reflections 2014

A speciAl supplement to the news-pAtriot And hopewell news.

eflectionR SPast • Present • Future — August 2014

HOPEWELL AREA HAS SEVERAL TIES TO THE TITANIC. 28

HERCULES OF THE REVOLUTION GOT START HERE. 34

MONUMENTS AND MENCOMMEMORATING THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG

150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL WAR

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2 • Reflections 2014

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eDiTOriAl JamesPeacemakerJr.,Managingeditor CaitlinDavis,seniorstaffWriter AshleyMcleod,staffWriter blakebelden,staffWriter

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Animals in the Civil War

Col. George Washington

GowenPhotography in the Civil War

Fort Clifton played key role

for defense

contents

Hopewell ties to the Titanic

The American Giant in War

Richard Eppes

eflectionR SPast • Present • Future August 2013

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BY CAITLIN DAVIS Senior Staff Writer

Standing tall on the battlefield among the guns, can-nons and soldiers were animals, ranging from horses to dogs and even a camel. Animals have a brief but memorable history during the Civil War.

The most common animal standing on the battlefield with the soldiers was the horse.

“The first use of horses in warfare occurred over 5,000 years ago and ever since then in some form or fashion they have been used by the military in coun-tries around the world,” said Betsy Dinger, a park ranger with the Petersburg National Battlefield.

The horse was considered a “backbone” to both Union and Confederate soldiers during the war. These ani-mals served as not only companions but as animals of service. The horses moved guns, ambulances and sup-plies, and of course the cavalry.

Many of the depictions of soldiers in war, including the generals, were of the men atop horses. Two horses became famous during the Civil War, Cincinnati, the horse of General Ulysses S. Grant, and Traveller, the

horse of General Robert E. Lee. “Cincinnati was one of the three horses that was

owned by Gen. Grant,” Dinger said. “The horses be-came Grant’s favorite. ... He rode him to the surrender proceedings at Appomattox.”

Lee’s horse Traveller was never far from his side throughout the four years of the Civil War.

Traveller was even close to the general as he was in his last moments of life. When he suffered a stroke in 1870, Lee’s wife told her husband “Traveler needs to be ridden, he needs you.” Though she tried to ignite a spirit in Lee, the general passed away a few weeks later.

The horse is still close to the family. He is buried at Washington and Lee University, a few feet from the Lee family crest.

Although horses were beloved by many soldiers dur-ing the war, it was not uncommon for the horses to suffer on the battlefield as well. Aug. 25, 1864, was a bloody day for horses at the Battle of Ream’s Station, which took place in Petersburg.

“The horses of the 10th Massachusetts artillery were left fully exposed to Confederate fire,” Dinger said. “...

Examining the Role Of Animals During The Civil War

Fursand Featherson the Battlefield

Photos Courtesy of PetersburG NatioNal battlefieldGeneral Robert E. Lee’s horse Traveller stayed with him throughout the four years of the war.

Reflections 2014 • 5

One horse was shot seven times before it went down.” The average number of wounds on the horses during

that battle stood at five. Dinger said horses were shot so the guns owned by the riders could be confiscated.

As the Civil War began in 1861, soldiers took along their dogs to the battlefield as companions during some of the roughest days of their lives. Often times the sol-diers picked up stray or wild animals during their trek across battlefields.

“By the time the war ended in 1865, the list of animals that were unofficially accepted as mascots were varied indeed,” Dinger said. “Mascots provided entertainment to the lonely and bored soldiers in camp. They were comfort and companionship in marches.”

Though many dogs were unrecorded mascots of the war, there are two dogs that have made their mark on the Civil War.

Jack, a stray bulldog, wandered into a firehouse in Pittsburgh the day before the war began. The fire com-pany, the 102nd Pennsylvania Infantry, adopted the dog and he enlisted with the men and went off to war.

Jack was taken as prisoner of war for six months in a camp in Virginia. The dog was so admired by the men of the 102nd Infantry, that Jack was exchanged for a Con-federate soldier. Though Jack suffered many wounds throughout the war, his dedication to the men never wavered.

On Dec. 23, 1864, in Frederick City, Md., Jack disap-peared forever from the line of battle. Though no official

Three of General Grant’s horses, Egypt, Cincinnati, and Jeff Davis.

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reason has been cited for his disappearance, the sol-diers wondered if it was perhaps the $75 silver collar that hung around his neck.

“He was the victim of someone who really wanted that silver collar,” Dinger said of the speculation. “He was killed to get his collar. Nobody knows for sure.”

The other dog of mention is Sallie, a dog that brought her spirit and love to the city of Petersburg.

A local man showed up with a basket to present to the men of the 11th Pennsylvania. Inside the basket was a terrier puppy. The men soon adopted the dog as their own and took her into battle with them.

In the spring of 1863, Sallie received a special ac-knowledgement from President Abraham Lincoln. As the troops of the 11th Pennsylvania marched past Lincoln, he tipped his hat to Sallie.

On Feb. 4, 1865, the Union lines outside of Peters-burg heard the mournful cries of Sallie, waking the soldiers. It has been said her cries were a sign of the horror that was to come. As the morning broke, the 11th Pennsylvania started to advance under heavy fire.

During the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Sallie was found dead on the battlefield; the dog had been shot through the head.

“They stopped and buried their mascot on the battle-field where she fell,” Dinger said.

In 1890, a monument was constructed honoring the men of the 11th Pennsylvania and at the bottom of the statue there is a bronze likeness to their beloved dog, standing ever present guarding her troops.

