Day 105. June 13, 1862.
105
and beacons of smoke by day and fires by night….
June Friday 13 1862
The Ballance of the mounth from the Back part of this Book―
Quite cool this morning. I got up before 4oclock and with Wm. Plaster & Wm. A. Black started for Frount Royal on our way home which was 27 miles. We traveled 7 miles when we haulted and made some coffee. I eat 1 ½ cracker small size ponch was all I eat travelling the 27 miles. It was very warm all day. We reached Frount Royall at 2 ½ in the afternoon. It was awful warm and we could not travel very fast. We had one horse which carried our baggage some one riding I rode 2 miles I prefered to walking. We got in town and I got a Pass from the Provoest Marshall for the three on the Manasses Railroad. We got into a freight car as we was told that we would go at 4oclock this evenning but it did not go so we had to waite for the morning train. We made some coffee and eat some hard crackers for our supper… we had no quarters to go to so we concluded to sleep in the car. We had no blankets there was nothing new. The wheat will be Ripe in 10 days. The cherries are getting Ripe. The Straw Berries are ripe but I have not had the pleasure of getting any but I hope I may have a good nights rest as I am very tired
See: https://youtu.be/EFFFeahe0mU 1936 Department of the Interior film of Virginia, Shenandoah National Park.
Note: Even leaving has him in desperate circumstances. I wonder how many stayed because they could not physically make that trip & knew it. we haulted and made some coffee. I eat 1 ½ cracker small size ponch was all I eat travelling the 27 miles. How many of us could do this, especially considering the past few months of wear & tear? I couldn’t. I know that for a fact. One & a HALF cracker. I can’t even leave the house without food in my bag due to fast metabolism & low blood sugar. And that coffee they halted to make, yeah, that wasn’t Starbucks, nope. Ephraim’s so understated it makes me laugh out loud: I rode 2 miles I prefered to walking.
He left June 13 but didn’t arrive at his farm until June 17. That was an arduous 5 day journey.
Note: Below, “Without reflecting in any way upon others….” Also note that Ephraim was in this group of not more than 2,000 men of Tyler’s Brigade who drove Jackson off June 9, 1862:
The following appeared in the NYT on June 19, 1862:
THE BATTLE OF PORT REPUBLIC.
THE PART TAKEN BY COL. CARROLL. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/06/24/archives/movements-in-shenandoah-valley-gen-fremont-at-strasburgh-forward.html
From the Washington Intelligencer.
“The first reports of battles are often incorrect. The confusion incident to an engagement of itself precludes the possibility of a fair estimate of affairs at the first, and it is only after the smoke of battle has passed away that a clear view can be had.
The battle of Port Republic forms no exception to this general experience. Appreciating, as everybody could, after the disaster there had occurred, that it might have been avoided by the destruction of the bridge across the Shenandoah at that place, it was taken for granted that it should have been, burnt, and that orders had been given to that effect. Upon that assumption, Col. CARROLL, who had command of the advance, has been loudly censured, and the failure of the expedition, and the terrible destruction of life consequent upon it, have been visited upon his head. Without reflecting in any way upon others, it is the purpose of this communication to show that Col. CARROL acted strictly according to imperative orders, and that he carried himself in their execution like a a true and gallant soldier.
On the 4th instant, while at CONRAD’s store, Col. CARROLL received orders to go forward at once, with cavalry and guns, to save the bridge at Port Republic. At that time it was impossible for him to move. The heavy rains which had prevailed for some days had so swollen the streams, that Col. CARROLL was entirely separated from his command — having with him only his staff, fifteen cavalry, and two pieces of artillery. His infantry was five miles in his rear, and compelled to remain there, by the impassable creeks, between two and three days.
On Saturday the 7th, Col. CARROLL received orders to move forward to Waynesborough, distant some thirty-five or thirty-seven miles, by the way of Port Republic, for the purpose of destroying the railroad depot, track, bridge, &c., at that place, and to seize JACKSON’s train and throw his force upon JACKSON’s flank. Col. CARROLL marched in obedience to these orders on Saturday afternoon. His infantry, cavalry, and artillery had in the meantime come up, and he started from CONRAD’s store with less than a thousand of the former, and with one hundred and fifty cavalry, and with a single battery of six guns.
