Thursday, October 4, 2012 Helen Keller and Shiloh

One of our first stops was touring Eugene V. Debs house in Terra Haute, Indiana. It is an interesting coincidence that one of your last tours is Helen Keller's house Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Both were well known socialists in the 1920s and 1930s.

Helen Keller, born 1880, turned blind and deaf by an early childhood fever, proved that blind and deaf people could live productive lives if given the opportunity. Keller is the first person to receive a BA degree.  Helen's opportunity came by being born in a blue-blooded, wealthy family. According to the house guide, Helen Keller is a descendent of John Quincy Adams.

Keller's family could afford to hire Anne Sullivan to tutor Helen from age 7 through college. Sullivan remained Helen's lifelong associate until Sullivan died in 1936 with Keller holding her hand.

When we arrived at the house, I was decorated with lots of flowers because the director's daughter had been married the weekend before and left the flowers there. A guide showed us through the house with lots of furniture in the house during Keller's childhood. Outside is the pump where Helen learned her first word, water. Notice the wedding flowers.

Also outside is the little house Anne asked to be built to create a better situation for teaching Helen.

Many know through The Miracle Worker, Helen Keller's amazing education. Lion's Clubs often speak of Keller's 1925 challenge to become knights for the blind. Few know  Keller was a socialist. She campaign for Eugene V. Debs to become president.The house tour guide did not know Keller was a socialist and couldn't imagine how this is possible because Keller had been active in so many charitable causes. Such ignorance of Americans about the left.

The drive from Tuscumbia, Alabama to Shiloh battleground in Tennessee is about an hour. Some distance from Tuscumbia, we passed a sign for the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard.  (YouTube video)

Kathy's great-great grandfather, Samuel Woods Reid, served in Napolean Gray's, Company D in the 15th Arkansas Regiment. (History as the 1st Arkansas Volunteers) This regiment was commanded by Brigadier General Patrick R. Cleburne. Cleburne earned the title, "Stonewall of the West". Ironically, lists of the greatest generals of the Civil War often list Cleburne above "Stonewall" Jackson, e.g., 1, 2, 3. Biographies of Cleburne often say hee is the most forgotten or underrated general of the war.

(Confederate Order of Battle at Shiloh)

Shiloh battlefield is covered with signs identifying the locations of regiments through the battle. Kathy and I photographed the five signs mentioning the 15th Arkansas. Descriptions below identify the locations of these signs on this map.

This sign identifies the location of the camp the night before battle, April 5, 1862. On the lower left side of the map, this sign is between highway 22 and Trabue's line.

Scott Manning explains  a demonstration a Confederate skirmish line. Skirmishers formed "rows of checkered board patterned troops on one knee. A row would move forward, kneel, and shoot. Then another row would move forward and do the same while the previous row reloaded. They explained that skirmishers would move like this toward a possible enemy position to probe their exact position."

Shiloh is the 15th Arkansas' first battle. The 15th Arkansas formed the skirmish line in the opening attack on Sherman's troops, pushing them in the direction of Shiloh Church. Brigidier General Patrick Cleburne's battle report says, "[t]he Fifteenth Arkansas engaged the enemy's skirmishers and drove them in on their first line of battle. My skirmishers then fell back on their reserve [on their left]. On the map, look for Cleburne's line south of Shiloh Church. Notice the sign puts the 15th Arkansas Skirmishers are in front of the rest of the troops.

By noon, Cleburne's troops had moved forward to this location. On the map, this location is just to the right of Sherman's name or half-a-mile north of the name Marsh. In one of these places, Cleburne's battle report says, "Here the Fifteenth Arkansas inflicted heavy loss upon the enemy, and lost many good men, and its major, J. T. Harris. He scorned to pay any regard to his personal safety; he moved up within pistol range of the enemy, and was shot dead while firing on them with his revolver." Then later the report says, " Here Captain Cowley, acting major of the Fifteenth Arkansas, a true and tried officer, was shot in the head...." 

At 2:30 pm, the troops moved one-quarter mile, northeast of previous sign. Tilghman Creek is the little vertical blue squiggly line near the top of the map just to the right of the Brewer and Wharton lines and further south near Russell and Wood. I don't know where the 15th Arkansas actually was on Tilghman Creek. East of Tilghman Creek is as far forward as the Confederates would get on April 6, 1862. Union army held this position through the night. 

The next morning Union supported by Buell's reinforcements the Federals attacked. See this map of the second day's battle. 

