Crossing the Potomac

Both Union and Confederate armies used the narrower stretches of the Potomac to facilitate getting from Virginia to Maryland (and back). A few weeks ago, I was on the Northern Neck of Virginia (where the Potomac is much wider), contemplating the crossing of John Wilkes Booth. Today, though, I was above Washington and Great Falls, on the Maryland side. The crossing almost looks swimmable from here.

I drove first to Edwards Ferry, where 50,ooo Union troops camped in 1861 and from where Thaddeus Lowe launched his reconnaissance balloon.

Across the way was Ball's Bluff. As always, I like to see if Julia mentioned this place or others nearby. Yes--

She wrote in early November 1861:

Our troops have been defeated at Edwards Ferry & many of them wounded & killed. Someone is terribly to blame, for it was a rash, & ill advised affair on our part. Col. Baker was killed. [Baker was a member of Congress from Oregon and a friend of President Lincoln. Noble intentions, but not cut out for military strategy.]

A year later, as she prepared to come to Washington, she learned her brother-in-law Joseph Von Buskirk was camped there. She was hoping he was closer to Washington, but

"he thinks perhaps I can come there with the mail boy, who belongs to their co." [This did not happen.]

In late 1863, Gen. Hooker led 70,000 troops across the river from Virginia and on to Gettysburg at Edwards Ferry, using two pontoon bridges constructed for the purpose.

From there, I went up to Whites Ferry, about 5 miles west along a gravel road with an occasional farm alongside it--very "back to the past" in Montgomery County. A ferry began in 1817; after the Civil War, a Confederate officer named Elijah White bought the business. He named his boat in honor of his officer, Gen. Jubal Early. It's still called White's Ferry, it's still called the Jubal A. Early, and the business still occasionally runs afoul of the U.S. Coast Guard. I supposed that would warm Elijah White's heart.

Lee and McClellan both used the narrow crossing near White's Ferry, as this sign explains when Lee crossed to try to rally support in Maryland en route to Antietam. The sign noted that one resident called the troops "the dirtiest, filthiest, piractical-looking, cut throat men I ever saw....Yet there was a dash about them that the Northern men lacked." While plenty of Confederate sympathizers no doubt lived in and near White's Ferry, apparently not enough saw the "dash" as enough to side with the South as Lee and his men marched through.

Whites Ferry sign

Julia visited this area in 1866 as part of an expedition up the C&O Canal to Harpers Ferry (the subject of a future post).

Decoration Day, 1868

Numerous locations and groups have claimed to have created Decoration or Memorial Day, but the first event at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868, seems to have trumped them over the years. And Julia Wilbur was there. She and several friends hired a carriage to take them across the Long Bridge to Arlington (although she is "vexed" that the carriage came at noon instead of at 11 a.m., as planned). She spends many pages of her diary describing the scene, complete with the military top brass "& other invited guests, including 54 orphans of soldiers & sailors." Somber music, flower-laying, and flags were the order of the day, as they remain today (minus the sales, "unofficial start of summer," and BBQs, of course). She worries that the elaborate bouquets laid on some graves meant that some graves had no flowers at all.

arlington cemetery

I need to make a return trip to Arlington to review its layout. In 1868 as Julia described it, the cemetery had a "principal" portion near Arlington House where the ceremony took place, and a smaller, older section in the northeast corner of the property. She wrote:

....The programme did not seem to apply to this portion of the Cemetery. But I understood that a few persons, white & colored had been there with flowers & a prayer had been offered. I was not satisfied to leave without going there. We drove there, & entered. The grass had not been cut, & it is very tall. A small part seemed to be allotted to colored soldiers & flags & flowers were on all these graves. Here I left my bouquet from the White House on the grave of an “unknown”& a few others, separating it for this purpose....

She and her friends ("Miss E. & Miss S.") returned home at 6 1/2 PM, tired and apparently no longer vexed at the late start.

Relics and Souvenirs

Like many law-abiding citizens of her time, Julia Wilbur collected things in a way that we would describe almost as vandalism today. This was not a question of going into the museum gift shop or finding a great cache of items on ebay. She took plantings from Mount Vernon ("Not a single leaf of anything is given away, but we all succeeded in getting something"). In Alexandria, she took some seat buttons from George Washington's pew at  Christ Church and a piece of wallpaper from Mansion House Hospital, among many other things. She even was a second-hand collector. As she wrote on March 20, 1863

Mr. Wells has brought many relics from the battle fields, & he gave us each a bayonet from the field of Antietam, also an apricot stone from the tree that Washington hacked with his hatchet, & would not lie about it to his father. This tree is in Fredericksburg where Martha W. monument is. So it was not a cherry tree after all.

