Check out Little Round Top view ... and my Civil War 180 site

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On a ridiculously windy February day in Gettysburg, I shot this 180-degree view from Little Round Top, behind the General Gouverneur Warren statue. Thankfully, the well-anchored general is still standing. For more 180-degree battlefield views from Gettysburg, Antietam, Cold Harbor, Fredericksburg, Kernstown and elsewhere, check out my newly revamped Civil War 180 blog here.

John Pemberton: Vanquished in Vicksburg, buried in Pennsylvania

John Pemberton is buried near his wife, Martha, in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Plaque in front of Pemberton's tombstone notes his Confederate service.

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Nearly nine years after the death of George Gordon Meade, the "Hero of Gettysburg," John Clifford Pemberton, the Confederate general vanquished at Vicksburg, died in Penllyn, Pa., a village north of Philadelphia.

Both men rest in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery — Meade on a slope overlooking the Schuylkill River, Pemberton in a family plot on a hill about a 15-minute walk from the former commander of the Army of the Potomac's modest gravesite. (Of the 41 Civil War generals buried at Laurel Hill, Pemberton is the only Confederate.)

Local newspapers mentioned Pemberton's death on July 13, 1881 on inside pages, nowhere near the massive number of column inches devoted to Meade's death and funeral service. An eight-line report in the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 16, 1881, noted mourners could gather at the residence of Pemberton's brother at 1947 Locust Street in the city. Coverage of Pemberton's burial at Laurel Hill was similarly scant.

Circa-1860 image of John Pemberton.

Born in Philadelphia to a prominent family, Pemberton married a Virginia woman named Martha Thompson in 1848, and lived in the South before the Civil War. A captain in the regular army when the war began, the West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran marched his troops to Washington, resigned his commission and joined the Confederate army. His family and former commander, Lieutenant General Winfield Scott ("Old Fuss and Feathers"), urged Pemberton to remain in the U.S. Army,  but their pleas failed. Loyalty to his Virginia-born wife and the South, where he served for much of his pre-Civil War military career, trumped loyalty to the United States for Pemberton, whose two younger brothers served in the Union army.

A friend in the highest of places aided Pemberton's rise through the Confederate army: Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was fond of him — a friendship that made his promotion in the "rebel army sure and rapid," the New York Times reported after his death.

By the spring of 1863, Lieutenant General Pemberton's assignment was to defend the fortress city of Vicksburg, Miss. But Ulysses Grant, his former Mexican War comrade, outmaneuvered Pemberton in battles at Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge, leading to a siege of the strategic city on the Mississippi River.

In war, Pemberton apparently lived a charmed life. "Through perils of the storm and stress of battle," his obituary in the Philadelphia Times noted, "he seemed to bear immunity from harm. Horses white and gray and brown were shot from under him, caps and cloaks he wore were pierced with bullets, but in the front and midst of the fray through some of the most disastrous affrays he passed unscathed."

A metal Confederate marker next to John Pemberton's gravestone.

After a 46-day siege, Pemberton and his vastly outnumbered and undersupplied army surrendered Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 — one day after the U.S Army defeated Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. Food supplies had become so scarce in the beleaguered city that Pemberton had peas ground up to make what the New York Times called "a peculiar kind of bread." The food sickened the soldiers, and "after a few trials," the newspaper reported, "it was abandoned as worse than worthless."

The loss of Vicksburg "so stirred up the popular feeling of the South against [Pemberton]" the Philadelphia Times reported after his death, "that he never had the opportunity to retrieve the disaster." Even in 1881, the Vicksburg Campaign, according to the newspaper, was "still the subject of controversy among ex-Confederate officials."

After he was paroled, Pemberton — never fully trusted in the South because of his Northern roots and often branded a traitor — served out the war in lesser roles for the Confederacy.

After the war, Pemberton farmed in a "remote and isolated" corner of Warrenton, Va., where he "passed a quiet, uneventful life," the Philadelphia Times wrote. Later, he lived in Norfolk, Va., his wife's hometown; South Amboy, N.J., and Allentown, Pa. "He had given up nearly everything for the cause in which he cast his lot," the Philadelphia newspaper noted, "and his fortune was necessarily diminished." In his later years, he reportedly was loath to discuss the Civil War.

