Confederate Heritage Under Attack-- Part 2: Confederate Railroad Band

These are the August 30, 2019, Google Alerts for Confederate.

**  Maryland museum considers removing Confederate flag from logo.

**  Fair For All Campaign calls Cornel (University) 'uncooperative' in stopping Confederate flag sales at sponsored state fairs.  This group wants sales to stop.  Accompanied by photo of Confederate flags next to MAGA hats.

**  Confederate band to play at Chance.  (Confederate Railroad)

**  Confederate Railroad ready to play next week at Black Diamond Harley-Davidson in Marion (Illinois).

**  Students were punished for pro-LGBTQ t-shirts at a school that allows Confederate flags on clothes.

**  Wreck of paddle steamer throws light on British support for Confederate slave states during U.S. Civil War.

It Just Doesn't End.  --Old Secesh

Confederate Heritage Under Attack-- Part 1: Ole Miss To Embarrass Self

I receive Google Alerts for Confederate every day.  And every day there are more attacks on my heritage.  I usually don't read them as I get too angry.

But, just in case you think these attacks are over just because your local newspaper or media outlet doesn't talk about them, believe me that these are continuing.

These are the ones from August 29, 2019:

**  Early Confederate flag removed from Indiana war monument.  (They didn't realize what the first National Flag looked like.)

**  Ole Miss announces plans to relocate Confederate statue.

**  Federal lawsuit against Hanover schools to change Confederate named schools.

**  H2H Scott:  Should Confederate statues remain standing.

**  Confederate Railroad won't accept payment from fair that canceled their show.  (Guess why they were canceled?)

**  Daughters of the Confederacy said a year ago that they owned the Franklin Square.  Here's where the case stands.

See.  Not Over At All.  --Old Secesh

Some More on Cape Girardeau's Fort D-- Part 5: After the War

In 1911 the land around Fort D was subdivided for housing; the subdivision was to be called "Fort D Highlands".  Citizens of Cape Girardeau and the Southeast Missourian newspaper called for Fort D to be preserved (by then it was the only remaining Civil War fortification in the city).  It was preserved.

In June 1836, the Louis K. Juden Post 63 of the American Legion purchased the fort as a public park for the city.  The Works Progress Administration agreed to perform restoration and improvements in the form of a replica powder storehouse, while the City of Cape Girardeau agreed to maintain the  the fort in perpetuity.

The work on the fort and new powder house was completed on July 26, 1937, and the American Legion used  the building as a meeting house for several years.  However, eventually the Legion moved to another site.  From 1945 to 1948, the property was used by the Girl Scouts as a recreation center.

More Than You Ever Thought You'd Know About Fort D.  --Old Secesh

Some More on Cape Giradeau's Fort D-- Part 4: Powell Explored the Colorado River and Grand Canyon

In 1869, the now-retired Major John Wesley Powell got help from his old friend, now-president U.S. Grant.  Using a small flotilla of wooden row boats, Powell explored the Colorado River and  made the first descent of the Grand Canyon.

Powell went on to work at the Smithsonian Institution, founded the Bureau of Ethnology and became the second director of the United States Geologic Survey.

--Old Grandesh

Some More On Fort D, Cape Girardeau-- Part 3: Not Involved in the Battle of Cape Girardeau

Cape Girardeau was attacked by Confederate forces on April 26, 1863.  During the Battle of Cape Girardeau, Fort B was involved in much of the fighting while Fort D was not attacked at all.  The Confederate forces were easily turned back and Cape Girardeau remained in Union hands the rest of the war.

During the summer of 1864, companies of free black men and escaped slaves, part of the 18th USCT were stationed at Cape Girardeau, including some who garrisoned the forts.

In September 1864, Confederate General Sterling Price moved into  southeast Missouri with his army and three of Cape Girardeau's forts were manned and new cannons emplaced there.  Fort D was deemed too far away from the downtown area to be of use.  The Confederates did not come, however.

After the war, the Cape Girardeau forts were abandoned and all but one disappeared in the following decades.