Halting, in the night, six miles before reaching Port Republic, Col. CARROLL sent forward a party of scouts, who returned with the information that JACKSON’s train was parked near by, and the whole guarded by about two or three hundred cavalry. On learning this Col. CARROLL pushed forward, with the design of capturing the train and cattle, as his orders directed. He halted some two miles from the town, made a reconnoissance, and received further information confirming the report of his scouts, and then dashed into town with his cavalry and two pieces, driving the enemy’s cavalry out and taking possession of the bridge. He halted there for his infantry to come up, and disposed his pieces and little force to prevent a repulse from the train guard, when, before he had occupied the village twenty minutes, he was attacked by three regiments of the enemy’s infantry, by eighteen of their guns, and by a cavalry force superior to his own. In the face of this he was forced to retire, and the project of proceeding twenty-odd miles further up to Waynesboro’ had to be abandoned. As stated above, Col. CARROLL did not hold the place twenty minutes; and there was no instant of time, after his arrival, in which he could have destroyed the bridge in the presence of such an enemy, even had he been ordered so to do.
Retiring from Port Republic, Col. CARROLL brought his force to a stand at the first defensible position, some two and a half miles distant from the town. Here he was reinforced by Gen. TYLER’s Brigade, numbering about 2,000. Col. CARROLL, appreciating the superior position of the enemy, as well as his vastly superior force, advised a retreat upon CONRAD’s store, under cover of the night. In this he was overruled, and the battle of Monday occurred on the ground to which he had retired from Sunday’s repulse.
It is not the intention to apologize for Col. CARROLL, but to show simply that he obeyed orders. How he carried himself through the hot contest of Monday, his superior on the field can testify to more properly and with better knowledge than any one else. In his report of the engagement, as published in the papers, Gen. TYLER says, among other like compliments: “Gen. CARROLL distinguished himself by his coolness and dashing bravery. Upon him I relied, and was not disappointed.”
It is confidently stated that whatever blame may hereafter be attached to any officer on account of the disastrous battle of Port Republic, none can be fairly laid to the charge of Col. CARROLL, but that the more the facts connected with it are investigated, the greater will be the praise accorded to him for his gallant and soldierly conduct on his advance and in the fight.”
For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War James M. McPherson P. 164
“During Stonewall Jackson’s famous Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862, some of his men marched 350 miles and fought five battles plus several skirmishes in a single month. A captain in the 27th Virginia of the famous Stonewall Brigade confessed to his wife that this activity “has broken me down completely…. [I am] in a state of exhaustion…. I never saw the Brigade so completely broken down and unfitted for service.” They had little time to recover before going down into the terrible Seven Days battles, after which a soldier in the 12th Georgia of Jackson’s corps wrote home that “I am worn out…. and also worn out in mind there is so much loss of sleep & excitement in every way. I never craved rest more in my life…. I would give the whole confederate states if I owned them to be with you all again.” A soldier in the 3rd South Carolina reported three weeks after the Seven Days battles that one of his messmates had been “strangely afflicted” since the fighting ended. “He has almost lost the entire use of his hands and legs and is almost as helpless as poor little Johnnie. No one knows what is the matter with him.” A modern psychiatrist would probably know.”
Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War Michael C.C. Adams P. 55
“Debilitation not only affected generals’ individual performances. Factors of disease, climate, and environment also circumscribed what they could achieve with the men under them, also struggling against the same natural enemies. Generals faced challenges in three areas of command: the ability to plan campaigns and move troops forward to battle; the facility to direct their actions when engaged; and finally the opportunity to follow up encounters effectively.
First, disease that affected a high percentage of troops hamstrumg offensive operations. For example, in extenuation of his torpidity in late June and July 1862, General George B. McClellan pleaded that 29 percent of his roughly 103,000 men had become unfit. Onslaughts of malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever hampered early Union attempts to establish solid bridgeheads along the Confederacy’s Atlantic coast. In the West, similar outbreaks, especially of malaria, stymied Grant’s initial operations against Vicksburg. The 1st Kentucky Brigade (U.S.) alone lost one-third its strength to disease in a month.”
