Civil Wargasm #4

Timmy at Sam Davis's Grave

       Last weekend was a great weekend for me, my son Timmy, and three of my good friends. Stacie's girls had a lads to leaders convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Of course it was a chance for me to see the Civil War sights again. We went up on Friday and Timmy was excited because I told him it would be just me and him that day. With two girls and two boys, it gets difficult at times to have just one on one time. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Opryland Hotel, unpacked and back to the car, we were running short on time. 

       Timmy and I headed south to Smyrna, Tennessee and arrived about thirty minutes before closing time and too late to take a tour of Sam Davis's home. I had told Timmy the story about Sam Davis, the "Boy Hero of the Confederacy" while we were driving. The story really interested him and he couldn't believe that the Federal troops could be so cruel. He has a lot to learn about war. Timmy is only six. 

Sam Davis's Home

       The fellow running the museum did allow us to walk around the grounds and visit the grave of Sam Davis. This also gave Timmy a chance to run off some of that energy that had been building all day in the van. Next I took Timmy to the rock and tree where Sam had hidden his horse during his last visit home. The tree he tied his horse to, still stands there today beside the rock Sam hid his horse behind. 

Rock and tree where Sam hid his horse

       The next day, Jerry and Lance came up and we were gonna tour Mount Olivet Cemetery and the Old City Cemetery. We prowled around Mount Olivet and I helped Jerry find a couple of general's graves he had missed on his lone visit last year. It was Lance's first visit to Mount Olivet and we would later learn why. 

       After spending a good hour at Mount Olivet, I learned that Jerry had never been to the Tennessee State Museum which houses a good deal of Civil War memorabilia. We left the cemetery and decided to eat at McDonalds before heading to the Tennessee capital. Of course, Lance has to use the bathroom before we leave and upon exiting the restaurant he opened the emergency exit. This seemed to have upset the manager as she gave him a look that seared his very soul. Jerry, Timmy, and I were of course, laughing.

       We spent most of the morning hunting a place to park, finally gave up and paid ten dollars to park for one hour. Jerry said, "I would love to own a spot of ground here. It would earn you a living just letting people park their cars at ten bucks an hour." We entered the state museum and headed past all the exhibits to the Civil War section. Now, I'm aware of a lot of Lance's fears. He is terrified of spiders and most other insects. He has a fear of most all animals at some level or other. He once beat himself mercilessly with an umbrella because a spider fell in his lap while driving down the highway at sixty miles an hour. A neighbors ostrich attempted to attack him through a fence while he mowed his grass. The list of animal encounters goes on and on. And then there's the story about the dragonfly that he swears had rabies, but that's another story entirely.

       I had no idea that he was afraid of death until reaching the museum. In order to get to the bottom floor, one must walk past a mummy that has been embalmed since at least 1200 B.C. I thought nothing of it since I've been past that mummy at least ten times over the past few years. 

3000 year old mummy at the Tennessee State Museum

       We enter the room with the mummy and I walk right past giving it not a second glance. Jerry and Timmy immediately become infatuated with the dead man lying in the glass case. Lance walks over and bends over the glass and peers inside. Suddenly, he realizes that this thing is a real person and almost panics. He races to the edge of the room and stares from a distance. Jerry says, "Lance, come look at his lips." "Unnh Unnh," Lance shakes his head and takes a step toward the exit. "Lance, you gotta see his eyes," Jerry repeats. "Unnh Unnh," Lance repeats and takes another step toward the exit. Soon Lance races past me as if he is in a haunted attraction on Halloween. 

       We go on down the stairs to the Civil War section. Jerry catches up and asks, "Lance haven't you ever touched anything dead before?" Lance thinks a moment and says, "I touched a dead squirrel once. It was cracking on a power line and then both died." When Jerry attempts to reason with Lance that there is nothing wrong with viewing a dead body, Lance attempts to argue back. He said, "Yeah, but, but..." That was about all the argument he could think of at the moment. 

Flag of the CSS Alabama

       In the Civil War section, we viewed the flag that flew aboard the CSS Alabama during its raids on the high seas. We saw items that belonged to Generals Cleburne, John Adams, Zollicoffer, John Hunt Morgan, and James Rains. The collection is enormous. We stayed an hour and barely had time to view just the Civil War collection. Then came time to exit the museum. I told Jerry that it would be interesting to watch Lance have to walk back past the mummy. Lance immediately asked, "You mean we have to walk back past that thing?"

       Jerry went ahead of us because he had an evil plan up his sleeve. When Lance walked into the room, Jerry jumped from behind the door and attempted to push Lance over to the mummy. Lance is six foot, two inches and weighs about 270. There is no pushing Lance where Lance doesn't want to go. I asked Lance what would have happened had Jerry pushed him over there and they both fell across the glass, overturning the mummy, and landing on it in the floor. Lance said, "Mummy parts would go flying everywhere. I just don't like those things."

       We left the museum and I had left a message earlier with another good Civil War buddy, Doctor Rick Price. He'd wanted to visit another museum that I cannot name here at present. (I will get to that part of the story in a moment.) "Doc" as I call him was late. Jerry, Lance, Timmy, and I go to the place and begin talking with a tour guide there. By the time Doc arrives, she understands how passionate we are about the war. 

