Civil War photo album by Navy captain

THIS JUST IN: Michael has returned from the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show with a most amazing Civil War photograph album. It was assembled by Captain Robert Townsend, who commanded the USS Essex, a 1,000-ton ironclad gunboat, in the attack on Port Hudson, Louisiana, in September 1862 and the Red River Campaign in March-May 1864. Watch Mike tell about this fascinating item and an accompanying vintage letter. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

Love St. Augustine history? This is for you!

If you like Florida history, you’re going to love this likely late 19th century or early 20th century photo album from St. Augustine. Here are many scenes taken near the turn of the century in and around America’s oldest city. There are shots of various vessels making a port call, including the steamboat Planter from Charleston, South Carolina, and the USS Ericsson, the second torpedo boat in the U.S. Navy.

The steamboat Planter may be the same vessel that was piloted by slave Robert Smalls through Confederate defenses in 1862 and surrendered to the Union Navy. It later served as a Union gunboat. However, that boat was beached in 1876, so if this is a photo of it in St. Augustine, it may be from the 1870s.

The USS Ericsson was based in Newport, Rhode Island, but was sent to Key West in 1897 to join U.S. forces in blockading Cuba in the months leading up to the Spanish American War. During the war, the vessel participated in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba and figured in the rescue of more than 100 Spanish sailors from the doomed crusier Vizcaya. The photograph may been taken on the Ericsson’s trip south or on its return in 1898.

In 1895, a wooden bridge was built across Matanzas Bay from St. Augustine to Anastasia Island (South Beach). It was renovated in 1904 to allow for a trolley. One photograph shows the gate to the toll bridge and seems to indicate a train was available. Another photo shows a two-team horse-drawn omnibus that connected with the South Beach train.

Click on any photograph to enlarge it. To purchase this book, please call (727) 822-3278.

Gen. Doubleday didn't invent baseball

It is the birthday Union General Abner Doubleday (1819), who is credited with firing the first shot in the Civil War at Fort Sumter, and also registering a patent for the cable car railway that still operates in San Francisco. He may be more widely remembered, however, for something historians say he didn’t do: invent baseball. The story of Doubleday’s invention of baseball persisted for generations, perpetuated by a 1905 baseball commission’s report that came to that conclusion. Recent scholarship, though, calls that story a myth and presents evidence that the principal source for it was highly unreliable. Nevertheless, the Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Doubleday’s boyhood home of Cooperstown, New York, and a baseball stadium and a minor league team are named for him. Doubleday did publish two important Civil War volumes: Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie (1876), and Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (1882).

Gen. Rains developed Civil War land mines

It is the birthday of Brigadier General Gabriel J. Rains (1803), who is credited, along with his brother George, with creating land mines, booby traps, and torpedoes during the Civil War. A West Point graduate, he served in the Seminole Wars and was brevetted major after defeating the Seminoles near Fort King. He also served in the Mexican War and out west in the Indian Wars but when the Civil War came, he sided with the Confederacy and became a brigadier general. Rains had used explosive booby traps in 1940 during the Seminole War but historians say he developed the first modern mechanically fused land mines during the Battle of Yorktown in 1862.

John Brown led violent abolitionists

It is the birthday of fiery abolitionist John Brown (1800), who led antislavery forces in battles against slavery supporters in Kansas in the tumultuous years leading up to the Civil War. Brown resorted to violence in an era when most abolitionists advocated peaceful resistance to slavery. Brown’s final act was raiding the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859 and attempting to incite a revolt among the slaves. He was tried for treason in the Commonwealth of Virginia and excited by hanging. He became a martyr for the Union cause and the song John Brown’s Body became an anthem during the Civil War.

At the Book Fair, Billy Bowlegs' autograph

Chief Billy Bowlegs

Here’s an amazing item we’re bringing to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. It’s an authentic autograph of Billy  Bowlegs, or Holata Micco, the Seminole chief who led his tribe toward the end of the Second Seminole War and during the Third Seminole War. He and his band were among the last of the holdouts who were finally forced by the U.S. government to relocate to Indian Territory in Oklahoma and Arkansas in 1858.

Brig. Gen. John Gibbon

The Seminoles boarded ships at Egmont Key in Tampa Bay that were bound for New Orleans. From there, they traveled to their new homes. Evidently, while he was in Tampa, Billy Bowlegs came to meet a young U.S. Army lieutenant, John Gibbon, who was assistant Indian agent at Fort Brooke. Evidently that was where he received Billy Bowlegs’ autograph. It is not clear who Miss V. Gibbon was. It is easy to speculate that she must have been a relative and must have had the autograph framed for John Gibbon as a gift.

