Question for your consideration

Monument to the 20th Maine at Little Round Top.

          The idea behind the topic of this issue of Speedyleeway is to spark debate. Your loyal blogger has an opinion on the question to be introduced and that opinion will be posted at a later date.

          There is no right and wrong here, only questions and opinions. Readers with opinions already formed are encouraged to render said opinions. Readers new to the question are urged to consider the background notes and then render your thoughts. Thoughts and opinions are welcome, so long as they are written politely. Political correctness is less important than plain, old fashioned good manners.

          Below is the background for the question, the question itself and a short list of pros and cons.

          Background: There is a small hill near the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania named Little Round Top. On July 2, 1863, the second day of the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia attacked along a broad front the defenses of the United States Army of the Potomac. The far left flank of the Union defense was on Little Round Top.

          The left-most Union regiment, the 20^th Maine, endured a determined effort by the Confederate 15^th Alabama regiment to crush the flank and take the high ground from the Union Army. To be sure, other Confederate regiments attacked other Union regiments at other locations on Little Round Top and Confederate regiments from Texas and Alabama actually succeeded in driving off the Union defenders in front of it. The timely arrival of reinforcements saved the day for the Union.

          For the purposes of this debate, all that matters is the fighting between the Maine regiment, commanded by Joshua L. Chamberlain, and the Alabamians led by William C. Oates.

          More complete information on the struggle is available in numerous books or websites, but we can sum the action up by saying the Confederates pressed the Maine defenders hard and failed to move Chamberlain’s men off the ground they defended.

          Chamberlain went on to make a career out of being the man who led the defense of the left flank at Gettysburg and eventually became the governor of Maine. Oates, a lawyer before the war, returned to the legal profession when the war ended but later went into politics and was elected the governor of Alabama.

          There is a memorial to the Maine regiment where those men so fiercely held their ground. While serving as Alabama’s governor, Oates wrote Governor Chamberlain of Maine to learn whether Chamberlain would fight against Oates’ desire to place a monument to his Alabama regiment on Little Round Top. Chamberlain did not oppose the idea until the old warriors got to discussing the location of the proposed Alabama memorial.

          Oates wanted to place the monument on the spot where, Oates said, his brother was killed. Oates described the desired spot to Chamberlain. Chamberlain was adamant that the Confederates did NOT penetrate the Union lines that far. The politicians agreed, the old soldiers did not. No monument to the 15^th Alabama was ever erected on Little Round Top.

          Roughly 150 years later, your loyal blogger found two notes next to each other in the 20^th Maine area of Little Round Top. They are pictured here and that brings us to the question.

Marker for position of left flank of the 20th Maine July 2, 1863.

          Question: Should there be a memorial of some sort to the 15^th Alabama somewhere on or near Little Round Top?

Messages in favor of 15th Alabama monument on Little Round Top.

          Pro: The 20^th Maine area is among the most visited locations of all the Civil War battlefield parks. Adding a marker for the 15^th Alabama would enable better understanding for the fighting that was done there. Even Chamberlain was not against the idea, he was in disagreement with Oates over the location where Oates wanted the proposed marker to go. The politics of history should not determine the answer to this question.

          Con: It is too late now to do so because little would be served by putting the money or time into the effort. There are very few positions reached markers at Gettysburg for Confederate units, though there are a few. We do not know today where Oates wanted to locate the memorial to his regiment. Today we find the Confederate cause (the continuation of slavery) repellant, with good reason, and a monument to a Confederate unit would be the same as blessing the Confederate cause.

         

          Blogger’s answer: Your loyal blogger feels a position-reached marker or at least a plaque representing the pathway the 15^th Alabama followed should have been erected decades ago, if for no other reason than to more clearly detail the history of the location. There are left and right flank markers for the Union regiments that indicate where the defenders were on Little Round Top but there are no indications of where each attacking Confederate regiment went up against those defenders.

