Harvey was a friend to the 104th Ohio, was wounded and later served as a comfort animal. A monument now has a statue to tell his story, tout vets' mental health

Harvey's collar and Capt. D.M. Stearns (Courtesy Battle of Franklin Trust); replica statue of the dog
at a Civil War memorial in Cleveland (Courtesy Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument)

Harvey was one beloved dog. The mascot of the 104^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was a fixture at camp, bringing cheer and companionship. He was wounded at least once and, after death, remembered in an oil painting perched in front of rows of veterans at an 1880s reunion.

A red, white and blue collar, festooned with military motifs and names of battle in which the regiment fought, survives and is recreated in a bronze statue of the pup, which is on display at The Battle of Franklin Trust’s Carter House in Tennessee. Harvey was with the regiment at Franklin.

Now, a copy of the Harvey statue is at the Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument in Cleveland, which commemorates the Civil War and honors the citizens of Cuyahoga County who fought for the Union, officials announced Sept. 26.

The faithful canine will further tell the story of the 104^th Ohio and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Harvey’s owner, Capt. Daniel Merrill Stearns, was said to never be the same after the war and was eventually institutionalized.

Harvey was believed to be a comfort animal for Stearns, and the monument has used their story in its annual veterans mental health program on the monument grounds, says executive director Greg Palumbo.

“It is a casual event where groups that provide non-traditional mental health therapies specifically directed toward veterans, such as Guitars 4 Vets, Paddle for Heroes, Irreverent Warriors, and many more, are able to interact with the public and hopefully make connections that help someone to find a place where they feel comfortable accepting help,” Palumbo said in an email.

Mental health resources for veterans largely did not exist during the Civil War.

“During the Civil War soldiers were left to deal with their mental health on their own, and if they were lucky enough to return home it was left to the family to quietly care for them behind closed doors (the) best they could,” said Palumbo.

Things got loud for 'Barking Dog Regiment'

Daniel Stearns, a native of Berea, Ohio, served in another regiment before he joined up with the 104^th Ohio. Most histories say he brought Harvey with him to the unit, which was dubbed “The Barking Dog Regiment” for its canine mascots.

“Harvey was treasured by the men. Harvey gave everyone a morale boost,” says the Battle of Franklin Trust. “He may have brought something normal and fun for the men to enjoy during the brutal war.”

A history of the regiment said Harvey “was an aristocrat and wore a brass collar with the legend, “I am Lieutenant D.M. Stearns’ dog, whose dog are you?” (Collar photo, courtesy Battle of Franklin Trust)

The regiment was active in the Atlanta Campaign and Harvey was reportedly wounded and captured at Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864. He recovered and was back with his comrades when they dug in at Franklin before a failed Confederate assault.

On Nov. 30, 1864, Adam Weaver of Company I wrote, “The regiment’s mascot, old dog Harvey, just paid us a visit. He somehow always looks me up. After a little bite and a hand pat too, moves on to Company ‘F’ boys.”

'His wife did the best she could'

Stearns and Harvey survived the fighting at Franklin, but the officer was grievously wounded at Nashville.

While the Battle of Franklin Trust said Harvey’s fate was unknown after Nashville, other accounts say the dog returned with Stearns to Ohio.

The Cleveland memorial said Harvey was an emotional support animal as this master dealt with undiagnosed PTSD. It’s possible other men in the 104^th came to care for the pup.

Palumbo said war trauma had different names before PTSD came into use in the 1970s. (Exterior of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Cleveland)

“No one believed that there was such a thing as a mental condition, there were only mental symptoms of physical conditions. Often you would see otherwise healthy men being diagnosed with things like heatstroke, which is what Daniel was diagnosed with, so that a physical ailment could be linked to their mental issues.”

Stearns, married with several children, carried on as best he could, and worked in Pittsburgh before returning to Ohio.

“His wife did the best she could with her children for as long as she could but eventually had to pass Daniel back to his parents and brothers,” said Palumbo

“They cared for him as well as they could but he was unable to hold a job and his mood swings became more than they could handle and he eventually had to be institutionalized.”

Painting of Harvey (left, foreground) at 1880s 104th Ohio reunion

The veteran contracted a kidney disease and comrades from the 194^th Ohio moved him to a boarding house closer to home. He died in 1890 at age 54.

“As to Harvey’s fate, we have searched but unfortunately, we have not yet been able to determine where he is buried or when he died,” said Joanna Stephens, director of historic sites and collections with The Battle of Franklin Trust.

Harvey’s collar was found with Stearns’ personal effects in the 1990s and is on loan to the trust.

Harvey serves a greater purpose today

The Franklin organization commissioned a likeness of Harvey in 2019 from local sculptor Janel Maher.

“We worked diligently with Janel to create a piece that showcased this beloved animal in the most accurate way possible. She used historic images and information to sculpt the piece, which includes a recreation of his red-white-and-blue collar with battle honors,” said Stephens.