The View from the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers Edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean P. 16-18
“Alongside combat, desertion remains one of the key unresolved topics in Civil War literature. Interest in the subject stems partly from the inherent fascination of both scholars and readers in the question of loyalty and the nature of men who abandon a commitment to defend their nation. A broad set of community studies demonstrated the difficulty of generalizing about patterns of desertion. These works opened questions that have yet to be fully answered. The old assumption, that desertion was a minor problem attributable to cowardice on the part of individual soldiers, proved to be incorrect. Confirming the conclusion reached by Lonn in her pioneering study, most of the recent scholarship has demonstrated that desertion had serious effects on both armies. Still, many of the studies, such as Judith Lee Halleck’s on New York and David Smith’s on Texas, situate the causes of desertion in the particular places where the units originated. Kevin Ruffner’s study of one regiment in the much-lauded Stonewall Brigade revealed surprisingly high desertion rates, which he explained as a consequence of the officers’ failure to secure proper supplies for a hard winter, as well as poor leadership in general. Thus, Ruffner’s conclusion, like those of many other local studies, inhibits scholars’ ability to offer desertion as evidence of mass disillusionment or as an explanation for Confederate defeat. Conversely, in the only book-length study of desertion, Mark Weitz argues that the invasion of Georgia by Union troops and the consequent hardships imposed, particularly on lower-class residents, spurred high rates of desertion after 1863 among north Georgia units. The loss of these men weakened the ability of Confederate troops in the region to resist Sherman’s advance and led to high numbers of people abandoning the Confederacy.
The issue of loyalty raised by studies of desertion has inspired historians to probe more deeply into nationalism as it relates to both the Union and the Confederacy. One of the defining elements of modern, popular wars is that soldiers fight partly, if not mostly, out of loyalty to the nation-state that sends them into battle. Beginning with the French Revolution and the successful effort to raise a mass army, democratic governments built militia systems to eliminate the need for standing professional armies. Although America’s antebellum militia system did not necessarily produce effective soldiers, it was one of the many mechanisms that reinforced the notion that the rights of citizenship were balanced by the obligation to defend one’s nation militarily. Civil War scholars have explored how both Northerners and Southerners conceptualized this obligation and how it changed over the course of the war. For most Northern soldiers, an ideological belief in a perpetual Union demanded a physical defense of that Union. Because the North won the conflict, the distorting power of hindsight can obscure wartime challenges to Northern unity and assume as fact the failure of Confederate nationalism. Sectional hostility to the South made fighting easier, but the increasingly antislavery policies of the North required reluctant emancipators to confront the notion of fighting for a nation despite opposition to its policies. Although a belief in the Union remained a viable source of inspiration for many Northerners throughout the conflict, the length and nature of the war severely tested Northern soldiers’ sense of nationalism.
P. 60
Lonn estimates that as many as 25 percent of Union troops were improperly absent from the Army of the Potomac on January 26, 1863. Whether men were leaving temporarily, captured by the enemy, or outright deserting, their numbers grew every day.”
Note: An intriguing question is how far does the State Theory– for it actually is a theory– “loyalty to state”– logically extend as a springboard for the war. The ideology is utterly incoherent. Remembering back to a quote from March: The Raleigh North Carolina Standard suggested that all would be well if only five-hundred public men from both sections could be “transported or confined in dungeons for six months.”
A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War The Diaries of David Hunter Strother David Hunter Strother P. 57-58
“JUNE 13, FRIDAY.—Fair and warm…. I went to the war office* and presently was invited to a private conference with the Secretary [Edwin Stanton]. I expressed the opinion that our infantry was our chief dependence and that artillery was comparatively useless in the Valley. We had erred there in trusting too much to it. The Secretary heard with attention and said he was pleased to find my views accorded with his. He said Banks had called for five batteries and Shields for several, an inordinate proportion, and he would not send them all they wanted. I suggested the idea of concentrating the troops under one leader. He replied thoughtfully—“Then Frémont will be in command.” I did not reply except to say that one head was better than many. The Secretary said he had known me long and agreeably through my writing and if I was as accomplished a soldier as I was an artist and writer, the country had much to thank me for. In describing our retreat from Strasburg I took occasion to mention General Banks’ personal bearing as courageous and cool. He asked if General Banks’ had not good assistant commanders. I named Williams, Gordon, and Hatch. He said the retreat was admirably conducted and was the military feat of the war, but I don’t think he cared to give the credit to Banks. This probably because Bank’s political friends have attacked him unsparingly.
