Ely S. Parker was not allowed to practice law. The Native American leader and aide to Ulysses S. Grant has posthumously been admitted to the New York state bar

Parker, seated second from right, with Grant again, and after the war (Library of Congress, National Archives)

Ely Samuel Parker was many things: Orator, soldier, engineer, Cabinet member, translator and tribal diplomat.

But one title Parker was not afforded – although he was richly qualified -- was attorney and counselor in his native New York state. That’s because Native Americans were not recognized as U.S. citizens until 1924 and he could not be admitted to the state bar.

The injustice was remedied Friday morning when the state’s Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, posthumously admitted Parker to practice law in western and central New York.

“The failure was never his. It was the law itself,” descendant Melissa Parker Leonard said during a courtroom ceremony in Buffalo. She spoke of her ancestor's dogged efforts as a sachem (leader) to protect his tribe's culture and land.

It’s a fair bet to say most Americans who have followed 19^th century American history might best know Parker for his role as an aide and secretary to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the last two years of the Civil War. He can be seen in numerous photographs kept by the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

Col. Parker, born into the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, was present at Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and he helped formulate documents. Lee famously called Parker the one “real American” there. “We are all Americans,” the officer responded.

Friday’s events did mention Parker’s Civil War service, but as one speaker made clear, he was more than a footnote in Grant’s life.

Ely S. Parker, seated far left, at the Grand Review of the Armies in 1865 (Library of Congress)

Parker, born in 1828 with the name Hasanoanda, studied law in Ellicottville, N.Y., in the late 1840s but was denied consideration for admission.

“Despite the injustice of not being able to do so as a recognized member of the bar, Mr. Parker nonetheless utilized his legal training to assist in litigation to protect the ancestral homelands of the Tonawanda Seneca, including two successful cases before the United States Supreme Court,” the appellate court said in an article about its action.

Ely (pronounced Ee-Lee) Parker became an engineer after studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Early in the Civil War, he was denied an opportunity to form an Iroquois regiment in New York.

Circa 1850 daguerreotype of Parker by Edward T. Whitney, who later took Civil War views for Mathew Brady. Courtesy Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 35-5-10/53072

He served in the Army of the Tennessee and eventually joined up with Grant, who he had met before the war.

When hostilities ended, the officer remained as an aide to Grant and served in the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry before retiring at brevet brigadier general. Parker then became the nation’s first Native American commissioner of Indian Affairs during the Grant presidency. He died in 1895.

Speakers at Friday’s event and a program Thursday evening at The Buffalo History Museum spoke of the prejudice Native Americans have endured, from relocation to boarding schools. Parker, they said, fought for his people.

Lee Redeye (center) and Melissa Parker Leonard (far right) speak Thursday (The Buffalo History Museum)

Lee Redeye, deputy counsel for the Seneca Nation, said Parker is now a victor, instead of a victim.

“We must never forget our roots. We must remember where we come from. We must honor our people. We must honor our nations,” Redeye said.

Kathleen Sweet, president of the New York State Bar Association, issued a statement about the court’s action:

“The posthumous admission of Ely S. Parker to the New York Bar today corrects a longstanding injustice. Parker wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox and was a lawyer in every sense of the word. As a Native American, he could not be a citizen nor a counselor at law. Finally, he has received this overdue recognition.”

The recognition of Parker coincided with Native American Heritage Month.

A Department of War article on Parker is here.

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.”

Civil War-era bell passed down by family is back home in Appomattox

After almost 50 years spent in the basement of Ora McCoy’s Appomattox, Va., home, a family bell passed down through five generations has found a new life ringing in history along the East Coast. Originally unearthed for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in 2015, the bell found its way to other park ceremonies. McCoy’s great-grandparents, Daniel and Phoebe Scruggs, once lived as slaves on the Scruggs family farm in Appomattox. They have owned the bell since the Civil War, passing it from hand to hand until it found its way to McCoy. In September, after a stint at the Fort Monroe National Monument, the bell came home. • Article

A Christmas at Appomattox: Surrender site in Virginia to show off improvements

Turkey wreath adorns a wall at Appomattox (NPS photo)

The folks at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park in southern Virginia are offering holiday cheer and punch Sunday at a free event that will show off greenery and park additions since this time last year.

