BGES

Special Offers

2006-12-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

The following items may be of interest to our membership

Fund-raising for the Wilderness:

I am pleased to endorse this fundraising appeal from the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefields to you. This very grassroots volunteer effort has taken on the admirable task of restoring the Lacy House (Ellwood) at the Wilderness battlefield. For any of you who have been to Ellwood you know it is a place of deep beauty and sacred importance. A field hospital during the battle of Chancellorsville--Stonewall Jackson's shattered arm is buried there; a headquarters during the battle of the Wilderness--its halls echo with the bootsteps of couriers and generals moving with dutiful expedience at Warren's headquarters. Today, the site has been under the protective umbrella of the NPS and, thanks to Tom's group, was recently reopened to the public--since then over 6,000 visitors have crossed the threshold. Tragically, there are no federal funds to restore this site. Structurally sound, the interior suffers from severe insect infestation and damage. It must be restored if the home is to be presented in its true majesty."

Len Riedel
Executive director, BGES

The Swamp Angel, a unique gun emplacement delivered Charleston's first Civil War bombardment
as reported by
Bob Campbell in The Islander.

A Federal gun platform, called an engineering feat since it was mounted in the James Island marsh mud, dropped the first artillery shells on the city of Charleston in 1863. Today, the location of the gun known in history as "The Swamp Angel" is preserved as a battleground site by the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, according to Ted Banta, who recently stepped down as the trust's first executive director.

"The Swamp Angel was actually our first preserved site," Banta says. "I thought it was a very interesting site and needed to be preserved."

Although the Swamp Angel location is said to be difficult to approach and only by boat, it can be seen from the harbor. The trust has erected a historical marker where the gun sat in 1863. According to a trust handout, Federal engineers built the gun platform floating in the muddy marshes between Morris Island and James Island. The gun platform supported a 16,000 pound, eight-inch parrot rifle that fired 200 pound shells. Rounds delivered from the Swamp Angel delivered the first shells to reach the city of Charleston during the Civil War causing an outrage among the city's citizens and commanding general. According to Banta, General P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of the Charleston defenses, went berserk and called the bombardment "barbaric".

At the time of the war the civilian population had been left alone. "Nobody had fired on them," says Banta. "Turns out the battery was a major engineering feat because of the way it was built on pluff mud." Pilings were driven down into the sand in a square, he says, and then a platform was set inside the pilings. To counterweight the platform, "They put sandbags all around it, I think 4,000 sand bags. When it fired," he says, "the pluff mud would absorb the shock of the firing." Sand from these bags is still at the site he says, and the platform lies under about 4 feet of mud.

On the first night of the Charleston shelling, the gun's crew fired 15 rounds into the city. But, after two more nights of bombardment and 36 rounds, the gun blew up from an overcharge of powder. "The gun just wouldn't take it," Banta says.

The Swamp Angel site is one of four the trust has preserved in its seven years of battleground preservation efforts. Others are Battery #5 on James island, Coles Island, Fort Palmetto on the Stone River near Folly, and Battery Cleaves on James Island.

The trust also worked closely with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources in the preservation of Fort Lamar on James Island. Fort Lamar, scene of a major 1862 land battle, is now owned by the Natural Resources Department's Heritage Trust and is open to the public.

Yet another Friends Group supporting the Fredericksburg area is now active. The Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields (FoFAB) runs its membership on a 12 month cycle from Jan 1-Dec 31. Dues are $10 per year for a single member or family. For membership or tour information call FoFAB at 540-972-9954.

After Gettysburg, nearly 13,000 confederate prisoners were housed at Fort Delaware. The pristine fort is still open for visitation, although there is a $6 admission fee. You must ride a ferry to the fort. Call 302-834-7941 for information. Be sure to ask about the ferry schedule.

