Civil War Technology-- Part 6: All About Railroads

**  At the beginning of the war, the Confederacy had 1/3 of the rolling freight, 1/5 of the locomotives and 1/10 of the telegraph stations.

**  Neither the Union or Confederate railroads were ready for war.

**  Rails at the time were made of iron, not steel.  This caused frequent derailments.

**  The Wilmington & Weldon Railroad was one of the longest continuous ones in the country.

**  A major problem facing war railroads was the differing gauges of railroad tracks (how far apart they were).  In 1986, the U.S. adopted a standard railroad gauge.

**  Gauge was based on the standard distance that Roman chariot wheels were apart.

**  Then, there were Sherman's Neckties.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Technology-- Part 5: About Dem Shoes and Shoddy Uniforms, Ben Butler's Nest and Railroads

**  Left and right shoes.

**  Shoddy uniforms  (where the term shoddy came from  in the Civil War)

**  Lincoln had his own private telegraph.

He went to Fortress Monroe 14 times during the war and had private meetings there.  It was away from the prying eyes of Washington, D.C..  Plus, the commander there, Benjamin Butler had his iwn private netwodk of spies and informants.

**  Repeating rifles, but the knock against them was that they used too much ammunition.

**  Railroads had a boom in the 1840s and 1850s.  In 1850, there were 9,000 miles of rails, by 1860 there were 30,000.

However, of that, 21,000 miles were in the Union and 9,000 in the Confederacy.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Discussion Group: Civil War Technology-- Part 1

On October 22, 2022, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table (Illinois) (MCCWRT) met at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake with the topic being "Civil War Technology."

I had found a list of "Top Ten Innovations of the Civil War" from the May 17, 2017, War History on Line site and we used that to kickoff the discussion with these questions.  Not only did they have to guess the answer, but also tell what innovation it was.

1.  Who was the Father of Battlefield  Medicine?

2.  Who was the first president to be able to communicate effectively during battle?

3.  Who was John Hunt Morgan's code genius?

4.  What was the favorite choice of anesthetic?

5.  Name the Confederate surgeon who perfected a standard anesthetic inhaler.

Answers below.

***********************************************

1.  Army Ambulance Corps //  Dr. Jonathan Letterman

2.  Portable Telegraph //  Abraham Lincoln  

3.  George A. "Lightning" Ellsworth

4.  Anesthesia Inhaler  //  Ether

5.  Dr. Julian  Chisholm

--Old Secesh

Elmer Ellsworth-- Part 9: Going to Alexandria

On May 23, 1861, Virginia seceded from the United States.  Alexandria, Virginia, across the river from Washington, D.C., became a serious threat to the nation's capital.  The 11th New York was sent across the Potomac to take control of the city the next day.

They were also to secure the B&O Railroad and cut the telegraph lines going to the south.

On King Street, there was a hotel known as the Marshall House.  The owner, James Jackson, an ardent backer of secession and the new Confederate States of America, had hoisted a large First National Confederate flag atop his building.  It was said that Abraham Lincoln could see this flag from the White House, but that is not likely.

--Old Secesh

Top Ten Civil War Innovations-- Part 3: Telegraph and Iron Gunships

6.  TELEGRAPH--  50,000 miles of telegraph wire had been strung by 1860.  Another 15,000 miles were added during the war.  Lincoln used it for real-time information.  By October 1861, the coast-to-coast telegraph had eliminated the Pony Express.  During the war, several patents improved distance and power of the original Morse telegraph.

7.  IRON GUNSHIPS--  The Confederate Navy couldn't match the U.S. Navy in numbers so needed a super weapon which they got with the ironclad CSS Virginia.  The USS Monitor was built in 90-days and had 40 patentable inventions by John Ericsson.

--Old Secesh

Lincoln's Blood Relics-- Part 11: Broadside Announcing Booth's Death

Booth died at sunrise on April 26th.  One of the leaders of the patrol; chasing him, Col. Everton Conger, rushed back to Washington, D.C., to report to his superior, detective Lafayette Baker.  Together they reported at about 5:30 p.m., to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's home to give him the news.

"We have got Booth," Baker told him.  The exhausted secretary had no energy for grand language.  The statement he drafted and which the War Department telegrapher transmitted across the nation contained this:

"War Department, Washington
April 27, 9:20 A.M.
Maj. General Dix, New-York

Booth was chased out of a swamp in St. Mary's county, Maryland, by Col. Barker's [i.e., Baker] force, and took refuge in a barn on Garrett's farm, near Port Royal.

The barn was fired and Booth shot and killed.  His companion,Harrold [David Herold] was captured.  Harrold and Booth's body are now here.

E.M. Stanton, Secretary of War."

--Old Secesh

The Chicago Tribune Reports the End of the War, April 14, 1865-- Part 12: No More Draft

These were the headlines of the paper on the morning of April 14, 1865:

NEWS BY TELEGRAPH.

THE END OF THE WAR.

The Draft Stopped and No More Recruiting.

TRADE RESTRICTIONS RESUMED.

The Expenses of the Army and Numbers of Officers Reduced.

THE NAVY DEPARTMENT REDUCING ITS FORCE

--Old Secesh

The AP Reports End of War-- Part 3: Confederate Soldier-By-Soldier Surrendering

From April 8, 1865, Associated Press.

Confederate "Stragglers are found scattered all along the line of march, and as the troops pass, they come in and surrender themselves, expressing their determination to fight no longer, as they consider the rebellion as good as over.

"Four guns were brought in this morning, besides a long train of ambulances, many containing wounded, who were placed in hospital and cared for."

--Old Secesh

The Associated Press Reports End of War-- Part 2: Beaten By 15 Minutes

Competition among correspondents was fierce.  When Washington, D.C., officially confirmed Lee's surrender, one northern newspaper boasted that they'd beaten AP's telegraphic report by 15 minutes.  News of the surrender spread across the North within hours to most major cities and was published in the papers the following day.

Telegraph lines, however, were always at the mercy of the weather and cutting by combatants during the war.

Even with the initial reports of the surrender, generally regarded as the end of the war, full detailed accounts were mostly not run in the newspapers until April 14th, the date of Lincoln's assassination.

--Old Secesh

The Associated Press Reports the End of the War-- Part 1: Getting the News Out

From the April 4, 2015, Yahoo! News, AP  "A.P. Was There: 150 years ago, Lee surrendered to Grant."

William Down MacGregor of the AP was there in the front yard of the McLean House at Appomattox Court House along with other Union war correspondents.  he got his story out that day.

Sadly, the names of AP correspondents and their original manuscript reports are lost to history.  But Mr. MacGregor's name occasionally appeared printed his dispatches as he is remembered for his "delivering of disciplined and restrained accounts for an era when reporting was often laced with shrill and sectarian opinion."

The Associated Press was a newspaper co-operative formed in 1846, just two years after the first successful telegraph message was sent.  The organization used the ever-expanding network of telegraph lines to get news as fast as possible to the United States.

The Civil War marked the first time that news of battles could be transmitted even the same day or by the day following.

And, this was news to the public.  Obviously Union military used the reports from the correspondents its own people to follow events.  Abraham Lincoln spent much time in the Washington, D.C. telegraph room.

Plus, the Chicago Tribune in the previous posts, used "NEWS BY TELEGRAPH" extensively.

--Old Secesh

The Chicago Tribune Reports the End of the War-- Part 5: Lee Retreating

Headlines from the April 5, 1865 newspaper.

NEWS BY TELEGRAPH.

Large Capture of railroad Stock.

LEE'S LINE OF RETREAT STREWED WITH CANNON AND ARMS.

25,000 Prisoners Captured.

THE REBEL RAMS AND FORTS ON THE JAMES BLOWN UP.

.LEE RETREATING IN TWO SMALL COLUMNS TOWARDS LYNCHBURG.

Phil. Sheridan is on His Flanks.

THE REBEL GEN. RANSOM CAPTURED--  A.P. HILL REPORTED KILLED.

Major General Russell of the 25th Corps Killed.

The President at Home in Jeff. Davis' Late Mansion.

IMPORTANT CAVALRY EXPEDITION IN FLORIDA-- GREAT DESTRUCTION OF REBEL PROPERTY.

(For more information on the destruction of the "Rebel Rams" see my Running the Blockade Blog from last week.)

--Old Secesh

Chicago Tribune Headlines for Battle of Cedar Creek

NEWS BY TELEGRAPH  October 21, 1864

More Thunder from the Shenandoah

Gen. Sheridan Defeats Longstreet and Captures 43 Guns

A Critical Situation Turned to a Victory

Full Official Dispatch from General Sheridan

Full Notes of Wednesday's Battle

Sheridan's Appearance Saves the Day and the Army

How to sell newspapers in 1864.  The telegraph was a big thing in getting war news to other places with hours of events out east.

--Old Secesh

"A Splendid Victory Was Won by Gen. Sheridan"

From the Dec. 14, 2014, Chicago Tribune, "Why it's called Sheridan Road" by Ron Grossman.

Followers of my RoadDog's Roadlog Blog have been reading about General Philip H. Sheridan's role in Chicago history which led to a major north-south road and a fort being named for him in the area.

This was from an article in the 1864 Tribune announcing the general's huge victory at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.  It is the text of a military telegraph message from Secretary of War E.M. Stanton to Major General Dix on October 20, 1864.

"A great battle was fought and a splendid victory was won by Gen. Sheridan over Longstreet yesterday at Cedar Creek.  Forty-three pieces of artillery were captured and many prisoners, among whom were rebel Gen. Ramseur..  On our side Gens. Wright and Ricketts were wounded, and Gen. Bidwell killed.

"Particulars so far as received will be furnished as fast as the operator can transmit them."

E.M. Stanton
Secretary of War

The Chicago Tribune Reports the Gettysburg Address-- Part 4

In the style of the day, it read more like a letter from a friend, beginning with an apology: "My dispatch last night concerning the exercises yesterday, by occupation of the wires, was made necessarily brief," he wrote.

Daniel Weinberg, owner of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago has an original copy of the Tribune from that day for sale and says the phrase "occupation of the wires" was a dig at the Associated Press, with which the Tribune and other Midwest newspapers had a feud..

Much of the article was about the speech that proceeded Lincoln's by Edward Everett: "The crowd was packed so densely that the marshals who sat on their horses amidst the multitude, could not move toward the desired quarter; but at length an impressive passage of the orator, contrasting the importance of the Grecian struggle at Marathon, which was like that of our republic, on which spot where he stood, the dense crowd gave way, and a breathless attention was maintained throughout."

I doubt that would happen today as Everett spoke for over an hour.

Union Code Books Surface- Part 2

The Eckert collection's existence was not known by historians until 2009 when an owner, who had bought it ftom Eckert's descendants, put 76 books up for auction in New York City and it sold for $36,000.  The new owners declined to reveal how much they spent.

Archives elsewhere contain militasry y\telegrams, but they are individual paper slips or pages copied from telegram and are haphazardly archived with many missing.  The Eckert collection offers a systematic, centralized record in chronological order.

Lincoln spent many hours in the telegraph office of the War department which was located near the White House.

The Exkert collection shows that Lincoln had an assortment of aliases: Ida, India, Irving, Ingress, Ingrate and Ingot.  Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was Indigo or Infant.  If a message said "shaker" or "sable," it meant that an attack was to take place.  The code for infantry was "rapture" and "ramble."

Evidence of insider trading was even found according to how a battle ended and the price of cotton and gold.

Seaky, Very, Very Sneaky.  The Old "Ingrate."  --Old Secesh

Union Code Books Surface-- Part 1

From The January 26th Chicago Tribune "Union code books surface, but too late for Johnny Reb" by Mike Boehm.

"A long-unknown, 150-year-oldtrove of handwritten ledgers and calfskin-covered code books, which giive a potentially revelatory glimpse into both the dawn of electronic battlefield communications and the day-to-day exchanges between Abraham Lincoln and his generals as they fought the Civil War, now belongs to a California research institution."

The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Btanical Gardens acquired these in a private sale January 23rd and includes 40 cardboard-covered albums of messages written by telegraph operators and walletlike booklets containing key codewords that Union commanders used to keep snoopy Confederates from finding out what they were saying.

The ledgers had been kept by Thomas Eckert who ran the US military telegraph office at the War department from 1863 to 1862.  There are also messages from 1862 when he served as telegraph chief for General McClellan.

More than 100 of the telegrams transcribed were sent by Lincoln, many showing his frustration with McClellan.

More to Come.  --Old Secesh

This Week in the Civil War

From AP's This Week in the Civil War.

Taking a look at the upcoming events taking place 150 years ago.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 23RD:

The Transcontinental telegraph was completed coast-to-coast. The last part between Nebraska and Nevada finished and now direct contact between the two oceans. The telegraph revolutinized warfare.

You don't hear much about the use in naval affairs, but I'm sure it was.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 30TH:

Commander of the US Army, General Winfield Scott, retired because of age and infirmity. It was his plan to blockade the Confederacy and cut it into parts along rivers that became known as Scott's Anaconda Plan.

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 6TH:

The Battle of Port Royal gave the Union a really important base between Charleston and Savannah.

And, real soon, there was the Trent Affair on the 7th.

Lots Going On Along the Naval Front. --Old B-Runner