Elmer Ellsworth and the United States Zouave Cadets-- Part 13: Some Other Members

 This is a continuation thread from a long time ago.  From December 8, 2017--  Part 12.

I was listing Ellsworth-trained Zouave Cadets who fought in the Civil War.

LUCIUS LARRABEE--  Mortally wounded July 2, 1863, at Little Round Top, Battle of Gettysburg.  Captain, Company B, 44th New York regiment, known as Ellsworth's Avengers.

HARRISON KELLY--  In 44th New York  Infantry, made up of many former Zouave Cadets.

JOHN CONANT LONG--  Became drillmaster at Camp Douglas.  Trained 50 Illinois regiments there.

JOSEPH R. SCOTT--  Mortally wounded at Stones River, January 2, 1863.

HECTOR A. AIKEN--  Captain, Co. B, 29th USCT  Severely wounded at the Battle of the Crater July 30, 1864.  Died two days later.

--Old Secesh

Some More on Sgt. Henry H. Taylor: Early Military Career

From the Encyclopedia Dubuque, (Iowa)

Assigned to the 45th Illinois on November 20, 1861.  The regiment was officially mustered into federal service on December 25, 1861, in Camp Douglas, Chicago.

The 45th would fight in many major battles including Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh,  Corinth, Vicksburg Campaign, Atlanta Campaign and the Carolina's Campaign.

Taylor mustered in as a private and rose to the rank of sergeant of Company C where he became the color bearer.

It was during the Vicksburg Campaign that Henry Taylor merited the Medal of Honor.  On June 30, 1863, after the reduction of the Third Louisiana Redan, by an underground mine, the infantry was sent into the breach.

--Old Secesh

Galena's 45th Illinois Infantry-- Part 1: 'Washburne Leadmine Regiment

Quite a few of the things I have been writing about recently have had to do with this regiment, including Edward Kittoe, his son and T.D. Connor in the last post.

From Report of the Adjutant General

Called the Washburne Leadmine Regiment in honor of Elihu B. Washburne, member of Congress from the Galena district.  (His home is still standing and open for tours on certain days.)  It was organized by John  E. Smith of Galena, Illinois who was commissioned Colonel of Volunteers for it July 23, 1861.

During its organization, the regiment rendezvoused at the Jo Davies County fairgrounds, near Galena, which was renamed Camp Washburne, in in his honor.  Seven companies were organized here and they organized fully and were equipped with the short Enfield rifle.  (This fair started in 1860 and is considered the oldest continually running county fair in the state.  Today it is in Warren, Illinois.)

November 22, 1861, Camp Washburne was broken up and the regiment ordered to Camp Douglas in Chicago.  Here they reached full complement of ten companies and mustered into service of the United States on December 25, 1861.

A short time later, on January 12, 1862, they left for Cairo, Illinois.

--Old Secesh

Edward Kittoe Inspected Camp Douglas Prison in Chicago in 1864

From Official Records War of the Rebellion.

Report of inspection made by Edward Kittoe by order of  Cpl. R.C.  Wood, Assistant Surgeon General , U.S. Army,  on January 18, 1864.

He reported that the site was not very good  because of drainage and proximity to Lake Michigan and exposure to cold, damp winds.  "Marshy character of the soil" perfect for fostering diseases.  Plus, at time of inspection ground covered by frost and snow.

As far as prisoners, the soil is excellent for tunneling for escape.  Plus, proximity to large city pf Chicago makes it hard to guard against southern sympathizers.

Barracks and latrines of guards in very good shape.

However, this can not be said for the conditions of the prisoners.

--Old Secesh

RoadTripping with Charles Gilbert to Cave Hill Cemetery-- Part 2: Undercover Confederate and Grandson of William Clark Who Est. Kentucky Derby

Some other folks of interest buried at Louisville, Kentucky's Cave Hill Cemetery:

JOHN BRECKINRIDGE CASTLEMAN:  Confederate Army officer.  Was involved with the Northwest Conspiracy in 1864 to free Confederate prisoners of war at Camp Douglas in Chicago.  Led guerrilla force to burn supply boats at St. Louis.  Captured and sentenced to death and spared only by personal intercession of Abraham Lincoln

After Lincoln's assassination, he was deported to France.  Returned to U.S. in 1866 after a pardon from President Andrew Johnson.  In 1898, he led the 1st Kentucky Volunteer Infantry in the invasion of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War and later became the island's governor.

His statue in Louisville came under attack and has been removed to be placed by his grave at Cave Hill Cemetery.

