Old-school cool: Monocacy's electric map has retired but will still have a use. The new digital version in revamped museum has more bells and whistles, sans nostalgia

People of a certain age (myself included!) remember visiting battlefields or museums in their youth and gazing in wonder at electric maps, which had topographic features and blinking lights showing troop movements. It was all so mesmerizing.

Well, time and newer technology eventually overcame these delightful displays. Replacement parts and folks who could make repairs became harder to find.

While many long ago were retired, the upstairs electric map at Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Md., operated until the museum closed for a significant renovation. (Above, Picket video of map in August 2024).

The recently reopened museum about 45 miles west of Baltimore has a high-tech map that tells a wider story and is not prone to breaking down (at least so far).

Derek Schaerdel (above, NPS photo)) of Troop 1812 in Frederick built a display case and rolling tabletop for the old electric map. He did this as his Eagle Scout project, the park said in a recent Facebook post.

Park officials said they will touch up the map and use it as an orientation piece (more below). It will no longer be electrified.

At Monocacy on July 9, 1864, outnumbered Federals delayed Confederates bent on taking Washington, D.C. By the time Rebel troops reached the capital’s outskirts, Union reinforcements had arrived. 

Ranger Matt Borders answered the Picket’s questions about the old and new maps. His emailed responses have been edited for brevity and order.

Q.  How old is this old map? Has it always been on display till the renovation?

A. The old map was part of the new museum when the visitor center opened in 2007. There have been times through the years when it wasn't working until we could find someone to work on it, which wasn't easy. Lights were changed over to LED, the guts were rewired or redirected.

We had a retired NASA volunteer work on it at one point and contracted with another company to give it a bit of an overhaul. For that type of technology. 18 years is a pretty good run. The new program won't have that issue. (Map in 2024, Picket photos)

Q. Did it occasionally "break down" -- lose lights? Will the new presentation eliminate that kind of thing?

A. The former map was 18 years old and was feeling its age. While most guests would not have noticed it, there were parts of the program that had stopped working and were not able to be repaired. 

The larger problem (was) the parts for the old map were no longer available, specifically the specialized light bulbs that the fiber optics used. 

Q. What are the tradeoffs of the "new" map vs. this one?

A. Not only does the new map program cover more of the overall campaign but includes aspects of the battle that had not been covered previously, such as the fighting near Jug Bridge north of the National Park Service property. 

The biggest benefit is that the program is now digital and is not restricted by a physical map board. The program can be run on other displays, making it more flexible and less technical for repairs. If a screen stops working, we can have that looked or replaced, as opposed to changing lighting and timing belts that would have to occur with the previous map.

Q. Can you please describe the new map presentation?

A. The digital map presentation is a push button start and lasts for 10 minutes. It is narrated with accompanying, music and sound effects. The narration is also close captioned. (NPS photo, left)

The new program is closer to a movie than the previous presentation and uses two large flat screens to present it. This program follows (Confederate) Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Army of the Shenandoah District north, through the Shenandoah Valley to Harpers Ferry and then over the Potomac River into Maryland. Concurrently, the map program shows the movement of Federal forces, once they are aware of the threat, reacting to the Confederate incursion from both Baltimore and, eventually, the Petersburg front. 

The program then zooms into the battlefield itself showing the movements of the troops across the landscape, as well as the eventual retreat of United States forces from the field. The program then concludes by showing the Confederate movement continues toward Washington and the eventual retreat to Virginia.  

Q. The post said rangers will touch up and add to the electric map. What specifically? How will it be used in the future and where?

A. The map is old and dinged up. We want to touch up the paint and the terrain features for future use. (It) will no longer be an electric presentation and instead will be a giant topographic map of the battlefield that will be utilized for orientation programs, school visits and the like. 

This will assist the rangers with a visual element they can use when explaining the battlefield landscape and how the battle progressed, especially when they are not on the battlefield itself.

