Today’s post is by John LeGloahec, Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives in College Park, MD.
Last Saturday marked the 164th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, which started on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded the Union fort, Fort Sumter in South Carolina. There are a number of properties in the National Register, specific to the Civil War, including the Fort Sumter National Monument on Sullivan’s Island (National Archives Identifier 118997350), “established in 1948 to commemorate the historical events at or near Fort Sumter during the Civil War. Fort Sumter is located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In 1960, Fort Moultrie and its related structures were added. Construction 230 and Battery Jasper were added to the Monument in 1967, These units are located on West Middle Street, Sullivan’s Island, one mile northeast of Fort Sumter. This concentration of interrelated structures portrays one of the finest examples of the evolution of coastal defense systems in America from 1776 to the present. Fort Moultrie today is the administrative headquarters for the Monument under the National Park Service.”
“Perhaps no area in America embraces the evolution of harbor fortifications as well as Fort Sumter National Monument. Strategically located at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, the first Fort Moultrie was the scene of a victory on June 28, 1776, that prevented the British from quenching the American Revolution in its early stages. The second Fort Moultrie occupied almost the same site from 1794 – 1804 as war clouds in Europe posed numerous threats to America. The third Fort Moultrie, completed in 1811, played its most significant role during the Civil War, On December 26, 1860, Union Major Robert Anderson evacuated the fort to occupy the new Fort Sumter one mile southwest in Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter was built as a defensive counterpart to Fort Moultrie, With the question of peace or Civil War centered on Fort Sumter, the guns of Fort Moultrie helped drive Major Anderson out of the fort during the opening battle of the War, April 12 -13, 1861, As the symbol of secession and Southern resistance. Fort Sumter was heavily damaged by Union rifled guns in 1863-65, which signaled the end of obsolete masonry forts with many guns. However, Fort Moultrie was able to keep the lifeline of the Confederacy open until February 1865. During rehabilitation of these forts in the 1870’s, larger guns were spaced farther apart, powder magazines were built underground and closer to the guns. As armament evolved to breech-loading, rapid-fire weapons. Batteries Jasper and Huger were built in the Spanish-American War era. These huge concrete structures could also withstand the more powerful naval armament. To protect minefields, smaller batteries such as Bingham, McCorkle, and Lord were developed. In World War II, the logical culmination in the evolution of harbor fortifications was the employment of electronic detection equipment of the Harbor Entrance Control Post with nearby defensive guns. Coastal fortifications, as such, have been replaced by roving missiles and electronic surveillance. Presently, the Navy uses Construction 230 as a base for its Shipboard Electronics Systems Evaluation Facility. The structures of Fort Sumter National Monument, whether large or small, have played a substantial role in safeguarding the Charleston area through nearly 200 years of history and seven years.”
You can search for Civil War battlefields in the National Register, to find the Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield Historic District in Petersburg, Virgina (National Archives Identifier 41680427) or the Port Hudson National Historic Landmark in Louisiana (National Archives Identifier 73972813), where “two regiments of the Louisiana Native Guards of Free Colored, the 1st and the 3rd, participated in a Union assault on Port Hudson, a Confederate stronghold on the lower Mississippi, in 1863. These black troops had evoked considerable discussion and speculation in the North, in Banks’ Military Department, in Washington, and throughout military circles as to their value as fighting troops. The question, “Will the Negro fight?” had yet to be answered so far as many onlookers were concerned. The black troops were aware of this challenge and welcomed the decision to use them in a severe test where they could demonstrate their fighting ability.”
“The 1st Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards was comprised of free black men who were the elite black population of New Orleans and nearby areas. They had an average net worth of $25,000 per man. Many of them were well above the average in intelligence and followed skilled occupations. The outfit had been authorized and its officers commissioned by Confederate Governor Moore of Louisiana in 1861. When New Orleans capitulated to the Federal Government, 26 April 1863, the organization offered its services to General Benjamin Butler who recognized it, commissioned its officers, and encouraged the organization of other similar units into what was called the Corps d’Afrique. All of the line officers of the organization were black men of substance and influence in the community, many of literary and educational achievement.”
