Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 28, 2012

The memorial for Pennsylvania recipients of the Medal of Honor is located in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on the east side of the Capitol Building.  A grove of trees (Soldiers and Sailors Grove) flanks the grounds where the name of each individual with the date and place of service is noted on a stone in the ground.

The Medal of Honor is awarded by the president on behalf of Congress to a person who distinguishes himself by gallantry at the risk of his or her own life above or beyond the call of duty while engaged in a military operation.  The individual who is awarded the medal must have performed an act that is clearly above any act performed by his or her comrades.  The medal signifies extraordinary merit and there is no higher military honor than can be given.

The Medal of Honor was created during the Civil War and its first recipients were men who served the Union cause in the Civil War.  A total of 1522 medals were awarded for service in the Civil War, with approximately one-fifth of those going to persons with a connection to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  For a complete list of the Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor, see List of American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients.

At the entrance to the memorial a ground stone indicates the memorial dedication:

This memorial is dedicated by a grateful Commonwealth to the Medal of Honor recipients of Pennsylvania for their supreme bravery above and beyond the call of duty.

The Medal of Honor has been awarded since the Civil War to members of the United States Military Service in recognition of extraordinary acts of heroism at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty.  This memorial is dedicated to those Pennsylvanians whose selfless brave acts earned that highest recognition.  Here are their names and the dates and places of their deeds.  Here too are the tides of past wars moving outward in great arcs.

No soldiers choose to die.  It’s what they risk by being who and where they are.  It’s what they dare while saving someone else whose life means suddenly as much to them as theirs or more.  To honor them why speak of duty or the will of governments.  Think first of love each time you tell their story.  It gives their sacrifice a name and takes from war its glory.   Samuel Hazo.

 These heroes stood firm against the tides that engulf them.  Their names stand out against those dark tides now.  Walk the years and cross the tides to learn the names of the brave and to find stories of their deeds.  Each arc shows a time of war and the grass between marks a time of peace.  Every two feet walked spans a year in history.  Beyond the tides and heroes lie the shores of peace and the grove of remembrance.

The Civil War section is the first section and is the largest.  At the time of the Civil War, only two awards were available – the Purple Heart and the Medal of Honor.  Since the Civil War, a number of intermediate-level medals were created and the criteria were revised for awarding the Medal Honor making it much more difficult to receive one.

Direct links to each of the posts in this series which picture the in-ground stones with the names of Pennsylvania’s Medal of Honor recipients:

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 1

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 2

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 3

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 4

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 5

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 6

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 7

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 8

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 9

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 10

Pennsylvania Medal of Honor Memorial – Part 11

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Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 27, 2012

Most stories of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln begin the same way.  The author gives the date of  Friday 14 April 1865 and mentions that Lincoln was taking in a play as a form of winding down from the pressures of office and four years of war.  A brief description of the activities of the assassin then follows.  Before the end of the play, a shot is fired, the assassin leaps to the stage and then disappears out the back door of the theatre.  A manhunt follows, the assassin is tracked down, conspirators are found and tried, and four of those found guilty are executed.  The country goes on from the transfer of power and an era of reconstruction and reconciliation follows.

If that were all there were to the story, it wouldn’t be told and re-told.

What do we really know that happened that night – and in the days before and the days that followed?

Over the years, different authors and historians have embellished the story – with both fact and fiction.  There has been an attempt to unravel and expose conspiracies.  Documents have been collected.  Artifacts have been studied.  Museums have devoted entire exhibits to the assassination.  Different approaches have been pursued, and the assassination and the people and events surrounding it have been the subject of speculation, curiosity, and in some cases, Lincoln himself has become the object of religious and/or patriotic reverence.

Hundreds of articles and books have been written on the subject.

One perspective that has not yet been fully explored is the Pennsylvania connections to the assassination.  In a series of posts to follow, the various characters that took part in the aspects of it – from the players in the theatre, to the members of the audience, the members of the various suggested conspiracies, those who took part in the search and capture of the alleged perpetrators as well as in the trial – aspects will be examined that heretofore have not been given much thought.  Have logical conclusion been drawn from the information?  What has been speculative and hypothetical?

