Lieutenant and Drill Master at a Georgia Camp of Instruction. He was already serving, but his official appointment date was July 29, 1862. He continued in that position through 1863 at the least; due to the dearth of records, his discharge date cannot be determined, but I assume that he served through the remainder of the War.
Colonel Clarke had a remarkable career in the ministry after the War, and I found hundreds, if not thousands, of newspaper accounts mentioning him and referring to him as a professor, minister, and doctor. He went
Civil War Artillery Book
to his reward on Sept. 4, 1894; his earthly remains are buried in Magnolia Cemetery, Augusta, Richmond County, Ga.
The “Captain’s” ornate sword was presented to him by the men of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry in June 1861. It was manufactured by Horstmann & Sons, Philadelphia. The sword and its scabbard are ornately decorated with solid silver, engraved patriotic Georgia motifs, and an engraved silver grip. The blade is deeply etched with more patriotic motifs that are brought out in strong relief with a gold overlay on the recesses.
The sword and its scabbard are in near new condition, still glowing with their original beauty.
Shannon Pritchard has authored numerous articles relating to the authentication, care and conservation of Confederate antiques, including several cover articles and is the author of the definitive work on Confederate collectibles, the widely acclaimed Collecting the Confederacy, Artifacts and Antiques from the War Between the States, and is co-author of Confederate Faces in Color.
The American Battlefield Trust, the nation’s premier battlefield preservation organization, marked another year of leadership in the fields of historic land conservation and place-based education in 2019. No matter how you want to measure, whether by land saved, Americans educated, or steadfast donors engaged, it was a year of milestones
With the help of generous donors, alongside strategic partnerships with government officials and nonprofit groups across the country, the Trust protected more than 1,176 acres of battlefield land in ten states during 2019, preserving in perpetuity properties deeply rooted in American history, while welcoming more than 10 million visitors eager to learn about this nation’s past to its website www.battlefields.org and its YouTube channel.
Attesting to the tremendous loyalty exhibited by Trust members, the organization recorded its two-millionth donor gift on behalf of battlefield preservation during December. That donation came from retired sergeant William B. Bristor Jr., of Ellicott City, Md., who gave $100 in recognition of Trust president Jim Lighthizer’s retirement announcement. Mr. Bristor has been invited to be a guest of honor at the Trust’s upcoming annual conference in Chantilly, Va.
“Even after 20 years at the helm of this incredible organization, I remain in awe of the remarkable support given by our members for protecting America’s historic landscapes. Although this is the last full calendar year I will spend as its leader, all the pieces remain in place for the Trust to continue setting aside these
100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Atlanta Campaign presents a riveting collection of George Barnard’s camera work. Most of the photographs are from Barnard’s time in Atlanta, mid-September to mid-November 1864, during the Federal occupation of the city. With this volume, Stephen Davis advances the scholarly literature of
national treasures for the benefit of generations yet to come,” said Lighthizer, who told members in November that a search had begun to identify his successor.
Working closely with landowners and preservation partners, the Trust completed 24 transactions at 17 battlefield sites, including: Bentonville, N.C.; Bristoe Station, Va.; Champion Hill, Miss.; Cold Harbor, Va.; Fort Blakely, Ala.; Franklin, Tenn.; Gettysburg, Pa.; Hanging Rock, S.C.; Newtown, N.Y.; Peebles Farm, Va.; Rappahannock Station, Va.; Sailor’s Creek, Va.; Saratoga, N.Y.; Second Manassas, Va.; Shiloh, Tenn.; South Mountain, Md.; and Wilson’s Creek, Mo. Meanwhile, meaningful progress was made toward dozens of other transactions that will be completed in the months to come.
Of particular note was the acquisition of 50 acres at Cold Harbor, Va., that had once been slated to become a massive sportsplex with six soccer and lacrosse fields, acres of parking lots, and night illumination that towered over the battlefield. However, the Trust was able to negotiate a purchase agreement with Hanover County and raise the necessary $1 million for the land’s preservation.
Acreage saved is an important benchmark in battlefield preservation; however, the Trust is also fully committed to advancing history education programs designed for both traditional classrooms and lifelong learners engaging from home. By the close of the 2018–2019 school year, our Field Trip Fund had sent more than 30,000 young people on class trips to historic sites. Meanwhile, nearly 200 professional educators joined us in Raleigh, N.C., for the 19th annual National Teacher Institute, a free continuing education weekend where teachers participate in workshops and other sessions designed to help them integrate the latest techniques in bringing the past to life for students.
In October, the Trust launched 1864: A Virtually Reality Experience, that has already achieved more views than any other video in its catalog of more than 500 titles, as nearly 650,000 users have flocked to this immersive experience of Civil War combat. The organization also launched its inaugural Youth Leadership Team, a group of ten dynamic high school students working alongside the Trust to promote historic preservation and history education in their own communities. In addition to holding advocacy meetings with their elected officials, each participant is pursuing a project designed to increase engagement on the local level.
October also saw the launch of The Liberty Trail, a joint heritage tourism and preservation initiative alongside the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust that seeks to promote the Palmetto State’s leading role in the founding of the United States, during a Columbia event hosted by Governor Henry McMaster. Ultimately, the effort will link 70 sites across the state with a new driving tour that functions as a one-of-a-kind educational and heritage tourism resource. As part of the effort, some 2,500 acres of battlefield land will be preserved, and five new parks will be created.
Demonstrating its commitment to deepening ties between members of the modern military with their historic forebearers, the Trust launched a stirring series of videos entitled Brothers in Valor, that highlighted parallels between Civil War Medal of Honor recipients and contemporary honorees. Thanks to a July initiative, some 3,000 active and veteran servicemen or women took advantage of free memberships to the organization. The Trust also partnered with the National Park Service and American Veterans Archaeological Recovery to host a program at Saratoga National Historical Park that allows vets to participate in excavations on an American battlefield, a project profiled in the winter issue of our membership magazine Hallowed Ground.
