Spotsylvania Civil War Blog

New Year - Old Sites: Juxtaposition - Chancellorsville

2012-02-01T14:22:00.000-05:00

The Chancellorsville intersection, circa 1900. Photo by John Okie.

Hunting dogs of Thomas P. Payne, a Spotsylvania County deputy

commissioner of revenue. Image is courtesy of Kathleen Colvin,

Payne's granddaughter. View looks north along the Old Plank Road.

The Chancellorsville intersection, January 1, 2012.

The top image was taken about thirty-seven years after the 1863 battle of Chancellorsville. Life had begun to assume a feeling of normalcy at this once hotly contested intersection. The Chancellor house, which had been destroyed during the fighting, was rebuilt, but would survive just another twenty-seven years until it would be, yet again, consumed by fire.

One hundred and twelve years have gone by since these dogs sniffed about the muddied road, always dutiful, always vigilant. Man's best friend. Tens of thousands of sunrises have crossed the landscape. Inside the house the day-to-day human dramas would unfold. Children would laugh and cry. Words were spoken in love and anger. Joy over births, and sorrow over deaths. The gamut of human emotions lived out within the walls, echoing in the hallways, until they were no more. Gnarled remnants of once great shade trees now sway in the winds. The surrounding fields that had provided generations of crops turned fallow and returned to grassland, yet no cattle graze today.

An eerie silence hangs in the air. The ghosts of over three thousand soldiers, killed near here, bide their time in eternity.

Gettysburg - Harvest of Death - Location Update: 1-26-12

2012-01-26T19:35:00.000-05:00

I am currently still comfortable with the general location I presented earlier this month, with some minor modifications to the camera location. I will still be field testing and re-shooting in the hopeful near future, but since I am three hours south of Gettysburg, and it is winter, it may be a little delayed. The area of the field in question has been rather swampy during my two previous reconnaissance trips which make tramping around, and fine tuning the spot, awkward. However, working with some additional materials from home base, I can see where the two camera locations were probably close to forty-five yards to the southwest, and forty yards to the slight northwest of my initial efforts. My calculations suggest that this will provide the visible tilt in the foreground looking toward the Thompson house, as well as the opposite tilt looking toward the south for the "Harvest of Death" view.

Images are clickable to enlarge the view.

Tighter view of field. Theorized camera locations, as well as my

previous consideration, are marked by white circles. Human figure

indicates the vicinity of the clustered bodies seen in Gardner's views.

I am more convinced now that Gardner was not bending any truth when he titled the "Field Where Reynolds Fell" image as he did. This field is within the confines of the two fences that enclose the woodlot where the general was struck down. This information was probably why Gardner would have sought out this field, even though it was not "THE" spot Reynolds went down. The importance was that it would illustrate the ferocity of the first day's fighting, and at the time of Gardner's visit there, no one in the burial crews could, in all likelihood, point to a more precise location. These images would illustrate the price paid by the Union defenders. Were these some of the only remaining Union dead yet unburied by the time of Gardner's arrival? Confederate dead were not the immediate priority and were plentiful on the southern end of the battlefield.

I will go into this in further detail when I can post my revised then and now pairings.

Previous postings pertaining to this examination can be found here and here.

Standing in the sogginess during my November 18, 2011 session.

Photo by James Anderson.

Examination of the full size stereo pairs is vital to revealing the clues.

Photo by James Anderson

Right half of stereo pair.

I theorize that the woods along the rail cut, on Oak Ridge, are on the far

horizon, placing the Thompson house in the upper right corner of the image.

Collection of Library of Congress

Putting A Face On The Dead: A Wilderness casualty from the National Museum of Health and Medicine

2012-01-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

    Let me state up front that I am not trained as a forensic pathologist, but the images I provide here were produced using rudimentary information I have gleaned over time while studying the cranium collection at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, now located in Silver Spring, Maryland.
   The principles of tissue depth, in this case along the median points of the skull, are the building blocks for forensic facial reconstruction. These points: vertex, glabella, naison, rhinion, sub-nasale, labrale superius, labrale inferius, mentolabial sulcus, pogonion, gnation, menton and gonion, provide us with a reasonably reliable, statistically established, method of creating the outline of a deceased's facial profile.
    This then, was an exercise for me, to apply these basics on one of the many skulls collected by Union Surgeon, Dr. Reed B. Bontecou, in April of 1866. Bontecou traveled to the battlefields of Spotsylvania County, shortly before mustering out of the service, with the intent of collecting pathological specimens, specifically the crania of dead Confederate soldiers who's remains had been lying in situ since the battles nearly two and three years prior. The Union dead had been gathered and placed in temporary cemeteries in the summer of 1865. In contrast, many of the fallen southerners had been barely covered by comrades, and their bones bleached in the sun while their uniforms decayed around them. The region had been devastated by the war, and a dramatically reduced local population had yet to make any effort to provide better treatment, especially in such remote areas as the Wilderness.
    This specific individual had received a severe trauma in the vicinity of the left ear, producing a large, fractured hole in the temporal area, but no exit wound. A good number of these skulls in this collection have the deadly projectile which ended their lives accompanying them, usually attached by wire near the entry site. This specimen does not.

NMHM collection # AFIP1000619

Site of the fatal wound. Note extra tooth growing out of left maxilla.

My initial workup over top the right profile photograph, having used

tissue depth markers to establish the outline of the face.

The base photograph and drawing are reduced to line art.

After removing most of the base photograph and refining the

facial features we are left with what may be a faithful likeness

of this unknown soldier, killed in Spotsylvania, Virginia.

Of course, we do not know if he had facial hair or precisely what age he was. A more professional working of the specimen can yield many more tell-tale clues to these details. Perhaps one day the funding may become available to the Museum to help put a face on all the unknowns that reside in the drawers of the collection. No matter what the circumstances that brought this man's life to an end, all should be accorded the dignity of recognition as a human being. I hope this may be some encouragement toward that goal.

A photograph taken of human remains during Dr. Bontecou's trip to Spotsylvania County

in April of 1866. Bontecou had a photographic team accompany him on this journey. For

further information, I will suggest an article I wrote for the March/April 2009 issue of

Civil War Times Magazine, introducing my studies of these images and the route taken

by Bontecou and his entourage. I continue to work on a book length manuscript as well.

In September 1865, Northern journalist John T. Trowbridge toured the war-torn Spotsylvania region with a local guide, and witnessed the same unburied bodies Dr. Bontecou would find nearly a year later. From his book The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities, he describes his macabre encounter in the Wilderness region:

"And what appalling spectacle is this? In the cover of thick woods, the unburied remains of two soldiers -- two skeletons side by side, two skulls almost touching each other, like the cheeks of sleepers! I came upon them unawares as I picked my way among scrub oak. I knew that scores of such sights could be seen here a few weeks before; but the United States Government had sent to have its unburied dead collected together in the two national cemeteries of the Wilderness; and I hoped the work was faithfully done.

"They was No'th Carolinians; that's why they didn't bury 'em," said Elijah, after a careful examination of the buttons fallen from the rotted clothing.

The buttons may have told a true story: North Carolinians they may have been; yet I could not believe this to be the true reason why they had not been decently interred. It must have been that these bodies, and others we found afterwards, were overlooked by the party sent to construct the cemeteries. It was shameful negligence, to say the least.

The cemetery was nearby -- a little clearing surrounded by a picket fence and comprising seventy trenches, each containing the remains of I know not how many dead. Each trench was marked with a headboard inscribed: "Unknown United States soldier, killed may, 1864."

Elijah said that the words United States soldiers indicated plainly that it had not been the intention to bury Rebels there. As a grim sarcasm on this neglect, somebody had flung three human skulls over the paling into the cemetery, where they lay blanching among the graves."

Gettysburg - Harvest of Death - some new considerations on location... and some doubt... perhaps. Revisions made 1-21-12.

2012-01-19T11:06:00.003-05:00

There are some things to take into consideration with my prior theory posted on 1-12-12, as well as that of Scott Hartwig's, which worked off of the same approach, but at a distance from my own theorized camera position. I have made revisions to this post after some additional examination of postwar images.
There are many elements of the 1863 images that could have supported either proposal, but ultimately one major issue that could derail both.

There appear to be the correct landscape features seen from the field, looking northeast toward the Thompson house. Structures that appear faintly in the right hand distance of the "Field Where General Reynolds Fell" image, look enough like the Thompson house and a structure on the opposite side of the Chambersburg Pike to be convincing. There appears to be an orchard, also on that south side, running on a diagonal of the downward slope, all where they should be, but...

Detail, showing structures on horizon, and orchard on slope?

Rail fence dividing fields, runs across bottom.

Even the slight rise and fall of the foreground of that same image, when viewed in stereo, can be attributable to what appears to be a significant grading of the middle of the field, supported by contour lines in the "Warren" map of 1868, that are dramatically changed by the 1995 USGS surveys. A ditch that feeds a pond below the site, not notated in 1868, has also altered the terrain. But...

Right hand side of stereo pair.

Detail of 1868 Warren map. Red dot between McPherson's Woods and

trees on Seminary Ridge, indicates my theorized camera location.

Overlay of detail from Warren map over 1995 USGS map, indicating

seeming changes in contours of field between ridges, with dates in red.

Click this and all images for larger viewing.

Unaltered detail from the 1995 USGS topographic map.

The real concern for mine, and Scott Hartwig's theories, may very well be in the left hand horizon tree line on Oak Ridge, which does not appear to have been as deep as it is today, at least not by the time of the 1868 Warren surveys. It is the assumed strength of that woodline being there in 1863 that both Scott and myself placed our bets. Today, a gap shown in the Warren map has grown in, on the north ridge extension, along the rail cut. Were there trees there in 1863, but deforested by 1868? That is a tough call. Other maps are not so precise. Someone out there should know this information. They do not look to be dissimilar today with what appears in the 1863 photograph. On the other hand, the gap may not have caused a discernible difference visually at a 466 yard distance. Height of trees and density are all unknown factors. Coincidental, if not the same location? Perhaps?

Detail of map #12 from Warren's 1868 map set. Location of gap in trees on Oak Ridge

is indicated in red. Red dot marks proposed camera position for Gardner/O'Sullivan.

Full map set in the collection of National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Closer view of the trees on Oak Ridge from a location closer to the

orchard on the south side of Chambersburg Pike, approximately

150 yards north east of suspected 1863 camera position.

Modern aerial view, indicating in red, the wartime gap in the trees on Oak Ridge.

Would the gap have effected the 1863 view? Very strange how the modern and

1863 image in question seem to align in numerous ways. Is this the deciding factor?

This, primarily, and perhaps other challenges to the theorized location, warrant further scrutiny.

Gettysburg - Harvest of Death - Location Found, January 11, 2012, perhaps... Supplements added: 1-13-12. Questions abound. Revised posting 1-18-12.

2012-01-12T09:52:00.010-05:00

One of the most elusive group of Civil War battlefield photographs has been the image known as “The Harvest of Death” and its companion images, showing the same bodies from a near opposite angle. The group was made in the days following the battle, most probably July 5, 1863. There have been three prevailing theories as to the precise location of this ghastly scene. Since 1975, historian William A. Frassanito has felt comfortable in his belief that the group of photos was taken somewhere near the Rose Farm and the Emmitsburg Road. The greatest challenge has been in trying to locate a piece of land where all terrain features cooperate, in both directions, to make the theory work. Granted, doing this has been made even that more difficult by over a century’s growth and/or removal of wood lines and other obstructions, as well as potential modifications to the landscape surface. The mission has continued for another thirty-seven years as numerous investigators have scoured the battlefield landscape to find the right combination of elements.

Gardner caption, "View in field on right wing."

Library of Congress collection.

Last May, Gettysburg National Park Service Historian Scott Hartwig published his own theory, located in an area below the Chambersburg Pike, near McPherson’s Woods that seemed to work, and was much more in keeping with the original captioning of the published images by photographer Alexander Gardner. It runs along the Park Service road, Reynolds Avenue South.

Most recently, historian Jerry Coates has spent considerable time investigating an area south of Gettysburg, and west of the Emmitsburg Road. This theory stayed more within the confines of the original Frassanito analysis, but was supplemented by a more in depth study of the uniforms the dead are wearing and attempting to use this criteria to narrow down the numerical potential as to who they might have been and thus the field of battle these men would have been engaged on in July 1863. He has come up with very similar terrain and some good arguments.

However, my own investigative work has concluded that of all these prevailing theories, the one that seems to come the closest is Scott Hartwig’s on the first day’s battlefield. But, although very well founded and assembled with sound judgment, Hartwig’s theorized location has its faults and can be termed with the old expression, “Right church, wrong pew.”

What all the prevailing theories lacked was a concrete feature or landmark that would anchor the image to an indisputable location. My examination of the series of images has discovered what appears to be that necessary clue. The clue has been available in plain sight to all that have looked at the glass negatives for the stereo pairs, and quite possibly the 8 X 10 glass negative, although that full image is not printed or available online presently by the Library of Congress, but is referred to by William Frassanito and shown in cropped form on page 227 of his Gettysburg: A Journey In Time. In many prints of the image entitled “Field where General Reynolds Fell”, the full image has been cropped and has thus removed the landmark feature. The landmark looks like none other than the residence of Mrs. Mary Thompson, known more famously as “Lee’s Headquarters”. In the upper right hand corner, again invariably cropped out in published formats, the house is easily discernible along the horizon line. It is understandable that it could be easily overlooked as just another shadow in the line of trees, but when magnified, and compared to wartime images of the structure, it becomes more than obvious. In utilizing the Thompson house as the anchor for this image, it becomes far easier to establish a camera position, and thus, possibly prove that Gardner’s original captioning was spot on as to the vicinity of the battlefield.

Is this the home of Mrs. Mary Thompson, "Lee's Headquarters,

as seen in an enlargement of one half of a stereo glass negative?

Annotated copy of the previous enlargement showing key elements.

Find these same elements in the image below for comparison.

All images are clickable for enlarged viewing.

Photograph of Mrs. Thompson's house, attributable to Mathew Brady.

Note the white fence, chimney, and trees on either side of the building compared with

those features in the enlarged views preceding. Is this the rock solid clue to these images?

Library of Congress collection.

Overlay with Thompson house image by Brady at 75 percent

transparency over top shadows seen in Gardner image, right horizon line.

Brady's street level image was of course taken close up, but even at

314 yards the shape of the house and surrounding trees is discernible.

Two field reconnaissance trips to the Gettysburg field have given me the evidence to support this theory. On November 18, 2011 and January 11, 2012, my investigations concluded that the dead in this series of exposures were likely killed south of the Chambersburg Pike, between McPherson’s Ridge and Seminary Ridge, and are in all likelihood, members of the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry who fled across this area, along with the 19th Indiana, when pressured by advancing Confederate forces of North Carolinians. This section of the field was just below the northernmost of two fence lines that ran parallel to the Pike and enclosed a field that included the McPherson Woods in its western extreme. If so, these men fell approximately 275 yards east of the spot marked where General Reynolds fell, and roughly 308 yards southwest of Mrs. Thompson’s house. The camera location is roughly 365 yards northeast of Scott Hartwig’s theorized conclusion, which was south of the lower enclosing fence, and too far south of the Thompson house to have allowed for the structure to appear as it does in scale along the Chambersburg Pike Ridge. Jerry Coates theoretical location is approximately one and three quarter miles south of the Seminary Ridge killing field.

Gardner's likely camera position as established January 11, 2012.

Click on this and all images to enlarge.

Light blue triangle indicates approximate field of view of lens.

Light tan lines indicate approximate war-era fences separating field.

