Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–Early Life in Danville

April 3, 2013Posted inDanville Green, Historical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles, South Danville

By Paul Chouinard

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens in Spielberg's Lincoln
Tom­my Lee Jones as Thad­deus Stevens in Spiel­berg’s Lincoln

thaddeus 1Thad­deus Stevens has recent­ly been fea­tured in Steven Spielberg’s, Lin­coln, released nation­wide on Novem­ber 16, 2012, and was nom­i­nat­ed for twelve Oscar nom­i­na­tions. In Spielberg’s film, based on Amer­i­can his­to­ri­an Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, Team of Rivals: The Polit­i­cal Genius of Abra­ham Lin­coln, Thad­deus Stevens is por­trayed by Tom­my Lee Jones. It is the first time since his death in 1868 that he has been por­trayed in an objec­tive, his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate manner.

For years Stevens’ rep­u­ta­tion has suf­fered as a result of his por­tray­al of the thin­ly dis­guised char­ac­ter, Austin Stone­man, a fanat­i­cal vil­lain in D.W. Griffith’s land­mark silent film Birth of a Nation. Dur­ing the 1940s, Stevens was por­trayed as a vil­lain in Ten­nessee John­son, a bio­graph­i­cal film about Pres­i­dent Andrew John­son. As the antag­o­nist in both films, Stevens is por­trayed as an unrea­son­able, hos­tile, adver­sar­i­al indi­vid­ual who would let noth­ing stand in his way to meet his goal of pun­ish­ing the South and insur­ing the rights of the freed­men through his vision of Reconstruction.

Spielberg’s Lin­coln focus­es on divi­sions with­in Lincoln’s cab­i­net and the acri­mo­nious debate with­in Con­gress, dur­ing the last year of the war, over the pas­sage of the 13th Amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion free­ing the slaves. The fear that the legal­i­ty of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion might be chal­lenged by the south­ern states, once they were read­mit­ted to the Union, made the pas­sage of the 13th Amend­ment essen­tial. While the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion had freed the slaves, the 13th Amend­ment made slav­ery ille­gal forever.

Man on a Ladder

April 3, 2013Posted inHistorical people, NSM articles

Gordon W. Bess–Danville’s oldest man at 92 and climbing

By Sharon Lakey

For pho­to album, gath­ered and shared by Lin­da Bess, Gor­don and Ger­ry’s daugh­ter,  click here: Gor­don Bess

Danville - Gordon scrapping paint
Gor­don learned paint­ing and wall­pa­per­ing from his father and for many years was seen work­ing on his very tall house on Brain­erd Street in Danville.

Gor­don Bess is an orga­nized man. He cred­its this to his twen­ty-year mil­i­tary career. He was born and raised in Meri­den, Con­necti­cut, known as the Sil­ver City. His younger broth­er, Ronald, was also a mil­i­tary man, join­ing the Marine Corps and serv­ing dur­ing the Kore­an War. Ronald is still liv­ing in Meri­den. Gordon’s younger sis­ter, Lois, died in Jan­u­ary 2004 at the age of 81.

April, 1863–The North Star Takes a Shot at Thurlow Weed and Laments the Firing of Gen. George McClellan

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Des­per­a­tion over the war effort con­tin­ued to be one of main themes in the North Star’s report­ing and opin­ion columns. The paper’s com­men­tary also brings its polit­i­cal stripes into clear­er focus.

April 4, 1863 North Star, Government Expenses

The New­bury­port Her­ald says our nation­al expens­es since this war com­menced have been greater than from the ori­gin of the Gov­ern­ment down to 1861, a peri­od of sev­en­ty-two years. Our whole nation expens­es to the time of the rebel­lion, includ­ing the war with Eng­land, the Mex­i­can war, and our many Indi­an wars, were $1,353,785,000: and were the war to cease now no one imag­ines that our debt would be less than $2,009,000,000 cre­at­ed in less than two years…

Every day since the war began our expens­es have increased. Mil­lions are vot­ed by Con­gress for eman­ci­pa­tion pur­pos­es, Pacif­ic Rail­roads, and any­thing, and every­thing, and where the lim­it might be reached, or what will be the end, Heav­en only knows.

March 1863–Amidst Unspeakable Cruelty, the North Star Struggles with Desperation, Racism and Hope

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

March 7,1863 North Star, Our Negro Troops

A recruiting poster for soldiers of African descent
A recruit­ing poster for sol­diers of African descent

Our New Orleans cor­re­spon­dent con­firms the rumors which have been cur­rent as to dif­fi­cul­ties between the white and black reg­i­ments at Ship Island and Baton Rouge in the Depart­ment of the Gulf. We see no rea­son why this state of things should be allowed to spring up. White and black troops should not be brigad­ed togeth­er or sta­tioned togeth­er. The Procla­ma­tion spec­i­fied the use to which black troops should be pri­mar­i­ly put, when raised, as “gar­rison­ing forts and posi­tions,” and there are forts enough in our hands in the Gulf Depart­ment to fur­nish duty for ten times the num­ber of black troops we have there…

When the sick­ly weath­er comes on in the Gulf and on the riv­er, our white sol­diers will be glad enough to have this work tak­en off their hands by the accli­mat­ed negroes; and there will be no quar­relling for prece­dence in the duty.…

We need not doubt that Col. Higginson’s black bat­tal­ion exhib­it­ed all the “fiery ener­gy” which can be claimed for them: but the greater part of the men of the South will require a great deal of dis­ci­pline and train­ing before their fiery ener­gy can be relied on in the field of battle.