“People will see the village dressed out for Christmas,” said Ernie Price, chief of education and visitor services. “We will have an ornament-making station targeting kids.”

Appomattox, of course, is the site of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865.

History buffs will have plenty to chew on at the open house, enjoying improvements made for this past April’s 150^th observance of the surrender. “If you haven’t been here for a year, there are a lot of things to check out,” Price told the Picket.

Exhibit erected for sesquicentennial of surrender (NPS)

Upstairs in the visitor center – which is in the middle of the village -- is the traditional museum, featuring exhibits on Federal cavalry. Downstairs is a floor-to-ceiling trapezoidal exhibit case put in for the sesquicentennial. It includes the battle flag of the 9^th Virginia Cavalry, a U.S. flag draped on President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin in Philadelphia during his funeral procession, and accoutrements belonging to Union Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan, who bottled Lee up at Appomattox.

Visitors can take in “With Malice Toward None,” a 14-minute film that debuted in March. It is an overview of the campaign, the meeting of Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, parole passes, the Confederate stacking of arms during the surrender, and the effects of the war, including the passage of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments, which were meant to ensure equality for emancipated slaves.

Wreath made of tobacco leaves

The most well-known structure at the park is the McLean House, where Lee and Grant met to discuss the surrender terms. The home’s kitchen has a tribute to U.S. Colored Troops.

“We are working toward getting something in the main museum. It is so packed right now,” said Price.

African-American soldiers in the XXV Corps were involved in the campaign, and two brigades fought at Appomattox on the morning of April 9, 1865, the day of the surrender. “There were casualties that were taken,” said Price.

Bocock-Isbell home

County jail after restoration work (NPS photos)

In the last year, work has been done on the Bocock-Isbell house and the county jail. Upcoming is restoration of the Meeks stable and the Peers house.

The Appomattox Garden Club, per tradition, has been decorating the village for Christmas by using period-correct wreaths. The open house, Price said, is a good time in particular for local residents to see the changes.

The open house is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 13. Admission is free that day. The park is open Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 434-352-8987, ext. 226, for more information.

Live blog: 150th anniversary of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House

(National Park Service photo)

The Civil War Picket listened today via C-SPAN 3 and the National Park Service to a ceremony marking the exact time on April 9, 1865, that Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met to finalize the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Their meeting took place at the McLean House at Appomattox Court House, Va. Here are updates from the event at the national historical park. (The Picket was not at the ceremony)

3:14 p.m.: Call for bells to be rung across America. Ceremony concludes and crowd slowly disperses to other activities at Appomattox.

3:08 p.m.: The descendant of a slave begins the bell-ringing, followed by a descendant of Ulysses S. Grant and then others.

3:06 p.m.: National Park Park Service officials prepare to play a bell to mark the 150th anniversary of Lee's surrender. Union officers walk out of the home onto the McLean porch.

3 p.m.: Grant and Lee ended their meeting at this time on April 9, 1865. John Hennessy of the National Park Service talks about all of the emotions present at Appomattox. (Lee actor leaves the building and walk down the stairs). The end of slavery was real and much reconstruction and reconciliation awaited, Hennessy tells the crowd. ("Auld Lang Syne" is played as Lee's horse is brought up. The general rides away.)

2:57 p.m.: There was a mixture of joy at war's end and mourning. Park Service historians talk about some of the soldiers who died near the end of the war. 

2:48 p.m.: University of Richmond President Edward Ayers says the South did not believe Reconstruction would be militarily enforced. They did not see Appomattox as the beginning of a more profound revolution in America: Enslaved people would become full citizens who could vote. People in the North, Ayers says, knew that freed people would have to have laws, education, ability to obtain property and vote. Grant, when he become president, saw suppression of blacks in the South as not representing the spirit of Appomattox.