In these future posts, legends and hoaxes will be explored.  There will be book and article reviews and analyses of original sources.  Questions will be asked which will hopefully lead to further research and understanding of what happened that night in Washington – and of the events and circumstances surrounding it.  Readers are always invited to comment on posts and offer suggestions as well as new information.

Following is a lists of the posts on the Lincoln Assassination that have appeared this year on this blog with direct links to the posts.  The posts are grouped by the four “main characters” who were the subjects of study this year – all participants in the production of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre on the night of 14 April 1865:  Laura Keene, the star of the production; William J. Ferguson, the call-boy turned substitute actor for the evening; William Withers Jr., the orchestra leader; and Jeannie Gourlay, an actress in the play.

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Introduction

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

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Laura Keene

Laura Keene Arrested at Harrisburg

Laura Keene and the Bloody Dress

The Architecture of Ford’s Theatre & Laura Keene

Laura Keene – Bibliography

The Journey of the Bloody Dress of Laura Keene

The Bloody Dress of Laura Keene Arrives in Baltimore

Baltimore to Harrisburg – The Bloody Dress of Laura Keene

Laura Keene and the Bloody Dress – To Cincinnati

Laura Keene and the Bloody Dress – In Cincinnati

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William J. Ferguson

The Battle Cry of Peace

W. J. Ferguson – Silent Film Star & Assassination Witness

W. J. Ferguson – “I Saw Booth Shoot Lincoln”

The Career of William J. Ferguson

The Credibility of William J. Ferguson

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William Withers Jr.

William Withers Jr. – Lincoln Assassination Witness

Testimony of William Withers Jr. – Lincoln Assassination Witness

William Withers Jr. – Lincoln Assassination Witness – Resources for Study

The Credibility of William Withers Jr. – Lincoln Assassination Witness

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Jeannie Gourlay

Jeannie Gourlay – Cast Member at Ford’s When Lincoln Was Assassinated

Jeannie Gourlay and Norman Harsell – The Film That Never Was

Jeannie Gourlay and the Lincoln Flag

The Lincoln Flag Hoax

Jeannie Gourlay – Bibliography

Category: Overviews, Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Best of 2012 – Pennsylvania Connections to the Lincoln Assassination
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Assassination

Posted By Brian Tomlin on December 26, 2012

One of the most popular series of 2012 has been the series on the Most Common Names of the 1860s. This was a series of three posts that examined the most popular names of the civil war era and compared them with the most popular names of today. A third part took the list of area civil war soldiers and listed the mosts common first names from that list.

The complete series of posts:

Part 1: Most Popular Male Names of the 1860s

Part 2: Most Popular Female Names of the 1860s

Part 3: Most Popular Names of Area Civil War Soldiers

Resources for name research:

You can research the Social Security Name Index to find out baby name popularity by decade, year, state, or the changing popularity of a particular name

In 2013 a fourth post will be added to this series looking at the most common family names of area Civil War Veterans.

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Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 25, 2012

George Henry Durrie (1820-1863) was an American artist who was born in Hartford, Connecticut and was most famous for his rural winter scenes, some of which were made into popular lithographic prints by Currier and Ives of New York.  Christmas cards have often featured these rural winter scenes.  Although the paintings depicted below are of New England, they are reminiscent of rural life as it may have been in the Lykens Valley area at the time of the Civil War.

The Farmyard and Barns

The Schoolhouse and Farmhouse

Going to Church

Merry Christmas!

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For further information on George H. Durrie and his rural winter scenes, see Antique Prints Blog, by Christopher W. Lane of the Philadelphia Print Shop.

Category: Reflections, Research | Comments Off on George H. Durrie – Rural Winter Scenes
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Posted By Brian Tomlin on December 24, 2012

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this poem on Christmas Day, 1864.  It was later adapted into the popular Christmas carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas.”

Christmas Bells

I HEARD the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

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