Franklin, Tennessee community commemorates the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Franklin

A good size crowd of Williamson County residents showed up at the Carter House location near downtown Franklin tonight (11.30) to commemorate the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Franklin.  There were 10,000 luminaries (white bags with a lighted candle) to symbolize the 10,000 casualties from the battle that took place 30 November 1864.

Historian and author Erik A. Jacobson spoke for about ten minutes.

Part One

Part two

The Civil War bands played the Star Spangled Banner

Here are some pictures of the event.

Book Review: Gale Library Of Daily Life: American Civil War

American Civil War: The Gale Library of Daily Life

The Gale Library of Daily Life: American Civil War gets five cannister balls!

A new two-volume, 600 page set, titled – Gale Library of Daily Life: American Civil War – has just been published and it is a vital addition for the serious student of the American Civil War. The Gale Group sought submission from scholars and historians to complete this excellent resource with over 200 articles included in the set. The publisher is Gale Cenage Learning.

The two-volume set focuses on the daily life of soldiers and civilians, North and South, during the Civil War.

A key feature of the essays will be excerpts from first-person accounts to illustrate the lives of men, women, and children, including slaves and their families, during the epic conflict that shaped America.

The writers were able to access Gale Group’s proprietary database of primary resources including “memoirs, letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, excerpts from other published works.” Professor and prolific author-historian Steven E. Woodworth at Texas Christian University was the senior editor for the work and also wrote a few of the articles.

The set breaks down into nine major areas, with numerous sub-areas under these major headings. Volume 1 is broken down into four major categories: A Soldier’s Life, Family and Community, Religion, and Popular Culture. Volume 2 breaks down into five major categories: Health & Medicine, Work & Economy, Politics, Effects of the War on Slaves and Freedpeople.

The articles are well-written, readable and accessible, and expertly edited by Woodworth and the editorial team. Each article also lists 4-10 recommended reading sources at the end. There is also a very nice 10-page annotated bibliography in volume two.

There are a generous selection of original pictures or photos but not too many. There is also an eight-page chronology of the Civil War.

This two-volume set is a MUST for public libraries and should be a top priority for individuals who are serious about studying the Civil War. Subscribers to North & South Magazine or Civil War Times would be ideal readers of Gale Library of Daily Life: American Civil War.

Book Review: looking for CSA soldiers killed at Franklin?

The McGavock Confederate Cemetery: “A Revised and Updated Compilation”

Author and historian Eric Jacobson has produced a valuable resource for people who need to research the Confederate soldiers who are buried at McGavock Confederate Cemetery in Franklin, TN. The Civil War Gazette awards this book four cannisters.

This book is indispensable to getting a grasp for the Battle of Franklin (Nov 30, 1864). Jacobson is dogged in getting to the bottom of controversial issues regarding the cemetery.

The McGavock Confederate Cemetery is the largest privately-owned military (and Confederate) cemetery in the United States. Almost 1,500 southern boys are buried there.

You MUST read this book before you visit McGavock, and it should be on the bookshelf of every serious student of Tennessee in the Civil War, especially those interested in Franklin.

Jacobson is the historian of the Historic Carnton Plantation.

Book review: Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West (Reflections on the Civil War Era)

Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West (Reflections on the Civil War Era)

Professor Woodworth delivers another top-notch book, this time on the Western Theater.  He gets five cannisters for Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West (Reflections on the Civil War Era).

Dr. Steven E. Woodworth is one of the best Civil War historians and authors today. His writing is clean, concise, spot on, well-researched, easy to read, and he’s not afraid to make his case regardless how controversial the topic is. It’s hard to believe Dr. Woodworth – Professor of History at Texas Christian University – is just in his mid-40s.

This is a great intro-book for people not very familiar with the Western Theater during the Civil War. You can not go wrong with this book

Harriet Tubman – the ‘Moses’ of her people

This picture is of several slaves probably spanning three generations.  Notice the two oldest women are on the extreme left and right. Look at the humbleness of their personal posture.  The seated man (left) with cane and cigar has an interesting expression. He does not seem bowed or humbled.  The man seated to his right, an older man, does seem humbled by life’s experiences. The two children, the girl and boy must be between ages seven and nine.  Full of life, vigor, unbroken, still hopeful.  The younger female, probably the mother of the children stands left. She seems resolved to her life as a slave but has the look of hope in her face that maybe her children will not always be slaves.

