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The Civil War - a short remembrance
RugerNiner
Member Posts: 12,636 ✭✭✭
The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, from Valverde, New Mexico, and Tullahoma, Tennessee, to St. Albans, Vermont, and Fernandina on the Florida coast. More than 3 million Americans fought in it, and over 600,000 men, 2 percent of the population, died in it.
American homes became headquarters, American churches and schoolhouses sheltered the dying, and huge foraging armies swept across American farms and burned American towns. Americans slaughtered one another wholesale, right here in America in their own cornfields and peach orchards, along familiar roads and by waters with old American names.
In two days at Shiloh, on the banks of the Tennessee River, more American men fell than in all the previous American wars combined. At Cold Harbor, some 7,000 Americans fell in twenty minutes. Men who had never strayed twenty miles from their own front doors now found themselves soldiers in great armies, fighting epic battles hundreds of miles from home. They knew they were making history, and it was the greatest adventure of their lives.
The Civil War has been given many names: the War Between the States, the War Against Northern Aggression, the Second American Revolution, the Lost Cause, the War of the Rebellion, the Brothers' War, the Late Unpleasantness. Walt Whitman called it the War of Attempted Secession. Confederate General Joseph Johnston called it the War Against the States. By whatever name, it was unquestionably the most important event in the life of the nation. It saw the end of slavery and the downfall of a southern planter aristocracy. It was the watershed of a new political and economic order, and the beginning of big industry, big business, big government. It was the first modern war and, for Americans, the costliest, yielding the most American causalities and the greatest domestic suffering, spiritually and physically. It was the most horrible, necessary, intimate, acrimonious, mean-spirited, and heroic conflict the nation has ever known.
Inevitably, we grasp the war through such hyperbole. In so doing, we tend to blur the fact that real people lived through it and were changed by the event. One hundred eighty-five thousand black Americans fought to free their people. Fishermen and storekeepers from Deer Isle, Maine, served bravely and died miserably in strange places like Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Fredericksburg, Virginia. There was scarcely a family in the South that did not lose a son or brother or father.
As with any civil strife, the war was marked by excruciating ironies. Robert E. Lee became a legend in the Confederate army only after turning down an offer to command the entire Union force. Four of Lincoln's own brothers-in-law fought on the Confederate side, and one was killed. The little town of Winchester, Virginia, changed hands seventy-two times during the war, and the state of Missouri sent thirty-nine regiments to fight in the siege of Vicksburg: seventeen to the Confederacy and twenty-two to the Union.
Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war on each other and killed each other in great numbers - if only to become the kind of country that could no longer conceive of how that was possible. What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America. At Gettysburg in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said perhaps more than he knew. The war was about a "new birth of freedom."
I think the reason I'm posting this is to show yet another article stating that Slavery was not the Main Issue between the Confederacy and the Union.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
Edited by - RugerNiner on 09/21/2002 07:09:43
American homes became headquarters, American churches and schoolhouses sheltered the dying, and huge foraging armies swept across American farms and burned American towns. Americans slaughtered one another wholesale, right here in America in their own cornfields and peach orchards, along familiar roads and by waters with old American names.
In two days at Shiloh, on the banks of the Tennessee River, more American men fell than in all the previous American wars combined. At Cold Harbor, some 7,000 Americans fell in twenty minutes. Men who had never strayed twenty miles from their own front doors now found themselves soldiers in great armies, fighting epic battles hundreds of miles from home. They knew they were making history, and it was the greatest adventure of their lives.
The Civil War has been given many names: the War Between the States, the War Against Northern Aggression, the Second American Revolution, the Lost Cause, the War of the Rebellion, the Brothers' War, the Late Unpleasantness. Walt Whitman called it the War of Attempted Secession. Confederate General Joseph Johnston called it the War Against the States. By whatever name, it was unquestionably the most important event in the life of the nation. It saw the end of slavery and the downfall of a southern planter aristocracy. It was the watershed of a new political and economic order, and the beginning of big industry, big business, big government. It was the first modern war and, for Americans, the costliest, yielding the most American causalities and the greatest domestic suffering, spiritually and physically. It was the most horrible, necessary, intimate, acrimonious, mean-spirited, and heroic conflict the nation has ever known.
