’cause the framers punted

Posted on December 9, 2015 by SUMPTER

After an eight month hiatus, the Richmond Daily Dispatch resumed publication 150 years ago today (albeit with no runaway slave classifieds):

Saturday…december 9, 1865.
The past and the present.

The Richmond Dispatch, which met a temporary suspension of its existence in the expiring names [flames?] of the recent Confederacy, is this morning restored to life. It is again endowed with the Promethean fire, and speaks to its readers as though it never lost its breath or its voice. Welcome it, “dear reader,” with the same kind and genial sensibilities which warm its own heart, and let there be established once more between it and thee the same confidential and affectionate relations which formerly existed, and which blessed, and rewarded all its toil, all its struggles, through the thorny and flinty way of journalism.

Convention at Philadelphia, 1787 (Hartford : Published by Huntington & Hopkins, 1823.; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/93515362/)

that three-fifths non-solution …

These Southern States have passed through an ordeal of trial and suffering seldom the lot of a generation of people. They entered upon a struggle, in which they failed, and in which these trials and sufferings were incurred. Unlike most rebellions, as they are called, especially when they have failed, those who undertook it were not merely a set of malcontents, recklessly resisting the clearly-defined political organisms of the country; they were fortified by a sense of rights under the Constitution and a conscientious conviction of the justice of their position, which had at least the semblance of support in the debates of our ancestors, who framed the Constitution itself under which the Republic was formed. Those truly great men left the question of the relations between the States and the General Government an open one. There were strong parties in the very convention which framed the compact of union upon the questions at issue touching those relations. The very able and patriotic men who figured in that body, after much debate, gave the question the goby; and while they failed to settle it themselves, they appointed no umpire to which it could be referred. They thus left us as a legacy a bitter and disastrous war — a war which was fought, and fought bravely, to its final conclusion. The South entered upon it with more unanimity and determination than has been known to characterize the resisting party in any civil war that we read of. It fought through it, under its sense of constitutional right, with a courage and constancy which has challenged the admiration of other nations. But the question thus submitted to the arbitrament of war, was decided against them, and they submitted, like brave men ever submit, to the fates, which all their fortitude and power cannot control. They were overwhelmed by superior numbers and resources, and succumbed after a resistance which vindicated the honesty and sincerity of their intentions. Their heroism has lately received a tribute that is alike honorable to the head and heart of the magnanimous commander-in-chief of the powerful armies they encountered in the field. Such a tribute is the most fitting rebuke — the most scathing denunciation — of those wretched attempts to dishonor the gallant dead who fell in hecatombs on the field in proof of the truth and sincerity of their devotion to the cause Regarding the result as the the question, those who so nobly perilled their lives in support of the principles they espoused, readily acquiesced, and submitted to the authority of the Federal Government, and order and quiet were instantly restored, in a country where the devastations of war and the exhausting exertions of defence against overwhelming odds, had reduced the people nearly to famine. The subsequent history we need not recount. The steady efforts of all the restore order, and the patient and cheerful manner in which a people reduced from the happiest independence to utter poverty, have undertaken to provide for immediate want and rebuild their fallen fortunes, constitutes one of the noblest examples in the history of mankind.

Constitutional Convention, Topeka, Kansas Territory [Topeka] ( Illus. in: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, vol. 1, no, 1 (1855 Dec. 15), p. 16. ; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/99614006/)

… meant more to debate in Kansas

In this struggle the Dispatch took its part. It was honest and earnest; and does not mean to retreat, or, in the every day parlance, to crawfish from its position. It sympathised with the Confederacy, did all it could to cheer the hearts of the people in the struggle, and continued with it, and, we may say, fell with it in the calamitous fire of the 3d of April. Its voice was heard up to that hour. While the carrier conveyed its communications to the public in one part of the city, its types and presses were melting in the fires of another.

But like the noble people in the midst of whom it was published, and who it now addresses, it, too, accepts the situation and the clear decision of the trial of arms — of blood. It means to abide by the oath which its conductors have taken, and sustain the Government under which we now live. It feels, to-day, as though it had never been suspended — in fact, its seat at the round table of the fraternity has only been temporarily vacant — and it speaks as though only twenty-four hours had passed since its last appearance. It is true there is no war; but that was over, in fact, when it last appeared. It resumes its mission, then, before the war — which was to encourage and stimulate the improvement of Richmond and assist in the development of the resources of our dear old mother, Virginia. To these purposes it will bring all the energies of its improved and enlarged means and power; and hopes, in its day, to do some real service in this noble cause.

Renewing our expressions of gratification at once more holding communication with our dear friends of Richmond and Virginia, the Dispatch promises at once to direct all its influence to the promotion of their good. Nothing on this earth would make its conductors as to see our people safely and through that trying transition state in which they are now struggling, and it shall be our most enthusiastic occupation to try to facilitate their passage, dry shod, through this red sea of their difficulties. That our own townsmen and the good people of Virginia–God bless and preserve her!–may pass through their trials successfully, and become, is they deserve to be, prosperous and happy, the devout prayer of the Dispatch.

[Richmond, Va. Ruined buildings in the burned district] (1865; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003000656/PP/)

Richmond buildings 1865

Rebuilding the city.

There is a great mistake prevailing with many people that all the money employed in rebuilding this city comes from the North, and very doleful prophecies are indulged upon this hypothesis concerning the future. We are sold! We are both bought and sold! and must wind up with general bankruptcy and poverty! Now, there is no use in this — no season for all this anticipation of evil. There a better and a truer view of the subject. The money employed in the active enterprise rebuilding this city is not all from the forth. Nearly all the very best buildings in progress of construction in this city are built on with the money of our own enterprising citizens. For, thank God! notwithstanding desolation which swept over the South, especially over this devoted city, some of Wisest and most far-seeing of our people a part of their means, and this they are using in the most enterprising and public-spirited manner. So that we are not entirely dependent on Northern capital — very from it. But what should we fear from Northern capitalists? We know that, commercially speaking, under the influence of transportation, by water and rail telegraphs, there is an inevitable concentration of commerce in the great cities and points of the Continent, and that all localities must be subsidiary and tributary to them, So that, do what we will, we cannot escape that subordinate relation. Now, since that is the case, what objection can we have to the drawing of capital from the commercial centre to build up and adorn our recently desolated and forlorn city? Money put in the bricks, in the stores and dwellings and public edifices of Richmond, cannot be easily taken away. At most, the proprietorship of the buildings can only be changed. The money remains in the buildings, and they are permanent — permanent places of business, permanent tenements to live comfortably in, permanent ornaments of the city. Not only, therefore, are we fortunate in having this borrowed capital to revive the city; but our good fortune will be increased precisely to the extent of the amount that may be so contributed from abroad to this important object.

There need be no fears on the subject. The more capital that is drawn thither, the greater the interest that will be felt by capitalists abroad in the general prosperity of this city. They would be unwilling to see their investments wholly unproductive, and their influence and means would, if necessary, be surely given for the promotion of that general commercial thrift which would contribute to their individual benefit.

So let us look ahead and be hopeful, assured that every dollar brought here and placed in the houses of Richmond, is a permanent investment, and a guarantee of the confidence felt in the future of the place, as well as an earnest of the disposition to aid in the promotion of its growth and welfare.

From the Library of Congress: Philadelphia, Topeka, Richmond. The Topeka Constitution was adopted in December 1855 by free-staters to counter a more pro-slavery territorial government.
Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction, Southern Society | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

it was all worth it

Posted on December 7, 2015 by SUMPTER
The state of Kansas. By Samuel J. Crawford, Governor. Thanksgiving proclamation ... I Samuel J. Crawford, Governor of Kansas, do hereby appoint Thursday, December 7th, A. D. 1865, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer ... given under my hand and t (1865; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.0200130a/)

less bleeding in Kansas

The war has been worth all that it cost the nation; the sacrifice has been great, but the benefit greater.

President Andrew Johnson proclaimed December 7, 1865 a national Day of Thanksgiving. I don’t know if the first part of the following article is an editorial or actually part of the “SERMON BY REV. J.R.W. SLOANE, THIRD REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, TWENTY-THIRD-STREET.”

From The New-York Times December 8, 1865:

The Abolition of Slavery the Chief Cause for Thanksgiving.

NY Times December 8, 1865

snowy Thanksgiving in the city (NY Times December 8, 1865)

The circumstances connected with our present Annual Thanksgiving are Greatly altered from those of the past four years. Then the dark cloud of civil war overhung our country. Jehovah was marching through the land in His anger, the pealm of thanksgiving mingle with the “braying discord” of arms and the “confused noise” of battle. The storm has passed, the last muttering thunders have died away, the bow appears in the clouds, the sunlight of peace is bright over all the recently-darkened land, the sword is being beaten into the plowshare and the spear into the pruning-hook, we hear no more “the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” As Reformed Presley events, the sworn friends of civil and religious liberty, and the uncompromising foes of slavery in all its forms, we found cause of thanksgiving even in the terrible visitation of war. Not on its own account, not because we delighted in blood; God is our witness that we did not “desire the woful day.” In common with others we felt its burdens; we, too, mourned our dead; the sorrows of the nation were our sorrows, but because of the results that we foresaw must flow from this calamity in itself so dark and terrible. We have reason to rejoice that our judgment has been justified by the events, that out of the mouth of this eater has come forth meat, and from this strong one honey. “War is,” in the language of ROBERT HALL, “the garment of vengeance in which the Deity arrays himself when he comes forth to punish the inhabitants of the earth.” “It is the day of the Lord cruel both with wrath and fierce anger.” All this has been realized in our great struggle, it has cost us many millions of money, hundreds of thousands of noble and precious lives, and left behind it that train of evils which are its inevitable accompaniments. We cannot be sufficiently thankful that the ordeal is passed, the temple of Janus closed, and that we can now apply ourselves to the cultivation of the arts of peace and to healing the wound which war has made. The great blessing that has flowed to us from the late conflict is the destruction of slavery; it was only desirable that the Union should be preserved and the government saved, that it might be the defender of liberty. The war has been worth all that it cost the nation; the sacrifice has been great, but the benefit greater. How great a cause of thankfulness we have in the destruction of this wickedness, those only can realize who have formed a true conception of the system, and of its far-reaching and destructive influence. The war has taught the nation a lesson which it was slow to learn, but taught it effectually. The system is among the things of the past; and, although its effects may remain for many years “as the waves will continue to dash upon the shore long after the storm is down,” the institution has died or the deadly wound that our martyr President gave it in the Emancipation Proclamation and will be, as we trust, by the present Congress, buried out of sight and have its grave sealed forever. We who have borne reproach from our youth for opposition to this iniquity cannot repress our joy at its fall. We take up the language of exultation: “Rejoice over her thou heaven and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. Let the old devotees of this Moloch cast dust upon their heads and cry Alas! alas! Our feelings are those of joy to hear the crash of its falling ruins, as it sinks into the abyss and goes down to the blackness of darkness forever.” We hope to leave our children in a country in which it will be no reproach to love liberty and hate slavery. The speaker then passed to the consideration of other topics, as grounds of thanksgiving, such as the wasting of the Mohammedan power in the East, the approaching termination of the temporal power of the Pope, the spread of liberal principles in all the nations of Europe, the rapid spread of the gospel, &c., &c. He then turned to a consideration of the method in which our thankfulness should be expressed.

