HMDB Civil War Updates – Week of 16 February

A nice batch of eighty marker entries and updates to the Civil War category this week.  The markers range down the eastern coast from New York to Georgia.  Here’s some of the highlights:

- Three additions to the Fort McAllister, Georgia set:  Naval Bombardment, Sinking of the CSS Nashville, and The Assault from the Rear.  Each relates a section of the Fort’s operational history from 1862 to 1864.

- North of Fort McAllister, another formidable Confederate defensive work placed in Isle of Hope, near the Methodist Church, protected the Skidaway River.  The battery included two 8-inch Columbiads and two 32-pounder cannon.

- Four state markers entered this week from central Georgia relate details of the opening phases of Sherman’s March to the Sea, focusing on the Left Wing’s operations around Madison, Georgia.  The collective text cover the events from November 15 to 20, 1864.  The destruction included stores of cotton and corn, cordwood, and of course the railroad.

- Geary’s infantry was not the only “raid” that Madison, Georgia saw during the war.  The town was visited by Stoneman’s Raiders in the previous July.

- I wish more towns in the North had memorials like that in Pulaski, New York.  The memorial lists the soldiers from the locality killed in the Civil War, by regiment.  Not only a fitting sculpture, but a helping of history in bronze.

- From Richmond, Virginia, a National Park Service wayside indicates the site of Chimborazo Hospital.

- Two waysides and additional interpretive markers relate the story of Battery Dantzler (here and here), in the Richmond defenses. The works were named for Col.  Olin Dantzler, who’s wartime service is related on a nearby wayside.  Nearby Battery Parker was part of the same defensive line (with the walking trail illustrated on a NPS marker).  The batteries factored into the battle of Trent’s Reach in January 1865.

- In order to by-pass the formidable batteries, starting in August 1864, a canal was dug across the neck of the bend of the James River.  The Dutch Gap Canal was perhaps just another of General Benjamin Butler’s lackluster achievements.  However, in the end, the river on its own expanded the canal, completing the work started by the Federals.  Click on the link for some excellent photos of the canal site today.

- Continuing with sites related to General Butler, during the Bermuda Hundred campaign in the spring of 1864, the General made his headquarters at the Half-way House (state marker).  A state marker a half mile south discusses the end result of the campaign – Into the “Bottle.”

- For the Gettysburg project, 35 entries this week.  All on the north end of Cemetery Ridge.  The “quirk” of the week for Gettysburg – “Totopotomy.”  On many monuments listing the various battles the regiments fought in, that battle seems to have the most variation.  Too many “o”s I guess.  However the monuments for the 69th Pennsylvania, 72nd Pennsylvania, 155th Pennsylvania, and 7th Wisconsin reference “Tolopotomy.”  Then of course there is a marker at the site in Virginia referencing “Totopotomoi.”    And I was just getting fired up about monuments referencing “Spottsylvania.”

If you look at the Cemetery Ridge entries for this week, you’ll notice most of the photos were taken on a foggy, misty day in late December.  While such conditions are bad for the wide shots of the field that I am fond of.  It offers some good conditions for up close photos of the statues.  Here’s one from the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument.

More of Cemetery Ridge next week, and there are even MORE Richmond area markers in my queue tonight.