  |
|
|||
http://collards.phantacom.net/b001.htm
Gentlemen,
This book is "The South Under Siege 1830-2000/ A History of the
Relations Between the North and the South" by my friend Frank
Conner. Sold mail-order by Collards Publishing Company, P.O. Box 71996, Newnan, GA 30271-1996, postpaid (parcel post book-rate), for $37.40 to Georgians
(including sales tax), and for $34.95 everywhere else in the U.S.
Frank has been working on this book full time for 7 years. It brings out truths others have hesitated to mention, in a common sense
chronological order. I can promise you it holds no punches in regard to the truth. It is the opposite of Politically Correct. This book should be read by all Americans to understand how certain groups have
practically destroyed our once great nation and our constitutional values.
And it tells us what we must do now to defeat these enemies of our Southern way of life. Please, please, please read this book and
promote it diligently.
Once there was a book that exposed Abraham Lincoln, written by his law partner. It was the original "Herndon's Life of Lincoln". I cannot locate a copy of this book because all copies were removed from circulation. It was watered down and re-released. But here in Frank Conner's book, you will find the truths you've never read. Thanks, Frank, for having the courage and determination to hold your ground and for never letting the
publishing companies rewrite the truths you have uncovered.
Sincerely,
Elijah Coleman
New Pro-South Novel, The Hunt for Confederate Gold, Tops 1200 Orders; Now Available on Amazon.com from the www.scv.org link.
Abbeville, SC -- Fusilier Books, LLC, the Alexandria, Virginia publisher of Thomas Moore’s ground-breaking novel, The Hunt for Confederate Gold, announced that sales of the book topped 1200 at the Olde South Weekend in historic Abbeville, SC, December 2 through December 4.
J. A. Strickland, president of Fusilier Books, said, “Twelve hundred books is not a huge number by John Grisham or Dan Brown standards. But it is an encouraging milestone for a small press with a book aimed at a limited readership. We’ve broken through the all important one-thousand-book ceiling in just two months since the main edition of Confederate Gold was released and are clearly reaching our intended readers – Southern activists, Constitutionalists, dissidents and libertarians of a certain type, and traditionalists of all types. We’re also pleasantly surprised to find we have hundreds of enthusiastic readers outside the South.”
The author took part in a public reading and book signing at the Southern bookstore on December 3 in Abbeville along with noted Southern writers Jim Kibler, David Aiken, Walter Brian Cisco, and Fr. Alister Anderson. Moore remarked, “I was honored to share my book in such distinguished company and in such a suitable setting. It was here in Abbeville that the first public meeting for secession was held, and here that the final curtain began to ring down tragically on the South in 1865, an episode featured prominently in Confederate Gold. But my story is not one of despair; it’s one of hope and of eventual triumph for the principles the South fought for and still represents. We Southerners are increasingly embattled, reviled, and culturally disenfranchised. But in the words of Jim Kibler, I’ve given a voice to the voiceless.”
The publisher also observed, “We’re deeply gratified by the overwhelmingly favorable response to the book. It has received the highest praise from the SCV’s Confederate Veteran, Southern Patriot, Southern Partisan, and Chronicles: a Magazine of American Culture, which does not give praise lightly. Furthermore, readers who posted reviews on our Amazon.com site have unanimously awarded Confederate Gold the highest five-star rating. The book really is a page-turner. One reviewer says it needs a warning on the cover: ‘Do not begin reading this book if you have anything else planned for the next few hours.’ However, it’s not a mere potboiler. It’s a serious book that dramatizes the most profound issues and crises of our time.”
The Hunt for Confederate Gold is an historical mystery, contemporary thriller, and love story all in one. The plot reaches back to April 1865 and one of America’s most intriguing unsolved mysteries – what happened to the Confederacy’s remaining treasure that was rushed out of Richmond just hours before the Southern capital fell to Yankee invaders? It dramatizes provocative questions: what might the consequences be if the Confederate gold were recovered and returned to its rightful owners? Who are the rightful owners, the Southern people, or the U.S. Government, claiming it as contraband of a 140-year old “rebellion” under laws that are still on the book today? If the lost gold were recovered and put back in the hands of the Southern people, would they use it to support their ancient liberties and a humane vision of life? Would they have the courage to make the fateful choices that such a discovery would demand?
According to Fusilier Books, its mission is to publish cutting-edge fiction with pro-South and pro-liberty themes. “We believe Confederate Gold proves there is a hunger for such fine storytelling, which after all, is a vital part of the Southern tradition because it appeals to the heart as well as the head. Readers will find this story sweeps them up into a beautifully and at times chillingly constructed plot. It’s populated with true-to-life characters they will care deeply about. The story won’t let them go until the final scene, as emotionally powerful and well written as anything on the bookshelves today.”
The Hunt for Confederate Gold is available in independent bookstores, or online from the Amazon.com link at www.scv.com . The online purchase price is $17.50, plus shipping and handling.
|
|
|||
The best (rather, the only good) overall history of the Southern region and people is A History of the South by Francis Butler Simkins, first published by Knopf in 1947. It went through many editions, with suitable revisions by Charles Pierce Roland, until it was suppressed some time in the 1970s. It is a good place to start reading Southern history. It sold widely as a textbook and there are many used copies around.
From The Publisher, Prima Communications, Inc.
Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatest president in history. His legend
as the Great Emancipator has grown to mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national
holiday, and a monument in Washington, D.C., extol his heroism and martyrdom. But what if
most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? What if, instead of an American hero
who sought to free the slaves, Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician who waged the
bloodiest war in America history in order to build an empire that rivaled Great Britain's?
In The Real Lincoln, author Thomas J. DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in
many history books and overshadowed by the immense Lincoln legend.
Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth
president as a man who devoted his political career to revolutionizing the American form of
government from one that was very limited in scope and highly decentralized?
as the
Founding Fathers intended? to a highly centralized, activist state. Standing in his way,
however, was the South, with its independent states, its resistance to the national
government, and its reliance on unfettered free trade. To accomplish his goals,
Lincoln subverted the Constitution, trampled states' rights, and launched a devastating
Civil War, whose wounds haunt us still. According to this provocative book, 600,000
American soldiers did not die for the honorable cause of ending slavery but for the
dubious agenda of sacrificing the independence of the states to the supremacy of
the federal government. Lincoln's aggressive agenda triggered an uncontrollable
swelling of big government, which has been tightening its visegrip on our republic
to this very day.
You will discover a side of Lincoln that you were probably never taught in school?a side
that calls into question the very myths that surround him and helps explain the true origins
of a bloody, and perhaps, unnecessary war.
Herschel Gower
Charles Dahlgren of Natchez
The Civil War and Dynastic Decline
Chronicles the eventful life of an ambitious Pennsylvanian who fought for the South in the Civil War
Illuminates the fascinating story of three glory-seeking brothers and their families, whose personal rivalries and sectional loyalties pitted brother against brother
Uses extensive research in diaries, memoirs, and personal papers to convey to the reader the daily life of cotton planters and slave owners in Mississippi and Louisiana
Charles G. Dahlgren came from a family that played a prominent role in the effort to preserve the Union. His older brother, John, was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy and enjoyed a measure of fame for inventing naval guns. In 1864, John’s son, Col. Ulric Dahlgren, died in a Union cavalry raid against Richmond. Charles’s other brother, William, spent part of the war in England spying on Confederate purchasing agents. In ironic contrast, Charles’s compelling story evolves within the hierarchy of Southern aristocracy.
Herschel Gower eloquently traces the rise of Charles to social prominence in the South. As a young man, Charles became a protégé of Nicholas Biddle, the prominent Philadelphia financier, who dispatched him to the cotton states to look after his interests. Ambitious and in search of wealth and position, Charles established himself in Natchez, Mississippi, married an heiress, started a family, and prospered. When Mississippi seceded from the Union, he stood in defense of his cotton plantations, his ownership of slaves, and his hard-won security. In July 1861, the governor of Mississippi appointed him brigadier general of volunteers. Under criticism, he resigned the post and took an advisory position overseeing gunboat construction. Charles’s fortune evaporated with the fall of the Confederacy, and his family suffered severely. After the war, he was reconciled with his brother John and returned to the North. He died a Confederate carpetbagger practicing law and accounting in New York. Readers interested in the antebellum South, an ambitious family’s struggle to attain social status, and the consequences of allegiance during the Civil War will be enthralled by Gower’s provocative biography.
Herschel Gower, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of English and American literature at Vanderbilt University. His previous works include Pen and Sword: The Life and Journals of Randal W. McGavock and Jeannie Robertson, A Biography of the Scottish Folksinger. He lives in Dallas, Texas and spends summers with his family at Beersheba Springs, Tennessee.
*************************************************************************************************
Jim Dean's Book recommendation:
They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of the Enslavement
of Whites Early America
by Michael A. Hoffmann II
One of the most forgotten and buried stories in American heritage is its 200
year history of White slavery.
But who wants to be reminded that half ¦or as many as two thirds of the
original American colonists came here not of their own free will, but were
kidnapped, shanghaied, impressed, and duped. They were chained and packed
into ships to suffer horrible death rates as high and even higher than those
more well known of the middle passage.
Both Whites and Blacks have their own reasons for wanting to keep the story
hidden.
Many Whites have often considered their humble beginnings to be a stain on
their families honor. For the race Warlord blacks, consumed with sustaining
their cult of victimology, the thought of sharing the sympathy stage with
whites is too horrible for them to contemplate. After all, how could white
guilt, and it's perennial cash flow to affirmative actions programs be
maintained indefinitely if the special slave status of blacks were given a
truthful historical perspective.
Michael Hoffman's well researched book with its extensive bibliography,
reviews the history of white slavery, beginning with Greeks. The Romans,
Arabs with their addition of castration, the Franks, Vikings, African Kings,
and yes…our English forefathers all traded millions of White slaves. Even
Indians and Negroes in American owned White slaves up until 1670.
Early white slavery was fueled by its lucrative medium as an international
exchange with which to buy exotic goods from the east. Later, Africans were
to also begin their land office participation in selling their own people for
the same reasons.
But with colonial times came the desperate need for sources of labor to
exploit the riches of the New World and that labor was originally supplied by
white slaves.
The archival material Hoffman sites is shocking from the legality of beating
deaths ¦the branding, whipping and mutilation of runaways ¦to the using of
both Indians and Blacks to hunt them down.
No contemporary American can have an informed and balanced view of our
slavery history unless you have read this book.
Far from being embarrassed by the white slave beginnings that many of us
share, I am proud of the legacy of determination and survival that flows from
their blood.
And those that feel that their struggle and accomplishments should be buried
and forgotten, disgrace both themselves and their ancestors, and are not fit
to consider themselves Americans.
Read it. They Were White and They Were Slaves ¦by Michael A. HoffmanGlenn
Hodges, Fearful Times
- A History of the Civil
War Years in Hancock County, Kentucky, Hawesville, KY:
The Hancock County Historical Society and the Hancock
Clarion, 1986 (Third Printing, Owensboro, KY: LeWard
Printing & Publishing, 1997)
____________________________________________
Glenn Hodges, a Kentucky local historian and a graduate
of Kentucky Wesleyan College, is one of those important
personalities that keeps WBTS history alive at the micro-
level. His excellent book is guiding readers through one
of the most important aspects of the war in Kentucky:
the irregular war. Here on the Ohio River there were
no big battles between regular soldiers. Instead it was a
war "at every man's door" (and woman's door too, for
that matter).