Still Wondering Why the Forts Were Named After Letters and Not Names.  --Old Secesh

Some More on Fort D, Cape Girardeau-- Part 2: Company F, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery

On August 30, 1861, General Ulysses S. Grant arrived in Cape Girardeau and took command.  He visited again in October and authorized Captain John Powell to raise a company of local men to man the forts and guns around Cape Girardeau.

They became Battery F, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery and were organized immediately, but not mustered in until December 11, 1861.  Throughout the fall and  winter, Powell's men trained on the large cannons of the forts and did garrison duty.

In late March 1862, they were ordered to join the Union Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing in western Tennessee.    They were heavily engaged in the Battle of Shiloh a short time later on April 6 at a spot ever-after known as the Hornets' Nest for the fierce fighting that took place there.

It was there that Captain Powell was wounded in the wrist and forearm; later his  arm was amputated below the elbow.   His Battery F would go on to take part in the Battle of Corinth, Siege of Vicksburg and Atlanta among other battles.

--Old Secesh

Some More on Fort D, Cape Girardeau-- Part 1: Gen. Fremont Orders Defenses Constructed

From the John Wesley Powell's Fort D Historic Site.

Well, since I am writing about this heretofore unknown to me fort, I'll continue.

Construction work on Fort D in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, began August 6, 1861.

The first Union troops in Cape Girardeau were members of the 20th Illinois Infantry who landed July 6, 1861.  This was John Wesley Powell's (later famous for exploring the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon) regiment.

With the possibility that Cape Girardeau might be attacked by pro-Confederate forces General John C. Fremont ordered  Captain Franz Kappner of the Corps of Topographical Engineers there to construct fortifications.  August 2, Fremont visited the town and then ordered Captain Flad there to help design the forts.  A plan was submitted to the general on August 2.

On August 4, Colonel C. Carol Marsh ordered the fortification of the Windmill Hill which became known as Fort A.  Engineer troops of Bissell's Engineers of the West also arrived to help with construction.  These men were mostly German immigrants from St. Louis.

Two days later, under the supervision of Lt. John Wesley Powell of the 20th Illinois, construction began on what became Fort D.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Discussion Group Saturday, August 24: Overrated/Underrated

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) group meets this Saturday at the usual place, Panera Bread Company at 6000 Northwest Highway (US-14) in Crystal Lake, Illinois,  from 10 a.m. to noon.

The topic will be "Most Overrated/Underrated  (Anything or Anybody).  Should be interesting.  Do you have anything along these lines?

Come On By.  --Old Secesh

Fort D, Cape Girardeau-- Part 4: Modern Preservation

The fort was saved from development in the early 20th century.  The earthworks were repaired in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), part of FDR's New Deal during the Great Depression.

The stone blockhouse was built by the WPA in 1936 and has been used for various purposes since.

The fort was listed on the NRHP in 2019.

--Old Secesh

Fort D, Cape Girardeau-- Part 3: Other Forts Guarding the Town

Fort D is the only surviving of four forts built to defend Cape Girardeau.  And, the reason they call it Fort D.  I guess they didn't want or couldn't decide on names for the forts.

FORT A--  located slightly north of the downtown on a high hill.  A grist-grinding windmill was included inside the fort.

FORT B--  Located where  Academic Hall now stands at Southeast Missouri State University.

FORT C--  built at the end of  Bloomfield Road east of Pacific Street.

Smaller earthworks included Battery  A at the corner of Henderson and New Madrid streets, Battery B on Whitener Street just east of  Sunset Avenue and rifle pits along Perry Avenue and on the hill where Southeast Missouri Hospital now stands.

--Old SeceshDeau

Fort D, Cape Girardeau, Mo.-- Part 2: Never Saw Action

The earthwork walls, as originally constructed in 1861 and restored in 1936 as part of a Works Progress Administration project.  A palisade wall made of sharpened upright wooden timbers, formed the rear of the fortification and had a gate.  The gap in the south wall may have been a "sally" port, where troops could access rifle pits below  the parapet.

The fort was armed with three 32-pounder cannons and two 24-pounder cannons.  A 32-pounder cannon  was a smoothbore one that could fire a 32-pound solid shot over a mile.

