The Chicago Tribune's Non-Coverage of 9/11

I was unable to make any posts yesterday. so will be doing my annual 9/11 Commemoration today.  I do this on seven of my eight blogs.

I went through all the news in yesterday's Chicago Tribune and was really surprised that they didn't have anything about 9/11.

I was really surprised and disappointed.

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Well, actually I misspoke.  There was an article about a man who was at the Pentagon when the plane crashed there in one of the sections, but not in the three main news ones.

Nelson Tift of Georgia-- Part 2: A Varied Career Before the War

From Wikipedia.

NELSON TIFT

(July 23, 1810-November 21, 1891) 

Born in Groton, Connecticut and moved with his family to Key West in the 1820s, where he assisted his father in the mercantile business.  He moved to Augusta, Georgia in 1830 and went into business.  During his travels, he opened many side businesses and ventures.  he arrived  in what would later become Albany, Georgia,  and set up a small trading post.

One of his children, Frances, married  to Captain Thomas N.  Nelson of the Confederate Army, who was killed at Tupelo, Mississippi.  (I will write about him tomorrow in my Saw the Elephant blog.)

In 1840, he was elected  as colonel of the local militia unit.  In 1841, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives and was reelected to the one-year position in 1847, 1851 and 1852.  While a state legislator, he supported reopening of the international slave trade.  Although not an advocate of immediate secession, he accepted the final decision and  and lent his services to his new nation.

He founded and  published the Albany Patriot from 1845 to 1858.    In 1850, he owned  eight slaves, in  1860, he owned nine in Albany and another nineteen spread out over two locations  in Dougherty County.

--Old B-Runner

Death of Col. Charles Fisher and First Battle of Manassas-- Part 4

Fort Fisher was named for this man.

From the July 24, 1861, Wilmington (NC) Daily Journal.

"We are pained  to see the death of Col. Fisher confirmed by the Raleigh Register."

"The Register says that it learns the 11th  Regiment, commanded by  Col. Kirkwood, the 13th by Col. Hoke, the 6th by Col. Fisher and the 5th by  Col. McRae, were engaged in the battle.

"We  have made enquiry at Richmond, relative to our friends now in Virginia, but the wires are so much engaged that we will not  be able to receive an answer before late this afternoon -- if before  to-morrow morning."

--Old B-Runner

Death of Col. Charles F. Fisher at First Manassas-- Part 1

Referred to as the First Battle of Manassas by Confederates and the First Battle of Bull Run by the Union.

From the July 24, 2016, Civil War  Day By Day.

24 July 1861:  "We fear that the reported death of Col. Fisher, of the Sixth Regiment  of North Carolina State Troops, is only too true."

From the July 24, 1861, Wilmington, N.C.  Daily Journal.

"Yesterday at St. James' Episcopal Church, a Te Deum was chanted and other  religious services were had in acknowledgement  of the victory which crowned  our arms a Manassas on Sunday.  At night, fire-works were discharged and other demonstrations made, but all in a quiet and becoming manner.

"We appreciate highly  the great moral effect of our victory.  It can hardly be overestimated -- but at the same time it has been dearly purchased by the blood of some of out best and bravest, who bared their breasts to the storm of battle."

--Old Secesh

Col. Charles F. Fisher-- Part 1: Early Life

From Wikipedia.

CHARLES FREDERICK FISHER

(December 26, 1816 to July 21, 1861)

Namesake of Fort Fisher.

American attorney, legislator, engineer and soldier from Salisbury.  he served as the president of the North Carolina  Railroad and died at the Battle of Bull Run while leading his 6th North Carolina Infantry Regiment.

He was born in Salisbury, N.C., to plantation owner Charles Fisher and his wife Christine Beard Fisher.    His paternal father, Frederick Fisher had come from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and was an officer in the American militia during the Revolutionary War.    His maternal great grandfather had been an ardent Tory (Loyalist) during the war.

He had a private education and entered  Yale in  1835, but failed to finish freshman year.  Back home, he married  Ruth Caldwell and became a miner, farmer and journalist.  he supported his father who was a politician  through his Western Carolinian publication.

