"December 7th, 1941. Just a normal Sunday," my mother recalls. "Until Dad came home and said "better oil up your guns boys, the Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor". He had heard it on his car radio."

He might have heard something like this...

...and if he changed channels after that sudden interruption, maybe this:

He was too old to go to war himself, but that hadn't always been the case. "Dad had been in France just 23 years before, and he knew what war meant."

That's an understatement - he'd been a medic with the 307th Field Hospital, part of the 77th Division in France in 1918. They'd fought on the Argonne end of the American line in the battle of Meuse-Argonne. While his focus had been some of the nearly 96,000 wounded, to this day no single American battle has exceeded its 26,277 dead.

If on hearing that broadcast so many years later he remembered their faces, it couldn't have been long before they were replaced with thoughts of his own four military age boys. No doubt he shared more detailed advice with them later, but that day it was brief and simple - echoed elsewhere from veteran fathers to their sons: the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, better oil up your guns.

Don't mistake that for enthusiasm. "I was a 12 year old girl and had never heard of Pearl Harbor and could not understand how that would affect us." His daughter recalls now. "But soon learned while listening to the solemn conversation that followed."

A little over sixty years later she'd have a son going off to Iraq - twice. On that first tour she sent a small Christmas tree over... but I'd asked her just yesterday what it was like, to be that 12-year-old little sister that Christmas season near the end of the Great Depression. To be part of a coal miner's family whose sons were (somehow) off to college - or planning it (the oldest had already completed his degree) but were now changing plans. "Oh, I can't remember what I had for breakfast," she claims - and like having breakfast, her big brothers just did things that were typical of the day. The oldest had an essential war time job - but left it anyway. The second left college and became a bomber pilot. The third completed high school that year, but his mother had to accept his diploma on his behalf. The fourth would have to wait for '44...

"Dad and Mom had five sons ages 21, 20, 17, 15, and 7. So, yes, they knew what was ahead for their four oldest sons that day in December. The two oldest enlisted right away and the other two followed as soon as they turned 18."

"Tell me a story," I asked my mom yesterday... I'd expected an account of the world-that-was through the eyes of an innocent. What I got - what she said without saying - was a reminder that those of a certain generation (rightly called the greatest) don't much use the word "me."

"I remember how they worried," she says of her mother and father, "and how they never missed a news broadcast during the entire war..."

(Originally published: 2011-12-07 12:42:00)

Sunday, October 20, 1861: Nothing but ten miles of road separated the men of Colonel Nathan Evan's Brigade, Confederate States Army, from Brigadier General George McCall's Division of Union troops to their east. Even closer to hand was Brigadier General Charles Stone's Division - ten thousand or so more Yankees, just across the Potomac. All totaled there were six Union infantry brigades in the vicinity of one Confederate; to call the situation confronting the southerners a tight spot would be an understatement. From all indications battle was imminent, and barring some miracle its outcome predictable. "General Evans and Colonel Featherstone both gave us a short speech," Private Robert Augustus Moore of the 17th Mississippi noted in his diary that day (Evans' subordinates had promoted him one rank; rumor had it his superiors might, too), adding "The General said if we died here he would die with us."

Commanders didn't always deliver on promises, regardless of their rank - but it seemed likely Evans would fulfill that one.

Three days earlier Moore had scratched out "camp west of Leesburg" at the top of his diary entry for October 17th and replaced it with "on Goose Creek." They'd been awakened at 3 AM that day "by the beating of the long roll," he wrote. But it wasn't a call to battle. After weeks of facing off against the Yankees across the river - mostly monotony broken by occasional skirmishes - it was time to move elsewhere. Fortified with a bread and water breakfast they began their march, though "we did not know whither we were going until we arrived at this camp."

"Some" in that case were almost right. Moore's diary entry for the following day, however, was made from the same location. The widow Carter's mill on Goose Creek was about an eight mile walk south of Leesburg, though closer to five miles as the crow flies. Or as the cannonball doesn't - Stone's long-range artillery pieces on the Maryland shore were a factor in selecting this new location.

On the other hand touring historic Virginia was not, but some of the Mississippi troops took the opportunity to do so.

It was a hands-on interactive display. "Rocked in his old chair," Moore reported - adding that they left with some souvenirs of the former president, deceased three decades before: "several books a few piano keys and string."

Their history tour was not yet completed; "some" mistimed the effort but they indeed had more marching to do. Moore's diary entry the next day was made from "camp near ex-Mayor Swans" - an estate north of Leesburg owned by Thomas Swann. They reached it at the end of a longer march than the last (though "some" were right again; it mostly was a repeat of the last - in the opposite direction - which did little to sooth the souls of any soldiers desiring reason in their lives) but as a camp site it would prove especially gratifying to the most staunch Confederate hearts. Its owner was not present; after completing his term as Mayor of Baltimore the year before, Swann had declared himself a Union man and declined to return to his stately Virginia home.

"This looks to be a very fine camping place," Moore noted (though he'd only seen it in the dark of night) - but other than that, things were not going well.

"Some of the boys are a little mad," he added.

That was late on Saturday, the 19th. Moore and his fellow soldiers wouldn't see their camp site in daylight the next day either; before dawn they upped and moved again, abandoning the opulent grounds of the Swann estate for "camp in the bushes on Goose creek."

Whether believed or not, if the courier's information was accurate McCall had left three of his available infantry regiments behind when he'd moved his division's three brigades westward from Langley - but as Evans' Brigade consisted of just four infantry regiments, assorted cavalry and a few pieces of artillery the force now located just down the road a bit was overwhelming even so.

Or at least potentially overwhelming - as events (or lack thereof) would mandate the qualifier be used. Moore didn't know it, but the courier's information had also revealed that McCall's troops were not bound for Leesburg, would not even be remaining in place, but instead would return to Langley the following day. Still, the events of Sunday, 20 October 1861 were auspicious enough for Moore to make multiple entries in his diary throughout the day, eventually dedicating three of his pages to recording them - perhaps anticipating his life story was near finished, his remaining pages unneeded and destined to stay eternally blank.