SERMON BY REV. J.R.W. SLOANE, THIRD REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, TWENTY-THIRD-STREET. …

Thanksgiving anthem (1865; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200001090/)

“Thanksgiving Anthem”

Thanksgiving proclamation. Commonwealth of Kentucky. Executive department ... Thursday the 7th day of December next has been set apart, by proclamation of the President of the United States, as a day of national thanksgiving ... Given under my h (1865; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.02204200/)

Kentucky proclamation silent on slavery

________________________________________________

Thanks to Daily Observations from the Civil War I learned that I’m not the only Finger Lakes resident who thought a December Thanksgiving was a bit unique. Like NY City the weather was bad in Canandaigua. Miss Richards listened to a sermon that gave thanks for the end of the war, the preservation of the Union, and the abolition of slavery. Oysters and a big turkey for dinner.

From the Library of Congress: Kansas; anthem; Kentucky
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perpetual union still possible

Posted on December 5, 2015 by SUMPTER

In early December 1865 the 39th Congress convened and President Andrew Johnson sent the legislators his first annual message. A newspaper in Gotham was well-satisfied with the President’s report.

From The New-York Times December 6, 1865:

The President’s Message.

Probably no Executive document was ever awaited with greater interest than the Message transmitted to Congress yesterday. It is safe to say that none ever gave greater satisfaction when received. Its views, on the most momentous subjects, domestic and foreign, that ever concerned the nation, are full of wisdom, and are conveyed with great force and dignity.

President Andrew Johnson (full length, standing) (between 1865 and 1880; LOC: v)

Union also still in one piece

In regard to reconstruction, the President begins by defining with great clearness the mutual relations of the constitution and the States. He shows that each is vital to the other, and that the theory that States can be extinguished would be fatal to the constitution. The military rule over the insurrectionary States was an exceptional condition, imposed by necessity, and is to be terminated just as soon as those States can be brought again into a harmonious working with the National Government For this end the government has diligently labored, and with such success, as the President believes, that now nothing remains to be done by the late erring States but the ratification of the Constitutional Amendment forever prohibiting slavery, as a pledge of perpetual loyalty and peace. It will then be for Congress to consummate the restoration by admitting the Southern Senators and Representatives who, in its high judgment, possess the necessary qualifications.

In regard to punishment for treason, the President urges the adoption of measures for the early resumption of all the functions of the Circuit Courts in the South, so as to secure impartial trials, and vindicate the principle that treason is a crime to be punished, and forever settle that no State has power to relieve its citizens of their obligations to the Union.

In regard to the freedmen, the President declares that the constitution gives the general government no power to prescribe the qualifications of the electors in the various States; yet he is free to recognize in the broadest terms its duty, in good faith, to take care that the freedmen should be secure in their liberty and their property, and their right to labor and a just return for their labor.

The President sets forth the unjust conduct of England in the war with great point, and yet with an entire avoidance of all calculated to irritate. His manner of treating it can hardly fail to rouse a feeling of shame in every manly British bosom. He advises no unfriendly resorts to obtain redress, but to wait patiently for the recognition of justice.

In respect to the foreign establishment of monarchy in Mexico, the President contents himself with affirming that the system of noninterference and mutual abstinence from propagandism is the true rule for the two hemispheres. He avoids all language having any appearance of menace, and believes that our principles have a moral force that must soon command acceptance. The correspondence between France on the subject, it is mentioned, will be laid before Congress “at the proper time.”

The Message [cl]osed with a brief but very impressive retrospect of the way in which our institutions have vindicated themselves from their first establishment, and with a recognition of the wonderful manner in which Providence has protected and magnified the nation. The whole document is one of which every American may well be proud, for its elevation of tone, its practical wisdom and its quiet exhibition of the national strength and glory. It will be admired not only at home, but cannot fail of making a most favorable impression all over the civilized world.

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction, Southern Society | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

hero as tour guide

Posted on November 30, 2015 by SUMPTER

Is there not a better future for these men also? The time will come when we shall at least cease to hate them.

In the summer of 1865 a correspondent visited Gettysburg two years after the great battle. His very long report was published 150 years ago this month. Here are some excerpts focusing mostly on John Lawrence Burns, the War of 1812 veteran who became known as “The hero of Gettysburg” for his actions on July 1, 1863.

From The Atlantic Monthly, VOL. XVI.—NOVEMBER, 1865.—NO. XCVII.

THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG.

In the month of August, 1865, I set out to visit some of the scenes of the great conflict through which the country has lately passed. …

From Harrisburg, I went, by the way of York and Hanover, to Gettysburg. Having hastily secured a room at a hotel in the Square, (the citizens call it the “Di’mond,”) I inquired the way to the battle-ground.

“You are on it now,” said the landlord, with proud satisfaction,—for it is not every man that lives, much less keeps a tavern, on the field of a world-famous fight. “I tell you the truth,” said he; and, in proof of his words, (as if the fact were too wonderful to be believed without proof,) he showed me a Rebel shell imbedded in the brick wall of a house close by. (N. B. The battle-field was put into the bill.)

Gettysburg is the capital of Adams County: a town of about three thousand souls,—or fifteen hundred, according to John Burns, who assured me that half the population were Copperheads, and that they had no souls. It is pleasantly situated on the swells of a fine undulating country, drained by the headwaters of the Monocacy. It has no special natural advantages,—owing its existence, probably, to the mere fact that several important roads found it convenient to meet at this point, to which accident also is due its historical renown. The circumstance which made it a burg made it likewise a battle-field.

the "old hero of Gettysburg"

the “old hero of Gettysburg”

About the town itself there is nothing very interesting. It consists chiefly of two-story houses of wood and brick, in dull rows, with thresholds but little elevated above the street. Rarely a front yard or blooming garden-plot relieves the dreary monotony. Occasionally there is a three-story house, comfortable, no doubt and sufficiently expensive, about which the one thing remarkable is the total absence of taste in its construction. In this respect Gettysburg is but a fair sample of a large class of American towns, the builders of which seem never once to have been conscious that there exists such a thing as beauty.

John Burns, known as “the hero of Gettysburg,” was almost the first person whose acquaintance I made. He was sitting under the thick shade of an English elm in front of the tavern. The landlord introduced him as “the old man who took his gun and went into the first day’s fight.” He rose to his feet and received me with sturdy politeness,—his evident delight in the celebrity he enjoys twinkling through the veil of a naturally modest demeanor.

“John will go with you and show you the different parts of the battle-ground,” said the landlord. “Will you, John?”

“Oh, yes, I’ll go,” said John, quite readily; and we set out at once.

A mile south of the town is Cemetery Hill, the head and front of an important ridge, running two miles farther south to Round Top,—the ridge held by General Meade’s army during the great battles. The Rebels attacked on three sides,—on the west, on the north, and on the east; breaking their forces in vain upon this tremendous wedge, of which Cemetery Hill may be considered the point. A portion of Ewell’s Corps had passed through the town several days before, and neglected to secure that very commanding position. Was it mere accident, or something more, which thus gave the key to the country into our hands, and led the invaders, alarmed by Meade’s vigorous pursuit, to fall back and fight the decisive battle here?

With the old “hero” at my side pointing out the various points of interest, I ascended Cemetery Hill. The view from the top is beautiful and striking. On the north and east is spread a finely variegated farm country; on the west, with woods and valleys and sunny slopes between, rise the summits of the Blue Ridge. …

“It don’t look here as it did after the battle,” said John Burns. “Sad work was made with the tombstones. The ground was all covered with dead horses, and broken wagons, and pieces of shells, and battered muskets, and everything of that kind, not to speak of the heaps of dead.” But now the tombstones have been replaced, the neat iron fences have been mostly repaired, and scarcely a vestige of the fight remains. Only the burial-places of the slain are there. Thirty-five hundred and sixty slaughtered Union soldiers lie on the field of Gettysburg. This number does not include those whose bodies have been claimed by friends and removed.

The new cemetery, devoted to the patriot slain, and dedicated with fitting ceremonies on the 19th of November, 1863, adjoins the old one. …

I looked into one of the trenches in which workmen were laying foundations for the headstones, and saw the ends of the coffins protruding. It was silent and dark down there. Side by side the soldiers slept, as side by side they fought. I chose out one coffin from among the rest, and thought of him whose dust it contained,—your brother and mine, although we never knew him. I thought of him as a child, tenderly reared—for this. I thought of his home, his heart-life:—

“Had he a father?
       Had he a mother?
Had he a sister?
       Had he a brother?
Or was there a nearer one
Still, and a dearer one
       Yet, than all other?”

