Adjutant’s Call - December 2024
Link to Original PDF of December 2024 Newsletter
Circular Memorandum #561 - December 2024
“Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power and Dissent in Wartime” Presented by Thomas C. Mackey
We welcome back long-time member of our Round Table Thomas C. Mackey. Specializing in United States Public Policy History such as United States Legal History and Constitutional History, Mackey’s historical research and publications have focused on the middle period of the Nineteenth Century -- the Era of Lincoln.
He has written and published five books and numerous articles on the Civil War and Reconstruction Era including a four-volume work with the University of Tennessee Press, A Documentary History of the American Civil War Era, and his 2020 volume with the University Press of Kansas, Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime.
Mackey served on the United States and Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial committees and has spoken at Lincoln sites such as at the Lincoln birth site in Hodgenville, Kentucky, and the Lincoln home in Springfield, Illinois. A native Texan, in 1978, Mackey earned in B.A. at Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin, and, in 1984, earned his Ph.D. at Rice University where he worked with the noted Civil War scholar, Harold M. Hyman. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the New York University School of Law in New York City, Mackey taught at the Michigan State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Eastern Montana College (renamed as Montana State University-Billings), and Kansas State University. In the fall of 1991, he joined the History faculty of the University of Louisville and served as Chair of the Department from 1999 to 2004. He has been a member of the LCWRT since 1999 and retired from U of L in 2022.
“Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power and Dissent in Wartime”
More significant battles transpired during the era of the United States Civil War than just on the battlefield. In wartime, and especially in civil war times, domestic questions unforeseen at the start of the military conflict arose. Questions such as the limits of political opposition to the war effort, the role of law and the rule of law in crisis times, and how the executive balanced the need for internal security and the need to tolerate some extreme anti-administration speech existed and do so without the broad First Amendment protections for political speech developed much later in the twentieth century? President Abraham Lincoln, the United States Army, the loyal political opposition and the not-so-loyal political opposition confronted these questions when on April 13, 1863, from his headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, General Ambrose Burnside issued his General Order No. 38. Issued to deal with what he perceived to be treasonous speech and organizing by former Democrat Congressman from Ohio (and the official/unofficial leader of the Copperhead opposition in the Middle West) Clement L. Vallandigham, Burnsides’ order, Vallandigham’s arrest, trial by military commission, and his banishment into the Confederate lines set off a chain reaction of judicial decisions and executive actions that sheds light on an ever present problem in a political democracy -- dissent in wartime.
A Powerful Reconciliation at Gettysburg With a Kentucky Connection Chris Kolakowski, blueandgrayeducation.org
In July 1913, a large crowd gathered at Gettysburg National Military Park to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. The United States Army oversaw the program and logistics for the major gathering of veterans, spectators, and dignitaries over several days of events and ceremonies.
One of the officers detailed to support the anniversary was Lt. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., who was just shy of his 27th birthday. His namesake father was a Confederate lieutenant general, friend to U.S. Grant, former governor of Kentucky, and vice-presidential candidate on the Gold Democrat ticket in 1896.
What Buckner Jr. saw at Gettysburg made a deep impression. “At the ‘Bloody Angle’ the survivors of Pickett’s Charge shook hands with those who fifty years ago had met them in a bloody struggle. Each was proud to be in a country which had produced the other. Each was glad to call the other his friend,” he wrote to his mother. “The Gettysburg semi-centennial has not been the celebration of a victory of war. It has been the celebration of a victory of peace.”
Buckner Jr.’s excitement about this assignment raised an eyebrow with his mother Delia, who was from the Confederacy’s former capital, had Confederate ancestors, and was married to the highest-ranking Confederate still living. Bolivar explained in a letter that he relished the professional challenges of supporting a camp of 55,000 veterans. He also recognized that “being associated with officers who will in a very few years be at the top in the Army and having an opportunity to meet many of those who are now prominent in National politics, is always of advantage professionally.” He reassured Delia that “I love the South, and all that it stands for. I love its people, its traditions, its gentility, but I do not feel that loyalty to the South compels me to hate the North.” Buckner Jr. also happened to be present for the battle’s 75th anniversary in 1938, leading tanks of the 66th Regiment in a parade through town.
A few years later, he took command of the defenses of Alaska, which he led until being assigned to command of Tenth Army in June 1944. He directed Tenth Army in the invasion of Okinawa in 1945, and was killed in action on June 18, 1945. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., is the seniormost American killed by enemy fire in World War II and the 20th century, and lies next to his parents in Frankfort, Kentucky
92 Acres Transferred to the National Park at Mill Springs
Here at the American Battlefield Trust, we have the goal of saving as much historically significant battlefield land across the United States as possible, and, when we have an opportunity, transfer that land to a permanent steward that can care for the land forever.
Well folks, thanks to dogged persistence we at the Trust can announce that just this month more than 92 acres of pristine hallowed ground has been transferred to the Mill Springs National Monument at Mill Springs, Kentucky — a unit of the National Park System, incidentally, that came into being through your generosity and our efforts alongside visionary officials.
Kentucky was the physical embodiment of the Civil War era, with newly elected President Abraham Lincoln remarking about his birth state, “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.”