The piece at Soldiers’ and Sailors’ was cast from the original molds with the trust’s blessing, she told the Picket. (Photo, courtesy The Battle of Franklin Trust)

The monument at 3 Public Square in Cleveland is 130 years old. Levi Scofield, the architect and sculptor, engineered the Union’s defensive works at the Battle of Franklin.

The venue has a 125-foot tall shaft topped with a goddess of freedom. Below is a memorial room featuring the names of 9,000 Cuyahoga County veterans who served in the Civil War.

Flower beds outside are in the shape of corps badges.

The Harvey statue is currently inside, but the monument will carve a space out of an existing landscaped bed between the monument and the Moses Cleaveland statue on the south edge of the square, officials said.

Display in Cleveland mentions PTSD, Stearns and Harvey (Soldiers' and Sailors' Monuments)

Harvey lives on in Franklin and Cleveland. His heroism and importance to human comrades is celebrated. His bond with Stearns is especially poignant.

“It is a sad story, one in which Harvey is a shining light,” said Palumbo. “Always a faithful companion. Brave in battle, a lover of music, compassionate to the other animal mascots, and beloved by the entire regiment.”

Rain-heavy storm drops a bomb on earthworks being recreated at North Carolina's Fort Fisher. It will take several more weeks for crews to fix erosion, finish project

South entrance of sallyport tunnel, bombproof tunnel at far left left; earthworks looking toward visitor center,
gun emplacement at top right; click to enlarge (Photos courtesy Fort Fisher State Historic Site)

Historic rainfall along a stretch of North Carolina’s coast heavily eroded replica earthworks going up at Fort Fisher, creating a cascade of mud and delaying the opening of a new visitor center by at least a month.

Communities south of Wilmington – among them Kure Beach and Carolina Beach – received more than 18 inches of rain in 12 hours on Sept. 16. The National Weather Service said such inundation occurs once every 200 years.

Fort Fisher State Historic Site now says the park reopening, originally set for this Friday, will be pushed back until the earthworks are completed. Officials are not sure when that will occur.

A bleak view of the north end of the sallyport tunnel, amid shifted dirt and debris

“There has been a fair amount of damage around the site due to flooding/storm damage. Some trees and limbs came down, along with some pieces of the (replica) palisade fence,” said assistant site manager Chad Jefferds.

The visitor center roof had a small leak and the road to a park maintenance facility was washed out. “The sand in the washout was essentially quicksand.”

By far the biggest damage was to the unusual earthworks project.

The site closed in April to make way for completion of the visitor center and the recreation of three traverses, bombproofs, a magazine and the sally port. Fort Fisher’s use during World War II helped the Allied cause but destroyed some of its familiar defensive traverses. They were removed to make way for an airstrip when the area was used for training anti-aircraft and coastal artillery units.

View from the visitor center to the north parking lot on Sept. 16.

Jefferds said beyond scraping away much of the muck at the earthworks site, the contractor must wait for the proper moisture levels for replacing dirt. “It’s not a simple process.”

“The Underwater Archaeology Branch facility sustained some damage from water intrusion. There are many homes on the island that took major flood damage and some condos have been condemned,” said Jefferds.

A photograph the site posted to social media on Friday was taken last Monday from the front of the visitor center facing north toward the parking lot. “Our thoughts are with all those affected by the storm,” the park wrote.

Entrance to the sallyport tunnel as the storm is happening, fallen tree elsewhere

The state historic site near Kure Beach will feature a two-story visitor center and museum..

Fort Fisher was built on the peninsula between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Wilmington. It is best known as a crucial coastal bastion for the Confederacy.

On Jan. 15, 1865, after a naval bombardment, the Federal army attacked from the western, river side while Marines pushed in from the northeast bastion. The fall of the “Gibraltar of the South” cut off blockade runners and the last supply line through Wilmington to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

Petersburg, Appomattox trading cards tell the compelling stories of five soldiers, including a patriotic USCT officer who was wearing this kepi when he was shot

Cards for three soldiers, James Roantree's kepi and grave and photo of William Montgomery (NPS)

I don’t get up to Virginia and Maryland very often, so I took advantage of my family encouraging me to visit Petersburg, Monocacy (first time) and Manassas battlefields during a mid-August trip.

While leaving the visitor center/museum at Petersburg National Battlefield’s Eastern Front Unit, I spied boxes filled with surplus Civil War “trading cards” from the sesquicentennial.

I felt like a kid! I scooped up the five cards detailing specific soldiers, three of whom were killed near the war’s end.

I was familiar with two of the men but had not heard of the others. Thus began a journey of discovery after the ever-helpful Emmanuel Dabney, chief of resource management at Petersburg, got me started.

Dabney said the park recently launched a 13-part StoryMap interactive page highlighting the experiences of James Roantree (one of the trading cards) and his brother Robert. The text largely draws upon letters and James' 1864 diary, among several other fascinating resources.

"Their correspondence with their family members illustrates some common themes of this period, but their bitter opposition to those Northerners who did not wish to persecute the war in a manner that would destroy the Confederacy is fascinating," said Dabney.

