Emerging Civil War — September 2023

Originally published September 2023 · pp. 32–33

From the Editor: The road from Appomattox first let me past a small roadside site labeled “Robert E. Lee Wayside.” Here, following his surrender to Ulysses S. Grant and his departure from Appomattox, Lee spent the night on his return to Richmond. It is one of my favorite sites of the campaign because it offers such a complex context for contemplation. What was going through Lee’s mind on that evening? What road lay ahead for him? Where would he go? Where could he go? Oh, what must have tumbled through his mind on that evening. Did he wonder if this was the end of the road? (For more on this, see h t t p s : / / e m e r g i n g c i v i l w a r. c o m / 2 0 1 5 / 0 4 / 1 2 / lee-on-april-12-1865/) Earlier in the evening, I had spoken at the American Civil War Museum in Appomattox, sharing the story of Grant’s last battle, not Appomattox at all, as it turned out, but a fight against cancer. Facing financial ruin because he had been swindled by a business partner, Grant raced to complete his memoirs before the cancer finished him. That talk happened on a Thursday evening. From there, the road from Appomattox took me past Lee’s Wayside, eventually to Grant Cottage atop mount McGregor in upstate New York, the site where Grand did, indeed, finish his memoirs just days before his death. The road had taken me there for the Cottage’s “Remembrance Day” ceremony commemorating the anniversary of Grant’s death on July 23. It is an honor for me any time I get to speak at the Cottage, but to do so on Remembrance Day was especially humbling. By the last few weeks of Grant’s life, throat cancer had mostly denied him his voice, and so he communicated primarily through pencil on paper. He was surrounded by family, doctors, and well-wishers, so those last weeks were well chronicled in Grant’s own handwriting. But what remained unsaid, or unscribbled, on paper, during those weeks? What was going through his mind as he had neared the end of his own road? Grant and Lee both ultimately remain unknowable in those moments, yet those same moments of personal struggle, where they confronted their own mortality, where they were at their most human, invite us to try and know them better. As students of the Civil War, the road from Appomattox is our road, too, and it is for us to consider where that road might take us.— Chris Mackowski, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief

The Ninth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge Our symposium sold out by late May (about two weeks earlier than usual, actually). If you missed the chance to get a ticket, there’s always next year. Looking ahead, our annual symposium will be held August 2–4, 2024. We’ll announce our topic and keynote speaker at this year’s event (August 4–6, 2023), and then early bird tickets will be available on the website. Get your tickets early so you don’t miss out!

ECW News & Notes Sarah Kay Bierle has been at a lot of different historic sites for work or ECW projects this summer: Arlington National Cemetery, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Chambersburg, New Market, Baltimore, Harpers Ferry, Stafford Camps, Washington, D.C., and Chancellorsville. Then

Chris Mackowski sits on the spot where US Grant worked on his memoirs during the last days of his life there is Spotsylvania, Reams Station, Fort McHenry, Antietam, Frederick, and Gettysburg again, still on the schedule before the season is finished. Keeping busy, telling real stories where history happened! Sheritta and Jared Bitikofer welcomed their first child, Annabelle Clara Bitikofer, into the world on July 7th at 9:22pm. Her middle name is directly inspired by Clara Barton, Civil War nurse and founder of the Red Cross. Sheritta and Annabelle are spending their late-night feeding sessions catching up on American Battlefield Trust videos, staying immersed in history.

The latest member of the ECW family: Annabelle Bitikofer. Neil Chatelain spent a good bit of July exploring Utah, Nevada, California, and Oregon. That makes all 50 states for Neil and his wife Brittany! Not to worry about Civil War related things, though, as there were some unexpected and often overlooked Civil War sites to see so far west that will soon find their way onto the blog! This month, Doug Crenshaw has led private tours of Cold Harbor and the Seven Days Campaign. Dwight Hughes recorded a two-part podcast for the U.S. Naval Academy History Department “Tell Me Another” series episodes 44/45, now available at their website. “Clash of the Ironclads” tells the story of USS Monitor and the battle of Hampton Roads based on his ECW Series book, Unlike Anything That Ever Floated. On Battle Anniversary Weekend at the Gettysburg Heritage Center, July 1, Dwight signed copies of the new ECW Tenth Anniversary volume, The Civil War on the Water: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War, which he and Chris Mackowski edited. Chris Kolakowski recently lectured to the Commemorative Air Force about the Berlin Airlift. The video is at https://m.youtube.com/ watch?v=uapuKO1FmEw&t=1s. Chris also says, “The state budget for this biennium includes $9m to acquire the current site of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and start development toward a new facility.” Chris is director of the museum. Chris Mackowski presented “An Intro to the O.R.s: The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion” at the American Battlefield Trust’s National Teacher Institute in Baltimore, Md., on July 13 and 14. He and Kevin Pawlak also co-led a bus tour of Washington, D.C.’s monuments, Ford Theater, and Arlington National Cemetery. On July 24, he presented “Abraham Lincoln as a Writer” for the Trust’s Virtual Teacher Institute. ERW historian Mark Maloy was interviewed in the Florida Daily about the Rev War in the southeast, including in the Sunshine State: https://www. floridadaily.com/an-interviewwith-historian-mark-maloyabout-the-american-revolutionin-the-southeast-includingflorida. Derek Maxfield had a great time with the kind folks at the Charlottesville CWRT July 11. He spent the following morning exploring Belle Isle in Richmond, Va., site of one of the worst Confederate POW camps. Upcoming speaking engagements include Albany on July 26 and the Old Baldy CWRT in Cherry Hill, NJ, on August 10. Terry Rensel spoke to the Fredericksburg Rotary Club on Thursday, July 20 about Central Virginia Battlefield Trust and battlefield preservation. He also recently discovered 3 ancestors, including a 3x great-grandfather, in the 105th Pennsylvania and another ancestor in the 57th Pennsylvania. Cecily Nelson Zander starts her new gig as an assistant professor of History at Texas Woman’s University in August, teaching the history survey and a class on Texas history to start. She also had an essay come out in Reviews in American History entitled “Whither The Radicals?” It takes a closer look at the lack of scholarly work on the Radical Republicans in the Civil War era.

