Here we go Again!

It's seems only fitting and proper a begin this blog anew while I am at the Society for Military History Annual Conference, here in Kansas City, MO.  I try to attend this every year and it has never disappointed, this year is no exception.

Started last night with a wonderful reception at the WWI Museum.

 

Today, I attended four sessions .  The first, the most relevant to my Broomsticks to Battlefield Research:  Violence on the Civil War.  A bit of a misnomer, as the presenters spoke to Sherman's Bummers and the concept of cowards during the war.  Ann Sarah Rubin from the Univ. of Maryland presented a segment of her research entitled: A Delightful and Unmolested Trip across the Country.  Her research seems to indicate Sherman's Bummers were proud of the role they played in ending the war.  In addition, there was a distinct difference in how they treated the Southern civilian population.  If you left your property, accord to her, then the bummers felt all your goods were fair game.  If not, if you stayed then only those items of military significance were taken (horses, etc.).

The second: Battlefield Cowardice,Violence, and Memory in the ACW was given by Lesley J. Gordon from the University of Akron, was quite interesting considering use mentioned the 2nd Texas (see earlier posts and pictures). BANG!  Immediate connection.  One of my goals in the second edition, is to update my research concerning Robinett. She and I talked afterwards and will be talking some more in the coming month. 

Second session was Military Thought in the Napoleonic Era. Quite interesting.  The presenters all were well prepared and I came away thinking about the difference between doctrine and regulations and experience vs training.

The third session I attended was Other Fronts During WWI.  Good stuff: France in the Middle East, Riga.  Take aways?  The German Way of War, great staff work, that is mobile, flanking rapid warfare.  Joint Ops shone at Riga between air and land forces.  All good stuff.

Final sessions was interesting on a number of levels. The 7 member panel was from the Turkish Army war College and discussed the Battle of Gallipoli in WWI from the Ottoman Empire viewpoint (they won). 

All in all, a wonderful start to the conference. Can't wait for tomorrow!

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North & South Magazine

The current issue of North & South magazine, Vol 12, # 6, March 2011 has an article I wrote about Henry C. Robinett, "When All But Life and Honor's Lost."  Be sure to pick up a copy.

The Writing Process

I thought I would pause here and share some thought on the writing process with my students.

Recall, in the beginning of this, I first looked about to see if indeed there was enough information available to make an interesting topic; there was. Then I developed a list of questions based on what I THOUGHT I was going to examine; as you all know the project evolved into a study of just Robinett.

Research completed I am not ready to begin writing. But where do I start? Thinking, that is where. For the last month I have been thinking about how to approach the organization of this and what themes to use. Last week I jotted down some ideas, nothing formal to see where I was with both.

Then I placed my ideas in an general outline:
I. Introduction
II. Delaware Military Academy
III. Early Military Career
IV. Corinth
V. Home
VI. Vicksburg
VII. 1st USI
VIII. Home
IX. Grant’s Staff
X. New Orleans
XI. Court Martial 1 & 2
XII. Court Martial 3
XIII. Disability Pension & Orders
XIV. Suicide
XV. Conclusion

After talking to a few friends and over the past few days I have developed a list of themes that I will weave into these sections:

Honor - Military Academy DMA - Military - Society? - Artillery-lack respect? - Family-Rev. War ancestors
Narcissism -Rage
Connections - Grant’s Staff - Freemason - Patrons?
Psychic/physical trauma?

I will think on these a bit more and then flesh out the outline, most likely this weekend. I find it hard to write well during the week; too many distractions with work and all. Once I have a completed outline I will begin writing the sections. Note I did not say chapters. This is will initially be an article for publication, later, who knows? I have enough to write a good article right now or a poor book; I’ll write the article, see how it is received, and see if I can get additional grants for the coming years to support anything further.

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Rounding out my Research.

The next two weeks will round out my research. I am a couple weeks behind my plan but that is why you build in some extra time.