MERIWETHER LEWIS CLARK:  (1846-1899)  With a name like that, he'd have to be related to somebody famous.  Actually, he was the grandson of famed explored William Clark.  (Wonder where he got the names Meriwether Lewis?)

Also, he established the Louisville Jockey Club, now known as Churchill Downs and created the Kentucky Derby race.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table Discussion-- Part 6: Prisons, Ernie Griffin and the Sultana Tragedy

**  The Civil War marked when the United States went from relatively small armies to really big ones.  At the same time, the number of prisoners boomed right along with it..  Neither side was prepared to handle this influx of prisoners.

**  For many years, Ernie Griffin operated a funeral home near the Camp Douglas  grounds.  He had a museum of sorts to the camp.  What was surprising was that Mr. Griffin was a black man.

I was at a re-enactment in Wauconda, Illinois, several years back and a man came up to me and wanted to know if anyone in the SCV would be interested in some Confederate items from Mr. Griffin's collection.

**  Montreal, Canada, was a hub for Confederate espionage operations.   Some of them involved freeing prisoners up North.

**  There was discussion about the SS Sultana tragedy in which so many just-released Union prisoners from Andersonville and Cahaba prisons were on their way back home when the ship sank.

**  The Union officer who caused the ship to be so overloaded in order to line his pockets with money was one Ruben Hatch.  He was a man who never missed a chance to enrichen himself.  He had friends and connections with Abraham Lincoln which saved his hide.

Grant knew Ruben Hatch and wanted him court martialed, but couldn't because of those connections.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Prisons Discussion-- Part 5: Horrible Conditions and Diseases

**  The conditions at Illinois' Rock Island Prison were horrible and om top of that they had a small pox outbreak.

**  At one time, early on in the camp's history, prisoners were even able to leave prison quarters abd go to town at Camp Douglas in Chicago and also in Rock Island.

**  An Iowa regiment dubbed the "Graybeards" because of their advanced age once guarded the Rock Island Prison Camp.  Also the 108th USCT.

**  I forgot which Union prison camp this was, but it might have been Point Lookout in Maryland, but there were 64 barracks there, each with 95 prisoners.

**  At Camp Douglas, an average of 18 prisoners died each day

**  Prisoners died from typhoid fever, pneumonia, measles, mumps and chronic diarrhea (called the Soldiers' Disease).

--Old Secesh

McHenry County Civil War Round Table's Prisons Discussion 3/27/21-- Part 4: Talking About Camp Douglas Today and John Yates Beall

**  There is a Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation that has a primary mission "To provide  active leadership in the development,  delivery, and preservation of  educational and  historic information regarding  the Upper Midwest, especially Illinois and Chicago during the Civil War."

**  And then there was an interesting character by the name of John Yates Beall, who led attacks on Union shipping on the Chesapeake Bay, was captured, released, then was involved in a scheme to release Confederate officers at the prison on Johnson's Island on Lake Erie.  That failed.  But then was captured trying to derail a train near Buffalo, New York.

Jailed again, and after a questionable trial and Abraham Lincoln declining to extend leniency, was hanged at Fort Columbus on Governor's Island in New York Harbor.

**  Abraham Lincoln and Sec. of War Edwin Stanton once visited Point Lookout in Maryland to view Union black soldiers.

**  One of the people at the meeting said he had an ancestor die at the Confederate prison at Danville, Va.

**  Libby Prison was in an old tobacco warehouse.  Prisoners there experienced horrible conditions.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County Civil War Round Table Prisons Discussion

Some of the things we discussed March 27, 2021 on prisons.

**  Confederate dead at Illinois prisons:

Alton: 1,534

Rock Island:  Over 2,000 Confederates

Camp Douglas:  Official count was 4,454.  But other sources say as high as 6,000  (Chicago)

Camp Butler: 850  (Springfield)

About ten years ago, the Illinois Sons of Confederate Veterans erected a memorial to the dead at Camp Butler.

At Camp Butler about 700 died in the summer of 1862 in a small pox outbreak.

The first 8000 Confederate prisoners in Camp Douglas were captured at Fort Donelson.

Two famous prisoners held at Camp Douglas were Sam Houston, Jr. and Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer.  (Dr. Livingston I presume.)