I could not know: in this world, none will ever know. He sleeps with the undistinguishable multitude, and his headstone is lettered, “Unknown.” …

Guided by the sturdy old man, I proceeded first to Culp’s Hill, following a line of breastworks into the woods. Here are seen some of the soldiers’ devices hastily adopted for defence. A rude embankment of stakes and logs and stones, covered with earth, forms the principal work; aside from which you meet with little private breastworks, as it were, consisting of rocks heaped up by the trunk of a tree, or beside a larger rock, or across a cleft in the rocks, where some sharpshooter stood and exercised his skill at his ease. …

Yet here remain more astonishing evidences of fierce fighting than anywhere else about Gettysburg. The trees in certain localities are all seamed, disfigured, and literally dying or dead from their wounds. The marks of balls in some of the trunks are countless. Here are limbs, and yonder are whole tree-tops, cut off by shells. Many of these trees have been hacked for lead, and chips containing bullets have been carried away for relics.

Past the foot of the hill runs Rock Creek, a muddy, sluggish stream, “great for eels,” said John Burns. Big boulders and blocks of stone lie scattered along its bed. Its low shores are covered with thin grass, shaded by the forest-trees. Plenty of Rebel knapsacks and haversacks lie rotting upon the ground; and there are Rebel graves in the woods near by. By these I was inclined to pause longer than John Burns thought it worth the while. I felt a pity for these unhappy men which he could not understand. To him they were dead Rebels, and nothing more; and he spoke with great disgust of an effort which had been made by certain “Copperheads” of the town to have all the buried Rebels, now scattered about in the woods and fields, gathered together in a cemetery near that dedicated to our own dead.

“Yet consider, my friend,” I said, “though they were altogether in the wrong, and their cause was infernal, these, too, were brave men; and under different circumstances, with no better hearts than they had, they might have been lying in honored graves up yonder, instead of being buried in heaps, like dead cattle, down here.”

Is there not a better future for these men also? The time will come when we shall at least cease to hate them.

The cicada was singing, insects were humming in the air, crows were cawing in the tree-tops, the sunshine slept on the boughs or nestled in the beds of brown leaves on the ground,—all so pleasant and so pensive, I could have passed the day there. But John reminded me that night was approaching, and we returned to Gettysburg. …

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. John L. Burns cottage. (Burns seated in doorway) (1863 Jult; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003004781/PP/)

John L. Burns cottage

The next morning, according to agreement, I went to call on the old hero. I found him living in the upper part of a little whitewashed two-story house, on the corner of two streets, west of the town. A flight of wooden steps outside took me to his door. He was there to welcome me. John Burns is a stoutish, slightly bent, hale old man, with a light blue eye, a long, aggressive nose, a firm-set mouth, expressive of determination of character, and a choleric temperament. His hair, originally dark brown, is considerably bleached with age; and his beard, once sandy, covers his face (shaved once or twice a week) with a fine crop of silver stubble. A short, massy kind of man; about five feet four or five inches in height, I should judge. He was never measured but once in his life. That was when he enlisted in the War of 1812. He was then nineteen years old, and stood five feet in his shoes. “But I’ve growed a heap since,” said the old hero.

He introduced me to his wife, a slow, somewhat melancholy old lady, in ill health. “She has been poorly now for a good many years.” They have no children.

At my request he told me his story. He is of Scotch parentage; and who knows but he may be akin to the ploughman-poet whose “arrowy songs still sing in our morning air”? He was born and bred in Burlington, New Jersey. A shoemaker by trade, he became a soldier by choice, and fought the British in what used to be the “last war.” I am afraid he contracted bad habits in the army. For some years after the war he led a wandering and dissipated life. Forty years ago he chanced to find himself in Gettysburg, where he married and settled down. But his unfortunate habits still adhered to him, and he was long looked upon as a man of little worth. At last, however, when there seemed to be no hope of his ever being anything but a despised old man, he took a sudden resolution to reform. The fact that he kept that resolution, and still keeps it so strictly that it is impossible to prevail upon him to taste a drop of intoxicating liquor, attests a truly heroic will. He was afterwards a constable in Gettysburg, in which capacity he served some six years.

On the morning of the first day’s fight he sent his wife away, telling her that he would take care of the house. The firing was near by, over Seminary Ridge. Soon a wounded soldier came into the town and stopped at an old house on the opposite corner. Burns saw the poor fellow lay down his musket, and the inspiration to go into the battle seems then first to have seized him. He went over and demanded the gun.

“What are you going to do with it?” asked the soldier.

“I’m going to shoot some of the damned Rebels!” replied John.

He is not a swearing man, and the strong adjective is to be taken in a strictly literal, not a profane, sense.

Having obtained the gun, he pushed out on the Chambersburg Pike, and was soon in the thick of the skirmish.

“I wore a high-crowned hat, and a long-tailed blue; and I was seventy years old.”

The sight of so old a man, in such costume, rushing fearlessly forward to get a shot in the very front of the battle, of course attracted attention. He fought with the Seventh Wisconsin Regiment, the Colonel of which ordered him back, and questioned him, and finally, seeing the old man’s patriotic determination, gave him a good rifle in place of the musket he had brought with him.

“Are you a good shot?”

“Tolerable good,” said John, who is an old fox-hunter.

“Do you see that Rebel riding yonder?”

“I do.”

“Can you fetch him?”

“I can try.”

The old man took deliberate aim and fired. He does not say he killed the Rebel, but simply that his shot was cheered by the Wisconsin boys, and that afterwards the horse the Rebel rode was seen galloping with an empty saddle. “That’s all I know about it.”

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. McPherson's woods on left of the Chambersburg Pike (between 1861 and 1869; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003004776/PP/)

McPherson’s woods – where John L. Burns fought on July 1, 1863

He fought until our forces were driven back in the afternoon. He had already received two slight wounds, and a third one through the arm, to which he paid little attention: “only the blood running down my hand bothered me a heap.” Then, as he was slowly falling back with the rest, he received a final shot through the leg. “Down I went, and the whole Rebel army ran over me.” Helpless, nearly bleeding to death from his wounds, he lay upon the field all night. “About sun-up, next morning, I crawled to a neighbor’s house, and found it full of wounded Rebels.” The neighbor afterwards took him to his own house, which had also been turned into a Rebel hospital. A Rebel surgeon dressed his wounds; and he says he received decent treatment at the hands of the enemy, until a Copperhead woman living opposite “told on him.”

“That’s the old man who said he was going out to shoot some of the damned Rebels!”

Some officers came and questioned him, endeavoring to convict him of “bushwhacking”; but the old man gave them little satisfaction. This was on Friday, the third day of the battle; and he was alone with his wife in the upper part of the house. The Rebels left, and soon after two shots were fired. One bullet entered the window, passed over Burns’s head, and struck the wall behind the lounge on which he was lying. The other shot fell lower, passing through a door. Burns is certain that the design was to assassinate him. That the shots were fired by the Rebels there can be no doubt; and as they were fired from their own side, towards the town, of which they held possession at the time, John’s theory was plainly the true one. The hole in the window, and the bullet-marks in the door and wall remain.

Burns went with me over the ground where the first day’s fight took place. He showed me the scene of his hot day’s work,—pointed out two trees, behind which he and one of the Wisconsin boys stood and “picked off every Rebel[Pg 622] that showed his head,” and the spot where he fell and lay all night under the stars and dew.

This act of daring on the part of so aged a citizen, and his subsequent sufferings from wounds, naturally called out a great deal of sympathy, and caused him to be looked upon as a hero. But a hero, like a prophet, has not all honor in his own country. There’s a wide-spread, violent prejudice against Burns among that class of the townspeople termed “Copperheads.” The young men, especially, who did not take their guns and go into the fight as this old man did, but who ran, when running was possible, in the opposite direction, dislike Burns. Some aver that he did not have a gun in his hand that day, and that he was wounded by accident, happening to get between the two lines. Others admit the fact of his carrying a gun into the fight, but tell you, with a sardonic smile, that his “motives were questionable.” Some, who are eager enough to make money on his picture, sold against his will, and without profit to him, will tell you in confidence, after you have purchased it, that “Burns is a perfect humbug.”

After studying the old man’s character, conversing both with his friends and enemies, and sifting evidence, during four days spent in Gettysburg, I formed my conclusions. Of his going into the fight, and fighting, there is no doubt whatever. Of his bravery, amounting even to rashness, there can be no reasonable question. He is a patriot of the most zealous sort; a hot, impulsive man, who meant what he said, when he started with the gun to go and shoot some of the Rebels qualified with the strong adjective. A thoroughly honest man, too, I think; although some of his remarks are to be taken with considerable allowance. His temper causes him to form immoderate opinions and to make strong statements. “He always goes beyant,” said my landlord, a firm friend of his, speaking of this tendency to overstep the bounds of calm judgment.

Statue of John Burns (the hero of Gettysburg), Pa. (between 1900 and 1906; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/det1994009294/PP/)

“He always goes beyant”

Burns is a sagacious observer of men and things, and makes occasionally such shrewd remarks as this:—

“Whenever you see the marks of shells and bullets on a house all covered up, and painted and plastered over, that’s the house of a Rebel sympathizer; but when you see them all preserved and kept in sight, as something to be proud of, that’s the house of a true Union man.”

Well, whatever is said or thought of the old hero, he is what he is, and has satisfaction in that, and not in other people’s opinions; for so it must finally be with all. Character is the one thing valuable. Reputation, which is a mere shadow of the man, what his character is reputed to be, is, in the long run, of infinitely less importance.

