July, 1962–Naive Speculation Over Vicksburg; Vermonters Get Roughed Up

August 2, 2012Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles
Noth­ing would be easy about the tak­ing of Vicksburg

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

The city of Vicks­burg which lay on the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er was per­haps the Union’s most impor­tant strate­gic tar­get of the war. Lat­er a Fed­er­al offi­cial would say that it was “worth more than forty Get­tys­burgs’”. Mean­while back East, Ver­mon­ters were engaged in a doomed enter­prise called the Penin­su­lar Campaign.

North Star

July 12, 1862

Capture of Vicksburg

Cairo July 4

…On Thurs­day, Com. Porter’s fleet com­menced to shell the upper bat­ter­ies below the town. This con­tin­ued all day with­out any result. The shelling was renewed on Fri­day, and in the after­noon a fire was direct­ed on the town over which the shells were seen plain­ly to burst. This con­tin­ued until 4 o’clock, when the fir­ing ceased.

Danville’s Captain Addison Preston Reports on the Shenandoah Valley Campaign

August 2, 2012Posted inFrom the archives, Historical events, Historical people, NSM articles
Kurz and Allen illus­tra­tion of the cav­al­ry at the Bat­tle of Cedar Creek. Pho­to from the Library of Congress.

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Col. Addi­son Pre­ston was not only a good sol­dier; he was also a good writer and shared his expe­ri­ences with North Star readers.

In the spring of 1862, the Ver­mont Cav­al­ry was part of an over­all Union effort to pre­vent a Con­fed­er­ate move­ment against Wash­ing­ton. The Fed­er­als had set up head­quar­ters in the Shenan­doah Val­ley town of Stras­burg to con­trol the Man­as­sas Gap Rail­road (South­ern) and the Val­ley Pike. How­ev­er the North­ern­ers were forced to evac­u­ate the town by Gen­er­al Stonewall Jackson’s rapid flank­ing movement.

In a let­ter to the edi­tor, Cap­tain Addi­son Pre­ston of Danville offered a stir­ring account of the action seen by Com­pa­ny D of the Cav­al­ry. This unit was per­son­al­ly recruit­ed and com­mand­ed by Pre­ston. Born in Burke, the fam­i­ly soon moved to Danville. At the age of 21, Pre­ston entered Brown Uni­ver­si­ty and became an accom­plished schol­ar; how­ev­er, after a year and a half he had to with­draw because of illness.

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.

The Old Water Tower

April 12, 2012Posted inDanville Green, From the archives, Historical people

By Bet­ty Bolevic

The old water tow­er in Danville, built with­in a ten year peri­od after the Civ­il War.

Pri­or to Kate and Harold Beat­tie relo­cat­ing our fam­i­ly to the farm in Danville, and when spend­ing an occa­sion­al week­end with Gram­my McDon­ald, I would often sit in her large green wick­er rock­er on the wrap­around porch, con­tent­ed­ly draw­ing with my first box of crayons on the small blank sheets of paper secret­ly torn from the backs of books.

Years lat­er, sit­ting in the same spot, I would now and then become momen­tar­i­ly star­tled, first by the whis­tle, then the cloud of smoke, and final­ly the famil­iar click­ety-clack of the freight train gain­ing momen­tum as it wound its way toward St. Johns­bury after a stop at the Danville Sta­tion to unload goods – some for Delmer Smith’s Danville Grain Store.

I avid­ly watched the steam engine maneu­ver­ing its loaded cars slow­ly and effort­less­ly around the bend from the vil­lage and across the swampy field adja­cent to the front of our house, always in antic­i­pa­tion that this would be one of the rare times it would squeal to a stop and take on water that ran from the spring in Will Findley’s field (cur­rent­ly Mt View Dri­ve) and was stored in a tank with­in the gray cylin­dri­cal wood­en tow­er to the right of the track — a some­what rau­cous and lengthy process.

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.