Though not many cats are well known throughout the Civil War, they were used on ships to not only pro-vide company for the long voyages on rolling seas but to also scare away vermin.

Another animal of note during the war is the bird. One in particular has made history, an eagle named “Old Abe.”

This eagle served as the mascot for the 8th Wisconsin Infantry Division and the bird is still honored today as he can be seen on the patch for the 101st Airborne Division.

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Jack was kept as a prisoner of war by Confederate soldiers.


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animals to serve in the Civil War is the camel. Douglas, as he soon became known, was the mascot for the 43rd Mississippi Infan-try.

“Douglas was responsible for the same duty as hors-es,” Dinger said. “To make sure that the bags for the officers got transported back and forth to their tents.”

As far as other peculiar animals of war go, Arkansas took a wildcat to war and Louisiana brought a pelican.

“Regardless of whether they had fur or feathers the mas-cots provided companionship to the Civil War soldiers in ways we could never know,” Dinger said. “While we know the name of a few of the mascots, sadly most of their names are lost to history.”

Douglas, as he soon became known, was the mascot for the 43rd Mississippi Infantry.

Old Abe served as the mascot for the 8th Wisconsin Infantry Division.


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PETERSBURG — For more than 100 years, the bronze figure of a Civil War Union colonel has stood looking over what is now a busy intersection in Petersburg, but not many people know the real history explaining who the man was or why the monument is even there.

On the corner of Crater Road and Sycamore Street, rising more than 20 feet into the air, sits the statue of Col. George Washington Gowen, a leader for the Union Army who was killed during the battle that led to the fall of Petersburg from the Confederates to the Union.

Annette Jackson, a volunteer at the Petersburg National Battlefield, took her own time to research the life and death of Gowen and gave a free presentation at the national park’s visitor center, during which she detailed much of Gowen’s life.

Born as one of eight siblings in Philadelphia in 1841, Gowen’s father, James, was an Irish immigrant and his mother was Mary Miller, of German descent.

In 1848, Gowen was enrolled at the John Beck’s Boys Academy, a boarding school in Lancaster, Pa.

When the Civil War started up, Gowen enlisted in the Union military in September of 1861

Col. geoRgewashington gowen

The story of the man whose statue stands in Petersburg

Col. George Washington Gowen

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with the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. After enlisting in the military, Gowen spent the next four years climbing his way up the military ladder, where he was promoted to captain when he was 24 and eventually earned his title as a colonel in 1865.

Gowen fought during the battle of Antietam, known for being the bloodiest battle fought in a day during the Civil War, after which he wrote a letter to a friend depicting the events that occurred, and also made some negative comments about the attitudes of fellow soldiers, according to Jackson.

Gowen first travelled with the 48th Regiment to Petersburg in 1864, when the Siege of Petersburg first began.

The Siege of Petersburg was a 10-month campaign during which the Union Army attempted to capture both Petersburg and Richmond, essentially the military hub for the Confederate Army, through trench warfare tactics.

On April 2, 1865, Gowen, now a colonel, led his troops to fight the Confederates stationed at Fort Mahone, located in the area that is now Walnut Hill Elementary School.

During this battle, Gowen was struck in the face by shell shrapnel and was killed instantly, but the 48th Pennsylvania fought on and helped to eventually defeat the Confederate soldiers at Fort Mahone.

This Union victory was a key element in the Confederacy’s abandonment of Petersburg and Richmond, and more notably the consequential surrender by General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army at the Appomattox Court House seven days later.

President Lincoln arrived in Petersburg on April 3 to meet with General Ulysses Grant, the day following when the Fort Mahone conflict had ended.

It is reported that Lincoln looked out over the remains of the battlefield and was seen wiping away tears as he looked at all of the bodies on the ground before him, Jackson said.

Less than 40 years later, the Pennsylvania communities of both Pottsville and Schuylkill County, the region where Gowen was from, launched a campaign and raised money to fund the construction of a monument in Gowen’s honor.

The granite statue remains today as a monument to Gowen’s sacrifice.

“I found it very interesting,” Jackson said of why she decided to give a lecture on Gowen’s story.

Photo by blaKe beldeNThe statue of Col. Gowen stands the corner of Crater Road and Sycamore Street, rising more than 20 feet into the air, memorializing a leader for the Union Army who was killed during the battle that led to the fall of Petersburg from the Confederates to the Union army.

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BY ASHLEY MCLEODStaff writer

Access to images and video of military conflict in the present day is as easy as one click of the mouse, or one screen tap on a smart phone or tab-let. Photography and technology have allowed for this advancement in access, which could take up to three weeks during the Civil War.

The American Civil War was the first major con-flict to be extensively photographed, and changed the way people looked at war. The public was able to experience war like never before, bringing images of death, disease and despair, which the soldiers went through every day.

Photography had been around for a little more than 20 years before the Civil War began, and was

PhotogRaPhY in the CiVil waR

Photo Courtesy of the library of CoNGress

Called “The War in Virginia - Battle of Rappahannock Station, Nov. 7 - a portion of Sedgwick’s Sixth Corps, -- and the skirmishers of the 4th New York charging the Rebel works” sketched by -- Edwin Forbes. Illus. in: Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, 1863 Nov. 28, pp. 152-153.



first used in the Crimean War.Due to the bulkiness of the equipment, and the

time it took to produce photos, very few people were professionally in the field. Because of the slow exposure times, no movement could be cap-tured, which is why at this time most photos pro-duced were portraits or the aftermath of battles.