On entering the office I met General Meigs. He talked with me a long time about the relations of the departments with our army in the Valley. He says the commanders there have had full latitude to use all the resources which had been accorded to them. They seemed to think they could not blow their noses without orders. They fell back on the Government for everything and did nothing for themselves. Then they blamed their ill success on the Government…. I return to my original position in regard to the conduct of the campaign. We ought to have cleaned out the Valley in three weeks after we entered it….”
All for the Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes Edited by Robert Hunt Rhodes P. 112
July 27, 1863: “I enjoyed the trip to Manassas Gap very much. It is the most romantic place I ever saw.”
Note: By 1864, however, the Valley was a disaster zone:
Living Hell Michael C.C. Adams P. 169
“General Philip H. Sheridan, acting under Grant’s authority, carried out the most thorough ravaging of Virginia. He systematically destroyed mills, farms, livestock, and crops, driving the inhabitants into exposure and starvation. The general reported, on October 7, 1864, that he had destroyed more than 2,000 barns filled with grain and seventy mills with their stocks of flour. His troops also killed or drove 4,000 cattle and 3,000 sheep. Sheridan boasted that “the Valley, from Winchester up to Staunton, ninety-two miles, will have but little in it for man or beast.’”
The War-Time Diary of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865
Eliza Frances Andrews P. 32-34
Note: Late 1864 after Sherman passed through Sparta, Georgia:
“About three miles from Sparta we struck the “Burnt Country,” as it is well named by the natives, and then I could better understand the wrath and desperation of these poor people. I almost felt as if I should like to hang a Yankee myself. There was hardly a fence left standing all the way from Sparta to Gordon. The fields were trampled down and the road was lined with carcasses of horses, hogs, and cattle that the invaders, unable either to consume or to carry away with them, had wantonly shot down to starve out the people and prevent them from making their crops. The stench in some places was unbrarable; every few hundred yards we had to hold our noses or stop them with the cologne Mrs. Elzey had given us, and it proved a great boon. The dwellings that were standing all showed signs of pillage, and on every plantation we saw the charred remains of the gin-house and packing-screw, while here and there, lone chimney-stacks, ‘Sherman’s Sentinels,” told of homes laid in ashes. The infamous wretches! I couldn’t wonder now that these poor people should want to put a rope round the neck of every red-handed “devil of them” they could lay their hands on. Hay ricks and fodder stacks were demolished, corn cribs were empty, and every bale of cotton that could be found was burnt by the savages. I saw no grain of any sort, except little patches they had spilled when feeding their horses and which there was not even a chicken left in the country to eat. A bag of oats might have lain anywhere along the road without danger from the beasts of the field, though I cannot say it would have been safe from the assaults of hungry men. Crowds of soldiers were tramping over the road in both directions; it was like traveling through the streets of a populous town all day. They were mostly on foot, and I saw numbers seated on the roadside greedily eating raw turnips, meat skins, parched corn—anything they could find, even picking up the loose grains that Sherman’s horses had left. I felt tempted to stop and empty the contents of our provision baskets into their laps, but the dreadful accounts that were given of the state of the country before us, made prudence get the better of our generosity.
The roads themselves were in a better condition than might have been expected, and we traveled at a pretty fair rate, our four mules being strong and in good working order. When we had made about half the distance to Milledgeville it began to rain, so the gentlemen cut down saplings which they fitted in the form of bows across the body of the wagon, and stretching the lieutenant’s army blanket over it, made a very effectual shelter. Our next halt was near a dilapidated old house where there was a fine well of water. The Yankees had left it, I suppose, because they couldn’t carry it away. Here we came up with a wagon on which were mounted some of the people we had seen on the cars the day before. They stopped to exchange experiences, offered us a toddy, and brought us water in a beautiful calabash gourd with a handle full three feet long. We admired it so much that one of them laughingly proposed to “capture” it for us, but we told them we didn’t care to imitate Sherman’s manners. A mile or two futher on we were hailed by a queer-looking object sitting on a log in the corner of a half-burnt fence. It was wrapped up in a big white blanket that left nothing else visible except a round, red face and a huge pair of feet. Before anybody could decide whether the apparition was a ghost from the lower regions or an escaped lunatic from the state asylum in his nightgown, Sam Weller jumped up, exclaiming: “Galvanized, galvanized! Stop, driver, a galvanized Yankee!”
