Interview: Laura DeMarco, 'Lost Civil War' author. Plus, a list!

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In a Zoom chat, author Laura DeMarco and I talked about her new book, Lost Civil War: The Disappearing Legacy of America's Greatest Conflict. The recently published book (Pavilion Books, 176 pages) is lavishly illustrated with period photos of battlefields and historic places. In our nearly 28-minute visit, we discussed a Gettysburg site few know about, Antietam's Dunker Church, and a fort in Louisiana that had ties to (gasp!) a cult. Heck, we even discussed the Cleveland Browns, who (sadly) may dominate the AFC North this season. That's a tough sentence for this longtime Steelers fan to write.

Here's more on DeMarco at her author page. Here's where you can purchase the book on Amazon.com. 

Below, Laura offers a list of sites she wishes had been preserved and/or properly memorialized. Plus, an outside-the-box bonus.

The 8th Vermont monument on the Cedar Creek battlefield.

SHENANDOAH VALLEY BATTLEFIELDS: Some of the most important battlefields of the Civil War in Virginia are buried under asphalt and concrete. A drive down Interstate Highway 81 provides a tour of Shenandoah Valley Civil War battlefield sites — planned or not. The interstate travels through the valley for 150 miles, cutting through seven battlefields as it winds through the picturesque countryside, including: Second and Third Winchester, First and Second Kernstown, Cedar Creek, Fisher’s Hill, Tom’s Brook. and the New Market battlefields.

An August 1863 image of Camp Letterman. 
(Library of Congress)

CAMP LETTERMAN, NEAR GETTYSBURG: Camp Letterman opened July 22, 1863. It was the first major war hospital located on a battlefield, not at a faraway city or barracks. Hundreds of tents were set up as the wards, and men from both sides filled the beds, another first. The hospital became home to more than 4,000 convalescing soldiers. Hundreds of convalescing men stayed behind in the hospital after the armies had moved on, until the last ones could be moved by train, or on their own, in January 1864. The hospital was closed that month, and for nearly a century its great significance was under-appreciated as development paved over Wolf’s farm. The site has been gradually taken over by sprawl, and even a mobile home park. In 2018, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives finally voted to honor the role Camp Letterman played in the Civil War and military medical history. A historical marker sits near Sheetz gas station No. 326.

Hard-to-get-to Fort St. Phillip in Louisiana. This is an 1898 addition to the fort. (NPS photo)

FORT ST. PHILLIP (LA.): Founded by the Spanish in 1792, Fort St. Philip has the most fascinating history of any American fort. It was ruled by the Spanish, French, and United States, and was the location of a Civil War siege, a Civil Rights threat, and a cult. The remaining structures were severely damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Today, portions of the original masonry fort and rusty artillery remain abandoned and covered in overgrowth. The land is shrunk more and more by erosion each year. Fort St. Philip, which played such a vital role protecting New Orleans, is only accessible by boat or helicopter.

A stereoview of Marshall House in Alexandria, Va. (Library of Congress)

MARSHALL HOUSE (ALEXANDRIA, VA.): One of the most significant deaths in the early days of the Civil War took place not on the battlefield, but in an inn. The Marshall House at 480 King Street in Alexandria, Va., was the site of the May 24, 1861, assassination of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, founder of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and close friend of President Abraham Lincoln.

It was a day that would live in infamy in the Civil War, energizing both Union and Rebel troops. The Marshall House was badly damaged in an 1873 arson, though it was rebuilt. The infamous location was demolished in 1950. But the controversy didn’t end with its removal. The Sons and Daughters of the Confederate Veterans hung a historic plaque on a new hotel on the site, The Monaco, that only mentioned Jackson, “the first martyr to the cause of Southern Independence” — not Ellsworth. The controversial sign was finally taken down in 2017 when Marriott purchased the property and renamed it The Alexandrian.

Brady, post-war

MATHEW BRADY'S FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN PHOTOS: Perhaps the most famous lost photographs were from the early days of the war. Mathew Brady, new to his field operation, photographed the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. One of the rare times he attempted shoot a battle in action, Brady arrived at Bull Run with a group of newspaper reporters and Union troops led by General Irvin McDowell a few days before the fighting. On July 21, he ventured onto the battlefield with a wagon and assistants. They got too close to the action, however, and when the Union soldiers retreated to Centreville, they abandoned their wagon and joined the exodus. No images of this seminal battle survive.

