McHenry County CWRT Discussion: The Beginning of the End December 1864, January 1865

The McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table discussion group met at Panera Bread on December17, 2022 to discuss events in these two months.

Of course, a lot was said about the two battles of Fort Fisher in those two months and the fall of the fort on Jan. 15.

On January 15, 1865, Confederate General Beauregard arrived in Tupelo, Mississippi, to inspect what was left of the Army of Tennessee.  There wasn't much to inspect.  It was in complete chaos.

He sent 4,000 of them to Mobile to reinforce that garrison and furloughed 3,500 to go home.  (You have to wonder how many returned after the furlough was over.

Also in South Carolina, Charleston Harbor was abandoned.  The Union fleet was preparing a demonstration to draw attention away from its entrance to the harbor.

The USS Patapsco hit a torpedo while participating in obstruction removal and sank with the loss of 75 of her 105 man crew.  One of the few survivors was its executive officer, Lieutenant William T. Sampson who would later find fame for the naval victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in the Spanish-American War.

--Old Secesh

Six More Questions on Fort Fisher-- Part 2

Answers below.

6.  The fall of Fort Fisher closed of what Confederate port?

7.  Who was the Confederate general in charge of the whole area who did not attempt to save the fort?

8.  Fort Fisher was built to protect Wilmington and help what kind of ship get into the harbor?

9.  What was the name of the famed Confederate naval officer  who commanded the CSS Albemarle, CSS Florida and also blockade runners?  

10.  Fort Fisher is often called the Malakoff Tower of the South."  In what war was the Malakoff Tower?

11.  Frank Crawford question.  (This means it is really hard.)  Fort Fisher was surrendered buy a Confederate major who had also surrendered Fort Johnston across the Cape Fear River to the Confederate earlier in the war.  What was his name?

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ANSWERS

6.  Wilmington, North Carolina

7.  Braxton Bragg

8.  Blockade Runners

9.  John Newland Maffitt

10.  Crimean War

11.  Major James Reilly

I got them all correct, but, of course, I'm a Fort Fisher nut.

--Old B-Runner

McHenry County CWRT Discussion Group: Quiz on Fort Fisher

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table discussion group met December 17, 2022 at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake, Illinois, with "The Beginning of the End: December 1864-January 1865" as the topic.

I made up a list of questions to get us started.  Since the two Battles of Fort Fisher took place in those two months, I made up some questions about you-know-what to get us started.

Answers are below:

FORT FISHER

1.  What was the length of the land face and sea face of Fort Fisher?

2.  Who were the fort's two commanders during the two attacks?

3.  Who commanded the Union Army and Union Navy during the First Battle of Fort Fisher?

4.  What was Benjamin Butler's secret plan to destroy the fort?

5.  Who commanded the Union Army during the Second Battle of Fort Fisher?

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ANSWERS

1.  Half mile land face, one mile sea face.  (It formed the upside down letter "L".)

2.  Col. William Lamb was the fort's commander, and assisted by General W.H.C. Whiting.

3.  Benjamin Butler commanded the Army and David Dixon Porter commanded the Navy.

4.  Loaded a ship with gunpowder and blew it up.

5.  Alfred Terry

How'd You Do?  --Old Secesh

About That John Brown-- Part 5: Well, What Was He?

He was found guilty and condemned to death which is exactly what he wanted.  He became a martyr to the North and, of course, was the very essence of the devil to Southerners.  They now knew that many Northerners wanted to see them murdered by their slaves.  They could not live in a country that felt that way about them.

His execution was attended by Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart and one John Wilkes Booth.

Voting in Congress now became very sectional  Brown helped disrupt the existing party system.  Had it not been for him, Lincoln likely would not have been elected president in 1860. That was the final straw that forced the South out of the United States.

A song that became popular during this time "John Brown's Body Lies A-Mouldering in the Grave" eventually got new words and became "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at the hands of Julia Ward Howe, whose husband was one of John Brown's Secret Six.

At then end of the presentation, Bob Pressman had everyone weigh in on the question: "Was John Brown a Hero, Terrorist, Martyr or Mad Man?"

The majority of those assembled chose all of the above.

I, of course, could in no way call him a hero, though II know that he was a hero to some if not many.

--Old Secesh

About That John Brown- Part 4: The Attack and Capture

John Brown developed a group of close associates referred to as The Secret Six.  He was definitely a religious fanatic by now.  The year 1859 saw John Brown heading for Harpers Ferry.  On July 3, 1859, he rented a farm across the river from Harpers Ferry.