In the summer of 1881, Pemberton lived in Penllyn, a stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad. In May that year, he complained of indigestion, and the pain gradually grew worse. A doctor performed a "remarkable operation" on his bladder, providing Pemberton temporary relief. But the 66-year-old Confederate veteran later became delirious and slipped in and out of consciousness. 

With old friends, son Francis and other family members at his bedside, the life of the man whose long career was filled "with disappointment and daring" ended early on a Wednesday evening.

"At eleven minutes after five, bearing to the last the evidences of his soldierly training and gentleness of character," the Philadelphia Times reported, "he passed away."

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Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES

• The Donaldsville (La.) Chief, July 30, 1881
• New York Times, July 14, 1881
• Philadelphia Times, July 14, 1881.

A visit to modest grave of George Meade, 'hero of Gettysburg'

                 Panoramic view from behind Meade family plot in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
                                   (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)

George Meade's modest gravestone in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

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ABOUT THIS PLACE:  On a slope 100 feet above the Schuylkill River, the body of former Army of the Potomac commander George Meade, the "hero of Gettysburg," rests under a modest gravestone. In eternity, he has plenty of army company: The remains of 40 other Union generals and Confederate General John Pemberton also were buried in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery, once a rural setting but now a dense, urban area.

As Meade's funeral cortege wound through the beautiful grounds on Nov. 11, 1872, "the sides of the avenues were lined with people anxious to get a glimpse of the distinguished gentlemen in the procession," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Among them was President Ulysses Grant, Meade's Civil War comrade and one-time superior officer. The graveside service was brief, the newspaper reported. No prayers were read, and no speeches were delivered.

George Meade died on Nov. 6, 1872.
(Library of Congress)

NOTABLE: Meade died at his home in Philadelphia on Nov. 6, 1872, reportedly from complications of pneumonia and the effects of wounds suffered during the Civil War. At the Battle of Glendale on June 30, 1862, a bullet tore into Meade's arm and another penetrated just above the hip bone, "and, passing round the body, made its exit just before reaching the spine," an obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted.

The general's funeral procession through Philadelphia was, according to the Inquirer, "one of the grandest ever witnessed in the country." Headlines in the newspaper trumpeted, "The Day an Epoch in the City's History" and "An Immense Funeral Cortege." Grant and former Union generals Phil Sheridan, William Sherman and Winfield Hancock were among the thousands who came to honor the 56-year-old war hero.

A massive Norway maple once stood near Meade's grave, providing shade for Sheridan, Grant, Sherman, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Dan Sickles and other famous visitors to the general's grave over the years. On Memorial Day weekend 2016, the treasured, 160-year-old tree was removed, a victim of old age.

Every New Year's Eve — the general's birthday — members of the General Meade Society hold a ceremony at the grave to honor him. Meade was born in Cadiz, Spain, on Dec. 31, 1815. A docent in the cemetery gift shop told me as many as 400 people have attended the annual event at Meade's gravesite.

QUOTABLE: "Philadelphia yesterday, in a manner that greatly honored it, testified to its regard for simple manly worth. Its places of trade were closed, its looms and hammers were still, its streets were filled with crowds, and yet were hushed with a stillness that was full of gloom. Only one man gone from among her million of people; but he was a soldier who had swept back forever the enemy that marched across the mountain wall to threaten commonwealth and city alike with carnage and plunder. George Gordon Meade was the hero of Gettysburg, who, called at a moment's notice, while on the march, to take command of a vast army, commanded it so well that the final conquest of the foe whom he met and defeated at Gettysburg was but a matter of time."

 -- Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 12, 1872

In mid-February, wreaths remained from the Meade Society New Year's Day remembrance ceremony.

Meade family plot in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

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— See Then & Now of Meade's Gettysburg headquarters here.

Gettysburg panorama: Benner's Hill, where 'Boy Major' fell

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ABOUT THIS PLACE:  This is a view of town from Benner's Hill, where five batteries of Confederate artillery commanded by 19-year-old Major Joseph Latimer were positioned on the afternoon of July 2, 1863. Union counter-battery fire from East Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, both at higher elevations than Benner's Hill, decimated this position. Latimer, "The Boy Major," was mortally wounded here by an exploding artillery shell as he was astride his horse, which was killed in the attack. Latimer's men had to remove him from under the dying animal. Many more trees are here now than in 1863. Gettysburg can barely be seen through the trees in the middle distance.