Later in the day, however, Stone's troops crossed the Potomac. But for whatever reason, they returned to their side of the river before Evans' boys could give them a proper welcome.

"We all thought we were going into a battle when we were going down to the Ferry," he concluded. "The boys all tore up their letters this evening thinking they were going into battle. I laughed at them."

They likely didn't join in his laughter - but their precautions would seem less humorous soon enough. The 17th Mississippi had been at Manassas for the big battle last July 21st ("It was the largest battle ever fought on the American continent," Moore wrote that day) - on the field if not in the thick of the fight. They had a better idea than most - and certainly than the men of Stone's Division they would soon confront - of what being in battle was like. Though he saw no need to enter a new date (the passing of midnight being less a requirement for acknowledging such than his as-yet unclaimed few hours sleep), Moore completed his October 20th entry on the 21st, exactly three months to the day from Manassas, in the pre-dawn darkness of what would indeed be the day of his second battle, another day that would require multiple pages of his diary to record.

He was ready for it. But even if he'd gained a few strands of historically significant piano string on the way, whatever yearning he might once have felt for the glories of war was fading, right along with the leaves on the trees and the first calendar year of the war. Previously - from in camp west of Leesburg, late in a day not long before - he'd expressed a desire in the pages of his diary that summed up his then-current thoughts on the whole great adventure:

"I wish the Yankees would quit troubling us."

But they would not. Rather soon some would cross the Potomac again. This time they'd meet Private Robert Moore and his fellow soldiers, tired and sore and hungry and sleep-deprived and more than a little fed up with their situation, and - complaints about food and rain and mud and their officers (most of whom they'd elected as such in the first place) aside - ready to vent their frustrations most violently on those they believed more responsible for their woes.

(More to follow...)

Sources/notes:

Diary of Robert Augustus Moore, volume one.

James Monroe's house: Moore's reference is to Oak Hill, located just south of Carter's Mill, though his visit seems to have been to a house nearby where some of Monroe's property was stored. "His residence is but a quarter mile distant from the old house," Moore wrote, adding that he wished he could visit it, "but do not know who owns it."

Piano wire, it should be noted, would be highly useful to a soldier, much as 550 cord is today.

Touched with fire

One: Lieutenant Holmes believed himself a dying man...

Two: Charles Carleton Coffin rode into camp in the immediate aftermath of a battle lost, when visible evidence of the disaster included corpses laid out in line awaiting burial, and the memory of their first defeat at the hands of Johnny Reb was still fresh in the minds of the young men who'd fought it.

Three: "...Lt Putnam is dead Capt. Putnam lost his right arm. Hallowell fought like a brick but wasn't hurt Schmidt badly wounded Lowell wounded Colonel Major & Adjutant probably prisoners Babo & Wesselhoeft probably dead Dreher shot through the head Serg Merchant shot dead (in the head) From a third to a half of our company killed wounded & prisoners..."

Hours of Darkness

One: Major Paul Joseph Revere found himself a prisoner. Captured - along with several hundred of his fellow Union soldiers - by the secessionists (no true son of Massachusetts would call them "rebels" then) in his first battle; his war was seemingly over almost before it had begun. His grandfather had been in a similar fix decades before...

Two: 18 April, 1775: Two men stood in the moonlit darkness on the shore of the Charles River, gazing across the water towards Boston, their eyes searching for a boat... 21 October, 1861: Two men stood in the pre-dawn darkness on the Virginia side of the Potomac, their eyes turned back across the water, looking for boats. Today there could be battle... 18 April, 1775: Tomorrow there could be battle...

Julia Cutler's Journal: ...Confederate armies didn't march into Ohio, but early in May the war took a different route to her back yard - her nephew wrote of his intention to serve. "Lucy has just received a letter from her brother Rufus in Wisconsin," Julia recorded. "He has raised a company of seventy-eight men and received every vote for captain."

The Long Roll

One: ...But exchanging bullets and blood for real estate was not the only way to win or lose a war, and now Morse was confronted with something that, while potentially explosive, was a situation no tactics manual addressed. He was entertaining a visitor that day, a local slave owner who'd come on an unpleasant task...

Two: ...However, Dawes concluded, "Lieut. Kellogg was of quick blood and it was not always safe to congratulate him as the only man wounded in the Battle of Patterson Park."

Three: Clarissa, along with those other residents of Washington D.C. whose sympathies didn't lie with the South, was glad to hear the first regiments of troops called for by President Lincoln had arrived.

Four: After hearing musket fire all day the men of the 19th Massachusetts were finally going to war...

Five: Perhaps he was too small to be seen - perhaps he was an unremarkable sight, or perhaps the bloody corpse carried on a stretcher he was accompanying drew the full attention of the men going the opposite way - toward the battle. Whatever the case, when John Adams wrote of his experience at Ball's Bluff he didn't mention Ithiel Johnson of Oxford, Massachusetts.

Six: The drum sounded the long roll. It was just a drill - but the men stopped what they were otherwise doing and hurried into formation.

Seven: As Colonel Augustus Morse waited with his esteemed guest, the Honorable Thomas Holliday Hicks, Governor of Maryland, he took the opportunity to thank him once again for his efforts on behalf of the regiment. That very day an expedition was departing Annapolis for Hampton Roads, thence to South Carolina (though destination officially unknown) for purpose accurately supposed to be actual battle. Morse's 21st Massachusetts had been selected to go, too...

A Slight Demonstration

One: "Look lively, boys," someone called out, "we're about to get a visit from the rightful King o' France."

Two: The men of the 15th Massachusetts could proudly claim their regiment had the finest band in their division of the Army of the Potomac.

Three: Major General George Brinton McClellan commanded the largest military force assembled in modern history. Approaching 150,000 men strong (with additional regiments still arriving) he had at his disposal in the area around Washington DC an army that outnumbered Napoleon's and Wellington's at Waterloo combined.

(Scraps)

Four: The Honorable Francis Boardman Crowninshield of Boston arrived in London after transiting from New York to Liverpool via the steamer Persia...

