6. Upon This Land: Episode 6
Transcript
Dustin Baker George Washington. It's one of the most recognizable names in the world. His story is a foundational stone in American history. Yet at the place he was born, only remnants remain of the buildings and the stories of people who once lived here. One might think that the birthplace of a national icon is an easy story to tell, but it's actually one of the most complex and surprising historic sites preserved by the National Park Service. So join us as we piece together the past, present and future of this place brick by brick. On this podcast series upon this Land History, mystery and monuments. When visitors first arrive to George Washington Birthplace National Monument, the first thing they encounter is a panoramic view of Pope's Creek, an enormous body of water that stretches out to the Potomac River. And this river would have been one of the dividers from 1861 to 1865, between the United States and the Confederacy, which has seceded from the Union during the American Civil War. In June of 1864, 475 men of the 36th United States Colored Troops embarked across the river into Westmoreland County and the Northern Neck of Virginia during the Civil War. Their expedition began right here at Pope's Creek, near the site of George Washington's birthplace. And this month marks the 160th anniversary of the raid, which lasted from June 11th to June 21st. Now, generally, our site interprets the time period between 1650 and 1815, and then we have a jump to the commemorative area in the 1930s. So to help us tell the story of the time in between is our guest interpreter, Steward Henderson from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. And interviewing Steward is myself and lead interpreter Jonathan Malriat.
Jonathan Malriat In interpretation, we find our stories in many different avenues, sometimes inspiration comes from the most inane and avenues you don't initially expect from. The story for today is going to be around a spark that came from when I visited one of our nearby national park units, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. And every year, right before Memorial Day, they do a celebration called the luminaria, which is a big event that they do in the evening, where they lay out 15,000 candles in memory of all of the soldiers that are buried in the National Cemetery there. And when I was there, I got the opportunity to listen to a lot of the Rangers that are there, tell the stories of some of the individuals that have been identified who are interned in that cemetery. And our guest today, Steward Henderson, was telling a story about one of those soldiers that's buried there. Steward, I will let you give an introduction to yourself.
Steward Henderson Okay. I am the co-founder and past president of the 23rd Regiment, United States Colored Troops, which is a living history organization. I'm also a member of the 54th Mass. Company B out of Washington, D.C., which is our reenactment arm. I am, lets see, a former banker for 35 years, and I have always loved Civil War history since I was six years old and visited the Fredericksburg battlefield, and eight when I visited Gettysburg.
Jonathan Malriat So Steward was talking about Peter Wilson during the luminaria and he was talking about how it occurred in Westmoreland County and George Washington Birthplace National Monument is inside of Westmoreland County. And it sparked an interest in me in trying to make a connection to here, because if there were raiding us, forces us colored troops coming into this region. The people who were inhabiting the area around George Washington Birthplace National Monument would have been experiencing that, even if it wasn't right here. And when I dove into the records, it turns out that there was a raid that occurred June 11th, 1864, through June 21st that occurred right here at Pope's Creek. And it was all thanks to Steward that we found out about this story that has been covered before, but not has been a focus here at the birthplace.
Dustin Baker So let's start by looking into the story of Peter Wilson.
Jonathan Malriat Grave 814 in Fredericksburg National Cemetery belongs to Private Peter Wilson. So Peter Wilson was born in North Carolina and enlisted in company C of the 36 US Colored Troops, which at that time was the 2nd North Carolina US Colored Troops or North Carolina Colored Troops, in July 13th of 1863, in North Carolina. Prior to that, as you had mentioned during the Luminaria, he was enslaved by Doctor Turner Wilson, who had owned 32 slaves on his 2500 acre farm. In his previous occupation, Peter Wilson was listed prior war as being a farmer, and he's one of many enslaved people who escaped and joined the US Army. In the record it talks about in February of 64. So this is going to be almost six months after he joins the Army. He will, they'll move up to Point Lookout and then they'll participate in the raids in the Northern Neck in April and June of 64 and the 36th had a lot of success in there. So on June 16th, they engaged with the Confederate cavalry, and 450 local militia. During that skirmishes, Peter Wilson and two other soldiers of company C broke off and against their orders of the commander of the raid, Colonel Draper, they approached a house located about a mile from where the skirmish taking place, and fire and a group of mounted militia. According to a correspondent writing for the American and Commercial Advertiser, the rebels ran down a Negro soldier and contraband, both of whom were murdered in cold blood. The soldier was 37 year old Private Wilson. The unknown enslaved man or contraband as he was listed, was likely trying to escape with him. Wilson's comrade, Private Henry Lee, was wounded and probably killed, and could not afterwards be found, but the third soldier did escape.
