War of Northern Aggression?

   What do you call the war? What did they call the war? Recently, the folks over at Carnton House in Franklin, Tennessee, posted an interesting facebook question. They had a visitor stop by and ask them about the origins of the term “War of Northern Aggression.” Their response was that this term did not originate until the 1960s. Well… that’s not exactly true. While it might have become popular in the 1960s, a phrase similar to that one appeared often in period newspapers, and, many Southerners viewed the aggressors as those from the Northern states.  For example, in February 1861, US Senator William H. Seward introduced a petition from Northern merchants in favor of conciliation. Senator James M. Mason, Virginia, responded, exposing Seward’s speech as “a latent declaration of war, in behalf of Northern aggression, against Southern rights.”[1]

   A similar phrase used by a Richmond editor appeared a few weeks later. The article was discussing a Federal naval captain, J. P. Levy, who had joined the Confederate navy. Capt. Levy “with the heart of a true Southern man, prefers to aid the Southern Confederacy in the war against Northern aggression and despotism.”[2] A newspaper editor in Raleigh, writing in April 1862, thought that “North Carolina and the South entered upon this war to resist the usurpations of Northern aggression and tyranny; to preserve intact the right of the people of these States to govern themselves, and to perpetuate constitutional liberty to generations yet unborn.”[3]

   “Northern aggression” was a popular term for many writers in the 1860s. In Louisville, Tennessee, January 1, 1861, a group of citizens gathered and passed several resolutions. They regretted the breakup of the Union, but believed “that cause exists, solely from Northern aggression upon Southern constitutional rights“ and that there had been many cases of “Northern aggression for many years upon their rights…”[4] In a “Southern Rights” meeting in Christian County, Kentucky, in April 1861, some of the local citizens promised to hold themselves “in readiness to resist Northern aggression.”[5] “I am willing to make any sacrifice, sooner than the South shall be subjugated by Northern aggression,” North Carolina’s Thomas I. Faison wrote in October 1861.[6]

   “Northern aggression” was a term used throughout the remaining war years by Southern newspaper editors. In July 1862, the Greensboro Patriot, in describing Col. Zebulon B. Vance, wrote that Vance had “bared his breast to resist the tide of Northern aggression and subjugation…”[7] The editor of the Weekly Standard lamented in May 1862 that the “great men, who fought and won the battle of secession against Northern aggression and Southern submission, were thus, in the hour of triumph, crushed and humiliated as martyrs to the liberties of their own countrymen.”[8] In writing about the death of Brig. Gen. Allison Nelson, an Atlanta editor opinioned that Nelson “was one of the most vigilant and active of that patriot band, early and long determined to resist Northern aggression at all hazards.”[9] In talking about the French invasion of Mexico, the editor of the Abingdon Virginian confessed that France would need the help of the Southern Confederacy to “protect her from Northern aggression.”[10]

   The phrase “Northern aggression” continued after the war on the pages of various Southern history publications. The history committee of the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans wrote in 1900 that “There was no need for war. The action of the Southern States was legal and constitutional, and history will attest that it was reluctantly taken in the last extremity, in the hope of thereby saving their whole constitutional rights and liberties from destruction by Northern aggression…” (There are many other examples in the pages of the Southern Historical Society Papers) The phrase “Northern aggression” also appears throughout the pages of Confederate Veteran.[11]

   The term “war against Northern aggression” or “war of Northern aggression” gained popularity in the 1960s, with publications like Burke Davis’s Our Incredible Civil War (1960) and Newman’s and Long’s The Civil War Digest (1960). The most likely rise in popularity of the term stemmed from Hollywood. Granny Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies often said it was not a “Civil War,” but a “War of Northern Aggression.”  Of course, the Clampetts are one of the major sources of stereotypes of Southerners, although they actually hailed from Missouri.

The Beverly Hillbillies - S)6E13: "The South Rises Again." 

   The term “Northern aggression” of course signifies decades of sectional and political conflict in the United States. We’ll save that for a future post(s).

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[1] New York Herald, February 7, 1861.

[2] Richmond Enquirer, May 24, 1861.

[3] Weekly Standard, April 9, 1862.

