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A.P. Hill at Gettysburg
Presented by Jon Thompson
 Ambrose
Powell Hill was one of Robert E. Lee’s closest, ablest, longest
serving lieutenants. Promoted to lieutenant general following the
death of Stonewall Jackson, Hill led Lee’s Third Corps at Gettysburg
where he was largely ineffective. Was he sick, not yet comfortable in
his new command, or had Lee promoted Hill to his level of
incompetence? What happened
to A.P. Hill at Gettysburg? Our Speaker:
Roundtable past President Jon Thompson taught English and history
for nearly 40 years at Lee Burneson Middle School in Westlake, OH.
During his tenure there, Jon created the annual "Civil
War Days" event which immerses 8th grade students in all aspects
of the Civil War era. The students study the period, work on related
projects and attend an "Encampment Night" where they hear a number
of talks on topics relating to the era and then attend a Civil War
Ball in period gowns and uniforms. At the ball they perform a
play, drill as soldiers, dance to period songs and sing as a chorus. To make a reservation:
Use the Dinner Reservation Form on
this website, send an email to
or call 440-449-9311 and leave a message on the voice mail.
Please note: Meetings
are held at Judson Manor at the corner of East
107th Street and Chester on University Circle in downtown Cleveland.
Map to Judson Manor
FULL 2011-12 PROGRAM SCHEDULE>>
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Lincoln and Grant: The
Westerners Who Won the Civil War
By Edward W. Bonekemper, III
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Abraham
Lincoln
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Ulysses S.
Grant
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In the course of writing two
earlier books,
A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military
Genius and
Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian , I discovered the increasingly close
working relationship between President Abraham Lincoln and General
Ulysses S. Grant as the Union moved toward victory in the Civil War.
Astounded to discover that there has been no book-length treatment
exclusively about their significant relationship, I decided to
examine their backgrounds, experiences and wartime interactions in
order to demonstrate how these two men, working together, won the
Civil War.
This book is the result. It is not
intended to be a thorough biography of either man but instead a
sufficient study of their lives and Civil War activities to
understand and appreciate their extraordinary individual and
collaborative achievements. It examines Lincoln and Grant’s
similarities, and differences, and describes how their relationship
grew into one of the most significant in American history. It
terminates with Lincoln’s death on April 15, 1865.
The relationship of the president
as commander-in-chief with his generals in uniform had been and
remains a critical issue in American government. In doing little
more than designating the president as commander-in-chief and giving
congress the power to declare war, the U.S. Constitution does not
provide any real guidance. The War of 1812 lacked national military
organization or coordination on the part of the United States. The
Mexican-American War saw President James K. Polk first appoint
Zachary Taylor as his leading general to keep Winfield Scott out of
the limelight and then replace Taylor with Scott after Taylor’s
military successes – all primarily for political reasons.
Therefore, Lincoln was treading in
essentially uncharted territory as he undertook a gigantic war and
experimented with civilian-military relations. As discussed in this
book, Lincoln’s relationship with generals-in-chief Scott, George B.
McClellan and Henry Halleck were less than satisfactory. Between the
terms of the latter two, he and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton even
tried running the war without a designated general-in-chief. It was
only with the elevation of Grant to that position in March 1864 and
the quickly-developing cooperation between Lincoln and Grant that an
effective civilian-military relationship became a reality. Their
development of a civilian-controlled, militarily effective
relationship, with virtually no precedent upon which to build, was
astounding and provided a model for future American wars.
CONTINUE ARTICLE>>
Editor's note: This article is an
excerpt from the introduction to Edward H. Bonekemper's latest book,
Lincoln and Grant: The Westerners Who Won the Civil War,
and appears here through the courtesy of
the author. Mr. Bonekemper will be speaking to the Roundtable at
our April meeting.
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Compassionate Confederate
By David A. Carrino
Roundtable
Historian
"War is all hell." "War is cruelty
and you cannot refine it." These words of William Tecumseh Sherman
are familiar to everyone here. But sometimes even in the midst of
hell, some small speck of heaven is present, an unexpected act of
kindness for the enemy that runs counter to the primary objective of
the perpetrator. One such incident that occurred at the battle of
Gettysburg was the encounter between John B. Gordon and Francis
Barlow. Surprising as it seems, that was not the only one.
