not so much inclined towards the cultivation of the earth

My friend Mitch prepared a well-researched and -written article for a blog called "Unique at penn" (the classy lower case p is theirs, not my typing error). In it he gives a careful description of a manuscript map of 1793 showing the route from Philadelphia to the site of a treaty negotiation with leaders of the Miami Indians near Sandusky, Ohio.

His nice analysis called to mind another document related to the dealings of the new U.S. Government with the Miami's chiefs. A decade after the year the map was made two chiefs wrote the following letter to members of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends. From a time just after the making of the map the Meeting had been trying, with little success, to help the Miami survive. After U.S. forces had defeated the Indians and taken most of their hunting lands the Miami chiefs came to believe that survival depended on a cultural transformation: learning to farm and becoming a settled agricultural community. They saw the plight of the young men, defeated in battle and no long able to spend their days hunting, becoming dispirited and succumbing to alcoholism, and they saw the tribes weakened and suceptible to disease. When the Baltimore Yearly Meeting offered help, they readily accepted. The Quakers sent farming tools, put pressure on the government to outlaw sale of liquor to the Indians, and went out to Ohio to teach and advise. The letter tells how little this effort succeeded:

The Little Turtle's Town, Sept. 18th, 1803. - From the Little Turtle, The Five Medals, and others, to Evan Thomas, George Ellicott, and others.

Brother's and Friends of our hearts, — We have received your speech from the hand of our friend, Wm. Wells, with the implements of husbandry, that you were so kind to send to his care, — all in good order.

Brothers, it is our wish that the Great Spirit will enable you to render to your Red Brethren that service which you appear to be so desirous of doing them, and which their women and children are so much in need of.

Brothers, we will try to use the articles you have sent us, and if we should want more, we will let you know it.

Brothers, we are sorry to say that the minds of our people are not so much inclined towards the cultivation of the earth as we could wish them.

Brothers, our Father, the President of the United States, has prevented our traders from selling liquor to our people, which is the best thing he could do for his Red Children.

Brothers, our people appear dissatisfied, because our traders do not, as usual, bring them liquor, and, we believe, will request our Father to let the traders bring them liquor, and if he does, your Red Brethren are all lost forever.

Brothers, you will see, from what we have said, that our prospects are bad at present, though we hope the Great Spirit will change the minds of our people, and tell them it will be better for them to cultivate the earth than to drink whiskey.

Brothers, we hope the Great Spirit will permit some of you to come and see us, — when you will be able to know whether you can do anything for us or not.

Brothers, we delivered you the sentiments of our hearts, when we spoke to you at Baltimore, and shall say nothing more to you at present. We now take you by the hand, and thank you for the articles you were so kind to send us.

Signed,

The Little Turtle, Miami Chief,
The Five Medals, Potowatamy Chief

-----

Little Turtle, Gerard T. Hopkins, and the Baltimore Yearly Meeting

In 1795 the Baltimore Yearly Meeting had appointed Indian Committees to consider how best to help the Miami. When in 1797 Chief Little Turtle came to Philadelphia to meet President Washington the Friends invited him to come address the Yearly Meeting. The Quakers then sent tools and instructors to the tribes and used their influence to have the sale of liquor banned.

In 1804 a merchant named Gerard T. Hopkins, uncle and benefactor of the famous Johns Hopkins) documented the Quakers efforts to help the Miami tribes. His diary and letters were latter collected into a book published in a book called A mission to the Indians, from the Indian committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, to Fort Wayne (cited below).

Little Turtle, with miniature of George Washington on neck band.

{Source: Chicago Historical Society}

Little Turtle's name and mark (one up from the bottom) on the
Treaty of Fort Greenville, August 1795, signed by chiefs of the Ohio tribes after defeat by General Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

{National Archives and Records Administration (U.S.)}

------

Some sources:

Preparing for a Treaty at the Early War Department by Mitch Fraas, Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A mission to the Indians, from the Indian committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, to Fort Wayne, in 18O4
by Gerard T. Hopkins, Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, edited by Martha Ellicott Tyson (Philadelphia, T. Ellwood Zell, 1862)

A Quaker pilgrimage: being a mission to the Indians from the Indian Committee of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Fort Wayne, 1804, edited by Alene Godfrey, prepared by the staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1959

Historical Narratives of Early Canada
Extract:

When an important peace parley failed American commissioners sent the following coded message to a waiting general."We did not effect peace." The general translated this into "Begin vigorous offensive action." The offensive action occurred at a place called Fallen Timbers on August 20th 1794. The army of Brigadier General Anthony Wayne, the Natives' nemesis, met and defeated a large force of western Natives. The Miami chief, Little Turtle, was a fierce opponent of the Americans but by the time of this battle he advocated peace.