--Old Secesh

Answers to the MCCWRT Prison Quiz (Or Was That a Test?)-- Part 1

1.   There were 4 prisons in Illinois for Confederates.

2.  Their names were:  Alton Penitentiary, Camp Butler, Camp Douglas and Rock Island Prison.

3.  The Alton Military Prison was replaced by the Joliet Correctional Center. 

4.  Camp Butler was not named after Benjamin Butler, but William Butler who was Illinois' Secretary of the Treasury.

5 and 7.  William Butler was a member of the Lincoln's  Long Nine.  (I later found out that he wasn't a member of the Long Nine, but Lincoln stayed at William Butler's house.)

6.  The Joliet Prison later was featured in the movies "White Heat" with James Cagney and "The Blues Brothers" with John Belluchi.

8.  The "Long Nine" got their name because they were all tall and weighed around 200 pounds.  They were state representatives and senators and largely responsible for moving the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield.

Okay, questions 5,6,7 and 8 were a bit off topic.  But, of course our discussion groups have NEVER EVER gotten off topic.

--Old Secesh

McHenry Civil War Round Table Discussion Group Meeting Today: Here's Your Quiz

We'll be trying a hybrid live and Zoom meeting at 10 a.m. at Stucky's in Johnsburg, Illinois.

Today's topic:  Civil War Prisons North and South.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

1.  How many prisons were in Illinois?

2.  Where were these prisons?

3.  The Alton Military Prison was replaced by what Illinois prison?

4.  Who was Camp Butler named after?

5.  William Butler was a member of what famous Illinois Lincoln group? 

6.  The Joliet Prison was featured in two movies.  Name one of them.

--Old Secesh

Stephen A. Douglas Tomb-- Part 5: His Tomb and Memorial in Chicago

From Wikipedia.

The Stephen A. Douglas Tomb and Memorial, also referred to as the Stephen Douglas Monument Park is located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago (primarily Black). It is near the site of the Union Army's training camp and Confederate prisoner of war camp known as Camp Douglas.

The memorial is a 96-foot tall granite structure comprising three  circular bases and a  20-foot diameter octagonal mausoleum which holds Douglas'  sarcophagus.  Four figures portraying Illinois, History, Justice and Eloquence are at the four corners of the mausoleum.  A ten-foot statue of Douglas stands at the top of the  46-foot column of white marble from his native state of Vermont,

Douglas is probably best known for his series of debates with Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and his run for presidency in 1860.  However, he died soon after the Civil War began on June 3, 1861, from typhoid fever.

--Old Secesh

Sure Was Nice to Get Together with Civil War Folk Again-- Part 3: Stephen A. Douglas Gets a Plantation

I was unable to find out how Stephen Douglas' wife's father living in North Carolina ended up with a large plantation in Mississippi.  Regardless, Douglas now was property manager of  a 2,500 acre plantation with 100 slaves in Mississippi.

As a senator from a free state with presidential aspirations, Douglas found that having this plantation posed a problem for him.  He created distance by hiring a manager to operate the plantation, while using his allocated 20% of the income from it to further his political career.

He only made one lengthy visit to the plantation in 1848 and  only brief emergency trips there afterwards.

In the summer of 1847, Douglas moved his family from Springfield, Illinois, to fast-growing Chicago and that is where he acquired a vast amount of land, some of which eventually became Camp Douglas, a training camp for Union soldiers initially and later a notorious prison camp for Confederate soldiers.

His wife, Martha died in 1853.

A Free State Senator With a Southern Plantation?  --Old Secesh

David Messer, Federick Messer's Nephew Died at Chicago's Camp Douglas

George Washington Messer, Federick's brother died in 1862 at the age of 64 or 65.  No service in the Confederate Army is mentioned.

He did have a son in the Confederate Army, though, David Messer born in 1828 and died in 1864, in Chicago, Illinois.

He enlisted as a private in Company C of the 62nd North Carolina Infantry  in Waynesville, North Carolina, on July 14, 1862.  He was captured at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, on September 9, 1863, and sent to Louisville, Kentucky, and later confined at Camp Douglas in Chicago.

On August 11, 1864, he died of dysentery and is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago in grave #1264 (Confederate Mound).

My Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp, Camp Douglas, has had a ceremony at the Confederate Mound every year except this one.

--Old Secesh

Not All of Mary Todd Lincoln's Relatives Were Confederate: Charles Edwards

From Find-A-Grave.

CHARLES EDWARDS

Nephew of Mary Todd Lincoln.

Born: 1846

Died:  23 September 1912

Buried:  Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.

He was a student at Yale when the Civil War began and became an official with the commissary department  of the United States Army  a year after the war was declared.  Then, his headquarters was at Camp Douglas in Chicago.

He was the brother of Albert Stephenson Edwards from the last post.