This Friday I will be able to get a better handle on HCR’s possible PTSD. I prepared a list of symptoms, etc for Shook Over Hell (See an earlier post) and here is what I found:

Symptoms of PTSD

Questions:
Undergo hardships & trials in the military? YES
In a situation where he experienced anxiety & fear? YES
Exposed to combat, to death & mutilation of his comrades? YES
Exposed to the slaughter of enemy soldiers? YES
Encounter disease that might have weakened his psychic defenses? UNKNOWN
Bonds with friends & family ameliorate his problems or enhance? Death of fiancé
Did a warm homecoming wash away the pain & deaths? UNKONOW

“Sometimes this fear was so intense that men would fall to the ground paralyzed with terror, bury their face in the grass, grasp the earth, and refuse to move.” CORINTH

Many experience a sense of disembodiment and become oblivious to their own bodies and needs. Shell or gunshot wounds could bring a man back to the reality of his own body and sense of vulnerability. CORINTH

The pounding and concussion from cannonading can be overwhelming. CORINTH

Infuriated and obsessed with battle a man can screen out all the horror of death. Concentrate on the matters at hand and put personal safety aside and belatedly react to the horrific scenes they have witnessed CORINTH

Terrifying noise of shells over head could lead to nervous habits never fully overcome-startle reactions CORINTH

Artillery fire & the sights and sounds of battle could be unnerving in the extreme CORINTH/VICKSBURG

“Perhaps the most horrific aspect of the Civil War experience was the scene of the battlefield after the firing had subsided. Mangled men, dead and dying, littered the landscape.” CORINTH/VICKSBURG

Burying the dead can be equally as traumatic CORINTH

Symptoms – delayed stress:

Intrusive recollection-nightmares & flashbacks UNKNOWN
Disoriented thinking YES
Startle reactions UNKNOWN
Social numbing YES

Depression (melancholy) YES
Anxiety Yes
The “mental distance” from family can be overwhelming YES
Critical to this issue is social support UNKONWN
Fear CORINTH/VICKSBURG
Strangers ???
Going outside JACKSON BARRACKS
Refuse to leave room for days JACKSON BARRACKS
Shun company JACKSON BARRACKS

Fear of recurrence of some great calamity – Think something horrible is going to happen to them UNKNOWN
Descent into “into a kind of permanent psychotic state” POSSIBLE
Sit for hours alone staring off into space—startled when spoken to JACKSON BARRACKS?
Dread of calamity, cognitive disorders. JACKSON BARRACKS
Parades and welcome home to family does not wash away the “tangle of emotions of devotion, horror, honor, fear, excitement, anger, and boredom.” UNKNOWN
Crying spells, anxiety symptoms JACKSON BARRACKS

Nervous behaviors, trembling, shaking, irritability & hyperactivity JACKSON BARRACKS

Cognitive disorders
Problem with memory or thinking JACKSON BARRACKS

Inability to concentrate or remember JACKSON BARRACKS

Loss of memory not associated with any neurological deficit.
Apathetic JACKSON BARRACKS
Non-military factors –most potent mental shock DEATH OF fiancé
Gunshot wounds in service Corinth
Psychological consequences of wound JACKSON BARRACKS

Restless, sleepless, suicidal JACKSON BARRACKS

“One suspects that many cases of men behaving in a disorderly manner or refusing to obey orders … also involved soldiers who had reached the limits of their endurance, and could easily have been considered psychiatric causalities of war; however these men were punished severely” —treated as disciplinary problems. NEW ORLEANS

“…many Civil War veterans resorted to suicide as a mean of dealing with intolerable mental and physical pain….” YES?

Post CW suicide no loner regarded as a heinous crime-tended to disguise or deny the act. YES
Pensions grated for suicide due to war wounds. YES?

Obviously these are my layman’s observations. We will see what the experts have to say after I lay out all the evidence. The most telling information I have is from his father’s pension application after his death. In it are letters numerous people who know HCR and their observations of him are quite telling.

Next Thursday, the 20th of August, Becky Warda, and Keith Bright will be travelling with me to the Delaware State Historical Society archives and the Old Swedes Church where I will conclude my research.

