SCV Gen. William J Hardee Camp #1397

Archaeologists discovered an unexploded cannon shell from a Civil War battle in Georgia’s Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, where Union and Confederate forces fought from June 19 to July 2, 1864.

archaeology.org/issues/474-2207/digs/10611-georgia-civil-war-parrott-shell

(Cobb County Police)

If you are going to the National SCV reunion, Please share your photos.

Hollowed Grounds on this Anniversary

158 years ago...
Paulding County, GA | May 25 - 26, 1864
After Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston retreated to Allatoona Pass on May 19-20, 1864, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman determined to move around Johnston’s left flank rather than attack the strong defenses in his front. On May 23, Sherman set in motion Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland toward Dallas, a small crossroads town 30 miles northwest of Atlanta. Johnston anticipated Sherman’s move and blocked the Federals at New Hope Church. Believing the Confederates were merely a token force, Sherman ordered Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s XX Corps to attack on May 25. Advancing over rough terrain, later dubbed the "Hell Hole" by Hooker's men, the Federal soldiers were severely mauled in front of the Confederate earthworks by infantry and artillery fire. Both sides dug in, and skirmishing continued throughout May 26. The next day, Sherman ordered a withdrawal and concentrated his efforts toward the Confederate right flank, resulting in the Battle of Pickett's Mill.
Painting by Rick Reeves

At just before 9pm, 17 February 1864, Housatonic, commanded by Charles Pickering, was maintaining her station in the blockade outside the bar. Robert F. Flemming, Jr., a black landsman, first sighted an object in the water 100 yards off, approaching the ship.[2] "It had the appearance of a plank moving in the water," Pickering later reported. Although the chain was slipped, the engine backed, and all hands were called to quarters, it was too late. Within two minutes of the first sighting, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley rammed her spar torpedo into Housatonic's starboard side, forward of the mizzenmast, in history's first successful submarine attack on a warship. Before the rapidly sinking ship went down, the crew managed to lower two boats which took all the men they could hold; most others saved themselves by climbing into the rigging which remained above water after the stricken ship settled on the bottom. Two officers and three men in Housatonic died.[3] The Confederate submarine escaped but was lost with all hands not long after this action; new evidence announced by archaeologists in 2013 indicates that the submarine may have been much closer to the point of detonation than previously realized, thus damaging the submarine as well.[4] In 2017, researchers at Duke University [5] further established through simulation that the Hunley's crew were most likely killed immediately at their posts by the blast's pressure wave damaging their lungs and brains.

On this day Feb 9th 1861, Jefferson Davis elected provisional President until the elections in November.

The 33rd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was organized in Springfield, Massachusetts on August 6, 1862. They served on duty at the Defenses of Washington D.C. before moving to duty into Virginia. The unit served in the Chancellorsville Campaign, the Gettysburg Campaign and at Brandy Station before marching south.
The Atlanta Campaign occurred from May to September 1864. Atlanta was one of the most important cities in the South and its defense was critical to the survival of the Confederacy. By May of 1864, William Sherman’s Union forces began battling Joseph Johnston’s Confederates. The Union Army eventually moved 30 miles from Atlanta to the town of Dallas.
Johnson predicted Sherman’s movement and blocked the Federals at New Hope Church. Sherman believed the Confederates to be a small force and ordered the XX Corps to attack on May 25th. They advanced through rough terrain, which later became known as the “Hell Hole,” and ran directly into Confederate entrenchments. They were beaten back by infantry and artillery units.
The Confederate’s defensive victory at the Battle of New Hope Church came at the loss of 300 to 400 men. The Union XX Corps lost 1,600 men, 300 of whom were captured.

Since we had Lee and Jackson Day this past week, Here is the Stone Mountain half dollar.

Happy Robert E. Lee day

THE BLACK KNIGHT
Lt. Colonel Turner Ashby
Western Virginia, January 1862
Artwork by John Paul Strain

Of the many charismatic and colorful leaders produced by the War Between the States, none shine brighter than Turner Ashby. Raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, an area noted for its superb horses and accomplished riders, he became at an early age an expert rider and trainer of horses. Ashby was well known for winning many riding tournaments in Virginia. In these contests he often used the title, Knight of the Black Prince. It was said that during the war he rode the two best horses of the army, one was white and the other black. The Black Knight of the Confederacy led his dashing command through the mountains and valleys of Virginia spreading havoc among the invading Union forces.

In January 1862, General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson implemented his plan to launch an attach and capture the Federal garrison, strategically located in the town of Romney. The 7th Virginia Cavalry, consisting of nearly 500 horsemen led by Lt. Colonel Ashby would be the eyes and ears of Jackson's army.

As Jackson's troop began their march in January 1, the pleasant weather suddenly turned cold as a norther blew in. Temperatures dropped and snow began to fall. Ashby and his cavalry led the way through the snow-covered mountains and valleys of northwest Virginia to Jackson's objectives.