Inevitably, we grasp the war through such hyperbole. In so doing, we tend to blur the fact that real people lived through it and were changed by the event. One hundred eighty-five thousand black Americans fought to free their people. Fishermen and storekeepers from Deer Isle, Maine, served bravely and died miserably in strange places like Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Fredericksburg, Virginia. There was scarcely a family in the South that did not lose a son or brother or father.
As with any civil strife, the war was marked by excruciating ironies. Robert E. Lee became a legend in the Confederate army only after turning down an offer to command the entire Union force. Four of Lincoln's own brothers-in-law fought on the Confederate side, and one was killed. The little town of Winchester, Virginia, changed hands seventy-two times during the war, and the state of Missouri sent thirty-nine regiments to fight in the siege of Vicksburg: seventeen to the Confederacy and twenty-two to the Union.
Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war on each other and killed each other in great numbers - if only to become the kind of country that could no longer conceive of how that was possible. What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America. At Gettysburg in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said perhaps more than he knew. The war was about a "new birth of freedom."
I think the reason I'm posting this is to show yet another article stating that Slavery was not the Main Issue between the Confederacy and the Union.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
Edited by - RugerNiner on 09/21/2002 07:09:43
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
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In 1861 Conrad and his father Joseph volunteered for the 64th New York Regiment (Cattaragus Regiment). Conrad was accepted but his father was rejected because of poor teeth. Good teeth were required to bite off the musket wads. Conrad's mother, Catherine, "nearly died" when her husband came home without Conrad who was only fifteen years old. Conrad mustered into the Union Army on November 11,1861 at Elmira, New York and became a member of Company K of the 64th New York, 4th Brigade, and 1st Division of the Second Corp. In his first major encounter with the "rebels" Conrad was wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks Virginia. The Battle of Fair Oaks was fought on Sunday, June 1, 1862. According to the diary written by Henry Altenburg, another soldier in the 64th, " the regiment became hotly engaged with the enemy and the 64th was ordered to kneel, load, and fire. While in this position, Bockmier was hit in the left side, the ball passing through the back. The regiment moved to the right and away from him. He pulled himself back behind a fallen tree where he was taken from the battle by some Irish Brigade fellows and carried to a field hospital. The surgeon looked at him but said he must wait until the amputations were finished and then he would be attended to. The next day he was put in a box car and taken to White House Landing and there transferred to a steamer and the following morning a surgeon went at him for the first time to dress his wound which was alive with maggots. With such hot weather and with such neglect one could expect nothing better. Conrad did not complain as he knew everybody did the best they could."
After recuperating from his wound for two months at Philadelphia hospitals Conrad rejoined the 64th regiment at Antietam. Conrad took part in the following subsequent battles: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Williamsport, Snicker's Gap, Manassas Gap, Auburn Hill, Bristol Stations, Mine Run, Wilderness, Po River, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopotamy, South Anna, Guinney's Station, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburgh.
No regiment from New York State had a more enviable record than the 64th; few participated in a greater number of battles or lost a larger percentage of men. Out of a total enrollment of 1,313 men, the regiment lost during service 182 by death from wounds and 129 from other causes. There were a total of 464 men that were wounded and recovered. Total casualties amounted to sixty percent.
At the Battle of Fair Oaks the 64th pushed back the enemy with a bayonet charge with the enemy leaving their dead and wounded on the field. The 64th suffered a loss of 173 in killed and wounded.
At the Battle of Antietam, the 64th, along with the 61st New York Regiment, under the command of Colonel Francis Barlow, captured two stands of colors and took 300 prisoners by flanking the enemy sheltered in the "sunken road", which later became known as "Bloody Lane".
At Fredericksburg, the 64th took part in the "famous suicidal" assault on Marye's Heights. The regiment used their Austrian rifles, which were very accurate at long ranges, to pick off cannoneers situated on a bluff behind the wall and rifle pits. The 64th lost seventy-two men in killed and wounded.
At Chancellorsville, the 64th won the highest commendation by repulsing three successive charges by an entire brigade of Georgia troops on May 3, 1863. The 64th captured 300 prisoners and killed 120 men of the 16th Georgia. The 64th lost 33 men in killed and wounded.
At Spottsylvania the 64th and other regiments of Hancock's Second Corp led the famous assault against the Mule Shoe salient, later called Bloody Angle.