At this time, newspapers did not have the capa-bility to reproduce photos in print. Photos taken during the war were shown in gallery shows, and people would come and view them, and for the first time giving everyone a chance to view war first hand.

“It really had a major impact on how people thought of this conflict and being able to see not just the formal portraits, but also the horror that

comes from war, that comes from a civil war,” said Sean Kane, educational coordinator at the Ameri-can Civil War Center located in Historic Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond.

Scenes of the conflict were mainly captured by a group of special artists known as the Bohemian Brigade, who traveled the country, recording images of battles. The brigade used a variety of media to produce the images, such as ink, pencil, powder and brush. The men would then send the images back to their home newspapers in order for publishing.

The artists drawing and producing photo-graphs in the war were compensated five to twenty five dollars per image, and worked for publications such as New York Illustrated and

Photo Courtesy of the library of CoNGressIllus. in: Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, (1864 May 28), pp. 152-153.

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Titled “Rough sketch of a battle scene” created by Alfred R. Waud (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891, artist. Created/Published between 1860 and 1865. Medium: 1 drawing on cream paper : pencil ; 8.1 x 13.2 cm. (sheet).

Harper’s Weekly.Many of the photos of actual

battle were done in drawings. Due to the slow shutter speed, any photo taken would be just a blur of an image.

According to Kane, many times the artists would draw a partial image, and write notes on the paper to add trees or troops in certain areas. Due to the dan-ger of battle, the artists had to quickly capture the images while avoiding being injured or killed.

“They were experiencing what the soldiers were experiencing. They are right at the front, they are experiencing the snow, the disease, and the danger of being with the army,” Kane said.

One artist, Theodore Davis, later recalled having a sketch-book shot out of his hand while drawing, and having it explode over his shoulder. Davis was

quoted saying “To really see a battle, one must accept the most dangerous situations, for in most

cases, this cannot possibly be avoided.”

The dangers of being on the

battlefields were high, which is why the images were not completely drawn before sending them into the newspapers.

Once the images were sent in, a team of artists worked to recreate the images in order to be able to print them in the newspapers.

In order to republish these photos in newspa-pers, the image had to be carved into squares of boxwood, approximately 5” x 5” in size. A team of artists put the images together, each focusing on a certain aspect of the image.

“If you were talented at drawing trees, or foli-age you were called a pruner. If you were good

at drawing the uniforms and clothing, you were called a tailor. If you were good at drawing the hu-man figure, you were called a butcher,” Kane said.

The images were then turned into metal etches, which were used as plates to print multiple cop-ies of the image in the newspapers. The process took anywhere up to two or three weeks to be after the initial image was produced to be spread to the public.

Although a large amount of the artists were not soldiers, there did exist many artists who were fighting as well.

Conrad Wise Chapman was a Confederate sol-dier during the war. His commanding officers dis-covered his artistic skills and would then give him special assignments to draw the scenes of war. He



Titled “The war in Louisiana - Gen. Lee’s cav-alry fording Cane River, March 31 Sketches of Army life - weighing out rations / from a sketch by our special artist, Edwin Forbes. / from a sketch by our special artist, C.E.H. Bonwill. Illus. in: Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, 1864 May 7, p. 100.


Titled “Rebel attack on Gen. Lee’s wagon train at Mansfield, La., April 8” Related Names: Bonwill, C. E. H. , artist. Date Created/Published: 1864 May 24.

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Titled “Winter Campaigning. The Army of the Po-tomac on the move,” Sketched near Falmouth--Jan. 21st by Alfred R. Waud (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891. Created/Published January 21, 1863.1 drawing on tan paper : pencil, Chinese white, and black ink wash ; 35.3 x 52.4 cm. (sheet).Alfred R. Waud depicts Union forces coping with the challenge of winter weather in 1863 as they ad-vanced toward the Rappahannock River. He skill-fully delineates formations of soldiers, wagons, and animals traversing the foreground, middle ground, and background of the scene and vividly captures the impact of blustery winter wind and snow in their bent and bowed forms. The British-born Waud won wide acclaim for his visual report-age of Civil War battles and sol-diers’ living condi-tions because he incorporated im-pressive amounts of accurately observed details into composi-tions that convey strong expressive effects. More than 1,200 sketches he created for Harper’s Weekly are preserved in the Prints & Pho-tographs Division.

was commissioned to create 31 paintings of the war, which were eventually sold to the Con-federate Memorial Literacy Society in Richmond, now known as the Museum of the Confederacy.

Matthew Brady was the most prominent and popular photographer during the Civil War, and is viewed as the father of photojournalism.

Brady organized a team of employees and spread them across the country in order to get as many locations and images as possible. The pho-tographers were required to carry all the equip-ment, which included a mobile dark room, and used wet plate technology in order to develop the images.

The process would take about fifteen minutes, and was just as dangerous as the artists who drew the battles.

The use of photography during the Civil War forever changed how non-military members viewed and thought of war. The images taken or drawn during the conflict made it possible to us to really understand the horrors of battle, the life of soldiers, and what exactly was happening miles away on battlefields.


DeFenDing the RiVeRBY JAMES PEACEMAKER JR.Managing editor

COLONIAL HEIGHTS — Today, Fort Clifton Park is a giant wooded area along the Appomattox River laced with trails and surrounded by peaceful neighborhoods. It is most well known for the annual arts and crafts festival that has been going on since 1976.

But this tranquil setting belies the bloody history of

what happened here 150 years ago.

