Civil War

July 22: James Birdseye McPherson Killed

He was born in Ohio in a small town in Sandusky County before it was a town. Today, the citizens of Clyde proudly honor his contribution to the Nation by giving him his rightful place in their community. He would grow up to play a pivotal role as a U.S. General commanding the right wing of General Sherman during his campaign to take Atlanta during the Civil War.

McPherson had been with Sherman for a long time including the siege of Vicksburg the following year. As Sherman would later say, his good friend and right hand, was James McPherson. When James asked Sherman for a short leave so he could marry his fiance in Baltimore, Sherman denied that request. A decision he would openly regret a few months later.

After his death, his body was returned to Clyde and buried in the family cemetery not far from the home where he was born on November 14, 1828.

James Birdseye McPherson was the first born son of William and Cynthia. William had come to this area from New York state 5 years before to purchase some land, build a house for his bride-to-be. He came with several of his friends, one of them was James Birdseye for whom William would name his son.

William was a blacksmith and a farmer. From some records it indicates that he may have had a quick to rise temper. Like many of his friends that would later join him in Sandusky County, his family were Scottish. He purchased a rather substantial piece of land that was at the time known as Hamer’s Corners (this name would later be changed to Clyde in honor of Clyde New York which was named for the Clyde River in Scotland).

Four years after the McPherson’s set up household in Hamer’s Corner, Cynthia gave birth to James B. McPherson. No description of this birth or of the baby was recorded, but many years later after James’ death, his mother Cynthia related a story that when he was 3 weeks old a group of Seneca Indians stopped in at their house to see the new baby. One of them declared: “He will be a great man.”

When James was 11, the country experienced a major financial crisis that became known as the Panic of 1837 which was similar in scope to the 2008 financial crisis experience that lasted seven years. Banks failed, businesses failed, prices declined and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Unemployment rose as high as 25% in some areas.

Like most businessmen of the day, the Panic of 1837 caused dramatic changes in William first in his financial health and then later his physical health. The stress of his losses and his efforts to try and protect his family ultimately caused him to become bedridden. Since the family business had collapsed, young James found it necessary to work for others in order to help provide for the family. At the age of 12 he had become the man of the family which would prove to have a long lasting effect on him and his career.

Fortunately, James was able to find work as a clerk in Sterntown (known today as Green Springs located about 6 miles southwest of Hamer’s Corner). Robert Smith the owner of a general store and the local mill adopted James (not legally). They exposed him to a rich education where he learned to read, appreciate music and was exposed to a variety of people one of those being Rutherford B. Hayes who was six years older than James and the two became good friends. It was through the Smith family and Rutherford that several years later afforded him the opportunity to move up in the world when he became a West Point cadet.

In 1847 James’ father died. The following year 19 year old James left home for West Point. He would never return to Hamer’s Corner other than for short stays.

During the battle for Atlanta, General McPherson was at General Sherman’s tent discussing what McPherson thought about how the Confederate would attack. It was in Sherman’s mind that the Confederates were retreating from Atlanta, but McPherson was certain they were setting up an attack of the Union’s flank and rear. It was a heated discussion and ongoing when a large volume of gunfire erupted in the direction of where McPherson’s troops were located and confirming his belief that Confederate forces were mounting an attack and that attack had begun.

McPherson quickly returned to his men until he reached his XVI Corps. Here he found his men struggling against an overwhelming advance of Confederate forces. Realizing the importance of this contact, McPherson decided to personally go on to his XVII Corps so they could be brought to bear upon the advancing Confederates.

Photograph taken a few days after McPherson was killed of the spot where the event happened just outside of Atlanta in 1864. In the center of the image in the distance is a tree with a sign tacked to it stating this was the spot where McPherson was shot.

McPherson’s two corps were separated by a thick woods which he had to navigate to reach his XVII Corps. McPherson, his aide and Colonel R.K. Scott were alone when they came upon a Confederate skirmish line. Both sides were suddenly taken back, and the Confederate skirmish line of 3 or 4 men simultaneously yelled for the two Union men to halt. Realizing what was about to happen if he were to be captured, McPherson and his aide wheeled their horse and bolted. The skirmish line reacted with volley of fire. McPherson’s aide turned in his saddle and saw the line taking aim and he later reported sliding around in his saddle so his horse was between him and the enemy. Unfortunately, James Birdseye McPherson was hit and killed, becoming the highest ranking Union officer to die in battle.

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May 13: John Clem Dies

By admin

On this day in 1937, Brigadier General John Clem died and was later buried in Arlington National Cemetery. John Clem was born in Heath, Ohio and would become the last Civil War Veteran on active duty when he retired from service in 1915. A year after John Clem retired, Congress passed an act promoting him to Major General.