In 1854, he became a state senator and the next year became the president of the North Carolina Railroad.

--Old B-Runner

Some More Guthrie Information. And Jospeh A. Guthrie Was a Son, Evidently.

The February 24, 1917,  Army Navy Register

"GUTHRIE--  At Portsmouth, Va.  February 16, 1917, Mary Louisa  Guthrie, daughter of  Captain John Julius Guthrie, Confederate States Army, deceased, and sister of Surgeon L.A.  Guthrie, U.S. Navy, retired."

Okay, so evidently Joseph A. Guthrie was a son of John Julius Guthrie. Annotated Bibliography.

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From United States Coast Guard

Meekins, Victor --  Captain John Julius Guthrie. the U.S. Coast Guard magazine,; November 1932, Vol. 6, p. 44.  (Captain  Guthrie served as a Confederate  naval officer before joining  the Revenue Cutter Service.)

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Guide to Manuscripts in North Carolina

Papers of J. Julius Guthrie, Jr.,  editor of the Raleigh  Daily Progress (1866-1867) include his Civil War  exemption (1863) and oath (1865).

--Old B-R'er

About Wilmington, N.C.'s Eagles Island-- Part 1: Rice Plantations

I came across an article in the March 28, 2021, Wilmington Port City Daily (NC) "Conservationists aim to turn Eagles Island  into 'Central Park' for the region" by Mark Darrough."

I got to wondering exactly where it was and what role it might have played in the Civil War?  Turns out that I have been there on several occasions thanks to this little old World War II battleship located there.

From the Wilmington (NC) Star-News  "My Reporter:  What is Eagles Island?" by Ben Steelman.

It is right across from downtown Wilmington and is  a group of closely spaced  swampy islands roughly  2 miles wide and 7 miles long between the Cape Fear River and the Brunswick River.  It has had several names, but its present one comes from brothers Joseph and Richard Eagles who settled in the area in 1725 with land grants.  (I would have guessed it came from the eagle birds who might have been there.)

Parts of Eagles Island were used for rice  planting and there were even two rice plantations there as late as 1900.

By the 1800s, Eagles Island  seems to have functioned  as an industrial district for Wilmington with saw mills, turpentine distilleries and similar operations.  Various ferries operated between Wilmington and the island from the 1760s until the completion of the completion of the Twin Bridges in 1929. 

--Old B-Runner

Lincoln's Trip to City Point-- Part 3: Not So Secret and Welles Not Happy

Lincoln's trip to visit Grant was to be as secretive as possible.  It was probably June 18 or 19 when Lincoln decided to go.  He called on his go-to man or nautical matters, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus V. Fox to make the arrangements.

Fox secured the USS Baltimore, a capture Confederate sidewheel steamer that had been pressed into Navy service for carrying everything from supplies to personnel.  Lincoln already was familiar with this ship, having been ferried to Hampton Roads in 1862, not long after the battle between the CSS Virginia and USS Monitor.

Lincoln asked Fox to accompany him and the President also brought along his son Tad.

Great pains were taken to keep this secret, but the editor of Washington, D.C.'s Daily National Republican found out about it, but kept quite  as per Lincoln's request.

When Fox's boss, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, found out about it, h was not happy, believing Fox had "favored and encouraged the President in this step....  It has been my policy to discourage the President in these excursions."

--Old B-Runner

Movements of Blockade Runners December 1864

From the December 25, 1864, New York Times  "From Havana.; Movements of Blockade-Runners."

The steamer Corsica , from Havana via Nassau, arrived here this morning.

A Gen. LEE is reported by the Nassau Guardian to have left Nassau on the 15th inst., in the steamer Darien for Bermuda.

The blockade-runners Old Dominion, Wild Rover,  Little Hattie, Banshee and Agnes E. Fry had arrived from Wilmington; the Syren had arrived from Charleston; the Gen, Marmion and Kenilworth had returned in distress; and the Virginia, Hansa, Ella, Kate Gregg, Charlotte, Will O' the Wisp, Stormy, Petrel, Little Hattie, Syren and Star  had sailed  to run the blockade.