[4] Nashville Union and American, January 4, 1861.

[5] Clarksville Chronicle, April 26, 1861.

[6] Weekly Standard, October 23, 1861.

[7] Greensboro Patriot, July 31, 1862.

[8] Weekly Standard, May 28, 1862.

[9] Southern Confederacy, November 29, 1862.

[10]  The Abington Virginian, March 4, 1864.

[11] Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 28, 185.

Women as Clerics in the Southern Confederacy

   It is an often-repeated phrase: women left behind in various Southern states had to adapt, often performing a wide range of tasks beyond the normal status quo of taking care of the home and children. But the idea of 1860s women adopting the role of the clergy may seem farfetched to today’s readers.

   Historically, in most cultures, women were intrinsically involved with the processes of birth, life, and death. This concept is clear from the mythical triptych depiction of the female: maiden, mother and crone. In a practical sense, nearly every activity connected to being born, nurturing life, and caring for the dead was conducted and supervised by women. Only in more “modern” times have men become the primary figures in these practices, with the advent of medical and funeral practices conducted by professionals, men trained in facilities that often did not even permit the training of women. However, in the past, particularly in rural areas, women delivered babies, cared for children, treated the sick, and, when a person died, it was women who often cleaned and dressed the body, while also making a shroud. Men typically built the coffin and dug the grave. After the family sat up with the body overnight (embalming was not really in practice, except for the rich), the deceased was transported to the cemetery and a few words were spoken. Then the grave was filled. High churches, like Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc., had a proscribed liturgy that was to be read over the deceased. Exclusively male clergymen conducted these funeral rites and services

   There are many stories of women burying dead soldiers, both North and South. The pregnant Elizabeth Thorn at Gettysburg is one of the best known. But some women went further, and due to the absence of men, assumed the role of a cleric, performing the service for the dead, and challenging traditional gender roles as they took on one more aspect of caring for human beings departing this life.

   Francis Kirby Palmer was the wife of Col. John B. Palmer (58^th North Carolina Troops). In 1858, they moved from Detroit, Michigan, to western North Carolina, building a home on the banks of the Linville River. (Francis’s brother was Capt. Edmond Kirby, US Army, promoted to brigadier general on his deathbed.) With Colonel Palmer away in the army, Episcopal missionary and teacher William West Skiles came and stayed with Mrs. Palmer, her young son, and niece. Skiles was already ill at the time, and his health continued to deteriorate. After being confined to his room at the Palmer house for three months, Skiles died on December 8, 1862. A rough box was constructed, and Skiles was buried in Mrs. Palmer’s rose garden. According to a biography of Skiles, “Mrs. Palmer herself put on his surplice, unwilling that a hireling should perform that service for him.” A surplice is a type of liturgical vestment, usually a white tunic maybe reaching to the knees. It is to be worn at all times while the minister is performing his ministration. Mrs. Palmer put on the surplice and read the burial service over his body.[1]

   The ritual itself largely contains Scripture readings, many from the book of Psalms, and several from the New Testament as well.

   There is a second reference to a woman performing the Funeral Liturgy. This one occurred a few months earlier. In May 1862, the Texas brigade had its first taste of battle at Eltham’s Landing in Virginia. Among the mortally wounded was Lt. Col. Harvey H. Black, 1^st Texas Infantry, dying on May 7. According to a couple of different accounts, Lieutenant Colonel Black, and another soldier, Private Bush, were buried at Cedar Hill, New Kent County, Virginia, on the property of Dr. John Mayo. One Texas soldier wrote that Black was buried “in a private graveyard on the hill, and the burial service of the Episcopal church was read at the grave by a lady to whom the premises belonged.”[2]

The 1864 painting of The Burial of Latané depicts a similar scene of a burial being conducted by women, but the painting is an artistic interpretation, since the service was actually conducted by a Methodist minister who arrived shortly before the service and burial were conducted.

