(six American dollars) a piece n cash without discount by the av-
Obviously, Sanford is referring to some surplus guns from Oldenburg and the other Hanseatic League members that
Cologne by Wipperfuerth. The “twice rifled” guns are clearly the oldest of the two-groove, oval bore guns, but it is the un derlined parenthetic comment: 900 of them are extra tirailleur rifles with the cock in the center line of the gun, that pertai here. Clearly, this indicates th nine hundred “Cyclops” guns
Interestingly Sanford uses the French term tirailleur which means “sharpshooter” to describe the guns. This may be a result o his assuming the center mounted hammer somehow made the guns special and more accurate. More likely, it simply shows his lack knowledge about small arms, as he also goes on to describe thes obsolete arms by saying The fine
quality of these arms which can compete with every other gun is guaranteed. While no specific
document lists these arms as being purchased by Sanford, he did purchase a total of 27,648 rifle muskets of various patterns. As this group was clearly made up of several different patterns, i
likely that the guns were simply lumped into a category like the “Rifled Muskets, Prussian, .70 caliber” in later reports or cor respondence, as the guns orig-
Prussia and did not come directly from Oldenburg. As the guns
are practically non-existent in modern Germany and the handful of known examples typically
survive in American collections, as well at West Point, it seems almost certain that the majority of the twelve hundred “Cyclops”
guns produced (900 infantry rifle muskets and 300 NCO rifles) were acquired by the US government during the early days of the American Civil War. Authors Schwalm & Hofmann refer to additional research noting that
Master Distributo Black Powder 1FA•2FA•3FA•4FA•Me
some 2,680 Oldenburg / Lübeck / Bremen muskets were provided to the state of Ohio by the
U.S. Government and that some saw service with the 56th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The photos accompanying this article are of an Oldenburg Mittelschlossgewehr infantry rifle musket Model 1844/48. The gun is serial number 658, with th full number found on the top of the barrel and the rear of the tr ger plate, while the last two dig its, “58,” appear on most small parts. When viewed from the muzzle with bright light, the pil lar of the Tige is clearly visibl the bottom of the breech. The gun is complete, with the exception of an old replacement ramrod that appears to have come from a period shotgun and the small stud under the barrel that the socket bayonet locks against. While exact numbers are not known, it is generally believed that onl about ten to twelve extant examples of these scarce Civil War import arms have survived to be part of collections, both public and private, in the United States
fine & collectible military arms from the Colonial Period through WWII. He operates College Hill Arsenal, a web-based antique arms
retail site. A long time collecto researcher, Tim has been a con-
tributing author to two major boo projects about Civil War era arms including The English Connection and a new book on southern retail er marked and Confederate used shotguns. Tim is also a featured
Arms & Militaria appraiser on the PBS Series Antiques Roadshow.
Our Fir By Stephen Davis Every author wishes to remember his first book sale. Ours came in Savannah, Ga., on July 17. Jack, Peggy, and I met at Wiley’s Championship Barbecue, slightly south of the city, for a fine lunch. Wiley’s Owner Janet McCrary told us that Southern Living has nominated Wiley’s as best ‘cue restaurant in Georgia. I ordered the pulled pork plate; the Melton’s had the ribs. Anyway, Jack had just received from his printer copies of our new book 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Atlanta Campaign. After my BBQ, I was signing copies of our paperback (see ad page 29), when a gentleman at the table behind us came up. “Are you Stephen Davis?” Yes. “Well, I want to buy your book.” He was Dwan Russell, and
Saturday, October 12, 2019 11:00 am - 4:00 pm: Military Living History and Special Guided Tours
Sunday, October 13, 2019 11:00 am - 4:00 pm: Military Livi
Thursday, October 17, 2019 7:00 pm: Historian and author Jef
Fall 1863 Campaign Bus Tour: Br 8:30 am - 5:00 pm: Tour the battl campaigns in Northern Virginia wi Mackowski, Michael Block, and Rob
tour include the battlefields of Rappahannock Station, and Mine Ru includes transportation and lunch seat today!
Sale Peggy ente her PayPal I signed “To Dwan, Wynston—I
October 1 oe Station elds of th historians rison. Sit
our book as he ask enee, Harrison & ope that you enjoy
, 2019 to Mine Run Fall 1863 militar and authors Chris s to be visited on
Bristoe Battlefield He orner of Iron Brig Tenth Alabama Way,
of Charleston, S.C., is proud to announce publication of its
newThe Atlanta 100 paperback, Significant Campaign Civil War Photographs: Atlanta The American Civil War was the first used entrenchments, repeating rifles communications.
