THE GILMOR BLADE. Many chances to be involved this month! Minutes: March 14, 2012 Camp meeting

Transcription

1 THE GILMOR BLADE Those who allow the surrender of their history, also surrender their future! Official Newsletter of THE COL. H.W.GILMOR CAMP, No. 1388, SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS Many chances to be involved this month! March with us! Friends of President Street Station 151 st Anniversary First Blood Parade & Ceremony Saturday, April 21 Form up: 9:00 AM Front of Broadway Pier Thames St., Fells Point Stepoff: 10:00 AM Ceremony follows at President Street Station Meet with us! Come to the next Camp meeting: Wednesday, April 11 7:30 PM Baltimore County Historical Society 9811 Van Buren Lane Cockeysville, MD All are welcome! Dig with us! Mother Nature didn t cooperate on March 24, but we re going to try it again: Saturday, March 31 9:00 AM Confederate Hill Loudon Park Cemetery Contact Bruce Null or Steve Smith Bring a shovel and help us out! The Charge "To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations." Minutes: March 14, 2012 Camp meeting The meeting was opened at 7:34 p.m. by Commander Michael K. Williams. Chaplain John Ross offered the Invocation. Commander Michael K. Williams led us in the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag and the Salute to the Confederate Flag. Sixteen members and guests were in attendance. Our guest, Miss Donna Carter discussed her interest in researching the activities of Col. Harry Gilmor in the Long Green Valley. Our guest, Carroll Holzer discussed his Confederate ancestor, George Melvin, who enlisted in the 1 st Maryland Infantry and later worked as a carpenter ship builder in a Navy yard near Richmond. Adjutant Cummings summarized the Minutes of the meeting of February 8, MOTION: To accept the Minutes as summarized. PASSED Compatriot John Ross reported that the Gilmor Camp has processed 561 adoptions represented by 550 markers for the Adopt a Confederate Program. Commander Williams reported that he needs the information for ordering the Adopt a Confederate markers by next week. March 24, Confederate Hill, Loudon Park. Work day to dig holes for Adopt a Confederate markers. There was a discussion to correct information related to various graves at Confederate Hill, Loudon Park Cemetery. Dan Pyle reported that Dick Isaac will have an SCV information table See Minutes, p.2 Inside this issue: Cleburne s coat to be displayed Bull Roast report 3 Alabama flag restored Scottish Confederate heritage Civil War photo identified We Are Family, Pt

2 Minutes Continued from p. 1 at Carroll Community College. Steve Adamski reported that Tudor Hall, the home of the Booth family, is looking for volunteers. Bruce Null asked that event information be sent to Gilmor Blade Editor Nancy Null. The deadline for the April Gilmor Blade is March 27. Roy Vandevander gave a presentation on possible Gilmor Camp jackets and Gilmor Camp patches. Announcements: March 31, 2012 Period Dance Westminster, Md. June 2, 2012 Confederate Memorial Day, Confederate Hill, Loudon Park Cemetery. Dedication of Adopt A Confederate markers June Corbitt s Charge, Westminster, Md. The meeting was adjourned with a prayer at 9:13 p.m. Respectfully submitted, G. Elliott Cummings Adjutant New Museum of the Confederacy to exhibit Cleburne s coat By Linda Wheeler 1R_blog.html 2011 The Washington Post Company Although the moths long ago had their way with the hand-some grey officer s coat belonging to Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, it will be one of the star exhibits when the Museum of the Confederacy opens its new museum at Appomattox, Va. on March 31. Cleburne, sometimes called the Stonewall of the West, was wearing the high-collared coat when he was killed while attacking the Union breastworks at the Battle of Franklin, Nov. 30, Eighty years ago, the White House of the Confederacy, which was then the museum as well, accepted the Cleburne family gift complete with numerous moth holes and stored it away. The present museum, next door to the Executive Mansion, wasn t built until the 1970s. This will be the first time the coat has been exhibited. Although it is unusual for the museum, or probably any museum, to show something in less than pristine condition, the coat makes a link to an important figure in the Confederate military, said spokesman Sam Craghead. We are telling stories about people and not just exhibiting artifacts, he said. Even in its condition, it is still a way to draw people into the story of Cleburne and talk about his appeal in January, 1864, to the government to recruit slaves as soldiers. The discussion of the role of slaves and freedmen during the war is an important element of the new exhibits, he said. The 12,000-square-foot museum is the first of several that museum president and CEO Waite Rawls announced will open in Virginia during the war s sesquicentennial. Rawls said in 2006 that he felt he had to do something drastic to make the museum s extensive collections available, since the ever-expanding Virginia Commonwealth University hospital complex in the museum s backyard had made it difficult for visitors to find either the buildings or parking. The new museum galleries will include 22 original Confederate flags the largest such exhibit ever mounted as well as the uniform and sword General Robert E. Lee wore at Appomattox, the pen he used to sign the surrender document and the parole he and his staff signed. Interactive workstations will allow visitors to see the original Confederate parole list and search for relatives among the names. Frock coat of Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, CSA Katherine Wetzel - THE MUSEUM OF THE CONFEDERACY 2

