Civil War

Iconic Arizona Landmark’s Civil War Connection

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A few weekends ago, I was traveling from Phoenix to Tucson – something I do perhaps once a year. There’s a prominent landmark called Picacho Peak that, despite having lived in Arizona most of my life, I pay little attention to other than to note that I’m about two-thirds of the way through my trip. This time, however, perhaps because I was driving alone, I started thinking a little about this historic site and decided to research it a bit when I got home.

Most of us in these parts know that Picacho Peak is where the only battle between the North and the South took place in Arizona during the civil war. Seems the then western territory mostly stayed out of the conflict until February of 1862 when Captain Sherod Hunter and a troupe of rangers rode into Tucson, officially creating the Confederate Territory of Arizona. They effectively wreaked havoc on the Union forces with their hit and run style of attack, destroying the Union Army’s food and hay supplies and capturing their men.

After two months of skirmishes and raids, the warring sides met at Picacho Peak on April 15th for their infamous battle, which lasted all of ninety minutes. Despite being greatly outnumbered, the Confederates triumphed. Their victory didn’t last long, however. The Union eventually took control of the region, ending the Confederates’ hope for a southwestern pathway to the Westcoast.

Now, every year in (usually) March, the battle at Picacho Peak is reenacted in the state park by living history enthusiasts who wear authentically reproduced uniforms and clothing and use replica weapons­—no real bullets are used. Tours and informational talks are given, along with camps, and battle demonstrations that are set up to entertain and educate the hundreds of people who arrive and to thrill to the sound of rifles exploding and canons firing (again, not real). I’ve never been, but my son attended some years ago with my mother-in-law and his cousins and had a great time.

If you’re not a history buff, that’s no reason to miss stopping at Picacho Peak. There are great hiking trails for the fit and adventurous and the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch for fun seekers looking for something different. Yes, you can feed the ostriches. No, you can ride them. And, yes, you can purchase ostrich eggs to eat. To be honest, I’d have to think long and hard on that before making a purchase.

Maybe I should convince hubby, and the two of us could check it out next year. Sounds like a great day trip.

 

The Tattoo Culture in the Civil War

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If you read the Fillies’ “It’s Yee-Haw Day” on Monday, you know that I got a tattoo…my very first (and probably my last!) in early February. My nephew owns a tattoo business in Florida. At the invitation of my son and daughter-in-law, we flew down for a long (and I might add, VERY COLD) weekend. While I was getting the tattoo, we talked about the history of the art of tattooing.

My daughter-in-law immediately got on her phone, offering information. When I heard that it was popular during the Civil War, my radar went up as I was researching interesting tidbits for my next book.

Tattoos have a long history as a means of identification in the military. In ancient Rome, mercenaries were marked with a permanent ink from acacia bark, corroded bronze and sulphuric acid to help in identifying deserters. When King Harold II was disfigured beyond recognition at the Battle of Hastings, his common-law wife was only able to recognize him based on his tattoos.

Tattoos were used to mark slaves, criminals, and gladiators, and the Latin word “stigma” was used to mean a brand, or scar–any permanent mark left on a person’s skin. When French and British traders met native people, they often recorded the markings on their bodies, instead of their names in trading logs. During the Revolutionary War, colonial sailors decorated themselves with symbols of their newborn country–the “goddess” Columbia, the face of George Washington, eagle with sheaves, or the American flag. 

“A sailor may not wear his heart upon his sleeve, but he does wear it upon his chest.”                                                                  E. Barnes

With the onset of the Civil War, these patriotic themes gained in popularity. Martin Hildebrandt, a talkative man with a crucifix inked on his back was happy to tell newspaper reporters about his unusual trade.

“During the war time I never had a moment’s idle time. I must have marked thousands of sailors and soldiers…I put the names of hundreds of soldiers on their arms or breasts, and many were recognized by these marks after being killed or wounded.” 

Tattooing can be excruciating (I can testify to that!) and in the Civil War, methods were relatively primitive and conditions less than sanitary. Hildebrandt’s tattoo method required about six #12 needles, bound together in a slanting form, dipped into India ink. The puncture of the skin was made at an angle, ensuring that the needles pricked only the surface. Colorants could be made up of ink and wet gunpowder. However, he was restricted to only two colors, blue and red.

       

“If we could only get a green to work into a wreath, the contrast would be charming, but I am afraid it can’t be done.”      M. Hildebrandt

After the tattoo was done, any excess blood and ink was washed off with water or alcohol, usually rum or brandy. Many a soldier had his name, regiment, and residence inked for identification. 

