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.”

Virginia's Henrico County has bought a James River parcel rich with history. Now it will decide how to tell the story of the Civil War, enslaved people and colonial days

Varina plantation home, cannonballs in wall and Benjamin Butler (Henrico Co. and Library of Congress)

Bald eagles, ducks and geese routinely take flight near a weathered two-story brick home that sits on a sloping hill southeast of Richmond. The dwelling has a circle driveway on one side and a view of the James River on the other. Fields that have been tilled for generations lie just to the north and west.

For all its bucolic setting, Varina Farms, or Varina on the James, has another facet: history as deep and rich as the soil. The former plantation is considered the birthplace of Henrico County, which curves around Richmond and is home to 340,000 residents.

In the early 1600s, English settler John Rolfe, husband of indigenous Princess Pocahontas, discovered the soil and climate at the site were suited for growing mild tobacco, with the name Varina linked to a form of Spanish tobacco.

The Civil War came to Varina Farms about 250 years later, and the property was a scene of combat, prisoner exchanges and the headquarters of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. Confederate cannonballs struck the 1853 Classic Revival home, and there are signs of those today.

At one point, Butler built a pontoon bridge to carry his men and supplies across the river to attack Richmond in 1864.

Property fronts the James River, 10 miles south of Richmond (Henrico County map)

With land preservation and public use in mind, Henrico County leaders recently purchased the property from the Stoneman family, which had been its guardian since the early 1900s. The total for two purchases, which includes the battle-scarred 1853 Classic Revival home, came to about $18.5 million. Interstate 295 slices through the farm.

“By acquiring this beautiful, vast and irreplaceable property, Henrico County is making a once-in-a-lifetime move to ensure that our history as a county, a commonwealth and a nation are preserved and that our precious, scenic riverfront will remain protected and accessible for generations to come,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Tyrone E. Nelson.

County has ideas for site, but wants input from citizens

County officials will now begin the process of determining future use for the farm, known as Aiken’s Landing during the Civil War.

The possibilities are as broad as the view of the river, says Julian Charity, division director for history, heritage and natural resources in the county park system.

The home has not been occupied for at least a decade (Henrico County photo)

“We have a number of ideas, but we’re also interested in what the public would like to see out there,” Charity told the Picket in an email.

The possibilities include:

-- Archaeology across the site, including colonial days;

-- Restoration of the house and interpretation of each lower-floor room for different aspects of the plantation’s history;

-- A new Civil War museum, riverboat historic tours and archaeological excavations of the original Varina site;

-- A commemorative site for the enslaved persons who worked the fields and house for about 250 years. The family of Albert Aiken owned about 60 enslaved people on the eve of the Civil War, according to Charity. Officials have begun compiling a listing of known names;

-- A Native American interpretive site

-- Wetlands restoration with the James River Association, pollinator gardens and agriculture classes for county schools.

View of home from "land" side, just past farmland (Henrico County photo).

County officials said any opening of the property is at least a year away. There are no facilities available to the public at this time and there are no restrooms.

Marc Wagner, senior architectural historian for the state Department of Historic Resources, said the agency has advised the county on possible archaeology and how to interpret the dwelling. “We are hoping the county will invite us back out.”

A lot more of Varina's history lies below the surface

The Department of Historic Resources champions preservation statewide and has an online database of sites. It is familiar with Varina Farms and is standing by to assist Henrico County, said Mike Clem, the department’s eastern regional archaeologist.

According to Charity, archaeology surveys done in the 1970s and 1996 were all surface observations and collection.

(Marc Wagner, Va. Department of Historic Resources)

“One of the first things we would like to do is archaeology,” Charity said. “We are intending to pinpoint the locations of the early buildings (courthouse, glebe, parish, ordinary, etc.), Butler’s wharves, enslaved cabin sites, and anything listed in the vast histories.” This goes back to the early colonial period.

He says the site has been picked over during the years, so many historic items are no longer available.

“As archaeology is performed, we fully expect to recover hundreds of artifacts pertaining to the Civil War,” Charity said.

Plantation was a busy crossroads, troops site

Not long into the Civil War, Richmond became a prime objective for the Union army, and dozens of battles and skirmishes took place in Henrico and nearby counties.