"It's the family's efforts in the years after the Civil War to preserve the objects, letters, and diaries that really is of great value,” he said of the project.

The park has a chilling artifact: James Roantree’s kepi, which still has a bullet hole entry. He was killed in the Battle of Boydton Plank Road southwest of Petersburg.

I have used park information and other sources to learn the stories of these five men. The card for Roantree has his last name misspelled.

UNION SGT. DECATUR DORSEY

Amid the chaos following the Crater explosion at Petersburg on July 30, 1864, Sgt. Decatur Dorsey planted the flag on Confederate works as comrades with the 39^th USCT advanced into the breach.

Rare photo of black troops (background) in the field in Virginia (See more here)

Dorsey and his flag rallied men when they were pushed back. His heroism -- just months after gaining freedom from enslavement – earned him the Medal of Honor in November 1865. The park has nothing in its collections about Dorsey and, as is typically the case with African-American soldiers, has no photograph of him.

Dabney did point me to some information about Dorsey's life while enslaved in Howard County, Md. A researcher wrote that Dorsey’s slave name was Cato. Dorsey attempted a store burglary after his master died in 1858, possibly “part of a plan to run away and escape the risk of being ‘sold South.’”

After conviction, Dorsey escaped, was captured and sent to prison to complete his sentence. After he was released, he was purchased again, says the Howard County Historical Society.

A stack of trading cards at the Eastern Front visitor center (Picket photo)

At 28, he obtained his freedom in some manner shortly before the spring campaign of 1864 began. He enlisted with the 39^th USCT in Baltimore and was promoted twice before Petersburg.

Under cover of darkness on July 29, 1864, Dorsey and his regiment filed in to the trenches before Fort Morton on the eastern front of Petersburg, according to the National Park Service.

The Union army detonated a mine underneath the Confederate lines. After the mine's detonation, Federal soldiers rushed forward only to become trapped inside the crater and the defensive works on both sides. Dorsey was vulnerable as a target and the fact he could not use a weapon while carrying the flag.

The Union army was unable to exploit any advantage they had gained and soon withdrew to their lines.

The heavily engaged 39^th USCT saw action at Weldon Railroad, Poplar Grove church and Hatcher’s Run during the Petersburg campaign. It took part in the capture of Fort Fisher in North Carolina in January 1865 and helped occupy Wilmington.

Dorsey was honorably discharged in December 1865 while in Wilmington, North Carolina.

He married soon after and died in 1891 from the effects of typhoid and rheumatism he had contracted in Wilmington, at the approximate age of 55.

He is buried in Flower Hill Cemetery, North Bergen, NJ. (Photo courtesy Glenn Blank/ Findagrave)

UNION PVT. WILLIAM MONTGOMERY

All who have read about the Civil War – or any conflict, for that matter – have thought how cruel it was for a combatant to die just days, or hours, before the fighting was over.

Of course, any death from 1861 to 1865 was a terrible loss to loved ones, friends and comrades.

Pvt. William Montgomery of the 155^th Pennsylvania Infantry was mortally wounded about the time a flag of truce was exchanged on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Confederate forces surrendered shortly afterward.

The Pittsburgh native had enlisted in Company I in August 1864 when he was 18, weighed only 115 founds and stood 5 feet 6 inches tall.

“By this point in the war, the 155th PA wore the iconic Zouave uniforms. These uniforms, adopted from the French, stood out thanks to their red fez hats, a jacket with yellow trim, a red sash, and baggy French Chasseur trousers,” according to the National Park Service.

After taking part in the siege of Petersburg, the 155^th marched on the Maria Wright House at Appomattox.Court House, an area held by the Confederate Richmond Howitzers..

Patrick A. Schroeder, historian at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, wrote in his book "More Myths About Lee's Surrender," the 155th Pennsylvania was in a skirmish line when officers arrived with a ceasefire order. "As the firing began to die away, an artillery shell (or fragments of a shell) tore into young Montgomery. His fancy Zouave uniform was shredded, and much of his equipment was ripped from his body. The shell made a wound to Montgomery's inner right thigh."

He lingered for nearly three weeks.

“Under the Maltese Cross,” a book about the 155^th Pennsylvania, said, “Young Montgomery’s last words were messages of love and affection to his mother and the tender of comforting hopes that his injuries were not serious.”

He died the next day, on April 29, 1865, “while the paroling ceremonies were being enacted,” according to the book. (At left, NPS photo showing position of Rebel guns at Appomattox)

The young soldier is believed to be the last enlisted man killed in Virginia during the Civil War, but that is not possible to confirm. He is buried with other Federal dead at Poplar Grove National Cemetery at Petersburg.

A wayside marker at Appomattox details last casualties (NPS photo; click to enlarge)

Montgomery’s mother applied for the soldier’s pension.

Schroeder wrote it was a myth that Montgomery was only 15 when he died. And the regimental history was incorrect in saying the soldier died during paroling ceremonies, he said.

