Our perennial presenter Drew Hodges will bring us the story of Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill. The man both Lee and Jackson called for when dying, the man who possessed a sense of pride and temper worthy of mighty Achilles, the soldier, the man, the father, the husband, the complicated and enigmatic figure.

 A. P. Hill was famous in his own time -- an important lieutenant of Lee, he commanded one-third of the Army of Northern Virginia, saved the day and probably prolonged the War by arriving just in time at Sharpsburg, and infamously fought with both Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet.

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 We Who Study Must Also Strive To Save!

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COMING PROGRAMS

 November 23, 2004 --

 June 28, 2005 -- TBA

 July 26, 2005 – TBA

 August 23, 2004 – TBA

 September 27, 2005 –  Terry Winschel, Historian -
                           Vicksburg National Military Park.

 October 25, 2004 –TBA

 November 22, 2005 - TBA

Last month we ran an article in the newsletter about the pay scale in the Civil War armies, and Tom Ezell thought that our readership might be interested in just how those odd numbers were set:

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Explaining the Confederate Army's Pay Scale...
Tommy Logan was a typical son of the Emerald Isle who entered the Confederate Army at the first call for troops from Mississippi. Tommy was older than any of the other privates and had traveled nearly all over the States as a common laborer, mostly with his shovel or hod. Never was Tommy wanting in a reply to any question asked; he needed no time to "frame" his answer. The only besetting sin of this true man was his love for the jug. No kinder man ever lived.

In the early spring of 1862, General John B. Magruder issued an order that no intoxicants should be sold within the Confederate line nor sold or given away to any Confederate soldier. This being said, Gen. Magruder was himself a hard drinker.

A few days after this order Tommy was detailed as a guard at Gen. Magruder's headquarters, and when a conversation arose between the officers as to why the pay of the Confederate army was fixed at odd numbers, a private receiving $11 per month, a sergeant $17; and a general $301, one of the aides to the General who knew Tommy said: "General Magruder, old Tommy Logan, the guard out there, may answer your question. He has a ready answer to any question asked him."

(Tommy is brought in, obviously inebriated.)  General Magruder said: "Sir, I see you have been drinking. Will you tell me where you got the whiskey?"

"O, Gineral, I'm afraid you will put me in the guardhouse, and I think the damn Yankees are thinking of taking Fredericksburg, and I would hate to tell some of my good friends in town I did not fire a shot in their defense."

 "No," said the General, "I will not punish you if you will tell where you got your whiskey."

"Ah, Gineral, that sounds so kind of you to say that it matters not where I got the whiskey; so I will tell you the God's truth where I got the liquor." (Considerable "blarney" follows...he saw some horse, admired a fine one, etc, etc.)

"On going around him I discovered a canteen hung to the saddle and, the divil take my curiosity, I smelt of the canteen and found about three drinks of good whiskey. My curiosity to taste was up, and I took a small drink. Ah! bad luck to whiskey. It made me want more, and I drank the entire contents of that canteen, not more than three fingers, though, you see."

Here the General put in: "Well, here you are telling a long-winded story, and the one who owned the whiskey or horse you have not divulged... whose horse was the canteen on?"

"Ah! my kind Gineral, I do not know the owner; but I have for the last six months I have seen you ridin' that noble animal."

When this came out the entire staff began to laugh, and one said: "General, Tommy is too much for you."

"But", said the General, "he has not only got off for being drunk, but has gotten drunk on my whiskey!"

Tommy also offered an answer to the original question:

"Ah! Gineral, that is aisy. I get $10 a month for the work I do as a private and $1 for the honor of being a soldier, and you get $300 for the honor of being a gineral and $1 for the work you do."

I must now tell you that General Magruder never passed our company at any time on the march or in camp and saw Tommy that he did not raise his hat and salute the private who explained so fully the odd numbers that Congress fixed as the pay for its officers and soldiers of the line. But I'll bet he left Magruder's whiskey alone from then on. A wise old man quits while he's ahead.

[March 2004 issue of the SENTINEL, 6th Arkansas newsletter.  The original story came from an issue of the original CONFEDERATE VETERAN, exactly which one I've sadly forgotten...]

Because of the success of this summer’s Central Kentucky Civil War Heritage Trail, Kentucky’s Civil War sites are again teaming up to present a full week of activities.  To be held July 18-24, 2005, the event has been expanded to offer even more opportunities for families, casual visitors, and Civil War enthusiasts alike.

Activities will begin on Monday, July 18, at Perryville, the site of Kentucky’s largest Civil War battle.  Speakers and living historians will be on hand to discuss the Civil War in Kentucky, the Battle of Perryville, and to offer battlefield tours.  A reception to welcome visitors will begin the week’s activities.

The event will continue on Tuesday, July 19, at Mill Springs, which will include a comprehensive immersion tour of this important battleground.  Wednesday (July 20) events will take place at Camp Wildcat, the site of a crucial Union victory, and Thursday (July 21) activities will be shared by Richmond and Winchester.  Richmond will interpret their battle, which was an overwhelming Confederate victory, while Winchester will host a grand opening and dedication of their Civil War Heritage Park.