The fact that John Clem was afforded such honors, is only trumped by the fact that John Clem was actually born John Joseph Klem in 1851, making him just 9 years old when he first tried to enlist in the 3^rd Ohio Infantry in May 1861, just days after fighting began. John J. Klem actually changed his name to John Lincoln Clem to prove that he was a “Union Man.”

Having being rejected by the Ohio Infantry, John tried to enlist in the 22^nd Michigan that was also posted to Camp Dennison in Cincinnati. They too refused but John had no where else to go since his mother had been killed earlier the year before. John spent much of the next year or so hanging out with the boys from Michigan and when they departed from Cincinnati in 1862, John tagged along, taking on the tasks of drummer boy for the unit. Members of the company even began to pay him a monthly stipend of $13 out of their own pockets.

John Clem gained notoriety when the 22^nd Michigan took part in an engagement in Georgia that became known as the Battle of Chickamauga, the second bloodiest battles during the war. During this battle, it was reported that a Confederate cannonball destroyed John’s drum. The battle dragged on for 3 days and on the third day, things began to break down for Union forces. Many of the men in the 22^nd were captured. John escaped capture by fleeing back to Union lines on an artillery caisson. It was widely reported that a Confederate officer demanded John immediately surrender, but instead, the young 12 year old raised his weapon and fired at the officer striking him down. Once he got back to his own unit, John was advanced to the rank of Sergeant becoming youngest person ever to hold that rank.

After this encounter, John was later captured and held as a POW before being paroled 2 months later. When word of John’s daring escapade during the battle appeared in a newspaper, John Clem became almost an instant celebrity. Folks everywhere knew him as the Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.

Before being discharged from the army at age 13, John Clem would be promoted to lance corporal.

Years later President Ulysses Grant would help the young man who served his country at such an early age, by personally giving his second lieutenant ‘s commission in 1871.

John Clem would once again see action during the Spanish-American War. In 1903 he became a Colonel and then in 1916 he left the U.S. Army once again after 53 years of active military duty. Twenty-one years later on this day and at the age of 85, John Clem, the Drummer Boy of Chickamauga died. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Sherman Takes Atlanta

By John Merrill

September 1: What began in early May was reached its ultimate goal: the surrender of Atlanta in 1864. On this day Ohio born William Tecumseh Sherman, supreme commander of the armies in the west, forced Confederate defenders of this key military supply center, to give way. After 4 months of bitter fighting, Confederate General John B. Hood decided he could no longer defend the city from Sherman’s encircling Union forces. At 2:00 A.M. fires were set to munition train cars that resulted in terrific explosions that Sherman could hear 20 miles away and recorded in his field notes. Sensing that Hood had retreated, Sherman ordered reconnaissance parties to survey the city. It was one of these reconnaissance parties under command of General Henry W. Slocum that encountered Mayor James M. Calhoun and several other Atlanta citizens under a flag of truce, officially surrendered the city on the morning of September 2, 1864.

General Sherman posing at a Confederate fortification after the taking Atlanta. This is Federal Fort Number 7 looking north towards Chattanooga Railroad. — General Sherman posing at a Confederate fortification after taking Atlanta. This is Federal Fort Number 7 looking north towards Chattanooga Railroad.

When Sherman received word from Slocum that Atlanta was theirs, Sherman telegraphed Lincoln on September 3 that read: “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won”. After this Sherman ordered all civilians to leave the city

After it was clear to Sherman that the city was safe to enter, he set up his headquarters in town. On September 8 Sherman’s orders to evacuate all citizens from the city went into force. In compliance with this order, Mayor Calhoun notified Atlanta’s citizens they had to first register with the Union commander the number of household members departing and the number of packages being carried. Once they registered, they were given safe travel permits. Those registration records show that 705 adults, 860 children and 86 servants along with 8,842 packages left Atlanta by the end of September.

For Sherman taking Atlanta had been a necessary task, but also a costly achievement. His men suffered 3,641 casualties, among them his good friend and another man from Ohio, Major General James Birdseye McPherson, the highest ranking Union officer to die in battle.

This photo was taken by Barnard on Whitehall Street just a little south of the main railroad depot in downtown Atlanta. It shows a black corporal sitting outside of an auction house where “negro” sales took place. I believe the photograph was staged and the Barnard took some delight in posing the black soldier reading a book outside of the auction house. Not many days after this image was taken, the area was burned. — This photo was taken by George N. Barnard on Whitehall Street just a little south of the main railroad depot in downtown Atlanta. It shows a black corporal sitting outside of an auction house where “negro” sales took place. I believe the photograph was staged and that Barnard took some delight in posing the black soldier reading a book outside of the auction house. Not many days after this image was taken, the area was burned.

When Sherman left Atlanta in November, instead of pursuing Hood, he set his sights on Savannah and began what became known as “Sherman’s March to the Sea” leaving a wide path of destruction that would help bring an end to the long war the following spring.

