Donated quilt has many stories to tell

A cherry quilt buried with other precious family heirlooms during the Civil War has a permanent home -- the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The 155-year-old quilt, with its still vibrant greens and reds, intricate cherries and stems, has been the subject of much lore -- and more than a few family squabbles. • Article

More ordnance coming up than expected at CSS Georgia site in Savannah

Spencer Puett prepares for dive (U.S. Navy)

A team of Navy divers has recovered about 100 pieces of unexploded ordnance and munitions on the bottom of the Savannah River at the CSS Georgia wreck site – a number higher than what archaeologists first expected.

Navy officials expect dozens more will be lifted from the Confederate ironclad’s grave in Savannah this month before they remove remaining cannon, pieces of casemate, the propeller and other components of the warship.

The recovery operation, which includes previous artifact removal by divers contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is part of a larger project to deepen the river channel to carry containers vessels to and from the Georgia city without being dependent on the tide.

“I’m just really proud of my sailors, and we are all very proud to work on this piece of history,” diving and salvage commander Chief Warrant Officer Jason Potts said in a Navy article.

The CSS Georgia was scuttled in December 1864 to prevent it from falling into Union hands.

Locomotive Texas will stay in Atlanta after state ruling in ownership dispute

Two locomotives that were the stars of a famous chase in Georgia during the Civil War will not be reunited.

That’s because a state agency recently found that the Texas, used by Southern pursuers during the April 1862 “Great Locomotive Chase,” is indeed owned by the city of Atlanta.

A little background: The locomotive and the Atlanta Cyclorama painting have been in Grant Park for more than a century. The city decided last year to move both to the Atlanta History Center’s Buckhead campus.

Officials in Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta, saw an opportunity to try to prove that the Texas actually belonged to the state, opening a possible claim. They want the locomotive to be housed at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, paired with the General, the object of the chase.

While the chase did not take place in Atlanta, the history center says extensive research uncovered documents and news accounts that go in its favor.

“We are certain it belongs to the city,” Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator, told the Picket last month.

1908 The Atlanta Georgiam article on the matter (AHC)

Steven L. Stancil of the State Properties Commission, which initiated state research on the ownership, recently wrote, “After a review by the Georgia Department of Law, we believe there is little question that the Texas belongs to the city of Atlanta.”

A Cobb lawmaker told the Marietta Daily Journal this week he won’t fight the ruling. Rep. Earl Ehrhart had argued the locomotives should be together. “It just makes all kinds of sense in the world to be housed somewhere in Cobb. This is where the historical event actually took place, and I know that it would be well cared for by that museum for sure,”

A page on the AHC website shows documents cited in Stancil’s determination. The history center said the successor company to the Western & Atlantic Railroad in 1908 donated the Texas to the group Ladies of Atlanta, which in turn gave it the city’s park commission.

This followed a statement from Gov. Hoke Smith, who was concerned about the declining condition of the locomotive. The state consented to the transfer.

“I commend very cordially the idea of preserving this historic old engine,” Smith wrote. “The limited grounds around the state capitol made it impossible for the state to accept and preserve it. I write to assure you that the transfer of the gift as you indicated in your letter meets with my very cordial approval.”

Patrick W. Leed, Georgia assistant attorney general, wrote Stancil in April that his review showed “little reason to dispute Atlanta’s exclusive ownership” of the Texas, which was built in 1856 and saw service for nearly five decades.

On April 12, 1862, the Texas (above) took part in the famous Great Locomotive Chase, or Andrews Raid. Steaming in reverse, the locomotive pursued the fleeing General that had been commandeered by Union soldiers and civilians in disguise.

James Andrews and his band of raiders tried to destroy much of the Western & Atlantic Railroad and communications as they rushed northward. They achieved little success and eight of the nearly two dozen captured participants, disguised as civilians, were later hanged in Atlanta as spies. Andrews was among them.

Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews suggested Kennesaw work with Atlanta in the future to bring the history of the two trains together, the MDJ reported. The General, itself an object of a legal dispute in the 1960s, is owned by the state and is on permanent loan to Kennesaw, according to Mathews. 

Plans are being made at the AHC to have the Texas tell a wider story of the founding and growth of Atlanta transportation and there is value in having the trains in different locations to tell two stories, said Hillary Hardwick, vice president of marketing communications.

