Henry Wirz

Soon after his arrival in late March 1864, Captain Henry Wirz, the new superintendent of Andersonville, changed the way prisoners were counted and divided into messes. Under the new system, each detachment was made up of two hundred seventy prisoners, each of these then had three nineties and each ninety had three messes of thirty. We were in the second detachment, second ninety or detachment 2.2.

This recounting and reorganizing of ten thousand prisoners occurred just when untrained Georgia Reserves of young boys, old men, and soldiers unable to serve in the field were replacing regular Confederate infantry soldiers at the guard posts. During our wood gathering details Sam Parker told us that all able bodied men were needed for fronts in Virginia, Tennessee, and other battles erupting throughout the South. Sam said he was worried that some of the young guards may have short fuses and that we should be careful.

To add to the confusion and uncertainty, Rebel sergeants counted and recounted, sometimes taking all morning. Rations were delayed. Weakened prisoners fainted in the hot sun and men became sick and death rates increased. Prisoners became increasingly desperate and tried to escape by any means possible, mostly by walking away from wood gathering details or by tunneling under the walls. All of this infuriated Wirz who wanted an orderly and tightly run prison camp with all men accounted for and duly recorded.

CONTINUE ARTICLE>>

Note: This article is an excerpt from the recently published novel Hiram's Honor: Reliving Private Terman's Civil War by Max R. Terman and appears here through the courtesy of the author. Private Hiram Terman was captured at Gettysburg, sent to Andersonville—and survived! What would that have been like? Based on over ten years of research, Max Terman, Hiram’s descendant, revisits the camps, battlegrounds, and prisons and writes as if he were Private Terman of the 82nd Ohio Infantry in this fact-based, first person account.

Past Roundtable presidents Mel Maurer and John Fazio recently appeared on both WCPN (Cleveland public radio) and WVIZ (Cleveland public television) as part of each stations' observances of the Lincoln bicentennial.  They joined a panel of experts discussing Lincoln, his importance in American history and his continuing relevance today.  On the WVIZ broadcast, Mel Maurer, portraying Lincoln, answered questions from the audience in press conference format.  Click on the links below to enjoy these two programs.

Mel and John on WCPN-Radio

"Looking for Lincoln" on WVIZ-TV
 

Our field trip this fall is to Richmond and Petersburg, VA, September 24-27. If you are planning to go, or thinking about going, please send an email to Dennis Keating at . Dennis would like to get a tentative headcount by the end of June.

We strongly encourage you to join this or any of our field trips. Touring a battlefield is the best way to learn about any particular battle and we always have wonderful guides, full of information. It is also a terrific way to get to know your fellow members. Dennis has put together a great trip that you will find it interesting, informative, and fun.  Join us in September!

Tentative 2009 Trip Itinerary

2008 Trip Report (Gettysburg)

Note: This article is adapted from a presentation made by the author to the North Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable at Bucyrus, Ohio in March 2002.

Raphael Semmes

When the Union sloop of war Kearsarge and the Confederate commerce raider Alabama clashed off the coast of Cherbourg, France, it was a last glimpse of chivalry in what had otherwise become a deadly serious and unromantic war. On June 19, 1864, was waged the last naval duel of American naval history: the last time two equally-matched ships would meet in a prearranged fight to the death.

Admiral David Glasgow Farragut himself, the hero of Mobile Bay, declared, "I had sooner have fought that fight than any ever fought upon the ocean!"

It has become a cliché, but is true just the same, to say that the Civil War marked a turning point in naval warfare. The Civil War saw the world's first battle between ironclads, the first submarine sink a ship, and the first effective underwater-mine - then called a "torpedo" - used defensively. Highlighting the transition through which naval technology was then passing, both the Kearsarge and the Alabama were equipped with sails and steam-driven propellers.

As Bruce Catton wrote, "The Civil War came while one revolution in naval affairs was underway, and it hastened the commencement of another ... the transition from sail to steam [was already underway, and] by the time it ended, the transition from wooden ships to ironclads was well along… by 1865 naval warfare would resemble the twentieth century much more than it resembled anything Lord Nelson or John Paul Jones had known."

For all those changes, though, the battle between the U.S.S. Kearsarge and the C.S.S. Alabama hearkened back to a more romantic, more gallant era. Many people remember the clash of the ironclads Monitor and Virginia, but that battle was essentially a draw. There was a clear winner in the clash of the Kearsarge and the Alabama.

CONTINUE ARTICLE>>

The Death of Stonewall
by Mel Maurer

Note: During the 2008-2009 Roundtable season, Roundtable Historian Mel Maurer opened each meeting with the 'History Briefs' below, each 'brief' providing a small glimpse into a less-explored corner of the story of the Civil War.

It’s the night of May 2, 1863, just after 9:00 pm. The Battle of Chancellorsville for that day has nearly ended.

It was a great day for General Stonewall Jackson. He had led his men in one of the great moves of the Civil War - a surprise end-around Hooker’s army to attack it from the west - setting Lee up for an eventual victory.

Now, in the moonlight, Jackson rides with some of his staff in woods along a turnpike, just in front of A. P. Hill’s brigades, They look for a route by which they might block Hooker’s retreat. Jackson tells his men: “The danger is all over; the enemy is routed. Go back and tell A. P. Hill to press on.”

Hill was not far behind. He shouts to his men, telling them to cease firing – that the men in the front ranks were firing into their own men. “It’s a lie! Pour it into them boys!” shouts Major John D. Barry of the 18th North Carolina Infantry. A line of his infantrymen then opens fire with several volleys into the approaching horsemen, cutting them apart, sending horses reeling and men bleeding – including Jackson.

The general, riding his horse, Little Sorrel, is hit three times, his left arm, nearly destroyed, hung limp. Little Sorrel bolts, dragging Jackson through the rough branches of a tree, which scraps his face, knocks off his cap and nearly pulls him off the horse. An aide assists the general at first and then sends urgent word to Jackson’s medical director.

Stonewall had been shot at close range, two bullets hitting his left arm, one splintering he upper arm to the elbow, and the other striking the forearm an inch below the elbow. The third bullet lodged in his right hand. The wounds bled profusely. Shortly after he is placed on a stretcher, it’s dropped causing a chest contusion.

Jackson is taken to an aid station west of the shooting on the turnpike where his left arm is amputated. The arm was buried nearby at Ellwood the J. Horace Lacy House in the Wilderness. He is then moved by ambulance to recuperate in Richmond - but is too weak to go that far – so is put up at the Thomas C. Chandler House at Guinea’s Station.

General Lee sends him a note on May 3rd. It reads: “Could I have directed events, I should have chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead.”

Lee achieves victory at Chancellorsville on May 4th with Hooker in full retreat on May 5th. It’s a very costly engagement for both sides. Even more so for the south when on May 10th, Stonewall Jackson, with his wife and members of his staff around him dies from pneumonia.

His last words are: “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”

MORE BRIEFS>>