This is Cleburne's final position the next day, April 7, 1862. On this map, the 15th Arkansas is not shown, but this sign is located in front of Gibson, about where the 1st Arkansas and 13th Louisiana are shown. Cleburne's battle report says, "As far as I know the Fifteenth Arkansas was the only regiment rallied anywhere near the scene of disaster. In the face of a deadly fire and an exultant foe the regiment reformed near two abandoned cannons and fell back in order behind a ridge. From this point, seeing some re-enforcements coming up, I led them in a charge on the advancing foe. The enemy fled back faster than they came." "In this charge Lieutenant-Colonel Patton, the sole remaining field officer of the Fifteenth Arkansas, was shot dead. He did his duty nobly in this battle and secured the love and confidence of every man in his regiment. The Fifteenth Arkansas continued to pursue the enemy until out of ammunition, when 58 men, all that were still together, fell back to replenish."

Cleburne's battle report summarized his brigade's performance during Shiloh, "This was the first battle my men were ever engaged in. They led the advance of our army on Shiloh and engaged and repulsed the enemy's cavalry the Friday before the battle. They fought in the foremost line both days and were never rested or relieved for a moment. They captured many stands of colors and assisted in the capture of General Prentiss' Federal brigade on the left."

After Shiloh, the Confederate Army was reorganized. The 13th and 15th Arkansas depleted regiments were combined. As regiments were depleted the Confederate army combined units together rather than adding fresh recruits to rebuild the strength of old regiments.

The 13th/15th Arkansas next participated in the campaign to encourage Kentucky to join the Confederacy. They fought in Battle of Richmond, August 29-30, 1862, (See map.) and Battle of Perryville, October 8, 1862.

When I was a Boy Scout in Kentucky, we commemorated Perryville with a 20 mile hike. Since both sides were trying to get water, I believe we couldn't drink during the hike. Or maybe I am making that up. I also remember memorizing Gettysburg Address during the hike. I believe  we repeated it as a group at the end of the hike.

Animated story of the Battle of Perryville.

To see the movements of the 13th/15th Arkansas during the battle, look for Cleburne the far right side of the map. The 13th/15th is shown in front line of Cleburne's. This is the position from noon to 2 pm.

At 2pm, Cleburne moved forward to the dark red line. The 13th/15th Arkansas moved across "Doctors Fork".

By 4 pm, the "13th/15th AR" was able to move forward again to the brown line.

Though the Confederates won the Battles of Richmond and Perryville, the Confederates lost the strategic situation and withdrew from Kentucky. Saving Kentucky for the Union.

Lookout! Wednesday, October 3, 2012

We decided to go to the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga Military Park only. The trip up the mountain switches back and forth. There are houses nearly all the way... I sure don't think commuting up and down the mountain during the winter sounds very fun!

Many of the houses are very nice and quite large. The homes on the edge of the mountain seem to consistently have large decks or are otherwise built out over the drop-off. Although the view of Chattanooga in the valley is phenomenal, I'm not sure I would want to live in many of those homes.

We first visited the Battles for Chattanooga Museum. This store has a 3-D map of several battles around the Chattanooga area, including Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. There is an audio presentation while the lights on the map illustrate the troop locations. This gave us a much better understanding of the situation during the fall of 1863 in the area.

The official Visitor Center is next door and has exhibits that give additional insights and information about the various "players" on both sides of the conflicts. We then walked across to the Point Park and walked the trail. The views of Chattanooga were impressive.

This trip meant something to me (Kathy) because I have a photograph of my great great grandfather Francis Bryan with other soldiers on Lookout Mountain. He served in the Union Army with other soldiers from Ohio. I don't have the exact unit with me, but we learned soldiers from Ohio were there at the battles and that many soldiers had their photos taken on the Point shown in the photograph on the right after the Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge (November 24 and 25, 1863).

I also need to check my other great great grandfather's papers (Samuel W. Reid) when I get home. I know he was captured that fall and began to suspect that these battles might be where he was. Today we learned that Major General Patrick R. Cleburne's regiment held right flank of Missionary Ridge for the Confederates against 10 times more troops. This regiment included Sam's company, the Napoleon Grays (Fifteenth Regiment of Arkansas Infantry) under the command of Major E. Warfield. According to Cleburne's official report, the 15th Arkansas engaged in heavy fighting all day long around Tunnel Hill and captured one Union battle flag. See map.  (Confederate Order of Battle)

The date of Sam's captured in nearby Graysville, Georgia, coincide with the Battle of Missionary Ridge.

I must learn some more about both of these grandfathers and their participation in the same battle, different sides. Later in their lives, their children married in Osage County, Kansas!