Artifacts, planned museum raise profile of 'forgotten' Camp Douglas prison in Chicago

Recent dig near Pershing East Magnet School (Michael Gregory)

Some heard through word of mouth, others through social media posts. Armed with curiosity and perhaps a hat to better weather the sun, they came to the grassy lot near a school on Chicago’s South Side – willing to dig, fill buckets and sift through dirt.

About 50 volunteers assisted the Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation late last month in its fifth excavation aimed at pinpointing features of the little-known Civil War prison camp and gathering artifacts for a planned museum.

“People said, ‘Hey, I just would like to do this,’” said David Keller, a retired banker who is managing director of the 5-year-old foundation.

Archaeologists and volunteers, excavating about 3 feet down in three units, uncovered a Federal uniform button with an embossed eagle and grommets that may have been part of a rubber blanket at the camp. They also found a dark stain in the soil that may have been the remnants of a wooden post. The discoveries will undergo further research.

Button may have been on vest

Rubber attached to grommets (Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation)

Of course, they also find items in the sand and clay that may not be part of the Civil War period. Those items are kept so that other groups or institutions may further research them.

“We find very curious things,” Keller told the Picket this week. “We found in one of the units about a half a dozen clay smoking pipes and pieces of them. Very elaborate, some with floral designs, some very demonic. We have one with the devil and the fiddle.”

The pipes, some of which were made by the Noel brothers of Lyon, France, may indeed be from the period.

For Keller and archaeologist Michael Gregory, an assistant visiting professor at DePaul University, the digs generate public interest and help bring the story of Camp Douglas out of obscurity.

“Camp Douglas wasn’t wiped off the face of the Earth,” said Keller.

In a sense, it was. The prison’s 200 structures went down when the site was dismantled in December 1865. What used to be a rural tract just outside city limits became part of Chicago’s rapid growth. The community, known as Bronzeville, was an African-American mecca during the “Great Migration” of the early 20^th century. The South Side was a cultural bulwark and drew numerous black entertainers, including Louis Armstrong.

Camp Douglas largely faded into history.

Besides a cemetery containing the mass grave of 4,000 Confederates who died at the prison, Chicago currently offers only two signs that mention Camp Douglas -- hence the foundation’s efforts to build the museum that will resemble one of its barracks.

Confederate POWs at Camp Douglas (Library of Congress)

Keller, author of “The Story of Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Forgotten Civil War Prison,” said the 2012 discovery of the camp headquarters foundation was an important find.

“We want to better tie specifically where the camp was,” he said. “We don’t know where the stockade fence was found.”

Previous excavations found the letter “B” from a Union cap and the bowl of a tobacco pipe that would have been attached to a reed stem. Experts at the American Civil War Museum are confident the pipe, found about 10 yards from June’s dig, was of the period, Keller said. “It was the pipe of choice of the Confederate soldier.”

The recent excavation, said Gregory, demonstrates that physical evidence of the prison “has not been completely destroyed by urban development.” While the foundation has been able to dig on public property, much of the 60 acres is covered or in private hands, with no accessibility.

Keller said he believes the artifacts are the first military items found in Chicago in 100 years. “Whatever we can find that is part of the history of the camp is important to us.”

'Andersonville of the North'

Camp Douglas originally served as a training facility for Illinois soldiers being rushed to regiments at the front. Much of the site was converted to a prison camp.

“Had the military been involved (the site) never would have been selected,” said Keller. “It was noted for its flooding, swampy conditions.”

(Library of Congress)

The U.S.Sanitary Commission, during an inspection, found that the “amount of standing water, of unpoliced grounds, of foul sinks, of general disorder, of soil reeking with miasmic accretions, of rotten bones and emptying of camp kettles … was enough to drive a sanitarian mad.”

It earned well the sobriquet “Andersonville of the North.”

Officials estimate 1 in 7 Confederate prisoners died, although the exact number is not known. Keller said he believes between 5,000 and 6,000 perished.

In his book, Keller tells Camp Douglas’ story through the eyes of five POWs who kept journals.

“There were haves and have nots in the prison. There were people who lived pretty well, and there were those who lived deplorably,” he told the Picket. “It was not a pleasant place, but it was not as bleak as the Lost Cause tries to paint it.”

