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.

E. F. Comegys: A career worth noting

            Edward Freeman (E.F.) Comegys was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He served in the 43^rd Alabama Infantry Regiment after enlisting as a Sergeant.

            Comegys had a unique career, both during and after the war. Born in Alabama in 1841, he passed away in Gainesville, Texas Jan 26, 1910. Comegys appears to have attended the University of Alabama, completing his college days in 1859.

            He enlisted in the 43^rd Alabama on May 13, 1862 and remained with that command until the final days of the war. The 43^rd played a key role in the Confederate victory at Chickamauga on September 20, 1863.

Comegys was promoted as the war went on, first to Lieutenant and then to Captain of his company. He was captured during the fight at Hatcher’s Run on March 25, 1865 and then released at Ft. Delaware, Delaware on June 17, 1865.

            The remainder of the 43^rd was a part of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and surrendered with that outfit at Appomatox a few weeks after Comegys was captured.

            After surviving his long service in a losing cause, Comegys returned home and started his post-war life. He didn’t spend much time at home in Alabama. He married the former Susan Harris and was working in Gainesville by 1876. The marriage produced six children.

            Comegys became the Superintendant of the Denton Public Schools in 1884 and held that position until 1890, when he took the same position with the school system in Gainesville.

            The former soldier was an active member of the United Confederate Veterans. Importantly for historians, Comegys attended a reunion of Confederate veterans in 1907 or 1908 and met researcher Archibald Gracie, the son of Confederate Brigadier General Archibald Gracie.

            The 43^rd was part of the elder Gracie’s brigade when it was part of the dramatic charge up the sides of Horseshoe Ridge at Chickamauga. That meeting at the reunion of Alabama Confederates began a series of communications with the younger Gracie and that eventually generated information that historians can pour over now, giving voice to witnesses of the closing hours of the fighting for control of the Ridge.

            Witnesses whose testimony is generally ignored. Most histories of the battle generally praise the 43^rd’s contribution to the Confederate attack on Horseshoe Ridge of Sept. 20, 1863 but few histories of that attack offer a full retelling of the 43^rd’s movements. The testimony of Comegys and others offers to complete the story.

            So Comegys’ career is valuable in a number of ways: He was an effective soldier (albeit for the wrong cause), an educator and an important contributor to fully understanding some battles during the Civil War.

            E.F. Comegys will probably never have a best-selling book written about his life. He was one of the faceless millions who survived the war, succeeded during Reconstruction and lived a long life.

 

            Thanks for reading.

Answers

          In a previous blog your loyal blogger asked five questions about the American Civil War and asked you readers to read the questions and consider your own answers.

          As previously stated, there are no right or wrong answers here. Your thoughts are as good as anyone’s. It said in the previous post that this blogger promised to post a set of replies and they are below, with the questions.

 

          QUESTION #1: If war had somehow been avoided, how long would the institute of slavery have remained legal in the United States of America?

          ANSWER #1: Given how difficult the struggle for civil rights was in the 1950s and 1960s as it was, it seems possible slavery might be legal in some form today had the Civil War never happened. It is instructive to recall that some states that remained loyal to the Union during the War left slavery legal until the war ended.

 

          QUESTION #2: How different would American society have been during the 20^th century had Abraham Lincoln lived through the completion of his second Presidential term and seen to the start of Reconstruction?

          ANSWER#2: Lincoln wanted to let the South up easy. Much of the punishment-oriented governance that dominated the years during and following Reconstruction would no doubt have been different with a living Abe Lincoln. Carry this thought forward. Using what we know about Lincoln’s ideas for Reconstruction as a baseline, it is very possible that much of the strife that has marked some periods of our history since the war could have at least been lessened.

 

          QUESTION #3: How would your life have been different if the Confederate states had secured their independence?

          ANSWER #3: Your loyal blogger would not have been born had the Confederate States of America won its separation from the Union.

 

          QUESTION #4: In terms of action on the battlefields, who was the single most important individual in the fighting? No fair choosing one per side and no fair choosing the individual foot soldier as answers.

          ANSWER #4: Ulysses Grant commanded the victorious army in the most important victories in both the Western and Eastern theaters of the war. This is an easy answer for your loyal blogger.

 

          QUESTION #5: No single event has had a bigger impact on United States history than the Civil War. Study of the War era and the War itself offer educational opportunities on many social and historic topics. Should the War be reemphasized in K-12 classrooms?

          ANSWER #5: Yes. Here is a partial list of topics that could be covered in different ways at different grade levels: Politically correct or not, the war happened, so a bit of study of the War itself; the struggle for racial equality during the century after the end of the War; the importance of addressing major issues in a timely manner (rather than kicking the can down the road, as Congress did regarding the elimination of slavery from the time the Constitution was written until the War started); the cost of the war in terms of money spent and lives lost (among other things, Southern states had to start providing pensions for former Confederate soldiers in the decades after the War); the impact of the war on the non-combatants; the impact of the war on America’s foreign relations and how far behind most of Europe the United States was with the elimination of slavery; the change in the way Americans conducted their politics following the War and whether that impacts us today.

 

       Thanks for reading and answering.