3 continued Bull & Oyster Roast 2012 a great success! Perennial attendee Mike Fazenbaker and friends enjoyed the evening. Line dancers strut their stuff! This year s Harry Gilmor Birthday Bull & Oyster Roast was a rousing success, raising much-needed funds for the Adopt-a-Confederate project and other Camp initiatives. As the winner of the annual raffle, Camp member Hobert Halsey will have to find room on his wall for the Mort Kunstler print, The Ghost Brigade. Silent Auction winners took home a wide range of prizes, including Orioles memorabilia, WBTS books, an old-fashioned Happy Basket of Cheer winner looks over his prize. ice cream maker, hand-made coasters, and much more. As usual, attendees got their share of door prizes. Thank you to all who attended, and see you next year! Alabama governor, Eufaula native's Confederate flag restored By Anastasia Scarborough Eufaula Tribune Published: March 21, news/2012/mar/21/alabamagovernor-eufaula-nativesconfederate-flag--ar / A 150-year-old Confederate flag was recently restored to its former glory thanks to two Eufaula citizens and a community effort. The flag, which hung on a flagpole in Shorter Mansion, belonged to John Gill Shorter, Alabama s governor during the Civil War. Shorter is buried in Eufaula s Shorter Cemetery. Two years ago, the Eufaula Heritage Association developed a wish-list from which people could choose to fund needed projects at Shorter Mansion. One could choose to fund needed projects at Shorter Mansion. One wish on the list was the restoration of Shorter s flag. Mike and Cynthia Davis chose to fund the flag s restoration with the help of local photographer Todd Adams. The delicate flag was placed carefully on acrid-free mat and under UV protection glass. Though the Davises primarily funded the project, Mike says Adams donated a great deal of time in restoring, framing and transporting the flag from and back to Shorter Mansion. The framed flag now stands in the upstairs room at Shorter Mansion dedicated to Alabama s eight governors. It s a major improvement. Before (restoration) I held the flag up and we could see the door through it, says Mike. 3 The Davises surmise the flag was made around 1861, though its gold trim was probably added later. The Davises explain that they took on the project as part of another project of theirs identifying the graves of Confederate veterans in Fairview Cemetery. Mike and Cynthia Davis, pictured here with EHA director Pam Snead, stand next to John Gill Shorter s restored Confederate flag. Photo by Anastasia Scarborough/Tribune 2012 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC

4 Scots in the Confederacy From: orums/showthread.php?t= Scottish-Americans served bravely on both sides of the WBTS. These are some of the Scottish-American regiments that were fighing for the Southland: Louisiana Scotch Rifle Guards (Co. H. 21 st Louisiana Infantry afterwards Co. C 22nd Louisiana Infantry) Mississippi Scotland Guards (Co. K. 5th Mississippi Infantry). Alabama Hillabee Highland (Co. G. 25th Alabama ) Scotch Guards (Co. I 2nd Alabama afterwards Co. A. Forty-Fifth Alabama) Georgia Highland Rangers ( Co. G. 1st Georgia Cavalry) Image of the 1920 reunion of the 16 th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, courtesy of North Carolina Highland Boys of North Carolina (Co.C. 24th North Carolina ) Highland Guards (Co.E. 45th North Carolina ) Highland Rangers (Co.D. 41st North Carolina : 3rd Carolina Cavalry) Highland Rangers ( Col. W.H. Thomas Infantry Legion, North Carolina ) Moore County Scotch Riflemen (Co.C. 35th North Carolina ) Scotch Boys (Co. F. 8th North Carolina ) Scotch Greys Artillery (McNair s Co., North Carolina Artillery, afterwards Co.E 40 th NC Volunteers: 3 rd NC Artillery Tennessee The Highlanders (Co. K. afterwards F. 16th Tennessee ) Virginia Montgomery Highlanders ( Co. E. 4th Virginia Infantry) Special Confederate tartans: beautiful reflection of Scottish heritage Several Confederate tartans are officially recognized by the Scottish Register of Tartans, which operates as part of the National Records of Scotland. As with all tartans, the colors and patterns are both beautiful and symbolic. Dr. Philip Smith, who designed the Confederate Memorial tartan in 1995, used light blue for infantry, flanked by red for artillery and yellow for outriding cavalry. From left to right: Confederate Memorial Dress, Confederate Memorial, and Confederate Rose tartans Images courtesy of the Scottish Register of Tartans: 4 April is Scottish-American Heritage Month!

5 Man in Civil War photo, long unidentified, finally gets his name back By Michael E. Ruane The Washington Post local/man-in-civil-war-photolong-unidentified-finally-getshis-name- The old photograph shows a young Confederate soldier posing proudly in an elegant uniform, with a pistol in his belt and a saber in his hand. It is a well-known 1860s ambrotype worth thousands of dollars, and experts had identified the rare style of his buckle, the make of his English revolver and the cavalry outfit in which he served. But scholars at the Library of Congress, which was given the photo last year, had no idea who he was. Like scores of Civil War portraits, his was listed as unidentified. Until this week. Last Sunday, Karen Thatcher of Martinsburg, W.Va., opened a Washington Post Civil War history supplement. She spotted the picture in a Library of Congress advertisement, and realized: That s Uncle Dave! In an instant, for posterity, the soldier was given back his name and his story. He was David M. Thatcher, a farmer s son from Martinsburg, who enlisted at 17 in Company B, Berkeley Troop, First Virginia Cavalry, on April 19, 1861, a week after the war began. At 19, he was mortally wounded in battle outside Warrenton in 1863, and he was buried in the cemetery at Martinsburg s Tuscarora Presbyterian Church, where he rests today. Family lore has it that his parents brought his body home with a horse and wagon. The identification thrilled Karen Thatcher, a retired federal government worker, as well as the library and the collector, Tom Liljenquist, who bought the picture several years ago and donated it in October. We re just tickled to death, Thatcher said in a telephone interview Wednesday. There s something very satisfying about this 19-year-old boy who died in 1863 who was [listed as] unidentified... that we re able to put a name to that face. Liljenquist, who has given the library almost 1,000 Civil War portraits in recent months, said: I m just awestruck.... This anonymous young boy has gotten his life back. in West Virginia. McCaus-land lived until The identification was made when Thatcher saw that the photo in the advertisement looked almost exactly like a larger image she had of David Thatcher, an ancestor of her husband, Larry. The larger image which was probably copied from the photograph is a crayon enlargement, said Carol Johnson, the Library of Congress s curator of photographs. Crayon enlargement was a common 19th-century technique in which a picture was enlarged, printed and then colored in with charcoal or chalk to make a bigger portrait. That way, people would have something they could hang on their walls, she said. Since he died in the war, they probably had this made... as a way to remember him. What happened to the original photograph is less clear. Maybe he gave it to his girlfriend before he left for the war, Johnson said. Eventually, someone came into possession of it and didn t know who he was, and it went onto the collectors market. Johnson said experts were able to glean some information about the soldier from his uniform type and accouterments his frock coat Continued on p.6, Civil war photo identified. 5