          Given the popularity Little Round Top has among Gettysburg visitors (new and old), you would have expected that there would be more attention to detail about where each Confed regiment was. Look at it this way: Those Union regiments were fighting somebody. Why not delineate the attacking force?

          Having said that, it is certainly easy to spend someone else’s money. A marker for the 15^th Alabama would cost money. The location would have to be determined, the type of marker/monument/statue would have to be decided and someone would have to pay to have the thing created, moved and erected. For this observer, the same thing would have to be done for the 48^th Alabama, 4^th Texas, 5^th Texas, 4^th Alabama and 47^th Alabama because those regiments also attacked Little Round Top on July 2, 1863.

Right flank marker for the 16th Michigan on LRT.

The 48^th Alabama and 4^th Texas succeeded in dislodging the 16^th Michigan from the Union right on Little Round Top. Only the timely arrival of the 140^th New York saved the Union defenders from defeat. Certainly a position reached marker for those regiments would be in order, similar to the North Carolina marker pictured here near the wall on Cemetery Ridge.

However … it is too late now for the work to be done. The history of the location would be richly served, but historic accuracy has given way to political correctness in American society. The uproar over placing such markers would be damaging to the National Parks Service and this blogger cares too much about the good work the NPS does to risk the backlash that would certainly come.

With regret, the opinion here is that it will never happen.

Snowless in Ohio

          When we moved from California to the American Midwest, we knew the winter weather would be different. We prepared for the terrors of winter time in Northeastern Ohio and, for sure, the first three winters have been difficult.

          We’ve had our share of snow over the years since we moved. Snow is pretty, I’ll grant you that, but it brings ice with it and ice represents a chance to wreck your car or crack your skull without doing anything wrong.

          Nobody likes ice on the ground.

          But this winter has been different. We haven’t had a single flake of snow. Not one flake. We’ve had some grapple, which is sort of like snow. We’ve had frost on the roof and lawns. We even had a little rain last week.

          But snow? Nope. Nary a bit of it.

Above is a view of what the backyard should
look like this week. Instead, it looks like
the image below.

          Understand, we were really ready this year. We bought some of those orange sticks you see in the ground around construction sites and we put a few along the sides of our driveway and along the sidewalk in front of where we live. When the snow comes, we’ll know where the driveway and walkways end.

          If the snow comes, that is.

          You start getting confused when the snow is a no show. Mrs. Leeway assured me that we had not magically teleported back to California without warning. She used logic to prove herself correct.

          “This would be a 40 million dollar house,” she asserted. “This place isn’t worth that. You bought gas today for both cars and spent less than 40 bucks, right?”

          “Well, yeah.”

          “In California, we’d be paying an extra half a dollar a gallon. And do you see the state building a train set over perfectly good farm land around here? No, you don’t. I mean, when Jerry Brown says he’s going to railroad you, that man doesn’t fool around. But it isn’t happening here.”

          Solid points, all. With her evidence, Mrs. Leeway convinced me that we were still in Ohio. But that still did not explain where all the snow went.

          “The snow,” she explained, “is in Colorado. The really cold weather is in Canada. I saw it on the TV news.”

          “So they finally closed the Canadian border,” I guessed aloud. “Trump got his way.”

          “No. There is a high pressure system hanging over us and it is keeping the snow and really bad weather away.”

          Suddenly, I was triumphant. I had evidence that she was wrong, after all. Sensing victory, I charged forward with my verbal assault.

          “Hah!” I cried. “That’s what you always hear about in California. A high pressure system.”

          “No,” Mrs. Leeway said with strained patience. “In California, they have a system for getting high.”

          Darn it, she was right again.

          Thanks for reading.

Liar Temptress Soldier Spy

Recently finished reading the book Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, about four women during the Civil

War. This is an interesting look at the War from a very different perspective. I felt there are a few questions left unanswered but the author (Karen Abbott) doesn't guess at things. Important note: Do not expect to like all four subjects of this book. Two of them supported a cause our generation finds repellant. Still, the history itself is interesting and I recommend the book.

