Marines in the Civil War Quiz-- Part 2

Answers below.

6.  The USMC had a relatively minor role in the war.  Where did they mostly serve?

7.  However, they were involved as a unit in one battle.  What battle?

8.  What action attempted by US Marines on 8 September 1863 led to a stinging defeat?

9.  In their biggest action, some 400 Marines were involved in an assault on a fort on 15 January 1865.  What was the name of that fort?

10.  How many Marines received a Medal of Honor for this last action?

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ANSWERS

6.  Blockade duty on various ships.

7.  First Battle of Bull Run  (Where they ran as did most every Union soldier.)

8.  Attack on Fort Sumter

9.  Fort Fisher

10.  Five.  A total of 17 Marines received Medals of Honor in the war.

--Old B-Runner

Marines in the Civil War Quiz-- Part 1

The McHenry (Illinois) County Civil War Round Table discussion group met earlier today and discussed the role played by both the U.S. and Confederate Marines during the Civil War.

TEN QUESTIONS ABOUT MARINES IN THE WAR  (Answers below)

1.  Of interest, the commandant of the CSMC (Confederate States Marine Corps) Lloyd J. Beall, was born in what state?

2.  Also of interest, how did he become an officer in the military?  

3.  Where were the headquarters and training grounds of the CSMC?

4.  What was the strength of the CSMC?

5.  How was the CSMC organized?

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ANSWERS

1.  Rhode Island

2.  Graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  (He served in the U.S. Army untikl the Civil War.)

3.  At first at Gosport Navy Yard, Virginia.  After its fall, at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia (on the James River near Richmond.)

4.  45 officers and 1,026 enlisted.

5.  Into lettered companies.

--Old B-Runner

McHenry County CWRT Discussion Group This Sat.: 'Marines in the Civil War'

The McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table discussion group will have a meeting this Saturday, April 29, to discuss the USMC and CSMC in the war.  

The meeting will be held at Panera Bread (US RT. 14 and Main Street) in Crystal Lake, Illinois, from 10 am to 11:30.  This will be in person and via Zoom.

The role -played by both the U.S. and Confederate Marines in the war is often overlooked, but, nonetheless important.  The CSMC was closely modeled after the USMC and served on ships as well as on land.  Both groups played a role in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher.

Where there is always good discussion (often times on subject) and debate.

Come on Out.  --Old B-Runner

Some More on the 27th USCT-- Part 5: Joining the Army of the Potomac

A quarter of theofficers had no previous military training.  At least five of the 27th's officers were immigrants.  One each came from Poland, Germany and England.  Two were from Ireland.  Irish-born Lt. Col. John W. Donnellan eventually took over command of the regiment.

In April 1864, the regiment was moved by rail and steamer to Virginia to join Burnside's  IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac.  Along the way,  men in Pittsburgh threw stones at one of the companies.  But, they were cheered in Baltimore.

On April 25, they marched past  President Lincoln who reviewed them from a balcony at the  Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C..

They were placed in Ferrero's  Fourth Division, an almost all-black unit.  In May they were brigaded in Ferrero's First Brigade under  Joshua Siegfried. On May 4-5 they moved towards the Wilderness where they did not get into the actual fighting but were relegated to guarding supply trains.

--Old Secesh

Some More on the 27th USCT-- Part 4: That Officer Problem

Another problem for the 27th USCT, as well as other USCT regiments, was a chronic lack of officers.  Officers, of course had to be Whites.  Blacks could only rise to being sergeants.

Officers were not elected by the men as in other regiments, so when one was killed or no longer able to serve, they had to be found from somewhere else.  However, commanding or being an officer for a black regiment was getting ourself on the quick track of promotion.

The initial organization of the 27th was hindered by this lack of officers.  Thirty-five were needed, but by the end of February, there were only eight serving.  It was not until March 24, 1864, that Lt. Col. Albert M. Blackman arrived to take command of the regiment.

