T The Newsletter of the Salt Creek Civil War Roundtable Vol. XLVII No. 6 19 February 2010 428th Regular Meeting Hello, everyone I hope all of you have made it through a rough week of winter weather. The speak for this meeting is Jim Cunningham. The topic he will be discussing is Nation vs State: Origins of the Conflict. This will be a very interesting discussion. From the very beginning of our founding the issue of sovereignty between the Federal government and the individual States was an open-ended question. My talk tonight will focus on the following topics; the political geography of that time, the limitations of language to define the new political entity we call The United STATES of America, and the psychology of dealing with these limitations. Jim is a life-long resident of the city of Chicago. He graduated from Joliet Junior College and Illinois State University with a major in History. He did is graduate work in geography at Chicago State University. He is currently on the faculty at Amundsen High School in Chicago, where he’s been teaching History & Geography since 1986. He is a multiple nominee to “Who’s Who Among American Teachers”. He is long-time member of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago and has been a member of the Salt Creek Civil War Round Table for four years. The Outpost DATE: 19th February 2010 PLACE: Fairview Village, Downers Grove, IL. 60532 TIME: 8:00 p.m. SPEAKER: Seamus “Jim” Cunningham TOPIC: Nation vs State: Origins of the Conflict DECEMBER MEETING BY RICK BENSON On Friday January 15, 2010 Rob Girardi gave an entertaining talk on people (famous and lesser known), situations and events of a comical, ludicrous or a bit out of place that all encompassed the Civil War. His presentation starts out with the Lincoln family dog before Lincoln went to Washington. The Lincoln dog was afraid of loud noises and trains. The Lincoln’s left their dog and couch with their neighbors when they left for Washington. Rob then spoke about the different mascots that regiments had. The 8th Wisconsin and the 17th Illinois Cavalry both had eagles. The 8th Wisconsin’s being called Old Abe. The 11th Pennsylvania and the 10th Maine both had dogs as their respective mascots. The 10th Maine’s had a habit of jumping up and catching Confederate mini- balls. Mascots were not the sole possession of the Union, the Confederates too had mascots. The 3rd Louisiana had a donkey. The 43rd Mississippi had a camel named Douglas. He was killed during the siege at Vicksburg. Rob continued on to discuss the “lousiest books on the Civil War” and gambling amongst the soldiers. His next discussion covered the headquarters of Union General Fremont in St. Louis. His headquarters had European soldiers in their European attire, the place was surrounded by armed guards, & only cost the US Govt. $6,000.00 a year. His next topic discussed the Naval blockade, “Stanton’s Navy” and General Custer’s adventure in the “Balloon Corps”. Rob then switched gears and addressed some Confederate topics. The first discussed the shortages the Confederates had with gunpowder. Gunpowder is comprised of Potassium Nitrate, Charcoal, and Sulphur, The South could not mine sufficient quantities of Potassium Nitrate, also know as Salt Peter. Thus they turned to getting this valuable mineral item out of human waste. The South created “The Niter Bureau”. This Bureau had to collect the raw material by collecting it on a house to house basis. The Selma, AL newspapers published an article requesting that the ladies of Selma collect this matter so that it could be picked up by the Niter Bureau people. Needless to say, the papers in the South had a lot of fun with this topic. Rob discussed Jeb Stuart’s nickname “Beauty” from his days at West Point and General Benjamin Butler’s period in New Orleans in which the Confederates bestowed the nickname “Spoons” on him and distributed Chamber Pots issued with the likeness on them. In spite of his not being a good military General, Butler was a good administrator. He cleaned up the streets, built levees, fed the poor and cut down the disease rate. His next topic discussed Innovations. This included a double barrel canon developed by a dentist and a device that had twenty-five barrels of 52 Caliber each mounted on a frame with wheels. Neither one was adopted by the military for use. Union Commander Quincy Gilmore decided to build a battery in the swamps on Morris Island. He built a platform that contained 14,000 sandbags which weighed 800 tons. Then they put on the “Swamp Angel” mortar that fired a 200lb. shell. On Aug 16, 1863, the 16,000lb Parrot Gun fired its 1st shots. On the 16th shot, the muzzle of the Parrot Gun burst. The gun is now on display somewhere in NJ. Now Cockran’s Ford on the Chatahootchie River in the Battle of Atlanta. On the Union’s 1st charge across the river, they had to retreat as the water was too deep. The Union commander decided to have his men strip, put all their clothes, guns, powder on a