Civil War & Mexican American War

Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area

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Tennessee is the only state that is also a national heritage area, focused on the Civil War, with four national park units, three other battlefield parks, three Civil War oriented museums, and Andrew Johnson NHS. The nationally established parks cover the history best, but state parks—especially Fort Pillow—are also historically important.

  • 1862 Fort Donelson NB Grant gained access to the Cumberland River in the northwest.
  • 1862 Shiloh NMP Grant won a costly battle, despite a Confederate surprise attack.
  • 1862 Parker’s Cross Roads a failed attempt to block a Confederate retreat.
  • 1862-3 Stones River NB, with slaughter pen & hell’s half acre, a bloody victory.
  • 1863 Chattanooga NMP another Union victory, securing railroads in the southeast.
  • 1864 Fort Pillow a massacre of surrendering black soldiers by Nathan Bedford Forrest.
  • 1864 Battle of Franklin a disaster for the Confederates, especially a dozen or so generals.

Fort Pillow is on a bluff then overlooking a sharp bend in the Mississippi River north of Memphis. It is well sited for firing down at passing ships, but there are several higher hills around the fort, making it defensively weak against a land attack. Nathan Bedford Forrest brought superior troops in number and experience, and attained the element of surprise. The Union leader was shot dead early on by sharpshooters, and his replacement refused to surrender. The battle was soon over, as the Confederates surrounded the fort, moved in and overran the ditch defenses.

Except that the slaughter continued, long after the battle was won.

The state park visitor center at Fort Pillow has a disappointing exhibit that repeatedly describes the 1864 congressionally designated “massacre” as only a “controversy”, displays grandiose portraits of General Forrest, and provides numerous excuses for the one-sided outcome (see below list of dead). Over the years, many apologists—the same who describe the Civil War as a heroic cause for states rights—have tried to defend the actions of the Confederates at Fort Pillow, but there’s nothing honorable about a 20 to 1 slaughter.

The facts—excluded in the museum exhibit—tell the true story. Most of the Union white soldiers were taken prisoner, while almost all of the black soldiers were killed. One of Forrest’s own sergeants described many black soldiers trying to surrender and wrote, “General Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs”. Black soldiers were denied prisoner of war status throughout the war, and the Union stopped prisoner transfers due to this official Confederate policy, clearly stated after Fort Pillow. Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan after the war. The site should be a national battlefield, and the history of Forrest’s massacre of black soldiers told accurately.

Parker’s Cross Roads Battlefield

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This is an affiliate site in Tennessee focused on Nathan Bedford Forrest, who fought most of his Civil War battles in the Volunteer State. At the end of 1862, Forrest was in the midst of his guerrilla warfare destroying railroads, bridges, raiding supplies, recruiting rebels, taking prisoners and attacking the Union. Union troops moved near a key railroad and roadway crossing in the middle of western Tennessee to cut off Forrest’s escape south across the Tennessee River. Forrest attacked, was repelled, and tried to flank the Union troops. But more troops arrived behind him, so he ordered his men to ‘charge both ways’ and withdrew in the confusion. Forrest lost more men in the battle, but he escaped as the Union failed to cut him off.

If you visit the site, you might get the mistaken impression that this was a great victory for Forrest, who is compared with Napoleon in the park film. This is ironic, since ‘Napoleon’ is synonymous with having delusions of grandeur. The grounds are well kept, but there’s not really much to see. The cabin below was moved to the site later, as were examples of cannon and a caisson. There are reenactments held here. There are also many romanticized images of Forrest in the museum. As he later became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, this hagiography of Forrest is both tragic and an embarrassment for the great state of Tennessee, which was divided during the war. Forrest was a brutal leader responsible for perhaps the worst atrocity of the Civil War, which I will summarize next week. History must endeavor to tell the truth.

All Civil War Parks

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The precursor to the Civil War was John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry arsenal in 1859. Lee, Jackson & Jeb Stuart were all there in uniform, before they turned against our country. Douglass & Tubman were not in the raid, although they were involved. Booth arrived to witness Brown’s execution. The government may have quickly restored order in town, but across the country people divided into abolitionists or secessionists. Lincoln, arguing against slavery, was elected in 1860, and southern states began to secede to protect slavery.

