Pickett's Mill candlelight tours postponed

The extension of a burn ban in drought-stricken Paulding County, Ga., led to the postponement of this coming weekend’s candlelight tours at Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Historic Site. The tours include a campfire, candle lanterns and the firing of black powder weapons. “When the fire danger is this high, fires of all types start quickly and burn intensely,” said the Friends of Pickett’s Mill Battlefield. The event will be rescheduled, likely in March 2017. Registration money will be refunded. • Details

Plans made for dig at Pea Ridge's Leetown hamlet; analysis of artillery site continues

Foundations are all that remain in Leetown (NPS photo)

The few Leetown residents who stayed after the Battle of Pea Ridge didn’t stick around a whole lot longer. The 1881 building of a railroad line a dozen miles away in Rogers brought new opportunities and the end to this northwest Arkansas community.

Nature reclaimed the area that once held about 15 one-story, log-frame houses and a small store. Leetown was only a half mile from the pitched fighting of March 7, 1862. Homes were used for hospitals, woods and fields were filled with battle debris, and the stench of death permeated the air, according to the National Park Service.

The Arkansas Archeological Survey, a part of the University of Arkansas system, is in a four-year project examining up to nine areas in Pea Ridge National Military Park.

Carl Drexler, a battlefield archaeologist with the Survey, said the University of Arkansas Global Campus will host a multi-week field school at Leetown in summer 2017. The site contains some foundations. The hamlet witnessed a major part of the first day's fighting and was the site of a U.S. Army field hospital.

(NPS photo)

Two Confederate generals died near Leetown (above) during assaults after their units were separated during a flanking movement. The Confederates were forced to withdraw.

The Picket has published posts about spring 2016 excavations in Ruddick’s Field, a couple miles to the east of Leetown. Archaeologists recovered 540 artifacts – the largest a 6-pound solid artillery shot – from the cornfield and in wooded areas.

“These have all been analyzed, at least on a preliminary level, and plotted in mapping software,” Drexler said recently. “More analyses of the items, including what their locations can tell us about gun positions, troop movements, etc., are still in the pipeline.”

NPS' Alex Swift with piece of case shot or musket ball at Ruddick's Field.

One aim of the project is to ascertain, by analyzing artillery fragment locations, just where the guns were located, the distance from targets and perhaps even the trajectory of the shots. 

An artillery duel at Ruddick’s involving 40 Federal and 30 Rebel guns speaks to the psychological and morale toll of artillery. “The smoke and the explosion of the cannonballs created such an overwhelming assault on the senses that the cumulative effect … was often greater than just what the bodily destruction was,” Drexler said earlier this year.

About 3,000 of the Confederate Missouri State Guard charged a Union position late on March 7, 1862. Union canister and shells and infantry fire ripped through the Rebel lines in the cornfield. It was over in 15 minutes, the survivors limping back toward Elkhorn Tavern.

The March 6-9, 1862, Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) has been called by some historians “the Gettysburg of the West.”

Forces under Union Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis defeated the men of Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, whose leadership has been faulted by historians. On March 7, the Rebels controlled Elkhorn Tavern, but the failed attack at Ruddick’s Field presaged the next day, in which consolidated Federal troops made a counterattack, sweeping Van Dorn’s brigades from the field.

The Union won control of Missouri and weakened the Confederate hold in Arkansas.

Those taking part in next summer’s excavations at Leetown, which was established in the 1840s, know it was a humble community.

An Iowa surgeon wrote after the battle: "In all, the windows were few and very small, admitting little light and an insufficiency of air, even when the sash frames were entirely removed.....They contained but few of the ordinary domestic appliances, and were wholly wanting in the usual necessaries found in more settled regions."

Corinth's Grand Illumination will feature candles, camels and holiday open house

(National Park Service)

After a four-year absence, the Grand Illumination returns this weekend to Corinth, Ms., an event that will combine a Civil War memorial and merchants holding their first holiday open house of the season.

Events Saturday and Sunday include period music by Bobby Horton, living histories, tours of Civil War-era homes and infantry firing demonstrations. See the schedule here.

(NPS photo)

The signature moment will be the lighting Saturday evening of 12,000 luminaries representing casualties during the 1862 siege and battle of Corinth. About half of the luminaries will be placed at the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, a unit of Shiloh National Military Park. The others will be placed along streets leading to and in downtown Corinth.

“You think about 12,000 casualties. It is hard to comprehend,” said Ashley Berry, Shiloh supervisory park ranger. “When you stand on the hill, looking downtown … it is breathtaking and puts it into perspective.”

One sight sure to turn heads will feature two camels and the 16^th Alabama Infantry re-enactor group. The 16th will be portraying the 43^rd Mississippi Infantry, which fought at Corinth and Iuka and was trapped in the Union siege of Vicksburg. A camel dubbed Old Douglas carried baggage and musical instruments for the regiment.

Doug Baum of the Texas Camel Corps will provide the beasts, which will have their own “hotel” and veterinarian, Berry told the Picket. The interpretive center will "ring in" old Douglas with artifacts from the U.S. Camel Corps experiment, including the bell shown below.

(NPS photo)

An article in an old issue of Confederate Veteran magazine recalled the “faithful” service of Old Douglas with the 43^rd: “When the regiment was ready to start Douglas would be led up to the pile of things he was to carry, and his leader would say, ‘Pushay, Douglas;’ and he would gracefully drop to his knees and haunches and remain so till his load was adjusted and he was told to get up. His long, swinging gait was soon familiar with the entire command, and ours was called the ‘Camel Regiment.’”