Joseph Latimer

NOTABLE: A Virginia Military Institute cadet, Latimer studied artillery tactics at the school in Lexington, Va., under Professor Thomas Jackson, well before the general had earned his famous nickname. Wounded as he ordered cannon to be pulled from this position, Latimer was taken to the nearby Daniel Lady farm, where he had his right arm amputated. He died of gangrene in the Warren-Sipe House in Harrisonburg, Va., on Aug. 1, 1863, 26 days before his 20th birthday. He's buried there in Woodbine Cemetery.

QUOTABLE: "Major Latimer among others was brought to Harrisonburg and was then taken to the home of Mrs Harriet Warren, where he received every attention and kindness which she and her family could bestow, but in spite of all their care, he grew worse. The anxiety and suspense which overshadowed the country after the retreat from Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg and also the separation from his mother, who was unable to come to him, added to the sadness of those weary days."
 -- Confederate Veteran, Vol. 23,  January 1915

Confederate Major Joseph Latimer died in this house in Harrisonburg, Va., on Aug. 1, 1863.

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For more battlefield panoramas, visit my Civil War 180 blog.

Gettysburg Then & Now: 9th Massachusetts monument

           HOVER OVER IMAGE | Then: William Tipton, June 1885  | Now: John Banks.

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In June 1885, 9th Massachusetts veterans posed for an image at their monument at the base of Big Round Top. On a blustery Feb. 13, 2017, I aimed to mirror William Tipton's long-ago photo. He shot his image from a more elevated position, perhaps using a ladder. For a fine account of the 9th Massachusetts and its Gettysburg monument, check out Damian Shiels' excellent Irish in the American Civil War blog.

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Click here to see large-format "Then & Now" images from Gettysburg and other Civil War battlefields.

KIA at Glendale: 'You are the dearest friend I have on earth'

Edmund Hale's remains may lie in Glendale National Cemetery in a grave marked "Unknown."
(Photo courtesy Shelly Liebler)

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Even after the Union Army was routed at the Battle of Ball's Bluff, 19th Massachusetts Private Edmund A. Hale was confident the Federals would eventually defeat the enemy, whom he called "a pretty hard and ugly set of raskels to deal with."

"We had a battle on the Virginia shore, the 21^st, which last one day & one night with pretty heavy loss on booth sides," he wrote to his wife on Oct. 24, 1861, three days after the disastrous defeat near Leesburg, Va., "but I believe we lost not one man of the 19^th Regt, although we were pretty neigh surrounded by the rebels."

Colonel Edwin Baker, killed at Ball's Bluff.
"We felt the loss of him grately,"
Edmund Hale wrote to his wife.
(Library of Congress)

After they hastily scattered down the bluffs on the Virginia side of the river, some Union soldiers swam for Harrison's Island, a small spit of land in the middle of the river. Rebs picked off Yankees in the water, and days later, bodies of Union dead were spotted afloat downriver in Washington.

Casualties in the 19th Massachusetts, which covered the Federals' retreat, were slight. But the Union army lost Colonel Edwin Baker, a senator from Oregon and President Lincoln's longtime friend. "I believe he was a very fine man," Hale wrote in the letter from a camp near Poolesville, Md. "We felt the loss of him grately, but it could not be helped. He died in a noble cause."

Hale's four-page letter, found in a robust widow's pension file in the National Archives, provides a small window into the world of the 31-year-old shoemaker from Stoneham, Mass. For much of the correspondence, he professes his love for his "Dear little wife," whom he married in January 1861. (See below for original letter and complete transcription.)

Eight months later, Edmund, who stood 5-7 and had hazel eyes, light hair and a light complexion, enlisted in the Union army.  On Nov. 5, 1861, Mary gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy named Henry.

"Keep up good courage," he wrote to Mary after Ball's Bluff, "for I hope I shall be at home with you before long. Then,  my Dear little wife, I shall be some comfort to you, and get some rest myself which I think shall need, but we do not think this war will last long."

"Be ashured of my trust and constant love for you Dear Mary," Hale added. "You are the dearest friend I have on earth, and I wish I were with you now, but that cannot be quite yet, although I soon hope to be with you, my Dear little wife."