Fort D was garrisoned by soldiers from Missouri, Illinois and other Midwesterm states during the course of the war.  The fort never saw action, but the Battle of Cape of Cape Girardeau on April 26, 1863, took place west of the city.

--Old Secesh

Fort D, Cape Girardeau, Missouri-- Part 1: A Shiloh and John Powell Connection

From Wikipedia.

A Civil War fort along the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, about 115 miles southeast of St. Louis.  (It is 35 miles from Sikeston, home of the original Lambert's Cafe, home of the "Throwed Rolls".)

During the Civil War, it was the site of the Battle of Cape Girardeau on April 26, 1863.  The forces engaged in  a minor four-hour skirmish, each side sustaining casualties in the low double digits.  Fort D was not involved in it.

Work on Fort D began on August 6, 1861, under the direction of Lieutenant John W. Powell of Illinois.  He later recruited a company of Cape Girardeau men for service in the Union Army.  These men eventually became Battery F, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery (Powell was from Illinois)   After a short period of training, they were at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862.

As Powell raised his hand, a bullet shattered his wrist and the arm was later amputated to stop infection.  In 1868, a one-armed John Powell led the first successful  navigation of the Colorado River through what Powell named "The Grand Canyon."

--Old Secesh

Fort D Placed On NRHP-- Part 2: One of Only A Few Urban Forts Left in Missouri

John Wesley Powell got his career start at Fort D and other forts in Cape Girardeau during the war.  His friendship with Grant kindled at Fort D which helped him later to map the Colorado River and the American West.

Being recognized on the NRHP, however, doesn't carry with it any financial benefits.  Fort D is owned by the city of Cape Girardeau.

In fact, Fort D is one of only a very few urban forts left in the state if Missouri as others were often destroyed or built over by construction as the cities grew.

If things go as planned, the 1937 building in Fort D will likely receive a new roof.

The public is invited to visit Fort D on Labor Day when re-enactments take place there.

Go Fort D!!  --Old Secesh

Fort D Placed On NRHP-- Part 1: A Redan and John Wesley Powell

Okay, I'd never heard of a Civil War fort named Fort D, but evidently there was one.

From the August 12, 2019, KCRU "A Civil War relic, historic Fort D is placed on National Register of Historic Places" by Clayton Hester.

Fort D historic site in Cape Girardeau, Missouri,  has been added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), a program run by the National Park Service.

Friends of Fort D coordinator, Scott House has spent much time working on the rather involved application process.  The drafts of this ranged from 75 to 90 pages.    Part of it pointed to the fort's significance in the Civil War as well as its architectural importance from its 1930s building on site and it is the only redan -- a v-shaped earthwork -- in the state.

Another significant fact about the fort is its connection with John Wesley Powell who went on to greater importance as a scientist in the American West.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Meets Tonight at McHenry County History Museum in Union

Tonight, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) takes its show on the road and instead of meeting at the Woodstock, Illinois, Public Library, will travel to the McHenry County Historical Society's museum in Union.

The museum will show several objects from its Civil War collection and members will also have a Show and Tell.

It starts at 7 p.m. at 6422 Main Street, Union.

I am considering going.

--Old Secesh

Richard Sherwood Satterlee

From Wikipedia.

I have been writing about the hospital that was named after him.

(December 6, 1798 to November 10, 1880)

Union Army medical officer.  Obtained his medical license in 1818 and practiced in Seneca County, New York.  Joined the Army in 1822 and stationed at Fort Niagara, Fort Porter and Fort Mackinac.  In  1831 he transferred to Fort Winnebago in Portage County, Wisconsin.  While there he took part in the Black Hawk War.

After that, he was sent to Florida and campaigned against the Seminoles.

After that it was a tour of duty at Fort  Adams in Rhode Island and then participation in the Mexican War and took part in the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec.  After that, he returned to Fort Adams in 1848 and survived the sinking of a steamship carrying  an artillery regiment in 1853.

He served throughout the Civil War and was brevetted to brigadier general and was a candidate for the command of the Medical Corps after the dismissal of Clement Finley.  That command went to William Alexander Hammond.  Satterlee retired in 1869 after a long career and Satterlee General Hospital was named after him.

