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American Civil War 1861-1865

Baseball game between Union prisoners at Salisbury, North Carolina, 1863.
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Those old ACW redoubts were still formidable enough to force the opponents to dig their way closer before attacking. A prime example being the extensive digging used by the Union, to approach the earthworks at Vicksburg (which I have visited). Vicksburg did not fall by attack, as much as by siege.
 
I guess also mortars were not as ubiquitous then as now ... so plunging fire not so heavy to need overhead protection?

Aye, and even the ones they had, were not as accurate or effective as modern versions.
 
Mary found this Tin Type pic as she was going through her Mom's pics.


This is her maternal Great Grandfather, Leonard Henderson Inge.
He was born October 1821 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Died in July 4,1907.
Married Mary Elizabeth Bullock November 29, 1855 in Greene County, AL.
Places of residence Greene Co. Ala and Meridian, Miss. (based on what little info we have at the moment, I will start my search with units from Alabama.)

We have only just discovered this pic, so we have no info at this time as to who he served with in the Confederate Army. We do know that he served/survived the entire war. (based on what little info we have at the moment, I will start my search with units from Alabama.)
 
Biographical update on Leonard H. Inge...

He served as a Private in 'H' Company, 22nd Alabama Infantry Regiment.

This regiment was organized at Montgomery, Alabama November, 1861, and armed by private enterprise. It first served in Mobile, Alabama; from there it was ordered to Corinth, Mississippi and reached Tennessee in time for the Battle of Shiloh, where it suffered severe loss. It fought at Munfordville, 14 to 16 September 1862; at Perryville, 8 October, and at Murfreesboro, 31 December to 2 January 1863. It took a very brilliant part in the impetuous assault on Rosecrans' army at the Battle of Chickamauga, 20 September, and suffered severely, losing almost two-thirds of its forces, the killed including five color-bearers. It served in the campaign in Georgia, losing heavily in the battles around Atlanta, Georgia July, 1864, and at Jonesboro, 31 August and 1 September. It was also distinguished at Franklin, 30 November; at Nashville, 15th and 16 December; at Kinston, North Carolina, 14 March 1865, and at Bentonville, 19th to 21 March. Surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina on 26 April 1865.
 
Thanks to all for the great pictures an the informations !
ACW is my favorite theme for the moment, and i have a special question: I`m looking for technical drawings, blueprints etc. of cannons, trains,ships like the monitor and more. Can someone offer me some of those things? I want to build models of them in 1/32 or 1/72.

Greetings,
Thorsten
 
I`m looking for technical drawings, blueprints etc. of cannons, trains,ships like the monitor and more. Can someone offer me some of those things? I want to build models of them in 1/32 or 1/72.

Sorry I can not help you. -

Opening a thread with your query in The Musket Room maybe you'll have more luck. - ;)
 
Thanks to all for the great pictures an the informations !
ACW is my favorite theme for the moment, and i have a special question: I`m looking for technical drawings, blueprints etc. of cannons, trains,ships like the monitor and more. Can someone offer me some of those things? I want to build models of them in 1/32 or 1/72.

Greetings,
Thorsten

Hi Thorsten,

Not sure if your question was answered or not, since I just joined, but I typed "Civil War Ship Models" into my search engine and had great results. 2 I know to be reputable are "Flagship Models" and Carolina models, but it will be listed as "Cottage Industries Models".

Also try a couple websites called "Bluejackets", "White Ensign" and "Tom's Model Shipwrights". If nothing else, they should have links to other naval modeling sites.

Hope that helps, and good luck!
 
According to one of my Civil War references, the "MMV" on his belt buckle identifies him as belonging to the Maine Militia Volunteers.
 
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Company K 19th Indiana Iron Brigade a couple weeks after the battle of Antietam on the battlefield. Company K lost 4 killed in the Cornfield. This was all that was left of I believe 60 something men who were present for duty at Brawner's farm, approximately six weeks before this photo was taken.
 
Might be Sgt. Campbell. I think his brother was a musician. I love this picture because the lads are actually smiling and seem human, as they were. Pouring whiskey and enjoying life.
 
The Dunker Church (Sharpsburg, Maryland) ranks as perhaps one of the most famous churches in American military history. This historic structure began as a humble country house of worship constructed by local Dunker farmers in 1852. It was Mr. Samuel Mumma, owner of the nearby farm that bears his name, who donated land in 1851 for the Dunkers to build their church. During its early history the congregation consisted of about half a dozen-farm families from the local area.

On the eve of the Battle of Antietam, the members of the Dunker congregation, as well as their neighbors in the surrounding community, received a portent of things to come. That Sunday, September 14, 1862, the sound of cannons booming at the Battle of South Mountain seven miles to the east was plainly heard as the Dunkers attended church. By September 16 Confederate infantry and artillery was being positioned around the church in anticipation of the battle that was fought the next day.

During the battle of Antietam the church was the focal point of a number of Union attacks against the Confederate left flank. Most after action reports by commanders of both sides, including Union General Hooker and Confederate Stonewall Jackson, make references to the church.

At battles end the Confederates used the church as a temporary medical aid station.

Truce at the Dunker Church
A sketch by well known Civil War artist Alfred Waud depicts a truce between the opposing sides being held in front of the church on September 18, in order to exchange wounded and bury the dead.

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As for the old church, it was heavily battle scarred with hundreds of marks from bullets in its white washed walls. Likewise artillery had rendered serious damage to the roof and walls. By 1864 the Church was repaired, rededicated and regular services were held there until the turn of the century.

The congregation built a new church in the town of Sharpsburg. Souvenir hunters took bricks from the walls of the church and a lack of adequate maintenance weakened the old structure. In 1921 a violent storm swept through the area flattening the church.