--Old Secesh

Not All of Mary Todd Lincoln's Siblings Were Rebels: Nephew Albert Stevenson Edwards

I will get back to Mary Todd Lincoln's Confederate siblings later, but right now will write about some Unionists in her family.

One of them was the son of her sister Elizabeth Porter Todd Edwards, a nephew of Mary's.  He was Albert Stevenson Edwards.  Elizabeth was married to Ninian Wirt Edwards.

From Find-A-Grave

Born:    15 December 1839  Springfield, Illinois

Died:   20 December 1915  Springfield, Illinois

Buried:   Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois

Died at the Lincoln Home.  Lived practically his whole life in Springfield except during the Civil War.

During the Civil War he was a member of the commissary department and stationed at Camp Douglas in Chicago and Cairo.

After the war he returned to Springfield where he worked as a bookkeeper.  He was deeply interested in his history and gathered many Lincoln relics and when he was appointed custodian of the Lincoln home, he took them to that place where he had been the last 19 years of his life.

--Old Secesh

Civil War People Buried At Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery-- Part 3

A brevet brigadier general would be a colonel who was advanced a rank at the end of his service.

Orrin Lorentna Mann   Union brevet brig. general

John McArthur   Union brig. general

Buckner Stith Morris   Chicago Whig mayor 1838-1839.  He opposed the war against the Confederacy and was arrested in 1864 for attempting to free Confederate prisoners being held at Chicago's Camp Douglas.

Nelson Morris   Businessman  Established  the Nelson Morris Company in Chicago in 1859 and became rich selling cattle  to the Union armies.

Peter O'Brien  Medal of Honor recipient

LeGrand Winfield Perce  U.S. Congressman.  Union colonel

--Old Secesh

Upcoming Protest Calls for Removal of Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery-- Part 1

From the April 18, 2019, Chicago Weekly Citizen by Katherine Newman.

The Camp Douglas Camp #516 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (which is named after the Union prison in Chicago in which some 6,000 Confederates died during the war) will hold a memorial service on April 22 at the Confederate Mound, where at least 4,000 victims are buried, in Oak Woods Cemetery. 

They will be met by a group calling themselves Smash White Supremacy.

Matthew Evans, the commander of the SCV group said:  We gather to honor the 6,000 men buried at Confederate Mound, who suffered through harsh winters, extreme summer temperature, starvation, human cruelty by the hands of Federal guards, only to die in a prison camp and never return home."

Both groups are planning a peaceful event near each other on April 22.

--Old Secesh

Community Organizers Want Confederate Monument Removed From Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery

From the April 7, 2019, Chicago Sun-Times  by Rachel Hinton.

Two black groups want the monument removed because such black notables as Ida B. Wells, Jesse Owens and Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington are buried in the cemetery.  About a dozen protested.  They would like to have a monument to Ida B. Wells.  (At one time there was a monument to this remarkable woman in the form of the Ida B. Wells Housing Project.)

The monument stands atop what is called the Confederate Mound at the cemetery and is the site of the graves of over 4,000 Confederate soldiers who died at Camp Douglas prison during the Civil War.  It was a Union prison noted for its harsh conditions.

The cemetery is located at 1035 E. 67th Street in Chicago's Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.

The Confederate Mound monument is administered by the Federal Veterans Administration and overseen by the Abraham Lincoln National cemetery in Elwood, Illinois (near Joliet).

Matthew Evans, the camp commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Camp Douglas Camp #516, says there is little they can do because the site is owned by the Veterans Administration.

Personally, I would like to have monuments to the three people mentioned in the first paragraph as long as they are privately funded.  They were all remarkable people whose memories should never be forgotten.

--Old Secesh

Black Group Disrupts Confederate Service in Chicago-- Part 2

Oak Woods Cemetery is at 67th and Cottage Grove streets in Chicago.  It was established in 1853.

Famous Blacks former Mayor Harold Washington and Olympian Jesse Owens are both buried there.  Other famous black people buried there are Thomas A. Dorsey (Father of Gospel Music) and Eunice and John H. Johnson, entrepreneurs.

The Confederate Mound, as the site in the cemetery is called, is the final resting place of some 4,000 victims of the Union prison called Camp Douglas who were buried there.  The prison camp was located in Bronzeville on the grounds of Stephen Douglas' land.

It features a 30 foot tall granite column with a Confederate soldier on top.  bronze plaques around the base list the names of 4,000 Confederates who died there.

It sits on federally-owned land run by the Veterans Administration.

It is Sad When a Group Does Not Pay Respect to American Veterans.  --Old Secesh