Foto Friday!
A look at some of my favorite images.
Buckeyes, Blackhats and the Boys of '61
Featured
March 16, 2024
Appropriate repost for todays “Routes to Roots” presentation.
February 9, 2024
Foto Friday!.
First Massachusetts Sharpshooters.
February 8, 2024
Happy Birthday to “Uncle Billy.”
February 8th is William Tecumseh Sherman’s 204th birthday.
Given all the rhetoric and opinions of this most controversial son of the Buckeye State I believe its important to read the below. It clearly states his views on the upcoming crisis that soon will envelop our nation.
Sherman’s resignation letter from Louisiana State Seminary and Military College
LOUISIANA STATE SEMINARY OF LEARNING AND MILITARY ACADEMY,
January 18, 1861 .
Gov. THOMAS 0. MOORE,
Baton Rouge, La.:
Sir –
As I occupy a quasi – military position under the laws of the State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position when Louisiana was a State in the Union, and when the motto of this Seminary was inserted in marble over the main door: By the liberality of the General Government of the United States. The Union. Esto Perpetua. ‘
Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance to the Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives; and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word. In that event I beg you will send or appoint some authorized agent to take charge of the arms and munitions of war belonging to the State or advise me what disposition to make of them.
And, furthermore, as president of the Board of Supervisors, I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me as Superintendent the moment the State determines to secede, for on no earthly account will I do any act, or think any thought , hostile to or in defiance of the old , Government of the United States .
With great respect, your obedient servant,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Superintendent .
January 25, 2024
It’s Been Awhile. Six Years to be exact……….
It is long past time to shake the dust off this old blog, so onward we will go with a variety of topics pertaining to the history, images and stories of the “Boys of “61!”
Please keep me in mind as a speaker for your group. I can present on a variety of American Civil War and Indian War topics.
For more information you can contact me at Philspaugy@gmail.com
Below you will find my Spring 2024 Presentation and Tour Schedule:
February 5th, Quincy Gillmore Civil War Round Table. Lorain, Ohio. “The 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry at Gettysburg.”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/709524215845055
March 16th – Miami County Genealogical and History Society – Piqua, Ohio Library “The Fight of the 110th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the Battle of Second Winchester, June 1863. Time TBA. https://www.mchgs.org/
April 13th and 14th – My Hessler Spaugy Action Travel Partner and Gettysburg LBG Jim Hessler along with LBG Chris Army will be leading a Battle of Wilderness Tour. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057577212759 for details.
April 21 – 26th – Iron Brigade at South Mountain, Antietam and Gettysburg tour with the Civil War Time Travellers of Wisconsin. I will be discussing the actions of the Iron Brigade of the West at each of these locations.
May – 3rd – 5th – Ohio Civil War Show, Mansfield Ohio. Jim Brenner and I will be displaying our award winning collection of Miles Greenwood converted and altered muskets. https://ohiocivilwarshow.com/wp/
May 13th to 19th – North South Skirmish Association Spring National Skirmish – Winchester Virginia. http://www.n-ssa-org for details.
June 10th – Indianapolis Civil War Round Table – “The Actions of the 19th Indiana at Gettysburg!” https://www.indianapoliscwrt.org/
June 28th to July 4th – Adams County Historical Society “Caught in the Crossfire Museum” – Presentation topic, date and times TBA.
Stay tuned for more 2024 dates !
January 19, 2024
You feel small in the presence of dead men……
Image courtesy of Find A Grave
The Death of Captain Waskow.
Eighty years ago this past January 10th the famed War Correspondent Ernie Pyle would pen what is perhaps one of the most definitive and emotionally touching column on war.
Pyle’s writing stans the test of time, not only showing the tragedy and horror of war, but also the love and comradeship of those men who, over so many generations have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy everyday.
“AT THE FRONT LINES IN ITALY, January 10, 1944 – In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas.
