worked as a storekeeper, surveyor, and postmaster while studying law. The story of his brief love affair there with Anne Rutledge is now discredited. In 1834 he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1836 he became a lawyer. He served one term (1847-49) in Congress as a Whig; in 1855 he sought to become a senator but failed. In 1856 he joined the new Republican Party. He ran again (1858) for the Senate against Stephen A. Douglas, and in a spirited campaign he and Douglas engaged in seven debates. Lincoln was not an Abolitionist, but he regarded slavery as an evil and opposed its extension. Although he lost the election, he had by now made a name for himself, and in 1860 he was nominated by the Republicans for president. He ran against a divided Democratic party and was elected with a minority of the popular vote. To the South, Lincoln's election was a signal for secession. By Inauguration Day seven states had seceded, and four more seceded after he issued a summons to the militia. It is generally agreed that Lincoln handled the vast problems of the Civil War with skill and vigor. Besides conducting the war, he faced opposition in the North from radical abolitionists, who considered him too mild, and from conservatives, who were gloomy over the prospects of success in the war. His cabinet was rent by internal hatred, and the progress of the war went against the North at first. In 1863 he moved to free the slaves by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, but preserving the Union remained his main war aim. His thoughts on the war were beautifully expressed in the Gettysburg Address (1863). In 1864 Lincoln ran for reelection against George B. Mcclellan and won, partly because of the favorable turn of military affairs after his appointment of Gen. U.S. Grant as commander-in-chief. Lincoln saw the end of the war but did not live to implement his plan for Reconstruction. On Apr. 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford's Theater, in Washington, D.C., he was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth (see under Booth, Junius Brutus). He died the next morning. As time passed a full-blown "Lincoln legend" grew, and he became the object of adulation and a symbol of democracy. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1818-82, b. Lexington, Ky., met and married Lincoln in 1842. The harsh portrayal of her by Lincoln's biographer William H. Herndon is certainly exaggerated. Only one of their four sons, Robert Todd Lincoln, 1843-1926, b. Springfield, Ill., reached manhood. He served as secretary of war (1881-85) and minister to Great Britain (1889-93). A corporation lawyer for railroad interests, he was president of the Pullman Co. (1897-1911).

Gettysburg campaign

June-July 1863, a series of battles that marked the turning point of the U.S. Civil War. After his victory at Chancellorsville, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee undertook a second invasion of the North, crossing the Potomac into Pennsylvania and fighting at Harrisburg and Chambersburg. Union forces under George G. Meade were massing N of the Potomac. The two forces met just W of Gettysburg in the greatest battle of the war (July 1-3, 1863). On July 1 the Union was driven to Cemetery Hill, south of the town. On July 2 the Confederates took the Peach Orchard but were repulsed in assaults on Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill; they briefly held Culp's Hill. On July 3 Lee ordered George E. Pickett's division forward in its famous but disastrous charge against the Union center. Tremendous losses resulted, and on July 4 Lee withdrew. Union losses totaled 23,000 killed or wounded; Confederate, 25,000.

Lee, Robert E(dward)

1807-70, Confederate general in the U.S. Civil War, son of Henry Lee; b. Westmoreland co., Va. He served with distinction in the Mexican War, was superintendent at West Point (1852-55), and led (1859) the U.S. marines who captured John Brown at Harpers Ferry. After the secession of the lower South, he declined the field command of U.S. forces. After Virginia's secession, however, he was given (June 1862) command of the Army of Northern Virginia and immediately took the offensive in the Seven Days Battles. He crushed the Union army at the second battle of Bull Run, but Gen. G.B. Mcclellan halted Lee's first invasion of the North in the Antietam Campaign. Lee repulsed Union advances at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, where he lost his ablest lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson. His second invasion of the North ended in defeat in the Gettysburg Campaign (1863). He repulsed Gen. U.S. Grant's direct assaults in the Wilderness Campaign (May-June 1864), but in July Grant laid siege to Petersburg. Lee became (Feb. 1865) general in chief of all Confederate armies, but the South was near collapse. He surrendered (Apr. 9, 1865) to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. After the war he was president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee Univ.). Lee was idolized by his soldiers, and many historians consider him to be the greatest general of the Civil War.