Hawesville, the county seat of Hancock County, in 1860
was a small coal mining town of just over 1,000 inhabitants
on the south shore of the Ohio River. Thus, one could say,
a real border town between the South and the North.
In September, 1861, most men in military age joined the
fight for Southern independence. It is impossible here in a
short review to present all the Confederates who
fought and died in this part of Kentucky and that are
presented by Hodges.
Major Joseph Walter Taylor, CSA, commanding partisan
rangers, was a nephew of President Zachary Taylor.
The major led a force of Col. Adam Johnson's famous 10th
Kentucky Regiment Partisan Rangers, CSA. He was a
native of Jefferson County with a distinguished military
career before the WBTS. Early he volunteered to fight
in the Mexican War. During the first year of the WBTS
he was on Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner's staff and involved
in secret service. During the Battle of fort Donelson he was
wounded and while recuperating Taylor actually
proposed that President Lincoln be kidnapped and
brought to Richmond as a prisoner of war. The major
actually travelled to both Washington D.C. and Richmond
exploring the possibilities. Just this piece of information
would be worth an article of its own. Finally the plan was
rejected in Richmond.
Taylor's expert knowledge of West Kentucky brought him
a command there, and he and his unit fought bravely
until May, 1865, when surrendering in Louisville.
A prominent Confederate officer in West Kentucky was Capt.
William H. (Bill) Davison (1839-1865). He led "Davison's
Hyenas" and features often in Hodges' book. Davison actually
started out as a Federal joining the 17th Kentucky Infantry,
USA, and fought both at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. In 1863,
however, he resigned and went to live quietly in Hartford,
Ohio County, Kentucky. But in 1864 he raised a company for
Col. Lee Sypert's Confederate Partisan Ranger regiment.
Davison was captured and after escaping came to Hancock
and Daviess Counties. In January, 1865, his guerrilla
command was very active and occupied several towns
for shorter periods. In February Davison was badly wounded in
a gun battle with Home Guardsmen. It turned out the wounds
were mortal and Confederate sympathizer cared for him until
he died on March 7, 1865.
A name index makes this book easy to search. It is a must for
anybody interested in the guerrilla war in Kentucky 1864-1865.
Bertil Haggman
"When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession"
by Charles Adams (Rowman
and Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Maryland, $24.95 hardback). The author
exposes the lies of modern politically correct historians with clear,
logical and well written arguments for the Southern side. Among the myths
that he shreds is that the war was over slavery and he shows clearly that
it was nothing but an economic and political power grab by the North. He
also shreds the Lincoln myth and shows how Lincoln repeatedly violated
every principle of the Constitution and was in fact a war criminal even by
the standards of his own time. I highly recommend this book.
Deo vindice,
Michael Jones
When in the Course of Human Events
"Again" North or South, this book gives us all something to argue about
By Charley Reese
Columnist Published in The Orlando Sentinel on June 04, 2000Here we are, still in
the middle of tedious debate over the Confederate battle flag, and along
comes a Yankee historian who knocks the wind out of those who say the war
was about slavery.
Charles Adams is best known for his books about the history of taxation, but
his latest work, When in the Course of Human Events, (published by Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers Inc.) takes on the subject of what really caused secession
and the war that followed.
Adams amasses considerable evidence that the war was about the usual --
control of territory, resources and revenue.
Among many others, Adams cites the English novelist Charles Dickens, an astute
observer of human affairs, who said in 1861, "Union means so many millions a
year lost to the South; secession means the loss of the same millions to the
North. The love of money is the root of this, as of many other evils. The quarrel
between the North and South is, as it stands, solely a fiscal quarrel."
Adams is no romantic neo-Confederate. He has harsh words for politicians both
North and South whom he accuses of deceiving their people. He argues, for
example, that secession to protect slavery made no sense at all, even though
some Southerners said so, because slavery was secured by the Constitution, by
the Supreme Court and even by Abe Lincoln's public promises that he had
neither plans nor desire to interfere with it.
The quarrel was, Adams argues, about money. Northern manufacturers had
demanded protective tariffs that were a double blow against Southerners,
many of whom exchanged cotton for European manufactured goods. This
meant that they would pay twice -- once to get the goods and the second
time the high tax levied by the federal government.
Adams states in his introduction, "We Northerners like to read about Lincoln
the martyr and the dying god, but do we want to know about Lincoln the
dictator who circumvented the Constitution to wage war on the South? His
best generals would have a difficult time avoiding conviction by a war crimes
tribunal according to the laws of war at that time for their plunder of Southern
civilization."
Adams states that he believes that the American people are ready for a truthful
account of the war instead of the sanitized version dictated by the winners.
Some are; some aren't. I wouldn't count on the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People dropping its campaign against all things
Confederate, because that's the only thing it can think of as an excuse to
raise money.
Adams is certainly right about the war crimes. Much was made at the time
about the Iraqi soldiers fleeing Kuwait who had stuffed their cars with stolen
merchandise. The goods stolen from homes and churches by Gen. William
Sherman's army required a wagon train five miles long to haul it back north --
nose to tailgate. The deliberate burning of civilian cities and farms, the
deliberate destruction of livestock, food stores and tools were plain and
simple war crimes.
For those of you who are leftists, he even quotes Karl Marx, who said, "The
war between the North and the South is a tariff war. The war is further, not
for any principle, does not touch the question of slavery, and in fact turns on
the Northern lust for sovereignty."
There is something in this book we can all argue about, even if we are on
opposite sides. Adams does not write especially kindly of any of the
politicians, North or South, though he is, like practically everyone, captivated
by Robert E. Lee, that rare combination of military genius, Christian humility
and great wisdom.
It's a short book (229 pages) and I believe that those of you who still have
brains undamaged by television will enjoy the stimulation it provides.