--Old B-Runner

Progress on Fort Fisher Visitors Center-- Part 3: Road Construction and World War II

The new visitor center and archaeology facility carry a price tag of $2.5 million, funds primarily secured through state  budget appropriations.

Nearly $3 million more is needed to complete the overall site improvement project, which includes reconstruction of a series of Civil War-era mounds.  To clear the site for a runway, the Army bulldozed  three of the mounds after activating Fort Fisher as  a training base during World War II.

A fourth mound was taken out by the construction of U.S. Highway 421 before the war.  US-421 ends at the "Rocks" by Battery Buchanan.  Also, North Carolina's Fort Fisher Ferry is located there (where people can go across the Cape Fear River to Southport.

The idea is to tell a complee and inclusive story of Fort Fisher.

Construction of the Fort Fisher visitor center is expected to be complete by mid-to-late May 2024.  Once the building is up and operating, the current visitors center will be torn down.

--Old B-Runner

Progress on the New Fort Fisher Visitors Center-- Part 2

There will be glass, lots of glass, to let natural light into the building and offer an unobstructed of the fort's earthen structures.

Upstairs, visitors will be able to travel back in time as they peruse the artifacts in the main exhibit space.  Glass walls will offer ocean and natural landscape views, one which includes many live  oaks stretching from the river to near the ocean.

There will be a 120-person multipurpose room available to rent, a gift shop overlooking the fort's earthworks, a second story balcony, a theater that will seat 100 people and a changeable  exhibit gallery of artifacts from the North Carlina Underwater Archeology Center.

The underwater archeology center, or UAC, is housed at Fort Fisher in a series of buildings, some built during World War II.  A new lab is also under construction several yards from the visitors center.  The lab is not open to the public.

--Old B-Runner

 

Officials Show Off Progress on New Fort Fisher Visitor Center

From the April 18, 2023, Coastal review by Trista Talton.

The new structure will be roughly three times the size of the existing one.  They say the existing one outgrew itself a long time ago so that is why a new one is needed.  By 2021, visitors exceeded 1,000,000.

(However, the new one was a huge improvement over the first one which was a square metal structure on Battle Acre, maybe 60 by 60 feet.)

The new one will have an airy indoor space with more exhibits and will offer views of the beautiful landscape of the area between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cape Fear River.

Work kicked off about six months ago, but little of the new structure can be seen yet.  Right now it is just the tops of concrete pilings driven fifty feet into ground and a lot of freshly dug earth.  Those pilings took the better part of two months to complete and are the foundation of a two story building built to endure hurricane force winds and flooding associated with coastal areas.

--Old B-Runner

Some More on the 27th USCT-- Part 3

Several factors  retarded the recruitment of the 27th USCT:

1.    The 54th and 55th Massachusetts had already recruited in Ohio.  Other states' USCT regiments also had recruited in Ohio.  An estimated 3,000 Blacks had already joined regiments from other states  before the 27th was formed.

2.  The discriminatory pay rate.

3.  Even unskilled black laborers could make more money as a day laborer  than they would earn as a black soldier in the Army.

4.  In 1864, Whites could receive a $100 bounty for enlisting that Blacks were ineligible for.

--Old B-Runner

Some More on the 27th USCT-- Part 2

The majority of the men in the regiment were young with reported ages at between  17 to 45.  There were some who exaggerated their age, including at least two who were 16 and another who was just 14.  The regiment mustered in 80 who had ages between 40 and 45.

Most of the 27th's men were from rural areas or small towns.  Also, more USCT troops were born in the United States.  Ninety-nine present of the 27th's men were native born, with just five born in Canada.

Of the 27th's men:

27% were born in Ohio

4% were born in other Free States

48% were listed as laborers

39% were listed as farmers or farm laborers

16% were paid substitutes

3.5% were draftees

--Old B-Runner

Some More on the 27th USCT

From the Reconstruction Era  "27th USCT:  A Black regiment from Ohio & Miscarriage of Justice" by Patrick Young.

