Halt at Clarksburg (Md), McClellan's Staff, Sept 12th 1862
Halt at Clarksburg, Sept 12th 1862, McClellan’s Staff (DH Strother, 1862)

David Hunter Strother (1816 – 1888) – writer, artist and Federal officer – was on General George McClellan’s staff on the Maryland Campaign of 1862. His creative skills resulted is some fascinating artifacts of that period, which I’m enjoying in my study of Antietam and its participants.

Born in Martinsburg, (now West) Virginia, he had trained as an artist in New York and Europe, and was working as a writer and illustrator in books and magazines in his 20’s. His father “Colonel” John – an Army Lieutenant 1813 to 1815 – ran the Strother House hotel in Berkeley Springs.

By the 1850’s D.H. was famous as “Porte Crayon” – his nom de plume. He was on assignment for Harpers Weekly at Harpers Ferry in 1859 and covered John Brown’s trial and execution …

There are half a dozen unfinished posts waiting in the queue for this (very occasional) blog, but I am prompted to actually publish one at last by some fascinating email correspondence from Marianne Tierney, whose great-great-grandfather John Westbrook you see here. Marianne and her cousin Art Van Allsburg have collected and have shared some family treasures concerning their ancestor and Antietam.

John Westbrook click to see larger image
John Westbrook (postwar, courtesy M. Tierney)

This photograph is magnificent, but more exciting is a letter written by Marianne’ s grandfather Van Allsburg in 1964 which recalls what he heard from his grandfather Westbrook firsthand. With it, and some other tidbits I’ve dug up, we can follow something of this soldier’s life through and following the catastrophic Battle of Antietam …

Officers of the US Regular Army units present on the Maryland Campaign of 1862 have a staunch advocate in one of our loyal readers. He has been poking me to make up for obvious deficiencies in my understanding of those present, as seen in the Antietam on the Web database.

click to see larger image
Officers of the 14th US Inf. camp near Alexandria, Va., March 1862 (A. Gardner)

In addition to providing additional details for some of the officers we do cover on AotW, he’s also challenged me to add a number of men not yet listed. I fear I am not doing this fast enough to suit, but have had a rewarding weekend doing further research on the Regulars at Antietam and these new candidates of interest …

In spite of my recent neglect of the subject of the Battle here on the internets, the rest of the interested World continues to feed the machine. To all of you who’ve sent me things, I’m making some time now to catch up with getting all those gems online on AotW, and thanks very much to all for your patience and persistence!

J.A. Reynolds CDV, 1864J.A. Reynolds CDV, 1864 (back)
Major John A. Reynolds, Chief of Artillery, XXth Army Corps (1864, courtesy Scott Hann Collection)

By way of immediate example, above are scans of a carte de visite (CDV) sent by Scott Hann to fill an empty spot on this officer’s bio page. Scott has a massive collection of images and has been most generous in sharing some of the best with us to help put faces with the names of the men at the Battle.

John Reynolds was Captain of Battery L, 1st Regiment New York Artillery (Light) at Antietam. In this post, I’d like to tell you a little bit about the battery’s commander, and feature a first hand – if dramatic and lengthy – description of their experience in Maryland in a contemporary letter written by one of his Lieutenants to a Rochester newspaper.

Farewell Mimi

3 June 2008

Cuban born American chief-of-the-great-clan Emilio Louis Fanjul (1924-2008) returned to the boundless deep yesterday afternoon at 3:15pm. Fine son, husband of endless love, father of many daughters, he made the good exit in the heart of his family at Haddonfield, New Jersey after the long dance with Alzheimer’s.

E.L. Fanjul, Seaman First Class, USN, 1944

In yellowed photographs he smiles forever.

E.L. Fanjul, other Navy Corpsmen, 1944

He lived in joy and honor, and will forever in us.

E.L. Fanjul and brother Estrada (1921-2004), 1944

And to the last generation.

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Philadelphia Inquirer obituary (6/4/08)

The sad story of the officers and men of the 12th Virginia Infantry Regiment of late 1862 is typical for a number of the tattered units of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) who were at Sharpsburg that September.

The Crater (c. 1866, J. Elder)
The Crater (c. 1866, J. Elder)

The Fourth Battalion as it left Petersburg on the 20th of April, 1861, was made up of the flower of the manhood of the Cockade City. After four years of service it had been so decimated by disease, by death, by promotion, and by transfer that it showed scarcely more than a skeleton of the original body. It was the nucleus upon which was formed the famous Twelfth Virginia Regiment, whose banner bore the device of almost every field on which the Army of Northern Virginia grappled with the enemy, from Seven Pines to Appomattox, and whose flag, stained with the smoke of battle and shredded by ball and shell, was never surrendered, but torn into slips and buried in the bosoms, right over the hearts, of the veteran survivors.

Snapshots

15 January 2008

Distracted Gettysburg Dedication spectator, November 1863

While chasing one of my boys, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel W. Owen, 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, I came on a photograph of him in an unusual setting. It made me think about how few casual or frivolous pictures–snapshots–I’ve can remember seeing among (probably) thousands of American Civil War-era images.