David Malgee, a local historian who has written about Fort Clifton and gives tours here on occasion, explained that this Confederate Fort had a key role in defending the supply line between Richmond and Petersburg during the Civil War.

“It remains a fairly obscure Confederate site on the Petersburg Front,” he said.

But Malgee said the fort was unique on the Petersburg Front in that it was attacked 8 to 10 times by federal gun boats. Fort Clifton saw more action during the Civil War than any other place in Colonial Heights.

The making of the fortFort Clifton’s position near

two key waterways made it important for defense.

The Appomattox River forms the southern and

Fort Clifton in Colonial Heights played key role in Civil War

Photo by JaMes PeaCeMaKerRe-enactors lead kids through drills during the 150th anniversary of an attack on Fort Clifton.


eastern border of Colonial Heights.It flows northeast from along the border

with Petersburg out to City Point in Hopewell.

Swift Creek forms the northern border of Colonial Heights, separating it from Chesterfield.

The two waterways meet at the city’s northeast corner. Fort Clifton sits on a bluff along the Appomattox River just south of where they meet.

Swift Creek had a railroad bridge and turnpike bridge that were part of the Confederate supply line from Petersburg to Richmond.

Fort Clifton also overlooked a bend in the Appomattox River known as “Short Turn,” an S-shaped channel through which any ship would have to pass if they wanted to attack Petersburg.

Malgee said Fort Clifton gets its name from an old Colonial land tract called the Clifton Tract. The Clifton family home is at the very end of Clifton Avenue today, he said.

Origins of Fort Clifton date back to May 1862 when Gen. George McClellan began moving up the Virginia peninsula, the strip of land between the James River and the York River to the north.

On May 5, 1862, Richmond gave orders for a Confederate engineer to come down to Petersburg and obstruct the Appomattox River north of the city.

That engineer was 30-year-old Charles Dimmock, the son of the state engineer who was famous for placing the statue of George Washington in Capitol Square in Richmond.

Dimmock was chief engineer of the Department of the Appomattox. He began placing obstructions in the water just below the bluffs of Fort Clifton in the Appomattox River.

“He basically sank ships, probably from City Point or Petersburg Harbor, in the river,” Malgee said.

By May 21, 1862, the obstructions were in place and he began bringing black slaves in to construct fortifications. Those fortifications would overlook the obstructions and defend the mouth of Swift Creek a mile or so north.

Dimmock was criticized by the Confederate secretary of war and Gen. Robert E. Lee, who thought the obstructions and fortifications should have been built further downriver at Point of Rocks near Enon. They thought the fort should have been in front of the entrance to Swift Creek and to protect the rail line.

But the Yankee gunboats would never reach these obstructions.

The first two forays up the river were actually stopped at Point of Rocks by the Surry Light Artillery and crewmembers of

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the CSS Virginia serving as infantrymen.Malgee said he thinks the Federals were

stopped there not by the defenses but by the “treacherous nature of the Appomattox River.”

“The Indians called it the winding river. It was filled with silt,” Malgee said.

The river had to be dredged often for boats to make it through. It was also filled with marshes and sandbars.

“It was very difficult for heavy draft vessels to come up the river,” Malgee said.

There were also islands in the river with Confederate or Union snipers.

Fort Clifton did not come under fire in 1862 and 1863, but continued to be expanded and strengthened. The fort would consist of three earthen fortifications, built one behind the other from north to south, with guns pointed up the river.

“These are just massive fortifications and

it’s just awesome that we still have them,” Malgee said.

They added rifle pits, some of which you can still see today. One big difference though in the way it looks today is that the trees would have been cleared 150 years ago.

There was a six-gun battery near White Bank Park that was considered part of Fort Clifton as well.

Free blacks were used for labor and were paid 50 cents a day plus lunch. Slaves, prisoners of war and Confederate soldiers were also used.

“They would all contribute to digging the earthworks here at Fort Clifton,” Malgee said.

Structures at the location included a two-story guard house, a prison stockade, a hospital, slaves’ quarters, several powder magazines and a ladies’ quarters, Malgee said. But there has not been any

JAMES PEACEMAKER JR./HOPEWELL NEWS/NEWS-PATRIOT

David Malgee leads a group on a tour of Fort Clifton in the spring of 2014.


archeological work to determine where the structures were.

The first Confederate soldiers, 230 men total, were stationed here in fall of 1862. They had six light artillery and six heavy artillery pieces.

As time went on, there would be as many as 1,080 men, but about half of them were in the hospital or the prison stockade.

“Maybe that tells you something about soldier life,” Malgee said.

In September 1863, the fort had six field pieces, and eight heavy guns, that included four 12-pounders, two 24-pounders and two 32-pounders. The pound refers to the weight of the shell that was fired. The 14 guns were all pointed downriver toward City Point and Point of Rocks.

The fort was strengthened again and there was also a 50 pound gun.

Attack on the fortOn May 7, 1864, Union scouts were

spotted on the other side of Swift Creek and the Confederate gunners fired on them. It was the first time the guns were fired at an enemy.

On May 8, a Union gunboat came up the river and fired 33 rounds into Fort Clifton. It was the first time the fort was ever fired on, mainly to determine the strength of the fortification based on the fire that was returned.

Many of the vessels that fired on Fort Clifton never saw the fort. They were heavier boats with 100-pounders that would fire at the fort with the help of signalmen with flags that would be along the other side of the Appomattox River.

That set up the biggest conflict in Colonial Heights during the Civil War, which happened on May 9. It was also the same day as the Battle of Swift Creek.

