Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #37
By Tonya Graham McQuade
BLAST OFF!
The book is now available on Amazon!
Here's the LINK. Woohoo!
To celebrate the anticipated book launch of A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri, I will be doing a ten-day "countdown," which will include brief excerpts from the book. Each excerpt will focus on a different topic that you will learn more about by reading the book. I hope you'll follow along each day to see the newest addition, then buy the book from Amazon on Feb. 1 to read more! You can also check out my new website, tonyagrahammcquade.com, for more information on this book and some of my other projects, as well as to see related photos from my book and research trips.
10 days until Book Launch!
Today's excerpt gives you a glimpse at how James Calaway Hale’s three-year journey through the Civil War began:
On August 30, James left home and boarded the Hannibal-St. Joseph Railroad line – which had been completed in 1859 to connect Missouri’s second and third largest cities – to begin his journey to St. Louis. That was the same railroad that had been attacked by the bushwhackers almost exactly one year earlier, which they would continue to target throughout the war. In St. Louis, James reported to Benton Barracks to be mustered into service on September 5, 1862, in the 33rd Regiment, Missouri Infantry, Volunteers, Company H, under the command of Col. William A. Pile. With him, along with his extra clothes, toiletries, and shaving kit, he carried a flag his daughter Mary Ann had made for him. It was not a full-size flag, with just nine stars set on a patch of blue, and three red and two white stripes, each about an inch and a half wide. The whole flag measured just 9” by 14”, but it was just the right size for him to fold up and keep in his pocket as he marched along. He carried it with him for all three years of the war.
If you want to know more about James’s three year journey through the Civil War, first in the 33rd Missouri Infantry Volunteers and later in the Invalid Corps, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County Missouri, available Feb. 1 on Amazon!
9 Days - Unidentified Soldier, 33rd Missouri Infantry, at Benton Barracks
(from Library of Congress Collection)
9 days until Book Launch!
In today's excerpt from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County Missouri, I share a passage from one of James C. Hale’s first letters to his family. Written November 28, 1862, from Houston, Texas County, Missouri, here James describes the conditions he encountered as he and his regiment marched through southern Missouri. While I corrected much of the spelling in his letters and added punctuation, I tried to keep his “voice,” as you will see:
I have never seen a Rebel yet that I know to be one. They have all left this part. They is four Regiments of us that goes together. We have six cannons. They is one company of cavalry and the rest is infantry. They is no use for infantry to travel through a country such as this. You may travel all day and not pass a half dozen houses and only cabins at that. It is the poorest and barrenest and rockiest and hilliest land and not much water, but where they is water, it is good. It looks to me that women and children will suffer here in this part of the country, for the army is killing all the hogs and cattle that is close around where they camp. I have never killed nothing since I left. They are burning all the rails from round the farms wherever they go. We left the 99th Illinois Regiment at Hartville, and they had sent their teams to Rolla for provisions – twenty-five teams, six mules, to a wagon – and the last day we marched we met the teams going on to their Regiment. They was about a hundred men of them all. They had two wagons loaded with blankets and other clothing for the soldiers, and that night they was all taken by a band of guerillas, several men killed. They got near two hundred mules and horses, and them they did not kill, they stripped and let them go and burnt they wagons. That is the report. Now our teams is gone after the Regiment. They will be here tomorrow night if no bad luck, and then we will know all about it.
If you want to know more about James’s experiences and insights as he marched through Missouri, Kentucky, and Arkansas, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County Missouri, available Feb. 1 on Amazon!
8 Days: This mural in Centralia, Missouri, depicts another of the Confederate
guerrillas' infamous acts: The Centralia Massacre
8 days until Book Launch!
In yesterday's excerpt from one of James C. Hale’s letters, you could read his take on one guerrilla attack. In today’s excerpt from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County Missouri, you learn a bit more about Missouri’s guerrilla fighters (aka. Bushwhackers). They played a big part in the Civil War in Missouri:
Jackson County was the home of William Clarke Quantrill – and of the guerrilla leaders, many believed he was the most ruthless. Quantrill had fought with Gen. Sterling Price’s army at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and Lexington, but he had since deserted. In the last days of September of 1861, he formed his own “army” of loyal men known as “Quantrill’s Raiders.” Among his men were William “Bloody Bill” Anderson, Frank and Jesse James, and Cole Younger. He and his men were responsible for numerous brutal attacks throughout both Missouri and Kansas. Despite this, he was elevated officially to the rank of captain by the Confederate government after participating in the First Battle of Independence in August 1862, and his raiders – considered outlaws by the U.S. government – were officially recognized as a troop by the Confederacy. He and most of his men, however, were still in Independence at the time of the Battle of Lone Jack, celebrating their victory and looting the surrounding area. Only 18-year-old Cole Younger was present in Lone Jack; and ironically, it was he who helped save the wounded Union Major Emory Foster and his injured brother from being executed by a drunk and vengeful Confederate bushwhacker.
