Paul Davis, left, introduces Chris Czopek at the 7th Michigan Cavalry Civil War Round Table. GRANT'S ORDER: Civil War Round Table to Hear Dee Dee Wacksman
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Did you know the U.S. Army once had a camel corps?
Where do you think the saying "deadline" came from? Andersonville Confederate Prison where a line not to be crossed was the "deadline," with obvious connotations -- you were shot dead if you dared.
How about the fact that many of the Michigan Sharpshooters were native Americans who initially were not allowed to join the Union Army?
The 7th Michigan Cavalry Civil War Round Table has heard from presenters on those subjects and will hear about an amazing and little known incident Wednesday Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Stein Haus.
Dee Dee Wacksman, Civil War re-enactor and president of the group, will speak on "General Grant's Infamous Order" aimed at Jewish cotton traders but affecting all Jews in three Southern states.
This will be the fourth program of the 2013-2014 program season.
Chris Czopek opened the year at the Bay County Wirt Library on Oct. 9 with a talk on the Michigan Sharpshooters. Czopek is author of "Who Was Who in Company K," a 224-page book that documents individual accounts of 139 American-Indian marksmen who served in Company K of the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters.
The company was the only all-American Indian unit in the Union Army east of the Mississippi River. About half of the mostly Odawa men were recruited from native villages stretching along the Lake Michigan shoreline from Pentwater to the Mackinac Straits.
Native Bay Cityan Ray Herek, retired college History professor, has written a book on the sharpshooters entitled "These Men Have Seen Hard Service," published by Wayne State University Press.
Next was Bob Sarow speaking on the topic "Andersonville: 150 Years On." Sarow told of the roving bands of marauders who preyed on weak prisoners until they were brought to justice by prisoner vigilantes. He also recounted how Red Cross founder Clara Barton and former prisoner Dorence Atwater returned to the prison after the war and documented the burials. Atwater had been assigned to make a list of dead during his stay and he made a secret extra list that Barton hid in Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Books written on Atwater include "Angel of Andersonville, Prince of Tahiti: The Extraordinary Life of Dorence Atwater," by Bay City native Debby Burnett Safranski, now of Holland, Michigan.
Tim Younkman related his trips to Fort Davis, Texas, following the trail of Capt. James G. Birney IV, Bay Cityan who re-enlisted in the U.S. 9th Cavalry and went west after the Civil War. He headed black troops whose duty was to control the Apache Indians who were raiding settlers and wagon trains.
Younkman described Fort Davis as being located in a remote trans-Pecos desert, 550 miles from San Antonio on the El Paso Road. It was the home of the short-lived U.S. Army Camel Corps.
Young Birney, who had been promoted and decorated after heroism at Gettysburg under Gen. George Armstrong Custer, headed U.S. Colored Cavalry at Fort Davis beginning in June 1867. He also was quartermaster and acting commanding officer of the post at various times. Birney, grandson of Bay City pioneer James Gillespie Birney, died in January 1870 of acute inflammation of the stomach.
Civil War Round Table researcher Ray Herek found Birney's previously unknown burial site in Green Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, a few years ago and the group is working on obtaining proper monuments marking his grave.
About Mrs. Wacksman's topic this week, the Jewish Virtual Library states:
"In 1862, in the heat of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant initiated one of the most blatant official episodes of anti-Semitism in 19th-century American history. In December of that year, Grant issued his infamous General Order No. 11, which expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi:
'The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department [the "Department of the Tennessee," an administrative district of the Union Army of occupation composed of Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi] within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.
'Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.'"
The immediate cause of the expulsion was the raging black market in Southern cotton. Although enemies in war, the North and South remained dependent on each other economically. Northern textile mills needed Southern cotton. The Union Army itself used Southern cotton in its tents and uniforms. Although the Union military command preferred an outright ban on trade, President Lincoln decided to allow limited trade in Southern cotton.
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