At Gettysburg, the 64th fought brilliantly on July 2, 1863 in the celebrated Wheatfield. On July 3rd it defended its position stubbornly against Pickett's charge on Cemetery Hill. The 64th `s loss was 98 killed, wounded, or missing out of 205 engaged.
At Cold Harbor, the 64th and 61st regiments under Colonel Morris captured 300 prisoners, 1 color, and a battery of four guns on June 3, 1864.
Both the Union and Confederate troops considered the First Division of the Second Corp the elite division of the Union Army. After Gettysburg, General Grant often used the First Division of the Second Corp to lead the attack on the enemy. General Hancock, the Second Corp Commander was considered the top Corp commander of the Union Army.
After mustering out of the Union Army at Petersburg, Virginia on November 18, 1864, Conrad returned to Allegany, New York. He moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1868 where his older sister Margaret and her husband Joseph Cleaver lived. He married his first wife Anna Britz on June 5, 1872 of which they had three children. Anna died at Medford, Wisconsin in 1877. He apparently moved back to Allegany and married his second wife, great-grandmother Francis (Fanny) Hirt. He returned to Wisconsin with Fanny and had three more children of which one was grandmother Caroline (Carrie) Bockmier Krott. Fanny died February 26, 1883 in Medford, Wisconsin two days after giving birth to her third daughter Rose. Conrad and his children moved back to Allegany, New York about 1884. Conrad then married his third wife, nineteen year old Margaret Scheider at St. Bonaventure Church on November 18,1885. Conrad and Margaret had eleven children of which the youngest, Paul, was born in 1907 when Conrad was sixty-two years old. Conrad was a farmer and peddler of pharmaceuticals. He died on Flag Day, June 14, 1920 at Allegany, New York and is buried at St. Bonaventure Cemetery, Allegany, New York.
Conrad wrote the following article for one of his daughter's school projects which was printed by the Allegany Citizen newspaper on February 12, 1914.
It was about 2:00 p.m. when my wounds were properly dressed, relieving much of my suffering and making me feel like a new man. The next morning we were taken aboard a large steamship bound for Philadelphia, arriving the next Sunday morning. I was carried on a stretcher through the streets to the nearest hospital. The citizens were very kind to us and did everything they could to make us comfortable. I stayed at the 5th and Butterwood Streets Hospital for a few weeks, then transferred to the West Philadelphia Hospital.
From there I was sent with a troop of 500 men through Washington and Georgetown, up the Potomac River, as far as Chain Bridge. A call came for men belonging to the 2nd Army Corps. I left for my regiment, which I found after 2 days of hard marching, on the evening before the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. Soon after arriving I was ill and ordered to the field hospital.
It was there that I had the good fortune to see President Lincoln. Our division commander, Major General Richardson was mortally wounded in battle, and the President came to see him. He not only called on the commander but also went through the tents filled with the wounded soldiers from both armies. He came to our tent and shook hands with everyone.
It happened there was a young rebel lying by my side, and when Lincoln came to him he said, "I wish to God your leaders would see their folly and stop this bloodshed." After the President left, the young rebel exclaimed, "If all our men could see what I have just seen, they would lay down their arms at once, and not fire another shot."
The President made such a good impression on all of the men that I am sure no one will ever forget him. He was truly a great and good-hearted man.
I harbor no ill feelings towards you.
Debate is healthy and prevents boredom.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
It's not what you know that gets you in trouble, it's what you know that just ain't so!
B - BreatheR - RelaxA - AimS - SightS - Squeeze
Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
And it really steams my kettle to think that the words Confederate and the Dixie Flag are being taken away from everything...Just because it offends black people, they don't realize it was about more than slavery, or maybe they do and just want a little revenge still at the Southern States and are getting it. Human's are still a young species on Earth with more alive today than have ever been alive on the planet and only time will tell if we survive....each other.
*If there is one gun for every 7 people in the world, I'm saving alot of people money*
Im sure dental hygiene was not real proficient back them.
It's just hard to believe that Conrads father was mustered out because of poor teeth.
What amazes me more is all the different places these men fought in, and that basically most of them got there on foot. It's is kind of humbling to me and I am thankful that I or my children do not have to endure such hardships.
I think it's terrible they want to remove the emblem
of the south because of todays values of inclusiveness.
A resident of Stacy Tennessee, near Grassy Creek, Dawid S.
