Upcoming Events-Hartford City Civil War Days

2017 Program Cover

This event promo is for the first large scale event in our regular season, being held May 12th and 13th of 2018. The Hartford City Civil War Days is an event eagerly looked forward to every year by many reenactors.   With a few hundred infantry the battles can get quite smoky.  The cavalry make their appearance, fighting it out with sabers and pistols. There are many sutlers selling their wares, along with food vendors to keep your bellies full of food while watching the battle.

 For us as artillery reenactors the best part though are the guns.  Between both sides there are often over twenty-five pieces of artillery making their presence felt. If you want to see cannon, THIS is one of the best events. If you can stay late, watch the night fire of the cannon. Typically ten rounds with fireworks it is a sight to behold. They advertise this as the largest night fire in Indiana and I'm quite certain it is true.

Please note that this is a pay event. The price is modest, at seven dollars in 2017 for adults. Considering the scale of this reenactment our readers will be able to understand why.

For additional information on this years event, I recommend going to the Hartford City Civil War Days website.  I also recommend visiting the Civil War Days Facebook Page. Both places you will find many additional photos and information.  If you are interested in getting into reenacting, visiting the sutlers here can get you outfitted. One I specifically show pictures of is Fall Creek Sutlery.

The pictures, of which there are MANY from last year here, provide only a small glimpse into what goes on that weekend. 






2017 Saturday Schedule... always something to do

Get a tintype done



The Navy

Sutler's Row (Period Vendors)

A portion of a major supplier for reenactors and spectators, Fall Creek Sutlery

Traveling Medicine Show setting up

Part of artillery camp



Artillery tents stretching as far as the eye can see

Two cavalry exchanging saber blows

Federal Infantry firing a volley

Confederate Infantry firing at will

A portion of the guns, with many more on either side

Section (2 gun) fire smoke clouds

Artillery Hub to Hub for night fire

First round of night fire. Already you can see the fireworks

 

I also would recommend you pay your respects next door to the event itself.  A large cemetery with MANY Civil War graves of soldiers from Indiana and Ohio buried there, it is worth a look. There is also a large siege gun permanently mounted in there.  I will be taking pictures of it and some of the graves for future posts.

Small corner of cemetery visible behind artillery camp as we place the guns

 

-Corporal

 

 

Please note, the location tagged is that of the 3M plant which is across the street from the reenactment itself.





Those Who Went Before Us (Sumnerville I)

Located north of Niles, Michigan is the little village of Sumnerville. In my first year of reenacting I took part in a ceremony honoring an original member of my home unit, the 21st Indiana Light Artillery.  I've always remembered this cemetery. Due to its scale I thought it would be a good place to start covering those who were more common soldiers.  There are many graves I would love to highlight but I'll only cover a few per post.  Please note that the historical sign above is incorrect. It says that veterans starting with the War of 1812 are buried here.  I have pictures of their graves for later posts but below are two veterans of the American Revolution, some forty years earlier.

Something Jade taught me about Victorian times was the leaving of pennies on the headstone.  This symbolized paying the deceased way with the ferryman across the River Styx. I have seen this on many graves after I started looking for it, including one in this cemetery. This custom continues today.  It was almost a spur of the moment thing to stop up here so I didn't have many pennies with me.  Before I left I made sure to leave one on William Benton's grave as a personal offering. I will make it a point to get a couple rolls of pennies just to have in the car for this purpose.

One more thing I did and this is a personal habit of mine.  Every veteran grave I stopped at to take their picture I took the time to come to attention and salute. My personal way of thanking them for allowing me to visit and take their photograph.  I also did a general salute in all four directions when I arrived and left, complete with orders. I did this as a general greeting and goodbye. Again, my personal practice. I was not in uniform, but I did it anyway.

Original 21st Indiana Light Artillery William Benton

Revolutionary War veteran John Burk of Virginia

The son of John Burk, William.

Israel Markham, Revolutionary War veteran from Massachusetts.

Known now only to God. The stone is molded and weathered into illegibility.

The last marker is part of why I started doing this.  Just to provide a place where a handful of soldiers and their stones can be remembered before they wear away to nothing.

-Corporal

24th Michigan Infantry

Since I included the commander of the 24th Michigan in our last post and I've seen a roadside plaque monument to the regiment, I felt I would just do a very brief look at them to highlight the monument.

Unit history taken from the Soldiers and Sailors Database.  For further information, I recommend reading Alan T. Nolen's The Iron Brigade: a Military History. Originally Published in 1961, this book is still available and is a personal favorite of mine.

As a small side note, I'm often asked why there were so few casualties (relatively speaking) given the amount of ammunition fired by the infantry soldier.  The answer to that, which is included in the book, is that the soldiers were drilled in the carrying and loading of their weapons.  They were not normally given target practice! I would have to call that the ultimate in "on the job training."  The 24th did have two recorded target practices.  The first resulted in three men getting wounded and one dying of a heart attack.  The second occurred after the battle of Gettysburg during which the regiment suffered 80% total casualties.

