HMDB Civil War Updates – Week of February 8

With the weather keeping most marker hunters indoors, just some short work this period.  Fifteen additions to the Civil War category at HMDB this week, from Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.  Here’s the roll call:

- The Oxmoor Iron Furnace near present day Birmingham, Alabama supported the Confederate war effort until destroyed by Federal raiders in 1865.

- The impressive Bridgeport Soldiers and Sailors memorial, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, provides the names of those from the community who died in service during the war, along with the date and place of death.  However I am confused that another memorial, in nearby Mountain Grove Cemetery, also lists names of soldiers who did not return … from the same units…and the lists don’t match!  I assume these represent different communities.

- A memorial to the Civil War veterans in Meriden, Connecticut, placed in 1948, honors not only the soldiers but marks the location Abraham Lincoln addressed the town while running for President in 1860.

- A memorial incorporating columns and a statue of a soldier at rest honors veterans of Seymour, Connecticut.

- A state marker in Tampa, Florida relates the story (on two sides) of the Hillsborough County Confederate memorial.   Another state marker in Tampa introduces Captain James McKay, who owned a blockade runner and organized local cavalry militia.

- Lanier County, Georgia is named for Sidney Lanier, Confederate soldier, blockade-runner, and lawyer.  However he is best known for his poetry.

- A marker near Reynolds, Georgia notes the post war home of General John B. Gordon.

- A marker in Newton, New Jersey cites the location of a factory which produced gun stocks during the Civil War.

- The oddest marker of the week is another New Jersey entry.  In August 1878 in an open field near Sussex, New Jersey, General Judson Kilpatrick sponsored a four day “reenactment” of the Civil War.   I wonder what battle the General chose to recreate on the event’s last day?

- From McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania this week, some “bookends” of sorts.  A state marker notes two Confederate soldiers buried in the town as the first southern casualties in the state during the Gettysburg campaign, on June 29, 1863.  A UDC marker notes the names as W. B. Moore of Virginia and F. A. Shelton of North Carolina.  Another state marker indicates the last Confederate bivouac in Pennsylvania occurred near the town on July 31, 1864.  A UDC marker indicates General Bradley T. Johnson camped at the nearby Patterson House.

Bridge Placement at Edwards Ferry – Virginia Side

Having looked at the Maryland shore, let me turn to the Virginia side to discuss the placement of the bridges for the June 1863 crossing by the Army of the Potomac at Edwards Ferry.   I offer again the rough sketch I’ve made of the crossing site with the locations of important points noted:

Key Points in the Edwards Ferry Vicinity

The blue areas are of course the waterways of the Potomac River, Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal and Goose Creek (with Cattail Branch forking off the later and running to the west).  A line roughly parallel to Goose Creek depicts the route of the Goose Creek Canal.  Blue-gray boxes show the locations of canal and river locks.  The green lines show the approximate routes of wartime roads.  Hashed lines on the north bank of Goose Creek indicate the higher ground on that side.  Finally the yellow boxes show the locations where I believe the bridges were laid.

On the Virginia side, there were abutments for the two main bridges, above and below the mouth of Goose Creek.  And there was a pontoon bridge spanning Goose Creek, close to the Potomac, which allowed traffic to divert to either of the main bridges as needed.

The first of the main bridges, placed on the night of June 20-21, ran from the north side of the creek.  As the local Federal commander, General Henry Slocum, intended to use this crossing for logistical support of his 12th Corps in Leesburg, this bridge likely lead directly to the Edwards Ferry Road.  At the time of the war, warehouses stood in that area, but today the site is a golf course.

Looking Across the Potomac from Upper Bridge Site

In the photo above, the modern boat ramp at Edwards Ferry is just right of center.

The lower bridge, constructed on June 25, extended from the south side of the creek’s mouth.  No placemarks or old road courses aid identification of the exact spot.  I would propose, based on the need to reduce congestion as traffic moved through and my assertions regarding placement of the bridge abutment on the Maryland shore (mentioned in my earlier post), the Virginia terminus stood no more than a 100 yards from Goose Creek.