I am happy to add that the old man has been awarded a pension. …

_________________________________________________

2nd Gettysburg (History of the World War, by Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish)

Château-Thierry as second Gettysburg

From the Library of Congress: rocking chair; Burns’ home; woods; statue. The Chateau-Thierry photo can be found on page 547 of the pdf version at Project Gutenberg.
Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, Aftermath, Civil War Cemeteries, Postbellum Society, Veterans | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

no malice, just fact

Posted on November 26, 2015 by SUMPTER
NY Times November 26, 1865

NY Times November 26, 1865

From The New-York Times November 26, 1865:

THE ANDERSONVILLE PRISON.; A Careful and Accurate Survey of the Place. Nature and Condition of the Surrounding Country.The Military Arrangements for the Care of Prisoners. Fearful Revelations of the Character of Their Treatment.Irresistible Evidence of Inhuman Treatment, Done by Order.A Repulsive Chapter that History Must Record. …

ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE, GEORGIA, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 1865.

While we are merciful, we should not forget to be just. We must pour oil upon the troubled waters, and ointment on the yet suppurating wounds of the late wicked rebellion, but in our zeal to prosper as a body politic and get rich individually, we must not shut our eyes to the palpable, cogent lessons taught us by bitter experience. History must be impartially written, and to be honest, let us call things by their right names, and “nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice.” From the lips of our fathers and mothers we were not taught to forget the sufferings of our soldiers at Valley Forge or on the British prison-ships. They told us the simple truth — conscience must decide thereafter. Of all the blood, bravery, patience, horror and death of this terrible war, nothing stands out in bolder relief, corroborative of “man’s inhumanity to man,” than the true history of Andersonville.

Innumerable have been the “eye-witness” accounts, explanations, counter-explanations, reports and histories of this noted spot. Much of what has been said concerning it, like “foreign correspondence” of unscrupulous journals, which is written in a rear sanctum, comes from hearsay. Having spent several days laboriously, accumulating facts and figures, I have arrived at as near an approximation to “the true state of the case” as one well can. Now that the Wirz trial has attracted the attention of the whole civilized world to Andersonville, its actual character and history should be preserved intact. … [full report]

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rheumatism antidote

Buying Thanksgiving turkey (between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2005011259/)

“Buying Thanksgiving turkey” (Library of Congress)

From The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV.

COMIN’ HOME THANKSGIVIN’

By James Ball Naylor

I’ve clean fergot my rheumatiz–
Hain’t nary limp n’r hobble;
I’m feelin’ like a turkey-cock–
An’ ready ‘most to gobble;
I’m workin’ spry, an’ steppin’ high–
An’ thinkin’ life worth livin’.
Fer all the children’s comin’ home
All comin’ home Thanksgivin’.

There’s Mary up at Darby Town,
An’ Sally down at Goshen,
An’ Billy out at Kirkersville,
An’ Jim–who has a notion
That Hackleyburg’s the very place
Fer which his soul has striven;
They’re all a-comin’ home ag’in–
All comin’ home Thanksgivin’.

Yes–yes! They’re all a-comin’ back;
There ain’t no ifs n’r maybes.
The boys’ll fetch the’r wives an’ kids;
The gals, th’r men an’ babies.
The ol’ place will be upside-down;
An’ me an’ Mammy driven
To roost out in the locus’ trees–
When they come home Thanksgivin’.

Thanksgiving (between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2005014932/)

tykes

Fer Mary she has three ‘r four
Mis_chee_vous little tykes, sir,
An’ Sally has a houseful more–
You never seen the like, sir;
While Jim has six, an’ Billy eight–
They’ll tear the house to flinders,
An’ dig the cellar out in chunks
An’ pitch it through the winders.

The gals ‘ll tag me to the barn;
An’ climb the mows, an’ waller
All over ev’ry ton o’ hay–
An’ laugh an’ scream an’ holler.
The boys ‘ll git in this an’ that;
An’ git a lickin’–p’r’aps, sir–
Jest like the’r daddies used to git
When _they_ was little chaps, sir.

But–lawzee-me!–w’y, I won’t care.
I’m jest so glad they’re comin’,
I have to whistle to the tune
That my ol’ heart’s a-hummin’.
An’ me an’ Mammy–well, we think
It’s good to be a-livin’,
Sence all the children’s comin’ home
To spend the day Thanksgivin’.

Home to Thanksgiving (by Currier & Ives, c.1867; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2002695889/)

All comin’ home Thanksgivin’

I played The Guns of Will Sonnett card again. It seems that the first couple paragraphs of The Times’ are relevant today with our discussions of the proper use of the Confederate battle-flag and other monuments. From the Library of Congress: turkey, maskers, Currier & Ives c1867. Never knew about Thanksgiving maskers until yesterday.
Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Aftermath, Civil War prisons, Postbellum Society | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

negotiating reconstruction?

Posted on November 23, 2015 by SUMPTER
Benjamin Grubb Humphreys, 1808-1882 (http://www.loc.gov/item/2002711350/)

Benjamin Grubb Humphreys

It was reported that the Mississippi legislature would give freedmen the right to testify in court if President Johnson withdrew federal (mostly colored?) troops

From The New-York Times November 23, 1865:

FROM MISSISSIPPI.; Negroes Allowed to Testify for their Own Race–Colored Troops Capture a Railway Train–Correspondence About the Withdrawal of Troops–Work of the Methodist Conference.

JACKSON, Tuesday, Nov. 21.

The bill conferring certain civil rights upon freedmen passed the House to-day, with a substitute for the fourth section. Freedmen are allowed to testify and be witnesses when a party to the record, but not in cases exclusively between white men, by a vote of 56 to 30.

Gov. HUMPHREYS telegraphed on the 18th inst. to the President that the colored troops attacked and took possession of a passenger train at Louderdale Springs [sic] and insulted the ladies, the officers being unable to control them. He further says the Legislature have memoralized for the removal of the troops, and are willing to extend the right to freedmen to testify in court if the troops are withdrawn. The President replied that the troops would be withdrawn when peace and order could be maintained without them. Measures should be adopted giving protection to all freedmen in their possessions, which will entitle them to assume their constitutional rights. There was no disposition on the part of the government arbitrarily to dictate, but simply to devise a policy that is beneficial.

The Methodist Conference of Mississippi has just adjourned. It adopted resolutions providing for the education of freedmen and their wives and children.

This report touches on the development of Mississippi’s “black codes”

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction, Southern Society | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“compelled to inflict on them”

Posted on November 18, 2015 by SUMPTER

This commission is worthy of support, for it will relieve their necessities, and assuage the distress which we, in the course of this war, have been compelled to inflict on them.

The American Union Commission held a big fundraiser at the Cooper Institute on November 13, 1865 to support its work helping the destitute South. The Commission invited some famous Union generals. Two sent in their regrets.

Ovation to Lieutenant General Grant at the Cooper Institute, New York, on the evening of June 7 - Grant saluting the audience ( Illus. in: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, v. 20, no. 508 (1865 June 24), p. 209. ; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2001695557/)

what might have been – General Grant speaking at the Cooper in June 1865

From The New-York Times November 14, 1865: …

The following letters were then read by Rev. LYMAN ABBOTT, General Secretary of the Union Commission: …

LETTER FROM LIEUT.-GEN. GRANT.

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOV. 10, 1865.

Rev. Lyman Abbott, General Secretary American Union Commission:

SIR: I have received your invitation to be present at the meeting of the “Union Commission” in the City of New-York on the 13th inst. At the time of receiving this invitation I did not know but it would be possible [f]or me to attend. I now find that it will not be possible. It affords me great pleasure to see so respectable an organization as yours interested in so deserving a cause. However we may have differed from our Southern brethren in the events of the last four years, we have now become one people, and with but one interest. The war has worked such ruin upon much of the South that without some aid from those who can give it, there must be much suffering the coming Winter. The work of your commission, while it will give present aid where it is so much needed, will also serve to heal old wounds.

Whatever is calculated to increase the friendship and brotherly feeling between the two sections of our country, I heartily approve of. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, U.S. GRANT, Lieut.-Gen.

Sherman's March Through South Carolina - Burning of McPhersonville, February 1, 1865 (Published in: Harper's Weekly, March 4, 1865, p. 136.; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2004661258/)

Sherman’s army burned here

LETTER FROM MAJOR-GEN. SHERMAN.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, ST. LOUIS, Mo., Oct. 27,1865.

Messrs. Jos. P. Thompson and others:

GENTLEMEN: I have your letter of Oct. 24, inviting me to your city to address the citizens of New-York on the condition and wants of the people of the South, left destitute and in need by the devastations of war. It will be impossible for me to come to New-York, or to address the people on that or any other subject. It would be foreign to my office, which gives me a field of duty large enough to absorb all of my thoughts, time and charitable wishes.

I am pleased, however, to know that so many good people in your great city have the means and willingness to bestow a part on those whom war has left helpless and in want, and I know there are men in your midst far better qualified than I am to point out the way in which such charity will do the most good.

Complimenting you on the good policy which has prompted your action, and thanking you for uniting my name therewith.

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, W.T. SHERMAN, Major-General. …

General Meade was able to attend the meeting.

Union commanders With compliments of the Travelers Insurance Company. (1884; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2015645499/)

some leading inflicters

… REMARKS OF MAJ.-GEN. MEADE.

Gen. MEADE, who was received with a perfect storm of applause, said: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It is hardly possible for me to express in suitable language the gratitude I feel from your reception of me this evening. It would be vanity in me to say that I thought my name was not well known here; but I really did not expect this flattering reception, and am deeply grateful for it. It is only right that I should explain why I am here before you to-night. I am no speaker, and it seems to me to be audacity only equal to that required to fight the great battle of Gettysburgh to come before you after listening to the flow of eloquence which you have just heard; but I was told in Philadelphia that, if I came here to-night, I might do some good. I, therefore, said I would come and tell you briefly how heartily I indorse the plan of the commission, and wish it success. As commander of a very large army, it has fallen to my lot to witness the ruin which has fallen on a large portion of the country. I can tell you that you cannot conceive the distress which exists in the Southern States. It is hardly necessary to dilate on this point. Since the rebellion broke out the men have been engaged in war, the women in providing for their wants. They have had no means of making money. Their currency is now destroyed, and when you consider these things you must see how great is their distress. The question is, ought we to relieve it? I will not reason on the morality of the question, but I will tell you what we soldiers do. After fighting a battle, when the dead and wounded lay thick around us, we did not ask any questions, but we took tender care of such as needed it. That should be your morality. The Southern people have now ceased to be enemies, and are disposed to be friends. It is your duty, as Christians and citizens, and for your material interests, to relieve them. This commission is worthy of support, for it will relieve their necessities, and assuage the distress which we, in the course of this war, have been compelled to inflict on them. The officers of this association are among the first men in the country, and will make the very best use of all funds that may be intrusted to their care. Thanking you for your very kind reception of me this evening, I bid you adieu. …

General Grant sure was a media magnet. A couple days later he made it to New York City. He attended Fra Diavolo with his wife and General Meade.