Charley Reese
KENTUCKY CONFEDERATE GUERRILLAS - NEW BOOK
John Sickles, _The Legends of Sue Mundy and One Armed
Berry: Confederate Guerrillas_, Merrillville, Indiana: Heritage
Press, 1999, 92 pages.
______________________________________________
John Sickles has added an important new history of Confederate
guerrillas in Kentucky.
The WBTS in Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas was not like
the war in the other states of the Confederacy. Most of the fighting
was irregular and in Kentucky took place mainly 1864-1865. In the
Commonwealth of Kentucky Confederates were driven to resistance
by Union General Stephen G. Burbridge. One of his best friends was William
"Torch" Sherman, who wrote him not to mind the cost of horseflesh and
money to hunt down the "Gray Ghosts". Burbridge instituted a policy
of lynching of Confederates, most of them being hostages, innocent
prisoners of war, and no guerrillas.
The history of Marcellus Jerome Clarke is fairly well known. An inventive
newspaper editor named him "Sue Mundy", and claimed it was a female
guerrilla. Clarke came from a prominent Virginia family. His aunt Pauline
Clarke married perhaps the most famous of all "Gray Ghosts", Col. John
S. Mosby of Virginia.
Samuel O. "One Armed" Berry was a Confederate sympathising schoolteacher
from Mercer Co. He was persecuted by Unionists and only turned guerrilla
when his sister was bayoneted to death by Union soldiers. Berry then
organized his own guerrilla command. But he was originally a regular
Confederate soldier.
But there is much more in this excellent book on Kentucky Confederate
guerrillas and a number of rare pictures can be seen: of Clarke and Berry
but also of Henry C. Magruder, Littleton T. Richardson and other guerrilla
commanders as well as of Col. James Q. Chenoweth and Lt. Col. Thomas
G. Woodward, famed Confederate irregular officers.
In the end we are told of Berry's long suffering after the war. Captured he was
to spend many years after the war in penitentiary. Many wrote to have Berry
released. He had saved many a Union prisoner from being killed. President
Johnson referred all letters to the judge advocate of the army, who refused
to let Berry go, probably making him the Confederate serving the longest
prison sentence after the war. In November 1872, seven years after the end
of the war, Berry wrote President Grant for pardon. Having only one arm
he was mostly confined to his cell, as he could not work properly. His wife had
died of a broken heart and he had never seen his son. This Confederate guerrilla
leader died shortly after writing Grant.
There is fairly much material on guerrilla commander Henry C. Magruder in the
book. He is one Southern "Gray Ghost" who would deserve a book of his own.
Tragically, he was captured and hanged by the Yankees. He was severely
wounded when captured but kept alive until October 1865, when he was
executed in Louisville.
This book is highly recommended. It can be bought from Heritage Press, 7880
Madison Street. Merrillville, Indiana 46410.
Bertil Haggman
My vote for worst book by Mark Gerdes
"The South", by B.C. Hall and C.T. Wood.
This book is basically a bitter rant about the South
disguised as some sort of travelogue. They even
included Rhode Island for abuse so as not to miss
a State even remotely Southern. References to
shacks, the Redneck Riviera, tobacco road,
Forrest and slavery, toxic chemicals in North
Carolina, you get the drift and no State is exempt.
Its worse than you think. If you didn't like "Confederates
in the Attic" exaggerate it by a factor of 20 or so and
you have an idea.
M.Gerdes
Hard Times – The Civil war in Huntsville And North Alabama1861-1865_ by
Charles Rice, Huntsville, AL: Old Huntsville, 1994
No great battles took place in North Alabama during the WBTS.
All fighting was small scale , local people resisting Union
occupation mostly. This is the most comprehensive study of
the WBTS in this region and Vietnam combat veteran Charles
S. Rice is to be congratulated for bringing this fascinating area
into focus. Rice has also edited and annotated the memoirs of Lt. Col.
Milus E. "Bushwacker" Johnson, a leading C.S.A. military officer
in North Alabama. Other leaders were Gen. Phillip D. Roddey and Col.
Lemuel G. Mead, both fighting an irregular war against yankee
occupants. The 4th Alabama Cavalry Regiment and
the 25th Alabama Cavalry Battalion were important units in North
Alabama.
One of the worst federal opponents was Col. Edward "Kill ’Em All"Anderson,
commander of the 12th Indiana, occupant regiment
in Huntsville. Mary Jane Chadick, the well known Huntsville
diarist during the WBTS, wrote on one of Col. Andersons actions
on August 21, 1864:
"A trial is going on in town today. Colonel Anderson, who commands
at Brownsboro, has been having innocent citizens shot like dogs.
A young man named Davis was carried before him las week and
asked to take the oath. He said he could not take it. Then they asked,
if he was to go into the army, which one would he go into. He
replied he had his old mother and her family to take care of and could
not go into either army, but, of course, if he was forced to go, being
A Southern man, his preference would be on that side. Anderson replied:
"I’ll fix you. You shall not go into either!""He was then kept until the next
morning, when Col. Anderson gave him a pass to go home, and then sent out
a squad of men with orders to kill him. He begged hard for one half-hour to
go home and see his mother. He was shot in 14 places…".The book contains
30 chapters of untold tales of the resistance in the
Huntsville area. The book is a must for anyone who wants to know more
about the irregular war in the heartland of the Confederacy.
Bertil Haggman
_Bloody Bill Anderson – The Short Life and Savage Times ofa Civil War
Guerrilla_ by Albert Castel and Thomas Goodrich,
Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1998.
For most interested in WBTS irregular warfare Capt. Bill
Anderson, C.S.A. of Missouri is no stranger indeed. The family
came from Kentucky. One of the reasons for the furious
struggle against Union occupation of Missouri was the
fate of his sisters. They had been arrested near Kansas
City in August, 1863, and jailed. The building they were
kept together with other female prisoners collapsed
and Anderson’s sister Josephine was killed. The collapseof the prison was
one of the reasons for the Lawrence raid on 21 August, 1863.