Grant, Ulysses Simpson

1822-85, commander in chief of the Union army in the U.S. Civil War, 18th president of the U.S. (1869-77); b. Point Pleasant, Ohio, as Hiram Ulysses Grant. He graduated from West Point in 1843. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned colonel, then brigadier general, of a regiment of volunteers and fought his first battle at Belmont, Mo., on Nov. 9, 1861. In Feb. 1862 he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, providing the first major Union victory, and he was at once promoted to major general. In Apr. 1862 he barely escaped defeat at the Battle of Shiloh. The Vicksburg Campaign (1862-63), which ended Confederate control of the Mississippi, was one of his greatest successes. Called to the supreme command in the West (Oct. 1863), he thoroughly defeated the Confederate forces under Braxton Bragg at Chattanooga. Pres. Lincoln made him commander in chief, with the rank of lieutenant general, in Mar. 1864. He directed the Union army in the Wilderness Campaign (May-June 1864), wearing out the Confederates by sheer attrition; he received Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on Apr. 9, 1865. He was made full general in 1866, the first U.S. citizen after Washington to hold that rank. Grant was elected president in 1868, defeating Horatio Seymour, and reelected in 1872, defeating Horace Greeley. His administration was characterized by corruption, special-interest legislation, and vigorous pursuit of a punitive Reconstruction program; in foreign affairs, however, much was accomplished by his able secretary of state, Hamilton Fish. Grant's Personal Memoirs (2 vol., 1885-86) rank among the great military narratives of history.

Reconstruction

In U.S. history, period (1865-77) of readjustment following the Civil War. When the war ended the defeated South was a ruined land, and its old social and economic order had collapsed. Pres. Andrew Johnson tried to shift political control in the South from the old planter aristocracy to small farmers and artisans by disenfranchising all former Confederate officers and making certain property liable to confiscation. Under the provisional governors he appointed, most Southern states abolished slavery and ratified the Thirteenth Amendment (1865), guaranteeing freedom for African Americans. However, they also enacted laws severely limiting the civil rights of African Americans (the "Black Codes") and elected disenfranchised Confederate leaders to state and federal offices. Radical Republicans in Congress, led by Thaddeus Stevens, refused to seat Southern representatives and passed various Reconstruction acts, which were designed to protect African Americans, over the president's vetoes. African-American civil rights were incorporated in the Fourteenth Amendment (1868). Radical congressmen enacted the Reconstruction Act of 1867 that set up five military districts in the South and made army authority supreme. When Johnson continued to oppose the radical leaders and defied the Tenure Of Office Act, Congress impeached him; he was not convicted, but his program was scuttled. After the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) had guaranteed African Americans the right to vote, terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan kept them from voting. Eventually, radical Republican governments were overthrown and white rule was restored. Reconstruction officially ended in 1877, when all federal troops were withdrawn from the South. Its legacy was the one-party "solid South" and a lasting racial bitterness.

Confederate Stars and Bars

The First Official Flag of the Confederacy. Although less well known than the "Confederate Battle Flags",the Stars and Bars was used as the official flag of the Confederacy from March 1861 to May of 1863. The pattern and colors of this flag did not distinguish it sharply fom the Stars and Stripes of the Union. Consequently, considerable confusion was caused on the battlefield.

The seven stars represent the original Confederate States; South Carolina (December 20, 1860), Mississippi(January 9, 1861), Florida (January 10,1861), Alabama (January 11, 1861), Georgia (January 19, 1861), Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and Texas (February 1, 1861).

The Confederate Battle Flag. The best-known Confederate flag, however, was the Battle Flag, the familiar "Southern Cross". It was carried by Confederate troops in the field which were the vast majority of forces under the confederacy.
The Stars represented the 11 states actually in the Confederacy plus Kentucky and Missouri.

The second Official Flag of the Confederacy. On May 1st,1863, a second design was adopted, placing the Battle Flag (also known as the "Southern Cross") as the canton on a white field. This flag was easily mistaken for a white flag of surrender especially when the air was calm and the flag hung limply.

The flag now had 13 stars having been joined officially by four more states, Virginia (April 17, 1861), Arkansas (May 6, 1861), Tennessee (May 7, 1861), North Carolina (May 21, 1861). Efforts to secede failed in Kentucky and Missouri though those states were represented by two of the stars.

The third Official Flag of the Confederacy.On March 4th,1865, a short time before the collapse of the Confederacy, a third pattern was adapted; a broad bar of red was placed on the fly end of the white field.

Confederate Navy Jack: Used as a navy jack at sea from 1863 onward. This flag has become the generally recognized symbol of the South.