“Every regiment had its tattooers, with outfits of needles and India-ink who for a fee decorated the limbs and bodies of their comrades with flags, muskets, cannon…and patriotic emblems…It was like writing one’s own epitaph, but the custom prevented many bodies from being buried in ‘unknown’ graves.”                                           William Hinman

In addition to identification and patriotism, tattooing during the war was used to memorialize the experience of war and the lives of fellow soldiers. Much like the sailors who pioneered tattooing before them, these soldiers wanted to honor the memories of fallen comrades, to show regimental pride, and demonstrate their love for their homelands.

But beneath their clothes, many men held the marks from the war–voluntary scars to commemorate a shared trauma, claims of individuality in the face of mass death, assertions of humanity that couldn’t be taken away.

*******************A Giveway!*****************

To win a digital copy of “No Finer Dream,” comment on the following question…

Have you gotten OR would you be interested in getting a tattoo?

 

New release coming tomorrow, March 6th…

“Your journey doesn’t have to end in disappointment.”

Lila Hartley had waited for hours on the frozen train platform, a mail-order bride no one came to claim, her trunk beside her like a tombstone. The man who’d promised her marriage, a home, and a future, left her stranded two thousand miles from Boston with nothing but the clothes on her back and a heart full of shattered dreams.
Just when hope was fading, a man emerged from the white curtain of snow like an apparition, took off his coat, and changed her life.

Clay McCallister viewed every woman who had taken a chance on the frontier as the sister he’d failed…a woman who’d risked everything for the possibility of something better, much like the woman standing on the platform in the bitter cold.

Sometimes warmth doesn’t always come from fire — sometimes it comes from the heart.

Pre-Order Link

 

 

An Angel for an Enemy by Pam Crooks

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The Civil War was raging in 1862, but perhaps no one experienced that more than the Confederate and Union soldiers themselves on September 17, 1862, during the Battle of Antietam. Located in Washington County in Maryland, Antietam held the gruesome distinction of being the bloodiest battle in American history with 23,000 casualties.

Bela L. Burr wasn’t one of them, but he was severely injured in the right shin and left ankle and lay dying in the hot sun that day. Having been enlisted in the Union Army for only a month at the young age of 18, he’d laid there in the blood-soaked cornfield, surrounded by his fellow soldiers already dead and waited for his own death to come.

But even impending death didn’t keep him from crying out for water.

It seemed impossible anyone would hear, let alone help, but angels hovered over those scattered bodies, and one answered his call.

A Confederate soldier by the name of James M. Norton was marching near the cornfield. Moved to compassion, he left the march, well aware that sharpshooters were hidden in the trees with orders to aim at anything that moved. Dropping to his knees, defying the shots ringing out, he carefully shimmied over to Burr and offered him his canteen.

It would be an agonizing 48 hours before Burr was discovered and taken to medical treatment. Doctors determined his injuries were severe enough that he warranted a discharge for disability. Though the bullet couldn’t be removed from his ankle, Burr went on to marry, have a family, and become a successful newspaper editor.

In contrast, James Norton lived and fought through the entire war. Once the war ended, he returned home to marry, divorced his wife, then re-married her. They raised their children while he built himself a career as a builder.

But Bela Burr never forgot James Norton, the angel who helped save his life by the simple act of sharing his canteen. Through the power of his newspaper, he printed numerous want ads in hopes of learning the Confederate soldier’s identity. Amazingly, a former Confederate officer familiar with the story helped Burr and Norton reconnect. The two soldiers began to correspond regularly, and Bela Burr invited James Norton to his home in Connecticut for a reunion, setting the day for the Spring of 1897.

I wish I could tell you the two soldiers had a happy reunion, but sadly, there is no record of it.  Perhaps James Norton became ill and was unable to travel, since he passed away two years later.  Who knows?  But if the reunion did, indeed, happen, as a newspaper man (and a writer myself), I’d like to think Bela Burr would have graciously and eloquently shared his story with newspapers nationwide.

And that bullet in his ankle he carried around for decades? It was finally surgically removed in the early 20th century. Bela Burr died a few years later on April 29, 1908.

But he kept that flattened piece of lead as well as the late 1890’s X-ray which revealed it was still there, and a small local museum housed the artifacts in his memory.

As I prepared for this blog, the author of one of the articles I read mentioned how he felt it was weird for someone to save a bullet like Bela Burr saved his, including the X-ray. He then included a link to a You Tube video of a young man who saved his. . . Well, I’ll let you decide if it was weird and quirky.

World’s Biggest – Toenail Collection

Did you ever have a quirky collection of something? 