Steward Henderson One thing that I remembered from that story was that Private Wilson was operating against direct orders from Colonel Draper, but he was given that order by another officer, John O'Brien, who knew he was going against Draper's orders. But I think that Peter Wilson, from what I've heard, he's going to be trying to help other enslaved people escape. But, the point was, he was trying to help enslaved people.
Dustin Baker So, Steward, before we get into the details of this raid, let's zoom out a little bit. And could you describe for us, where are we in the war in June of 1864? What's happening in the surrounding area and more broadly?
Steward Henderson Okay, well, Draper is going to be part of the Army of the James. They're going to be under General Benjamin Butler. General Butler had first had black troops when he was in Louisiana. He had the Louisiana Native Guard. So when he becomes, the commander of the Army of the James, he has two divisions of black troops.
Jonathan Malriat Steward, I'm trying to remember, the presidential campaign, 1864 is that the election year or the inauguration year?
Steward Henderson That's the election year.
Jonathan Malriat So that's the election year. So that's another part that's gonna be going on during this 1864 time period. Right. Lincoln's gonna be concerned about that 1864 election. And McClellan. Right. Who's up and coming as a rival for him from the Democrat Democratic Party?
Steward Henderson Yes. Yeah. And, that's why when I do my tours in Fredericksburg, I always ask, you know, what's the turning point of the Civil War. When we have Ken Burns and the movie Gettysburg, they say Gettysburg is the turning point of the war. Well, some people say Gettysburg and Vicksburg together is the turning point of the war. Well, if that's the situation, why is Lincoln worried about being reelected all the way up to August of 1864? He thinks he's going to lose the election, and he needs to get a general that's going to win him the war. And that's where he picks up Grant.
Jonathan Malriat So Spotsylvania, correct me wrong. That's May of 1864, right?
Steward Henderson Right. And that's they start fighting every day.
Jonathan Malriat Yeah. That's then the start of the Overland Campaign. That's a nonstop push by Grant.
Steward Henderson Daily, right.
Jonathan Malriat So we have that occurring in May of 1864. So then are these raids like in conjunction with that.
Steward Henderson So yeah, that's going to be in conjunction with him trying to keep Richmond from sending reinforcements to Lee.
Jonathan Malriat Okay. So we have these big victories that have just occurred in May right before we get to the raids.
Steward Henderson Well technically, stalemates and strategic victories. Yeah.
Jonathan Malriat Tactical stalemates. Both battles are very large losses on both sides.
Steward Henderson Both sides, yes.
Jonathan Malriat So those are all coming into a lot of the zeitgeist that'soccurring around our raids that are happening here.
Steward Henderson Right. Because out of 182,000 combined soldiers, you're going to have 60,000 casualties in those first two battles. That's a 30% rate of loss. We have a 30% rate of loss in any battle today, heads will roll in Washington, DC. But that's the kind of fighting they were fighting in.
Dustin Baker All right. So now we understand more broadly what's happening in Virginia during the Civil War in June of 1864. So now we're going to zero in on the raid here at Pope's Creek. And to really help us understand it, we are going to do a reading, an abridged reading of a report by Colonel Alonzo Draper, who was leading the 36 United States Colored Troops, into Pope's Creek in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Doing this reading for us is Bill Etheridge, who's a park guide at George Washington Birthplace National Monument.