Let’s go back to the old woman on the far left. That is Harriet Tubman. Tubman was born in 1820 and died in 1913. She was one of the most powerful and influential characters in all of the Civil War; yet she was black, an escaped slave, and a woman!   She had more influence and power than 99% of the formally recognized power-elites during her lifetime.

Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became famously known for helping perhaps as many as 300 slaves escape to freedom during the Civil War era via the Underground Railroad. She was known as ‘Moses’ to the slave community. She endured great personal risk and injury several times as she led escapes to the North.  There was even a bounty on her head for her capture in the tens of thousands of dollars. She also suffered all her life from an early childhood accident which resulted in her sporadically losing awareness – sort of blanking out for a few seconds.

She also worked as a spy for the Federal government and even led a military raid near Charleston South Carolina during the war. Tubman is an example of how the simple and the weak confound the wise and the strong.

Harriet Tubman

Learn more about Harriet Tubman.

Book Review: book on Battle of Franklin deserves must-read

For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair At Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin

by Eric A. Jacobson, Richard A. Rupp

is awarded five cannisters

In For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair At Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin,
Historic Carnton Plantation author and historian Eric Jacobson has provided us with an up-to-date, accurate, comprehensive and lively treatment of the Battle of Franklin (30 November 1864). Jacobson also amply covers the pre-Franklin action in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

The Battle of Franklin was arguably one of the bloodiest five hours during the American Civil War (1861-1865). There were roughly 10,000 casualties, with probably 2,500 killed outright.

The narratives moves briskly in For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair At Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin. The author covers a lot of action in this book. Jacobson is generous with his citations from the Official Records, authentic letters and diaries, and post-war recollections and accounts, especially from the National Tribune.

His treatment of the key leaders, on both sides, is fair. Jacobson knows when to intersperse battle action with an appropriate soldier first-hand account.

Jacobson is trust-worthy in his research, reliable in his interpretations, and fair in his critiques.

If you have buy one book about the Battle of Franklin start with this book by Eric Jacobson.

Union soldier comments on his dislike for black soldiers being recruited

Head Quarters
Commissary Department

Camp Parapet,
Louisiana,

2 Aug 1862,
from LT Boyd, to his mother Mrs. J. R. Boyd, care of John Boyd, West Winsted, Connecticut,

I am seated in the office thinking of home and friends and wishing myself with them this evening, but that is impossible … I am now better contented than when I was with the Regiment, as I don’t have as many to tell me what, ‘I can do and what I cannot do.’  I am more my own master and live it better than the drilling in this hot sun … there is considerable hard feelings among our soldiers and officers in regard to GEN [John W.] Phelps … [recruiting] the Negroes. They are now encamped but just below us in better tents that our soldiers have and GEN Phelps is determined to arm them They are now drilling, learning the military movement and you cannot imagine the feelings that exists between our officers and soldiers. They say that if the North has come so long and think … that it is right to bring them down to the level with the Negroes, they will not fight and if possible return home. I must say that if they arm the Negroes, I cannot stay in the service that cannot furnish white soldiers enough to do their fighting, for I cannot, as yet, bring myself to think that is right and just … I could tell you many things that you would be surprised at the manner that things are conducted … do you think it is right to arm the Negroes, take them from their masters, many of them Union men … I cannot, as well as many others, think it is right. They live as well as the soldiers and better as they have women to cook for them … I do not know how it will come out and what the consequences will be. I sometimes feel discouraged and I don’t think the War is much near a close than it was when we left home … We have not had any mail of consequence …”
‘I am paying to have my picture taken and send to you all soon  … I wish we could have a mail oftener. There must be some mismanagement somewhere, for there are steamers enough from the North … My brother Lieut. in this Department is a very fine fellow and we get along nicely together. His name is Wells. I think he has some connections in Litchfield Conn. I have considerable to do now, as the clerk of the Commissary Department is sick, but will be back soon and then it will be better. I look at it so much better than to have anything to do, but to the regular company business …”

Your own Son

Source: eBay, November 2008

Book Review: Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families

Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families
by Andrew Billingsley

is awarded five cannisters

Robert Smalls (1839 – 1915) is a little known figure outside of South Carolina but he deserves to be known by everyone, especially by those who love great stories.