“One of the most popular and efficient officers of this regiment was Captain Andre Cailloux, a black man. A splendid horseman, excellent sportsman, finely educated in Paris and highly polished, he was a leader of the highest quality. Cailloux, a well-to-do man who could certainly have avoided the risks of battle had he chosen to, encouraged his troops for the final attack despite a shattered arm. He died running ahead of them, crying “Follow me,” in French and then in English. Cailloux was honored with a public funeral on 11 July 1863. After a eulogy at St. Rose of Lima Church in New Orleans, a lengthy procession of some thirty-seven black societies and the band of the Forty-Seventh Massachusetts Regiment, Cailloux’s remains were interred with military honors in the Bienville Cemetery. In New Orleans the American flag remained at half mast in his honor for thirty days.”
There are more than 300 references to “Gettysburg” in the National Register files, including the Pennsylvania SP Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District (National Archives Identifier 71995645), which encompasses “3,800 acres of the Gettysburg National Militar y Park, an estimated 1,200 acres of the Borough of Gettysburg, the proposed 1,600 acres of Eisenhower National Historic Site, and an estimated 3,100 acres of Cumberland, Straban, and Mount Joy Townships, other than the Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site. An estimated 9,600 acres comprise the primary battle action area of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2, and 3, 1863. In addition, there are 1,300 acres of East Cavalry Field in Mount Pleasant and Straban Townships where the cavalry battle of July 3, 1863, took place.”
“A Nation’s will is paramount in war. The people’s will to engage and to stay engaged in combat generally determines its final outcome. Of the many wars this Nation has waged, none has had the strength of will and dedication involved as the Civil War, 1861- 1865. President Abraham Lincoln in his “few appropriate remarks” made at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, expressed the Union’s will as a “testing” time. The will of the Union was matched by that of the Confederacy in its attempt to sever its ties from that “. . . nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
“President Lincoln referred to Gettysburg as one of those places where men – Union men ” . . . gave their lives that that nation might live. ” The question can then be asked if Gettysburg would be the place and time during the Civil War when the will of this Nation and that of the Confederacy was influenced to such an extent that we can say the Battle of Gettysburg was “. . . the most eventful struggle of the war.”” “This was exactly what Jefferson Davis wrote in 1881 in referring to this battle in his “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,” He went on to say that “. . . to beat that army (the Union Army of the Potomac) was probably to secure our independence,” and that the battle had “. . . revived . . . the drooping spirit of the North.” From this time until the end of the war, the momentum was with the North. The results of the Battle of Gettysburg depressed the morale of the Confederacy and heightened that of the Union. Psychologically, Gettysburg was “the greatest battle of the war.” At Gettysburg on July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, more men died than in any other battle fought before or since on North American soil. Here the Confederacy saw its greatest offensive turned back, saw its splendid army retreat to Virginia with no gain to match its valor and terrible sacrifices. Here for the first time in the war, the men in the Union Army of the Potomac rose up from their lines after the battle and cheered, aware that they had repulsed the hardest hammering that Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia could give them.”
In Virginia, where many of the Civil War battles took place, including one of the opening battles, at Bull Run as well as the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, there is a Multiple Property Sites entry (National Archives Identifier 41678960), along with several other Virgina properties. The “Manassas National Battlefield Park [National Archives Identifier 41682705] occupies 4,522 acres in Prince William and Fairfax counties, Va. Included are lands presently held by the United States in fee as well as lands authorized by Congress for fee and scenic easement acquisition. On the east and north the authorized park boundary for the most part parallels Bull Run (the county line) 900′ into Fairfax Co. The great majority of the park lies across the run in Prince William Co. The boundary extends southwesterly from Sudley Springs, the northernmost area of the park, to the western edge of the park along Va. Rt. 705. From where this road intersects U.S. Rt. 29/211, the boundary extends eastward along the latter to Groveton, thence south to Interstate 66, thence east along the north side of the interstate to the first road crossing east of Bull Run (which forms a portion of the park boundary in Fairfax Co. mentioned above). Excluded from the closed figure thus roughly described are Sudley Church near the north corner of the park, a private cemetery northwest of Groveton, a residential area south of Groveton, the Manassas Campus of the Northern Va. Community College, and tracts on both sides of the Va. 234 interchange with I-66.”
