Tromp Shot 4

Today's Tromp Shot:

Bare winter woods hover over the eerie green waters of Ambrose Bierce's Chickamauga Creek.

Near Chickamauga National Battlefield Park (Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia)

Jacob's Pen 4

It's time I provide an image to go along with the "Jacob's Pen" series. Below is a picture of Jacob Engelbrecht of Frederick, Maryland, the diarist whose reflections we will follow throughout the sesquicentennial.

Am I alone in thinking that Engelbrecht looked at least a little like Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan?

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/3vmpzUXRzyU/Smile+Train+10+Year+Anniversary+Celebration/6h66_mRBI87/Ronan+Tynan

On October 21, 1859, Jacob documented the items with which John Brown hoped to wage a war on slavery. I cannot attest to its accuracy, but it's certainly eye-popping. This entry exposes Brown's level of planning and the extent of support from his Northern abolitionist backers.

"A list of articles captured by the military of Maryland & Virginia found on the premises of John Brown & others: 102 Sharps Rifles, 102 pistols of Massachusetts Arms Company, 56
powder flasks, & 4 large powder flasks, 10 kegs of powder, 23000 percussion rifle caps,100,000 percussion pistol caps, 1300 ball cartridges for Sharps rifles, 160 boxes Sharps primer, 14 pounds lead balls, one Major General's sword,55 old bayonets, 12 old artillery swords, 483 standard spears, 150 broken handles,4 swords, 16 picks, 40 shovels &c.
- Friday October 21, 1859 3 1/2 PM"

Jacob followed the story over a week later:

"The trials of the rioters at Harpers Ferry, Virginia was commenced on the ultimo. The trial of John Brown (the commander)was the first & terminated yesterday (the 5th day of trial) when the jury rendered a verdict of 'guilty for high treason & also guilty for murder in the first degree.' Copee [probably John Anthony Copeland, Jr.]& [Shields]Green Negros were both found 'guilty.' Also Captain John E. Cook found 'guilty.'
- Tuesday November 1, 1859 12 M. [Noon] (John Brown is sentenced to be hung December 2, 1859)"

All diary entries in the "Jacob's Pen" series come directly from The Diary of Jacob Engelbrecht, published by The Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc.

Tromp Shot 3

Today's Tromp Shot:

October dusk on the Brawner Farm at Second Bull Run.



Manassas National Battlefield Park (Manassas, Virginia)

Jacob's Pen 3

I've been fortunate to tromp a lot of ground lately, and the weather has allowed these boots to grow muddier by the day.

Thursday evening I attended a lecture sponsored by the Frederick County Civil War Roundtable at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. The topic was the role of Frederick's militia during John Brown's raid in Harpers Ferry. On Friday and Saturday, I ventured to Harpers Ferry for the fantastic commemoration of that raid. Tomorrow, I plan to make my first visit to the Ball's Bluff battlefield (Oct. 21, 1861) near Leesburg, Virginia. As I must also travel to Northern Virginia, I may stop by Manassas while down there so I can catch up on efforts there to restore the ground to historical appearances.

Obviously, I have - and will have - much to share. This will soon begin with a series of posts on the sesquicentennial events in Harpers Ferry; for now, we follow the events of 150 years ago as observed by Frederick's Jacob Engelbrecht:



The Harpers Ferry riot has thus far been silenced and the following have been killed & wounded: Dean, Captain Oliver Brown & Captain Watson Brown (sons of old John Brown), Lieutenant Albert Hazlett - Pennsylvania, Lieutenant William Leman - Maine, Stewart Taylor - Canada, William Thompson - New York, Captain John Kagi of Ohio, Lieutenant Jeremiah Anderson of Indiana. Negros: Daingerfield of Ohio [Dangerfield Newby], Luis Leary - Ohio. Wounded Captain Aaron C. Stephens, (Whites) old John Brown (chief). Total number killed on both sides up to this time is 16. Luke Quinn United States Marines was killed October 18.

Friday October 21, 1859 2 o'clock PM


All diary entries in the "Jacob's Pen" series come directly from The Diary of Jacob Engelbrecht, published by The Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc.

Jacob's Pen 2

Jacob Engelbrecht continues his coverage of John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry as seen from his Frederick, Maryland storefront home. 150 years ago, today, Jacob writes:

Tuesday October 18 - Report this morning is that 16 persons were killed yesterday.

