Last Time 'Insurgents' Got This Close to Capitol-- Part 5: 'Scared Abe Lincoln Like Hell'

Early ordered his troops to stay in place and continue to look menacing and after darkness fell on July 12, sometime  after 10 p.m., he ordered a withdrawal into Virginia.  And, thus, no Confederate flag made it to within six miles of the U.S. Capitol, that is until January 6, 2021, when one not only got within six miles but was also carried into the Capitol by the infamous "Confederate Flag Guy."

"Although he failed to capture the National Capital, the campaign apparently pleased him," as recounted by Major Henry Kyd Douglas," said the National Park Service , which maintains the partially restored Fort Stevens in the Brightwood  neighborhood of northwest Washington.

"On the evening of July 12, after deciding to withdraw from Washington, General Early called his staff together and declared: 'Major, we haven't taken Washington, but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell.' "

Early was later relieved from command in March 1865, and following the war, fled to Mexico, then Cuba, then Canada, before returning -- promise of amnesty in hand -- to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he resumed his prewar occupation as an attorney and helped  in "crafting the narrative of the Lost Cause," the National Park Service said.

--Old Secesh

The Last Time 'Insurgents' Got This Close to US Capitol-- Part 3: Too Late

General Early rode along the weakening Confederate formations, trying to rally them to take advantage of the big break, but to no avail.  They had a hard time even getting up a decent Rebel Yell.  Before long, the first of Grant's troops started arriving and launched a counter attack that stopped the advance.  

The Confederates stopped for the night.

The next morning, Early reconnoitered the Union defenses with field glasses  and instead of see the sharp, brand new uniforms worn by the clerks, he saw faded, war-torn blue uniforms.  Everywhere, he saw fluttering U.S. and Regimental battle flags fluttering in the breeze.

Jubal Early later wrote in his memoirs, "I had, therefore, reluctantly to give up all hopes  of capturing Washington, after I had arrived within sight of the dome of the Capitol."

--Old Sesh

The Last Time 'Insurgents' Carrying Rebel Flags Got That Close to U.S. Capitol-- Part 1

From the Jan. 7, 2021, CNN "Before Wednesday, insurgents waving Confederate flags hadn't been within six miles of the US Capitol" by Eliott C. McClaughlin.

During the Civil War, no Confederate flag ever came to the U.S. capitol building, but then, Wednesday was another thing altogether.  Not only did one come close to the structure, one was brought inside it, and not in a friendly manner either.

Versions of the Confederate flag had appeared in the building as parts of  legitimate exhibits before, but until January 6, 2021, the closest any rebel carrying that flag had come to the Capitol was about six miles, during the Battle of Fort Stevens on July 11 and 12, 1864.

The Battle of Fort Stephens was the closest  the Confederacy ever came to conquering Washington, D.C., and pulling off what the British had done in 1814.  By 1864, the South was battered, but still had enough so that on July 11, Confederate Lt. General Jubal  Early, could sit on his horse by Fort Stephens and view the dome of the Capitol some six miles away.

He determined the defense of D.C. as being "feebly manned."  And, he wasn't completely wrong in the assessment.

--Old Secesh

Soldiers Also Occupied U.S. Capitol in 1861-- Part 5: 'Voted Down On Constitutional Grounds'

Troops also used senators' desks and stationery to write letters home and conducted mock debates in their spare time.

"Our life in the Capitol  was most dramatic and sensational,"  Theodore Winthrop of the 7th  New York Regiment wrote to the Atlantic Monthly magazine,  "We joked, we shouted, we sang, we mounted the Speaker's desk and  made speeches."

In one faux Senate session, the troops debated asking the president to send booze, one correspondent wrote.

"The presiding officer was just putting the question on a resolution directing the sergeant-at-arms to proceed immediately to the White House and to request the President, if, in his opinion, not incompatible with the public interest, to send  down a gallon of his best brandy," the reporter wrote.

"A motion to strike out the word 'Brandy' and substitute 'Old Rye' was voted down, on Constitutional grounds because  the 'Hon. Senator from South Carolina' who offered it had both legs on the desk, while the rules permitted only one," he continued.

When the Senate convened for an emergency session in July 1861 and returned to regular session in  December, the soldiers quartered at the Capitol moved out.

In 1964, the plaque commemorating their stay was placed  on the wall by Lincoln's bust, recalling the earlier instance of soldiers being quartered there.

--Old Secesh

Soldiers Also Occupied the Capitol in 1861-- Part 3: About Jefferson Davis' Senate Desk

The soldiers bivouacked at the Capitol in 1861 were from the states of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.  Emotions were high and at one point the soldiers discovered that one of the desks in the Senate chamber had belonged to Jefferson Davis, who was now the president of the enemy, the Confederate States of America.

They went after the desk with their bayonets but were stopped by  the Senate doorkeeper, Isaac Bennett who ran among them and told them it was not his (Davis') desk, that it belonged to the government.  "You were put here to protect, and not to destroy!" he shouted.    "They stopped immediately and said  I was right, they thought it belonged to Jefferson Davis."

Some of the men had already encountered battle before arriving at the Capitol.  The Sixth Massachusetts  had run into an angry Confederate mob when they had arrived at nearby Baltimore.

When they arrived at the Capitol, the doorkeeper described them as "a tired, bedraggled lot of men, showing every evidence of  the struggle they had so recently passed through."