2:42 p.m.: Ayers speaks of the Southerners' sincerity to their cause: Freedom, rights and independence. They would say they fought for home and rights. But the fight for slavery was the reality underneath, Ayers tells the crowd. 

2:38 p.m.: Historian Edward Ayers says Appomattox showed America at is best: The humility, restraint and generosity shown toward one another after four years of bloody war. "This story shows our best selves." Grant, Ayers said, helped create this version of the story. The Union commander allowed no salutes or unnecessary embarrassment of the Confederates. But Grant also criticized the cause for which his opponents fought. Ayers says this mixed message is one with which Americans wrestle.

2:35 p.m.: Noted Civil War historian and retiring president of the University of Richmond, Edward Ayers, gives remarks outside the Wilmer McLean House. (Union re-enactors march up to the home, to the beat of a drum)

2:30 p.m.: Recognition of descendant of Ely Parker (see below).

2:27 p.m.: Bigelow says his Confederate ancestor became a peacemaker after the Civil War.

2:22 p.m.: Dennis Bigelow, a descendant of  Charles Marshall, the Confederate officer who accompanied Lee to the McLean House, gives remarks. Marshall wrote of the courtesy given by Federal officers to the defeated men in gray.

2:18 p.m.: (More recounting of the surrender:) Grant orders end to celebratory gunfire, saying the Rebels were now fellow countrymen.

Ely Parker

2:13 p.m.: Lt. Col. Ely Parker, a Grant aide who was a Native American, wrote down final terms of the surrender. Lee tells Grant that he has no rations for his men or captives. Abraham Lincoln's oldest son, Robert, is present.

2:11 p.m.: Lee and Grant, meeting in the parlor, talk about meeting during the Mexican-American War and then begin discussing surrender terms. (More Union re-enactors ride up to the McLean House). The two generals go over terms previously detailed in a letter.

2:05 p.m.: More details on April 9, 1865, when Lee decided the fight was over. Patrick Schroeder of the NPS talks about Grant's meeting message being delivered to Lee, who was resting near an apple tree. Lee would not leave the surrender responsibility to a subordinate. Wilmer McLean had first offered a different building for the surrender, but then offered his own home. Lee, wearing a new uniform, arrived at the home about one half hour before Grant, who had ridden on muddy roads.

2 p.m.: National Park Service historian Frank O'Reilly describes the physical and leadership characteristics of Ulysses S. Grant. "He has the tenacity of a bulldog."

1:58 p.m.: Spectators outside of the McLean House are told of Robert E. Lee's military prowess during the Civil War that ended ultimately in defeat at Appomattox. "His was a mind that craved the initiative and he was most effective when he possessed it," Hennessy said.

1:54 p.m.: Wilmer McLean and family came to Appomattox in 1863, having moved with his family from the battlefield in Manassas, Va. They thought (incorrectly) they had escaped the war.

1:47 p.m.: NPS historian John Hennessy, standing outside the home, talks about that meeting between the two generals. The Liberty Bell and bells around the country will ring at 3:15 p.m. ET to remember the symbolic end of the war.

1:46 p.m.: The actor portraying U.S. Grant has a cigar, fittingly, clamped in his teeth as he rides up. He returns a salute. He enters the McLean House to meet with Lee, who arrived at about 1:30 p.m. on April 9, 1865.

1:43 p.m.: Union officers ride on horseback through the crowd toward the McLean House, one of the staff members carrying an American flag.

1:40 p.m.:  The U.S. Postal Service dedicates the final two stamps of the Civil War sesquicentennial series. One depicts the Battle of Five Forks and the other recalls the surrender at Appomattox.

1:32 p.m.: Park Superintendent Robin Snyder recalls diaries and letters from Civil War soldiers about the war's end. "They recall uncertainty, but also hope," she says. Snyder mentions coming equality for freed slaves. "Let us remember... that the hope of the moment often requires efforts of generations to realize."