Winner speak

          Have you ever noticed that the first thing a winner does is try to make the loser look good?

          Think about it. A football coach is interviewed seconds after the game ends and one of the first comments the coach makes is, “That’s a heck of a football team we just beat.”

          The score was 34-0. The starters for the winning team did not play beyond the first half. Three managers played in the fourth quarter. The losing team was in the midst of a 15-game losing streak. Make it 16 games.

Lee: Great but lost

          But the winners always praise the losers. It goes beyond sports. Who is the best-known general of the American Civil War? Robert E. Lee. What side was he on? Well, that country doesn’t exist today.

          But who looks good? Seriously, if Lee was a genius, what does that make Ulysses Grant? Whatever the word is, it means Genius Beater.

          Go read a few books about the Second World War. Read about the German general, Erwin Rommel. Every third word about Rommel is either “genius” or “brilliant.”

Rommel blitzed the African continent, then lost it. Given command of the Normandy beaches, he managed to be away from the front when the allies launched the largest amphibious assault in history. Rommel was involved with the plot to kill Adolf Hitler (which is to Rommel’s credit), but even that didn’t work out.

Montgomery: Beat Rommel

Well, winners write military history. We won and we’ve written that Rommel was a brilliant genius.

The British general, Bernard Montgomery, thought Rommel was a genius. So did US commander George Patton. Montgomery beat Rommel in Africa and Patton was part of that theater. Thus, they beat the brilliant genius. So Montgomery and Patton must have REALLY been something, huh? (Not together, you understand. Patton and Montgomery were not friends.)

Watch the next US Presidential election. It does not matter who wins, they’ll say the same thing the night of their victory. Almost word-for-word, they’ll say, “I’ve just called (the loser) and congratulated (him/her) on conducting a tremendous campaign.” Translation? The winner is really saying, “We beat those losers easily but I want to look good, so I’ll pump them up.”

Watch a NASCAR race sometime. Frequently, after a close finish, the winner will say, “We probably had a fifth place car today, but we won.” In other words, the winning driver is saying, “I carried this sorry sled around for 500 miles and I’m a better driver than the rest of those guys.”

So keep an ear on what people are saying. Are they gracious winners? To be sure. But what are they really saying? Think about it: They might be saying, “Look at me!! I won!! I won!!”

That other blog is tremendous, too. Thanks for reading this one first.

Thinking of Philadelphia

Random thoughts from Philadelphia, you know, the City of Brotherly Love:

 

Thought 1: Stopped on the way here to visit the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville. If you read this blog you know it discusses many visits to historic places, mostly battlefields, many of which witnessed a great loss of life. You’ve read many times that we walk those fields with awe and respect. Well, none of the places written about here

have had the emotional impact of the Memorial. Not going to try to write about those feelings now, except to recommend you make the effort any time you are in the area. Give yourself lots of time because the position is about 35 minutes away from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and, once you get there, leaving is difficult. You just don’t feel like driving away.

 

Thought 2: Roughly 100 yards away from our hotel, directly in front of the

"Oh. It's McClellan."

Philadelphia City Hall, there is a statue of General George B. McClellan. The statue hasn’t moved much since it was erected and neither did George when he was in command of the Army of the Potomac. That’s why he got fired. Looked at the statue for the second time in the same day today and said out loud, “There’s McClelland. He still hasn’t moved.” First time we saw it, walked to the front to see who the statue honored and said, dully, “Oh. It’s McClellan.” Mrs. Leeway, a little exasperated, responded, “Well, you didn’t think it was Lee did you?”



 

Reynolds

Thought 3: Less than 100 yards from the statue of the statue-like McClellan, there is a statue honoring General John Reynolds. Reynolds actually led men forward into battle and has been partially credited/blamed for starting the Battle of Gettysburg. Reynolds deserves a statue in his honor.