Apricot or cherry, the story is still questionable. But the volume of relics collected by her and others is not.

In the book The Nineteenth-century Relic: A Pre-History of the Historical Artifact, Theresa Lynn Barnett notes the Civil War unleashed a popular tradition of collecting and preserving relics: "The practice of collecting Civil War artifacts quickly became a mass phenomenon in a way that no relic collecting tradition had been before or would be again..." (pg. 109).

Across the Potomac

Just spent a few days on the Northern Neck of Virginia, staring across the Potomac at Maryland. Where we stayed at Westmoreland State Park near Montross, the river is perhaps 5 miles across, much wider than between Alexandria and Washington. As we looked across, we realized about 150 years ago almost to the day, John Wilkes Booth and his accomplice David Herold tried to row across.

Potomac River

It would have been a formidable trip, especially at night. In fact, their first attempt ended with them mistakenly doubling back and returning to the Maryland side.

Here was their route from Washington, through Southern Maryland, to eventual shooting (Booth)/capture (Herold) in Virginia, thanks to the Surratt House Museum, which runs tours of the route.

9feb9a6b119839fc-Escape-Route-Map-rgm-small

Here's what Julia Wilbur had to say in her diary on April 15, 1865:

There is a report that Boothe [sic] has been taken; that his horse threw him on 7th st. & he was taken into a house.—

There is no doubt that it was intended to murder the President, the Vice Pres. all the members of the cabinet and Gen. Grant. & that the managers of the theater knew of it.

On April 20, 1865:

Numbers of persons have been arrested. but Booth has not been taken yet. Ford & others of the Theater have been arrested. The Theater is guarded or it would be torn down. If Booth is found & taken I think he will be torn to pieces. The feeling of vengeance is deep & settled.

Finally, on April 26, 1865:

Report that Booth is taken. 

Then, more detail the next day, April 27, 1865:

Booth was taken yesterday morning at 3 oclock, 3 miles from Port Royal on the Rappac., in a barn, by 25 of 16th. N.Y. Cav. & a few detectives. He was armed with 2 revolvers & 2 bowie knives & a carbine 7 shooter, all loaded. Harrold, an accomplice was with him. Neither wd. surrender until the barn was fired. Then Harrold gave himself up. & when Booth was about to fire at some of the party, he was shot in the head by Sargt. B. Corbett, & lived 2 ½ hrs. afterwards.

He was sewed up in a blanket & brought up from Belle Plain to Navy Yd. in a boat this A.M. One of the capturers, Paredy, was here this P.M. & told us all about it.—

(I believe this to be Emery Parady, one of the soldiers who shared in the reward. Because he was from an upstate New York regiment, perhaps this is how he would have recounted his experience to Julia.)

In June, she watched some of the trial of the assassins and included a sketches of the courtroom in her dirary, realizing, as she often did, that she was witnessing history in the making.

Alexandria Walking Tour

On Monday, April 13, Pamela Cressey, who teaches Historical Archaeology at George Washington University, asked me to join her class as she took them on an abbreviated tour to show them the places they have studied in class. We met on a beautiful spring afternoon at the King Street Metro Station and headed southeast to Duke Street. First stops" Bruin's--one of the "inspirations" for Uncle Tom's Cabin--and Franklin & Armfield slave pens. Both establishments were flourishing mid-19th century businesses that dealt in the purchase and sale of humans. Alongside Franklin & Armfield (sold and called Price Birch and Co. by 1861), the Union built a hospital for African American soldiers and civilians, called L'Ouverture Hospital, in 1864 and operated for the next several years before it was torn down.

Julia Wilbur often visited these sites.

Our last stop was Alexandria National Cemetery, the military cemetery built in 1863. In a future blog post, I will talk more about the cemetery, including an ultimately successful petition by L'Ouverture patients in late 1864 to demand that black soldiers be buried there.

Pam (Alexandria's now-retired City Archaeologist) had assigned her students a project to research some of the USCT through hospital and pension records. Then they fanned out in the cemetery to search for the gravestone of "their" soldiers.

Cemetery2

Cemetery1

Surrender in April 1865

On April 7, Grant telegraphed Lee:

"General R.E. Lee, Commanding C.S.A.: 5 P.M., April 7th, 1865. The results of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia. U.S. Grant, Lieutenant-General"

Two days later, Appomattox.

