Two Civil War veterans buried in England will get official headstones

Two American Civil War veterans buried in Derby, England, are set to be given official US markers. Samuel Lander Hough, of the 2nd New Jersey Cavalry, and Henry Nathaniel McGuiness, of the 65th New York Infantry, are buried in Nottingham Road Cemetery. Both men moved back to England after the war and became friends. They never received appropriate headstones when they died but in October their graves will be marked like those at Arlington National Cemetery. – Read article

'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.”

Fritz Kredel: Versatile illustrator and wood-cut artist left Nazi Germany, depicted uniforms of Civil War, other American soldiers for book, mounted prints

The five Kredel illustrations I have had for years (Civil War Picket)

A journey of discovery can begin with a few old pictures hanging on the pegboard wall of your garage.

That’s my story, anyway.

Five illustrations of American soldiers in uniform – including two from the Civil War era – have been hanging in my garage for more than three decades. Back in the 1960s, they were lacquered onto pieces of thin board and sold in shops. Now, (like me) they are showing their age, scuffed and a little weathered.

My parents bought them while my dad was attending command and general staff school at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The $2 mounted prints made multiple moves until I settled in the Atlanta area years ago.

Fritz Kredel

A few months ago, I took them down to have a closer look. The illustrator’s signature -- not surprisingly -- was a little tough to discern, but after a few Google tries I came up with his name: Fritz Kredel.

That’s where the journey to learn more about these five prints began. Who was this man?

My internet searches peeled back multiple layers of a renowned German-born artist whose work was distinct and was enjoyed by millions of Americans for decades. I felt sheepish about my ignorance of his prodigious illustrations and wood cuts.

Kredel learned wood engraving at a young age and that helped him become, as one observer writes, a master illustrator of books and prints. Yale University has a collection about his artwork.

“He had the great ability to show personality, movement and emotion with a tremendous economy of line,” wrote graphic designer Mark D. Ruffner in a 2012 post on his blog.

Depictions in "Soldiers of the American Army" (amazon.com/wayfair.com)

Kredel, born in Michelstadt in 1900, was trained as a graphic artist and designer, and became adept at wood cuts, pen and ink and water colors.

Kredel fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s, moved to Vienna and ended up in the United States, where his career really took off. He and his family lived in New York City and Kredel taught at Cooper Union. He was much in demand as a book illustrator, and is remembered for his fairy tale characters and botanical drawings, among many genres.

Kredel teamed up with military historian and author Frederick Porter Todd for the volume “Soldiers of the American Army, 1775-1941," which came out just before America’s involvement in World War II. It was updated in a 1954 edition. My prints are reproduced from the book.

I asked his granddaughter, Tilda Brown Swanson, about Kredel’s interest in uniforms and other forms of militaria.

“He had a love for the heraldry, the uniforms, the helmets and the details that distinguished the various uniforms of different soldiers, and he was good at distinguishing those in various illustrations,” the Iowa glass artist wrote in an email.

Dover, the current publisher, has this description: “Splendid pictorial history of military apparel includes meticulously researched, beautifully rendered illustrations of regimental attire from the Revolutionary War, uniforms worn by the Texas Rangers (1846), Louisiana Zouaves (1861), Philippine Scouts (1904), and members of the Women's Army Corps (1954). Descriptive text accompanies each illustration. 32 full-color plates.”

The five in my small collection are:

-- Federal Infantry (1862) – Iron Brigade of the West and Vermont Brigade. Both saw intense fighting and endured high casualties. The Iron Brigade was known for its Maltese cross insignia and black felt hats. The Vermonters had a staggering 1,200 casualties at the Wilderness.

-- 7^th Regiment, New York State Militia (1861) – private in overcoat and private in full field equipment. This volunteer, “silk stocking” militia unit was mustered into service early in the Civil War, and was reactivated a few times, mostly in support roles.

-- The Regiment of Artillerists (1812) – matross and drummer, parade uniform

-- Thompson’s Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion (1775) – musketman and rifleman

-- Cuban Expedition (1898) – trooper, Rough Rider, in stable dress and private, 71^st New York, in full field equipment

"Corps d'Afrique (NY Public Library)

Other Civil War subjects in the book are Stuart’s Calvary Division, CSA (1862), colonel of cavalry and major of horse artillery, Corps d’ Afrique (1864), brigade bandsman and sergeant of heavy artillery, New York Zouaves (1863) 5^th New York and 44^th New York, Confederate Infantry (1863), and Louisiana Zouaves (1861), captain and Zouave.