Note: It is necessary to disclaim any connection of these flags to neo-nazis, red-necks, skin-heads and the like. These groups have adopted this flag and desecrated it by their acts. They have no right to use this flag - it is a flag of honor, designed by the confederacy as a banner representing state's rights and still revered by the South. In fact, under attack, it still flies over the South Carolina capitol building. The South denies any relation to these hate groups and denies them the right to use the flags of the confederacy for any purpose. The crimes committed by these groups under the stolen banner of the conderacy only exacerbate the lies which link the seccesion to slavery interests when, from a Southerner's view, the cause was state's rights.

Farewell to the Army of Northern Virginia

by Robert E. Lee

After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.

I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them; but feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that would have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged.

You may take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection.

With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.

The Character of Lee

He possessed every virtue of the great commanders, without their vices. He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guilt. He was a Caesar without his ambition; a Frederick without his tyranny; a Napoleon without his selfishness; and a Washington without his reward. He was obedient to authority as a servant, and loyal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life; modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vestal in duty; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle as Achilles.

He Lost a War and Won Immortality

Even among the free, it is not always easy to live together. There came a time, less than a hundred years ago, when the people of this country disagreed so bitterly among themselves that some of them felt they could not go on living with the rest.

A test of arms was made to decide whether Americans should remain one nation or become two. The armies of those who believed in two nations were led by a man named Robert E. Lee.

What about Lee? What kind of man was he who nearly split the history of the United States down the middle and made two separate books of it?

They say you had to see him to believe that a man so fine could e,xist. He was handsome. He was clever. He was brave. He was gentle. He was generous and charming, noble and modst, admired and beloved. He had never failed at anything in his upright soldier's life. He was a born winner, this Robert E. Lee. Except for once. In the greatest contest of his life, in the war beween the South and the North, Robert E. Lee lost.

Now there were men who came with smouldering eyes to Lee and said: "Let's not accept this result as final. Let's keep our anger alive. Let's be grim and unconvinced, and wear our bitterness like a medal. You can be our leader in this."

But Lee shook his head at those men. "Abandon your animosities," he said, "and make your sons Americans."

And what did he do himself when his war was lost? He took a job as president of a tiny college, with forty students and four profes- sors, at a salary of $1500 a year. He had commanded thousands of young men in battle. Now he wanted to prepare a few hun- dred of them for the duties of peace. So the countrymen of Robert E. Lee saw how a born winner loses, and it seemed to them that in defeat he won his most lasting victory.

There is an art of losing, and Robert E. Lee is its finest teacher. In a democracy, where opposing viewpoints regularly meet for a test of ballots, it is good for all of us to know how to lose occasionally, how to yield peacefully, for the sake of freedom. Lee is our master in this. The man who fought against the Union showed us what unity means.

The Norman Brothers

Larry Ligget writes:
"My son, Kris, and I have the Indiana in the Civil War site. My family hails from not-so-far from Newark, Ohio. I have a wonderful picture of two brothers (my "cousins") Amos and Artelius Norman, taken on April 15, 1864, while they were on Veteran's Furlough. Their demeanor and clothes are so interesting. Lieutenant Amos Norman was a member of Co. B, 78th Ohio Infantry and his older brother, Artelius, was a 1st Sergeant in Co. G, 32nd Ohio Infantry. Both were from Hopewell Township, Muskingum County (near Mt. Sterling).
The picture of the two brothers was taken while they were on Veteran's furlough, April 15, 1864. Amos (on the left) was 21 years old and his brother Artelius (right) was 24. The first time Amos ever voted he voted for Abraham Lincoln. He was very proud of this and often spoke of it. At the time of this photograph Amos was a Corporal (date of promotion: March 1864). Later, he became a 2nd Lieut. in Co. B, 78th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (date of promotion: March 24, 1865). At the Battle of Raymond Amos's knapsack was shot off his back, and his elbow was hit by a spent mini ball. No serious damage was done, but his arm was numb for quite some time. He was at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Champion's Hill, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, and Savannah--to name a few places. Amos married Mary Ann Sherrard and they had 6 children. He was an active member of Hamilton Post, No. 311, Grand Army of the Republic, Brownsville, Ohio. Amos died in 1930 and was buried in the Mt. Sterling Cemetery, Muskingum County, Ohio.
Artelius (called "Doc" by his friends) was in Co. G, 32nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. As you know, the 32nd was captured September 15, 1862, at Harper's Ferry (thanks to good old AP Hill). This was a great embarassment to the 32nd, and they became eager to vindicate themselves. I have read they did so at Champion's Hill. Artelius was at Cheat Mountain Summit (under Nathan Kimball, a fine Hoosier commander), Harper's Ferry, Jackson (MS), Vicksburg, Atlanta, and more. During Uncle Billy's march to the sea, Artelius's foot was injured and he claimed he marched the entire distance from Atlanta to Savannah with one boot on and one boot off. Both brothers--Amos and Artelius--were at Bennett's Place. After the war Artelius moved to Illinois to live with his Uncle Lemuel Ligget in Cumberland County. Soon, he moved to Tremont, Illinois (Tazwell County) and married Charlotte Brewester in 1870. They spent some time in the Dakota Territory but returned to Tremont, Illinois, where he continued working as a shoemaker (maybe he learned something while he was Marching Across Georgia shoeless). Artelius died in 1893 and was buried in Tazwell.
I also have a neat picture of Amos taken April, 4, 1861 (of course, eight days before the firing upon of Fort Sumter). He is in a great-coat, wearing a kepi and armed with some sort of a pumpkin hurler. He was, obviously, ready to go. He was 18 years old. I am told he won this photograph as a prize. He was attending a local fair, won the 2nd place prize, and got his picture taken in uniform. This exemplifies the mood of the country on the eve of Fort Sumter. It is obvious that Ohio men (boys) were ready for a fight. On the inside of the picture case it is written that "Mr. Grieze" took the picture.

