A TASTE OF
THE OLDLINER MAGAZINE

ISSUE ONE

Fascinating Articles About the American Civil War

Researched and written by Philip Day And Trevor Stevens
Of The 1st Maryland Infantry C.S.A. U/K

DID YOU KNOW

That Union General Ambrose Burnside was one of the worst  general in Military History?
At the battle of Sharpsburg in 1862, he sent masses of men across a narrow bridge where Confederate troops slaughtered them. If Burnside had reconnoitred, he would have found that the river beneath the bridge was only waist deep and his men could have forded it anywhere, thus avoiding the bridge completely and saved all his men from the slaughter.
At Fredricksburg, 1862 he ordered a suicidal attack which left 1,284 dead.
At the siege of Petersburg 1865, he had a tunnel beneath the Confederate defences filled with high explosives. The powder was detonated, leaving a huge crater. Burnside ordered his troops into the crater where they were entrapped and shot down by Confederates along the craters rim. Lincoln remarked on this battle "only Burnside could have managed such a coup, wringing one last spectacular defeat from the jaws of victory".

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?

During the battle of Raymond a most unusual event occurred which nine months later would baffle doctors.

America's House Divided

America was a house of brothers weirdly divided when the war began in 1861.
The White house was the leading of the schism. Four of Lincoln's brothers-in-law wore Confederate Uniforms and one of them, Lt David P Todd was charged with brutality to Union Prisoners in Richmond.
Mary Lincoln's brother, Dr George R C Todd was a Confederate Surgeon, and was quoted as saying
"Lincoln was one of the greatest scoundrels unhung".
Ben Harding Heln was killed as a Confederate General at Chicamauga. He was married to one of Mary Lincoln's sisters and had spurned a personal offer of a commission off Lincoln.
Mary's other two sisters were also married to confederate officers. Washington gossip spoke of Mrs Lincoln as "two thirds pro slavery and the other third seccesh".
The Lincoln's troubles on this score came to a head when senate members on the committee of the conduct of the war met to consider charges of treason against Mary Lincoln. The President made a surprise appearance to read a brief statement denying that any member of his family
had treated with the enemy

DID YOU KNOW

That in the spring of 1864, at Spotsylvania, Major General John Sedgewick was killed by a sniper as he leapt on top of the defensive works to show his men that they had nothing to fear from snipers.  "Why, men" he called "they can't hit an elephant at this dis.........

THOSE WHO ARE EXEMPT FROM DRAFT

As the hour of drafting draws nigh, the public anxiety grows more intense and everybody wants to know who is exempt and who is not.  The list of exempts hitherto published are not explicit enough and being overwhelmed with communications on the subject, we have, after consultation with the Secretary of War, prepared a full and complete list of all the exempts, enumerated as follows:-

All infants at the breast.
All females between the ages of eighteen and forty five.
All females under eighteen.  All females over forty five.
All Negroes, mulattoes and ministers of the gospel.
Quadroons and Quakers, octoroons and idiots.
All coloured females, lunatics and Custom House Officers.
Firemen.  Men with wooden legs (unless suitable for the cavalry).
Cripples, blind men, seamen and habitual drunkards.
Telegraph operators and mariners.
Teachers in public schools, pupils in public schools.
Old maids, bachelors over 45.
Married men over 45 whose wives will not let them go.
Newsboys under 18.  Bootblacks.  British subjects and Shakers.

Ist KANSAS COLOURED REGT -
vs - 54th MASSACHUSETTS
 

No one would attempt to denigrate this excellent black unit's contribution to the Union or its legacy in proving that black men were prepared to fight and die to gain freedom and respect.  The 54th's July 1863 assault on battery Wagner in South Carolina, resulted in casualties of 25% and the death of the unit's white Colonel, Robert Gould Shaw.  But because of the film "Glory", and the popularity of "Blue Eyed Child of Fortune", a compilation of Shaw's war letters, edited by Russel Duncan, the history of the 54th has assumed a place out of proportion with the unit's actual record.

Two historians, Arnold Schofield and Alan Chilton for the last ten years have been amassing research that indicates that another black unit deserves some of the recognition that has been accorded the 54th.  Their evidence proves that the lst Kansas Coloured Volunteer Infantry was the first regiment of African American soldiers to be officially mustered into the US army from a northern state.