The Confederacy raised an army and attacked Fort Sumter in April of 1861. That same month, Union soldiers were attacked by Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore, leading Clara Barton to begin her service as a nurse. In May three escaped slaves were granted protection as ‘contraband’ at Fort Monroe in northern Virginia. Lincoln sent troops south where they were incompetently led into battle at Manassas in Virginia in July. The Confederates also won at Wilson’s Creek but were unable to take Missouri. The Union won at Carnifex Ferry in September, causing West Virginia to split from Virginia and become a state in 1863. In November, the Union Navy took Port Royal South Carolina, liberating 10,000 slaves, many forming the first African American regiment there one year later. 

In January 1862 the Union won at Mill Springs Kentucky, followed the next month by Grant taking Fort Donelson on the strategic Cumberland River in northwest Tennessee. In March the Union won again at Pea Ridge in Arkansas and at Glorietta Pass in New Mexico, supported by Fort Union cavalry. In Tennessee in April, Shiloh (above) was a costly victory, followed by naval victories at Fort Pulaski blockading Savannah Georgia and the capture of New Orleans in Louisiana, where three more African American regiments would form within a year. In May the Union took Yorktown in Virginia, but in June the Union failed in its approach to Richmond. Then in August another loss at Manassas again. The Confederates marched into Maryland, but lost at Antietam in September. In December, the Union failed again in Virginia at Fredricksburg.

On the 1st of January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was read first with immediate effect to the SC 1st Volunteers, freeing them, their families and friends forever. Many more emancipated and free African American men would join the Union army at bases like Camp Nelson in Kentucky, Fort Scott in Kansas, and New Bedford and Boston in Massachusetts. That same winter the Union won at Stones River in Tennessee but lost at Chancellorsville in Virginia in spring. On June 2nd, Union spy Harriet Tubman led 150 African American soldiers to free 700 slaves at Combahee Ferry. Lee marched north again, losing decisively in July at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Grant concluded his siege of Vicksburg the next day, July 4th. In the fall the Union advanced to the border of Tennessee and Georgia at Chattanooga and Chickamauga.

In 1864 the Union took northern Virginia with extensive fighting in Spotsylvania county. Slowly Grant was advancing towards Richmond, at one point outmaneuvering Lee at Petersburg and beginning a long siege of both cities. Meanwhile, Sherman was advancing in Mississippi, despite delays at Brices Cross Roads and Tupelo. In Georgia, Sherman was stopped at Kennesaw Mountain in July, before resuming his march to the sea. With the Confederate capital under siege, Lee ordered a sneak attack on the Union capital in July, crucially delayed at Monocacy in Maryland, after which snipers fired at Fort Stevens in DC. In August, Farragut took the last major southern port of Mobile Bay in Alabama. And in October, the Union defended the Shenandoah Valley at Cedar Creek in Virginia.

In the spring of 1865, after a months-long siege, Lee abandoned both Petersburg and Richmond, retreated and then surrendered in Appomattox in April. Andersonville was liberated in May. The CSS Shenandoah, which circumnavigated the globe during the war seizing African American crews from whaling ships, surrendered in Liverpool England in November, the last act of the war.

All Civil War Battles, Zero Carbon Travel

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The precursor to the Civil War was John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry arsenal in 1859. Lee, Jackson & Jeb Stuart were all there in uniform, before they turned against our country. Douglass & Tubman were not in the raid, although they were involved. Booth arrived to witness Brown’s execution. The government may have quickly restored order in town, but across the country people divided into abolitionists or secessionists. Lincoln, arguing against slavery, was elected in 1860, and southern states began to secede to protect slavery.

The Confederacy raised an army and attacked Fort Sumter in April of 1861. That same month, Union soldiers were attacked by Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore, leading Clara Barton to begin her service as a nurse. In May three escaped slaves were granted protection as ‘contraband’ at Fort Monroe in northern Virginia. Lincoln sent troops south where they were incompetently led into battle at Manassas in Virginia in July. The Confederates also won at Wilson’s Creek but were unable to take Missouri. The Union won at Carnifex Ferry in September, causing West Virginia to split from Virginia and become a state in 1863. In November, the Union Navy took Port Royal South Carolina, liberating 10,000 slaves, many forming the first African American regiment there one year later. 