The Battle of Swift Creek was fought between Brander’s Bridge and Fort Clifton. On that day, Union troops came up both sides of the Appomattox River. Little was accomplished and the troops returned to City Point.

Field artillery was put in place on the Prince George side to fire on Fort Clifton.

The Confederates returned fire but the only known casualties on the Union side in the initial firing were “a lieutenant’s hat and a captain’s horse,” Malgee said.

On the Colonial Heights side of the Appomattox River, 35 Union regiments and eight batteries of artillery sought to advance and destroy the Richmond-Petersburg Railroad and possibly the bridge that crossed Swift Creek near what is now the Swift Creek Mill Theatre at the northern edge of Colonial Heights. It was the main source of supplies for Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army.

A railroad bridge still exists at the same location.

The Confederates had 4,200 men and 18 pieces of artillery against the Union regiments.

The Union gunboats on the river were used to communicate between the troops on the Prince George and Colonial Heights sides of the Appomattox River.

The force in the river was commanded by Charles K. Graham and his flagship was the Charles Chamberlain. There were signalmen

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PAGE 20

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on these boats and on both sides of the river.He commanded a group called the Naval

Brigade, or Graham’s Marine Brigade, or sometimes as the newspapers called them, “The Mosquito Fleet,” because the vessels were small and fast.

“They were mostly tugboats or tenders pulled out of New York Harbor and were either sold or leased to the federal government,” Malgee said.

There were three Army gunboats coming up the river supported by two Navy gunboats.

The boats came up the river in the following order: The General Parke, the Samuel L. Brewster, the Charles Chamberlain, the General Putnam and the USS Shokokon.

The General Parke, the smallest of the boats, came up first to check the depth of the river. The depth was only eight feet in 1864.

It also cleared the river of what was then called torpedoes, but now would be called mines, an explosive that would detonate on contact.

The Union vessels varied greatly in size.The USS Shokokon was 720 tons, 20 tons larger than the largest ship to ever reach Petersburg Harbor.

About 9 a.m. May 9, a signalman standing on a smokehouse and looking down the river

spots black smoke and signals Fort Clifton.“The men rush to their guns,” Malgee said.The guns would have been pre-sighted.

They would practice fire their guns to know exactly where the projectiles would land.

“So when Federal gunboats came out of Short Turn and showed themselves on the river, they were sitting ducks to some degree,” Malgee said.

Two hours later, the General Parke

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

A drawing by William Waud shows what Fort Clifton looked like 150 years ago during the Civil War.

20 • Reflections 2014 Reflections 2014 • 21


appears at Short Turn. Immediately, one of Fort Clifton’s heavy guns hits the vessel right at the waterline.

That’s enough to make the General Parke start reversing engines and back down the river.

“It must of been interesting because it’s got to get around the next vessel in line, which is the Brewster,” Malgee said.

The Brewster then arrives at Short Turn and is hit five times. One was a shot below the waterline. The fifth shot hit its boiler, which disabled the vessel.

Meanwhile, the Chamberlain runs aground on a sand barge.

“He’s blocking the channel in that direction and the Brewster is about to block the channel here at Fort Clifton,” Malgee said.

The General Putnam actually has to stop firing to help pull the Chamberlain into the channel. It had fired 19 shells into Fort Clifton.

The disabled Brewster begins drifting toward the shore, and the Confederates form a boarding party of 20 men.

“The Yankees see what’s coming. Their account say they scuttled the vessel,” or deliberately caused it to sink. Malgee, who is originally from Rochester, N.Y., said “I haven’t met a Southern friend yet that accepts the fact the Yankees scuttled the Brewster.”

The Yankees pulled down their flag, abandoned ship and swam away and made their way to the Chamberlain.

Before the Confederates make their way onto the ship, the boiler explodes.

“It shook all of the houses in the area,” Malgee said.

“The ship is on fire. There is not much left to it. It sinks in the Appomattox River mud,” Malgee said.

The river is eight feet deep and the draft on the ship is seven and a half feet, Malgee said.

“You could probably see the Brewster for the rest of the war,” he said.

On May 21, 1864, the Confederates salvaged three “fine guns” from the Brewster.

AftermathMajor action at Fort Clifton ended with the

sinking of that ship. But the fort was also attacked on May 12, May 20, May 30, June 5, June 9, June 10, June 16 and June 17, 1864.

In each case, boats came up the river and fired, but it mostly served as a diversion and occurred with other events going on.

There were four men who died when the Brewster exploded. One of them is buried at City Point National Cemetery.

“If you are looking to find men that covered the ground here, dead and wounded like at Antietam or Gettysburg, you won’t find it. But you’ll find the same stories here of death and destruction individually. These men lived and loved and lost life here at Fort Clifton,” Malgee said.

Most of the fort moved down toward Petersburg after June 1864. By late 1864, both sides knew the war was coming to an end and were more concerned about staying alive than firing at each other.

On April 2, 1865, word was received that the fort was to be evacuated. Soldiers thought


they were going to be marched over to Five Forks in Dinwiddie where they heard there was a disaster. A major Confederate loss here signalled the end of the war was near.

They actually start down Brander’s Bridge Road toward Amelia.

“Now they realize they are leaving the Petersburg Front for the last time,” Malgee said.

A contingent was left behind to spike the

guns and blow up the powder magazines.“The artillerymen who were here left as

infantrymen. They left their guns in place,” Malgee said. The horses were wintered elsewhere and they couldn’t get them back in time.

