Civil War Times Illustrated, May 2006

The May 2006 issue is the next issue of Civil War Times Illustrated that I’ll be reviewing for this blog. I just received the issue after this one (I really need to step up my magazines summaries!) and I noticed that both CWTI and America’s Civil War have a new look. In addition, a source mentioned to me that some new things are going to be tried at both ACW and CWTI. In the past, I’ve had problems with lack of maps and lack of endnotes from time to time, especially when I disagree with the premise of an article and wish to learn where the author found his/her information. The good news is that particular complaint of mine is being addressed with a sources area after some articles. Civil War Times Illustrated tends to cover more of the social and political aspects of the war than the other magazines, and I’ve learned to appreciate it as one of the main sources for furthering the understanding of the Civil War in these areas. In this month’s issue, we have Peter Carmichael’s look at Virginia students and their role in the Secession movement, Union military deception, an article on the death of Leonidas Polk, and George B. McClellan’s tenure as a post-Civil War Governor. Those interested in Professor Carmichael’s article might wish to read a similar article he wrote that appeared in North & South Volume 8, Number 5.

Private George Fennell Newton enlisted in the "Wiregrass Rifles"
(Co. C, 26th Georgia) in September 1861. His unit became a part of Lawton’s
Georgia Brigade. Wounded at Antietam and wounded and captured at Gettysburg,
Newton was paroled and discharged due to his second wound in December
1863.

Author Tom Huntington discusses and provides background on the popular
war tunes of the day, including the men and women who wrote them.

James Quilliam joined the 154th New York in August, 1862. While in
the army, the semi-literate, spelling-challenged Quilliam wrote often
to his wife Rhoda. Although the man struggled to write coherently, his
great devotion to the cause shows through. Quilliam died in Nashville,
Tennessee in July 1864 as a result of wounds suffered at a mid-June skirmish
in front of Pine Mountain during the Atlanta Campaign.

The college-going young men of Virginia, Carmichael repeatedly stresses,
felt that the older generations of Virginians were not forceful enough
in pushing for secession. They decided to take matters into their own
hands, staging demonstrations, raising secessionist flags, and showing
firmly which side they believed Virginia should take in the coming struggle.
Carmichael especially focuses on the students at the university of Virginia.
The adults, for their part, though these students were allowing their
emotions to get the better of them, and chose to be patient, at least
until Lincoln called for volunteers to subdue the seceding states by force
if necessary. As I mentioned above, those interested in this article may
wish to read the author’s "Confederate Crusaders" in Volume
8, Issue 5 of North & South.

In the first part of a two-part series on Union and Confederate military
deception, D’Aoust takes a look at various instances of Union deception
throughout the war. He first looks at Rosecrans’ nearly bloodless capture
of Chattanooga in September 1863. Rosecrans sent Wilder’s Lightning Brigade
to make some noise against the city from the north, while he took the
bulk of his army in a wide swing to the southwest. Bragg was completely
fooled by this subterfuge, and when he finally found out that Rosecrans
was on his flank, he had to leave the city without a fight. Joe Hooker
was able to trick Robert E. Lee at the beginning of the Chancellorsville
Campaign as well. The Union leaders knew that their signal code had been
broken, so Chief of Staff Daniel Butterfield had a message sent saying
that Stoneman’s Cavalry Corps would be leaving to attack the Shenandoah
Valley soon. As a result, Lee shifted his cavalry to the northwest, leaving
a gap through which Hooker subsequently led the bulk of his army. Although
Hooker lost, D’Aoust calls this "perhaps…the greatest Union might-have-been
of the entire war." Union uses of "Quaker guns", wooden
replicas painted black to look like real artillery, are discussed next.
Some examples include at Fort Craig in New Mexico, at Harrison’s Landing
in August 1862 at the tail end of the Peninsula Campaign, and by civilians
in Frankfort, Kentucky later that year. David D. Porter, in charge of
the Union Navy in front of Vicksburg, was furious when he learned that
the Indianola, a Union ironclad, had been partially sunk and
beached south of Vicksburg. He designed a ruse that made an old coal barge
look like a monstrous ironclad, and sent it floating down the river. It
passed the Vicksburg batteries without sinking, and as it approached the
Confederate salvage attempts of the Indianola, the Rebels destroyed
the ship and fled. Individual and smaller scale deceptions could also
succeed. The bayonet attack of the 20th Maine is given as an example of
this sort of guile. D’Aoust next explores several instances of one man
capturing a whole group of the enemy, and ends the article by mentioning
Colonel Charles G. Harker’s use of his entire brigade as a skirmish line
at chickamauga, making the Confederates facing him think he had an entire
Union division to the rear.

Author Roberts treads carefully in this article covering George B.
McClellan’s tenure as Governor of New Jersey from 1878-1881. The author
says that some of the same criticisms and accolades applied to the man
during his military career could also be said of his political career.
Roberts recounts the views of McClellan supporters such as Warren W. Hassler,
Jr. and detractors such as Stephen Sears and James McPherson. Apparently
McClellan was too honest to be a politician. He refused requests to find
jobs for certain individuals friendly to his Democratic Party, he alienated
both houses of New Jersey’s Congress, Democrat and Republican alike, and
he did not get involved in the deal making that Roberts asserts was a
necessary (even if personally distasteful) part of late 19th Century politics.
Others applaud McClellan for stating above the muck of corruption, carefully
controlling spending, and lobbying intensely for better education. In
the end, says Roberts, McClellan’s turn as a politician can be as hotly
debated as his life as a Union general.

The story of Bishop-General Leonidas Polk’s death on Pine Mountain,
Georgia is told in this article by Russell Bonds. After graduating from
West Point, Polk decided to leave the army and study at the virginia Theological
Seminary. much to his father’s disgust. By the age of 32, Polk had been
named the missionary bishop of the Southwest, mainly due to his family’s
name and his high standing, says Bonds. The author then relates Polk’s
experiences as both a bishop and a general through the first three years
of the war. Polk’s last day on earth was June 14, 1864. He had accompanied
Generals Hardee and Johnston to the Confederate salient on Pine Mountain,
and Sherman himself observed the large party of horsemen. The Northern
leader ordered oliver Otis Howard to direct some artillery fire onto the
slope where the generals were observing Union lines. One of these shells
hit Polk and nearly tore him in half, killing him instantly. In a sidebar
article, Bonds also says that the 5th Indiana Battery was undoubtedly
responsible for firing the fatal shot, no matter how many competing claims
surface.

Jay Wertz discusses some interesting sites to visit in and around Fredericksburg,
Virginia, including Prospect Hill, Chatham Manor, the Innis House, and
the sites of the Federal pontoon bridges.

This version of "Album of the Late War" includes
topics such as the fate of George Junkin, the flag of Walters’ Battery,
Company B, 2nd Alabama Light Artillery Battalion, and relics of McClellan’s
failed bid at the Presidency in 1864.

This issue’s frozen moment depicts Father Thomas H. Mooney of the 69th
New York delivering Sunday Mass to some members of his regiment.