Howard J. W. - Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War

Tim Rowland
Foreword by J. W. Howard, Superintendent (Ret),
Antietam National Battlefield

Copyright 2011 by Tim Rowland

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rowland, Tim, 1960

Strange and obscure stories of the Civil War / Tim Rowland.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-61608-395-3 (alk. paper)

1. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Anecdotes. 2. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865BiographyAnecdotes. 3. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865CampaignsAnecdotes. 4. Curiosities and wondersUnited StatesHistory19th centuryAnecdotes.

I. Title.

E655.R87 2011

973.73dc23

2011022880

Printed in the United States of America

John Brown Gets a Visitor

Abner Doubleday Throws the First Pitch of the Civil War

Happiness is Throwing Senators in Jail

Looks Could Be Deceiving

The North Finds Its Hero, Briefly

Paying For it All

The Norths Shadow Cabinet Member

Racing Locomotives

Civil War AmmunitionA Blast from the Past

A Foreigner Joins the Fight

Horses: Backbone of an Army

An Original, American Piece of Work

Spare Time

A Southern Boy Comes Home

Confederate Hopes Sink

Chamberlains Last Day at the Office

F or over fifteen years I served with the National Park Service as the superintendent of Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland. I considered this assignment to be a great honor as the battlefield at Sharpsburg is the site of the single bloodiest one-day battle in American history, a place of modern beauty and peace where over 23,000 American soldiers were killed or wounded. This place lends itself to the serious side of war, troop movements, and sacrifice. It cannot be ignored as you look across the beautiful fields surrounding this small Maryland village.

I have learned that this time in American history is often remembered as one of huge movements of blue and gray troops, gallant charges, and victories. Sometimes we forget the individuals who fought these battles, and we think of them as granite statues that dot these cherished sites of American history like Antietam, Gettysburg, and Shiloh. But they are not granite; they were flesh and bloodfull of life, laughter, and, on occasion, song. As life was so precious to them they enjoyed what times of peace could be found.

This war, like any other, had its times of irony, times of insanity, and some times of just plain craziness. As long as humans are involved in anything, you will have sorrow and joy and laughter. In the pages that follow you will find the humanity and laughter that were a part of this important time in our history. It is okay to laugh; they did.

J. W. Howard, superintendent (Ret), Antietam National Battlefield

W riting a note of thanks in the Internet era becomes an increasingly abstract task. In previous works Ive spent hours in the cramped librarial spaceskindly but firmly watched by white-haired women who will see no document despoiled under their watch. Research depended on many guiding hands, phone calls, interviews, and friendly tips. Today, its log on and go. It is no trouble, in literally seconds, to land a gem such as this one, from the diary of Charles Broomhall, 124th Pennsylvania: South Mountain battle was fought. Sunday. Somewhat cloudy. We were up early. Colonel put (the) Captain under arrest for going into Frederick yesterday taking a number of his men with him and imbibing at the spirit fountain too much.

Broomhall fought in the Cornfield at Antietam; he had failed to hear his commanding officers order to throw all bedrolls in a pile on the way to the field, which was a good thing because when he unrolled his blankets some time later he discovered his protective blankets had been riddled with thirty-eight bullet holes.

This diary was brought to light by Carolyn Ivanoff of Shelton, Connecticut, a woman to whom I am grateful but have never met. It was disseminated through Antietam on the Web, by a person or people known only to me as Webmaster.

So I owe a debt to the entire cast of behind-the-scenes scholars, historians, and archivists who have catalogued mountains of material that once upon a time would have been accessible only through long drives and tiring searches of mildewing boxes. Some really incredible information is out there for the picking, and now, even nonclassically trained historians such as myself can commit acts of unfettered research that would have been beyond our ken a mere decade ago. Today, we can quote a historian by viewing his YouTube post or see hundreds of old photographs by keywording a Library of Congress search site. Whether this is good or bad, I cannot say. Some elements of the chase have been lost. And so much material is available that deadlines can come and go as one loses himself in thousands of pages of text surrounding the relative meaning of Lees Lost Orders. Its good stuff, I know, and I was happy to take advantage of these scholarly sites.

But there were times, of course, that I was grateful for the bricks and mortar of a local library or two, such as the one in my backyard at the Hagerstown Community College (HCC). LuAnn Fisher and Karen Giannoumis were always ready and willing to find needed (uncomputerized) material. HCC is also blessed to have on staff Thomas Clemens, whose knowledge of the war is legend and whose recent work on the writings of soldier-historian Ezra Carman is of incredible value. Tom, his dog Bomber at his feet, was always there when Id come bursting through his door with embarrassing questions such as, Whats the difference between a caisson and a limber?

And many have helped along the way, from Tim Johnson who took me on innumerable battlefield tours many years ago (leaving me with the distinct impression that the South had actually won), to Art Callaham, who has recently served as an excellent sounding board. I would also like to thank Skyhorse editor Steve Price, who was always quick and accurate in pointing out what mattered and what didnt, and always awarded me just the right amount of rein.

Finally, this is really the work of two people, even if there is only one name on the cover. My wife Beth was the first reader of each chapter, which is work that might be more closely associated with minesweeping in Third World nations. She discovered and defused many potential problems, and was kind on the occasions that I needed to go back to the drawing board.