CW - 150
The Civil War 150th Anniversary
Interesting facts, links, and suggested books for each month of the Civil War.
June 1862
This Month's Events
- 1 June. At the Battle of Seven Pines (aka Fair Oaks) in Virginia, Thaddeus Lowe, the U. S. Army's balloon commander, manages to get a balloon, the Intrepid into the air despite many problems. Desperate to inflate a balloon more quickly than in the hour needed by his hydrogen generators, he uses a camp kettle with its bottom cut out as a pipe to move gas from another balloon to the Intrepid. This takes only 15 minutes which he later values at "a million dollars an minute." His observations of the enemy's movements keep the isolated army of General Samuel P. Heintzelman from being cut off.
During the battle, Colonel William Dorsey Pender of the 6th North Carolina realizes that his troops are about to be cut off and by an adroit series of orders is able to manuever them to safety and then to charge. Seeing this, President Jefferson Davis who is on the field, rides up to Pender and says, "General Pender, I salute you." Pender County, North Carolina is named for the general. - 1 June. Robert E. Lee is appointed commander of the Army of Northern Virginia to replace Joseph E. Johnston who has been badly wounded in the battle.
- 2 June. North Carolina is paying bounties to its soldiers. Joseph Hoyle of Co. F, 55th Infantry receives $50 and a new cap, jacket, and blanket.
- 4 June. In today's issue of the Raleigh Standard editor William Holden proposes Zebulon Vance as a candidate for governor. "Let the watchword of the conservatives of the State, and of those who desire reform in the government, and better and abler men in office, and who would honor a gallant soldier and an honest man, be henceforth VANCE and VICTORY."
- 12-15 June. Confederate cavalry leader Jeb Stuart leads his men on a wild ride around McClellan's army. The man in charge of one of the Union sectors that he rides through? His father-in-law, General Philip Cooke.
- 16 June. Acting against orders, Union General Henry W. Benham attacks the small village of Secessionville outside Charleston. His men take 683 casualties out of 4500 men engaged. Benham is arrested for disobeying orders. The fight for Charleston continues.
- 26 - 30 June. Robert E. Lee begins an attack against the Union Army of the Potomac that will become known as the Seven Days Battles. [See next month.]
- 27 June. General Ambrose Burnside authorizes the organization of a new Union regiment, the 1st North Carolina Volunteer Infantry. The outfit is organized at New Bern and in surrounding areas now under Federal control. In 1863 another regiment is formed, but the 2 are eventually combined. About 1,300 white men from eastern North Carolina join these two regiments to fight for the Union against their Confederate neighbors.
- 30 June. The war is dividing families in many ways. The Moravian Conference at Salem, North Carolina debates what to do with Johanna Mack who was supposed to leave boarding school in May 1861, but whose parents are Moravian missionaries to the western Cherokees. "The P. A. C. considered how this girl could be provided for in view of the continuing war and the complete breakdown of communication with her parents." This teenager will be moved around from place to place over the next 2 years.
This Month's Fiction
Adult Fiction
Honor's Kingdom, by Owen Parry, pub. 2002, 328 p., call #: Fic PAR. Parry's fourth Civil War mystery finds 34-year-old Union Major Abel Jones in London in the summer of 1862. No longer fit for field service since he shattered his leg at Bull Run, Jones has been dispatched to England to assist Charles Adams in discovering who has murdered Union secret agent William Campbell and disposed of his corpse in an eel basket. Weary from all the death he has seen in battle (including hand-to-hand combat in India for the British), Jones is philosophical, deeply religious, and tenderhearted. Before his stint in London is through, Jones trades barbs with Benjamin Disraeli, engages in lethal swordplay with archenemy Culpeper, and diplomatically turns aside the attentions of dance-hall-entertainer Polly Perkins. Parry's beautifully written narrative encompasses the international scope of the Civil War conflict and never loses sight of the brutality of war and the deceitfulness of politics. Driven by an engaging plot rife with double crosses, this fine novel will appeal to both mystery buffs and fans of historical fiction.
Children's Fiction
Gray Riders: Jeb Stuart and his Men, by Manly Wade Wellman, pub. 1954, 192 p., call #:J W. Jesse Holt, a Maryland farmboy, flees with his father's best horse, Prince Rupert, as Union troops move onto the farm. Heading South, he mets Jeb Stuart and his men and becomes a soldier fighting his way through Virginia.
This Month's Non-Fiction
Adult Nonfiction
Rustics in Rebellion a Yankee Reporter on the Road to Richmond 1861 65 by Call Number: 973.781 TOWISBN: 9781355742487Publication Date: 2016-05-06The wild and wooly adventures of a young reporter, desperate to advance in his career, and risking his life to do so. One chapter describes the (ultimately) humorous mishap of General Fitz John Porter as he floats over the armies in a runaway balloon. Despite the dates in the title, the bulk of the text is about the Virginia campaigns in 1862. A last article describes Richmond as the war ends.
To the Gates of Richmond : The Peninsula Campaign by Call Number: 973 .732 SEAISBN: 0899197906Publication Date: 1992-09-01This is an definitive analysis of McClellan's principal campaign. His grand plan was to land an army at Yorktown, move up the Virginia peninsula toward Richmond, and fight a decisive battle somewhere near the Confederate capital, thereby ending the Civil War while it was still a rebellion instead of a revolution. The strategy failed in part because of McClellan's persistent exaggerations of Confederate strength, but also because under his command the Federals fought piecemeal. The Confederates were only marginally more successful at concentrating their forces, but Sears credits their leaders, especially Lee, as better able to learn from experience. Confederate victory on the Peninsula meant the Civil War would continue. The campaign's heavy casualties indicated the kind of war it would be.
The general to his lady; the Civil War letters of William Dorsey Pender to Fanny Pender by Call Number: 973.782 P N.CPublication Date: 1965These letters contain a great deal of personal matter, written as they were to the young general's wife; in fact they deal more frankly with their concerns over her health than most letters of the time and offer an unusual view of a woman's life at the time. However, Pender also discusses military matters, life in the army, and his attempts to find positions for family members. (This book has also been published with the title One of Lee's Best Men: The Civil War Letters of General William Dorsey Pender.)
In the Footsteps of J. E. B. Stuart by Call Number: 973.7 JOHISBN: 0895872617Publication Date: 2003-09-01How elusive was Confederate cavalry chief J. E. B. Stuart? Just ask Union general George McClellan, who suffered embarrassment when Stuart rode a circle around his entire army in June 1862. Or Union general John Pope, from whose headquarters tent Stuart brazenly stole a coat, a dispatch book, and half a million dollars. This book will bring you closer to Stuart than the Federal army managed to get during most of the Civil War.
Secessionville by Call Number: 973.73 BREISBN: 1882810082Publication Date: 1996-09-22A detailed account of the Northern attempt in 1862 to capture the city and avenge Fort Sumter.
Children's Nonfiction
Runaway Balloon : The Last Flight of Confederate Air Force One, by Burke Davis ; drawings by Salvatore Murdocca, pub. 1976, 48 p., call #: j973.73 D. Recounts the brief and near-disastrous history of the balloon created by the Confederate army to spy on Federal troops and the sad misadventures of Lt. John Randolph Bryan, its unwilling pilot.