Subsequent to this defeat some 110 chiefs and warriors signed the Treaty of Fort Greenville in August 1795. By this treaty, the most important in the history of the United States, the sachems and War Chiefs gave away 25,000 square miles which today includes most of present-day Ohio, part of Indiana and the sites of Detroit, Chicago and a number of other mid-western cities for a measely 25,000 dollars in trade goods - calico shirts, farm tools, trade hatchets, ribbons, combs, mirrors and blankets and an annuity of $9500 to be divided among the tribes. It was a humiliating settlement for the payments represented a mere pittance with some tribes receiving as little as $500 a year. Few could challenge its terms, however, for when Wayne destroyed their fields, most of the destitute Natives became dependent on the United States for food. The situation and the ceremony were mocked. When a calumet or peace pipe was smoked by the parties to finalize the terms of the treaty, the ceremony was ridiculed by one American negotiator as "a tedious routine."

Battle of Fallen Timbers on Ohio History Central

Little Turtle, Chief of the Miami, prepared by the staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, published 1954 by The Library in [Fort Wayne, Ind.]

Quaker Agriculture missions to the Miami in wikipedia

Johns Hopkins in wikipedia

Battle of Fallen Timbers in wikipedia

Shrove Tuesday football

I recently wrote about the ritual warfare of the Dani people of New Guinea. It was warfare because massed warriors would set upon one another with spears and bows and arrows. Its ritual elements lie in the ceremonies that preceded battle and in the withdrawal of both sides as soon as one or at most a few men were killed or wounded. The men fought not in anger but so as to appease the ghosts of their ancestors.

Reading about Dani warfare, I thought of the racket games played by American Indians. These games, which French observers called lacrosse, pitted one village against another in free-for-alls in which injury was frequent and death a possible outcome. The players participated in rituals before games began and these rituals closely resembled the ones they practiced before going to war. Some referred to the game as analogous to war (as in "little brother of war").

There's another traditional game in which participants would put limb and life at risk. It's the ancient football competition within English villages on Shrove Tuesday.

The English games, like the AmerInd ones, shared with Dani warfare a noticeable religious element. While in the former case, Indians would participate in religious ceremonies before each game and gods were seen as guiding play and determining the victor, in the latter, the game was associated with a religious requirement to be shriven, that is to confess sins to a priest, before sundown that day. (This year Shrove Tuesday falls tomorrow, February 21. One of the three days of Shrovetide, it is the day before Ash Wednesday, and thus the last day before the beginning of Lent.)

Shrove Tuesday football games were, like those of the Indians, not so much recreation, as mock warfare. Like Carnival, held in countries to the south, the games offered a release from many, though not all, cultural inhibitions. They were a letting loose of wild spirits. And it's tempting to see them, as it's common to view Dani ritual warfare and Indian lacrosse, as a means of defusing tensions between neighboring groups of men.

The rules Shrove Tuesday football were traditional ones, varying from village to village, and there were few of them. Early in the sixteenth century one observer saw the occasion as one "wherein is nothing but beastly fury, and extreme violence, whereof proceedeth hurt."[1] While this man went on to complain that "rancour and malice do remain with them that be wounded", modern sources tend to believe the games prevented worse conflict from developing and as a result generally led to better relations between opponents.

Similarly, Dani ritual battles seem to have had the character of games. As one witness wrote, "Dani battles have a conspicuous element of play, with one documented instance of a battle interrupted when both sides were distracted by throwing stones at a passing cuckoo dove."[2]

There's no way to know how ancient were the ritual warfare of the Dani and racket games of the AmerInds. The latter were first reported in the 1630s but the former not until 1938. The football contests of Shrove Tuesday can be dated back to the reign of Edward II who attempted to outlaw them in 1349 out of fear that they kept men from practicing archery and thus imperiled the nation's defense. Claims are made that the practice had antecedents in Roman or possibly Saxon Britain, but there's no real evidence for them.

