Danville’s First Killed in Action, Rebels Vanish, and Vermont Soldier Gives Birth

August 2, 2012Posted inFrom the archives, Historical events, NSM articles
The May 17 1862 edi­tion of Harper’s Week­ly fea­tured a dra­mat­ic Winslow Homer illus­tra­tion of Rebel Sol­diers. The image is cap­tioned, “Rebels Out­side Their Works at York­town Recon­noi­ter­ing with Dark Lanterns — Sketched by Mr. Winslow Homer”. The image is an impres­sive illus­tra­tion of well equipped and dis­ci­plined con­fed­er­ate troops on a recon­nais­sance mission.

By Gary Far­row, mem­ber Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Danville’s first direct war casu­al­ty comes home. The Fed­er­als gain the upper hand at New Orleans, and the rebels in York­town dis­ap­pear. Mean­while there is a lit­tle mir­a­cle on Ship Island.

North Star May 10, 1862

Death of a Danville Cavalry Soldier

We regret to announce the death of cor­po­ral John C. Chase, who belonged to Co. D. 1st Cav­al­ry, a res­i­dent of this town, and who enlist­ed last fall and served under Capt. A. W. Pre­ston. He received a mor­tal wound on the 27th …under the fol­low­ing cir­cum­stances. On that day, an expe­di­tion was sent up in pur­suit of Ashby’s Cav­al­ry, in the Val­ley of the Shenan­doah … Orders were giv­en to pur­sue Ashby’s Cav­al­ry, who occu­pied a small vil­lage about 12 miles from Harrisburg.

Co. D. of our Cav­al­ry led by Lieut. Cum­mings was then ordered to charge through the vil­lage which order they exe­cut­ed in fine style, dri­ving the ene­my com­plete­ly across the riv­er. It was while mak­ing this charge that Cor­po­ral Chase was wound­ed — not by the reg­u­lar army foe, but by a pis­tol fired by some one from the win­dow of a house — the ball enter­ing into his hip and press­ing into his abdomen. Chase did not notice the wound at the time but road for­ward and ran down one of the rebel cav­al­ry, tak­ing him and his horse prisoner.

He soon how­ev­er became faint and called upon his broth­er sol­diers for help, who came up assist­ed him off his horse, and he was tak­en to camp where his wound was dressed, and after­wards was con­veyed to the hos­pi­tal in an ambu­lance. He lived but 24 hours retain­ing his fac­ul­ties to the last…

Gen McClellan Ambles Toward Richmond; Gen Johnston Counterattacks at Shiloh

April 19, 2012Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites
It was a bloody two-day affair. The Bat­tle of Shiloh result­ed in close to 24,000 deaths, worse than the entire Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War.

By Gary Far­row, Danville Ver­mont His­tor­i­cal Society

The Ver­mont Brigade joins McClellan’s sleepy Penin­su­lar Cam­paign, while sound and fury rages in the West.

North Star April 12, 1862

Impor­tant News

The news from the Potomac Army is of much interest…and the future move­ments will be watched with anx­i­ety, as the whole Ver­mont Brigade is in the col­umn which marched from Fortress Mon­roe to York­town. The lat­ter piece is besieged and our troops are now engaged in that operation. 

Thaddeus Stevens portrait unveiled at the Vermont State House

April 19, 2012Posted inHistorical events, Historical people
The three attend­ing Hem­locks added a peri­od ele­ment of respect to the unveil­ing. Pho­tos by Ken Linsley

The Old Commoner finally makes a visible presence in the Vermont State House

After many months of work, Thad­deus Stevens has been hon­ored in his home state of Ver­mont by hav­ing his like­ness hung in the State House. In a love­ly cer­e­mo­ny in the his­tor­i­cal Cedar Creek room, his por­trait was unveiled and cel­e­brat­ed on March 28, 2012.

Lincoln Proposes Compensated Emancipation and Grant’s Fortunes Take an Ominous Turn

April 12, 2012Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles
An exam­ple of a peti­tion for eman­ci­pa­tion from Wash­ing­ton D.C. Lin­coln float­ed the idea of com­pen­sat­ing slave own­ers in return for free­dom grant­ed in March. The act was in effect as of April 1862. In this case, a slave named Sophia was peti­tioned for release.

By Gary Far­row, mem­ber of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Grant’s vic­to­ries at Fort Hen­ry and Donel­son dark­ens fes­tiv­i­ties in the south­ern cap­i­tal. The War Depart­ment sees peace dawn over Ten­nessee. Lin­coln floats the idea of com­pen­sat­ed eman­ci­pa­tion. The First Ver­mont Cal­vary was itch’n to fight. And despite his suc­cess in the field, Grant lands in hot water.

North Star 1 March

Gen­er­al News Items

Jef­fer­son Davis was offi­cial­ly inauger­at­ed in Rich­mond as Pres­i­dent of the South­ern Confederacy.

Jeff Davis, Pres­i­dent of the bogus South­ern Con­fed­er­a­cy, was inau­gu­rat­ed at Rich­mond, last Sat­ur­day. Col Wood (one of the recent­ly returned fed­er­al pris­on­ers) was present and says there was no enthu­si­asm what­ev­er. Not a cheer to be raised.

****

Accord­ing to the eye­wit­ness, the cer­e­mo­ny went flat while a lead­ing south­ern paper sound­ed an even dark­er note.