Varina on the James served as an eastern depot for the August 1862 exchange of about 6,000 prisoners, according to a history in the state’s archives. A brick barn – about 400 yards from  the home – briefly held Union prisoners during the war. The barn was near a wharf used for the exchanges. (Some histories say the plantation was home to the first cotton mill in the South.)

Federal bridge crosses James River at Varina Landing (Library of Congress)

The farm was also used as a major crossing point for Union troops, according to the county.

In November 1863, the controversial Butler received command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and the following May was in the field again, this time at the head of the new Army of the James.

His army spent months southeast of  heavily defended Richmond, unsuccessful in making significant gains, though he notched a victory at New Market Heights, northwest of Varina, in September 1864. Fourteen members of the U.S. Colored Troops were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor.

Butler used Varina for his headquarters during part of 1864. According to one history, the general rode one day to inspect his camps.

“As he passed some ditches which he thought were filled with his own men, the Rebels fired upon him. They had reclaimed the land. Butler outran the Rebels and made it safely to the fort where he met Grant.”

Home was struck by Rebel cannonballs

The history says Butler built a log cabin for his headquarters near the home and used it until war’s end, having failed in his assault on Petersburg and being driven back by Confederate troops.

“The dwelling still shows the damage by cannon balls, fired by the Confederate batteries, from the Chesterfield side near Dutch Gap,” according to a 1937 report on the plantation. (Photo of damaged area, Henrico County)

The brick west wall of the home today is pocked with small craters made by the artillery rounds.

Wagner said: “You can tell the cannon balls are cemented into the damaged brick.  On site we wondered if that was done for effect by later owners.  Would the cannon fire have hit the wall and lodged in or just bounced out -- possibly both happened?”

Charity says officials believe the round shots in the wall replaced original cannonballs removed in the 1960s.

“We do not believe that the cannonballs are modern, but we believe that they are replacements. More than likely, leftover cannonballs found on the property from Butler’s time there,” he said.

The Union pontoon bridge was later removed, but different references mention remnants still on or in the James River, according to Charity.

None of the other buildings of the time, other than the 1853 home and its kitchen outbuilding, along with remnants of the barn, are still standing, said Charity.

Cannonballs in the west wall (Marc Wagner (Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

Home was modernized, but still has original elements

For fans of antebellum homes, the Aiken home just about has it all.

The interior has a variety of decorative elements, according to a 1976 nomination form for the home’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

The form says of the dwelling:

“The dwelling house is a two-story, common-bond brick structure connected by a long hyphen to a kitchen at the east and was built in 1853. It is five bays long with six-over-six sash and white wooden sills and lintels, except on the ground story of the river front where all of the window openings have French doors set into them. A one-story, decastyle Ionic porch, rebuilt after a 1941 tornado, stretches the length of the river front and is returned halfway along the west end. A one-story tetrastyle Ionic portico shelters the land front. “

Civil War photo shows flat roof, renovations included taller chimneys (Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

The home is showing its age, though county officials say the Stonemans did a good job maintaining it and the property. No one has lived in the house for at least 10 years, and the electrical has not been updated since the 1970s.

“We have some work to do, but I’ve definitely seen structures in far worse condition,” said Charity.

Wagner with the state DHR said the house was updated in the early 20^th century so the interior reflects a lot of that period. “The roof blew off the house during a tornado at one point so the whole roof area was rebuilt.”

He said the house appears to have undergone a substantial remodeling a little more than a 100 years ago.

One of the rooms at the old Varina home (Marc Wagner, Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

“This was the period when farms got upgraded all over Virginia. Farming became more prosperous operations with the growth of cities, RR (railroads) and improved scientific farming methods -- and the owners would often upgrade these old plantations with modern bathrooms and kitchens.”

Parts of Varina’s main house interior date back to the 1850s, especially the room plan and central hall circulation. All of the brickwork, and some of the exterior trim is from the 1850s. The porches have been rebuilt over time in the same 1850s Greek Revival style, Wagner said.

“The kitchen interior is all modern,” he told the Picket. “It likely housed 5-10 enslaved persons (a guess) and had a large cooking space. It is rare to find the covered connected kitchen to house structure, original to the design -- the only one left in Henrico that is pre-1860. You can see in later years that a new entrance was added to the kitchen and the small upstairs window. The new entrance on the kitchen signals a difference use of the kitchen building, as just residential space.”