James Jackson (Jack) Purman was a
schoolteacher in Pennsylvania. In July 1862, he enlisted in the army and
became first lieutenant in the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteers. About a year
later on July 2, 1863, the 140th Pennsylvania was among the Union forces that
fought in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg. Unable to withstand the Confederate
assaults, the Union troops, including Purman and the 140th Pennsylvania, fell
back. Almost 50 years later, Purman wrote, "After fighting for nearly two
hours with the loss of all of our field officers and with 241 out of 340 of my
regiment out of combat and surrounded by the enemy on three sides, we fell
back in some disorder." As Purman and a sergeant of the regiment, James M.
Pipes, were scrambling to safety, they heard a voice call out to them for
help. It was a wounded comrade pleading to be carried off the field. Purman
and the sergeant knew that that was not possible, but they moved the wounded
soldier, John Buckley, to a nearby place of safety out of the line of fire.
When Purman continued his flight from the Wheatfield, he heard Confederates
yell at him to stop. Purman continued running toward his own line and was shot
in the left leg just above the ankle. Purman later wrote, "Many have attempted
to tell how it feels to be shot. At first there is no pain, smarting nor
anguish. But that delusion soon passes, and the acute pain follows, and you
know that a missile has passed through the tender flesh of your body."
Purman spent that night on the field among
the many dead and wounded of both sides, in Purman's words, "a ghastly scene
of cold, white upturned faces." As difficult as that night was, the following
day was much worse with the hot sun and the minie balls that passed across the
field. Sometime during the day, Purman was struck in his other leg. Since he
was closer to the enemy's line, he called out to a Confederate soldier for
water. Initially the soldier refused because he feared being shot by a Union
sharpshooter. But after further pleading from Purman, the Confederate crawled
to Purman and gave him a canteen. Purman then prevailed upon the Confederate
to carry him to the Confederate line. Again Purman's request was initially
refused when the Confederate said that, with all the minie balls whizzing by,
both of them would be shot. However, Purman convinced the Confederate to crawl
back to his line with Purman on his back. After they made it, the Confederate
left Purman in the shade of a tree with a canteen.
Eventually the Confederates were driven back.
That night Purman was transported on a stretcher to a Union field hospital
where he spent the night. On the next day, July 4, his left leg was amputated.
Purman later learned that the man he had moved to safety died on the field.
But for his self-sacrificing heroism, Purman was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Purman received one other reward for his act of heroism. When he was
convalescing from his wounds, he met a nurse named Mary Witherow, who later
became Mrs. Purman.
After the war, Purman sought to identify the
Confederate who carried him to safety. When he was lying in the Wheatfield
after receiving his first wound, Purman had the presence of mind to notice
that the colors of the Confederate unit that charged past him bore the name
24th Georgia. He also noticed that the person who crawled to the Confederate
line with him on his back was a lieutenant. With this information and some
assistance from ex-Confederates, including Alexander Stephens, Purman was able
to identify the person who saved him as Thomas P. Oliver. Purman and Oliver
exchanged letters and finally met in Washington, D.C. in June 1907. Oliver
died a year and a half later. Purman died in 1915, his life extended 52 years
thanks to one of his enemies.
Anecdotes such as this and the Gordon-Barlow
incident seem in some ways to be the height of incongruity. Here are two large
bodies of men that are organized for the sole purpose of killing and maiming
each other, and when one chapter of that endeavor has ended, some of the
participants make an effort to heal the wounded adversaries whom they were
trying to kill only moments before. In light of the overall goal of those
involved in the conflict, this is completely irrational. But maybe this
irrationality makes complete sense, because acts like these do not arise so
much from careful reasoning, but from a common humanity. Maybe incidents like
these are evidence of an indomitable compassion in human nature, even at times
of utmost hostility. Maybe the lesson in this is that, despite the
inhumanities that human beings too often inflict on other human beings, Homo
sapiens is a species whose existence is worthy of being allowed to continue.
MORE BRIEFS>>
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Our September speaker was the novelist
Robert Olmstead (