DATE:
LOCATION:
SPEAKER:
Monday, January 12, 2015 @ 6:30 P.M.
Antone’s, 8578 Market Street, Boardman, Ohio
Traci Manning, Mahoning Valley Historical Society
All The World's A Stage: The Life and Legacy of John Wilkes Booth
“History has painted John Wilkes Booth as a second rate actor who could never achieve the fame and fortune of his more
famous family members,” says this month’s speaker, Traci
Manning. “In truth, he achieved much in his short life on the
stage, working at theatres across the country and earning the
title of ‘Matinee Idol.’” In fact, among his many, many admirers was Abraham Lincoln, who applauded enthusiastically when he saw the young actor for the first time.
Gordy Morgan, Editor
E-mail - [email protected]
Dave Duchek, Publisher
mahoningvalleycwrt.com
Traci Manning came to Youngstown in 2012 to take the position of Curator of Education with the Mahoning Valley Historical Society after serving six years with the National Park Service. A graduate of
Gettysburg College with a B.A. in both Religion and Civil War-Era Studies, she earned an M.A. in
Applied History from Shippensburg University. While at Harper’s Ferry NHP, she worked as a Park
Ranger with the Education Office creating curriculum-based programs. She was also Education liaison
with the Park’s Civil War 150th Committee and organized Family and Youth activities for several
events. Traci has also given a series of lectures on various Civil War-Era topics for the MVHS, which
has helped to raise awareness in the Valley of this most important period in American history.
Winter Weather Cancellation Policy: The unpredictable winter weather months are upon
us, so I thought I should restate our cancellation policy. If we deem that conditions outside are bad
enough that it would be irresponsible to have you all take a chance on driving to Boardman for a meeting, we will cancel it and notify the television and radio stations. We will then reschedule to a date as
close as possible to the original date and do our best to notify you all of the change.
From the Gettysburg NMP Facebook page: “The Gettysburg National Military Park Library & Research Center has been the beneficiary of the family of Rick Welch, father of Dan Welch of
the Gettysburg Foundation. Rick unfortunately passed away earlier this year but specified in his will
that a financial donation be made specifically to the park library and with that generous donation we
have been able to add a number of titles to our research collection. The books have been labeled in
memory of Rick Welch and will be used for years to come by park staff, guides and researchers who
visit our facility. Again we appreciate the kindness of the Welch family and the willingness of Dan’s
father to support our facility.”
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By Charen Fink
Washer Women: A certificate of good character was the washer woman or laundress’ “ticket” to
scrub. No army wanted to be without her. Her job was to keep the soldiers’ clothes clean and was the
only woman with an official status. All the other women, including officers’ wives, were considered “camp followers.” The Civil War company laundresses continued the tradition established in 1802. Many of the
women brought their families with them. They received housing, a daily
food ration and the services of a surgeon.
She was usually married to a man in the company, or in the case of
Mrs. Hannah O’Neil, she went to war with her son in Company H of the
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Each company was allowed four laundresses, but the number varied
between Union and Confederate forces. Her quarters were located away from the other soldiers in
“Suds Row.” The women were expected to follow military discipline.
Some of the equipment needed included: 25-gallon oak tub weighing 35 pounds without water, two
such tubs were needed, buckets, boilers, laundry sticks, scrub boards, soap, crates, starch, bluing,
ropes, fire grates, and basic household items. She could earn up to $40 a month or $.50 from each man
for whom she washed. There were 25 men per laundress. On average a woman would be paid $5 to $7
per month, provided the soldiers paid her. She also helped the surgeon, providing home remedies and
hospitality.
Dirty Laundry: For those of you who attended the Ladies’ Forum this past October you will find
this article vaguely familiar. During the War, Nashville, TN was notorious for prostitution, so much so that one Ohio soldier claimed that
“Smokey Row” (the city’s red light district) “killed more soldiers than
the war.” Finally the Federals gave up trying to shut them down and
sanctioned the trade. However, the sex workers had to undergo an examination and pay a fee to be licensed to work at their trade. The women had to undergo frequent exams and be declared clean. The fees then
were used to fund a hospital for the women who were undergoing treatment for related diseases.
Unrequited Love: Many engaged couples planning their wedding during the
War never had a chance to bring it to fruition. Two such couples were Mobileborn Susan Tarleton and Southern Major General Patrick R. Cleburne. The other
couple was New York-born Catherine Mary Hewitt and Union Major General
John F. Reynolds from Lancaster, PA.
Susan, who was 24 years old, met Cleburne at a wedding and after a brief
courtship of six weeks he asked for her hand in marriage. He left for the War in
early March of 1864 and planned to meet again in Georgia in June. Because of Sherman’s drive to At2
lanta, his furlough request to be wed in October was denied. Once again it was not meant to be.
Cleburne was called to Franklin, TN where he ran into another Union army and there he and four other
Confederate generals were killed. Six days after the Battle of Franklin she overheard a newsboy shout:
“…General Cleburne killed…” She fainted dead away and then spent a year confined to her bedroom
in “deepest mourning.” In 1867 she married Captain Hugh L. Cole, a former Confederate officer. Less
than a year later she dies of “an effusion of the brain.”
Kate Hewitt was born in New York with a convoluted and mysterious past
while General Reynolds grew up in a loving family. Kate and John met after
leaving San Francisco on a steamer bound for New York in 1860, he to a new
assignment and she to the Academy of the Sacred Heart at Torresdale, PA. In
1861 he proposed and gave Kate his West Point class ring and she gave him a
ring inscribed “Dear Kate.” They were to meet again on July 8, 1863 but fate
stepped in again and he was killed at Gettysburg. Kate was Catholic and John
a Presbyterian, her ring to him, along with medals and a cross, were sent to his Philadelphia family.