Bill Ethridge June 11th through 21st, 1864 expedition from Point Lookout, Maryland to Pope's Creek, Virginia. Report of Colonel Alonzo G. Draper, 36 U.S. Colored Troops, Headquarters, District of Saint Mary's, Point Lookout, Maryland. June 22nd, 1864. Sir, I have the honor to report that on the evening of the 11th instant, I embarked on the steam transports Georgia, Charleston, Long Branch, and Favorite, with 475 men of the 36th U.S. Colored Troops and 49 men of the Second and Fifth U.S. cavalry under the command of first Lieutenant J.C. Denney, Fifth U.S. cavalry, and proceeded to Pope's Creek, Virginia, on the Potomac River for the purpose of procuring horses for the Quartermasters Department and farming implements, transportation, and such, for the contraband settlement on the Patuxent River. On the morning of the 12th, we landed at Pope's Creek and divided into two detachments, 300 men under Captain Hart, of the Thirty-Sixth, taking the road running by a northerly course to Smith's Wharf, and thence along the Rappahannock to Warsaw, where all detachments were to unite. On the evening of the 13th. The remaining infantry, under my own command, accompanied by 100 sailors under Captain Street of the gunboat Fuchsia, took the road to Montross. From this column I detached 75 men to canvas the road to Currioman Bay and rejoin me at Montross. From both columns, detachments were thrown off on all the road crossroads leading to Warsaw to collect horses and cattle, and to drive all scattering parties of the enemy toward Wind-Mill Point, where we hoped to meet and destroy them. One company was sent forward to hold Durrettsville, at the forks of the road, nine miles above Warsaw. Both columns reached Warsaw at the appointed time without any remarkable incidents, except occasional guerrilla firing, which did no damage. On the evening of the 12th, I rode with a cavalry escort to the Rappahannock opposite the town of Tappahannock, where I communicated with a gunboats Jacob Bell and Freeborn. The officers of these boats informed me that horses were abundant at the Occupacia Creek and Layton's Wharf, on the south side of the Rappahannock. Finding horses scarce and poor on the Northern Neck between the Potomac and Rappahannock, I resolved to transfer the field of operations to the south bank of the Rappahannock. We passed the night of the 14th at Durrettsville and marched on the morning of the 15th to Union Wharf, where we were soon joined by the gunboats and transports. About a day and a half was spent in rebuilding the wharf, which was burned by General Kilpatrick. On the 16th, Second Lieutenant O'Brien permitted three men of his company to leave the battalion and go to a house about a mile distant. Notwithstanding my orders that no man should be allowed to leave the column and all other respects, Lieutenant O'Brien performed his duties in a very acceptable manner. Of these three men from O'Brien's company, only one returned. Of the two of the other two, one was murdered by the rebel cavalry and the other wounded and probably killed as he crawled into the woods, and could not afterward be found. Hearing the firing on the afternoon of the 16th, I rode out with about 40 of the cavalry to ascertain the cause. Emerging from the woods about a mile from Union Wharf, we perceived a body of rebel cavalry about a mile ahead at a point of woods where the road forks. At a suitable distance, I ordered a charge directly, after which the enemy opened fire upon us. After riding in to within 60 yards of the rebel position, I found myself almost alone. Only my assistant adjutant general and a few faithful orderlies remaining by me. I tried in vain to rally my men, calling upon them a dozen times to halt and face the enemy. Finally finding myself enveloped in the dust of the rebel pursuit. Entirely alone, I followed the crowd. The rebels, after pursuing 200 or 300 yards, turned back, evidently astonished at their success. When I left the wharf, had ordered a detachment of about 150 men under Captain Hatlinger to follow the cavalry as of support, leaving the remainder of the battalion to complete the wharf. Captain Hatlinger, who is an inefficient officer, was very slow to execute this order, but when he did arrive, I posted one half of his men on the edge of the woods, and dismounting, took 75 men and made a detour through the skirt of the wood, hoping to get in rear of the rebels and cancel the account. By dark we were within 600 or 700 yards of the rebels, who had lighted their campfires and prepared to bivouac. At this juncture, the accidental explosion of a percussion cap gave the notice of our approach, whereupon they immediately removed to safe quarters. We soon emerged in the rear of their campfires, which we found deserted. After marching about a mile in pursuit, we returned to Union Wharf. On the morning of the 17th of June, the anniversary of Bunker Hill, I thought it proper to make one more attempt to wipe out the disgrace which the cavalry had brought upon the expedition, leaving about 300 men to load the transport. I marched with 200 men of the Thiry-Sixth and 36 of the cavalry under Sergeant Cain. We again found them this time, and force numbering according to the best information, 150 men of the ninth Virginia Cavalry and 450 Infantry, who were mostly Home guards. I ordered my men to fix their sights for 500 yards, and directed the company commanders to pass along the line and see that every sight was properly raised. Our first volley made a marked effect, evidently taking the