P. 38-39
Before crossing the Oconee at Milledgeville we ascended an immense hill, from which there was a fine view of the town, with Gov. Brown’s fortifications in the foreground and the river rolling at our feet. The Yankees had burnt the bridge, so we had to cross on a ferry. There was a long train of vehicles ahead of us, and it was nearly an hour before our turn came, so we had ample time to look about us. On our left was a field where 30,000 Yankees had camped hardly three weeks before. It was strewn with the debris they had left behind, and the poor people of the neighborhood were wandering over it, seeking for anything they could find to eat, even picking grains of corn that were scattered around where the Yankees had fed their horses. We were told that a great many valuables were found there at first,—plunder that the invaders had left behind, but the place had been picked over so often by this time that little now remained except tufts of loose cotton, piles of half-rotted grain, and the carcasses of slaughtered animals, which raised a horrible stench. Some men were plowing in one part of the field, making ready for next year’s crop.”
Note: One bale of cotton in the mid-1860s weighed from somewhere between 225-500 pounds. 300 pound or more bales were loaded in the holds of ships & sailed North or to Europe. Two hundred pounds picked was the daily picking quota. It went for around $1.26 per pound. Estimates vary, but in 2022, a pound goes for 75 cents It is grown in 17 states over 150-180 days annually. 17.62 million bales is what the National Cotton Council quotes the USDA as reporting for 2021-2022. After the cotton boll opens, anywhere from July to October, in America. A boll is, well, see cottonworks.com. There are 100,000 to 200,000 bolls per bale, according to cotton.org, & it takes 200 to 400 bolls to produce just one pound of lint. Boll weevils are the devil to a cotton crop. They curl in the flower & wait to tear the country down. Wait for their landing to down a nation. A bit dramatic for a bug. And for men, at that, to do. Interestingly, “Boll Weevil” is another name for a “conservative Southern Democrat. Especially a member of Congress.” They vaguely resemble tiny wee Anteaters, & migrated up from Mexico late in the 19th century. By the 1920s (an era Cash described once already in this manuscript, but I love so have to quote again: “…by 1920 there were great areas in which it which it was next to impossible to find a plantation house still occupied by its old masters”), the weevils had “devastated the industry.” The critter has cost the U.S. $11 billion so far. Yes, most can fly [shudder]. You may find them in your flour. Nom nom.
A Stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton P. 304-305
“The completeness of the devastation is awful. Hundreds of nearly starving people are going north. Our trains are crowded with them. They line the wayside. Hundreds more are coming; not half the inhabitants in the Valley can subsist on it in its present condition.
A Confederate officer on Early’s staff left bitter testimony:
“I rode down the Valley with the advance after Sheridan’s retreating cavalry beneath great columns of smoke which almost shut out the sun by day, and in the red glare of bonfires which, all across that Valley, poured out flames and sparks heavenward and crackled mockingly in the night air; and I saw mothers and maidens tearing their hair and shrieking to Heaven in their fright and despair, and little children, voiceless and tearless in their pitiable terror.”
Fully a year later, an English traveler wrote that the Shenandoah Valley looked like one vast moor.
Heavy smoke, blackened earth, and unending fires at night: and with the army as it moved there was an increasing stream of refugees, as if some strange emigrant train were off on an unimaginable journey. At many houses, as the cavalry approached, people were all packed and waiting. They could ride in army wagons, perhaps, and with the army there would be fed food, and if they were asked where they wanted to go they would reply: “Anywhere, to get out of this.” Many of the Dunkers and Mennonites were setting out to join relatives in Pennsylvania, and there were scores and hundreds of contrabands who were departing for no one could imagine what goal. They had been told that the Yankees killed colored people, but with every barn for sixty miles going up in flames it seemed to them that they ought to leave.