Five: Colonel Eppa Hunton was a Virginian, sir. One who would cut a dashing figure in the uniform of the Confederacy, mounted or on foot, leading fellow Virginians into battle. At this moment, however, he was bedridden...

Six: "Rebel Accounts of the Leesburgh Affair" read the headline in the New York Times. It had taken a few days for the news to travel from behind enemy lines, but New Yorkers could now read the story as presented in the October 29th issue of the Richmond (Virginia) Examiner.

Seven: "What do you think I received as a present yesterday?" He'd written his wife Ellen (Nell, he called her) the previous week. "Some poor woman away up in the middle of New York sent me half a dozen pair of woollen socks..."

(Scraps 2)

Eight: Lieutenant Henry Livermore Abbott was writing an urgent letter home from camp. One of his previous messages had not been received in the manner intended - or rather, had gone beyond its author's intent.

(Scraps 3)

Nine: Hard times were upon them. "John Brown, on the day of his capture, prophesied the destruction of Harper's Ferry, to take place in a short time," Barry claimed - and whether the fiery abolitionist had made such a prophesy or not, no one could deny it had come to pass.

Ten: McClellan had written his wife the previous day of his intent to frighten the rebels away from Leesburg, but to have any hope of actually doing so he'd have to let Stone in on the plan, too, and thus far he hadn't done that...

"Message from General McClellan, sir." Stone accepted the paper, once again pondering briefly his good fortune to be in such close communication with headquarters via telegraph.

News From Stone's: "The Ball Bluff affair is pregnant with trouble," reported the New York Times "special correspondent" on the scene, "and Courts-martial innumerable may be discerned in the distance."

Roads to Leesburg

One: Robert Augustus Moore knew where the Confederate soldiers were. But as he was one that wasn't surprising.

Two: The legend of Captain Henry Alden began to grow immediately after his death at Ball's Bluff.

Three: John White Geary began a letter to his wife. Following his heartfelt appreciation of news of her continued health and well being -and assurances that he himself was "never better" ("God has blessed me with an excellent constitution," the six-six, 240-pound colonel wrote) - he offered a mild complaint:

The Voyage of the Enchantress: Jacob Garrick's adventure had begun in early July, when the schooner Enchantress set sail. Little did the ship's cook expect he'd serve three crews before returning to port.

Thanksgiving on the Potomac: "The month which followed the battle of Ball's Bluff ... was a period of much discussion concerning the events and conduct of the battle. Each one had his own story to tell, his own inquiries to make. It was clearly realized that the sacrifice had been needless and that some one had blundered. Was it General McClellan? Was it General Stone? Was it Colonel Baker? Was it Colonel Cogswell? It was a period of many visitors from the North, who came to find out the condition of the men of the different companies, in order that they might report to their friends at home... But we could not get along without Thanksgiving in some shape; and considering our circumstances, the celebration came very nearly up to the Puritan standard... There was one feature of the day that I take especial pride in mentioning, as indicating the material of which the regiment is composed. It is that not a man was intoxicated during the whole day."

Four: From all indications battle was imminent, and barring some miracle its outcome predictable. "General Evans and Colonel Featherstone both gave us a short speech," Private Robert Augustus Moore of the 17th Mississippi noted in his diary that day... "The General said if we died here he would die with us." Commanders didn't always deliver on promises... but it seemed likely Evans would fulfill that one.

(More to follow...)

Mudville, November, 2008:

Thanksgiving in America, and in Iraq the Parliament approved the Status of Forces Agreement. The news was scarcely noted on our shores as coverage of our national day of plenty gave way to that of the busiest shopping day of the year...
<...>
All United States combat Forces shall withdraw from Iraqi cities, villages, and localities ... no later than June 30, 2009.... And the total withdrawal (also Article 24) must indeed be accomplished "no later than December 31, 2011"

Through a coincidence of timing, it was President Bush's last Thanksgiving gift to the troops - one that was unwrapped for Thanksgiving this year.

Soldiers line up outside the dining facility for a Thanksgiving meal on its last day open on Contingency Operating Base Adder, Nov. 20. (Photo by Spc. Anthony Zane)

AFP:

US soldiers have gathered for an early Thanksgiving dinner due to an impending switch to field rations at a base near Baghdad, saying they are glad they will soon be going home.

The official Thanksgiving holiday in the United States is later this week, but the last "dining facility", or DFAC, at the sprawling Victory Base Complex (VBC) on Baghdad's outskirts closed on Sunday, as US forces prepare to depart.
<...>
"We're going to do the Thanksgiving meal here today instead of on Thursday, because we're closing out," said 38-year-old Staff Sergeant Christopher Quimbly, the DFAC manager.

"Today on the menu, we have crab legs, turkey, ham, dressing, yams, green beans, rolls, corn bread, mashed potatoes, (and) a variety of deserts," he said.

"Over 2000 pounds (almost 900 kg) of turkey, over 2000 pounds of ham" and "probably about 3000 pounds of mashed potatoes" are being served, he said.

But starting with dinner on Sunday, soldiers will have to make do with bagged field rations, Quimbly said.

President Obama didn't forget the troops this year:

President Obama reads a Thanksgiving message over the phone to a deployed troop

Sgt. Cynthia Filip, a signal support specialist with Company E, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team "Black Jack," 1st Cavalry Division, speaks on the phone with President Barack Obama, Nov. 24. The president thanked Filip for her military service and sacrifice to the U.S. Filip is currently deployed to Camp Buehring, Kuwait. (Photo by Sgt. Quentin Johnson)

With that, we'll take a look back at Thanksgivings past in Iraq.

From 2009:

And one from Mrs Greyhawk (and Russ Vaughn) in 2004 (one of my Thanksgivings in Baghdad...):

As always, this year and every year, near and far, wherever your travels take you - we're wishing a Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours.