While trying to determine who this woman was, she appeared at the family home to visit his remains.
Kate had promised him she
References:
would never marry if someEditorial. “Susan Tarleton lost her fiancee‐general….” America’s Civil War, July 1999, pg. 6. Anderson, Kalina K. “The Girl He Left Behind.” America’s Civil War, July 1999, pgs. 49‐53. thing ever happened to him.
“Nashville’s Dirty Laundry.” Civil War Times. August 2012, pgs. 24‐25. Later she entered the convent
Wendel, Vickie. “Washer Women.” Civil War Times. August 1999, pgs. 31‐36. in Emmitsburg, MD, to become a Sister of Charity. By 1868 Kate left the convent and disappeared into history.
“We can’t run away; if we stay here, we can’t shoot. So let’s fix bayonets”
It’s the most stirring moment of any movie I’ve ever seen. After calmly ordering his officers to prepare
for a charge, Jeff Daniels, as Colonel Joshua Chamberlain on Little Round Top in the 1993 film Gettysburg, shouts “bayonets!” In his official report, Chamberlain wrote that "At that crisis… The word was
enough."
“The aim of the bayonet charge was to destroy the cohesion of an enemy unit and chase it away,”
writes Paddy Griffith in Battle in the Civil War: Generalship and Tactics in America 1861-65, and that
the bayonet itself was not intended as a weapon for killing like the rifled musket. Instead, Griffith says, it
was designed as a weapon for “winning decisive results.”
He says that close combat was rare in the Civil War because attacks that didn’t go to ground would
usually “persuade a defender to run away before contact was made.” It was also difficult for a commander to persuade his troops to leave the safety of cover and risk their lives in an advance. But the best
troops would do it with wild and success, and he cited as an example Hood’s Texans at Gaines’s Mill.
Griffith says that yelling during a charge was used to release tension, scare the enemy, and help charging troops to keep up their momentum—the most famous being the “whooping, warbling ‘Rebel Yell.’”
Only a few officers discouraged yelling in the charge, he says, one being William Sherman, who preferred “a grim and silently menacing approach.”
But it worked for Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on July 2 at Gettysburg (and for Jeff Daniels
and his force of re-enactors, which included several of our own round table members).
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The author was one of the first to focus on
the critical Western Theater researching the
Shiloh: In Hell before Night
several major battles and producing books on
by James McDonough
these struggles. Written in 1977, it is an
The University of Tennessee Press, 1977
overview
emphasizing
the
soldiers
Reviewed by Dave Frank
experience with just enough tactical details
and maps to follow the fighting. Shiloh and Gettysburg were to be the two major battles that the veterans of
each army were drawn to in post war, but time has erased the memory of Shiloh in the modern public's mind.
The author explores the leadership roles of Johnson and Beauregard and the resulting lack of concentration of
forces at the critical actions on the field. He also explores the "missing" Federal division of Lew Wallace of
Ben Hur fame. Finally, he debunks Sherman's claim that he was not surprised by the Rebel onslaught. This
was ground setting at that point of time. Not as tactically detailed as later works on Shiloh, nevertheless
McDonough set the trend in addition to Cozzens in exploring the oft neglected Western battles as a series of
the victory producing Western campaigns. It is a great first read on Shiloh which shocked the nation in it's
bloody results.
Book Review
WHAT ARE SOME OF OUR MEMBERS READING? Mike Block, our December
speaker - I have just finished reading The Bloody Sixth: The Sixth North Carolina Regiment Confederate States of America, by Richard W. Iobst. The 6th North Carolina was one of the unfortunate regiments to be caught on the North side of the Rappahannock River at the Battle of Rappahannock Station,
on November 7, 1863. Iobst’s history provides a great resource to those studying the battle and has a very
detailed roster. Rappahannock Station is about six miles from my home and I am currently working on a
tactical study of the fight.
My current read is James S. Price’s The Battle of New Market Heights: Freedom Will Be Theirs by the
Sword. Price’s book is published by the History Press and is part of the Civil War Sesquicentennial Series. I have the pleasure to know Jimmy and have listened to his lecture on this fight as well as toured the
New Market Heights Battlefield with him.
My knowledge of United States Colored Troop’s during the Civil War is evolving, which is why I’m
reading this book. I am also working with Howard Lambert, who is with the African American Heritage
Association. The AAHA is working to bring to light the efforts and history of USCT’s that were former
slaves from Culpeper, Orange and Spotsylvania counties. At least 18 USCT’s have been identified from
Culpeper County, where in early May 1864, these men and other former slaves and free men crossed the
Rappahannock River as part of Ambrose Burnside’s Ninth Corps and linked up with the Army of the Potomac as they moved toward the Wilderness.
I am working closely with Howard as we develop a series of wayside markers and to place a monument
in Culpeper to present the history of these men as they moved toward fulfilling their destiny. The four
markers, discussing the linking of Burnside and the Army of the Potomac; a brief history of the USCT’s
in the Ninth Corps; a wayside concerning the capture and execution of USCT’s in Culpeper and one
high-lighting the life of Willis Maddon, a free black tavern and inn owner whose establishment was
along the USCT line of march. The monument and wayside markers are scheduled to be in place in 2015.
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