--Old B-Runner

Charleston Lab Restores CSS Pee Dee Cannons-- Part 1

From the May 28, 2018, Charleston (SC) Post and Courier  "Charleston lab restores Civil War cannons pulled from the Pee Dee River in SC" Bo Peterson.

A punderwater arhoto accompanies the article showing Nate Fulmer, an underwater archaeologist with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, who helped recover the three cannons in 2015.  Also in the photo, Stephanie Crette, executive director of the Warren Lasch Conservation Center  in North Charleston.  They reveal the findings and all three cannons are restored and preserved for the future.

The CSS Pee Dee was ready to fight before being scuttled in 1865 in its namesake river near Florence as Union troops closed in.  Before being scuttled, the ship's three cannons were tossed overboard.  Those cannons will now be put on display outside the Veterans Affairs Office next to the Florence National Cemetery.

They were recovered in 2015 and since then there has been a four year effort by the Lasch Center to restore and preserve them.

The ship never saw action, but they found that her guns were all primed and powdered and ready to be fired.

--Old B-Runner

August 1-4, Crashing A Meeting in Georgia-- Part 3

The admiral later reported to Secretary Welles of the prisoners:  "It is hoped that under the old flag the deliberations may be of a more beneficial tendency, as the parties are now relieved of their proposed responsibility of a coast guard."

Colonel Gaulden, not to be outdone, published an explanatory letter in the Savannah Republican adding a challenge to the observant naval captain:  "As the Captain seems to be a reader of your paper, I take the opportunity to make my compliments to him and to say that when he calls to see me again I shall be at home, and will try to give him a more respectful reception."

All This Seems A Bit Cushing To Me.  --Old B-Runner

August 1-4, 1864: Crashing A Meeting in Georgia-- Part 2

Rear Admiral Dahlgren, amused at the circumstances of the expedition and pleased at the results, reported to the men of his squadron (SABS):  "Captain Colvocoresses having been favored with a sight of the notice in a Savannah paper, and feeling considerable interest in the object of the meeting, concluded that he would attend it also, which he did, with a number of United States citizens serving at the time on board the USS Saratoga as officers, seamen, and marines....

"When the appointed time arrived, Mr. Miller [Boatswain Philip J. Miller] set fire to the bridge [outside the town] and at the signal the main body rushed out and joined the meeting....  Captain Colvocoresses then read to the meeting from the newspaper the order of Bolonel Gaulden [CSA} for their assembling, and regretting that the colonel had failed to attend, he invited the meeting to accompany him, which they did, and arrived safely on board the Saratoga, where they met daily under the United States flag."

Meeting Really Interrupted.  --Old Secesh

USS Columbia-- Part 5: Aftermath

During the afternoon of January 16 and much of the following day, Confederates boarded the Columbia to salvage anything they could.  During that time the USS Cambridge and Penobscot remained on station and shelled them.  With a Confederate flag flying defiantly over the ship, they continued until everything of use was stripped off it.

They then burned what was left of the ship.

In May 1909, the Wilmington (N.C.) Dispatch reported that the wreck of the Columbia was still visible in the water a few hundred yards from the Lumina.  In the late 1970s, underwater archaeologists detected a large iron anomaly deep in the sand near the Masonboro Inlet jetty, which were  later identified as the shipwreck of the Columbia.

--Old B-Runner

W.H.C. Whiting Announces Completion of Cape Lookout Lighthouse-- Part 2: We'll Leave the Light On for You

An announcement about the completion of the North Carolina lighthouse was run in several newspapers.  The one below is from the September 28, 1859, issue of the  the Constitution, a newspaper from the District of Columbia.  It is a notice from W.H.C. Whiting, Corps of Engineers of the United States Army that the lighthouse was fully complete.