Camp Nelson will welcome visitors on Friday, July 22, where they will offer archaeology, tours of the White House museum, and an evening program including a Civil War era meal.  Saturday (July 23) activities will be held at Frankfort and New Haven.  Frankfort will offer tours of Fort Hill and other area historic sites, and New Haven will discuss a sharp fight involving Confederate cavalry led by John Hunt Morgan.

The week’s events will conclude on Sunday, July 24, at Munfordville and Tebbs Bend.  The siege at Munfordville played a key role during the 1862 Kentucky Campaign, and at Tebbs Bend, John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry suffered a severe setback.  Munfordville, Tebbs Bend, Winchester, and New Haven are all new additions to this year’s weeklong Civil War event.

Visitors will be greeted with the best these sites have to offer – expertly guided tours, hands-on activities, concerts, living history programs, hands-on archaeology, artillery demonstrations, and more.  Many of these experiences have not been available to visitors in the past.

This weeklong event provides a wonderful opportunity to visit many of Kentucky’s Civil War sites at one time.  All of these sites will have creative, interactive events planned, and visitors can choose to attend just one event or visit all six sites.  The tour has given these sites the opportunity to pool their resources and talents in order to show a national audience what transpired in Kentucky during the Civil War period.

For more information about the Central Kentucky Civil War Heritage Trail, call 1-800-866-3705 or visit www.kycivilwar.org.

Little Rock Slips in Another Change

The city of Little Rock has chosen to change one more symbol of its’ immeasurable southern heritage. Confederate Boulevard, the long time road to Sweet Home and on to Pine Bluff was changed to Springer.

A short, winding portion running from Barber past the cemetery to just north of Interstate 440, continues to be listed as Confederate Boulevard. The exit signs on the Interstate have been changed to be politically correct.

The Completed Capital Guard Monument

AMERICAN BRUTUS

Written by Michael W. Kauffman

It is a tale as familiar as our history primers: A deranged actor, John Wilkes Booth, killed Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre, escaped on foot, and eluded capture for twelve days until he met his fiery end in a Virginia tobacco barn. In the national hysteria that followed, eight others were arrested and tried; four of those were executed, four imprisoned. Therein lay all the classic elements of a great thriller. Nevertheless, the untold tale is even more fascinating.

Now, in American Brutus, Michael W. Kauffman, one of the foremost Lincoln assassination authorities, takes familiar history to a deeper level, offering an unprecedented, authoritative account of the Lincoln murder conspiracy. Working from a staggering array of archival sources and new research, Kauffman sheds new light on the background and motives of John Wilkes Booth, the mechanics of his plot to topple the Union government, and the trials and fates of the conspirators.

Piece by piece, Kauffman explains and corrects common misperceptions and analyzes the political motivation behind Booth’s plan to unseat Lincoln, in whom the assassin saw a treacherous autocrat, “an American Caesar”. In preparing his study, Kauffman spared no effort getting at the truth: He even lived in Booth’s house, and re-created key parts of Booth’s escape. Thanks to Kauffman’s discoveries, readers will have a new understanding of this defining event in our nation’s history, and they will come to see how public sentiment about Booth at the time of the assassination and ever since has made an accurate account of his actions and motives next to impossible–until now.

In nearly 140 years, there has been an overwhelming body of literature on the Lincoln assassination, much of it incomplete and oftentimes contradictory. In American Brutus, Kauffman finally makes sense of an incident whose causes and effects reverberate to this day. Provocative, absorbing, utterly cogent, at times controversial, this will become the definitive text on a watershed event in American history.

MICHAEL W. KAUFFMAN is a political historian and graduate of the University of Virginia who has studied the Lincoln assassination for more than thirty years. He has appeared on A&E, the History Channel, C-SPAN, and the Learning Channel, and was called to testify as an expert witness in the 1995 Booth exhumation hearings. He lives in southern Maryland.

 Joe Brown’s Pets

The Georgia Militia, 1862–1865

At the beginning of the Civil War, Georgia ranked third among the Confederate states in manpower resources, behind only Virginia and Tennessee. With an arms-bearing population somewhere between 120,000 and 130,000 white males between the ages of 16 and 60, this resource became an object of a great struggle between Joseph Brown, governor of Georgia, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Brown advocated a strong state defense, but as the war dragged on Davis applied more pressure for more soldiers from Georgia. In December 1863, the state’s general assembly reorganized the state militia and it became known as Joe Brown’s Pets.

Civil War historians William Scaife and William Bragg have written not only the first history of the Georgia Militia during the Civil War, but have produced the definitive history of this militia. Using original documents found in the Georgia Department of Archives and History that are too delicate for general public access, Scaife and Bragg were granted special permission to research the material under the guidance of an archivist and conducted under tightly controlled conditions of security and preservation control.

William R. Scaife has taught at Emory University, and is a retired architect with more than 40 years experience in architecture and engineering. He is a widely respected Civil War historian with numerous publications and has served as consultant to or member of many organizations of history, national parks, and history magazines.

William H. Bragg teaches history at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia, and is the author of two previous books on the Civil War published by Mercer.

 
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