In January 1862 the Union won at Mill Springs Kentucky, followed the next month by Grant taking Fort Donelson on the strategic Cumberland River in northwest Tennessee. In March the Union won again at Pea Ridge in Arkansas and at Glorietta Pass in New Mexico, supported by Fort Union cavalry. In Tennessee in April, Shiloh (above) was a costly victory, followed by naval victories at Fort Pulaski blockading Savannah Georgia and the capture of New Orleans in Louisiana, where three more African American regiments would form within a year. In May the Union took Yorktown in Virginia, but in June the Union failed in its approach to Richmond. Then in August another loss at Manassas again. The Confederates marched into Maryland, but lost at Antietam in September. In December, the Union failed again in Virginia at Fredricksburg.

On the 1st of January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was read first with immediate effect to the SC 1st Volunteers, freeing them, their families and friends forever. Many more emancipated and free African American men would join the Union army at bases like Camp Nelson in Kentucky, Fort Scott in Kansas, and New Bedford and Boston in Massachusetts. That same winter the Union won at Stones River in Tennessee but lost at Chancellorsville in Virginia in spring. On June 2nd, Union spy Harriet Tubman led 150 African American soldiers to free 700 slaves at Combahee Ferry. Lee marched north again, losing decisively in July at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Grant concluded his siege of Vicksburg the next day, July 4th. In the fall the Union advanced to the border of Tennessee and Georgia at Chattanooga and Chickamauga.

In 1864 the Union took northern Virginia with extensive fighting in Spotsylvania county. Slowly Grant was advancing towards Richmond, at one point outmaneuvering Lee at Petersburg and beginning a long siege of both cities. Meanwhile, Sherman was advancing in Mississippi, despite delays at Brices Cross Roads and Tupelo. In Georgia, Sherman was stopped at Kennesaw Mountain in July, before resuming his march to the sea. With the Confederate capital under siege, Lee ordered a sneak attack on the Union capital in July, crucially delayed at Monocacy in Maryland, after which snipers fired at Fort Stevens in DC. In August, Farragut took the last major southern port of Mobile Bay in Alabama. And in October, the Union defended the Shenandoah Valley at Cedar Creek in Virginia.

In the spring of 1865, after a months-long siege, Lee abandoned both Petersburg and Richmond, retreated and then surrendered in Appomattox in April. Andersonville was liberated in May. The CSS Shenandoah, which circumnavigated the globe during the war seizing African American crews from whaling ships, surrendered in Liverpool England in November, the last act of the war.

Gulf Islands National Seashore (& Admiral Farragut)

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While I like the park and plan to visit it again in warmer weather, the seashore skips over the most important section in the middle. In Mississippi, the park includes the Davis Bayou (photo below) with a nice visitor center and park film, and from mid-March to October you can take a ferry out to Ship Island, look for bottlenose dolphins, explore the beaches and visit a Civil War fort. In the Florida section of the park, there are also birds, long stretches of storm-swept and once segregated beaches, old forts first built by the Spanish and later used by the Confederacy, and another visitor center (closed when I tried to visit) to explore near Pensacola. But the Gulf Islands of Alabama are not part of the national park unit. Forts Gaines and Morgan, the guardians of Mobile Bay, are Alabama State Parks. But that’s where the action was. 

General Grant relied on combined naval and land forces to take Fort Donelson in February 1862, which cut off the Cumberland River from the Mississippi. In April, Flag-Officer David Farragut (depicted by Gaudens above) began his gulf coast campaign by sailing up past the forts guarding the Mississippi and taking New Orleans. After the Union freed the city, three regiments of African American troops were quickly organized, and many of those men first served on the Gulf Islands, helping retake the forts along the gulf coast. In June, Farragut was wounded near Vicksburg. 