February 1863–Was the Danville North Star a Copperhead?

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events
A Copperhead cartoon
A Cop­per­head cartoon

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

The North Star was not abo­li­tion­ist. Dur­ing the War, polit­i­cal posi­tions arose along a con­tin­u­um. On one end of the spec­trum were Rad­i­cal Abo­li­tion­ists, who saw slav­ery as a moral imper­a­tive that must tri­umph at all costs; on the oth­er were the Peace Democ­rats or Cop­per­heads, who want­ed peace with the Con­fed­er­ates at any price. In between were the War Democ­rats, who reject­ed the Cop­per­heads fac­tion that con­trolled the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. These War Democ­rats joined with the Repub­li­cans to sup­port the war effort against the South. Lincoln’s Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion, which freed slaves in all rebel states, had just tak­en effect in Jan­u­ary. Now in Feb­ru­ary, the North Star became more explic­it about where it stood.

February 21,1863 North Star, What is Radicalism?

The abolitionist, Charles Sumner.
The abo­li­tion­ist, Charles Sumner.

Wen­dell Phillips defined Rad­i­cal­ism in a late speech at Ply­mouth Church, when he said: -“Now, I would accept any­thing on an anti­slav­ery basis. I would accept sep­a­ra­tion. I would accept com­pro­mise. I would accept peace, and pay the whole Con­fed­er­ate debt at par on an anti­slav­ery basis. On that basis, I have touched the hard path of Nation­al exis­tence. I have reached the gran­ite stra­ta, and may begin to build agrar­i­an peace. And until I reach that no chi­canery of par­ties, no inge­nu­ity of com­pro­mise, no man­ner of sep­a­ra­tion can make any dif­fer­ence. We are in for the war.”

January 1863–Congress Looks Into Fredericksburg Amid Low Public Confidence

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

The completed pontoon bridge necessary for troop movement into Fredericksburg .
The com­plet­ed pon­toon bridge nec­es­sary for troop move­ment into Fredericksburg .

The events of late fall — ear­ly win­ter had brought the North to a low point. Although the army expe­ri­enced some suc­cess in the West, the war in the Vir­ginia the­atre had seen one North­ern deba­cle after another.

iwadebe001p1
Ohio’s Ben Wade, chair of the Con­gres­sion­al Com­mit­tee look­ing into Fredericksburg.

The Con­gress’ Joint Com­mit­tee on the Con­duct of the War, which was estab­lished in 1861 and chaired by Ohio’s Ben Wade, was now look­ing into the loss at Fred­er­icks­burg. Over time the com­mit­tee had become iden­ti­fied with the Rad­i­cal Repub­li­cans, who were at odds with the admin­is­tra­tion over the lack of an aggres­sive war effort.

January 3, 1863 North Star, The Fredericksburg Disaster

The evi­dence in the report of the com­mit­tee for inves­ti­gat­ing the dis­as­ter of Fred­er­icks­burg fix­es def­i­nite­ly the respon­si­bil­i­ty for the con­se­quences of not cross­ing the Rap­pa­han­nock at once. It besides makes rev­e­la­tions that are painful and can­not fail to sink deep into the pub­lic mind.

Dec 1862–A Resurrected Peninsula Campaign Suffers a Bloody Death

March 22, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles, Uncategorized

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

With the armies expect­ed to shut down for the win­ter, Decem­ber was antic­i­pat­ed to be a qui­et month, but Lin­coln had oth­er ideas.

December 20, 1862 North Star–The War

The Bat­tle of Fredericksburg

Our war news this week is of the most excit­ing char­ac­ter — of a nature cal­cu­lat­ed to painful­ly inter­est the pub­lic. Great events have tran­spired at Fred­er­icks­burg. Again have the Union forces met the ene­my, have fought severe and bloody engage­ments, and again has that ene­my been found too strong­ly post­ed to be over­come… The pre­lim­i­nary shelling and occu­pa­tion of Fred­er­icks­burg by our troops appeared to be a suc­cess. So was the cross­ing of the Rap­pa­han­nock in the face and eyes of a dead­ly foe — that was one of the most dar­ing mil­i­tary exploits on record.

****

Mapa-de-la-Batalla-de-Fredericksburg-Guerra-Civil-Estadounidense--13-Diciembre-1862The Fed­er­als were slaugh­tered. One of the most one-sided bat­tles of the Amer­i­can Civ­il War was fought by Gen­er­al Robert E. Lee’s Con­fed­er­ate Army of North Vir­ginia and the Army of the Potomac, now com­mand­ed Major Gen­er­al Ambrose E. Burn­side. It was waged over five mild days in mid-Decem­ber. The Union troops ini­tial­ly took Fred­er­icks­burg with only token resis­tance from the Grays. The city had been evac­u­at­ed pri­or to the com­mence­ment of seri­ous bom­bard­ment. The rebels wait­ed and for­ti­fied their posi­tions in the Marye’s Heights behind the town.

