This day in Civil War history: Raid leader James Andrews is hanged as spy

(Picket photo)

James J. Andrews was going to hang. It was just a matter of when and where.

The leader of the failed Andrews Raid decided to break out on May 31, 1862, after receiving his death warrant at a jail in Chattanooga. Andrews was captured two days later, put in ankle irons and given time to write farewell letters as execution scaffolding was erected outside the unpleasant Swaim’s Jail.

But Andrews would not die in Chattanooga. The condemned man was put on a train to Atlanta when Federal troops got too close. Townspeople in Georgia taunted him at station stops during the sad journey.

James Andrews

On this day (June 7), 154 years ago, Andrews was hanged in what is now the Midtown neighborhood in Atlanta only hours after the train came to a stop.

Seven other men also convicted as spies in the April 1862 raid, known as the “Great Locomotive Chase,” had traveled with Andrews to Atlanta. They were executed on June 18 a few miles to the southeast, next to Oakland Cemetery.

A spring 2015 article in Civil War Quarterly gave this account of Andrews’ death:

“Andrews’ sentence was carried out first, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, near the intersection of Juniper and Third Streets in Atlanta. The hanging was horribly botched: the cotton rope stretched and Andrews’ feet touched the earth. A guard had to swing the doomed man’s struggling body off to the side and hold it there as another scraped away the ground while Andrews slowly strangled.” The account is corroborated in a book by a raid survivor.

A historical marker stands today along a busy street.

Andrews, still wearing his shackles, was buried near the execution site. His remains were exhumed in 1887, when he joined his seven comrades at the federal cemetery in Chattanooga.

Seven raiders are hanged near Oakland Cemetery

Some 20 Union soldiers were part of the raid, and six of those who were exchanged as prisoners received the first Medals of Honor in March 1863. Andrews, who was about 33, was not eligible because he was a civilian.

Andrews and his band of “engine thieves” tried to destroy much of the Western & Atlantic Railroad and communications as they rushed northward from Big Shanty, Ga., toward Chattanooga. The damaged they created was negligible. They were captured near Ringgold, Ga. Those not executed either escaped or were exchanged.

Andrews marker is behind shrubs next to apartment building (Picket)

Much has been written about the failed raid, and film accounts include a Disney production. One of the most riveting written accounts was by William Pittenger, a member of the operation.

Pittenger wrote of a group of the imprisoned soldiers saying farewell to Andrews in Chattanooga before they were moved to Knoxville, Tenn. It was about a week before their leader learned of his fate.

“I will never forget his last words, as he silently pressed our hands, and with a tear in his blue eye, and a low, sweet voice, that thrilled through my inmost being, said, ‘Boys, if I never see you here again, try to meet me on the other side of Jordan.’ It was our last earthly meeting.”

Locomotive tops monument in Chattanooga (Library of Congress)

Heavy equipment on top of Civil War mounds?

Historians and Beaufort, S.C., officials are looking into whether proper steps were taken before construction equipment was parked on a Civil War site, the Island Packet reports. The property, adjacent to a restaurant on Boundary Street, is part of what was known as Battery Saxton. The city demolished a body shop on the property to preserve the site. • Article

Photos: 'Wall of Honor' exhibit at Shiloh remembers U.S. war dead

(NPS photos)

The Picket wrote recently about a new memorial exhibit at Shiloh National Military Park. The staff asked local residents to submit photos of loved ones and ancestors who died in American wars.

The park’s kind staff recently sent us a few photos of the panels that went on display in the visitor center beginning with Memorial Day weekend.

“It is a way people can put a piece of their history into our exhibit,” park ranger Heath Henson said.

Press releases seeking the images went out to media in Hardin and McNairy counties in Tennessee and Alcorn County, Ms. 

Howitzer that produced carnage, later endured vandalism is now at Georgia's Pickett's Mill battlefield

(Georgia State Parks)

An artillery piece is back at the Georgia battlefield where it is believed to have been used in a deadly barrage on attacking Federal troops.

A 12-pounder howitzer that was part of Confederate Capt. Thomas Key’s battery is on display in the visitor center at Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Historic Site. The park northwest of Atlanta this weekend is commemorating the 152^nd anniversary of the Atlanta Campaign battle.

The bronze gun -- on loan from the Atlanta History Center  -- has a postwar history about as interesting as its service during the Civil War.

The 780-pound barrel was sent after the war to the site of Fort Walker in Atlanta’s Grant Park. The park was home to the Cyclorama, the huge mural that is being moved to the Atlanta History Center in the Buckhead neighborhood.