On April 3, 1865, Union troops crossed the river and found 14 pieces of light and heavy artillery in place at Fort Clifton. The weapons were transferred to Broadway

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Cannons from Fort Clifton are shown at Broadway Landing after they were found abandoned by Union soldiers.


Landing in Hopewell before being shipped to Washington.

Brewster was forgotten, but no mystery

By 1865, the Appomattox River had gone from 8 feet deep to 5 feet deep due to the silt that continuously washed downriver.

Malgee said the Brewster had a draft of 7 and a half feet, so it would have been clearly visible after it was sunk by Confederate artillery.

This is also how the guns were later taken off the ship by the Confederates.

In August of 1927, John Archer was serving on a dredging crew here. He was the son of Cadmus Archer, who served as an artilleryman here at Fort Clifton in the Civil War when he was 18 years old.

The dredging crew struck an underwater cache of weapons. There are swords and pistols and military accoutrements, Malgee said.

It is believed they found the site where the Brewster sank.

In 1956, John Archer was contacted by a Richmond newspaper. He was living on Archer’s Bluff along the river at the time. The newspaper wanted to take two divers, a photographer and a reporter down to find the wreck of the Brewster, Malgee said.

The divers don’t find fragments but they do find a board, which they claimed to be from the wreck of the Brewster, Malgee said.

But Archer told the reporter it wasn’t a board from the ship, because it has wire nails, which weren’t used until much later.

According to Malgee, the reporter said “Archer, you just ruined a very good story.”

But Malgee went on and said he would ruin the story further.

In the summer of 1866, the federal government had the responsibility of clearing the waterways of sunken vessels, obstacles and torpedoes from the war.

He said a short excerpt from The New York Times from Aug. 2, 1866, reveals that the Brewster was raised after being sunk and sent to the Norfolk Naval Yard to be repaired.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PHOTO

Charles K. Graham.


The Brewster was then sold at auction for $1,675.

During the war, the Brewster was rented for $120 a day for 170 days. The government then paid additional $31,000 to the owners after it was sank. “It didn’t turn out to be a good deal for the federal government,” Malgee said.

The Brewster’s flag that was pulled down by fleeing union troops. It was singed from the attack on May 9, 1864.

It was given to Graham who then sent it to the New York Historical Society, where it still is today.

FILE PHOTO/HOPEWELL NEWS/NEWS-PATRIOT

Re-enactors fire cannons at Fort Clifton.

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BY ASHLEY MCLEODStaff Writer

Around 11:20 p.m. on April 14, 1912, a British passenger liner, which was deemed unsinkable, collided with an iceberg during its maiden voyage, and within hours, had sunk

to the bottom of the ocean, taking the lives of more than 1,500 passengers.

The RMS Titanic, was traveling from Southampton in Great Britain to New York. The ship was at the time the most luxurious and largest creation made by human beings.

The ship was transporting approximately

hoPewell anD the titaniCLocal links to the tragic event in history

Photo Courtesy of the library of CoNGressThe Titanic was built to be the most powerful, luxurious ship, built to be unsinkable.


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3,500 passengers, including almost 900 crew members. The ship had advanced safety features, but carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people.

By 2:20 a.m. on April 15, the ship was gone to the bottom of the ocean, taking the lives of many with it.

Jeannie Langford, assistant librarian and archivist for the Appomattox Regional Library System, came up with the idea to search for, or at least try and find out if there were any connections between the Hopewell area and the sinking of the Titanic.

The first connection is Robert W. Daniel.

Daniel was born in Richmond in 1912. By the age of 27, Daniel owned his own bank

Photo by ashley MCleodJeannie Langford, assistant librarian and archivist at the Appomattox Regional Library System, recently held a lecture on the links between Hopewell and the RMS Titanic.


and had more money than he knew what to do with. Daniel decided to travel to Britain in order to purchase a French bulldog to participate in a prestigious dog show. Daniel purchased the dog, and was traveling back to New York on the Titanic with the dog.

When the ship made contact with the iceberg, Daniel was asleep. He went on deck to investigate, but found nothing but chunks of ice. Not thinking much about it, Daniel went back below deck, and returned to bed. A little while later, he hears lot of commotion, and discovered that the ship is sinking.

Daniel stays on the boat, allowing for women, children and others to get into lifeboats, as many of the men did. He puts a life jacket on the dog and himself, and is one of the last off of the boat. According to

Langford, Daniel loses his hold on the dog, which ends up drowning. Daniel is picked up by lifeboat four, and is transported to the Carpathia, which rescued the survivors and brought them safely to New York.

Daniel later became a state senator, and eventually bought the local Brandon Plantation in Prince George. Daniel, along with his wife, renovated the plantation. In December of 1940, Daniel died from heart disease and complications from cirrhosis of the liver.

Approximately 10 years ago, Langford was working on a project about music with the Library of Virginia when she stumbled across a second local connection to Hopewell.

Langford found a photo while researching the Tubize Royal Hawaiian Orchestra, who

Photo Courtesy of the library of CoNGressLifeboats carry survivors of the sinking Titanic to the Carpathia. The ship rescued survivors, taking them to New York.


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Photo by ashley MCleodCitizens learn about the links between the Titanic and Hopewell.


were from Hopewell. The band traveled to New York City, were on the radio, and made records.

The photo included Walter Titterington, part of the orchestra, and Wallace Hartley, who happened to be the orchestra leader on the Titanic. In the background of the photo, Langford noticed a large, ornate chandelier, and realized that it was the same chandelier as one found on the ocean floor in the wreckage of the Titanic. Titterington survived the sinking ship, and later died in May of 1942.

