Flags of Our (Great-Great-Grand) Fathers

Dear Readers,

I must confess that I was at a bit of a loss for the topic of today's post.  So I did what I normally do when I get a case of blogger's block, I turned to my little redhead for advice as to what to write about.  She suggested that I write a bit about flags during the Civil War.  I had to promise her that I would at least mention some of her ancestors in a favorable light in this post, so please look here for a picture of the regimental flags for the Ninth Illinois Infantry.  She had three ancestors who served in this regiment.  (Unlike the rest who avoided service entirely!)

Though Gods and Generals is far from being an Academy Award worthy movie, I must confess that I did really like the opening scene where we saw one battle flag after another.  The song in the background was also good.  The movie went steadily downhill from there.  The flags meant something to the soldiers.  They represented their regiment, brigade, or corps.  Units could be identified by their banners.  When speaking of Cleburne's Division flag, General Sherman is quoted as saying "That flag meant fight!"  (And he should know!)  Who among us would want to hold a position if we saw the green banner of the Irish Brigade moving towards us?  Or Hood's Texas Brigade?

The flags that my great-great-great grandfathers fought under were varied, as is the location and regiments of their service.  Most of them served under Polk's Corps (later Cheatham) in the Army of Tennessee.  As such, they had an easily identifiable Corps flag until the standardization of battle flags in the Army of Tennessee.  After that, only Cleburne's men were allowed to keep their own flag.

I, of course, also had ancestors who served in Cleburne's Division.  Their flag, like the above is distinctive.  Each regiment would, of course, add their unit and list the battles that they participated in if they so desired.

If we turn our attention to the Eastern Theater, I had some relatives in the 6th Louisiana.  Part of Hayes' "Fighting Tigers".  

And lest I be accused of Confederate bias, I would also like to mention my ancestors in the 8th Ohio Infantry.  Now how an Irish immigrant ended up in Ohio is beyond me, but he did nonetheless.  He and his brothers enlisted in the 8th Ohio at the beginning of the war.  They served in most of the battles in the Eastern Theater as part of the famed Gibraltar Brigade.  They assaulted Bloody Lane at Antietam, managed to outflank Pickett's Charge, and saw action in the Overland Campaign.  In fact, they reenlisted during the midst of that one!  So here too is their flag.

Citation

I think it would really be cool to one day have a room in my house decorated with all of the flags from the various regiments in which my ancestors served.  But I have two hurdles to overcome.  One is getting replicas of all of those flags.  The other is my little redhead.  But a man can dream, right?  As suggested in the comments, when I am ready to undertake this task, I just might visit the Alabama Flag Depot.  It looks like they do some very nice work!

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict.

The Wilderness of War

Dear Readers,

For the last week or so I have been working my way through Gordon C. Rhea's series about the Overland Campaign.  I finished the first volume which is about the Battle of the Wilderness and have now turned to the second volume concerning Spotsylvania.  I'm not sure what drew my attention in that direction, other than the fact that I haven't read his series before.  When I teach about the Civil War, the last lecture day covers 1864-5 which includes those campaigns plus the March to the Sea, etc.  Maybe that is why.

You know, Grant's casualty rates in that campaign were staggering.  I can't help but thing that we would never allow a general today to lose soldiers at the rate that Grant did.  My how times have changed.  I guess it stirs up the old debate.  Was Grant a good general?  Yes, he lost large numbers of soldiers but he still bled Lee's Army dry.  Of course, the flip side to that is tactically, he seemed to follow a relatively simple plan, "Hey Diddle, Diddle, Straight Up the Middle!"

I have ancestors who fought on both sides during that campaign.  Let me rephrase, I have ancestors on the Confederate side and ancestors on the Union side.  They stayed loyal to their respective causes until the end. Unlike some of the ancestors of my little redhead who seemed to favor whichever side was winning at that particular moment.  My Union ancestors were not "Yankees" in the traditional sense of the word as they all hailed from the Emerald Isle, as did my other ancestors who wore the gray.  Still, they collided in some of the worse bloodletting this country has ever seen.

I often wonder what kept my Irish Confederate ancestors in the ranks at a time in which they had to have known that the cause was lost.  Before you tell me that slavery was why they stayed in the ranks so long, I would suggest that you look into the types of jobs available to the Irish in New Orleans at the time.  They left Ireland to escape English oppression only to end up fighting here in a hopeless war in the land of the "free".  Did they ever have second thoughts about why they came here?  I can only imagine that they stayed the course because of a combination of pride, comradeship, and the desire to not let their families down.  But who knows, really.  They arrived here with nothing and the war also left them with nothing.  (Other than a few of them that were nice enough to donate a limb or two to the Cause.)