Capt. Waskow was a company commander in the 36th Division. He had led his company since long before it left the States. He was very young, only in his middle twenties, but he carried in him a sincerity and gentleness that made people want to be guided by him.
“After my own father, he came next,” a sergeant told me.
“He always looked after us,” a soldier said. “He’d go to bat for us every time.”
“I’ve never knowed him to do anything unfair,” another one said.
I was at the foot of the mule trail the night they brought Capt. Waskow’s body down. The moon was nearly full at the time, and you could see far up the trail, and even part way across the valley below. Soldiers made shadows in the moonlight as they walked.
Dead men had been coming down the mountain all evening, lashed onto the backs of mules. They came lying belly-down across the wooden pack-saddles, their heads hanging down on the left side of the mule, their stiffened legs sticking out awkwardly from the other side, bobbing up and down as the mule walked.
The Italian mule-skinners were afraid to walk beside dead men, so Americans had to lead the mules down that night. Even the Americans were reluctant to unlash and lift off the bodies at the bottom, so an officer had to do it himself, and ask others to help.
The first one came early in the morning. They slid him down from the mule and stood him on his feet for a moment, while they got a new grip. In the half light he might have been merely a sick man standing there, leaning on the others. Then they laid him on the ground in the shadow of the low stone wall alongside the road.
I don’t know who that first one was. You feel small in the presence of dead men, and ashamed at being alive, and you don’t ask silly questions.
We left him there beside the road, that first one, and we all went back into the cowshed and sat on water cans or lay on the straw, waiting for the next batch of mules.
Somebody said the dead soldier had been dead for four days, and then nobody said anything more about it. We talked soldier talk for an hour or more. The dead man lay all alone outside in the shadow of the low stone wall.
Then a soldier came into the cowshed and said there were some more bodies outside. We went out into the road. Four mules stood there, in the moonlight, in the road where the trail came down off the mountain. The soldiers who led them stood there waiting. “This one is Captain Waskow,” one of them said quietly.
Two men unlashed his body from the mule and lifted it off and laid it in the shadow beside the low stone wall. Other men took the other bodies off. Finally there were five lying end to end in a long row, alongside the road. You don’t cover up dead men in the combat zone. They just lie there in the shadows until somebody else comes after them.
The unburdened mules moved off to their olive orchard. The men in the road seemed reluctant to leave. They stood around, and gradually one by one I could sense them moving close to Capt. Waskow’s body. Not so much to look, I think, as to say something in finality to him, and to themselves. I stood close by and I could hear.
One soldier came and looked down, and he said out loud, “God damn it.” That’s all he said, and then he walked away. Another one came. He said, “God damn it to hell anyway.” He looked down for a few last moments, and then he turned and left.
Another man came; I think he was an officer. It was hard to tell officers from men in the half light, for all were bearded and grimy dirty. The man looked down into the dead captain’s face, and then he spoke directly to him, as though he were alive. He said: “I’m sorry, old man.”
Then a soldier came and stood beside the officer, and bent over, and he too spoke to his dead captain, not in a whisper but awfully tenderly, and he said:
“I sure am sorry, sir.”
Then the first man squatted down, and he reached down and took the dead hand, and he sat there for a full five minutes, holding the dead hand in his own and looking intently into the dead face, and he never uttered a sound all the time he sat there.
And finally he put the hand down, and then reached up and gently straightened the points of the captain’s shirt collar, and then he sort of rearranged the tattered edges of his uniform around the wound. And then he got up and walked away down the road in the moonlight, all alone.
After that the rest of us went back into the cowshed, leaving the five dead men lying in a line, end to end, in the shadow of the low stone wall. We lay down on the straw in the cowshed, and pretty soon we were all asleep.”
Source: Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches, edited by David Nichols, pp. 42-44
Captain Waskow is buried in the Sicily Rome American Cemetery in Italy.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56315604/henry-t-waskow
January 14, 2024
Black Hats, Johnny the War Horse and the Hated Gaiters!
I was doing a bit of research on this cold January morning when I came across this interesting and humorous article in the National Tribune.