Foundation of R.H. Nelson house. The 19th Massachusetts moved past here on June 30, 1862.
The Battle of Glendale also was known as the Battle of Nelson's Farm,
Riddle's Shop and Charles City Crossroads, among other names.
 (Photo courtesy Shelly Liebler)

On a brutally hot early-summer day a little more than eight months after Ball's Bluff, the 19th Massachusetts formed to attack at Glendale, the fifth of the Seven Days' battles near Richmond.  At about 2 p.m. on June 30, the regiment was ordered to cross an open field and charge the Rebels, who held a thin belt of woods.

 "Faces turned pale as we looked over the ground," John Adams, a corporal in Hale's Company A at Glendale, recalled years later. "We grasped our muskets firmer and waited for the order. We had kept our knapsacks until this time -- they had become priceless treasures, filled as they were with little articles for our comfort made by loving hands, and with letters from dear ones at home — but we threw them into a pile, and the voice of Colonel [Edward] Hinks was heard: 'Forward, double-quick,' and we moved across the field and entered the woods."

A "galling fire" drove back the 19th Massachusetts soldiers, who mistakenly thought troops immediately in their front were from the 7th Michigan. Instead, Adams noted, they were Rebels outfitted in Union blue, confusing the soldiers from Massachusetts. After a few minutes of hand-to-hand fighting, the 19th Massachusetts discovered it was flanked and withdrew to the edge of the woods.

Colonel Hinks was seriously wounded and carried from the field, and the "ground was strewn with our dead and wounded comrades," Adams remembered. Briefly in disorder, the 19th Massachusetts re-formed and rallied by its colors. As he looked down the line in Company A, Adams saw "many places were vacant." Among the dead was Hale, who months earlier had written to his wife, "I do love you with my hole heart."

Soundly defeated at Glendale, the Union Army retreated to Malvern Hill, where it whipped Robert E. Lee's army on July 1 in the last of the Seven Days' battles. Edmund A. Hale's remains probably were hastily buried on the Glendale battlefield -- if they were buried at all. His final resting place may be in tiny Glendale National Cemetery with the remains of nearly 1,000 other unknown Union soldiers.

National Archives via fold3.com

Camp Benton, Oct. 24th

My Dear Wife

I am about to write a few lines to you once more after a few days hard work. We had a battle on the Virginia shore, the 21^st, which last one day & one night with pretty heavy loss on booth sides, but I believe we lost not one man of the 19^th Regt, although we were pretty neigh surrounded by the rebels. I tell you Mary, they are a pretty hard and ugly set of raskels to deal with, but we shall ketch them very soon. We have got a very large army of brave men, we have got them hemmed all around on all sides. I can tell you a battle field is rather a sad site to behold, but enough of this. I will tell you all when I get home. I wrote you last Sunday, but I thought I would improve a few leisure moments that we have got up to camp once more. But …

National Archives via fold3.com.

... I do not expect that [indecipherable] but a very short time. I hear that we have marching orders for Virginia. There is a grate many of our men over there now, Mary. Keep up good courage, for I hope I shall be at home with you before long. Then, my Dear little wife, I shall be some comfort to you, and get some rest myself which I think shall need, but we do not think this war will last long. I know Cournal Hinks [Edward Hinks] got us out of one pretty bad scrape all safe. We all place grate confidence. He  was calm and collected as any man could possibly be. General [Edward] Baker was shot dead. [Baker was actually a colonel.] I believe he was a very fine man. We felt the loss of him grately, but it could not be helped. He died in a noble cause. I think the Country will never be lost. Be ashured Mary, I shall try to take good care of my self but I must and will do my duty. Ned and I were together side by side, so if either one of us fall one is to take are of the other, but I do hope we shall …

National Archives via fold3.com.

… booth get home again to our famelys. We keep up very good courage. That’s one half of the battle. Be ashured of my trust and constant love for you Dear Mary. You are the dearest friend I have on earth, and I wish I were with you now, but that cannot be quite yet, although I soon hope to be with you, my Dear little wife. I sent that money to Stoneham, and I am agoing to risk a two and half gold piece for you, Mary. I should have liked to be with you to Lynn when you were there. You must give my love to Mother and all the rest. Tell them Mary I do love you with my hole heart, and Mary I know that you do me. Do not let your spirits go down but try and keep up good courage for my sake. You said you thought you would like to be out hear with me. I do not doubt it, but wait a little while. I shall see you again soon Mary. Be ashured of my love for you is constant and true and sincere. Mary, when I get home you will forget my long absence and feel proud of me. You can trust me and depend upon me, and know that I am not afraid to go and serve my ...