Would you have saved your bullet and X-ray like Bela Burr?

What is the quirkiest collection you’ve ever heard or seen?

 

 

 

Don’t forget!  MY KIND OF COWBOY is FREE on your favorite platform for a limited time! 

THE FULL BLACKSTONE RANCH SERIES

 

 

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Sarah Rosetta Wakeman: Union Solider

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Union soldier Lyons Wakeman, who served in the 153rd New York Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War had a secret—Lyons’s real name was Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.

Sarah was born in Afton New York on January 16, 1843 to Harvey and Emily Wakeman and was the oldest of nine children. She grew up on the family farm, which struggled financially. She worked as a domestic servant in her teens, but with no prospects for marriage, and wanting a more financially stable future, she made a gutsy decision–she moved to Chicago, dressed as a man and got work as a boatman on the Chenango Canal. It’s unclear whether her motives were purely financial.  Some of her many letters allude to a family rift.

Sarah met Army recruiters while working as a boatman and enlisted on August 30, 1862, receiving a $152 bounty. She claimed to be 21 at the time, but she was only 19. Her regiment was assigned to Alexandria, Virginia. Ironically, one of her duties was to guard a prisoner who happened to be a woman arrested for impersonating a Union soldier.

Soldiers of the 153rd New York Infantry (The Met, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/268038 )

Sarah wrote many letters home, often sending money, in what appears to be an attempt to heal the family rift.  Sarah often signed her given name to the letters, a move which would have ended her military career if they had been intercepted. Her letters described her pride in being financially independent, being a solider and living a free life as a man. If anyone discovered Sarah’s true identity, they kept her secret. Her letters indicate that she fit in well with her fellow soldiers.

Sarah’s regiment was called to active battle duty in February 1864, and took part in the Red River Campaign in Louisiana.  She saw combat on April 9, 1864 and survived the battle. After the battle, she sent her last letter home. Unfortunately, she became ill with dysentery and died on June 19m 1864. (Thousands of soldiers died of dysentery from drinking contaminated water during the war.) She was buried with full military honors at Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans, with a headstone that read Lyons Wakeman.

Sarah’s letters, and thus the story of her military service, were stored in a relative’s attic and went unread by those other than her family until 1976.  The letters have since been complied into a book: An Uncommon Soldier by Lauren Cook Burgess

 

A Glimpse Into My Civil War Family Connection

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I was talking the other day with some of the fillies about my early American Colonial history and my relationship to Nathan Hale. Yes, the famous “I regret I have but one life to lose for my country” guy. FYI, he didn’t have any children, but his sister did, and it’s through her that my family can trace the connection.

I also have ties to the Civil War. My great-great-great grandfather Edward Talcott Ingraham fought for the North as part of Connecticut’s Sixteenth Regiment. Though taken prisoner later in the war, he amazingly survived the horrific conditions at the notorious Andersonville Prison, eventually returned home to his father’s farm, and then married his sweetheart Nellie. He never fully recovered from his injuries and ordeal, however. He and Nellie had a daughter and, sadly, while she was pregnant with their son, Edward grew weak and died.

He enlisted as a young man of nineteen in response to Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers and was paid $25 a month wages. Edward believed in the Union and ultimately gave his life for his country. During the time he was away from the family farm, he wrote letters to Nellie and his father that miraculously survived intact, although the writing is faded and the pages are like tissue paper. My aunt had the letters until she died, and they are now in the tender hands of my cousin. About twenty years ago, my aunt and mother painstakingly transcribed the letters which offer amazing first-hand insight into the life of a Yankee soldier. Here’s just one letter to give you an idea (the spelling and grammar mistakes are Edward’s – my aunt left them in to be accurate):

Dear Nellie,

There if the heading of this does not let you know where I be, I do not know what will. Your kind letter reached me today and as the regiment is under light marching orders, I must answer it today with a short letter. I expect we have got to see some more fighting in a few days. If we do, I do not know but I shall be one to fall. Oh, I am detached from the regiment in to a pionear confis which goes ahead of the troops to clear the way. It is rather a dangerous position to be in. There is no news only have got to give the rebs another summers chase. I will send you a bit of wood from a tree which the bullet hit before it went through Fred Cooleys head. He stood next man to me in the last fight and this time it may hit me. Excuse this short letter for I have no time for we are engaged in preparing for the march. Give my love to all and write soon. Direct your letters as you have done.

                       I remain your ever affectionate friend

                                                            Edward

In addition to the letters, one tintype photograph of Edward also survived these many years. Here is an image of it my mother had produced from the original tintype. She always thought my cousin resembled him ? Quite the mustache, don’t you agree?