 

Thought 4: The Eagles and Rams exchanged quarterbacks between seasons. Neither has been successful. That was some deal, bad for both teams. In the past, Rams quarterbacks Norm Van Brocklin, Roman Gabriel, John Hadl and Ron Jaworski have been successful for the Eagles. Not so much this time. The Eagles have played more like turkeys this season.

 

Thought 5: Can’t easily find decent Mexican food in Ohio, but here in Philadelphia, there is a place named Dos Tacos. Had lunch there today, two tacos (Get it? Dos Tacos?). Pretty darn good, Kobe beef and no space wasted with cheese, lettuce or tomatoes. Just beef and a smear of sour crème. A little pricey, 7 bucks, plus tax.  They also sell boxed water there. Water in a milk carton?  Humm.

 

Thought 6: Cruised through something called the Fabric Workshop and Museum, which is really just an art school for the type of art stuff I don’t understand. One thing we did not see was anything having to do with the history of fabric. They do teach silk screening, which I understand, but not for shirts. Instead of shirts (which you might be able to sell and generate profits), they do lots of artsy stuff with it. Felt like we were watching a Woody Allen movie because the exhibits and videos we saw made no sense. The best stuff we saw? A bunch of silk screen murals done by high school kids. I guess the kids haven’t been confused enough yet.

 

Thought 7: Thinking about driving a car in this town? I have a better idea: Put your car up on a lift and pound the chassis and suspension with a big sledge hammer for a while. You’ll get the benefit of exercise with your severe underside damage and you’ll save gas money.

 

Thought 8: If you have healthy legs, this is great town for visitors. Historic spots, history museums and art museums (the real stuff) are all within walking distance of each other. Given the role Philadelphia played in the story of the founding of the country, that’s a great thing. Look out! You might learn something.

 

Thought 9: They know how to hold a parade in this town. We walked over two blocks and watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade while standing on the sidewalk. A few nice floats, good high school marching bands, some balloons and, of course, Santa.

 

Thought 10: How many towns can say this? Philadelphia has hosted visits by both the Pope and ESPN’s College Game Day show this year.

 

Thought 11: Just checked and, nope, McClellan hasn’t moved yet.

 

Thanks for reading.

Daniel Lewis and the Civil War

          Most discussions about the Civil War conjure up debates over commanders and their decisions, the strategic ideas at the start of campaigns and how they worked out. Production capabilities of the two sides get a lot of attention as do the ocean-born battles.

          You’ve seen books about Grant versus Lee, the Civil War in the west, Sherman’s March and the like. An overloaded bookshelf sags under the weight of such books a few feet away from this desk.

          The Civil War was really a struggle between soldiers, the grunts who carried the rifles and made the artillery work. Those are the soldiers who made the courageous stands and charges. Officers made the decisions but the average private made the difference.

          Actually, only the privates who made it to the battlefield made a difference. In the American Civil War, most of the casualties did not come in battle. Three of every four soldiers who died during the war succumbed to disease.

          Daniel Lewis was a Private in Company F of the Second Battalion of Hilliard’s Legion. He stood 5-feet, eight inches tall, had black hair and grey eyes. The Legion was an Alabama outfit in the Confederate States Army. He enlisted March 29, 1862 when he was 24 years of age.

          Regular readers of this blog know the Legion’s history. The Legion played a key role in the Confederate victory at Chickamauga in September of 1863. The soldiers in the Legion were then split into two regiments and a battalion and those units surrendered at Appomattox in 1865.

          Lewis, however, did not fight at any of those places. He died of disease November 3, 1862, a little more than half a year after he’d enlisted. He died at Fair Ground Hospital in Atlanta and was buried in Oakland Cemetery in the same city.

          Lewis left behind a wife and two daughters. Martha Betsy Elizabeth Castleberry married Daniel Lewis January 3, 1857. Martha was five years older than her husband and their union produced two daughters, Mary Jane Lewis (born 1857) and Minerva Lewis (1859).

          A third child, a girl named Loveda, was also part of the family. She was born before Daniel and Martha were married and might not have been Martha’s child.