The Confederacy’s last large port was Mobile Bay. In 1863 the Union took Vicksburg, but to speed the end the war, now Rear Admiral Farragut needed to sail past the forts guarding Mobile Bay. In 1864, the Confederacy, having learned from their mistakes in New Orleans, had heavily reinforced Mobile Bay’s naval defenses among the many fortifications along the Gulf Coast. Fort Gaines guarded the shallower west side of the bay, and Fort Morgan guarded the deep water ship channel from the east side. The gaps were filled with floating sea-mines, called ‘torpedoes’ at the time. And the port was guarded by the massive ironclad CSS Tennessee, the most powerful warship in the world. 

Farragut had four small new ironclad ‘monitors’ leading his fleet: the Chickasaw, Manhattan, Tecumseh, and Winnebago. He decided to run the gauntlet up the main channel into the large bay, boldly trying to move fast and far enough to get out of range of Fort Morgan’s guns. Under fire from the fort, the Union navy advanced with its ships lashed in pairs with the monitors on the side taking the heaviest fire. Farragut climbed into the rigging to get a view above the thick smoke. The Tecumseh crossed a mine field to engage the Tennessee, exploded one and sank immediately with 93 lost. 

Seeing his fleet hesitating and the Tennessee closing in, Farragut yelled down something to the effect of “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” The remaining monitors surrounded the Tennessee, disabled her and eventually blasted a hole, injuring the Confederate Admiral. The rest of the fleet entered the bay, got behind the forts, and shelled them. The Army, including African American regiments from New Orleans, approached the forts, which surrendered, first Gaines without much of a fight, and then Morgan after a heavy siege. 

Mobile Bay was closed, cutting off supplies to the Confederacy. And the Confederate Army was tied down defending the city, helping open up Sherman’s march to Atlanta. While Alabama’s Gulf Islands are not part of the national park service site, they are in the middle of the line of hurricane barrier islands and sandy peninsulas where this major Civil War battle was fought on land and sea. Admiral Farragut and the Union Navy’s contributions to ending the Civil War must not be forgotten. 

Clara Barton National Historic Site

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The Maryland home was donated by wealthy business partners who wanted to attract people to their lands along the Potomac, and it was built to meet Clara’s specifications. She was all business. The lamp is hung by bandage cloth, and the walls are all supply closets with blankets, food and emergency items. The design is similar to the early Red Cross disaster buildings first used at Johnstown. The top floor windows have Red Cross images so that travelers can see it from the road at night. And the staff had both offices and rooms to live and work. The home is currently empty in preparation for a major restoration, but there are large photos to see what each room looked like furnished.

A week after the Civil War broke out, a contingent of the 6th Massachusetts was attacked in Baltimore while on their way to defend the Capital. Clara Barton tended them in the Senate Chamber with her household materials, and she recognized many as her former students. She asked them to tell their parents to send relief supplies to her, so that she could support the Union’s war effort and care for the wounded. She followed the sounds of battle and pre-positioned wagons of supplies as close to the fighting as possible.

There’s a monument to her in the middle of the bloodiest site at Antietam, where she extracted a bullet from a soldier’s face. She became known as the ‘Angel of the Battlefield’. She followed the fighting for years from Manassas to Spotsylvania, she petitioned Lincoln to help prisoners of war, and she went to Andersonville to walk the thousands of graves identifying ‘missing’ soldiers. Sent to Europe to recuperate, she went to Switzerland to work on getting the US to sign the Geneva Convention and join the International Red Cross. Her tactic was to reframe the Red Cross as also providing disaster relief, and not solely as a war organization, and she prevailed on both. She started First Aid kits and training programs. Her missing soldiers department grew into an important bureau of the Defense Department.

Clara Barton was directly responsible for saving many thousands of lives, and her initiatives save millions. She devoted her life to making this country and the world better and safer. But she never had the right to vote.

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park

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Lincoln wanted “malice toward none” and for the Confederates to return their allegiance to the Union, so he let them all go home, with passes, with their horses and even with Union provisions, as long as they gave up their guns. After his son reported to his father about Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in Virginia, Lincoln went to the theater, believing that his charity would prevent further bloodshed, and that night, only five days after the scene above took place, the President was assassinated.