Matt Borders and Derek Schaerdel with old electric map (NPS photo)

This old soldier won't fade away: Residents of Ohio village can now look eye-to-eye at Civil War statue reassembled after a big rig crushed monument into pieces

The old statue was moved into village administration building (LHS and Village of LaGrange)

“Sherman,” the Ohio Civil War statue that was shattered by a big rig and put back together again, has come in from the cold.

LaGrange village and township employees – using machine and muscle – late last week moved the granite man from the unheated old fire station to the village’s administration building.

“They rented a gun safe dolly. They used a lot of muscle, too,” said Jan King, treasurer of the LaGrange Historical Society. “He is inside where it is temperature controlled.”

The new home for the statue brings the story full circle for the Picket, which first reported on the matter in summer 2022 after a tractor trailer driver apparently fell asleep at the village’s traffic circle. The rig smashed the 1903 memorial into pieces.

The community was determined to make things whole.

Master stone carver Nicholas Fairplay glued “Sherman” back together and used him as a model for a replica. Cleveland Quarries rebuilt the monument base below the soldier.

Both were installed on the rural village’s circle in May 2025.

The old “Sherman” was moved around the same time to the fire station (photo, left), where he stood for seven months before the recent move.

The statue, which weighs about 1,500 pounds, is now in a hallway close to the historical society (he’s too big to fit inside the group’s small museum and learning center). It is being kept for now in a protective wooden frame.

“We will have to anchor him down,” said King. “There is a possibility he could be pushed over.”

That would be especially tragic for the old fellow, having already suffered the indignity of losing his head (it broke off) when the truck pulverized the original memorial. (Photos below from LaGrange Township)

Local folks call the statue “Sherman,” but King was quick to quash that moniker during our phone call.

The correct name is “the statue” or “the flag bearer,” she said.

So how did the stone soldier come to be called “Sherman”?

The monument base carried the names of LaGrange area residents who served during the war, the names of a few battles and of Union generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan and George Thomas. Sherman was an Ohioan.

Sherman’s name on the monument base was directly below the front of the statue, so that name stuck.

I asked King, whose family has lived in the community southwest of Cleveland for generations, to describe the old statue, now that he is on ground level.

The retired seamstress is impressed by the craftsmanship – the flag’s carved stars, stitch marks on his lapel and the deep-set eyes. “There is a lot of detail to it.” (Photos above, LaGrange Historical Society)

The society and village office are in a former school building on Liberty Street. “Sherman” is next to a trophy case.

The historical society is open on the third Sunday of each month and on special request. There are old records, photos and a buggy inside, all signaling LaGrange’s rural roots. “It used to be an agricultural city but it is getting more away from that,” said King.

A group of third-graders once stopped by and King was able to show some of them graduation photos of their grandparents.

New statue at studio in Vermilion and monument installation in LaGrange (Courtesy Cleveland Quarries)

Safety measures have helped reduce intrusions into the traffic circle, which is at the intersection of routes 301 and 303 (Main Street).

Villagers used to blow horns and drive around the circle when they got married; school buses still take victory laps when athletes return victorious from competitions elsewhere, King added.

Whatever he is called, the replica Union flag bearer is a fixture in LaGrange and watches over those passing through.

Drones pinpoint buried treasure in the form of Confederate blockade runners that ran aground in Charleston and have since disappeared under shifting sands

Archaeology team at work on beach (SCIAA), map of wreck sites (U.S. Coast Survey),.wreck of Celt (Library of Congress)

As the Union’s nautical noose tightened around Charleston, blockade runners daring to bring vital goods to the Confederacy typically  took the shortest route into the harbor, sailing close to Fort Moultrie on the southwestern tip of Sullivan’s Island.

But first, enterprising captains likely weighed the risk/reward ratio of using Maffitt’s (or Beach) Channel to enter or leave the besieged city.

Pros: Straighter shot into the harbor and protected by a string of Confederate batteries along Sullivan's Island to keep Union blockaders at bay;

Cons: Tricky to make the passage into the harbor due to a jetty off Fort Moultrie that created unique currents and counter-currents. 

