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Vol. 24 No. 3- March 2011
Volume 24, No. 3
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 Assembly
The March assembly will hear from Marshall Krolick.
His topic for the evening will be
The Common Soldier and the Civil War.
Mr. Krolick has been a member of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago
since 1961 and served that organization in many capacities.
In 1990 he was awarded its Nevins-Freeman Award for distinguished
scholarship and dedication to Civil War studies.
Marshall has served as a guide for tours of Gettysburg and other
Civil War battlefields.
His published works include articles in Blue and Gray Magazine, Du Page
Magazine, Virginia Country Magazine’s Civil War Quarterly, Civil War
Magazine, and Gettysburg Magazine.
He wrote the introduction to Morningside Bookshop’s reprint
edition of the
History of the Eighth Cavalry Regiment, Illinois Volunteers
and, for several years, a regular column in Civil War Times Illustrated.
President’s Message
At the February meeting Gerridine LaRovere announced that Stephen
Seftenberg was seriously ill.
This issue of
Haversacks and Saddlebags
was written by Robert Schuldenfrei.
Bob will continue to write this newsletter with distribution help
from club members. We all
wish Steve a speedy recovery and hope that he will be back at the
editor’s desk in the near future.
February 9, 2011 Assembly
Due to the unexpected illness of our February speaker the CWRT decided
to do something different.
Robert Schuldenfrei has a book in his library called
The Civil War Day by Day
edited by John S. Bowman.
This chronicles the days of the war in date order.
Bob suggested that we hold a round table discussion, as our
group’s name implies, focused on the month of February 1864.
He listed 11 events from that book in the January newsletter that
might be discussed. He then
moderated the meeting, hoping we would not run out of points and topics
a few minutes after the event began.
He had nothing to fear.
Just seven of the topics took the whole evening.
Here were the original topics and the bold faced items were
actually discussed:
Sherman’s Meridian campaign
We opened the discussion with Bob laying out the ground rules.
This event would go nowhere if the moderator just gave a lecture.
He quipped that he is not a Civil War expert; he just plays one
at the Civil War Round Table.
Everyone would have to jump into the discussion after a brief,
very brief, introduction to the topic.
Sherman’s Meridian campaign
First out of the blocks was Sherman’s Meridian Campaign.
The Meridian Campaign was the desire of Sherman to keep his
troops doing productive work during the winter.
He wanted to head for Mississippi and the tempting targets of
manufacturing facilities in Selma, AL.
Problems for him were Polk, Johnston, and Forrest.
He would bring Smith down from the north while he led troops east
out of Vicksburg. He
travelled light (celerity) with only food, ammo, and medical stores.
No luxuries! It was
an exercise of living off the land.
They travelled so fast that Polk could not mount any resistance.
In 11 days they were in Meridian.
Polk did manage to remove 12,000,000 dollars of military property, but
Sherman had the land which he promptly savaged.
Sherman blamed Smith for not reaching Meridian.
Smith was busy destroying railroad along the way.
This caused Smith to move at half the pace called for in the
plan. Smith employed
“out-riders” later to be called “Bummers.”
Forrest got word of Smith and his plan to tear up rails all the
way to Meridian. The threat
of Forrest caused Smith to turn around.
Note the Forrest story about the trooper fleeing the fight.
The battle at West Point Forrest pinned down the rear-guard with
most of his force and sent a regiment around the flank to encircle
Smith’s troops. After
resting his forces Forrest pursued Smith.
Smith, once again, set up a rear-guard with a few regiments
hoping to escape with the main body.
Again, Forrest chewed up the small group that formed a piecemeal
defense. Twice more the
attack was pressed.
Presently Forrest called it off as his men were exhausted.
Forrest’s green troops gained valuable confidence that they could
whip a force twice their size.
Smith’s troops were demoralized.
Of course Sherman was a huge success.
“I scared the bishop (Polk) out of his senses.
This was true.
Sherman’s star was rising and the fear of “Sherman’s torch” was
spreading in the deep south.
Lincoln and the $5.00 bill
Grant’s promotion to LT General
On February 1, 1864 a bill to promote Grant to the rank of Lieutenant
General passed the House by a vote of 117 – 19.
It would be on February 26, 1864 that the Senate would take
similar action. Washington
was the last officer to hold that rank although Winfield Scott held the
brevet rank. There was some
politics involved in the promotion of Grant.
Elihu Washburne was a friend and promoter of both Grant and
Lincoln. He claimed that
Grant’s name was being used as a “football” for those wanting to run for
the presidency in 1864. As a
quid pro quo Lincoln supported Grant’s promotion and Grant supported the
reelection of Lincoln.
Davis and Habeas Corpus
Habeas corpus, Latin for "you [shall] have the body," is the name of a
legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from
unlawful imprisonment. The Suspension Clause of the United States
Constitution specifically included the English common law procedure in
Article One, Section 9, clause 2, which demands that "The privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases
of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."
In the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis suspended habeas corpus and
imposed martial law on February 17, 1864. This was in part to maintain
order and spur industrial growth in the South to compensate for the
economic loss inflicted by its secession.
Davis had to fight Vice President Alexander Stephens who was a constant
thorn in his side. Stephens
could not see the practical side of nationhood when it ran up against
states’ rights.
The Hunley
Hunley
sank
USS Housatonic,
a steam-powered sloop of war at the entrance to Charleston harbor.
While successful, the
Hunley
did not survive the encounter.
Even after the raising of the sub in August of 2000 it is not
clear why the
Hunley
sank. It was not flooded as
the crew had not set the pump to remove water from the crew compartment.
Lack of oxygen killed the crew.
Each crewman was at his station slumped over the propulsion
mechanism.
Confederate bans on luxuries and exports
Blockade runners who sold to the public dealt almost exclusively in
luxury and other high-profit items, despite the ever-present need for
staple goods. The practice
was so egregious that the Confederate congress came to ban the import of
luxury items, though the law was not effectively enforced.
The states that entered the Confederate States accounted for 70 percent
of total US exports, and the Confederate leaders believed that this
would give the new nation a firm financial basis.
The South produced enough food to feed itself, but distribution
and exports placed a heavy burden on them.
By February of 1864 things got so desperate that blockade runners
were exporting food and tobacco.
The Confederate Congress claimed ½ of the food and tobacco on
outbound ships.
On February 6, 1864 the Confederates tried once again to ban US
currency. They exempted US
postage stamps. However, it
was common knowledge what the “exchange rate” was between Northern and
Southern money. The ban did
not extend to US dollar backed securities, so was ineffective at
controlling large financial transactions.
Currency represents a small amount of the wealth of nations.
Meade at the Rapidan
On February 6, 1864 Meade advanced on Lee at Morton’s Ford on the
Rapidan. He wanted to test
the Southern battle-hardened
veterans of Gettysburg. Like
so many battles, the Northern forces took to the offense and met with
early success. The
first division of this force, under Brig. Gen. Alexander Hays
crossed the Rapidan and engaged the Confederates who were huddled in
their camps trying to stay warm.
Those same troops, rallied under the command of George Steuart,
fell upon the Hays Division and drove it back across the Rapidan with
considerable losses. This
battle was to be a diversion to the opening of a raid on Richmond
conceived by Gen. Ben Butler that had fired the imagination of
politicians in Washington.
Last changed: 06/24/11 |
On
February 17, 1864