P. 287
So the army made its way back down the Valley, leaving desolation behind it, and the war came slowly nearer its end in the black smoke that drifted over the Blue Ridge. The war had begun with waving unstained flags and dreams of a picture-book fight which would concern no one but soldiers, who would die picturesquely and without bloodshed amid dress-parade firing lines, and it had come down now to burning barns, weeping children, and old women who had been hit with sabers. In the only way that was left to it, the war was coming toward its close. Phil Sheridan passed the word, and his scouts laughed and went trotting off to spy on the Rebels and play a clever game with the threat of a greased noose; and the guerrillas met in dark copses on the edge of the army and rode out with smoking revolvers to kill the cripples, and now and then one of them was caught.”
Note: In one month Lincoln will wire McClellan about Union Army absenteeism.
Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War U.S. Congress 1863 Part One: Army of the Potomac. P. 620
Appendix to the Testimony of General E.D. Keyes. To Brigadier-General S. Williams, Adjutant General Army of the Potomac.
“HEADQUARTERS FOURTH CORPS,
June 13, 1862.
The reports of division and brigade commanders, I trust, will be published with this immediately. I ask their publication as an act of simple justice to the fourth corps, against which many groundless aspersions and incorrect statements have been circulated in the newspapers since the battle. These reports are made by men who observed the conflict while under fire, and if they are not, in the main, true, the truth will never be known.
In the battle of the 31st of May the casualties on our side, a list of which is enclosed, were heavy, amounting to something like twenty-five per cent., in killed and wounded, of the number actually engaged, which did not amount to more than 12,000, the fourth corps at that date having been much weakened by detachments and other causes. Nearly all who were struck were hit while facing the enemy.
The confederates outnumbered us, during a great part of the conflict, at least four to one, and their losses are supposed to greatly exceed ours. They were fresh, drilled troops, led on and cheered by their best generals and the president of their “republic.” They are right when they assert that the Yankees stubbornly contested every foot of ground.
Of the nine generals of the fourth corps who were present on the field, all, with one exception, were wounded or their horses were hit in the battle. A large proportion of all the field officers in the action were killed, wounded, or their horses were struck. These facts denote the fierceness of the contest and the gallantry of a large majority of the officers.
Many officers have been named and commended in this report and in the reports of division, brigade, and other commanders, and I will not here recapitulate further than that I received great assistance from the members of my staff, whose conduct was excellent, though they were necessarily often separated from me.
To the energy and skill of Surgeon F.H. Hamilton, chief of his department in the fourth corps, and the assistance he received from his subordinate surgeons, the wounded and sick are indebted for all the relief and comfort which it was possible to afford them.
I should be glad if the name of every individual who kept his place in the long struggle could be known. All those deserve praise and reward. On the other hand, the men who left the ranks and the field, and especially the officers who went away without orders, should be known and held up to scorn. In some of the retreating groups I discovered officers, and sometimes the officers were furthest in the rear. What hope can we have of the safety of the country when even a few military officers turn their backs upon the enemy without orders? Such officers should be discharged and disgraced, and brave men advanced to their places. The task of reformation is not easy, because much true manliness has been suffocated in deluding theories, and the improvement will not be complete until valor is more esteemed, nor until we adopt as a maxim that to decorate a coward with shoulder-straps is to pave the road to a nation’s ruin.
Respectfully submitted,
E.D. KEYES,
Commanding Fourth Corps.”
Note: Lincoln’s letter to Frémont this day advises McClellan: “By proper scout lookouts, and beacons of smoke by day and fires by night, you can always have timely notice of the enemy’s approach. I know not as to you, but by some this has been too much neglected.”
Note: Ephraim is now one of 45k absent who have left the Yankee army. Luray to Front Royal: 27 miles. He walked most of 25 miles of that. He walked on a 3×3 inch cracker, then half of that again. Except for the two men he’s traveling with, this is the first time in months no one knows exactly where he is. Like he’s been a prisoner this whole time…. one of the men he notes he was surprised he didn’t become.
Where did the other two men go after they all got to D.C.? And what happened to the horse?