If you want to know more about Quantrill’s Raiders and the role guerrilla fighting - as well as Frank and Jesse James and the Younger brothers - played in Missouri (and Kansas, just across the border), be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri on Feb. 1 on Amazon!
7 Days: James C. Hale spent a lot of time at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, MO
7 days until Book Launch!
Today’s excerpt from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri includes another passage from one of James’s letters. Here, he describes his arrival in Columbus, Kentucky, and talks a bit about the Battle of Belmont (involving Belmont, Missouri, and Columbus, Kentucky). You'll also see him use him favorite word for secessionists - "Seesech":
We left the Benton Barracks on the 23rd of December [1862] and landed at Columbus, Hickman County, on the Mississippi twenty-five miles below Cairo, where we are stationed in a large fort which the Seesech built and fortified. They left in June and burnt all of their huts up, but their breastworks is all here yet for three miles. They had a fight here last summer, and they killed a great many of our men. Missouri is on the other side of the river, and they had their big guns planted up on the Kentucky side on a high bluff and shot our men over in Missouri. They just slayed the Union troops, but the Union holds this large fort now. It would take several thousand to take this place now. They is about twenty thousand soldiers here. The Seesech was close here last week. They expected a battle every day for several days, but the Union soldiers have come in so fast that they backed out. They may come again, but if they do, they will have a happy time of it. Our troops have large cannons planted all round the breastworks and gun boats in the River, so I don’t think they will undertake us.
If you want to know more about the Battle of Belmont and James’s time in Kentucky, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri on Feb. 1 on Amazon!
6 Days: A Sketch of the Imperial Warship as it appeared
in the August 8, 1863, edition of Harper's Weekly.
6 days until Book Launch!
While camped in Helena, Arkansas, James C. Hale watched the buildup to the Vicksburg Campaign, which was 175 miles further south along the Mississippi River. In today’s excerpt from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri, he offers his own descriptions of what he sees:
I bought myself a high pair of boots the other day – water proof – so as I could wade deep mud, but it has cleared off and has not rained for over a week. The mud has all dried up, but the River has got up so high that it is all over the bottoms and all over town. I see that canoes is in demand. It is all round the people’s houses. They is but one way now you can get in town, and the soldiers laid timber all over town from the fort to the levy. The boys is catching fish every day out on this back water. The town is right up on the bank of the river. Our quarters is built about two or three hundred yards back next to the bluff, above highwater mark.
I can set in the door and see five or six miles up and down the River. They is no time that you may look up or down that you cannot see people coming or going. They is soldiers going down all the time from Ioway, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, and very near all over the Federal States. They will be a big fight at Vicksburg soon. We heard the Seesech will be evacuating that place, but I don’t believe it. You can’t hear the truth…. I heard about P. Peck falling overboard off of the Imperial [warship] and drowned. She is lying at the wharf ever since we come back from that White River expedition with government provisions on. She is as large as half of Savannah. She is the only boat that stays here all the time. She went up White River, and it looked like in places she filled the river full. They was thirty-two boats and two gunboats went up White River and back one just after the other. It was a beautiful sight. It looked like a traveling city moving along, but that trip all in vain, and that trip was the cause of so many soldiers taking the diarrhea and bad colds, but it is a getting healthier I believe among the soldiers now.
If you want to know more about James's life in Helena, Arkansas, the rising of the Mississippi River, and the buildup to the Vicksburg Campaign, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri on Feb. 1 on Amazon!
5 Days - This Sept. 1862 illustration from "Harper's Weekly,"
titled "The Influence of Women," shows the important role many women
played in nursing the sick and wounded
5 days until Book Launch!
Did you know two-thirds of those who died in the Civil War died from sickness and disease, rather than fighting? Today’s excerpts from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County Missouri talk about sickness in the camps and reveals a bit about James’s personal battle - which by mid-June 1863 landed him in the hospital:
James began battling sickness – first a bad cold and diarrhea, then rheumatism – after his regiment’s return, but he wrote to his family that he was determined to “keep heart” and fight to get his health back. He purchased his own “notions,” or medicines, in an effort to treat his symptoms and improve his health. He wanted to get home to see Lizza and the children again, as well as meet his new grandson, James Henry Petree, born February 19, 1863. He wanted to live to enjoy happier days together in years to come.
As he wrote on March 8: “My Rheumatism is giving me pain in my back and hip, so I can’t go with the Regiment [as part of the Yazoo River expedition]. I bought some medicine so that if I get sick, I can take care of myself. If a man gets a little sick and gives up, he will die certain. Lots of men have died, but I never give up. I am in good spirits and I will keep, so that is half the battle.”