enemy by surprise, as he expected a charge at the first fire, several of the enemy were seemed to fall, and heard the scream. They immediately returned afar. Apparently every man for himself. We poured in our volleys in rapid succession, and soon threw the rebels into great confusion. At every discharge, crowds of them took to the woods in their rear. When they moved upon the rebel position, which was entirely abandoned. At Pierson's farm, not one of my men received a scratch, the rebels firing too high their balls, in most cases passing directly over the head of the mounted officers. The gallantry of the colored troops on this occasion could not be excelled. They were as steady under fire and as accurate in their movements as if they were on drill. After giving nine rousing cheers on the rebel ground, we recalled the cavalry and march to Union Wharf, where we assisted in embarking the captured property. From Union Wharf we sent two more steamer loads of captured property to Point Lookout, with orders to return to the Rappahannock. We then steamed to Layton's Wharf, opposite Leedstown, where we were informed that two rebel regiments, the 59th Virginia Infantry, numbering 680, and the 7th Virginia Cavalry, numbering 440, had the night before across the Rapahannock three miles above Layton’s, for the purpose of helping to chastise our party. We landed on the 18th and marched to Loyd's, 7 or 8 miles, besides sending the cavalry out three miles on the Layton Road, four miles from Layton's, we found a large grist mill belonging to Robert M.T. Hunter, which had been turning out flour for the rebel army ever since the beginning of the war. This we burned to the ground. In this section we found an abundance of fine horses, mules, and beef cattle. Throughout the day, small parties of rebel cavalry were watching our movements. I therefore deemed it prudent to return to Layton's Wharf, where we arrived in the evening. Spent the night in embarking horses, mules and cattle, and sailed on the morning of the 19th for Tappahannock, where we landed and resumed our labor. We spent another night in loading the two transports and the gunboats, and re embarked. On the morning of the 20th, passing down the river, we sent boats ashore at Union Wharf, Urbanna, and Carter’s Creek for information, but failed to learn anything of importance. At the mouth of the river we met the two returning transports, which relieved the gunboats of their load. When the expedition returned to Point Lookout, a arriving early in the morning of the 21st instant, we brought in 375 head of cattle, 160 horses and mules, about 600 contrabands, including between 60 and 70 recruits for the army and navy, and a large number of plows, harrows, cultivators, wheat drills, corn sellers, harness carts and carriages and such for the use of the contraband settlement on the Patuxent. I have the honor to be very respectfully your obedient servant, Alonzo G. Draper, Colonel, 36th US Colored Troops Commanding District. Major R.S. Davis, Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Virginia and North Carolina.
Dustin Baker As someone who's not incredibly familiar, reading military documents from the Civil War, it took me a couple reads to understand that when they say contrabands, they're talking about enslaved individuals. And they even mentioned that there's a contraband encampment. How many people do we think were liberated during this time?
Steward Henderson Well, I can tell you from Fredericksburg we had, probably the largest self emancipation of enslaved people in the entire Civil War. During the first occupation of Fredericksburg, you had, over 10,000 enslaved people. And they only are able to escape because the Union Army is there. So when we talk about contraband, what we're talking about is, a term that Benjamin Butler brings up at Fort Monroe. Now, when the first three guys come to his fort asking for asylum, and it's because they had worked on Confederate works and, their owners came asking about getting them back because of the Fugitive Slave Law and, General Benjamin Butler, who had been a lawyer in his previous line of work, he told them that, well, since you have, seceded from the United States, then you are no longer afforded the United States laws. So I consider them contraband of war. So whenever you take over some possession of somebody else who has rebelled against your country, then you call it contraband of war. So that term sticks. Contraband camps were very important because they supplied a lot of the labor, like cooking, the, clothes washing and things like that for the Union soldiers. Now, many of the Union soldiers in Fredericksburg, some of them had never even seen black people before, and they really were not abolitionists. But from the letters that I have, seen and, some of them I had to transcribe, these, enslaved people just grew on these soldiers because they wanted to try to help them do whatever they needed, because they were so thankful that they were no longer enslaved people. And the Union soldiers gradually began to really appreciate them, and their whole demeanor changed. So they welcomed those 10,000, and they took them up to Washington with him. And you had quite a few contraband camps around the Washington, DC area. Alexandria was a big contraband camps, and so did Georgetown. And at first in Georgetown, they were considered a separate place from Washington, D.C.. Well, now we know it's a very affluent part of Washington, D.C., but they had contraband camps up there at that time.