My Irish-Union ancestors had their enlistments expire in the midst of the Overland Campaign.  They could have gone home!  But they chose to reenlist and see the war through to the end.  Plenty of other men did too.  Was that an endorsement of Grant's generalship or was that simply a desire to finish what they had started?  I wish I could say one way or the other with certainty, but I feel it was more the latter than the former.

Sorry to break slightly off topic, but here is my question for you, Dear Readers.  Was Grant a good general or simply a butcher who cared nothing for the lives of his soldiers?

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict who should be grading papers instead of writing blog posts.

Last Night I Had a Dream

Friends,

Last night I had a dream.

When I looked to my left, I could see a long line of Confederate infantry stretching as far as I could see.  When I looked to my right, it was the same.  In front of us were what appeared to be a very strong line of Federal works.  Our rifles were loaded, bayonets fixed.  I heard a single cannon shot.  Then we received the order to advance.  

From somewhere behind, I heard the band playing.  The sound seemed somewhat out of place.  The strains of "Dixie" floated through the air.  The only other sound was the steady tread of our feet.  The earth shook with the sound of 20,000 footsteps.  In front of us, there was nothing but open ground between us and the enemy.  As we marched, scared animals darted in front of us towards the Yankees.  Our battle lines were bathed in a sea of red as our flags marked the place of each under sized regiment making the attack.  

So many were gone.  The blood of our comrades stained dozens of fields from Shiloh to Chickamauga and from Perryville to Murfreesboro.  Those of us who remained did so, not out of any dedication to a cause, but out of dedication to one another.  Gone were the cheerful days in which we marched off to war, thinking one Southerner worth ten Yankees.  Instead, we discovered that these Yankees could put up one hell of a fight.  They had gotten the better of us on numerous days, but this day would be different.

The bands began to play "The Girl I Left Behind Me" as we continued to move forward.  Perhaps that was a fitting song for the occasion.  Given the strength of the Federal works, it looked as though lots of us would leave wives and sweethearts behind by the time the sun finally set.  In front of us we could see the advance line of the Federal troops.  They were in a precarious position, but we also knew what lay behind them.

The order was given to charge bayonets!  The Rebel yelled sounded from thousands of throats as our line surged forward.  As we did, the bands, their notes still audible over the sounds of the battlefield, began to play "The Bonnie Blue Flag."  We were close enough to make out the faces of our Northern opponents.  Many looked scared, uncertain as to what to do their officers yelling orders for them to hold fast.  They leveled their rifles and then all hell exploded in our faces.

Today, Dear Readers, marks the 149th Anniversary of the Battle of Franklin.  20,000 men of the Army of Tennessee made that brave, ill advised, and oft forgotten charge on that beautiful November afternoon.  Over 6,000 of them would be killed or wounded by the time the smoke cleared.

On this, the anniversary of the battle, let us never forget the brave men who made the charge, nor the equally brave men who opposed it.

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict.

Postscript:  My ancestors were with the following regiments in this fight:

1st Louisiana Infantry
10 Texas Cavalry (dismounted)
14th Texas Cavalry (dismounted)
33rd Alabama Infantry
24th Texas Cavalry (dismounted)
1st Tennessee Infantry
48th Tennessee Infantry
9th Tennessee Cavalry
19th Tennessee Cavalry

The War's Defining Moment

Dear Readers,

When pondering the Civil War, as I often do in my spare time, my mind is drawn to certain events which I think define the war, or at least they do in my mind.  Among those topics which my mind seems drawn to are the Irish Brigade assaulting Marye's Heights, Stonewall Jackson standing, well, like a stone wall, Pickett's Charge (of course), George H. Thomas at Chickamauga, and the Peach Orchard at Shiloh.

Those are just a few.  The war was made up of moments like these, too numerous to count and too numerous to include in a simple blog post.  Since I am a historian of the Western Theater, the single event that sums up the war for me is the Confederate assault at Franklin, Tennessee on November 30, 1864.  Most of the men who made the attack were veterans.  They knew what happened to infantry who assaulted fixed positions, yet they went anyway.  This was a point where the Lost Cause really was, yet they went anyway.  Oh to be a witness to that gallant charge as they moved forward, flags flying, bands playing.  The Army of Tennessee marched into immortality, yet few but the serious Civil War student even know the truth of what happened on that fateful November afternoon.