The Confederate's Nathan Hale is Sam Davis, a Tennessee boy who accepted a death sentence and was hanged for failing to reveal the names of his comrades. His home is 20 minutes South of Nashville in Smyrna. For information call toll free, 888-750-9524.

Ed Bearss’ Multi-day tours in 2007

2006-12-03T11:07:00.001-08:00

Contact: Len Riedel 1-888-741-2437 or email

Feb 25-Mar 6: Brouhaha Over the Rio Grande, The Texas War of Independence and Zachary Taylor’s Mexican War Campaigns (with a tour of last battle of the Civil War at Palmito Ranch) with Neil Mangum

April 2-6: Decision in the Carolinas: General Nathaniel Greene’s Southern Campaign of 1781 (Revolutionary War)

June 14-21: Thunder along the Hudson, the Jerseys and Pennsylvania: George Washington and the Revolutionary War

July 9-23: Bearss in Europe: From Omaha & Utah Beaches to Remagan with the 1^st and 9^th Armies with Ian Glennie & Marty Gane. Rate w/air from Washington Dulles

Oct 21-24: Boston: Cradle of the Revolutions

Dec 10-14: Cajuns, Crawfish, The War of 1812 and the Civil War in Louisiana

Smithsonian Study Tours and Seminars: www.si.edu/tsa

Contact: 1-202-357-4700 AFTER the catalogue issue indicated with the tour/seminar

Mar 28-Apr 1: Battles of Shiloh, Brices Crossroads and Corinth

Apr 25-29: The Vicksburg Campaign

Aug 8-13: Red Cloud and the Great Sioux Wars

Nov 7-11: The Battle of Gettysburg

South Mountain Expeditions: contact: Marty Gane call toll free: (866) 914-1862 email: tours@smountainexpeditions.com, www.smountainexpeditions.com

May 23-30: Fredericksburg to Appomattox: In the Footsteps of Joshua Chamberlain and the 20^th Maine

August 18-26: Benedict Arnold: Patriot to Traitor

National Trust for Historic Preservation: Contact: Scott Gerloff, 1-800-944-6847

Aug 31-Sept 5: A Civil War Journey with Ed Bearss from Washington DC to Gettysburg

Chambersburg Civil War Seminars (Ted Alexander) Contact: (1-717-264-7101)

March 9-10: Gettysburg Commanders

July 25-28: Antietam: A Landscape Turned Red

October 19-21: More of the Hidden Gettysburg

HistoryAmerica Tours: www.historyamerica.com

Contact: Julia Brown (1-800-628-8542)

Sept 17-24: The Great Sioux Uprising

Sept 25-Oct 2: Best of Bearss 5: Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Knoxville, etc.

Cruise Trips with HistoryAmerica

Nov 13-28: WWII in the Southwest Pacific: Fiji to Madang and Papua including the Solomon Islands and New Britain Island

Civil War Tours: www.civilwartours.org Contact David Ward 1-860-435-3244

dward@civilwartours.org

April 13-14: Mr. Lincoln’s War

May 19-20: Roads to Gettysburg

June 11: Blue and Gray Tour

July 30-31: The Ultimate Gettysburg

Sept 15-16: McClellan’s Masterpiece: the Antietam Campaign

Oct 13-14: Gettysburg- Day Two

Nov 3-4: Gettysburg-The Final Day

Civil War Education Association (CWEA): www.cwea.net

Contact Bob Maher 1-800-298-1861, cwea@earthlink.net

Jan 24-27: Sarasota Civil War Symposium

Jan 31-Feb 2: Sarasota World War II Conference

June 4-10: Riding with General Nathan Bedford Forrest

Oct 2-9: Best of Bearss Number 6: Richmond-Petersburg and Beyond

Other Multi-Day Tours

March 15-18: Georgia Battlefield Association- Civil War in North Georgia: From the Crossing of the Chattahoochie through the Opening Battle for Atlanta

(Charlie Crawford, 1-770-452-1583)