(Marc Wagner, Virginia Dept. of HIstoric Resources)

Charity said the county plans to move forward on preservation talks and work soon.

“We’ve gone through the general assessment phase where we’ve identified priorities (electrical, windows, plumbing, etc.), now we are in the contractor estimation phase. We have a number of contractors under contract (due to the other historic properties we manage), and are getting more information on exactly how to proceed.” (Aerial view of Varina, below, Henrico County)

Henrico County owns other Civil War-related properties, including portions of Malvern Hill, New Market Heights, Deep Bottom and Savage’s Station battlefields.

It is working with a consortium of groups and governments to build a bike/walking trail through the New Market Heights property to a Civil War site and one to Four Mile Creek, from the Revolutionary War.

The New Market Heights site has been master planned for a large passive park site, but it has not yet come to fruition.

Crater Days this weekend at Petersburg will recall brutal battle that followed mine explosion under Rebel lines

Cannon demonstration during a previous Crater event (NPS)

Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia this weekend will remember the Battle of the Crater with the first major living history event the park has hosted since 2019.

Crater Days are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday (July 29-30) with formal programs beginning each day at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The Battle of the Crater, which occurred July 30, 1864, followed a Union attempt to break the siege lines. A mine explosion shattered a Confederate position held by South Carolinians. Federal troops rushed in the breach but became they targets when they massed in an area with little room to maneuver.

The attack turned into a Federal defeat after vicious hand-to-hand fighting. Defenders regrouped and massacred US Colored Troops wounded or surrendering in the Crater.

Eric Schreiner, manager of interpretation at the park, told the Picket in an email that about 35 living historians will participate, including the Princess Anne Greys and the 12^th Virginia.

General view of the Crater at Petersburg (NPS)

Rangers will be leading tours and the living historians will be doing weapons demonstrations. Each program will last about 90 minutes.

“NPS staff will be on site, but living historians between programs will be available to the public to discuss the everyday life of the solider around their camp,” Schreiner said. “We focus on leadership and discuss successes and failures that happen leading up to and during the battle.”

Alfred Waud depiction of the futile attack (Library of Congress)

On Saturday at the Eastern Front Visitor Center, there will be displays focused on the civilian experience from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Schreiner said he hopes the staff can offer more for the 160^th anniversary of the Crater in 2024. “Hopefully, next year we will be able to find some units to be Federals. I have some contacts with a few already, including some USCT groups.”

If you go: Start at the Eastern Front Visitor Center at 5001 Siege Road, Petersburg. The Crater battlefield is four miles down the tour road from the visitor center. The grounds are open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Bring water, sun protection and wear comfortable clothing appropriate for the weather. For more information about the event, email eric_schreiner@nps.gov.

Rogers named new superintendent at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania

Lewis Rogers, whose 38-year National Park Service career has included service at 12 sites with historic and cultural themes, has been named the next superintendent of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia.

Lewis Rogers

Rogers, currently the superintendent at another Civil War site, Petersburg National Battlefield, will start his new position on Dec. 18.

At Petersburg, Rogers guided the park through the Civil War sesquicentennial and he spoke often about the important role of African American soldiers (U.S. Colored Troops). A postage stamp honors Black troops who fought during the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg in July 30, 1864. Rogers also backed expansion of the Petersburg park.

“I am proud to be a steward of America’s history,” Rogers said in a press release Friday.

“The most exciting thing about national parks is the intersection of story and place. This is the stuff that makes your hair stand up. But too often in public history, too many faces have been cropped out of the whole picture. To understand what really happened, stewards of our shared history need to reveal the entire picture, with all of its participants. That’s what makes history so interesting.”

Rogers’ time at the National Park Service has involved a variety of roles, including law enforcement, wildland firefighting and interpretation. He has served in the U.S. Naval Reserves.

His previous NPS posts included Booker T. Washington National Monument, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Valley Forge National Historical Park and Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park.

Loss and hope at Petersburg battlefield: Cemetery lodge showcases sword, burial registry, record of freed slaves

Soldier-built church was used by Freedmen's Bureau (LOC)

Emmanuel Dabney

Civil War-era documents and artifacts on exhibit in a Victorian-era lodge at Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Virginia are reminders of death and despair, but also inspire hope. The Picket spoke this week with Emmanuel Dabney, curator at Petersburg National Battlefield, about the items, which were placed in the building for this spring’s rededication of the cemetery after an extensive rehabilitation project.

