At Andersonville, closure 150 years later

(NPS photo)

A simple wooden casket, covered with a U.S. flag and placed on a raised bier, bore witness for thousands of Civil War soldiers who died while under the guard of fellow Americans. Battlefields were the places for winners and losers. But survival was the only matter of magnitude at prisons in the North and South, the audience was told Saturday during the "Funeral for 13,000" at a national cemetery in southwest Georgia. • Article

Tew sword, for years in Canada, is now on display at The Citadel's library

Click to enlarge: Cadets conduct sword drill before display case (Daniel Library)

A sword, cup and other items that belonged to The Citadel’s first honor graduate have been reunited for the first time in 153 years.

Col. Charles Courtenay Tew died Sept. 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam while leading a North Carolina unit. The weapon, his watch and a cup were taken as trophies of war. Just this week, a Canadian military unit that had the sword for several decades transferred it to the military school in Charleston, S.C.

A ceremony was held Thursday at The Citadel’s Daniel Library. The sword will remain on display in the library. The cup is on loan from Tew descendants until the end of the academic year.

(Photos courtesy of Daniel Library)

Lt. Goble David Goble (left) is director of the library and was involved in planning the return of the sword to Charleston. Caroline Sloan (center), a Tew descendant, told the Picket recently that the family has long searched for the sword, knowing only that it was in Ohio. In 1963, a woman who moved from the United States to Ottawa gave the sword to a relative in the 33 Signal Regiment of the Canadian Army.

Michael Martin (right) is the head of the regiment’s foundation. He and others spent years proving the weapon’s provenance after the unit moved from one building to another. Canadian officials decided the sword rightfully belonged at The Citadel.

Writings show the emotional toll of war

The journals of a Civil War veteran have been rediscovered and are the basis of an exhibit at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Chicago.  Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath gave vivid accounts of his service in the 20^th Indiana Volunteer Regiment. Said a museum official: “He was kind of like a Forrest Gump of 19th century American history, quite frankly, the things that he saw, the people that he met, you could very easily make a play or movie out of these journals.” • Article

Sword belonging to officer who fell at Antietam officially handed over to The Citadel

(National Park Service photos)

The Citadel, in a ceremony at Antietam National Battlefield, on Wednesday formally received a sword that belonged to a graduate who died at the 1862 battle.

A contingent from Charleston, S.C., traveled to the western Maryland battlefield for the ceremony on Sunken Lane, just one day shy of the 153^re anniversary of Confederate Col. Charles C. Tew’s death.

Tew, who led the 2^nd North Carolina State Troops, had brief command of his brigade when he fell with a bullet to the head during an assault. His sword, cup and other belongings were taken by Federal soldiers, most likely from Ohio.

The sword subsequently had a long journey, for many years on display in Ohio before ending up with a Canadian military unit in Ottawa. A foundation associated with that regiment, after proving the provenance of the weapon, decided that it should go to The Citadel, where Tew was in the first group of students and was its first honor graduate. His descendants for generations had tried to locate the sword.

Citadel cadets and staff before the ceremony (Courtesy of David Goble)

The Citadel contingent will now return to the school, which will have a Sept. 17 (Thursday) reception at Daniel Library with the cherished sword on display, and an official transfer on Sept. 18 on Summerall Field, just prior to the traditional Friday cadet dress parade.

The ceremony, on a day with weather reminiscent of the bloody battle, involved the 33 Signal Regiment in Ontario handing Tew's sword over to the National Park Service, which was then to tender it to The Citadel cadets. The sword was given to Tew in 1858 by cadets at the Arsenal Academy, which was affiliated with The Citadel.

(Click here for video of Wednesday's ceremony)

Michael Martin, chairman of the 33 Signal Regiment Foundation, told the Picket that it was a "spectacular ceremony." After speeches, a wreath was placed near where Tew fell and Taps was played.

Descendants of the colonel and The Citadel alumni were present, Martin said. He spoke of the long process of proving the history of the sword and the preparation for its return to the United States.

“We all became vested in the process. Col. Tew became a real person as we looked at the archives and letters from the family. He was a scholar, father, an academic and natural-born leader. He was exceptionally worldly. He had traveled all through Europe as a young man.”

Tew's death at 34 robbed the world of a leader with even more potential, Martin said. 

Antietam park ranger Keith Snyder, who transferred the sword from the Canadian unit to The Citadel, called the event "moving, a perfect tribute."

(Courtesy of David Goble)

Surprise! Another gun from CSS Georgia is brought to the surface in Savannah

This Dahlgren was raised on Sept. 15 (USACE photo)

Recovery of the remnants of the CSS Georgia in Savannah has yielded another archaeological treasure: A third Dahlgren gun.

It’s known that the Confederate ironclad, which was part of the Georgia city’s defenses, had at least 10 guns at some point – but no one knew exactly how many were on board when the vessel was scuttled in December 1864.

Two guns were found years ago and sit outside Old Fort Jackson nearby. A U.S. Navy diving team this summer salvaged four guns, including one 9,000-pound Dahlgren, two Brooke rifles and a smaller gun.

Now there’s a seventh gun. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Russell Wicke said that the massive Dahlgren brought up Tuesday was a bit of a surprise because it apparently evaded earlier archaeological and sonar surveys because it was deeper in the muck. It was scooped up by a large grapple that went into use this week.

Jim Jobling, a project manager with Texas A&M University's Conservation Laboratory, theorized a second Dahlgren would be found, according to an Army Corps article. A wartime manifest of the ship didn't mention them.