February 1862, Forts Fall, Rumsellers Revolt, and Grant Earns His Nickname

February 27, 2012Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles
Ulysses S. Grant, the “butch­er”

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

The North Star report­ed that things were look­ing up for the North. The Union Navy secured anoth­er vic­to­ry and a beard­ed, soft-spo­ken small man from the West appeared on the scene to accom­plish what elud­ed the Union gen­er­als who came before. In addi­tion there is a sto­ry of “boys being boys” in Brat­tle­boro and Cap­tain R. W. Laird mak­ing a trip back home to Danville.

North Star February 1. 1862

Sword Pre­sen­ta­tion

Capt. R. W. Laird of Com­pa­ny H., 4th Reg­i­ment Ver­mont Vol­un­teers, was pre­sent­ed with a splen­did sword, at Camp Grif­fin, VA on Jan 20th, as a slight token of high esteem in which he is held by the men of his com­mand, for his ener­gy and untir­ing zeal in their behalf.

Cap­tain Laird returned to his home in West Danville, last week Thurs­day. We under­stand that he has returned with recruit­ing orders, and will enlist recruits for the Ver­mont Brigade.

The Greenbank’s Hollow Historic Park Site Nears Completion

December 28, 2011Posted inHistorical events, Historical sites, South Danville

By Sharon Lakey

Hol­lis Pri­or and David Hous­ton shep­herd­ed the project through sev­en years of work.

On a rainy Octo­ber day, 2011, Dave Hous­ton and Hol­lis Pri­or, com­mit­tee heads for the Greenbank’s Hol­low His­tor­i­cal Park, met a bus­load of Danville sec­ond graders at the cov­ered bridge. The chil­dren lined both sides under cov­er of the bridge, eat­ing bagged lunch­es, and lis­ten­ing to the con­stant rush of water rolling down Joe’s Brook. After­wards, they trekked up the hill after David and Hol­lis to the old school site where the new kiosk stands.

One of the chil­dren exclaimed, “My dad­dy gave the wood for this.” The impres­sive struc­ture was new­ly up by the efforts of the Danville road crew, the area groomed and land­scaped, sur­round­ed by the foun­da­tion stones of the old school. No infor­ma­tion was on the kiosk yet, but the whole idea of group of chil­dren stand­ing in the mid­dle of the school­house site was his­toric in itself. After some con­ver­sa­tion and ques­tions about its his­to­ry, the group again fell in behind David and Hol­lis and moved down to the bridge. There they stood on the spot, imag­in­ing the huge five-sto­ry woolen mill that used to stand next to the lit­tle bridge.

Prognostications for the New Year–January 1862

December 28, 2011Posted inFrom the archives, Historical events, Historical people

Prognostications for the New Year, Money Finds Its Way Back Home, and the Panorama of War Comes to Danville

By Gary Far­row, mem­ber of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Union­ist Cap­tain Lyon, who was in charge of guard­ing a US artillery sta­tion in the slave state of Missouri.

The troops set­tled in for the first full month of win­ter. Restrict­ed move­ment meant that major bat­tles in many parts of the coun­try would have to wait for spring, so the news turned to the more mun­dane aspects of the war. And, as tech­no­log­i­cal changes (such as the tele­graph) sped news to Danville, the town would see and expe­ri­ence a new, rich­er and more vivid medi­um that told the sto­ry of their age.

Grandiose prog­nos­ti­ca­tions short­change peo­ple and their sto­ries. This was nev­er truer than in the bor­der states of Mis­souri and West Vir­ginia, which were, in their own unique way, micro­cosms of the larg­er conflict.

News from the Civil War: The Spigot Starts to Open

October 10, 2011Posted inFrom the archives, Historical events

By Gary Far­row, Mem­ber of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Jour­nal­ists, prob­a­bly from the New York Her­ald, are on-site, report­ing on the war through use of the telegraph.

Pri­or to the Civ­il War, rev­o­lu­tion­ary tech­nol­o­gy remade the news­pa­per busi­ness so that infor­ma­tion could be deliv­ered from far­away places faster and cheap­er than ever before. The Octo­ber ‘61 edi­tions of the North Star brought home opin­ion from a Boston Jour­nal cor­re­spon­dent, the sen­ti­ments of a Danville sol­dier at the Vir­ginia front, and news of mil­i­tary activ­i­ties on the Gulf Coast,

North Star October 5, 1861

The Gen­er­al who would­n’t fight. A draw­ing of Gen­er­al McClel­lan and his staff. The Gen­er­al is stand­ing on the left with his hand in his jacket.

Why McClellan Holds On

The Wash­ing­ton Cor­re­spon­dent of the Boston Jour­nal writes… It has been two months since the advance of the Fed­er­al troops from Bull Run to Washington.…the peo­ple are anx­ious to have some­thing done by the large army to blot out the dis­agree­able part of that affair…

…It was sup­posed that every­thing would be in readi­ness by the first of Sep­tem­ber and that by the present time we should have made a tri­umphant march towards the very heart of seces­sion, but instead here we are throw­ing up entrench­ments with rebels flaunt­ing their hate­ful burn­ing in our face with the great dome of the cap­i­tal in full view of their work at Munson’s. It is pro­vok­ing to the blood…

…But the beau­ty of his [McClellan’s] hang­ing on… He has, by remain­ing qui­et com­plete­ly frus­trat­ed the plans of the rebels. They intend to attack us, but found we are get­ting very strong… They have con­quered all in vain… When he sees that the prop­er time has come to let go, I am con­fi­dent that he will do it in a man­ner that will win admiration.