Showing posts with label Major General Jesse Reno. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Major General Jesse Reno. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Podcast: Author Steve Stotelmyer on Battle of South Mountain
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Where Union General Jesse Reno fell at Fox's Gap
Monday, November 06, 2017
Then & Now: Explore Fox's Gap at South Mountain battlefield
(HOVER ON IMAGES for NOW photos; effect does not work on phones, tablets.)
Fred Wilder Cross, military archivist for the state of Massachusetts from 1918-38, was drawn to Civil War battlefields, none moreso than Antietam and South Mountain. "There are few places that I have visited or of which I have ever dreamed," he wrote in 1926, "that have such a hold upon my heart as the picturesque hills and broad valleys of Western Maryland."
During summer trips to the area in the late teens and early 1920s, Cross took hundreds of images of the battlefields with a camera he had purchased in Fredericksburg, Va., in 1912. At Fox's Gap at South Mountain, he photographed the monument for Union Major General Jesse Reno, who was mortally wounded during the battle on Sept. 14, 1862, and many other nearby sites. Decades after the fighting, the battlefield looked to Cross much as it did in late-summer 1862. Farmer Daniel Wise's cabin, used as a makeshift hospital after the battle, was long gone, but the fields where the armies had clashed remained much as they appeared during the Civil War.
On a brisk fall Saturday afternoon in 2017, curious Appalachian Trail hikers examined the Reno monument while a handful of Civil War buffs pointed to the site of the infamous Wise well, where the bodies of Confederate dead were unceremoniously dumped. Across Reno Monument Road -- the old Sharpburg Road in 1862 -- a bird-watcher traipsed through a field where a rookie regiment from Michigan had charged more than 155 years ago.
The battlefield had definitely changed since Fred Cross' long-ago visits. Here's a Then & Now look:
FARMER DANIEL WISE'S HISTORIC FIELD
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| Union veteran Uberto Burnham in Daniel Wise's field at Fox's Gap. The Reno monument appears in the background. (Black-and-white images by Fred Wilder Cross | William Christen collection) |
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| In this view of farmer Daniel Wise's field, the Reno monument appears in the right distance. (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.) |
(Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)
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| The Central Maryland Heritage League wants to restore Wise's field to its 1862 appearance. |
"The next morning we took the bus on Boonesboro pike," recalled the former 76nd New York private, "and at that village connected with the Hagerstown bus which went through Turner's Gap, now a paved road. Quite early in the forenoon we found ourselves on the battlefield. I could hardly realize the situation." (Before enlisting, Burnham was a school teacher, earning $5 a week.)
Cross photographed Burnham in Wise's field, where the old man leaned on his cane and gazed across the landscape.
"It seemed to me almost a vision," he wrote in a story published in 1928 in The National Tribune, a newspaper for Union veterans. "I took great interest in looking over the field."
DANIEL WISE'S NORTH PASTURE
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| The view looking toward the Old Sharpsburg Road. The Reno monument is at left. Wise's small log house stood just out of camera range at right. (Fred Wilder Cross | William Christen collection) |
(Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)
"As soon as we had fixed the point of rendezvous, I secured a small detachment of men and started to care for the wounded who had been left in the field. Just as we finished removing or caring for the wounded in the field a few rebels without arms appeared coming into the field, ostensibly looking for their dead or helpless comrades. I quickly observed that they were pilfering from our dead as well as their own, and also gathering up arms, occasionally discharging a musket into the air."
-- Gabriel Campbell, 17th Michigan Captain, in letter to Ezra Carman in 1899.
OLD SHARPSBURG ROAD (PRESENT-DAY RENO MONUMENT ROAD)
THEN: Unknown photographer, 1912 (History of the 45th Regimentthrough Fox's Gap. (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)
"We pushed steadily on and presently took a by-path that diverged to the left from the turnpike, and continued on over the rough ground and wooded hill until we came to a clearing where the column formed line of battle near an old log house, the right of the line of the Forty-fifth resting on the road. It must have been then not far from eleven o'clock. The Rebels were pelting us with grape and canister and it was only by lying down that we avoided serious punishment. Between us and the enemy was a cornfield on a side hill; then a piece of thin woods and, as we found out later on, an open space beyond the timber."