March 23-25: Civil War Forum: The Road to Appomattox (David Woodbury, 1-650-722-2674)

April 18-21: Civil War Preservation Trust Annual Conference in Portsmouth, VA: Hampton Roads and the Peninsula Campaigns www.civilwar.org (1-888-606-1400)

May 2-6: The Chicago Civil War Round Table Annual Trip: Civil, Military and Political Washington (1-847-698-1438)

October 25-28: Houston Civil War Round Table Annual Tour (TBA)

BGES’ 2007 Recommended Reading List

2006-12-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

BGES educational programs are designed to enhance participants’ understanding of American history, specifically the American Civil War. In constructing the programs we considered the availability of quality reading materials that would help provide an understanding of the events that will be presented. The following books are recommended as a general primer and may be purchased from BGES or your favorite book dealer.

John Barrett, Sherman’s March Through the Carolinas

Jacqueline Campbell, When Sherman Marched North from the Sea

Joseph LeConte, ‘Ware Sherman

John Jakes, Savannah

Joseph Glatthaar, The March to the Sea and Beyond

Philip Tucker, The Final Fury, Palmito Ranch, The Last Battle of the Civil War

Stephen Hardin, Texian Iliad, A Military History of the Texas Revolution

Sam Haynes, Soldiers of Misfortune, The Somerville and Mier Expeditions

K. Jack Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846-1848

Larry Daniel: Shiloh

Wiley Sword, Shiloh, Bloody April

Carl von Clausewitz: On War, ed. Michael Howard and Peter Paret

Mark Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution

Banastre Tarleton, A History of the Campaigns of 1780-1781 in Southern America

Lawrence Babits: A Devil of a Whipping, The Battle of Cowpens

Wilma Dykeman, With Fire and Sword, The Battle of Kings Mountain

Guild Press: Official Records on CD/ROM

Richard Kiper, McClernand, Politician in Uniform

Timothy B. Smith, Champion Hill, Decisive Battle for Vicksburg

Edwin C. Bearss, The Vicksburg Campaign (3 volumes)

Warren Grabau, Ninety Eight Days, A Geographer’s View of the Vicksburg Campaign

Ed. David Smith, Compelled to Appear in Print, The Vicksburg Manuscript of General John C. Pemberton

Peter Walker, Vicksburg, A People at War

William Feis, Grant’s Secret Service

Richard Ketchum, Saratoga, Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War

David McCollough, 1776

John Gallagher, The Battle of Brooklyn 1776

Stephen Taaffe, The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778

David S. Fischer, Washington’s Crossing

Gordon Rhea, To the North Anna

Gordon Rhea, Cold Harbor

Frederick Hawthorne, Gettysburg, Stories of Men and Monuments as told by Battlefield Guides

Kenneth Noe, Perryville, This Grand Havoc of Battle

Peter Cozzens, The Darkest Days of the War, Iuka, Corinth and Davis Bridge

William Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American

Ethan Rafuse , A Single Grand Victory

George S. Patton Jr., War as I knew It, The Battle Memoirs of “Blood ‘n Guts”

Russell F. Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants

Omar Bradley, A General’s Life

Felix Markham, Napoleon

Keith Robbins, The First World War

William Piston and Richard Hatcher, Wilson’s Creek, The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It

Christopher Phillips, Damned Yankee, The Life of General Nathaniel Lyon

Stephen Engle, Yankee Dutchman, The Life of Franz Sigel

Kenneth Stampp, 1857, A Nation on the Brink

Xx, The Mormon Expedition

Thomas O’Conner, Civil War Boston, Homefront and Battlefield

David McCullough, John Adams

John Galvin, Three Men of Boston

Chester Hearn, The Capture of New Orleans 1862

John Winter, The Civil War in Louisiana

Chester Hearn, When the Devil Came Down to Dixie, Ben Butler in New Orleans

James Hollandsworth, The Louisiana Native Guards