Posts
All Comments
Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler (1836-1906) served as general in the Confederate Army in
the 1860s, and later as a general in the United States Army during the Spanish
American War in 1898. In 1898, Wheeler
commanded the cavalry division that included Teddy Roosevelt’s famous “Rough
Riders”.
One of the notables
buried at Arlington National Cemetery is Philip H. Sheridan (1831 - 1888) who
lead the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. In 1865, his cavalry was instrumental in
forcing the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. Sheridan later fought Indians during the
Plains Wars.
Sheridan was promoted to
Lieutenant General in 1884, and took command of the United States Army. In
1888, he was promoted to Full General. He finished writing his memoirs,
"Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan," just before he died on August
5, 1888.
One of the earliest
memorials to be built in the cemetery was the Sheridan Gate. The gate was built in 1879 as one of the
entrances to the then walled cemetery and dedicated to Sheridan after his
death. By the mid-1900s,
the gate was no longer able to accommodate the trucks and construction
equipment that were vital to the cemetery’s expansion. In
1971, the cemetery expanded and the Sheridan Gate was dismantled.
Major General George B. McClellan, seen here with his wife, was a controversial military officer during the early part of the American Civil War. Accused of “having the slows” by President Lincoln, McClellan was a brilliant administrative officer but timid on the battlefield. McClellan ran against Lincoln in the presidential election of 1864.
In 1867, Congress required that all military cemeteries
be fenced. A red Seneca sandstone wall was built around the entire cemetery. The
original main gate of the Arlington Cemetery was dedicated to Major General
George B. McClellan and is seen here (the McClellan Gate). The gate was completed in 1879.
Women Doctors in the Civil War
The Confederate monument at the Fairfax City, Virginia
cemetery notes residence of Fairfax County who served with Mosby’s
cavalry. A few of Mosby’s men were in their 40's, but most were in
their late teens or early 20's; two young troopers paroled near the end of the
war were only 14 years old.
Sam Moore of Berryville (Loudon County) wrote, “(Mosby’s Rangers) had for us all the
glamour of Robin Hood and his merry men, all the courage and bravery of the
ancient crusaders, the unexpectedness of benevolent pirates and the stealth of
Indians.”
The grave of Col. John S Mosby grave at the Warrenton
Cemetery in Warrenton, Virginia. As a
child, Mosby was small, sickly and was often the target of bullying. He would
respond by fighting back.
During the course of the Civil War Mosby was wounded seven times. For someone
who had been a sickly youth, he proved quite resilient, dying at the age of 82
on May 30, 1916.
Sixty-six of Mosby’s Rangers are buried in the same
cemetery. After the
war, the thirty-one-year-old Mosby went on to become a
distinguished railway lawyer. He also
served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong and in several other Federal government
posts.
Although Mosby’s war time exploits have been
romanticized, he himself once said that there was, “no man in the Confederate Army who had less of the spirit of
knight-errantry in him or took a more practical view of war than I did.”
The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)
The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)
In 1934, Charley Williams stumbled out of the Superstition
Mountains with handfuls of gold nuggets and a spectacular story. Williams claimed the nuggets came from a huge
pile of nuggets he found just inside a cave’s entrance. Of course, he couldn’t remember where the
cave was located because in his excitement, he had hit his head and become
totally disoriented. He must have been
very, very disoriented since the gold was later proven to be dental gold.
Another story tells of gold bars in a cave near the
Massacre Grounds (where the Peraltas were massacred by the Apache). Prospector
James Baxter claimed he was guided to the cave by a blue light coming from the
cave. This cave is supposedly within a
two-mile radius of the First Water Trailhead.
A treasure hunter named John Hallenberg talked about a
cave filled with gold bars located on Bluff Springs Mountain. Hallenberg supposedly found a cave where he
discovered all kinds of old writing.
These marks did not resemble Native American petroglyphs but were
something entirely different. Hallenberg
thought the writing was Hebrew, but probably could have been anything. In any event, this adventure somehow
convinced Hallenberg that there was indeed a cave in the Superstitions filled
with gold bars. He even had a map
showing the direction to this “Cave of Gold.”
In the early 1980s, another tale of a cave filled with
gold emerged. Supposedly, a man named
Harry France (or LaFrance) discovered a cave filled with gold bars near Black
Top Mesa (or it might have been Weaver’s Needle). This was probably Jesuit treasure (unless it
wasn’t). With clues like this, it should
be easy to find.
Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains
Each morning Martha Washington met with the cooks to plan
the menu for dinner, the main meal of the day served between
The first course featured meat and vegetable dishes. Ham was almost always featured. A ham was boiled daily and Martha took great pride in her hams. Martha sent hams as gifts. In 1796 George Washington informed the Marquis de Lafayette that Mrs. Washington, “…had packed and sent…a barrel of Virginia hams.” He reminded his friend, “…you know the Virginia ladies value themselves on the goodness of their bacon.” In addition to ham, foods likely to be found on Martha Washington’s table included carrot puffs, chicken fricassee, pickled red cabbage, fish, and onion soup. Even though these foods appear familiar, the seasonings were very different from those used in modern cooking. Colonial cooks liked nutmeg and especially enjoyed a sweet taste. Salt and pepper were not heavily used. Some foods would make the modern diner blanche, rabbits and poultry, for example, were not only prepared with their heads and feet still attached, they were served at dinner that way as well.
The second course featured sweet dishes and frequently featured fruit, including exotic fruits such as pineapples. Locally grown fruits including apricots, strawberries, gooseberries and cherries might be made into jams or preserved whole. Ice Cream was a favorite dessert at Mount Vernon. Slaves cut chunks of ice from the Potomac River during the winter, which were covered with straw in the Mount Vernon ice house for future use during the summer months. A recipe of the time, used by Martha Washington, advised on the making of ice cream: “Take two pewter-basins, one larger than the other; the inward one must have a close cover, into which you are to put your cream, and mix it with raspberries, or whatever you like best, to give it a flavour and a colour. Sweeten it to your palate; then cover it close, and set it into the larger basin. Fill it with ice, and a handful of salt: let it stand in this ice three quarters of an hour, then uncover it, and stir the cream well together; cover it close again, and let it stand half an hour longer, after that turn it into your plate.” The Washingtons flavored ice cream with berries, as chocolate and vanilla were not added to ice cream in the eighteenth century.
In contrast to their homegrown fruits, grains,
vegetables, meats and dairy products, the Washingtons imported most of their
beverages, spices, and condiments. In a
typical year Martha Washington ordered 126 gallons of wine, twenty five pounds
of tea and fifty pounds of almonds. The
Washingtons typically offered several hot beverages to their guests including
coffee from the Middle East, tea from Asia, and chocolate from South
America. All had been introduced to
England and the American colonies late in the seventeenth century and quickly
became popular, despite their expense. Tea was brought to Europe in 1610 by the
Dutch and arrived in England in 1644.
Tea merchants claimed that the drink was a cure for migraine,
drowsiness, apoplexy, lethargy, paralysis, vertigo, epilepsy, colic, gallstones
and consumption. Most tea came from China until the 19th century.
Martha Washington
Martha Washington, like other members of her set, spent considerable time directing a large staff of slaves and servants and ensuring the happiness of her husband and children. Nonetheless, there was time for fun.
People of means were expected to be able to play an instrument or sing. Ladies did not generally play wind instruments, their garments being too restrictive. They could sing or play keyboards. Dancing was an established social grace. Balls began with court dances like the minuet. These dances were performed in strict order of precedence, the ranking couple in the room dancing first, and then down the social ladder. These were solo performances, watched carefully by the other guests. Pronounced stumbles and fumbles could cause a dancer to be banished for the social season. After the formalities the floor was opened for general and less formal dancing.
Martha Washington: The First Lady of Fashion (Virginia Time Travel) - YouTube
The
Gray Ghost was a syndicated television show that aired thirty
nine episodes from October 10, 1957 to July 3, 1958. Tod Andrews (1914-1972) portrayed Colonel
John Singleton Mosby. Virgil Carrington Jones, an expert on
Mosby, was historical consultant for some episodes.
Virgil Carrington Jones
(1906-1999) worked as a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Washington Evening Star, and the Wall Street Journal. He
was the author of Ranger Mosby.
"From Far
Dakota's Cañons" was first published as "A
Death Sonnet for Custer" in the New York Tribune, 10 July 1876, two
weeks after General George Armstrong Custer's death. Walt Whitman received ten
dollars for the poem.
I.
From far
Montana's cañons,
II.
The
battle-bulletin,
The fall
of Custer, and all his officers and men.
III.
Continues
yet the old, old legend of our race!
The
loftiest of life upheld by death!
The
ancient banner perfectly maintained!
(O lesson
opportune—O how I welcome thee!)
As,
sitting in dark days,
(The sun
there at the center, though concealed,
Electric
life forever at the center,)
Breaks
forth, a lightning flash.
IV.
Thou of
sunny, flowing hair, in battle,
Now
ending well the splendid fever of thy deeds,
Leaving
behind thee a memory sweet to soldiers,
Thou
yieldest up thyself.
One of the many tributes written to honor George Armstrong Custer after the Battle of the Little Bighorn was a poem entitled. “The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).
The
poem definitely took “poetic license” with the facts. Neither Custer nor his men carried sabers of
June 25, 1876. More importantly George
Armstrong Custer did not have his heart cut out (although Tom Custer may have,
this is matter of dispute.)