The location of the Goose Creek Canal influenced the placement of the pontoon bridge spanning the mouth of Goose Creek.  The canal terminated near the mouth of the creek.  My references do not state a full “river lock,” as which stood on the Maryland side, governed passage of the boats, likely only an open canal ditch lead to the first lock of the canal.  I’ve labeled this a “river lock” on the map above, playing loose with the definition.  However, I have seen some stones, which appear shaped, along Goose Creek where the entrance should have been.

Remains of a River Lock?

Remains of a river lock?  Maybe.  Or perhaps washout from the locks further upstream.  Or just plain old rocks that look shaped.

The canal ditch curved off the creek roughly 50 feet inland.

Canal Bend into the Creek

At about 250 feet from the canal entrance is the first lock on the canal.

Elizabeth Mills Lock

The photo above was taken standing upstream from the lock.  Some what an oddity, the canal company specified a two lock “staircase” but when built it included an extra set of gates.

Below the lock, the canal continues a mile upstream to the site of Kephart’s or Elizabeth Mills.  In the photo below, note the depth of the canal ditch (on the right).   The canal towpath, partly intact, runs as a trail through the center of view.  To the left in the trees is Goose Creek.

Section of Goose Creek Canal

At the mill site the canal intersected the “California Road” where a bridge stood before the war.  Confederate sympathizers burned the bridge early in 1862 (likely about the time Federal forces occupied Leesburg).

Surviving "California Road" Bridge Abutment

Because the road worked up a steep grade on the north bank of the creek, a pontoon bridge at this point was impractical.

Road Grade on North Bank

The canal continued about a quarter-mile westward, through the mill works, and rejoined the creek with a guard gate.  At the time of the Civil War a dam, supplying water to the canal and keeping the stretch upstream deep enough for navigation, spanned the creek near that gate.  Today all that remains is a set of rapids.

So considering this section of canal, particularly noting the depth of the canal ditch, I would submit the short pontoon bridge spanning Goose Creek was placed downstream of the canal, very close to the mouth of the creek.  Had the engineers spanned the Goose Creek canal, certainly they would have mentioned such in the reports.  Furthermore, the steep slopes on the northern bank were not attractive to moving the volume of traffic seen with the passing of an entire army.

However, if the bridge over the creek were too close to the main pontoon bridges, crossing traffic would interfere with those heading over the Potomac.  I submit span crossing Goose Creek ran from a point about 100 to 150 yards upstream from the Potomac.

Likely Spot of Goose Creek Pontoon Bridge

The view above was taken from the north bank, looking over a modern day canoe dock.  If pressed, I would say the pontoon bridge over Goose Creek was just upstream from that dock.  The ground on the north bank in that section of the creek is more of a flood plain, without the steep grades further upstream.

North Bank of Goose Creek near its Mouth

Terrain, some man-made features, operational factors, and a bit of common sense must have worked into the decisions made by those engineers at the time of the crossing.   However the ground on either side of the Potomac is much changed since those days when an entire army crossed the river on its way to Pennsylvania.  Golf courses and houses stand where open fields, roads, and boat landings were in 1863.  Save some canal masonry and perhaps a few old trees, little else serves witness to the event.

Bridge Placement at Edwards Ferry – Maryland Side

I took a bit of a break from Edwards Ferry and the Army of the Potomac’s crossing there in June 1863 (I’ve collected links to all those earlier posts on a separate page if you missed them).   Time to look at the site again, first looking at the ground itself, with the aim of estimating the location the engineers placed the bridges.   In my first post on Edwards Ferry, I offered this view of the site based on satellite imagery:

Google Earth Image of the Site Today

The modern subdivisions and road structure stands in sharp contrast to the depictions on wartime maps:

Section of McDowell Map showing Edwards Ferry

Based on research and visits to the site, I offer this rough sketch of the key points:

Key Points in the Edwards Ferry Vicinity

The blue areas are of course the waterways of the Potomac River, Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal and Goose Creek (with Cattail Branch forking off the later and running to the west).  A line roughly parallel to Goose Creek depicts the route of the Goose Creek Canal.  Blue-gray boxes show the locations of canal and river locks.  The green lines show the approximate routes of wartime roads.  Hashed lines on the north bank of Goose Creek indicate the higher ground on that side.  Finally the yellow boxes show the locations where I believe the bridges were laid.