And there was another downside, says South Carolina underwater archaeologist Jim Spirek.

“100-pdr Parrott and other shells heading your way if spotted by the Union batteries on Morris Island after the fall of Battery Wagner.”

Click map to see Main Channel, Battery Wagner and Fort Moultrie area (U.S. Coast Survey)

So it’s no surprise numerous blockade runners ended up littering the shore or shallow waters. Some were sunk by enemy fire while others intentionally (or not) ran aground.

While the whereabouts of many are known, the state wanted to know more about four that are no longer visible, Spirek told the Civil War Picket. His office this week announced it used drones to conduct a survey of the “forgotten” wreck sites.

“Because Sullivan’s Island has been marching steadily southward in the area around Ft. Moultrie since the construction of the Charleston Harbor jetties, what once was water for ships to wreck in is now dry land,” said a social media post.

“The remains of these vessels are now buried deep below the beach and adjacent woodlot. Our drone was able to fly over the rough coastal terrain with its attached magnetometer, and detected the magnetic anomalies of two (or three) of the four historically recorded wrecks. Knowing the precise locations will help to preserve our knowledge of this part of Charleston’s history for future generations.”

Archaeologists believe they have located the “magnetic anomalies” of the Celt and the Beatrice or Flora (or both). The blockade runner Presto did not show, but is believed to be buried, like the others, below about 5 feet of sand. (At right, a jetty near Fort Moultrie is highlighted)

“The situation of shipwrecks appearing and then disappearing again is very typical of this type of sandy shoreline,” Civil War naval expert Andy Hall told the Picket. “Wrecks come and go (seemingly) as alternate cycles of erosion and accretion expose and rebury them."

The announcement was first reported by McClatchy News.

Engineers moved to keep Ft. Moultrie from eroding

Spirek, other archaeologists and historians have studied harbors along the Atlantic Coast and forces that present opportunities and challenges for shipping.

Charleston Harbor is behind Fort Moultrie fortifications in this NPS photo

I came across a fascinating article by local historian Nic Butler while researching this post. Entitled “Navigating the Bar of Charleston Harbor: Gateway to the Atlantic,” the piece describes shifting sandbars, silting and dangerous currents. Dredging, skilled captains and beacons countered some of the threats.

“Thanks to the construction of an artificial channel through two massive stone jetties, South Carolina’s principal port continues to flourish,” Butler writes.

The federal government got involved in safeguarding navigation in the first half of the 19^th century, when Fort Moultrie was endangered because of severe erosion. Works on the jetties and dredging began. Capt. Andrew Bowman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a jetty and breakwaters off Fort Moultrie to help stave off erosion.

But the Bowman and North Charleston jetties also had a negative effect, building up sand around them and reducing the depth of water ships could work with.

During the Union blockade, multiple ships ran aground off Sullivan’s Island as they traversed Maffitt's Channel (named for Rebel commerce raider John Newland Maffitt, right).

“Based on geo-referencing an 1865 nautical chart that marked the location of shipwrecks, obstructions, etc. in and around the harbor onto the modern landscape, (the evidence) suggested that four blockade runners were now buried on the beach,” said Spirek.

These four blockade runners met their doom here

The state’s Maritime Research Division this fall deployed drones over beach areas near Fort Moultrie. They were equipped with magnetometers.

Survey looked for Celt, Presto, Beatrice and Flora, mislabeled as Flamingo (SCIAA)

“The magnetometer detects the earth's ambient magnetic field and we use the tool to detect fluctuations, or anomalies, in the field caused by ferromagnetic metals, and in this case, three large iron-hulled blockade runners and one wooden-hulled,” said Spirek, adding no pieces of wreckage were found. “The Celt was reportedly last seen in the early 1980s.”

