Volume 23, No. 8 – August 2010
Upcoming Program: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 Monroe Ackerman is scheduled to survey the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi region, which includes Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and even California! At the moment, he and his family are facing a personal tragedy, the loss of his beloved wife, Elayne, who passed away Saturday. If Monroe cannot carry on, we will divide the room into two or three teams and have a history quiz. July 13, 2010 Assembly, President’s Message The Civil War Round Table of Palm Beach County has
recently established its home on the Internet at:
www.CivilWarRoundTablePalmBeach.org.
Member Robert Schuldenfrei is acting as webmaster.
Do you know of a publication, organization, or any interested
party that might be willing to spread the word about us, to either
contact them directly or pass their name back to Bob or me?
This website is the cornerstone of an upcoming campaign to
increase membership. There
is a Join button right on the home page so people who want to become
members can immediately act on their desire.
This issue of the newsletter, and all future issues, will be
placed on our site. This not only is a service to our members, but with
every story we post increases the odds that someone doing a Google
search learns about the CWRT of Palm Beach County. I am so pleased that
the Round Table has a website. On behalf of the membership, I would like
to extend our deep appreciation to Bob for all his hard work and
creativity. Bob will definitely be brevetted for his tremendous
accomplishment. Also, Bob has graciously offered to chair a
membership committee. He would like to have three or four members serve
with him. The Round Table needs you. Gerridine LaRovere, President July 13, 2010 Program Dr. George Nimberg introduced us to his long-time hobby – assembling and painting soldiers of many eras. Soldiers come in many sizes and are made of many materials. He noted that some collectors have 10,000 or more figures in their homes. He himself has created over 300 figures! He was too modest to say so, but one of his friends who attended the meeting stated that George has won many prizes at toy soldier conventions and is known as one of the better painters. The first figure (left) he displayed was a Zouave of the 5th New York Regiment. The uniform was designed to attract recruits.
The
next figure (right) was of a private in the 14th Brooklyn Regiment.
Notice the neat white “puttees.” It was proposed changing
the designation
to the New York 84th, but this was vetoed by Major-General Irwin
McDowell. This regiment fought bravely all three days at Gettysburg.
Next
(left) is an infantry man of the 6th Wisconsin -- the “Iron
Brigade.” Gen. McClellan gave them this name because they stood
their ground at the Battle of South Mountain. Col. William J. Hardee of
the United States Infantry designed
their “Hardee hat” in 1855.
In 1860, he resigned and joined the Confederate Army!
The piping on the uniform is yellow indicating that this soldier served
in the cavalry.
The artillery is red, the cavalry is yellow, and the
infantry is light blue.
To the right is a sharpshooter in Burdan’s
Regiment. He wears a green uniform copied from a German model.
Burdan was a successful businessman and one of the best shots in
the country. However, Burdan never seemed to arrive at the battle at
the critical moments.
Perhaps that is why he died as an old man playing chess at his club!
The North was undoubtedly more sympathetic toward
the Blacks than the South,
but regiments of the Union were overwhelmingly
not Black, and this was the
case for a good part of the war. This changed significantly with, among
other things, the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation and the
organization of an "experimental" all-Black regiment, the 54th
Massachusetts (left). This regiment was formed in March 1863,
nearly two full years into the war, and commanded by Robert Gould Shaw,
a young (white) abolitionist. Among the recruits, who were mostly from
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, were Charles Douglass and Lewis N.
Douglass, sons of the former slave and famous abolitionist Frederick
Douglass. The 54th
Massachusetts Regiment (made famous in the movie, “Glory”) was not the
first black unit organized, but was the first to engage in combat.
A unit of black volunteers was organized earlier in
South Carolina, but was disbanded after a short period.
There was a black regiment, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, that
fought in the Revolutionary War.
To get into the 54th, the volunteer had to certify that he was a
“free man,” but that rule was soon ignored in the rush to fill in the
regiment. During the war,
over 165,000 Blacks (over 10% of all soldiers) served in the Union
armies. In the beginning the
Black soldiers were paid only $10 a month but after a while it was
raised to the same $12 a month paid the whites.
The young men who volunteered to join the 1st
Minnesota Regiment (right) were dressed in red because that was
what was found in the Armory!
The covering on the kepi was knitted by the wives and daughters of the
volunteers. This regiment
suffered the highest casualty rate (80%) in the war.
After Dan Sickles foolishly advanced into the Devil’s Den at
Gettysburg and was beaten back, the 1st Minnesota charged to restore the
line, at a terrible cost.
There is a beautiful monument to this regiment at the Gettysburg battle
site. The remnants of the
unit were mustered out in April 1864. Dr. Nimberg then turned to the Confederate side.
Maryland
did not leave the Union, primarily because President Lincoln arrested 30
to 40 of the leading secessionist politicians. Of the 24,000 Marylanders
who fought in the Civil War, 8,000 fought for the South and 16,000 for
the North. On the bottom left of the previous page is an infantryman of
the 1st Maryland (CSA).
There was a 1st Maryland Regiment (USA), which fought and lost to the
1st Maryland (CSA) in the Shenandoah Valley campaign.
Dr. Nimberg pointed out that the uniforms of the Confederate
models are “idealized” and were seldom so clean or complete in the
field.
On the
right is a
Confederate Marine lieutenant.
Only 1,000 men were recruited and assigned to guard Southern
ports.
At
the left is a Confederate
lieutenant in the horse (light) artillery.
There were three kinds of artillery in this war: light, field and
fortification). Notice his
cavalry saber.