The Corps d’Afrique was a predecessor of U.S. Colored Troops. It was comprised mostly of recently freed slaves in Louisiana.

An order from Washington created several regiments that would fight for the Union.

One of the first to form was the 1st Louisiana Native Guard. It originated in 1862 in New Orleans during the Federal occupation. It was made up of freed men and slaves who came for nearby plantations.

Famed Army Gen. Matthew Ridgway wrote a message on the back of hardbound copies of “Soldiers of the American Army” published in the 1950s.

Volume for sale at Abebooks.com

“The readers of this volume will become acquainted with the colorful story of our American uniform,” Ridgway wrote. “To every American soldier, his uniform is a symbol of the tradition of the past, of determination for the future. It is a reminder of the noble heritages which has been handed on by those who wore the uniform before us – a heritage of integrity and honor, of courage and steadfastness, of selfless devotion to country.”

While the book may be the most well-known reminder of Kredel’s talents, there was so much more to his creative output.

“My grandfather illustrated around 500 books and did dust jackets for many more, and so the books on soldiers are only a small part of what he illustrated,” says Swanson. “He also was very good at botanical illustration, fairy tales and suiting his illustration to the time of a text.”

"Grimm's Fairy Tales" work by Kredel. Courtesy of Mark D. Ruffner

His illustrations, many of them whimsical, were published in “Andersen’s Fairy Tales” (The Heritage Press, 1942) and “Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Grosset and Dunlap, 1945).

Ruffner, the graphic designer, said Kredel’s illustrations for children’s book were charming, witty and romantic.

“Illustrators of children's books inform and influence us at our most formative stage. At an early age -- if we are lucky -- we are introduced to so many morality plays, and while the morals of the stories are important, so too are the indelible cast of characters, and the way in which they are presented.”

In 2000, there were three major shows on Kredel’s work, according to Swanson. One was in his hometown of Michelstadt, about 30 miles southeast of Frankfurt. The New York Times wrote about an exhibition that year at the Grolier Club in New York City.

“Drawings, watercolors, woodcuts, lettering, book illustrations, maps, marionettes, political cartoons, paper dolls, the presidential seal for John F. Kennedy's inauguration and other works on paper sprang in profusion from Kredel's fertile imagination,” according to the article.

Another major Kredel work, the article said, is a woodblock map of Michelstadt as it appeared around 1650, replete with medieval buildings and narrow streets.

Begun in Germany, it was completed in the United States in 1954. “Woodcuts, he felt, had a crispness and sharpness that could not be achieved in any other medium,” wrote Times art critic Grace Glueck.

His earlier works in his native country included “The Offenbacher Haggadah,” which was published in 1927 and is considered “a landmark in German-Jewish bookmaking in Weimar Germany.” The Haggadah is text cited at the Seder table during Passover.

Kredel died in 1973 at age 73. His obituary cited several accomplishments, including winning the gold medal for book illustration at the 1938 Paris World Exhibition, about the time he came to the United States.

Promotional card for 2010 event at the University of Kentucky

Swanson and her mother, Judith, over the years have written and spoken about Kredel’s work.

“I have many things I hope to write, develop, and do in honor of my grandfather,” says Swanson. “I am currently working on a documentary and I hope to release that sometime in the next year or so.”

Working to bring American chestnut back to glory it had during the Civil War

A chestnut burr at breeding farm (American Chestnut Foundation)

It may be fitting that the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, the man remembered for rising from humble beginnings to great heights, will be the planting ground for 20 saplings that are part of a broad effort to bring the American chestnut back to its former glory.

Volunteers at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville, Ky., on Saturday will plant year-old American chestnuts in the park’s picnic area.

Officials hope the young chestnuts, part of the American Chestnut Foundation’s breeding and testing program, will grow to be resistant to the blight that wiped out hundreds of millions of their ancestors early in the 20^th century.

This will be the second such planting at the site in the past seven years.