The 27th USCT was the second black infantry regiment formed in Ohio.  Earlier Ohio Blacks had joined the  54th Massachusetts earlier in the war.  The first regiment of black troops in Ohio was the 5th Ohio USCT.

Patrick Young took much of his article from the book "For Their Own Cause:: The United States Colored Troops" by Kelly Mezurek.  Looks like an interesting read, especially concerning their actions at Fort Fisher, the Wilmington and North Carolina Campaigns, which also included their advance and occupation of the town where I was born, Goldsboro, North Carolina.

--Old B-Runner

Getting Ready to Do Some RoadTripping Through History

The last several posts have been about Elbridge and Daybury Butler, members of the 27th USCT who were at Fort Fisher.  Daybury was buried at Grandview Cemetery in Chillicothe, Ohio.  I looked the cemetery up and found that a lot of notable people were buried there.

There were Ohio governors, Congressman and Senators.  As well as War of 1812 veterans, including a ratherbfamous one named Duncan McArthur, a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient (Richard Endelin) and three Union generals.  (Joseph Scott Fullerton, Richard Long Jr. and Joshua Woodrow Sill).

I will be writing about these men in my Not So Forgotten: War of 1812 and Saw the Elephant: Civil War blogs.

Ready to Take a RoadTrip.  --Old B-Runner

Dabney Butler

From Black Virginians in Blue.

Dabney (Daybury) O. Butler was born around 1823 in Louisa County, Virginia.  He moved toAlbemarle County and is recorded in special census of free blacks of 1833.  He next moved with his family to Chillicothe, Ohio,  where he married  Susan Ann Evans on December  24, 1846.    The couple had at least six children together:  Elbridge born around 1849, Charles 1851,  Walter 1853, John 1855, Samuel 1860 and Ellen  1868.

On February  24, 1864,  Butler enlisted  in Company E of the 27th USCT regiment in Chillicothe.  He was mustered in at Camp Delaware, on March 8.  According to his service records,  he was a 43-yearold laborer, with black hair, eyes and complexion, who stood five feet, eight inches tall.

The 27th saw service during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, begore being transferred in December to North Carolina.  In January it took part in the capture of Fort Fisher.  He mustered out with the rest of the 27th at Smithville, North Carolina on September21, 1865.

After the war, he returned to Chillicothe where he loved the rest of his days working as a brick mason.  Both he and his wife received pensions from the federal government.

Butler died around 1892 in Chillicothe, two years prior to his wife.  Both are buried in the city's  Grandview Cemetery.

--Old B-Runner

Elbridge C. Butler

From Find-A-Grave.

BIRTH:  1849

DEATH:  1911

BURIAL:  Grandview Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio.

Son of Dabney O. and Susan A. Evans Butler.  Brother of Charles Butler Sr,.  His job was listed as bricklayer.

He was in the 27th USCT Infantry Regiment which fought at Fort Fisher.

--Old Secesh

Wondering About the Two GAR Members Named Butler

In the last post about the Wright GAR Post 588 in Chillocothe, Ohio, there were two members of the 27th USCT with the last name of Butler.  One of them, Elbridge was post commander at the time.  The other was named Dabury O. Butler.  I've seen several first names for Dabury.  One was Dabney, another was Daybury.  I'm going with Dabney.

The 27th USCT took part in the capture of Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865.  Since this is a major interest to me during the Civil War, that is why I have been writing a lot about the regiment.

The 27th was raised in Ohio primarily.

Were these two related?

--Old B-Runner

Wright Post 588, GAR (A Black Post)

From Military Record of Ross County, Ohio.  Based in Chillicothe.

WRIGHT POST NO. 588 Grand Army of the Republic

This was an organization for Blacks.

Organized April 21, 1886.  Named for William Leroy Wright, freeborn from Ohio.  He enlisted in Company B, Fifth United States Colored Troops, as a private, August 19, 1864, and was wounded in an engagement at Deep Bottom, in front of Richmond, Virginia, from the effects of which he died November 19, 1864.