Relatively little has been written on Bill Anderson, the
best biography being the short _They Called Him Bloody
Bill – The Missouri Badman That Taught Jesse JamesOutlawry_ by Donald R.
Hale, privately printed, 1975 (reprinted 1982). It was Hale and his father,
Lester C. Hale, who in 1967 (not in 1969 as it says in the new biography)
placed a government marker on the grave of Anderson
in Richmond, Missouri.
The new biography of Castel-Goodrich ought to have been a
welcome addition to the history of Missouri Confederate
guerrillas. The book provides much facts on the life
of this famous Missouri guerrilla but sometimes the
evidence is treated questionably. There is much speculation
and fiction in the book.
The authors make claims in the book that seem doubtful,
for instance that Quantrill and Bill Anderson were enemies.
Both Missouri and Arkansas did not see many great battles
during the WBTS. Confederate Missouri guerrillas most
of the time operated in commands of between 20 and 50 men.
The technique was to ambush patrols, attack outposts, and
cut communication lines. They were excellent horsemen
and crack shots. The favourite weapon was the revolver and
the guerrillas often carried from four to a dozen of them. Thus they
could keep up a high volume of firepower without having
to reload.
Of Bill’s men most were between sixteen and thirty years old.They were
mainly from Clay, Jackson, Lafayette, Cass and Johnson Counties.
Those who buy the Castel-Goodrich book about Bill Anderson
should keep in mind that it is more a work of fiction than
of history.
_Bloody Bill Anderson – The Short Life and Savage Times of a Civil War
Guerrilla_ by Albert Castel and Thomas Goodrich,
Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1998.
For most interested in WBTS irregular warfare Capt. Bill
Anderson, C.S.A. of Missouri is no stranger indeed. The family
came from Kentucky. One of the reasons for the furious
struggle against Union occupation of Missouri was the
fate of his sisters. They had been arrested near Kansas
City in August, 1863, and jailed. The building they were
kept together with other female prisoners collapsed
and Anderson’s sister Josephine was killed. The collapseof the prison was one
of the reasons for the Lawrence raid on 21 August, 1863.
Relatively little has been written on Bill Anderson, the
best biography being the short _They Called Him Bloody
Bill – The Missouri Badman That Taught Jesse JamesOutlawry_ by Donald R.
Hale, privately printed, 1975
(reprinted 1982). It was Hale and his father, Lester C.
Hale, who in 1967 (not in 1969 as it says in the new biography)
placed a government marker on the grave of Anderson
in Richmond, Missouri.
The new biography of Castel-Goodrich ought to have been a
welcome addition to the history of Missouri Confederate
guerrillas. The book provides much facts on the life
of this famous Missouri guerrilla but sometimes the
evidence is treated questionably. There is much speculation
and fiction in the book.
The authors make claims in the book that seem doubtful,
for instance that Quantrill and Bill Anderson were enemies.
Both Missouri and Arkansas did not see many great battles
during the WBTS. Confederate Missouri guerrillas most
of the time operated in commands of between 20 and 50 men.
The technique was to ambush patrols, attack outposts, and
cut communication lines. They were excellent horsemen
and crack shots. The favourite weapon was the revolver and
the guerrillas often carried from four to a dozen of them. Thus they
could keep up a high volume of firepower without having
to reload.
Of Bill’s men most were between sixteen and thirty years old.They were
mainly from Clay, Jackson, Lafayette, Cass and
Johnson Counties. Those who buy the Castel-Goodrich book about
Bill Anderson should keep in mind that it is more a work of fiction than
of history.
Submitted by Bertil Haggman
The Original Gray Ghost - A Book Review by Bertil Haggman
The Regents Professor of History at Northern Kentucky University, James Ramage,
is well known for his book on the life and career of John Hunt Morgan (_Rebel
Raider_, 1986). Now Professor Ramage has taken on the original Gray Ghost
(Morgan had also adopted classic tactics of guerrilla warfare, but formally his
units were mostly not partisan rangers),
_Gray Ghost - The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby_ by James A. Ramage
(University of Kentucky Press, 1999) is a daring project. So much has been
written on the Gray Ghost, that every new book must stand out as a very
special product. Ramage offers a very detailed record of Mosby's war career
and of his postwar achievements.
Colonel Mosby's reputation made him far better known than many generals in
the Confederate Army. His speciality was the overnight raid. He used not only
guerrilla warfare tactics but also skilfully employed psychological warfare. It is
no exaggeration to claim that Mosby's Confederate partisan rangers to a great
extent is the model for modern U.S. Army Rangers. For a period of 27 months
Mosby and his gray warriors created havoc behind Federal lines. Mostly his
force never exceeded 400 men but the Federals often believed it was many
times stronger. The whole unit was built up to 800, but all men were never
used on raids. According to Ramage more than 70 search and destroy
missions were sent to finish Mosby and his force. None of them succeeded.
Mosby gathered his men in the rolling open country of Virginia (Loudon,
Fauquier and Fairfax Counties) in what was unofficially known as Mosby's
Confederacy. With law obliterated by the invaders in blue, people of this
area came to look upon Colonel Mosby as their police force and judge.
Horse stealing and other thievery were brought to his attention and he
dealt with the offenders severly.
The Federal enemy was forced, as in all classic guerrilla warfare, to guard a
hundred points while Mosby could choose any of these points for attack.
Mosby had nothing against being called a guerrilla but he pointed out that
his unit was properely enrolled in the Confederate States Army subject to
ordinary military control. War was never hell to Mosby. He was an
independent commander and believed the Federal hatred against him
depended more on the sleep they had lost on his and his men's account
than the men killed and captured.