Jonathan Malriat So, Stuart, are you familiar with Point Lookout? What what's occurring at Point Lookout? Why in Maryland is there two whole U.S. regiments being stationed there?
Steward Henderson Oh, Point Lookout, it's a prison camp for Confederate prisoners. So they had Union soldiers watching those, prisoners. And eventually, when United States Colored Troops are going to be originated, a lot of the Union white soldiers didn't want them fighting in battles, so they would be given jobs like labor jobs and jobs watching wagons, wagon trains, watching prisoners. And then they had the prison camps. So in order to keep them out of fighting and they would make them guard prison camps. Now, part of the reason was because the Confederates weren't going to treat them as prisoners and, they were going to be treated as either escaped slaves or they were going to just be treated as, they weren't soldiers, they were going to kill them. They going to execute them on the spot. According to the laws of the Confederate States, if you catch a runaway slave, you can kill it. But, that's one of the main reasons why you're going to have them guarding them. And, also for the white officers, you know, they were going to be treated as leading servile insurrections. So that meant in a lot of cases that they would be executed as well. So that's one of the reasons why they didn't want to put a lot of the colored soldiers into fighting in battles.
Jonathan Malriat So if that's the reason for why the like, 36th and the 35th were moved up to this Maryland location, that was probably viewed as being less likely to see combat, why then in like the spring of 1864, do they kind of shift gears? And these regiments that are assigned to prison duty are doing raids across the Potomac into a section of Virginia that really hadn't seen a lot of combat?
Steward Henderson Well, for one thing, they needed soldiers. And, you notice, not only in Virginia but North Carolina, South Carolina, they led raids into, slave areas so that they can get refugees from the camps or contrabands, that they would call them, and they would take them back to the camps, and they expected the males to actually enlist in the army. Especially if, in the contraband camps, they wanted their families taken care of, then some guys were coerced into doing that. So that's a good reason. And, in many cases, a lot of those men make some of the best soldiers. Now, especially in 1864, because General Grant's taken over. And he calls this his strategy of exhaustion. He wants to destroy the infrastructure and the farming of the Confederacy and what better way to do that is to take the animals, take the enslaved people who do the work, and you take away their equipment, and they're going to be just about helpless. Then where they go have to come up with other ways of buying more equipment and more people to do the labor. And you have to remember like 80% of all the white men who were military age are already in the Confederate Army, so they don't have much of it in the militia. And a lot of the militia are made up of wounded soldiers who don't go back in. He does what Lincoln has always wanted, one of his generals to do. He wanted them to coordinated all of the attacks.
Jonathan Malriat Do you know how many soldiers were in the US Colored Troops forces?
Steward Henderson 180,000 is the number that we use for the entire army, and we use another 20,000. But as people actually get into the records, we are finding out, it's probably going to be more than that.
Jonathan Malriat Now, give us a size comparison, because like, those numbers are really big. How many would be in say like the 36 USCT the US colored troops? How large would that regiment be in soldiers and forces supporting it?
Steward Henderson Okay, technically a regiment is a thousand men. Now I didn't look up the 36th regiment, but, I did look up to 23rd’s and I got the rosters of 1792 men in that regiment. That doesn't mean all of them are there at the same time, however, it shows that they at one time served in that regiment.
Jonathan Malriat So another thing that it mentions is that, Draper brought along with the 475 men of the 36th U.S. Colored Troops. He also brought 49 men of the Second and the Fifth U.S. cavalry. So do you know why he would have wanted to bring the cavalry units as well?