In 2011, Langford received her next connection.

Rebecca Beach Smith was born in Hopewell, and graduated as valedictorian from Hopewell High School in 1967. Following college and law school, President George Bush nominated Smith to be a federal district judge at the

Photo Courtesy of the library of CoNGressA depiction of a lifeboat full of survivors.

Photo by ashley MCleodJeannie Langford with ARLS.


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As technology improved, salvaging artifacts from the wreckage of the Titanic began. The excavation was costly, and hard work. The problem with retrieving items was figuring out who they technically belonged to. After a 20-year battle between the salvage company and RMS Titanic Inc. with the parent company of Premier Exhibitions Inc.

The case ended up in court to be decided by Smith. Her ruling gave ownership of the items to RMS Titanic Inc., with the condition that they be kept together and maintained. The salvage company received compensation for the artifacts to make up for the money used to retrieve them from the ocean floor.

These three connections are an interesting look at how the area is related to bigger events in history, and is an interesting way to link Hopewell to well-known events in history.

Photo by ashley MCleodAbove: Langford speaks to the crowd about the Titanic.Below: Those who attended the lecture were about to view photos and records from the Titanic.


BY CAITLIN DAVIS Senior staff writer

HOPEWELL — He was six feet, six inches tall. He was called the “one man Army” by Gen. George Washington. He was kidnapped by a band of pi-rates and taken in by a judge out of Buckingham County. He was Peter Francisco, and he was left at the City Point wharf.

The story of Peter Francisco began in the Island of Terceira in Portugal. The Francisco family was hosting a garden party, and just outside the gates a band of pirates was plotting the kidnapping of the two young Francisco children for a hefty ran-som.

The pirates were able to grab the young boy but the daughter was able to escape. The pirates took the boy on the ship and sailed off.

“They headed west along the Atlantic toward the Colonies,” said Barclay DuPriest, with Randolph Macon College, at the Historic Hopewell Founda-tion Lunch and Lecture series event held in June. “They probably planned to sell the boy as an in-dentured servant.”

Their lofty plans fell through as the small boy soon caused trouble on board and the pirates abandoned him at the first port they were able to dock, the port of City Point in Virginia.

“The citizens of City Point were at a loss as to what to do with the little boy,” DuPriest said. “They recognized his tattered clothes as once be-ing grand and noticed his tarnished shoe buckles bearing the initials P.F.”

The boy did not speak the same language as the men and women of City Point. All the natives were able to understand was that the boy said “Pedro Francisco,” his name, which he repeated over and over.

Francisco lived in a wharf house in City Point for several days before being transferred to the Prince George County Poorhouse.

“All the while, the citizens of City Point brought him food and clothing and took care of him,” Du-Priest said. “Soon tales of the foreigner spread throughout the colony of Virginia.”

Judge Anthony Winston, while meeting with the Assembly in Williamsburg, heard these tales of Francisco and the care he was receiving at City

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ingham County, also known as Hunting Tower, he stopped at City Point for supplies, and inquired about the young boy.

After hearing the story of Francisco, the judge agreed to take responsibility for the boy and with that, he picked him up, and took him home to the plantation.

“Pedro, soon to be called Peter, became a much loved member of the Winston household,” Du-Priest said.

Throughout his youth, Francisco learned the skills of blacksmithing and mastered the English language, despite never being provided with a for-mal education, and he never learned to read nor write.

Not only did Francisco develop the English lan-guage and a new trade, he also developed a deep sense of patriotism.

Patrick Henry, the cousin of Judge Winston, shared stories of the beginnings of the American Revolution. In March of 1775, when Patrick Henry gave his famous “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” speech at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Francisco could be seen listening attentively.

As soon as Francisco turned 16, the judge gave permission for the boy to enlist in the militia and join the American Revolution.

“1776 marked the beginning of a military career that would span the entire Revolutionary War,” DuPriest said. “During that five-year span, Fran-cisco would rise from obscurity to legendary great-ness as his countless feats of strength and bravery earned him the title of ‘Sampson of the American Revolution.’”

Francisco’s first battle was the Battle of Bran-dywine in September of 1777. Due to Francisco’s skills on the battlefield, the continentals were able to escape.

One of the most remarkable traits of Francisco was his height. The man towered over the other soldiers and stood at six feet, six inches tall with the ordinary solider typically never standing taller than five feet, eight inches in height.

Due to his stature and strength, Gen. George Washington ordered that a sword be built for Francisco. The orders for the sword were as fol-lows, a six foot sword with a five foot blade.

“Without Peter Francisco, we would have lost two crucial battles perhaps the war and with it our freedom,” Gen. Washington said. “He was truly a one man Army.”

Photo by CaitliN daVis


It was the longest and heaviest sword used in American history.

“He bore it proudly,” DuPriest said, when the sword was finally delivered to Francisco. “He made history that no other soldier has ever matched and the sword lived in legend over the years. The combination was enough to strike fear in the hearts of any enemy. And strike fear with his new sword is exactly what Peter Francisco did.”

Though Francisco did not win many of the bat-tles in which he fought, his spirit and his strength caught the attention of many across the battle-fields. He was even offered an officer’s commission by Lt. Col. William Washington but had to decline as he admitted he could not read and he could not write, both of which were required for an officer’s position in the war. Francisco stayed as a private throughout the American Revolution.

With the war winding down, Francisco made his way back to Buckingham County from Guilford Court in North Carolina, some 200 miles.

