The river
port town of Helena, Arkansas
was a strategic site on the Mississippi River
during the Civil War. Located 70 miles downstream from Memphis,
it served as a staging area for the Union in supplying troops and material for Grant during the siege of Vicksburg. The program looks at the town
itself, its significance during the Civil War and the Battle of Helena in July
of 1863 as the Confederate forces under Theophilus Holmes
attempted to retake the town for the confederacy.
Don
comes to us from Camden
by way of a number of pastoral assignments throughout the state. He is a
graduate of Ouachita
Baptist University
and holds a Doctor of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
His retirement has brought him to Little
Rock to be closer to his two hobbies;
grandchildren and the civil war. A longtime Civil War Buff, he has presented
many programs before roundtables in the area.
Some of you may be thinking that
you remember Don
Hamilton was supposed to be the
speaker. Well you are right. Hamilton tumbled from a ladder a
while back and fractured his pelvis (ouch). Although able to get around on crutches he is not yet 100 percent. Don Nall
has graciously agreed to swap programs.
A BIG
THANK YOU
Cal Collier
The officers and members of the
CWRT of Arkansas want to take this opportunity to thank
Cal
and
Mel Collier for bringing us the program last month.
Sometimes we do not stop and take
the time to acknowledge the traditions that come to us through the years. Cal
has presented programs to us for as many years as anyone can remember. After
they moved to Maryland,
this has become long distance relationship. Yet each May they make the effort
to return to us and they only leave us after Cal
has imparted some of his vast knowledge of our history.
They make a valiant effort to
visit us each year and we should make sure that they know we appreciate their efforts.
COMING PROGRAMS
June 28, 2005 – Don Nall
–
Helena on the Mississippi
July 26, 2005 – Don
Hamilton –
The Tullahoma
Campaign
August 23,
2004 – Ron Fuller
September
“If All of Arkansas Read the Same Book” is a program
that brings an author into the state for a book tour. In the fall of 2005, they
are trying to schedule Jeff
Shaara and his book “GODS AND
GENERALS”. We are working on a special event for CWRT members
and will keep you informed as his visit nears.
September 27, 2005 – Regular Meeting
Terry Winschel, Historian - Vicksburg NMP –
“A Tragedy of
Errors: Failure of the Confederate High Command in the Defense of Vicksburg”
October 25,
2004 –TBA
November 22,
2005 – Dave Gruenewald –
Pat Cleburne's Ireland
and
Election of Officers
December 2005 –
No meeting Scheduled in December
We Who Study Must
Also Strive To Save!
THE
OFFICERS
Randy Bladwin,
President
rbaldwin63@comcast.net
Don Hamilton,
Vice President
don.hamilton@lrwu.com
Brian Brown,
Treasurer
BrianB1578@aol.com
Brian Brown
is still accepting dues of $15.00
Chas. Durnette,
Secretary/Editor
milhistory@aristotle.net
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Visit
www.civilwarbuff.org
Register to receive your newsletter on-line.
<>&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
THINGS YOU DIDN’T
KNOW
YOU WANTED TO KNOW
The last shot
of the WBTS was fired in the Bering Sea in
June 1865 by the CSS Shenandoah, the only Confederate ship to sail around the
world.
-------------
"Maurice Liverman, of Company A, was mortally wounded at the Battle of
Frazier's Farm June 30th, 1862, and turning to some of his comrades, he said:
"Boys, I can't live much longer, so hold me up so that I can fire one more
shot and kill one more Yankee before I die, to get even with them for my own
death." His comrades complied with his request."
<>
One of his comrades was his
brother Hardy Liverman.
Hardy, told the family and it
has been passed down by oral tradition.
Hardy
said he was the one
who helped Maurice
take aim on that last shot of revenge and that it did kill a damyankee.
[Hardy himself
was wounded and captured there and again
wounded and captured at Gettysburg.
He returned home defiant and unreconstructed for the rest of his long life.
Never count a Confederate dead
when he has one shot left.
-------------
The first ironclads to go into combat were Yankees... Andrew Foote's
"Pook turtles" which went into action at Fort Henry on the Tennessee
River (USS ESSEX, CARONDELET, CINCINATTI, and ST. LOUIS) on February 6,
1862. Eight days later (February 14) the PITTSBURG,
CARONDELET, LOUISVILLE, and ST.
LOUIS took on Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.
These six gunboats played a key role in what would turn out to be the
downfall of the Confederacy after this point in time.
The
VIRGINIA
was the first ironclad to fight another ironclad, but she was by no means the
first one in combat.
A GRAY GHOST MEETS AND IRON
HORSE
<>
The years had passed but time had
treated
Col. John
Mosby well. The man who had once
confounded Yankee commanders and terrorized their men indeed found himself at
peace after the fighting had ended, but the old warrior kept himself
continually busy
practicing law and
traveling widely, serving as Consul to Hong Kong and representing railroad
interests, writing and lecturing. Through it all, he never seemed to forget
those who had served with him, and especially those who had died in the
struggle.