1:30 p.m. The ceremony is underway.

1:28 p.m.: The actor portraying Robert E. Lee, in full formal dress, walks up the steps into the McLean House.

1:20 p.m.: Spectators are gathered under a cloudy sky around a white picket fence surrounding the McLean House in the historic Appomattox village. Living historians portraying Union officers are in the courtyard of the home. With them is a reproduction of Phil Sheridan's two-star headquarters flag. Lee will arrive at about 1:30 p.m. 

1:14 p.m.: The National Park Service has a livestream of music, informal talks and living histories leading up to the 1:30 event. Click link.

'Bells across the land': April 9 ringing will mark 150th anniversary of war's end

(NPS photo)

Communities are being asked to take part in a nationwide bell-ringing in April that will mark the 150^th anniversary of the symbolic end of the Civil War.

The National Park Service and Appomattox Court House National Historical Park in Virginia are inviting churches, temples, schools, city halls and other public institutions to take part in the commemoration at precisely 3:15 p.m. on April 9. Bells will ring for four minutes, each ring to mark one year of the war.

“We ask participants to ring bells across the nation as a gesture to mark the end of the bloody conflict in which more than 750,000 Americans perished,” the park service said in a press release this week. “Some communities may ring their bells in celebration of freedom or a restored Union, others as an expression of mourning and a moment of silence for the fallen. Sites may ring bells to mark the beginning of reconciliation and reconstruction, or as the next step in the continuing struggle for civil rights.”

The bells will ring first at 3 p.m. at Appomattox, to coincide with the historic meeting between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House in the small village in southwestern Virginia.

While Lee surrendered his army in Virgnia, fighting continued elsewhere across the South for more than a month, culminating with the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia.

Officials are encouraging those who take part to share how they observed it at #BellsAcrosstheLand2015.

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and its friends group have many other sesquicentennial events scheduled for April 8 through April 12. See the schedule here. The park is looking for volunteers to assist in programming.

J.E.B. Stuart's personal banjo player and his famous brothers drew on instrument's African roots

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Sam Sweeney (in tent), drawn by Frank Vizetelly for Illustrated London News

The popular song went:

If you want to have a good time, jine the cavalry!
Jine the cavalry! Jine the cavalry!
If you want to catch the Devil, if you want to have fun,
If you want to smell Hell, jine the cavalry!

We're the boys who went around McClellian,
Went around McClellian, went around McClellian!
We're the boys who went around McClellian,
Bully boys, hey! Bully boys, ho!

Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, ever the dashing figure, was known to dress handsomely and tap his feet joyously. On the trail, or by the campfire after a hard day’s ride, the Confederate cavalier enjoyed the rollicking and homesick songs played by his personal, “appropriated” banjo player, Sam Sweeney. “Jine (Join) the Cavalry” was a standard among Confederate horsemen.

Sweeney, from Appomattox, Va., was one of the famous Sweeney brothers, three Irish-American musicians who played at raucous minstrel shows and even for Queen Victoria in the years before the Civil War.

Sam Sweeney

Older sibling Joel Sweeney, experts say, is the first documented white man to play the banjo, having learned the music from slaves by the mid-1830s. Considered by many to be the first pop star in America, the so-called “father of the banjo” was considered an innovator in the use of the five-string banjo, an instrument with roots in Africa.

“He was the one who brought (the banjo) into white, middle-American culture,” says David Wooldridge, a museum technician with Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

Wooldridge recently gave a talk about Sam Sweeney at the Museum of the Confederacy’s venue in Appomattox.

“His brother (Joel) cast a long shadow and for a long time … got all the credit,” Wooldridge tells the Picket. “Sam was supposed to be just as good as his brother, or better.” 

Joel and Richard Sweeney died before the war. Sam Sweeney, also an adept fiddle player, joined Company H, Second Virginia Cavalry, in January 1862. His skills and fame quickly came to the attention of Stuart, who insisted the banjo player join his headquarters.