National Archives via fold3.com

... country, and that is more than some of them dare do. Then Mary we will live together and I will not go away and leave my little wife any more, but stay home with you and be happy together. We have lived happily together before and I hope that we may again. Keep up good [indecipherable]. I think of many the good times we have had togeather. Mary, I dare not send the money I spoke of in this letter for I understand there has been a grate many letters rifled of the money that was sent home and I want to write just as soon you possibly can. Wheather you received the money I sent to you, I would sent it to you now but I do not want to send it until I hear from you. Do write soon, Mary, tell Mother and Martha to write to me just as soon as they possibly can, for I do want to hear from you all. I saw a number of Stoneham boys to-day and they have lately heard from home. I suppose you have not heard from my folks. Mary write all you think. I aught to know Mary. Wish  that I could see you to tell you all, but keep up good courage for I do hope to see you before long, and be ashured Mary I love you with all my true and noble heart for I believe that I have a noble heart for you Dear Mary, one that loves better than life itself, and you to them. Believe me Mary I think of you all. I have not written to any of them at Stoneham as yet. Take good care of your self my Mary for your self and my own sake, for Mary we shall have some more happy time together then we can  talk over our past trials that we have past through then Mary we will live together in pease and pure happiness. Then Mary we forget the hard times that we past through, [indecipherable] those few times. 

From your true husband and well wisher, Edmund A. Hale

So [indecipherable] for the present, and may God bless you and watch over you, and remember I shall pray for you and think of you til the last. Write soon, I shall not forget your kindness for me Mary.

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 Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES

--Adams, John G.B., Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment, Boston, Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1899.

-- Edmund A. Hale widow's pension file, National Archives and Records Service via fold3.com, Washington

'I fear that Louis is dead': Searching for Private Souvey

Close-up of a marker for an unknown New York soldier in Antietam National Cemetery.

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Weeks after the Battle of Antietam, Ellen Souvey must have been filled with dread. She had not heard of her husband's fate since the fighting on Sept. 17, 1862, and battle accounts and casualty lists published in local newspapers since then were grim.

"This day will be memorable for one of the bloodiest fought battles on the American continent," the New York Times reported about Antietam on Sept. 23, 1862. In the days and weeks afterward, the newspaper published on its front page lists of Union dead and wounded from the battle in western Maryland.

A private in the 42nd New York, Louis Souvey probably was wounded in the II Corps' attack about 9:30 a.m., when General John Sedgwick's division was flanked near the West Woods. The 345-man "Tammany Regiment," mainly Irish immigrants from New York City, suffered 181 casualties, more than 50 percent of its strength.

Aware her 35-year-old husband was in a hospital, Mrs. Souvey wrote to an officer in the 42nd New York inquiring about his health. But what little news he shared in a short letter in return was bleak. (See letter and transcription below.)

"... I cannot give you certain information about him," Lieutenant Henry Van Voast of Company E wrote from the regiment's camp in Falmouth, Va., opposite Fredericksburg, on Nov. 26, 1862, "but from all the information that I can get I fear that Louis is dead though I am not certain that he is dead." Captain Thomas Abbott of Company E may have been in the same hospital as Louis, the lieutenant wrote, but he had no idea where the officer might be found.

The Samuel Poffenberger farm, known as the "Stone House Hospital," is adjacent to the Antietam
battlefield. "Dangerously wounded" 42nd New York Private Louis Souvey may have been taken here.

Abbott, who had been shot in the thigh during the regiment's attack and carried from the field, heard Louis was "dangerously wounded," a victim of "raking fire" from the enemy on a "rise of ground." But he also was unsure of the fate of Souvey, who almost certainly was wounded near the Hagerstown Pike and Dunker Church.

Abbott recalled Louis being taken to a hospital "adjacent to the battle field," perhaps the farm of widow Susan Hoffman, George Line or Samuel Poffenberger, all used as Federal hospitals during and after the battle. The captain himself was eventually cared for in nearby Frederick, Md., a hospital town after Antietam.  (He was discharged from the army for disability on Sept. 8, 1863.)

In a letter to an unknown man, perhaps a Souvey family member, Abbott wrote he was especially fond of Louis, who took care of his tent during the army's Peninsula Campaign in Virginia months earlier. The private was a "faithful, honest fellow," the captain added, "and as brave a man that ever shouldered a musket." (See letter and transcription below.)