Campaign written by Stephen It was also the first American War t Davis. Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and having made iconic photographs in th Steve writes that Mathew George N. Barnard deserves to be ran work in the war’s western theater. Brady, Alexander Gardner and A civilian photographer hired by Gen take pictures of fortifications arou them in and around the city in the f
Timothy O’Sullivan are famous Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s 1864. for having made iconic photoThus far, no comprehensive, definiti work. graphs in the Civil War’s eastern The Library of Congress has 130 imag Point, New York, has at least 98 pho theater. George N. Barnard deOther repositories, such as the Gild New York City, have smaller collecti
For this book we have chosen a hundr serves to be ranked in this top tier other students may wonder at some of
We hope that this work will stimulat for his photographic work in the Barnardiana, and that other scholarl
war’s western theater. Barnard was a civilian photographer hired by Gen. William T. Sherman’s chief engineer, Capt. Orlando Poe, to take pictures of fortifications around Atlanta. Barnard took several hundred of them in and around the city in the fall of 1864. His most famous is the site of Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s death in the Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864. Thus far, no comprehensive, definitive listing has been made of the photographer’s work. The Library of Congress has 130 images; the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has at least 98 photographs, donated by Captain Poe’s widow in early 1896. Along with the pictures she donated a typed list of them, each with Barnard’s meticulous caption. The challenge in Barnardiana is that the photographer took multiple shots of the same scene, usually from slightly different perspectives, while the “Poe list” at West Point may include only one numbered image. That means
view of the ruins of the Atlanta Rolling Mill that (so far as we know) has not been published— till now. It shows the wreckage of the Confederate ordnance train blown up the night of the evacu-
ation, Sept. 1-2, 1864. It has reposed at the USMA since Eleanor Poe donated it!
Our book, Steve writes, has s eral different sections: a surve Barnard’s life and work, an over view of the Atlanta Campaign with eight contemporary maps, thumbnails of twenty Union and Confederate generals, plus a sho bibliography. The more than one hundred photographs themselves are grouped under such headings as “Atlanta Scenes” and “Federals in Atlanta.” The large section shows Confederate fortifications, with multiple views o such major artillery positions a Fort Hood. Each is offered with caption reflecting Davis’ decade of looking at Barnardiana. A unique section, “Barnard Under the Microscope,” magnifies jaw-dropping details in eig photographs—those are black people on the boxcars! Publisher Jack Melton has meticulously reproduced Barnard’s photography with clear and sharp images on quality gloss stock. This is just one more reason tha Jack and Steve like to call our work “the best little book on
The price for Stephen Davis’ 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Atlanta Campaign
etcha haven’t seen this one! By Stephen Davis
Quick! What’s this view—a hotograph taken by one of the
know). The photographer set h Atlanta Rolling Mill. Established in 1857, the fac railroad lines. Located besid
mill turned out armor plate f When Sherman’s armies were n by train to Columbia, S.C. By reported that “Atlanta has be In the night of September 1and Confederate cavalry destr buildings. After Federal troops entered boilers, fly wheels, great pi only the chimneys stood. Illi “lots of plateing for gun boa unable to transport the rolli gunboats were being built.
