A Matter of Perspective

Today's entry  comes from the Rebellion Record Volume III by Frank Moore, 1862.  I meant to post this last month, but the holidays got in the way.

This is an account of the battle of Allegheny from the Confederate point of view.  The official casualties of this battle are: Union 140 killed or wounded and two missing, and Confederate: 128 killed or wounded and 34 captured or missing.  However one would never know that the Confederate numbers this high nor that the Union numbers this low from the following interesting account, published in the Richmond Dispatch on December 21, 1862.

. . .  Our boys are laughing heartily over the Yankees' published account of the battle of Alleghany. The following passage is really amusing: "The rebels set fire to their camp and retreated to Staunton. Our boys left the field in good order." Why, my dear sirs, it would have done your heart good to have seen tho scoundrels run 1 Tho road for three miles was covered with their knapsacks, canteens, blankets, hats, and haversacks, and the citizens from the country bring us the news that they were stricken with tho most disgraceful panic The villains vented their spleen upon an old woman living upon the Greenbank road, aged eighty-two ears, by destroying her furniture, carrying off er provisions, and breaking up her cooking utensils. Col. Johnson sent her a sack of flour and some other articles. Their troops went back to Cheat Mountain in wild confusion, demoralized and dispirited. Nothing prevented their entire capture but the withdrawal of Col. Taliaferro's brigade from this line of operation.

We learn from our spies, and from men recently from Northwestern Virginia, that the enemy confess a loss, in killed, wounded, and missing, of over seven hundred men. Their dead bodies are still being found in tho woods. Six were found yesterday, with their eyes picked out by the crows, and many more doubtless lie scattered through the dense forest.

Confederate General Edward Johnson, also known as also known as Allegheny Johnson.  He received his nickname while commanding six infantry regiments in a battle on Allegheny Mountain.

The Confederate Flag of 1861

This entry is from the Richmond Dispatch from December 7, 1861, (as found in the Rebellion Record by Frank Moore), concerning the Confederate flag. Interestingly, this article is not referring to the flag we are accustomed to seeing and is commonly known as the Confederate flag ("the Stainless banner"), but an earlier version ("the Stars and Bars.")  The Stainless banner wasn't adopted as the official Confederate flag until 1863.

The adoption of our present flag was a natural, but most pernicious blunder.  As the old flag itself was not the author of our wrongs, we tore off a piece of the dear old rag and set it up as a standard.  We took it for granted a flag was a divisible thing, and proceeded to set off our proportion. So we took, at a rough calculation, our share of the stars and our fraction of the stripes, and put them together, and called them the ' Confederate flag.'   Even as Aaron of old put the gold into the fire, and then came out this calf, so certain stars and stripes went into committee, and then came out this flag. All this was honest and fair to a fault. We were clearly entitled to from seven to eleven of the stars, and three or four of the stripes.

Indeed, as we were maintaining the principles it was intended to represent, and the North had abandoned them, we were honestly entitled to the whole flag. Had we kept it, and fought for it and under it, and conquered it from the North, it would have been no robbery, but all right and fair.   And we should either have done this, i.e. kept the flag as a whole, or else we should have abandoned it as a whole and adopted another.  But if we did not choose to assert our title to the whole, was it politic or judicious to split the flag and claim one of the fractions?  We had an equal right, also, to ' Hail Columbia' and' Yankee Doodle.'  We might have adopted a part of ' Yankee Doodle' (say every third stanza), or else 'Yankee Doodle' with variations, as our national air. In the choice of an air we were not guilty of this absurdity, but we have perpetrated one exactly parallel to it in the choice of a national flag. There is no exaggeration in the illustration. It seems supremely ridiculous, yet it scarcely does our folly justice.

There is but one feature essential to a flag, and that is distinctness. Beauty, appropriateness, good taste, are all desirable; but the only thing indispensable is distinctness, — wide, plain, unmistakable distinction from other flags. Unfortunately, this indispensable thing is just the thing which the Confederate flag lacks; and failing in this, it is a lamentable and total failure, absolute and irredeemable.