Once, while in California,
the Colonel called on the son of a fallen comrade. The host had been but a boy
when his father, Mosby’s good friend, had been
killed in 1864, and the officer, by then in the seventh decade of his long
life, was the family’s most welcomed guest. While there, stories were shared
and the youngsters of the household became captivated by the Legend’s presence.
Soon, one of the children had the old man out and on horseback. In a recreation
of glories long past, Mosby assumed the role of
himself, the leader of a band of partisan rangers. The boy on that day became Robert E. Lee.
Together the two, one growing old and the other a child destined for greatness
in the Twentieth Century went back in time and fought again for a cause they
thought noble and just. Colonel John
Singleton Mosby, ‘The Gray
Ghost of the Confederacy,’ and a lad named George S. Patton, Jr.
——from the new book “Rebel
Reader: 500 Things You Probably Never Knew About the Civil War” by Barry Price.
News from
Thomas Eishen Online
<>
My reenactment list
has continued to grow and I have added the drill location making it easier for
prospective recruits to find a company in their area.
Coming
in August, more photographs of major battlefields including photographs of Gettysburg showing the
recent tree removal around Devil's Den.
<>
After
15 years of work, my first novel, Courage
on Little Round Top is now available online from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com,
The Twentieth Maine Store, Maine Historical Society,
and Walmart.com. Autographed copies are also available from my website (www.).
<>
Courage
on Little Round Top is the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Robert Wicker,
the young officer Chamberlain captured during the 20th
Maine's
charge down the bloody slope of Little Round Top, and the events that brought
them together.
I've been very
encouraged by the reviews I have
received from reenactors.
From
Robert A.
Niepert,
Florida Reenactors Online.com
.
. The battle for Little Round Top is brought to life
straight from the pages of Eishen's book. A lot of thought was put into the author's portrayal of what may have been
said between the everyday soldier and his friend and the worry, ideas and
casual comments of his commanders. Let your mind relax from the historic text book type reading that we all usually partake of and
enjoy a historically accurate novel just for the fun of it.
Glory Was Not Their Companion
The
Twenty-Sixth New York
Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War
By Paul Taylor
54photographs
& illustrations, maps, notes, appendices, bibliography, index
231pp. hardcover (7 x 10) 2005 Available for immediate shipment
This is a
story of New Yorkers who were recruited primarily from the gentle farmlands of
central New York—young and middle-aged, American and European, farmer and
tradesman, poor and well-off—all of whom were among the first to step forward
and answer their fledgling nation’s call during the Civil War. Though those young men marched proudly off to war
anticipating glory and quick victory, victory was usually absent and glory was
not their companion. Official accolades never seemed to materialize, and death
soon wrapped its cold arms around the “Second Oneida” with a
vengeance experienced by very few other blue-clad regiments. To be fair,
more often than not the regiment was placed in
difficult, often impossible tactical situations, which resulted in the New
Yorkers being forced to leave the field in disorder. They did their best and
played their small role in a much bigger production whose results helped to
shape America
into what it is today.
This work
covers the regiment’s entire two-year term of enlistment from May 1861 to May
1863. Glory Was Not Their Companion draws upon numerous unpublished letters and
diaries from the collections of individuals, private libraries and public
institutions, as well as contemporary newspapers and obscure government
documents. Appendices cover the order of command within campaigns and post
assignments. Also included is a regimental roster listing the 1,182 men who
served in the Twenty-sixth.
About the
Author
Historian and
writer
Paul Taylor lives in the
Detroit, Michigan,
area. He is also the author of books on the Battle of Ox Hill and on
Florida in the Civil
War.
Hear Ye Hear Ye
The latest news
Just one penny
Get your news here
[LITTLE ROCK] ARKANSAS
TRUE DEMOCRAT 1860
[LITTLE
ROCK] ARKANSAS
TRUE DEMOCRAT, February 22, 1860, p. 1, c. 2
"Fashion is a Fickle Jade."
But Mrs. R. A. Graham
has just received the latest and most fashionable in Fancy Goods and can satisfy
all that her's is the last and most approved style of the "fickle
jade." She has Bonnets, Ribbons, Dress Trimmings
and all description of
Millinery Goods.
Also Dress Making attended to as
usual
Call and examine for yourselves, and such inducements will
be offered as will insure a bargain to the purchaser.
R.
A. Graham.
----------------------------------------
[LITTLE ROCK] ARKANSAS
TRUE DEMOCRAT, February 22, 1860, p. 1, c. 2
<>
Garden Seeds.
