Selected News Briefs from View our archives to read articles from previous issues. Subscribe and get ALL the Civil War News! (updated 10/28/2009)
Medical Museum News In August the Signal Corps Weekend at the Pry House included a night signaling demonstration from the house to the Washington Monument on South Mountain. According to the Surgeon’s Call newsletter, this is believed to be the first time since the war that signaling was done between two-wartime signal stations. The Pry House Field Hospital Museum will be open weekends from 11 to 5 during November, as well as tours and programs by appointment. The museum will also be open from 11 to 5 on Dec. 5, the day of the Antietam National Battlefield Illumination that begins at 6 p.m. Executive Director George Wunderlich has made 10 walking sticks from saplings cleared from South Mountain and Antietam Battlefields. He hopes to make 500 walking sticks by the end of the sesquicentennial. The museum store will sell them starting next year. For more information call (800) 564-1864 or visit www.civilwarmed.org Chickamauga Road The highway is the route Union forces took to the Sept. 20, 1863, Battle of Chickamauga. The renamed road runs from the intersection with Highway 193 north to Gordon Street, according to the Chattanooga Times Free-Press. Georgia Civil War Commission Chairman John Culpepper said the next goal is to get U.S. Highway 27 renamed CSA Army of the Tennessee Highway. The legislature would have to approve, as it did the first renaming. Officials hope such designations will be informative about troop movements, honor the area’s history and draw tourists during the Civil War 150th anniversary years. Ypsilanti Fire In later years it was a hardware store, fire station and car dealership. It was slated for redevelopment. Gettysburg Hours Park-approved special events such as the Remembrance Illumination and meetings continue to be permitted. Vehicular through-traffic will be allowed on Buford Avenue, Doubleday Avenue, Granite Schoolhouse Road, Howard Avenue, Millerstown Road, Reynolds Avenue, Wadsworth Avenue, West Confederate Avenue and Wheatfield Road 24 hours a day. Fines for Closed Area Violations are $75. For more information contact the park at (717) 334-1124 or visit www.nps.gov/gett Kenosha Award The museum, which opened last year, is dedicated to telling the personal stories and contributions of the men and women of the Upper Middle West – Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan — from 1850-1890. “The Fiery Trial” is the title of the main exhibit, which presents the history of the Civil War era in that region, addressing civilian and military life and issues such as state rights, slavery, abolitionism and the Underground Railroad. The Civil War Museum was also recently named to the Milwaukee Business Journal’s list of top 25 attractions in the Milwaukee area. Kunstler Print The scene depicts Jan. 18, 1863, when John S. Mosby and 15 men in the newly formed Mosby’s Rangers detached from the 1st Virginia Cavalry and stopped in Warrenton to dine at the Warren-Green Hotel. Two months earlier Gen. George B. McClellan bade his troops farewell from the hotel’s steps. Künstler will sign prints at Framecraft in Warrenton from 10-3 on Nov. 21 and at King James Galleries, Winchester, from 11-4 on Nov. 22. CWPT News The fall issue of the group’s Hallowed Ground magazine reports its newest interpretive trail, a nine-stop route across Slaughter Pen Farm at Fredericksburg. Groups of five or fewer are welcome to visit the site, which is an active farm. Larger groups are asked to call (800) 298-7878 first. For those who want to take the tour from home, go to www.civilwar.org/slaughterpentour Paranormal Event The event will feature more than 50 hours of presentations by paranormal experts, a virtual exhibition hall, online stores and chat rooms. Nesbitt is a former National Park Service ranger and historian who started Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours in 1994 and has published a series of Ghosts of Gettysburg books. He’s appeared on the History Channel, A&E, the Travel Channel and others and operates the Ghosts of Fredericksburg Tours. For information about the paranormal conference go to www.SupernaturalSummit.com Student Diorama Thirty-five year history teacher Glen Frakes’ students had created two dozen dioramas for museums, including four for the Texas museum. The museum paid $23,000 for the Palmetto Ranch materials and students donated their labor. It took student volunteers three years to create the first Palmetto Ranch diorama. Despite national media attention and local political pressure, no part of the first project was returned to Frankes. Ray Richey, president and curator of the Texas Civil War Museum in Fort Worth, commissioned a new diorama, which recently was previewed for the media. Work on it started last school year and continued during the summer. When Frakes was laid off in budget cutting this school year families helped do the hand-painting at home. The diorama was assembled at the Gilbert Historical Museum where it was to be displayed through October. USS United States After years of service the ship was allowed to deteriorate at Norfolk. When Confederates captured the navy yard in April 1861 they restored and renamed the vessel the CSS United States. The frigate was scuttled to create an obstruction in the Elizabeth River when the navy yard was abandoned in May 1862. After U.S. troops took over the yard the United States was raised only to be dismantled and scrapped in Norfolk in 1865-66. For information contact Edward Zimmerman at USSUNITEDSTATES@Yahoo.com Citadel Flag According to a Post and Courier story the whereabouts of the original flag was unknown and since 1992 the school used a replica. However, comparison with the original, which was donated to the museum by a veteran in 1919, found some differences between the flags. The