Symbolic birthplace cabin in Kentucky (NPS)

Several buildings there are made of chestnut, as is at least part of the “Symbolic Cabin” that represents the tiny abode where the future 16^th president and commander in chief was born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in 1809.

During the Civil War, chestnuts made up about one in four hardwoods in the Appalachian region that stretches from Maine to Alabama.

"Families in rural America, including the Lincoln family, once depended heavily upon the American chestnut for both food and shelter. The trees grew straight and tall and were rot-resistant, making the wood desirable for construction. The small nuts were sweet and fed entire families, as well as livestock and many species of wildlife," says park Superintendent Bill Justice.

Straight-grained chestnut timber was ideal for furniture, telephone poles, railroad ties and plywood. Lighter than oak, chestnut logs were used for river rafts.

(Lynn Garrison)

But the blight’s fungus and another malady, root rot, conspired against the fast-growing American chestnut.

Stacy Humphreys, chief of interpretation and resource management at the federal site, says about 200,000 people come annually to Sinking Spring Farm, the birthplace, and Knob Creek, where the family moved when Lincoln was about 2. They moved to Indiana when he was 7.

Many visitors are surprised the actual birth cabin no longer exists. That was confirmed when a test in 2004 showed the structure placed in a stone memorial hall was actually from the 1840s. “We have to disappoint a lot of people.”

Still, visitors, through a film and exhibits, gain insight into the early days of Lincoln, who later became famous as the “Rail Splitter” by splitting wood for rail fences.

Humphreys said that the planting and mulching will begin at about 10 a.m. Saturday. Wire cages will be placed around the 2- to 3-feet-tall saplings (above) “so the deer don’t eat them. We have a very robust deer population.”

The blight-resistant trees, known as Restoration Chestnuts 1.0, aren’t guaranteed to not become diseased, but continued breeding and testing will increase the variety’s chances in the coming years.

A study last spring on Restoration 1.0 found 16% are highly resistant and 50% moderately resistant, says Mila Kirkland, director of communications for the American Chestnut Foundation, based in Asheville, N.C.

Giant chestnuts in the Great Smoky Mountains (ACF)

“Now and the coming years we are going to hone in on that 16 percent and continue to breed with those trees,” she says.

The foundation’s effort involves crossing the American chestnut with the Chinese chestnut, which is resistant to the devastating blight. Many of the resulting trees are grown at the organization’s farms in Meadowview, Va.

The foundation is doing “test” plantings all over the country. Patience is required because the blight can take a while to develop, says Kirkland, and the Restoration 1.0 program only began in 2005.

After an American and Chinese chestnut are crossed, the resulting tree is crossed back with the American, resulting eventually in a product that is 15/16^th American.

The Chinese chestnut is shorter, with spreading branches. “The wood is not the beautiful chestnut colored wood of our native trees. It is much more inferior as a forest tree because it is an orchard tree,” says Kirkland.

Restoration 1.0 seeds (ACF)

While the American chestnut can be found in commercial nurseries, the hybrids developed by the foundation and other groups are the best chance to develop characteristics that will help the tree rebound in the coming generations.

The native range is in the Appalachians. “They prefer slopes and well-drained soils. They don’t like water and soggy bottom land,” says Kirkland.

She, too, emphasizes the importance of the tree to man and wildlife during the mid-19^th century. “They were definitely prevalent at Lincoln birthplace.” Animals and humans prized the nut as a food source.

“(Settlers) would take these wagons full of chestnuts into cities and sell them as a cash crop or trade for things they needed.”

The American chestnut isn’t the only tree that has been ravaged by disease. A canker devastated the butternut, a hardwood tree. During the Civil War, the color of Confederate uniforms was created using butternut husks as a source of dye. 

The chestnut foundation’s 16 state chapters, from Alabama to Maine, do the ground work of breeding regionally adapted chestnuts. “A tree that is native to Georgia is not going to work so well in Maine, for many reasons,” says Kirkland.

Lynn Garrison, president of the Kentucky chapter, says he has high hopes for trees being planted Saturday, but acknowledges it is still part of a larger test.

“You can’t tell when it shows up,” he says of the blight. “It varies somewhat.”

He says his chapter’s goal is to cross trees that can work in all 20 eco-regions in Kentucky

  

The American chestnut is a fast grower (ACF)

“We will have trees …. that will be mostly Kentucky genotypes. We want to preserve as much genetic information as possible.”