Amos's and Artelius's mother was Charlotte Ligget, my great-great-great Aunt. The Liggets moved from Pennsylvania to Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1813. My line left Muskingum County for Clark County, Illinois, in 1852. It was a trip of a little more than 300 miles and it took them 30 days by wagon. I have one piece of furniture that came on the wagon (a nice night stand, professionally dated to have been made before 1800--feather painted). At one time Amos Norman had purchased a wagon and had everything loaded and ready to leave the hills of Muskingum County behind to be with my family in the prairie of Illinois. He was going to take his aged mother with them. At the last moment Charlotte decided she couldn't make the trip, that she was too old. Amos's brothers signed over quit claim deeds to him for the farm, and Amos stayed in Ohio with his mom and family."

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The Muster in of the 105th Ohio

The long, blue line sways and rustles as the men straighten themselves into a more or less correct position, take touch of elbows, glance right and left to secure a better alignment, and wonderingly gaze to the front to see what will happen next. A group of spectators, among whom are a few ladies, who carry parasols, stand in front of the right wing. They are evidently interested in what is going on. Some of them intercept the mustering officer's view of that part of the line; he orders them back, but the group is a considerable one and do not understand what is wanted of them. An orderly is sent to repeat the command and see that it is obeyed. The crowd fall back willingly but wonderingly. Then the officer explains that, when the command is given, each one whose name has been called - officers and men alike - will take off his cap with the left hand and holding up his right one, with the open palm to the front, repeat after him the oath of service. Then came the command:
"Hats of!"
There was a scuffling in the ranks, each one looking to see if his neighbor has obeyed. A good many take off the cap with the right hand and have to shift it to the left. The crowd titters at the many mistakes.
"Hands up!"
Some raise the right hand and some the left. The officers look around and correct the mistakes. Near the middle of the line an intensely red head shows nigh a foot above the line of the other heads on either side, and a red-bearded face looks calmly over the head of the officer, whose station is directly in his front.
"Steady!" commands the Regular Army officer, running his eye sharply along the wavering, ill-dressed line.
"Get down!" he says, as his eye reaches the red head that overtops its neighbors. The red face turns one way and the other in wondering search of what has awakened the officer's displeasure. All the other faces in the line turn also.
"You man in the Fifth Company there, with the red beard, get down off that stump!"
A titter runs along the line. Everyone knows what has happened. A shout goes up from the spectators. Some of the officers laugh. The colonel steps forward and says something in an undertone to the mustering officer. The officer looks foolish. The red bearded face ducks a few inches nearer the line of heads about it. The face is redder than ever. It was not Jerry Whetstone's fault that his comrades only came up to his shoulder. Yet, many thousand times on the march and in the camp - before he marches up the Avenue, in the grand review, with his un-erring rifle all out of line with the pieces of the little squad which are all that remains of the company - will the great, good natured giant be exhorted to "Get off of that stump!" And not once will the injunction fail to raise a laugh, no matter how weary those may be who hear it.
The tallest man in the army of the Cumberland was six foot seven inch Jerry Whetstone of Company H, 105th Ohio Infantry.