That, dear readers, sums up the entire war in my mind, both the gallantry and the carnage.  So my question to you is this: What, if any, single event defines the war for you?

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict who wishes all my readers a Happy Thanksgiving.

Civil War: The Untold Story Interview

Friends,

Today we have a very special post.  I had the good fortune to interview Chris Wheeler, producer/director of the upcoming Civil War documentary The Untold Story.  It focuses on the Western, yes, you read that correctly, the Western Theater!  You may see a trailer for it here.

1.     Could you please tell me a little bit about yourself and the project?

We have been producing historical documentaries for more than 20 years.  Some may remember “How the West Was Lost,” a 13-part series that aired on Discovery.  We’ve also produced films on the Korean War and John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission.  Additionally, we have produced Visitor Center films for more than 25 National Park sites.  These sites also include many of our National Battlefields.  That is how we began this journey of producing “Civil War: the Untold Story.”

2.    Why did you choose the Western Theatre as your subject?

In 2010, we began producing the new film for Shiloh National Military Park.  The next year, we began production on a new film for Chickamauga & Chattanooga NMP.  In 2012, we began working on the new film for Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.  Through the process of creating films on these specific battles, we began to gain a deeper understanding of the significance of the Western Theatre. While this story is well-known amongst historians, we felt it was relatively ‘untold’ to most Americans.  The National Park Service kindly gave us permission to use the battle scenes created for the Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Kennesaw films. Having access to this footage became the impetus to produce a series that looks at Civil War through the lens of the Western Theatre.

3.    What is one of the biggest challenges in making a Civil War documentary?

From a business perspective, the biggest challenge has been raising the dollars needed to create a quality 5-hour series. From an editorial perspective, the biggest challenge is: trying the get my head around the volumous and complicated story of our Civil War.  It’s difficult to fully understand a single battle such as Shiloh, but even more difficult when trying to put these battles into context of the larger story of the Civil War. Fortunately, we have had excellent guidance from historians from the National Park Service as well as distinguished professors from major universities.  Another challenge has been trying to edit down all the stories to 5 hours.  It’s not nearly enough to fully tell the story of the Civil War. We will be criticized for not including certain battles or events, something that I think is understandable.  But the reality of producing any film comes down to dollars.  If we had a larger budget, we could produce something more comprehensive.  As it is, we have had to make difficult choices regarding what to include, and what not.

4.    What would you like for viewers to take away from watching Civil War: The Untold Story?

Our primary storylines are:

a.    Looking at the war through the lens of the Western Theater – the lands between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. Instead of what was happening in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, our series features such as battles as Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain, and Atlanta.

b.    Telling the story the African American experience is an important goal.  Every hour devotes time to the African American experience - from enslaved, to ‘contraband,’ to emancipated, to fighting to defend freedom

c.    The Southern Civilian experience.  The entire Western Theater was fought in southern states.  Thus, the war experience was much different – and in many ways more personal – than for those in the North.  In Western Campaign, cities like Corinth, Vicksburg, and Atlanta were destroyed.  Civilians become caught in the crossfire between the large armies of the Union and Confederacy.  Perhaps the most graphic example is at Vicksburg, where hundreds of civilians build caves to protect themselves from Union artillery. In the Western Theater, thousands are displaced. Many have their homes plundered or destroyed.  As Dr. Amy Murrell Taylor puts it: “No longer was the war something far, at a distance, something that was on some remote battlefield.  What it showed is that that kind of distance between home front and battlefield had collapsed, that really, there wasn’t much of a distinction anymore and the war was now literally on people’s doorsteps.”  So the war experience for those in the South in dramatically different from those in the North.

d.    Abraham Lincoln – for the millions that saw Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” we think our series can be regarded as a ‘prequel.’  Spielberg’s film begins in January 1865, around the time our series ends. Those watching our series will gain a great understanding Lincoln’s trials during the war. 

As producers, we acknowledge that this is a painful story to hear, even 150 years later.  In many ways, the wounds are still fresh. Ultimately, we hope that our film can help promote healing in a nation that is arguably as divided as we were in 1861.