Nov 1862–America’s Little Napoleon Meets His Waterloo

March 22, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles, Uncategorized

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

November 15, 1862 North Star–Removal of Gen. McClellan

General George B McClellan, America's little Napoleon
Gen­er­al George B McClel­lan, Amer­i­ca’s lit­tle Napoleon

The lat­est mil­i­tary change is the removal of Gen. McClel­lan from the army of the Potomac, and the appoint­ment of Gen. Burn­side in his stead. The order was deliv­ered last week Fri­day night; and it took the army by sur­prise. He was relieved of his com­mand and ordered to report him­self at Tren­ton N.J., where his fam­i­ly now is. His last offi­cial act was the issu­ing of an address to his sol­diers inform­ing them in a few words that the com­mand had devolved on Gen. Burn­side and took affec­tion­ate leave of them. He imme­di­ate­ly depart­ed for Trenton.

This change will per­haps take many of our read­ers by sur­prise. It is claimed to have been a mil­i­tary neces­si­ty, which means we sup­pose that the best good of the army and its future suc­cess, required the change. If this is true, and the only motive for removal, no one should com­plain, for it is no worse for Gen. McClel­lan to be super­seded for these impor­tant rea­sons, than for many oth­er mil­i­tary offi­cers, who have shared the same fate.

Every­thing should yield to mil­i­tary suc­cess and fit­ness for the place, so far as army appoint­ments are con­cerned, not with­stand­ing many of these offices have been and still are, con­ferred as a mat­ter of favoritism, rather than mer­it. Gen McClel­lan, we have believed, to be an able Gen­er­al — a man of ster­ling per­son­al pro­bity, and unwa­ver­ing loy­al­ty. And while he has, as we believe tried to do his work con­sci­en­tious­ly and sure­ly, in meet­ing the ene­my in front, almost from first to last, he has had ene­mies in his rear, who have tried to thwart his plans and secure his down­fall. There have been polit­i­cal, if not per­son­al, plots and coun­ter­plots against him and although Pres­i­dent Lin­coln has not been engaged in them, but has always defend­ed and sus­tained McClel­lan, yet his oppo­nents have at last tri­umphed in his removal, and they are now glo­ri­fy­ing the change.

General Burnside replaced McClellan
Gen­er­al Burn­side replaced McClellan

We sin­cere­ly trust, that as a mil­i­tary mea­sure, the removal may prove high­ly ben­e­fi­cial to the Fed­er­al cause and that the gal­lant Gen­er­al Burn­side will secure speedy and bril­liant suc­cess, and that the noble McClel­lan, whether he entire­ly retires from mil­i­tary life or accepts some oth­er com­mand, will live long enough to over­come those polit­i­cal and envi­ous con­spir­a­tors who have been instru­men­tal in his removal.

****

“Plots and coun­ter­plots” weren’t the half of it. As evi­denced by the Civ­il War itself, the Repub­lic was frag­ile, only some 85 years removed from the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion. Today the notion that our mil­i­tary exists to serve civ­il author­i­ty is a bedrock assump­tion; one hun­dred and fifty years ago with the nation com­ing apart at the seams, the bound­aries between civil­ian gov­ern­ment and the mil­i­tary weren’t so clear.

Oct 1862–After Antietam, Lincoln Changes the Game

March 22, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

A vic­to­ry on the field of bat­tle gave Pres­i­dent Lin­coln oppor­tu­ni­ty to issue a doc­u­ment that would change the nature of the Civ­il War.

The Union victory at Antietam came at a high price.
The Union vic­to­ry at Anti­etam came at a high price.

Com­ing a few days after a nar­row Union vic­to­ry at the Bat­tle of Anti­etam, Lin­coln issued the Pre­lim­i­nary Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion on Sep­tem­ber 22, 1862. It declared “that all per­sons held as slaves” with­in rebel states as of Jan­u­ary 1, 1863 “are, and hence­for­ward shall be free.”

Pri­or to this point, the war had been about quelling the seces­sion of the South­ern states and pre­serv­ing the Union. Now this doc­u­ment, one of the great­est in human his­to­ry, casts the war in a new light. The Civ­il War became a moral con­flict about human freedom.

A bold gam­ble, the Procla­ma­tion also strength­ened the North mil­i­tar­i­ly and polit­i­cal­ly with the announce­ment of the accep­tance of black men into the Union Army and Navy. By the end of the war almost 200,000 black sol­diers and sailors served in the armed forces.

Lincoln and his cabinet at the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lin­coln and his cab­i­net at the first read­ing of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Proclamation.

As can be seen by the North Star’s edi­to­r­i­al, the issuance of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion was by no means a clear call.