Adjutant’s Call - May 2024
Link to Original PDF of the May 2024 Newsletter
Circular Memorandum #556 - May 2024
“Antietam: The Soldiers’ Experience” Will be Presented by Scott Hartwig
D. Scott Hartwig was the supervisory park historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and retired in 2014 after a 34-year career in the National Park Service, nearly all of it spent at Gettysburg. He won the regional Freeman Tilden Award for excellence in interpretation in 1993 and was a key player for the design of all aspects of the current Gettysburg museum/visitor center. He is the author of To Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign from September 3 to September 16, published in September 2012 by Johns Hopkins University Press, and of I Dread The Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and End of the Maryland Campaign, also published by Johns Hopkins in August 2023.
His interest in the Civil War began as a child, when he came across a 1963 copy of Life Magazine that featured the three-day clash in Gettysburg. D. Scott Hartwig visited the Gettysburg battlefield as a grade school student and told a park ranger he was going to work there one day. The love of history, he said, runs in his genes, but a few moments in his childhood lit the way to his current career path. "When I was a kid, Life Magazine did a series on the Civil War and I loved to look at the paintings they commissioned of the Civil War battles," Hartwig said. "Then I read in the newspaper about a program near Philadelphia called Cinekid, where students would take a topic and coordinate a script, do the filming and learn about cinema in that way."
Hartwig got involved and the first project was titled, "Incident at Gettysburg." It was on a filming trip to the battlefield, where he successfully predicted his future line of work, although it wasn't that cut and dry. "I went to the University of Wyoming and decided that instead, I wanted to be a wildlife manager," Hartwig said. "The University had a professor who was one of the foremost authorities on the Civil War, E.B. Long. I never met anyone who knew as much about the Civil War. I took three courses from him and it rekindled my interest in the Civil War." In 1979, Hartwig took a seasonal job as a ranger at GNMP. That same year, Mamie Eisenhower passed away and the park superintendent at the time, John Ernst, wanted the Eisenhower National Historic Site open as soon as possible. "My first permanent job was at Eisenhower in 1980," Hartwig said. "In 1981, I got back on the battlefield. In 1987, hired as supervisor of the Cyclorama center. By sometime in the 1990s, my job was changed to supervisor of historians, and I was in charge of the park's research library and our interpretive programming”. Scott was at Gettysburg 34 years until his retirement in 2014.
Antietam: The Soldiers' Experience
Although soldiers on both sides had already experienced hard fighting in the Seven Days Battles and Second Manassas Campaign, the battle of Antietam still shocked those who took part in it. This is the story of how the soldiers, both enlisted men and officers, experienced the battle, not just the shooting part, but the mental and physical preparation for combat, how some withstood the frightful shock of battle while others crumbled; the experience of the wounded, the burial of the dead, the psychological trauma, and ultimately, how it was remembered by its survivors.
Books, Books Books!
We will have Scott’s book “I Dread The Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and End of the Maryland Campaign” for sale at the meeting.
Wilderness – Spotsylvania Field Trip Highlights
(1) We had 36 field trippers who walked countless trails and hills on the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefields in some very nice Virgina weather (for the most part). As we often say, you get a much better understanding of these battles when you walk the actual battlefields.
(2) Gordon Rhea did a great job for us as our guide! He provided expert commentary and took us to all the important sites including some such as Germanna and Ely’s fords that you don’t get to see on most tours. We also visited the Unfinished Railroad off the beaten path that the general public cannot see without special permission.
(3) The Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefields are well preserved thanks to the efforts of the National Park Service, the American Battlefield Trust, and local preservation groups such as the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust which has saved over 2000 acres of land from developers and continues to work to protect this hallowed ground. You could easily spend two days on each of these battlefields and not see everything.
(4) Shout out to first time field trippers: Russ Patton, Sandy West, Charles and Joanne Kiefer, Hal Corwin, Patrick Padgett, Betty Adkins, and Melody Smith!
(5) The “Mule Shoe” is a really big shoe! It is one-half mile wide and one-half mile deep. It is probably the most famous “salient” of the Civil War and site of the massive Union attack on May 12, 1864 that resulted in a major breakthrough by Union troops and the capture of 3000 Confederates under “Allegheny” Johnson. The subsequent 20- hour struggle was one of the most brutal of the Civil War as Lee rallied his forces and forced the Union forces out. We spent a lot of time hiking in the Mule Shoe.