The unit's combat service began in the battle at Island Mound, Missouri on 27-29 October 1862, and on 13 January 1863, five companies of the regiment were mustered into the US army at Fort Scott, Kansas.  The evidence shows that the lst Kansas Coloured Regiment entered service four months before the famed 54th.  Chilton's and Schofield's work also indicates that while the 54th's casualties were high, the casualties were higher in the lst Kansas.

HOW THE MARYLANDERS WON THEIR BUCKTAIL

In the affair of the rear guard action, fought at Harrisburg on 6 June 1862, during Stonewall Jackson's valley campaign, the lst Maryland Brigade, Colonel (later General) Bradley T Johnson was ordered by General Ewell, to charge through woods, in support of the 58th Virginia, then closely engaged with the 13th Pennsylvania (Bucktails).  They charged with a cheer but soon began to suffer from fire in the flank and rear.

Colonel Johnson gave the command "By the right flank, right file, march".  As soon as the colours came into line "By the left flank, charge!" The right companies charged at double quick, the left companies coming up at a run, thus changing front to the right under fire.  At the same instant, a volley from the enemy swept down the front files of the colour company, colour guard, and killed the horses of Ashby and Johnson and killed Ashby.  Johnson disentangling himself from his horse, led his brigade on and, according to Ewell, "Drove the enemy off with heavy loss".  The lst Maryland also wounded and captured the Bucktails. commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas L Kane.  General Fremont wrote that "a battalion of Colonel Kane's bucktail regent entered the woods under the direction of Brigadier General George D Bayard, and maintained for half an hour a vigorous attack in which both sides suffered severely, driving the enemy". Three Confederate colour sergeants were shot at one flag.

As the Ist Maryland was moving into the battle of Cross Keys, 8 June 1862, General Ewell directed Colonel Johnson to carry one of the "bucktails" captured from the enemy, affixed to his colours as a trophy.

Maryland losses at Harrisonburg:
9 (including Ashby) killed, 33 wounded, 1 missing.
 

67 year old Edmund Ruffin, a seccessionist, fired the first shot on Fort Sumter at 4.30 am, 12 April 1861.A member of the Virginia plantation aristocracy, he had campaigned vigorously for a Southern independent nation. Arriving at Morris Island outside Charleston he was made an honorary private in the Palmetto Guard, and later fought at Manassas.After the war he could not reconcile himself to Union victory and shot himself on 18 June 1865.

DID YOU KNOW

that after Gettysburg, 37,000 rifles were left on the field, 24,000 of them were loaded, 18,000 of them with more than one round, 1,500 with more than two loads, and 4 with more than 15.

that Sergeant William Carney of the 54th Massachusetts Coloured Infantry was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour 37 years after the event. On 18 July 1863, during the Union assault on Battery Wagner, Charleston SC, the colour bearer of the 54th fell, Carney grabbed the colour and carried it during the rest of the assault despite being wounded in the head, left arm, right leg and chest. He received the Medal on 4 July 1900.
During the 42 hour long bombardment of Battery Wagner prior to the assault, 1663 rifled projectiles and 1553 mortar shells were fired.
Losses during the assault on Batter Wagner
Union      : 246 wounded, 880 captured, 389 missing     Total 1515
Confederate:  44 wounded, 128 captured, 2 missing       Total  174

THE ANGEL OF MARYE'S HEIGHTS

On 13 December 1862, a series of attacks on the Confederate Army positioned At Fredricksburg cost the Army of the Potomac more than 12,000 casualties. The dead and  wounded littered the ground in front of the Sunken Road at the base of Marye,s Heights. All night long and the next day, wounded and dying
men cried out for water. One man could no longer stand the cries for help.  His name was Richard Rowland Kirkland. He asked his Brigadier General, John B Kershaw, Permission to go over the wall and give the wounded water. At first Kershaw denied his request. He eventually relented but would not allow Kirkland to display a white flag as a sign of truce.  Anxiously, Kirkland jumped over the wall on his errand of mercy. Thousands of amazed men on both sides saw the young sergeant carrying several canteens to the nearest sufferer.  The Federals, realizing his mission, held their fire for one and a half hours. He pursued his labour Of mercy comforting as many men as he could.  Both sides thereafter hailed him as the "Angel of Marye,s  Heights". The next day a truce was declared, and Union Surgeons and litter bearers were allowed to carry off the wounded.  Kirkland later was fatally wounded at Chickamauga on 20 September 1863 at the age of twenty years.

LOSSES AT FREDRICKSBURG

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you might like to contribute
please e-mail me
mailto:bull-run@oocities.com.

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