If you want to know more about how James C. Hale fared after being sent to the General Hospital at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County Missouri on Feb. 1 on Amazon!
4 Days - Poster advertising for men to join the Invalid Corps
4 days until Book Launch!
While at Benton Barracks General Hospital, James witnessed the traumatic battle injuries many soldiers experienced, as well as the sicknesses and diseases that took the lives of many others. He himself suffered from severe diarrhea, stomach pain, and rheumatism, but fortunately he eventually recovered enough to be transferred into the “Invalid Corps,” later renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps. Today’s excerpt from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri explains a bit about what that entailed::
The duties of the Invalid Corps, later renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps in March 1864, were “chiefly to act as provost guards and garrisons for cities; guards for hospitals and other public buildings, and as clerks, orderlies, etc. If found necessary, they may be assigned to forts, etc.” James writes in his letters about serving guard duty on various occasions, as well as helping with sweeping, cooking, and other basic chores.
Corp members included men who had lost limbs or eyes, suffered from rheumatism (as did James) or epilepsy, were experiencing other chronic illnesses or diseases, or were traumatized by what we now call PTSD. Soldiers were, by this time, in short supply – and wounded and ill soldiers who previously would have likely been granted a medical discharge were needed to serve guard duty, do supply runs, escort and watch over prisoners of war, assist with clerical work, march in parades, and help with cooking and cleaning – thus freeing up other able-bodied soldiers for the front lines. By the end of the war, more than 60,000 men served in this Corps, in more than twenty-four regiments of troops.
If you want to know more about James C. Hale’s time in the Veteran Reserve Corps in St Louis, MO, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri on Feb. 1 on Amazon!
3 Days - The Burning of Columbia, South Carolina
3 days until Book Launch!
Today's excerpt from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri introduces Benjamin Petree, brother of Bailis (my great-great grandfather), who was drafted toward the end of the war and had to leave his wife at home with three young children – ages 3, 2, and 7 months. Here is a passage from a letter he wrote after marching through the Carolinas with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman:
The campaign has been a complete success and accomplished all that was ever expected of it. We have marched through South Carolina, our army in four columns desolating a very large scope of country, taking all the principal cities in our route, among which was Columbia, the capitol of the state, and causing the Rebels to evacuate Charleston and Wilmington, which our forces heretofore had been unable to take, subsisting our army nearly altogether off of the rebels. We have marched more than half way through North Carolina, and we are now only a little more than thirty miles from Raleigh, the capitol of this state.
We will be apt to stay here a few weeks and recruit up a little when we expect to start again. Some of our men were in very bad condition when we arrived here. Some of them have marched as much as three hundred miles barefooted and when we got through, just about one half were without shoes and some without any clothes except what they picked up on the road. All of us threw away our overcoats, and some of them threw away blankets, knapsacks, and everything else that lighten them up on their weary march.
If you want to learn more about Benjamin's experiences as part of Sherman’s March to the Sea and his Carolinas Campaign, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri on Feb. 1 on Amazon! You can also read more about the book and see more related photos on my new website - tonyagrahammcquade.com.
The surrender of Gen. Joe Johnston near Greensboro, N.C. April 26th 1865
2 days until Book Launch!
(Though the book is really available Feb. 1 - tonight - at midnight, so apparently my countdown was off. Oops! I should have started a day earlier! It's two days until my Zoom Book Launch presentation on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. - let me know if you want me to email you the Zoom link!)
Today's excerpt from A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri talks a bit about what happened AFTER the war’s end. Did you know Sherman and Johnson became good friends?
After Johnston’s surrender, Sherman – the man whose armies had caused so much destruction and devastation throughout the South – set to work helping to remedy the economic situation in the South. He “issued orders ceasing all foraging and ordered commanders to loan captured horses, mules, wagons, and animals to the locals to support farming efforts…. The people in the South … recognized Sherman’s noble intentions, and during reconstruction Sherman would be one of the most respected and reliable northern officials.” Ultimately, Sherman and Johnston struck up a friendship that lasted until Sherman’s death. They escorted Ulysses S. Grant’s casket together through the streets of New York City in 1885, and Johnston served as a pallbearer at Sherman’s funeral in February 1891. Johnston died ten days later after catching a cold during the funeral procession that turned into pneumonia.
If you want to learn more about the various “surrenders” at the end of the war and how Confederate Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith of Missouri didn’t surrender until 45 days AFTER Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, be sure to buy A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri on Feb. 1 on Amazon!
TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT!
A State Divided will be available starting at midnight!
Zoom Book Launch on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m.
Email tonyagrahammcquade@gmail.com for the Zoom link.
1 Day until my Zoom Presentation, but 0 Days until Book Launch!
BLAST OFF!
The book is now available on Amazon - a bit early!
Here's the LINK. Woohoo!