5.    As best you can, please describe the process that went into making The Untold Story?

It begins with devoting a great deal of time to researching the story.  From the research emerges an outline, then a first draft script.  A team of historians then review the scripts and give us feedback.  The script is revised.  Concurrent with the script process is the planning of battle recreations.  The filming of these scenes if very much like creating a feature film.  Makeup and special effects are important tools used to create authentic and dramatic battle scenes.  Once filming is completed, we revise the scripts to best incorporate our visuals.  Our team of historians review the revised scripts.  We then begin the editing process.  Maps and other graphics are created.  Original music is composed.  One of the last tasks is recording the voiceover of our narrator, who in this case is Elizabeth McGovern, one of the stars of “Downton Abbey.”

6.    Without spoiling it for the viewers, is there any particular part of your documentary that you find particularly moving?

I am personally moved by stories of African Americans like Emma Stephenson.  She was born into slavery, then emancipated by Sherman’s army.  Emma chose to join the Union army as a battlefield nurse.  If captured, Emma would be returned to bondage. So for her and other Africans Americans joining the fight, the stakes are high. 

I am also touched by the letters between Alabaman Joshua Callaway and his wife Dulcinea.  Like so many fighting for the Confederacy, Joshua Callaway does not own slaves.  But he joins the Confederate army to protect his family and his home from the invading Union armies.  Meanwhile, Dulcinea is left behind to care for their two small children and their property.  Everyday she is faced with the reality of receiving the news of the death of Joshua.

7.    Do you have any future Civil War projects planned?

While we do not have any planned, we would like to do additional Civil War projects. I’m very interested in the Trans-Mississippi Campaign.  I also think it would be fascinating to produce a documentary taking an in depth look at the collision course North and South were on before the war.  It could be a ‘prequel’ to Civil War: the Untold Story.  It really depends on whether we can raise the funding.  Creating these kinds of films is a very expensive endeavor. 

8.    When and where can people see your film?

The series is slated to be distributed to 360+ public television stations nationwide at the end of January.  Airdates and times will be up to the discretion of local public television stations.  There is a chance that the series release will be delayed until April.  The best way to find out is by joining our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/CivilWarTheUntoldStory

Through Facebook, we can keep everyone updated on the project status and also let folks know where and when the series will be airing. 

The Civil War Addict would like to say a special thank you to Mr. Wheeler for taking the time out of his schedule to do this interview.  Please visit their facebook page for more video previews and to stay up to date with all the latest news.  

My Bookshelf

Friends,

Since we have been discussing the written word this week, I thought I would take a moment today to mention my current reading project.  I am (slowly) working my way through The Bloody Crucible of Courage by Brent Nosworthy.  You can find it here.  It is a fairly weighty tome, coming in at 752 pages.  That breaks down into 660 pages of text and 68 pages of notes/bibliography.  The remainder belongs to the index.  The author sets out to examine not just the fighting methods of the Civil War, but also place it alongside the combat experience of the soldiers.

It is a massive undertaking!  This book is not for the faint of heart.  Only serious Civil War students would enjoy this.  Mr. Nosworthy seeks to set the Civil War within the context of other military tactical and technological developments from Europe which took place before and after our Civil War.  To that end, I think he does a very good job.  Plus, he includes a lot of tactical maps which I love!  I could stare at a battlefield map all day.  But for those who want a really good examination of all matters tactical and technological, this is the book you'll want to read.

Dear Readers, do you ever find yourself reading a Civil War book and saying "D--n!  I wish I had written that!"  Alas, I do.  And all too often.  So I will leave you with this question, "What Civil War book are you currently reading?"

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict who is happy to announce an upcoming special blog post featuring an interview with the producer/director of a documentary on the Western Theater that will air in the spring.  Stay tuned for more!

A Writer's Life (Part 2)

Friends,

In keeping with my previous post asking if you could write a Civil War book, what would it be, I decided to take a different approach with this post.  The Civil War has given us a veritable treasure trove of literature that grows every year.  I read an estimate that was published in 1997 saying that we had over 50,000 Civil War titles.  I'd love to know how much we have now.  I was at Barnes and Nobles the other day and I was actually surprised to see that the World War 2 section was twice as big as the Civil War section.  Though I hate to use the term, those are our two "popular" wars and in the past the local B&N has given them equal shelf space.  Does this mean that interest in the war is fading?

Some Civil War topics seem to get more attention than others.  Just compare the number of books on Gettysburg to the number of books on Franklin for an illustration of that statement.  So here is my question for you, Dear Reader, what Civil War topic do we NOT need another book about?

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict who apologizes for the short post, but I am headed off to be a guest speaker on Civil War Medicine in my little redhead's US History classes this morning.