In the early nineteenth century, just as football was catching on as a sport in the aristocratic public schools, it began to die out as a communal sporting competition. In 1829 a French visitor saw the Shrove Tuesday match between two parts of Ashbourne, in Derbyshire: uppers and the downers, that is to say the neighborhoods from different sides of the river that runs through the place. The Frenchman later wrote "if Englishmen call this play, it would be impossible to say what they call fighting."[3]

{Picture showing a Shrove Tuesday battle at London's Crowe Street originally drawn in the year 1721; source: Mob football on wikipedia}

Football match, 1846, at Kingston on Thames.

{Football match, 1846, Kingston on Thames; source: Kingston upon Thames on wikipedia}

Football evolving into rugby.

{Illustration of a public schools game of football in the 1860s; source: History of Football on spartacus.schoolnet}

Football evolving into what Americans call soccer.

{England against Scotland in 1877; source: History of Football on spartacus.schoolnet}

This shows a modern match of Shrove Tuesday football in Alnwick, Northumberland.

{Traditional Shrove Tuesday football in Alnwick, Northumberland; source: Radical History of Football}

The following image shows an American Indian lacrosse game by George Catlin. A source says: "Catlin was a big fan of Choctaw lacrosse, which he witnessed in Indian Territory in 1834. He described ball-play as 'a school for the painter or sculptor, equal to any of those which ever inspired the hand of the artist in the Olympian games or the Roman forum.' Lacrosse was a physical, even violent, game called 'little brother of war' in Choctaw that included no-holds-barred scuffling and wrestling as players struggled desperately for the ball."[4]

{George Catlin (1796–1872). Ball-play of the Choctaw: Ball-up, 1846–50. Oil on canvas; 65.4 x 81.4 cm. Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr. Smithsonian American Art Museum; source: Smithsonian American Art Museum}

--------------

Some sources:

Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football Shrove Tuesday & Ash Wednesday

The history of Royal Ashbourne Shrovetide Football
Extract: "There are many versions as to the true origins of the game - but the most popular seems to be the theory that the 'ball' was originally a head tossed into the waiting crowd following an execution. ... And in 1878 the game was briefly banned after a man drowned in the Henmore. Local land-owners signed petitions and refused to let the game take place on their properties."

Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne on demotix.com

'Shrovetide Football at Ashbourne', 26 February 1952 images on superstock.co

Shrovetide Football: 1 Ball, 2 Days, 3,000 Players on the New York Times, March 7, 2011.

History, topography, and directory of Derbyshire, comprising its history and archaeology: a general view of its physical and geological features, with separate historical and topographical descriptions of each town, parish, manor, and extra-parochial liberty (T. Bulmer & Co, Printed for the Proprietors by T. Snape & Co., 1895)

Old English customs extant at the present time, an account of local observances by Peter Hampson Ditchfield (G. Redway, 1896)
Extract:

Shrove Tuesday is a day celebrated for its famous football encounters, which are not, like ordinary games, fought out on a level field between goal-posts, but are entirely of another character. At Sedgefield the church clerk and sexton had, according to immemorial custom, to find a ball to be played for by the trades-folk and villagers on this day. The goal of the former is at the south of the village, that of the latter is a pond at the north end. The ball is put through the bull-ring in the middle of the village. The game always begins at one o'clock, and is fought out for three or four hours with much ferocity. There are no rules of "offside," or of "no charging or hacking allowed." All is fair in love or war, and also in the old-fashioned football of England and Scotland. At Chester-le-Street they have an annual match between the "up-street" and "down-street" folk on Shrove Tuesday. The contest takes place in the street, the windows being all carefully barricaded; and a burn lies in the course of the players, who rush into the water, and enjoy a fine scrimmage there. At Alnwick the contest used to take place in the street, but the Duke of Northumberland instituted an annual match, which now takes place in "the Pasture" every Shrove Tuesday between the parishioners of the two parishes of St. Michael and St. Paul. The committee receives the ball at the barbican of the castle from the porter, and march to the field headed by the Duke's piper, where the contest takes place, after which a fine struggle takes place for the possession of the ball.