I asked the NPS historian why the Montgomery story resonates today.

“Undoubtedly, any soldiers killed or mortally wounded at Appomattox is tragic," Schroeder replied in an email. "Though it is myth that he was 15 as stated in the 155^th Pa regimental history, he was still young, 19. And he enlists as a substitute in the fall of 1864, probably to help support his family, only to be hit by a shell in the waning moments of the battle on the morning of April 9. Very sad."

CONFEDERATE COL. WILLIE PEGRAM

Like other boys of means in antebellum Virginia, William Ransom Johnson Pegram, or Willie, was born to be a soldier. As a teen in the militia, Pegram witnessed John Brown’s execution and as a law student joined the Confederate army when he was 19.

A marker showing the area in which Pegram fells (Devry Jones/HMdb.org)

Dubbed the “Boy Artillerist” by the late historian James “Bud:” Robertson, Pegram gained fame at Mechanicsville and fought at Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, among other engagements.

“He was notably nearsighted -- and the story in Richmond was that's why he had to get so close to the enemy before engaging,” according to Antietam on the Web.

Rebel Maj. Gen. Henry Heth thought Pegram “one of the few men…supremely happy in battle.”

Robertson wrote that statement was true.

“Soldiers never tired of telling how, one afternoon when Pegram rode down his line of guns, an artilleryman waved his hat aloft and shouted: ‘Come on, boys! Here comes that damned little man with the glasses! We’re going to fight ‘em now.’

Living historians who have portrayed Pegram's unit at Petersburg (NPS photo)

Gen. Robert E. Lee declined to promote Pegram to general, believing he was too valuable as an artillery officer and was needed with his men and guns.

Nearly two months after his brother John, an infantry general, was killed, Pegram met the same fate at the Battle of Five Forks. He was mortally wounded during a Federal attack on April 1, 1865, and died the next day.

“To the end, he believed God would see the Confederate cause through to victory,” reads his trading card. He and John are buried together at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

Pegram’s letters are in the collection of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, said Dabney.

UNION 2^nd LT. JAMES ROANTREE

Like about a half million other immigrants to the United States, brothers James and Robert Roantree heeded the call to arms to preserve the Union.

The Roantree family had moved from England to upstate New York in Madison County, east of Syracuse. James (photo left, courtesy of PNB) was about 10. He grew up to be a miller before the war.

The brothers enlisted in 1862 in the 157^th New York, and James, at least, had no shortage of patriotic fervor. Letters he wrote expounded on his determination to help subdue the South and, during a furlough, he worked for President Lincoln’s re-election in 1864.

Petersburg National Battlefield has a poetic musing by James written some time during the war. It is a florid story of love and loss, including these discouraging lines:

“She looked up in his face with earnest eyes and laid her hand in his, and bade him wake. And love another, fairer, freer, maid. He would be happy soon, she knew he would. He must for her dear sake.”

James soldiered on and was wounded at Gettysburg while still with the 157^th New York.

After hospitalization in Philadelphia and further service, Roantree joined the 43^rd U.S. Colored Infantry in September 1864 as a junior officer. He expressed his zeal in a letter:

“As regards commanding Negroes I think that someone must do it and believe it is perfectly right that they should be employed and therefore (I) am willing to fight with them and do what I can to put down this Rebellion.”

Roantree’s service with the USCT was brief. He wrote ahead of the Oct. 27, 1864, fighting at Boydton Plank Road.

“All we can do is to hope and trust in him who holds the destinies of all in his hands to bring us through. If I fall in the fray, I wish to fall at my post and I feel that if I am not permitted to survive the contest I shall fall while doing my duty.”

The bachelor was the only officer with the 43^rd USCT to die in the skirmish.

James Roantree's grave in New York (Courtesy of Douglas Holdridge)

His body was returned a month later to Clockville, N.Y., where he is buried with relatives.

Doug Holdridge of the Clockville Cemetery Association kindly took photos of the graves for me. He said burials in the small agriculture community date to the 1700s. He was unaware of any direct Roantree descendants in the area.

The community acknowledges James on Memorial Day with a veterans flag.

A descendant donated a number of items related to the brothers to Petersburg National Battlefield back in the 1990s.

“We have exhibited items from the collection at various times,” said Dabney.

One is a clothes brush that belonged to either James or Robert. James’ pocket diary and some letters home are in the collection, along with the kepi he wore when killed.

A letter from James Roantree to his family and his pocket diary (Petersburg NB)

I asked Dabney about the use of StoryMaps by the National Park Service.

“They are useful for spatial data where there are changes over time. In the case of the Roantrees, the StoryMap will highlight the brothers movements from England (where they were born), to New York, to Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and for Robert to the Deep South where he spent time in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina before mustering out. 

David L. Sadler, town of Lincoln historian, said Robert served as a school teacher in Clockville after the war. Robert died in 1911 and is buried in Canastota, a few miles away from James.