Mosby's forceful character unfortunately led him astray after the war, when
he abandoned his status as a leading hero of the South. He supported the
Republican Party and Grant's campaign for presidency.
As Consul of the United States in Hong Kong, he created an uproar when he
exposed the corruption of his predecessors, going as far as to make the affair
public in Washington Post.
On April 21, 1865, he had disbanded the 43rd Battalion rather than surrender,
and it is said that 30 years after the disbandment he expressed a wish that
his life's descending shadows had fallen upon him midst friends and the scenes
he loved most.
After the war, not surprisingly, it was discovered that General Robert E. Lee
had commended Mosby more than any other of his subordinates. There could
be no better proof of Mosby's great importance as a partisan ranger.
___________________________________________________________________________
Irregular Warriors on the Northernmost Border of the Confederacy -
A Book Review by Bertil Haggman
During the summer of 1862 under orders from General Tom Hindman in
Arkansas a number of officers were selected to enter Missouri to start
guerrilla warfare in that state against Union occupiers. One of them was
Colonel Joseph C. Porter. He was born in Kentucky but had moved to Lewis
County, Missouri, with his family as a child. In 1861 he had left his family of
wife and five children to join the Missouri State Guard. Porter was a natural
leader and had fought at Lexington and Pea Ridge. His first guerrilla attack
was in June of 1862.
After the war one of Porter's recruits (Porter himself was killed during the war),
Joseph A. Mudd, wrote a detailed history of the achievements of the First
Northeast Missouri Cavalry, CSA (or Porter's Regiment). The recruited were
under threat of being hanged if captured by the Federals.
The activities of Porter's units was guerrilla like raids but also a few pitched
battles were fought (Vassar Hill, Moore's Mill, and Kirksville). First published
in 1909, the book (_With Porter in North Missouri_) has been republished
several times. It is now available in paperback for $19.95 (504 pages,
illustrated, and indexed) from The Camp Pope Bookshop, P.O.Box 2232,
Iowa City, IA 52244.
So this classical book on Confederate irregular warfare is filled not only
with personal memories of the fight but has newspaper accounts, local
histories, material from O.R. and reports from participants on both sides.
After a number of initial successes of the guerrillas, the Union Commander
in Missouri at the time, General Schofield, decided to strike back with Order
No. 19, which forced every able-bodied man in the State of Missouri to
report to the nearest Federal military post for service.
The purpose was to exterminate "the guerrillas that infest our state". The
order, however, worked against the occupiers. Instead of reporting for
Union duty more men than ever slipped away into the countryside to join
Porter's and other guerrilla units.
Although Schofield's order greatly helped Porter he felt he had to move
southward across the Missouri River and down to Arkansas. On their way
he and his men were joined by local guerrilla commands and after a while
numbered 400. A Union force under Colonel Odon Guitar tried to block
the route, but was in return ambushed. But the Federal force persisted and
Porter's unit was crushed. The casualties included 52 Confederates killed
and more than a hundred were wounded. Porter and a few men, including
Confederate guerrilla leader Alvin Cobb, managed to escape.
Unionists thought that the "Porter threat" was over. Porter had however
moved back to North Missouri. His force now expanded even more and
in August 1862 there were around 1,000 men in his cavalry unit. In the
beginning of August 1862 the new Porter force was met by Union General
McNeil at Kirksville. Again Porter lost a considerable number of men and
many captured, of which a number were executed by McNeil. A week later
Porter had to disband his men. The Union army was in hot pursuit. He
retreated south of the Missouri River but came back with 300 men
crossing the river on a captured steamboat. In January, 1863, Porter
was finally killed in a skirmish near Marshfield in Wright County.
Critics say Porter violated one of the ground rules of guerrilla warfare,
never to fight pitched battles with the enemy. The barbarity of McNeil
and the fighting had however led to full insurrection in North Missouri.
Few other books brings the war in Missouri to life like this.
Daniel W. Barefoot, _General Robert F. Hoke - Lee's Modest Warrior_,
Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, Publisher, 1996, 452 pp.
My first contact with the memory of Confederate General Hoke of North
Carolina was during a visit to Lincolnton, NC, in May 1999, to honour him and
other Confederate generals from that fine city and a Swedish Lt. Colonel
who had emigrated and settled in North Carolina, Eric Erson. The
memorial ceremonies was expertly organized by local SCV Camp # 1616.
What struck me when reading this book was the great modesty of this
Confederate general, the youngest in the land holding this rank at the
age of twenty-six. He was called "the North Carolina Lee" and fought
in nearly all great battles on the Eastern theater.
Back home after the war Hoke started to rebuild his shattered life and
to participate in rebuilding the destroyed South. A modest and
private man as an ordinary citizen he refused all honours by the
state of North Carolina. He did not speak often of the war in these
days. But the rumour that he was chosen as Lee's successor, should
anything happen to the great commander, is proven beyond doubt in
this book.
In 1905 the state congress invited Gen. Hoke to visit for a reception
in a resolution and several representatives were sent to Lincolnton to
hand over the resolution. Gen. Hoke then related the story of Captain
Jack, chief of the Modocs, who had been captured and awaited execution
for murder. A chaplain visited him many times and explained the goodness
of the creator, when Captain Jack one day said: "You know him, me don't.
If that is such a happy land, you go there. Me give you nine ponies to
take my place." If you take my place, gentlemen, I will give you nine
ponies, said Hoke. The reception was never held.
The author's roots are in Lincolnton. He shares these roots with the
descendants of generals Stephen Dodson Ramseur, John Horace Forney,
and Robert Daniel Johnston, among others of that rank.
This biography is highly recommended and is a must read for anybody
who
wants to read about the ideal man both in war and in peace.
Bertil Haggman
I've read the three I am posting. Great books on a subject not many
people are aware of -- The Confederate Navy. by Dann Hayes
All the books are published by White Mane Press
1) Southern Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate Navy, by R. Thomas Campbell.