• William C. Davis, ed., The Image of War: 1861–1865
(1983), vol. 5, p. 292; or • Jeff L. Rosenheim, Photography and the
library at home—I found fifteen books in which the companion
But this one? Nada. We’re fortunate to have found it in the
specialized in rolling iron rails Georgia railroad east of downtown
South’s ironclad warships. Atlanta, the mill’s valuable mac 10, a correspondent for the Montg ipped of public stores and works. Hood’s army abandoned Atlanta, th he ammunition train and set fire
ity, William Wallace of the 3rd W iron in various stages of manufa rivate Laforest Dunham also saw t t they could not get off”—Confede l’s iron plate to the coastal fac
the U.S. Military collection of Geo photographs. To o it’s never been p
in saw “steam ” but of the mill ckage, noticing ailroads proved s where the ironc
After being repulsed at Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman reverted to his tried-and-true tactic of maneuvering to his right, threatening Johnston’s communications and forcing the Confederates to retreat to the Chattahoochee. On July 8, 1864, a sizable Federal force crossed the river at Sope Creek.1 With his opponent gaining a bridgehead south2 of this last natural barrier, Johnston again pulled his army back, toward Atlanta’s fortifications, while the rest of Federal army crossed the undefended river at several other points. Now the narrative is supposed to move forward to the dramatic change of command, the major
Gould B. Hagler, Jr This uni photogra memorial transcri upon the informat and the them. Th eloquent nation’s soldiers pay homa they fou
battles north, east, and west o Atlanta, then to the semi-siege the bombardment, cutting the fi nal railroad, and the evacuatio of the city the night of Septem 1-2. Let’s not go there. Let’s at the river. What happened at Sope Creek on July 8? How was this crossing achieved? In his report after the fall Atlanta, Sherman explained that the Chattahoochee was a significant obstacle. He described the river as “a rapid and deep stream, only passable at that stage by means of bridges, except at one or two very difficult fords.” Sherman explained his plan in his memoirs: “I expected every possible resistanc in crossing the Chattahoochee River and had made up my mind to feign on the right, but actu ly cross over by the left.” Maj Gen. John Schofield’s Army of
ue work contains a complete hic record of Georgia’s to the Confederacy, a full tion of the words engraved , and carefully-researched on about the monuments rganizations which built se works of art and their inscriptions express a profound grief, praise the bravery and patriotism, and e to the cause for which ht.
Maj. Gen. John McAllister Schofield. (Library of Congress)
the Ohio was, in the first days July, on the right of the Feder line on the Sandtown Road. Sherman ordered him to move to the far left, a distance of 25 or 30 miles and, as Schofiel stated in his report, “to prepa for crossing the river at some point from the mouth of Soap Creek to the Shallow Ford, near Roswell, while Generals Thomas, McPherson, and Stone should feign below.” The river was wide, deep, and difficult to cross, but fro Johnston’s perspective river was certainly difficult to defend against an army h) double the size of his Stephen Davis’s count, there were 15 crossing points from McAfee’s Bridge upstream near
Roswell to Gorman’s Ferry near Campbellton, a 40-mile stretch of river. Johnston understood the magnitude of this challenge one complicated further by the flow of Peachtree Creek, which enters the Chattahoochee some
eight miles northwest of the ci Johnston explained in his repor “The character of Peach Tree Creek and the numerous fords
on the Chattahoochee above its mouth prevented my attempting to defend that part of the rive The broad and muddy channel of the creek would have separated
the two parts of the army. It a the river below its mouth were
therefore taken as our line.” In his memoirs Johnston makes this same point, and adds that “the course of the river would have put us under the further disadvantage of a concave line.” The reports of Sherman’s subordinate commanders and the communications sent back and forth give us a clear idea of the plan a it was being refined. Schofield to Sherman at 7:30 p.m. on the 7th: “Half a mile above [Sope] creek is a shallow ford where infantry can cross easily, but there is no road leading to it and it would be difficult to make one. Isham’s Ferry just below the mouth of the creek is a good place for a bridge About 400 yards from the river on the east side is a commanding ridge very favorable for a bridgehead. The crossing would be very difficult if that ridge is held in force; but there appears at presen only a squad of cavalry and one or two pieces of artillery.” Schofield advised Sherman further: “If there be no greater forc to oppose it, the crossing can be effected very easily by crossing infantry at the ford above, to cle the ridge and to cover to the construction of the bridge.” But the decision had not yet been made to cross at Sope Creek. Schofield continued in his message to Sherman: “Johnston’s cavalry being gone, I take it for granted that I can cross [further upstream] at Roswell without difficulty. The higher up the river the less probability of opposition.” Sometime after Schofield sent this message, Sherman told him not to tarry and to cross at Sope. Schofield dropped his plan to reconnoiter points further upstream and examined in more detail the river at the chosen point “The ford above the mouth of Soap Creek is an old fish-dam,” Schofield told Sherman.3 “I do not think it can be made practicable for wagons, though it may be. I deem it important to have a bridge to throw across as I have effected a lodgment, so
Maj. Gen. Jacob D. Cox. (Library of Congress)
surprised Confederates, vastly outnumbered and outgunned, fired and fled. The Kentuckians formed on the south bank and advanced to the ridge beyond. There they met the men of Cameron’s brigade who had crossed at the fish dam. More men were ferried across.