Note: Tomorrow, Strother and Ephraim are in the same vicinity of each other in downtown D.C. Reminder they were both at the Winchester Hotel-slash-Hospital right after Kernstown. They both observed the same man laying in a field with the top of his head blown off. Did they run into each other at the Soldier’s Retreat tomorrow? Strother will return to Winchester June 17. Near where both will be shortly, 30 miles west of D.C., sits Haymarket, VA., a town the Union burned to the ground November 4, 1862. J.E.B. Stuart rode through here on his recon of the U.S. Army June 25, 1863. “This part of Northern Virginia has soaked more of the blood, sweat, and tears of American history than any other area of the country” said C. Vann Woodward, in opposition to the proposed “Disney’s America” theme park near Haymarket (& a scant 4 miles to the left of Manassas-Bull Run), a $650 million-1 billion 3,000 acre monstrosity. The initial press conference announced Disney’s intent “….to make you a Civil War soldier, we want to make you feel what it was like to be a slave, what it was like to escape through the Underground Railroad.” A Disney vice president promised “painful, disturbing, and agonizing” exhibits on slavery, the Vietnam War, and Native Americans. The proposed Disneyfication of history park fell through after much protest. In 1994, 3,000 protestors converged on D.C., chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Disney’s got to go.” David McCullough said, “We have so little left that is authentic, that is real, and to replace it with plastic history, mechanized history, is a sacrilege.” Shelby Foote, James McPherson, Ken Burns, Barbara Fields, Arthur Schlesinger, J.r., William Styron, & 200 historians formed “Project Historic America” that helped put a stop to any groundbreaking, stating Disney was attempting to “plasticize” the war’s history & land where it happened (not to mention an extra 35k cars converging on the sleepy hamlet). Disney retained historians Eric Foner & James Horton as advisors with a cool 100k “donation” on top of fat consulting fees, which caused derision in some circles. The Third Battle of Bull Run is how it was termed in the media, as historians faced off with “Welcome Disney,” the leader of the graybacks faction, who told anyone who would listen, “It’s just as serious as war.” “Friends of the Mouse” and “Patriots for Disney” were other brigades. Alas, surrender came a swift year later, so budding park enthusiasts never got to scream on the Industrial Revolution roller coasters as it ran near the vat of molten metal, or gleefully capsize the Lewis & Clark raft, nor don mouse ear hats then fake, in the virtual-reality exhibit, fighting & dying for democracy in Disney’s version of the Real War on the Disney’s books, to return to one of the 1,300 Disney hotel rooms for a night’s gruel & shut eye, clutching souvenir Disney slave ships (made in China) in their little sweaty White child hands. Hey, hey, ho, ho, conservation efforts are a go. For more, see dcist.com: “The Story of the D.C. Area Disney Park That Almost Was” by Matt Blitz.
Straw Berries are ripe but I have not had the pleasure of getting….
Ephraim leaving town, air bending down, touching the rails leading out of town, that dull roar under an east coast summer humidity, that forced-in feeling when the air hits you & skins you alive with its damp inescape like a caul. If you walk away, long enough in a straight line you still won’t end up back where you started due to Earth’s curvature. How when you remember it’s an imaginary line around the center of the world, latitude & longitude 0, a perfectly even hemisphere membrane that never was, you know there’s no going back. No matter which direction he goes in, he won’t get back there. Not where he came in from today. He knows now what war is. The uniform he’s in won’t show blood as he walks up the dirt road to the farm to his own front door. Dark brown or black rosettes like a leopard covered in wet blood is what it was. Lines of it you can barely make out. The ones you have to look for if you want to see. The rosettes.
Note: It’s 24.1 miles from Luray to Front Royal; now via US 340N it’s 30 minutes. It’s 24, 901 miles to travel around the planet once. For the longest distance overland in a straight line around Earth, it’s 8,443 miles, not that anyone asked. https://www.offbeattravelling.com/the-longest-overland-route-route-in-a-straight-line.
Note: On 1/30/1975, U.S. Congress– retroactive to June 13, 1865– restores Robert E. Lee’s citizenship. (Senate Joint Resolution 23, introduced by Senator Harry F. Byrd (I-VA), took five years. Before this, Lee’s application for citizenship was lost in the National Archives, not discovered until 1970. President Gerald Ford, upon signing the resolution into law, stated, “General Lee’s character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.”
Note: and beacons of smoke by day and fires by night…. love this description of Lincoln’s. Tomorrow night, 160 years later, go outside & howl at the Strawberry Super Moon: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2022/06/09/strawberry-supermoon-exactly-when-where-and-how-you-can-see-2022s-biggest-full-moon-rise-with-naked-eyes/
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