OFFICIAL

NOTICE TO MARINERS
________

CAPE LOOKOUT LIGHT-HOUSE, COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA

Fixed Light

Official information has been received at this office from Captain W.H.C. Whiting, corps of engineers United States army, that the new light-house at Cape Lookout has been completed.

The tower is a frustum of a cone.  It is built of brick, and is surmounted by  an iron lantern painted black.

--Old B-Runner

Pictures of the 154th Anniversary Fort Fisher

The Wilmington (NC) Star-News has a large number of photographs taken from the 154th Anniversary of the Second Battle of Fort Fisher which was held on January 12, 2019.  The actual battle took place Jan. 13-15, 1865.

Twenty-four color photographs.  Several were of the 117th New York Infantry re-enactors, plus the 3rd N.C. Junior Reserves (under the age of 18)  Also,  Company F, 10th North Carolina Artillery, (Andrews Battery).

Everyone was wearing heavy coats as it must have been cold out there.

Search   Photos: 154th  anniversary Battle of Fort Fisher  to view them.

I am hoping to be there for the 155th anniversary next January.  Every five years it is an even bigger event.

--Old B-Runner

Some More On the "Devil"-- Part 1: "That "Yankee Devil"

From Civil War Talk  "Francis Lee Wanted Iron for  the Torpedi Ram-- Question."

From "Rebel Rhymes and Rhapsodies" by Frank Moore  "The Yankee Devil".

"The  'Nondescript,' or 'Yankee Devil,' for clearing the harbor, was washed ashore on yesterday at Morris Island, and now in our possession.  It is described as a scow-like vessel, painted red, with a long protruding beak, and jutting iron prongs and claws, intended  for the removal of torpedoes.

"It was attached to the Passaic, and managed by her during the engagement."

From the Charleston Courier.

"The enemy are waiting for a new machine, ('Devil') to remove the torpedoes in the harbor, and to have everything in readiness before the attack."   Charleston Courier.

Old-B-Runner

January 16, 1864: Blockade At Wilmington Getting Effective

These dates in history are from the Civil War Naval Chronology.

JANUARY 16TH, 1864:  The Richmond Enquirer reported that 26 shops on the blockading station off Wilmington, North Carolina, "guard all the avenues of approach with the most sleepless vigilance.  The consequences are that the chances of running the blockade (Hey, that's my title) have been greatly lessened,...

"...and it is apprehended by some that the day is not far distant when it will be an impossibility for a vessel to get into that port without incurring a hazard almost equivalent to positive loss.  Having secured nearly every seaport on our coast, the Yankees are enabled to keep a large force off Wilmington."

And one year later to this date, Fort Fisher had fallen and Wilmington, though still in Confederate hands, was closed for blockade running business.

Things Getting Tight at Wilmington.  --Old B-Runner

News From Bermuda July 23, 1863: A Fourth of July Picnic

From the July 23, 1863, Wilmington Journal.

"From Bermuda-- We have received the Bermudian and Bermuda Mirror, both of the 8th Inst., and both published at Hamilton, Bermuda.  We find little or nothing in the way of news that has not been anticipated.

"We cut out some items however that may not be deficient in interest. or amusement.

"The first is the following account of a Fourth of July Pic Nic, given by gentlemen connected with the Confederate steamers Lady Davis (Cornubia) and Eugenie.  Some of our friends had a good time on their own."  Many toasts were given and taken.

The Bermuda newspaper no doubt came through the blockade.

--Old B-R'er

News in the Wilmington Journal, July 23, 1863

Besides news of local interest:

**  There were stories about action at Charleston, South Carolina.

**  A possible attack on Union forces at Morris Island by Charleston.

**  Lists of casualties in North Carolina regiments at the Battle of Gettysburg.

--Old B-Runner

Whiting Takes Command At Wilmington in 1863

From the July 23, 1863, Wilmington Journal.

It will be seen by General Order No. 1 in to-day's Journal that Major General WHITING assumes command of the Department of North Carolina, with his Head Quarters at Wilmington.

That would be W.H.C. Whiting.

--Old B-Runner