The land and church ruins were put up for sale and purchased by Sharpsburg resident Elmer G. Boyer. He salvaged most of the undamaged material of the building and in turn sold the property. The new property owner built a home on the foundation of the old church and in the 1930’s operated a gas station and souvenir shop on the site. This structure was removed in 1951 when the property was purchased by the Washington County Historical Society. They in turn donated the site, then just a foundation, to the National Park Service. The Church was restored for the 100th Anniversary of the Battle in 1962 on the original foundation with as much original materials.

Then & now
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text: nps.gov
 
John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
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In April 1862, he raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, fought at Shiloh, and then launched a costly raid in Kentucky, which encouraged Braxton Bragg's invasion of that state. He also attacked the supply-lines of General William S. Rosecrans. In July 1863, he set out on a 1000-mile raid into Indiana and Ohio, taking hundreds of prisoners. But after most of his men had been intercepted by Union gunboats, Morgan surrendered at Salineville, Ohio, the northernmost point ever reached by uniformed Confederates. The legendary "Morgan's Raid", which had been carried out against orders, gained no tactical advantage for the Confederacy, while the loss of his regiment proved a serious setback.

Morgan escaped, but his credibility was low, and he was restricted to minor operations. He was killed at Greeneville, Tennessee in September 1864. Morgan was the brother-in-law of Confederate general A.P. Hill.

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John Hunt Morgan Memorial in Lexington, Kentucky.

Morgan's Raid
Hoping to divert Union troops and resources in conjunction with the twin Confederate operations of Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, Morgan set off on the campaign that would become known as "Morgan's Raid". Morgan crossed the Ohio River, and raided across southern Indiana and Ohio. At Corydon, Indiana, the raiders met 450 local Home Guard in a battle that resulted in eleven Confederates killed and five Home Guard killed.

In July, at Versailles, IN, while soldiers raided nearby militia and looted county and city treasuries, the jewels of the local masonic lodge were stolen. When Morgan, a Freemason, learned of the theft he recovered the jewels and returned them to the lodge the following day.

After several more skirmishes, during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers[citation needed], Morgan's raid almost ended on July 19, 1863, at Buffington Island, Ohio, when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. Intercepted by Union gunboats, less than 200 of his men succeeded in crossing. Most of Morgan's men captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous Camp Douglas Prisoner of War camp in Chicago, which had a very high death rate. On July 26, near Salineville, Ohio, Morgan and his exhausted, hungry and saddlesore soldiers were finally forced to surrender. It was the farthest north that any uniformed Confederate troops would penetrate during the war.

On November 27, Morgan and six of his officers, most notably Thomas Hines, escaped from their cells in the Ohio Penitentiary by digging a tunnel from Hines' cell into the inner yard and then ascending a wall with a rope made from bunk coverlets and a bent poker iron. Morgan and three of his officers, shortly after midnight, boarded a train from the nearby Columbus train station and arrived in Cincinnati that morning. Morgan and Hines jumped from the train before reaching the depot, and escaped into Kentucky by hiring a skiff to take them across the Ohio River. Through the assistance of sympathizers, they eventually made it to safety in the South. Coincidentally, the same day Morgan escaped, his wife gave birth to a daughter, who died shortly afterwards before Morgan returned home.

Though Morgan's Raid was breathlessly followed by the Northern and Southern press and caused the Union leadership considerable concern, it is now regarded as little more than a showy but ultimately futile sidelight to the war. Furthermore, it was done in direct violation of his orders from General Braxton Bragg not to cross the river. Despite the raiders' best efforts, Union forces had amassed nearly 110,000 militia in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; dozens of United States Navy gunboats along the Ohio; and strong Federal cavalry forces, which doomed the raid from the beginning. The cost of the raid to the Federals was extensive, with claims for compensation still being filed against the U.S. government well into the early 20th century. However, the Confederacy's loss of Morgan's light cavalry far outweighed the benefits.


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Group of "Morgan's Men" while prisoners of war in Western Penitentiary, Pennsylvania: (l to r) Captain William E. Curry, 8th Kentucky Cavalry; Lieutenant Andrew J. Church, 8th Kentucky Cavalry; Lieutenant Leeland Hathaway, 14th Kentucky Cavalry; Lieutenant Henry D. Brown, 10th Kentucky Cavalry; Lieutenant William Hays, 20th Kentucky Cavalry. All were captured with John Hunt Morgan in Ohio. 1863

His "Last Kentucky Raid" was carried out in June 1864, the high-water mark of which was the Second Battle of Cynthiana. After winning a minor victory on June 11 against an inferior infantry unit in the engagement known as the Battle of Keller's Bridge on the Licking River, near Cynthiana, Kentucky, Morgan decided to take a chance the following day on another contest against superior Union mounted forces that were known to be approaching. The result was a disaster for the Confederates, resulting in the destruction of Morgan's force as a cohesive unit, only a small fraction of whom escaped with their lives and liberty as fugitives, including the General and some of his officers.

After the flashy but unauthorized 1863 Ohio raid, Morgan was never again trusted by General Bragg. Nevertheless, on August 22, 1864, Morgan was placed in command of the Trans-Allegheny Department, embracing at the time the Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Yet around this time some Confederate authorities were quietly investigating Morgan for charges of criminal banditry, likely leading to his removal from command. He began to organize a raid aimed at Knoxville, Tennessee.

On September 4, 1864, he was surprised by a Union attack and was shot in the back and killed by Union cavalrymen while attempting to escape during a raid on Greeneville, Tennessee.

Morgan was buried in Lexington Cemetery. The burial was shortly before the birth of his second child, another daughter.
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