On the right a foot soldier of the 26th North
Carolina Regiment. This unit took part in “Pickett’s Charge” on the
third day at Gettysburg and suffered 90% casualties!
There is a magnificent monument to this unit at the Gettysburg
battle site.
The 20th Massachusetts Regiment (USA) was called
the “Harvard Regiment” because so many of its volunteers came from
Harvard College. Oliver Wendell Holmes was wounded three times and this
unit suffered the fifth highest percentage of casualties of any Northern
unit. Notice this soldier (left)
has a red blanket role.
Next (right) is a model of the 1st
Rhode Island Regiment, whose 75,000 volunteers were mustered out after
three months! The history of
this Regiment goes back to the Revolutionary War.
At
the left is a generic Union soldier
memorializing all the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg. Dr. Nimberg then turned to the “nitty gritty” of
model building. First, it can be an expensive hobby.
Models start at $40-$45 and run up to $120 - $130 for models from
Italy or Spain. The kits
come in pieces (ranging from 6 to 15).
Some are metal but most are now resin, which is easier to repair.
The brushes are very small and he paints under magnification.
He usually uses oil based paint, but sometimes uses acrylic or
even enamel. He may work on
more than one model at a time.
He estimates that each model represents about 2 to 3 weeks (80 to
120 hours)! Last year he
completed 14 models. He
passed around a plastic bag containing a “raw” model.
He has set up a studio in the garage to keep the paint smell out
of the house. Unfortunately
the garage is not air conditioned so summer slows him down!
Dr. Nimberg also collects paintings of battle
scenes, including a Troiani painting of the “Bloody Cornfield” at
Antietam. He has discovered
an error in this painting, which is otherwise very accurate: the
Confederate battle flag has only 12 stars, whereas there are supposed to
be 13 (the 11 states that seceded and Kentucky and Missouri, which did
not. After numerous questions, the members present could
get “close up” to many models of various sizes and also a bag containing
the raw materials of a model soldier.
This was an entertaining evening! Joseph Emerson Brown (April 15, 1821 - November 30, 1894), Politician, Businessman, Educator, Obstructionist, Scalawag
Readers know that your editor just dotes on
interesting people of dubious character, such as Benjamin Franklin
Butler. Well, I have just
run across a Confederate version of Ben Butler, Joseph Emerson Brown! Brown was born in Pickens County, South Carolina,
April 15, 1821. At a young age he moved with his family to Union County,
Georgia. In 1840, Brown, drove a yoke of oxen on a 125-mile trek to an
academy near Anderson, South Carolina, where the impoverished Brown
exchanged the oxen for eight months' board and lodging. He went on to
study law, and in 1847, opened a law office in Canton. Brown was elected
to the Georgia state senate in 1849 and soon became a leader of the
Democratic Party in Georgia. He was elected state circuit court judge in
1855 and governor in 1857. As governor, he pressed for establishing free
public schools so that every "free
white child" would have the right to attend.
He said, "Let the children of the richest and the poorest parents
in the state meet in the school room on terms of perfect equality of
right..." He had the legislature divert profits of the state-owned
railway to Georgia's public schools. Brown was a slick operator: He made money before he
became governor, while he was governor, and thereafter. He made money
during the war trading in bonds, especially railroad bonds, and lending
the State money. He was the president of and owned stock in the company
that leased the State-owned railroad, the Western and Atlantic (W&A).
This business fit like a hand in a glove with his extensive interests in
coal and iron mining in Northwestern Georgia served by the W&A because
he used it to transport his iron and coal, and it used his coal.
He died a rich man with an estate estimated at $12 million! Brown was an ardent believer in states’ rights and
supported secession after Lincoln’s election.
A states’-rights advocate seen as extremely strict even in a
country founded on the principle of states’ rights, Joe Brown could
never agree with any of the policies of the Confederate government that
he felt usurped the authority of the states. The total war being fought
by the Confederacy, however, necessitated that certain war measures be
taken by a strong central government in order for the Confederacy to
survive. Gov. Brown,
Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens and Gen. Robert A.
Toombs controlled Georgia politics and were united in opposition to the
administration’s policies, feuding bitterly with President Jefferson
Davis in a manner resembling a personal vendetta. Confederate draft and tax policies and presidential
authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus particularly rankled Gov.
Brown. Though early in the
war he had been very active in raising troops for the cause, he offset
some of the effect of the draft laws on Georgians by appointing
thousands of men in his state to sham governmental positions that were
exempt from the draft. He lashed out at what he considered
unconstitutional government-imposed taxes.
He would allow the state militia to be used only in Georgia and
refused to let it be of service in neighboring states.
Jefferson Davis considered Brown a major obstacle in the
prosecution of the war, and they exchanged many angry letters.
Brown felt that by strictly upholding the principles of states’
rights even during wartime he was ensuring that the type of government
established by Jefferson Davis would not prevail after the South had won
its independence. After the War, he was imprisoned for a short time.
He then became a Republican and moved to Atlanta, which the
Republicans had made the State's new capital. Despite having allied
himself in both politics and business with carpetbaggers and scalawags,
after the State was "redeemed," he returned to the Democratic Party.
For many years, Brown, Alfred H. Colquitt and Gen. John B.
Gordon, called the “Bourbon Triumvirate,” dominated the State
politically. As a Democrat,
Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1880 and was reelected in 1885.
He retired in 1891 due to ill health and died November 30, 1894. Last changed: 08/06/10 |