"There was one feature of the day that I take especial pride in mentioning, as indicating the material of which the regiment is composed. It is that not a man was intoxicated during the whole day. What other regiment of eight hundred men, with pockets full of money, and plenty of whiskey within reach, can boast of so much self-respect and regard for their officers as not to yield in a single instance?"

Thanksgiving on the Potomac, November, 1861:

The month which followed the battle of Ball's Bluff was a period of hard work for the survivors of that contest. The wounded demanded care. The knapsacks of the missing had to be examined and the property of the government accounted for. The duties of the absent devolved upon those who were present. The lack of officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned, was most seriously felt. Lance sergeants and corporals were appointed to fill vacancies, but the few line officers on duty were obliged to do, as far as it was possible, the work of the whole number. It was a period of much discussion concerning the events and conduct of the battle. Each one had his own story to tell, his own inquiries to make. It was clearly realized that the sacrifice had been needless and that some one had blundered. Was it General McClellan? Was it General Stone? Was it Colonel Baker? Was it Colonel Cogswell? It was a period of many visitors from the North, who came to find out the condition of the men of the different companies, in order that they might report to their friends at home. Many and long were the letters written and messages sent by those who had escaped from the battle. It was a period of great inconvenience and sometimes of considerable suffering from the loss of personal effects, especially of clothing. E. J. Russell writes: "Every plate, cup, knife and fork which the boys took with them was lost, and the quartermaster has been unable to get them any more. Blankets are short, also. While I am writing it rains, and the wind blows from the northeast like a hurricane, and some of the tents have blown down. Such times as this make me a little homesick -- a cold rain and no fire. Some of the folks who stay at home, when they ought to be at the front, would think it rather tough to get up in the morning when it rains in torrents, cold, northeast wind, mud six inches deep, impossible to make a fire outdoors, no hot coffee or tea, hard bread, teeth worn down to the gums, overcoat wet, everybody cross, perhaps the order comes to turn out for some inspection, get your gun wet, take three hours to clean it up, go on guard, no sleep for twenty-four hours. See what it is to serve your country." An appeal from Colonel Devens for relief was promptly answered by the various towns of Worcester County, and through boxes sent from home in addition to the stores the government provided, by the middle of November the men had "everything they needed."

A letter of Lieutenant Derby's gives us an account of Thanksgiving Day (November 21) in camp: " The past week, although undisturbed by any warlike movement, has been one of considerable animation in 'Camp Foster.' On Monday evening Colonel Devens returned from a fortnight's furlough spent in Washington and Massachusetts. The gratified eagerness with which the word was passed that 'the Colonel had got back,' even without his own confession, proves that this is in reality his home. One of the fruits of his labors while absent is before us already -- four hundred good rifles, to take the place of our miserable smooth-bores.

"Tuesday evening brought another welcome arrival, the paymaster, with brass-bound chests, little but weighty. A number of the wounded, who had been waiting for their two months' wages, were immediately paid off, and next morning set out, a happy party, for their homes in Massachusetts. Their furloughs range from two to six weeks; and as the four wagon loads rattled off toward Adamstown, many a man regretted that he too did not get a bullet, so that he could spend Thanksgiving at the homestead. But we could not get along without Thanksgiving in some shape; and considering our circumstances, the celebration came very nearly up to the Puritan standard. Colonel Devens manifested his fatherly interest in the happiness of his men by presenting them fifty dollars toward buying a good dinner, and the all-important roast turkey was not wanting. There was one feature of the day that I take especial pride in mentioning, as indicating the material of which the regiment is composed. It is that not a man was intoxicated during the whole day. What other regiment of eight hundred men, with pockets full of money, and plenty of whiskey within reach, can boast of so much self-respect and regard for their officers as not to yield in a single instance? You can depend on such men everywhere. We have enjoyed another week of Indian summer, which ended last night, with heavy rain."

E. J. Russell, who was on picket duty Thanksgiving day -- for the picket line along the Potomac had been renewed shortly after the battle -- wrote: "We are quartered in a barn without any roof, in which we have a fire and are allowed to cook our own tea and coffee, and so long as it is fair weather we are all right. Some are building thatched shanties to keep off the rain. To-day is fair and tolerably warm, so we are going to have a Thanksgiving in earnest. Just this minute they have shot two pigs. We are going to have roast pig for dinner and they are getting up a hard-bread plum pudding."

The story continues here.

Source: Andrew Elmer Ford, The Story of the Fifteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, 1861-1864, (1898).

(For more, see The story thus far.)

The Union gunboat Albatross recaptures the schooner Enchantress, July 22nd, 1861 (note Jacob Garrick in water at lower right)

November 21, 1861: The editors of the New York Times had some difficulty deciphering the handwritten letter they'd received (and the forwarded letter included with it), but as the contents were highly newsworthy they published the best interpretation they could manage. "Our Prisoners in Richmond," read the headline. "LETTER FROM A LIEUTENANT OF THE SIXTY-NINTH."

In his letter to his brother, Lieutenant Gannon initially explained that prison life offered little to write home about: "I have nothing of any importance to [???] the dull and [???] of a [???] life would be a somewhat [???] tale..." was the Times interpretation. No news would be welcome news under the circumstances - but a few days earlier an exception had occurred. Their captors made the senior ranking prisoners draw lots; the losers were removed to another location to await death by hanging.

The paper's readers would already be familiar with the essential background facts, as coverage of a recent (and now-related) courtroom drama in Philadelphia had been something of a sensation in the North. The same New York Times article that had announced the Union victory at Ball's Bluff ("THE FIGHT NEAR LEESBURGH.; The National Troops Successful at all Points") had also briefly noted the start of the trial.

The United States Circuit Court has commenced the trial of WALKER W. SMITH, of the pirate Jeff Davis, who was captured on board the schooner Enchantress. Six of the jury have been selected.

In the days since, both stories had been followed closely in the pages of the Times - with news of Ball's Bluff eliciting mounting anger and frustration among readers, and progress of the piracy trial considerably more satisfaction. (Though responses of those readers whose sympathies were with the South were reversed.)