I stumbled upon the story of Smalls’s infamous escape as a slave during the American Civil War (May 1862) by accident. Several years later after thorough ongoing research has rewarded my diligence with finding this book by Billingsley.

The author takes a sociological approach throughout making it for an interesting angle to consider the life and accomplishments of Smalls.

There are several other fine books available about Robert Smalls – mostly out of print – so this edition is updated, accurate, fairly comprehensive and a rich source for understanding Smalls.

Well-documented and carefully researched.

Book Review: story of escaped slave Robert Smalls well-told in book aimed at middle school audience

Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story

by Janet Halfmann

is awarded five cannisters

I recall reading biographies of Jacques Cartier, John Paul Jones, and Davy Crockett when I was in the 4th grade. These stories took my imagination along great paths of discovery and ignited a love for history for me.

I wish I could have read Halfmann’s version (Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story) of the Robert Smalls (1839-1915) story of escaping from the Confederacy during the Civil War when I was 10 or 11. It would have fired my imagination and interest in the American Civil War much earlier.

Halfmann’s version of the Smalls story is refreshingly accurate and very well written. The text moves along at a good pace. Unlike Kennedy’s new book on Smalls (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s American Heroes: Robert Smalls, the Boat Thief), Halfmann is faithful to the true story in what she covers and what she has to omit for a children’s audience.

A real surprise is the bibliography in the back of Halfmann’s book which will serve the curious teacher and student well.

I would add one book to the reading list (for the teacher) that Halfmann does not cite as a source for her book: Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families, by Andrew Billingsley.

Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story book should be in every elementary school library in the United States.

27th MA soldier writes to sister on Christmas Day 1862 from New Bern, North Carolina

Dec 25, 1862
New Bern, North Carolina,

SERGT Edward B. Dickinson,
Company “D,” Massachusetts 27th Infantry Regiment,
[to his sister, Miss Sarah T. Dickinson, a school teacher, at Granby and North Amherst MA]

“I wonder if this Christmas day is as beautiful in Mass. as it is here. The weather is so warm, that fires and overcoats are not needed. The day is given to us for a holiday, and we can go where we choose without a pass, which to a soldier is quite a privilege … I presume you have … heard by the [news]papers that GEN [John G.] Foster has been with another expedition towards the interior and that this time he met with better success than before. He captured Kinston [NC] and went to within three miles of Goldsboro [NC]. They succeeded in tearing up several miles of railroad track, and burning three R.R. bridges. At Kinston our troops took five hundred prisoners. Our loss at that place was about one hundred & fifty killed & wounded, and our whole lost, when the expedition returned was five hundred killed & wounded. The 27th suffered but little, having only two killed. One man in the Westfield Company had his head shot off by a cannon ball. I started with the expedition, but after marching several miles, I found that I had overestimated my strength. I got so completely exhausted that I could go no further. I passed the night at a house nearby and the next day came back to the city. It was a great disappointment to me, for I was very anxious to go the next time. I trust there will be nothing to prevent me from going. There was seven in our company, besides myself, who were obliged to return and in the whole force I should judge there was nearly two hundred that gave out and come back. Ranson went with the expedition and as he had nothing to carry got along very easily. His health is good now and he is doing nicely. Harry Sear’s health is quite good, and in most respects he is about the same kind of person that he used to be at home. No better and not much worse. I am very sorry to hear such a bad report of Richard Loomis and do not yet believe it. When he was in New Bern, I never saw or heard anything of out of the way. Richard has seen hard times since he was in the service. His regiment has suffered more than most any other from Mass. The news from our Army in Virginia and the West is most dreadful; is it not. It would seem as if the fortunes of war had almost entirely forsaken us, it begins to look as if the South would certainly achieve their independence. I regret that the noble [Union GEN Ambrose] Burnside has met with a defense, but for it I think he is not responsible, as he acted under positive orders from Washington [see explanation below]. I think this rebellion might have been crushed long ago, but the fact is there are a great many high in power who do not care how long it lasts, so that [they] can make money by it. Not long since, a certain officer high in rank, offered this toast, ‘Here’s to a long war, and speedy promotion.’ Whilst such a spirit actuates our leaders, can we expect success? …

[signed] Edward.”

Source: eBay, November 2008