Just received, a fresh supply of the "Quaker"
Kentucky Garden Seeds, and for sale by
John Collins,
Jan 25
Steamboat Landing.
----------------------------------------
[LITTLE ROCK] ARKANSAS
TRUE DEMOCRAT, February 22, 1860, p. 1, c. 2
<>
Garden Seed.
By late arrival, we are in
receipt of a fresh lot of Kentucky Garden Seed, put up expressly for Southern
use by Pitkin, Waird & Co., of Louisville. Call and get a supply.
Feb. 1,
1860 Hudson & Ives.
----------------------------------------
[LITTLE ROCK] ARKANSAS TRUE DEMOCRAT, February 22, 1860,
p. 3, c. 7
Grand, Sublime and Novel
Exhibition
by the Ericsson and Hydrogen Balloon Company!
Will exhibit at Little Rock, on Saturday, march 3d, 1860, in their Mammoth Wall Pavilion, Positively for One
Day Only! Circuses! Menageries! and all other Exhibitions thrown in the shade by the
Thrilling Sublimity of the most Stupendous Balloon exhibitions in the
world!! The unrivalled
Aeronauts with this Company!
Mr. W. J. Shotts,
the greatest of American Aeronauts, and Mons.
Le White, the great Daring, Foreign, Equiliptic Aeronaut having been engaged by
this Company, at an immense expense to visit the principal cities and towns of
the United States, for the purpose of making a variety of their unrivalled and
magnificent Balloon Ascensions!
The Company will distribute at
each place where the Ascension takes place, $1,000 Dollars worth of Prizes to
the audience, consisting of handsome Gold and Silver Watches, Magnificent Gold
Jewelry, Beautiful Gold and Silver Pencils, and Admission Tickets to Prof. Pyrington's
Grand Fire Works Exhibition, for the 5th of July.
Admission tickets to the Balloon
Exhibition, only one dollar, each one admitting the holder, and entitling them
to one of the prizes. Admission without a prize 50 cents.
N.B.—Should
the weather prove unfavorable, the Ascension will come off the next fair day
For full particulars, see small
and descriptive bills.
----------------------------------------
[LITTLE ROCK] ARKANSAS TRUE DEMOCRAT, March 7, 1860, p. 2,
c. 1
The soubriquet of Johnny Crapand,
no longer attaches to a Frenchman with its former significance, for both English
and Americans have learned to consider frogs as good eating. In the market houses frogs are
sold, or rather the legs are sold at two dollars a hundred. Restaurants and hotels serve them up as a
choice dish.
As an evidence of the demand for
this luxury, we see it stated that an enterprising firm have
recently prepared large ponds in New
Jersey as froggeries for breeding these batrachian
table delicacies. Superior breeds have been introduced and, no doubt, the future journalist
will hereafter record enormous legs of frogs, weighing ever so many ounces, as
they now make items of the weight of cattle or sizes of huge vegetables.
<>----------------------------------------
McClellan's War
The Failure of Moderation in the
Struggle for the Union
Ethan S. Rafuse
How political
beliefs shaped the war strategy of one of the Civil War's most controversial
generals.
"A superb piece of historical scholarship. Rafuse has
crafted a book that is groundbreaking in its conception." —Joseph L. Harsh, author of Confederate Tide Rising: Robert E. Lee
and the Making of Southern Strategy, 1861–1862
"Brings
something new, or at least relatively unknown, to the '
McClellan
debate.' . . . It is the first work I have read that explains
McClellan's
approach in a way that is both somewhat favorable and satisfactory, showing the
basis of
McClellan's views." —Brian K. Burton,
author of Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles
<>
This
biography of the controversial Union general George B. McClellan examines the
influences and political antecedents that shaped his behavior on the
battlefield, behavior that so frustrated Lincoln and others in Washington that
he was removed from his command soon after the Union loss at Antietam. Rather
than take sides in the controversy, Ethan S. Rafuse finds in McClellan's
politics and his desire to restore sectional harmony ample explanation for his
actions. Rafuse sheds new light on the general who believed in the rule of
reason and moderation, who sought a policy of conciliation with the South, and
who wanted to manage the North's military resources in a way that would impose
rational order on the battlefield.
Ethan S. Rafuse is author of A Single Grand Victory: The First
Campaign and Battle of Manassas and George Gordon
Meade and the War in the East. He has taught history at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and
the U.S. Military Academy and is an associate professor of military history at
the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College. He lives in Platte City, Missouri.
Sales territory
is worldwide.
544 pages, 17
b&w photos, 11
maps., bibliog., index, 6 1/8 x 9 ¼
cloth
0-253-34532-4
$35.00
<>
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SEE YOU TUESDAY NIGHT
for Don Nall
GOD BLESS AMERICA
<>Copyright ©1997 Civil War Round Table of
Arkansas
