THE CIVIL WAR: THE TOUGH

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2 This exhibit is presented as part of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission s second signature conference, entitled RACE, SLAVERY AND THE CIVIL WAR: THE TOUGH STUFF OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND MEMORY. Featuring popular and forgotten images, the exhibit helps to provide an understanding of the impact this devastating war had on America s population, particularly those located in Hampton Roads. Archival images will be used to draw visitors to the exhibit into the retelling of this important story, showing the people, places and events captured by photographers and illustrators during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

3 Fears by white southerners that the Underground Railroad involved a national conspiracy resulted in increased paranoia. The future Confederacy was therefore primed to associate abolitionism with secession. This well-known illustration from William Still s book, The Underground Railroad, depicts the arrival of fifteen fugitives from Norfolk to Pennsylvania who were on Captain William Baylis s schooner in Courtesy William Still s The Underground Railroad This Boston poster warning fugitives of slave catchers was distributed by abolitionists in April Courtesy Library of Congress The 1857 escape of In 1857, five Portsmouth fugitives, including Stebney Swan, John Stinger, Robert Emerson, Anthony Pugh and Isabella, escaped aboard a small sailboat that rendezvoused with Captain Robert Lee who took them to freedom in Philadelphia. Courtesy William Still s The Underground Railroad

4 The origins of the Civil War have their roots in the legacies of slavery and the inherent conflict created when the Declaration established all men are created equal as the unequivocal foundation of America. With slavery came the resistance to slavery. Hampton Roads was one of three epicenters of Underground Railroad activity in Virginia, where enslaved people departed for freedom in the North.

5 Although not published until July 1, 1864, this political caricature demonstrates how racialist thought was used to support the secessionist movement and to vilify abolitionism by invoking fears of racial intermixing and equality. Courtesy Library of Congress.

6 Immediately after the fall of Fort Sumter, on April 24, 1861, the War Department began reinforcing Fort Monroe s existing garrison; in six weeks its strength increased from four hundred to twelve thousand men. It would be in the seemingly insignificant village of Hampton located across the Bay from Norfolk that certain policies in the conduct of Civil War would originally be tried and tested, policies that were eventually implemented for all areas occupied by Union forces for the duration of the war. Other developments at Fort Monroe would dramatically alter Norfolk s conduct and participation in the Civil War and Reconstruction.

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8 General John Wool (ca. 1861) replaced General Butler because he was seen as possessing more Regular Army experience and considered better able to handle the contrabands of war. Butler believed he was relieved because of his actions that embarrassed Lincoln. Courtesy Library of Congress The election of Abraham Lincoln sparked a fire throughout the South that would not be quenched for four and a half years, The election of Lincoln triggered the eventual secession of eleven states by April Although branded an abolitionist by many in the South, Lincoln was in fact a moderate whose only goal in 1861 was the preservation of the Union. Major General Benjamin F. Butler (ca ) commanded Fort Monroe prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1863, he was placed in command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, later known as the Army of the James. His work in supporting the efforts by blacks to gain citizenship privileges vilified him to resident Confederate supporters and won him acclaim to Union supporters. Courtesy Library of Congress. Courtesy Library of Congress

9 This iconic Harper s Weekly image of enslaved African Americans from the Hampton area seeking sanctuary within the walls of Fort Monroe symbolized the issue of slavery and of slaves. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University On the night of May 23, 1861, 3 enslaved men Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker, and James Townsend slipped into a skiff and rowed across the water from Sewell s Point to Old Point Comfort. This illustration depicts this important meeting between the three men, General Benjamin Butler, Post Commander of Fort Monroe, and Butler s staff as the 3 men requested that Butler protect them from being returned to their owner, whom they argued were using them to support the Confederate cause. Harper s Weekly, May Courtesy Hampton Public Library

10 In the aftermath of General Butler s contraband declaration, hundreds of enslaved people sought sanctuary at Fort Monroe. Soon, government assisted by missionary groups who helped with the overwhelming needs that included food, clothing, shelter, and education. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University A few months after General Butler s contraband declaration, blacks were hired by the government. This November 2, 1861 Harper s Weekly illustration highlights the kind of work done by those who were discovering for the first time the benefits of work for hire as free men. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

11 In August 1861, federal troops evacuated and burned the village of Hampton, fearing that the Confederates would create a stronghold on the doorstep of Fort Monroe. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University This August 10, 1861 Harper s Weekly story about the burning of Hampton village was told from the perspective of Fort Monroe. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