NY Times 11-16-1865

NY Times November 16, 1865

The leader and his battles - Ulysses S. Grant, Lieutenant-General, U.S.A. (1866; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2006677698/)

the opera???

__________________________________________________

I haven’t found a reference for the following letter of April 25, 1865, but it would seem to show that General Grant observed and sympathized with the South’s destitution when he was in North Carolina overseeing Johnston’s surrender to Sherman. As he wrote to his wife:

Dear Julia: We arrived here yesterday. … Raleigh is a very beautiful place. The grounds are large and filled with the most beautiful spreading oaks I ever saw. … The suffering that must exist in the south the next year, even with the war ending now, will be beyond conception. People who talk of further retaliation and punishment, except of the political leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering endured already or they are heartless and unfeeling and wish to stay at home out of danger while the punishment is being inflicted. Love and kisses for you and the children. Ulys.[1]

Grant, Mrs. U.S. (Julia Dent) (between 1865 and 1880; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/brh2003002469/PP/)

Julia Dent Grant

Oakwood Confederate Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina (by Carol M. Highsmith; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2011632970/)

RIP, CSA (Raleigh’s Oakwood Confederate Cemetery)

_____________________________________________________

Images from the Library of Congress: General Grant at the Cooper Institute in June; burning McPhersonville; Union commanders; The Leader, Mrs. Grant, Carol M. Highsmith’s photo of Raleigh’s Oakwood Confederate Cemetery

  1. [1]Woodward, William E. Meet General Grant. New York: Premier, Fawcett World Library, Authorized Abridgment 1957. Print. page 208-209.↩
Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Aftermath, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction, Southern Society | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

suffering Selma

Posted on November 13, 2015 by SUMPTER

The American Union Commission held a big fundraising event in New York City 150 years ago tonight. Many famous men attended or sent in their regrets. Provisional Alabama Governor Lewis E. Parsons gave a first-hand report from the field. Alabama’s problems intensified during the latter stages of the war when Union troops under General James H. Wilson raided and ransacked parts of Alabama and Georgia. In the war’s aftermath the freed slaves stopped working in the fields, there was a severe drought, and the state was broke. Here’s Governor Parson’s speech:

From The New-York Times November 14, 1865:

SOUTHERN DESTITUTION; Large Public Meeting at Cooper Institute. The Wants and Sufferings of the South Described. Statement and Plea of Governor Parsons of Alabama. The Aims of the American Union Commission. ADDRESS OF REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER Short Speeches of Gen. Meade, Rev. Dr. Thompson and Gen. Fisk. SPEECH OF DR. JOS. P. THOMPSON. SPEECH OF REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. LETTER FROM SECRETARY SEWARD. ADDRESS OF GEN. FISK.

A meeting in aid of the American Union Commission and its work at the South, was held last night at Cooper Institute, at which time an audience of about two thousand persons attended to listen to addresses from eminent men from both sections of the country.

At 7:30 o’clock, Hon. E.D. MORGAN, Maj.-Gen. MEADE, Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER, GOV. PARSONS of Alabama, Hon. ABRAM WAKEMAN, Rev. Dr. BACON and other gentlemen entered the hall and were received with hearty cheers. …

Parsons, Gov. Lewis E. (between 1865 and 1880; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/brh2003001944/PP/)

Selma “was laid in ashes.”

Gov. PARSONS was received with expressions of applause. He said:

SPEECH OF GOV. PARSONS, OF ALABAMA.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It is difficult with language to portray the devastation which war, especially civil war, produces, so as to furnish an adequate idea of its effects. To realize them you must witness them; to comprehend them fully you must live upon the theatre and witness the advance and the retreat of vast armies, listen to the roar of battle, and see those who are left upon the field after the retreat; you must see fields laid waste, farm-houses, cotton-presses and gins in ruins; you must see towns and cities in flames to form anything like an adequate idea of what war in reality is. You whose fortune it has been to see only the regiment with colors streaming, the recipients of all the kindness and watchful care that friends could bestow, as they left for the scene of battle, can form no conception of the appearance of that regiment after the battle is over, unless, indeed, it has been your fortune to be on the scene of action or so near it that your house has been crowded with those who have become victims of the strife. It will be in your recollection, ladies and gentlemen, that during the last of March and in April the rebellion suddenly collapsed. At that time public attention in the North was doubtless turned mainly to the operations around Richmond, and to those which attended the movements of the vast armies of Gen. SHERMAN.

Portrait of Maj. Gen. (as of May 6, 1865) James H. Wilson, officer of the Federal Army (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/cwp2003000406/PP/)

“Portrait of Maj. Gen. (as of May 6, 1865) James H. Wilson, officer of the Federal Army” (Library of Congress)