-Corporal

UNION MICHIGAN VOLUNTEERS

24th Regiment, Michigan Infantry

Overview:

Organized at Detroit, Mich., and mustered in August 15, 1862. Moved to Washington, D. C., August 29, 1862. Attached to Defences of Washington, D. C., to October, 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to November, 1862. 4th Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, to June, 1863. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, to March, 1864. 1st Brigade, 4th Division, 5th Army Corps, to August, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 5th Army Corps, to September, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 5th Army Corps, to February, 1865. Springfield, Ill., Northern Department, to June, 1865.

Service:

Duty in the Defences of Washington, D. C., till October 1, 1862. Moved to Frederick, Md., October 1, thence to Sharpsburg, Md., October 6, and to Warrenton, Va., October 20-November 6. Guard Richmond, Fredericksburg & Aquia Creek Railroad November 25-December 6. Advance to Falmouth December 6-11. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12-15. "Mud March" January 20-24, 1863. At Belle Plain till April. Expedition to Port Royal and Port Conway April 22-23. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Operations at Pollock's Mill Creek April 29-May 2. Fitzhugh's Crossing April 29-30. Battle of Chancellorsville May 2-5. Operations on Northern Neck May 20-26. Gettysburg (Pa.) Campaign June 11-July 24. Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 1-3. (Division was first Infantry force under fire, and Regiment lost in first day's fight 316 killed, wounded and missing, out of 496.) Pursuit of Lee to Manassas Gap, Va., July 5-24. Duty on line of the Rappahannock and Rapidan till October. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Haymarket October 19. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. Demonstration on the Rapidan February 6-7, 1864. Campaign from the Rapidan to the James River May 4-June 15. Battles of the Wilderness May 5-7; Spottsylvania May 8-12; Laurel Hill May 8; Spottsylvania Court House May 12-21. Assault on the Salient May 12. North Anna River May 23-26. Jericho Mills May 23. On line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Bethesda Church June 1-3. Before Petersburg June 16-18. Siege of Petersburg June 16, 1864, to February 11, 1865. Weldon Railroad August 18-21, 1864. Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher's Run, October 27-28. Warren's Raid on Weldon Railroad December 7-12. Dabney's Mills February 5-7, 1865. Ordered to Baltimore, Md., for special duty February 11, 1865. Moved to Springfield, Ill., February 15, and assigned to garrison and guard duty there at Draft Rendezvous till June 19. Regiment selected as escort at funeral of President Lincoln. Mustered out June 30, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 12 Officers and 177 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 3 Officers and 136 Enllsted men by disease. Total 328.

Henry Morrow

At the suggestion of a coworker of mine, I'm going to try to regularly post photographs and histories of the grave stones of common soldiers so that they might be remembered here as the stones themselves fade away.  This particular post will not be of the common soldier however.

Henry Morrow, Commander 24th Michigan Infantry

In my hometown of Niles, Michigan is buried Henry Morrow. Morrow was commander of the 24th Michigan Infantry, one of the regiments that made up the famous Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac. As I got to participate in a grave re-dedication along with the Sons of Union Veterans and the 1st Michigan Infantry back in 2010 I decided to include Morrow in the list of soldiers we would honor.

Morrow family plot marker

Morrow Personal Marker

Sons of Union Veterans speaking

Myself with the 1st Michigan Infantry

-Corporal


Col. Henry A. Morrow, 24th Mich. United States, None. [Between 1860 and 1870] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003002707/PP/. (Accessed March 30, 2018.)

How we know what we know

Library of Congress 1866

Corporal here. This post is simply an explanation of where we get our knowledge on subject matter.

From an academic perspective, it looks like we aren't "citing our sources" as they say.  The reason for that is we are often writing things in much the same way as we would tell people in the field.  We aren't going to tell people "On page 143 of Hard Tack and Coffee he says..." to the average person.  I do like to cite when I get photographs from the Library of Congress as they are not taken by myself, Jade or a member of my family at a reenactment.

But where do we get the information presented here? Study, study, study.  Both of us have enjoyed history for years and yes, I went to college for it.  History is a passion for any reenactor. But that is still not explaining where exactly we get the information from.  We have several sources.

Our first source is of course books.  Neither of us are professional historians so we do read others work.  Often when writing the more technical posts I'm boiling things down from twenty pages or more to a few paragraphs to aid in accessibility in this format.  When I get the opportunity I will cite books I use frequently on this post so stay close to your telegraph.

The second resource is other reenactors.  We aren't all experts in all things. We both have learned much just listening to other reenactors at events.  They have done the research already and it helps a great deal.  My head wouldn't be so full of Civil War trivia without them.

Our last major source is the internet. It is readily available and occasionally an article can come from there that triggers a thought or a full post. Sometimes I've used it to verify a piece of information that I know but don't have at my fingertips.

If a source is not made clear, as it usually won't be directly cited, please message us on our Facebook page or leave a comment at the bottom of a post. We will do our best to give the source books at least.

In the end, we hope that this blog will inspire others to either become reenactors themselves or just get out the books and study because we sparked an interest.