One last interesting fact about my great-great-great grandfather’s time serving in the war. When he and the others of the Sixteenth Regiment were taken prison after losing in battle, they tore their regiment flag into small strips and concealed the strips in their clothing before being transported to Andersonville. Many died there ­ — more from the Sixteenth Regiment than any other regiment. When a member of the Sixteenth died, the strip they carried was given to another member of the Sixteenth Regiment for safekeeping. When all the prisoners were finally released, they were sent to Newberne where they finished out the war doing guard and provost duty. It was there that the remaining scattered survivors of the Sixteenth Regiment were at long last reunited.

In 1879, a space was set aside in the new Connecticut Sate Capitol Building in Hartford for the various flags of the Connecticut Regiments. The remaining strips of the Sixteenth’s flag were stitched together to form a shield. This shield was then sewn onto a banner of heavy white Cheney silk from the silk mills in nearby Manchester. An eagle was embroidered above the shield to replicate the original design of the flag. This banner remains on display in a place of honor to this day.

I think after writing this post, I no longer wonder why I have an interest in American history and write romances. My great-great-great-grandfather survived nothing less than hell on Earth to return to his sweetheart, who faithfully waited for him for years. That’s quite a story, yes?

If you haven’t already done so, check out my latest release:  Merry’s Christmas Cowboy, part of Petticoats & Pistols Christmas Stocking Sweethearts.

 Purchase Merry’s Christmas Cowboy

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A Widow’s Cause: Bringing Thanksgiving to Victorian America by Jo-Ann Roberts

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The holidays are upon us! I had barely dropped bags of Halloween candy into my shopping cart when I turned into the next aisle and was bombarded by a full-blown display of Christmas. The retail community had completely overlooked the day set aside for gratitude and giving thanks.

This revelation gave me pause, as I wondered how the celebration of Thanksgiving came about. Was it suggested by a group of civic-minded people or just one person? How was it decided to celebrate the day on the fourth Thursday in November?

So, like much of my research, down the rabbit hole I went. To my delight, I discovered once again it was a woman who led the campaign, giving us a day set to give thanks for the blessings and freedoms we enjoy today.

During most of the 19th century, Thanksgiving was not an official holiday. Admittedly, it had its roots in the New England states and was widely celebrated there and in the mid-West. The actual date of the holiday was left to individual states and territories. It could vary widely from September through December but is mostly celebrated in November after the harvest.
While the idea of celebrating a good harvest was an old one, it took a Victorian lady to give it its voice. Specifically, the editor of a highly popular magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale.

Suddenly finding herself a widow and single mother with children to support–including a brand-new baby–Sarah wrote a book, Northwood. Its success led to a job offer for the “editorship” of a new “ladies” magazine, turning Godey’s into one of the most important periodicals in 19th century America. Though it is now remembered primarily for its fashion plates, crafts, and household tidbits, it covered social issues as well.

Year after year, Godey’s Lady’s Book published the same plea. Each year the campaign brought new success. By 1851, 29 out of 31 states celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. However, not on the same day so she continued to insist the holiday be celebrated on the exact same day.

Having thoroughly thought it out, she suggested the last Thursday in November so that “the telegraph of human happiness would move every heart to gladness simultaneously.” To further her cause for a unified day of giving thanks, she pointed out that farm labor was done for the season, and the election cycle was over. Below is the original 1847 plea from Godey’s Lady’s Book.
OUR HOLIDAYS. —”We have but two that we can call entirely national. The New Year is a holiday to all the world, and Christmas to all Christians—but the “Fourth of July” and “Thanksgiving Day” can only be enjoyed by Americans. The annual observance of Thanksgiving Day was, to be sure, mostly confined to the New England States, till within a few years. We are glad to see that this good old puritan custom is becoming popular through the Union…Would that the next Thanksgiving might be observed in all the states on the same day. Then, though the members of the same family might be too far separated to meet around one festival board, they would have the gratification of knowing that all were enjoying the blessing of the day…”

Despite her claims, she had not achieved the ultimate endorsement; a proclamation from the President. In 1861, with civil war looming, she focused on national unity as her strongest selling point.

Finally, under these conditions and the stress of considerable loss of life, a devastated Southern economy, and public support for the holiday, President Abraham Lincoln endorsed and proclaimed, “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelt in the heavens.” Furthermore, he stated, Americans should “fervently implore” blessings from the Almighty to “heal the wounds of the nations, and to restore it…to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.”