   These two stories, and there are undoubtedly more waiting to be discovered, provide illustrations for several different important points. Women were willing to ensure that men were to have proper burials in a time of increasing hardship. These women were willing to provide the last stages of that “Good Death” so often discussed in historical literature of the past twenty plus years. Women were willing to assume roles not typically perceived by society as being roles for women. While women were often involved in the burial process, these women were willing to go beyond tradition. For Mrs. Palmer, William West Skiles was a family friend who had lived with them for a short amount of time. For those in New Kent County, Lieutenant Colonel Black was a stranger from Texas. Yet the norms of the era dictated that he also deserved a proper burial. With no ordained minister at hand, these women were willing to see that the prescribed customs of the time were followed. Were there repercussions for their actions? Were they criticized or praised? It is hard to say.

   While there was discussion of starting an Episcopal church close to the Palmer home, the closest church was more than twenty miles away over poor mountain roads, so Mrs. Palmer’s decision seems to have been influenced by both geography and by circumstances. There was a church, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, in New Kent County, but it is unknown if the woman who buried Colonel Black and Private Bush was a member. In any case, what we do know is that these women understood the importance of proper rituals and burial practices, and they were willing to take on unexpected roles to ensure those practices were completed for friends and strangers.

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[1] Cooper, William West Skiles: A Sketch of Missionary Life at Valle Crucis in Western North Carolina, 136.

[2] Todd, First Texas Regiment, 4-5.

Site Visit Saturday: the Grave of Abraham Buford, Lexington, Kentucky

    Cemeteries are wonderful history lessons. Often, the larger cemeteries have scores of lessons. We could spend the rest of the year just in today’s cemetery, the Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. For now, we’ll concentrate on just one story, the life of Abraham Buford.

    Born in Woodford County, Kentucky, on January 18, 1820, Buford was educated by a private tutor before attending Centre College and then West Point, where he graduated in 1841. Among his classmates were Richard B. Garnett, Robert S. Garnett, Josiah Gorgas, John Marshall Jones, Samuel Jones, and Claudius Wistar Sears, all Confederate generals. (There were a few Union generals in his class as well, including Horatio G. Wright, Schuyler Hamilton, John F. Reynolds, and Nathaniel Lyon.) After graduation, Buford was assigned to the 1^st US Dragoons, seeing duty in Kansas, Mexico (where Buford was breveted to captain for gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Buena Vista), New Mexico, and at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Buford resigned from the army in 1854 and took up farming in Woodford County. He was soon breeding racehorses and shorthorn cattle, gaining a national reputation.

   A biographical sketch states that while Buford was an ardent advocate of states’ rights, he counseled

Abraham Buford. 

against secession, and remained neutral until the summer of 1862 when he joined with John H. Morgan. Buford raised what amounted to a brigade composed of the 3^rd, 5^th, and 6^th Kentucky Cavalry regiments. Buford led the brigade at Perryville and during the Murfreesboro campaign. Official promotion to brigadier general came on November 29, 1862. Following a dispute with one of his regimental commanders, Buford was transferred to Mississippi and placed under John Pemberton. He led his brigade at the battle of Champion Hill and served in W. W. Loring’s Division for several months, escaping the surrender at Vicksburg. In March 1864, Buford was assigned to Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command, and Buford’s infantry raided into Kentucky to supply itself with horses. Buford was assigned to command one of Forrest’s cavalry divisions.

   The battle of Brice’s Cross Roads in June 1864 is considered Buford’s finest hour, and Forrest’s greatest victory. Buford rode with Forrest until November when his division was attached to the Army of Tennessee. They opened the battle at Spring Hill, fought at Murfreesboro, and Buford was wounded in the shoulder near Franklin on December 17, and in the leg at Richland Creek on December 24. He returned to the war in February 1865, and fought at Selma, Alabama in April 1865. Buford was paroled at Gainesville, Alabama, on May 10, 1865.

Lexington Cemetery 

   Following the war, Buford returned to Kentucky to raise racehorses, advocate reconciliation, and serve in the Kentucky legislature in 1879. However, the death of his only son and his wife, as well as a series of severe financial reverses that resulted in the loss of his home, led Buford to commit suicide at his brother’s home in Danville, Indiana, in June 1884. He was buried next to his wife in Lexington. The Lexington Cemetery is the final resting place of a number of Confederate generals, including John H. Morgan, John C. Breckinridge, and Basil Duke.

