A view out the fan window directly below the famous cupola of Schmucker Hall in Gettysburg. It was from that cupola that Brig. Gen. John Buford watched the Confederates of Robert E. Lee’s army approach the town on July 1, 1863. The view looks west, as did the general that morning. Photo by Sonny Fulks

A 20-pound Parrot on Benner’s Hill at Gettysburg. The position, held by Confederate Maj. Joseph W. Latimer’s artillery battalion, was the best available place for his guns to do their assigned work. Unfortunately for Latimer and his men, the position was exposed to return artillery fire from multiple locations. They soon had to fall back from Benner’s Hill, but not before Latimer was mortally wounded. Photo by Andy Turner

Confederate veterans plot in Spring Hill Cemetery, Charleston, West Virginia. The plot was purchased around the turn of the century after the war by the local Confederate Veteran group for the burial of veterans who were indigent or did not have a family plot. Photo by Andy Turner

Even in times of war, some soldiers find ways to make life as normal as possible. Confederate cavalry general Jeb Stuart was certainly one of those men. In the fall of 1862, when General Lee was moving his army north into Maryland, General Stuart decided to hold a ball to honor their arrival in the border state. It didn’t go as smoothly was he would have liked.

The story is told by Heros von Borcke, a Prussian soldier who came to America and volunteered to fight for the Confederacy. He was assigned to Stuart and the two men became good friends.

by Heros von Borcke

We were indulging in the dreamy sentiment natural to the hour, when the gay voice of  Stuart broke in—“Major, what a capital place for us to give a ball in honour of our arrival in Maryland! don’t you think we could manage it?” To this there was a unanimous response in the affirmative, which was especially hearty on the part of the ladies. It was at once agreed that the ball should be given. I undertook to make all necessary arrangements for the illumination and decoration of the hall, the issuing the cards of invitation, &c., leaving to Stuart the matter of the music, which he gladly consented to provide.

Heros von Borcke

A soldier’s life is so uncertain, and his time is so little at his own disposal, that in affairs of this sort delays are always to be avoided; and so we determined on our way home, to the great joy of our fair companions, that the ball should come off on the following evening.

There was great stir of preparation at headquarters on the morning of the 8th. Invitations to the ball were sent out to all the families in Urbana and its neighbourhood, and to the officers of [Brig. Gen. Wade] Hampton’s brigade. The large halls of the Academy were aired and swept and festooned with roses, and decorated with battle-flags borrowed from the different regiments. At seven in the evening all was complete, and already the broad avenue was filled with our fair guests, proceeding to the scene of festivity according to their social rank and fortune—some on foot, others in simple light “rockaways,” others again in stately family coaches, driven by fat negro coachmen who sat upon the box with great dignity. Very soon the sound of distant bugles announced the coming of the band of the 18th Mississippi Infantry, the Colonel and Staff of the regiment, who had been invited as an act of courtesy, leading the way, and the band playing in excellent style the well-known air of Dixie. Amid the loud applause of the numerous invited and uninvited guests, we now made our grand entree into the large hall, which was brilliantly lighted with tallow candles. As master of the ceremonies, it was my office to arrange the order of the different dances, and I had decided upon a polka as the best for an animated beginning. I had selected the New York Rebel as the queen of the festival, and had expected to open the ball with her as my partner, and my surprise was great indeed when my fair friend gracefully eluded my extended arms, and with some confusion explained that she did not join in round dances, thus making me uncomfortably acquainted for the first time with the fact that in America, and especially in the South, young ladies rarely waltz except with brothers or first cousins, and indulge only in reels and contre-dances with strangers. Not to be baffled, however, I at once ordered the time of the music to be changed, and had soon forgotten my disappointment as to the polka in a very lively quadrille. Louder and louder sounded the instruments, quicker and quicker moved the dancers, and the whole crowded room, with its many exceedingly pretty women and its martial figures of officers in their best uniforms, presented a most striking spectacle of gaiety and enjoyment. Suddenly enters an orderly covered with dust, and reports in a loud voice to General Stuart that the enemy have surprised and driven in our pickets and are attacking our camp in force, while at the same moment the sound of shots in rapid succession is distinctly borne to us on the midnight air.

The excitement which followed this announcement I cannot undertake to describe. The music crashed into a concordia discors. The officers rushed to their weapons and called for their horses, panic-stricken fathers and mothers endeavoured in a frantic way to collect around them their bewildered children, while the young ladies ran to and fro in most admired despair. General Stuart maintained his accustomed coolness and composure. Our horses were immediately saddled, and in less than five minutes we were in rapid gallop to the front. Upon arriving there we found, as is usually the case in such sudden alarms, that things were by no means so desperate as they had been represented.

Jeb Stuart

Colonel [Laurence S.] Baker, with the splendid 1st North Carolina regiment, had arrested the bold forward movement of the Yankees. [Capt. John] Pelham, with his guns in favourable position, was soon pouring a rapid fire upon their columns. The other regiments of the command were speedily in the saddle. The line of battle having been formed, Stuart gave the order for a general attack, and with great rage and fury we precipitated ourselves upon the foe, who paid, with the loss of many killed and wounded, and a considerable number of prisoners, for their unmannerly interruption of our social amusement. They were pursued in their headlong flight for several miles by the 1st North Carolina, until, a little past midnight, they got quite out of reach, and all was quiet again.