UNION MAJ. GOV. GOUVERNEUR K. WARREN

After leading troops at Second Manassas and the Peninsula Campaign, Warren earned everlasting fame at Gettysburg. The chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac directed troops to take unoccupied Little Round Top in July 1863.and save the Union left and set up victory.

Warren peers for eternity at enemy troops below at Gettysburg (NPS)

A bronze statue of Warren gazes below from the summit; it is among the Pennsylvania battlefield’s most-famous landmarks.

Warren later led II Corps in Virginia before taking over the V Corps. He did well during much of the long Petersburg siege, but his reputation was sullied in the final months of the war.

“He led his corps in the Battle of Five Forks, the first action of the Appomattox Campaign. By that time Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had found Warren troublesome because of his questioning of orders and unwelcome suggestions,” reads an Army Corps of Engineers biography.

“Grant gave Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan authority to remove Warren from command of V Corps, which Sheridan, who disliked Warren, promptly did, alleging that Warren had not vigorously pressed the action at Five Forks.”

The bitter Wallace was reassigned to the defenses of Petersburg.

“After the war, he resigned his commission as a major general in protest to Sheridan’s actions, and returned to the Corps of Engineers.  He spent the rest of his career attempting to exonerate his name,” said the American Battlefield Trust.

The general, known for his complex nature, called for a court martial to investigate the Sheridan controversy. An 1879 inquiry issued a report exonerating Warren in 1882, shortly after he died of diabetes complications at age 52. 

“At his request he was buried in civilian clothing and without military honors,” the Corps says.

The title of a biography on Warren might sum up his complicated career: “Happiness Is Not My Companion.”

'Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colors wave!: Professor using fellowship to learn more about how Americans turned to Shakespeare to interpret the Civil War

1864 cartoon depicting George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln in a "Hamlet" scene

From the White House desk of President Abraham Lincoln to book shelves in homes across America, the works of William Shakespeare were omnipresent during the Civil War.

Lincoln favored “Macbeth,” soldiers staged Shakespearean plays and people in North and South used the bard’s writings to justify their cause and express their deepest emotions at a time of great sacrifice and loss.

Now, a Massachusetts Historical Society fellowship is helping a history professor conduct research for a book she’s writing about reading habits and practices during the Civil War, particularly in regard to the works of Shakespeare.

Dr. Sarah Gardner, distinguished professor of history at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., is the recipient of the Suzanne and Caleb Loring Fellowship. The fellowship is entitled “Shakespeare Fights the American Civil War.”

Dr. Gardner has received more than 15 grants and fellowships (Mercer University)

She spent part of the summer at the historical society, which specializes in Union war efforts. Next June, she will travel to the Boston Athenaeum, which focuses on the Confederate side and has print materials, including newspapers, journal articles, books and poems.

“I became interested in Shakespeare because Shakespeare was popular with the Civil War generation,” the cultural historian told the Picket in an email. “He was evoked in speeches, he was popular on the lecture circuit, his plays were performed by amateur and by professional actors, allusions were deployed in magazines and in short and long fiction. I am largely interested in the ways soldiers and people on the home front used Shakespeare in their correspondence and diaries.”

Gardner, a cultural historian, has taught courses and written about the American South, the Civil War and Reconstruction. She gave three lectures in 2021 at Penn State University.

“Civil War-era Americans … turned to Shakespeare for universal truths,” said a preview of the series. “Shakespeare, they believed, spoke to abiding concerns, such as the soul of genius, the power of the imagination, and of the heroic individual’s ability to determine an event’s outcome.”

Both sides during the Civil War interpreted Shakespeare in a way advantageous to them.

“I haven't seen any meaningful difference between Unionists' and Confederates' uses of Shakespeare. And they don't always cite Shakespeare to defend a cause,” Gardner told the Picket.

Hamlet and Macbeth were especially popular with Civil War Americans.  

As Gardner and other scholars point out, Shakespeare had a lot to say about war. Two lines from  “Richard II” and “Macbeth” on the subject.

“He is come to open
The purple testament of bleeding war.”

And

“When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.”

“Macbeth” apparently was Lincoln’s favorite. As an essay published on the National Endowment for the Humanities website says, the president did not suffer the weight of guilt and excesses as did Macbeth – who spoke of powerlessness.

“Instead, he got something far more abstract from Macbeth’s famous soliloquy. Throughout his life, Lincoln was deeply attracted to the idea of unchanging destiny, and used this ‘predestination’ mindset to help him survive even the most traumatic of events. In many ways, he saw his presidential legacy not as the result of well-ordered strategy and political planning, but as the sheer result of some higher order of which he was merely an often unwitting tool.” 

Ironically, Lincoln, a theatergoer, was assassinated by an actor who played Macbeth: John Wilkes Booth. (At right, Booth brothers, John at left, in 1864 for "Julius Caesar.")

One of the most-famous cartoons of the Civil War was the “Chicago Nominee,” drawn by Justin H. Howard. It shows Union Gen. George McClellan, who ran against Lincoln in 1864, depicted as Hamlet in the graveyard scene.