The Federals began entrenching on the ridge south of the river. The pioneers went to work. One bridge was finished by
nightfall; a second one was under construction. Cox’s entire divisi crossed. Hascall’s followed the next day and “the two divisions occupied a secure tête-de-pont
a mile in depth, giving ample room for the debouché of the
whole army.” Schofield reported that “The crossing was secured without the loss of a man.” Sherman’s chief engineer, Capt. Orlando Poe, reported a f things about the pontoon bridge The army began the campaign with two pontoon trains hauling two bridges, one 800 feet i length and the other 600. Two more of the same dimensions were held in reserve in Nashvil All were “of the kind known as the ‘canvas bateau bridge.’”
Orlando M. Poe was breveted to the rank of brigadier genera of regulars at the end of the war. (Library of Congress) Sherman’s report states that he had four bridges at his disposal, so we know that the reserve pontoons were brought forward sometime between May and early July. Poe noted further that “T canvas bridges at Phillips’ Fer were replaced by a trestle brid built by the Engineer Battalion the Twenty-third Corps. Another pontoon bridge was thrown meanwhile at Powers’ Ferry upon which the Fourth Army Corps crossed.” Poe also informed us that “whenever it was deemed necessary to use a bridge for a greater length of time than for ty-eight hours the pontoon brid es were invariably replaced by wooden trestle bridges construc ed from materials at hand…. The
object of this was to preserve th canvas covers of the bateaux, even at the expense of considerable labor, since we had the latter in greater abundance than the former.” The narrative can now resume. The Federals are across the river Johnston is sacked. Hood takes command. Sanguinary battles are fought. The railroad is cut. Atlanta falls. One is struck by the immensity of the resources at Sherman’s dis posal. Need a bridge? I will send you one. You could use some extra hands to assemble and paddle the bateaux? Hascall can spare 500 men. Want to get the canvas out of the water? We can put some men to work cutting logs and building trestle bridges. We have plenty of labor. Schofield devised a very effective plan to cross the Chattahoochee at Sope Creek. Infantry and artillery remained hidden behind the ridge until the boats entered the river. The advance party at the fish dam crossed undetected and was immediately followed by the remainder of the assigned force. The pontoons were assembled in the creek and were ready to go at 4 p.m., according to schedule, a half hour after the men up stream began to cross at the fish dam. Before the men guarding the crossing were aware of the Federals’ presence they were struck with overwhelming force. One wonders about the Confederate troops at the crossing. It seems they were not watch ing very carefully and not listen ing at all. There were thousands of Federals on the opposite bank the entire day, a few hundred feet from the Confederates, with artillery and infantry moving about, and with hundreds of men assembling 25 pontoon boats. How could the Confederates be unaware of their presence? Is it possible the Federal troops could be so quiet? But would it have mattered if the Confederates
had been more alert? Could thei commanders have gotten a sufficient force to Sope Creek in time to impede the crossing? An would they have even attempted to do so? After all, Johnston t us that he had already determin not to defend the river above t mouth of Peachtree Creek. We are all familiar with the age that no plan survives conta with the enemy. In this case th was no significant contact with the foe. The plan was not hindered in any way. The crossing of the Hooch came off without a hitch.
1. Most Federal sources refe Sope Creek as Soap Creek. There are also references
Isham’s Ferry, Isham’s Ford, and Phillips’ Ferry. These n all refer to the same crossi Some accounts describe the Atlanta side of the river as east side; some call the sam bank the south side. What the Federal reports cal fish-dam was, I believe, a f ing weir, a low dam built to rect the passage of fish to part of the river channel wh they could easily be trapped and caught. The “shallow for to which Schofield refers to the ford here, not the “Shal Ford” further upstream near Roswell.
rces: Stephen Davis, ta Will Fall; Gen. Joseph hnston, Narrative of
Military Operations during t Civil War; William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman. O.R. Series 1, Vol. 38 contains the reports correspondence cited.
Gould Hagler is a retired lo ist living in Dunwoody, Ga. a past president of the Atla Civil War Round Table and th author of Georgia’s Confeder Monuments: In Honor of a Fal Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Ha speaks frequently on this to and others related to differ
been a regular contributor t since 2016. He can be reache