Concluded Abbott about Souvey: "Hoping that he is spared to family and friends."

Exactly when Ellen and her 9-year-old daughter, Adelaide, received word of Louis' fate is unknown. According to a document in the widow's pension file in the National Archives, he died at an unnamed hospital at Antietam on Sept. 22, 1862, just five days after the battle. Although his final resting place is unknown, his grave may be in Antietam National Cemetery, where the remains of 4,776 Union soldiers are buried.

National Archives via fold3.com

Falmouth, Nov. 26th, 1862
Mrs. Souvey

I received your letter yesterday enquiring about your husband. I am sorry to say that I cannot give you certain information about him, but from all the information that I can get I fear that Louis is dead. I know of no one that was in that hospital except Capt. Thomas Abbott and I cannot tell what has become of the Captain as I have not heard from him since he was wounded altho he may be home, but I don't know where he lives in New York. This is all the information that I can give about your husband. I have made all the enquiries that I could about him.

Yours truly
Henry Van Voast
Lieut. Company E 42nd

National Archives via fold3.com

City Hotel, Frederick, Md.
December 1, 1862
(Third line indecipherable)

Dear Sir
I have received your note asking for information requesting a member of my company.

I am sorry I cannot inform you whether he is alive or not. When we first engaged the enemy, my command, being the third company in line, were resting on high mound, or rise of ground, which exposed them to the raking fire of the enemy. There the brave Louis fell with several others, badly wounded. Seeing that I was fast losing my men ...

National Archives via fold3.com

... I advanced the remainder of my command about ten paces off the high ground, into a hollow, where there was some cover.

There I had the misfortune to fall myself, being shot through the thigh, from which I was still confined to my bed on the following day. When I was carried off the field I was informed that Louis had been taken to one of the hospitals adjacent to the battle field and that he was dangerously wounded. I have not heard from him since but I trust that he is still living for I was much endeared to him. He attended to ...

National Archives via fold3.com

... my mess and took care of my tent during our campaign on the Peninsula, which relieved him of much hard labor and picket duty. I found a faithful honest fellow and as brave a man that ever shouldered a musket. You can receive information whether he died there or was sent to hospital by writing to Lieut. E. R. Pierce of the Regt, Falmouth, Va., 2nd Army Corps.

I have written for a list of the wounded and dead but have not yet received it. Inquire for Louis Souvey as his name is thus spelled on the roll. Hoping that he is spared ...

National Archives via fold3.com.

...to his family and friends.

I remain yours respectfully,

Thomas Abbott
Captain Co. E 42 NY

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 Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCE

-- Louis Souvey widow's pension file, National Archives and Records Service via fold3.com, Washington

'A sight for the gods': Wade Hampton's 1886 Gettysburg visit

In a cropped enlargement of the image below, Wade Hampton (center) joins veterans at a picnic 
near where they fought at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. William Tipton shot the images July 7, 1886.

Gettysburg-based photographer William Tipton shot this image of Hampton and other vets.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

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Twenty-three years after a Union cavalry officer slashed his head with a sabre in a farmer's field east of Gettysburg, 68-year-old Wade Hampton had a much less menacing encounter with his former enemies on the old battleground.

At a picnic in a grove.

The reunion of cavalry troopers in Gettysburg
 on July 7, 1886, received extensive coverage
in the Philadelphia Times
and in other newspapers.

It made for a remarkable scene: Hampton, the former Confederate cavalry general, enjoyed a meal of chicken, cold ham, beef, pickles, lemonade and milk with former U.S Army cavalrymen near the field where the opposing forces attempted to kill each other decades earlier. Nearly 100 ex-Confederate cavalrymen joined Hampton, who made the train trip to Gettysburg from Washington, where he served as a U.S. senator from South Carolina. 

Newspapers heralded the event on July 7, 1886, as “the most important and successful gathering that has taken place in Gettysburg since the war" and a "remarkable revival of old-time memories."

Notable for their absence were two generals who played huge roles during the cavalry fight about three miles east of town on July 3, 1863: Confederate J.E.B Stuart, who had been killed in 1864 near Richmond, and brash Union brigade commander George Armstrong Custer, who had been killed 10 years earlier in a battle against Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Arapahoby at Little Big Horn. But their absences apparently didn’t detract from what the Philadelphia Times called “a genuine love-feast.”