ECW Bookshelf Bert Dunkerly and his toy soldiers are excited about his new book with Caroline Davis! Force of a Cyclone: The Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862–January 2, 1863, is part of the Emerging Civil War Series and is published by Savas Beatie. This book, years in the making, offers a highly readable account of one of the Civil War’s worst battles. Stones River saw the highest percentages of casualties of any battle (3.8 percent killed, 19.8 percent wounded, and 7.9 percent missing/captured out of 76,400 men engaged).

Bert Dunkerly gets a military escort of sorts for the launch of his new co-authored book, Force of a Cyclone: The Battle of Stones River.

Shrouded Veterans Here’s the latest from Frank Jastrzembski’s “Shrouded Veterans” project: A veteran headstone was placed at Colonel Ignatz G. Kappner’s unmarked grave. “Colonel Kappner was Austrian, an educated and trained soldier, exiled from his native land for participating in a patriotic effort to overthrow a despotic ruler,” recalled Charles P. Brown, acting assistant quartermaster at Fort Pickering, where Kappner commanded for most of the war. “Six feet tall, well proportioned, courtly and punctilious, he was one of the finest looking military men I ever saw.” On April 26, 1865, Kappner and soldiers stationed at Fort Pickering assisted in the rescue of the Sultana’s passengers. The following April, Kappner was honorably mustered out. After the war, he was employed as a cashier for the German Savings Bank, served as the city treasurer for St. Joseph, Mo., and worked for Joseph Pulitzer as the business manager of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. On October 20, 1891, Kappner died at his home and his remains were cremated. His ashes were interred at Mount Mora Cemetery in St. Joseph, beside his wife and daughter.

ECW Multimedia On the Emerging Civil War Podcast:

assassination. We also posted the video versions of our discussion with Jill Newmark and our roundtable with Frank Varney, Nick Sacco, and Dave Powell.

Remembering Meg Groeling Emerging Civil War is sad to share the news of the death of a treasured member of our community, Meg Groeling.

Ignatz Kappner began the Civil War as a private in the 7th New York Militia before heading to Missouri. We spoke with Jill L. Newmark, author of “Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons.” We held a roundtable discussion with historians Frank Varney, Nick Sacco, and Dave Powell about Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs and memory, based on Frank’s book “Ulysses S. Grant and the Verdict of History.”

Jill Newmark delved into the efforts of a small handful of Black surgeons who helped the Union war effort. The Emerging Civil War Podcast is available through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever fine podcasts are available. You can also subscribe to our podcast through Patreon ( h t t p s : / / w w w. p a t r e o n . c o m / emergingcivilwar), where we are now also offering exclusive bonus content for subscribers. For as low as $1.99/month, you can help support ECW. Proceeds go toward defraying the production costs of the podcast. On the ECW YouTube page: Chris Mackowski discussed the ups and downs of using Confederate Veteran and the Southern Historical Society Papers as sources. We visited Monocacy on the anniversary of the battle and talked about the battle’s domino effect. Kevin Pawlak visited the grave of seminal Antietam historian Ezra Carman. He also visited the grave of James Tanner, the disabled Civil War vet who took the first testimony of Lincoln’s

Meg Groeling. In March 2021, Meg shared with ECW readers that she had been diagnosed with lymphoma. After an initial rough spell, she bounced back. “You don’t beat lymphoma,” she told me. “You live with it, and you try to manage it.” Unfortunately, her cancer made an aggressive comeback this summer, catching all of us by surprise. She died on Thursday, July 27, 2023.

Meg came to ECW out of the blue with a guest submission posted on September 22, 2011. The post was, fittingly, related to her Civil War crush, Elmer Ellsworth. She taught middle school math at the time, but her work with ECW eventually gave her the courage to go back to school in her 60s to earn her M.A. in military history—a childhood dream her father had dissuaded her from in favor of the math degree that would ensure she got a job. Meg was ever-after grateful to ECW for helping her achieve her life-long goal of history. I’ve always counted that as one of ECW’s biggest successes. Meg was the crazy aunt who comes to Thanksgiving dinner whom no one knows what to do with—with her purple hair, her multitude of cats, and her unquenchable tendency to find good-natured humor all sorts of random stuff. She had an unparalleled generosity of spirit. Meg served as a constant voice of support for women’s voices, not just at ECW but in Civil War public history in general. She loved to buoy people up. She loved Elmer Ellsworth. She loved baseball, books, and cats. She adored her husband, Robert

Meg’s “War Chicken.” Groeling, whom survives. During her time at ECW, Meg wrote more than 500 blog posts, including many book reviews. Her most-read post, “War Chicken,” about Robert E. Lee’s pet chicken during the Gettysburg campaign, remains one of ECW’s most-popular posts of all time. She’s the author of the Emerging Civil War Series book The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead (Savas Beatie, 2015) and First Fallen: The Life of Elmer Ellsworth, The North’s First Civil War Hero (Savas Beatie, 2021). She also contributed book reviews to Civil War News.