raft, & push it ahead of them until they reached the other side. Then, they would redress, sneak up on the Confederates, and attack them. Unfortunately, the Confederates observed 10 naked Yankee soldiers entering the river, panicked, and then ran. The Union commander reported that “the Yankees had captured about a dozen prisoners, and would have had more, except that the Confederates were able to run through the woods easier with cloths on, and thus escaped”. He also commented that “it was a very successful raid for naked men to make”! We were not burdened by any photos of this raid. Confederate President Jefferson Davis son Joe had a toy cannon. The unique thing about this gun was that it would fire real cartridge shells. Joe would go into the streets of Richmond and get cartridges from the Confederate soldiers, come home, and fire them off in the White House of The Confederacy. PRESERVATION REPORT BY LEN OVERCASH, SR. TN -- Congressman Bart Gordon announced today he was able to secure funding for Stones River National Battlefield to improve the historic site and make it more accessible to visitors. Stones River National Battlefield received $1.5 million, which will be used to improve the entrance on Thompson Lane and continue construction of the much-needed access roads for the tour bus route. The project will allow visitors to see new portions of the battlefield and improve the overall visitor experience. Source: Civil War Interactive (Washington, D.C.) – The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), the nation’s largest nonprofit battlefield preservation group, has announced its land preservation accomplishments for 2009. Despite the difficult economy and challenges facing all charitable organizations, CWPT helped to permanently protect 2,777 acres of hallowed ground at 20 different Civil War battlefields in five states during the last calendar year. Overall, CWPT has protected more than 29,000 acres of battlefield land at 109 sites in 20 states. “Despite the worst economy in recent memory, we pressed onward with our mission and achieved a level of success that surpassed all expectations,” noted CWPT President James Lighthizer. “We posted one of the most successful years in this organization’s history — including our second-highest-ever tally for acres preserved in a calendar year.” The full roster of sites protected by CWPT in 2009 includes: 55 acres at Natural Bridge in Florida; 60 acres at Wood Lake in Minnesota; 66 acres at Raymond and 12 acres at Tupelo in Mississippi; 643 acres at Davis Bridge and 5 acres at Parkers Crossroads in Tennessee; 68 acres at Aldie, 47 acres at Appomattox Station, 433 acres at Brandy Station, 85 acres at Chancellorsville, 11 acres at Glendale, 178 acres at Malvern Hill, 35 acres at Sailor’s Creek, 730 acres at five Shenandoah Valley battlefields, 253 acres at Trevilian Station and 94 acres at the Wilderness in Virginia. The value of these transactions totals more than $38 million. Source: The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) UPCOMING CIVIL WAR EVENTS Lincoln and Douglass Max Daniels as President Abraham Lincoln and Michael Crutcher as abolitionist Frederick Douglas Lisle Public Library 777 Front St Lisle, IL Date: Sunday, February 28, 2010 Time: 2:00 p.m. To register: (630) 971-1675 Northern Illinois CWRT Arlington Heights Memorial Library 500 N. Denton Ave. Arlington Heights, IL Date: Friday, March 5, 2010 Speaker: Robert Girardi Topic:” Railroad Defense in the Atlantic Campaign’ Time: 7:30 p.m. www.nicwrt.freehostia.com Kenosha Civil War Museum 5400 First Ave Kenosha WI Date: Sunday, March 7, 2010 Topic: ”Cordelia Harvey” Time: 2:00 p.m. www.kenosha.org For information (262) 653-4141 Chicago Civil War Roundtable Holiday Inn Mart Plaza Chicago, IL Date: Friday, March 12, 2010 Speaker: Eric Jacobson Topic: “Battle of Franklin” 5:30 p.m. Dinner 7:30 p.m. Speaker Presentation $40.00 Dinner; $5.00 for presentation only (630) 460-1865 to make reservation www.thecwrt.org Kankakee Valley CWRT 21st Annual Civil War Symposium Date: March 20, 2010 David Hinze, "The Story of John & William Black & the Medal of Honor" Steven A. Cole as "Frederick Douglass" Bruce Allardice. "Baseball in the Civil War" Robert Girardi, "General Impressions of the Civil War" Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For Information: (815) 939-1041 ALL FOR THE UNION We are working on this years Banquet. FUTURE MEETINGS 2010 (3rd Friday of the month) Mar- Ray Glick Civil War Horses and Mules Apr- Brian Seiter/General William Starke Rosecrans May- Panel Discussion (What was the turning point of the Civil War) June-Banquet THE SALT CREEK CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE www.saltcreekcwrt.org President: Jan Rasmussen Vice-President: Robert Girardi Treasurer: Paula Walker Secretary: Rick Zarr Historian: Cindy Intravartolo Meeting Liaison: Mary Lord Newsletter Editor; Jennie Warner, jenniewarner@gmail.com Newsletter Staff: Rick Benson, Rick Zarr, Len Overcash Sr.