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Robinett, PTSD, Suicide, and Delaware Freemasons

I will be the first to admit I am no expert on the subject. I contacted the folks at Eisenhower medical Center on Ft. Gordon and found some folks who are. On the 14th I will be meeting with Dr. Bruce A. Leeson, PhD, Clinical Psychologist; CPT Kyle Grohmann, currently immersed in suicide research data; Dr. John Albrecht, a clinician-researcher who has been focusing on PTSD as long as many folks have been in practice; and Ms. Susanne Jones is a psychometrician (the measurement of an individual's psychological attributes, including the knowledge, skills, and abilities a professional might need to work in a particular job or profession)

I hope after meeting with them to have a much better handle on his state of mind

More good news.

In his last court martial, as he was taken out of the Theatre he was heard to remark that he was a Mason. I contacted the Grand Lodge of Masons in Delaware for confirmation and there is was. He petitioned the Lafayette Lodge No. 14 on 18 November 1862, was crafted AND raised on 28 November 1862. That in itself is quite remarkable for its speed. It is also about a month after the Battle of Corinth.

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This has been a busy two weeks

I have been grading research papers and finals from my classes in addition to trying to wade through the final court martial transcript. I have finally finished the transcript, all 164 pages of it!

What a case. It has it all. An officer accused of conduct unbecoming etc. A pro-Southern crowd in the Varieties Theatre in New Orleans threw him out with the aid of the police. In the process he was bitten on the thumb and stuck in the head.
Whom does he run into when returned to a camp of the 1st US Infantry? Captain DeRussy, his old nemesis from the previous court martial. This provokes another incident and HCR tells him to “go to Hell” and offers that if he will come out of his tent “I will shoot you through the heart!”
Most telling in some ways was his written defense. He opens with a few comments on honor. They are included below.

"In order to fully comprehend the consequences of your decision in such a case, particularly if it be unfavorable to the accused, you must know the appropriate value and price of a Soldier's honor! A Soldier is the only man of all men, who feels himself rich indeed "when all but life and honor's lost!"

This is an Irish song from HYLAND'S MAMMOTH, AFTER THE BATTLE

Night closed around the conqueror's way.
And lightnings showed the distant bill.
Where those who lost that dreadful day
Stood, few and faint, but fearless still!
The soldier's hope, the patriot's zeal,
Forever dimmed, forever crossed.
Oh, who shall say what heroes feel,
When all but life and honor's lost!

The last sad hour of freedom's dream
And valor's task moved slowly by,
While mute they watched, till morning's beam
Should rise and give them light to die.
There's yet a world where souls are free,
Where tyrants taint not nature's bliss;
If death that world's bright opening be.
Oh, who would live a slave in this?

The last sad hour of freedom's dream
And valor's task moved slowly by,
While mute they watched, till morning's beam
Should rise and give them light to die.
There's yet a world where souls are free,
Where tyrants taint not nature's bliss:
If death that world's bright op'ning be,
Oh! who would live a slave in this?

Powerful stuff!

He continues:

“but to the Soldier All things Else sink into insignificance in comparison to his honor! Now, gentlemen, depriving the Soldier who has Sustained his own and his Country's honor on more than one hard and desperately fought-field of battle-learning the Evidence of his devotion to Country and of his own heroism to much the battle plain--of his hard earned reputation, by degrading him; strip him of all his well earned honors and his Soldierly pride, by passing a sentence in severity greater that the Criminality of the Offense. 'per se' would justify, then you send back to 'civil society' a person, who, if not forever afterwards deprived of, is forever prohibited....By sentencing away his character his former life as a Soldier, and his future history, whatever it may be, that time can never effase! You take from him a Soldier's all 'his honor'.”

"The affair at the Varieties Theatre....was a sheer and wanton violation of the rights of a gentlemen, and stamps it as an uncalled for, brutal, outrageous and cowardly and shameful attack upon an Officer of the United States Army. The incentives to such an outrage, and the cause of the perpetration thereof, being the deeply rooted, prejudices engendered in the bitter five years War of the Rebellion of the Southern States.”