   There is no stand-alone biography on Abraham Buford. However, there is an excellent sketch in Kentuckians in Gray, edited by Bruce Allardice and Lawrence Lee Hewitt (2008)

   I have visited the Lexington Cemetery once, in the fall of 1997.

Greene County, NC

    It has been a long time since I’ve created a county snapshot, so, by request, here is a look at Greene County, North Carolina, and the War!

   Greene County, located in the eastern part of the state, was created in 1791 from portions of Johnston and Dobbs Counties, and originally named Glasgow County, after James Glasgow, North Carolina’s Secretary of State from 1777 to 1798. Glasgow’s dealings with military land grant fraud forced him to resign and leave North Carolina. The county was renamed Greene County after General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary War fame. The county seat is Snow Hill, founded on the banks of the Contentnea Creek in 1828.

   In 1860, Greene County had a population of 7,925. The slave population (3,947), coupled with the free person of color population (152), outnumbered the white population. In the 1860 presidential contest, Greene County men cast 381 votes for Breckinridge-Lane and 325 for Bell-Everett.  The Douglas-Johnson ticket received no votes.

William A. Darden, Jr. (Ancestry)

   When the call came to consider the question of calling a convention in February 1861, the men in the county cast 457 votes for the convention, with 106 against. When the convention was finally held, the county was represented by William A. Darden, Jr. Darden was a native son and local farmer. Darden would later serve as a captain in the 61^st North Carolina Troops. James P. Speight represented the county in the state senate in 1860-1861 and 1864-1865, while Arthur Dobbs Speight represented the county in the state house 1860-61, and then Henry H. Best 1862-1865. 

Companies in Confederate service from Greene County include:

Company A, 3^rd North Carolina State Troops

Company K, 33^rd North Carolina Troops        

Company E, 61^st North Carolina Troops

Company F, 61^st North Carolina Troops

Company F, 8^th Battalion Partisan Rangers

Company I, 66^th North Carolina Troops

Company C, 67^th North Carolina Troops

   There also seem to be several men, based upon the 1890 US Veterans Schedule, who served in the 14^th United States Colored Heavy Artillery.

Greene County, North Carolina

   The war came to Greene County in April 1863 when Brig. Gen. James J. Pettigrew’s brigade established its headquarters in Hookerton. Three months later, a Federal raiding party, a part of Edward Potter’s force that had raided Rocky Mount, entered Greene County, camping on the night of July 20^th at Grimsley Baptist Church. Confederate forces skirmished with Federals throughout the day. On July 21, the Federals crossed over the Scuffleton Bridge at Hookerton, burning the bridge, as well as the one at Haw Landing, behind them. Then, in April 1865, a small group of Federals was moving through the area when local forces attacked, mortally wounding Captain Henry A. Hubbard, 12^th New York Cavalry.

   After the war, Greene County had a United Confederate Veterans Camp – the Drysdale Camp 849 in Snow Hill. The Albritton-Sugg Chapter 1766 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was formed in Hookerton in 1922. The UDC erected a monument to local Confederate soldiers in 1929 in Snow Hill.

Site Visit Saturday: Saltville, Virginia

   The town of Saltville, in Smyth County, Virginia, has a deep and interesting history, one that I’m sure we will be re-visiting in the future. Saltville was the site of an ancient salt lake, and the salt deposits have drawn people for thousands of years. Salt was a requirement, especially for preserving meat, required by every Southern family prior to war, and while there were natural salt deposits, like those at Saltville, the United States imported 12,000,000 bushels annually. The blockade shut off the overseas markets, and Southerners turned increasingly to the ocean, artesian wells, and inland salt lakes.

   Salt had been mined in Saltville since at least 1773. By 1860, most of the property was owned or leased by Stuart, Buchanan, and Company. The salt, produced by boiling the water, was some of the best in the United States. Naturally, when the Federal blockade made it difficult to import salt, the natural deposits became even more important. The problem with the salt works at Saltville was the location, in the Appalachian Mountains. Once the salt was produced, it had to be transported several miles through the mountains to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad for transportation. After September 1863, that line seldom ran south of the Watauga Depot in Carter County, Tennessee. Running north was not a problem until the train reached Lynchburg or Petersburg. There, the bags of salt had to be unloaded and reloaded due to different railroad gauges. 