-- Private Eugene Beauge, 45th Pennsylvania
"Our regiment has been badly used since I was with it. Last Sunday at the Battle of South Mountain or Blue Ridge it lost 134 killed and wounded. I saw the place to-day where 28 were buried in a row on the battlefield. They are buried as nicely as possible and each grave is marked plainly with a headboard. Poor fellows! Dwight Smith and Jimmie Cole lie together and the first tears that have started from my eyes since my mother died fell on their graves. They were indeed the most intimate and truest friends I had in the army and fell at their posts, fighting like true soldiers and brave men."
-- 45th Pennsylvania Lieutenant Samuel Haynes, whose regiment suffered severely at Fox's Gap.
Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.
SOURCES
-- Cross, Fred Wilder, South Mountain and Antietam, Part I, self-published 1925 and 1926, respectively.
-- Gabriel Campbell letter to Ezra Carman, Antietam National Battlefield library.
-- History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, edited and arranged by Allen D. Albert, Private of Company D, Grit Publishing Co., Williamsport, Pa. 1912.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Meet man who documented, loved South Mountain, Antietam
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| In a circa-1944 photo, Fred Cross stands next to a sign at Chancellorsville. Cross loved to visit Civil War battlefields, especially Antietam and South Mountain. (William Christen collection) |
Fred Wilder Cross knew so much about the Civil War history of his home state of Massachusetts that a friend swore he could call the roll of many of its regiments from memory. He greatly admired the heroics of John Mosby — Cross owned at least six books on the Confederate guerilla — and relished walking Civil War battlefields, often with a half-dozen or so friends from Virginia and Maryland, whom he called "The Battle-field Expeditionary Force." Cross, who only stood about 5-foot-2 or 5-3, served as "General" of the Force while his friends in the merry band he called "Colonel or "Major" or a lesser rank.
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| Jim Clifford, shown in Confederate attire in the 1980s, was a "major" in "The Battle-field Expeditionary Force" of Fred Cross. (Photo: William Christen collection) |
"He would not sponge on any of the battlefield folks he stayed with," insisted Cross' friend, Jim Clifford, years later. "One hundred percent Massachusetts," Cross bragged of his Yankee roots, but his Southern hosts loved him anyway.
"I'll say this for 'general' Cross," Clifford remembered. "He appreciated a good soldier and a brave man on either side and said so!"
And when you walked hallowed ground with General Cross, oh, what an experience that was.
"He never stopped talking of what happened at that spot, at that instant, and who did what to who!" Clifford, a "major" in "The Battle-field Expeditionary Force," recalled of those excursions with Cross in the 1930s and '40s. "And [he was] waving his arms around and walking fast as he could travel! I mean, he was going a streak and you better listen to him and not interrupt the flow of facts."
Cross' had an impressive resume — Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams College in 1900, principal of Massachusetts high schools and member of the Massachusetts general court from 1914-1918 and a state senator representing South Royaltson in 1917-1918. From 1918-1938, he served as military archivist for Massachusetts, compiling during his tenure a 6,500-page history of the state's soldiers who served during the Civil War.
And when you walked hallowed ground with General Cross, oh, what an experience that was.
"He never stopped talking of what happened at that spot, at that instant, and who did what to who!" Clifford, a "major" in "The Battle-field Expeditionary Force," recalled of those excursions with Cross in the 1930s and '40s. "And [he was] waving his arms around and walking fast as he could travel! I mean, he was going a streak and you better listen to him and not interrupt the flow of facts."