History of Football
Extract: 'Large football games often took place on Shrove Tuesday. In 1796 it was reported that in Derby, John Snape was "an unfortunate victim to this custom... which is disgraceful to humanity and civilization, subversive of good order and government and destructive to the morals, properties, and lives of our inhabitants."'

History of football: And the Rules of the Game

Something for everybody (and a garland for the year) John Timbs (London, Lockwood & Co. Stationers, 1861)
Extract: "Football is another common Shrove Tuesday sport: it is still played in Derby, Nottingham, Kingston-upon-Thames, and a few other towns. ... The people of Kingston claim their ancient custom as a right obtained for them by the valour of their ancestors. Tradition states that the Danes, in one of their predatory incursions, were defeated at Kingston, and the Danish general being slain, his head was cut off, and kicked about the place in triumph. This happened on Shrove Tuesday; and hence the origin of their football on that day."

Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football Shrove Tuesday & Ash Wednesday.
The game is still carried on at Ashbourne and Derby. Extract:

Football continues to be played at in many parts of England on Shrove Tuesday and Ash-Wednesday, but the mode of playing this game at Ashbourne and Derby, differs very much from the usual practice of this sport. In the town of Derby the contest lies between the parishes of St. Peter and All Saints, and the goals to which the ball is to be taken are, Nun's mill for the latter, and the Gallow's balk on the Normanton road for the former. None of the other parishes of the borough take any direct part in the contest, but the inhabitants of all join in the sport, together with persons from all parts of the adjacent country. The players are young men from eighteen to thirty or upwards, married as well as single, and many veterans who retain a relish for the sport are occasionally seen in the very heat of the conflict. The game commences in the market-place, where the partisans of each parish are drawn up on each side; and, about noon, a large ball is tossed up in the midst of them. This is seized upon by some of the strongest and most active men of each party. The rest of the players immediately close in upon them, and a solid mass is formed. It then becomes the object of each party to impel the course of the crowd towards their particular goal. The struggle to obtain the ball, which is carried in the arms of those who have possessed themselves of it, is then violent, and the motion of this human tide heaving to and fro, without the least regard to consequences, is tremendous. Broken shins, broken heads, torn coats and lost hats, are among the minor accidents of this fearful contest, and it frequently happens that persons fall in consequence of the intensity of the pressure, fainting and bleeding beneath the feet of the surrounding mob. But it would be difficult to give an adequate idea of this ruthless sport: a Frenchman passing through Derby remarked, that if Englishmen called this playing, it would be impossible to say what they would call fighting. Still the crowd is encouraged by respectable persons attached to each party, and who take a surprising interest in the result of the day's sport; urging on the players with shouts, and even handing to those who are exhausted, oranges and other refreshment. The object of the St. Peters' party is to get the ball into the water, down the Morledge brook into the Derwent as soon as they can, while the All Saints party endeavour to prevent this, and to urge the ball westward. The St. Peter players are considered to be equal to the best water-spaniels, and it is certainly curious to see two or three hundred men up to their chins in the Derwent continually ducking each other. The numbers engaged on both sides exceed a thousand, and the streets arc crowded with lockers on. The shops are closed, and the town presents the aspect of a place suddenly taken by storm. — The origin of this violent game is lost in its antiquity, but there exists a tradition, that a cohort of Roman soldiers, marching through the town to Derventio, or Little Chester, were thrust out by the unarmed populace, and this mode of celebrating the occurrence has been continued to the present day. It is even added that this conflict occurred in the year 217, and that the Roman troops at Little Chester were slain by the Britons. — This game is played in a similar manner at Ashbourne, but the institution of it there is of a modern date.

The history of Royal Ashbourne Shrovetide Football

The every day book, or, A guide to the year, describing the popular amusements sports, ceremonies, manners customs & events incident to the three hundred & sixty-five days, in past & present times by William Hone, Volume 1 (W. Tegg, 1826)
Extract:

"FOOT-BALL.

This was, and remains, a game on Shrove Tuesday, in various parts of England.