The best hope against the blight is through the breeding program, rather than fungicides and other chemicals, says Garrison. “They tried to cut every chestnut tree and they thought it would stop migration of the blight, but it didn’t.”

“We think the answer is in developing a resistance,” he says. And while the foundation is moving forward with caution, it is hopeful about restoration.

“We think it won’t be long before we are ready to start restoring them in the forest.”

The Kentucky chapter has planted about 1,000 trees in controlled settings over the past year.

The planting at the Lincoln birthplace can help educate generations that were born long after the blight virtually wiped out the American chestnut population. The effort has both historic and ecological lessons, Garrison says.

In their heyday, chestnuts could live up to 300 years. Some reached 120 feet and they were opportunistic mainstays in the forest canopy.

Of course, there will be setbacks along the way, as some chestnuts succumb to the blight. But the breeding program will produce thousands of hardy trees that will thrive.

Kirkland says the hope is that 50 years from now, the American chestnut will be restored to the forest – “that it is a common tree people talk about, interact with and use in their daily lives.”

8 battlefields win government grants

More than $1.2 million in grants from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program were awarded this week to a variety of national battlefield projects including eight Civil War sites in six states: Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. • Article

Wreaths Across America: Remembering soldiers in the Civil War, other conflicts

On Saturday (Dec. 11), thousands of volunteers, many dressed for brutal cold, will fan across the nation’s cemeteries, placing holiday wreaths at the graves of veterans, including those who fought in the Civil War.

Adorned with a red bow, the wreaths will represent a nation’s remembrance to those lost to battle and old age.

Civil Air Patrol cadets and Boy Scouts will place a couple hundred wreaths after a noon ceremony at Andersonville National Cemetery near Americus, Ga. The Sons of the American Revolution and the Patriot Guard also will be on hand, rain or shine.

They’ll place the wreaths after remarks from Robert “Chappy” Kelly, a police chaplain with the Americus Police Department and a major in the Civil Air Patrol.

“It’s pretty emotional,” Kelly said of the annual observance put on by the non-profit group Wreaths Across America.

The program got its start in 1992 when the head of the Worcester Wreath Co. had the idea of honoring veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Since, then it’s spread to hundreds of other cemeteries, including Andersonville.

The organization has grown from 13 volunteers to more than 160,000. It will deliver 219,000 wreaths to Arlington and to more than 300 state and national cemeteries, overseas, and to ships at sea.

“You meet a lot of nice people who need closure,” said Kelly, indicating he sends photos of headstones with wreaths to relatives who cannot come to the cemetery.

Eric Leonard, volunteer coordinator at Andersonville National Historic Site, which adjoins the site, told the Picket the cemetery is one of about a dozen national cemeteries holding the remains of Civil War soldiers.

Andersonville, of course, was the site of an infamous Confederate prisoner of war camp. About 13,000 Union soldiers died there.

Wreaths Across America this week dropped off about 150 wreaths, but Leonard said others will be placed by individuals at several hundred of the nearly 20,000 graves.

“We really want families to bring wreaths during the month of December,” he said.

He asks that they be about 20 inches wide and made of Fraser fir. Each also has a red velveteen bow.

“We keep them out as long as they look good,” Leonard said.

Most of the Andersonville wreaths will be placed at those who have died in recent years, but several will also go in the Civil War-era sections.

“To really understand the scale [of the Civil War graves] you need to get out of your car and walk the rows,” Leonard said.

Andersonville is one of only two national cemeteries administered by the National Park Service still classified as open. It holds the remains of five soldiers killed in Afghanistan in Iraq. About 13 NPS Civil War sites are affiliated with national cemeteries.

“It’s just a way to honor those that went before,” said Kelly, who organized the annual event at Andersonville.

Photos courtesy of Andersonville National Historic Site

• More on Wreaths Across America, event locations

'Confederate Southern American' on Census?

The Southern Legal Resource Center is calling on self-proclaimed "Confederates" to declare their heritage when they are counted in the 2010 Census. The organization is urging Southerners to declare their “heritage and culture” by classifying themselves as “Confederate Southern Americans” on the line on the form, question No. 9, that asks for race. • Details