Gibbon’s senior officer at Fort Brooke, was Capt. John Casey, who had earned the respect of the Seminoles and a reputation as a fair and honest man. Casey knew Billy Bowlegs and had many dealings with him. In July 1849, a handful of renegade young Seminoles attacked a settlement at Lake Worth and, a few days later, a trading post at Paynes Creek southeast of Tampa. They killed three men and wounded others. Casey sailed down to talk with Billy Bowlegs, who eventually gave the young marauders up to the Army authorities. Casey assisted with the charting of southwest Florida by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Casey Key, north of Venice, is named for him.

Capt. Casey died in Florida and his body was sent out on the same ship that took Bowlegs and his people to New Orleans. Billy Bowlegs was paid $10,000 by the U.S. government to move out west. He became a prominent chief in Indian Territory. He was quite wealthy and held 50 slaves, putting him on a par with major Southern planters.

Gibbon went on to distinguished service during the Civil War, during which he received several battlefield promotions, and ended up a general. Even though his family lived in North Carolina and his brothers joined the Confederacy as officers, Gibbon remained in the Union Army. He trained volunteers and saw action at Antietam and South Mountain, where his brigade earned the nickname the Iron Brigade for their fierce fighting.

He was wounded at Fredericksburg, returned to fighting at Chancellorsville, and led a division at Gettysburg, where his troops stopped Pickett’s Charge. He attended the ceremony at which President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. His troops blocked the Confederate escape at Appomattox and he was involved in arranging the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Later, he commanded troops in the west. He arrived at Little Bighorn River after George A. Custer’s defeat, where his  troops rescued soldiers still under siege and helped bury the dead. Still later, he commanded troops against Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce tribes in Montana. Gen. Gibbon was forced to retire at age 65. Later, he was president of the Iron Brigade Association, and commander-in-chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States until his death in 1896.

Lt. Slemmer defended Florida's Fort Pickens

It is the birthday of Adam J. Slemmer (1828), who is best known in Florida history for defending Fort Pickens at the beginning of the Civil War. Slemmer was a lieutenant left in charge of a small contingent of troops at Fort Barrancas at Pensacola Harbor while his commanding officer was on vacation. When Florida seceded and it appeared that the Pensacola Navy Yard was going to be surrendered to the Confederates, Slemmer moved his troops across the bay to the vacant Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, a position he considered more defensible if shooting broke out. The rest of Pensacola was occupied by Southern troops but Fort Pickens remained under Union control throughout the war. Slemmer went on to become a brigadier general and died at age 40 while in command of Fort Laramie in Wyoming.

Happy birthday, General Stonewall Jackson

It is the birthday of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson (1824), who is remembered as one of the most talented tactical commanders in U.S. history for his Civil War victories at Chancellorsville, First Battle of Bull Run, Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He was wounded by friendly fire at Chancellorsville and his arm had to be amputated. He died from pneumonia eight days later. Researchers recently concluded that a full moon silhouetted Jackson on the night he was killed and he was mistaken for an enemy soldier.

Happy birthday, General Longstreet

It is the birthday of Confederate General James Longstreet (1821), who earned great respect as a trusted officer of Robert E. Lee during the Civil War but was vilified after the war for his support of the Republican Party and campaigning for his friend Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. He distinguished himself at the Battles of First and Second Bull Run and later at Antietam and Fredericksburg. But he disagreed with Lee’s tactics and reluctantly directed Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, which ended in defeat. After the war, Longstreet wrote critically of Lee, and earned enmity throughout the south. Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him ambassador to Turkey and William McKinley named him U.S. railroad commissioner.

Happy birthday, Col. John Mosby

It is the birthday of colorful Civil War figure John Singleton Mosby (1833), who commanded a Confederate unit in Virginia known as Mosby's Rangers, which gained a reputation for its lightning-fast raids and its ability to elude Union troops and disappear into the countryside among farmers and ranchers. Mosby became known as The Gray Ghost. After the war, Mosby worked in the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant and served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway called Mosby the best cavalry officer of the Civil War. Does anybody remember the TV show based on Mosby's exploits?

Happy birthday, Gen. George Custer

It is the birthday of General George A. Custer (1839), whose reputation as an aggressive and fearless military leader during the Civil War was overshadowed by his defeat and death at the hands of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876. Custer was a brash and colorful figure who cultivated publicity and dressed in flamboyant uniforms. Historians still debate the causes of Custer's Last Stand, but by all accounts Custer's troops were vastly outnumbered. Custer wrote about the Indian wars in My Life on the Plains (1874). After his death, Custer's  wife published several books about her husband, including Boots and Saddles, Life with General Custer in Dakota (1885), Tenting on the Plains (1887), and Following the Guidon (1891).