Sir Frederick Morton Eden in the "Statistical account of Scotland," says that at the parish of Scone, county of Perth, every year on Shrove Tuesday the bachelors and married men drew themselves up at the cross of Scone, on opposite sides; a ball was then thrown up, and they played from two o'clock till sun-set. The game was this: he who at any time got the ball into his hands, run with it till overtaken by one of the opposite party; and then, if he could shake himself loose from those on the opposite side who seized him, he run on; if not, he threw the ball from him, unless it was wrested from him by the other party, but no person was allowed to kick it. The object of the married men was to hang it, that is, to put it three times into a small hole in the moor, which was the dool or limit on the one hand: that of the bachelors was to drotun it, or dip it three times in a deep place in the river, the limit on the other: the party who could effect either of these objects won the game; if neither won, the ball was cut into equal parts at sun-set. In the course of the play there was usually some violence between the parties; but it is a proverb in this part of the country that "All is fair at the ball of Scone. Sir Frederick goes on to say, that this custom is supposed to have had its origin in the days of chivalry; when an Italian is reported to have come into this part of the country challenging all the parishes, under a certain penalty in case of declining his challenge. All the parishes declined this challenge except Scone, which beat the foreigner, and in commemoration of this gallant action the game was instituted. Whilst the custom continued, every man in the parish, the gentry not excepted, was obliged to turn out and support the side to which he belonged, and the person who neglected to do his part on that occasion was fined; but the custom being attended with certain inconveniences, was abolished a few years before Sir Frederick wrote. He further mentions that on Shrove Tuesday there is a standing match at foot-ball in the parish of Inverness, county of Mid Lothian, between the married and unmarried women, and he states as a remarkable fact that the married women are always successful.

Humble yet violent beginnings
Extract: "Mob Football was a popular recreation activity recognised by its violent, uncodified and rural exterior, a far cry from the Suarez swan dives of the 21st century. The heartbeat of the game was born in these English Villages, where the locals celebrated their only days off work, known as ‘holy-days’, by taking part in ritual festivals of sport and alcohol."

Local derby on wikipedia.
Extract: "The traditional Shrovetide football match was also commonplace in the city. It was renowned as a chaotic and exuberant game that involved the whole town and often resulted in fatalities. The goals were at Nuns Mill in the north and the Gallows Balk in the south of the town, and much of the action took place in the Derwent river or Markeaton brook. Nominally the players came from All Saints' and St Peter's parishes, but in practice the game was a free-for-all with as many as 1,000 players. A Frenchman who observed the match in 1829 wrote in horror, 'if Englishmen call this play, it would be impossible to say what they call fighting'."

Mob football on wikipedia
"Mob Football has been forever imortalized by the writings of William Shakespeare in his The Comedy of Errors: Am I so round with you, as you with me, That like a foot-ball you doe spurne me thus: You spurne me hence, and he will spurne me hither, If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.[9] "

Pancakes and Football

SHROVE TIDE FOOTBALL

SHROVE TUESDAY NO-RULES FOOTBALL

Shrovetide in the New Advent encyclopedia

folk football in Britain

The Radical History of Football

Shrovetide Football, Ashbourne, Derbyshire

History - US - Lacrosse by Thomas Vennum Jr., Author of American Indian Lacrosse: Little Brother of War
Extract: "Apart from its recreational function, lacrosse traditionally played a more serious role in Indian culture. Its origins are rooted in legend, and the game continues to be used for curative purposes and surrounded with ceremony. Game equipment and players are still ritually prepared by conjurers, and team selection and victory are often considered supernaturally controlled. In the past, lacrosse also served to vent aggression, and territorial disputes between tribes were sometimes settled with a game, although not always amicably. A Creek versus Choctaw game around 1790 to determine rights over a beaver pond broke out into a violent battle when the Creeks were declared winners. Still, while the majority of the games ended peaceably, much of the ceremonialism surrounding their preparations and the rituals required of the players were identical to those practiced before departing on the warpath."

Games of the North American Indians Culin, Stewart, 1858-1929 in Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1902-1903

"American Indian Games" by Stewart Culin in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 11, No. 43 (Oct. - Dec., 1898), pp. 245-252 (American Folklore Society) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/534133

History of lacrosse on wikipedia - "Modern day lacrosse descends from and resembles games played by various Native American communities. These include games called dehuntshigwa'es in Onondaga ("men hit a rounded object"), da-nah-wah'uwsdi in Eastern Cherokee ("little war"), Tewaarathon in Mohawk language ("little brother of war"), baaga`adowe in Ojibwe ("bump hips") and kabocha-toli in Choctaw language ("stick-ball")."