Jackson's troops drove the Federals out of Bath and took the B&O Stations at Alpine, Sir John's Run, and burned the bridge at Great Capacon. As the main body of Jackson's army approached the occupied city of Hancock, Maryland, Jackson sent Lt. Col. Ashby and his men with a flag of truce to demand the town's surrender. General Lander had earlier rushed Federal troops to reinforce the garrison, and refused the demand. Jackson's men shelled the town and marched to Romney. Romney fell without resistance and Jackson now had control of the area. General Jackson had achieved his objective with the able assistance of his Black Knight.

New Hope Battlefield Park
New Hope Battlefield Park is on Bobo Road next to the First Baptist Church of New Hope and across Bobo Road from the Second Baptist Church of New Hope. The Park has an excellent view of what would have been the battle lines when the Battle of New Hope Church was fought.

The General William J. Hardee Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #1397 has the Honor of maintaining this Park.

The Park has a number of Historical Markers describing the events of the Battle.

William J. Hardee
"Old Reliable"
1815 - 1873
Lieutenant-General William Joseph Hardee was born to Sarah Ellis and Major John Hardee at the "Rural Felicity" plantation in Camden County, Georgia, on October 12, 1815. After receiving a military education at West Point, he entered the army with the class of 1838, as a second-lieutenant of the Second Dragoons, and was promoted first-lieutenant in 1839, and served in the Florida war of 1840. He was then sent to Europe by the government as a member of a military commission to study the organization of foreign armies, and in that capacity visited the military school at St. Maur, France.
In 1844 he was promoted captain, and in 1846 crossed the Rio Grande with General Taylor. He behaved with gallantry in the Mexican War, was taken prisoner at Curricito, but exchanged, and for his valor at La Hoya was brevetted major. In 1853 his professional accomplishments caused his selection by the secretary of war, for the compilation of a system of infantry tactics, which was adopted in March, 1855. In the following year "Hardee's Tactics" was introduced at West Point, where he was appointed commandant with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1861 he resigned this commission and entered the Confederate service as colonel of cavalry March 16th, being assigned to command at Fort Morgan, Alabama. On June 17th, he was promoted to brigadier-general, in which rank he organized a brigade of Arkansas regiments, and operated in that State until called with his men across the Mississippi, when he was commissioned major-general and put in command of a division of the army in Kentucky and Tennessee under Albert Sidney Johnston. He led the advance from Corinth in command of the Third Army Corps, and commanded the first line of attack at Shiloh, where he was wounded, but managed his command with such energy that he was promoted major-general.
In the following summer he was put in immediate command of the Army of Mississippi, afterward called the Army of Tennessee, and during the Kentucky campaign he commanded the left wing of Bragg's army. In the battle of Perryville he bore a conspicuous part, and he was immediately afterward promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. At the battle of Murfreesboro the left wing under his masterly leadership was successful in the fight, and he was especially commended by General Bragg "for skill, valor and ability."
General Hardee had now well earned the exalted rank which he held and a military reputation which was tersely expressed by his soldiers in the cognomen "Old Reliable." In 1863 he was detailed to defend Mississippi and Alabama, but returned to the command of his corps at Chattanooga, and commanded the right wing at Missionary Ridge, where General Thomas declared he was "the most efficient general the Confederacy had on the field." The subsequent maneuver of his troops at Cassville and his masterly retreat in echelon of divisions won the renewed admiration of his opponents. On December 2, 1863, he succeeded General Bragg in command of the army, but soon turned this over to General Polk, who in turn gave place to Gen. J. E. Johnston. Under the latter and his successor, J. B. Hood, he commanded a corps of the army of Tennessee through the Atlanta campaign, taking a prominent part in the fighting at Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, and other points, and particularly at Peach Tree Creek and the battle of July 22, where he commanded the flank movement against the Federal left wing. His corps was again engaged at Jonesboro and the last fighting of the campaign.
In October, 1864, he was assigned to command the department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with the task of collecting at Savannah forces to operate against Sherman's advance. The troops he required were no longer to be found in the South, and by one of the most masterly retreats of the war he evaded Sherman's overwhelming force before Savannah, and withdrew to Charleston and thence to Columbia. At Averysboro, in March, 1865, he punished the enemy effectively, and a few days later he led in the battle of Bentonville the last charge that was made by the Confederacy's war-worn soldiers, and his only son, sixteen years of age, was among the last to fall. In this last battle of the four years, with undiminished spirit, the general, as Johnston has described it, "with his knightly gallantry dashed over the enemy's breastworks on horseback in front of his men." It is told of General Hardee, illustrating his thoroughness as a soldier, that he was the only lieutenant-general who personally inspected the arms and accoutrements of each soldier of his corps. General J. E. Johnston said of him that "he was more capable of commanding twenty thousand men in battle than any other Confederate general."
General Hardee died at Wytheville, Virginia, November 6, 1873, and his remains were interred at Selma, Alabama, where he had resided after the war.

SCV Gen. William J Hardee Camp #1397 updated their website address.