The Civil War Round Table of New York, Inc.

Volume 66, No. 6 607th Meeting February 2017

2017 • MEETING SCHEDULE • 2017• March 8th •Ralph Peters

The Damned of Petersburg

• April 12th •Ed Bearss

Grierson’s Raid

• May 10th •Fletcher Pratt Award

You must call 718-341-9811 by February 1st if you plan to attend the February meeting. We need to know how many people to order food for.

• Guest: The Barondess Lincoln AwardStephen D. Engle Gathering to Save a Nation

• Cost: Members: $50Non-Members: $60• Date: Wednesday, February 8th

• Place: The Three West Club, 3 West 51st Street

• Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm, Doors open 5:30 pm, Cash Bar 5:30 – 7 pm

Stephen Engle studies and teaches the political and economic evolution of the 19th century American republic. His research in this period has focused on the study of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, and his books examine the ethnic dimensions of the period, civil-military relations during the war, and the politics of power. His books include: Yankee Dutchman: The Life of Franz Sigel (1992), Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All (1999), The American Civil War in the West (2002).

He has also appeared on C-Span’s “Lectures in American History,” series, and in 2016 was named the Distinguished Teacher of the Year at Florida Atlantic University.

Barondess Lincoln Award winnerStephen D. Engle Gathering to Save a Nation

The Last Word on SharpshootersThe Value of Sharpshooting

Exactly how one can quantify the value of sharpshooters during this, or any war, is nearly impossible. Union marksmen killed no fewer than six Confederate generals, whilst some 60 offi cers over the rank of major were killed on both sides by sharpshooters. Probably the most celebrated victim of a sharpshooter’s prowess had to be Gen. John Sedgwick, whose dismissible attitude toward men who were dodging the distinctive hissing noise of the Whitworth bullets was to cost him dearly. As one man took cover, Sedgwick asked: ”Why are you dodging like this? They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” At which point a bullet, most likely fi red by a Whitworth-armed sharpshooter named Sgt. Ben Powell, struck him below the left eye, killing him instantly. The distance

of the shot, though still disputed, is believed to have been around 800 yards. As a broader example of the effective use of sharpshooters, during the First Battle of Dalton, (Feb. 22-27,1864) 46 Rebel sharpshooters, mainly Whitworth-armed, defeated a determined attack by Federal troops. It was later remarked that “so galling was the fi re, that any man who attempted to rise, was shot dead.”

If the loss of senior commanders was incalculable, so too was the psychological impact on the ordinary soldier, knowing that at any given moment a hidden marksman could end his life. The tactics learned by the sharpshooters proved to be of inestimable value in the conduct of the war.

From American Rifl eman September 2016 by Martin Pegler courtesy of Sherlockian Ron Fish

2

President’s Message

Founded January 24, 1951

The Dispatch is published monthly, except July and August, by

The Civil War Round Table of New York, Inc.,

139-33 250th Street, Rosedale, N.Y. 11422

Telephone CWRT/NY at (718) 341-9811

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OFFICERS President Paul Weiss V.P. Programs Michael Connors V.P. Operations Joan McDonough Secretary Pat Holohan Treasurer Bud Livingston

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Term Expiring 2017 Dan McCarthy Kris Kasnicki

Term Expiring 2018 Beth Connors Martin Smith

Term Expiring 2019 William Finlayson Judith Hallock

Editor E.A. (Bud) Livingston Copy Editor/ Club Liaison Joan McDonough P.R. Martin Smith Merchandise Paul Weiss

Email: cwrtnyc1@gmail.comWebsite: http://www.cwrtnyc.org

Our Baroness-Lincoln Award winner, Stephen D. Engle, in his book “Gathering to Save A Nation,” explores President Lincoln’s often complex relationship with the governors of the states that remained loyal to the Union.

It bought to mind that Lincoln’s counterpart, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, had some very public difficulties with a number of his nation’s governors. That should not be surprising, as “states’ rights,” particularly as it pertained to maintaining the “peculiar institution” of slavery, was part and parcel of the Confederacy’s founding principles.

Georgia Governor Joseph E. “Joe” Brown was front and center in fighting for his state’s rights and defying the wartime policies of the Confederate central government in Richmond. He spoke out strongly against the military draft, believing his state local troops should only be used in defense of Georgia. Brown manifested this attitude early in the war when he objected to Georgia troops (commanded by Colonel Francis Bartow) being transported to Virginia to help defend the railroad junction at Manassas. (Ironically, Bartow became the first Confederate brigade commander to be killed in combat, on that battlefield near Bull Run).

Governor Brown accused Davis of being a would-be tyrant and challenged any effort to draft Georgia livestock for the war effort, or to impress Georgia agriculture or manufactured goods to supply the main Confederate armies. He also objected to slaves from Georgia plantations being used to work on military fortifications or encampments.