(Wikipedia Commons, public domain)

The howitzer, which was spiked and vandalized over the years (hacksaw marks, broken cascabel, large dents), has been restored by the history center and sits on a reproduction carriage. It was cast in Boston by Cyrus Alger & Co. in 1851 for the Arkansas Military Institute. The number 9 is stamped on its muzzle face and the cannon is marked with an eagle and globe.

According to a 2010 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Alger cannon No. 9 was stolen decades ago, presumably from Grant Park, and turned up in Spalding County, Ga.

Capt. Thomas Key

Capt. Key and his Arkansas four-gun battery played a large part in the Confederate victory at Pickett’s Mill on May 27, 1864. Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne ordered Key to place two guns to the right oblique to enfilade a ravine.

Federal troops under Brig. Gen. William Hazen charged uphill in their futile attempt to take the top of a ridge. Key’s howitzers were ready for them.

“They shot solid shot and canister. And that was 48 balls per (canister) round,” said Stephen Briggs, interim director at Pickett’s Mill. The battery fired 182 rounds of spherical case and canister in two hours, he said.

The Federal army suffered 1,600 casualties at the battle, compared to 500 for the South.

For this weekend, the park will have a 3-inch ordnance rifle on the white trail. The park has a reproduction of the 12-pound howitzer and will set it in the approximate location of where Key’s battery wreaked havoc. Briggs hopes an individual may bring a second howitzer reproduction piece.

There will be artillery demonstrations, tours of the well-preserved battle area and living historians to interpret what happened.

Stephen Briggs with the howitzer during its move

The programming schedule includes:

Friday, June 3, 2 p.m.: Historian and author Michael Schaffer discusses the Atlanta Campaign

Saturday, June 4, 10 a.m.: Michael Schaffer discusses the Civil War in Georgia.  He will lead tours in the afternoon.

Saturday, 11 a.m.: Historian and author Stephen Davis lectures on “taking another look at John Bell Hood: What we've learned since the centennial”

Saturday, 1 p.m.: Brad Butkovich, historian and author of "The Battle of Pickett's Mill: Along the Dead Line," will discuss his book and lead a tour following the lecture.

Sunday, June 5, 11 a.m.: Historian and author Gould B. Hagler will show and discuss photos of Confederate monuments, focusing on their purpose and significant physical characteristics.

Admission is $3 for children and $5.50 for adults. Pickett’s Mill Battlefield is located at 4432 Mount Tabor Church Road in Paulding County. For more information, visit this website or call 770-443-7850.

A visit to 'Stonewall' Jackson Shrine, where general wounded at Chancellorsville came to rest under the shade of the trees

A Jackson staff member placed this monument in 1903.

I made a brief visit on Tuesday afternoon to the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield and the “Stonewall” Jackson Shrine south of Fredericksburg, Va.

It had been years since I had seen where Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson died in a small farm building at Guinea Station. He was wounded by his own men on May 2, 1863, at Chancellorsville, the site of his greatest success -- a sweeping flank attack that rolled back the Federal right.

The shrine was a peaceful place, with only a couple weekday visitors present.

I learned that the Confederate general got to know the Chandler family who owned the farm just a year before, during the Fredericksburg campaign. Now, Robert E. Lee wanted his lieutenant to recuperate at a spot well behind enemy lines. Jackson was taken by ambulance to Guinea Station.

Jackson died in this bed. (Picket photos)

According to the National Park Service: “Although offered the use of the Chandler house, Jackson's doctor and staff officers chose the quiet and private outbuilding as the best place for Jackson to rest after his long ambulance ride. If all went well, the general would soon board a train at Guinea Station and resume his trip to Richmond and the medical expertise available there.”

Five physicians tended to Jackson, who had his left arm amputated after his wounding. The general’s wife, Mary Anna, arrived with their infant daughter and spent most of her time at his bedside or an office in the next room.

Jackson had contracted pneumonia, perhaps before he was wounded, and his condition worsened within days. He expressed a wish to die on a Sunday, and that occurred on May 10.

Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire recorded his famous last words: "A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, 'Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks' -- then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, 'Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.’” (Jackson was buried in Lexington, Va.)

I asked the ranger to describe the continued attention to Jackson. He spoke of poetry and postwar stories told about Confederate leaders during the rise of the “Lost Cause” narrative.

He pointed to a copy of a famous painting of Lee and Jackson’s last meeting (above). A couple from Northern Ireland had previously visited and said they had a copy hanging in their bedroom.