Red line projects south toward camera angle for companion views of

dead, including the famous "Harvest of Death".

Scott Hartwig's interpretation point is indicated at lower left.

The Gardner image, note possible Thompson house upper right, along horizon.

50 percent overlay of Gardner image to modern image.

Thompson house fits directly into shadows seen in the 1863 view.

Near identical camera position, January 11, 2011. Note Thompson

house (Lee's Headquarters) at upper right along horizon line.

Newly installed rail fence through middle of right incline is out of place.

Gardner's "Harvest of Death"

Near identical camera position, January 11, 2012.

Period maps show that in 1863, the woods that are currently at center

did not exist, whereas a woodline to the left distance in 1863, does

not exist today. However, other ground features are still present.

Setting up the shot towards the Thompson house.

Seminary Ridge is in the background. The dead would have been

lying in the field to the left of the camera on the tripod.

January 11, 2012, photo by James Anderson.

Photographing the field of the "Harvest of Death", January 11, 2012.

This broader view of the field is somewhat more revealing than the one

I was taking at the time. Photo by James Anderson.

Standing on the ground where the men of the Iron Brigade fell

near Seminary Ridge on July 1, 1863. View is looking north, with the Eternal

Peace Light Memorial at distant left, and Lee's Headquarters at right.

January 11, 2012. Photo by James Anderson.

Monument to the 24th Michigan overlooking

Willoughby's Run. January 11, 2012.

Mrs. Thompson's house as it appears today with the addition of

dormer windows expanding the second floor. It is currently, and

has long served as, the Lee's Headquarters Museum.

January 11, 2012.

An artists depiction of the 24th Michigan being pushed back toward the Seminary Ridge, to their rear.

This image, titled “Men of Iron” by artist Dale Gallon is courtesy of Ms. Anne Gallon of Gallon Historical Art Inc., 9 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA 17325. Their telephone number is 717-334-8666. Their e-mail address is info@gallon.com. Their web address is gallon.com.

A similar view as the Gallon painting, as the ground appears today,

with the Seminary cupola visible at just right of center above the tree tops.

The killing field, where the 24th Michigan took heavy casualties is just to

image center and left. This is the North Carolinians' view as they advanced,

pushing the men of the Iron Brigade back, reaping the "Harvest of Death."

Taken January 11, 2012.

A Quiet 149th Anniversary at Fredericksburg Battlefield - December 13, 2011

2011-12-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

One hundred and forty-nine years ago yesterday, the town and surrounding landscape of Fredericksburg, Virginia was crowded with two massive armies. Over one hundred and eighty-five thousand men participated in a slug fest that left nearly two thousand dead and close to fourteen thousand wounded. Along with the human wreckage, the town itself had been severely damaged by an artillery exchange and resulting fires. Private residences and businesses were looted and ransacked by unrestrained factions of the Union Army. In the months leading up to the battle, Confederate forces had destroyed connecting bridges with Stafford County, across the Rappahanock River, as an impediment to anticipated Union occupation.

December 13, 2011: The view from City Dock where Union men massed prior

to funneling through the town streets, toward a severe defeat on an open plain beyond.

Looking toward the location of the middle of three pontoon bridge crossings

that streatched along four miles of the riverfront.

The boyhood home of George Washington, Ferry Farm, is on the opposite side.

"The Sentry Box", built by Revolutionary War general George Weedon,

sustained extensive damage during the Union bombardment of December

11, 1862. It was repaired in the years following the war, and remains a

private residence and landmark within the historic district of today's city.

A little under a mile beyond the dock, across the former open plain, the

infamous stone wall and sunken road along the base of Marye's Heights

is a silent reminder of the horrific exchange between North and South.

Confederate defenders took shelter here and poured a decimating hail

of lead at approaching Union brigades who were time and time again

repulsed by the withering onslaught.

The site of the Martha Stephans house along the Sunken Road.

Legend holds that she remained in her home during the battle

so as to provide aid for wounded soldiers.

The moss covered, stately entrance gate to Brompton, the former

home of the Marye family, and the heights that bear their name.

Brompton, now the residence of the president of the University of

Mary Washington, stands atop the heights where Confederate

hellfire once rained down on the approaching blue waves below.

The monument to South Carolina soldier, Sgt. Richard R. Kirkland,

who, it is said, gave water the morning after the battle to the Union

wounded in front of the stone wall, earning the nickname, "The Angel

of Marye's Heights. A commemorative ceremony is held each year here.

Your blog host casts a long shadow around 11:30 AM with the camera

looking south, along the road. At that time, one hundred and forty-nine

years before, the wall at left (rebuilt in 2004) was lined with thousand of

Confederate defenders who successfuly repulsed the Union attacks as

the day wore on. Near this spot, Confederate general Thomas R. R. Cobb

was mortally wounded. A small monument marks the location where he fell.

Earlier posts on this blog provide further information regarding the Sunken Road:

http://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2010/04/sunken-road-and-captain-russells.html

and

http://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2010/05/sunken-road-and-captain-russells.html

Legomania 1993 Presents: The Battle of Fredericksburg

2011-12-12T11:55:00.000-05:00

I post this with tongue-in-cheek. Nothing serious here folks. As simplistic as this little film is, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post it as we are in the anniversary days of the December 1862 battle. I came across it on the Internet, and I have nothing more to say about it. It is what it is, in the tradition of stop-motion classics of the Christmas season, Rudolph and Frosty. Take a gander.

Update to Alrich and Alsop Family Connection: From An Anonymous Tip

2011-12-04T08:50:00.001-05:00

An Anonymous comment to our post of May 31, 2011, added 12/4/2011, points out the widow Alsop's obituary in the Daily Star, December 6, 1915. That obit clearly states that she died "peacefully at the residence of Mr. S.R. Alrich". This may indeed be a clue as to the connection with the Alrich family. That clue had remained embarrassingly unobserved by your blog host until this anonymous tip. An immediate assumption would make this "Mrs. S. R. Alrich" to be Annie, the wife of Samuel Alrich, but his middle initial was "W" according to census records. Those fine details remain still uncertain, but there is now a good indication that Susan M. Alsop was at least a friend of the Alrich family, possibly considered an "Aunt", as many times older friends of a family are called "Aunt" or "Uncle" by children, even if there is no blood or marriage connection. We shall persevere.
Our post of Jun 23, 2011, found here, provides other details in this story.
Our first post regarding this image appeared April 5, 2011, and can be found here.

The image found in the attic of the Alrich home.

Collection of Spotsylvania County Museum.

Image restoration by John Cummings.

The inscription on the back of that image.

Susan M. Alsop in her later years.

Courtesy of Jerry Alsup.

The Gettysburg National Museum Site - Then & Now - Photo Essay

2011-11-26T11:56:00.002-05:00

Continuing our field trip visit to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

A look at the the famous Rosensteel Museum.

The original 1921 era National Museum which housed the Rosensteel

collection. The collection began in 1863 by sixteen year old John

Rosensteel, who started collecting artifacts off of the field of battle.

This image is from a souvenir postcard from that time.

This structure stood across from the entrance to the National

Cemetery on Taneytown Road.

The expanded museum building as it looked in March of 2009, during the demolition

process. The building was sold and its 89,246 piece collection given to the National Park

Service in 1971. The NPS continued to use the facility as their Visitor Center

until 2009 when a larger building was opened below Hunt Avenue, between

Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road. The site of the Rosensteel building

was to be torn down and the land restored to its 1863 appearance.

March 2009

November 2011

A view of the 1921 balcony in March 2009.

During their ownership, the Rosensteel family

lived above the museum. Those rooms became

offices for the NPS when they moved in.

The same view on November 18, 2011

In this March 2009 photograph, the second expansion of the building

is being taken down. This section had housed the original Electric Map

attraction in 1938. It was a popular tourist destination and gave a narrated

orientation program that explained the three day battle.

The same view on November 18, 2011.

A Civil War Centennial era postcard with a bus load of tourists arriving.

Similar view as seen in March 2009, during the demolition process.

Brochures for the museum. At left is a 1957 version. At right is a 1963

edition after a larger and expanded Electric Map feature was opened.

The inside of the 1957 brochure discusses the 1955 expansion of

the building which tripled their collection display space.

From the 1963 brochure, a view of the improved Electric Map

auditorium with a 960 person capacity.

The beginning of tearing down the Electric Map auditorium.

March 2009.

The 1955 expansion and office space are falling to the wrecking

crew in this March 2009 photograph. Nothing remains today of

this facility except the large parking lot and sidewalk.

Spotsylvania's 23rd USCTs Marched In Gettysburg Remembrance Day Parade 11-19-2011

2011-11-22T11:39:00.002-05:00

The 23rd United States Colored Troops took a trip to Gettysburg, PA to participate proudly in the 148th Anniversary Commemoration of the Gettysburg Address, on November 19, 2011.

Forming up, moments before the start of the parade.

Left to right: Jimmy Price, Steward Henderson, James Anderson,

Kevin Williams, and John Cummings, your blog host.

Taking the turn onto Steinwehr Avenue (historic Emmitsburg Road),

from Baltimore Street, following the route taken by President Lincoln.

This photo courtesy of Rachel Zaborowski and Michael Colosimo.

Earlier that morning, keynote speaker Stephan Lang presented some

fittingly dramatic and moving remarks before the large audience

assembled at the National Cemetery Rostrum.

An actor and playwright, Lang is known for his many film roles

including portrayals of Confederate generals Pickett and Jackson.

Currently he stars in the science fiction television series Terra Nova.

After the program at the Rostrum, there was a graveside salute to

USCTs in the National Cemetery.

At right, Millicent Sparks gives a stirring presentation as

abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy, Harriet Tubman.

23rd USCT member Kevin Williams salutes the final resting place of one

of two African American veterans buried in the Soldiers' National Cemetery,

Charles H. Parker, of the 3rd Regiment United States Colored Troops.

Photo by James Anderson.

Gettysburg: Remembrance, Collective Memory, and the Space-Time Continuum

2011-11-17T17:57:00.001-05:00

Please forgive your host for veering off of home turf, but allow me to take you on a field trip.
As I write, Gettysburg’s Remembrance Day is fast approaching, and with it the one hundred and forty-eighth anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. On the day it was delivered, November 19, 1863, it fell short for many who personally witnessed Lincoln’s presentation. It had been eclipsed by the oration of Edward Everett which went on for over two hours. Lincoln’s remarks came in at a little over two minutes, yet have become one of America’s masterpieces of ceremonial speeches.

Gettysburg itself became an immediate Mecca for memorializing, the dead and the living, almost as soon as the guns fell silent on July 3, 1863. Within twenty-five years of the battle, veteran organizations had begun dotting the landscape with what have now become approximately 1328 markers, monuments and memorials. Millions of visitors continue to make the pilgrimage each year, to walk the fields and climb the hills where over 35,000 men fell killed or wounded. Over eleven thousand more were captured or reported missing.

The Borough of Gettysburg, and the surrounding landscape, continues to evolve as man and nature make their impressions. The town has transformed into a tourist destination with all the trappings, both good and bad that come with that industry. One’s attitude towards that evolution can see it as inevitable or intrusive. Life must go on for those that make Gettysburg their home, and debates of appropriateness follow every step.

Baltimore Street in Gettysburg, as the procession makes its way

to the National Cemetery Dedication site. November 19, 1863.

The same view in March of 2009.

Out on the battlefield, the explorations of the annual visitors create numerous concerns for the caretakers of the site, the National Park Service. Erosion of the soil from constant foot traffic wears away at popular tour stops. Even the giant, diabase boulders of Little Round Top and Devil’s Den show the effects of time.

Visitors to Devil's Den -1909, from my personal collection

My wife and I emulate their experience - 2006

A veteran of the Federal Sixth Corps and his family, also visiting

Devil's Den. From my personal collection.

I attempt to walk in his footsteps, but will never fill his shoes.

November 2006, my wife and I emulate the countless visiting

veterans and their families who came to Gettysburg in November 1863,

and throughout the years, until none remained to return.

My personal journeys to Gettysburg began in the summer of 1969 with what became for many years a family tradition over the 4th of July holiday, my mother’s birthday. Throughout my childhood there grew many more excuses to visit the battlefield, supplemented by my own excursions as I became a freewheeling young adult. Now, at fifty, I continue my over forty year relationship with the most famous site of our nation’s defining struggle. I reflect on my own experiences, and those who have gone before me. I have watched many changes over the years, improvements and disappointments. It has become a place not only of national significance, but also a place of my own fond memories. Gettysburg is, as photo historian William Frassanito so aptly titled his first book, “A Journey In Time”.

In Review - Looking at This Blog's Five Most Popular Posts, Thus Far

2011-10-08T09:03:00.001-04:00

From time to time we can all benefit from reflecting on what we have done with ourselves up to our present condition. How have we come to where we are today? Unfortunately, most of our personal life experiences do not have solid analytical data to reflect upon. Hosts of blogs such as this do however, have statistics available we can review to judge our performance as publishers so to speak. In looking back over the statistical history of this blog, I can determine what the most popular posts have been and examine the Internet traffic that brought my visitors to the site. This can help to shape future postings, by having an idea of what my audience seems to find interesting. That's my job, and in the next twelve months we shall see how that shakes out. I hope my current and future audience will find it beneficial.

The following are the current, five most viewed postings at Spotsylvania Civil War Blog, with most views happening within the past year as our traffic has increased with growing exposure and popularity of the overall subject. This first year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration has been a large factor in our growing popularity. Overall traffic to Civil War sites on the Internet has grown and referrals from other blogs and websites has increased exponentially.

1. Related Lands - Andersonville Prison, Macon and Sumter Counties, Georgia: Posted Oct. 9, 2010

2. Placing Some of the Dead at Widow Alsop's: Posted March 24, 2011

3. Grave Torn Open In Freak Storm - Fredericksburg, July 16: Posted July 20, 2010

4. Gross! What Are They Doing? Latrine at the Fredericksburg Power Canal? A Not So Pleasant Consideration: Posted July 1, 2011

5. Is This The Widow Susan Alsop? A treasure from the attic: Posted April 5, 2011

I hope my longtime viewers, and new visitors, will enjoy this look back. Thank you for stopping in.

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Spotsylvania's Homegrown, 23rd USCT, Attends 96th Annual ASALH Meeting in Richmond, VA

2011-10-07T11:16:00.000-04:00

The reorganized 23rd Regiment of United States Colored Troops were proud participants October 5, at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Association For The Study Of African American Life and History (ASALH). This year's meeting agenda was based on the theme of African Americans and the Civil War. The five day gathering consists of panel and paper sessions, receptions and tours of the area battlefields and historic sites. Visit their website by clicking here, for more information on the conference.

Members of the 23rd USCT, Steward Henderson and Kevin Williams assisted in the unveiling of commemorative art prints by artist Charles Bibbs. Seen here are at left, James Stewart, President of ASALH; Steward Henderson; Kevin Williams; Sylvia Y. Cyrus, Executive Director of ASALH; and artist Charles Bibbs.

One of the earlier panel discussions featured from left, Kate Clifford Larson of Simmons College and a biographer of Harriet Tubman; John W. Franklin of the National Museum of African American History & Culture; Robert Stanton, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior; Alan Spears, of the National Parks Conservation Association; and Barbara Tagger, of the National Park Service.

Also in attendance were members of the 3rd USCT and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiments.

Later in the evening, the re-enactors provided living history demonstrations for attendees during a special tour of the American Civil War Center and Historic Tredegar Iron Works. The modern Richmond skyline contrasts starkly against the historic cultural landscape.