Salt making display in Saltville 

   The Confederate States, and various other states, leased property from Stuart, Buchanan, and Company to manufacture salt. North Carolina began operations in June 1862, negotiating for kettles, salt pans, and bricks for the kiln. Slaves were brought in from Warren County, and osnaburg cloth from Randolph County was brought to produce bags, By July 1863, the North Carolina works at Saltville had manufactured 106,000 bushels of salt, shipping 86,000 pounds back. In many cases, the salt was delivered to the railroad depots where the salt agents for various counties would arrive with wagons to transport the commodity back to their respective areas. In Alabama, the fourteen northern counties in the state were supplied with salt from Saltville. The facilities struggled with obtaining enough wood and workers. At one point in 1864, the men from North Carolina working in Saltville were all conscripted into Confederate service.

   There were several attempts by the Federals to shut down the operations in Saltville. The first battle of Saltville occurred October 2, 1864 and was a Federal defeat. The second battle of Saltville occurred December 20-21, 1864, and was successful. However, the works were again operational before the end of the war. (These raids deserve their own post.)

   Part of the site is preserved by the American Battlefield Trust. There are a couple of good books on salt and the war, including Ella Lonn’s Salt as a Factor in the Confederacy (1965). I have visited Saltville several times over the years. My last visit was in July 2019. There are a couple of Civil War Trails markers, along with a display showing how the salt was produced.

French Blockade Runner? The arrest of Louis de Bebian.

   While the exact number of citizens arrested by the Lincoln Administration during the war is unknown (13,000-38,000) we really know the stories of only a handful. Clement Vallandingham and Rose O’Neal Greenhow come to mind. Louis de Bebian is not one of those names, but, in August 1861, he was arrested.

   Louis was born in 1829 on the French Island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. In 1855, he moved with his family to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he taught French and worked as a partner in O. G. Parsely & Company, lumber and commission merchants. Once the war commenced, he engaged in blockade running, traveling through the French Antilles, working on acquiring supplies for the Confederacy. It was determined to send de Babian to England and France, and on August 6, 1861, he boarded the schooner Adelso in Wilmington, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Running into bad weather, the Adelso was forced to put into port in Newport, Rhode Island, on August 12. Upon hearing that the Adelso had sailed from a Southern Port, the USS Henrietta seized the ship’s cargo of spirits, turpentine, and rosin, and de Bebian.

William H. Seward

   No one was allowed to leave the Adelso, and all of the papers on board were seized. While de Bebian claimed to be simply a passenger, among the papers in his trunk was a letter authorizing him to purchase between 5,000 to 0,000 “army blankets,” 1,000 bags of coffee, “tons of iron of various sizes,” along with personal clothing. The items were to be shipped on a British or French vessel. Included were instructions on how to signal the shore once the vessel was off the coast of Wilmington, so a pilot could be sent out to guide the vessel into the Cape Fear River. Because of his French citizenship, he was allowed to go ashore on August 17, the same day that he made an affidavit stating he was simply a passenger. But de Babian was arrested on William H. Seward’s order on August 19 and sent to Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor. S, W. Macy, the collector at the port of Newport, found de Babian’s demeanor pleasant at first, but on his arrest, he “commenced abusing both the Government and the people of the United States… He also stated that he should go to England and blow the United States to hell, and then he would go to France and return with fifty ships of war and have full redress…” 

   A lengthy paper trail soon developed. De Bebian wrote Count Montholon, the French Consul in New York, of his plight. He then wrote to Price Napoleon, and the French Consul in Washington, D.C.  De Babian’s children, who lived in New York City, wrote to both the French Consul in New York, and to Seward, asking for their father’s release. In September, due to an attack of “violent diarrhoea,” de Bebian was paroled and allowed to visit his family in New York, a parole that was extended. In the meantime, but to the chagrin of Seward, the incriminating papers found in de Bebian’s trunks, were lost. On October 4, Seward ordered the release of de Bebian, and about a month later, he was on his way to Britain and France. Once in France, de Bebian complained of his treatment, and the loss of his papers, which the French Consul in Washington took up, asking for indemnity. Eventually, Seward came to the conclusion that de Bebian was not an “innocent passenger,” nor was the Adelso “a neutral vessel.”[1]