--Old Secesh

Satterlee General Hospital-- Part 7: A Self-Contained City

In 1862, Satterlee added  military tents with beds to handle the influx of wounded after the second Battle of Bull Run.

The hospital was essentially a self-contained city by 1863.

After the Battle of Gettysburg "the greatest number of wounded were admitted to the hospital in a single month ... swelling the hospital population to more than 6000."  Along with this influx came what the clerks called "the greatest number of deaths  in any one month" in August -- an average of one a day.

By 1864, the hospital was surrounded by a fourteen-foot fence and included a barber shop, carpenter shop, clothing store dispensary, three kitchens laundry, library, post office, reading room and a printing office which printed the hospital's newspaper, The Hospital Register.

Over the course  of its operations, Satterlee treated some 50,000 wounded and deaths were remarkably low  260, quite notable considering the sanitary conditions and medical practices of the time.

After Lee's surrender, the number of wounded coming in dropped dramatically and it closed August 3, 1865.  The buildings were eventually razed and during the 1890s much of the site became residential housing.  The lower portion of the grounds today serves as Clark Park.

Quite A Remarkable Effort.  --Old Secesh

Satterlee General Hospital-- Part 6: The Largest Union Army Hospital

From Wikipedia.

Before I saw  the article in the Civil War Monitor, I had never heard of this place before.

It was the largest Union Army hospital and operate from 1862 to 1965 and rendered recovery to thousands of Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners.  It was originally called West Philadelphia General Hospital but renamed  in honor of Richard Sherwood Satterlee, a surgeon during the Black Hawk War and became a brigadier general during the Civil War for his success in the medical field.

It was founded in 1862 under the order of Surgeon-General William A. Hammond in a sparsely populated area of west Philadelphia by 45th and Pine streets on 15 acres.  The initial 2,500 bed facility was built in just 40 days.

Nursing duties were performed by the nuns of the Daughters of Charity.  Ultimately over 100 of them were at the hospital.

Dr. Isaac Hayes was the hospital's commander who was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and had gained some fame as a polar explorer before the war.

--Old Secesh

Satterlee General Hospital, Philadelphia-- Part 5: Food Consumed in One Year

Food consumed at Satterlee, September 1862 to September 1863

804,418--  pounds of bread

540,519--  pounds of beef and mutton

41,052--  pounds of pork

37,420--  pounds of chicken

95,250--  pounds of fish

490,388--  pounds of potatoes

283,123--  pounds of mixed vegetables

23,635--  pounds of coffee

4,425--  pounds of tea

74,325--  pounds of sugar

334,222--  quarts of milk

27,272--  dozens of eggs

Keepin' 'Em Fed.  --Old SeceshEat

Satterlee General Hospital-- Part 4: By the Numbers

By the Numbers

40--  Number of physicians who worked at the hospital during the war.

91--  Number of nuns (Sisters of Charity) who volunteered as  nurses at the hospital during its existence

2--  Number of hours the hospital band performed every afternoon, weather permitting, from the observatory.

3--  Miles distant the band might be heard in favorable winds.

14--  Height in feet of the fence that surrounded the hospital

25--  The number of sentries posted in and around the hospital

177--  Number of men comprising the hospital guard

By the Numbers.  --Old Secesh

Satterlee General Hospital-- Part 3: By the Numbers

2--  Number of corridors  (each 775 feet long)

34--  Number of hospital wards (each 167 feet long by 24 feet wide) in October 1863.

150--  Number of hospital tents on the grounds

4,500--  Patient capacity of the overall hospital (including tents)

5,847--  Number of patients admitted from October 8, 1862, to October 8, 1863.

110--  Number of patient deaths during the above period

4,062--  Greatest number of patients admitted in any month during this period (July 1863).  The Battle of Gettysburg.

--Old Secesh

Satterlee General Hospital-- Part 2: Only a 2% Mortality Rate

The hospital occupied roughly 16 acres of high ground, which, according to one of its staff, contributed to it possessing "all that could be desired as to pure air, and other natural helps to the procurement of round health."

During its nearly three years of operation (the hospital closed in August 1865) Satterlee buzzed with activity, its well equipped and trained doctors, nurses and other workers catering to the needs of a rotating array of sick and wounded Union soldiers.