"It is clearly shown…that the accused was laboring under a high state of mental excitement ? Under and by the brutal, unhuman, cowardly and shameful treatment he received…Treatment that would have almost made frantic and maddening with anger any gentleman who possessed the spirit worthy of a Soldier! What true man, what Soldier, we ask, would brave the indignities and insults offered to and the outrage perpetrated upon the person of the accused....and in consequence - of have been almost bordering upon madness itself....those who are so high-spirited and repellant in their natures that they cannot brook with indifference an affront or shameful and disgraceful indignity, but who loose entire control of that Devil-attribute of our nation-passion-and there commit acts which others of a cooler and more phlegmatic nature would never be guilty of."

He also cites in conclusion all the battles he served in, I need this as it was incomplete in my mind.

“Purdy Bridge May 2d 1862
Siege of Corinth-Battle of Corinth 3&4 1862,
Champion Hills and Big Black River in the Miss. Campaign of 1863
Siege of Vicksburg being interruptedly engaged and under fire for 45 days and on duty each day of the protracted Siege
New Market Heights 25 Sept 1864, where for the first time a permanent advance position was gained on the north side of the James,
First Hatcher Run
movement of the Army of the Potomac about Petersburg to the left by the Brotherton Plank Road Oct 25th 1864
Second Hatcher's Run Feb 6th 1865
Battles around Petersburg 30 - 31st March and 1 & 2nd of April1865.
The pursuit of the Rebel Army of Northern Virginia the finale of that brilliant and wonderful 21 days.
In each of the above battles and engagements the accused has borne an honorable part. And has received the approval and commendation therefore of his different immediate commanding officers, and in several instances of the Commanding Generals."

In the next few weeks, I will be meeting with a Army behavioral psychologist along with an expert on military suicide, and a neuropsychologist.

Robinett’s wounding at Corinth

Thanks to Vonnie Zullos of Horse Soldier Research, I have in my possession the first eyewitness to indicate Harry was wounded at Battery Robinett. In the National Tribune on May 23, 1901 in a piece entitled “Fighting Them Over. What the Veterans have to Say About Their Campaigns. Battle of Corinth.” Captain W.H.H. Minturn, 89th Ohio of the Ohio Brigade wrote this:

"Lieut. Robinett, of the battery, severely wounded in the head, fell senseless under one of his guns. At that most of his men ran to the rear.”

He continues with a sad event, “A moment later, some of the men of Co. A, of the 43rd, entered the battery, aided the few brave fellows who had stood their ground, to man the guns. The enemy was now retreating and in the excitement a little drummer boy passed directly before the battery and jumped upon a log to see the rebels run. A piece had just been aimed, and “ready-fire” followed before the little fellow was discovered. When the smoke cleared up we saw that both legs were torn off. Somehow there seemed a ting in the recollection that men of his own regiment had fired this shot.”

He also commented upon Col. Rogers, “I shall ever remember looking at the face of the rebel Col. Rogers, when not more than 30 paces, and noting the peculiar expression it had. He looked neither to the right nor left, neither at his own or our men, but with eyes partly closed, like one in a hail-storm, was marching slowly and steadily upon us.”

All in all much of my research could not have been accomplished without Vonnie. I could not afford the time nor money to travel to WDC to find these gems.

Corinth, Where it all Began

This is where it really all began for Henry C. Robinett and I intentionally saved it for last on my trip. In fact, you may have noticed I started where he died and then went backwards in time.
Corinth is a very interesting engagement. It had it all, personality conflicts; intense, vicious hand-to-hand combat; supreme bravery; and as always in combat, luck.
I am not going to detail the engagement here. Suffice it to say, the battle could have gone either way, numerous times. Jefferson Davis considered control of Corinth and its railroad crossroads critical to the war effort, but it was not to be after October ‘62. The defeat of the Rebels forced the end of Braxton Bragg’s Kentucky Campaign and opened the door for Grant and his Vicksburg Campaign.

I met the Park Ranger, Tom Parsons, on a damp, drizzly, and humid Memorial Day. I was here when the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center first opened but was just passing through and didn’t stay long. It is one of the newer centers in the NPS system and very well done. Unlike Chalmette what few graves there are at the site had flags for Memorial Day.