Untrained officers and guards and a constant change in commandants made matters worse. And soldiers who were taken prisoner during the Civil War had no training in how to weather the crisis and survive.

One exception, Keller said, were members of Confederate Brig. Gen. John H. Morgan’s raiders, captured in 1863. By then the parole and exchange system had broken down, and the raiders knew their stay at Camp Douglas might be lengthy.

By not allowing a comrade to starve and by sticking together, they endured death rate about half of the general prison population, according to Keller.

“They didn’t cooperate with the prisoner officials. They tried to escape. They refused to sign anything. They kept faith in their fellow prisoners and respected their chain of command.”

Pipe bowl likely used at Camp Douglas

Pipe with devil/fiddle theme (Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation)

Choices and consequences

Several times a month, Keller gets information requests from descendants of Confederate soldiers held at Camp Douglas.

In central Georgia, the staff at Andersonville National Historic Site tells the story of the infamous Confederate prison there and answers questions from those curious about other facilities.

“It is very common for folks who are interested in Andersonville to be familiar with the names of other large prisons, traditionally Elmira and Douglas,” said Stephanie Steinhorst of Andersonville. “Those prisons tell the parallel story of Confederate prisoners of war, and the choices that United States commanders made during the war.”

Steinhorst said visitors struggle to grasp the scope of Andersonville’s misery.

She continued: “At the National Prisoner of War Museum, we have highlighted the stories of prisoners of these other locations, like Douglas, through programs and some of the museum exhibits.  Each prison could have thousands of pages of text about their struggles, because each page could be one of the lives that passed through the gates.  However, our site was not built immense enough for every name and every image.  We begin the conversation and then hope that people go home, carrying the questions of prisoners of war to their local historical societies, the National Archives, the town church, the historic site, or better yet, their own family tree. ...”

(Michael Gregory)

Plans for museum, soldiers database

The foundation wants to builds it museum – which will include references to African-American troops who were trained at Douglas – “sooner rather than later,” Keller said, adding it is close to securing a location within the camp’s confines and is negotiating details.

Once that is worked out, the group hopes to raise $2.5 million to build, equip and operate the venue, which will resemble a single-story barracks that was rated for 100 occupants, but sometimes held 300, a sign of the prison’s overcrowding. The barracks were 90 feet by 24 feet.

Keller said he would like to see ground broken this fall.

In addition to its small collection of artifacts, the foundation wants to display items from the Chicago History Museum, including the camp chapel bell, and other institutions. The owner of a locket made by a prisoner also has expressed interest in loaning that item.

The interior would include bunks, mannequins playing cards, photographs and a video loop.

Also in the plans is a database of the prisoners. Nearly 30,000 Confederates went through the camp. Most of the dead are listed on plaques at Oak Woods Cemetery. The National Archives and Ancestry.com have nearly 12,000 additional names, though they are not currently searchable.

Keller has several hundred names given to him. “If I can get between 15,000 and 20,000 names, I would be pleased.” The foundation would like the database – when possible -- to include names, units, capture date, capture location and the soldier’s disposition.

(Michael Gregory)

In the meantime, the foundation continues its education outreach by speaking to various groups and at schools.

Steinhorst, with Andersonville National Historic Site, said every Civil War prison failed to protect human life.

“Men died in these places and the legacy of any of the Civil War prisons is how did they survive, what did the survivors want us to understand, and how can we learn from their sacrifices. The study of prisons needs to be based on the flaws and merits of each prison as a single moment in history,” she told the Picket.

“To compare them, and shape all your understanding on which is worse or who is to blame is a lost opportunity. We hope that when folks visit places like Andersonville, Richmond, Elmira or Point Lookout that they find space to explore the complexities of the story and connect to the landscape. After the crucible of captivity it was the survivors, women, and freedmen who called for memorials, monuments and ceremonies.  Today, we live in the legacy of their work, and the work continues.”

Service recalls 'fiercely patriotic' hero

Church bells rang and “Amazing Grace” was sung at Barker Commons in Fredonia, N.Y., where residents gathered for a memorial service for Battle of Gettysburg hero Alonzo Cushing, who died 152 years ago Friday. During the service last fall presenting the Medal of Honor, the county’s highest military honor, to Cushing’s relatives, President Obama said, “It is never too late to do the right thing.” • Article