Then came his attack on the armory at Harpers Ferry on October 16, 1859.  One of the first things he did was have Lewis Washington, a relative of George Washington, arrested.

At this time Brown became a national phenomenon.  Everyone in the South  was against him obviously.  People in the North at first were against him as well, but many soon considered him a hero.  The South became hysterical.

Even so, John Brown's group only numbered 18 men.

After his capture, three charges were brought against him at his trial:  1.  Treason, 2.  Murder,  3.  Inciting a slave rebellion.

For the newspapers it was the Trial of the Century.  To say the least, it captured the nation's attention.

--Old Secesh

About That John Brown-- Part 3: 'I Consecrate My Life to the Destruction of Slavery'

John Brown had a slow arc to his militaristic hatred of slavery.  He further careened with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and then the Kansas-Nebraska Act really pushed him over the line.  This really energized supporters and opponents of slavery and expansion.

Then came the Sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, May 21, 1856.

He had a son living in Kansas and John Brown gathered guns and went to Kansas. He established a militia group he called the Liberty Guards (which was mostly John Brown and his sons).  His group came upon five pro-slavery men in Kansas and hacked them to death in what became known as Potawatomie Massacre on May 24, 1856.

At this time, John Brown was becoming a national figure.

He spend the next three years traveling throughout the North gathering support, men and guns with an idea of of an attack on the armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

--Old Secesh

About That John Brown-- Part 2: Becoming More and More Radical

John Brown was unknown nationally until almost five years before Harpers Ferry.  His father was an outspoken opponent of slavery and that carried over to his son, John. 

 A key point in John Brown's move toward radical abolition took place when, at age 12, he went to live in Michigan and stayed with a U.S. Marshal who owned a slave and beat him.  This deeply offended John Brown.

As a young man, Brown moved often and suffered many business failures.  Along the way, he sired twenty children with two different wives (who were sisters).

Throughout the 1830s, he became more and more outspoken against slavery.  Another major turning point was the death of abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois, at the hands of a mob.

On 1837, John Brown said, "I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.:  And that he surely did.

--Old Sercesh

McHenry County CWRT Presentation June 11, 2024: John Brown: Hero or Terrorist, Martyr or Mad Man?

 The McHenry County Civil War Round Table met June 11, 2024, at the Woodstock Public Library in Woodstock, Illinois, and were treated to an presentation on none other than John Brown by Bob Pressman of the Rock River Valley CWRT.  I wrote about Bob Pressman and his Round Table earlier this month in this blog.

 At the end of his talk, he had us vote as to which of the four descriptions of him were most appropriate:  Hero or Terrorist, Martyr or Mad Man.  I voted all but hero.  I am Southern and there was no way he was a hero.  But I did agree on the other three cases.  He fit them all. And, yes, I can see why he is a hero to some, just not me.

Bob Pressman opened saying that John Brown was a "bundle of contradictions."  He was probably the single biggest solo reason why the Civil War was fought.  Some say the Civil War actually began at Harpers Ferry on October 16, 1859.

I agree.  

What John Brown was trying to do was the biggest Southern fear of them all.  The fear of a slave insurrection, armed and killing owners went to the deepest part of the Southern heart.  And, it would have been one thing for John Brown and a small band of followers doing what they did.

But what really got the Southerners was how the North regarded John Brown as a hero and/or martyr.

How can you live in a country where a lot of the people want you dead?

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CWRT Discussion Group Meets Saturday to Discuss Union General Steven Hurlbut

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) will meet this Saturday June 22 at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake, Illinois between 10 am and 11:30 to discuss Union General Steven A. Hurlbut who had quite the interesting career for many reasons.

It will also be carried on ZOOM.

All are invited and we generally stay somewhat on topic most of the time.  If we don't Steve is bound to say something.

Panera Bread is located at the corner of Main Street and Northwest Highway (U.S. 14).

Come on By.  --Old Secesh

Adele Cutts Douglas-- Part 2: A Second Marriage

Adele was just twenty when she first met the widowed Stephen Douglas.  Though he was more than twice her age (she was born in 1835 and he was born in 1813) they courted briefly and were married in a Catholic ceremony in November 1856.

She had a transforming effect on the somewhat disheartened  Illinois senator and their house became a center for the Washington, D.C., social scene.

She was at his side during the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates in Illinois and the presidential campaign that followed in 1860.

When Douglas died in Chicago in June 1861, Adele never entertained again and went into extended mourning.

Following the Civil War she met and married a Union career officer from Virginia named Robert Williams. (He was born in 1829) She then took on the life of an Army wife.