Booker was born in Washington County |Virginia. He was born
in 1834. He married Mariah Thompson in 1859. Just three months
after the birth of their first child David joined the Confederate
Army. David served under Colonel Bradford and Captain James D.
Spears Co. D 31 East Tenessee Reigment. He fought at Vicksburg
Mississippi. He was captured by a union scout in March of 1865 and
imprisoned in Knoxville tenn. Mariah and David S. had 8 children.
David lived till he was 78. His son James Walker Booker was his
2nd son born in 1867. He married Lavina Ann Yankee and had 12 children. My grandmother Edith Christine was number 11. In 1898
the family tried moving to Indian territory of Oklahoma as part
of the homestead movement. They lived in a sod shanty and farmed
the land. While they we're living in Oklahoma James Booker and the
family came down with malaria. James got so sick he nearly died.
They we're hallucinating because of their high fevers. They began
to think they we're seeing snakes climbing the walls. After
living near the Canadian river of Oklahoma for 3 yrs. and the bout
with Malaria, they decided tomove back to Hawkins county Tennessee.
James and one child left to go set the home up, and left Lavina
in Oklahoma with the others. While they were waiting for news from
Jim, they got word the Indians were coming through and killing
everthing except the bees. Lavina sold the land they were living
on for almost nothing. She and the children got on a train and
headed back for Tenn, but only had enough money to make it to
Bull's gap. When they finally made it back to Hawkins County they
had to spend the winter in Rogersville because the snow was so deep
they couldn't return to Grassey Creek.
I went back to Grassey Creek, which is now a road called Grassey
creek outside of Rogersville Tenn. 2 springs ago. I walked up
to the hillside where my great grandfather, and his father are
buried side by side. This is called the Booker Cemetry, down
the road is the Yankee Cemetry where many other family members
are buried. It's an incredibly beautiful place in the eastern
appalatians. What's so wonderful to me is the union of two
David S. Booker and Mariah Thompson has yielded the thousands
of today. When I visited Grassey Creek the tears flowed all
day, looking at my family history. I felt like I'd come home.
Thanks,
Kermit Manis
quote:Originally posted by mouse
My great-greatgrandfather fought for the Confederacy.
I think it's terrible they want to remove the emblem
of the south because of todays values of inclusiveness.
A resident of Stacy Tennessee, near Grassy Creek, Dawid S.
Booker was born in Washington County |Virginia. He was born
in 1834. He married Mariah Thompson in 1859. Just three months
after the birth of their first child David joined the Confederate
Army. David served under Colonel Bradford and Captain James D.
Spears Co. D 31 East Tenessee Reigment. He fought at Vicksburg
Mississippi. He was captured by a union scout in March of 1865 and
imprisoned in Knoxville tenn. Mariah and David S. had 8 children.
David lived till he was 78. His son James Walker Booker was his
2nd son born in 1867. He married Lavina Ann Yankee and had 12 children. My grandmother Edith Christine was number 11. In 1898
the family tried moving to Indian territory of Oklahoma as part
of the homestead movement. They lived in a sod shanty and farmed
the land. While they we're living in Oklahoma James Booker and the
family came down with malaria. James got so sick he nearly died.
They we're hallucinating because of their high fevers. They began
to think they we're seeing snakes climbing the walls. After
living near the Canadian river of Oklahoma for 3 yrs. and the bout
with Malaria, they decided tomove back to Hawkins county Tennessee.
James and one child left to go set the home up, and left Lavina
in Oklahoma with the others. While they were waiting for news from
Jim, they got word the Indians were coming through and killing
everthing except the bees. Lavina sold the land they were living
on for almost nothing. She and the children got on a train and
headed back for Tenn, but only had enough money to make it to
Bull's gap. When they finally made it back to Hawkins County they
had to spend the winter in Rogersville because the snow was so deep
they couldn't return to Grassey Creek.
I went back to Grassey Creek, which is now a road called Grassey
creek outside of Rogersville Tenn. 2 springs ago. I walked up
to the hillside where my great grandfather, and his father are
buried side by side. This is called the Booker Cemetry, down
the road is the Yankee Cemetry where many other family members
are buried. It's an incredibly beautiful place in the eastern
appalatians. What's so wonderful to me is the union of two
David S. Booker and Mariah Thompson has yielded the thousands
of today. When I visited Grassey Creek the tears flowed all
day, looking at my family history. I felt like I'd come home.