“Instead of the skull of court jester Yorick, McClellan addresses the head of President Abraham Lincoln, his Republican opponent. Governor Horatio Seymour of New York is cast as Hamlet’s friend Horatio, and the grave digger is a famished Irish immigrant,” says a description of the cartoon by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“In 1862 Lincoln removed General McClellan, who had been in command of the Union army, from active duty after he failed to achieve a decisive victory at Antietam -- the bloodiest battle in American military history. The caption at the bottom of the image alludes to false newspaper reports that Lincoln had acted with inappropriate levity while touring the Civil War battlefield at Antietam.

The caption borrows an Act IV line from “Hamlet”: “I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest. Where be your gibes now?”

Frederick Douglass was another big fan of Shakespeare. After the war, he was at a dinner with Powhatan Beaty, an African-American Medal of Honor recipient who became an actor, notably playing Macbeth.

A Mercer University news release about the fellowship says Gardner is reading letters, diaries and books to learn more what they read, much of which was from Shakespeare. People often used the author’s words to describe their experiences during the Civil War.

“I’m really interested in how people think and how they make sense of the world,” the professor and author said in the release. “The history of emotions allows us to enter a world removed from us, either by time or place. Everyone experiences joy or pain, but they experience them differently. We can better understand our historical actors by appealing to the history of emotions.”

The new Fort Fisher visitor center, opening Sept. 27, will tell a wider story. Crews at the North Carolina Civil War site are rushing to finish recreated earthworks

New visitor center, Civil War map along staircase to the second floor and a colorized version of a Timothy O'Sullivan photograph of a damaged Fort Fisher traverse (FFSHS)

(Editor's note: The park announced Sept. 20 the opening is indefinitely postponed due to flooding damage from a tropical system)

A new and larger visitor center at Fort Fisher below Wilmington, N.C., will provide a broader and more people-centric history than the previous venue, officials said.

The state historic site near Kure Beach recently announced the two-story visitor center and its museum will open on Sept. 27. The park closed in April for construction of the 20,000-square-foot visitor center and for an usual rebuilding of earthworks.

“There are a few more items in the Civil War section, but the new sections covering the time before Fort Fisher as well as the span of time between the Civil War and WWII are where we had to bring in the most new artifacts,” assistant site manager Chad Jefferds told the Picket.

Fort Fisher was built on the peninsula between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Wilmington. It is best known as a crucial coastal bastion for the Confederacy.

A Whitworth gun on the first floor of the visitor center (FFSHS)

On Jan. 15, 1865, after a naval bombardment, the Federal army attacked from the western, river side while Marines pushed in from the northeast bastion. The fall of the “Gibraltar of the South” cut off blockade runners and the last supply line through Wilmington to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. U.S. Colored Troops were among those taking part in the attack.

Essentially everything between Shepherd’s Battery on the western end of the fort’s land face and the center sally port were the scenes of intense fighting during the US Army’s assault. The fighting went from along the traverses from west to east and was often hand-to-hand.

Fort Fisher’s use during World War II helped the Allied cause but destroyed some of its familiar defensive traverses. They were removed to make way for an airstrip when the area was used for training anti-aircraft and coastal artillery units.

Construction crews are working to complete recreations of three traverses, bombproofs, a magazine and the sally port, Jefferds said. “The dirt being brought in has to dry out to a certain level before it can be used, but the weather has not been conducive. Hopefully it will be ready for our grand opening, but it’s no guarantee at this point.”

Sally port tunnel on far left during traverse reconstruction. At far right is historic traverse (FFSHS)

With the three traverses will come two gun emplacements, which will each have a heavy cannon, along with two 12-pounder Napoleons in the center sally port.

The new visitor center stands about 100 yards from the fort wall. It is just north of the east-west line mounds of earth known as traverses that were part of the defenses. Much of the eastern part of the fort has been claimed by the ocean. 

“Not only will visitors be able to see the majority of the remaining traverses from the second floor, they will also be able to see them as they approach from the parking lot. This is one of the main reasons for the first floor being perpendicular to the second floor,” said Jefferds.(bombproof recreation, below)

The visitor center’s first floor has a welcome desk, gift shop, restrooms and staff offices.

The second floor houses the main exhibit gallery as well as a temporary exhibit gallery that will change regularly. It  is home to an information desk, an orientation theater, restrooms and a multipurpose room that can be used for a classroom space, banquets or wedding receptions.

Among the wall displays is a colorized Timothy O’Sullivan photo of the fort taken shortly after its fall.

“That particular photo is of the 4^th traverse along the land face of the fort, likely where the fort’s commander Col. William Lamb was wounded,” said Jefferds. “It really shows the carnage that abounded here after the U.S. Navy’s bombardment and ensuing land battle, with the broken cannons and debris scattered all around.”

I asked him whether the venue will tell the same story, with some twists.