She had a miscarriage and lost a baby daughter when she was married to Douglas.  With Williams, she reared six children during his long career which ended in 1893 as Adjutant General of the Army.

Adele died at her home in Washington in January 1899 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

--Old Secesh

Adele Cutts Douglas-- Part 1: Related to Dolley Madison

From House House Divided site.

As I was writing about this woman in my last post, I couldn't help but think she might have been considerably younger than Stephen Douglas.  

Rose Adele Cutts was a famous Washington beauty (also, I have to think that Douglas wasn't particularly handsome) and valuable second wife to Stephen Douglas.  She was born in Washington, D.C., on December 27, 1835.  She was the daughter of James Madison Cutts, nephew of former first lady Dolley Madison, and Eleanora  O'Neale, from a prominent Maryland Catholic family.

Tall with chestnut hair and a universally proclaimed beauty. Addie (as she was called)  grew up under tutelage of her great aunt, Dolley Madison, and could not help but become a poised and popular figure with a political mind.

Then, her husband-to-be , Stephen A. Douglas stood 5 feet 4 inches and could be described as being somewhat pudgy.

So, how did this match come to be?  Was she a "Trophy Wife?"

--Old Secesh

The Colonel and Stephen Douglas' Widow-- Part 2: Adele Cutts Douglas

Colonel Robert Williams remained in the Army after the war, serving during the Indian Wars.  In July 1892, now a brigadier general, he was named adjutant general of the U.S. Army and retired in November1893.

Despite his prickly disposition, Williams won the heart of Adele Cutts Douglas, widow of Senator Stephen Douglas--  Abraham Lincoln's longtime rival, who had died in June 1861 after contracting typhoid fever.  

She was a chestnut-haired beauty who came from an old Washington family.  She became Douglas; second wife in 1856 and raised the senator's two sons from his first marriage.

Her family's Southern sympathies--- Rebel spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow was her aunt-- made her a popular capital hostess even after Douglas' death.

In 1866, Adele met and married Williams, later accompanying him to the Frontier, where she bore him six children.  She died in 1899 in Washington, predeceasing her husband by two years.

--Old Secesh

The Colonel and Stephen Douglas' Widow-- Part 1

From the July 2021 America's Civil War magazine "Love in the Ruins."

As I said before, I sure miss this magazine.

Colonel Robert Williams, the first commander of the 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry, usually did not get along with his men.  

At the time he became the commander, it was customary for men to elect  their company and field commanders.  Williams, a strict disciplinarian-- and Virginian by birth-- was not a natural fit for the New Englanders of his regiment.  And, making matters worse, Williams was not picked by the men of the 1st.  (More on this later.)

But, he was a professional soldier and had served for a decade in the Army on the western frontier. 

Despite discord in the ranks, he stayed with the regiment during early campaigning in South Carolina and its transfer to the Army of the Potomac in August 1862.  At Antietam, however, Williams complained  that he had been the victim of an unspecified injustice.

He resigned his colonel's commission and returned to the Adjutant General's department in Washington, D.C., which had been his previous posting.

--Old Secesh

2024 'Talks' at McHenry County CWRT-- Part 2: 'Rank Discord'

JULY 9:  And Then He Was a Lion:  Major General James Steedman

AUGUST 13:  Meade at Gettysburg  (Impersonation)--  David Eisele

SEPTEMBER 10:  Rank Discord--  Rob Girardi

OCTOBER 8:  George Custer, His Rebel Buddy, Harpers Ferry & John Yates Beall--  Don Hatch

NOVEMBER 12:  Loose Lips: "Military Intelligence in the Civil War"--  Bruce Allardice

DECEMBER 10:  Partisan Warfare in 1862 Kentucky   (ZOOM only)--   Derrick Lindow

So, there you have it.  One year of Civil War stuff from your friendly local McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table.

--Old Secesh

'Talks' at the McHenry County Civil War Round Table 2024: 'Last Man Standing'

Earlier this month I listed the presentations that have been and will be given to the Rock River Valley CWRT.

I decided to list the ones at my Civil War Round Table.

JANUARY:  Morgan's Great Raid:  Taking the War to the North--  Dave Mowery

FEBRUARY:  "Last Man Standing" the 20th Indiana--  Chuck Rebesco

MARCH:  Confederate Railroads--  Charlie Banks

APRIL:  Central Florida's Civil War Veterans--  Bob Grenier

MAY:   Charles River Ellet, the Queen of the West and USS Indianola--  Ed Urban

JUNE:  John Brown:  Hero or Terrorist?  Martyr or Madman?--  Bob Pressman

--Old Secesh