“The Revenge of
Rain-in-the-Face”
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
In that desolate land and
lone,
Where the Big Horn and Yellowstone
Roar down their mountain path,
By their fires the Sioux Chiefs
Muttered their woes and griefs
And the menace of their wrath.
"Revenge!"
cried Rain-in-the-Face,
"Revenue upon all the race
Of the White Chief with yellow hair!"
And the mountains dark and high
From their crags re-echoed the cry
Of his anger and despair.
In the meadow, spreading
wide
By woodland and riverside
The Indian village stood;
All was silent as a dream,
Save the rushing of the stream
And the blue-jay in the wood.
In his war paint and his
beads,
Like a bison among the reeds,
In ambush the Sitting Bull
Lay with three thousand braves
Crouched in the clefts and caves,
Savage, unmerciful!
Into the fatal snare
The White Chief with yellow hair
And his three hundred men
Dashed headlong, sword in hand;
But of that gallant band
Not one returned again.
The sudden darkness of
death
Overwhelmed them like the breath
And smoke of a furnace fire:
By the river's bank, and between
The rocks of the ravine,
They lay in their bloody attire.
But the foemen fled in
the night,
And Rain-in-the-Face, in his flight
Uplifted high in air
As a ghastly trophy, bore
The brave heart, that beat no more,
Of the White Chief with yellow hair.
Whose was the right and
the wrong?
Sing it, O funeral song,
With a voice that is full of tears,
And say that our broken faith
Wrought all this ruin and scathe,
In the Year of a Hundred Years.
President Davis
Capt.
David Van Buskirk of the 27th Indiana Regiment stood 6 feet 11 inches and
weighed 380 pounds. He was captured in 1862 and sent to a Richmond Prison.
Confederate President Jeff Davis came to see him and was astounded when the Van
Buskirk claimed that back home in
A young soldier left home to join the army. He told his girlfriend that he would write every day. After about six months, he received a letter from his girlfriend that she was marrying someone else. He wrote home to his family to find out who she married. The family wrote back and told him. It was the ....mailman.
Ambrose Burnside
Troops on both sides enjoyed a joke at the expense of
officers. One anecdote that made the
rounds involved General Ambrose Burnside.
General Grant and his staff in Virginia stopped to rest at a plantation.
Grant fell into conversation with the two women of the house, when the portly
Ambrose Burnside rode up, made an exaggerated bow, and conversationally
inquired as to whether the ladies had ever seen so many Yankee soldiers before.
“Not at liberty, sir,” one of the women snapped back.
General Grant
joined heartily in the laughter.
James Somersett was a
slave taken to England by his master Charles Steuart of Boston,
Massachusetts. In 1771, while in
England, Somersett escaped from his master.
He was recaptured and put in chains aboard the ship Ann and Mary which was preparing to sail for Jamaica. Before the ship sailed Somersett’s
godparents, supported by British abolitionists, applied to the Court of King’s
Bench for a writ of habeas corpus. The
Captain of the ship was required to produce Somersett so the Court could decide
if his imprisonment was legal. Lord
Mansfield, the presiding judge ordered Somersett to be released, finding that
neither English common law nor any law made by Parliament recognized the
existence of slavery in England. The
Somersett case was a boon to the growing abolitionist movement in Great Britain
and ended the holding of slaves in England.
It did not end Britain’s participation in the slave trade or end slavery
in other parts of the British Empire, such as the American colonies, all of
which had positive laws allowing slavery.
In 1773, as the
people of Massachusetts railed against the Crown over matters of taxes, the
General Court in Boston received the first of three petitions in which
advocates for slaves argued that Lord Mansfield’s decision should apply to the
colonies since people were being, “held in a state of Slavery within a free and
Christian country.” The issue of slavery
was never to be decided in the colonial courts.
Relations with the Crown continued to deteriorate leading to armed
rebellion.
Humor had its place in even the toughest situations. During the Civil War, a Confederate veteran remembered many years later, “While on that raid we marched and fought for days and nights in succession. Late one dark night we were on the march; it was raining, and we were all wet, cold, tired, sleepy, and hungry. We were bunched up in a creek bottom waiting for those in front to cross the stream. Not a word was being spoken. Old sore-backed horses were trying to rub their riders off against some other horse. We knew we would have fighting to do as soon as day broke, and we had the blues. All at once Joe Leggett said: ‘Boys, I have become reckless; I've got so I don't care for nothing. I had just as soon be at home now as to be here.’ The effect was magical. While the skill and bravery of our generals and the fighting qualities of our soldiers could not have been excelled, if it had not been for those jolly spirits to animate others the war would have come to a close much sooner.”
Posts
All Comments
