The end of the siege of Vicksburg. Lieutenant Mark M. Bassett, Company E, 53rd Illinois, wouldn’t consider the irony of his situation until over a year later. “The negotiations were going on slowly. During the 2d and 3d of July we would get up on the works three or four times a day when the white flags were up and visit,” scribbled Private Ranstead of Company D, 53rd Illinois in his diary. The men in blue and the men and… Read More »Vicksburg – July 4, 1863
How our country observes Memorial Day has an interesting connection to the Union POWs who posed for “the photograph’ in Knoxville in 1865. Lieutenant Henry Fowler of the 15th New Jersey was just 17-years-old when he was seriously wounded in the knee and captured at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 12, 1864. An overzealous Confederate surgeon wanted to amputate his leg. Fowler pleaded with the man as a chloroform rag was placed across his mouth and nose. When… Read More »Memorial Day
The Library of Congress (LOC) offered an interesting clue. There was a Chicago confusion mystery. The Chicago History Museum (CHM) had identified the photograph as member’s of Morgan’s Raiders at Camp Douglas. How did this happen? Copy of the image held by the Chicago History Museum. Mounted on a backing cardboard. There is a hole at the top that appears to have come from a thumbtack Photo by Ray Johnson I found the photograph with the “Morgan’s Raiders at Camp… Read More »Chicago Confusion Mystery
Identifying the soldiers was the first step to revealing the epic Civil War escape story. It wasn’t clear cut, and would require some sleuthing.So who were the 12 men in the photograph? Front of Library of Congress copy of “The Photograph” (Click to enlarge) When my North Georgia mountain neighbor shared the photograph with me. He told me the name of his cousin, the man in the far left middle row. David Ledford. Additionally, he told me that the back… Read More »Identifying the soldiers
Identities were confused almost immediately. T. M. Schleier took the photograph in the event that Captured Freedom on Tuesday, January 2, 1865. The former escapees and their mountain guides left Knoxville the next day. They all heading home, some to never see each other ever again. Photograph of nine Union officers and three mountain guidestaken in Knoxville, Tennessee on January 2, 1865. Escapees identities first confused shortly after the end of the Civil War In Spring 1866 noted historian Benson… Read More »Identities Were Confused
How did the book come about? A neighbor of mine about two miles over the mountain from our log cabin on Stanley Creek shared an old photograph of 12 men in early 2021. Evidently, one of the men in the 156-year-old photograph was an ancestor of his, his great-uncle whose name was David Ledford who had helped a group of Union POWs escape through the mountains. Or so he thought. What he told me was an American Civil War POW… Read More »Civil War POW Escape Story