Successive presidents continued the tradition and proclaimed a yearly Thanksgiving at the end of every November.  Still not satisfied, Hale’s magazine urged Congress to recognize the holiday. Unfortunately, she didn’t live to see the Congressional Proclamation of the Thanksgiving story (which finally took place in 1941), but by the 1870’s Thanksgiving was already a part of America’s culture.

The national holiday has become just what Sarah Josepha Hale envisioned: a celebration of home and hearth and the blessings for which we are grateful.

 

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Giveaway!

Two lucky winners will each receive an e-book edition of my upcoming release, “Ivy” Christmas Quilt Brides. Just leave a comment below telling me how you celebrate Thanksgiving in your home.

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Upcoming Release

He was the town bully.
She was his target.
Has anything changed?
Years ago, Ivy Sutton was drawn to the new orphan boy in town. Unfortunately, she soon became the focus of Grady Walsh’s mischievous deeds in school.
Ivy is back home in Harmony, Kansas for good but is she willing and able to forgive the boy who made her childhood unbearable?
Grady Walsh lost his heart to the sweet girl the day she gave him a quilt. Now, as a well-liked and respected tradesman in Harmony, can he make up for the reckless actions of his youth? Or will another steal er away before they have a chance to discover a kind of love that might heal the pain from the past?

Rifles of the Civil War & Frontier

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By Kathleen Denly

In my upcoming novel, Murmur in the Mud Caves, the hero, a veteran of the Civil War, carries a Henry repeating rifle. Patented in 1860, a single man armed with this weapon held the firepower of a dozen marksmen armed with muzzle-loading muskets. 

Caption: This photograph shows an early Henry Rifle. (Photo Credit: Hmaag. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.)

 

President Lincoln, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy were all gifted beautifully engraved, gold-plated Henry rifles in an attempt to convince the Union to order the weapon for their soldiers. Unfortunately, only 1,731 were ordered by the Union. 

Caption: This photograph shows an early Henry Rifle and a Winchester Model 1866 Rifle. Both shoot .44 caliber Rimfire. (Photo Credit: Hmaag. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.)

However, the weapon was so well regarded for its faster loading and greater reliability that many soldiers invested their own money to purchase a Henry rifle. In the end, it is estimated that 6,000 Union Soldiers were armed with the Henry rifle. Major William Ludlow was said to claim that what saved his men at the Battle of Allatoona Pass was the fact that many of his men were armed with Henry rifles. Confederate Colonel John Mosby, after encountering Union soldiers armed with Henry rifles, declared, “It’s a rifle you could load on Sunday and shoot all week long.” Despite its solid reputation, the Henry rifle was discontinued in 1866.

Caption: This photo shows an 1873 Winchester rifle. (Photo Credit: Ricce, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.)

Today, the 1873 Winchester is known as the gun that settled the west. What many people don’t know, however, is that it was based on the Henry rifle. My husband, Luke, has an interest in historical weapons, so for Christmas I bought him a replica of the 1873 Winchester. Recently, I talked him into:

  • Explaining how the 1873 Winchester differs from the Henry rifle
  • Discussing what made these two weapons so important to fighting the Civil War and settling the frontier
  • Demonstrating and explaining how the 1873 Winchester works and is maintained 

In the video below, you’ll get to see and hear what it was like to fire this weapon. I hope you enjoy his presentation.

Did you learn something new today? Which part of Luke’s presentation did you find the most interesting?

 

He came to cook for ranch hands, not three single women.

Gideon Swift, a visually impaired Civil War Veteran, responds to an ad for a ranch cook in the Southern California desert mountains. He wants nothing more than to forget his past and stay in the kitchen where he can do no harm. But when he arrives to find his employer murdered, the ranch turned to ashes, and three young women struggling to survive in the unforgiving Borrego Desert, he must decide whether his presence protects them or places them in greater danger.

Bridget “Biddie” Davidson finally receives word from her older sister who disappeared with their brother and pa eighteen years prior, but the news is not good. Determined to help her family, Biddie sets out for a remote desert ranch with her adopted father and best friend. Nothing she finds there is as she expected, including the man who came to cook for the shambles of a ranch.

When tragedy strikes, the danger threatens not only her plans to help her sister, but her own dreams for the future—with the man who’s stolen her heart.

Ebook purchase links: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

Paperback purchase links: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-a-Million

 

If you preorder Murmur in the Mud Caves before May 16th, 2023, don’t forget to register your purchase by emailing proof of purchase (screenshot) to kdpreorderbonuses@gmail.com before May 16th.

Everyone who registers their preorder purchase will receive a FREE ebook copy of the 31-day companion devotional, His Broken Treasure, written by Kathryn Breckenridge and edited by Kathleen Denly.