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Gettysburg Then & Now: Forbes Rock (and a look at God Tree)

THEN: In this cropped version of Mathew Brady's photo of "Forbes Rock," his assistant sits
 on a boulder in the foreground. (Library of Congress)

NOW: View shot by your blogger on April 17, 2021.

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Last weekend, Civil War Times editor Dana Shoaf, director of photography Melissa Winn and I were wowed by an up-close look of Forbes Rock, among the most famous boulders on a battlefield studded with them. I was in Gettysburg to report for a column in Civil War Times on the rehabilitation of Culp's Hill. As part of that effort, trees and brush have been cleared around Forbes Rock.

The "God Tree," a witness tree on Culp's Hill, 
near Forbes Rock.

In mid-July 1863, Forbes Rock was photographed by Mathew Brady, who was captivated by the area’s battle-riddled landscape. Above, check out the cropped version of Brady’s image and my present-day view. It's not a spot-on then & now, but it's respectable. (Here's another Brady Culp's Hill photograph, from behind U.S. Army breastworks, on my Then & Now blog -- thanks to the clearance of trees and brush, it's much easier to see the scene today than when I took the "Now" image in 2016.)  

The battle-scarred tree in the foreground of the 1863 Forbes Rock image is long gone, but there are other witness trees on Culp’s Hill -- including the "God Tree," which more than 100 years ago someone filled with concrete and rebar in a misguided preservation effort. "Horrible," Jason Martz, our National Park Service guide, told us.

In the 1863 image, a Brady assistant sat on a boulder in the foreground. He gives us a good sense of the size of the massive boulder, used by Confederates for cover from withering fire from the U.S. Army postioned behind breastworks. Is that the “Brady boulder” in the present-day view? Hmmm, if so, it looks different than it appeared in 1863. Weigh in, photo nerds.  

The massive boulder was named for wartime battle sketch artist Edwin Forbes, who created a view of the July 2, 1863, attack here from the Confederates' perspective. 

Great news: The National Park Service soon may have a trail for visitors to this off-the-beaten path spot. 

Edwin Forbes' depiction of Confederates' attack at Culp's Hill on evening of July 2, 1863.
(Library of Congress)

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Grand Review of Union Army 'positively beggars description'

(Mathew Brady | Library of Congress)

A cropped version of a lithograph showing presidential viewing stand in front of White House.
(Library of Congress collection)

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On May 23, 1865, an estimated 80,000 soldiers in General George Meade's Army of the Potomac marched through the streets of Washington before thousands of spectators. The next day, nearly 65,000 soldiers in General William Sherman's Army of Georgia and Army of the Tennessee repeated the feat — a fitting exclamation point after four years of a brutal civil war. 

Each day, the armies marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and past the White House, where dignitaries and others watched the historic event from reviewing stands. Not surprisingly, the presidential reviewing stand in front of the mansion became a popular photographic subject. Although other photograph explorers have dissected the above image of the presidential reviewing stand at the Grand Review of the United States Army many times, it remains tantalizing.

Of the images of the presidential stand on the excellent Library of Congress web site, the photograph attributed to Mathew Brady at the top of this post includes the greatest detail. In the uncropped original, the blurred forms of soldiers and horses appear at right on the dirt road while a huge U.S. flag hangs limp above a packed reviewing stand. Behind the blurred figures, a detachment of soldiers stands guard in front of a massive U.S. banner.

Enlargements of the Grand Review image from May 23, 1865, reveal the leadership of the U.S. government and military and much more:

Easily recognized in the front row of the presidential reviewing stand are Union generals Ulysses Grant and George Meade and President Andrew Johnson, elevated to the highest office in the land 39 days earlier by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, only blocks from the White House.

Less obvious is Edwin Stanton, the blurred figure with the long beard sitting next to Grant. A review of other images taken that day confirms this man is Johnnson's Secretary of War. 

Seated near President Johnson, Major General Wesley Merritt — a cavalry commander — appears to be conversing with Meade. The ghostl-like figure at the far right is Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, a Connecticut native and a major Lincoln supporter.

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NEW YORK TIMES (May 24, 1865): "The President arrives in his carriage. Directly after, however, almost at the same moment, Gen. Grant and Staff walk briskly from their headquarters and assume their designated positions. Gen. Meade and Staff having passed, they now return dismounted, and soon the sharply-defined head of the Commander of the Army of the Potomac adds another to the group of distinguished persons, on whom the eyes, the opera-glasses, and even the photographers' lenses are resting."

Ely Parker, who's seated next to a large, potted plant, appears only steps away from his boss. A Native American who served as Grant's adjutant during the war, Parker helped draft the surrender documents signed 45 days earlier by Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Va.