Jacob Garrick's adventure had begun in early July, when the schooner Enchantress set sail. Little did the ship's cook expect he'd serve three crews before returning to port. The first change came on July 6th, when the Confederate ship Jeff Davis captured the Enchantress off the coast of Delaware. Five members of the Jeff Davis crew transferred to the Enchantress to bring her to Charleston, while the civilian crew of the Enchantress were taken as prisoners aboard the Jeff Davis - with one exception. Jacob Garrick was a black man; he was to be taken to port with the ship, and sold into slavery. ("He'll bring $1,500 when we get him into Charleston" was the estimate made by Smith - the new captain of the Enchantress, according to the trial testimony of her original First Officer.)

From the prosecution's opening statement at Smith's trial:

Aboard the captured ship there was a heart as brave as Caesar's, one Jacob Garrick, a poor black man, who was to become, in the hands of Providence, the instrument for the safe deliverance of this captured ship, and whose devotion to the right has brought this prisoner to the bar of his country for the punishment he deserves. Jacob Garrick will tell you the story of the voyage of the Enchantress after the 6th of July. He is the solitary witness of what transpired on board the schooner after the capture, and what he saw he will tell you simply but truthfully. On the morning of the 22d of July, the Enchantress made the light-house at Cape Hatteras; but about two o'clock in the afternoon of that day, the United States gun-boat Albatross came in sight. Gentlemen of the jury, you can picture, better than I can describe it, the scene of consternation and dismay upon the deck of the Enchantress, created by the appearance of our national vessel. The men had agreed that if a United States war ship crossed their path they would impersonate the captain and crew of the schooner, if they found it impossible to escape, and that in the event of capture, they would either burn or scuttle her.

Garrick, the cook, was ordered to go below, as the Albatross came down upon them, but he ran to the galley, prepared and ready to frustrate the plans of the pirates when the moment should come for him to act. As the gun-boat approached, Garrick leaped from the vessel's side into the sea. exclaiming as he jumped, "She is a prize of the privateer Jeff Davis, and they are taking us to Charleston."

A boat was sent from the Albatross to his relief, and he was taken breathless and exhausted from the water. The Enchantress was immediately boarded by officers of the Albatross, the prisoner and the rest of the prize crew were soon safely in irons...

Smith's trial was not a lengthy one. On the 25th of October,

He'd been charged with piracy and found guilty; the punishment for piracy was death. His trial was followed by those of the remaining Jeff Davis crew members. All but one were found guilty, and more captured Confederate privateers were awaiting trial...

Two views of Libby Prison (a former tobacco warehouse) in Richmond, Virginia. Above: 1865 photograph. Below: an illustration from Lieutenant William Harris' book.

Lieutenant William Harris of Baker's "California" Regiment was among the hundreds of Union soldiers captured at Ball's Bluff and confined in Richmond. Years later he described the Confederate response to the piracy trials.

On Sunday, November 10, 1861, General John H. Winder, commanding the Department of Richmond, accompanied by his staff, was observed to alight at the prison-office. It being an unusual occurrence for his visits to be attended with such ceremony, much surmise arose as to its cause and consequences; but we readily believed that it portended evil, as his visits invariably curtailed our restricted prison-privileges. A few moments elapsed, and he entered the building, attended by the staff, in full-dress uniform. Directing one of them to clear the room of all persons excepting the Federal officers, he took a position in the centre of the floor and announced that he had a most unpleasant duty to perform. He then read the following order from the Confederate War Department :

" C. S. War Department,

"RICHMOND, November 8, 1861.

"Sir : -- You are hereby instructed to choose by lot, from among the prisoners of war of the highest rank, one who is to be confined in a cell appropriated to convicted felons, and who is to be treated in all respects as if such convict, and to be held for execution in the same manner as may be adopted by the enemy for the execution of the prisoner of war Smith, recently condemned to death in Philadelphia. You will also select thirteen other prisoners of war, the highest in rank of those captured by our forces, to be confined in the cells reserved for prisoners accused of infamous crimes, and will treat them as such so long as the enemy shall continue so to treat the like number of prisoners of war captured by them at sea and now for trial in New York as pirates. As these measures are intended to repress the infamous attempt now made by the enemy to commit judicial murder on prisoners of war, you will execute them strictly, as the mode best calculated to prevent the commission of so heinous a crime.

"Your obedient servant,
"J. P. Benjamin,
"Acting Sec. of War.

"To Brig.-Gen. John H. Winder, Richmond, Va."

Announcing that it was necessary to draw by lot five of the Federal colonels and prisoners of war to be held as hostages for Smith, General Winder caused the names of the officers to be written on separate slips of paper, which were placed in a tin case, from which Hon. Mr. Ely was requested to draw one of the names. It proved to be that of Colonel Michael Corcoran, of the 69th Regiment New York State Militia.

General Winder then stated that, as only ten Federal field officers were held as prisoners of war, the captains would be chosen by lot, to complete the required quota of hostages.

Once the process was completed, several of the captured officers from Ball's Bluff found themselves among those selected. Colonel Cogswell of the (Tammany Hall) New York 42nd, Colonel Lee and Major Paul Revere of the (Harvard) 20th Massachusetts, Captains Henry Bowman and George Rockwood from the 15th Massachusetts and Captain Francis Keffer of Senator (deceased) Baker's Regiment were now condemned to share whatever fate was suffered by the privateers.

Harris' first-hand account would not be published until after the war. For now New Yorkers would have to make do with the version provided by Lieutenant Gannon. "That if SMITH be hanged so shall [???]," Times readers were told.

A month after it was fought and lost, the battle at Ball's Bluff had become an even bigger disaster for the North.

Next: Thanksgiving on the Potomac

Footnote:

At 6 feet 6 inches, John White Geary (center) was tall sitting down.

October 20 1861: John White Geary began a letter to his wife. Following his heartfelt appreciation of news of her continued health and well being - and assurances that he himself was "never better" ("God has blessed me with an excellent constitution," the six-six, 240-pound colonel wrote) - he offered a mild complaint: "Our fight of the 16th inst has not yet had justice done to it in the papers."