 

His Broken Treasure will also be available for separate purchase beginning May 20th, 2023.

 

 

About Kathleen Denly

Kathleen Denly writes historical romance to entertain, encourage, and inspire readers toward a better understanding of our amazing God and how He sees us.

Award winning author of the Chaparral Hearts series, she also shares history tidbits, thoughts on writing, books reviews and more at KathleenDenly.com.

Connect with Kathleen:

Website | Newsletter | BookBub | Amazon | FB Author Page | FB Reader Group | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest  

 

Giveaway Details

One Winner will receive:

  • 1 Antique Map Leather Pen/Pencil Organizer
  • 1 ebook copy of Waltz in the Wilderness 

Eligibility: Due to the cost of shipping, Winner must have a U.S. shipping address to receive the prize as described. An international winner must accept a $5 Amazon giftcard in lieu of the Leather Pen/Pencil Organizer. Void where prohibited.

To Enter:

Leave a comment on this blog post answering one or both of these questions: Did you learn something new today? Which part of Luke’s presentation did you find the most interesting?

 

PSST! Are you new to my Chaparral Hearts series? If so, you may be happy to know that members of my Kathleen’s Readers’ Club can download a free copy of the prequel novella, Ribbons and Beaus. Click here to join!

 

A Soldier’s Harsh Life ~ by Pam Crooks

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The heroes in my two-book connected series, THE MERCENARY’S KISS and HER LONE PROTECTOR, are soldiers.  Mercenaries, specifically.  They were soldiers for hire who commanded a handsome price from the War Department to fight for America’s freedoms in their own way. Undercover, nonconforming, but no less effective.

Both educated in West Point Military Academy, their dreams to be a soldier in the traditional sense fall apart, but they remain fierce patriots. They travel throughout the world to fight with skills and daring few soldiers could imagine.  Their life isn’t easy–or safe. They battle betrayal, harsh environments, malaria . . . and emerge victorious.

Soldiers throughout the nineteenth century didn’t have it any easier.  Worse, most likely. Oh, my, many of these soldiers were young.  Late teens, fresh-faced, and eager to serve.  It wasn’t long before their determination is tested, for sure.

A typical routine for a calvary on the march would be like this:

  • 4:45 am – First Call. No hitting the snooze button. Soldiers had to get up and moving NOW.
  • 4:55 am – Reveille and Stable Call. They came to order, saddled the horses, and harnessed the mules.
  • 5:00 am – Mess Call. Breakfast, both prepared and eaten.
  • 5:30 am – Strike Camp – meaning take down tents and store equipment.
  • 5:45 am – Boots & Saddles – the soldiers mount up.
  • 5:55 am – Fall In – Calvary is assembled and ready to march.
  • 6:00 am – Forward March!

An hour and fifteen minutes to accomplish all this!  No dawdling allowed.

Some days, they traveled thirty, maybe sixty miles. Imagine sitting in the saddle that long! The men rode in columns of four when the terrain allowed. Single file, if it didn’t. If the wind and snow blew hard, they rode hunched in the saddle, their eyes slitted against the stinging wind, their hats pulled low over their eyes.

At night, they might have to sleep on snow. If they didn’t die of pneumonia, frostbite and gangrene often set in, and Army surgeons chopped off blackened fingers and toes. In the South, the heat was brutal, water scarce, and the flying insects merciless.  The feared threat of an Indian attack was constant.

Fresh meat was in short supply.  Soldiers reported the meat putrid and “sticky”. Yuck! Clean water was a precious commodity, too. Soldiers suffering extreme thirst desperately drank water wherever they could find it, even if it was green with slime, which only brought on instantaneous vomiting when they were already weak and dehydrated.

Even if decent water could be found, their canteens were lacking.

Wooden canteens tended to leak and/or dry out.

The water in India rubber canteens tasted terrible.

Tin canteens were probably best, but in extreme heat, the water got hot.

If a soldier was pulled out of the field and ordered to a post, amenities were minimal.  Barracks at a fort were small, overcrowded, poorly constructed, poorly ventilated, cold in winter and hot in summer. Privacy was non-existent for most. Privies were outside and bathhouses rare. In fact, despite the War Department’s stipulation that the men should bathe at least once a week, one officer reported that after 30 years in the Army, not once had he seen a bathhouse at a fort.

Still, not every soldier thought his time in service to his country was endlessly miserable.  One young lieutenant wrote his mother, “I could live such a life for years and years without becoming tired of it. There is a great deal of hardship, but we have our own fun. If we have to get up and start long before daybreak, we make up for it when we gather around campfires at night. You never saw such a merry set as we are–we criticize the Generals, laugh and swear at the mustangs and volunteers, smoke our cigars and drink our brandy, when we have any.”