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PITTSBURGH DAILY POST (May 24, 1865): "Pennsylvania Avenue presents a scene which probably has never been paralleled in the country. Certainly not south of New York. Its whole vast extent and breadth is compactly lined with people from pavement to housetops. Innumerable flags and banners are displayed all along the Avenue, and the whole scene is one of the most brilliant and imposing ever witnessed, making the heart fill with emotion and the eyes fill with tears of joy. The whole affair positively beggars description."

General Sherman, wearing a white glove, visits with William Dennison, the U.S. Postmaster General. Is the young woman in the background listening in to the conversation? Perhaps they all had just witnessed flamboyant General George Custer's feat, described in one of the local newspapers later that day:

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WASHINGTON EVENING STAR (May 23, 1865): "Suddenly a thrill ran through the vast assemblage as a magnificent stallion dashed madly past the President and his associates, the rider, General Custar [sic], with a large wreath hanging upon his arm, his scabbard empty, and his long hair waving in the wind, vainly striving to check him. On swept the horse, the throng rising from their seats in breathless suspense that changed to murmur or applause at the horsemanship of the rider, and finally giving place to a long loud cheer as the General checked his frightened steed, and gracefully rode back to the head of his column, the third cavalry division."

Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs, among the most able men in the Union army, also sits in the front row, apparently staring straight ahead. "[W]ithout the services of this eminent soldier," Secretary of State William Seward reportedly said of Meigs' Civil War service, "the national cause must have been lost or deeply imperiled." 

Seward, whose face was severely disfigured in a knife attack by John Wilkes Booth co-conspirator Lewis Powell the night Lincoln was assassinated, watched Day 2 of the Grand Review from the nearby Blair House. Do you recognize anyone else in the image?

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SYRACUSE DAILY COURIER AND UNION (MAY 24, 1865): "In front of the President's house an immense stand has been erected on the south side of the street, for the President and Cabinet, and for the gallant soldiers, Grant and Sherman, who are to review the troops. Another stand on the north side is for the accommodation of Congress, the foreign ministers, and others. A stand is also erected on the square for wounded soldiers. The houses in the vicinity of the President's house are tastefully adorned with flags and evergreens. The route of the march is packed with people, all eager to give the gallant heroes of the war a hearty welcome on their march home."

Sewn into the massive patriotic banner above the reviewing stand are the names of the Union Army's greatest triumphs, including Petersburg, Richmond and ....

... and, of course, Gettysburg.

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PITTSBURGH DAILY POST (May 24, 1865) "Never has Washington witnessed a more august occasion or presented a more beautiful or animated spectacle. The whole population of the city is in the streets, swollen by many thousands of strangers which have been pouring in here for days past from all points of the compass, and by every imaginable mode of conveyance. Those from abroad are estimated at fully fifty or sixty thousand, a large proportion of whom are ladies. Where they all found shelter and accommodations is a mystery."

We can't help but wonder if this guard detachment of the Veteran Reserve Corps, apparently led by the aged officer at left, was extra-vigilant given the recent, tragic event in the capital. President Johnson, members of his cabinet and some of the most important generals in the Union Army are just behind these soldiers. The day, one of the grandest in Washington's history, went off without a major incident. Most of the soldiers who marched during the historic, two-day event were soon mustered out of the army.

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NEW YORK TIMES (May 24, 1865): "Though the city is so crowded, it is yet gay and jovial with the good feeling that prevails, for the occasion is one of such grand import and true rejoicing, that small vexations sink out of sight. With many it is the greatest epoch of their lives; with the soldier it is the last act in the drama; with the nation it is the triumphant exhibition of the resources and valor which have saved it from disruption and placed it first upon earth.

"So the scene of to-day (and that of to-morrow) will never be forgotten, and he who is privileged to be a witness will mark it as a white day in the calendar, from which to gather hope and courage for the future."

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Then & Now: Damaged houses in war-torn Fredericksburg

Click here for the mega-Then & Now experience for desktop, tablet
On a "Then & Now" mission during my Civil War Power Tour in 2016, I stood near the parking lot of a small bank in Fredericksburg, Va., to shoot a present-day version of the May 1864 image of severely damaged houses on Hanover Street and George Street extended. Damage to the residences, long attributed to Union artillery, may have been caused by Confederate guns during the battle for the town in December 1862. In any case, the houses proved enticing subject matter for a photographer employed by Mathew Brady. (Check out the terrific overlay below of the 1864 image on a present-day view, courtesy of  John Cummings of the Spotsylvania Civil War Blog.)

