The Florida Expedition Part II: Marching through Florida

 Camp Finegan

Once enough of his army had landed, Seymour led a force out of Jacksonville on February 8. Gus Henry’s Mounted Infantry, the only mounted force, would of course be the advance guard. Those in the 54^th Massachusetts, who had been happy to leave fatigue duties at Charleston, were disappointed to learn that they would be staying behind on garrison duty for the moment. They entertained themselves by making a lot of noise in an attempt to make their regiment look larger to any Confederate partisans in the area. They were also pleased to find the civilians getting much friendlier than they had been during the landing.[1]

Seymour’s first target was Camp Finegan, the largest concentration of Confederate forces at that moment. The Rebels had destroyed all the bridges, so the Federals forded the stream instead. The mounted men led the way, surprising and capturing six pickets. In 10 minutes they were nearly upon the camp. Colonel Henry used a local guide, Mr. Alsop, to bypass the camp and strike an artillery camp at Pickett’s Station.[2]

Colonel Guy Henry. His 40th
Massachusetts Infantry was
constantly at the forefront of
the Florida Expedition.

The Confederates in the artillery camp, under Captain Joseph Dunham, were unaware of the danger. Outside, Henry formed his men for an assault, nearly surrounding the target, then said, “If ever you yell in your lives, boys, yell now!” The horsemen shouted to the calls of bugles. It was past 11 PM and most of the Confederates were already sleeping. A sergeant awakened Dunham, shouting, “Save yourselves if you can; the enemy is right upon you!” The captain yelled at everybody to grab horses, mules, or carriages, and flee to Baldwin. The Union riders entered the camp firing “their carbines and slashing with their swords shouting surrender you Rebel sons of bitches.” A Major Stevens gunned for a telegraph operator. An train was expected to arrive soon and the telegraph operator was determined to warn it away. “Major Stevens walked into the room and seized the fellow by the throat as he was on the point of sending another message. In a few minutes his instrument was knocked to pieces and the wire cut.” The Massachusetts riders quickly captured many Confederates, along with a few pieces of artillery. Much of the camp’s men escaped through the one opening, a system of swamps.[3] Henry’s men advanced further to Baldwin, driving off more Rebels and capturing more goods.[4]

Kurz & Allison Part II: First Battles

 Here’s part two of this series where I look at Louiz Kurz’s historical lithographs. For more context check out the opening of part 1. This second part will look at his depictions of Civil War battle from 1861. There are only two.

Battle of Bull Run

The First Battle of Bull Run (or First Manassas) was the first major battle of the Civil War. A Union army under General Irvin McDowell was rushed into the field against an equally green Confederate force under Generals Pierre G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston. After a series of blunders, many which ended with friendly fire because of the inconsistent uniforms, the Confederates gained the upper hand at Henry House Hill and the Federals were routed.

The Florida Expedition Part I: The Start of the Campaign for Florida

 

People sometimes ask me why there was little fighting in Florida during the Civil War. The state noticeably juts out into the Caribbean and looks highly invasion prone. Narrow from east to west, one successful offensive could slice off a large chunk of the Confederacy. The truth is that until well into the 20^th Century Florida was a largely undeveloped state full of swamps and other wild terrain. Most of the important population centers were in the north. There was thus little strategic incentive for the Union forces to invade, and a simple blockade of its few ports was far less cost-intensive. That changed at the onset of 1864, when a mix of military, economic, and political factors suddenly drew the attention of Abraham Lincoln’s administration as well as the military Department of the South. The sole major campaign in Florida would climax in the Battle of Olustee, a Confederate victory that is often emphasized more as a Federal blunder. Historians usually portray the Florida Expedition as a wasteful sideshow akin to the Red River Campaign just about to start on the other side of the Confederacy. A few historians have attempted to argue that a Union success could have actually shortened the war. This series will attempt to see which side holds more weight.

 

Florida Before 1864

The American Civil War almost began months earlier in Florida. In late 1860 exuberant Secessionists planned an assault on a weakened Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, in Pensacola Harbor (the westernmost point of the state). However politicians intervened, believing this would paint the Confederates as the instigator of hostilities and drum up war support in the North. This fear was still fulfilled when South Carolinians fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.[1] Almost immediately the war hit Florida hard. Its inhabitants were heavily dependent on ships to export its produced goods and import what they did not make themselves. The absence of Northern trade vessels as well as the blockade led to the shutdown of businesses and shops alongside rising prices.[2]

Kurz & Allison Part I: Indian Wars

 Introducing Louis Kurz

Louis Kurz

This is the first part of a series where I look at the historical lithographs of Louis Kurz. I was going to start with his Civil War works, but I saw a particularly baffling depiction of an event in 1890 and decided to start with his three portrayals of Indian War battles. Louis Kurz was an Austrian immigrant who got into lithographic art with Alexander Allison (they co-ran an art firm in Chicago). His colored works utilized chromolithography, where ink is printed onto black and white drawings. These cheap forms of art could be reproduced and purchased for display in family homes.

Louis Kurz was a Union Civil War veteran and produced a series of battle depictions. His aim was to instill patriotism and there is a definite Unionist slant. Despite his actual involvement in the war he did not strive for accuracy. Despite the simplistic nature of the art and numerous inaccuracies, his work has somehow grabbed the attention of many (myself included) and frequently adorns book covers and illustrated histories. Though known for his Civil War works, he also depicted battles from other events, foremost the Spanish-American War.