"The Angel of Maryre's Heights" Plays to Family Weekend Crowd at the University of Mary Washington

2011-09-26T09:29:00.001-04:00

A year after its official release in July of 2010, the short documentary, The Angel of Marye's Heights continues to draw appreciative audiences at screenings across the country. This past weekend, on September 24, the University of Mary Washington offered two showings as part of the annual Family Weekend event on the campus. Current students, family members, and alumni gathered to share the rich history and life that is UMW. For the Angel film, this was the second year as an offering, this time held at the Jepson Alumni Center, across from Brompton, the home of University President Richard Hurley, and a historic treasure itself, having endured two Civil War battles in 1862 and 1863. Below Brompton, along the Sunken Road, stands the monument to Richard Kirkland, the legendary subject of the film.

Storyteller Megan Hicks and historian John Cummings

introduced the documentary in the Jepson Alumni Center Ballroom.

Photo by James Anderson

The first of two audiences at the Jepson Alumni Center.

Photo by James Anderson

President of the UMW, Richard V. Hurley and his wife, were presented

a copy of the documentary at their home Brompton, after the public viewings.

Left to right, James Anderson, treasurer of Friends of the Fredericksburg Area

Battlefields, President Hurley and his wife Rose, and John Cummings, chair of

Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields.

Photo by kind assistance of Abbie McGhee, UMW staff.

Click here to visit the movie website for more information and ordering.

Blog host, John Cummings, filmed at the Civil War Life Museum, provides

commentary throughout the documentary, along with other historians.

Clint Ross, Michael Aubrecht and crew, shown during filming in Fredericksburg.

Photo by Mike Morones, The Free Lance-Star

Storyteller Megan Hicks provided a special dimension to the film.

She is seen here at the Stone Wall, with the Kirkland Memorial behind.

23rd USCT Reborn Where It Came To Glory, in Spotsylvania County

2011-09-16T12:45:00.001-04:00

As announced earlier this year here, the 23rd Regiment of the United States Colored Troops is actively reforming for Sesquicentennial commemorative events. It is with great pride that the reformed unit derives from Spotsylvania County, home to many of the historic regiment's rank and file, as well as the location of its first battle with the Army of Northern Virginia, on May 15, 1864.

This weekend, September 17 and 18, the 23rd Regiment will be on hand at the annual "Yankees In Falmouth" event, details of which can be found at the link provided here.

We hope to meet some potential recruits, and share our story with the public.

Some members of the 23rd gathered at the John J. Wright Museum on

September 8, 2011 for that facility's First Anniversary Event.

Left to right are Hashmel Turner, James Anderson, Steward Henderson,

Kevin Williams, and Jimmy Price. Your humble host of this blog

attempts to get in the scene below. Facebook anyone? LOL.

At the 23rd's first public presentation seen below, during the Spotsylvania County battle re-enactment in May 2011, members present invited a unit of Confederate cavalrymen to join in an historic photo op.

It was Confederate cavalry under command of General Rosser with which the 23rd USCT first engaged in battle around 12:30 PM, May 15, 1864. A detailed account of that engagement can be found here, written by National Park Service historian, Noel Harrison.

Photo by James Anderson.

Irene's Effects Temporarily Closed Spotsylvania Unit For Clean Up. Site Reopened August 30.

2011-08-29T21:09:00.002-04:00

The Spotsylvania Unit of the F&SNMP temporarily closed during clean up of storm damage from the heavy winds and rain brought in the wake of hurricane Irene on Saturday, August 27. Damage was fortunately limited, and consisted primarily of road obstructions from fallen limbs and debris.

A drive through the park late on Tuesday, along with a pedestrian survey along the Bloody Angle, showed no adverse effects from the thorough soaking the region received over the weekend.

Cannon at Spotsylvania as rain sets in on Saturday, August 27, 2011, around 12:30 PM.

The park closed later that afternoon at 3:00 PM.

View looks north west from Anderson Drive, inside the Mule Shoe Salient.

The Fitzhugh Mansion - Sherwood Forest - In and Out, June 2008

2011-08-22T12:28:00.001-04:00

On Friday August 19, our friends at the National Park Service conducted a tour of the grounds of the Fitzhugh Mansion in Stafford County. Known as "Sherwood Forest", the estate is now awaiting its fate at the hands of the current owner, a large development firm with plans of building a mixed-use subdivision. Whether the mansion will find its way into the plans as a restored relic of our regional heritage or succumb to the bulldozers is something we will have to see. The site was recently included in Preserve Virginia's list of most endangered sites. The history of the estate, and an account of the NPS conducted tour, can be found by clicking this link and this link. The house had sat unoccupied for many years and was last used as apartments for local college students.

In June of 2008, I had the opportunity to visit the mansion during a building stabilization project. The former owners had contracted with Spear Builders to tackle the job.

The west front of the main house, looking northeast, early in the project.

The north end of the main house, looking southeast from

the kitchen building. The attached porch seen here was

later removed. It probably dated to the 1920s. A servant

entrance can be seen at the extreme left of the wall.

The rear or east face of the main house, looking southwest, before

removal of rampant vegetation along a garden pathway.

Some months later, the same approximate view as seen above.

The central entrance hall, looking northeast from the front doorway.

Continuing down the hall, this is the furthest entry to the south end room

on the main floor. This view is looking toward the east.

Turning to the right, this is the southwest view of the same room as above.

Crossing the main hall again, this view is of the north room which was once the

dining room of the mansion. This view looks to the northwest.

Upstairs, this is one of the bedrooms, looking north.

A view of the vast estate property, looking southeast. Land destined for development.

Another view of the acreage, looking east, toward an abandoned rail line along the distant woods.

1887 Gathering Appears to Have Been at East Angle

2011-08-18T09:41:00.001-04:00

In his August 16, 2011 blog posting at Mysteries and Conundrums, NPS historian Eric Mink presented a fascinating group of images taken during a visit to the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields by veterans of the 57^th and 59^th Massachusetts regiments. The May 1887 trip included a visit to the Mule Shoe Salient at Spotsylvania. The back of the original image has a hand written notation identifying it as:

"May 1887 - Bloody Angle Spotsylvania May 12, 1864, and near the Bullet Splintered tree."

My own inquisitiveness, and further prompting by mutual blog reader Todd Berkoff, brought me out to the field yesterday to examine the terrain and see how the current appearance of the landscape matched up with that of 1887. Following the north face of the salient from the Bloody Angle toward the east, I came to find that the image appears to have been taken much closer to the "East Angle", about 220 yards beyond the "Bloody Angle", and the fabled "22 inch" tree felled by small arms fire. In the modern view below, the bridge in the middle distance is the recently rebuilt bridge over the Confederate works, just before they begin to turn to form the east face of the salient. The direction is roughly 97 degrees south east. Click on both images to enlarge. Notice the man at center in the dark coat and light colored hat looks to be holding a plate or canteen half, along with a discarded musket ramrod, probable relics found nearby.

The approximate, modern view above, was taken around 5:30 PM, on August 17, 2011.

Post-war Image Reveals Pre-monument View at Bloody Angle

2011-08-15T19:28:00.001-04:00

In his August 4, 2011 blog submission at Mysteries and Conundrums, F&SNMP chief historian John Hennessy included a "postwar view of the Landram Farm". The original source of this photograph is at this moment mislaid, but is very likely from a veteran or regimental memoir, and will surface soon or be recognized by one of our readers here.

The image itself is quite intriguing, illustrating the southern border of the Landram property as is runs along a roughly 230 yard straight stretch of the Mule Shoe Salient. The camera position is in the field directly in front of the obtuse "Bloody Angle" formed by an extension of the Union line as it hugged the outer wall of the Confederate parapet. The fence atop the earthwork served as a border between the Landram farm and that of the McCoull family. Imagining the likelihood that the property was similarly fenced when the armies arrived in May 1864, provides an explanation as to how the Confederates commenced building a line that did not follow the usual textbook prerequisite along a "military crest". At least in this section, a fence line bordering a heavy wood seemed more practicable.

An additional value of this image is that it allows a view of the ground before the placement of two Union monuments in 1902 and 1909. Check back at Mysteries and Conundrums soon for a new posting by historian Eric Mink which will examine another series of post-war images and visiting veterans.

Below, find a then and now comparison, looking roughly 69 degrees north east. Click on the images to enlarge.

Modern view taken August 11, 2011 at 5:40 PM

Then & Gone - When the Will to Preserve Fails

2011-08-09T18:11:00.003-04:00

The following images are of a home which stood at 1407 Caroline Street in Fredericksburg, but it was demolished by the current property owner this past June. By law, the owner was within his right to tear it down as there was a standing code violation issued to the previous owner, deeming it an unsafe structure, unfit for human habitation. Much interest and concern had existed toward this structure for over a decade, yet no serious efforts were mounted to protect or purchase it for restoration, a project that would have carried a sizable price tag.The first solid date that can be given to at least a good portion of this building is approximately 1790. Damage claims filed by Robert Hart after the Civil War indicate the building had been severely damaged during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Tax records show the structure had been brought to a value of $0, and by 1867 extensively rebuilt or repaired. There are no known images of this building that provide an indication of its wartime appearance. All the well known photographs of the upper pontoon crossing, showing buildings along upper Sophia and Caroline Streets from the Stafford County shore, are unfortunately angled in such a way that this address is out of view. The same goes for sketches by period newspaper artists such as Alfred Waud.

This is the Caroline Street front of the house, as seen in a April 2010 photograph. Despite suggestions otherwise, the home had not been a total loss when damaged by Union artillery fire in December 1862. Information gathered from former residents of the house speak of visible shell damage within the superstructure and small arms projectiles lodged in exterior woodwork. Knowledgeable historical architects attest to many interior elements of the house appeared to be original to the supposed date of construction. Despite the need for obvious repairs and exacerbating damage by mysterious fires in its final days, witnesses who had gained access to tour the interior claim it was surprisingly sound and not altogether worthy of mandatory demolition.

The same approximate view as seen within days of its demolition, in June 2011.

Two mysterious fires damaged the house over the last winter of its existence,

some of which is seen in this view of the rear taken in April 2011.

The same approximate view below, after demolition.

Here is a letter (heavily edited) that was submitted to the City and various media outlets, by Marilynn Deane Mendell, who resigned as chair of the Architectural Review Board after the demolition of this house.

Above is a detail from a stereo view image taken by Timothy O'Sullivan in March 1863. Please click on the image to enlarge. Note the approximate position of the south east property corner for 1407 Caroline Street as it rests on Sophia Street. The house itself is unfortunately obscured by the tree foliage on the right edge.

An aerial map of the area around 1407 Caroline Street, oriented in a similar fashion to the photograph above. Click to enlarge. Hawke Street is indicated by the bordering red lines as it comes up the slope from the pontoon boat landing. Note the south east property corner in relation to the location of the house.

Manassas Sesquicentennial Scenes - Events on Henry Hill - 7/21/11

2011-07-24T19:10:00.001-04:00

Fair use is allowed only when proper credit is provided.

8:30 AM, a view of the Dignitary Seating Area, flanked by a Media Platform.

The Henry House and Union Monument dedicated in 1865 in middle distance.

Looking west toward the stage and video screens. Rear of

Visitor Center and Bookstore Annex at left.

The rostrum awaits.

The Video Production platform.

Jackson stands like a stone wall in the summer morning haze.

The Living History Camp on the lawn of the Henry House.

Stacked arms.

An pre-war Virginia militiaman explains

rifled musket technology vs. smooth bore.

The grave of Judith Henry on the sesquicentennial of her death.

The Stone House and Buck Hill as seen from Henry Hill.

The Marine Corps Band opens the ceremony as seen from the production platform.

The speakers have taken their places as the Marine Band exits. 9:15 AM.

Dr. Edward L. Ayers delivers the Keynote Address.

One of the two giant video screens providing captioning of Dr. Ayers' speech.

The eastern media platform and their view of the stage.

Two gentlemen portraying Civil War veterans prepare for

a special presentation after the main program.

Taking a stroll up the Henry House Lane from Sudley Road.

Visitors to the Henry House could purchase special postal caches inside.

The International Press Community came out in force to cover the events.

A Louisiana Tiger trying to beat the heat.

Living historians gathered to answer questions.

Living historians surrounded by the International Press Corps.

A living historian explains the history of Necco Wafers

to an interested videographer.

Bloggers and Buffs Gather on the Plains of Manassas for 150th Commemoration

2011-07-23T10:55:00.002-04:00

One word is to be universal in describing the 21st of July at Manassas: HOT! It got hotter than most would have imagined, but it didn't keep thousands of enthusiasts away from the anniversary commemoration.
The following is a photo essay of the friendly encounters which took place 150 years to the day after nearly five thousand casualties resulted from the Civil War's first major land engagement.

One of the first on the scene was preservation spokesman and Confederate

in the attic, Robert Lee Hodge. Friends of the Fredericksburg Area

Battlefields board member Ed Bell listens in at center.

Photo by James Anderson.

Garry Adelman of the Center for Civil War Photography and The Civil War Trust,

signs my copy of his new book, Manassas Battlefield Then & Now.

Photo by James Anderson.

Fellow blogger and Antietam Park Ranger Mannie Gentile came down

to lend a hand with the day's events.

Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields treasurer James

Anderson and I were caught trying to escape the heat at the Marine display.

Robert Quinn, great great grandson of Captain Lewis E. Lindsay of the

4th Alabama, killed at 1st Manassas, July 21, 1861.

NPS historians from Fredericksburg, Greg Mertz, and Frank A. O'Reilly,

chat it up with James Anderson of FoFAB, on Henry Hill.

Owner and curator of the White Oak Museum,

D. P. Newton, came down to be a part of the moment.

Fellow blogger Jared Frederick and I met inside the Henry House.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania's Cultural Resource

manager, Eric Mink, put in time to help the visitors get around.

Chief Historian at Fred/Spot, John Hennessy was on hand to share

his expertise on the Manassas Battlefield.

Veteran volunteer Kevin Leahy takes a pause to cool down.

Fellow blogger and newspaper columnist Clint Schemmer was taking in the events.

Consummate battlefield trekker Chris Conti made the rounds.

Fair use is allowed only when proper credit is provided.

Bull Run Remembers 7/ 21/1861 - 7/21/2011

2011-07-20T22:44:00.000-04:00

Thursday, July 21st will be the Sesquicentennial anniversary of the battle of First Bull Run/Manassas. The National Park Service is holding the official ceremony on Henry Hill, seen at the right distance in the March 1862 photograph below.

In 1961 my father attended the Centennial commemoration of the battle and the reenactment held on Henry Hill. I was not quite four months old, and I stayed at home with my mother so as to not fry my infant brain in the extreme July heat. My father took a roll of color slides that day, which enthralled me as I grew up looking at them in a hand held viewer. Coupled with living in a house full of history books, it was a sure thing that I would have a deep rooted appreciation of our National heritage.

The backlit Pana-Vue slide viewer above, and one of the slides

showing Confederate reenactors forming up for the big show, below.

Below is one of my favorite books about the battlefield, written by the pioneering superintendent of

the park, Joseph Mills Hanson. It is still in print today and a must have for any library on the subject.

I shall report back on Friday with a follow up on Thursday's events. I have waited fifty years for this.

Sculpture's "Twin", Depicting Reconciled Brothers, Resides in Spotsylvania Museum

2011-07-14T17:58:00.003-04:00

Whereas a sculpture by artist Gary Casteel entitled "Brothers" was placed in the Virginia State Capitol on Monday July 11, its identical twin has resided for nearly two months in a recently opened satellite of the Spotsylvania County Museum. The Museum enjoyed a "soft" opening during the re-enactment weekend of May 21-22, 2011. The official grand opening is slated for later this month.

