John Fritz describe weapons during a talk May 22 at Kennesaw Mountain (NPS photo) |
Pvt. Fritz
was likely picked for an Army of the Cumberland XX Corps detachment known as pioneers
because he was a carpenter and dependable. During the Atlanta Campaign, the acting engineers followed Union skirmishers and made sure roads and bridges were in
place or passable for the main army, among other duties.
They were, in essence, tips of the spear.
John Fritz, a reenactor from Chandler, Ariz., this week is making short presentations about Federal infantry weapons at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park near Atlanta. He has a pioneer chevron on his uniform sleeve as a tribute to his ancestor, who fought in many campaigns, including in June 1864 at Kolb’s Farm near Kennesaw Mountain.“Those guys had their work cut out from them,” the electronic engineer told me over the phone, without first realizing the pun. “They were responsible for going ahead and clearing the roads and muddy creek crossings.”
Fritz, 61, will give talks at 1:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday near the park visitor center. (Photo left, National Park Service)
Fritz has
volunteered at the park for the last 10 years during visits to Georgia to
attend events. He just attended a reenactment in Resaca, Ga. (where the 105th
Illinois fought), and will attend an anniversary event Saturday at the Pickett’s Mill battlefield
west of Kennesaw Mountain.
Fritz wanders
the Kennesaw Mountain battlefield and talks with visitors about the life of an
infantrymen and specifically his ancestor, who fought in North Georgia and at Peachtree Creek in Atlanta. “I feel people like to hear that connection.”
This week, he
has set up a table displaying four guns the Federal army used.
The reenactor
did not know of his great-great-grandfather’s service until his father died in
2011. “The family didn’t say anything about it, even my grandparents,” John Fritz
told the Picket.
His father,
Dale, was from Elgin, Illinois, and the family moved to Southern California
when John was young.
He has since
learned that Christopher Fritz, a native of Germany, enlisted early in the war
while in his early 30s. He served in the 105th's Company G.
“I basically
followed his whole route, pretty much traced his footsteps from Belvidere,
Illinois, to Washington, DC,” where Christopher mustered out in June 1865, two
weeks after the Grand Review of the Armies.
The soldier lost a thumb to gunfire while on guard duty for several months at Fort Negley in Nashville. The incident apparently was accidental, John Fritz says. Christopher received a pension about 15 years after the war
The veteran
had a family in Belvidere and died in August 1903 at age 73. John helped
arrange for a new Veterans Administration headstone to be placed at the grave.(Photo courtesy of John Fritz)
John is a
member of the Scottsdale Civil War Roundtable in Arizona. He has been to
several battlefields where the 105th Illinois fought, including a
couple in North Carolina.
“I just really got interested in learning about my ancestor and it turned into a project to honor him, learn more about him. I enjoy traveling. I had never been to the South.”
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