Their effort proved remarkably successful, resulting in a patient mortality rate of approximately two percent.

Coming up next is a number of figures about Satterlee and its operations.

By the Numbers.  --Old Secesh

Satterlee General Hospital-- Part 1: One Huge Hospital

From the Spring 2019 Civil War Monitor "Salvo  Figures.

Judging just from the picture, this was an absolutely huge hospital.

"I was learning to  love the place -- to love its kind of people, and even its scenery....  Days, months and perhaps years may roll on before I am permitted to see my second home again."  So wrote a grateful Union soldier in 1863 about Philadelphia's Satterlee General Hospital, where he had recently been a patient.

Opened in June 1862 as Western Philadelphia Hospital, it was renamed the following year for the Army's chief medical purveyor, Richard S. Satterlee, and became the Union's biggest hospital.

Designed in the "pavilion" style, with its multiple wards linked to two long central corridors and supplemented by tents.

--Old SeceshSick

War's Hardening Ways-- Part 3: "No Idea of the Filth and Vulgarity"

**  "I had no idea of the filth and vulgarity of men in camp until I tried this little experiment."

--Colonel William Barksdale, 13th Mississippi Infantry, reflecting on his recent decision to join the army, in a letter to his brother.

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

**  "It seems to me I am quite callous to death now, and that I could see my dearest friend die without much feeling....  During the last three weeks ... I have witnessed hundreds of me shot dead, have walked and slept among them, and surely I feel it possible to die myself as calmly as any."

--  Union surgeon John Gardner Perry, in a letter home written during the Battle of North Anna.

--Old Secesh

War's Hardening Ways-- Part 2: "Waiting For This Fellow To Die"

**  "Am waiting for this fellow to die, so I can get his watch and ring."

--Confederate soldier Jim Randall after being asked by a comrade why he was sitting near a wounded Union officer after a battle.

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


**  "We passed the night high up the mountain, where we moved to reach our supply wagons.  A cold rain was falling, and before we found them ... I had lunched comfortably from the haversack of a dead Federal.  It is not pleasant to think of now...."

--  Confederate General Richard Taylor on an incident that occurred during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, in his memoirs.

--Secesh

War's Hardening Ways-- Part 1: "Cant Be Beat At Cursing, Swearing and Gambling"

From the Summer 2019 Civil War Monitor magazine  "Salvo:  Voices."

War has the way to harden-off its participants.  Here are some examples:

**  "I will be a perfect Barbarian if I Should Stay hear 3 years."

Recently enlisted Vermont soldier J.E. Hart, in a letter to his wife, June 16, 1861.

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

**  "If you think soldiering cures anyone of wild habits it is a great mistake, it is like Sending a Boy in the Navy to learn him good manners.  We have Drummer Boys with us that when they came at first could hardly look you in the face for diffidence but now could stare the Devil out of contenance and cant be beat at cursing, swearing and gambling."

Alfred Davenport, 5th New York Infantry, in a letter to his parents, March 9, 1863.

--OldSeHardened

Civil War Days Canceled in Lake County, Illinois: Something's Mighty Rotten

The 2019 Civil War Days has been canceled by Lake County Forest Preserve District (Illinois) President Angelo D. Kyle.  He doesn't like it because it includes Confederates and that means the flag will be there.

He is a black man.

Talk about a racist move on somebody's part.  This has been going on for over twenty years and is a well-attended event.  And, it is also one of the biggest Civil War re-enactment events in the state.  People really got to see first-hand what it was like to be a soldier during that war.  But not any more.

And, Mr. Kyle probably did not know this, but the show is open to members of USCT re-enactment groups.  That stands for United States Colored Troops.  That means his people.  So, in effect, he was being racist against his own race, besides just whites and Confederates.

It sounds like he made this move without the support of the rest of the Forest Preserve Board.  Definitely grounds for removal from office.  He first canceled it, then, under pressure said this year's would go on, but then canceled it again because of security issues.  It is doubtful there were security issues and the Lake County Sheriff's Office has even offered to look into the issues, but Mr. Kyle evidently doesn't want that.

Something Stinks in Lake County.  --Old Secesh