Before departing for Savannah, Sherman and his men remained in Atlanta for 2 ½ months during which his war weary troops gathered supplies, recuperate, and destroyed the rail lines. It was during this time frame that George N. Barnard, an official photographer of the Chief Engineer’s Office, documented Atlanta. However, most of the areas he photographed would be destroyed in November when Sherman’s men began destroying the remaining munition depots creating a firestorm that destroyed most of Atlanta.

atlanta-ponderhouse-field21 — Above photo shows Union forces among an abandoned Confederate position. In the background is the photographer Barnard’s wagon and his portable darkroom setup just to the right of the wagon. In the distance to the right, the Ponder House can be seen.

This closeup photograph of Ponder House shows the destruction inflicted by Union artillery. During the siege, the house was used by Confederate sharp-shooters. Before the siege the house was built and owned by Ephraim Ponder, a big slave trader in Atlanta. The house stood about where Georgia Tech is located today.

April 14: A Nation Begins to Mourn

By John Merrill

ford-theatre-exterior-2 — Exterior view of Ford’s Theatre after the assassination of the President. Note the black bunting draped across the exterior.

In 1865 this was Good Friday. It had been five days since General Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia, but the War o f Rebellion was still not over. Confederate General Johnson still had 90,000 men under his command. Some thought he could be massing an assault on Grant in Virginia. Even with that lingering threat, the last 5 days were days of celebration in the District. The President had just returned from Richmond where he went to see the total destruction of the Confederate Capital. Near exhaustion he didn’t feel like going to the theatre, but he promised his wife Mary. Plus, his attendance had already been announced for Friday night’s performance.

Mary requested General Grant and his wife to accompany her and the President, but the general had plans to be in Philadelphia so she requested their friends Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance Clara Harris to accompany them. They accepted and the two couples arrived promptly at 8:30 at the theatre.

Presidential double box. Photo taken a few days after. A guard can be seen guarding the entrance on the far right side.

Ford’s Theatre Presidential Box is located on the 2^nd tier and was entered from the Dress Circle through a narrow corridor about 3 feet wide and 10 feet long. The box looked directly down on the right side of the stage. Inside the box were two small chairs, a settee and an upholstered rocker the president used. All of these seats were angled toward the stage except for the settee, which is where Clara Harris sat. The president’s rocker was nearest to the door and the others in the room would have been further forward of his position.

The door to the Presidential Box was unlocked and unguarded when the president arrived. Earlier in the day, one of the actors had cut a small peep hole in one of the doors so he could see the President without being noticed.

At about 10:15 P.M., halfway through Act III, Scene 2, the character of Asa Trenchard, played that night by Harry Hawk, utters his line, considered one of the play’s funniest that always brought hilarious laughter from the audience. It was at this point that the actor standing behind Lincoln knew would be his cue. He quickly fired his .44 caliber derringer. Some in the audience may have heard the shot, but most did not. Perhaps someone dropped something, nothing more. Even in Lincoln’s box, the sound wasn’t immediately identified as coming from their location.

The President’s head slumped slightly forward as if he had nodded off. Thinking the loud sound was part of the on stage clamor, Mary reached over and touched her husband, perhaps so he wouldn’t miss the events on stage. Everyone was laughing. She pulled her hand back and even in the dim light she noticed blood on her fingers. That’s when her screaming began. Everything seemed to happen at once. The actor pushed his way forward. Major Rathbone realized something had happened and reached out to grab the actor’s sleeve as he made his way to the balcony railing. The actor quickly swung a dagger at the major slashing the his arm, then leapt over the railing, landing awkwardly. Now everyone in the large theatre seemed aware something dreadful had happened. The actor shouted a few words that most could not understand then limped across the stage in front of a stunned audience to a side exit.

On the second tier Mary’s screaming intensified when she saw Clara Harris’ evening gown stain bright red, which Mary thought was from her husband’s wound, but was in fact from the major’s wound. The long gash on his arm was bleeding profusely and in just a few moments he had collapsed from loss of blood. The president’s wound, although fatal, there was little bleeding.

peterson-house-room-2 — Photograph of Lincoln’s death bed taken on the morning of April 15 by Julius Ulke, a Peterson House boarder who had an upstairs room. He helped by providing hot water several times. After all the dignitaries left the house and Lincoln’s body was removed, he set up his camera and took 2 photographs. Between images he re-arranged the chair and pillow in slightly different positions.

In the audience Charles Taft, a surgeon was lifted up to the Presidential Box where the president was lying. As the box quickly became swarmed with additional people, it was decided to take him down to someplace where they could find a more suitable place for the doctors to work their miracles.

There would be no miracles tonight. After being carried across the street to a boarding house, the president died the following morning without ever regaining consciousness. The country which had seen hundreds of thousands of its men die in a war that lasted more than 4 years, was suddenly thrust into a national state of mourning.