Cross' had an impressive resume — Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams College in 1900, principal of Massachusetts high schools and member of the Massachusetts general court from 1914-1918 and a state senator representing South Royaltson in 1917-1918. From 1918-1938, he served as military archivist for Massachusetts, compiling during his tenure a 6,500-page history of the state's soldiers who served during the Civil War.
But Cross reveled in another title above them all: battlefield tramper.
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| "The Battle-field Expeditionary Force" on the steps of the famous Stone House at Manassas. From left: Edward Hofer, Richard D. Steuart, Robert E. Lee Russell, Fred Cross and John Winters. (Image courtesy Stephen Sylvia and Michael J. O'Donnell via John Winters) |
Of all the battlefields Cross visited, Antietam and South Mountain were easily his favorites. His love affair with the Civil War history of western Maryland may have begun with his first visit there in July 1903, when he was 34. On a summer vacation in 1919, his wife, Ida May, and daughters Bertha May and Dorothy accompanied him to the state. On other trips in the 1920s, he traveled to the region alone, documenting his experiences with a camera he had purchased in 1912 in Fredericksburg, Va.
"There are few places that I have visited or of which I have ever dreamed that have such a hold upon my heart as the picturesque hills and broad valleys of Western Maryland," Cross wrote in 1926. "A most beautiful and romantic country, much of it rich in agricultural resources, its low mountains not too lofty to be ascended with ease, their summits presenting to the traveler most wonderful landscapes, every hill and road and stream abounding in historic associations; there is a lure to this section, which calls me back to it again and again."
Eager to follow in the footsteps of Massachusetts soldiers, Cross walked Fox's Gap, Crampton's Gap, Turner's Gap, Antietam and elsewhere. He enjoyed visiting with the locals there, interviewing them about what happened in the area during the Civil War. Sometimes, an interview subject had first-hand knowledge of wartime events.
In Sharpsburg, a resident told of aiding the clean-up at Henry Rohrbach's farm, used as a makeshift hospital by the United States Army's Ninth Corps. The smell of the wounds of a dying Federal Major General Isaac Rodman became so offensive in the house, the man told Cross, that he had to eat outside on the Rohrbachs' porch.
"There are few places that I have visited or of which I have ever dreamed that have such a hold upon my heart as the picturesque hills and broad valleys of Western Maryland," Cross wrote in 1926. "A most beautiful and romantic country, much of it rich in agricultural resources, its low mountains not too lofty to be ascended with ease, their summits presenting to the traveler most wonderful landscapes, every hill and road and stream abounding in historic associations; there is a lure to this section, which calls me back to it again and again."
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| Fred Cross, who stood 5-2 or 5-3, was a "very nice, kind, old friendly man," recalled his friend, Jim Clifford. (Image courtesy William Christen) |
In Sharpsburg, a resident told of aiding the clean-up at Henry Rohrbach's farm, used as a makeshift hospital by the United States Army's Ninth Corps. The smell of the wounds of a dying Federal Major General Isaac Rodman became so offensive in the house, the man told Cross, that he had to eat outside on the Rohrbachs' porch.
"Such incidents as these are not pleasant to relate," Cross wrote, "but they represent the actual and terrible character of war."
During a visit to Antietam in 1919, Cross spoke with a man named Alexander Davis, who worked for the Nicodemus family at the time of the battle. "Uncle Aleck" told of burying bodies of Massachusetts soldiers in a hollow days after the battle.
During a visit to Antietam in 1919, Cross spoke with a man named Alexander Davis, who worked for the Nicodemus family at the time of the battle. "Uncle Aleck" told of burying bodies of Massachusetts soldiers in a hollow days after the battle.
While digging graves alone, Davis told Cross, a soldier approached and asked if he had seen the body of Jimmie Hayes, a private in the 19th Massachusetts. Just then, Davis turned over a body in a blanket to reveal Hayes, who was identified by letters that had fallen from the 18-year-old private's blouse. The soldier wept at the sight of his brother.