He didn't specify his exact charges as to the nature of their failure, but from that phrase alone it didn't appear he was in any way upset or embarrassed by their overly enthusiastic descriptions of his great victory - which the press certainly hadn't ignored. Lacking details, the first notice that a battle had been fought at Harper's Ferry had appeared in papers at least as far away as New York within a day of the clash; details - some of which were accurate and all of which were flattering to the Union forces (and their commander) had been published each and every day since.

Among the first words provided the public were those written by Geary himself - his own first dispatch from the scene. It was brief - and written using a newly-captured rebel cannon ("1 - 32 pounder columbiad, on which I wrote my first dispatch to Genl Banks" he informed his wife) now multi-purposed as both a desk and a mount for his triumphant victory march: "I have just ridden into camp on a 32-pounder captured from the enemy at Bolivar. JOHN W. GEARY." (Depending on who you asked, this particular cannon might or might not have been usable for firing lethal projectiles into enemy ranks, too.)

More details came right along with that leak. "Last night, at half past ten, the War Department received per telegraph a copy of a modest dispatch from Col. GEARY to Gen. BANKS, announcing that he had just routed a large body of the enemy," the Washington Star had reported the next day, adding that Geary had halted his pursuit of the fleeing rebels only long enough to compose and send his modest report. But "At a subsequent hour," the Star account continued, "the following dispatch, descriptive of the battle, was received by the Government here, from Gen. BANKS' headquarters."

The battle-field was at Bolivar Heights, near Harper's Ferry, where 450 of Col. GEARY's force, with three pieces of artillery, were attacked by the rebels, 3,000 strong, including 500 cavalry...

It described a remarkable victory. Besides being outnumbered 7-1, Geary had no cavalry, and the rebels had seven pieces of artillery to his three. The truth alone would thrill the hearts of any true Union men - and major newspapers throughout the north were reporting the truth and more, just as fast as they possibly could.

Against overwhelming odds, "Col. GEARY not only repulsed the enemy, and held his position in spite of a tremendous cannonade from flank and front, and well-directed attacks of infantry and cavalry, but drove them by impetuous bayonet charges for three miles, and took a 32-pounder columbiad and considerable ammunition, at the point of the bayonet."

Union losses were just four killed, one mortally wounded and eight slightly. Tragic losses - but the completeness of the victory they'd purchased with their blood was obvious in the enemy casualty figures Geary provided: at least one hundred and fifty killed and wounded (rebel corpses were being hauled from the battlefield by the wagonload, later reports explained), and three Confederate prisoners captured. (An unusual ratio - but perhaps explainable by a rebel penchant to fight to the death rather than surrender...) Among the enemy dead, none other than the notorious rebel cavalry commander Colonel Turner Ashby himself, whose forces had plagued Geary's (and those of other Union commanders) along the upper Potomac since the onset of hostilities.

Details of Ashby's death would emerge soon after, via letters written by Geary's men and appearing in the newspapers. It seemed Corporal Marshall, of the Massachusetts Thirteenth, had been attempting to help one of the Union wounded off the field of battle. Apparently Ashby had spied the soldier thus engaged (and seemingly helpless), and had launched his own personal and cowardly attack - a one-man mounted charge, sword upraised to deliver the death blow. But Marshall "turned and shot his pursuer through the breast" according to one account. ("Turned" meaning Ashby was attacking him from behind.) An even more dramatically written version had it that Marshall's "trusty rifle saved his life a second time," (earlier a minie ball had struck the barrel and deflected through his cap) "by bringing the rebel officer to the ground, a corpse."

Miraculous events - but though he'd shortened the odds a bit in his own letter home ("I had only 600 men, and the enemy over 3,000" and "I had 4 cannon - They had 7"), the fight, as Geary now described it to his wife, "was one of those in which the finger of God was visible for our deliverance."

October 17, 1861: Turner Ashby didn't often provide official reports of his battles, but he deemed yesterday's fight worthy of one - or at least believed the Confederate government's war department might appreciate one - so having paper, pen and time on hand he began to write.

If he was aware that he himself had been killed in the fight - or even wounded - he made no mention of it in his casualty figures: "My loss is 1 killed and 9 wounded. Report from the Ferry states the loss of the enemy at 25 killed and a number wounded. We have 2 Yankee prisoners and 8 Union men co-operating with them. We took a large number of blankets, overcoats, and about one dozen guns."

Not bad for an attack against multiple Union regiments launched by nominally "regular" Confederate cavalry forces joined with a few hundred local militia members backed with a couple of cannon mounted on decrepit wagons - which (though Ashby wouldn't describe it as such) was certainly what the Harper's Ferry battle was. Ashby wouldn't insult the honor of such men as his volunteers by claiming they'd been defeated, but his report left no doubt that while they put up a good fight it had not ended as he'd hoped.

"My force upon the morning of the attack consisted of 300 militia," he wrote. Along with that group he had about 230 cavalry troops - scarcely more than "mounted militia" themselves. (In fact, some lacked horses.) Some were armed with rifles; most brought whatever they could from home, primarily muskets or flintlocks. Ashby also reported "I had one rifled 4-pounder gun, one 24-pounder gun badly mounted, which broke an axle in Bolivar, and I had to spike it."

If his troops lacked organization and equipment, they had no shortage of courage or enthusiasm, and were led by a man fast becoming legendary in Virginia and notorious in the North. He'd developed a bold plan using combined arms - infantry, cavalry and artillery - in what would certainly be the largest engagement of his military career thus far. The Yankees had been in Harper's Ferry for several days, emptying Abraham Herr's flour mill of 20-30,000 bushels of wheat otherwise rotting there. (In Ashby's report: "The enemy occupying that position have for several days been committing depredations in the vicinity of their camp.") Ashby had determined to use the irregular forces at his disposal in an overland attack from the west against the like-number of Union troops on the Harper's Ferry side of the Potomac. While that might prove to be a fair fight, he could also count on being overwhelmed when enemy reinforcements flooded the town from the Maryland side.

