HARPERS FERRY
CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE
PO BOX 1079, HARPERS FERRY, WV 25425
Vol. 33April 2014 No. 09
DATE:
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
TIME:
Dinner 7:00 PM; Program 8:00
PLACE:
Camp Hill Methodist Church, Harpers Ferry, WV
SPEAKER:
Allan Tischler
SUBJECT:
The Sheridan Scouts
The Speaker:
Born in Baltimore, Allan Tischler grew up in Richmond, from the '50's through the
early '70's. The double influence of his grandmother's family stories from when her
grandfather served briefly in Robert E. Lee's army and the Civil War Centennial
observances only strengthened his passion for reading and history. Private Nathaniel
Bernstein, Co. C, 1st Virginia Infantry, was a mere lad of 18 years when he was
conscripted in the last months of the war, and at the Battle of Five Forks was captured by
the Federal cavalry. Grandmother Bernice Abrams, a prideful member of the City Point
Chapter of the UDC, always related that her grandfather refused to take the oath of
allegiance at Point Lookout Prison, Maryland, until the war was over and he was paroled
in June of 1865.
Allan Tischler has been active in the Civil War community for over 35 years, involved
in re-enacting, living history interpretation, speaking, battlefield tour guiding, monument
restoration, historical marker emplacement, and preservation in the Shenandoah Valley.
He is the author of the ground-breaking 1993 Antietam Campaign book, The History of
the Harpers Ferry Cavalry Expedition, September 14 & 15, 1862, and several articles and
op-ed pieces. He has assisted other authors with their own published research, was a
contributor to the 1992 Department of the Interior’s Study of Civil War Sites in the
Shenandoah Valley, and is currently working on manuscripts detailing the exploits of the
85 Medal of Honor recipients who served in the Valley along with portraying for the first
time the cohesive array of art work drawn by renowned Sketch Artist, Alfred R. Waud,
while he was there in 1862 and 1864 with the Union army. In addition, Tischler was
given the second Louis Baker Archives Award as an honor from the Handley Regional
Library in 1997 for his contributions of rare material detailing the Federal side of the war
in the Valley. His historical film extra credits include Gettysburg, Glory, Gods &
Generals, and Summersby along with television work for Lincoln, Tad, and A & E's
Zouaves. As an infantryman in one of the oldest re-enactment/living history units, the
5th New York Duryee Zouaves, Allan Tischler is dedicated to carrying on the American
legacy of that most crucial and vital part of our history and is centered on the concept that
we can all learn some aspect of the past which we can apply to now and to the future.
The Subject
Unique unto themselves, the men from various units in Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's
Federal Army of the Shenandoah called "Sheridan's Scouts," carried on a tradition in the
fall, winter, and spring of 1864-1865 that was begun from three seedlings: scouting
parties during McClellan's early West Virginia campaign, the Prairie Scouts brought into
the Mountain Dept. by Maj. Gen. John Fremont who became the "Jesse Scouts," and
scouts raised in Kilpatrick's Cavalry Division, Army of the Potomac. What they all had
in common was their wearing of Confederate uniforms for infiltrating the enemy's lines
to gather information with some more proactive tasks added later on. We will take a
completely fresh look at them, roses and glory set aside.
The Meal
A family-style meal will be served at 7:00 PM prior to the program. The cost of the
meal is $15.00 per person. Reservations for the meal must be phoned in no later than
Sunday, May 11th, to Kyle Wichtendahl at 301-639-8855 or you can email him at
[email protected] The meal will consist of Sliced Roast Pork, Mashed
Potatoes, Gravy, Sauerkraut, Iced Tea, Coffee, Rolls, & Dessert.
"LAST TO JOIN THE FIGHT: The 66th Georgia Infantry"
[Last to Join the Fight: The 66th Georgia Infantry by Daniel Cone (Mercer University
Press, 2014). Cloth, map, photos, illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. Pp. 209.
ISBN:9780881464757]
As author Daniel Cone notes in his preface to Last to Join the Fight: The 66th
Georgia Infantry, Civil War regimental histories range from skeletal summaries only a
few dozen pages in length to colossal tomes minutely detailing a unit's formation, roster,
camp life, marches, and combat history. Cone's own study lies within the genre's vast
middle ground, favoring an examination of the "quality and experience of the regiment's
officers, the demographic composition of its ranks, and critiques of the postwar claims of
its commander" (pg. 183) over recounting military exploits.
Recruited and organized in the summer of 1863, the 66th Georgia was commanded by
Colonel James C. Nisbet, who, having served as a junior officer in the eastern theater,
was the most experienced man in the regiment. Cone's research into the background of
the officers and NCOs discovered little that might inspire confidence in the unit's
subsequent performance, Nesbit having failed in his mission to obtain a cadre of proven
fighting men to build his command around. On the other hand, recruit numbers were not
a problem. After an initial hiccup, through a combination of volunteering and
conscription the 66th rapidly achieved full strength, with enough manpower left over to
fill an extra battalion.
Where the book really shines is in Cone's demographic study of the 66th as a case
study of a late war regiment and how the findings compare with earlier Confederate
volunteers. Cone's profile of an older, poorer Georgian recruit certainly contrasts sharply
with the young, middle class volunteer of 1861 having more extensive family ties to slave
ownership, but the author is really more interested in the contrasting his cohort with the
second great wave of southerners entering the ranks, the 1862 group analyzed in Kenneth
Noe's Reluctant Rebels (2010). Unlike early-war regiments, very few 66th Georgia
companies came from specific counties, with the typical one comprised of recruits from
all over the state. The majority of Nisbet's men came from Georgia's Plantation Belt and
the average age was 30 (median 33), whereas the average age of the 1862 recruit was 26.
Out of 517 men sampled, at least 242 were married, which is slightly less than Noe's 50%
figure for later enlisting Confederates and probably having much to do with the high
number of recruits (25% of the total) under 20 years of age. Between the two groups, the
percentages of men involved in some aspect of farming were similar, 70% for the 66th
Georgia to 74% for Noe's sample. When it came to non-farming occupations, up to onethird of later enlisting 1862 recruits supported themselves in another fashion while only
22% of Cone's group claimed so. When it came to wealth, 58% of Noe's Confederate
subjects owned no property, while Cone estimates that perhaps three-fourths of 66th
Georgia recruits were similarly impoverished. When it came to direct involvement with
the institution of slavery (either by owning slaves outright or living in a slaveholding
household), perhaps 25% of Cone's sample were thus connected versus 43% for Noe's
earlier volunteers. Cone helpfully arranges some of this data into tables, but a pair of
potentially useful appendices referenced in the text appears to have been misplaced
completely. So, for Cone the "typical" 66th Georgia soldier was either a teenager or a 3545 year old married farmer (with 4 children) from the Plantation Belt, of very limited
means and perhaps owning one slave but more likely having no assets at all, human or
otherwise.
Last to Join the Fight offers a very illustrative profile of the late-war Confederate
recruit. Significant study of the men that followed the eager Boys of '61 -- who they
were, why they volunteered, and how committed they were to the cause of the rebellion -is a recent phenomenon, and Daniel Cone's detailed social profile of the officers and men
of the 66th Georgia is an original and important contribution to the discussion.
(Excerpted from Civil War Books and Authors web site)