Freedmen’s Bureau: ‘Sense of hope’

A single page in a Freedmen's Bureau registry conveys the challenges facing former slaves left destitute and homeless by the Civil War: “lame”; “blind”; “sick for ever.”

The lodge features a copy of a May 1866 partial census record of free people who received assistance until they had to move within about a year of the war's end because of construction of the Poplar Grove cemetery. A nurse who wrote about her experiences said between 500 and 600 people lived on the site of a well-constructed camp built and left by the 50th New York Engineer Regiment, which was stationed near the 1864-65 battlefield.

School-age residents attended schools and adults received help in getting work and caring for their families.

“There was a sense of hope that springs forward from the end of slavery,” said Dabney. 

Blacks could for a time receive justice in courts and thousands learned to read and write.

On display: Copy of National Archives document

Nurse Charlotte Elizabeth McKay recounted a conversation she had with a carpenter doing repairs on her quarters. Would he have not done better to stay with his former master in North Carolina?

“Oh, no, indeed, madam. I’m bound to believe I can do better to have my own labor. To earn a hundred dollars for another man, and not get a hundred cents for yourself, is poor business.”

The bureau was closed in 1872. Blacks saw many setbacks in the decades to come as entrenched segregation and Jim Crow laws took effect.

“I want to make clear that this site has a layered history," Dabney said. "Those layers aren’t simply Union soldiers camped here and Union soldiers buried here.” A black community – with residents who toiled and dreamed -- existed for a time.

The sword with a roundabout journey

(National Park Service photo)

Park officials were thrilled to acquire a fallen Federal officer’s sword and scabbard in 2014. “We have very little in connecting … three-dimensional artifacts to people buried at Poplar Grove,” Dabney said.

Lt. Edwin I. Coe of the 57^th Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers was shot in the head in a June 17, 1864, attack on the battlefield. “He is in what turned out to be a series of poorly coordinated assaults on June 16, 17 and the day after his death… Union troops attacking … without all their troops at one given time,” the park curator said. The Yankees failed to break through and take vital railroad lines and Petersburg.

Lt. Edwin Coe

Like other items in the lodge, the text is concise -- so there was no room to tell the compelling, full story of the sword and scabbard, which the Picket wrote about in 2015. 

They somehow ended up for sale at a jewelry shop in Honolulu, Hawaii, before the park was contacted and purchased them. After the sword arrived, Petersburg staff took the blade to Poplar Grove. “To have it lying on top of his resting place, it doesn’t get much more powerful,” park staffer Chris Bryce told the Picket then. Officials still don’t know how the sword’s circuitous route ended up in the Aloha State.

Recording the dead

Poplar Grove’s first burial registry is on display for the first time. It was likely acquired in 1866, with the frontispiece bearing an 1869 notation. The last entry was made in the 1930s, Dabney said. All but a few dozen of the 6,100 graves in the cemetery belong to Union soldiers – the majority of them are unknown. 

Grave numbers were not entered in order; Dabney theorizes the entries were made as bodies were recovered on various parts of the sprawling battlefield and brought to Poplar Grove shortly after the war.

(National Park Service photos)

The book is open to two pages, one listing members of the U.S. Colored Troops. Some 331 African-American soldiers are buried at the cemetery. Most who are known died in hospitals. 

But not these men on page 71. “It is typical the unknown outnumber the known,” Dabney said. They are believed to have been killed in the valiant, but doomed Federal assault on the Crater.

Soldier’s emotional letter to children

Levi Hilton is believed to be among the unknown dead interred at Poplar Grove. Shortly before he was killed at Petersburg, the 37-year-old corporal with the 2^nd Michigan Infantry wrote a four-page letter that consoled his children, discussed army life, food and the danger brought by Southern snipers.

“Alsa don't be asshamed to read your Bible and treasure it up in your Memory and persuade your Sisters to do the same I want all of you Children if you love me to be good children,” Hilton wrote, according to a CNN article.

The letter, an envelope and photo were donated by a descendant who attended the cemetery rededication. They are temporarily off display, but officials expect them to return.

The lodge was part of major project at cemetery (NPS)