The failure is in a matter of essence. It is as complete as that of writing which cannot be read, of a gun which cannot be shot, of a coat which cannot be worn. It is the play of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet left out. A flag which does not distinguish may be a very nice piece of bunting; it may be handsomely executed, tasteful, expressive, and a thousand other things, but it has no title at all to bear the name of ' flag.'

We knew the flag we had to fight; yet, instead of getting as far from it, we were guilty of the huge mistake of getting as near to it as possible. We sought similarity, adopting a principle diametrically wrong, we made a flag as nearly like theirs as could only under favorable circumstances, be distinguished from it.  Under unfavorable circumstances (such as constantly occur in practice), the two flags are indistinguishable. In the wars of the Roses in Great Britain, one side adopted the white and the other the red rose. Suppose that one side had adopted milk white and the other flesh white, or one a deep pink and the other a lighter shade of pink, would there have been any end to the confusion?

When a body of men is approaching in time of war, it is rather an important matter to ascertain, if practicable, whether they are friends or foes. Certainly no question could well be more radical in its influence upon our actions, plans, and movements. To solve this important question is the object of a flag. When they get near us, there may be other means of information; but to distinguish friends from enemies at a distance is the specific purpose of a flag. Human ingenuity is great, and may conceive some other small purposes, presentations, toasts, speeches, &c.: but that this is the great end of a flag will not be denied; and it is in this that the Confederate flag fails.

There is no case in history in which broad distinction in the symbols of the combatants was more necessary than it has been in the present war. Our enemies are of the same race with ourselves, of the same color and even shade of complexion; they speak the same language, wear like clothing, and are of like form and stature. (The more shame that they should make war upon us !)

Our general appearance being the same, we must rely solely upon symbols for distinction. The danger of mistake is great, after all possible precautions have been taken; sufficient attention has never been paid to this important matter, involving life or death, victory or defeat. Our badges, uniforms, flags, should be perfectly distinguishable from those of the enemy. Our first and distant information is dependent solely on the flag."

No Ice in Washington

This entry is from the Richmond Daily Dispatch, August 15, 1861.  Ice was relied upon during the summer to help beat the heat, but apparently Washington went without during the late summer of 1861.

--In this sweltering weather, with the thermometer ranging from one hundred to one hundred and twenty degrees, the ice dealers announce that their stock of ice is exhausted, and that there is no more to be had there this summer. Five large vessels, loaded with the precious commodity, have been over due now more than ten days, and the consignees there have come to the reluctant conclusion that the vessels have been captured by "the pirates of the gulf." The ice-dealers say also that it is impossible to get vessels to bring ice here, because vessel-owners are afraid of losing, in this manner, both vessel and cargo. So that they have the very pleasant prospect before them of living through the hot months of August and September, without ice.

Washington D. C. view from Georgtown heights, with Aqueduct Bridge and Mason's Island, created by William Morris Smith, 1865, from Library of Congress collection

The Young and the Fearless

This entry is from the August 9th 1861 Richmond Dispatch, and tells the story of one boy who got another chance to be a man.

A Gallant Southern Boy.

A correspondent sends to the Dispatch the subjoined extract of a letter from an Ohio captain to the editor of the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, published in that paper on the 26th of July. Such testimony, from an enemy, of the bravery of our troops, and of an act of gallantry on the part of some unknown Virginia boy, (which has few parallels even in our army of heroes,) cannot fail to command the attention of every reader:

"About 1 o'clock there was a short cessation of hostilities — the firing was only heard in the distance. Our Brigade had been wrestling for several hours with opposing forces, principally Virginians, and were ensconced in thickets on each side of a field of no great dimensions. We occupied the Northern slope of a hill of considerable elevation, and also the top of the hill, whilst the enemy held the Southern slope.  Suddenly we observed to emerge from the opposing ranks a boy, apparently 16 or 17 years of age, armed with a musket and pistols. He double-quicked to the top of the hill, within sixty or eighty yards of our place of concealment; saw an officer on horseback, took deliberate aim at him, fired, and the officer fell mortally wounded. About the same time my company of 80 men fired at him, and he fell, I supposed pierced by many balls. What was my surprise to see this proud and over-brave boy rise from the ground only slightly wounded, seize his musket, wave his cap in triumph in our faces, and rejoin his comrades, one of whom had followed him, I suppose to bring him back. Such fearlessness I never saw before."