But it also happened that Gen. WILSON, with a large force of cavalry, some seventeen thousand, I believe, in number, commenced a movement from the Tennessee River and a point in the northwest of the State of Alabama, diagonally across the State. He penetrated to the centre, and then radiated from Selma in every direction through one of the most productive regions of the South. That little city of about ten thousand inhabitants — its defences were carried by assault on one of the first Sunday evenings in last April, sun about an hour high. Before another sun rose every house in the city was sacked except two; every woman was robbed of her watch, her ear-rings, her finger-rings, her jewelry of all descriptions, and the whole city given up for the time to the possession of the soldiers. It was a severe discipline to this people. It was thought necessary by the commanding General to reduce and subdue the spirit of rebellion. For one week, the forces under Gen. WILSON occupied that little town, and night after night and day after day one public building after another — first the arsenal, then the foundry, each of which covered about eight or nine acres of ground and was conducted upon a scale commensurate with the demand that military supplies for the war created; railroads depots, machine shops connected with them — everything of that description which had been in any degree subservient to the cause of the rebellion, was laid in ashes. Out of some sixty odd brick stores in the city, forty-nine, I think, were consumed. On the line of march, you were scarcely out of sight of some indication of its terrible consequences. Indeed, after three weeks had elapsed, it was with difficulty you could travel the road from Plantersville to that city, so offensive was the atmosphere in consequence of decaying horses and mules that lay along the roadside. Every description of ruin except the interred dead of the human family met the eye. I witnessed it myself. The fact is that no description can equal the reality. When the Federal forces left that little town — which is built on a bluff on the Alabama River — they crossed on a pontoon bridge and commenced in the night to cross, and their way was lighted by burning warehouses standing on the shore. All this is a part of war — a part of that severe discipline which nations experience, and must expect to share as the fort[u]nes of war vary, when they lay aside reason and appeal to brute force to settle what reason should settle, among Christian people certainly, and especially those who are born beneath the same flag. [Applause.] At the time of these great occurrences, to which I at first alluded, around Richmond, and in connection with Gen. SHERMAN’s army, this devastation was in progress in the State of Alabama. Up to that time, such had been the fortune of war that our State had experienced very little of its baleful effects, except the occupancy of about four counties north of the Tennessee River, and a small skirt of the shore on the Gulf of Mexico. In the South we knew little of the presence of the army, except as prisoners were brought to us to be provided for, and our own sons and brothers were marshalled and carried off to the field. Out of a voting population of ninety thousand. Alabama furnished a hundred and twenty-two thousand men for service in the Confederate army. Thirty-five thousand of these died on the field of battle from wounds or from disease, and a large proportion of those who returned came back broken in health and constitution and disabled by wounds from which they had partially recovered, but which rendered them unfit for active service. The white population of that State was 525,000, according to the census of 1860. At the time Gen. WILSON invaded it, the State was supplying with salt and meal 139,042 women and children and otherwise helpless persons of the white race. Of the black race, there were 440,000, and they, being the property of those who owned them, were supplied with food and everything necessary for their comfortable subsistence physically by their owners. Hence, there never was any necessity in all the States for a public assistance of the blacks. But this eleemosynary assistance to the white race was absolutely necessary. The State had appropriated, at the previous session of the Legislature, seven millions of dollars for the purpose of procuring meal and salt for their relief. Meat was out of the question. Even those comparatively wealthy possessed but little of it, and that little was generally contributed, for the most part, to the army. That was the condition of things in Alabama at the time the Confederacy collapsed. Now, at that time the corn crop of the State was just ready to be plowed and hoed the first time. But the black people being informed of the presence of the Federal forces thought the off-repeated tale of freedom was actually to be verified at last, and concluded they would test the matter, knowing no way of testing it except by quitting work, and seeing whether their masters dared order them back again to the plow-handle and the hoe. That was their only mode — simple, direct, efficacious — of testing the great proposition, “Am I free or not?” [Applause.] The effect on the crop was of course most disastrous; but it tended to satisfy those who made the experiment that there was at least some degree of truth in the idea that they were free. The consequence was that the crop just at the turning point vanished for want of cultivation, besides, a drouth set in of unparalleled severity, and continued all through the crop season; and the result is, that the States, thus depleted of its working force for securing means of subsistence in the commencement of the season to a degree never before known, is now left with about half a crop of corn and small grain. Cotton has not been planted to any extent, because as a matter of course, material for bread must be raised before cotton. This is the actual condition of affairs as given me by the delegates at the recent State convention which assembled in Montgomery in September last. Men of intelligence, candor, fairness in all respects, and whose judgment can be relied on, assured me that it is undoubtedly true that in that State there is not more than one-fifth of a crop of grain for breadstuffs raised. Now, if the same ratio of indigence exists among the black population that exists among the white, it is manifest that there are seven hundred and fifty thousand people in that State who may suffer for food before the month of March comes round. Our resources were completely exhausted, or nearly so, at the commencement of the last Spring. It is therefore manifest that in the State of Alabama these people will suffer unless they are supplied from some source outside the State, for the State is unable to supply them. Such is the condition of the State and its population to-day. When the Treasury of the State was turned over to me in July last, it consisted of about seven hundred dollars in specie, and besides that several millions in Confederate notes, not worth the paper upon which they were printed. Previous to the invasion of Gen. WILSON the State possessed the privilege of purchasing that currency at the rate of one or two cents on a dollar. By the emancipation of the black population of that State one-ha f of the entire taxable value of property is wiped out, and the remaining half, consisting of land, horses, mules, cotton, etc., has been materially reduced — the cotton by burning, the horses and mules by being taken for Confederate or Federal service, and the land, for want of labor to cultivate it, and by means of the destruction of fences, gins, and cotton-presses. You see the actual condition of the State, both as to the body and the individuals of the State separate. These facts are stronger than anything I can say by way of argument — stronger and more comprehensive than any argument I can make in support of them; and, to this audience, I am satisfied no argument is needed to enforce them. The Government of the United States has emancipated the black people, and provided by act of Congress, approved the 3d of March, for the existence and organization of the Freedmen’s Bureau. That bureau, in the State of Alabama, is in charge of Maj.-Gen. SWAYNE, who reached there to take charge of his department at the same time that I reached there, charged, under the commission of the President, with establishing a civil provisional government for the State. In a short time it became apparent to the intelligent and thinking portion of the people, and, as fast as they became acquainted with Gen. SWAYNE, that impression became more and more general, that that bureau, under his skillful administration, being a man of large and comprehensive views, and of strong sense of justice, could be the means and would be the means, if the government did not discontinue it, of aiding those who saw the necessity for aid, until we could realize, from the fruits of another year’s industry, the means of subsistence for these people. As you understand, that bureeu is organized by the Federal Government; it has its confidence; it has all the machinery in operation, ready now to disseminate or distribute material and other aid throughout the State; and it can enlarge its capacity of doing so at pleasure and according to the necessity that exists for it. It has not, however, the means to meet these overwhelming demands upon its resources. While the government assures the bureau that it is willing to do all in its power to sustain it and render it efficient, there is reason to apprehend that much will remain undone for want of necessary means to do it. You see at once from what I have already stated that the means of affording relief, not only to the white people, but to the black people are wanting materially. So far as the blacks are concerned, an entire system of relief is to be inaugurated from the very foundation: and the question is, shall that be temporary in its character, or shall it be of such a description as will insure permanency, and in the future great results to the white. Perhaps it is not necessary to call your attention at this time to it, but I cannot forbear hinting, at least, at the fact that, by means of this great organization, which has now the support of the powerful arm of the government to sustain it, there is an opportunity afforded for inaugurating a sound and efficient system, simple, direct, and to the purpose, which will be as lasting, perhaps, as the demands of the race for whom it is inaugurated. [Loud applause.] If this opportunity is permitted to pass unimproved, it will never present itself again. It is immaterial what may be the color; when it is furnished to them by a heart moved to sympathy on account of their necessities, they, I say, are well prepared to received counsel in connection with it. How much can now be done which will in turn become an instrument to produce other effects, multiplied for others in future years! Aid to this Freedman’s Bureau, therefore, is the great object, I take it, which should be striven for on the part of every one who desires to render efficient aid. It matters not whether he is an individual, or whether he is an individual of a body having for the objects of its organization these great objects in view. I will say, also, in this connection, that it is manifest to every one that only in this way can the people of that section of the South where the war has been raged most furiously and where its destructive effects have been made most apparent — it is in this way only that it can raise a crop another year. Before they can realize the fruit of another year’s industry this class must starve unless assistance is promptly furnished them. And let me say, likewise, ladies and gentlemen, and especially to those of you in this vast city who pursue commercial avocations, scarcely one of whom is not in some way, directly or indirectly, connected with it and affected by it; that nothing is more important to the interests of the United States of America now than to restore business pursuits in all their old relations to each other. A good cotton crop next year will do more to sustain the currency of the Federal Government — to help Mr. MCCULLOCH out of his troubles, if he has any, and perhaps he has — to maintain the supremacy of American manufacturers and commerce on sea and land in the future as they were aforetime — it will do more to thwart the schemes and mischievous clamors of those who whisper to the South: “Free trade and free goods, and down with the Yankee tariff,” than anything else you can devise. [Applause.] It will put a checkmate upon the idea of introducing Egyptian cotton in place of American in the market. I am informed by a distinguished citizen of this State, who is recently from Alexandria, that when he left that port there were fifty-one vessels, steamers, laden with cotton from the Valley of the Nile, which commanded the same price in Liverpool as cotton from the South. Whoever is interested in that trade, desires to have a high export duty placed upon American cotton, because such a duty would be equivalent to a bounty on Egyptian cotton. The same gentleman I refer to — Mr. FIELD, of the Atlantic Telegraph — informed me that English capital, by the thousands and tens of thousands, is being invested in the construation of railroads in India, so that the cotton cultivated and produced in the interior can be taken cheaply and rapidly to the coast, and thus brought to market — an inferior article to the Egyptian, but which goes in to make up the sum necessary. These things, it seems to me, are worth considering. Now, if the cotton-fields of the South, left desolate by the war, without labor, without capital to sustain a laboring force and to procure that which is necessary to carry on the business of raising a new crop; if these fields are permitted to go uncultivated another year. Does it not materially waken a very great interest in the country? I refer to this merely for the purpose of showing how the doctrine of compensation comes in. He who gives forth from his abundance to those who appear to have nothing to give, comes back laden with returns which he little expected to receive. So it will be with us. It is in this that the Union will be restored in the heart more effectually than any bayonet can bind it together. [Loud applause.] It is not by the bayonet that the Union is to be permanently maintained; it is by good offices rather, who live upon the extreme South have an interest in common with those who live upon the extreme North; and I look forward, by the blessing of God, to the time when we who have been lately at bayonet points 6nd swords points shall greet each other, the people of the North coming to the South, bringing their active capital there and uniting it with those who have land and experience necessary to cultivate cotton and other crop, and spending their Winters with their families in the South; to the time, too, when new industry shall have given us new means and resources, enabling us to go to the North and spend our Summers upon your lake shores and your cool rivers and mountains. That will be the sort of union that will secure harmony and peace. With the widowed wife, surrounded by her fatherless children, let us sympathize, regretting the strife which has produced her bereavement; and if our lips speak words of mutual kindness away in the distant home by the pine forests, along the distant streams, a response will be awakened which nothing but that tribute of kindness could have called forth. It is indeed by such means that we shall at last hear one universal song of gratitude going up over the land; because the giver will be happy in having bestowed where his bounty was needed, where it brought hope once more to the heart that was ready to despair; and the receiver will be happy, because it opens to him a future of prosperiy. But I will not enlarge on this theme. I leave it for your consideration. When you shall have heard from those who have participated in scenes of battle, and from these who have the power of painting with words as the artist does with the brush or pencil, I know you will respond. I thank you for this evidence of your interest, which this large assembly indicates, in the fate of a portion of our common country. I shall bear back the evidence with me when I refuse to those among whom I live; and I shall tell them what I have found to be almost universally true in every individual instance since I have been in the North, that there is a kindly feeling which we had no idea existed among the great mass of the people. [Applause.] And let me say, my friends, that if you see in the newspapers of the South unkind things, take no account of them. Newspapers do not always speak the real sentiments of the people. If you find there is occasionally an outbreak, bear in mind the terrible sufferings which have been undergone by our people. Make allowances for that. Do not be discouraged if you do not find that prompt and effectual change which you desire. Everything good and great in this world, both in nature and in man, is the result of time and effort. [Applause.] It is only the weak, the useless, that springs up in a day and perishes as quickly. All great undertakings must be patiently labored for and discouragements patiently borne, when everytning does not work as we desire. [Applause.] Fncourage that feeling and that hope. Let us persevere in the great effort of pacifying, restoring and uniting the hearts of our people, that thereby the strength and the glory of our nation may be increased; that, if the time shall ever come when, in the Providence of God, we are called upon to take up arms in a common cause, we may stand shoulder to shoulder, in the conflict. After the soldiers of the North and of the South have met each other on the field in deadly strife, I know no one will feel less confidence than heretofore in the success of a mutual cause when they again stand under the same flag, rallying round it, and bearing it forward. [Applause.] If, at such a time, my friends, we fail to do our part as men, then call us cowards, then say we are whipped; but don’t say it till then. [Loud applause.]

Lewis Eliphalet Parsons was born in the Southern Tier of New York State. He moved to Alabama when he was about 23 years old. He practiced law and politics but also fought for the Confederacy during Wilson’s Raid: “Parsons fought as a Confederate lieutenant at the brief Battle of Munford near Talladega in April, 1865.”

For a man bent on making treason odious and displacing the South’s traditional leadership, Andrew Johnson displayed remarkable forbearance in choosing provisional governors to launch the reconstruction process. [Except for Texas and North Carolina] Johnson passed over unconditional loyalists to select men acceptable to a broader segment of white public opinion. … In Alabama, Johnson ignored the upcountry Unionist opposition and selected Lewis E. Parsons, a former Whig Congressman who served as a “peace party” member of the wartime Alabama legislature and enjoyed close ties to the state’s mercantile and railroad interests.[1]

Selma Alabama 1864 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2004626932/)

Selma Alabama 1864

LOC: Lewis E. Parsons, General Wilson, map
  1. [1]Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: HarperPerennial, 2014. Updated Edition. Print. page 187.↩
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chains into ploughshares

Posted on November 11, 2015 by SUMPTER
United States slave trade, 1830 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2008661746/)

a farewell to chains

A poem from 150 years ago celebrated peace and the victory of freedom and free labor over slavery:

From The Atlantic Monthly, VOL. XVI.—NOVEMBER, 1865.—NO. XCVII.

