behind AotW

Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays!

In my house that means Christmas and New Year’s. I wish you and your loved ones a joyous celebration in your traditions as well.

St. Nicholas (Thomas Nast, c. 1880)

Elements of the popular American Christmas celebration–trees, cards, Jolly Santa–are products of the 19th Century. Cut evergreen trees were popular here by the 1840’s, and most people exchanged Christmas cards by the ’60s. Our modern Santa Claus image was established largely by political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) during the Civil War and refined over the 30 years or so after.

Perhaps most recognizable to Civil War readers is this Nast depiction of the Elf himself, in union garb, distributing goodies to Federal troops at Christmas 1862.

Santa Claus in Camp (Thomas Nast, 1862)

The unflattering Jefferson Davis jumping-jack toy in his hand leaves no doubt as to Santa’s loyalties. That illustration, from the cover of Harper’s Weekly*, is also touted as an early attempt at psychological warfare.

I doubt Southern children were fooled.
________________

* Harper’s Weekly, 3 January 1863, page image from the US Library of Congress.

See much more about Christmas and the Civil War, from Kevin “Santa” Rawlings and historic Fort Ward.

added 22 December

See Kevin Rawlings, above, at work as Santa earlier this week, and an article from Maggie MacLean with much more from the ACW homefront.

This is Assistant Surgeon Simon Baruch (‘ba-rook’) of the 3rd South Carolina Battalion. I found him by following a thread in a CW Society post, part of their recent conversation about Jewish Confederates. Among those prominent in that service it mentioned

… Nahum Baruch, the father of financier Bernard Baruch, was a doctor and Colonel in Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade. He was present at Gettysburg.

As is my wont, I saw the thread sticking out and gave it a yank. Who was this Nahum?

It turns out this Baruch was not Nahum, actually. Nor a Colonel, though he ended the War in Barksdale’s famous Brigade. He did have a successful son, was a doctor, and was at Sharpsburg and that other northern battle, too. There’s lots more to his story.

Where the Muse points, you shall go.

I was in my local library Sunday and saw this volume* displayed on the wall. I was immediately drawn to the book by the face on the cover; also thinking, at first, that it was Harry’s tousled Senator Jim Lane. By the time saw it was otherwise, it was too late: the book was in my hand and I was browsing.

If you’re within the sound of my voice, so to speak – in driving distance of Antietam National Battlefield – you owe it to yourself to experience the annual Memorial Illumination, or see it again. This may be the nation’s premier Civil War event, and is not to be missed.

I like to think I would have got to him eventually, but an email query from distant descendent Gene Siscoe brought Captain J.M. Cutts, Jr. (1837-1903) to my attention yesterday. The question concerned his actions on General Burnside’s staff at Antietam in 1862. Sadly, I can’t help much there, Cutts is only listed as present in Burnside’s after-action report.

But the Cutts story does have tendrils reaching interesting spots and connects with some names you’ll certainly know.

etching by B. Wall from A Lincoln Reprimand (1950)

Cutts served for about 6 weeks in mid-1861 as Private in the 1st Rhode Island Volunteers, and then accepted an appointment as Captain in the new 11th United States Infantry. He was then about 24 years old. By Antietam he was an Aide-de-Camp to Major General Ambrose Burnside, under whom he had served in the 1st Rhode Island. Because of his apparent lack of previous military experience, I’d guess his US Army commission and staff postion were based on family connections.

Mr Erik Himmel of Schriever, Louisiana has kindly sent me a pile of information about his great-great-grandfather, the late Captain Victor Joseph St. Martin, for use in a biographical sketch on Antietam on the Web. Captain St. Martin was wounded and captured in action at Sharpsburg while commanding Company K of the 8th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry.

V. J. St. Martin (CDV courtesy E. Himmel)

St. Martin returned to his Regiment, but was later killed on Cemetery Hill Ridge at Gettysburg.

I should avoid online Civil War discussion groups. They just give me more research threads to pull. Like I need more.

I’d been following a discussion about artillery over on the American Civil War Message Board. I was thinking I could contribute on a question about unit organization, which referred to Battery B, 1st New York Light Artillery, as an example.

R.D. Pettit, c. 1861-65

First, I looked to see what that battery was doing at Antietam, and noticed the commander was Captain Rufus Petit (above). I didn’t have much on the Captain, but did know that he had been dismissed from the service in 1865. I wondered why. He seemed to have served honorably on the Peninsula and at Antietam. “Dismissed” is usually bad.

Dimitri Rotov was blogging about numbers and wondering if Federal Generals had available the 1860 population figures for the South. Data that might support large numbers for a Confederate field army. At least in retrospect.

Well it’s not central to any argument, but I was curious. So I asked the nice folks at the US Census Bureau when the results of the 1860 Census were published, and when/if the President and Army officers might have had an advance peek. The answer’s just in:

A preliminary report of the 1860 results was printed in May 1862. The final report of the 1860 census was contained in four volumes: population (1864), agriculture (1864), manufacturers (1865), and mortality/miscellaneous statistics (1866).

Data were likely available before publication of the final reports. The preliminary report was approved by Congress and printed within the same month (May 1862), so any advance look at the data may have been measured in days.

History Staff

So there you are. Army commanders would have had access to Southern population figures after May 1862. Doesn’t help much in 1861 or earlier in ’62, of course.

These preliminary numbers did break out population by place, race, and gender, but not by age. A military-aged (white) male population could be estimated or calculated by formula, but is not expressly given.

It’s interesting that the data were available, but it would be more meaningful to know if anyone actually used census data for the purpose of evaluating or confirming enemy numbers. Anybody got any evidence for this, either way?

Was this kind of analysis taught at West Point or otherwise known before the War, such that McClellan or any other senior officer was likely to do it?

Inquiring minds.

Writing previously on this subject, I worried about a soldier’s wartime letter disappearing into a private collection, never to be seen again. That was as nothing compared to what I found online today. Oh how I wish now I’d gone for the money instead of personal satisfaction and life-balance in my career choices.

Cowan Auctions is selling a mass of Americana on November 16th. There are some truly magnificent finds for the student of the American Civil War listed in the catalog. This looks like a wide array of archives and artifacts.

I’d be overjoyed if collectors of historical ephemera would publish online, or loan to museums, or at least make scans or transcriptions of their treasures available to the rest of us. In the meantime, I’m snatching digital samples related to Antietam and the Campaign as they go by.

After a little more research, I expect to use some of this material on AotW:

W.W. Blackmar

I have a special fascination with Medal of Honor recipients. One I’d not previously associated with the Maryland Campaign is Captain Wilmon Whilldin Blackmar of Boston. That’s him above, from a gilt-framed CDV, part of Lot 232 (est. $3,000-4,000). Blackmar

… enlisted as Corporal in Company K, 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry in August 1862. The novice regiment participated in the Maryland campaign before transferring west to join the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 …

read the rest of this entry »

I apologize to you if you’re interested in history, but not the Digital kind, especially. The past several posts have undoubtedly glazed your eyes, and those of most readers, I should think.

Let’s get back to another of the notable people of Antietam and a quick look at history from her perspective.

This dedicated looking woman is Isabella Fogg, a volunteer with the Maine Camp and Hospital Association, and mother of a soldier in the 6th Maine Infantry¹. On the first of November 1862, about 6 weeks after the battle of Antietam, she ventured out from Washington DC to observe the conditions of the sick and wounded troops around Sharpsburg, and to do what she could for their comfort.