12 By April 1862, federal troop reinforcements had arrived at Fort Monroe and the surrounding Hampton, Virginia area in preparation for the First Peninsula Campaign. The great expedition- the vessels at anchor at Hampton Roads, from the top of the Hygeia Hotel, Old Point Comfort, Virginia. Courtesy Harper s Weekly, April 19, 1862

13 Reception of Wounded Soldiers by the Federal Authorities at the Fort Monroe hospital during the First Peninsula Campaign that began in the Spring Published in Frank Leslie s Illustrated Newspaper, the images illustrate their facilities. Long cars were built to convey the wounded to the hospital from the Fort s docks. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

14 1889 memorial painting of the famous 1862 battle between ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia was produced by Kurtz and Allison Art Studio in Chicago. The battle between the two vessels was witnessed by countless people throughout Hampton Roads. This scene illustrates the battle that was fought on March 9th 1862 near Norfolk. Courtesy Library of Congress.

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16 Soon after the Union Army occupied Norfolk, efforts were made to eliminate all Confederate strongholds. A sketch artist from Harper s Weekly, Theodore R. Davis, captured the entry of Union troops into the city meeting with the Mayor and the Councils on the way into the city on May 10, In the image below, federal troops were met by city officials shortly after arriving at Sewell s Point from Fort Monroe. In the image to the right, General John Wool and his officers discuss the terms of surrender and occupation with city officials, led by Mayor William Lamb, under the Council Tree located at the Cross-roads on the outskirts of Norfolk. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

17 Harper s Weekly was again on-hand to witness the moment-bymoment entrance of federal troops into the City of Norfolk. On May 24, 1862, Mayor William Lamb and the Councils of Norfolk met the Federal Forces, led by General John Wool, Under a Flag of Truce in the main center of town, in a symbolic acquiescence to Union occupation. In these two images sketched by newspaper correspondent Theodore R. Davis, Union commanders are depicted entering the city in carriages provided by city officials while the other image illustrates the ceremony during which the American flag was raised on the Custom House. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

18 The effect the Civil War had on Hampton Roads s black community forever changed the direction and vision of those who were and became a part of its communal polity. Part of the reason for this tremendous change resulted from the direct participation of black men in the war. Several thousand from Hampton Roads enlisted in ten of the thirty-eight regiments that formed the United States Colored Troops, including Norfolk native William H. Carney, who was one of twenty-one blacks awarded the Medal of Honor for service during the Civil War, gained notoriety as one of the members of the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment and was venerated as the figure that tops the monument dedicated to the black Civil War veterans in Norfolk s Westpoint Cemetery. Thus, the outbreak of the Civil War meant the beginning of the end of the institution of slavery in the city and a new economic and political relationship between African Americans and the wider Norfolk community.

19 Mary Kelsey Peake was the first person hired by the American Missionary Association to teach contrabands in Hampton. Mary s health, however, did not allow her to see the fruit of her efforts. On February 22, 1862, she died at the age of thirty-nine of tuberculosis. Courtesy the Historic First Baptist Church, Norfolk, Virginia Joseph T. Wilson, born a slave in 1837 Norfolk, escaped to Massachusetts in He served in the Louisiana Native Guard and the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment. Wilson became a colonel in the Grand Army of the Republic and returned home where he published the True Southerner, American Sentinel and Democratic Right Way newspapers. Courtesy Joseph T. Wilson s The Black Phalanx.

20 By 1864, northern white men, who had been drafted in the Union Army, sent agents throughout the country to procure Negro substitutes. This Harper s Weekly illustration depicts one such scenario at a Union headquarter in the occupied city of Norfolk, Virginia. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

21 This is a photograph of a group of contrabands at Allen's farm house near Williamsburg Road in Yorktown, Virginia (vicinity). The photographer, James Gibson, captured this image in May 1862 of a group of contrabands at the headquarters of General Lafayette. Courtesy Library of Congress

22 When the second Peninsula Campaign was inaugurated in 1864, the focus of the war turned to Virginia, allowing many of the local black regiments to become an integral part of the effort. Courtesy Joseph T. Wilson s The Black Phalanx. (1890) A proud moment for African American soldiers was depicted in this illustration as many lined up to receive their equal wages by the paymaster of the U.S. Army. Courtesy Joseph T. Wilson s The Black Phalanx (1890)

23 This sketch, by E.F. Mullen, depicted General E.W. Hinks s Division of Negro Infantry bringing in the guns captured from the Confederates at Baylor s Farm, near Petersburg, Virginia, June 15, This Negro brigade consisted of four regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavalry and two batteries. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University.

24 A group of African Americans surround and cheer President Abraham Lincoln as he entered Richmond in Courtesy The Black Phalanx, by Joseph T. Wilson

25 Great hope was expressed in the aftermath of the war, especially with communities such as Freedmen s Village in Hampton, Virginia. Established by General Butler, this district of former slaves, this Harpers Weekly image shows how this helped to build the foundation of the black community on the Peninsula. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

26 In the aftermath of the War, situations sometimes resulted in racial conflict. This illustration depicts a Freedman s Bureau agent standing between an armed group between the resentful former Confederates and newly freed blacks, some of whom were Union veterans. (Harper s Weekly, July 25, 1868) Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

27 A number of southern cities experienced riots in the first 2 years following the end of the Civil War. In 1866, for example, Norfolk and Memphis had riots because of the planned celebrations supporting the passage of the Civil Rights Act. This June 1867 Harper s Weekly depicts one such riot in Richmond on May 11, U.S. soldiers are portrayed dispersing the mob and reestablishing order. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

28 Within five years, the Butler School House (image published in Harper s Weekly on October 3, 1868) in Hampton would become an important educational institution for blacks on the Peninsula, especially because of the delay in providing public education for African Americans by city officials. General Benjamin Butler used government funds to erect this large wooden building known as "The Butler School." Over 600 pupils were immediately enrolled under the care of the Rev. Charles A. Raymond, chaplain of the military post, who struggled educating so many huddled into a single room. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University Created in 1863 and supported by missionaries and local blacks, the Coan School in Norfolk was one of the earliest American Missionary Association schools. This image was published in Harper s Weekly on October 3, Located on Bute Street in Norfolk, it became one of the earliest high schools for blacks in the city. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University.

29 Frank Leslie s Illustrated Newspaper highlighted the unprecedented election of black delegates to the 1868 Virginia State Constitutional Convention. Meeting from December 1867 to April 1868, the convention was referred to by white critics as the Black and Tan because of its racially mixed composition. Black delegates included Willis A. Hodges from Princess Anne County, Lindsay from Richmond, Joseph Cox from Richmond, George Platt and Peter Morgan from Petersburg, Thomas Bayne from Norfolk, and George Teamoh from Norfolk County and Portsmouth. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

30 All appeared quiet and normal in this 1866 Harper s Weekly depiction of Norfolk s Market Square. This was the venue where blacks and whites free and formerly enslaved exchanged goods and services. This scene, however, was illustrated on the eve of a major race riot triggered by the passage and celebration by black and white Unionists in the city of the 1866 Civil Rights Act. Courtesy Harrison B. Wilson Archives, Norfolk State University

31 This circa 1905 photograph depicts the Confederate monument, located at the town square of Portsmouth, at the corner of High and Court Streets. Erected in 1876, the monument was a gathering place for the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a source of contention following the Civil Rights Movement for area blacks. Courtesy Portsmouth Public Library On February 22, 1899, the cornerstone of the Confederate monument was laid in the city of Norfolk. Located at the head of Commercial Place (earlier known as Market Square), the first stage of the monument was laid on the thirty-second anniversary of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy. This circa 1932 photograph was taken 25 years after the placement of the fifteen-foot bronze statue of Johnny Reb at the top of the monument. Courtesy Norfolk Public Library

32 The Civil War Monument in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Portsmouth was also dedicated to the black Civil War veterans. Courtesy Mae Breckenridge-Haywood James E. Fuller of Norfolk, a former slave and a former quartermaster in the First United States Colored Cavalry, was the motivating spirit behind the erection of Norfolk's African-American Civil War Memorial. An employee of the Norfolk Customs House, Fuller was largely responsible for the City Council's granting of a portion of the West Point Cemetery in 1886 as a special burial place for black Union veterans. Not until 1906 was enough money raised to lay the cornerstone on decoration Day the same year. Completed in 1920, the monument is topped by a brown metal statue of a black Union private Norfolk native Sergeant William H. Carney of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment. Carney s parents were born slaves, but secured their freedom and left Norfolk with their son for New Bedford, Massachusetts in Carney enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts in 1862 and fought during the July 18, 1863 attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina. Courtesy Norfolk Public Library