I like his attitude, don’t you?

What is the farthest you’ve ever traveled?  Have you ever had a miserable trip?

A number of years ago, to celebrate our anniversary, my husband and I traveled to Cape Cod in the fall, hopeful to see the beautiful colors.  Alas, it had been too warm and rainy that year, and we didn’t see a SINGLE leaf that had turned color.  Worse, on the way home, more stormy weather cancelled flights, and we were forced to spend the night at the Boston airport.  I can still remember those creaky cots they gave us to sleep on.  Although my husband slept, I couldn’t relax out of fear someone would steal our luggage.  I was in tears checking my watch constantly.  I can’t remember being more miserable, and that night is still vivid in my memory.

Let’s chat, and I’ll give away an ebook copy of THE MERCENARY’S KISS to a winning commenter.

Series on Amazon

The Battle of Glorieta Pass New Mexico, 1862 and a Give Away!

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Hi, I’m Susan Page Davis. Last fall I was writing a novel set mostly in Colorado during the Civil War. Hmm. Did the war reach Colorado? I didn’t want it to be a war story as such, but the characters in my book, being upstanding US citizens, couldn’t ignore the conflict, could they?

Time for research. The hero’s family lived near Fort Lyon, and I soon learned the 1st Colorado Infantry took an active part in the war, including a major role in the Battle of Glorieta Pass.

The battle actually took place in New Mexico Territory, so as you can imagine, getting there was a major challenge. The Union forces marched from Denver a distance of 400 miles in fourteen days to Glorieta Pass, in the Sangre de Cristos mountains. That’s a lot of marching, especially in rugged territory.

Another challenge for me personally was to learn to spell Glorieta Pass with only one T. My fingers want to throw in an extra every time I write it.

Anyway, from March 26 to 28, 1862, Confederate forces under Major Charles Pyron and William Read Scurry battled Union forces led by Col. John P. Slough and Major John M. Chivington.

While the Confederates pushed the Union army back through the pass, they had to retreat when their supply train was destroyed. Instead of breaking the Union’s hold in the West, as the Confederates hoped, this battle signaled the Southern forces’ withdrawal from the New Mexico Territory.
While the battle is past when my story begins, my hero, Matt Anderson, was there. He was wounded, and he’s been recovering for nearly a year. He wants to go back to his company, which is stationed at Fort Lyon. His commanding officer decides he’s not ready, which is disappointing to Matt, but not to several other people in the story.

I could have sent Matt back East to other battles, but Glorieta Pass suited my story just fine. For one thing, it kept him in the West, and he was able to get home to his father’s ranch without a long delay. Since his outfit was stationed nearby, he went home to recuperate, not to a military hospital.

In the next book in the series, Matt’s brother will face battle east of the Mississippi. Jack wonders about his brother, but he and Matt haven’t seen each other for more than twenty years. And right now Jack has a lot of other things to think about, like how he can keep the Rebs from stealing his codebook, and how to escape a fiendish Southerner who thinks he should have been President of the Confederate States of America.

Do you like actual historical events as a story setting? Is so, do you think it adds a certain depth that the story wouldn’t have had otherwise? I will give an ebook copy or a print copy of The Rancher’s Legacy. 

Guideline rules apply – https://petticoatsandpistols.com/sweepstakesrules/

Here’s a little more about the book:

Matt Anderson’s father and their neighbor devise a plan: Have their children marry and merge the two ranches. The only problem is, Rachel Maxwell has stated emphatically that will never happen.

When Rachel finishes her education in the East and arrives in Colorado, Matt is tasked with retrieving her from the stagecoach. As they crest the hill overlooking the sprawling acreage, Rachel gets her first glimpse of her new home. Only it’s in flames and besieged by outlaws.

She soon learns her father was killed in the raid, shattering her life. Will she allow Matt to help her pick up the pieces?

Meanwhile in Maine, a sea captain’s widow, Edith Rose, hires a private investigator to locate three of her now-adult grandchildren who were abandoned by their father nearly 20 years ago. After weeks of investigation, Ryland Atkins believes he’s located the eldest—in Colorado Territory.

 

Amazon

Book 2, The Corporal’s Codebook, is scheduled to release in November.

The Texas State Treasury Robbery by Susan Page Davis

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We’re so happy to welcome the return of Susan Page Davis. How close did Texas come to bankruptcy? She’ll tell you. Oh, and scroll down for her giveaway!