   Louis de Bebian spent little time in Europe. A North Carolina newspaper reported that after he was released, Seward granted him a passport, with an endorsement that de Bebian was “not to enter into any of the insurrectionary States.” He sailed to Britain, and then France, where he met with Emperor Napoleon. “The Emperor said that he should be allowed to return to his place of business, and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs prepared the necessary papers for the French minister at Washington.” De Bebian “returned to Washington and applied for a passport to Wilmington, but Seward refused it. The next day the French minister called on Seward and showed his papers, when Seward granted the passport.”[2] De Bebian was reported to be in Norfolk, Virginia, on February 4.[3]

Emperor Napoleon III 

   There is not much of a record of de Bebian for the rest of the War. Following the conflict, he moved to New York City, becoming an agent for a French steamer company. Louis de Bebian passed in December 1893, and is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx County, New York. An obituary on findagrave states that his casket was carried into the church by twelve French sailors, all in uniform. It is not really clear just who de Bebian was working for. While he denounced the United States government, he might have just been seeking stock for his company. He does not appear in Bullock’s The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, or in Wise’s Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil Way. De Bebian’s arrest and imprisonment could have caused an international incident with France, something that Seward and the Lincoln administration wished to avoid.

 

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[1] Official Records, Series II, Vol. 2, 432-455.

[2] Fayetteville Semi-Weekly, February 6, 1862.

[3] The Daily Journal, February 5, 1862.

Site Visit Saturday: CSS Nashville at Fort McAllister

 

   There are just a handful of places where visitors can see remnants of Confederate vessels from the War. That small list includes the CSS Neuse in Kinston, North Carolina, and the ships at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia. A visitor can find remnants of the CSS Nashville at Fort McAllister in Richmond Hill, Georgia.

   Many of the vessels used by the Confederate States naval forces were captured vessels, ships captured at the beginning of the war. Constructed in Greenpoint, New York, in 1853, the CSS Nashville started out as the United States Mail Ship Nashville. The Nashville, a brig-rigged, side-paddle-wheel passenger steamer, plied the waters between Charleston, South Carolina, and New York City from 1853 to 1861. During the attack on Fort Sumter, the Nashville sailed into Charleston Harbor and was fired upon by the USRC Harriet Lane. Following the capitulation of Sumter, the Nashville entered the harbor, tied up at the dock, and was captured. The Confederates outfitted the Nashville as a cruiser, and she slipped out of Charleston in October 1861. She was the first ship of war to fly the Confederate flag in English waters. Near the British Isles on November 19, the Nashville captured and burned the American merchant ship Harvey Birch.

   The Nashville returned to the Confederate States in February 1862, was renamed the Thomas L. Wagg and used as a blockade runner, then in November 1862, was repurposed as a privateer, and again renamed as the Rattlesnake. The Rattlesnake had run aground at Seven Mile Bend in the Ogeechee River, near Fort McAllister. McAllister was an earthen fort protecting the city of Savannah. The Fort was attacked several times during the war. In late January 1863, a campaign started to take the fort. Several ships were involved, including the ironclad USS Montauk.  While Fort McAllister survived, the CSS Rattlesnake (oftentimes still referred to as the Nashville) was sunk on February 28, 1863. Private citizens began diving and excavating the site in 1979. The state of Georgia sued, stating that the site and all artifacts belonged to the state. The courts agreed and the artifacts were turned over to the state. On visiting the Fort McAllister State Park, visitors can see some of the artifacts from the vessel.

   My family last visited Fort McAllister and the artifacts from the CSS Nashville/Rattlesnake in December 2016.

Surrendered, Smuggled, or Severed? The Battle Flags of the ANV and the AOT at Appomattox and the Bennett Place.