original 10 foot by 7 foot flag had a large white palmetto tree in the center of the red field and an inward-facing white crescent in the upper-left corner. The replica had a smaller palmetto and a outward-facing crescent. Facing inward was a period symbol of secession. The Citadel Alumni Association hopes to arrange a long-term loan of the flag. It was donated in Iowa by Willard Baker who got it in mobile at the end of the war. Citadel researchers learned Baker was in the unit that captured Fort Blakeley near Mobile. One of the batteries there was commanded by a Citadel graduate and student of Maj. Peter F. Stevens, the superintendent, who commanded the cadet battery on Morris Island. Investigation of the flag began two years ago after someone posted online information about it, which was seen by Citadel alumni. Auction Results A very fine Civil War 3rd Regiment U.S. Veteran Volunteer Infantry martial Inspected Henry lever-action rifle sold for $31,625. Another Henry brought $28,750. Guns from various periods and the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum were sold. The next Premiere Auction will be held Dec. 4-6. Fredericksburg Hours The Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville Battlefield visitor centers are open daily 9-5; Chatham Manor 9-4:30; Stonewall Jackson Shrine Saturday through Monday, 9-5. All buildings will be closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Days. For information call (540) 373-6122 or (540) 786-2880. Gettysburg Volunteers No experience is necessary, training will be provided and flexible hours are available. For information contact Terri Altland at (717) 338-1243 or taltland@gettysburgfoundation.org. Home Guard volunteer applications are also available at www.gettysburgfoundation.org. Texas Real Son His father Hamilton Benjamin “Ham” Wilson joined Co. B, 29th North Carolina Infantry, when he was 14 after he and a friend were chased by Yankees while out hunting. His first battles were Murfreesboro and Chickamauga. Ham’s father, Paul, served in Co. B, 14th North Carolina Cavalry Battalion. They captured a supply train on their way to Knoxville and were ambushed. Wilson was captured along with Gen. Robert Vance and 15 others. Six of them died at Rock Island prison. By 1869 Paul Wilson’s family, including son Hamilton, was homesteading in northwestern Arkansas. Paul died at age 89 and was buried in Highfill where Hamilton’s first wife and mother of eight children was buried in 1886 after dying of influenza. Hamilton remarried in 1891. Marion was born in 1913, one of eight later children. His father lived until 1938 and was buried in Rose, Okla. One of the stories about his father is how a Union turncoat or carpetbagger whom his father shot in the shoulder during the war hunted him down after the war, threatening revenge. Hamilton told his son he had seen a lot of terrible things and was proud of his service. Colored Infantry The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry was organized at Fort Scott on Aug. 5, 1862, and mustered into Federal service on Jan. 13, 1863, four months before the 54th. Their first battle, while in Kansas service, was at Island Mound, Mo., on Oct. 29, 1862. They were redesignated the 79th U.S. Colored Troops in December 1864. The state has bought 40 acres to create a park where the Kansas regiment held off guerrilla attackers at Island Mound. Illinois Symposium Professor Richard Zevitz will discuss Civil War prison camps and Richard Girardi, a student of the war and homicide detective, will review 50 generals as seen by their peers. Registration includes lunch. For information call (815) 923-1910 or email eurban@fvi@net Hayes Center When his descendants established the presidential center in 1916 it became the country’s first presidential library and museum. Congressional acts starting in 1939 to operate presidential libraries as part of the National Archives and Records Administration have never included the Hayes Presidential Center. For information about the facility call (800) 998-7737, write nkleinhenz@rbhayes.org or visit www.rbhayes.org Harpers Ferry Honors The award honored the first national effort completed by a federal agency, preservation nonprofit and school under the Preserve America Service Learning Project. Their collaboration enabled students to create six vodcasts about the John Brown Raid to be shared with middle school students and park visitors. Lady Farm Land The GBPA bought the 140-acre Hanover Road farm in 1999. Gen. Robert E. Lee stayed at the house July 1, 1863. Confederate brigades were bivouacked there and a Confederate field hospital was on the site. Camp Letterman, the large postbattle hospital, was on part of the farm. Donations starting at $25 may be sent to P.O. Box 4087, Gettysburg PA 17325. Maryland Guide The 80-page publication includes articles, ads, resources and information about field trips and enrichment. These include Civil War trails following troops toward Gettysburg, John Wilkes Booth’s escape route, the Surratt House Museum, National Museum of Civil War Medicine, the Clara Barton National Historic Site and sites around Baltimore. To get free travel information and a map call (800) 719-5900 or go to www.visitmaryland.org
Arkansas News According to Arkansas Battlefield Update, publication of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, new exhibits are being designed for installation starting next fall at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. The park’s popular artillery projectile display will be enhanced with mock cannon barrels that visitors can touch inside and an interactive video, complete with artillery noises and smells. The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission Web site at www.arkansascivilwar150.com had added a list of U.S. and C.S. regiments that saw service in Arkansas and a free electronic newsletter.
(updated 10/28/2009) |