It was about one o’clock in the morning when we got back to the Academy, where we found a great many of our fair guests still assembled, awaiting with breathless anxiety the result of the conflict. As the musicians had never dispersed, General Stuart ordered them again to strike up; many of our pretty fugitives were brought back by young officers who eagerly volunteered for that commendable purpose; and as everybody was determined that the Yankees should not boast of having completely broken up our party, the dancing was resumed in less than half an hour, and kept up till the first glimmer of dawn. At this time the ambulances laden with the wounded of last night’s engagement were slowly approaching the Academy, as the only building at Urbana that was at all suited to the purposes of an hospital. Of course the music was immediately stopped and the dancing ceased, and our lovely partners in the quadrille at once became “ministering angels” to the sufferers.

Detail from the 4th New York Cavalry monument at Gettysburg. The regiment spent the first three days of July picketing outside of Gettysburg, then joined in the pursuit of the enemy on July 4. Photo by Andy Turner

At the end of April 1863 Federal troops crossed from Louisiana into Mississippi south of Vicksburg. Grant’s plan was to circle east of the river town and cut it off. If military force didn’t do the job, he could cut off the railroad line supplying the city.

Ulysses S. Grant

Grant was able to move his men eastward, encountering little resistance until they hit enemy at Raymond. The fight was a Union victory, but the Confederate resistance was strong enough to convince Grant he needed to continue eastward and capture the capital at Jackson before turning west towards Vicksburg. Two days after driving the Confederates at Raymond, Grant hit Jackson. Once again he was able to drive off his enemy. The Union army set about destroying military supplies in Jackson and eventually burned much of the city.

With the Confederates driven back, Grant turned to the west. While this was happening, the Confederate commander at Vicksburg, Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, was unsure how to react. He had been instructed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to hold Vicksburg. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Western Theater, was telling Pemberton to move out of Vicksburg and strike Grant’s men.

Pemberton found what he thought was the answer. He would move against a Union supply train reported to be west of Raymond. If he could capture the supplies it would leave Grant in hostile territory cut off from what he needed to operate. It would also put his command at less risk than if he were to confront Grant’s main force.

Pemberton moved eastward and encamped on the night of May 15. In the morning, his men encountered Union pickets. An enemy of unknown size was in Pemberton’s front. He ordered Maj. Gen. William Loring’s division to hold off the enemy while the rest of Pemberton’s men reversed direction and headed back toward Vicksburg.

John C. Pemberton

Meanwhile, Confederate Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Lee moved to the top of a hill near Col. Sid Champion’s house. When he received word from scouts that a sizable Union force was approaching, Lee found a location where he could see the road. He saw Federal troops deploying in the fields as they neared the Champion house. If they weren’t stopped, the Union troops could cut off the Southern line of retreat to Vicksburg.

Lee deployed his men to meet the approaching Federal troops. When those troops arrived at the Champion house they were faced by the intimidating terrain of Champion’s Hill rising above them covered in underbrush. They probed the Confederate line, determining the strength of the enemy opposing them, before pulling back to await orders. When Grant arrived, he decided to assault the Confederate position. Stephen Lee’s line was not anchored on the left and the Union forces moved to hit it.

As the bluecoats approached, the Confederate infantry and artillery hit them hard. The assault might have failed there had the Federals not found a ravine to take cover in less than a hundred yards from the Southern lines. As they prepared to make their assault, Brig. Gen. George F. McGinnis told his brigade what he wanted them to do. Shortly after they left the ravine moving towards the Rebels, McGinnis lowered his sword to the ground, signaling his men to drop. They did just as the Southern line fired. The volley passed over the prostrate men who then arose and crashed into the Confederate line before they could reload. Watching his flank, Lee ordered his men to fall back before they could be overrun.

Relief came from Col. Francis Cockrell’s brigade of Missourians. They struck the oncoming Union force and drove them back. The counterattack was so successful Union teamsters struggled to pull back their ordnance wagons before they could be captured. Cockrell’s men were joined by the rest of the Confederate line that pushed the Federals backward.

The Confederate success was not to last as Union reinforcements arrived to stem the tide. Now it was the Southerners’ turn to fall back. They would not be able to recover. Grant kept the pressure on and Pemberton was eventually forced to order a retreat. Champion’s Hill was in Federal hands, but it was a mess. Union Brig. Gen. Alvin P. Hovey said it was “literally the hill of death.” In surveying the scene he noted “Men, horses, cannon, and the debris of an army lay scattered in wild confusion.”

The following day the Union army, their blood up with the success at Champion’s Hill, struck the Confederates at the Big Black River, driving them further west into the defenses of Vicksburg. The siege was about to begin.

While the Battle of Champion’s Hill wasn’t an overwhelming victory that destroyed the Southern army, it did mark a vital point in their attempt to drive off Grant’s men. Their failure to do so led to the eventual fall of the key on the Mississippi.

Grave of John Appleton in Spring Hill Cemetery, Charleston, West Virginia. Appleton was a recruiting officer for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the regiment commanded by Robert Gould Shaw at Fort Wagner and made famous in the movie Glory. He survived the war and lived into his 80s when he was gored to death by a bull. Photo by Andy Turner

Left flank marker of the 19th Maine Infantry at Gettysburg. Located on Cemetery Ridge just south of the Copse of Trees, the position was held by the regiment as Pickett’s Charge approached. After firing into the Confederates heading for the Copse, the 19th Maine moved to their right and joined in the hand-to-hand fighting that repulsed the Charge. Photo by Andy Turner

The Italian marble statue representing the Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War overlooking the square in downtown Franklin, Tennessee. It was erected 35 years after the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1899. Photo by Andy Turner

Monument to the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry at Gettysburg. All but one company was attached to army headquarters during the battle. On July 3, during Pickett’s Charge, General Meade ordered the regiment to “charge the assaulting column should it succeed in breaking the infantry line in front.” Photo by Sonny Fulks