The Richmond "twin" has received extensive commentary in newspaper and Internet media over the past few days since its unveiling. The sculpture is intended to commemorate a reconciled nation during the Sesquicentennial observance of the Civil War. Rather than spell out the resultant debate that has exploded over a well intentioned gesture, I will provide the following sample site links, right here, here and also here.

The new Spotsylvania County Museum is located at 9019 Old Battlefield Boulevard, 1st Floor, in the Merchant Square Building.

The new County Museum entrance.

It is open Wednesday - Monday 9-5.

Click on any of the photographs for enlarged viewing.

NPS Summer Staff Member Brings Civilian Story to Life at the Sunken Road

2011-07-10T10:14:00.001-04:00

As reported by NPS historian Eric Mink at Mysteries and Conundrums here, summer staff member Katie Logothetis is presenting "first-person" programs along the Sunken Road Saturdays and Sundays only at 11:15, 12:15, 2:15, and 3:15.

My wife and I attended yesterday's 2:15 performance and were delighted. The program brings the civilian refugee experience of Fredericksburg to life in a comfortable 15-20 minutes. The research and writing of the program's content was done by the Park's Chief Historian John Hennessy, but Katie makes it her own with a smoothly articulated and confident delivery. The experiences of diarist Mary Caldwell is a must see this season. Even if you have visited the park many times over, this makes stopping by again well worth it.

Katie Logothetis as Mary Caldwell.

A New Look at a Fredericksburg Burial Trench

2011-07-08T11:53:00.001-04:00

While recently examining the two Brady & Company images that together make an extraordinary panorama of the "open plain" battleground of Fredericksburg, I began to consider numerous points of interest that fall within the confines of its cone of vision. It is both sad and remarkable that in the post Civil War years, Fredericksburg, the town, began to expand into a sizable city and consume, perhaps cathartically, the landscape that became one of the most horrifying places in American memory. To stand on the ground today, amidst the residential and commercial structures that now fill the former vastness, it can be difficult for visitors to visualize just how suicidal and ill-conceived the frontal assaults were that December day. Coupled with the fabled stories of urban street fighting, it is hard to decipher where the 1862 town ended and the open ground to the west began, at least in the mind's eye. With the help of these images, and the scattered landmark structures that have survived to this day, we can walk the modern streets, like trying to conquer a labyrinth, and gain some perspective of a once near desolate landscape.

To create the panorama, the two images must be placed to overlap.

The left edge of the brick structure's roof provides a focal point.

The horizon line will come together where the Marye mansion sits.

Click images to enlarge for greater detail.

Some of the most poignant scars the war left on the terrain have been erased, if only to be redrawn in a more fitting location on Willis Hill. I refer to the original burial trenches that contained Union dead from the December 1862 battle and later those who did not survive wounds received during the Spring Campaign of 1864. I will discuss the latter in a future post. Here I will focus on what I believe is visible within these images.

In his now classic two-volume work, Fredericksburg Civil War Sites, National Park Service historian Noel G. Harrison presented documentation as to the nature and the location of these grim features. In referring to the "easternmost north burial trench", Noel provides a post-war recollection, quoted from a Confederate officer, Captain C. H. Andrews, who had witnessed the site first hand in January 1863:

"A short distance nearer the city and where the open field made a sudden dip or step, was a line of earth-works, thrown up hastily as a protection against the bullets of the Confederates, and in this earth-work defense dead horses were placed, and with them had been laid the bodies of dead Federals, for here and there the legs of horses and arms and legs of soldiers were thrust out, and overall loose dirt was piled up, intended to cover and bury them. It shocked us greatly -- the inhumanity to brave, dead and now helpless comrades."

The "sudden dip or step" is a strong clue toward identifying this position on the ground. The only place along the plain that best fits that description is on the south side of Hanover Street, and east of Weedon Street. Reinforcing this belief is what I believe is photographic proof, seen in the panorama images. Seen atop the edge of the hill that is today above Lee Avenue, there appears to be a dark line, a berm, that runs between Hanover and the location of modern Mercer Street. Basically it looks as if it hugs the lip of where west bound waves of Union soldiers would have topped the hill and sought to achieve cover from the gunfire raining down on them from nearly 375 yards away, well within the effective killing distance of the rifled muskets of the era. The ground behind (coming back toward the camera position) has been terraced and manicured as residential property today. Looking up at it from the Hanover Street intersection with Kenmore Avenue, one can imagine the desperate struggle all along the battlefront. Another 187 yards to their slight left oblique, stood the lone Stratton House, behind which other wounded and desperate men had begun to huddle for safety. A white line running from in front of the Sisson Store, running southerly toward Stratton, is a road that follows present day Littlepage Street, roughly 182 yards ahead of the trench.

From the left hand glass negative, the detail of the likely burial trench is

indicated by the white brackets placed at either end. Click image to enlarge.

The horizontal white line between Weedon Street

and Lee Avenue indicates the approximate

location of the burial trench, based on the 1864 photographs.

The yellow horizontal line indicates a previously suggested location.

Click to enlarge for greater detail.

The "sudden dip or step" as seen from the intersection of Hanover Street

and Kenmore Avenue, the location of the "old mill race" or "power canal".

Lee Avenue runs on a diagonal toward the left, below the step.

Supplement Please review the comments section of this post and read the message sent by NPS historian Noel Harrison, and my reply. Find below the map drawn by the Pennsylvania soldier that Noel refers to. Click the image to enlarge.

Gross! What Are They Doing? Latrine at the Fredericksburg Power Canal? A Not So Pleasant Consideration.

2011-07-01T08:27:00.000-04:00

Early this morning, while looking through a digital collection of Civil War images from the National Archives, I found a curious detail that I don't recall noticing before. The NA images are scanned at only 300dpi, far less than the Library of Congress Collection, but being originally 8 X 10 glass negatives, there is still a good bit of detail to ponder when enlarged. The particular photograph I examined is the left half of a well known panoramic pair (taken in May 1864), showing the notorious open plain at Fredericksburg. Looking along the left middle ground I traced the water power canal that had served as an obstacle in the Union's December 13, 1862 assault of Marye's Heights. Near the left side of the image there appear to be at least seven and perhaps up to nine or ten soldiers (one has to assume), most in shirt sleeves, probably attending to the call of nature or are about to. It seems like a rather remote location, some 180 yards distance from the camera, which was in the yard of the house known as Federal Hill on Hanover Street. Please, click directly on the image to enlarge for greater detail. I have placed markers over the seven most possible figures.

We can not know if these are wounded men from a nearby hospital or if they are simply men stationed in town, but they do appear to be there. I could be wrong in suggesting they are at toilet, but one figure, sixth from the left, looks to be squatting in the recesses of the ditch. In fact, three in the image appear to be squatting while two others at least look like they are about to or are standing back up. Their random positions make it very curious. The fourth and possibly fifth figure from the left look as if they are standing, looking at the camera, possibly. The fifth figure looks also to be wearing a jacket, or a dark shirt. If this is indeed depicting a toilet area, with such random positioning of those using it, it must have been a horrible place to venture to, full of sickening potential for missteps. The full image is seen below. Please click directly on the image to enlarge.

I'd like to credit National Park Service historian Noel Harrison for providing the link to this collection of National Archives scans. It is available to examine at the link provided here.

My Newest Book - Released Today - Spotsylvania County

2011-06-27T05:13:00.002-04:00

I would like to let my readers know that today is the official release date of my latest book, Spotsylvania County, published by Arcadia Publishing of Charleston, South Carolina. If you live in the Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania region it will be available in many local outlets. I will be doing signings over the 4th of July weekend, at the Spotsylvania Courthouse area and in downtown Fredericksburg. Also, if you are local and would like to pick up a copy ahead of time, or reserve one from the stock I have on hand, please send me an email. I have also included a direct link to order from my publisher at the right hand side of the blog. I have included over 200 images, many never before seen in book form. 128 pages. The retail price is $21.99.

Highlights from the book include:
1. The story of the formation of the county and its namesake Alexander Spotswood.
2. Photographs of structures no longer standing in the community.
3. Photographs of structures that have withstood the test of time and war.
4. On-site sketches by newspaper artists that witnessed the Civil War’s battles and their aftermath.
5. Photographs of local citizens that endured the hard times of post-war recovery.
6. The story of the memorials placed to honor those who fought here.
7. Highlights of the formation of the National Battlefield Park.
8. The local experiences of the Civilian Conservation Corp during the Great Depression.
9. Visual reminders of the Civil War still impressed upon the landscape.
10. Preservation efforts and the regional approach to good stewardship of historic and cultural resources.

The book is an honest assessment of a community dealing with a historic past not so warmly embraced. The Civil War was a debilitating, horrific period that left the region deeply scarred, socially and economically. To this day the County hesitates to commit resources toward encouraging tourism as a viable means of generating revenue.

Here is my author's bio from the new press release:

John F. Cummings III, 50, is originally from Fairfax County, Virginia, where he developed a lifelong passion for history, particularly the Civil War era. He moved to Spotsylvania in 1999 with his wife Karen, living on land that saw action during the Overland Campaign of 1864. Before moving south, John had worked as a Loss Prevention Auditor for a major DIY retailer in the National Capital Region.

A researcher and writer, John’s specialty is image analysis. His work as a visual historian has been published in national and local publications.

John was a member of the former Spotsylvania Courthouse Tourism and Special Events Commission, and serves as chair of the Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields, providing assistance to the National Park Service through support of educational programs, films and publications.

John spent his first decade in Spotsylvania documenting the local efforts of preservationists during one of the most active periods of battlefield encroachment by developers. He has witnessed the County government attempt to strike a balance between good stewardship and respect of personal property rights, all the while trying to maintain a sufficient tax base.

Computer-Aided Forensic Facial Comparison Removes Doubt of Alsop Image

2011-06-23T12:58:00.002-04:00

After much speculation and debate, there seems to be an answer in the case of the "Susan Alsop" photograph discovered in the attic of the Alrich house in Spotsylvania. See the original post here. Is this an early portrait of Susan M. Read Alsop, widow of James Addison Alsop?

I would have to give an emphatic "Yes" based on caparison to a known post-war portrait kindly supplied by Alsop family genealogist Jerry D. Alsup. Jerry is currently working on volume three of his monumental family study, Alsop's Tables. The first volume was published in 1986 with the second volume following in 1994.

This identified image shows Susan M. Read Alsop sometime in the 1880s based on her clothing. She would have been in her 40s during that decade. The earlier image of which we have been uncertain shows a young woman dressed in the fashion of the 1850s. Susan M. Read Alsop was born on September 25, 1840.

I took both images and produced a superimposition to compare facial features. I was delighted to see an easy comparison of the craniofacial landmarks. At 50% transparency it is clear that there are no readily apparent deviations in the placement of the eyes, nose and mouth, suggesting very strongly that they are of the same woman with perhaps a separation of three decades. Both images even show a possible asymmetry of the nostrils, her left appearing larger than the right.

The only remaining questions regarding the older image would be as to how long prior to her marriage to James Addison Alsop was it taken, and who may the image be in her broach? One thing is probably most certain is that this was not an image of her in mourning following James' death in December 1860.
There is also the question as to how she was related to the Alrich family? Her son, John Addison Alsop had been married to Florence Chartters, a relation to the Chancellor and Leavell families. Hopefully the connection will become apparent soon.

"Sue Alsop" Photograph May Not Be Actual "Widow" Alsop of May 19, 1864 Battlefield

2011-05-31T18:34:00.002-04:00

See the more current post above that removes the doubt expressed here. The woman in both images is Susan M. Alsop, more famously known as "The Widow Susan Alsop".

Second update: An Anonymous comment to this post, added 12/4/2011, points out the widow Alsop's obituary in the Daily Star, December 6, 1915. That obit clearly states that she died "peacefully at the residence of Mr. S.R. Alrich". This may indeed be a clue as to the connection with the Alrich family. That clue had remained embarassingly unobserved by your blog host until this anonymous tip. An immediate assumption would make this "Mrs. S. R. Alrich" to be Annie, the wife of Samuel Alrich, but his middle intitial was "W" according to census records. Those fine details remain still uncertain, but there is now a good indication that Susan M. Alsop was at least a friend of the Alrich family, possibly considered an "Aunt", as many times older friends of a family are called "Aunt" or "Uncle" by children even if there is no blood or marriage connection. We shall persevere.

After a good deal of consideration, I am more and more suspecting that the image from the previous post, despite many people's hopes, is not THE Susan Alsop. My major concern continues to be how it would have become part of the Alrich family collection of memorabilia. So far there is no readily apparent family connection. With many factors to bear in mind, this photograph may actually be of Susan Jane Beazley Alsop, from the other side of the battlefield. This would account for the 1850's clothing more easily than it being Susan M. Alsop.

More if and when we can determine something.

Is This The Widow Susan Alsop? A treasure from the attic.

2011-04-05T15:36:00.001-04:00

When retired museum professional Terry Dougherty entered the attic of the Alrich house near Spotsylvania Courthouse, he knew he had stumbled upon a goldmine of Spotsylvania genealogical material. Last summer, Dougherty paid a visit to the house and Alrich descendant John Alrich-Altman. The majority of the home's contents had been sold off in an estate auction in June, but the attic had remained untouched and as it turned out, packed with an archive of historical images and memorabilia of the family. Many of the items are now on temporary loan to Spotsylvania County for a museum exhibit being prepared by Dougherty as a volunteer to the County. It is a Herculean effort, but one that Dougherty relishes. The display is scheduled to open in late May of this year in the Courthouse Village government office building.
Perhaps one of the most intriguing finds was a photograph with the inscription, "Sue Alsop, Old Aunt, a lovely Christian woman". Immediate speculation is that this is a photograph of the matron of the Alsop Farm of the May 19, 1864 battle fame. Susan M. Alsop was only twenty-one in December 1860 when her husband James Addison Alsop died from the effects of a carriage accident. Susan and her six month old son, John, continued to live on their Spotsylvania farm, witnessing the horrors of battle virtually on the threshold. Susan lived out her days there until she passed in 1915. This copy of the photograph may in fact have been made as a memorial keepsake for family members in 1915 as it is an enlargement of the 1860s period original, mounted on a "cabinet card stock", typically done after the turn of the century for such purposes.

The image of "Sue Alsop", enhanced and restored from a

scan of the original by John F. Cummings.

The inscription on the back is shown below.

The interesting features of the photograph are the trappings of mourning etiquette that the woman is wearing, which taken by themselves are supportive of this being the "Widow Alsop". She is wearing a photo broach of her deceased husband, pinned to her collar, a tradition of Victorian era mourning practices. Considering that the collar is white, this indicates that the photograph would have been made after the end of "Full Mourning", which was to last for a year and one day. In full mourning the widow was required to wear all black for the entire period. After entering second stage mourning, a widow could add some color to her clothing, usual a white collar and cuffs. This being second stage mourning would indicate that it was taken no earlier than late December of 1861. Considering the distance to photographers in Fredericksburg from her Spotsylvania home, it is even likely that the photograph was made in early 1862 with the arrival of weather conditions more hospitable to travel on country roads.

It should be noted that the hairstyle this woman is wearing is typically that of the 1850s era, a style consisting of padded wings over the ears. If this is indeed THE Susan Alsop, widow of James Addison Alsop, one has to consider that she is wearing a hairstyle that would have been out of vogue by the early 1860s. This does not mean that she could not have opted to continue this style, but typically a young woman as she was then, approaching 23, would have been more inclined to keep up with fashion of the day.