“The story is the same and Fort Fisher is obviously the central theme, but the way it’s told is different. We’ve tried to tell the story of Fort Fisher through the eyes of the people who lived, worked, fought and died here. We’ve also enhanced the coverage of the time before the Civil War as well as the time after, all the way through WWII when the fort served as a training facility for antiaircraft and coastal artillery units.”

Parking and admission at the site is free. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. The building is wheelchair-accessible and an elevator goes to the second floor.

James Longstreet was here: Civil War veterans often mailed or gave out calling cards at reunions and meetings. Manassas has one that belonged to the general

One of the general's calling (visiting) cards (Manassas National Battlefield Park)

William Adams Longstreet was born in 1897 to a family noted for its celebrity -- and controversy. His grandfather, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, was in his final years, bloodied but unbowed after decades of defying the South, as a biography describes him.

William was just 6 when his grandfather, 82, died in January 1904 in Gainesville, Ga. Like others related to the general, William grew up in the town with a purpose.

“He was a jovial man who was dedicated to clearing the general’s name,” nephew Dan Paterson said of William.

James Longstreet was pilloried by foes for his performance at Gettysburg and, later, support for Reconstruction, black suffrage and the Republican Party. Recent books, however, have brought him a good measure of vindication.

William (second from left), half-sister Jamie (behind stone) and Dan Paterson at Alta Vista Cemetery in 1969

As the last direct descendant with the surname Longstreet, William felt an extra obligation by taking up the mantle and defending “OId Pete” whenever he could. William – who worked for the U.S. Postal Service and lived in Washington, D.C. -- made appearances at battlefields and joined a Sons of Confederate Veterans camp named for his grandfather.

The descendant in 1959 donated a Gen. Longstreet calling card and an unframed print of a painting of the general to Manassas National Battlefield Park. Park museum specialist Jim Burgess told me the painting was made by renowned artist Howard Chandler Christy.

I learned of the calling card after a recent visit to the park, and I decided to delve into the topic. Such cards were the equivalent of today’s business cards, though most did not include contact information.

That’s because they were often mailed or given out, such as the likely case with Longstreet, at battlefields, veteran reunions and public events. The general (right) dispensed them as a sign of goodwill, rather than the pursuit of business.

Calling cards (or visiting cards) were popular with members of the Grand Army of the Republic (Union), United Confederate Veterans and other organizations.

“The heyday was in in the 1880s and 1890s during their highest membership,” said Everitt Bowles, who sells calling cards on his “Civil War Badges” website. “They’re not hard to find if you're involved with Civil War events. The higher prices are usually because of the elite regiments or for how famous the soldier was. Of course, there were a lot more common soldiers in the war versus the generals.”

Such cards can go for as little as $10 to several hundred dollars.

“Longstreet was such a famous person. He would give them out at reunions,” said Vann Martin of the online shop “The Veteran’s Attic.”

General was warmly welcomed at reunions

Longstreet was all about national reconciliation after the Civil War and he famously traveled to Gettysburg and to all manner of meetings and reunions.

His card simply read “James Longstreet, First Corps Army of Northern Virginia, ’61-’65. The top left featured the third national flag of the Confederate States of America.

“I am not familiar with how extensive James Longstreet calling cards might be. Given his longevity, it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't use several different styles over the years,” said Jim Ogden, historian at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. “I'd say this definitely has to be postwar, probably, given the stylized Third National, very postwar.”

The original Christy painting of the general hangs in Chickamauga and Chattanooga visitor center (Picket photo, left).

Longstreet’s widow, Helen Dortch Longstreet, a tireless advocate, commissioned the painting. A second version of the subject is on loan from Gettysburg National Military Park to the Longstreet Society, based in Gainesville.

Ogden cites Longstreet as an example of recent interest in Civil War memory.

Scholars and authors in recent decades have brought new interpretations of the man, finding he was not the “Southern Judas” he came to be called.

Many collectors love postwar reunion items and calling cards

Dan Paterson (right), William’s nephew and a great-grandson of James, said the general made numerous postwar journeys, including Fredericksburg in 1884; Knoxville, Tenn., circa 1893; Chickamauga for the 1899 dedication of the Georgia monument; Chicago; Gettysburg twice; and Richmond, Va., for the 1890 unveiling of its Lee monument

The general must have carried his calling cards to these and reunions.

Martin, with “The Veteran’s Attic,” said he has collected a few calling cards bearing a photograph, but they are somewhat unusual.

Longstreet’s card, he said, would have been treasured by those who received one. “He had people writing him all the time. They wanted his signature.”

Union veterans were more likely to have them printed “because they had more money. The South had to go through Reconstruction,” said Martin.

T.J. Jones of the 41st Tennessee (The Veteran's Attic)

Calling cards draw some interest, but they are not a priority, said Martin.

His website includes a card made for T.J. Jones of the 41^st Tennessee Infantry (above). The private was wounded captured twice during the war. He later worked for the railroad. He died in 1910. The card includes a photo of the bearded Jones as a veteran. The card is on sale for $335.

