News in brief...

150th commemoration of attack on Frankfort
scheduled June 7, 2014 at Leslie Morris Park

State Historian James Klotter will be the principal speaker at the 150th Anniversary Commemoration of the attack on Frankfort. The June 7, 2014 event will feature three living history camps, Confederate cavalry, the 36th Enrolled Militia and artillery.

Additional speakers will be Kentucky Library Senior Archivist James Prichard, Scott County Museum President Lindsey Apple and Gerald R. Smith.

All activities will take place at Gippy Graham Pavilion, the Sullivan House and the Civil War earthen forts at Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill.

Contact John Downs (502-320-6090), Capital City Museum, for more details.

Emancipation Proclamation panel among highlights
as Camp Nelson founding observed Sept. 7-8

A reading of General Order No 20, the document that established Camp Nelson, kicked off the 250th anniversary of the founding of the African-American recruiting center.

Other events at the Sept. 7-8 weekend included artillery drills, cannon firing, demonstrations and re-enactment skirmishes.

In commemoration of the150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a panel discussion was conducted on Sunday to help understand the meaning of the document and its importance and legacy. The focus of the panelists was the nation, Kentucky and the region around Camp Nelson.

Historians Dr. John A. Hardin, Dr. James Klotter, Robert Webster and Dr. Patrick A. Lewis were the panelists.

The camp’s 150th celebration will continue through 2014 with the anniversary of the enlistment and training of the African American men.

Special tour featured at Mary Todd Lincoln House

“Mrs. Lincoln’s Civil War,” a special Civil War Sesquicentennial program, was conducted in September by the Mary Todd Lincoln House.

The guided tour used the museum’s collection to examine the first lady’s wartime activities – from attending official functions and doing charity work to dealing with Confederate relatives. The event featured artifacts not usually on display.

Hallowed Ground wins fifth award for quality

The Civil War Trust’s Hallowed Ground magazine has won its fifth consecutive APEX Grand Award for publication excellence.

The international competition recognizes outstanding publications from newsletters and magazines to annual reports and brochures. Of the 10 magazines receiving Grand Awards, Hallowed Ground was one of only four produced by small non-profit organizations.

Sanitary Fair conducted at Battle of Richmond

A Sanitary Fair was featured at the Aug. 24-25 Battle of Richmond Re-enactment Weekend.

Civil War sanitary fairs were carnival-like affairs with various forms of entertainment conducted to collect donations of money and comforts for wounded soldiers. The Richmond fair featured actors performing scenes from “Hamlet,” fortune telling, demonstrating how a Civil War-era field hospital worked and how maps were made in the 19th century.

Battle re-enactments were conducted each afternoon.

Be wary if cannonball has plug

If a cannonball has a plug, it may not be a dud.

That’s the conclusion of many Civil War experts who suggest it’s best to handle a period projectile with care.

That opinion was offered recently in Atlanta when construction workers in the city’s downtown area unearthed a cannonball near Centennial Olympic Park. It was estimated that 100,000 shells were fired into Atlanta by the Union Army when the city was under siege in 1864. A city military historian said it could have been fired by federal soldiers from outside Atlanta in an effort to strike the railroad roundhouse, a key military target.

Then again, it could have been a Confederate cannonball that was just left behind.

One expert noted that if a shell has a metal plug with two small holes to allow the ball to be charged, it should be assumed that the cannonball is a live round. And, this particular shell had a plug.

Never know what you’ll find in book

Inspiration, enjoyment, knowledge … all are things you may find inside a book. But a Medal of Honor?

An original Medal of Honor given to Union Gen. Joshua Chamberlain in 1893 was found recently inside a book at a church fundraising sale. The medal was found in the pages of a book bought at the First Parish Church of Duxbury, Mass. The medal was awarded to Chamberlain for his heroism at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg and had been given to the general’s granddaughter. When she died in 2000, her estate was donated to the Duxbury church.

The medal was one re-issued to Chamberlain by Congress when the award was redesigned in 1904. Recipients could exchange the old medal for the new one or keep both. Chamberlain apparently chose to keep both.

The medal was sent anonymously in July to the Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick, Maine.

Some Civil War facts stranger than fiction

The unusual was often the usual during the Civil War. Such as …

• Kentucky Sen. John J. Crittenden had two sons who became major generals during the Civil War: one for the North, one for the South. Thomas Leonidas was the Union representative and George Bibb served the Confederacy.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., future Supreme Court Chief Justice, was wounded three times during the Civil War: in the chest at Ball’s Bluff, in the back at Antietam and in the heel at Chancellorsville.

• Confederate Pvt. Henry Stanley fought for the Sixth Arkansas and was captured at Shiloh, but survived to go to Africa to find Dr. Livingstone.

• George Pickett’s doomed infantry charge at Gettysburg was the first time he took his division into combat.

• On July 4, 1863, after 48 days of siege, Confederate Gen. John C. Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The Fourth of July was not to be celebrated in Vicksburg for another 81 years.