Further scrutiny will be required of this and the hundreds of other images found in the Alrich attic. We are fortunate that they have survived to provide a window into the county's past.

The south western exposure of the Alrich home,

(Dabney house during the Civil War), and the lone attic window.

Photographed June 5, 2010 by John F. Cummings.

Stafford Post of April 2: Technical issue with images is fixed.

2011-04-03T12:02:00.000-04:00

For some reason, the images in yesterday's post on the Review Site in Stafford County were displaying square, thus they looked compressed. I have corrected the problem and they should be easier to look at on the blog page now. They are still clickable for enlarged viewing.
Thank you for visiting the Spotsylvania Civil War Blog.

A Look at Lincoln's April 8, 1863 Review of the Troops in Stafford County: By Request

2011-04-02T12:54:00.002-04:00

In January and early February, NPS historian Noel Harrison made two in depth posts at Mysteries and Conundrums, the first here, and the later one here. Noel and I exchanged thoughts regarding the location of the sketch by newspaper artist Alfred Waud, seen below. Please read the articles over at Mysteries and Conundrums to get the whole gist of this discussion. In February, Noel graciously asked if I would post more details on my thought process of interpretation via the Spotsylvania Blog, so now, after many other distractions have been dealt with, I will now provide my thoughts on what I believe we are seeing in this image. First, I have to point out that I hold Alfred Waud in high regard as an artist and firmly stand by his abilities to translate what he saw to paper, especially with regard to landscapes as will be the strongest part of my argument here.

At this point, to avoid repetition, I will simply use the images below to provide my premise. The first image is the original Waud sketch. Please click on any image presented here for larger viewing.

Waud's sketch had to have been drawn from an elevation such as a signal tower near headquarters. Waud was not in the habit of presenting false, elevated views such as those Edwin Forbes was inclined to do in his work.

The sheer number of troops involved in this presentation would have required them to be formed by Divisions, in columns of Brigades. If they had been formed with an entire Division front, each front would have stretched about a mile in length based on mid war regimental strengths. A mile long line could not have moved in a graceful parade formation with any ease, as was described and praised in accounts of this review for the President.

Relative placement of modern roads against Waud sketch.

Satellite image indicating roads and landmarks relative to Waud sketch. The blue lines seen along Deacon Road demonstrate the Divisions formed by columns of Brigades. A newspaper account describes the area as having been cleared of most trees for the occasion as well as the bridging of water obstacles. This facilitated the fluid movement of the large masses of troops. The Review could not have been conducted in a smaller area than what is presented here. These observations are important toward the historical understanding of the site, otherwise lost within the residential development that has covered the once larger tracts.

Please do enlarge this one so that the annotations are legible.

View across the modern neighborhood from the yellow X indicated above.

Closer view of hill at left from which the Lincoln entourage watched the

review, as indicated in the satellite image by the green X.

Placing Some of the Dead at Widow Alsop's

2011-03-24T11:59:00.003-04:00

Note: All images can be clicked for larger viewing.

Certainly, any battlefield photograph that shows the dead in situ has intrigued the public ever since Mathew Brady first displayed images of the dead of Antietam at his New York gallery in October 1862.

The May 20, 1864 images of Confederate dead on the Susan Alsop farm in Spotsylvania are a prime example, and have been most engrossing. For the twelve years I have lived near the site, and have studied Timothy O'Sullivan's series, I have been hopeful that I could make some solid determination as to where at least some of the images were made. The first obstacle in doing so was the uncertainty as to the precise location of the Alsop farmhouse. National Park Service Historian Noel Harrison and I have pondered this over the years and together have become fairly comfortable with an approximate location. Only one image in the series had clearly specified that it showed the house and a small barn/stable, nearby. Using the official government map produced in 1867 by Nathanial Michler, I compared the terrain features depicted and found what seems to be the most logical match against a modern topographic map. Working with the Michler map, one has to be aware of the potential for distortions which occur when an individual surveyor's notes are married to a fellow surveyor's set. As an illustration, sometimes a farm field would be included by both men in their individual surveys, and instead of overlapping, the area is mistakenly plotted twice on the compiled map. One area of clear distortion is unfortunately within the sector of the Alsop and neighboring Peyton farms, making a simple overlaying of period and modern maps impossible. Fortunately, once the pattern of the distortion is recognized, one can compensate for the problem and adjust as needed. This has allowed for a reasonable placement of the house upon the modern landscape, one which we will examine later in this post.

Another image in the series, taken prior to the one above, depicts two of the Confederate dead nearby on the property. The soldier immediately behind the pile of fence rails is clearly the same body as the one on the stretcher as was indicated by William Frassanito in his 1983 book, Grant and Lee, The Virginia Campaigns, 1864-1865.

A long overlooked yet vital clue as to the relationship of this image and the one of the Alsop house, is seen in the upper right of the horizon line. There, though not in sharp focus, appears to be the west exposure of the Alsop house, along with the surrounding trees that are readily discernible from the full house image.

An enlarged detail of that portion of the photograph shows the

open window at right, and the surrounding trees of the home's western

face, making this approximately 80 yards to the east of these bodies.

In the detail below, note the window and row of fanlike trees within the

fence, as well as the larger trees inside the field. The tree on the left edge

below is the tree at right of center in the above detail.

Below is my hypothetical interpretation of these images placed on the landscape.

The tree line to the north of the property is most likely where the original

image caption, "Scene at Mrs. Allsop's Pine Forest", was derived. When

viewed in stereo, there appears to be a sunken lane between the fence and

the woods, but I have opted to leave this possible feature out of my drawing.

Based on this hypothesis, here are "then and now" comparisons.

Set One: Looking East From "A"

Set Two: Looking North East From "B"

Over at the F&SNMP's "unofficial" blog Mysteries and Conundrums, Chief Historian John Hennessy has recently weighed in on his interpretation of the Alsop Farm images. You can read that here, at this link.

A satellite image of the area involved as it looked in 2009.

Note: The roads seen in this view are modern driveways with no historical significance,

and have no correlation with the farm lanes I have indicated in my diagram.

BE AWARE: all of this property is privately owned.

Please respect the owner's right to privacy.

Building the Spotsylvania Exhibit Shelter: Mission 66 - A Then & Now Look

2011-03-01T17:40:00.005-05:00

In preparation for the fiftieth anniversary of the National Park Service in 1966, the Department of the Interior implemented a ten-year program of enhancement projects designed to improve the visitor experience. The program was dubbed "Mission 66." Among these tasks were the construction of modern interpretive facilities, replacing the rustic Contact Stations of the CCC era. In the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, two new Visitor Centers and three Exhibit Shelters would be constructed to coincide with the anniversaries of the battles they'd interpret. The Chancellorsville Visitor Center was set to open on the first weekend in May, 1963. By July of that year, construction was underway for an exhibit shelter on the Grant Drive entrance to the Spotsylvania unit. By the end of April, 1964, the shelter was nearing completion, in plenty of time for the hundredth anniversary of the Spring Campaign of 1864.

This September 1963 photograph documents the pouring of the concrete floor and patio of the Spotsylvania Shelter. It was built on a substantial cinder block foundation with brick walls and a heavy steel framework that emulated residential architecture of the day. The roof had four skylights to provide additional ambient light to the open air design.

Approximate same view in February 2011.

Prior to the installation of wire mesh to the open gable ends of the rafter

system, workers are seen here applying a clear sealer coating to the

natural wood ceiling planks inside the interpretive area.

Over time, the natural wood look was replaced by a heavy coating of

white paint, providing durability and easier maintainance. Note the

skylight and wire mesh enclosed gable end.

On April 28, 1964, the interpretive display panels were being installed.

This approximate view of the same corner shows updated panels

and more engaging graphics installed around 2004. There is a continuing

effort to enhance the visitor experience. Photo taken February 22, 2011.

In another April 28, 1964 photograph by NPS historian Ralph Happel,

Peder Kitti and Frank Philips of the Department of the Interior's Branch

of Museums, prepare hardware for the mounting of the interpretive panels.

They were assisted by Freddie Paytes of the F&SNMP maintenance department.

Note the accordian style, gate enclosure for the shelter, rarely if ever, used today.

Approximate same view, February 2011.

The one-hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service will be celebrated in 2016.

Black and white photographs seen here are from the files of the F&SNMP.

Earthwork Preservation and Protection: Lessons of the past in consideration of the future.

2011-02-21T12:22:00.000-05:00

The Civil War Roundtable of Franklin, Virginia, on November 12, 1957, stand posed directly on the Bloody Angle, at the point where the Union line is conjoined with the Confederate parapet. To the left of the group is NPS historian, Ralph Happel, who had served as their guide at the adjacent contact station, not visible in this image. The view is looking east, along the face of the Salient. Note the large cedar tree looming immediately to their backs at right. This photograph is from the archives of the F&SNMP.

The same spot, fifty-four years later. The Bloody Angle is protected from most intrusive pedestrian incursions by virtue of this wooden bridge, due to be removed at some point in the very near future. Previous posts on this blog, here, here, and here, have covered the construction of a new bridge futher down the line. Note the stump of the large cedar tree at right middle, immediately to this side of the bridge. The cedar was removed a few years ago to help restore the unobscured vista of the Bloody Angle, to that which the soldiers would have experienced. The cedar tree had been planted in the early days of the park as an ill-conceived landscaping measure, one of the conflicts of "battlefield park" versus "natural park" philosophies.

Sparingly placed, so as to to be themselves non intrusive, signs such as these are designed to instill a discipline within the visitor to be mindful of the resource's delicate condition. Sadly, this does escape the consciousness of many, and on a daily basis a casual observer will witness numerous, shocking examples.

The question for the future must now be, "Will the park visitor dutifully follow the new trail system, or will they feel unflinchingly compelled to veer from the path and walk on the earthworks?" The future will tell.

23rd USCT Re-forming for Sesquicentennial Commemorations in Spotsylvania

2011-02-08T14:07:00.000-05:00

Gathering for the organizational meeting of the 23rd USCT

are left to right: Rev. Hashmel Turner, Col. Horace McCaskill Jr. USA, (Ret),

Steward Henderson, Roger Braxton, and John F. Cummings III

Over the past decade there has been some intense interest focused on the Spotsylvania experience of the 23rd United States Colored Troops, a regiment comprised of former slaves, many from the County and surrounding area. Prior to May 15, 1864, USCT's attached to the Army of the Potomac were routinely assigned to non combat roles, primarily guarding supply wagon trains. Organised at Camp Casey, near the modern day site of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, the 23rd was assigned to the 4th Division of the 9th Corps, led by Brigadier General Edward Ferrero, a well known dance instructor in pre-war civilian life.

On the morning of May 15, Confederate cavalry was probing along the back roads far north of the prior week's concentration of fighting. Their goal was to harass Union hospital sites and supply lines, with the intent of liberating as much as they could with minimal casualties. Riding hard along the Catharpin Road towards the Old Plank Road intersection, the southern horsemen came upon the 2nd Ohio Cavalry Regiment who were resting near Piney Branch Church. Panicked and outnumbered, the Ohio troopers took off pell-mell toward the Alrich farm, a good mile and a third away. From there some of the terror stricken Union horsemen proceeded north to alert the closest possible reinforcements. Near the Chancellor House ruins, the 23rd USCT, sprang to the call and proceeding south, encountered the approaching Confederates in what would be their very first exchange of fire with the Army of Northern Virginia. The southerners fell back, suddenly outnumbered, with the 23rd holding the intersection.

This historic encounter has until recently gone unappreciated as a major landmark on the road to the end of slavery in America. However, plans are now in development to commemorate this contest by placing an interpretive marker near the place the Ohio troops were first surprised. The intersection where the 23rd USCT actually fired upon the Confederate Cavalry has been deemed too dangerous to place a safe pulloff area.

In anticipation of the opportunities during the Sesquicentennial to tell the story of the 23rd, I began to talk with friend Steward Henderson about assembling a representative unit as re-enactors. Thus far there has been substantial interest in making such a portrayal available over the next four years. Additional interest has been expressed by the John J. Wright Educational & Cultural Center Museum who will partner with us in our efforts

National Park Service Historian, Eric Mink, has spent numerous hours delving into the service and pension files of Spotsylvania men who had served in the 23rd USCT. His work has been invaluable toward assembling the story of these men's lives. Some of his findings have been posted on another blog, here and here.

National Park Service Historian, Noel Harrison has also written a blog posting here, detailing the location of the skirmish and the encounter that brought it about.

Brigadier General Ferrero is seated at lower left with members of his staff,

near Petersburg, Virginia in the summer of 1864. An armed sentry, possibly a

member of the 23rd, stands at his post to the right of the white officers.

Manassas - Another Project nears completion

2011-02-07T16:42:00.000-05:00

Those who know me are aware that I have been working several book projects in tandem. One regarding local photography is close to seven years in the mix. However, in the next few weeks, I anticipate sending another finished manuscript to the publisher, this time focusing on the Manassas Battlefields.

Before moving to Spotsylvania, I lived in Northern Virginia, in Fairfax County, for thirty-nine years. Growing up within ten miles of Manassas/Bull Run, enabled me to nurture my early interest in Civil War history, and I visited the battlefield there countless times, both as a child with my parents and even more frequently as a young adult. There has always been something strangely alluring about the Manassas Battlefield for me, something incorporeal. Logically, all the battlefields should manifest these same conditions, but with every return trip I make to the "Plains of Manassas", I am reinforced with these strange emotions.

My Manassas project is heavily built on "then & now" comparrison photographs. Oftentimes in doing this comparrison work, one finds the landscape has changed over a century and half to such an extent that true side by side alignment is difficult to impossible, particularly when the subject matter sits within a wooded area.

Last week (February 2), I took the opportunity to revisit one last time before finishing, an area that normally is obscurred by heavy foliage within trees. My goal there was to use a recent snow fall to provide a better ground contrast against the trees and background sky. I was delighted with the results since prior attempts were at other times of the year, and failed to show the terrain features needed for a true "then & now" match up.

The black and white image below is the original wartime photograph taken in March 1862, showing two boys knealing in front of a row of water logged soldier burials. The site is on a small, flat, bottom area in front of the west face of the ridge that Sudley Church sits on. The church can be seen through the trees at upper left. After the Battle of First Bull Run, in July 1861, this area was used for a field hospital, along with the church building. As is typical in such situations, soldiers who did not survive the ordeal were buried hastily in shallow graves nearby.

Although the church building has been rebuilt since the Civil War, my modern, color photograph demonstrates the surrounding landscape has retained the same characteristics it displayed in 1862, especially the thin trees, albiet now entangled in thorny undergrowth. Fortunately, the property is still owned by the church and one can not anticipate an encroachment to destroy this hallowed ground.

My goal is to have this book in print by July, in time for the 150th Anniversary of First Manassas.

March 1862, by George N. Barnard

February 2011, by John F. Cummings III

Official Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Vodcast

2011-02-07T15:23:00.000-05:00

Much of the dramatic footage seen in the above video is compiled from the combined talents of John Hennessy, Chief Historian of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, and Media Magic Productions of Lansing, Michigan. The material was shot over several years locally, with many extras culled from the community, to produce three documentary films exhibited and sold at the Battlefield Park, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Virginians Desolate, Virginians Free. John Hennessy wrote the script for the films and provided on-site consultation during the filming and post-production. A fourth film, on the Wilderness and Spotsylvania is in the formative stages.

John has also played a significant role in orchestrating the regional preparations for the Civil War Sesquicentennial. An indefatigable worker, possessed by an indomitable spirit, John personifies the term "multitasking". We can expect many great things over the next four years from John and the entire staff of the F&SNMP.