So he'd contacted Colonel Evans, (or "General" Evans - as both his and Geary's official reports promoted him even though the Confederate government had not) whose area of responsibility was Loudoun County. Loudoun's western border was just across the Shenandoah from Harper's Ferry, and from a commanding position on Loudoun Heights a few pieces of artillery and as much infantry as Evans could spare might be able to prevent those reinforcements from crossing from Maryland. Evans obliged, and on the second anniversary of John Brown's raid his troops were in place above the town, and Ashby's militia struck.

Something of a see-saw battle ensued. Ashby's forces met with initial success, driving enemy pickets from Bolivar Heights in their first strike. "I made the attack in three divisions, and drove the enemy from their breastworks without loss of a man, and took position upon the hill," Ashby reported. But while moving forward from that point his first setback occurred. The axle on the old wagon used to transport his largest gun broke. It was out of the fight, "and this materially affected the result."

Captain Henry Bertram, commanding Company A of the Third Wisconsin Infantry gave additional details of the first Union counter-attack in his official report:

As we commenced, the enemy attempted to haul off their gun, but in their hasty attempt broke the axle-tree. As we approached the gun we saw one of the men spiking it and the others left it and sought cover, when a tremendous fire upon us from a masked breastwork compelled us to seek cover. We sustained and answered the fire for some fifteen minutes, saw our men falling, and were obliged to retreat, closely pursued by the enemy's cavalry. We rallied, after falling back some 50 rods, and fired upon the enemy's cavalry, driving them back and covering the retreat of our wounded and those who were aiding them off the field; then slowly retreated to the main body.

The rebel's immediate goal had become the rescue of their cannon, but as the Union troops were soon reinforced with more infantry and artillery pieces of their own they would not succeed.

Evan's detached forces on Loudoun Heights - led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Griffin, second-ranking officer of the 18th Mississippi under Colonel Erasmus Burt - had given all they could, but ultimately the position itself was less effective than Ashby had hoped; their most significant contribution to the fight would be that their mere presence offered some validity to Geary's claim to have confronted Evans' Mississippians and Virginians in battle. "The position which Colonel Griffin held upon Loudoun was such as to be of very little assistance to us," Ashby wrote, "not being so elevated as to prevent them [Union forces] from controlling the crossing." Thus Union reinforcements - including their own field artillery - arrived.

The infantry on Loudoun Heights might have briefly been more effective than the artillery there. In his official report Maj. J. P. Gould of the Thirteenth Massachusetts wrote that while the reinforcements were crossing from Maryland "the rebels fired upon them from the Loudoun Heights by rifle shots." However, "I ordered one of our iron guns to fire upon them with canister; two shots silenced them." Still, Griffin's soldiers were sufficiently threatening for Geary to declare in his own official report that "Lieutenant Martin, by my order, joined me with one rifled cannon... he having crossed the river with it under a galling fire of rifleman from Loudoun Heights."

As for the Loudoun artillery, unable to bring their fire to bear on the crossing they instead aimed for Union forces already engaged. Their effectiveness was described in a letter home from a Massachusetts soldier (that soon appeared in a Boston newspaper): "...we didn't mind the shot and shells, for we could hear and see them coming, and dodge them, especially the round shot, which were fired at us from Loudon Heights - for the guns from which they were fired were about a mile off, and the force of the balls was nearly spent when they reached us. And we could see, by the same which hung to them, about where they would strike."

Another soldier, whose report appeared in a competing Boston paper, declared "They then began to shell us, the missiles skipping down the street. We only laughed at them. They fired some twenty rounds at us, which were harmless, when were heard the rattling of chains coming up the street. It was our cannon and reinforcements."

Still, the threat of the Loudoun artillery had not gone unnoticed by the Union troops on the Maryland side. "I ordered one iron gun to play upon the guns on Loudoun Heights, from which they were throwing shells on to and over the mill, with slugs, and I learn that it seemed to have some good effect," Gould reported. Such statements are open to interpretation - but Union artillerymen were certainly kept busy that day, though not all their efforts had some good effect. "At one time," wrote the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette's correspondent (he who had laughed at rebel cannon fire), "our own artillery on Maryland Heights shelled us, as we were falling back, thinking we were the enemy."

The rest of the battle, from Captain Betram's report:

Company H, Third Regiment Wisconsin, having joined us, we formed a complete line of skirmishers from Bolivar main street to the Shenandoah, and awaited the arrival of artillery. At 1 o'clock p.m., the artillery having arrived, we moved the line slowly forward, by command of Colonel Geary, firing as we advanced, at the enemy slowly falling back. On our arrival at the outskirts of Bolivar we advanced rapidly, the enemy having retreated behind the hill; and passing in our advance the gun which had been disabled, we established our line on Bolivar Heights, the enemy having retreated to a belt of wood about three-quarters of a mile away in the direction of Halltown.

Five more companies of fresh Union troops from the Maryland side soon joined them there. Presumably their numbers (or the numbers of troops he'd had placed along the Potomac in Maryland and the Shenandoah in Harper's Ferry to prevent any additional rebels crossing over from Loudoun) didn't factor in to Geary's preferred outnumbered 7 to 1 narrative - but whether any of the new arrivals fired a shot at the now outnumbered (and departing, unpursued) rebels or not, their arrival effectively ended the great Harper's Ferry Battle of 16 October 1861.

Though prior to his own retreat back to Maryland, Geary did have at least one last act of war to perform. He'd "ascertained" that a local iron foundry "was used by the rebels for casting shot and shell of all kinds," he stated in his official report. So "I ordered it to be burned, which was done the same night."

Individual participants in the battle would no doubt have experienced moments of terror comparable to that of any individuals engaged in battle throughout the war, but Chester G. Hearn, in a recent history of Harper's Ferry in the Civil War, effectively summed one aspect of the fight with an observation that likely had to wait well over a century to be made: "With roughly eleven hundred men involved in a skirmish lasting four hours, where total casualties added up to five killed and twenty wounded, enough cannot be said about poor marksmanship."