Below is a closer look at each of the four blockade runners. It's important to note that Union forces seized Morris Island in September 1863, allowing them to fire long-range artillery at vessels approaching Charleston

Celt: The steamboat was lost Feb. 14, 1865, when it tried to leave Charleston Harbor. Celt had run ashore near the breakwater at Fort Moultrie several days before the evacuation of the harbor by Confederate forces. “Inspection by the Union navy after the Confederate evacuation found a valuable load of cotton aboard, of which 190 bales were subsequently recovered and sent north, with the remainder to follow,” says a 2012 report for the American Battlefield Protection Program.

Hall, in his Dead Confederates blog, wrote this about the Celt after examining a Library of Congress photo (above) of its wreckage:

“There’s some interesting detail in the photograph that hint at the vessel’s origins as a local craft built under the exigencies of wartime. Celt has two engines that, while partially submerged, appear to be arranged as in a Western Rivers boat, and the valving shown looks to be almost identical. Such engines were reliable and simple but not overly efficient. They also operated under very high pressure compared to most seagoing ships, and so may have required a more robust set of boilers. Similarly, the paddlewheels are of very simple construction, with wooden arms and fixed floats (paddle blades). As with the engines, this is a very basic design, easy to build and maintain, but not efficient and somewhat coarse by shipbuilding standards of the time.”  

Interesting, a second shipwreck appears to be in the photo's background.

Beatrice: This iron screw steamer was lost on Nov. 27-28, 1864, when it came under heavy Federal fire and grounded on Drunken Dick Shoal while it was approaching the city. A local newspaper, the Charleston Mercury, summarized what happened: Bound from Nassau, the Beatrice had grounded on the beach of Sullivan’s Island during a fog earlier that morning. The steamer on attempting to enter the harbor was surrounded by Union picket barges which kept up a constant fire of grape and musketry on the vessel. The captain and eight of the crew to Battery Rutledge just as Union sailors boarded the vessel. Thirty of the crew were unaccounted for and thought captured.

Flora: The recent survey suggests the remains of the Beatrice and Flora might be next to each other (image above of magnetic field at that area, Maritime Research Division). Flora, a sidewheel steamer, grounded on Oct. 22, 1864. The crew was pursued long before reaching South Carolina and had to dump its cargo to speed away. Things really became hairy as it approached Charleston. “Passing the inner picket boats the vessel grounded in shallow water on the south side of Beach Channel. Stuck fast and impossible to refloat, the steamer was spotted in the daylight and the Union batteries on Morris Island began shelling the vessel,” according to Spirek. (Flora was mistakenly called Flamingo by the Union navy.)

Presto: The Scottish-built sidewheeler struck the wreckage of the Minho off Fort Moultrie on Feb. 2, 1864. It ran ashore while trying to enter the harbor. Federal monitors fired up the Presto, and Confederate batteries answered. By 1 p.m., the mainmast was cut away and the vessel was in flames. Several shells passed through below the waterline and most likely damaged machinery and cargo. The wreck was bombarded for a couple of more days causing the vessel to burn to the waterline. Confederate troops later salvaged sardines, jellies, fruit and liquor.

“I'm not sure why we didn’t locate Presto, as I know that it isn’t in the water,” said Spirek. 

At high tide, most of the Celt would be underwater, but the Beatrice/Flora would still be dry, officials said. Most of the Celt appears to be buried in the intertidal zone although the forward end of the wreck would still be under land rather than submerged at high water,” said Spirek.

Safeguarding, but no excavations planned

Summarizing the latest drone surveys, the archaeologist said the aim was to determine the presence or absence of the blockade runners.

Portion of Bowman's Jetty remnants with buoy (Courtesy A Civil War Traveler)

“Back in 2001 and again in 2009, we had undertaken marine remote-sensing operations to locate these four and other blockade runners in the water. While detecting several adjacent to Bowman's Jetty, we did not appear to locate the four, which gave us the idea that they were now buried under the accreted beach.”

There are no plans to conduct excavations of the presumed sites. 