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"Old Flag" Speech
by W.H. Gibson 49th OVI

Extracts of a speech by General (then Colonel) W.H. Gibson on the occasion of presenting the "old Flag," carried by the troops under his command in the 49th Ohio Voluntary Regiment. This flag was presented by, then returned to the citizens of Tiffin, Ohio during the course of the Civil War on a 30 day furlough given to the troops in the winter of 1864. Bold words were those given emphasis during the speech.

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens,

You have come here tonight to hear me, not because I have been on the field of carnage and battle and witnessed the slaughter of my fellow men. You have come because I have brought home again the soiled and battle-worn banner which you gave me eighteen months ago, which has since waved over bloody and hard fought fields.
I am a proud man; not of myself but of the boys of the 49th. I am proud of the army I am connected with because it has never been whipped, although it had come pretty near it once or twice. I am proud of the general in command of that army, because he thought more of the comfort of his men than he did of the rebel property.
Be assured, my fellow citizens, that the 49th is all right; its honor is unsullied by a single instance of court martial. I am satisfied with it - I am proud of the boys because I have done all I could for them; if the quartermaster failed to draw their rations, I let them make a special requisition and they did it; and they are proud of me because I kinder stuck to them when they got in a mess.
The banner presented by you eighteen months ago, I now return to you and will do so now through your chairman as a memento of this war. See that every star remains in its place, and should civil strife break out in your homes, take out the banner of the 49th and call the citizens to rally in its defense. I will go to other duties, to other fields - nobler achievements, to defend the nation whose emblem I now present to you. I am not a brave man but rest assured I shall be able to die in the performance of my duty. I love life a little too well; but Honor, instinct, and patriotism bade me to the task.
Take then the Flag; I may never touch its folds again - nay never draw again my naked sword in its defense - yet the "Old Flag" will still wave and the time will come when its starry folds will be greeted again with respect by the nations of the earth, floating in the air of their rivers and harbors. They will greet it more readily, because when scorned and maligned by evil men, a million loyal freemen rushed to its defense and beat them back until it waved again over our mighty rivers and lakes from the St. Lawrence to the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada's. It shall still wave to greet the coming millennium, which when arrived, shall salute the "Old Flag" in heaven.

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Lewisburg, West Virginia, 1862

Letter, George Jenvy to Father
Dated May 23, 1862.
Lewisburg, West Virginia.
Published in Marietta Home News, June 6, 1862.

Col. George Crook defeated General Henry Heth at that place on May 23, and Ohioan Jenvy, serving in a West Virginia Cavalry unit made up mostly of southern Ohioans, witnessed the fray from the western heights overlooking Lewisburg.

"Another Account Incidents, & c."