Judah P. Benjamin was CSA cabinet member

Benjamin appeared on the CSA two-dollar bill. Top left: Gamble Mansion in Ellenton, where Benjamin hid.

It is the birthday of Judah P. Benjamin (1811), who served in several cabinet positions for the Confederate States of America. He was born in the West Indies but came with his family to the United States and became a citizen. While serving as U.S. senator from Louisiana, Benjamin felt insulted by something Sen. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi said about him on the Senate floor so he challenged Davis to a duel. Davis apologized and the two became close friends. When Louisiana seceded from the Union, Benjamin resigned his post. CSA President Jefferson Davis appointed Benjamin Attorney General, then later Secretary of War and then Secretary of State. When the Confederacy collapsed, Benjamin and other cabinet members fled to escape prosecution. Benjamin took refuge at the Gamble Mansion in Ellenton near Bradenton and eventually escaped to the Bahamas and traveled to England, where he became a successful corporate lawyer. Benjamin wrote Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property (1868), still considered an important work in commercial law in England.

Happy birthday, Ambrose Bierce

It is the birthday of writer Ambrose Bierce (1842), who is best remembered for his short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1891), a riveting tale about a Southern planter who is executed for conspiring to destroy a railroad bridge during the Civil War. The story's structure is unusual because a long period of time from the protagonist's point of view passes in an instant. It has been adapted numerous times for radio, television, and the movies. Bierce was a columnist for Hearst's San Francisco Examiner and is credited with foiling an attempt by the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads to get a bill through Congress excusing their $130 million loan from the federal government to build the First Transcontinental Railroad. Bierce is said to have mysteriously disappeared while he was with Pancho Villa's army during the Mexican Revolution.

Why we celebrate Memorial Day

Originally Memorial Day was Decoration Day, a designated ritual of decorating the graves of war dead. It began more or less informally before the Civil War, but after the war it became a more institutionalized but still unofficial observance, usually held on May 30. The name Memorial Day was first used in 1882. Not all the states joined in. It wasn't until 1967 that Congress made Memorial Day a national holiday and put it on the last Monday in May to create a three-day weekend. [Congress also created three-day weekends with Washington's Birthday (February), Columbus Day (October) and Veterans Day. (October)] The law took effect in 1971. [In 1978, Veterans Day was moved back to November 11.] An early annual Memorial Day-like observance was Reunion Day in Boston, The 1896 celebration was depicted in Henry Sandham's painting The March of Time (above), in which nationally known Civil War-era figures were shown, including General William Tecumseh Sherman, Colonel Benjamin Harrison, and Julia Ward Stowe. The artist was a Canadian but he lived in Boston and painted many American historical scenes. Happy Memorial Day!

Happy birthday, MacKinlay Kantor

MacKinlay Kantor

It is the birthday of writer MacKinlay Kantor, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for Andersonville (1955), his novel depicting the people at a Confederate prisoner of war camp during the Civil War. The book tells the story from the points of view of many of those at the camp, including the commandant, Union prisoners, and Confederate officers. Some characters are fictional and some are real. Some of the real characters are based on memoirs published many years later.

Kantor was born McKinlay but he added an "a" to his name because he thought it sounded more Scottish. His first name was Benjamin but while he was still a lad he decided he wanted to be called MacKinlay or just Mack. His mother was the editor of a small-town Iowa newspaper. His father abandoned the family  before he was born.

Beginning in 1928, Kantor wrote stories for pulp magazines. His first novel, Diversey, was also published that year. His stories appeared in Real Detective Tales and Mystery Stories and in Detective Fiction Weekly. Kantor broke into the slick magazines in 1935, when one of his stories appeared in Collier's.

As a boy, Kantor had been fascinated listening to the stories of Civil War veterans. He began collecting first-hand narratives. During the 1930s, he wrote about the war. His novel Long Remember (1934) was set during the Battle of Gattysburg. Kantor served as a correspondent in London during World War II, where he interviewed wounded soldiers who told him their only goal was to get home alive. After the war, he wrote a novel in blank verse, Glory for Me (1945), about the returning soldiers. The title was taken from lyrics to a Protestant hymn. Later screenwriter Robert Sherwood wrote the script for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) based on Kantor's book. The film won 13 Academy Awards, including one for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Kantor and his wife built a house on Siesta Key (off Sarasota) in 1937. At the time, Siesta Key had few residents and was largely a jungle. Kantor died in Sarasota in 1977. The MacKinlay Kantor Room exhibit at the Sarasota History Center reproduces his office from a photograph that appeared in Life magazine. It contains his desk, and his books, paintings, and photographs.