Contrary to the explanation given here, the Confederacy did not rise in response to “northern aggression”. Fort Sumter was not an act of northern aggression. Secession was not northern aggression. The south insisted that the Fugitive Slave Act apply nationally; so much for states’ rights. Even the pamphlet that attempts to give reasons other than slavery for why the Confederates fought, reveals that it was still about slavery: “submit to Abolitionists”, “lose property”, and “our negroes”. And after the insurrection was defeated and federal troops left, the Klan arose and African Americans have been systematically denied their rights for more than 150 years. No honor in that.

The site is beautifully restored to its 1865 appearance, and there are talented living history actors who bemoan how difficult it will be now that they have to plant and harvest their own crops. Not sure how they can get every fence post to look as it did, but somehow still find it difficult to present the main cause of the war plainly. The film is excellent and explains all the details of the surrender, such as that the signing did not occur in the courthouse but in a nearby house also open to the public. Visiting such a superbly preserved and restored place is a wonderful way to appreciate the scene of such an important historic moment.

Petersburg National Battlefield

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“You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend:
Those with loaded guns, and those who dig.
You dig.”

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Grant recognized that although he might not be able to take Richmond with frontal assaults, he could cut it off by taking the rail junction city of Petersburg on the Appomattox River to the south. Lee had more forces in North Carolina, so Grant needed to keep them separated. Grant poured troops, mortars and supplies into the area to besiege both cities. And most importantly, Grant ordered his men to dig: new defenses and longer trenches, to close the gap with the enemy. Over the winter, the captured Fort Harrison near Richmond was reinforced, clearly in sight of Confederate defenses, and it became part of a line of forts beginning to surround Richmond.

The photo above shows examples of siege fortifications—including the cannon aimed right at you—near Battery 9, captured by African American troops. Lee desperately counterattacked inflicting the worst single regimental loss of the war, on the First Maine Heavy Artillery, but at the next fort, the Union held. By now, Grant had far more troops here than Lee and was proceeding to cut off both cities and attack them simultaneously. To avoid being surrounded and running out of moves, Lee withdrew from both cities and fled west. Richmond had fallen. Grant pursued to block Lee before he could move south. Now the race is on, and Union cavalry victories at the Five Forks Battlefield to the west mark the beginning of the end. No longer behind defensive walls, Lee heads west across country towards a town called Appomattox.

Richmond National Battlefield Park

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Like the Union capital, the Confederate capital was surrounded by a series of forts and fortified trenches, with one complete ring around the city and another outer line of defenses about 2/3 of the way around Richmond. The Confederate earthworks above are massive, up to 15 feet added to the tops of hills, running for miles with deep trenches. In many previous battles, the federal troops staged bloody frontal assaults on similar high-ground, well-defended positions, often losing thousands of men. Going back to the age of castles in Europe, this has proven to be a waste of human lives with little prospect for success. In the Revolutionary War, Lafayette knew that siege warfare against cannon required carefully building successive trenches at night to approach under cover. General Washington listened to him and took Yorktown using that technique.

In 1862, General McClellan tried to take Richmond, leading troops up the York River. Despite fighting at the exact same defenses around Yorktown 75 years after Washington, McClellan still relied primarily on mass frontal assaults without trench cover, revealing a dumbfounding lack of literacy. Robert E. Lee replaced the Confederate commander and executed seven days of battles that forced the Union to retreat from Virginia.

In 1864, after Spotsylvania, Grant tried again at Cold Harbor, again wasting most of 6,000 troops in an hour. Lee was prepared to defend Richmond again from another expected northeast attack, but here at Fort Harrison, Grant managed to swing his troops around to attack from the southeast in a surprise attack on 29 September 1864. General Burnham was killed, but the fort was taken. African American regiments were critical in these Union battles.

This victory gave the Union a chance to control the James River which runs through Richmond, exposing southern rail lines to Union forces, and it forced Lee to redeploy his defensive troops. If Grant could just gain one more victory at Petersburg, he could lay siege to Richmond, which was Lee’s great fear. Richmond was critical to the Confederate war effort.