B.H Tripp was a member of Company F of the Wisconsin Seventh.
Those of us who have worn the infamous white leggings or gaiters can most certainly relate.
March 1, 2017
A Worthwhile Endeavor: Help Us Restore “Long Tall Sol” Meredith’s Statue.
As you can see in the image above, the statue over the grave of Solomon Meredith, commander of both the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry and the famed Iron Brigade of the West, is slowly being covered by a growth of green moss. My friend, Phil Harris has spent much time and treasure ensuring that the headstones of the men of the 19th have been restored or, in many cases, replaced by new government headstones. This work is simply his passion. Phil noticed the growth covering Sol’s statue and started a plan of action to rectify it. To that end, he has recently launched a “GoFundMe” campaign to clean the green “Berdan”-like covering off of Old Sol and return him to his former glory. He asked for my help, but to make this worthwhile mission we are asking for YOUR help too.
Please consider making a contribution to our project. You may get access to more information by clicking on the link below.
http://www.19thindianaironbrigade.com/Meredith_Restoration.html
And for Phil’s wonderful 19th Indiana website follow the link below:
http://19thindianaironbrigade.com/
Now that we have that established…let’s talk about Old Sol a bit!
For many students of the Iron Brigade, Solomon Meredith comes off as a bit of a caricature. Meredith, the first colonel of the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and later commander of the famed “Iron Brigade of the West,” was tall like his friend Abraham Lincoln. At 6’7″ and 250 pounds, he was easily the tallest Federal general in the war. Nicknamed “Long Tall Sol” due to his height, Meredith commanded the 19th Indiana from its formation in May of 1861 until November of 1862 when, due in large part to his political connections, he was promoted to the command of the Iron Brigade. It was no secret that “Sol” was held in low esteem by the brigade’s commander, Brigadier General John Gibbon. Gibbon felt that Meredith, who was a political appointee as colonel of the 19th, was far too lax in matters of discipline and drill when it came to keeping the “Swamp Hogs” of the 19th Indiana up to the regular army standard the West Point-educated Gibbon expected. This feeling of dislike hit a high point when Meredith, using a slight wound suffered at the battle of South Mountain as the reason, missed the battle of Antietam to go to Washington to recover, and while there started campaigning for a promotion to brigadier general. Command of the 19th then fell to Lt. Colonel Alois Bachman who was later killed while leading the regiment into action on the morning of September 17th. This inexcusable absence (in Gibbon’s mind) gave added emphasis to Gibbon’s already poor professional opinion and personal dislike of Meredith.
Shortly after the battle of Antietam, Gibbon was promoted to divisional command. Meanwhile, Meredith, while recovering from his wound, had successfully used his network of political connections to gain promotion to brigadier general of volunteers and was awaiting appointment to a command. With Gibbon’s promotion, the Iron Brigade needed a commander. Sol, again using every political means at his disposal, went to work to gain the appointment to this coveted spot. Gibbon was simply livid and requested Ambrose Burnside, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, to assign Meredith to a “position where he could at least do as little harm as possible.” Burnside turned down this request, stating that Meredith’s “many strong friends made” rendered Gibbon’s request impossible.
So, in the eyes of many whose passion lies in the study of the actions of the Army of the Potomac and in particular the famed “Iron Brigade of the West,” Meredith oft-times comes off as an atypical volunteer general, a man who not by ability or respect rose to command of one of the most fabled units of the war solely by using his political connections to do so. While there certainly is a bit of truth to this, Sol’s tactics for self-promotion by using “networking” were hardly unique during the war to those seeking promotion…civilian soldiers or West Pointers alike!
Given the above, over the upcoming weeks I will be posting some articles that may give you a better perception of Sol’s life, service and sacrifice. Articles that I hope will give you a better understanding of this man and perhaps even move you to give a bit to help us restore the statue over “Old Sol’s” final resting place.
Buckeyes, Blackhats and the Boys of '61 