The past year was also significant federal legislation on behalf of battlefield protection. In March, the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act was signed into law, expanding park boundaries at Shiloh National Military Park and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park; the act also established two Civil Warrelated national monuments in Kentucky, Camp Nelson National Monument and Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument. In December, the Preserving America’s Battlefields Act reauthorized the federal Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants Program through FY 2028 at $18 million annually. Under the act similar matching grant streams will be made available to assist in restoring and interpreting protected battlefield landscapes; up to $1 million will be available in each category annually. A truly bipartisan bill, it acquired 101 co-sponsors, 51 Democrats and 50 Republicans, in the House of Representatives and seventeen cosponsors in the Senate.
The Trust’s preservation work in 2019 would not have been possible without the dedication of numerous partners, including: the American Battlefield Protection Program; National Park Service; Adams County, Pa.; Battle of Franklin Trust, Inc.; Chemung County, N.Y.; The Conservation Fund; Fauquier County, Va.; Franklin’s Charge, Inc.; Frederick County, Md.; the HTR Foundation; Katawba Valley Land Trust, Inc.; Lancaster County, S.C.; Land Conservancy
Governor Henry McMaster celebrated with young history lovers during the October even that officially launched the Liberty Trail, an ambitions preservation and heritage tourism project for Palmetto State Revolutionary War sites pursued in partnership with the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. of Adams County; Maryland Environmental Trust; Maryland State Highway Administration; Mississippi Department Archives and History; National Park Partners; Natural Resource Conservation Service; Carolina Department Natural & Cultural Resources; Prince William County, Va.; the Pritzker Foundation; Save Historic Antietam Foundation; South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust; Carolina Conservation State of New York; Tennessee Civil War Sites Preservation Fund; Tennessee Historic Commission; University of South Alabama; U.S. Department of Agriculture; Virginia Battlefield Preservation Fund; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; Virginia Department of Historic Resources; Virginia Land Conservation Virginia Outdoors Foundation; the Volgenau Foundation; and Wilson’s Creek Battlefield Foundation.
As we look toward another year of success in 2020, the Trust is deeply grateful to these and other partners without whom our work would be less viable and dynamic, but especially, we thank everyone who made a contribution to our cause. Two million individual donations to any cause is remarkable, and we are honored by the trust these members place in us to be quality stewards of their gifts.
Fund; Young participants in our March Generations event “Charge and Countercharge at Cedar Mountain” marveled at seeing Civil War photos as they were designed to be viewed – in 3D.
A behind the scenes look at filming of Civil War 1864: A Virtual Reality experience, an innovative collaboration with Wide Awake Films that swiftly became the most-watched video in Trust history.
I N S I DE E V E RY I S S U E
Imprint: “…an indelible distinguishing effect or influence;” is one definition Webster offers. Duke University defines Confederate Imprints as: “… items printed in the Confederate States of America between secession from the Union and the surrender of the Confederate military forces (December 1860-April 1865).” Researchers can bring visualization to this part of our nation’s history through mining the various repositories, in person or online, which hold thousands of items printed in the Confederacy. For this article, we will focus on those institutions with more substantial holdings, and especially those offering digitized imprints online. Researchers interested in consulting books to assist in locating specific imprints can benefit from several available sources, including state-specific titles. Of note, the two-volume Confederate Imprints: A Check List Based Principally on the Collection of the Boston Athenæum. Check https://www.worldcat.org to find a copy in a local library, or view online at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/ Record/001168298.
the war ended, historian Francis Parkman and colleagues traveled to Richmond and made several acquisitions. Thus, the beginning of a rich collection, one, which prompted James Ford Rhodes to weave the picturesque description of a researcher’s visit to the Athenæum that will close this article. The image above shows the Boston Athenæum homepage at https://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/digital/collection/ p16057coll14, where one can view over 4,000 images –t printed material ranging from government and state documents, military manuals, maps, poetry, textbooks, religious tracts, church publications, almanacs, and more. Each of the online collections (readers will find the websites listed at the end of the article) offers the ability to search using keywords, retrieve results, and download images for personal use. One note, commercial use will require permission from the holding institution.
To demonstrate the Athenæum website, this writer conducted a search using the keywords “religious tracts.” This image shows the 122 results from the search shown in Fig. 2.
A search using the same keywords, from the Duke University Libraries, Confederate Imprints website tails/dulci?tab=about), ed the results shown in Fig. 3. Researchers can bookmark the following Confederate Imprint websites for future reference. Many other sites, most offering smaller collections, exist. Conduct your own search for more sources!
• • (https://archive.org/deyield
Boston Athenæum: https://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/digital/collection/ p16057coll14 Duke University Libraries: https://archive.org/details/ dulci?tab=about Library of Congress: https://w w w. l o c. g o v / c o l l e c tions/broadsides-and-other-printed-ephemera/?•
Let us close with the words of Rhodes. “The older man settles himself in the Confederate room, and as he gazes at the bound volumes of newspapers and at the other volumes, the outside aspect of which is eloquent of the life in the Southern Confederacy… he blesses the men who had the forethought to make so valuable a collection for him as he thinks and writes of society at the South.” Next month, we will explore additional primary sources. Until then, good luck in researching the Civil War!
dates=1860/1869 Digital Library of Georgia: http://american-south. o r g / c o l l e c t i o n s / g e u / c o n f e d e r a t e i m p r i n t s / items/?Welcome Internet Archive: https://archive.org/search.php?query=confederate%20imp r i n t s% 2 0 A N D% 2 0 mediatype%3Atexts