Stonewall Jackson: Great tactical commander

Gen. Jackson

It is the birthday of Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (1824), who is hailed for his bold leadership in the First Battle of Bull Run, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and particularly for his Valley Campaign, where his forces enveloped the Union Army at Chancellorsville. He is considered one of the greatest tactical commanders in American history. He started at the bottom of his class academically at West Point, but through hard work and determination graduated in the top half of his class. He served in the Mexican-American War and received two field promotions for his actions. His nickname came after the First Battle of Bull Run, when his brigade stood firm against the onslaught of Union forces, suffering more casualties that day than any other Confederate brigade. Scholars still debate whether another general's exclamation that Jackson's forces stood like a stone wall was meant as praise or a rebuke.

For Memorial Day, a tale of two wars

On this Memorial Day weekend we pause to consider two volumes about different wars, both of which affected Florida’s history. The first is a remembrance of the Civil War in Florida written by the wife of a Confederate cavalry officer. The second is an infantry drill manual in use several decades earlier during the Second Seminole War.

J.J.Dickison

J.J. Dickison was a celebrated militia officer, whose exploits during the Civil War in protecting interior Florida west of the St. Johns River became the stuff of legend. His forces engaged in raids, battles, forced marches and scouting expeditions throughout the war. He is even said to have captured a Union general. His second wife, Mary Elizabeth, published a book called Dickison and His Men in 1890. A copy of it is in the collection of rare and unusual books at Lighthouse Books, ABAA.

The detailed accounts in the book led to some speculation that Dickison himself actually wrote the book and put his wife’s name on it to keep from seeming immodest. Such ideas didn’t deter the Ocala Banner from calling her “a gifted lady.” Publication of Dickison's book, Military History of Florida, nine years later seemed to give some credence to the notion that Dickison simply dictated the earlier book. Regardless, both volumes remain sought-after references for students of Florida’s Civil War history.

Dickison’s fame seems to have risen from his knack for successful tactics against the invading Union troops. Indeed, Southern newspapers dubbed him the Southern Swamp Fox after the Revolutionary War hero, Francis Marion, because of his effective use of surprise attacks and swift action. Dickison’s forces galloped quickly up and down the western shore of the St. Johns River striking and repelling Union troop advances at will.

Perhaps his most famous exploit was the capture and burning of the Federal gunboat Columbine in the Battle at Horse Landing on May 23, 1864. It is said to be the only known incident in which a cavalry unit sank an enemy gunboat. Dickison’s troops waited hidden in the trees at a narrow bend in the river. With the gunboat less than 60 yards from shore, his forces, supported by artillery, fired barrage after barrage until the Union forces finally surrendered. The Federals had been devastated. Dickinson took 60 soldiers prisoner and captured weapons, large artillery pieces and food supplies.

Dickison was known for having few casualties among his men during the war. That record, however, did not keep his oldest son, Charles, from being killed by a captured Union soldier who had concealed a weapon.

Officers for a war less than 30 years earlier might have benefited from Dickison’s tactics, not that they would have listened. In 1830, Major General Winfield Scott headed an all-star officers’ board commissioned with the task of creating a training manual for infantry troops. The manual was in use when the Second Seminole War started in 1835, and gives with great detail directions on marching, loading, and advancing in line and close ranks, a style of fighting that had been popular in Europe for eons. A copy of Abstract of Infantry Tactics, Including Exercises and Maneuvers of Light-Infantry and Riflemen, for the Use of the Militia of the United States (whew!) is in the collection of rare and unusual books at Lighthouse Books, ABAA.

Given the Army's record in Florida against the Seminoles, Scott’s tactics might not have been anything to brag about. The Seminole War became the most expensive Indian war in history, and the Seminoles were never defeated. Nevertheless, Scott did go on to become a national hero, distinguishing himself in the Mexican-American War. Scott held the record of serving on active duty as a general longer than any other man in American history. He was known as “Old Fuss and Feathers,” and he once ran for president, although he wasn’t elected.

Also on Scott’s manual board was another stellar military man, General Zachary Taylor, who really didn’t do any better than Scott in the Florida wars, but also became a hero of the Mexican-American war. Taylor, too, ran for president and was elected. He was known as “Old Rough and Ready.” Maybe voters liked his nickname better.