-Corporal

Source Citing:

Internet:
Two I've used often is the United States Library of Congress and the Soldiers & Sailors Database.

Book Citing to follow.

Alan T. Nolen, The Iron Brigade: A Military History (1st Indiana University Press Edition, 1994) original Copyright 1961.

Photograph Citation:

Wakely, G. D., Copyright Claimant. Interior of Library of Congress. Washington D.C, ca. 1866. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2010646112/. (Accessed March 25, 2018.)

Fun with Monuments

A little more light hearted post, returning to the monument in Coldwater, Michigan. While there in January of 2018 I saw that someone had decided to dress the soldier statue.  I've heard of this being done but never seen it in person.  The person who did this put a red wool scarf and red wool gaiters on the statue. For clarity the gaiter was typically made of canvas and was worn, in part, to protect the trouser leg from mud.  In this case apparently the soldier was believed to be cold and needed something in addition to his stone great coat to keep warm.

-Corporal

1862 Niles Methodist Church

 

In the spirit of the Faith in the Civil War series, I recently took a few photographs of a church local to me in the town of Niles, Michigan. I have never been inside this Methodist church but I've seen it for years from the outside. I have been inside other churches from or predating the Civil War and I must admit it always has been a moving experience. If our readers ever have the opportunity to visit a church or indeed any structure with this kind of age, I recommend they do so.  There is the old saying "If the walls could talk..."  If you know what you are listening for, perhaps they do.

For the record, this is not an endorsement of any one particular branch of Christianity or specific religion. There are other churches this old around and I hope to add pictures of them at some point. I happened to be passing this one at the time and remembered how old it was so I stopped.

 As I know nothing of the church's history aside from what is on the sign, I'll just let the pictures tell the story.

 

-Corporal

Father Corby of Notre Dame

Father Corby

The chaplain can be one of the unsung heroes in any military. They do not carry a weapon, they do not lead great charges, they generally do not operate in the limelight. Occasionally they get mentioned because of some selfless act performed during the height of battle to aid the wounded or because they themselves were cruelly killed by the enemy.  Rarely in the general Civil War literature are chaplains singled out.  One specific exception is Father Corby.

Father Corby was sent to the army in part to serve as a counter-balance to the Protestant chaplains serving in great numbers. There were many Catholic soldiers in the Union army, most famously serving with the Irish Brigade. The Fathers of Notre Dame felt that they needed priests.  Father Corby was one of several dispatched to the Army of the Potomac.

Father Corby became famous for one particular instance.  Just before the Irish Brigade went into battle on July 2nd, 1863 at Gettysburg, Father Corby gave a general absolution to the men.  What many don't know is that this act was intended to follow a medieval practice. He didn't intend to just absolve the men surrounding him, he intended it for the Catholic troops on both sides of the field.

Father Corby with Corby Hall in background

This act was immortalized in bronze on the field of Gettysburg in 1910. A duplicate statue and set of plaques were installed in front of Corby Hall on the campus of Notre Dame University in 1911.

Detail of feet. Note the spurs, riding gauntlets and hat

Plaque in front.

Plaque on Side

Informational Sign

Overview... how the men of the Irish Brigade might have seen him

This one moment is famous enough to have been also immortalized in the film Gettysburg. I will not share a still from there due to copyright, but if you have the Director's cut edition of the film or the Blu-Ray disc of it, the scene can be viewed at 1:58:58 in the movie, shortly before the segment with the 20th Maine and Little Roundtop. It is only about 40 seconds in length but it gives an idea of the scale of an infantry brigade as well. Father Corby himself is on screen for but a few seconds, but the entire short scene is worth it.

Priests from Notre Dame. Father Corby sits in the front row on the right

-Corporal


Gardner, Alexander, photographer. Harrison's Landing, Va. Group of the Irish Brigade. Harrison's Landing United States Virginia, 1862. July. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003000093/PP/. (Accessed February 24, 2018.)

Monuments found in odd places

Monuments to historic events and people can be found in unusual or out of the way places. On family trips over the years I have always been on the lookout for plaques and monuments that relate to the Civil War or to history in general.

Recently I was reminded of a monument I discovered in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on a family vacation there in 2010. Today this town is familiar to many as the gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Extremely built up as a tourist town, this plaque would once have been on a post as a standard sign. Presumably as the space was required for the building it is hanging on in this photograph, they left it in the vicinity and just attached it to the structure instead. As the photographs show, an odd place indeed.

The plaque itself

The location... on the side of a building with a Pizza Hut

As these photographs were taken in 2010, I can not guarantee that it is still hanging there for two reasons.  The first is as this is a Confederate monument so there is no guarantee it has survived the purge of monuments occurring in the country.  The second being the wild fire of 2016.  The tourist areas of Gatlinburg were largely spared, but I do not have any personal knowledge of the survival of this particular spot.


John Reagan, Confederate Postmaster General

-Corporal


Portrait of Postmaster-general John H. Regan, officer of the Confederate States Government. United States, None. [Between 1860 and 1865] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003000422/PP/. (Accessed February 11, 2018.)