A Glimpse at History

Marian Green-1st Michigan Engineers

Fannie Wilson & Nellie graves 24th NJ

Lizzie Compton age 16 of 11th Kentucky Volunteers

Mary Owens Pennsylvania

Frank Henderson (fictious male name) 3rd, 11th &19th Illinios Infantry

Lizzie Cook detected before serving

unknown name, however, story goes she fought entire war alongside men and when the war was finished ,put on her skirt, walked out of her tent, and retired from military service.

Charles Martin (never gave her real female name, drummer in Penn. regiment

No name, however, regimental daughter giving aid on the field to 6th MASS through-out war.

Kadie Brownell 5th Rhode Island Volunteers

Captain Sarah Taylor of the 1st Tennessee

Mrs. G., wife of slain officer, promoted by President of United States to the position of Major in the army.

Miss Major Pauline Cushman-Federal scout and spy

Francis Hook of the 19th Illinois Regiment

Miss Schwartz- age 15 of Missouri

Annie Lillybridge of 21st Michigan Reg.

Mrs. Colonel; Ellis from Tipton- special aid to General Hunter

A bugler in the 8th Michigan also namd Frank

There were African American woman in the 12th Rhode Island

They were aids to officers,nurses,doctors,speakers,farmers; they sewed uniforms, flags, underwear; they were cooks, spys, secret agents, conspirators, government contractors,soldiers,officers; they made weaponry, they were wagon drivers, they started what we now know as the Red Cross…developed triage and ambulatory services. They were storekeepers, mill workers etc. etc. etc.

How many of them are buried as unknown all across this great country just because it wasn’t fashionable or what the popular vote said was what a women was supposed to be doing. When we honor the brave men….we must also honor them…those we will now never know….who gave their last full measure.

Make everyday a Historical one!!!!!!

Savannah

Filed under: Civil War Blogs by Savannah Meade
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Here are a couple that give us something to ponder!

Here in Michigan where unemployment has soared to record highs, foreclosed homes are on every block and not just the ones owned by Union workers being laid off by the Big Three. Many homes in foreclosure are/were owned by people with unbelievable experience and with a solid educational background who were either in a supportive industry to the Automotive, or were self-employed with their own company as a supplier or their company had a supportive role to Automotive. Even with a small percentage invested in that arena right now can take a company out because they are not getting paid for work done months ago (that they have already laid out the money to pay employees, benefits and company expenses while they waited faithfully to be paid) and the government is suggesting the Big Three file bankruptcy. Are we all nuts! The Big Three would be sound, financialy, but anybody that could of bought a vehicle, will be living in a box in a local park! Any way….we must try to remember to pull together, help each other, help your neighbor if you can and never give up!

“Determine never to be idle…It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”  Thomas Jefferson

“Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.”  Thomas Jefferson

And lastly if you are as overwhelmed as I am by the Negative articles, gloom and doom always given to us in the news and newspapers to the point I cannot pick them up and read them, nor can I watch the news often without wondering… because of all the horrible events occurring, according the the news media…why more people aren’t committing suicide like they did in the great depression? Could it be because the newspapers are sensationalizing for sales ( and we are reacting to it by not buying anything making this whole thing worse) or is that why the drug companies are so filthy rich…because we are all on anti-depressants just to handle it because of the media?!!!LOL …Seriously….I seem to only be able to digest one paper right now and that is the Monroe Evening News.

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”  Thomas Jefferson

What amazes me about these quotes are that they still hold true today! They were written so long ago…but the man seemed to have not only a looking glass into the soul of man…but a true grasp as to the snares that lay before that man in government.

Try to have a Historical Day!

Make each day count!           Savannah

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Thought you might like to find out about an interesting newspaper that comes to us out of Landisville, Pa. called Old News. Its a collection of articles every month that explores different historical events, from all sorts of eras. You can find them at www.oldnewspublishing.com. The one I recently recieved had an article on Nazis Seek “Heavy Water” for Atom Bomb… one on the Titanic…one about how a slave disguises herself as a white man and so on.  All different eras that should touch on an era you love. Its worth looking into!!!!!!

Have yourself a Historical Day!!!!!!

Savannah

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First of all the information in this article is a culmination of many articles…(Historical Documentary shows and actual documentation I have had the opportunity to utilize and enjoy). I find this event to be another blunder in the integrity of the American public at large.

It starts because during the 1800’s and, especially you during the Civil War, Medical advances occurring by accident and necessity.  they had become aware of their need to know about the human body to prevent disease and death. However, there is no provision at that time, anywhere that allowed Medical researchers access to Human cadavers to learn upon. Large amounts of money can be made by grave robbing for those willing to dig up dead bodies, and sell them to Medical colleges and the like. Yuck! It was not until later, that a provision was made to allow researchers and medical colleges  rights to take over unclaimed bodies for their research, still, shortages occurred.

