****JavaScript based drop down DHTML menu generated by NavStudio. (OpenCube Inc. - http://www.opencube.com)****
| |
| Page 8 |
| Telegraph
Wire by Kimberly A. O'Connell |
Telegraph Wire
appears to be a new feature concerning present day Civil War
news. In this edition, we learn that the Hunterstown,
Pennsylvania Battlefield is being threatened by developers,
a Confederate flag has been found in a Kansas, and a new National
Park Service Film is about to debut at the Fredericksburg
and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Jeff Shaara
is also interviewed and asked about his new book Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields.
|
| Page 15 |
| Eyewitness to War by William H. Wild |
Twenty year old Sergeant Prentiss Peabody was a Union Army
telegrapher when he was sent on a special mission in Kentucky
in late 1862. Here he recounts what happened when he
was captured by John Hunt Morgan's Confederate raiders.
Peabody was detained on his way to Franklin, Tennessee to
deliver some dispatches from Army of the Ohio commander Don
Carlos Buell. After Peabody had been captured, he claimed
he was on his way to Louisville to visit his dying sister.
Although Morgan's men didn't completely buy this story, they
did let him go on his way, but not before maiming his horse.
|
| Page 19 |
| Commands: 17th North Carolina by Robert
K. Krick |
Robert K. Krick writes about four Confederate officers of
the 17th North Carolina Infantry. All were captured
early in the war, and they sat for a photo in Richmond in
March 1862 after their release. The officers were Major
Henry A. Gilliam, Captain John C. Lamb, Captain Lucius J.
Johnston, and Lieutenant William Biggs.
|
| Page 23 |
| A Letter From America's Civil War |
This issue's "Letter" concentrates on the USS Monitor, and the Prince de Joinville's watercolor
rendering of her. It also covers video footage of the
USS Canonicus filmed
in 1907. The Canonicus
was a single-turret monitor built in 1863.
|
| Page 24 |
| Cheesebox on a Raft by Olav Thulesius |
Olav Thulesius tells the story of the USS Monitor,
from her design by Swede John Ericsson, to the struggle
to get her built and the roles played by various individuals
such as Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of the Navy Gideon
Welles, to her fight with the CSS Virginia.
Ericsson was not trusted by many in the United States Navy
because of an explosion on the USS Princeton in
the pre-war years. Thulesius explains that the future
Monitor inventor had been unfairly blamed for something
that had not been his fault. Eventually with the help
of key individuals, Ericsson was able to get a contract
for the construction of his ship. Ericsson was so
sure of his creation that he signed the contract despite
extremely unfavorable terms to himself. The Monitor
design proved more successful than some of the other early
ironclads, especially the USS Galena. Ericsson's
invention managed to fight the feared CSS Virginia to a
draw and neutralized the Confederate behemoth as a threat
to George McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.
The author is working on a biography of Monitor
inventor John Ericsson.
|
| Page 32 |
| Revealing Monitor's Secrets by David Krop |
The USS Monitor went down off Cape Hatteras on
New Year's Eve 1862. Now, many relics from the stricken
ship have been brought back to the surface for cleaning, preparation,
and display at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia.
Among the recovered Monitor artifacts author and
conservator David Krop discusses are the screw propeller,
the anchor, the innovative revolving gun turret, the two 11-inch
Dahlgren cannon used in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads,
and the engine register. Krop goes on to discuss the
efforts being undertaken to conserve the famous warship, a
long, dirty, and arduous job.
|
| Page 42 |
| Martyr Under the Microscope: Lincoln
Reconsidered by William Marvel |
William Marvel summarizes views expressed in his upcoming
book Mr.
Lincoln Goes to War in this article. As you might guess
by the title of the article, this one is more than likely going to be
considered controversial. The author believes Lincoln could have
avoided a war, and he goes on to say that Lincoln deliberately invited
the beginning of a war anyway. He further argues that Lincoln's
many poor political and military choices during his Presidency only served
to lengthen the struggle and increase the suffering of the country.
|
| Page 48 |
| Brandy Station's Forgotten
Flank by Daniel Murphy |
Most people think
of Fleetwood Hill when thinking of the Battle of Brandy Station, fought
between elements of the cavalry from the Union Army of the Potomac and
Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. In this article, Daniel Murphy
instead concentrates on the "forgotten flank", the fight on
the northern end of the battlefield on Yew's Ridge between W. H. F. "Rooney"
Lee's Brigade and John Buford's Division. At first, the Confederates
were able to stand strong, aided by a stone wall. But later in the
day, after David McM. Gregg's Union left wing attacked the Confederate
right, J. E. B. Stuart was forced to pull units from his left flank to
combat the threat. This gave Buford a bit of an opening, and the
fighting swirled back and forth for quite some time, only ending in a
Federal withdrawal after reports of Confederate infantry being nearby.
Murphy writes that the Union troopers finally realized that they could
stand up to and even defeat the Southern cavalry in a fair fight.
|
| Page
57 |
| Personality
by W. Cullen Sherwood and Ben Ritter |
The capture of
Union Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham by Turner Ashby's cavalry in the Shenandoah
on June 6, 1862 is the subject of this issue's "Personality"
section. The author's present several candidates for the honor of
capturing the Yankee officer, but they believe that Private Holmes Conrad
was the one responsible for the feat. Conrad even kept Wyndham's
sword hanging in his home after the war as a reminder of the event.
|
| Page 65 |
| Men & Materiel: Confederate Spencer
Repeaters by Wayne R. Austerman |
The Confederate
Cavalry fighting in John Bell Hood's army around Atlanta and later in
the Carolinas and Tennessee managed to capture quite a few Spencer breechloading
repeater rifle from their Yankee counterparts in the last year of the
war. In many cases they put this potent weapon to good use, but
lack of ammunition prevented the Spencers from becoming a serious Confederate
threat. Austerman writes that the Confederacy did try to purchase
equipment from England that would allow them to manufacture Spencer ammunition,
but this effort met with failure.
|
| Page 71 |
|
Reviews
|
|
Books reviewed in this issue:
1. Mr.
Lincoln Goes to War by William Marvel
2. The Confederate Battle Flag by John M. Coski
Reviews in Brief:
1. The
55th North Carolina in the Civil War: A History and Roster by
Jeffrey M. Girvan
2. Disgrace
at Gettysburg: the Arrest and Court Martial of Brigadier General Thomas
A. Rowley, USA by John F. Krumwiede
3. My
Will is Absolute Law: A Biography of Union General Robert H. Milroy
by Jonathan A. Noyalas
4. First
Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis' Civil War by Joan E.
Cashin
5. The
Battle of Monroe's Crossroads and the Civil War's Final Campaign
by Eric Wittenberg
|
| Page 74 |
| Struck! by Michael Kraus |
The torn kepi of
Lieutenant James Hardison is pictured in this short article. Hardison
and his 139th Pennsylvania Infantry were participating in the Battle of
Salem Church on May 3, 1863 during the Chancellorsville Campaign when
a bullet hit the lieutenant in the head, killing him instantly.
His brother Matthew, a sergeant in the regiment, picked up the kepi and
sent it home. After the war, he donated it to the Soldiers and Sailors
National Military Museum in Memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
|
|
| 