In his own history of the town, Joseph Barry (who was there that day - one of the residents pressed into the service of the Union troops emptying Herr's Mill) described the fight as "a very sharp skirmish" in which "Both sides claimed the victory, though both retreated." As for what it meant to the town, "Many young men of the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry, who were serving in the confederate army, were wounded..."

Unarmed residents had the misfortune of finding themselves involved in the fight, too:

The federal soldiers were very much excited on this occasion, in consequence of a malicious report spread among them that some citizens of Bolivar were harboring the enemy in their houses and giving them them an opportunity to pick off the unionists from the windows. Mr. Patrick Hagan was arrested on this charge and hurried away to Maryland without his getting time to put on his coat of which he had divested himself for work around his house. This gentleman was one of the most peaceable men of the place, and no citizen of either party in Harper's Ferry or Bolivar believed that he was guilty. Notwithstanding his high character, however, he was taken away in the condition mentioned and kept in confinement for several months in a government fort.

Per Ashby's report ("We have 2 Yankee prisoners and 8 Union men co-operating with them") the Confederates had also hauled off their own selection of "undesirables" from the town.

But Harper's Ferry still hadn't suffered enough. Shortly after the battle, the rebels rode back into town and, finding no Union troops present to oppose them, promptly set fire to Herr's Mill. In his official report Geary explained that "a great portion of the wheat had been taken" from the site already (many accounts claimed the Union forces had "captured" the wheat in a "raid") - he deemed its loss no great tragedy.

Its ruined shell remained a prominent feature on the Harper's Ferry shoreline for years after the war.

The view from Harper's Ferry, circa 1888: Virginius Island, with the ruins of Herr's Mill still visible in the center. Bolivar Heights in background, Loudoun Heights across Shenandoah River to left. (Historic Photo Collection, Harpers Ferry NHP.)

Apparently the rebels did score some near misses. In his letter to his wife Geary revealed one bit of information from the battle that had not yet appeared in the newspapers - he himself had been wounded. "I was struck with a piece of shell in the early part of the action just below the knee in the front of the leg, which cut to the bone," he wrote. "I did not let it be known until after the victory was won, it is healing rapidly and will soon be well."

In the days after he wrote his own letter, those from Geary's troops began appearing in the papers. Though by this point editors would acknowledge that reports of Ashby's death were premature (and forgivable; with rebel corpses being hauled off by the wagon load, who could fault someone for misidentifying one?) these stories likely provided the "justice" Geary believed the earlier versions lacked.

New York and Washington readers were told that "Col. GEARY displayed much skill and great bravery during the whole of the engagement" - and if any were uncertain how this fight compared to other battles (or with what battles it should be compared), "This was not a 'Bull Run,' but a rebel-run affair."

Philadelphia Inquirer readers (Geary was born in Pennsylvania and at the beginning of the war commanded infantry units he'd raised there) were assured that the rebels "fear Geary like they do the----" and that "Geary said it was a glorious victory, and the hardest battle he was ever in." His toughness was highlighted, too - along with the degree to which his men loved him: "Our Colonel was slightly wounded in the leg in the fore part of the engagement," the corespondent wrote. "The boys would not be satisfied until he took off his boot and showed us where it was. We thought it was worse than he wanted to let on." (After the war, Geary - a Mexican War veteran who'd already served as mayor of San Francisco and territorial governor of Kansas, was twice elected Governor of Pennsylvania.)

The report delivered to Boston readers, via published letters from the Massachusetts troops in the fight, included no such glowing praise of the field commander (Massachusetts men knew who to credit for the victory: "We have heard there were 150 of them [the rebels] killed and wounded," wrote the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette corespondent. "The Enfield rifle is the piece that tells. I heard one of the rebels exclaim, 'I wish to God we had their guns!'"), but did provide an oblique reference to Geary's experience and qualification as such: "The Colonel said he had been in fifteen battles and never saw so hot as one before."

He was certainly destined to see others that would make the Harper's Ferry skirmish pale in comparison, but for the time being "justice" was still denied John White Geary. By the time those reports appeared, Ball's Bluff had captured the public's attention, and whatever had happened at Harper's Ferry somehow just didn't seem so important any more.

New York Times readers had gotten a hint of what was coming on October 19th, the day before Geary had written home to his wife. The same "Great Rebellion" round-up of news items that included "IMPORTANT FROM HARPER'S FERRY Renewal of the Fighting at Bolivar" (an exaggerated report of the rebel's return to burn Herr's Mill) in its headline actually led with this item from the paper's Washington correspondent:

I telegraphed you yesterday that the rebels had sent away their sick and disabled and baggage from Leesburgh, and that the six regiments yet encamped there were preparing to retire. Information is received to-day that the entire force has been withdrawn, even to the scouts and pickets...

Closer to Washington, the modern miracle of manned flight was being applied to war: "A balloon reconnoissance was made this afternoon, the balloon going up from Cloud's Mills, and coming down near Hunter's Chapel. It reached an altitude of about two miles, giving an extended view of the country. Nothing could be seen of the rebels anywhere this side of Fairfax, and but few traces of them there."

With the rebels pulling back, more long-awaited Union advances along the Potomac were anticipated soon...

Epilogue: Major J. P. Gould of the Thirteenth Massachusetts - who had actually arranged (and for days been in command of) the effort to "harvest" wheat from Herr's Mill - was late delivering his official report. He couldn't resist appending an "apology" for his tardiness, explaining that "besides being quite unwell, there was much necessary and pressing business connected wither the closing up of this adventure, every part of which needed my personal attention."

However, as he further explained, he thought there might be no need for a report from him anyway, because...

...from the accounts I see in the papers, I infer that there is no Major Gould at this post, and, if here, he is only an intruder; nor had he anything to do with getting the wheat. Indeed, his name does not occur in a long whole-column article of to-day's Baltimore paper.

One could almost hear a distant sigh when reading his final words: "Let Ceasar have his own."

Next: Voyage of the Enchantress

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