“The battlefield park is of gently rolling topography. Elevations range from a low of about 150′ on Bull Run in the southeast corner of the park to 330′ in the western sector. The steepest inclines are bluffs along the west bank of Bull Run. The remains of an earthen Confederate field fortification, Rodgers Battery, and rifle trenches are visible atop such bluffs midway between U.S. 29/211 and 1-66. Some evidence of the five fords across Bull Run within the present park boundary are present. A particularly significant manmade topographical feature is the unfinished Manassas Gap Railroad line running through the park from near the north corner to the western boundary in a northeast-southwest direction. The cuts and fills of the railroad grade provided defensive cover for “Stonewall” Jackson’s corps during Pope’s attack at Second Manassas.”
“Manassas National Battlefield Park is significant as the site of two important battles of the American Civil War. Here on July 21, 1861, was fought the first major engagement of the war, a Confederate victory that prompted greater Federal preparedness and resolve; and here in late August 1862 a second Confederate victory paved the way for the first invasion of the North, which culminated in the battle of Antietam and the withdrawal of Lee’s forces. Much of the battlefield is preserved as it was then. Those who fought here are commemorated by several monuments. Including two and the remains of a third erected before the end of the war. The battlefield also contains some significant historic archaeological resources, the most important being the remains of the colonial Carter plantation, Pittsylvania.
One of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place in Antietam, Maryland, not far from Washington, DC. The Antietam National Battlefield, (National Archives Identifier 106778400), “is located near the Maryland bank of the Potomac River and along Antietam Creek north and east of the village of Sharpsburg, Maryland. On September 17, 1862, the Confederates occupied the heights around Sharpsburg, and to them the battle was known as the Battle of Sharpsburg. The Union forces coming westward from Boonsboro crossed the Antietam in the early morning of September 17, 1862, at the Upper or Hitt’s Bridge (presently outside the park), at Pry’s Ford below the Philip Pry farm, and at the Middle Bridge, where Antietam Creek was crossed by the road from Boonsboro to Sharpsburg. The afternoon of the same day, after fierce fighting, the Federals crossed the Antietam at the Lower or Burnside Bridge and at Snavely’s Ford. To the Union forces, the battle was known as Antietam after the creek that meandered through this hilly portion of the Maryland countryside. North of Sharpsburg, Confederate lines of defense spread out along the Hagerstown Pike where early morning fighting of September 17 centered around the Poffenberger farm; the Miller farm, especially In the Miller Cornfield; the West Woods, the East Woods, the North Woods, and the Dunker Church. Midday the battle moved southeastward to the areas of the Piper, Mumma, and Roulette farms, and centered in the area of the Sunken Road, known to history as Bloody Lane. In the afternoon the fighting moved south of the Boonsboro-Sharpsburg Road first to the area around the Lower or Burnside Bridge, then up the heights across the Antietam through the Sherrick and Otto farms, until in the evening, the battle ended with the Federals almost at the edge of Sharpsburg at the present Hawkins Zouaves Monument near the Harpers Ferry-Sharpsburg Road. Present boundaries of the battlefield park include the area east of Antietam Creek up to the Boonsboro-Sharpsburg Road and the Philip Fry farm where Major General George B. McClellan, commander of the Union army, had his headquarters. The area of the battlefield also includes the Antietam National Cemetery at the eastern edge of Sharpsburg on the Boonsboro Road where 4,776 Federal soldiers are buried.”
Located just outside the National Battlefield, within the area west of Sharpsburg, is “the path of Lee’s retreat after the battle to Blackford’s Ford across the Potomac, the Confederate Heights above Sharpsburg, now subdivided for a housing development, and the Stephen Grove house where Lincoln was photographed with McClellan after the battle. The village of Sharpsburg itself contains many remaining historic houses which stood during the battle, as does Keedysville to the east of the battlefield.” [frequent readers of these posts will note that I often close these posts with a presidential picture – it’s not usual that I get to use one of Abraham Lincoln! – JL]
I also want to put in a plug here for NARA’s Access to Archival Databases (AAD), which also has a series of records available for searching, Records About Civil War Battle Sites, created, 1990 – 1993, documenting the period 4/12/1861 – 5/13/1865 – Record Group 48. These records are available on AAD at https://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-list.jsp?cat=WR25.
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring records from the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and National Historic Landmarks Program Records, 2013 – 2017 (National Archives ID 20812721), a series within Record Group 79: Records of the National Park Service.