Poltroons, Patriots & Buffoons: Oh Those Generals-- Part 4: Military Experience and Civilian Inexperience

Continuing with Bruce Allardice's statistical look at Civil War generals:

Again, the first number is Union, second Confederate.

Officers in Foreign Armies:  20  //  3

Mexican War/Other War Experience;  62  //  58

TOTAL WITH EXPERINCE 

395  (66%)  //  272  (64%)*

INEXPERIENCED CIVILIANS

188  //  153

TOTAL   

583  //  425

*  Modern research shows that Warner missed the prewar state militia service and military school attendance of a number of Southern generals.

--Old Secesh

Atlanta "Torn...to Pieces"

From the September 3, 2014, Civil War Day By Day, UNC Library.  A letter dated 3 September 1864, from George Washington Baker, Co. K, 123rd New York Infantry, to his mother.

"I found that our shell had torn the city to pieces considerable as on one side of the city most every house had a shell through it and some were completely riddled. A great good many inoffensive ones were killed as Hood never gave order for the noncombatants to remove and they curse Hood beyond all account.

"In one house there was a girl ironing when a shell burst in the room and 14 bullets struck her tearing her all to pieces and in one family of 7 they showed where five had been killed by one shell."

--Old Secesh

Nancy Bennett's Civil War-- Part 2: A Hard Life

She and her husband James struggled during their early years together. He worked as a sharecropper and then a tenant farmer until they scraped together enough money to buy a 325-acre farm on the Raleigh-Hillsborough Road in 1846 when he was 40. They were in debt, but sold half the land to pay it off.

Their farm was small, but the land fertile. They were what is called yeoman farmers. They grow potatoes, melons, corn and oats, raise chickens, hogs and have two milk cows. Being on the road, they take in travelers for one dollar which gets a bed, breakfast and supper.

They have two sons and a daughter.

When war comes, the two sons and a son-in-law join the Confederate army.

More to Come. --Old B-R'er

Nancy Bennett's Civil War-- Part 1: Nothing to Gain

From the December Our State Magazine "The Women's War" by Philip Gerard. Mr. Gerard has been writing a series of articles in the magazine to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the war. This was Volume 1, Part 8.

This is an interesting account of the hardships faced by those who were left at home and approached it both from the experience of females from the plantations and those from lesser means.

"With millions of young men lost in--or lost to--battle and economic calamity a relentless opponent, women are forced into new roles: farmers, mill workers, entrepreneurs, even rioters. Daily realities of survival, fear, danger and desperation are just some of a war's challenges that transcend class and social status."

"Nancy Leigh Pierson Bennett has absolutely nothing to gain from the war.

"She and her husband own no slaves. She has expressed no public political convictions. The federal government in Washington is virtually irrelevant to her Piedmont North Carolina life, which is defined by hard work and a close-knit family. The compass of her life is limited. She does not travel and has no financial holdings affected by the tariff wars or lofty debates about states' rights."

I copied the start verbatim as it pretty well sums up what befell a majority of southern women.

More to Come. --Old B-Runner

Port Royal's Fort Walker

Surprisingly, there is not a lot of information on one of the two Confederate forts to surrender to Union forces 150 years ago yesterday, Fort Walker.

The site of the fort is still there by Port Royal Sound at the end Hilton Head Island on the shore of Port Royal Sound. It is off Fort Walker Road near the Hilton Head Airport. Now, whether you can get to the actual site is questionable since so much of Hilton Head Island is privately owned by rich folks who don't want regular folks traipsing over their property.

After a four and a half hour bombardment, about out of ammunition and with all but three cannons our of service, General Thomas F. Drayton gave his men the order to withdraw. His brother, Percival Drayton was on the USS Pocahontas standing offshore and bombarding Fort Walker.

In addition, some 13,000 Union troops under the command of General Thomas W. Sherman had been landed and were approaching the fort, vastly outnumbering the fort's defenders.

After the battle, the fort was rebuilt and named Fort Welles, after Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles.


ROBBERS ROW

Fort Welles defending a large Union base used throughout the war. A civilian town, named Robbers Row (very likely by troops stationed there for its penchant to take their money) grew up to serve the needs of the garrison. At its peak, it had a hotel, theater, 2 newspapers mostly located along a street called Suttlers Row. I do not believe any part remains today, but there is a marker for it at the site.

From the Historical Data Markers organization.

Sure Wish There Was Some More on Fort Walker. --Old B-R'er