On January 19, 1862, fighting broke out in Pulaski County — named after the famed ‘father of American cavalry’ Casimir Pulaski — during a dark, rain-soaked night with Confederate Gen. Felix Zollicoffer and his troops hoping to surprise the sleeping Federals. Brutal close quarters fighting ensued, with Federal troops pushing back Zollicoffer’s troops through a dense fog. In the ensuing melee, Zollicoffer was shot and killed after mistaking Federal lines for his own.
More than 4,000 Union troops continued to surge against nearly 6,000 Confederates, leading to the latter’s hasty retreat back into Tennessee.
After the Union drubbing at First Manassas and a string of other losses, the Battle of Mill Springs represented the first major Union victory in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
The charge to save this hallowed ground began in the early 1990s, initially led by the Mill Springs Battlefield Association (MSBA). The Trust was soon enlisted in the undertaking alongside the MSBA and preservation champion U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY). Through these efforts, more than 550 acres of land encompassing the core of the battlefield has been permanently protected.
An October 14, 2020, ceremony in Nancy, Ky., cemented this preservation legacy, when Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument officially became part of the National Park System — thanks to Congressman Rogers as well as U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service, MSBA, and local leaders.
Purchased by the Trust back in 2016, these 92.86 acres of battlefield land have now been successfully transferred to the National Park Service — all thanks to you!
Robert E. Lee’s Christmas Letter to His Wife Dec. 25, 1862
We get a glimpse of Robert E. Lee’s character in this Christmas greeting to his wife written from Fredericksburg on Christmas Day 1862. In it, we see how the war has placed him in direct conflict with this Christmas spirit he wishes to celebrate. Reprinted from The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee edited by Clifford Dowdey. Camp, Fredericksburg
December 25, 1862
“I will commence this holy day dearest Mary by writing to you. My heart is filled with gratitude to Almighty God for His unspeakable mercies with which He has blessed us in this day, for those He has granted us from the beginning of life, and particularly for those He has vouchsafed us during the past year. What should have become of us without His crowning help and protection? Oh, if our people would only recognize it and cease from vain self-boasting and adulation, how strong would be my belief in final success and happiness to our country! For in Him alone I know is our trust and safety. Cut off from you and my children, my greatest pleasure is to write to you and them. Yet I have no time to indulge in it. You must tell them so, and say I constantly think of them and love them fervently with all my heart. But what a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world! I pray that, on this day when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace. Our army was never in such good health and condition since I have been attached to it. I believe they share with me my disappointment that the enemy did not renew the combat on the 13th. I was holding back all day and husbanding our strength and ammunition for the great struggle, for which I thought I was preparing. Had I divined that was to have been his only effort, he would have had more of it. But I am content. We might have gained more but we would have lost more, and perhaps our relative condition would not have been improved. My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men. Give much love to every one. Kiss Chass and Agnes for me, and believe me with true affection.
Yours R.E. Lee”
April 23-27,2025, Field Trip to Shiloh Albert Sidney Johnston vs U.S. Grant with Tim Smith
We will be going to Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee April 23-27, 2025 for our yearly field trip. Our guide will be Civil War historian and author Tim Smith. He has written the definitive account of the battle in his award-winning book, Shiloh: Conquer or Perish. Tim was our guide in 2012 and did a fantastic job for us. We could not have a better guide. Tim has served as a park ranger at Shiloh National Military Park for six years and has conducted numerous tours of this battlefield and has been involved in Shiloh’s preservation. The battle of Shiloh occurred on April 6-7, 1862 and the resulting causulties of more than 16,000 shocked the nation. After being surprised by Albert Sidney Johnston’s Confederate army on the morning of April 6, the Federals rallied under Grant’s leadership and were able to force the Confederates to retreat back to Corinth, Mississippi the following day after receiving reinforemcnts during the night. The Shiloh battlefield is one of the best preserved battlefields of the Civil War. We will also be going to Corinth and visiting the Corinth battlefield and visitor’s center. We will be staying in Corinth. We will walk this hollowed ground and cover in detail what happened there. We will begin taking signups in November. If you have any questions, you can email John Davis at johnd.davis@twc.com .
NOVEMBER 2024 QUIZ
1. Who was the first Union general to die in battle during the Civil War?
At the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on April 10, 1861, Brig. General Nathaniel Lyon, who commanded the Union troops, was mortally wounded. He was 43 years old.
2. What was the largest surrender of Confederate troops of the Civil War?
When Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Major General William T. Sherman at Bennett Place in North Carolina on April 26, 1865, he surrendered all the troops in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
3. What was the largest of all Confederate war industries?
That was Tredegar Iron Works, which was in Richmond, Virginia.
4. During the Civil War which president commuted every death sentence for desertion that came across his desk?
That was done by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
5. Who was the first general in American history to command an army of 30,000 men?
Union General Irvin McDowell supposedly holds that distinction.
DECEMBER 2024 QUIZ
1. What was Stonewall Jackson’s first wife’s name?
2. When President Lincoln permanently relieved General George McClellan of command, what one word describes his reason?
3. How old was General U.S. Grant when he was appointed general-in-chief of the Union Armies?
4. Why did the Confederacy not have a Supreme Court?
5. What was Union General William T. Sherman’s nickname?