37th Alabama Infantry

   Back in January/February 1987, an article appeared in Confederate Veteran magazine about the flag of the 37^th Alabama Infantry. As the story goes, that flag escaped surrender twice. After the regiment was surrendered at Vicksburg, the flag was secreted away, folded up in the saddle blanket of Col. James F. Dowdell’s horse. Then after the surrender of the regiment at Greensboro, the flag was “smuggled out of Greensboro” by a Captain Johnson. The flag remained in various families until it was donated to Auburn University and is today in the Alabama Room at Auburn.[1]

   The surrender terms worked out between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, stipulated that “arms, artillery, and public property” were to be stacked and turned over to an officer designated by Grant. Likewise, the final terms worked out between Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman at the Bennett Place on April 26, 1865, specified once again that  “public property” had to be turned over to an ordinance offer of the United States army. Since flags were issued by the government, they would be considered public property. But like the story above regarding the flag of the 37^th Alabama, not all flags were surrendered. Some were, but others were secreted away, while others were destroyed by Confederate soldiers.

61st Virginia Infantry 

   Federal General John Gibbon wrote on April 13, 1865, that 71 Confederate flags were surrendered at Appomattox.[2] Most of the descriptions of the surrender of flags come from the Federals. One Federal wrote that the Confederates seemed to hate to give up their flags more than anything else. Many kissed the flags with tears in their eyes.[3] Federal General Joshua L. Chamberlain, supervising the stacking of arms, wrote that “Then, slowly and with a reluctance that was appealingly pathetic, the torn and tattered battleflags were either leaned against the stacks or laid on the ground.”[4] However, one North Carolinian wrote that the flags were placed on the stacks, not on the ground.[5] Among those surrendered include the flags of the those of the 5^th, 48^th, and 60^th Alabama Infantry regiments; the 13^th, 15^th, and 28^th North Carolina regiments, and the 61^st Virginia Infantry. A few Army of Northern Virginia flags were secreted away. Ensign Emanuel Rudisill, 16^th North Carolina State Troops, sewed his regiment’s silk battle flag inside the lining of his coat and brought it home.[6] Likewise the flags of the 2^nd South Carolina Infantry, 12^th South Carolina Infantry, 38^th North Carolina Troops, and 25^th North Carolina Troops were not surrendered and were brought home. The flag of the 14^th South Carolina Infantry was concealed under a rock before the surrender, and was later retrieved.[7] A few flags, like the headquarters flag of Robert E. Lee, and the flags of the 23^rd and 24^th Virginia Regiments, were not surrendered or brought home, intact. Instead, they were cut up and the pieces distributed among the paroled soldiers.

It was a different scenario with the Army of Tennessee. Instead of being boxed in like the Army of Northern Virginia, the various Confederate regiments in North Carolina were spread out, from Greensboro to High Point to Salisbury, even Charlotte. There were no formal surrender ceremonies. Instead, artillery was parked and some regiments stacked some of their arms, although Confederates were allowed to keep some of their weapons. Very few flags were surrendered. A report from the New York Herald noted that “We have got very few battle flags or horses.”[8] Many of the Army of Tennessee soldiers concealed their flags to take home. The third bunting issue Army of Northern Virginia flag of the 26^th Alabama Infantry (the regiment served in both the ANV and the AOT) was wrapped around the body servant of Dr. Hayes, the brigade surgeon, and brought back to Alabama.[9]

3rd Tennessee Infantry

The flag of the 49^th Tennessee was concealed on the person Robert Y. Johnson, only to be forcibly taken by Federals when the group reached Lenoir City, Tennessee.[10] Other flags that were concealed and brought home include those of the 3^rd, 7^th, 10^th, 12^th, 16^th, and 24^th South Carolina Infantry, 20^th, 33^rd, 34^th, 36^th, and 40^th Alabama Infantry; 8^th and 17^th North Carolina Troops; 3^rd, 4^th, 6/9^th, 11^th, 13^th, 18^th/26^th, 24^th, 32^nd, and 49^th Tennessee Infantry regiments; 7^th Florida Infantry; 9^th Arkansas Infantry; and 1^st and 42^nd Georgia Infantry regiments. Some flags, such as those of the 7^th and 58^th North Carolina Troops, 1^st Tennessee, and 7^th South Carolina Battalion, were cut up and the pieces distributed to the remaining members. A member of the 2^nd Tennessee Cavalry recalled cutting their flag up into 160 pieces.[11] A member of the 47^th Georgia recalled cutting up their flag,  concealing the pieces in a saddle blanket and setting off to the Trans-Mississippi department.[12] Except for the flag of the 26^th Tennessee Infantry, it is not clear if any other flags were surrendered by the Army of Tennessee, and this banner could have been captured at the battle of Bentonville.[13]