George Jenvy of this city bugler in the 2nd Virginia Cavalry, in a private letter to his father, gives the following interesting account of the fight, as seen from his standpoint:
I was sleeping in a large barn a short distance from camp, when I was awakened by the bugle sounding "Boots and Saddles". I aroused the other boys with me, hastened to camp, & fell into line, where we learned that the rebels were advancing in force, and that our pickets had been driven in.
We marched to the hill that overlooked the town and on the opposite rising ground we could see the rebels drawn up in line of battle, awaiting our approach. Nothing was heard for some time, when the ball was opened by an irregular fire from the rebels and our skirmishers, which lasted but a few minutes. A lull followed for a brief space, when a volley succeeded, the like of which I never heard before. It sounded as though every gun had been fired by one will, and I never heard a more welcome sound in my life. I knew at once that volley came from men who were cool and determined, and I felt that the victory was surely ours if our men only kept up the fire they opened with.
Meanwhile the cavalry had remained unmolested. They saw a few bombs bursting over the edge of the town and hill, but as yet none had reached them, and they turned their attention to the fight that was going on in the gardens and fields beyond, when a rebel shell burst over their heads and reminded them of the fact that they enemy's battery had got the range of our position. The contents of this unwelcome intruder came whizzing around our heads and among the horses; and from that time we had as much as we could do to watch the shells and get out of the way before they exploded.
Fortunately the battery was captured before it did us any injury and the enemy soon retired over the hill in full retreat. Our cavalry hung on their rear until the rebels had crossed the Greenbriar bridge, which they burned after them, and thus ended the chase.
Of course the first thing after the rebels had been helped out of town was to pick up our dead and wounded - and the ambulances were soon in full play, while wagon loads of dead bodies passed by. The first house I entered there lay on the floor twelve wounded rebels, and one of our men shot through the heart. I looked at the wounded as they lay on the floor. The first one I saw was wounded through the stomach, and his shirt was saturated with his blood. He was on the eve of passing into a better or worse land, as his face clearly indicated. He was suffering intense pain and was supplicating God to have mercy on his soul. There the poor fellows lay, writhing and groaning in terrible agony. The spectacle was so sickening that I was compelled to get into the open air.
I walked up the street and soon heard groans coming from another house. Looking through the window I saw several dead bodies stretched out on the floor. The next door being open, I entered and found twelve more wounded rebels. One had the back part of his head shot off leaving his brains exposed. His face was so covered with blood that his own father would not have recognized him. He was still alive, moaning away the painful moments. His lamp was almost extinguished.
After seeing most of the wounded I went to the battlefield. They had been engaged in removing the dead all the morning, and yet on the ourskirts of the field I counted twenty dead that had not been gathered up. Behind a fallen log three dead bodies were lying just as they were shot. They were shot in the head or breast and seemingly while in the act of discharging their pieces. In another place in a bed of clover lay a gunner, matchlock in hand, with one bullet hole through the brain and another through the jaw. He fell while in the act of discharging the largest cannon the enemy had.
Most of our wounded are shot through the arms and fingers, and others in the legs. I was talking with one who was wounded in the breast just over the heart. The ball had passed through his belt, through his clothes and was spend on one of the bones over the heart, not having force enough to penetrate. Another told me he was shot through the leg while marching up to the fight, by someone from behind a house. He turned around but could not discover his dastardly foe. A rebel citizen shot dead one of our wounded while going to the surgean for assistance; while another citizen raised his gun to shoot another boy wounded in the face. His gun missed fire, and the boy coolly took note of the house and the features of the man, and in the evening took the colonel of the 36th and showed him the house -- and rumor says somebody is to swing.
G.K.J.

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Iron Nerve of a Soldier

In the charge at Ruff's Mills, Georgia, in which the 27th Ohio participated, I was wounded and while lying under a tent fly, awaiting attention from the surgeons, I saw under the same fly an improvised Surgeon's table and on this table was a man who had been shot through the leg. He was a member of Company B of the same Regiment. The wounded soldier who was a German, refused to take an anasthetic and the doctors and soldiers who were attending him were compelled to continually push his body back on the table, as he attempted to rise, evidently to see what the surgeons were doing. After the operation was completed and the stump was tied up, the wounded man, who as it happened, had been formerly a cooper, sat up on the table, threw his legs over the side and jumped off, alighting on his one good leg. Swinging the other, he exclaimed, "Py Golly, I can make parrels yet."
This happening impressed itself vividly on my mind, but I did not see him again until thirty-four years after the war at which time I was driving down Naghten Street in the city of Columbus, when I saw a peg legged soldier plodding along the sidewalk going in the same direction. I drove to the curb and took the old soldier in to give him a lift. Tapping the wooden peg leg as the soldier sat on the seat beside me I asked, "Where did you loose your good leg?" "At Ruff's Mills, Georgia, July 4th, 1864," was the answer. I looked him in the face a moment and recognized the wounded soldier. It was George Evercourt that I had seen jump off the table under the tent fly, not deploring the loss of his leg, but exulting that he was still able to make barrels and I said to him, "Well, I saw the surgeon cut it off." George Evercourt of Company B died March 20th, 1908.

By: H.C. Evans, Company C, Twenty-seventh Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

From: The History of Fuller's Ohio Brigade 1861-1865
By: Charles H. Smith, Major, 27th Ohio Regiment, Veteran Volunteer Infantry. Cleveland, Ohio 1909.

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East vs. West

Excerpt from "The Forty-first Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry In The War Of The Rebellion 1861-1865" by Robert L. Kimberly and Ephraim S. Holloway, 1897.
"One of the incidents of this expedition (Brown's Ferry near Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1863) was the meeting for the first time with troops from the East - Hooker's men. What was particularly noticeable about these men was the completeness of their outfit; beside the scantier outfits of the western troops, they looked something like walking museums of buttons and brass plates and ornaments. Some of their furnishings had never been dreamed of by the western soldiers. Everything, too, was fresh and in good condition - a contrast not relished by the men whose campaigns had been over long distances, taking them far from the bases of supplies and compelling the wearing of worn out articles for months at a time. The advantages of campaigning on short lines and near the seat of government was apparent enough in this case."

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