"Incidents, ludicrous as well as pathetic, the old gentleman often told me," Cross wrote about Davis, whose tales included the story of a stubborn battlefield bull.
"Incidents, ludicrous as well as pathetic, the old gentleman often told me," Cross wrote about Davis, whose tales included the story of a stubborn battlefield bull.
The night before major fighting erupted at Antietam, according to "Uncle Aleck," a "bovine majesty" refused to leave the barnyard of farmer David R. Miller, whose cornfield became site of horrific fighting on Sept. 17, 1862.
"In the morning, doubly excited and maddened by the artillery fire which began before dawn," Cross wrote, "the bull smashed through the barnyard gate, and with flaming eyes and waving tail charged along through the entire length of the cornfield which that day won its bloody name, and never stopped in his mad course until he had reached the banks of Antietam Creek."
Claimed Cross: "Some of the soldiers who were lying on their arms in the edge of the cornfield, and in the early gray of the morning saw the terrible apparition sweep past, laughed over it until their dying day."
Claimed Cross: "Some of the soldiers who were lying on their arms in the edge of the cornfield, and in the early gray of the morning saw the terrible apparition sweep past, laughed over it until their dying day."
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| An early 1920s image of the monument at Fox's Gap for Union General Jesse Reno, who was mortally wounded on Daniel Wise's farm. (Fred Wilder Cross | William Christen collection) |
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| Another view of Jesse Reno monument by Fred Cross. (William Christen collection) |
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| A page from Fred Cross' South Mountain report includes images he took of the monument for Union Major Jesse Reno and the sunken road near Fox's Gap, scene of brutal fighting. Confederate dead were piled here. (Fred Wilder Cross | William Christen collection) |
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| Union veteran Uberto Burnham in Daniel Wise's field at Fox's Gap. The Reno monument appears in the background. (Fred Wilder Cross | William Christen collection) |
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| Fred Cross took this photo of the Middletown, Md., house where Ohio officer Rutherford B. Hayes, a future president, recovered from his South Mountain wounds. (William Christen collection) |
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| Fred Cross took this panorama of the South Mountain battlefield in September 1922. (William Christen collection | CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.) |
In the 1920s, Cross gathered his experiences at South Mountain and Antietam into self-published reports that included the many photographs he had taken of the battlefields. He later shared the reports with friends, including Clifford.
In his South Mountain report, Cross included a photo of Carlton Gross, whose family's house suffered artillery damage from Rebel artillery during the battle.
In his South Mountain report, Cross included a photo of Carlton Gross, whose family's house suffered artillery damage from Rebel artillery during the battle.
"This little house was under fire during the artillery duel that proceeded the infantry attack, and a Confederate cannonball is preserved in the house, which was fired into it on the morning of September 14, 1862," Cross wrote. "It came in at the right end of the house ... pierced the westerly wall and the open front door, and wedged itself in the wall beside the door casing. I have a section of the shattered door casing in my collection at home."
Labors of love, the reports included images of Union Major General Jesse Reno's monument at Fox's Gap; the Middletown house where 23rd Ohio Lt. Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, a future president, recovered from his South Mountain wounds; and a New York veteran's visit to a farmer's field where he had fought decades earlier.
In one of his reports, Cross wrote:
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| In an image taken by Fred Cross at South Mountain, Carlton Gross holds a six-pound Confederate cannonball that passed through his family's house. |
In one of his reports, Cross wrote:
"I have prepared and annotated this collection of pictures because of the pleasure that I enjoy in revisiting in fancy the scenes, which hold for me such surpassing interest, and because of the feeling that, perhaps, long years to come my children may like to view again in these pages the scenes, which they once visited with me -- scenes that are so intimately and pathetically connected with our Country's history, and that have always filled and thrilled me with such absorbing interest."After Cross' death in 1950, Jim Clifford and John Winters, a "colonel" in "The Battle-field Expeditionary Force," traveled separately from Virginia to their friend's house near the railroad tracks in South Royalston. Cross had put his friends in his will, designating each to receive some of the many Civil War relics and books he had collected during his lifetime.