This post just barely scratches the surface of Confederate battle flags and the last month of the war. Unless it is hidden away at the National Archives, there does not seem to be a list of Confederate flags that were captured, destroyed, surrendered, or secreted home through the months of April and May 1865. What a project! 

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[1] Golden, “The 37^th Alabama Flag,” Confederate Veteran (January-February 1987): 24-25.

[2] Official Records, 46, pt.3, 734.

[3] Cauble, The Surrender Proceedings, 95-96.

[4] Chamberlain, “Last Salute,” 362.

[5] Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:77.

[6] Dedmondt, The Flags of Civil War North Carolina, 100.

[7] Dedmondt, The Flags of Civil War South Carolina, 106.

[8] New York Herald, May 9, 1865.

[9] Dedmondt, The Flags of Civil War Alabama, 80.

[10] Cox, Civil War Flags of Tennessee, 361.

[11] Cox, civil War Flags of Tennessee, 431.

[12] Dunkerly, The Confederate Surrender at Greensboro, 116.

[13] Cox, Civil War Flags of Tennessee, 294.

Site Visit Saturday: Lt. Col. Frank A. Reynolds, 39th NC, Egypt, and Philadelphia

 

   In June 2015, we were on one of those classic “see America” road trips. Our son had been competing at National History Day in Maryland, and after the contest ended, we headed north to Philadelphia for a couple of days, then west to Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry. One of our stops was Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. Laurel Hill is one of the classic Victorian Cemeteries, and with more than 33,000 graves, it is huge. There are graves of many important historical people at Laurel Hill: novelist Owen Wister; Titanic survivor Eleanor Widener; Constitutional Congress secretary Charles Thomson; Union general George Gordon Meade; and Confederate general John C. Pemberton, just to name a few. As we were stumbling through this cemetery, I found the grave of another interesting Confederate soldier: Lt. Col. Frank A. Reynolds. 

Frank A. Reynolds (findagrave)

   Frank A. Reynolds was born in the current state of Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) on August 10, 1841. His father was Alexander W. Reynolds (Yep, the Confederate general) and his mother was Mary Reeves Ash Reynolds. Like his father, Frank Reynolds attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. The younger Reynolds graduated[MCH1]  in June 1861. Some of his classmates included Alonzo Cushing, Patrick H. O’Rorke, and George A. Custer. Reynolds, however, did not follow his classmates into the Federal army. Instead, he returned to Virginia. He served as a cavalry officer under Gen. John B. Floyd in 1861, then was appointed captain and assistant adjutant general to Gen. Samuel G. French. On May 19, 1862, Reynolds was appointed major and assigned to the 39^th North Carolina Troops. He was appointed lieutenant colonel on December 29, 1862.

The 39^th North Carolina Troops was one of four North Carolina infantry regiments that served in the Western Theater of the war (the 29^th, 58^th, and 60^th NC regiments are the others). The 39^th Regiment saw action at Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Ezra Church, Franklin, Nashville, Mobile, Fort Blakely, and Spanish Fort. It appears that Reynolds was present for most of those actions. On May 9, 1865, the lieutenant colonel was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi.

   After the war, Reynolds served for a brief amount of time as a street inspector in New York City, before accepting a commission as an artillery colonel on the staff of Gen. William W. Loring, in the Egyptian Army. Frank Reynolds was in Ilion, New York, when he passed in July 1875. A brief obituary in the Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), simply read: Col. Frank Reynolds, one of the American officers in the service of the Egyptian Khedive, was found dead in his bed Tuesday at Ilion, N.Y. He was on leave of absence.” Writing in 1901, Lt. Theodore F. Davidson regretted that there was little “data of his subsequent career,” but believed that Reynolds was “an accomplished soldier.”