Unidentified Young Confederate Soldier, from the Library of Congress Collection

The Ladies In The Field

From the Richmond Dispatch, July 20, 1861

Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.
The ladies in the field — our crops attended to by them, &c.

James City County, July 17, 1861.

As many of our citizens have gone to meet "the enemy," and most of the laborers have been drafted to work on different fortifications, the ladies of this county doubled their diligence, and to-day many meet to form a sewing society and report the number of beds and articles for the benefit of the sick at Yorktown.

Yesterday two ladies could be seen, with their hoes in hand, weeding corn, as such work is very necessary at this time. One of them informed me that she weeded about 2,500 hills, and that her sister was "too much for her" at weeding corn! What will the husband say when he hears that his wife is weeding corn? What will Virginians say? and what will the entire South say?

What prospect is there for "subjugation?" Is a man to be frightened by Abe Lincoln, when the ladies act thus? Call for millions of men; call for millions of dollars, and when there is no man to girt on his armor for warfare, woman will meet the hirelings of Yankeedom, and cause them to kneel and call for mercy.

I have only written a few lines, that you may insert it in your paper, to give to our sisters in the South what Virginia ladies are doing. I am not a writer for newspapers.

James City.

P. S.--The above lady will continue to weed corn till the crop is well over. She wrote her husband word that she had eleven hands in the field. J. C.

Unidentified woman holding a cased photograph of an unidentified solder in Confederate uniform
From Library of Congress Collection

Vive La Humbug

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch, July 6, 1861

A decided cynic point of view on Professor Lowe's hot air balloon:

A few days ago, we read that the Professor was in Washington trying the adaptation of the balloon to the army service. The Administration were at one end of a telegraph wire on the earth and the Professor at the other end, in his balloon, several hundred feet above the earth. The Professor was communicating "important intelligence" of the movements of Gen. Beauregard at Manassas. He will doubtless give them as much "important intelligence" as they will receive credulously, and when he has bamboozled Abraham, Seward & Co., to his hearts content, will profess to be of no further service, pocket a few thousand for "important services" and hold himself in readiness for similar patriotic performances.--Vive la humbug.

Prof. Thaddeus S. Lowe observing the battle from his balloon "Intrepid", from Library of Congress Collectino

A Cross Dressing Confederate Officer

This entry from the Richmond Dispatch, describes an event that took place on June 28, 1861, the capture of the commercial ship the Saint Nicholas by Richard Thomas (Zarvona).

Richmond Dispatch, July 4, 1861

From Fredericksburg.
[special correspondence of the Dispatch.]

Fredericksburg, July 3, 1861.

Several very amusing incidents occurred on board the St. Nicholas before and after her seizure by Col. Thomas and his gallant followers. Among them, I will mention one which occurred after Capt. Hollins was taken on board at Point Lookout: The Captain (Hollins) was, as a matter of personal safety, disguised, and although well known to Captain Kirwan, was not recognized by him until after the freak of nature (!) which transformed the old French woman into the terror imparting Zouave, Col. Thomas. But before the disguises were thrown off, Capt. Kirwan observed "sly" winks passing between the French woman and the disguised naval officer, and very naturally thought he had discovered an intrigue, and called the attention of some of his friends, predicting "some fun." One can readily imagine his astonishment when the true state of affairs burst upon him, and he became familiar with the much-abused profession, privateering.

But the story doesn't end there.  A good account of the entire incident can be found at:  The Washington Times website . 

The French Lady taking off with the ship, From Harpers Weekly, July 27 1861