I consider the locations of the canal locks particularly important to the bridge placement.  The engineers working on the pontoon bridges had to see these structures partly as “blocks” to work around.   Lock 25 of the C&O Canal sat almost directly opposite the mouth of Goose Creek.  While a wooden bridge spanned the canal at the lock, this was insufficient to support the movement of an entire army.  Indeed, on June 25, 1863 Captain Charles Turnbull noted, “…I will have two bridges over the river, one over Goose Creek at its mouth, and two over the canal”  (OR, Series I, Volume 27, Serial 45, p. 311).

Lock 25 Today

The modern park bridge is a simple structure supported by two steel beams.  In 1863, engineers may have laid simple wood plank bridges to span across the lock.  But keep in mind the steep berm on either side of the lock, and the hundreds of wagons and artillery pieces crossing in what must have seemed like an endless procession.  How long before the paths up and over the lock rutted out?  How long before the wooden spans wore out as they rubbed against the sandstone blocks?

I would offer a more easily maintained, and traffic-able, solution was a pair of single bay pontoon bridges – one above and one below the lock.  Such would match directly with the placement of the longer pontoon bridges across the river, straddling the mouth of Goose Creek, and give options for traffic control.  This also reserved the existing wooden bridge for the engineers’ use maintaining the pontoon bridges.

About two-tenths of a mile downstream of Lock 25 is the Goose Creek river lock.  Built in 1838, this two lock “staircase” lock allowed boats to pass from the C&O Canal across the Potomac to Goose Creek.  Designed to facilitate the flow of goods from Loudoun Valley, with the failure of the Goose Creek Canal, the river lock provided little more than easy access to the Potomac.

Goose Creek River Lock

The location of this river lock did not escape notice by senior officers in the Army of the Potomac.  On June 18, General G.K. Warren, while summarizing the Potomac River crossing points, noted that at Edwards Ferry, “…There is here an outlet lock from the canal into the river…” (OR, Series I, Volume 27, Serial 45, p. 149).  Going back to the dispatches between June 18 and 20, General Henry Slocum, commanding the 12th Corps then at Leesburg, considered a bridge at Edwards Ferry more a logistic arrangement rather than for movement into Maryland.   As such he wrote, “Our supplies should be sent from Georgetown, by canal, to Edwards Ferry.” (OR, Series I, Volume 27, Serial 45, p. 209).

The first pontoon bridge, built overnight on June 20-21, was placed well above the river lock, extending to the upstream side of the mouth of Goose Creek.  The Virginia side landing linked with Edwards Ferry Road, leading straight to Slocum’s forces around Leesburg.  I would further argue such placement ensured the bridge, and attendants working on the water, remained clear of the river lock, and also reserved the option to simply float canal boats to the Virginia shore for unloading.

Foot Bridge over Chanel to River Lock

For the second bridge, placed on the morning of June 25, the river lock offered the engineers the option to off load equipment outside the main canal, perhaps even directly into the Potomac.

But where were the Maryland side pontoon abutments in relation to the river lock?  No primary sources I’ve seen offer clarity in that regard.  From a common sense perspective, if the pontoon abutments were upstream from the river lock, engineers could pull barges and perhaps even pontoons, through the locks directly into the river without having to worry about boats breaking free and damaging the bridges.  When the Captain E.O. Beers, 15th New York Engineers, began construction of the lower bridge on the morning of June 25, the operation began on both shores.  I would argue the use of that river lock might allow the engineers to move heavy equipment to the Virginia shore without interfering with the 11th Corps then passing on the upper bridge.

The C&O River Lock Seen from the Virginia Shore

But again, no source tips the hand one way or the other in this regard.  What I would say is the river lock, and its “spur” channel required the engineers avoid an abutment long a 200 yard section of river front – the landing had to be up or down stream of the lock, not on top of it.

C&O Canal in Vicinity of River Lock

Even with the main bridge abutments placed for that second bridge, the engineers faced the challenge of providing passage over the C&O and to the road toward Poolesville, Maryland.  A rise, perhaps only twenty feet in elevation, runs east of the canal, sandwiched between the Potomac and Cabin Run.  If I ever do locate a detailed first hand account, I would certainly wish to see some mention of the retaining walls (see photo above) along the canal south of Lock 25.