“Now that we know the approximate positions of the two or three wrecks, we want to fly over them in a single flight to get a nice magnetic record of each one. We'll enter the information into the State Archaeological Site Files for record-keeping purposes and then just monitor the sites for any changes, such as erosion that may uncover portions of the wreck.” 

Search area and shifting shoreline (SCIAA-Maritime Research Division)

What in darn-ation??? An Alabama cavalry trooper proudly wore socks depicting the 'Stars and Bars.' You can see them now at a state museum in Montgomery

The conserved socks in Montgomery (Alabama Archives) and an example of the First National Flag (Wikipedia)

It wasn’t enough for Alabama cavalry trooper Henry Clay Hames to have a simple pair of white socks to keep his feet warm and dry. Loved ones wanted to be sure he delivered a message, even if it was normally covered by his boots.

High up on each sock, below the ribbing, were stitched versions of the first national flag of the Confederacy, commonly known as the “Stars and Bars.”

The Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery has had the distinctive hosiery for generations. Hames’ daughter, Mary, donated them after his death in 1917. (At right, before conservation)

But it doesn’t appear they were ever displayed -- until now.

“I don’t think past curators saw the significance,” said Ryan Blocker, a curator in the museum collection of the Alabama Archives.

Blocker recalls when a comrade sent her a photo asking her to identify the small flags. The two red bars are vibrant, but the blue canton and white stars are largely indiscernible.

She recalls thinking, “’Oh God, that is a first national flag. These are patriotic socks made by family and sent to him.’”

It’s unclear who darned the socks or when Hames – who may have been a courier -- received the items. (Photo above and at left from Alabama Archives)

While they reflect defiance, the socks don’t hold a candle to known examples of socks made for Union soldiers that feature the U.S. flag up high and Confederate flags on the heel. You know, being trampled. You can see examples here and here.

Hames served in the 8^th Regiment, Alabama Cavalry (Livingston’s) and Moses’ Cavalry, Alabama Cavalry.

The socks -- made of either wool or cotton -- went on display last month after the Museum of Alabama reopened after months of renovation and upgrades.

The pair is in a home-front exhibit case in the “Alabama Voices” gallery, which features numerous Civil War artifacts.

(I will write a post soon about technology upgrades to the gallery. For now, let me just say visitors can touch what is called a digital label to pore over closeup photos and information about artifacts.)

The agency in early November also opened a new gallery entitled “Alabama Military Stories," which covers multiple wars.

Blocker said Hames’ socks were recently conserved. “They are such a fascinating piece.”

Although the blue canton has faded, faint traces survive, she said. “As for the stars, it looks like they were embroidered onto the canton area. Some of them only have a little of the thread left.”

The curator sent me a photo (right) showing where she tried to pinpoint the remaining stars, which are in a circle. “Could there have been more stars? Possibly. When these rotate off display, I hope to have (textiles expcert) Terre Hood Biederman examine them in person and give us a breakdown of the construction.”

Hames grew up in Troup County, Ga., on the Alabama border.

While he is believed to have enlisted as a private in 1863, I have not learned where that occurred (perhaps Virginia) or why he joined up with Alabama units.

Hames lived in West Point, Ga., before and after the war. His first wife, Fannie (or Fanny), and his daughter, Mary, died in 1882, He remarried in 1893 to Sarah “Sallie” Samples and they moved to Montgomery.

He died there in 1917, age 72, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. (Photo left, courtesy Bham85, Findagrave)

Some records on Hames are puzzling, according to Blocker. His pension application lists the 9^th Mississippi Cavalry but Fold3 and other records do not show him serving in the regiment.

Records indicate Moses’ Squadron was supposed to join the 9^th Mississippi Cavalry, but the order didn’t come to fruition because of the end of the Civil War. The soldier was 20 years old.

“It had been carried out to some extent, I believe, for Hames to have listed the 9th as his company of service in his pension application,” Blocker said in an email.