6 Civil war photo identified Continued from p. 5 A history lover, Karen Thatcher with the lateral, braided frogging, his Virginia state seal belt buckle, and the crossed sabers and the number 1 on his cap. His unit was deduced because his get-up exactly matched that in another picture of a soldier from Berkeley Troop, the experts said. But Thatcher s name remained elusive. Liljenquist, of McLean, said he bought the picture years ago at a Civil War show, probably in Virginia. It s a well-known photograph, he said. It s been published in a few books. But no name was associated with it. David Thatcher, it turns out, served in a storied unit that was originally commanded by the South s legendary cavalry general J.E.B. Stuart. David Thatcher was wounded Oct. 19, 1863, in the Battle of Buckland Mills, which was such a complete Confederate victory that the rebels called it the Buckland Races. He died the next day, acccording to Johnson s research. His tombstone reads: When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, be not afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is with thee. Karen Thatcher said that the Civil War is still close in her area and that her family, with deep roots there, has long known of the story. If you have a family member who dies at the age of 19 in the Civil War, everyone knows that, she said. And this picture was just always in the family. And so you just knew that that s who it was. My husband jokingly calls him Uncle Dave, she said of the soldier, who was three generations removed a brother of her husband s great-grandfather. She said she and her husband have a small prewar photograph of David Thatcher in civilian clothes attached to a certificate honoring his memory. That photo, too, resembles the other images. She said their crayon enlargement was a copy of one that had been in her husband s household when he grew up and was passed down to one of his nieces. It looks like a drawing of a photograph, she said. We Are Family My fellow Confederates, My message will be brief, but I hope you will remember my words. I speak today on behalf of the 2 and a half million Southern bondsmen, bondswomen, freedmen, and freedwomen who from 1861 to 1865 loyally served and supported the Confederate cause, in however humble and noble a capacity. 6 said she opened The Post s Civil War section, and staring back was an identical copy of the picture that the niece had given them. Except, I could tell that it was a photograph... not a drawing of a photograph. I thought, Son of a gun. I thought, Gee whiz. I thought, Isn t this amazing? She said she went to the library s online gallery, and there s Uncle Dave. She called the Library of Congress on Monday morning. The library said Friday that it had already changed its master catalogue to add Thatcher s name to the the picture s description, and remove the word unidentified. The library said it would make the change to its online gallery next week. Part 1 of an article by H.K. Edgerton When cotton was needed to finance a long war, it was black hands that picked it and prepared it for export to Europe. When foodstuffs were needed to feed the embattled Southern armies and a beleaguered Southern civilian population, it was black hands working with white hands that tilled the soil to grow needed crops to fend off starvation. Slave and Freedman alike gave his last penny to support the Confederate cause. Watch for Part 2 in May s Blade

7 The Blade offers space within its pages for business advertising by SCV members and non-members. For $5.00 per issue, an individual can purchase a business card-size space on the Blade s Ad Page. Remember: the Blade is sent to locations all across the country, though by far most readers live right here in Maryland. Wherever the Blade goes, your message can go with it! Interested? Please contact Bruce Null, 2600 Masseth Avenue, Baltimore, MD Send a copy of the ad you wish to place in the Blade, a short letter of explanation, and a check payable to the Col. H. W. Gilmor Camp #1388, SCV amounting to $5.00 for each issue in which you want the ad to appear. That s only $50 for a whole year (we do not publish in July and August) of ads!

8 THE GILMOR BLADE Bruce and Nancy Null 2600 Masseth Avenue Baltimore, MD The Gilmor Blade is the monthly publication of the Col. Harry W. Gilmor Camp #1388, Sons of Confederate Veterans. Subscriptions are available for non-members for $6.00 per year. Any individual interested in a subscription should send a check payable to Col. H.W. Gilmor Camp #1388, SCV to Nancy Null, Editor, at the address above. SAVE THE DATE: April Camp meeting 4/11/12