In short, it is my opinion that the bridge abutments on the Maryland side were placed above and below Lock 25 to allow for traffic flow.  I also believe in order to maximize the use of the river lock, the lower bridge touched the shore upstream of that canal spur.    But the key source I would offer to support that premise is the ground itself, along with consideration for the traffic flow.  If anyone can shed further light on the bridge placement, I am all ears!

Having covered the Maryland shore, in my next post I will look at the Virginia side.  Time and space permitting, I will discuss the interesting side notes about the Goose Creek Canal.

Loudoun County CW Sesquicentennial Committee Meeting

Earlier this week Jim Morgan passed along this announcement:

Loudoun County Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee General Meeting

Please make plans to attend the Loudoun County Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee General Meeting on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 7pm. The meeting will take place at Morven Park Carriage House in Leesburg. Dennis Frye of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park will give the keynote address. The meeting will also include news, event information, and updates on the committee’s work. Please RSVP by Monday, February 15, 2010 to tgillespie@morvenpark.org.

We hope to see you there.

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I’ve also begun to post the particulars of events such as this on a Google Calendar and made it public.  Currently I’ve populated our Round Table events, but plan to add more Sesquicentennial events.  At first, I’ll start with just the Northern Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania events.  But if that works, I’ll work in others I run across.

HMDB Civil War Updates – Week of February 1

Nineteen additions to the Civil War category at the Historical Marker Database this week.  This week’s batch cover sites from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.  Here’s the rundown:

- The “Jefferson Warriors” marched off from Pinson, Alabama in July 1861 to become Company C, 19th Alabama Infantry.  The men fought in many of the Western Theater’s major engagements.

- A state marker near Port St. Joe, Florida mentions a recurring theme in the state’s Civil War story.  Federal landing parties destroyed saltworks there on September 8, 1862.

- A stone in Oaklawn Cemetery, Tampa, Florida notes the June 30-July 1, 1862 bombardment of the town by the U.S.S. Sagamore.

- A state marker in Quitman, Georgia chronicles the history of West End Cemetery, where several Confederate soldiers were buried in the war.  According to the marker, during one memorial service, an orphan happened upon the grave of her father.

- A state marker near Jackson, Georgia notes the passage of Sherman’s Right Wing in mid-November, 1864.  Federals moved through Iron Springs on their way to cross the Ocmulgee River.

- At roughly the same time the Right Wing reached the Ocmulgee, Federal Cavalry under General Kilpatrick reached a point near Forsyth, Georgia.  Confederate cavalry burned bridges along the Towaliga River to block the Federal advance.

- Complementing a state marker in Dawson, Georgia is a memorial noting the location of the Dickson-Nelson gunshop.  The company produced Mississippi-pattern rifles during the war, although it relocated several times to avoid advancing Federals.  Another marker in Dawson discusses the history of the General Patrick Cleburne Camp, S.C.V.

- A new Civil War Trails marker in Cashtown, Pennsylvania discusses wartime activities around the Cashtown Inn during the war, most important of which, of course, was the July 1, 1863 meeting between Generals Robert E. Lee and A.P. Hill during the opening hours of the Battle of Gettysburg.

- Before the snows set in on Saturday, I pulled in the tablets for Jones’ Confederate Brigade and the U.S. 6th Cavalry in Fairfield, Pennsylvania.

- A state marker in the Gettysburg Campaign series notes the point where Rodes’ Division departed from the Biglerville Road and advanced to Oak Hill on July 1, 1863.

- The new Lincoln Memorial at Gettysburg recites the Gettysburg Address.

- A Pennsylvania Civil War Trails marker relates details of the Battle of Hunterstown.

- State markers in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania note local heroes John W. Geary and Marcus A. Reno.

- Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, was the largest Civil War prisoner of war camp west of the Mississippi River.

- A marker on the Oak Grove Battlefield, at Richmond International Airport notes a nearby replica Parrott Rifle and discusses the types of artillery on the Civil War battlefield.