American as (apple) pie. Winslow Homer's depiction of a hungry Union soldier is acquired by SoCal museum, which will show it off Sunday in revamped galleries

Winslow Homer's 1863 painting "The Sutler's Tent" debuts Sunday (Courtesy The Huntington)

A Civil War camp scene painted by Winslow Homer – who captured war’s fury at the front and documented soldiers’ lives behind the lines – will debut Sunday as part of the relaunch of an American art gallery at a Southern California museum.

Homer (below) was in his mid-20s when he became an artist-reporter for Harper’s Weekly, embedding with the Union army in Virginia. While most of his work about the conflict was illustrations, he did produce several paintings, including “The Sutler’s Tent,” which was acquired by The Huntington.

The San Marino, Calif., institution recently announced the acquisition of the work, which was purchased for an undisclosed amount from a New York-based gallery. The Ahmanson Foundation funded the acquisition in honor of the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the United States, officials said.

The 1863 painting, only 16-1/4 inches by 12 inches, shows two Yankee cavalry troopers near a tent, one munching on what appears to be a slice of pie (another theory has it as bread and cheese).

The blog Los Angeles County Museum on Fire points out the celebrated artist first depicted the subject in an 1862 sketch, which shows more than a half dozen members of the 3^rd Pennsylvania Cavalry standing near a tent. One of them is sitting on a rail, enjoying a snack.

The drawing was modified for publication in Harper’s Weekly and entitled "Thanksgiving in Camp."

“Harper's Weekly reproduced Homer's war art as wood engravings. ‘The Sutler's Tent’ is related to a Thanksgiving-themed illustration that ran in November 1862,” according to William Poundstone’s blog. “That means the engraving came before the painting, dated 1863. The horizontal-format print shows many more figures than the painting and clearly shows the tent. … Homer evidently felt the tight cropping of the painting made a stronger composition.”

Homer's 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry (National Gallery of Art) and Harper's Weekly version (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Homer honed his craft during the Civil War. A 2015 article in Yale News describes how the self-taught artist had to work quickly and be an astute observer. The young man grew a beard like many soldiers and also wore worn and dirty clothing.

“Homer, like other war correspondents, considered what he did to be a public service and felt as though he endured some of the same kind of experiences as soldiers did,” Keely Orgeman, a curator with the Yale University Art Gallery, told the publication. “When Homer was stationed in Yorktown on the front, he was unable to eat for three days, along with all of the soldiers. According to his mother, he was completely changed by that experience.”

Homer’s other well-known Civil War works include “Prisoners from the Front,” “Home, Sweet Home” and “A Sharp Shooter on Picket Duty.”

Homer's "Prisoners from the Front" is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and displayed in New York.

The purchase of “The Sutler’s Tent” was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Annabel Adams, vice president of communications and marketing for The Huntington, told the Picket the reasoning for acquiring the museum’s first Homer painting was “especially important as we set to launch a reinstallation of American art galleries on December 7 as part of our ‘This Land Is’ initiative.”

The multiyear effort includes the reinstallation of seven galleries in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art.” One reopened in September; six will debut Sunday.

As Poundstone reported, “The Sutler’s Tent” will be the centerpiece of a room about the Civil War and Reconstruction. On display will be a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation from The Huntington’s Library and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s scultpure "Why Born Enslaved!," The Huntington said in a news release.

Adams said the institution’s Civil War holdings are renowned. Among them:

-- Papers relating to President Abraham Lincoln’s bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon;

-- Ciphered communications between Abraham Lincoln and army commanders;

-- Lincoln memorabilia and manuscript collector Judd Stewart;

-- Scrapbooks made by war correspondent and illustrator James E. Taylor (left, courtesy The Huntington);

-- Alfred R. Waud’s 1863 drawing of Rebel prisoners at Brandy Station.

Christina Nielson, the Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Museum at The Huntington, said “Sutler’s Tent” expands the dialogue between the art and library collections.

“As we look toward the 250th anniversary of the United States, the painting invites reflection on a pivotal chapter in our nation’s history -- one that continues to shape the American experience,” she said in the news release.

The Huntington also features botanical gardens and a research center.