Julia Wilbur wrote in her diary on April 9 (a Sunday):

Another memorable day! Less has surrendered the army of Northern Va. to Gen. Grant. The news came to W. [Washington] this evening.

The next day:

At an early hour we were awakened by the report of a heavy gun & this was following by 199 others. We could only guess what the matter was, but as soon as possible sent out and learned that Lee has surrendered with the whole army of N. Va.--The paper soon came & we read, Peace!!

Civil War 150--Post Supplement and JW Comments

The Washington Post of March 29, 2015, includes one of the periodic supplements it has published over the past few years, Civil War 150. In addition to articles about Lincoln's assassination, Appomattox, etc., lots of images to pore over, including this series culled from the Library of Congress of post-war Richmond.

As for Julia in those early-April days, she records moments of joy and uncertainty, followed by despair after the assassination.

But here are a few excepts from her pocket diary on the days before what we now see as a part of a historic continuum:

Monday, April 3, 1865

Richmond is taken!

Petersburg is taken!

Tuesday, April 4, 1865

Illumination this eve. What a splendid sight I ever saw. The Pub. buildings & many others very beautiful. Crowd at Patent Office. Speaking there. Had surfeit of guns & flags & music & shouting & lights. Walked down Avenue and rode back. Street full of folks.

Saturday, April 8, 1865

Bright. Cool.

At 9 A.M. went to Navy Yard with Frances [her sister], Miss K. & Miss A. & J. Ford. 

Saw copper rolling & tack machine. Saw cannon made & balls & anchors.

Went on board iron clad Montauk here for repairs. Saw guns taken at Ft Fisher & and from reb. ram Atlanta & from B. runner Princess Royal & one from the Merrimac & Decatur’s 2 guns, &c. &c. Came back tired enough.

Monday, April 10, 1865

Rainy. Awakened early by a heavy gun, followed by 199 others. Lee has surrendered his army on Grant’s terms. There is great excitement. [see below for photo of the McLean house in Appomattox.]

Wednesday, April 12, 1865

Cloudy. Wet evening.

Overhauled everything in clothing room. Did various chores. Frances has been out with Mrs. Fish nearly all day.

Letter from Miss Evans. Letters from Somerset [home of two of her sisters and their families], full of unpleasant news & I was needing something encouraging just now. I am not half well & am quite dispirited.

Friday, April 14, 1865

Fine. Sumter anniversary.

I went to Alex to a celebration. Took 10 A.M. train. Sorry Frances cd. not go. Called at Magnolia House & at Mrs. Belden’s & at Mrs. Jacobs/

The procession moved at 3 P.M. There were Cav. & Inf. & Art. & Firemen & Cold. Home Guard & various things. It was really very fine. Perfect order & well-timed. Gen. Slough commanded. Staid in evening to see Illumination, but only a few buildings were illuminated. Secesh houses all dark as could be.

[That night, while Julia stayed from her friends in Alexandria, Lincoln was shot.)

Alexander Gardner photo, part of his photographic sketchbook, at LOC (E468.7 .G2 (Case Y) [P&P] Copy 1)

A mid-March day in 1863

Julia Wilbur, like many of her contemporary diary writers, always included a note about the day's weather. It's hot, cold, squally, showery, pleasant, etc. etc. Without weather forecasts, each day's conditions were always a bit of a surprise. And without much in the way of heat and no air-conditioning, the weather was something sometimes enjoyed but more often merely endured. As we end--we hope!--our severe winter of 2015, here's what Julia recorded in mid-March 1863....

March 15, 1863 Sunday

Very cold. Have not been out. Mrs. J. called. Read a little. Cleaned up, labeled specimens, wrote some. Letter from S.A. Ferris. She is not coming at present, too bad.

This P.M. it has hailed & snowed. There has been thunder & lightning & this evening the thunder roars & the lightning flashes. Unusual for this season.

"Mrs. J." would have been her friend and fellow relief worker Harriet Jacobs.

The "specimens" were the bits and pieces that people gathered at various sites most improvidently. (The Illustrated History of Civil War Relics by Sylvia and Michael J. O'Donnell talks about how often this occurred, to the point that excursion trains were organized in some cases for Northern civilians to forage at abandoned battlefields.) In this case, she wrote about visiting Mount Vernon and Fort Washington several days earlier on an expedition of 12 people, and these were no doubt some of her pickings.

Finally, S.A. Ferris was a friend from Rochester who often sent letters and boxes of supplies.