Like former Confederate General James Longstreet two years later, Hampton was a star at this Gettysburg veterans’ reunion.

One of biggest slave holders in the South before the war, the senator had served with distinction under Robert E. Lee. The general's family suffered as thousands of others had during the war. Hampton's second-eldest son, Thomas, a 20-year-old lieutenant, was killed near Petersburg in 1864. Financially crippled by the war, Hampton lost a vast estate in Columbia, S.C., that the U.S. Army ransacked and destroyed by fire.

A cropped enlargement of the image below shows Hampton and others veterans on July 7, 1886.

On July 7, 1886, Hampton and cavalry veterans were photographed by William Tipton.
David McMurtrie Gregg is in the front row, left of Hampton, wearing a straw hat with a black band.

Unlike future Gettysburg reunions, simplicity marked this gathering. “There were no set speeches and no brass bands,” according to a New York World correspondent. “A company of militia came over from Hagerstown [Md.], but they did not come out to the cavalry battle field. The horsemen, therefore, attended to their business without fun or noise."

For four hours that Wednesday, the former Rebel cavalrymen and several hundred of their Union counterparts, including former General David Gregg, trekked over East Cavalry Field, pointing out key positions where they fought on a sultry summer day in 1863. Nearly 500 casualties resulted in about 40 minutes' fighting — a failed effort by Stuart to attack the rear of the U.S. Army.

While discussing strategy at the reunion, Union veterans had a "friendly dispute" over a supposed withdrawal of troops under Custer, and George Briggs — a former colonel in the 7th Michigan Cavalry — explained where his regiment made its "wonderful charge." Meanwhile, “General Hampton,” the Philadelphia Times noted, “was especially considerate in the indication of the lines on which General Stuart moved and where, within the timber, how his own command was placed.”

Hampton, who told old war stories, gestured to a fence and a clump of trees to show where he had suffered a sabre cut from an officer in the 7th Michigan on John Rummel's farm.

“I pulled my pistol and snapped it at him as I chased him toward the wood," the bewhiskered former general told a group of veterans from both armies. "Finding it had no loads in it, I threw it at him. I don’t wish him any harm now, but then I would have liked to have a swipe at him with my sabre.” (Later in the cavalry fight, shrapnel wounded Hampton in the hip. It remained in his body the rest of this life.)

In a cropped enlargement of the image below, Hampton tours the Gettysburg battlefield.

On July 7, 1886, William Tipton also shot this image of Wade Hampton in a buggy.

Before the highly anticipated visit, the Philadelphia Times declared “it will be a sight fit for the gods to see Wade Hampton and Gregg shake hands on the same battle-field where they sent their troopers against each other with most deadly intent.” 

While newspaper accounts did not mention whether the former adversaries indeed shook hands, Gregg — who commanded a division of cavalry in the fight on Rummel's farm — made his feelings plain.

“I don’t bear him any animosity,” the 53-year-old veteran said of the former plantation owner and slave holder, who was nearby, “but I would have liked to have got at him as I clubbed my pistol and threw it in his face. All the chambers were empty.

“I think even now,” Gregg said in jest, “that would have been a satisfaction.”

For a half-hour, Gregg and Hampton entertained each other with their views of the battle. 

"It was," the New York World noted, "a sight for reflection — this coming together of opposing commanders to find pleasure in marking for the future the successes and the defeats which are the monuments of our common valor."

Before he began his journey back to Washington, Hampton posed with other veterans for at least three photographs by Gettysburg-based battlefield photographer William Tipton. At 2 p.m., shortly after the picnic lunch ended, he bade his former comrades farewell.

It was an eventful day.

"The utmost feeling and courtesy," the Philadelphia Times reported, "prevailed among all who were present."

       East Cavalry Field, where Confederate and Union cavalry clashed on July 3, 1863.

ABOVE: East Cavalry Field, where Wade Hampton's troopers fought on July 3, 1863.
BELOW: Gregg Cavalry monument, where 1st Michigan Cavalry fought Jeb Stuart's cavalry.

Images courtesy Shelly Liebler.

                                      Google Map of East Cavalry Field, near Gettysburg.

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SOURCES

• Gettysburg (Pa.) Compiler, July 13, 1886
• New York World, July 8, 1886
• Philadelphia Times, July 8, 1886