John Hennessy is seen above, lecturing on the local civilian experience

during the Civil War, at the 145th Anniversary Re-enactment

of the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 2008. Photo by Julie Bell.

A NEW YEAR IS HERE, and the Sesquicentennial too

2011-02-07T14:11:00.000-05:00

It has been a few months since I have posted on here. There had been some distractions that took precedence over devoting time to blog, the most pressing of which had been family medical necessity. Just a few days before Christmas, my wife had hip replacement surgery, and I am happy to say she has recovered wonderfully. The Lord has really blessed us. After two and a half years of increasing pain and decreasing mobility, she has come back renewed, and looking forward to once again hiking the battlefields and enjoying our research projects together.

The other major item that consumed my time was the completion of my second book's manuscript and delivering it to the publisher. It is an illustrated history of Spotsylvania County that focuses on the impact of the Civil War, the establishment of the battlefield park, and the continual struggle to preserve significant lands along with the development of a tourism ethic in the County government. The last chapter in the book is devoted to the period of 1999 to 2010, where a mixed bag of preservation victories and placating rhetoric from the Board of Supervisors, defined Spotsylvania County as one of the most endangered battlefield regions in the east. The current release date from the publisher is June 27, 2011. I will keep everyone updated on here as we get closer.

Additionally, I have begun to provide a bi-weekly Civil War column for an on-line news magazine called Fredericksburg Patch. Outside of one deliberate reworking of an early post from this blog, the goal will be to supply fresh material that compliments what I post here. Essentially I have doubled my blog-like workload, but I will go at it with spirit and hope everyone checks in over there and enjoys what the site has to offer the region. I find the Patch to be a refreshing source of local news with the promise of a online community feel.

Now we are into the first year of the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the Civil War, 2011-2015. I am expecting some exciting events and educational opportunities over the next four years in the Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania area.

My goal on this blog will continue to be an ongoing source of interesting perspectives of the Civil War and its cultural legacy.

Related Lands: The Florence Stockade - Florence County, South Carolina

2010-10-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

In the late summer of 1864, as Union General Sherman was pressing his forces around Atlanta, there was cause for concern that the POW stockade at Andersonville, Georgia could be overrun, allowing the liberation of the Union men held there. In an effort to prevent this, a stockade was prepared in Florence, South Carolina, approximately 90 miles north of Charleston, and it was to there that the able bodied prisoners of Andersonville were to be transferred by train. The first prisoners would arrive in September. In the five months this stockade was in operation, as many as 18,000 Union soldiers were held there. With an initial death rate of 20 to 30 men a day, a total of about 2,800 would perish. Among them were as many as 14 of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey soldiers captured on May 14, 1864 during the fighting on Myer's Hill, near Spotsylvania Courthouse. Accurate death and burial records failed to survive the war, and these men may likely be interred in the 16 burial trenches containing 2,167 "unknowns", at what is now the Florence National Cemetery.

We visited Florence on Monday, October 18, on our journey back to Spotsylvania from a family gathering in Charleston. My special thanks to NPS historian Eric Mink for his last minute trip advice as we traveled up Interstate 95.

Entrance to the Florence National Cemetery

One of the 32 upright marble headstones that mark sections of the 16 burial trenches.

On the south side of the cemetery, at the end of Stockade Road, is the site of the former prison camp, maintained and interpreted by the Friends of the Florence Stockade, who have a Facebook page currently here. The above photograph shows an informational Gazebo with numerous illustrated panels detailing the history of the site. It is stop # 1 on a 16 stop walking trail.

Map detailing the stockade and surrounding defensive works.

The stockade itself was 23.5 acres, 3 acres smaller than Andersonville.

This view is taken from near the south west corner of the stockade.

The path runs parallel to what was the south wall of the stockade.

This illustration looks from the south wall along the sole water source for the prison, the Pye Branch of Stockade Creek. The drawings were created by James E, Taylor for Ezra Hoyt Ripple's published account of his experiences as a prisoner of war. Drinking water was taken from the northern (far) third of the creek, the middle was used for bathing, and the final third was utilized for the latrine, a wooden, open air facility seen at lower right, running along the creek length. Conditions are said to have been at least equal to and in some estimations, worse than those suffered at Andersonville.

An incident at the Stockade, also illustrated by Taylor. Note the similarity to Andersonville's construction and prisoner living conditions.

Related Lands - Andersonville Prison, Macon and Sumter Counties, Georgia

2010-10-09T08:31:00.002-04:00

On May 14, 1864, Pvt. Jesse A. Adams of the 10th New Jersey Infantry Regiment was captured by Confederate forces overwhelming his unit during fighting on Myer's Hill, near Spotsylvania Courthouse. The above image features an original photograph of Adams taken shortly after his enlistment, November 14, 1861, by the regimental photographer, J. B. Brown.

Adams was sent nearly 700 miles south to the Andersonville, GA prison camp.

Today, the former prison is now the home of the National Prisoner of War Museum,

administered by the National Park Service.

This is the reconstructed north east corner of the stockade that contained the prisoners. The view is looking south west. Towering above the walls are representatives of the guard towers that monitored the prisoner activities inside the compound.

Inside that compound today are a sampling of makeshift shelters that prisoners struggled to maintain inside the 26.5 acre rectangular enclosure. Barracks that had been originally planned to house the prisoners were never built due to shortage of materials and manpower.

A photograph taken on August 17, 1864 from one of the guard towers, looking south west. The top of the stockade wall is running along the right hand edge of the image. At ground level, just to the left of the stockade, is the infamous "dead line", which if crossed, would mean being shot by the guards above.

Here is the rebuilt "north gate" into the compound on the west wall of the stockade. Its name derives from being on the "north" side of a creek that flowed through the compound. A fellow inmate of Adams wrote of the horrors new prisoners witnessed upon arrival, "Once inside... men exclaimed 'Is this hell?' "

One of the NPS interpretive signs inside the gate.

Looking across the site of the compound from near the south west corner. The location of the stockade walls and dead line are indicated by white stakes. The location of the rancid creek flowing through the prison runs along the low area between the high ground. It served as a drinking and bathing water source as well as the latrine. Dysentery was rampant. Of the near 45,000 men held here, 12,913 would die from starvation, malnutrition, and disease.

Among the dead was Jesse Adams, who succumbed to pneumonia on August 2, 1864,

a mere eleven weeks after his capture. His remains rest under the soil of Georgia.

For myself, as a student of the Civil War for now over forty years, my visit to the Andersonville Prison site in 2008 was a profound experience. I have visited many battlefields and had been to the location of POW facilities in Richmond, Virginia, chiefly Belle Isle, where approximately 1,000 prisoners died out of 30,000, and the former location of Libby Prison, but visiting Andersonville changed it all for me. I can't see the war in its entirety in the same light as I did before. It is no longer simply the strategy and tactics of battles or the clash of political ideals. It is no longer "Still Rebels, Still Yankees" as Donald Davidson opined.

Taming The Wilderness - Living History at Ellwood, September 26, 2010

2010-09-27T14:13:00.001-04:00

The Spotsylvania County plantation house known as "Ellwood", was the site of an informative living history event on Sunday, September 26. The threat of rain kept some of the planned displays from attending unfortunately, but those that did set up provided a top notch presentation. Hosted by the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, the theme for the day was "Taming the Wilderness: Featuring some of the key trades, skills, and crafts necessary to build a house and provide for a family on the Virginia frontier in the late 1700's."

Built in circa 1790, Ellwood was once the center of a 5,000 - acre estate.

Lively musical performances on Ellwood's front porch.

On the lawn, Melondy Phillips demonstrated the preparation of animal hides.

Here, she discusses the softening of deer skins. Very informative.

A member of the Fredericksburg Spinners and Weavers Guild

demonstrates a loom, using cotton threads to make kitchen towels.

"Wenches" Elaine and Robin discuss the contributions of 18th Century Tavern

Life to our modern day language, with idioms such as "mind your P's and Q's",

"bottoms up!", and "he's not playing with a full deck."

Craig Jacobs, owner of Salvagewrights Ltd., chats in the afternoon shade with

some of his friends who presented information on log hewing, architectural and

decorative details, and antique woodworking tools and their applications.

Here, they are sitting on a partially hand hewn beam, which that morning had

been a standing tree. They are masters at their craft.

The Rain.... a music video by a native Virginian, Scott Miller

2010-09-17T07:48:00.002-04:00

Here's a song about the Battle of Spotsylvania. I happened upon this video just about an hour ago. Shortly thereafter I visited Scott Miller's website so I could see who this gentleman was. I was surprised to find that he is actually playing this evening, September 17, 2010, in Ashland, Virginia, just down the road a bit from Spotsylvania. From what I gather he currently lives in Tennessee and is presently on tour, making only two more stops in Virginia this time around.

It takes a minute and some eighteen seconds to get beyond the storm clouds and lightening, but for the rest of the video (and I can not tell if this is an official video released by the artist, or one assembled by a fan), but the remainder does have some footage of soldiers firing from a fixed position and then advancing into a dark and misty morning light. From the bio information I can find it appears Scott is a big fan of history, and a native Virginian from the town of Swoope, in the "breadbasket" of the former Confederacy.

Singer/songwriter, Scott Miller

Time Keeps On Slippin' Into The Future........... April 1939 to August 2010

2010-09-15T13:48:00.001-04:00

Seventy-one years ago, and seventy-five years after the conflict that raged over the landscape, the National Park Service treated visitors to extensive restorations of battlefield earthworks at the Spotsylvania unit of the F&SNMP.

The planning and construction of these sections has been recently detailed by NPS Historian, Eric Mink, in a three part series at the web blog "Mysteries and Conundrums". Readers can follow Eric’s presentation by clicking, here, for the first installment.

In the “then and now” slide show below, I reveal how the landscape has progressed over time. Most profoundly, the viewer will notice the disappearance of the hard surface road that had also been built in the 1930s. This view looks over the trench restoration, looking essentially south, toward the intersection of Bloody Angle Drive, Gordon Drive, and Burnside Drive. In the 1930s, Burnside Drive was called Grant Drive East. Bloody Angle Drive has been totally removed except for the grading over which it ran. The creation of a level base for the road to follow involved numerous, intrusive alterations that remain in place today, and can confuse the pedestrian experience. Unfortunately, it does not seem that detailed working plans of the 1930s road construction exist in archived files, otherwise a more thorough return of the 1864 terrain could be attempted.

The initial, black and white photograph seen here, was taken in April, 1939, for a collection of images to be displayed at the 1939-1940 World’s Fair in New York. It was part of the Commonwealth of Virginia exhibit in the Court of States.
Please click on the image, it will take you to a larger screen for greater detail viewing. When the "Picasa" window opens, click the "Full Screen" button at upper left to easily see a rolling slide show of the five images that make up the "then and now" transition.

The photograph below, taken around October of 1935, shows workers nearing the completion of the project. The view is looking roughly north from inside the salient. One has to speculate on the degree of arbitrary features built into this particular "restoration", despite documentation of a careful and studied process at other locations. A concerted effort was made to construct this in a deliberate perception of an 1866 photograph, although no hard evidence existed to substantiate the notion. A rendering of the 1866 photograph was later displayed in a weatherproof frame nearby, and undoubtedly led many visitors to believe they were witnessing a restoration of the genuine article. The 1939 photograph in the then and now study, shows visitors standing in front of the frame. Exactly when this restoration was dismantled is not clear, but its misleading features, without the log revetment, remain as a part of the present day visitor experience.

In the aerial photograph below, taken in October 2008, the red arrow points in the direction of the camera for the slide show image. This view also shows the pedestrian trail created by the removal of Bloody Angle Drive.

Living History Event at Stevenson Ridge, Spotsylvania: August 28, 2010

2010-09-01T16:29:00.000-04:00

Beautiful weather made for a pleasant weekend at the Spotsylvania property of Dan and Debbie Spear, the proprietors of a unique bed and breakfast facility, offering rich historic charms as well as a soldier trodden landscape. Known now as “Stevenson Ridge”, a tribute to Union General Thomas Stevenson who was killed nearby on May 10, 1864, the 87-acres includes an extensive system of military entrenchments built by soldiers of the Union IX Corps, and later occupied by V Corps troops. National Park Service historians regard the trenches as some of the best preserved in private hands.

Dotting the landscape is a collection of 18th and 19th century structures that have been painstakingly moved from threatened sites and reassembled with expert craftsmanship. They are available for overnight accommodations and special events. Please visit their informative website by clicking here.

Two of the historic buildings brought here, the Riddick House at left and

the "Spy" House, are seen from a bridge spanning a stream fed pond

on the inviting pastoral landscape.

Members of the 13th Virginia Infantry, Company A, demonstrate Infantry

Drill for some of the Saturday visitors. Many Fredericksburg area residents

and numerous out-of-town travelers came by for the experience.

Colonel Troy Fallin, commander of the 3rd Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia,

is seen here with some of his staff members, providing background details to

enthusiastic visitors. Many parents brought their young children who displayed a

burgeoning interest in the history of the American Civil War. This young man was

seeking information on how to become a drummer boy with a reenactment unit.

The well trained members of the 13th Virginia, Company A,

provided an impressive window into the past.

The grounds of Stevenson Ridge provides an ideal setting for quality

"living history" events. The site served as a foothold of the Union IX

Corps during the opening days of the Spotsylvania Campaign.

All weekend long, visitors learned what soldier life was like in the 1860s.

Terry Thomann, of the National Civil War Life Museum and Foundation,

http://www.civilwarlife.org/, came out to demonstrate the wet plate photo process that

was used at the time of the Civil War. The majority of battlefield images recorded

during the war were made as stereoviews, and were sold to a fascinated public.

Mr. Thomann speaks with visitors near the 1830s log home, moved

to Stevenson Ridge from Stanardsville, Virginia.

Colonel Fallin and his Adjutant, Captain T.J. Bartel.

Learn more about their organization by visiting

the 3rd Regiment, ANV, by clicking here.

Seventy-five years ago at the Bloody Angle... Then and Now

2010-08-27T08:10:00.002-04:00

In 1935, the F&SNMP was not yet a decade old, but work was being done to optimize the visitor experience. A road was under construction to bring vehicles around the entire inside of the Mule Shoe Salient, soon to be named Bloody Angle Drive. A large orientation sign had been placed near the Angle, the first of many that would, over time, be installed, removed, rewritten, replaced by something better, and then, repositioned numerous times, only to now be declared obsolete. The black and white photograph below, was taken in September of 1935. Interestingly, the camera position is directly in front of the McGowan's Brigade Monument, installed in May of 2009. The view looks roughly 33 degrees north east.
As you watch the slide show, notice the subtle changes. The roadway, not yet completed in the 1935 view, is in today's shot, totally removed in favor of the more intimate, pedestrian experience.
The trees in this slide show are interesting to take note of, particularly the three oaks that dominate the right hand side of the image. The left and center of the three are still with us today, now probably at or approaching their own centennial anniversary. They flank the path that takes visitors to the bridge crossing at the monuments. The third oak, at far right, has been gone for many years, having stood near the orientation compass at the top of the rise. Also profoundly changing over the years are the trees of the distant horizon line, and barely visible in the oldest image. Today, they create a wooded buffer, separating the Park from its new subdivision neighbor to the north. Other trees that were permitted to grow out in the swales, beyond the trench line, can be seen achieving their stature on the landscape. Currently, some of those trees have borne the extremes of conditions and have succumb.
Soon, the wooden bridge across the Bloody Angle will be removed. Time marches on.

Please click on the image, it will take you to a larger screen for greater detail viewing.
When the "Picasa" window opens, click the "Full Screen" button at upper left to easily see a rolling slide show of the five images that make up the "then and now" transition.