The history lesson for the day was over, so we headed west with the intention of visiting the battlefield at Shiloh, Tennessee tomorrow. (Yes, we seem to be steeped in Civil War history on this vacation!) Our new Waze navigation took us the quickest route, which meant we spent time in three states today (Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama). Tomorrow we will drive through a bit of Mississippi on the way back to Tennessee to the battlefield.

We remembered that we have traveled through part of this area a few years ago and were not able to visit Helen Keller's birthplace in Tuscumbia, Alabama, because it was not open the day we were here. Since out path was going by again, we stopped and will visit the home tomorrow morning, before Shiloh.

Last time we were here we stayed in a private campground, but tonight we are at McFarland Park, part of the city of Florence's city park system. There are large pine trees lining the road and we find the park nice for the overnight stop. Water is on both sides of the campground with herons inhabiting Cypress Creek.

Antietam and Harpers Ferry... Thursday, September 20, 2012

Today we visited Antietam Civil War battlefield and Harper's Ferry. Antietam happened on my birthday, September 17th, 150 years ago. This day is known as the bloodiest day of the Civil War because 23,000 casualties. The federals had 2,108 killed, 9,450 wounded, and 753 missing in action. Other battles had greater casualties, but not in one day.

So the United States had almost 10,000 wounded. Antietam was one of early battles where Clara Barton started traveling to the front lines to care for wounded soldiers. She followed the sound of the cannon to arrive on the northern end of the Antietam battlefield. She brought medical supplies. She and her companions also served gruel to the wounded men still lying on the field.

Historians have always claimed Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg was the high point of the Confederacy. Pickett's Charge may have been the high point of the Army of Northern Virginia, but I think the battle of Antietam was the high point of the Confederacy.

On the military front, Lee had taken command of the Army of Northern Virginia during June 1862. He won the Seven Days Battles June 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run, August 1962 and was invading Maryland to resupply his army. And rebel forces were planning an invasion of Kentucky which ended at Perryville, October 8, 1862.

On the diplomatic front, England wanted to recognize and support the Confederacy, but were held back because of slavery, a practice England had outlawed 30 years before and the potential of going to war with the United States. However, if the confederates won a major battle on union soil, England would propose negotiating peace between the United States and Confederate States on humanitarian grounds that the war was a stalemate. So if the confederates had won Antietam, they had a chance of winning the war.

When the north won Antietam, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. This made the war also about ending slavery, seriously damaging England's and France's ability to officially recognize and support of the Confederacy. Even though Lee invaded Pennsylvania with an even larger army in 1863, it may be the case that the Confederacy's real possibility of victory vanished in 1862, not 1863.

Kathy and I arrived at Harper's Ferry too late to see the movie about John Brown's raid. The firehouse where John Brown made his last stand has been return to within 150 feet of its original spot, but it is empty. So Kathy and I saw streets looking a little like a Civil War town. There are some shops and restaurants, but it is no Williamsburg. So the drama of those events is lost on us. We were disappointed.

Tomorrow we head to Baltimore. I have never been to Baltimore.

Day 13: History and Evolution

This morning we visited the Harold B. Simpson Complex and Research Center on the campus of Hill College in Hillsboro.

We went there so Kathy could check out its genealogical resources. It was originally called the Confederate Museum. The main display area exhibits paraphenalia about Texas Confederate regiments and explains Texas' unique role in the Civil War. Though Texans under Hood provided very reliable regiments for Lee's army, the state of Texas most important contribution to the war was supplying the Confederacy because Texas was the only Confederate state bordering a neutral country, Mexico. Mexico purchased southern cotton in exchange for important supplies. This important role ended when the Union completely controlled the Mississippi River with the capture of Vicksburg in 1863.

The museum now has exhibits about all major US wars including a fairly large collection of modern military weaponry. Not only rifles and machine guns, but also WWI hand grenades, bayonets and medieval-looking spiked maces and even a spiked-ball flail for hand-to-hand fighting.

In the afternoon, we looked at the 100 million year old dinosaur tracks in Dinosaur Valley State Park outside Glen Rose, Texas. Pictures on Flickr.

The tracks are in the limestone bottom of the very shallow Paluxy River which flows into the Brazos River. 100 million years ago this area was a beach on the ocean and several different types of dinosaurs vacationing on the beach left their footprints.

The nearby Creation Evidences Museum was closed by the time we got there. This museum is supposedly associated with Dr. Carl Baugh. Here is an older article with a picture of what it looks like today and an evolutionists critic of the museum's exhibits.

The Glen Rose dinosaur tracks were famous in the evolution-creation debate in the 1980s because the creationists claimed that some prints were actually human. Dinosaur and human prints appearing together would obviously disprove evolution.

We are camping in at Dave's campground west of Gainesville, Texas, a stone's throw from Oklahoma.