Autumn Peace page 1

Autumn Peace page 2

Richmond, Virginia (vicinity). Soldiers graves (1865 Apr.; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003005686/PP/)

“Who died to make the slave a man” (“Richmond, Virginia (vicinity). Soldiers graves ” Library of Congress)

City Point, Virginia. Soldier's graves near General Hospital (between 1861 and 1865; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003004865/PP/)

“City Point, Virginia. Soldier’s graves near General Hospital” (Library of Congress)

Bull Run, Virginia. Soldier's graves (by George N. Barnard, 1862 Mar.; LOC: www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003005152/PP/)

“Bull Run, Virginia. Soldier’s graves” (Library of Congress)

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Our modern Veteran’s Day springs from Armistice Day: The shooting finally stopped in World War I on November 11, 1918 – at 11:00 AM Paris Time.

Here’s a bit about that day with an American slant. From History of the World War An Authentic Narrative of the World’s Greatest War, by Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish (1919) (in Chapter LII):

The last action of the war for the Americans followed immediately on the heels of the battle of Sedan. It was the taking of the town of Stenay. The engagement was deliberately planned by the Americans as a sort of battle celebration of the end of the war. The order fixing eleven o’clock as the time for the conclusion of hostilities, had been sent from end to end of the American lines. Its text follows:

Germans at comrades' graves (1914 or 1915; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2005019819/)

“Germans at comrades’ graves” (1914 or 1915, Library of Congress)

1. You are informed that hostilities will cease along the whole front at 11 o’clock A. M., November 11, 1918, Paris time.

2. No Allied troops will pass the line reached by them at that hour in date until further orders.

3. Division commanders will immediately sketch the location of their line. This sketch will be returned to headquarters by the courier bearing these orders.

4. All communication with the enemy, both before and after the termination of hostilities, is absolutely forbidden. In case of violation of this order severest disciplinary measures will be immediately taken. Any officer offending will be sent to headquarters under guard.

5. Every emphasis will be laid on the fact that the arrangement is an armistice only and not a peace.

German cross over French soldiers (1914 or 1915; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2005019984/)

“German cross over French soldiers” (1914 or 1915, Library of Congress)

6. There must not be the slightest relaxation of vigilance. Troops must be prepared at any moment for further operations.

7. Special steps will be taken by all commanders to insure strictest discipline and that all troops be held in readiness fully prepared for any eventuality.

8. Division and brigade commanders will personally communicate these orders to all organizations.

Signal corps wires, telephones and runners were used in carrying the orders and so well did the big machine work that even patrol commanders had received the orders well in advance of the hour. Apparently the Germans also had been equally diligent in getting the orders to the front line. Notwithstanding the hard fighting they did Sunday to hold back the Americans, the Germans were able to bring the firing to an abrupt end at the scheduled hour.

Decorating a grave (1917 May 3; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2006000167/)

“a British soldier tending a soldier’s grave near Blangy, May 3, 1917 during the Battle of Arras, a French city on the Western Front, during World War I.” (Library of Congress)

The staff and field officers of the American army were disposed early in the day to approach the hour of eleven with lessened activity. The day began with less firing and doubtless the fighting would have ended according to plan, had there not been a sharp resumption on the part of German batteries. The Americans looked upon this as wantonly useless. It was then that orders were sent to the battery commanders for increased fire. …

The early forenoon had been marked by a falling off in fire all along the line, but an increasing bombardment from the retreating Germans at certain points stimulated the Americans to a quick retort. From their positions north of Stenay to southeast of the town the Americans began to bombard fixed targets. The firing reached a volume at times almost equivalent to a barrage.

Two minutes before eleven o’clock the firing dwindled, the last shells shrieking over No Man’s Land precisely on time.

There was little celebration on the front line, where American routine was scarcely disturbed over the cessation of fighting. In the areas behind the battle zone there were celebrations on all sides. Here and there there were little outbursts of cheering, but even those instances were not on the immediate front.

Many of the French soldiers went about singing.

“Well, I don’t know,” drawled a lieutenant from Texas while the artillery was sending its last challenge to the Germans, “but somehow I can’t help wondering if we have licked them enough.” …

Peace Hurrah (11-11-1918; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2006003156/)

Germany hung in effigy? (New York City, November 11, 1918)

From the Library of Congress: slave trade, Richmond area, City Point, Bull Run, German graves, French graves, British grave, NY City
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last rebel hanging

Posted on November 10, 2015 by SUMPTER

[Washington, D.C. Reading the death warrant to Wirz on the scaffold] (by Alexander Gardner; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003001031/PP/)

“Washington, D.C. Reading the death warrant to Wirz on the scaffold” (Library of Congress)

As a matter of fact, Andersonville commandant Henry Wirz was the only Confederate officer/official executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War. He was hung 150 years ago today outside Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.

From The New-York Times November 11, 1865:

EXECUTION OF WIRZ.; Closing Scenes in the Life of the Andersonville Jailor. Farewell Interview with His Associate, J.H. Winder. Final Effort of His Counsel to Obtain Executive Clemency. Firm Demeanor of the Prisoner on the Scaffold. He Asserts His Innocence to the Last, and Meets His Fate with Fortitude. A Remarkable Attempt to Poison Him Just Brought to Light. A Bolus of Strychnine Conveyed to Him by His Wife.

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.

WASHINGTON, Friday, Nov. 10.

WIRZ was executed this morning at 10:30 o’clock. Nobody who saw him die to-day will think any the less of him. He disappointed all those who expected to see him quiver at the brink of death. He met his fate, not with bravado, or defiance, but with a quiet, cheerful indifference. Smiles even played upon his countenance until the black coat shut out from his eyes the sunlight and the world forever. His physical misery, whatever it may have been, was completely hidden in his last and successful effort to die bravely and without any exhibition of trepidation or fear, so his step was steady, his demeanor calm, his tongue silent, except as he offered up his last prayer, and all his bearing evinced more of the man than at any time since his first incarceration. The crowd said he was a braver man than PAYNE, or HERROLD, or ATZEROTH. Perhaps it was the bravery of a desperate man, who knows mercy is beyond his hope. Nevertheless, he met his fate with unblanched eye, unmoving feature, and a calm, deliberate prayer for all those whom he has deemed his persecutors. He seemed to have convinced himself of his own innocence, and his last principal conversation was full of protestations that he died unjustly, and that others were just as guilty as he.

NY Times 11-4-1865

NY Times 11-4-1865 (with a list of all New York soldiers buried at Andersonville)

Yesterday afternoon, LOUIS SCHADE, WIRZ junior counsel, communicated to him the result of his last appeal to the President. WIRZ said he had no hope. He was ready to die. He had sought and received religious consolation, and it mattered little whether he died now or was spared to die a natural death, for die soon he must. An attache of the Swiss Consulate also called to ascertain the residence of his relatives, that they might be officially apprised of his death. WIRZ said he had been greatly wronged by the refusal of the Swiss Consul to receive money to enable him to conduct his defence.

WIRZ ate his supper as usual, and retiring, slept soundly the best part of the night. This morning he arose early and partook of a moderate breakfast. Soon after, R.B. WINDER, who was associated with WIRZ in the command at Andersonville, was allowed to visit him, and the two had a long conversation, devoted to a review of their career at the stockade, a review of the evidence, and mutual assertions that they were equally guilty, or rather, equally innocent, and that if WIRZ deserved hanging, so did WINDER. WINDER then bade WIRZ an emotional farewell at half-past eight o’clock. Mr. SCHADE was admitted for a farewell interview, during which the prisoner reiterated his thanks for his counsel’s efforts, and expressed himself as to his innocence, much as he had done before. It is due to Mr. SCHADE to say that he has been indefatigable in seeking to prolong the life of his client. He left the prison at the close of the interview, and went to the President’s, where at ten thirty-five he made his last appeal. WIRZ was hung at ten thirty-two.

Washington, D.C. Adjusting the rope for the execution of Wirz (by Alexander Gardner; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003001032/PP/)

“Washington, D.C. Adjusting the rope for the execution of Wirz” (Library of Congress)

After Mr. SCHADE left WIRZ, his spiritual advisers, Fathers BOYLE and WIGET entered and remained with him until he was led forth to the scaffold.

The arrangements for the execution which had been under the management of Maj. RUSSELL, Provost-Marshal of the District, and Capt. WALBRIDGE, commandant of the prison, were completed at an early hour this morning. The scaffold was erected in the southern portion of the prison yard. WIRZ is the eighth criminal who has been executed upon it. WOODWARD for the murder of his wife was hung in the jail yard nearly fifteen years ago. SAMUEL POWERS hung in the same place for the murder of young LUTZ, of Baltimore. JOHN CONRAD KESSLER, of Co. K, One Hundred and Third New-York Volunteers, hung in the Old Capitol yard Dec. 5, 1862, for the murder of Lieut. F. LINZY, of the same company, at the Sixth-street wharf. AUGUSTUS FORD, colored, hung on the 3d of March, 1863, in the jail-yard, for the murder of GEORGE ADAMS, colored. CORNELIUS TUELL, hung in the jail-yard on July 6 last, for the murder of his wife. CHARLES FENTON BEAVERS, of MOSBY’s gang, hung in the Old Capitol yard, on Aug. 26, for violating his oath of allegiance he had twice taken. CHARLES WILLIAMS, Thirty-first United States colored troops, Nov. 25, 1864, for the murder of an unknown colored woman at Camp Casey, Virginia, on the 14th of September previous.