Muster of members, with rank, company and regiment when in service and date of muster into Post.  Those mustered on April 21, 1886 were charter members (shown as cm).

These are the members who were from the 27th USCT which fought at Fort Fisher:

Butler, Elbridge C., 1st sergeant, Co. D, cm

Graham, James H., sergeant, Co. E,cm

Coleman, John, private, Co. C, cm

Butler, Dabury O.,  sergeant, Co. E, cm

Alexander, Thomas, private, Co. D, cm

Roberts, Alexander, private, Co. E, cm

Gray, George, private, Co. F, cm

Hammond, James, private, Co. F

Taylor, Charles, private, Co. C

Harrison, William H., private, Co. A

There were members from other USCT regiments in this post as well.

--Old B-Runner

Did Dr. A.M. Blackman Die in 1877?

From the December 1877 Literary Magazine  Ad from the Travelers Insurance Company.

"Dr. A.M. Blackman, Cresco, Iowa, , took out an  accident policy for $10,000, and a week after was thrown from his carriage and killed."

Good timing on Mr. Blackman's part.

He had commanded the 27th USCT Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and was at Fort Fisher.  The question still remains as to who the garrison of Fort Fisher surrendered to?

--Old B-Runner

Report of Gen. Terry on Capture of Fort Fisher and the 27th USCT

Major General Alfred H. Terry's official report of the battle, Jan. 25, 1865.

He directed General Paine (commander of the USCT troops):  "to send me  one of the strongest regoments of his own division.  These troops arrived at dusk and reported to General Ames.  At 6 o'clock Abbott's  brigade went into the fort.

"The regiment from Paine's division, the Twenty-seventh U.S. Colored Troops, Brevet Brigadier-General A. M. Blackman commanding, was brought up to the rear of the fort, wheren it remained under fire for some time and was then withdrawn."

Then, the 27th was highly regarded as a fighting unit.

Also, Terry reported that the 27th USCT was part of the Union troops sent against Battery Buchanan to force its surrender.

--Old B-Runner

Report of Albert M. Blackman at Fort Fisher-- Part 2: Received the Confederate Surrender

"In marching to the rear, I met Major General Terry who ordered me to proceed to his headquarters, and await further orders.  At a quarter before 10 o'clock I received orders to march to the fort.

"On arriving I was informed that the enemy had evacuated and was ordered to join in the pursuit, which order I promptly obeyed, and  on arriving at this place (Battery Buchanan) was first to receive the surrender of the enemy.

"The losses in my command  were 1 enlisted man killed and 4 wounded.

"After this fort (Battery Buchanan)  was taken, I was placed in command by Major General Terry in person."

(Sounds like there was quite a bit of confusuion among Union forces after they got inside Fort Fisher. So, did the garrison of Fort Fisher surrender to a black regiment?)

--Old B-Runner

Report of Albert M. Blackman at Fort Fisher-- Part 1

From Official Records War of the Rebellion page 425.

Report of Bvt. Brigadier General Albert M. Blackman, 27th USCT, 3rd Brigade, of operations January 15, 1865.

From Federal Point, Fort Buchanan, N.C., January 16, 1865 to Capt. C.A.  Carleton, Assistant Adjutant General.

"I received orders from Brigadier-General Paone about 7 o'clock last evening to proceed to Fort Fisher and report to General Ames.  (The 27th was in entrenchments opposite Sugar Loaf to the north of the fort.)  I proceeded as rapidly as possible, but on arriving at the bridge (at the west end of the land face) near the fort I found the way obstructed by troops.

"I ordered the men to lie down, and proceeded in person to General Ames within the fort and reported.  From him I received orders to retire beyond the range of sharpshooters, stack arms, and return with my men and proceed to the construction of covered ways to enter the fort."

(I'm not sure, but did this mean Ames wanted the 27th to be on a construction detail?)

--Old B-Runner