Myer & Brulle Office, 317 Commerce Street, Fredericksburg... Then and Now

2010-08-16T16:23:00.003-04:00

The post-war business of John Henry Myer and Frederick Brulle, one block up William Street (aka Commerce Street) from the Myer residence and bakery at 212. The Germania Flour Mill was one of the highly successful businesses that helped Fredericksburg pull itself out of the financial wreckage wrought by the Civil War.
Myer himself is standing to the left of the center doorway, wearing a light colored suit and a derby hat. The viewer will note how the center doorway was later converted to a double width window. At one point, William Street was also lowered, which required the addition of two steps leading up into the doorway at right, whereas it used to be at street level.
The older image used for this slide show was taken in the late 1880s or early 1890s, after the mill converted from traditional stone grinding to a more productive roller system.
The actual mill structure stood on upper Caroline Street, across from what is today, Old Mill Park. It had stood in ruins since a fire gutted it in October of 1980, but it was totally leveled in late 2009, after many years of proposed adaptive reuse failed to take hold.
Please click on the image, it will take you to a larger screen for greater detail viewing.
When the "Picasa" window opens, click the "Full Screen" button at upper left to easily see a rolling slide show of the five images that make up the "then and now" transition.

Even If Etched In Stone...

2010-08-10T20:51:00.002-04:00

Along the edge of the Wilderness Baptist Church cemetery, lie a cluster of graves belonging to the Todd family, a lineage dating back to the mid eighteenth century in Spotsylvania County. One of the stones marks the final resting place of Richard Lewis Todd, b. May 8, 1836, d. May 29, 1911. Sharing this marker is Charles Robert Todd, bearing the lines:

Killed By A Shell

October 7, 1865

At Rest

The inscribed date of death has led many visitors to speculate that Charles Robert Todd had perhaps been a civilian victim of an unexploded artillery shell, carelessly mishandled just six months after the war's end. Tragic incidents have been recorded that document such a fate. Often times children who would find "dud" projectiles, only to end up maimed or killed when a rock or hammer was applied by the hapless victim in an effort to break open their deadly find. Numerous incidents around Gettysburg are detailed by historian William A. Frassanito in his book Early Photography at Gettysburg.

The true fate of Charles Robert Todd however, is not as some have assumed, but no less tragic. The year of his death, as it is inscribed, is incorrect. The year was mistakenly entered as 1865, when the reality was 1864. The circumstances played out roughly seventy-seven miles south of Spotsylvania, near the Darbytown Road, south east of Richmond. On October 7, 1864, Private Todd of the Fredericksburg Artillery was killed during fighting north of Fort Harrison. According to former NPS Chief Historian Robert K. Krick's The Fredericksburg Artillery, a Union artillery shell had struck the muzzle of the battery's No. 4 gun, killing Todd, and severely wounding four other members of the gun crew.

It is uncertain if Charles actually shares this grave with his younger brother Richard. His remains may in fact lie near the field of battle. Richard and another brother, Oscar, both served in the 9th Virginia Cavalry.

Due to contradictory birth years recorded in the only two census records where Charles is enumerated by name, it is uncertain of his age when killed. Based on the age given in the 1850 census, we can speculate he was born in 1832, given the entered age of 18. Ten years later, in the 1860 census, his age is given as 23, a five year variance during a ten year span.

The Todd's are known most famously in Spotsylvania for the tavern location on the Brock Road which carried their name. According to historian Noel Harrison's research, the Todd family had sold the property around 1845 to Flavius Josephus Ballard who then re-sold the property in 1869. The intersection where the tavern stood still maintains the name "Todd's Tavern".

The former Todd residence, not the Tavern, as seen sometime after 1933,

in a Photograph made for the HABS HAER collections.

The house stood north of Catharpin Road, off of what is today,

Carriage Road.

An on the spot drawing made by newspaper artist William Waud, showing the October 7, 1864 battle of Darbytown Road. The position of the Fredericksburg Artillery is in the left distance, accented by the

billows of smoke emitting from the guns.

The same image as it appeared in Harper's Weekly newspaper,

October 29, 1864 issue.

Grave Torn Open In Freak Storm - Fredericksburg, July 16

2010-07-20T09:08:00.004-04:00

About 6:30 on Friday evening, July 16, a freak storm took a powerful smack at downtown Fredericksburg, leaving many busted and uprooted trees, downed power lines, and damaged property in its wake. Weather forecasts had not predicted the event, and many visitors to the City were caught up in the tempest while attending a music festival along the Rappahanock River. The storm was over in less than half an hour. One woman was taken to the hospital for "a gash on her head, and another person was hit by a tent and treated for cuts by EMTs at the scene", according to the local newspaper, The Free-Lance Star.

On the other side of the City, to the west, a large tree uprooted in the Confederate Cemetery, tearing into the grave of Private Benjamin M. Blackwell, and busting numerous headstones. Blackwell had served in the 48th Virginia Infantry before being killed on May 5, 1864 in the battle of the Wilderness at the age of twenty-eight. The 1860 census shows he was a farmer, living with a relative who was a blacksmith. In the same record, Benjamin Blackwell claimed a value of $50 in personal property, not a rich man by any standard.

An interesting, and revealing article referencing Blackwell, in the journal "Civil War History", can be viewed here. A letter Blackwell wrote to his brother in late 1863, demonstrates his unease at the course of the war, and the Confederate nation's fate.

In September 2003, Hurricane Isabel left similar damage in the National Cemetery on Marye's Heights, tearing open the graves of two Union soldiers interred there.

The grave of Private Blackwell is seen here, burst open by the large tree.

A monument to to the Confederate dead is seen at center distance.

The ruptured grave is marked by a simple stone with the inscription,

B M Blackwell

In amongst the branches of the fallen tree can be seen numerous other broken stones.

This view shows the overall size of the tree and the extent of the damage.

All photographs shown were taken approximately 24 hours after the storm, Saturday, July 17, 2010.

Images are clickable to allow for larger viewing.

Related Lands - Confederate Works at Germanna Crossing

2010-07-11T16:48:00.002-04:00

In late November 1863, during the opening days of the Mine Run Campaign, newspaper special artist Alfred Waud sketched Union troops exploring the newly abandoned Confederate fortifications overlooking the Germanna crossing of the Rapidan River. The crossing at Germanna dates back to the colonial-era as a major transportation route, and also served heavily throughout the Civil War as a crossing point on the Rapidan for both armies in the campaigns of 1863-1864. In the Waud sketch below, looking north, the Germanna Highway (Modern Route 3), can be seen in the middle distance. The similar, present day image below that, is taken from approximately where the soldier is standing on top of the parapet of an artillery redoubt (quad 7-3). The quad graphing was added to the original sketch for the newspaper engravers that prepared the image for publication. Click on the images to enlarge.

Approximate modern view, looking north toward Route 3.

From atop the redoubt, looking downhill toward the highway.

Western wall face of the artillery redoubts.

Looking north west at about 300 degrees, along the south side of the Germanna Highway. The terminus of the long trench section stands in the shade at left foreground. The remains of these works are today on the campus of the Germanna Community College. Other remnants of earthworks can be found in the wooded area just north of the Germanna campus parking lot, but these are not as well maintained, and tend to get lost in the landscaping efforts around them.

An aerial photograph shows the trenches running through the woods at center. A sidewalk runs up to the area, alongside the College building.

An overall view of the area with the works outlined at lower right, above the main building of the Germanna Community College. The Germanna Ford crossing site is now obscured by the modern, double span bridge near top left. The site of Alexander Spotswood's Germanna Colony, circa 1714, is located in the woods on the north side of the highway, at center. Although it is now in Orange County, this was the location of Spotswood's manor house (1722-1750). Spotsylvania County derives its names from the former colonial Governor. The University of Mary Washington Department of Historic Preservation maintains a website about the Germanna Colony here.

New Salient Bridge Construction, Part Two

2010-07-01T23:49:00.009-04:00

Future Eagle Scout, and bridge designer, David Mattes, reviews his plans before starting the crew on their next day of work, Thursday, July 1. The crew did a great job in getting everything stabilized before laying the planking down and installing the uprights for the handrail. Friday should be the final day on the project.

This 9:58 AM view at left, shows the results of the previous day's work.

The view at right, taken around 6:19 PM, shows the bridge now ready for the handrail. A fine job by the Scouts.

The nearly completed bridge sits in the evening sun, after the end of another volunteer day.

This view looks toward the north east and the Landram Ridge, from inside the Salient, at 6:23 PM.

A Busy, Late June Morning at Spotsylvania Battlefield

2010-06-30T18:30:00.003-04:00

Work has begun on the bridge for the new trail along the Mule Shoe Salient. Volunteers from Boy Scout Troop 748 began the early morning project, led by Scout David Mattes, who ably designed the bridge on CAD software. Additional volunteers came from Troop 1048. Strict guidelines were provided by the NPS Chief of Maintenance. The guidelines required the bridge had to sit on the ground surface, supported by large stones brought in for the purpose. The only digging permissible would be at the bottom of each ADA compliant ramp. The photo below shows the placement of the north side ramp, looking west, toward the Bloody Angle. The bridge passes through a possible sally port in the Confederate line. There are suggestions that this feature in the earthworks may have been an artillery gun emplacement, or possibly a passage cut through by a farmer after the war to access his fields. Page 97 from Union surveyor L. C. Oswell's field book plotting the Salient, makes no special notation for this feature. Oswell was one of several surveyors working under the direction of Brevet Colonel James Chatham Duane, mapping the Virginia battlefields in June 1865. Without seeing the feature noted on a wartime map its true nature may never go beyond conjecture. Nonetheless, it provided a minimally intrusive means of bringing visitors from the Union side of the works to the Southern interior.

David's father, Scott Mattes, is shown below with his son's extensive design plans.

Below, the crew practices the old adage, "Measure Twice, Cut Once."

It is anticipated that the project should be completed by the end of the day, July 1st.

As the new bridge is constructed, the long standing Bloody Angle Bridge continues to provide access to visitors. This bridge will be removed as the new trail and interpretive signage are finished.

Future changes to the Park's interpretive program include the removal of larger, obstructive signs, like these known as "Happel Signs", named for the Park Historian who wrote the text for them, Ralph Happel.

Other signage slated for removal are the much older, "War Department Signs", dating back to the days before the Parks were transferred to the National Park Service from the War Department in 1933.

Seasonal Ranger Randy Washburn came up on his bicycle to observe the progress along the new trail. When stationed at the Spotsylvania Unit, Ranger Washburn rides his bike several times a day between the exhibit shelter at the park entrance and the Bloody Angle Stop to provide tours at 1:00 and 4:00.

New NPS Trail Construction - Bloody Angle

2010-06-25T10:35:00.006-04:00

A new interpretive trail has gone into place at the Spotsylvania Battlefield. It was designed to orient visitors from the Union perspective, initially on the north side of the Mule Shoe Salient, with a stop along the way to view the swales where the Federal advance took shelter during the attack of May 12, 1864.

The trail proceeds toward the Bloody Angle and the monuments to the 49th New York and 15th New Jersey.

The trail then continues along the north face of the earthwork for about seventy-five yards, and comes to a sally port in the Confederate line, where a wooden bridge will provide conservation minded passage across, to the inside of the Salient.

The images below show the construction process of the segment heading up to the monuments from the parking area on Grant Drive.

Begun on Thursday, June 17, 2010, the designated path was marked on the grass with white paint, as seen on top. On Friday, June 18, the foundation for the trail was cut into place with heavy equipment, as seen in the bottom image.

On Monday June 21, and Tuesday, June 22, the trail foundation was further prepared with a base of gravel.

By 4:30 PM, on Wednesday, June 23, the laying of the rubber mulch surface had been completed, and left to cure in the sun. The mulch is made of recycled tires mixed with polyurethane, making a durable path.

The above image shows the construction looking west, along the face of the parapet, toward the monuments.

Here, the gravel bed is put in place.

The mulch mixture is applied, rolled smooth, and left to cure.

By Thursday morning, June 24, the shoulders were refilled and seeded.

In a few weeks, most evidence of the construction process will be hard to detect. Interpretive signage will be stationed along the way. The foot bridge will be put in place to the left of the above image, enabling visitors to pass to the inside of the Salient without damage to the earthworks. The bridge which has been in place near the monuments will be removed, eliminating a long standing intrusion at the Bloody Angle.

Continued progress of this project will be posted at future dates. The picture below is taken from the Bloody Angle, looking east, toward the 15th New Jersey monument, on Thursday, June 24, 2010.

Seen below are the monuments with the parking area at center distance. The trail can be seen as it leads up to the Bloody Angle at the extreme left edge. The old bridge will be removed shortly.

Among Buildings Now Gone - Warehouses Along City Dock, Fredericksburg

2010-06-14T16:20:00.006-04:00

Up until the 1930s, two, large, warehouse and tenement complexes dominated the 300 block of Sophia Street in Fredericksburg. In December of 1862, they would play an important role for some of the combatants of this infamous battle. Located just up from the City Dock area, these imposing structures provided temporary shelter for Union Brigades forming up prior to their advance through town, and onto the open ground in front of Marye's Heights. Today, a small memorial stands nearby, commemorating the men of the Irish Brigade. The detail images below, are taken from what is thought to be a May 1863, panoramic view of Fredericksburg, as seen from the Stafford County side of the Rappahannock River.

For our purposes here, we will call them "Complex A", the one furthest south, and "Complex B", nearer to the intersection with Frederick Street.

Complex A, looking abandoned and possibly showing effects of

the Union shelling of the town. Note what may be a puncture

through the brick wall between the upper floor windows, on

the left most portion of the main structure. Click picture for greater detail.

Complex B

Complex A, photographed in the late 1920s or early 1930s, by Frances Benjamin Johnston.

During this final stage of its existence, the buildings served as a "Pickle Factory." It is difficult to see if there is easily identifiable repair work to the brick wall, as mentioned in the description of the May 1863 view. Click picture for greater detail. Complex B is also visible from this angle, its northern most portion ending before the cluster of barren trees at right. Photograph from the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs

Online Catalog.

Modern view of the Complex A site, showing how the City of Fredericksburg

has reclaimed the river front area for public park use. June 2010.

Complex B as seen in another view taken by noted

photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. Here it functioned

as a "Hoop-Pole Factory." Photograph from the Library of Congress,

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

The now empty landscape of Complex B.

June 2010

As quiet as it usually is today, it is sometimes hard to imagine the thousands of soldiers that stood in regimental marching order, shoulder to shoulder, here. Many never returned to this area alive after the fatal fighting of December 13, 1862. In May 1863 and 1864, the Union Army would return again to these sites as part of the Chancellorsville Campaign and the Overland Campaign, respectively.

Summer Is Almost Here - The Butterflies Are Back

2010-06-09T15:31:00.002-04:00

Bull Thistle along the road to the McCoull House has attracted

a pair of Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies.

The Pipevine Swallowtail, up close.

A Tiger Swallowtail enjoys the Butterfly Weed near the

former CCC building on the McCoull Farm.

Honey bees also love Butterfly Weed.

Large crops of Butterfly Weed thrive on the battlefield.

Battle Damage Part 2 - The still visible effects of shot and shell today

2010-06-06T10:07:00.010-04:00

Notice: I am modifying this entry to reflect clarification of information gathered today, June 7, 2010. The home referred to here, was indeed owned and occupied by Robert C. Dabney until his death in 1875. It was not until Jan 16, 1880 that the property was purchased by John R. Alrich. My originial notation of Alrich owning prior to the Civil War came from a statement made in the obituary of his great-grandson, John R. Alrich who died October 1, 1987. The statement from the October 2, 1987 issue of The Free-Lance Star newspaper states: "A native of Spotsylvania, Mr. Alrich lived in a home near Spotsylvania built by his great-grandfather before the Civil War." Deeds on record at the County Circuit Court indicate this is apparently not true, unless of course we can find that he was in fact the "builder" as opposed to the "owner" as had been assumed within our initial posting.

Standing today, in the middle of what would have been considered “no man’s land” in May 1864, the “Alrich House” survives as a silent testament to the fighting that coursed over the surrounding landscape. Roughly a third of a mile north east of Spotsylvania Courthouse, on Route 208, it sits opposite the Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery. Commonly marked on Civil War era maps as the residence of Spotsylvania Circuit Court Clerk, Robert Clarence Dabney (1822-1875), the home was built according to estimates between 1846 and 1855. A further search of County documents should hopefully clarify this date. The Greek Revival brick structure was purchased in 1880, by John Roberts Alrich (1833-1907), a native of Delaware who had sided with the Confederacy in March 1862, serving initially in Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry, a unit which was comprised of numerous Fredericksburg area residents. John Roberts Alrich and his family have also been associated during the Civil War, with a house at the intersection of Old Plank and Catharpin Roads, near the Chancellorsville battlefield. Again, additional scrutiny will be required to hopefully get a clearer picture. Nonetheless, the former "Dabney" home remained the residence of the Alrich family up until December of 2009, with the passing of Alice R. “Bobby” Alrich (1949-2009). Alice was the daughter of John R. Alrich (1914-1987), the great-grandson of John Roberts Alrich, the Confederate veteran.

On Saturday, June 5, 2010, the contents of the estate of Alice Alrich were auctioned off. Being open to the public, it allowed a rare glimpse of the brick home and outbuildings. As suspected, the exterior wall facing the north east shows numerous pockmarks caused by Union case shot and canister rounds. Union batteries were at various times during the Spotsylvania Campaign as close as half a mile from the house, firing down the Courthouse Road corridor. Visible are three iron balls, in two sizes, secured in place with mortar. It may be possible that the iron projectiles were cemented in place to embellish the fact of war damages, but the home was not, at least in recent times, open to visitors. It had been a seemingly common practice in the mid twentieth century, to place projectiles found on a property in damaged areas of brick, as evidenced by the Stone House of Manassas battlefield fame. There is no doubt however, to the source of the surface damage on the brick wall. It is fortunate the home did not suffer more direct and severe damage as it stood nearly 400 yards in advance of the entrenched Confederate position near the Courthouse. An inspection of the attic may reveal damage to roof rafters and possibly embedded, whole shells, something that has turned up at other area structures.

The only remaining period outbuilding on the Alrich property is a brick smoke house that shows considerable repair which may have been the necessity of war damage as well.

The wall facing north east. Enlarge the picture by clicking it.

Red arrows point to the damaged areas and cemented iron balls.

Detail views of iron balls, cemented in place.

The long crack seen in the picture at right was

caused by freeze/thaw damage.

This wall supports the inside chimney.

Impact damage from Union artillery, high up on the wall.

Impact damage from Union artillery.

The brick smoke house behind the home.

The smoke house, as seen in the 1930s, for the

Historic American Building Survey.

A wooden kitchen and or laundry stands to the left.

Photograph from the Library of Congress.

A similar view today shows the smoke house still standing with

twentieth century additions added to the Alrich house.

The wooden outbuilding is long removed.

Jackson's Wounding Monuments - A Then & Now, Photo Essay

2010-05-20T10:49:00.011-04:00

Our friends over at the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park have developed an excellent blog, Mysteries and Conundrums, which allows us an inside look at many of the discoveries and considerations they make while adminstering the battlefields in their charge. In the past few days, NPS Historian Eric Mink, has presented an in depth examination of the process involved in the creation of the current Chancellorsville Visitor Center here. Planning had begun in earnest in the 1950s for the site, with the actual project being constructed in the early 1960s. One of the heaviest considerations during that planning was how and where to place the structure with the least amount of encroachment to the historic lanscape. Exacerbating the frustration was the then future plans to widen Route 3 through the battlefield, something that the Virginia Department of Transportation had already drawn up. It would not be until the 1970s, but the transformation of the historic Plank Road, into a divided, four lane highway, would take a great toll on the visual integrity of the landscape. The once rural area and its primary artery would be forever altered.

The following images present a look at the monuments placed near the north shoulder of the road right-of-way, since circa 1876. The monuments were placed to mark the vicinity of General "Stonewall" Jackson's mortal wounding on the evening of May 2, 1863. All images are clickable for larger viewing.

Looking north from the Plank Road in an early 1900s postcard.

This monument was dedicated June 13, 1888.

The same view today from the west bound lane of Route 3.

The VDOT right-of-way has cut a deep swath in front of the monument.

A "linen" postcard from circa 1940s -1950s, looking west at the

Jackson monument and Park Contact Station.

The exact same view today, with obscuring foliage.

A circa 1950s - 1960s "chrome" postcard taken from the

north shoulder of Route 3, looking easterly. Note boulder at right.

An approximately similar view today, with a look down Route 3.

An amazingly rare, quiet moment in traffic flow.

An early view of the first marker placed here between 1876 and 1885.

The same boulder today, much reduced in size by souvenir hunters, and

almost lost in the maze of trees and shrubs. An effort to access.

Both monuments today, looking east, from inside the NPS boundary.

The concealing growth at right serves as a guard rail of sorts to keep

visitors from tumbling down into the Route 3 right-of-way.

The boulder is beyond the 1888 monument, in amongst the foliage at center.

Remembrance and the Meaning of Life

2010-05-15T10:11:00.000-04:00

When I established this blog, my purpose was to foment a discussion of all social, political and cultural aspects of the Civil War and how it effected, and still effects, the fabric of our local and national experience. Some of my initial posts in 2008 did just that, somewhat, but as time went on I became a bit more straightforward in my presentation of history, and less on the reflective bent.

Today is the 15th of May, pretty much smack dab in the middle of the month of remembrance. Locally, it is the anniversary month of three of the four major battles that raged over this region during an eighteen month period, December 1862 through May 1864. During that time, the soil of Spotsylvania County became a blood soaked landscape, literally. Within that span there were over one hundred thousand casualties, a true testament to the horrors of what men can do to each other when embracing the triad of “duty, honor, and country.” And that is, what it is. Our national sacrifices along these lines are remembered at the conclusion of this month, with the observance of Memorial Day. So in many respects, May is a very significant month in the collective experience of our nation. At the same time, for a good many people, the “Memorial Day weekend” is the precursor to “summer vacation”, and is spent in traveling to fun in the sun spots, and endless barbeques. The true solemnity of the intent is lost in revelry and laughter. This “Holiday” has become an embraced “extra day off” as well as an excuse to hold “SALES” at most any retail establishment. Again, that is what that is. The collective conscience seemingly deals with this lapse.

Personally, I find it disturbing that we, as a society, find it easy to “drop the ball” so to speak, on acknowledging the human toll, both in lives lost and in depredations across the board. Initially, it may be excused as the societal mind’s effort to steel itself against the “emotional plague of mankind” as Wilhelm Reich defined it. However, I believe it is more correctly interpreted as a movement toward a trend of “social engineering” where mankind represses so many “hurtful” things that ultimately the society weakens its resolve and slides toward emasculated culture. This is the destiny of an increasingly nihilistic society. Ultimately we sit on a precipice where historiography will fall victim to the historian’s fallacy, and apply a skewed interpretation of the past via the jaundiced eye of presentism.

That’s my take on it at least.

The stereo image at top was taken in April 1866, and depicts exposed remains of battle deaths on the Wilderness battlefield. When photographed, they had been lying there for nearly two years.

The Sunken Road and Captain Russell’s Photograph, Part 2

2010-05-13T17:09:00.005-04:00

Shown below is a hand colored postcard mailed from Fredericksburg in October, 1906. This view was taken, looking approximately 338 degrees north west, from a position just below Captain A. J. Russell’s May 1863 camera position, as detailed in my April 27 posting. In the modern view of this location, the position of Russell’s camera is indicated by the red X. As a reminder, Russell's camera was facing south.

Alongside the road, at left, is a monument dedicated in 1888 to Confederate General Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb of Georgia. It was near this location that General Cobb was mortally wounded on December 13, 1862 by an exploding artillery shell. In the one hundred and four years since the postcard was mailed, the Cobb monument has been repositioned slightly and its base has been removed and perhaps lost all together. Initially it sat on top of a short retaining wall on the west side of the road. Portions of that wall are still visible today. It is also evident that when the postcard image was taken, the Stone Wall had already been dismantled in front of the Innis House at right, and the Stephens House, not visible. Tradition says that the artillery shell that wounded General Cobb passed through the Stephens House before exploding, sending an iron fragment into his thigh. The Stephens house burned down in 1913, seven years after this card was mailed. An image of the house, taken in April 1866, is seen below. It was one of the final four images taken by Dr. Bontecou’s entourage as described in my April 14 posting.

On the weekend of August 19-20, 2006, I presented a program sponsored by the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, where I portrayed Captain Russell as he took his image in the Sunken Road. Unfortunately Robert Szabo was not available to join me for that program but he was kind enough to loan me one of his hand built, wet plate cameras.

Here is your blog host, on location. The Innis House is in the background.

An Ounce of History

2010-04-29T15:15:00.001-04:00

Around the time the Civilian Conservation Corps was constructing their version of the Stone Wall at Fredericksburg, Park Historian Ralph Happel (1911-2002), declared to his coworkers that he’d pay a dollar for any bullet found in the vicinity. Ralph was confident that nearly seventy-five years after the hostilities there, nothing would or could remain in such a well traversed spot. If not already swept clean by souvenir hunters in the early days then certainly the local poor had scavenged them up to sell as scrap, a common practice soon after the war’s end. Journalist John Trowbridge witnessed women and children doing just that in June 1865 when he visited the war torn region. Fredericksburg had been one of his stops in Virginia, and he wrote about it vividly in his volume, “The South: A Tour of its Battlefields and Ruined Cities.”

Despite his confidence Ralph was met one day in the fall of 1937 by Beau Purvis, who gladly claimed that dollar. In those days a dollar was indeed a welcome reward! A gallon of gas cost 10 cents. Today, with inflation, that one dollar would be worth fifteen.

When Happel passed away in November of 2002, his estate was handled by respected area antique dealers and long time friends of Ralph and his wife Louise. Among his compiled archives and books were some items of material culture he had collected in his long career. Within that trove, tied with wire to a yellowing 4”X6” card, was the bullet Purvis found along with Happel’s type written notation:

“Lost & Found – Minie ball found by Beau Purvis near south end of Sunken Road, Autumn, 1937, and bought by Ralph Happel for the dollar he said he’d give for any bullet there picked up (thinking that none was left in such an accessible spot)”

Three close-up views of the bullet found by Beau Pervis.

Note the holes drilled through the lead projectile,

securing it with thin wire to the card. Though mangled,

it appears to be of .54 caliber, a size and type

used by both sides during the war.

A "linen" postcard from the era the bullet was found,

depicting the south end of Sunken Road and the

entrance gates to the National Cemetery.

Park Historian Ralph Happel (at left) in 1957 with a visiting group

of the Civil War Round Table from Franklin, Virginia.

The picture was taken at the Bloody Angle, Spotsylvania,

on November 10. Image from the collection of F&SNMP.

Say What You Will About Gods and Generals... but this is one heck of a powerful seven minutes.

2010-04-28T09:36:00.000-04:00

A very moving dramatization of the December 13 Union assault on the Sunken Road and Mayre's Heights at Fredericksburg.
Devoid of the oft implied partisan posturing critics have bemoaned about this film, this segment simply lays it out for what it was, and says it like it is.
Here, waves of men hurl themselves at a stationary foe. They walk into torrents of lead and iron.
When visiting the battlefield at Fredericksburg, keep these visuals in mind, for an expanding city has taken shape over the once open fields portrayed here. When you stop for gas and a snack at the 7-11 on Lafayette Boulevard, just a few blocks from the NPS Visitor Center, consider that you are finding your convenience on the very ground men hugged to save their lives. Does it humble you?

The Sunken Road and Captain Russell's Photograph

2010-04-27T14:31:00.006-04:00

The 2004 NPS led rehabilitation of Fredericksburg's famous Sunken Road and the Stone Wall, proved to be a vital element in understanding one of the Civil War's most famous photographic images. The wall had served as a redi-made breastwork for Confederate forces in both the 1862 and 1863 battles but had over time disappeared from the landscape in the places where it had stood above grade. There had long existed a story that purports the wall was dismantled and the stones used to build the National Cemetery's caretaker residence, but that is now said to be false. The actual fate of the wartime wall is still undetermined.

Then

Now

Archaeological surveys located the footings for the original wall and period images helped determine the size and shape of what was once there. Master stone masons were employed to build the approximate facsimile. Modern engineering requirements necessitated an additional four inches be added to the base width of the wall and a supplemental "cover course" of stone was added to the top as a desirable protection from the elements. All in all the new wall serves as a satisfactory visual to enhance today's visitor experience.

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, having the wall return to the landscape was a tremendous tool for determining where the May 3, 1863 image by military photographer Russell was taken. In early October 2004, I began to take test images during pedestrian surveys, gradually finding that the presumed position was far off the mark. Having the great benefit of learning 19th century camera optics from modern day wet plate photographer Robert Szabo, I returned on several occasions to re-shoot and measure until I had found the perfect fit between today's landscape and that recorded just minutes after the Federal success that routed Confederate forces from the scene. In early December 2004, Bob Szabo joined me on location to record a 8 1/2" X 6 1/2" ferrotype image with his period equipment. The resulting image was dead-on and reaffirmed that we had indeed located Russell's camera position. Writing in a 2005 issue of North South Trader's Civil War Magazine, the Park's Chief Historian John Hennessy credits our work for "determining that the location was about 220' farther north than traditionally believed. Based on their meticulous work, the site exhibit that includes the photograph was relocated."
Today's visitor can easily stand in Russell's position by facing southward, standing between the Cobb and Stephens markers, stepping slightly to the left off center. The first body closest to the viewer lay a mere 20' or so in front of the camera. The current edge of the grassline also approximates the vicinty of the wartime "ditch" which was not feasible to recreate in the modern setting.

Bob Szabo and I on location, December 2004.

Bob's ferrotype version of the Russell image. The pile of dirt seen at

left is from the then ongoing NPS rehabilitation work.

One issue that this detailed study also helps determine, in my opinion, is that the "trench" dug approximately five feet behind the wall, is more likely to have served as a drainage ditch rather than a military instrument. The strongest support of this notion rests in the fact that it appears to have continued, outside of the camera's view, in front of the then standing structures of Martha Stephens' modest dwelling. Additionally there has been a very obvious effort at removing all the resulting earth turned up in creating the ditch, something that just seems out of place if created for martial purposes and its depth and width are negligible if they were intended as a means of additional shelter, even for a second rank of men. Standing soldiers behind a front rank against the wall would not have attempted firing there weapons at that great a spacing.

Of note is the visible home of James Hall, seen just over the wall in Russell's image, at left of center. Hall's house was totally destroyed (for its burnable wood) by the time of the next image taken in this vicinity the following year.

The areial image above shows Russell's camera position marked

by a red X and the location of the Hall house is indicated near the

modern day visitor center.

All images posted are clickable to provide a larger view.

A detail from an 1864 photograph, showing the foundation

remains of the James Hall house surrounded by a cluster of trees.