Francisco heard that Gen. Charles Cornwallis was beginning his advance into the Virginia col-ony and grabbed a horse to set out and scout the General’s whereabouts to warn the troops.

In Nottoway County, at Ward’s Tavern, he was confronted by nine British scouts from Tarleton’s Army.

“They demanded the unarmed Peter relinquish the silver knee buckles,” DuPriest said. As Fran-cisco told the men to take the buckles, he reached for his sword and the killed the man who reached down to take them. Francisco wielded his sword once more and killed several others all the while yelling ‘After them, after them.”

“As Francisco yelled ‘Finish them men,’ to a non-existent Army of Colonials, Tarleton thought an Army was nearby and swiftly moved all 400 of the men away in retreat,” DuPriest said.

“So the war ended and the American Colonists claimed their own free and independent nation. Our hero Peter Francisco has established his legendary fame as a soldier in the ultimate victory for American independence.”

Photo by JaMes PeaCeMaKer

Photo by CaitliN daVis


Eppes’ former slave shares his story

One of Richard Eppes’ slaves, Richard Slaugh-ter, spoke highly of the man as a slave owner.

“I don’t know much about the meanness of slav-ery ... and I belonged to a very nice man,” Slaugh-ter said, as documented in the “Autobiography of Richard Slaughter.”

Born in January 1849 on Eppes Island along the James River just across from City Point, Slaughter was born the slave of Richard Eppes.

When he was around 13 or 14 years old, Slaugh-ter migrated to Hampton during the Civil War when Eppes had left for Petersburg with his fam-ily. Slaughter and his family travelled aboard the Meritanza, a Union gun boat that had landed at City Point.

Because Slaughter got measles at the time, he said he was put off at Harrison’s Landing where he eventually ended up going to Hampton as a government water boy.

“Hampton was already burnt when I come here [in June 1862],” Slaughter said of the fact that the Union had burned the city and moved their fleet up the river.

As a water boy, Slaughter went to Bell Plains near Harper’s Ferry, after which he travelled to Alexandria on board the General Hooker, a Union steamer boat.

While on board the steamer, they actually picked up President Lincoln and shipped him to Mt. Ver-non at a point during the war.

“He looked more like an old preacher than any-thing I know. ... If you seen a picture of him, you seen him. He’s just like the picture,” Slaughter said in his autobiography interview.

In 1864, Slaughter enlisted in the military in Baltimore where he was assigned to the 19th Regi-ment of Maryland Company B at the age of 17.

For three years, he was employed with the regi-ment as a cook, and during his initial training, the regiment actually fought in Petersburg.

Slaughter said that when the Union took Rich-mond from the Confederates on April 5, 1865, he actually walked down the road through Richmond city.

From Richmond, Slaughter was ordered to Texas where he was assigned to a hospital staff in Brownsville, a trip that he described as a mostly uneventful and lackluster experience.

After his stint in the military, Slaughter ended up back in Hampton where he lived as an oyster-man and fisherman for more than 40 years.

By BLAKE BELDENStaff writer

HOPEWELL — Looking out over the con-vergence of the James and Appomattox Rivers rests the historic Appomattox Manor at City Point, where residents and tourists alike walk across the beautiful property, a property most famously known for acting as the headquar-ters for General Ulysses Grant and the Union Army during the siege of Petersburg in the Civil War.

But many times people overlook the man who owned the property, Richard Eppes, or the ap-proximately 130 slaves who lived there, most of whom enlisted in the Union Army during the war.

Born in Virginia in 1824, Eppes went on to earn a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, of which he used to practice medicine, a role that would provide him a job during the Civil War.

Eppes inherited the Appomattox Manor, a historic staple in the Hopewell community lo-cated at City Point, from his ancestors at the

age of 20, and owned approximately 2,300 acres of land in addition to nearly 130 slaves by the time the Civil War began, according to the National Park Service.

His property included three grain plantations in Prince George, Chesterfield and Charles City, according to the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Eppes had been elected president of the Prince George Hole and Corner Agricultural Club in both 1860 and 1861.

Eppes supported the continuation of the union, given the fact that southern states could retain their rights. He voted in favor of states’ rights and proslavery, without the belief in radical secession-ism, according to the National Park Service.

When the war ultimately began, Eppes enlisted in the 3rd Virginia Cavalry, where he helped to equip the military unit for approximately a year before he found a substitute officer to fill his place.

As the war continued to escalate in violence and proximity to home, Eppes sought protection in Pe-tersburg, where he moved with his family in 1862. Shortly after this migration, Union soldiers landed

at City Point, and enlisted all but 12 of Eppes’s slaves to fight for the Union Army.

In Petersburg, Eppes was employed through his medical degree as a civilian contract surgeon for the Confederate Army.

When the Siege of Petersburg began in 1864, Eppes relocated to Philadelphia with his family to avoid the imminent dangers of constant battle in their backyard.

During this siege, Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant stationed his headquarters at City Point, where all of the buildings used were Eppes’ prop-erty.

When the war ended in 1865 and Eppes thought it was safe to return to his hometown, he actually had to repurchase all of the structures on his own land that had been utilized by the Union Army because he was too wealthy to qualify for the Am-nesty Proclamation.

It wasn’t until 1866 that Eppes finally acquired his land back, and he lived with his family again at City Point.

JAMES PEACEMAKER JR./HOPEWELL NEWS/NEWS-PATRIOT

Appomattox Manor is shown during a the 150th anniversary commemoration of the occupation of City Point.


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