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| The grave of Fred Cross, the "one hundred percent Massachusetts" man. (Find A Grave) |
Later, Clifford visited Cross' grave, only 50 yards from the house where the "hundred percent Massachusetts" man was born. It says so right on his gravestone.
"His tombstone [was] erected and carved to his specifications," Clifford recalled in 1987. "It was tall — maybe four feet and five or six inches thick, and made of pure black slate. Beautiful and solid looking. His wife͛'s, too."
Cross' heart, apparently, was as big as his love of battlefields. Next to his friend's grave, Clifford found a marker for a homeless Union veteran, whom Cross had befriended and aided.
"Wonderful of Mr. Cross," Clifford wrote. "This alone should get him into the kingdom of heaven."
NOTE: I thank William Christen, who generously shared photos and detailed information from his terrific collection and archives on Fred Wilder Cross.
Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.
SOURCES
- Cross, Fred Wilder, South Mountain and Antietam, Part I, self-published 1925 and 1926
- Hagerstown Daily Mail, Feb. 16, 1934, March 13, 1934
- New York Times, March 9, 1950
- Jim Clifford correspondence with William Christen, Nov. 15, 1985, Dec. 3, 1985, Dec. 23, 1985, Jan. 22, 1987, Feb. 1, 1987
Friday, September 15, 2017
Rare 1920s photographs of Fox's Gap, Jesse Reno monument
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| Union veteran Uberto Burnham in Daniel Wise's field. Jesse Reno monument appears in background. (Fred Wilder Cross | William Christen collection) |
Of course, the most notable Union casualty at Fox's Gap was Union General Jesse Reno, mortally wounded on the Wise farm. In the background of the photo above, we see the Reno monument, dedicated in the general's memory in 1889. A photograph taken from this vantage point today would be obscured by trees. Below, view early 1920s black-and-white images of the tall oak under which Reno purportedly died.
Cross, a Civil War expert from Massachusetts, often traveled to the Boonsboro/Sharpsburg, Md., area to shoot images of the South Mountain and Antietam battlefields and to gather stories about the fighting. Black-and-white photos in this post courtesy of William Christen IV. (Click on all images to enlarge.)
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| Early 1920s image of "Reno Oak" at Fox Gap on the South Mountain battlefield. According to accounts, a mortally wounded Union General Jesse Reno died under this tree. |
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| Another early 1920s image of the "Reno Oak," which no longer stands. |
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| A portion of Reno Oak in the collection of the excellent Boonsborough (Md.) Museum of History. READ MORE ABOUT THE MUSEUM HERE ON MY BLOG. |
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Thursday, November 13, 2014
Fox Gap panorama: Where Jesse Reno was mortally wounded
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| Jesse Reno |
On Sept. 14, 1862, 39-year-old Union Major General Jesse Reno, a native Virginian who stayed loyal to his country, suffered a mortal wound in the chest at Fox Gap during the Battle of South Mountain (Md.).
At least one Rebel did not mourn his passing.
"The Yankees on their side lost General Reno," General D.H. Hill sarcastically noted in his official report, "a renegade Virginian, who was killed by a happy shot from the Twenty-third North Carolina."
Twenty-seven years later, 100 Civil War veterans were among the 1,000 people who gathered for the dedication of a monument near the spot where Reno suffered the wound. After members of Reno's wartime staff unveiled the 8-foot granite marker and patriotic music was played, former Union General Orlando B. Wilcox delivered a speech that highlighted the general's distinguished service in the army.
But the best event of the day may have been saved for last.
"The farmers and others in the vicinity had an ample dinner spread on the grounds," reported the Herald And Torch Light, a Hagerstown, Md., newspaper, on Sept. 19, 1889, "and all of the visitors were made guests of the citizens."
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| The monument at Fox Gap to Jesse Reno was dedicated on Sept. 14, 1889. |
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