Immediately after the Civil War, Texas was in chaos. This was at least partly due to the hasty disbanding of the Confederate army at the end of the war. There were 60,000 troops in Texas in the spring of 1865. Morale was horrible. Many Confederate soldiers deserted and plundered. Soldiers pillaged the quartermaster’s stores in Galveston in late May and detained and plundered a train. A mob demanded that a government warehouse be opened to them, and a blockade-running ship was overrun by civilians. Troops sent to calm the mob joined in the plunder. Other episodes of rioting and stealing exploded across Texas.

When word reached Austin that the Confederate forces had surrendered to Grant, the Texas legislature couldn’t raise enough members to repeal the secession ordinance. Rather than stay and face the uncertainty of their status under the Reconstruction government, Governor Pendleton Murrah and several other Confederate officials fled into Mexico. Most other state officials were removed from office. Union occupation troops were on the way, and Texas temporarily was denied readmission to the Union.

During this time of disorganization and fear, violence became common. Mobs and bands of outlaws, many of them army deserters, contributed to the turbulence. In the capital, Austin, citizens got together in an attempt to protect the people and their property.

Captain George R. Freeman, a Confederate veteran, organized a small company of volunteers in May 1865, to protect the state capital until the Union army could get there.  The city was in turmoil, and a mob had taken control of the streets, plundering stores and causing riots and general havoc.

Freeman’s volunteers restored a measure of peace, and they then disbanded with an agreement to gather again if needed. A church bell would sound the alarm if necessary.

Texas during the Civil War. In 1861, the Texas legislature created the Frontier Regiment to guard frontier settlements. They occupied several abandoned federal posts and established a line of 16 camps through the center of the state. Map courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

On the night of June 11, Freeman was informed that a gang planned to rob the state treasury. The bell tolled, and about twenty of the volunteers gathered at the Christian Church on the south end of Congress Avenue. Some of them came directly from church services.

By the time the volunteers arrived at the treasury building, the estimated fifty robbers of the gang were already inside, breaking into the safes. A brief gun battle broke out. One of the robbers was gravely wounded. Freeman was shot in the arm.

The thieves got away with more than $17,000 in specie, that is, in gold and silver coins. That’s a lot of weight to carry! A later audit report stated that a total of $27,525 in specie had been located in the treasury at the time of the robbery, as well as $800 in Louisiana bank bills. Several million dollars of U.S. bonds and other securities were also in the vault, but the robbers didn’t take them. One package of bond coupons was recovered from the floor after apparently being dropped by a fleeing member of the gang.

Before he died, the wounded robber told the outnumbered volunteers that the leader of the gang was “Captain Rapp,” but this man was never caught. No other members of the gang were ever captured, and the loot was not recovered, though some money was found outside, between the treasury building and Mount Bonnell.

Captain Freeman and his company of volunteers were later recognized by the state for their service, but the resolution providing a reward for them never passed the legislature. In 2009, Freeman was honored by a historical marker placed at his former home in Hamilton, where he later practiced law. He is credited with interrupting the robbery and preventing the bankruptcy of Texas. He had served prior to this incident as a Confederate officer, as captain of Company D, Twenty-third Texas Cavalry.

Federal troops arrived in Texas on June 19, 1865, and it took a while to restore order. Ex-Confederates were granted amnesty if they promised to support the Union in the future, but it wasn’t until March 30, 1870 that Texas’s representatives were once again allowed to take their seats in Congress.

Do you find the historical account of things like this robbery interesting and get your thoughts whirling? There are so many unanswered questions. Susan is giving away one autographed copy of Mail Order Standoff to one person who comments. The drawing will be Sunday.

The Mail-Order Standoff: Marriage plans are put on hold in the Old West when four mail-order brides have second thoughts. How will their grooms win their trust? My story – THE BRIDE WHO DECLINED – opens in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1880s. Rachel Paxton turns down a mail-order proposal, but a few months later she learns the man she rejected has died—and left his ranch to her in his will. She can’t figure out why, and she’s not sure she wants the inheritance.

The four novellas include

Right on Time by Angela Breidenbach

Pistol-Packin’ Bride by Margaret Brownley

Twice the Trouble by Vickie McDonough;

The Bride Who Declined by Susan Page Davis.

AMAZON   |   Christian Book

 

ABOUT SUSAN:

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than ninety published novels. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and also a winner of the Carol Award and a finalist in the WILLA Literary Awards. A Maine native, she now lives in Kentucky. Visit her website at: https://susanpagedavis.com , where you can see all her books, sign up for her occasional newsletter, and read a short story on her Freebies tab.

 

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