Steward Henderson Oh, yeah. Cavalry. They're going to be the eyes and ears of any expedition. So they're going to be the scouts that go out and find out where the enemy is and what kind of force the enemy is in. So you can cover a lot more territory on horseback than you can walking. So they're going to be cavalry units all over with the infantry.
Jonathan Malriat Now, they come across on boats of what's called the Potomac Flotilla ofthe US Navy. How does that how do the landings happen? I mean, if you ask, like today in modern movies, we think about, like, say, like Saving Private Ryan where you have these boats from, they drop the ramps straight down and they all run right off. How would that have occurred here? Because we know they land right across the creek from us on the shoreline of the Potomac River. So how would that have looked in June of 1864?
Steward Henderson Okay, you probably have, the boats that they bring over, they’re going to be low enough for the soldiers that they can get off them on planks. They'll just come up beside the area and put the planks down so the soldiers can come off. However, there were going to be some ships that are probably going to stay offshore, like, for the ships that would be taking over the, contraband, the ships that they're going to be having cattle in them and, say farm equipment. Those are going to be larger ships, and they're going to be more like a cargo ship. So you can put things on the ship. But the, there will be smaller ships or smaller boats that they're going to be having with them. And then, they can go over and some of them may have a row boats with them that they can just row over to the water.
Jonathan Malriat Now that we really kind of talked about a lot of the details of this raid but why is this important to talk about? Why is a raid like this which we're only talking combined totals on both sides, maybe a thousand people involved that are fighting and then another 600 that are freed. So maybe 2000 people involved in this compared to like the Battle of Fredericksburg, where there's hundreds of thousands combined involved. Why is this important?
Steward Henderson Well, it's important because at this particular time, you're not getting a black, a lot of black soldiers actually fighting so they can start fighting militia, start fighting some cavalry. But later on in the war, like the 36 is going to be in some big battles. They're going to be at the, the June 15th Battle of Petersburg, which includes, Baylor's farm and, the Dimmock line around Petersburg.
Jonathan Malriat So in your opinion, why is important for us to remember these stories? Why is it important for us to talk about all this?
Steward Henderson Well, it's important because for so long we didn't talk about it. Now I can go back, right after the war, say, the GAR and the Grand Army of the Republic. Those were veterans associations. They welcomed black soldiers in. But in the 1880s, the white Confederates and the white Union soldiers starting to reconcile. And the Confederates would put a stipulation there, we will reconcile with you as long as you keep the black soldiers out of it. So you carry it forward, in the 1950s and 60s, I mean, even looking at my park, they were segregated. So they didn't know anything about the Civil War. The history is very important and, especially for black men, because, when we go into the military and come back, we're not treated very well. So I've had lots of stories, even World War Two coming back. They're coming back home to places like Louisiana. They can't go into restaurants. But you got German prisoners in the restaurant. So the military history, I mean, that's when black men stop being slaves and start being soldiers and start being men. In fact, even as early as 1864, we're going to have black men voting because the fifth of USCT out of Ohio, Ohio gave black men who were free and educated and their soldiers, they gave them the right to vote, and they voted in the camps. But history is very important, and especially to, like I say, the black community, because, I mean, even in Fredericksburg, even if I give a talk tomorrow, I'll bet you there be people in that audience that didn't know that they had black soldiers in the Civil War, and a lot of them don't even visit our park because it was segregated for so long. Now, when I went there when I was six years old, and that was in 1958, I didn't realize it was segregated because I was going up to the top of Marys Heights, and I was such a small kid, I thought I was standing on top of the world there, so going inside didn't matter to me. I was on the battlefield and I could just look out and see this. Well, it wasn't quite as, developed as it is today, but, you know, I could see a long way, and I can imagine what those soldiers saw.
Dustin Baker Thank you for joining us on this episode of Upon This Land History, Mystery and monuments. Next month, we celebrate July 4th. And joining us for that episode is a special guest from Virginia 250.
In June of 1864, 475 men of the 36th United States Colored Troops embarked across the river into Westmoreland County and the Northern Neck of Virginia during the Civil War. Their expedition began right here at Pope's Creek, near the site of George Washington's birthplace. And this month marks the 160th anniversary of the raid, which lasted from June 11th to June 21st. To help us tell the story is our guest interpreter, Steward Henderson from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP.