Killing Time and Researching-- Part 1: The "Groundhog Day" Movie B&B

Yesterday, I went to Woodstock, Illinois, to attend the McHenry County Civil War Round Table and arrived an hour early at the library where Charlie Banks was to make his power point presentation on "Lincoln's Final Journey."

I have always loved libraries.  It is like a treasure hunt in them.  You never know what you're going to find.

After reading the Chicago Tribune and McHenry County's Northwest Herald (you can't beat the price), I still had time so went to the local history collection and started perusing some of their holdings.  I came across the two volume Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and Biography of McHenry County Citizens from 1903.

I decided to look for Civil War veterans in the remaining time before the meeting began.  Unfortunately, there was no index, so I had to page through it.

Of interest, I came across the name Charles P. Barnes who was a prominent lawyer and judge in Woodstock, the name didn't do anything for me, but there was also a picture of his house and it really appears to me to be the one used as the Bed & Breakfast where Bill Murray stayed in the movie "Groundhog Day."

I seem to remember from my RoadDog's RoadLog blog that the home had been owned by a judge.  Is it possible that this is the house used in the movie, and, did it have a Civil War connection?

Is This the Home?  --Old Secesh

Flying Tall and Proud

This past Wednesday, we were driving through Alabama after our week at Panama City Beach, Florida.  We met with some friends from Illinois and got through Thunder on the Beach, the annual spring motorcycle rally.

We had just gotten on I-65, north of Montgomery, Alabama's capital, and cruising along at 70 mph, when we saw it.

There, on the west side of the road, flying high and proud was a huge Confederate flag and under it a sign saying this was there because of the Alabama Division Sons of Confederate Veterans.  It did my heart good to see it flying there.  I am getting so tired of the incessant attacks on it.  This was a huge in-your-face.

Sadly, if it wasn't for all the attacks on it, it wouldn't have become necessary to do this.

--Old Secesh

Heritage Attacks, In Reverse

The vast majority of things I read are anti-Confederate, but then there are ones like this which sure shows why those other groups are so anti-Confederate.

February 21, 2014:  Three white students at the University of Mississippi put a Confederate flag on the statue of James Meredith, the black student who integrated the school in 1962.  They also put a noose and the old Georgia state flag on it.

The students were members of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity whose national organization has suspended the chapter.

Activity such as this should always be dealt with as severely as the actions require.

Actions and groups such as this bring about the Confederacy hatred more than anything else.

--Old Secesh

Heritage Attacks

I really should try to keep up with these in a more timely fashion.  I read them in my Yahoo! and Google Alerts most every week.  Someone is offended and the flag must come down.  I generally disregard them as they sure go a ways toward making me angry.

Well, here's another one:

Jan. 17. 2014, Reidsville, N.C.,  Mom Upset After School gives her child a Confederate hat as a prize.  Her 9-year-old son, Jacob, got the hat as part of a school rewards program.  He picked it out himself.

First flags, now hats?

Gee Whiz, When Will It Stop?  --Old Secesh

Heritage Attacks

Back on Jan. 1, 2014, a Florida TV station reported that a Confederate flag on a firefighter's ax led to changes after it was seen at a fire at a black person's home in Pine Hills.

Later that month came this headline: "Confederate leader's name on US-1 still rankles some."  Robert Perry wants Jefferson Davis' name removed from the Jefferson Davis Highway (US-1).  It was named by the General Assembly in 1992 and would need legislative removal for its removal.  In 2001, the county board renamed the old Jefferson Davis Highway in Crystal City the Long Bridge Drive.

--Old Secesh

Heritage Attacks

Attacks on the Heritage.

Back on Jan. 2, 2014, the LA Times reported that the Bar Association of Orange County was seeking the removal of the State of Mississppi banner from the Santa Ana Civic Center which displays the flags of all 50 states as it symbolizes hatred and racism.  It is the last flag remaining with a Confederate flag on it.  (I don't know, the State of Georgia flag sure is a Confederate flag but they wouldn't know that.)

In 1997, Laguna Hills removed the flags of Georgia and Mississippi.  In 2001 there was an attempt to remove the flag in Mississippi, but it failed.

--Old Secesh

Camp Douglas Prison: Andersonville of the North-- Part 1

From the April 22, 2015, Champaign (Ill) News-Gazette by Joan Griffis.

When it comes to Civil War prisons, by far the best-known and most notorious is the Confederate one at Andersonville in Georgia.  Terrible conditions and a high death rate were the norm.   Andersonville is the National Prisoner of War Historical site, 476 acres, and there is a white headstone for each of the 12,912 Union prisoners who died there.

But the little-known one called Camp Douglas in Chicago, near the shores of Lake Michigan was known as the Union's prison camp with the highest morality rate.

Beginning in February 1862, when the first Confederate prisoners began arriving, an average of one in every five died.

--Old Secesh

"On to Richmond": Mort Kunstler's 2015 Civil War Calendar for May

Painting of General Grant and Staff riding through Union lines on May 7, 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness with the men ecstatic and cheering him on.

GRANT IN THE WILDERNESS, MAY 7, 1864:  After two days of fighting the Battle of the Wilderness in dense woods, with forest fires raging everywhere, General Grant decided to march General Meade's Army of the Potomac south instead of north to retreat.  The men, realizing their fighting and suffering had not been in vain, cheered Grant in a spontaneous and unexpected show of support.

Colonel Porter recalled the scene 30 years later: "While moving close to Hancock's line, there occurred an unexpected demonstration on the part of the troops, which created one of the most memorable scenes of the campaign.  Notwithstanding the darkness of the night, the form of the commander was recognized and word was passed rapidly along that the chief who had led them through the mazes of the Wilderness was again moving forward with his horse's head pointed toward Richmond.

"Troops know but little about what is going on in a large army, except the occurrences which take place in their immediate vicinity; but this night ride of the general-in-chief told plainly of the story of success, and gave each man to understand the cry was to be 'On to Richmond!"

--Old Secesh

Bells Ring to Commemorate Lee's Surrender-- Part 5

The Associated Press was founded 15 years before the Civil War and at the time reported that ragged, hungry Confederate soldiers had already begun surrendering on their own in Virginia even before  Lee officially surrendered.  Days earlier, the Union  Army had smashed its way through Petersburg and into the Confederacy's ca[pital, Richmond.

Lee was attempting to escape with his army when Union forces "attacked them vigorously: in the hours before the surrender, convincing him that surrender was the only alternative.

AP at the time reported accounts saying "the road for miles was strewn with broken down wagons."

--Old Secesh

Bells Ring to Commemorate Lee's Surrender-- Part 4

That table was taken as a souvenir by Union soldiers and switched ownership several times before the
museum acquired it in 1920.

The Archdiocese of Chicago (Catholic) joined five other diocese across Illinois in ringing their bells for four minutes (each minute representing a year of the war).

The Cardinal Meyer Center, which houses archdiocese agencies now, was also a Confederate prison during the war (something that I was not aware of).  Among the churches participating was Holy Family Parish, the second oldest parish in Chicago and one of two that was around during the Civil War.

Further research shows that the center is on the grounds of Camp Douglas.

--Old Secesh

Bells Ring to Commemorate Lee's Surrender-- Part 3

During the Civil War, between 6,000 and 7,000 Confederates died at Chicago's Camp Douglas (there is a Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp based in the Chicagoland area that has the name of the prison to honor those men).  Most of the soldiers who died during the war were as a result of diseases like typhoid and dysentery.

The bell at Camp Douglas was rung when news of the surrender reached Chicago.  Also rung were most of the church bells in the city.

People at the ceremony also stood in front of the table on which Confederate General Lee signed the surrender at the McLean house in Appomattox Court house, Virginia.  That was a real connection to the event.

--Old Secesh

Original Gettysburg Cyclorama Unveiled in N.C.-- Part 2

After the 1933 Chicago World's Fair it was thought to be lost, but was found and eventually donated to Wake forest University.  It is 22 feet high and weighs 6 tons (that's a real lot of paint and canvas).  It was one of four Gettysburg Cycloramas made.

It is now up for sale and I'm hoping that the new Fayetteville, N.C., Civil War Museum will be able to get it.

--Old secesh

Original Gettysburg Cyclorama Unveiled in North Carolina-- Part 1

From the April 29, 2015, Charlotte (NC) Observer.

One of the biggest paintings in the world at nearly 400 feet in length is now for sale.  It has not been seen by the public since 1965.  It was painted between 1881-1883 by sixteen artists working under the direction of French painter Paul Philippoteaux who made three more nearly identical paintings of this one, which is the original.

It has been appraised at $5.5 million and it is hoped that it might be acquired by the new North carolina Civil War History Center being built in Fayetteville, N.C..

It drew thousands of visitors as it toured the country after it was finished, including nearly 500,000 in 1883.  It was a big attraction at the 1933 Chicago World Fair.

--Old Secesh.

Bells Ring to Commemorate Lee's Surrender-- Part 2

At 2:15, Thursday (April 9th), descendants of Union soldiers who trained at Camp Douglas, as well as Confederate soldiers held prisoner there, took turns ringing the bell four times to signify each year of the war.

Olivia Mahoney, senior museum curator rang it as well.  She is descended from soldiers on both sides, including several who died at Camp Douglas.

The bell came from the chapel of Camp Douglas, a 60 acre, 200 building facility that was at the heart of present day Bronzeville area in Chicago.  Camp Douglas got its name from Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas, on whose land it was built..

Dawn Griffin-O'Neal also struck the bell as a descendant of a Unioin soldier.

--Old Secesh

Bells Rang to Commemorate Lee's Surrender-- Part 1

From the April10, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Meredith Rodriguez.

Chicago joined the nation on Thursday in commemorating the unofficial, but highly climatic, end of the Civil War.  Church bells were rung around the city as well as one at the Chicago History Museum.  What made this bell even more special was that it was the one that was at Chicago's Camp Douglas, the largest military installation in Illinois during the war.  It was also a Confederate prison where over 6,000 captured Southerners died.

The National Park se3rvice asked that bells be rung to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's surrender to Union General U.S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

--Old Secesh