The capacity of the yard for holding spectators having been closely estimated, directions were given by Major RUSSELL for the issue of two hundred tickets of admission. He had applications for ten hundred. The hour for the execution not being generally known, people began to assemble as early as 7 o’clock; but no one was admitted to the yard until nearly 10. The crowd who couldn’t get in at all soon became very large, and was chiefly composed of soldiers, many of whom well remembered Andersonville. The facilities for observation for this outside crowd were few — chiefly confined to the tops of a row of shade trees in the capitol grounds, a few house-tops, and the dome of the capitol, a quarter of a mile distant. The house-tops were peopled at an early hour, and favorable places for seeing commanded a premium.

NY Times September 3, 1865

NY Times September 3, 1865

At 10 o’clock, all being ready, Maj. RUSSELL and Capt. WALBRIDGE and the guard entered WIRZ’ room to bring him to the scaffold. WIRZ greeted the officers in a quiet and easy manner. He had been engaged for the previous hour with the confessors, and now complied with the request to prepare for the final scene. Without any exhibition of nervousness, he even indulged in pleasantry as to his appearance in the black shroud, and said also that he “Hoped to have a white gown soon.” The officers proceeded to pinion his arms behind his back, but found the handcuffs would not slip on to his right arm, it being much swollen. His limbs were therefore all left free until he reached the scaffold. As they were leaving the room, WIRZ turned to the mantel, and with as much nonchalance as if he had been in a bar-room, took up a bottle of whisky, and pouring out a liberal draught drank it down with apparent relish. Then taking a chew of tobacco, he took his place in the procession which was led by the Provost-Marshal, then the two Priests, then WIRZ, the guards next, and Capt. WALBRIDGE in the rear, in which order they mounted the scaffold, the prisoner exhibiting much steadiness in his movements. Stepping upon the trap, he seated himself upon a stool, the noose, so soon to be his fatal snare, dangling over his head. Maj. RUSSELL then proceeded to read the order, reciting the finding of the court, and the approval of the sentence by the President,.

The prisoner was charged and convicted of combining, confederating and conspiring with Jefferson Davis, J.A. Seddon, Howell Cobb, John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Isaiah White, W.S. Winder, W. Shelby Reed, R.R. Stevenson, S.P. Moore, _____ Kerr, late Hospital Steward at Andersonville; James Duncan, Wesley W. Turner, Benjamin Harris, and others whose names are unknown, and who were then engaged in armed rebellion against the United States, in maliciously, traitorously and in violation of the laws of war, to impair and injure the health and to destroy the lives, by subjecting to torture and great suffering, by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quarters, by exposing to the inclemency of Winter, and to the dews and burning sun of Summer, by compelling the use of impure water, and by furnishing insufficient and unwholesome food, of large numbers of Federal prisoners, to wit: The number of about 45,000 held as prisoners of war at Andersonville, within the lines of the so-called Confederate States, on or before the 27th of March, 1864, and at divers times between that day and the 10th day of April, 1865, to the end that the armies of the United States might he weakened and impaired, and that the insurgents engaged in armed rebellion against the United States might be aided and comforted, etc., etc.

NY Times September 10, 1865

NY Times September 10, 1865

The order states that the prisoner was found guilty of the second charge, viz.: Murder, in violation of the laws and customs of war, and guilty of all the specifications, excepting the fourth, tenth and thirteenth, which three set forth that he killed a prisoner by shooting him with a revolver; that he ordered a sentinel to fire upon another with a revolver; and that he shot another with a revolver, so that he died.

The order concludes as follows:

Sentence. — And the court do therefore sentence him, HENRY WIRZ, to be hanged by the neck until he be dead, at such time and place as the President of the United States may direct, two-thirds of the members of the court concurring therein.

And the court also find the prisoner, HENRY WIRZ, guilty of having caused the death in the manner as alleged in specification 11, charge 2, by means of dogs, of three prisoners of war in his custody and soldiers of the United States, one occurring on or about the 15th day of May, 1864; another occurring on or about the 11th day of July, 1864; another occurring on or about the 1st day of September, 1864, but which finding as here expressed has not and did not enter into the sentence of the court as before given.

Second — The proceeding, finding and sentence in the foregoing case having been submitted to the President of the United States, the following are his orders:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Nov. 3, 1865.

The proceedings, finding and sentence of the court in the within case, are approved, and it is ordered that the sentence be carried into execution by the officer commanding the Department of Washington, on Friday, the 10th day of November, 1865, between the hours of 6 o’clock in the morning and 12 o’clock noon.

ANDREW JOHNSON,

President of the United States.

Third-Major-Gen. C.C. AUGUR, commanding the Department of Washington, is commanded to cause the foregoing sentence, in the case of HENRY WIRZ, to be duly executed in accordance with the President’s order.

Fourth — The Military Commission, of which Major-Gen. LEWIS WALLACE, United States Volunteers, is President, is hereby dissolved, by command of the President of the United States.

(Signed) S.D. TOWNSEND, A.A.G.

The reading was finished at 10:20, and WIRZ, was directed to stand up. Major RUSSELL asked him if he had anything to say publicly, to which he replied, “No.” Father BOYLE then recited the service of the Catholic Church for the dying, to which WIRZ responded in a low tone.

Washington, D.C. Soldier springing the trap; men in trees and Capitol dome beyond (by Alexander Gardner; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003001033/PP/)

“Washington, D.C. Soldier springing the trap; men in trees and Capitol dome beyond” (Library of Congress)

During these few moments shouts could be heard from the soldiers in the tree-tops of “Hang him,” “Andersonville,” “Remember Andersonville,” and others not calculated to increase his calm demeanor, but he paid no attention to them, and preserved his cheerful expression of countenance throughout.

At thirty minutes past ten, his hands and legs having been pinioned by straps, the noose was adjusted by L.J. RICHARDSON, Military Detective, and the doomed man shook hands with the priests and officers. At exactly thirty-two minutes past ten, SYLVESTER BALLOU, another detective, at the signal of the Provost-Marshal, put his foot upon the fatal spring, the trap fell with a heavy noise, and the Andersonville jailor was dangling in the air. There were a few spasmodic convulsions of the chest, a slight movement of the extremities, and all was over. When it was known in the street that WIRZ was hung, the soldiers sent up a loud ringing cheer, just such as I have heard scores of times on the battle-field after a successful charge. The sufferings at Andersonville were too great to cause the soldiers to do otherwise than rejoice at such a death of such a man.

After hanging fourteen minutes the body was examined by Post-Surgeon FORD, and life pronounced to be extinct. It was then taken down, placed upon a stretcher, and carried to the hospital, where the surgeons took charge of it.

Washington, D.C. Hooded body of Captain Wirz hanging from the scaffold (by Alexander Gardner; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003001034/PP/)

“Washington, D.C. Hooded body of Captain Wirz hanging from the scaffold” (Library of Congress)

No sooner had the scaffold and the rope done its work, and become historically famous, than relic seekers began their work. Splinters from the scaffold were cut off like kindling wood, and a dozen feet of rope disappeared almost instantly. The interposition of the guard only saved the whole thing from being carried off in this manner.

The surgeons held a post-mortem, and an examination of the neck showed the vertebrae to be dislocated. His right arm, which has been the chief cause of his physical misery, was in a very bad condition, in consequence of an old wound having broken out afresh. His body also showed severe scrofulitic cruptions.

Agreeably to a request from WIRZ, Father BOYLE received the body to-day, and delivered it to an undertaker, who will inter it, to await the arrival of Mrs. WIRZ, who is expected soon. WIRZ left few or no earthly effects. The only things in his room after the execution were a few articles of clothing, some tobacco, a little whisky, a Testament, a copy of Cummings on the Apocalypse, and a cat, which was WIRZ’s pet companion. This is all there is left of him.

Here’s a bit on the Wirz trial from the October 21, 1865 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Son of the South:

THE WIRZ TRIAL.

WE give on this page an illustration of the WIRZ trial going on at Washington, which portrays a more recent phase of the trial than a former engraving printed in the Weekly relating to that subject. As our readers know, Captain WIRZ has during the progress of the trial become quite ill, so that on some days the Commission were under the necessity of adjourning; and when he has been well enough to be present, his indisposition has compelled him to recline on a lounge. “Captain WIRZ,”-says our artist, ” keeps in the position rep-resented in the sketch all day long, excepting when he clutches his bottle of stimulants, or when he is ‘led to his cell by the officer of the guard.”

The case for the prosecution has been closed, and the case for the defense is progressing very slowly indeed. The facts which have been sworn to by the witnesses for the prosecution can not be disputed ; the only question to be settled is one regarding WIRZ’S responsibility for his diabolical acts. In any case, a stain rests upon the military record of the late rebellion which neither tears nor repentance can quite wash out. Andersonville forms an important chapter in the history of the war.

Wirz Trial (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3072/3072-h/3072-h.htm#p642)

Captain Wirz “reclining on a lounge”

Captain Wirz was “charged and convicted of combining, confederating and conspiring with Jefferson Davis …”, but his co-conspirators got off pretty lightly:

Johnson’s pardon policy also reinforced his emerging image as the white South’s champion. Despite talk of punishing traitors, the President embarked on a course of amazing leniency. No mass arrests followed the collapse of the Confederacy; only Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville prison camp, paid the ultimate penalty for treason. Jefferson Davis spent two years in federal prison but was never put on trial and lived to his eighty-second year; his Vice President, Alexander H. Stephens, served a brief imprisonment, returned to Congress in 1873, and died ten years later as governor of Georgia. … [This paragraph goes on to say that President Johnson ignored the Ironclad Oath in making political appointments and began issuing pardons in large numbers by September 1865.[1]

Home of Jefferson Davis, three generations (1884 or 1885; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2009633719/)

“Home of Jefferson Davis, three generations ” (1884 or 1885, Library of Congress)

From the Library of Congress: Alexander Gardner was at the Old Capitol Prison: reading, adjusting, springing, hanging; Davis family. The redo of the Harper’s drawing comes from Andersonville by John McElroy.
  1. [1]Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: HarperPerennial, 2014. Updated Edition. Print. page 190.↩
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