Thirteen days later the President’s funeral train would be arriving in Cleveland and the following morning in Columbus on its way to Springfield, Illinois. Although embalming had begun to be used, it was not a perfected science. By the time the President’s casket arrived in Columbus, 100s of lilac blossoms were needed to mask the smell of death. The country was facing the awful cost of a tearing itself apart.

April 12, 1861: Civil War Begins

By John Merrill

April 12, 1861: On this day in 1861 the first artillery shots began landing on Fort Sumter and signaled the beginning of War of the Rebellion. Fort Sumter was a heavy fortification located in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor and was under the command of Major Robert Anderson who had moved his command from Fort Moultrie the previous December. His position at Fort Moultrie was taken over by Roswell Sabin Ripley.

The bombardment of Fort Sumter lasted was just the final stages of the siege which had been ongoing since January. President James Buchanan had tried sending supplies to the besieged fortification, but newly formed South Carolinian forces opened fire on the supply ship preventing them from landing.

When Abraham Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, he contacted the governor of South Carolina that he would be sending a more heavily escorted supply ship to Fort Sumter. President Lincoln had hoped that the governor would acquiesce and allow the supply ships to land. However, the governor instead thumbed his nose at the new President and demanded that he withdraw all federal troops from the island. Major Anderson refused the order to surrender.

At 4:30 A.M. on this day in 1861, the 38 year old General Ripley, ordered his artillery gunners to open fire. Thirty-four hours later Major Anderson, fearing that his defensive position was about to fall from from continuous fire from the artillery cadets manning the gun at Fort Moultrie agreed to surrender his position and evacuate Fort Sumter.

Photograph of Fort Sumter taken on April 14, 1861 after Major Anderson's surrender. — Stereogram image of Fort Sumter taken on April 14, 1861 after Major Anderson’s surrender.

When Major Anderson left Fort Moultrie, he had his men disable all of the artillery pieces left behind. Confederate General Ripley, an Ohioan, born and raised in Worthington, was brought in to repair those canon and fire the opening rounds against Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, shots that would begin the war known today as the Civil War.

September 2: A White Man Named Tecumseh

By John Merrill

Nine years after William’s birth, his 41 year old father Charles, died suddenly leaving behind a wife and eleven children with no income. There future was put directly in the hands of willing friends and family. William was adopted by a family friend, Thomas Ewing. Ewing provided the young William the necessities of life, but also the necessary financial support and guidance so sixteen year old William was admitted to West Point.

At his birth, William’s father could not have known the far reaching effects of the name he gave to his son: William Tecumseh Sherman. Tecumseh was a name that had evoked fear like an approaching plague across northern Ohio

not that many years before William’s birth. But his namesake also was an effective warrior-leader among the Shawnee. He too would become a warrior leader unlike any other ever to march across the United States of America.

On this day in 1864, William Tecumseh Sherman was living proof he had the same character as his namesake. William did not do well at West Point. He worked at several failed businesses, but finally got at an appointment to be superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy in 1859.

Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential election in 1860. By the time he was sworn in to office on March 4, 1861, seven states had succeeded from the Union and elected their own president. Just a month after Lincoln’s inauguration, the war had started. On May 14, 1861, William Tecumseh Sherman was commissioned as a colonel in the U.S. Army.

Sherman would be involved in most of the major campaigns west of the Alleghenies. When Ulysses Grant was promoted to commander of all Union forces in 1864. Shortly after that Grant gave Sherman command of the Division of the Mississippi. Sherman’s mission: take complete control of the south and drive Confederate forces to the sea.

William Tecumseh Sherman, 1864 Atlanta George — William Tecumseh Sherman, 1864 Atlanta Georga

On this day in 1864, Sherman accepted the surrender of Confederate forces defending Atlanta. It would be a major accomplishment for Union forces. Atlanta was the railroad hub of the Confederacy and from where much of the war materiel went through. With its capture the South could no longer easily move men and materials where needed. It also marked the beginning of a new phase of the war.

Sherman was given the go ahead for his plan of bringing “total war” to the South. A few days ago, Atlanta citizens got a taste of what Sherman had in mind.

On September 1, 1861, a captured ammunition train was ordered destroyed. The resulting explosion caused a fire that quickly got out of hand and destroyed a large swath of Atlanta. That event was played out in a scene in the movie “Gone With the Wind.”

Sherman remained in the Atlanta area until after the election in which President Lincoln was re-elected thanks to Sherman’s success. After this pivotal point, Sherman was given permission to release the dogs of hell on his march from Atlanta to Savannah. He arrived on the coast just before Christmas leaving behind a path of destruction. There would be calls for him to replace Grant as commander of all the armies, but Sherman would have none of that and he openly

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