October 18, 2 3/4 o'clock PM - Our 3 companies just now returned home.

All diary entries in the "Jacob's Pen" series come directly from The Diary of Jacob Engelbrecht, published by The Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc.

Jacob's Pen 1

Many students of the Civil War are familiar with the letters, journals, and memoirs of soldiers from both sides. These sources offer extraordinary insights into the daily life and sentiments of those fighting the battles of our nation's defining moments. But how were these defining moments viewed - how were they felt - on the home front? Luckily for students of local history in the Frederick County, Maryland, area, we have The Diary of Jacob Engelbrecht, published by the Frederick County Historical Society.

Throughout the sesquicentennial (150 year) anniversary commemorations of the Civil War, we'll view that period from the perspective of this first-generation German-American pro-Union storekeeper. Entries are written verbatim - spelling mistakes, erroneous reports, politically sensitive language, and biased opinions included.

Jacob's home town of Frederick, Maryland, is about twenty miles east of Harpers Ferry. As the anniversary of John Brown's raid kicks off the six-plus year sesquicentennial, we'll begin Jacob's Civil War story here, on October 17, 1859.

At 8 o'clock that morning, Engelbrecht recorded a typical entry in his diary about the arrival of a new minister for the new German Methodist Missionary congregation in Frederick. Two hours later, he would make note of an event whose shockwaves forever changed our nation.

"Harpers Ferry riot - The Independent Bell & the United or Swamp Bell are both now ringing (Swamp first) calling together the military companies of our city. The report from Harpers Ferry is that there is a kind of insurrection among the Negros of Jefferson County Virginia & want to seize the United States arms there or that the workmen at the Ferry are somewhat rebellious.
- Monday October 17, 1859 10 o'clock AM"

Later that day:

"Monday October 17 1/2 past 3 o'clock PM - Our three town companies Captain Sinn, Captain Ritchie, & Captain Hobbs just started for the cars at the Depot for the scene of War - Harpers Ferry."

All diary entries in the "Jacob's Pen" series come directly from The Diary of Jacob Engelbrecht, published by The Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc.

Southern Rats

There's a scene in the film Gettysburg where Tom Chamberlain asks some Tennessee Confederate captives to explain what motivates the southern soldier's fight. "Ahm fah-tin' fo mah rats. All of us heah, that's what we-uhs fah-tin' fo," says one (w/ typical Hollywood indulgence). Chamberlain looks very confused and asks, "For your what?" "Fo ouwah rats," repeats the man. Viewers are meant to laugh at Chamberlain's inability to realize the soldier is fighting for his rights. Or is he?

Following is an anecdote from a real Tennessee veteran. In his famous memoir, Company Aytch, Private Sam Watkins of the First Tennessee Volunteer Infantry writes:

"While stationed at this place, Chattanooga, rations were very scarce and hard to get, and it was, perhaps, economy on the part of our General and commissaries to issue rather scant rations.

"About this time we learned that Pemberton's army, stationed at Vicksburg, were subsisting entirely on rats. Instead of the idea being horrid, we were glad to know that 'necessity is the mother of invention,' and that the idea had originated in the mind of genius. We at once acted upon the information, and started out rat hunting; but we couldn't find any rats. Presently we came to an old outhouse that seemed to be a natural harbor for this kind of vermin. The house was quickly torn down and out jumped an old residenter, who was old and gray. I suppose that he had been chased before. But we had jumped him and were determined to catch him, or 'burst a boiler.'

"After chasing him backwards and forwards, the rat finally got tired of this foolishness and started for his hole. But a rat's tail is the last that goes in the hole, and as he went in we made a grab for his tail. Well, tail hold broke, and we held the skin of his tail in our hand. But we we were determined to have that rat. After hard work we caught him.

"We skinned him, washed and salted him, buttered and peppered him, and fried him. He actually looked nice. The delicate aroma of the frying rat came to our hungry nostrils. We were keen to eat a piece of rat; our teeth were on edge; yea, even our mouth watered to eat a piece of rat. Well, after a while, he was said to be done. I got a piece of cold corn dodger, laid my piece of the rat on it, [ate] a little piece of bread, and raised the piece of rat to my mouth, when I happened to think of how that rat's tail did slip.

"I had lost my appetite for dead rat. I did not eat any rat. It was my first and last effort to eat dead rats."


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