Which is a basis for our Lincoln story. It was not such a big business here in the states by the time of Lincoln’s death or there after…(there are recorded incidents of it occurring in Canada and it hit the National News in 1875 in Montreal, proving the practice did still occurr)  It is evident to me that there have been several plans over the years to steal Lincoln’s body. I have found a few different plans of ransoming it for various reasons.  Again, Yuck!!!

This particular plan was concocted in Nov. of 1876 by James Kennally a Chicago business man who wanted to randsom the body for $200,000 in exchange for his friend Ben Boyd to be set free from prison, after being caught for creating a counterfiet $50 dollarbill. Unfortunate for him, he revelaed his plan to a man named Swedges who ran to the Feds and alerted them of the plan. These men knew that the body would be in good shape due to it being enbalmed very well in April 1865. The art of Enbalming a dead persons body began during the Civil War in and around the time of the battle of Antietam, in an attempt to get bodies home to families in good shape, if they had the money to pay for it.  Lincoln had been taken to several locations in the Month following his death and the practice performed on him several times until it was felt the appearance of his body started to become unpleasant. These men knew the 16th president’s, embalmed, body resided in a marble container and were confident only one locked door stood between them and their payday.

They did manage to get into the tomb and pry off the lid of the marble vault, but the coffin was sealed. They attempted to lift off the casket lid to get a glimpse, but it was screwed on and time was running out. As it turns out ,the coffin was lead lined and so heavy that the three men attempting the grave robbery, couldn’t lift it out of the vault. The authorities were waiting due to Swedges.

Soon after the failed caper, the question of how to prevent this from ever happening again was answered.  They placed Lincoln in a moldy basement below the tomb and eventually buried him in a shallow unmarked grave. Mrs. Lincoln was placed there too upon her death in 1882. He remained there for over a decade. This improved in 1887 when the two caskets were reburied in the tomb in a well-protected grave. This hole was filled with tons of concrete.

In 1901 when the Lincoln tomb was refurbished, the coffins were moved again and installed in a new steel box, and a fresh layer of concrete. The men doing this, did take a gander at Ole Abe. They cut a small hole in his box and 22 local citizens checked out he body to make sure he was still there. Abe looked fine. Among the people who examined the body in 1901 was a Springfield resident named Fleetwood Lindley, who died in 1963. He was the last living person to examine the face of the 16th president.

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My last entry concerning Lincoln and a more sinister plot than what History has reported has led to what I thought would turn into a fishing expedition. I have a thesis, that the Radical Republicans also referred to as the “Jacobin Club” which has a violent, vicious background beginning in France in the 1700’s had more to do with Lincoln’s death than Booth himself. Booth just shot the gun! But, I do not want to embellish incorrectly and at this point I am trying to prove myself wrong rather than right. And, thus far, I can not prove that my thesis is wrong. So, for now, this ends. My next entry will be about the plot to steal Lincolns body!!!!!!

Has society really gotten worse! Some of the things our ancesters have done is unbelievable!!!!

Have a historical Day!

Savannah

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Thought I would get you with that! It is a well known fact that Booth is responsible for lodging a bullet into the brain of Lincoln which led to his eventual death. However, bullistic tests suggest that the type of gun used by Booth to shoot the President, the type of ammunition used, at the precise angle and distance Booth was from the President when the gun was fired; the bullet that became lodged in Lincolns skull, but would not have penetrated inward enough to cause his death. It was not until the doctor placed a steal probe into the bullet hole to measure the distance the bullet traveled into the skull that pushed the bullet further, which pierced Lincolns brain and led to his ultimate death? So did Booth really kill President Lincoln, or did Booth fire the gun? And, the doctor actually killed President Lincoln?

I bring this up because while studying and researching reconstruction material for my Third Book on the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War, another thought hit me. (The above suggestion has been haunting me, but this next one sends shivers down my spine.

What if the group that Booth was in conspriacy with, was not actually Southern Like history suggests. They suggest this because of the south losing the war and doing this in retaliation, and because Booths escape route took him back toward the south, suggesting A “Southern Plot”. What if a well known group in congress known as the “Radical Republicans” were responsible and devised a plot to make it look like it was a Southern Plot? Used Booth as their “Patsy” so to speak, and even falsely represented themselves as Southern to get Booths attention and interest in becoming involved?

Sounds like I’m going on a fishing excursion! I’ll have more in the next couple of days to continue this……….please come visit me during my quest for a possible dirty plot within our own government!    Imagine that, corruption and deceit in congress! LOL They would never do that now would they!!!??????

Have a Historical Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Savannah

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This comes to us from David. He represents the 50th North Carolina, Co. F

On the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July, 1863, the 26th North Carolina met the 24th Michigan Infantry, part of the Iron Brigade, on McPherson’s Ridge just west of the town of Gettysburg.