Col. T.T. Munford, from whom Sweeney was “borrowed,” later wrote, “Stuart’s feet would shuffle whenever he was in Sweeney’s presence, or even at the calling of his name.”

“Lorena,” “Cottage by the Sea,” “Soldier’s Dream and “Old Gray Mare,” were among Stuart’s favorites, and Sweeney was often accompanied by a bones player and tambourine.

Sweeney rode with Stuart during several notable campaigns, including Gettysburg.

"Sam Sweeney's personality was much the same as his fun loving general and . ... he followed the dashing cavalier playing and singing songs that he and his brothers performed for many thousands of people," wrote John R. Broughton in a J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust newsletter. "Wherever Stuart went, Sweeney was not far behind, his banjo ready."

The Charleston (S.C.) Mercury newspaper has this fascinating tidbit on Jan. 16, 1863:

"Are you readers aware that Gen. Jeb Stuart carries with him wherever he goes, in all his circuits and raids, a brother of Joe Sweeney, the famous banjo player? Such is the fact. Sweeney is also a banjoist, and Stuart calls him his band. He carries his banjo behind his saddle, wrapped up in a piece of oil cloth, and whenever the cavalry stops, even to water their horses, the band strikes up on the banjo and picks a merry air. The performance of the banjo band in Pennsylvania drove several Dutch farmers raving distracted, for Sweeney swore that his banjo strings were made out of the viscera of their departed relatives and friends!"

Two years into his military service, Sam Sweeney passed away at age 32 on Jan. 13, 1864, in winter camp. He likely never fired a shot in battle.

A grieving Stuart wrote of the loss to his wife, Flora. ”I Suppose you heard the sad tidings of poor Sweeney’s death. He died of small-pox while I was gone. His loss is deeply felt."

The general would himself be dead four months later, fatally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Va.

It was not until June 2010 that a headstone went up in Orange County, Va., to remember Sam Sweeney.

Wooldridge, a banjo player, helped organize a May 2013 event at Appomattox honoring the legacy of the musical family.

Flyer for 2013 event in Virginia.

"We wanted to make it entertaining, educational and respectful of the banjo's history and its African origins."

Among the performers was Sule Greg Wilson, a musician, folklorist and writer living in San Diego.

Wilson considers the Sweeneys to be early crossover artists, the first to appropriate African-rooted music to play before white audiences in America.

"I would say (the banjo) became a more harmonic instrument. The European sense of rhythm and melody is a different aesthetic than the African one."

Among the songs played at the gathering was "Grapevine Twist," an 1840 selection attributed to Joel Sweeney. But Wilson doubts Sweeney actually created the tune.

According to Wilson, the song refers to slaves taking precautions while visiting friends without permission from their owners. On certain roads, they would take grapevines and twist them, leaving them hanging at the neck height of pursuing horsemen. 

Although some songs of the era were about love, Joel Sweeney would play selections that appealed to everyday folks.

Sule Greg Wilson at Appomattox (courtesy of artist)

"He would talk about the neighborhood, people getting hurt or things getting burned down," says Wilson.

The Sweeneys would often perform in blackface during minstrel shows, a colorful if now-controversial form of entertainment that featured comedic skits and music that often would parody African-Americans and other ethnic groups. 

Rhiannon Giddens, a member of the African-American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, said of minstrel music. “It is not hard to love it because the music is awesome. The words they are problematic. … There are some horrible words.” The earlier minstrel acts were not as racist as those once slaves were freed. Still, she said, the music tells us what was going on in America at the time and is part of our history.

A teaching lesson plan produced by the park says the story of the Sweeneys is part of the rich cultural patchwork of the United States.

“For, within the story of the banjo in America is the story of American culture; a story of cultural diffusion, a story of the power of music to bring disparate sections of our society together to create something distinctly American.”

• Videos: Wilson plays at Appomattox on “Sanford Jig” and another selection.

PART TWO: Banjo’s African roots, minstrels show and the instrument’s popularity during the Civil War. Click here for post