-- this book covers several different aspects of the Confederate
Navy, including the completion of the C.S.S. Arkansas, an ironclad
that fought on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. It successfully ran
a gauntlet of Union ships near Vicksburg, Mississippi, before finally
reaching the city. It survived a number of attempts at destruction,
before being ordered downstream where an engine failure helped cause
its eventual destruction.
----------
2) Gray Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate Navy, by R. Thomas Campbell.
-- This book also covers several different aspects of the Confederate
Navy, but the focus is on the development of the C.S.S. Virginia
(ironclad) and the battle with the U.S.S. Monitor.
The book also features the story of the C.S.S. Alabama, the most
successful Confederate cruiser during the war.
3) Fire and Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy by R.
Thomas Campbell.
Chapters of different exploits, but the focus of the book (several
chapters on the subject) is with the C.S.S. Shenandoah, Confederate
cruiser that sailed around the world and surrendered to British
authorities November 10, 1865, the last Confederate flag to be
lowered.
Dann Hayes
Ayastigi Ani-wahya
Glenn Jones
No library containing books dealing with the factual history of the
Confederacy would be complete without a copy of Wilfred Knight's "Red Fox:
Stand Watie And The Confederate Indian Nations During The Civil War Years In
Indian Territory."
Colonel, and later Brig. Gen. Stand Watie and his ragtag band of
Confederate Indians created havoc, and drove Union commanders nuts with their
guerrilla warfare tactics throughout the war. Stand Watie, a Cherokee Indian
and Chief, was a brilliant military strategist, and was the leader of one of
the finest light cavalry units the world has ever seen. Contrary to popular
belief, Brig. Gen. Stand Watie and the remnants of his beloved 1st Indian
Brigade did not surrender at Daoksville, I. T. He merely signed a paper
agreeing to cease hostilities against the United States government. He and
his remaining regiment were the last to strike the colors.
Enjoyable reading guaranteed.
>>>>------------->
Deo Vindice
Glenn/DWC
Brig. Gen. Stand Watie
THE CSS H. L. HUNLEY
CONFEDERATE SUBMARINE
by R. Thomas Campbell
On February 17, 1864, off the coast of Charleston, the CSS H. L. Hunley,
Confederate submarine, attacked and sank the USS Housatonic with a torpedo.
Not until fifty years later, during World War I, did another submarine sink an
enemy vessel. The gallant Hunley was discovered on May 3, 1995, by a search
team funded by Author Clive Cussler, 131 years after being lost with all crew
members on the night of February 17, 1864. After the defeat of the
Confederacy, many Southern War records were ignored or deliberately
disclaimed. Also, findings of the Federal Court of Inquiry, although published
for official scrutiny on March 4, 1864, were kept secret during the remainder
of the War and only came to light again in 1987. Adding to confusion about
her incredible feat were secrecy surrounding the Hunley during her service in
Charleston Harbor and the skepticism of some who knew of her existence but
doubted the potential of that "infernal machine."
These Southern men who conceived of underwater warfare and a boat that
could accomplish the sinking of naval ships were visionaries, several decades
ahead of their time. On June 10, 1861, the Columbia Herald, a newspaper in
Columbia, Tennessee, published an article written by an inventor named Frances
Smith. He wrote, "From the Chesapeake to the mouth of the Rio Grande, our
coast is better fitted for submarine warfare than any other in the world. I would
have every hostile keel chased from our coast by submarine propellers." Mr.
Smith described in detail such a boat, giving dimensions and listing
construction materials.
A copy of this article may have appeared in New Orleans, or a similar invention
may have also occurred to James R. McClintock and Baxter Watson. Devoted to
the Southern cause, these two men had already designed and sold two
bullet-making machines to the Confederate government. With a promise of letters
of marque from President Davis, they began to construct a "submersible boat" at
the Leeds foundry near their own shop. Another citizen of New Orleans became
interested in the project and invested $400 of his own money. Horace Lawson
Hunley's name would be forever linked with the newly envisioned submarine.
Before the Pioneer could be tested, Forts Jackson and St. Philip at the mouth
of the Mississippi fell, and the Union fleet sailed toward New Orleans.
McClintock, Watson, and Hunley, disappointed that this turn of events
prevented a test of the new boat, scuttled the small submersible and fled
to Mobile with their drawings, diagrams, and notes. Federal sailors dragged
the Pioneer up from the river bottom, and the Federals dispatched an engineer
to examine it.
The three men enlisted the aid of Major General Dabney H. Maury, nephew of
Matthew Fountain Maury, who was military commander of the Mobile district.
Major General Maury was eager to employ any method to defend the port city
and promised his full support in their effort to build a new submarine. They
selected the foundry of Thomas Park and Thomas B. Lyons. Serving there on a
project of rifling the barrels of thousands of outdated Mississippi Rifles was a
British-born engineer named Lt. William Alexander. A volunteer in the 21st
Alabama Infantry Regiment, he had been posted to Mobile with the remnants
of the 21st after the Battle of Shiloh.
The group immediately began building a second submarine. Records are scanty,
but Hunley is believed to have furnished the entire funding. Also unrecorded is
whether the boat was named Pioneer II or American Diver. The original plan
called for the boat to be propelled by an "electromagnetic engine," and much
of 1862 was spent in what turned out to be a futile effort to get such an
engine to work. McClintock abandoned the idea and installed a propeller
shaft designed to be turned by four men. In 1902, William Alexander wrote
in Southern Historical Society Papers that in an attack off Ft. Morgan, "….the
weather was rough, and with a heavy sea the boat became unmanageable
and finally sank, but no lives were lost."
McClintock, Watson, and Hunley were no doubt devastated by the loss of
this submarine. An organization of engineers sympathetic to the Southern
cause, among its members this trio of designers, backed the building of a
third submarine. Hunley invested another $5,000 of his own money.
