New and Noteworthy---Yankee News Writers Amazing Escape From The Confederacy

Junius and Albert's Adventures in The Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey, Peter Carlson, Public Affairs Publishing, 288 pp., one map, $26.99.

From the Publisher: The thrilling true story of a pair of reporters swept up in the Civil War, captured, and thrown into jail, and their attempt to escape and return home to file their own extraordinary story.  Albert Richardson and Junius Browne, two correspondents for the New York Tribune, were captured at the Battle of Vicksburg and spent twenty months in horrific prisons before escaping and making their way to Union territory.
 
Their amazing, long-forgotten odyssey is one of the great escape stories in American history, packed with drama, courage, horrors and heroics, plus many moments of antic comedy. They must endure the Confederacy's most notorious prison; rely on forged passes and the secret signals of a covert pro-Union organization in North Carolina; trust a legendary guerilla leader; and ultimately depend on a mysterious, anonymous woman on a white horse to guide them to safety. They traveled for 340 miles, most of it on foot, much of it through snow, in twenty-six days. This is a marvelous, surreal voyage through the cold mountains, dark prisons, and mysterious bands of misfits living in the shadows of the Civil War.

Peter Carlson is the author of K Blows Top, which has been optioned into a feature film. For many years, he was a reporter and columnist for the Washington Post. He has also written for Smithsonian magazine, American History magazine, and the Huffington Post. He lives in Rockville, MD.

Blurbs: “This absorbing story of two Northern war reporters who were captured by the Confederates at Vicksburg, imprisoned for nineteen months, and escaped two hundred miles to Union lines demonstrates that for the Civil War, truth is indeed more thrilling than fiction. The accounts of the essential help the escapees received from slaves and Southern white Unionists provides key insights on Southern society.” James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom
 

“Unspools like a buddy flick…Carlson’s story has so many twists, right up to the last page….But the exquisite plot is only one of the joys of reading this book….If there’s a flaw in this fine book, it’s that Carlson tells his story almost too well….[This is] a rollicking read.” Tony Horwitz, author of Midnight Rising, and Confederates In The Attic.

 

CWL first read the story of Richardson's and Brown's news reporting trek, capture and escape odyssey in George Cooper's 1994 Lost Love: A True Story of Passion, Murder, And Justice In Old New York.  It is truely an amazing story in the same vein as the escape saga of several of the Andrews Raiders after their capture during the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862. Richardson continued career in journalism and subsequent murder is describe in Cooper's compellingly written true crime story.

News--- Union ex-Prisoners of War Medal and Woman’s Auxiliary of the Union Veteran Legion Medal Found

Soldiers & Sailors & Allegheny County Medical Examiner Locate Civil War Medals in 100 Year Old Time Capsule, Colleen Elms,Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum Trust, Inc. Press Release, February 29, 2012.

Pittsburgh Pennsylvania's Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum with assistance from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner x-rayed its 100 year old time capsule content on Wednesday, February 29, 2012.

In October 2010, Soldiers & Sailors began celebrating its 100th anniversary by extracting the cornerstone that was placed in the building in 1908. Although the time capsule was unfortunately damaged by moisture, it included items such as period photographs, newspapers of the day and other historical documents. Over the past year, Soldiers & Sailors Curator Michael Kraus worked to stabilize the contents of the time capsule by extracting the moisture. Kraus studied the original list of contents and determined that there were more metallic objects embedded than the two originally found inside the capsule. Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams graciously offered to facilitate an x-ray of the capsule’s content at the County’s state of the art facility.

“It was extremely exciting for us to extract the time capsule for our 100th anniversary and connect with those who helped to erect the memorial,” said President & CEO John F. McCabe. “We were so pleased to find the location of these metallic objects so that we can more carefully study the contents.”

The x-ray revealed the location of several artifacts, including a Union ex-Prisoners of War medal and lapel button, a Union Veteran Legion medal and lapel shield and a Woman’s Auxiliary of the Union Veteran Legion medal. The findings prove the validity of the original capsule’s list of contents and will allow the curatorial staff to use the x-ray pictures to further study and evaluate the content.

In May, 2012, Soldiers & Sailors plans to dedicate a new time capsule at its annual Memorial Day celebration, recreating the ceremony that occurred more than one hundred years ago when the original time capsule was embedded in the cornerstone. A new capsule will be placed in the cornerstone and include items that reflect upon our history, but also capture our current state. The contents will include a slice from the 1910 capsule contents, an American flag, currency, a commemorative 100th anniversary coin and other historic and significant items to be determined.

The original time capsule’s content is currently on display at Soldiers & Sailors. Visitors can view the recovered items and learn more about the placement of the time capsule in 1908.

Text Source: Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum

Image Source: Anderson Militaria

CWL---New: The Sultana, The War, and The Story of Their Victims

Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and The Worst maritime Disaster in American History, Alan Huffman, Smithsonian Collins Press, 300 pp., bibliography, index, 2009, $26.99.

In the past 20 years there have been six books on the Sultana, several magazine articles and one History Channel program. Huffman's effort, written in an engaging style, offers a somewhat unique point of view that both embraces and diverges from others' work. In Sultana Huffman personalizes the story in an unique way. Never fully removing himself from the story, there are frequent references to what science tells us today about starvation, exhaustion, brain functions, infected wounds, and survival in water of soldiers, prisoners of war, and victims of mechanical catastrophes. He uses the words of Civil War soldiers to illustrate his discussion and move the narrative forward. Where the soldiers are silent, Huffman advances the story with today's knowledge of the impact of personal catastrophes similar to those suffered by the soldiers.

So frequently does the author offer the soldiers' words on events that CWL wishes that an annotated list of characters were in the book. Huffman's brings the reader to these engaging characters and then moves on leaving the reader wondering if a particularly interesting individual will be in the story again. Some are and some aren't. Not all the soldiers Huffman introduces are on the Sultana but they leave their remarkable story with the reader. Several Indiana soldiers often come to the fore, then step aside, intermittently return thereafter until the Sultana docks and begins to load Federal former POWs.

There is just enough discussion of the Sultana as a vessel to move the narrative forward. CWL wishes that the ship itself would have been developed by Huffman as he had developed the soldiers. Also missing is any discussion of the possibility of Confederate sabotage of the vessel. North and South Magazine a few years ago published the story of the successful construction by Rebels of hollow coal filled with gunpowder. The North and South author, successfully in CWL's mind, found the possibility of Confederate saboteurs at both the explosion of a ship at Grant's Headquarters in City Point, Virginia and at the Memphis, Tennessee docks where the Federals embarked on the short fateful voyage. Also unfortunately the book has neither illustrations nor maps. It is certainly not the definitive (and CWL doesn't like that word at any time) telling of the Sultana. Huffman's accomplishment is that the soldiers are at the center of the story. Their experiences are those of brave men, some who endured and some who did not endure, passing through the rapture of war.