Tom spent many hours with me; we walked the field and talked about Robinett’s role in the battle. They have a very nice research room and Tom provided me access to some excellent primary sources that will definitely help my research.

Tom also showed me the grave of BG Joseph L. Hogg
[http://scvlonestardefenders.homestead.com/Gen_J_L_Hogg.html]from Texas (Yes, he is an East Texas boy) and told me the “story” behind the removal of the redoubt. He died during the Union siege of Corinth in April and May of 1862. His most famous descendent?
Ima Hogg [http://www.famoustexans.com/imahogg.htm] the "The First Lady of Texas."

Colonel William P. Rogers, commander of the 2nd Texas fell in the assault. In a remarkable tribute to Rogers's personal bravery, General Rosecrans ordered his burial attended with full military honors, a ceremony normally reserved only for Confederate general officers. In 1912 the United Daughters of the Confederacy together with several Rogers family descendants, dedicated a white marble obelisk to mark his gravesite atop a hill overlooking the battlefield.

I left Corinth with a much greater appreciation for the importance of the position of Battery Robinett and Harry’s role. Battery Robinett was the fulcrum of the rebel attack. The 2nd TX made a valiant attempt to take the position and, at one point, overran the works. Battery Williams (HCR’s commander) actually fired two rounds at the redoubt. One hit the works and another exploded above the works. HCR was “wounded” here and according to Captain Williams’ account he was lying unconscious during the counter-attack that drove the 2nd TX out and finished the Rebel chances. What kind of wound? Harry said it was a head wound; yet there was no sign of an old wound in the top of his head in his autopsy. Was he knocked unconscious in the hand-to-hand combat within the redoubt? Did this “wound” contribute to his suicide? One of his friends at Jackson Barracks felt harry “talked himself” into a head wound.

So far no answers.

Inside the Battery Robinett looking towards the Rebel approach

View from the Rebel approach towards the redoubt

Inside the redoubt looking towards the town

Inside the redoubt looking towards the Rebel approach

There was a covered way here back to the railroad.


A view from near the end of the covered railroad.

My final stop was downtown Corinth and the Rogers monument there.

The rest of this month I will be finishing my research; the plan for July is to get inside his head as best I can with all the available evidence and consulting with some PTSD experts from the Army.

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I have plan!

On the 22nd and 23rd of May I will be in New Orleans to visit Jackson Barracks and Robinett’s gravesite. I am looking forward to meeting LTC Tommy Ryan, the LA National Guard historian. On the 24th I will be in Vicksburg to check out where HCR’s battery was positioned and his role in the siege. On the 25th I will be in Corinth for the same purpose. Corinth is obviously the pivotal engagement for Harry for better or worse.

I have been trying to sort and arrange his letters from the University of the Pacific. In one he states:

“I went personally to the Secretary of War and obtained my appointment. I could, I suppose as well have gotten a 1st Lieutenant as a 2nd but I preferred the later in consideration of age etc, etc.”

Interesting, how did he manage to get in to see Secretary of War Stanton?

It is very hard to read some of the letters as they have been taped together or torn. Such your life in primary sources.

Here is an interesting one. When he was attending DMA they were required to write to their fathers and detail their progress. Note Colonel Hyatt’s comment at the bottom. Harry would have been about 16-17 at the time.

Wilmington Dec. 23, 1857
Dear Father,
As it was the request of our much beloved Teacher, I will state the studies which I have been pursuing through this last Quarter, my success in them, also my general conduct during the Quarter. My studies have been (1) Latin (2) Chemistry (3) Algebra (4) Composition (5) Penmanship (6) English Grammar. I think as far as I am able to judge that I have succeeded very well in Latin, also in Chemistry. I have improved in Algebra, I have improved very much in Composition; in my writing I have made a great improvement. I have done well in Grammar. In my general conduct and deportment,
I believe I have been perfect and conducted myself properly towards my Teacher. This I believe to be a correct statement.
Your Affectionate Son
Henry Clay Robinette

The above is a correct statement, your son has not received a single mark this quarter, he is very gentlemanly in his conduct and most faithful in his studies.
Theo Hyatt

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