Altogether, $15,000 was raised, which amounts to $300,000 at today's
gold prices. In the spring of 1863, they began building what would become
the H. L. Hunley on the floor of the Park & Lyons machine shop, using lessons
learned during the brief existence of the second submarine.
Hunley, who acted in many capacities as a secret agent for the Confederate
government, was away from Mobile during much of the construction. At this
time, George E. Dixon, another young lieutenant from the 21st Alabama,
joined the crew and would be forever linked with the history and legacy
of CSS Submarine H. L. Hunley.
Early on the morning of July 31, 1863, an old flat boat used for hauling coal
was anchored in the middle of the Mobile River. Several high-ranking
Confederate officers of the Mobile district and a good-sized crowd gathered
on the shore to witness the Hunley trial. Most probably, Dixon or McClintock
was in command, and the crew were mechanics from the Park & Lyons
machine shop. Onlookers cheered as the torpedo reduced the old flat boat
to a pile of smoking debris.
Baxter Watson and Gus Whitney journeyed to Charleston to meet with the
military commander, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. Desperate
to employ any means to improve the city's defenses, General Beauregard
ordered the Hunley to be transported immediately by rail to Charleston. In
early August, the submarine was pulled from the water, chocked onto a flat
car, and probably shrouded. McClintock and Whitney accompanied the
precious cargo as a train bearing the Hunley left Mobile on the morning of
August 10, 1863, bound for war-ravaged and besieged Charleston.
From the time the Hunley arrived in Charleston until the fateful date of
February 17, 1864, Author Campbell's narrative becomes a gripping
suspense story. The hope for relief from the constant bombardment of
the Federal fleet, the unmatchable bravery of successive crews, and
commitment to the Confederate Cause infuse the H. L. Hunley with myth
and legend.
Deeming offensive actions of the Hunley under McClintock as "timid," military
authorities in Charleston seized the submarine and turned her over to the
Confederate Navy. Whitney and Hunley remained in Charleston as civilian
advisors, while McClintock and the men from Park & Lyons shop returned
to Mobile. Lt. John A. Payne, CSN, was given command and began training
eight volunteers from the ironclad CSS Chicora. On August 29, 1863, Lt. Payne,
according to witnesses, got himself fouled in the hawser while attempting
to cast off from the dock, and the submarine submerged with manholes open.
Payne, Lt. Charles H. Hasker, and two other seamen escaped. The Hunley had
claimed the lives of five members of her first crew. (An interesting aside is
that these men were buried in the Mariner's Cemetery later obliterated by
construction of the Citadel's Johnson-Hagood Stadium in 1947. The remains
of these five Hunley crew members disinterred from that site this past
summer will be reinterred in a special plot donated by the Hunley family at
Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston on March 25, 2000.)
Angus Smith and David Broadfoot, two civilian divers in Charleston, located and
raised the submarine. Hunley received permission from General Beauregard to put
the boat back into operation and asked that the Park & Lyons mechanics from
Mobile serve as the crew. Beauregard consented, with the stipulation that the
submarine be commanded by a military officer, and Lt. Dixon assumed command.
A second disaster struck the Hunley on October 15, 1863. For a reason that
remains a mystery, Lt. Dixon was not present in Charleston and Hunley decided
to command the submarine himself. From an account written by William
Alexander many years later, he hinted that Hunley was careless in closing
the seacock and may have caused his own death and that of seven other
crewmen.
Once again, Angus Smith and David Broadfoot located and raised the submarine.
After two months spent cleaning and refurbishing, the Hunley resumed active
duty on December 14, 1863, under the command of Lt. Dixon. He and Alexander
had no trouble recruiting another crew. Alexander wrote, "The honor of being the
first to engage the enemy in this novel way overshadowed all else."
The next two months were spent in bitter winter weather in Charleston Harbor,
with rough seas preventing an attack. On the night of February 17, 1864, Dixon
took sight on the USS Housatonic, a wooden vessel. Even though the moonlight
was quite bright, he steered the Hunley toward her fateful and successful destiny.
Finally, the CSS H. L. Hunley, Confederate Submarine has been accorded her
rightful place in naval history as the first submarine to successfully sink an
enemy vessel in time of war.
Reviewed by Ann Rives ZappaDixie Hibbs, Nelson County - A Portrait of the
Civil War (Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing,
an imprint of Tempus Publishing Co., 2
Cumberland Street, Charleston, SC 29401),
1999, 128 pages, Price $ 18.99
____________________________________
Nelson County, Kentucky, historian Hibbs served on
the Bardstown City Council for 17 years and
nobody is better suited to present the sufferings
of a Kentucky county under Union occupation,
that started in September 1861 and did not end
until September 1865, long after the WBTS had
ended.
Bardstown is the county seat of Nelson County
since 1785. Agriculture was the main industry
of the county. It was connected with Louisville
by a turnpike and a railroad when the WBTS started.
A larger number of county inhabitants served the
Confederacy than the Union.
The war years was a burden to the county. One woman
explained: "I couldn't step out of my kitchen door
without stepping on a Yankee soldier." More than
85 Federal regiments passed through the county.
After escaping from an Ohio prison, Gen. John H.
Morgan and Capt. Thomas Hines at one time
spent the night in the vicinity of Bardstown.
One chapter of the book, of which one strength is
the great number of photos of the time, deals with
Confederate guerrillas and reprisals.
Three prominent Kentucky Confederate guerrillas
feature in the book: Henry C. Magruder and
Samuel "One-Arm" Berry. The third is Littleton
T. Richardson, whose command Magruder first
rode with. Richardson was killed near Cave City,
Kentucky, in March, 1864.
This book is a fine addition to the history of the
WBTS in Kentucky and to Confederate guerrilla
history in that Commonwealth.
Bertil Haggman