          The census of 1860 shows the Lewis family held $500 worth of real estate. Daniel was a farmer, so the land holdings were most likely used for that purpose. The family also had personal property valued at $200 and lived in the Mount Olive area of Coosa County, Alabama. Daniel’s death left the family financially vulnerable.

          Shortly after learning of his son’s death Daniel’s father, Abel Lewis, filed the paperwork for the family to receive Daniel’s final payment for his military service. The Confederate government’s payment was dated March 20, 1865. That was less than a month prior to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.

          Paperwork moved slowly in the Confederacy.

          Of the remaining members of Daniel Lewis’ family, only Mary Jane Lewis and Loveda lived beyond the early 1870s. Both Martha and her younger daughter, Minerva, are believed to have died before 1872. Mary Jane Lewis died November 11, 1898 at age 41. History is a little unsure about Loveda’s life but she did live long enough to inherit money from Abel Lewis, her grandfather.

          One family’s story, viewed against the backdrop of the Civil War era, seems inconsequential. The bigger story is more important, right? The war came, we fought it and we rebuilt.

          But it says here that the bigger history is really the total of ALL the family stories. Every family had a story to tell that somehow linked to the continental calamity that was the Civil War. All families, be they northern or southern, loyal or rebel, white, black or native American, mattered. In fact, that’s what the war was about.

          Your loyal blogger is in no way descended from the Lewis family, but what’s the difference? All of us are descended from somebody, all of us have ancestors with a story.

          And all of those stories deserve to be heard.

          Thanks for reading.

The lure of Gettysburg

          I’m not sure what it is that draws so many people to the Gettysburg National Military Park every year. The history of the place is enough for me, you understand, but there is probably more to it than that.

          Well, maybe.

          The National Parks Service does a tremendous job of keeping the place looking wonderful, so any visit is a treat for the eyes. The place is well mapped, so finding locations is reasonably easy. I have found that there is an easy camaraderie among park visitors, so you meet plenty of friendly people.

          The Visitors Center is a pleasurable experience in itself. For one thing, the air conditioning is very nice. The Rangers are friendly and knowledgeable, so they are helpful. The museum is terrific (there’s that history thing again) and the Cyclorama painting of the battle is unlike any painting you’ll ever see.

          You have to pay to see the Cyclorama, $12.50 I think. Worth the price.

          The town itself is very nice. A lot of the big name stores are there, so shopping is fairly easy. There are plenty of neat restaurants and there is an outlet mall. Mrs. Leeway and I like to eat at the Garry Owen Pub and at Hoss’s Steak and Sea House. Hoss’s is part of a large chain, Garry Owen is not.

We’ve always stayed at the same hotel when in Gettysburg so any reader here looking for a hotel might find a better deal than at the place we stay. You will need to plan far in advance if you want to stay in town during the early summer months, particularly in late June and early July.

Gettysburg College hosts summer sports camps, which helps load up the hotels, and the college hosts the Civil War Institute conference every year. Your loyal blogger is a regular at the CWI.

          All of the above being said, what is it that draws us to Gettysburg every year? Think about it: There are lots of nice towns and cities in southern Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, the state capitol, is a short distance away and Mechanicsburg, home of the legendary Williams Grove Speedway, is right up the road. When we go to Williams Grove, we stay in Gettysburg.

          So why Gettysburg? Why not visit someplace else in the area?

          Obviously, it’s the history.

          When I go to a battlefield, unless I am part of a CWI tour, I find the time to sit quietly and just listen. Nature is usually pretty loud at such places and, well, you can hear a lot of other stuff, too.

          Your loyal blogger was sitting on a rock at Little Round Top last week listening to the Park guys trimming whatever they were working on with their weed whackers a few hundred yards away, when a married couple came by. They were obviously looking for something. When they came by a second time, I asked what they were looking for. As best I can recall now, the conversation went something like this:

 

          Them: “Isn’t this Little Round Top?”