On reflection, this isn’t surprising. Due to the technical demands of wet-plate photography during the War, I’d expect most photographs to have a serious purpose. The long exposures and difficulty in preparing and developing photographs in the field probably made it less likely that photographers would risk wasting film on a moving subject or mundane scene.

Perhaps as a result, most surviving photographs are stiffly posed, and live subjects seem terribly aware of the camera. For fun, today, I’ve found a few with quite a different feel …

James Hope: Artillery Hell
Artillery Hell (James Hope, Antietam National Battlefield)

A few days ago I was prompted by a TalkAntietam query to look into the strength of the Federal Artillery at Antietam on 17 September 1862. In particular, that of the long-range guns overlooking the battlefield from the heights east of Antietam Creek.

Those guns were largely responsible for Sharpsburg’s reputation–at least among Confederate artillerymen who survived–as “Artillery Hell”. Their impact on the battle was significant, and they loom large in most battle narratives, but just how many were there?

Exodus from Harpers Ferry

23 September 2007

Huzzah! for Don Caughey (Crossed Sabers) who’s put together a great series of posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) on the Union Cavalry expedition out of the trap that was Harpers Ferry on the night of 14 – 15 September 1862. He’s done a really nice job in illuminating a poorly understood episode in the Maryland Campaign.

Maryland Heights (left) from Harpers Ferry, 1865click to see larger image
Maryland Heights (left) from Harpers Ferry, 1865 (J. Gardner, coll. Library of Congress)

As a kind of supplement to those posts, I’ve scanned some pictures of the prominent officers of that force. You know I like to see the faces.

I’ve also made an attempt at drafting a map of the route they took from the Ferry to Greencastle…

JEB Stuart in Maryland

22 August 2007

It is well that Antietam on the Web does not depend entirely on one person for new material, as I am again overwhelmed with my vocation and necessarily neglecting this avocation. Thankfully, AotW is also served by a large group of people who each contribute in many ways, large and small. We’re at 85 enrolled Members now, with hundreds more contributing less ‘officially’ over the years.

Stuart rides around the AoP, June 1862click to see larger image

One of our newest members, Larry Freiheit, has done some fine research on the War, and has offered a capsule analysis of JEB Stuart’s performance on the Maryland Campaign of 1862 to be our latest Featured Exhibit. It’s been a while since we put up a new exhibit, so I’m very glad to have Larry’s help.

I’m slowly working through Larry’s paper, formatting paragraphs and his abundant footnotes for the web, but I wanted to get some of the highlights out: teasers, I guess, for the complete work due in a few days. I hope he won’t mind my taking a few nibbles out of the whole to whet the appetite …

  • … Stuart's actions during this campaign were part of and controlled by Lee's late 1862 strategy and must be evaluated in light of his tactical moves implementing that strategy …
  • There was no reason for Lee to believe that the slow-moving Federal army was going to be such a threat that unusual expediency or detailed instructions on his part were needed. Stuart, as the cavalry division commander reporting directly to Lee, could not help but be influenced by this relaxed control of his army commander, but the danger with Stuart was that the “Gay Cavalier” needed tighter control and guidance than any of Lee's other top commanders…
  • … during the Maryland Campaign, Stuart's penchant for frivolity came into play arguably detrimentally affecting his performance … Stuart's mood of jollity and lack of serious concern about the enemy [early in the campaign] prevailed and infected his staff. It is likely, however, that this mood was at least partially influenced by Lee's relative calm state of mind believing that the Union advance was typical of what he saw of the events during the Peninsular Campaign …
  • Lee relied on Stuart for intelligence of the enemy's moves but also used other available means … but given the results of his actions during this campaign based on what he knew, Lee's intelligence gathering was inadequate. … [h]owever, it is also true that McClellan's intelligence in this generally friendly country was little better than Lee's. Stuart and Pleasonton maintained fairly effective cavalry screens thwarting both Union and Confederate efforts to gauge the other's movements.
  • Stuart's ride from Harper's Ferry to Sharpsburg to personally bring the good news about its fall to Lee (about which Lee had already received news) can be viewed as another of his unnecessary grandstanding exploits despite his statement that Jackson asked him to do so. Here, as later at Gettysburg, Lee had no time to coddle Stuart and met his report with a brusque reply.
  • His screening efforts prior to and including the Frederick sojourn were at least good; rearguard actions from Frederick to South Mountain and his noteworthy defensive actions in Sharpsburg especially at Nicodemus Hill with his artillery are generally viewed as very good; his miscues at the South Mountain gaps and Harper's Ferry are recognized as failures…

Of course posting bullets this way is not entirely fair to Mr Freiheit — being out of context and unsupported by his notes, so I’ll get his complete piece up on AotW as soon as I can. I’ve been enjoying his perspectives, and wanted to share; and it’s taking me way too long to prepare for publication.
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Update Monday 8/27

Larry’s complete article is now up on AotW. Very fine.
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Note

The illustration above is of General Stuart at the head of his column on the famous ride around the Federal Army of the Potomac in June 1862 (click for larger view). The original lithograph by Henry Alexander Ogden was published in about 1900, and is at the US Library of Congress.