Jerry and Doc

       Doc shows up with an Auburn shirt on and I tell him I will not take him to anymore Civil War sites if he continues to wear such ugly clothing. The tour guide decides to give us an abbreviated tour since we are only interested in the Civil War part. Suddenly, she looks at me and asks, "Would ya'll like to hold Forrest's sword?"

       We all answer, "Sure." That is what I was thinking at the moment, was sure, I bet, right. There is no way in this world I am gonna get to hold the sword of Nathan Bedford Forrest. But, she says follow me. En route to the location of this treasure, she says, "It's not the one he carried in battle, but a presentation sword. It belonged to him just the same." My hands began to shake as I began to realize how serious she was. We arrived at the scene and she hands the sword to me first. Shelby Foote once said that the proudest moment of his life was when Forrest's granddaughter allowed him to swing Forrest's sword over his head. Well, it was one of the proudest moments of my life. I made sure Timmy held the sword and explained to him that this was one of those once in a lifetime achievements and he'd most likely never get the opportunity again. Timmy and I both decided that we'd never wash our hand again. Each of us held the sword with the promise that we would not mention the guides name nor where we held the sword. 

       We left the place all smiles. Especially Jerry, since Forrest is his greatest hero. Doc said he will never turn down another trip with me anywhere. (It seems every time Doc takes a trip with me, something neat happens.) I told him not to expect this every trip. I took a trip two weeks ago to Cleburne's grave in Helena, Arkansas and thought I had accomplished something just taking rocks off his grave, so you can imagine how excited I was holding the sword of the Wizard of the Saddle. 

       

Joseph E. Johnston: Misunderstood?

General Joseph E. Johnston

       Some of my friends believe the old legend that if President Davis would have left Joseph E. Johnston in command of the Army of Tennessee then Atlanta would not have fallen. I say we take a look at General Johnston's record as a commander and see if it supports the legend. 

       In early March of 1862, General Johnston abandoned the Manassas line before the Federal army ever left Washington. He promised President Davis that he would do his best to secure all the supplies and heavy artillery. Johnston made no attempt to keep this promise. Most of the heavy artillery was abandoned to the Federal army and most of the supplies were burned. A meat processing plant at Thoroughfare Gap was burned along with one million pounds of meat. All this occurred without a single threat of a Federal move. He further surprised the president when he stated that he hadn't selected a line to hold when he retreated. 

       He stated during the Peninsula Campaign that he could make no guarantee's that he would be capable of holding Richmond. The man could have been Union General George McClellan's long lost twin. Neither man wanted to fight at all unless assured of a victory before hand. Unfortunately for Johnston, but fortunately for the South, he was wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks just east of the capital. Davis turned to a man who would willingly fight the Federals to save his state. Robert E. Lee drove McClellan away from the capital with attacks upon his right flank and by September had invaded Maryland. Johnston would never have accomplished as much.

       During the siege of Vicksburg, Johnston was given a force of 24,000 troops and ordered to assault the rear of Grant's army in an attempt to help Pemberton's forces escape. Johnston refused to move without more men. It was the same thing McClellan had done with Lincoln. Neither man could ever have enough men. Mary Boykin Chestnut the famed diarist of Charleston, South Carolina had told a story about Johnston before the war. He'd been invited to go duck hunting with Wade Hampton. They'd hunted all morning and Hampton had taken several ducks. Johnston had never fired a shot. Each time the birds came by he said they were too high or too far. You see, Johnston had a reputation as a crack shot and if he missed a duck he was afraid his reputation would be ruined. He was the same way in command of an army. As long as he didn't risk a battle, his generalship could never be questioned. 

       My friends use the Atlanta Campaign as evidence of his superior generalship. They claim (along with the legend) that he was luring Sherman far from his supplies and then planned on striking him. I have seen nothing in the record of the man that would make me believe he would ever have attacked Sherman. He would not give President Davis an assurance that he would fight for Atlanta and therefore he was relieved and a man was put in command that would fight. As General Hood stated following the war, if a man couldn't hold the mountains of Northern Georgia, he wasn't much of a general. William Sherman himself stated that Northern Georgia itself was one vast fortress. General Longstreet wrote his friend Joseph Johnston before the Atlanta Campaign began. He understood Johnston's philosophy and wanted to help him. He told Johnston that unless he placed a force on Sherman's flank to force him to protect his long supply line, Sherman would simply turn his flanks all the way to Atlanta and that is exactly what he did. 

       

The late Shelby Foote

       The late Shelby Foote once said that Joseph Johnston was the worst full general in the Confederacy during the war. That is a pretty bold statement and tells you what he thought of Johnston when you had Braxton Bragg as another pretty bad full general. Foote believed the man was afraid to fight and the record supports this claim. 

Johnston monument at Bentonville

       I took my wife to her first reenactment at Bentonville, North Carolina and she was able to see the unveiling of the statue of General Johnston at the time. She was so excited to witness the event. I told her what I thought of the general and how he was quite a bit overrated in my opinion. That didn't deter her one bit. She was still excited to have witnessed something that historic. I suppose she has a point. Studying these men wouldn't be interesting if each of them were alike. I do enjoy learning the parts of the war that are legend and how we come to believe today what was decided by one person and truly isn't very accurate.