Excellent Fredericksburg photos, as well as a map showing destruction caused by the Union bombardment on Dec. 11, 1862, may be found on the National Park Service's Mysteries & Conundrums blog. On my blog, Then & Now posts showing war-damaged houses on Caroline Street in Fredericksburg are here and here. And a 1908 history of  Fredericksburg includes this vivid account of the eight-hour Federal shelling:

At the hour appointed the signal was given, and the thunder of artillery, the lightning from bursting shells in the air, the crashing of solid shot through the houses, the roar of musketry on both sides of the river, the shrieks of frightened women and children, the bustle and confusion that followed may be imagined, but can never be described. From early morning until four o clock in the afternoon, with only half an hour's cessation between one and two o clock, this deluge of shot and shell was poured upon the streets and houses of the town. The few inhabitants who remained in the town fled to their cellars and sought to save their lives from the storm which was beating their homes to pieces. Many houses were burned with all or most of their contents, the result of hot shot, it was claimed, thrown from the enemy's guns on the Lacy farm just opposite the town.

Overlay of 1864 image on present-day view by John Cummings of the Spotsylvania Civil War Blog.

While Brady's operators produced the image, fighting raged again, 10 miles to the southwest at Spotsylvania Courthouse. Obscured by trees in the "Now" image, St. George's Episcopal Church, hit by shellfire in 1862, is visible in the background of the 1864 image. Wounded from Spotsylvania Courthouse, the Wilderness and elsewhere were treated there while Brady's men went about their business.

As you can see in the "Now" image and in this Google Street View, the two houses on Hanover Street are long gone; a sports field occupies the area behind the long, metal fence. White houses on the extension of George Street long ago replaced their severely damaged cousins. For grins, here are close-ups of those houses on Google Street View. And below, watch a fascinating video of December 1862 bombardment damage at the Old Stone Warehouse in Fredericksburg.

For all the Then & Now images on my blog, go here.

Antietam: Alexander Gardner's images of death

Enlargement of Alexander Gardner image of Rebel soldiers gathered for burial
at Battle of Antietam.  (Library of Congress collection)
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Enlargement of Gardner image of dead Rebel soldiers along Hagerstown Pike.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

This enlargement of a Gardner image shows Confederate dead gathered for burial
 on the D.R. Miller farm. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

This enlargement of a Gardner image shows body of a young Rebel soldier next to the freshly dug
grave of Lieutenant John Clark of the 7th Michigan
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.) 

In October 1862, at Mathew Brady's photo gallery on Broadway in New York, Americans first laid eyes on images of the dead of Civil War. The photographs, taken by Brady employee Alexander Gardner in the days after the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, were horrifying ... and mesmerizing. "You will see hushed, reverend

In this Alexander Gardner image, Rebel dead, probably soldiers
 from Louisiana,  lay along Hagerstown Pike. The second photo
 above is an enlargement of the dead Rebel at left.

groups standing around these weird copies of carnage, bending down to look in the pale faces of the dead, chained by the strange spell that dwells in dead men's eyes," a New York Times reporter eloquently wrote of the patrons at Brady's gallery. "It seems somewhat singular that the same sun that looked down on the faces of the slain, blistering them, blotting out from the bodies all semblance to humanity, and hastening corruption, should have thus caught their features upon canvas, and given them perpetuity for ever. But so it is."

Gardner's photographs included many images of Confederate dead, some grotesquely deformed from their wounds or from exposure to the elements, laying along Hagerstown Pike, in Bloody Lane, on the Joseph Sherrick farm and on other parts of the battlefield. In one especially awful photograph, more than 20 dead Rebel soldiers were gathered for burial. The most poignant image showed a dead Rebel, probably only a teenager, next to the freshly dug grave of a Union lieutenant. So great is the detail in the image that the name on the wooden headboard can be read: "J A Clark, 7th Mich."

The son of Lovonia and Thomas Clark, Lieutenant John Clark, in his early 20s, was from Ida Township, Mich. (This detail was first revealed in William Frassanito's excellent 1978 book, "Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day.") To my knowledge, none of the Confederate soldiers in any of Gardner's images was ever identified. The first four photos in this post are enlargements of Gardner photographs taken at Antietam, each revealing remarkable detail. High-quality Antietam images in TIF format may be found on the Library of Congress photographs site, a terrific resource for those who aim to uncover secrets of Civil War images.