(6)The “Bloody Angle” is not really an angle. The most famous site on the Spotsylvania battlefield located on the western leg of the Mule Shoe, it is near the angle where the Confederate fortifications turn to the east, but it is actually about 40 yards south of the actual angle on a slight rise. It was here that the most savage of the fighting took place in a driving rainstorm for 20 hours.
(7) U.S. Grant is a world champion cigar smoker! We visited the knoll where he set up headquarters on the 5th of May to observe with General Meade the developing battle in the Wilderness. It was on this little knoll that Grant smoked 26 cigars on that day while he whittled a pile of sticks as he received reports from the battlefield. Tom Lively, Clay Stucky and myself smoked about 12 cigars total in the 4 days we were at the hotel.
(8) Chris Mackowski of the Emerging Civil War gave us a great tour of the Stevenson Ridge and Myer’s Hill battlefields that were part of the Spotsylvania campaign. These sites have recently been saved by the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust. He also gave us a tour of some of the Union field fortifications that are some of the best-preserved earthworks of the Civil War. He and his wife Jennifer hosted our grand finale dinner on Saturday night at a historic house on the Stevenson Ridge battlefield.
(9) Next year’s field trip will be to Shiloh, Tennessee where the first large battle of the Civil War was fought on April 6, 1862. The dates are April 23-27 and Tim Smith will be our guide.
The Central Virginia Battlefield Trust
Central Virginia Battlefield Trust (CVBT) was formed by a group of concerned citizens in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area decided it was time to stand up to the senseless destruction of our heritage and to form a historic lands trust. The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT) was incorporated in 1996 and adopted as its mission the preservation of historic battlefield terrain.
Our motto became “dirt and grass.” Since then, we have helped to preserve nearly 1,700 acres of critical ground on the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House, as well as Brandy Station.
In addition to purchasing land, our mission includes advocacy for battlefield preservation. At the state and federal levels, advocacy is relatively impersonal. At the local level, advocacy unfolds in a manner that is much more personal, and therefore can become more confrontational. Consequently, CVBT decided early on to work in cooperation with local governments rather than in opposition to them. Over the years, we have joined in partnership with developers, preservation organizations, and local governments on several projects. We are proud of the solutions that have preserved selected ground.
CVBT remains proactive, with several ongoing projects and negotiations, and with a continuing focus on, and commitment to, our mission of battlefield preservation.
On our field trip, we were taken to the site of the Unfinished Railroad by CVBT president Tom Van Winkle. This is the site of Longstreet’s famous flank attack on May 6. The site was preserved by the CVBT. Ther website is www.cvbt.org.
Round Table Member Paul Posey Passes Away
Round Table member Paul Woodrow Posey Jr was born February 4, 1945, in Orangeburg, SC and entered into rest on February 4, 2024 at the Veterans Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. He is survived by his devoted wife Brenda of 54 years, and his loving son Jonathan. Paul was a decorated Vietnam veteran of the 5th Special Forces Group and was severely injured in December of 1967. Not expected to survive, he spent a year in the hospital at Fort Sam Houston before attending Georgetown College. There he earned a degree in Business Administration and married Brenda Hazard. Paul was a past member of Mensa, critical care Registered Nurse specializing in in open heart recovery at Fort Gordon, aerobatics pilot, highly accomplished Amateur Radio Operator, and noted Patton, Civil War, and Vietnam historian. He leaves behind a loving family and a lifetime of accomplishments. We wish to extend our heartfelt sympathies to Brenda, and to his family and friends. He will be missed.
APRIL 2024 QUIZ
1. Which of General Robert E. Lee’s sons was captured at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865?
That was Major General George Washington Custis Lee, his oldest son.
2. According to the Terms of Surrender for the Army of Northern Virginia, General Ulysses S. Grant allowed Confederate officers to keep what?
They could keep their side-arms and their personal horses and baggage.
3. The commander of the Union 5th Corps was one of the six “Surrender Commissioners” at Appomattox. Who was he?
Major General Charles Griffin took over the Corps on April 1, 1865.
4. Which state is believed to have sent more men to the Civil War than any other state?
That recognition seems to go to New York State.
5. What was the Bohemian Brigade?
It was a name given to Civil War journalists and artists.
MAY 2024 QUIZ
1. Who is believed to be the youngest Union Civil War soldier killed in battle?
2. What interim cabinet post did General U.S. Grant hold after the war?
3. How long was the Confederate prison Andersonville in existence?
4. What two states maintained governments in exile in the Confederacy?
5. Which arm of Stonewall Jackson was amputated?