{"id":140081,"date":"2021-02-13T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=140081"},"modified":"2021-02-13T09:59:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T06:37:57","slug":"the-siege-of-vicksburg-slavery-and-a-freshly-dug-rose-bed-the-m1855-harpers-ferry-horse-pistol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-siege-of-vicksburg-slavery-and-a-freshly-dug-rose-bed-the-m1855-harpers-ferry-horse-pistol\/","title":{"rendered":"The Siege of Vicksburg, Slavery, and a Freshly-Dug Rose Bed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
All of these old Civil War artifacts were dug within an hour of where I sit typing these words.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You always assume anything really interesting must have happened on the other side of the world. I rather suspect kids raised in Jerusalem, Athens, or Volgograd feel pretty blas\u00e9 about their local history as well. However, as a product of the American Deep South myself, there was quite a lot of tragic stuff that once unfolded in my backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Ulysses S. Grant commanded the besieging forces arrayed against Vicksburg in 1863.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Confederate General John Pemberton orchestrated Vicksburg\u2019s defense.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was the early summer of 1863, and America was rabid to tear itself apart. The war had been going on for two long bloody years, and the ultimate outcome was far from certain. Lee and Longstreet were preparing to spend the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. Simultaneously some 1,000 miles to the Southwest 70,000 Federal troops under US Grant stood poised to wrest control of a little Mississippi town called Vicksburg from General John Pemberton\u2019s 33,000 Confederates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Vicksburg\u2019s strategic location overlooking the Southern reaches of the Mississippi River made it a necessary objective for both North and South.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vicksburg held a commanding view of the Mississippi River, then the equivalent of the nation\u2019s only north-south interstate highway. Pemberton\u2019s Confederates held it. Grant\u2019s Federals wanted it. The stage was set for an epic siege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Generals get all of the publicity. However, it is with the nameless little people where the true drama of war is made most starkly manifest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rivers of ink have been spilt exploring the innermost thoughts, campaigns, successes, and failures of the Generals. These rarefied military rock stars get all the proper press. However, it isn\u2019t the Generals who typically do the fighting and dying. It is in the small things and the normal folk where the true tragedy and triumph may be found. Such a poignant event occurred on a friend\u2019s plantation just outside Vicksburg proper. The farm and associated holdings have been in my buddy\u2019s family for as far back as institutional memory might span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fog of War<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Many antebellum plantations sported palatial mansions for their principal landowners.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This plantation had the poor fortune of hosting the most favorable river landing for Union troops staging for the pending siege. All the local males of military age had long since left to fight. What remained to tend the plantation was the matriarch, the young ladies of the family, and the standard complement of slaves. The entire Neapolitan mob toiled together to fight off rank starvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Livestock like horses defined life back in rural 19th<\/sup> century America. To seize a family\u2019s horse could be catastrophic for subsistence farmers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Grant himself along with all of his entourage had landed the day before, swept through like locusts, and moved on. One of the young Union officers had a horse that had come up lame. He appropriated another from the family stable but apologized profusely for the imposition. Draft animals in this place at this time could literally spell the difference between life and death, and the young officer did not confiscate this one lightly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The lone Union officer who arrived the following day was in a foul temper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As quickly as the Union command group had arrived it was gone, moved on to the more pressing affairs of strangling the population of Vicksburg. The following day, however, there landed a solitary Union officer. He was armed, inebriated, and looking for trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Soldiers throughout history are most typically young and full of vinegar. Without proper supervision, they gravitate toward trouble of their own accord.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This Federal officer was a straggler. The specifics of his story were never known. However, when he realized both the local men as well as his superiors were long since gone he felt it was time to become acquainted with the local ladies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
There resulted a fairly epic showdown at the front doorway to the manor house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This man carried a .58-caliber single-shot horse pistol as he made his way up onto the expansive porch of the plantation house. The matriarch planted herself in the doorway and forbade him entry into her home. The flower of young genteel Southern womanhood resided therein, and she could justifiably see little good to come from this Yankee drunkard gaining entry. The older woman was of modest build, however, and the younger man fairly strapping. Even in his intoxicated state, it became obvious that he was soon to get past her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Slavery was an integral part of Southern culture prior to the Civil War. While some slaves were horribly mistreated, others were considered a part of the extended family, albeit involuntarily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the senior male slave was industriously digging a rose bed in front of the house, breaking up the ground with a heavy pickaxe. He was close enough to hear the matriarch\u2019s frantic remonstrations but kept to himself. When the lady of the house planted herself boldly across the doorway the drunken soldier placed his hand on the butt of his pistol. He had traveled far from home to teach these Rebels a lesson, and no slight woman past her prime was going to deprive him of some proper companionship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
More than 600,000 American soldiers perished during the Civil War. One of them died with a pickaxe through his brain on the front porch of a Vicksburg plantation house in 1863.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The family slave then felt compelled to act. While the inebriated Yankee argued vociferously with the lady of the house this man quietly walked up the steps behind him, swung the pickaxe he had previously been using on the rose bed, and buried the spike end up to the handle in the randy Federal\u2019s skull. The Union officer was dead before he hit the porch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gun<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Confederates were typically afforded a fair amount of latitude in their dress and weaponry. This may just be the coolest hat I have ever seen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For many officers serving in the American Civil War, it was a come-as-you-are fight. The Union had the resources to kit out large combat formations in uniform clothing and weapons. Confederates were frequently a more motley mob. However, even Federal officers typically bought their own swords and sidearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