--Old Secesh

Soldiers Also Occupied U.S. Capitol in 1861-- Part 4: 'The Odor of Cooking and Pipe Smoke Filled the Air'

When the Massachusetts men entered the Capitol building, Isaac Bennett, the Senate doorkeeper said they: "rushed to the Senate  Chamber, the galleries, committee rooms, marble room, wherever they could find accommodations."

He continued:  "Everything that was possible was done to make them comfortable as the circumstances permitted.  But it almost broke my heart  to see the soldiers bring armfuls of bacon and  hams and throw them down on the floor of the marble room.  Almost with tears in my eyes, I begged them not to grease up the  walls and the furniture."

Pennsylvania volunteers stayed in the House Chamber, and the Massachusetts group in the Senate Chamber.

As 4,000 troops occupied the building, the raucous scene was a far cry from the civility of lawmaking.  Soldiers defecated in the hallways, rigged ropes to swing from the unfinished dome  and unwittingly spread lice among each other.

The odor of cooking and pipe smoke permeated the air and soot from baking bread in the basement damaged books in the Library of Congress.

"The smell is awful," wrote the architect of the Capitol, Thomas U. Walter in a letter to his wife.  "The building is like one  grand water closet -- every hole and corner defiled."

--Old Secesh

Troops Came to U.S. Capitol in 1861 and Wrecked It-- Part 2: Different From 160 Years Ago

The most recent chapter in the history of the U.S. Capitol took place 160 years later.

On Wednesday, Jan. 13, photos showed  the halls of the building filled with thousands of rifle-toting National Guard troops tasked with securing the nation's capital city.  They rested on floors that just a week earlier rioters had overrun.  And some even carried Confederate flags.

But, this time they will not be staying in the Capitol, but put up in local hotels.

Troops also stayed overnight in the Capitol building during World War II and after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in 1968 during black riots.  According to U.S. senate history, they had also been called on to maintain order on at least three other times.

The scene this past Wednesday was also remarkably different than 160 years ago.  A bust of Lincoln and a plaque commemorating the earlier quartered regiments were located above napping guard members.  A group of black guardsmen took photos with a statue of Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks.

Most wore face masks, and many observed social distancing amid the virus epidemic.

--Old Secesh

Troops Came to U.S. Capitol in 1861 and Left It In a Total Mess-- Part 1

From the Jan. 14, 2021, Washington Post "Troops lodged in the Capitol in 1861.  It was a wreck when they left" by Meryl Sonmez.

What with that huge turnout of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. for President Biden's inauguration this Wednesday, I thought this article I found was appropriate.

At the beginning of the Civil War, President Lincoln, fearing for the safety of Washington, D.C., called out for thousands of soldiers to come to town on April 15, three days after Fort Sumter was attacked.  Three days later, they began arriving. 

Ohio Senator John Sherman, younger brother of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, recalled in his memoirs, "The response of the loyal states to the call of Lincoln was perhaps the most remarkable  uprising of a great people in the history of mankind."

But, he noted that they were not trained soldiers and had no discipline.  Some were housed in the Capitol building and they  wrecked it, getting bacon grease on the walls, swinging from ropes hanging from the ceiling of the dome and debating if they should ask for more booze

This greatly frightened the people who had to work in its hallowed halls and rooms.

--Old Secesh

Old Capitol Prison-- Part 2

In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British had burned the nearby U.S. Capitol building, forcing Congress into temporary quarters.  A hotel was pulled down and a temporary Capitol was built in the Federal style of architecture and used from 1815-1819 while the U.S. capitol was being rebuilt.

It was vacated in 1819 and after that used as a private school and then a boarding house.  Famed politician John C. Calhoun died at the boarding house in 1850.

In 1861, the government repurchased it and used it as a prison for captured Confederates, political prisoners, Union officers convicted of insubordination and local prostitutes.

A Varied Career.  --Old Secesh

The US Capitol Takes a Beating...By Union Troops-- Part 2

The Capitol Building had become sort of a half-way house for troops arriving in DC.

As one regiment would get its orders and move out, another would move in.

US Capitol Doorkeeper Isaac Bassett was extremely angered when he found the regiment of New York City's Fire Zouaves (recruited from the fire department) using their bayonets to destroy a desk in the Senate chamber that they believed to have been used by Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.

They further rigged ropes from the cornices of the unfinished dome and passed time swinging back and forth over the Rotunda.

Troops quartered in both chambers spent time conducting mock debates and shout obscenities at each other from the galleries. Smoke from bakeries in the building got into the Library of Congress, located in the Capitol's west front and caused soot in the stacks.

Boys Will Be Boys. --Old B-Runner

The US Capitol Takes a Beating...By Union Troops-- Part 1

From the July 10th new York Times Opinionator "The US Capitol at War" by Guy Gugliotta. 

Thomas U. Walter, the architect in charge of building the new Senate and House wings and the cast iron dome on the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, was appalled when he returned to his job in early July 1861.

The place was a shambles, and not from Rebel fire, but loyal Union troops. Congress was not in session and the building was empty and had been procured by the Army and had become temporary barracks for some of the influx of troops rushing to the city's defense.

Bread was being baked in the basement, greasy slabs of bacon dumped in committee rooms, furniture broken up and dark hallways turned into latrines.

Walter wrote his wife, "The smell is awful. The building is like one grand water closet (the term for bathrooms when located inside back then)-- every hole and corner is defiled."

And, in the Capitol!!

Have Some Respect. --Old B-Runner