My objective in this series is to display Kurz’s art and make a few comments, especially on the inaccuracies. One general inaccuracy is the lack of diversity among uniforms and faces. Most of the soldiers have the same face with differing amounts of facial hair. They also are neatly attired. This is more noticeable in his depiction of Confederate soldiers, who historically had to improvise their garb and often wore butternut instead of gray (the common color for them in these lithographs. Now let’s look at Kurz’s three Indian War pieces.

Battle of Tippecanoe

I’m not as familiar with this event. The Battle of Tippecanoe saw Governor William Henry Harrison (famous as the shortest-running president) defeat Tecumseh’s Confederacy of American Indians. Tecumseh surprise attacked the American force, but the battle ended in the latter’s victory and the burning of Prophetstown, the center of the Indian Confederacy. Though this set back Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa’s dream of ending American expansion, they were able to rebuild their forces and participate in the War of 1812.

Harrison can be seen at left on horseback, urging his men on. The only major inaccuracy I can discern is the uniforms of the Americans. Here they are wearing caps from the Mexican War era instead of shako hats.

Battle of the Big Horn

The Battle of Little Bighorn was the last big hurrah for the Sioux Indians. Custer set out to strike at Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse’s assembly of warriors (from several Indian groups). Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer made the mistake of splitting his force in two against a larger force. While he had some men hold off Marcus Reno’s wing, he sent the bulk of his force against Custer’s and encircled it, killing every man. It’s one of the famous last stands in history and cemented Custer as an American icon.

Naturally Kurz would take a stab at Custer’s Last Stand. Custer can be seen dual-wielding revolvers and is surprisingly not wearing his famous jacket and red scarf. The American cavalrymen also look a bit too fancy. The most unusual aspect of this depiction is the terrain. The battle was fought on grassy plains and hills. Here the Indians are issuing forth from rocky mountains.

Capture & Death of Sitting Bull

Even for a Louis Kurz work this is an astonishingly inaccurate portrayal of a historical event. It might have been based off propaganda that obscured a nasty pair of linked incidents in American history. Here Sitting Bull dies in battle leading his Sioux warriors from their camp of teepees. The Federal cavalry is backed by artillery. The problem is that most of the violence occurred at the Wounded Knee Massacre. Sitting Bull was killed days earlier. Kurz is merging his death with the Wounded Knee event. Also the reservation-bound Sioux would not have had such a full military force complete with mounted warriors.

Here’s what really happened. The Indian Agent on the Sioux Reservation feared that Sitting Bull would lend his credibility to the new ghost dance movement. The Reservation police (actually fellow Sioux) went to his house and arrested him between 5 and 6 in the morning. Sitting Bull and his wife refused to go and woke up the rest of the camp with their protests. The police finally tried to force Sitting Bull to come with them. An angry man intervened and shot the leading policeman. Instead of turning on his attacker, the officer pointed his revolver at Sitting Bull and shot him in the chest. Another policeman finished him off with a bullet to the head. A full shootout broke out, with eight policemen and at least several Sioux dying. It was an ugly incident where the police and Sitting Bull's supporters let their emotions run loose, hardly an epic battle between Sioux warriors and Federal soldiers. The Wounded Knee Massacre did see the Sioux shoot it out with Federals, but it was also a far cry from Kurz’s depiction, which does not show the women and children who were gunned down in the fracas. Of course such accuracy would not have been a pleasant thing to mount on the wall of one’s home.

Movie Review: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)

 

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is based on Dee Brown’s famous history of the fall of the American Indians in the latter half of the 19th Century. It’s a television movie from HBO and focuses only on the sections dealing with the Sioux. The film starts with the last hurrah of the Sioux at Little Bighorn in 1876 and concludes with the fallout of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, charting their decline from a proud warrior people on the western plains to dependents on a reservation. Overall it’s a pretty accurate film.

HBO tries to present a balanced account of events, though both of the primary protagonists are Sioux Indians. The first is Charles Eastman (Adam Beach, who has some internet meme fame as Slipknot, the man who can climb anything). Eastman was a Sioux youth whose father converted to Christianity. His father came to pick him up and send him to a school where he assumed Western values and his western name. He was the first American Indian to master western medicine and became a doctor on the Great Sioux Reservation. His character is torn between two worlds. He can’t help but sympathize with his own people but also has a friendship with Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn) and marriage with poet Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin who played Rogue in the X-Men films). By the end of the movie he has grown disgusted with health conditions on the reservation as well as the misguided aspects of the Dawes Act, which will force them to become farmers and also sell off more of their already shrunken lands.

Movie Review: One Man's Hero (1999)

The Mexican-American War is one of the more overlooked conflicts in America's past. If one tries to find a list of movies on it, there will be about a dozen on the Alamo and one or two on the 1846-1848 war itself. The one I found was One Man's Hero, which tells the story of the San Patricio Battalion, a group of Catholic US Army deserters who fought for the Mexicans. This was meant to be a theatrical picture, but its producer Orion was bought out by MGM, which didn't have much interest in the project and turned it into a direct-to-video release. The movie certainly looks like it was made more for TV than the theater as Orion wasn't in the best financial situation at the time.

First I should provide some historical context. The Republic of Texas desired annexation by the United State. Many in the states themselves also had their eyes on Mexico's northern territories of New Mexico and California. Sensing that Mexico was weak (wracked by internal political turmoil), President James K. Polk sought to bring about a war so that these lands could be added to the United States. He was able to antagonize Mexico into firing on troops in the disputed borderlands, providing a casus belli. The war ended with an American victory. While this expanded the nation, it also drove the political atmosphere into sectionalism as the expansion of slavery became a central and divisive issue.