Much later in the war, after the capture of Atlanta by General Sherman in 1864, Brown withdrew his militia from the Confederate army in order to mainly harvest crops for the state and its troops. Subsequent to Sherman’s epic march “to the Sea” through the heart of Georgia, Brown was convinced any further fighting was futile, and called for an end to the war. Obviously, his differences with Davis, both personal and philosophical, were deep and abiding.

To find out if Lincoln had any such contentious relationships with any of his wartime governors, be sure to call (RIGHT NOW!) - (718) 341-9811 – to reserve your seat for Stephen Engle’s discussion of his award winning book.

Paul Weiss

RESERVATIONSPlease show up if you call in a reservation. Then, if you cannot make the meeting, call to cancel.At the November meeting nine people made reservations who neither showed up nor cancelled. We paid over $40 each for those who were AWOL. We must give the caterer an estimate of our attendance and we always quote a low number but when we have no-shows it costs us money.Please.Thank you,The management

3February During the Civil War

1862 16 – The intrepid Confederate warriors, John Floyd and

Gideon Pillow, choose discretion over valor as they flee the doomed Fort Donelson.

16 – In the South’s first great catastrophe of the war (but not its last), Grant gets unconditional surrender from his old friend, Simon Bolivar Buckner. In addition to losing a small army (12,000??) Confederates also lose Kentucky, and find Tennessee wide open to further Northern invasions.

1863 19 – Despite overwhelming criticism of Braxton Bragg’s

leadership, Jefferson Davis is reluctant to relieve his old friend. Loyalty triumphs once again over talent.

20 – A scarcity in specie in the North leads merchants to issue personal notes for one, two, and three cents values, hardly enough to buy a good 5 cent cigar.

1864 9 – In the Great Escape from Libby Prison Colonel Thomas E.

Rose of Pennsylvania, leads 109 men to freedom. Fifty-nine reach Federal lines. The others are either captured or drowned.

20 – Union General Truman Seymour dukes it out with Rebel Joe Finegan near Olustee and gets a very bloody nose in the Sunshine State. No free orange juice for either of them.

1865 17 – Union soldiers legislate while Columbia, S.C. burns.

Some of Uncle Billy Sherman’s bummers hold a mock session of the legislature in the capitol.

27 – In the Shenandoah Valley, Wesley Merritt leads his horsemen down the newly named Merritt Parkway, heading south.

Salmon P. Chase is SurprisedAt that moment Salmon Chase was in William Pitt Fessenden’s office at the Capitol discussing the gold bill, and a proposal for a tax increase. A messenger appeared at the door and the finance chairman excused himself a moment to speak privately with him. When Fessenden returned to his desk he asked Chase:

“Have you resigned ? I am called to the Senate and told that the president has sent in the nomination of your successor.” Nobody was more surprised by this news than Chase himself. Hurrying back to his office, he found Lincoln’s note awaiting him. ”Your resignation of the office of Secretary of the Treasury…is accepted.” Lincoln’s note began. “Of all I have said in commendation of your ability and fidelity, I have nothing to unsay; and yet you and I have reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official relation which it seems can not be overcome, or longer sustained, consistently with the public service.”

“So my official life closes,” Chase confided that evening to his diary. Later he was to write his friend Simon Cameron, “My feelings upon going out of office are of a mixed sort –regret that I leave great works half done – satisfaction in relief from cares and manifold annoyances. Sometimes one of these feelings predominates –sometimes the other.”

Chases’s avowed enemies, the Blairs, had no such ambiguous feelings about it. Good riddance, old man Blair said, in effect, to his son Frank; “Chase, you see, hung on as long as possible, and dropped off at the last like a rotten pear, unexpectedly to himself and to everybody else. He supposed he could bully Lincoln by threatening to resign unless he was permitted to make Treasury appointments without control.”

Congress, meanwhile, was in turmoil. The New York World reported that Chases’s resignation was “so entirely unexpected as to cause the greatest commotion everywhere.” From the

mutterings he heard, the World correspondent predicted that if Montgomery Blair didn’t also now resign or wasn’t removed, “Rome will howl ” with “a fearful echo at the November ides.”

James Gordon Bennett at the New York Herald, always ready to oblige with a sardonic comment, wrote, ”The charm of the Happy Family is broken.” He then suggested, “Why stop there? Make a clean sweep of it. Get rid of “the bungling and blundering Secretary of War, Stanton, and that incompetent sleepy head, Grandmother Welles, of the navy. Why not them, too?”

From Reelecting Lincoln by John C. Waugh

DRESS CODELadies and gentlemen: PLEASENo sneakers, no jeans, no tee shirts. Gentle-men, please wear a collared shirt. Let’s dress like we are attending a business meeting.Thanks, The Management

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