These old Model 1855 Harper\u2019s Ferry pistols were obsolete at the outset of the war, but they remained in favor for their profound compact firepower. The removable shoulder stock sported a fairly flimsy interface but nonetheless produced a serviceable carbine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have seen a photograph of the pistol this hapless Union officer wielded that fateful day back in 1863. As near as I could tell it was a Model 1855 Harper\u2019s Ferry single shot horse pistol. These heavy guns were typically carried across the pommel of the saddle in a symmetrical holster balanced on the opposite side by the gun\u2019s detachable shoulder stock. They were intended to bring down an enemy\u2019s mount if necessary. These .58-caliber guns were evolutionary developments of the original Model 1805 US Marshal Harper\u2019s Ferry flintlock pistols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
This elegant single-shot flintlock pistol was the predecessor to the gun carried by the unfortunate Union officer in our story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Those earliest guns represented the first design produced by an American national armory. This flintlock weapon was the standard handgun of the American Dragoons who fought during the War of 1812. This same basic chassis was upgraded several times between 1805 and the onset of the Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
One subsequent upgrade was a retained ramrod. In the heat of combat, it was otherwise easy to lose such a critical trinket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first .54-caliber M1805 guns were copied from the 1798-vintage French Pistolet Modele An. IX. The final model of 1855 featured octagonal rifling that tapered to a smoothbore at the muzzle. The ramrod was positively retained on a swivel to prevent its loss while reloading from horseback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Maynard tape priming contraption, here shown on a Harper\u2019s Ferry rifle, theoretically increased the gun\u2019s rate of fire. Priming was done by means of a roll of paper caps similar to those used by toy cap guns (back when kids played with toy cap guns). In practice, it was fairly unwieldy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of these guns were primed using the notoriously unreliable Maynard tape priming system. They typically launched a 450-grain Minie ball with annular grease grooves. Though clearly obsolete on a battlefield liberally populated with revolvers, these massive guns still offered the sort of knockdown power usually reserved for shoulder arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rest of the Story<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
This simple but timeless farm implement made for a formidable and effective weapon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The matriarch of the family was rendered hysterical by the loyal slave\u2019s spontaneous actions. While she was grateful that he had so ably defended the virtue of the young ladies inside the house, she was also justifiably terrified about what the Federals might do to them all once they discovered the killing. The story goes that the black man retrieved his pickaxe from the man\u2019s skull and casually observed, \u201cWell, ma\u2019am, I\u2019m digging an awful nice rose bed right over there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
It makes one wonder what other secrets might lie beneath that rich dark Southern soil.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The slave buried the man on the spot before sowing his rose bushes liberally across the top of the grave. The heavy single-shot handgun has since been passed down through the generations all the way to the present. No one ever came inquiring after the fallen Union officer, and I suppose his corpse remains undisturbed underneath that Mississippi rose bed to this very day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Even two years later the passing Union officer went out of his way to make things right. Handwritten letters like this one represented the primary means of personal communication in this era.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two years later the war finally ground to its gory conclusion. The Union officer who had appropriated the horse was assigned to occupation duty in New Orleans. He posted a letter back to the matriarch of the plantation once again apologizing for having taken the animal and including fair monetary compensation for the loss. This letter remains in the family today as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruminations<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Second only perhaps to genocide, slavery is arguably the most vile of human institutions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most modern students of history weigh slavery as the primary causative agent behind this bloodiest war in American history. The ownership of human beings by other humans is morally repugnant to the civilized mind, so this makes for a reasonable narrative. Interestingly, roughly 90% of those fighting for the Confederacy did indeed not own slaves. However, they were typically young and, like most junior soldiers today, had not the time to accumulate much in the way of possessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Those early patriots who evicted this guy, King George III, from America in 1776 would be scandalized to realize how grandiose and expansive the US federal government has become.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The capacity of individual states to determine their own destinies fundamentally shifted with the American Civil War. The founders never could have imagined the ponderous leviathan that the US federal government has become in the modern age. It is the most behemoth undertaking in all of human history. The expansive powers wielded by the US federal government would have been utterly terrifying to men who had staked their fortunes and their lives on an existential fight to throw off the oppressive tyranny of King George III, his intrusive governance, and his onerous taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
I suspect once they were done these events made for some mighty fine roses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The concept of states\u2019 rights died in 1865 along with the doomed Confederate cause. With the benefit of hindsight, this was indeed a modest price to pay to retire the reprehensible practice of slavery. Amidst an entire nation at war with itself, however, one small tragic drama played out on the front porch of a plantation house during a hot summer afternoon outside Vicksburg, Mississippi. This hapless Union officer\u2019s unwitting contribution no doubt enhanced some simply superb Southern roses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
During the 40-day siege of Vicksburg, citizens were reduced to living in caves to avoid the indiscriminate Federal shelling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The highlight of the Vicksburg military park today is the ironclad USS Cairo<\/em> raised intact in 1964 from the Mississippi River where it sank more than a century prior. It is incredibly cool and definitely worth a visit if ever you are passing through the area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

***Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a>***       <\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation. Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A\\\/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o'clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times\u2026always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains. Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. 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