          YLB: “Yes it is.”

          Them: “Wasn’t Chamberlain here?”

          YLB: “Yes, but not right on this spot.”

(Blogger note: We were within a few yards of the statue of General Warren.)

Them: “I thought for sure there would be a monument for him and the 20^th Maine.”

YLB: “There is one.” (Gestures, gives directions to a sign on the other side of the roadway.)

Them: “Did you ever read ‘Killer Angels?’”

YLB: “Yes I did. I don’t normally read Civil War fiction, but I read that one.”

Them: “I read that book and now I have to see where Chamberlain was.”

 

You meet lots of people at Gettysburg and other Civil War battlefield parks, usually very nice people. You meet veterans of many, many visits and you meet first-timers.

We all come under the spell of the location and that goes back to the history. There is a feel you get along Cemetery Ridge and up on Culp’s Hill that is different from other places in the world.

If you ever get to Gettysburg, try walking from the Virginia Memorial to the spot where General Armistead was wounded. As you traverse that span of ground, look to your right and see Little Round Top in the distance. Turn left and look at the rooftops of the town. You’ll have a hard time spotting the Union line ahead of you until you get close, so look for the Copse of trees or the trees that mark the Bloody Angle.

If you don’t mind cheating, look for some of the taller monuments that dot the location of the Union line. Think about what those monuments mean.

Your loyal blogger once stood in the Sherfy Peach Orchard and asked out loud, “Exactly what the (heck) was Dan Sickles thinking?”

The battlefield at Gettysburg is a different place, for lots of reasons. Your loyal blogger highly recommends it.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

JWA Sanford

          His name was John William Augustine Sanford. He was Georgia-born, but he lived in Alabama and served that state most of his life. He was a soldier and a lawyer, but that’s a little like describing the RMS Titanic as a famous boat.

          There is more to the story.

          Sanford was born November 3, 1825 in Milledgeville, Georgia. He earned university degrees from Oglethorpe University (BA in 1844), Harvard University (BL, 1851) and the University of Alabama (LLD, 1878). Sanford was admitted to the bar in 1852.

          Sanford joined the 3^rd Alabama Infantry Regiment as a private at the start of the Civil War and was quickly promoted to assistant quartermaster. In 1862 he was authorized to raise a regiment and he eventually became a Lt. Colonel in the Third Battalion of Hilliard’s Legion. In 1863, after the Legion’s ranks were terribly thinned during the battle of Chickamauga, the four battalions of the Legion were reconstituted as the 23^rd Battalion Alabama Sharpshooters and the 59^th and 60^th Alabama Infantry Regiments. Sanford was promoted to full colonel and given command of the 60^th.

          Sanford surrendered on April 9, 1865, along with the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia, at Appomattox Court House. At that point, he still had 36 years of service in front of him.

          Immediately after the war, Sanford was elected Alabama’s Attorney General. Three years later, General George Gordon Meade, the commander of the military district that governed Alabama at that time, removed Sanford and other state officers from their positions due to Reconstruction policies of the Federal government.

          Sanford responded the way most lawyers would: He sent Meade a letter. In the letter, Sanford asserted Alabama’s right to establish a government for herself and complained in very strong language about Reconstruction. It was a strongly-worded letter. It was written by a lawyer. Somehow, it fell into the hands of newspaper editors and Sanford became famous.

          He was re-elected as Attorney General three times before he became the Clerk of the Alabama Supreme Court in 1880. He resigned from that position November 5, 1892.

          But Sanford still wasn’t done. In 1896 he was an Elector to the State at large and on April 23, 1901, he was elected to be a delegate from Montgomery County to the Constitutional Convention.

          Sanford died August 7, 1913. As a soldier, he fought for a cause we find repellant today. As a politician, he railed against Reconstruction and became popular because of that.

          To understand the Civil War and Reconstruction, we need to study men like Sanford. He made a difference on battlefields and in courtrooms and that, my friends, is an interesting career.

          Thanks for reading.