Even today, Richmond is the hub of Virginia’s road and rail network. The Tredegar Iron Works—now gone—was a massive operation supplying artillery, ammunition, and armor plating for ironclad ships. The large plateau in the city housed its Chimborazo Hospital—now the site of a large park and a small medical museum—and was full of troops in various stages of recovery or not. Disease likely killed more soldiers than battle, as troops who had never been far from home suddenly congregated in close quarters. If Richmond was cut off from the south, then their ships couldn’t sail downriver, and the only safe access would be from the east without rivers, good roads or rail.

The war, blockades, lost slave labor and plantation burnings devastated the Confederate economy, and their currency was nearly worthless. If Richmond became surrounded, the Confederacy might collapse entirely. With one more victory, the war might end.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park

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While this is the longest park name, they could have gone with “Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House Battlefields Memorial National Military Park”. This is the largest military park covering 70 miles and three years of battles. Outside historic Fredericksburg, there are few buildings to see, including the Old Salem Church (another battle site), Ellwood (where Jackson’s left arm is buried) and the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. There are miles of fields, forests, trenches, historic trails, foundations, key military positions, markers, and memorials, with well over 40 tour stops, and there were visitors at every battlefield even until dusk.

Fredericksburg is roughly halfway between DC and Richmond, the Confederate Capital, which explains the numerous, bloody battles fought in the area. Spotsylvania is the name of the county. Fredericksburg was a Union disaster, under General Burnside, who ordered repeated attacks up the steep hills held by entrenched Confederates, but unlike Antietam all attacks failed and ended in retreat. At Chancellorsville—a one house village— the next year, General Hooker had executed an end run around Lee’s forces in the hills above Fredericksburg, but Stonewall Jackson executed an end run around Hooker’s forces. Jackson was killed, but the Union retreated in another defeat. Lee, confident after many victories, went north to Gettysburg. Another year later, General Grant returned to the Wilderness and Court House of Spotsylvania, finally making progress towards Richmond.

Chatham House, the Union HQ where both Clara Barton and Walt Whitman worked in the hospital, has a commanding view of Fredericksburg above, where Union artillery supported the failed assault. Washington, Jefferson and Madison were among the visitors to the wealthy plantation home that predates the country. Lincoln met with some of his generals here during the war. In the 1920’s the owners built a magnificent formal garden, which makes a nice break from the gruesome battlefields. Fredericksburg also has a historic walking tour, with some buildings that predate the Revolution, monuments to founding fathers and a slave auction block.

There is a common factual error in too many park films on the Civil War: that slavery only became an issue when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This conceit defies all plain fact. Lincoln was anti-slavery from childhood and argued against it his entire life, including all his campaigns and in every office he held. The primary political division in the country pre Civil War was about slavery. Most northern states were not only anti-slavery but had worked on ending slavery since the Revolution. The Abolitionist movement began in Europe in the 1770s and was active openly in the north and in secret in the south before the Civil War. Every southern state that seceded, cited preservation of slavery as the reason. Lincoln’s hesitancy in making it official policy at the outset was due to the few northern border states that were still in the gradual process of ending slavery. Lincoln might have accepted a negotiated settlement early in the war, but the Confederates rejected it, being willing to fight to the death to keep their fellow humans in eternal bondage.

General Lee is quoted at the visitor center in Fredericksburg as expressing his sympathy for the white refugees fleeing south, but he apparently had zero regard for the far greater number of black refugees fleeing north. The Fredericksburg park film expresses much anguish for the destruction of pianos and other household goods, but only briefly mentions that 1/4 of the town were slaves when the Union troops arrived to liberate them. Tens of thousands of slaves fled Virginia through here during the war, crossing the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg and getting passes to travel to refugee camps at Fort Monroe and near DC, seeking the safety of the Union. The lost property that the Confederate newspapers bewailed was largely human property.

Those who hold these Confederate generals in high esteem need to ask themselves why their heroes cared so much about the white residents and not at all about the black residents? It’s possible to admire Von Manstein for his strategies and Rommel for his tactics, but it’s not possible to ignore the 6 million Jews their government killed in the Holocaust. The Civil War ended 158 years ago. Moral judgements must be made about the cause of the war and the motives of the participants. The Confederate cause was evil, and we must not make heroes of those who served the cause of slavery. Stonewall Jackson was not a saint, so he does not deserve a shrine on national park land.