The first exchange of volleys between the “black-hatted” Federals, and the 26th took place as the Carolina troops came upon Willoughby Run. Described as a “murderous fire,” the skirmish felled the 26th’s color bearer, Color Sgt. Jeff Mansfield. Before the fight was over, a total of 14 men, including Colonel Henry Burgwyn, would pick up the 26th NC’s flag only to be cut down by Federal fire also.

One Tar Heel later recalled, “Lots of men near me were falling to the ground, throwing up their arms, and clawing the earth.  The whole field was covered with gray suits soaked in blood.”  As fierce as the 24th Michigan was, the 26th gave it right back to them.  At some points, the opposing lines were only 20 or 30 feet apart, practically firing into each other’s faces. A Federal officer, who heard the rebel yell of the Tar Heels at the top of their lungs, called it “unearthly”.  In just a little more than 30 minutes, nearly 1,000 men on both sides had been killed, wounded or captured. One of General Pettigrew’s staff officers described the scene as he walked among the fallen bodies, that he heard “not moans, but howls”.

The 26th who had about 800 men to start with were left with only 212 that had escaped unscathed. The 24th Michigan lost nearly 400 of its number.

God bless the sould of the soldiers from Michgan and North Carolina that fell that day!

God bless our troops!!!!!!!

Have a historical day!

Savannah

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This comes to us from G Gordon Liddy

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money!

Sound familiar??????????

Have historical Day! Or, should I say hysterical!

Savannah

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This one comes to us from Thomas Jefferson:

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

I like this one, and been exercising it alot lately. When I know I’m right and that it is the moral thing to do….I do not waiver, regardless of the unpopularity of the decision. I guess that makes me the one swimming upstream. Not fun,,, but necessary sometimes.

Have a historical day!

Savannah

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In Sharpsburg Maryland a hiker, cutting through a cornfield where soldiers were blown to pieces during the battle of Antietam, caught a glimpse of something near what appeared to be a groundhog hole. A closer look revealed fragments of bone and a metal button, clotted with red clay.

The remains were brought to the visitors center at Antietam National Battlefield and turned over to experts who determined that they belonged to a Union soldier from New York State.

This find came 146 years after the soldier perished and is a continual reminder that there are still soldiers unaccounted for, and because of this, the story is not factual beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Many of the soldiers that died on these battlefields like Antietam and Gettysburg, just to name a couple, were buried in shallow, unmarked graves quickly, due to scavengers, both human and animal alike, and because of the stench of the quickly decaying bodies. Many of thesse bodies were not reburied until 5 years or more after the incident, and there are numerous reports of the graves being forgotten because the person keeping track, remembered it to be by a tree, for example. And, because that tree grew and the landscape grew back it did not look the same, therefore the burial site was never found and the bodies recovered. That is why we still occationally come across finds like these. The last one at Antietam was an unidentified member of the Irish Bridgade, in 1989.

The soldier’s identity will remain a mystery as are so many. For example, look at how many headstones are marked unknown in the National Cemetary at Gettysburg, or how about the Confederate soldiers that were buried under the streets of Gettysburg as punishment, never to be recovered. These men and women have been lost to time as are their stories. A National Park Service archaeologist and Smithsonian Institution anthropologist were the ones who confirmed the bones were from a soldier and believe he was approximately 19 to 21 years of age at the time of his death.

 There were 23,100 soldiers confirmed killed, wounded, captured or declared missing at Antietam, but what is interesting is if they are confirmed, then why is the missing number somewhere between 140 to 200. This vast difference in the amount of soldiers actually beleived to be missing, supports my statement that we will never know the events and how they actually unfolded beyond a shadow of a doubt, because there is so much that is being speculated. And, I am finding to the victor go the spoils. The Unions versions have been taken to the hearts of America, and its later generations tainting their perseptions of the Southern People and their right to their heritage.  The Confederate point of view and motivation behind their efforts has been picked apart and made to look unimportant and that of a people bored with their lives.  This careless, narrow minded way of the victor (the North) presenting the events and motivations of a people, convinced they were carrying out the true course of how our forefather’s intended our country to be governed, and the rights its people were meant to have over their government when they beleived it did not have their best interest in mind, for future people and their children to read about in history books in every school in America is what has perpetuated racism into the 21st century.

By the way it is believed that because of General Lee’s retreat from the battlefield gave President Lincoln the political strength to issue the Emancipation Proclamation five days later. Please read my earlier blogs on this subject filed under Civil War.

Well……The Civil War seems to continue to keep us in awe for over 144 years now and it probably will keep us talking and debating for the next 144 years. What do you think??

Have a Historical Day!!

Savannah

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