In a recent Facebook post, Shiloh Superintendent Dale Wilkerson wrote about Old Douglas' refusal to be tethered. "The loose ranging camel scared horses on several occasions, causing stampedes."

Alas, Old Douglas was killed by a Federal sharpshooter at Vicksburg, and legend has it that his famished human companions consumed his remains.

The timing of the Grand Illumination, the last National Park Service centennial event for Shiloh, was coordinated with the Corinth Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. (The Battle of Corinth occurred in early October 1862).

Corinth Area Convention & Visitors Bureau)

Christy Burns, the bureau’s executive director, has worked with Shiloh on getting about 120 volunteers needed to place and light the luminaries. The Grand Illumination, which also depends on donations, is returning largely because of an NPS grant, officials said.

“It fills all of my tourism hats,” Burns said of the event. “All the boutique businesses are having their first holiday open house that weekend.” She cited a list of new or signature downtown businesses, including Blazing Noodlez and Borroum’s, the “oldest drug store in the state (and) with great milkshakes.”

A view of Fillmore Street (CACVB)

Besides events at the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, people can see Civil War-related items at the Crossroads Museum at the old depot and visit the antebellum Verandah and Duncan houses.

“Christmas decorations are going up as we speak,” said Burns. “Our downtown is another jewel we are trying to sell as one unit.”

The bureau touts industry and businesses that employ many of the northeastern Mississippi city’s 15,000 residents. “History is only half our story,” Burns said. Major employers include the hospital, Caterpillar and Kimberly-Clark.

(NPS photo)

The NPS interpretive center in Corinth is 12 years old. It’s about a half hour drive from the Shiloh battlefield in Tennessee. It’s designed to be the starting point for those wanting to learn about the action at both Corinth and Shiloh. It also tells the broad story of the war’s causes, impact and significance today, said Berry.

She said a large number of slaves flocked to Corinth after President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862.

A contraband camp was established in Corinth and its hospitals, churches and schools served about 6,000 African-Americans until January 1864, when the Union army moved its headquarters to Memphis, Tenn.

Berry said the Friends of the Siege and Battle of Corinth works to preserve Civil War sites “scattered around town.” The city was a strategic railroad hub for the Confederacy, and the Federal army meant to control the crossroads.

The siege and battle were two separate events. Federal troops laid siege to the town in late April 1862 (a few weeks after the clash at Shiloh), eventually forcing the outnumbered Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard to withdraw. Rebel units marched on Corinth in early October, only to be defeated.

Scene at the ravine: Candlelight tours at Pickett's Mill to highlight night attack

(Georgia State Parks)

**Editor's note: Due a burn ban in Paulding County and the drought, this event has been postponed.**

Spots are filling for five candlelight tours next month at the well-preserved Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Historic Site in Paulding County, Ga.

Participants in the Nov. 11-12 event will have a chance to see “how an Atlanta Campaign skirmish might look light at night,” said park interpretive ranger Dillan Lee.

The tours, at a cost of $10 per person (no cost to children 2 and under) can be booked online here. There’s also a $5 parking fee. Participants are encouraged to dress warmly and wear comfortable shoes.

The event, being put on by the Friends of Pickett’s Mill and the park, will focus on a Confederate counterattack and significant victory at the May 27, 1864, battle.

Capt. Thomas Key and his Arkansas four-gun battery played a large part in the outcome. 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 that afternoon in an attempt to take the top of a ridge. Key’s howitzers were ready for them. A second attack also failed.

The Federal soldiers were mired in the ravine that evening “rooting like hogs” to get cover, said Lee.

About 10 p.m., Brig. Gen. Hiram B. Granbury’s Texas swooped down and pushed the Yanks out.

Lee said a reproduction howitzer at the park will be used to demonstrate the action that night. He and the friends group are looking for more volunteers and re-enactors to take part. At least 20 soldiers are needed.

Participants in the hourlong tour will walk part of the Blue Trail, witness a cannon firing, walk Granbury’s lines and see re-enactors clash in the ravine. Their first stop will be a civilian site. Women in a cabin will talk about fears of where Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces may appear as they moved on Atlanta to the southeast.

'Hard hat' tour: Petersburg will update visitors on Poplar Grove National cemetery work

Lodge walls now are violet, as they were back in 1872 (NPS)

The cemetery lodge is receiving new flooring on the first floor. Work continues on the brick wall and the base of the rostrum. Trees and grass are being planted, and the new flag pole is about ready.

And, if you register by 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday (Oct. 27.), you can participate in a two-hour guided walk Saturday and see many of the 5,000 new headstones that have been put in place so far in Poplar Grove National Cemetery at Petersburg National Battlefield.

Park ranger Betsy Dinger will conduct the two-hour “hard hat” tour at 10 a.m. this Saturday.

To make a reservation, contact Dinger at (804) 732-3531 ext. 208 or Elizabeth_Dinger@nps.gov by the deadline. Parking is available at Fort Wadsworth, located by the intersection of Halifax and Flank Roads in Petersburg.

About 6,100 Federal soldiers are buried at Poplar Grove, which has been closed since November 2015 for a major rehabilitation. The biggest project has been the replacement of all headstones, which since the 1930s had been flat on the ground. 

The park also is addressing drainage issues across the 9-acre site. Officials hope work is wrapped up this December.

The public will be invited to a rededication ceremony on April 29, 2017, Dinger said.