Some collectors focus on pennants, badges and pins from Civil War reunions. A more unusual item was one made of seashells in the 1890s for a GAR post in Buffalo, N.Y., Martin said.

Cards and portraits of Bowley, Lord and Wolff, click to enlarge (Library of Congress)

The Library of Congress has a few online images of Civil War calling cards, among them one for nurse Helena E. Miller Wolff, 1^st Lt. Charles P. Lord of the 6^th Massachusetts Infantry and 1^st Lt. Freeman Sparks Bowley of the 30^th U.S. Colored Troops.

Bowley, a white officer, is remembered for a vivid account of the battle of the Crater at Petersburg and its aftermath and his memoir.

Hated by many in the South, beloved at Gettysburg meeting

When I visited and interviewed people about Longstreet some 15 years ago, his story was little-known to most Americans. The novel “The Killer Angels” and the film “Gettysburg,” coupled with scholarship by historians, helped to usher in a reassessment of the general. More favorable books have followed.

At the Longstreet Society’s annual memorial at the general's grave at Alta Vista Cemetery this year, president Richard Pilcher gave a brief summary of the general’s life, mentioning his military prowess, public service and courage away from the battlefield – working for reconciliation after the war. “Many Southerners considered him a traitor to the cause, and blamed him for the Confederacy’s defeat,” he said.

Longstreet in postwar years voiced his opinion that Gen. Robert E. Lee should not have launched the disastrous Day Three attack at Gettysburg. Advocates of the romantic Lost Cause myth lashed out at him, and said he failed Lee at Gettysburg by delaying the execution of orders. Some of the general's writings in various newspapers often backfired on him.

Many Confederate veterans lionized him and he was popular at reunions, including a notable gathering at Gettysburg in 1888.

Civil War blogger John Banks has written about Longstreet’s trip to Pennsylvania and the general’s friendship with former foe Dan Sickles and other Union luminaries.

“The most celebrated man at the event sported massive, white whiskers and a cleanly shaven chin: James Longstreet, who commanded the Confederates’ First Corps at Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863. Nearly everywhere Robert E. Lee’s ‘Old War Horse’ went he drew appreciative, and often awestruck, crowds,” Banks wrote a few years back.

Longstreet (center) and Sickles (right) during the 1888 reunion (Gettysburg NMP)

As the blogger points out, the general was more popular in the North than the South because of his alignment with President Ulysses S. Grant and the Republican Party. Former colleagues in gray savaged him for daring to criticize Lee’s decisions at Gettysburg.

The main hallway at the Piedmont Hotel in Gainesville, home to the Longstreet Society, has copies of documents on his appointment to federal offices, including postmaster, U.S. marshal and minister to Turkey. He also served as a railroad commissioner.

I recently asked Banks to describe Longstreet’s personality.

“Seems like guy I’d want to have a beer with -- good dude. Not a loudmouth.”

As for Sickles?

“Loudmouth”

William A. Longstreet was an ambassador for his grandfather

Dan Paterson’s late mother, Jamie Louise Longstreet Paterson (left), was crucial in the fight to vindicate the general’s conduct, during and after the Civil War.

Jamie was born 25 years after the death of James Longstreet, who had moved to Gainesville in 1875 and operated a hotel.

She was born in Gainesville to Fitz Randolph “Ranny” Longstreet – one of the general’s sons -- and Zelia Stover Longstreet.

Randolph’s first wife, Josie, died in 1904 and he remarried in 1929. William A. Longstreet’s mother was Josie and Jamie was his much younger half-sister.

Jamie grew up in Gainesville, married the late William D. Paterson and they lived in Washington and Bowie, Md.

Dan Paterson, now in his mid-60s and living in Centreville, Va., said the calling cards were passed on to Ranny, who kept them in a metal box. That container survives today and remains in the family.

Dan used the card as a template for his own business card.

Ranny Longstreet was a farmer and loving father, said Dan Paterson. “My grandfather was  … easy-going, he did not go into the military.”

William with book by James Longstreet, with Herman Leonard and in 1969 (Courtesy of Dan Paterson)

Paterson recalls his time with William in Georgia and elsewhere. They joined the same Richmond-based SCV chapter that was named for James Longstreet.

Paterson, a member of the Bull Run Civil War Round Table, has defended James his entire life. So did Herman Leonard, a family friend who gave talks about the general.

Paterson keeps a copy of a photo  (below) of William Longstreet and Leonard taken at Gettysburg in 1965. They stand in front of a shack that was labeled as Longstreet’s headquarters, which actually was a short distance away.

William A Longstreet and Herman Leonard (Courtesy of Dan Paterson)

“It was a tourist attraction from a leftover bunch of buildings in the area that were vendors.  I have the sign hanging in my basement,” said Paterson. The building no longer stands.

“That shack, much like that portrait, were my landmarks at Gettysburg when we were kids.”

William Adams Longstreet died in 1973 at age 76. He and his wife Gladys left behind no children.

He rests near Jamie, his parents and the general in the family plot at Alta Vista.

A U.S. flag flutters above them.