Medieval football on wikipedia

Royal Shrovetide Football on wikipedia

Scoring the Hales on wikipedia

--------

Notes:

[1] Thomas Elyot quoted in Famous Football Quotes and FOOTBALL AFTER THE ORIGINAL STYLE 'PLAYED' AT ASHBOURNE ON SHROVE TUESDAY.

[2] From the article on endemic warfare in wikipedia, giving as source eider, Karl Heider's book, The Dugum Dani (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1970).

[3] From the author(s) of the Local derby on wikipedia. Reference is made to Local derby on The Phrase Finder, but the quote is not given there.

[4] George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, Autry National Center

"super" as in "over the top"

I've never developed any lasting fidelities to professional sports teams. It's true though that I've had an interest in the football Giants going back to the glory years of Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, Roosevelt Brown, Andy Robustelli, Alex Webster, and, ultimately, the great old man, Yelberton Abraham Tittle. And so I'll be watching the Super Bowl this Sunday. And so also I've been reading Mike Tanier's blog postings in the NYT, hoping, as he does, that fortune will favor the New Yorkers while expecting that the Patriots will pull off a win.

Yesterday, Mike wrote about the transformation of the Super Bowl's host city. The post has an eye-popping typo in its headline which alerts you to the fact that this is a true weblog and not an article in the Grey Lady herself. The blog post is Everything Indy: The Invastion of the Roman Numerals in
The Fifth Down (New York Times N.F.L. Blog), January 30, 2012.*

Mike says "The N.F.L.’s fascination with Roman numerals is one of the league’s most bombastic traits, but the commitment to classical pretense pays off when the league builds on an epic scale. Park a giant '46' in the middle of a city, and passersby scratch their heads. Erect a hulking 'XLVI' into town central, and watch everyone stop to take pictures in front of it. ... While monolithic and omnipresent, the N.F.L.’s makeover is obviously temporary upon close inspection. The enormous numerals are made of fabric fastened over mesh, the sunburst pattern on the sides of the numerals resembling plywood when viewed from a distance."

{This image is in the public domain. Mike's blog shows one that's similar but copyright protected.}

The giant numerals remind me of another extravagant urban makeover, one that celebrated a naval victory over the Spanish Empire in 1898: the Dewey Arch.

Wikipedia explains:

The Dewey Arch was a triumphal arch that stood from 1899 to 1901 at Madison Square in Manhattan, New York. It had been erected for the parade in honor of Admiral George Dewey to celebrate his victory in the Battle of Manila Bay at the Philippines in 1898.

In spring 1899, planning for the parade, which was scheduled for September, began. Architect Charles R. Lamb found support for his idea of building a triumphal arch amongst the members of the National Sculpture Society, of which he also was a member. A committee of the society, comprising Lamb, Karl Bitter, Frederick W. Ruckstull, John Quincy Adams Ward, and John De Witt Warner, proposed the construction of an arch to the city of New York, which approved these plans in July 1899.

With only about two months left, it was decided to build the arch and its colonnade in staff, a material that had been used for the temporary buildings of several World's Fairs. Modeled after the Arch of Titus in Rome, the Dewey Arch was decorated with the works of 28 sculptors and featured a large quadriga (done by Ward) on top that showed four horses drawing a ship. At night, the arch was illuminated with electric light bulbs.

After the parade on September 30, 1899, the arch quickly began to deteriorate. An attempt to raise money to have the arch rebuilt with more durable materials (as had been done for the arch in Washington Square Park) failed, and thus the arch was demolished in 1901. The larger sculptures were sent to Charleston for an exhibit, and were destroyed afterwards.

Here is a photo of the Dewey Arch taken an employee of the Detroit Publishing Co. and found in collections of the Prints and Photos Division of the Library of Congress. It is a photochrom, that is to say a lithographic print made via an early type of colorizing that was generally used to make postcards.

{Caption: The Naval Arch at Madison Square, New York City, ca. 1900}

Here's the original from which the color version was made. It comes from a large-format glass plate negative.

{Caption: Madison Square and Dewey Arch, New York, N.Y., 1900, 1 negative, glass, 8 x 10 in.}

The photo just below is the right half of a panoramic view of Madison Square Park taken in 1905. It shows what the park and the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway looked like without the Dewey Arch. See my blog post, Madison Park 1905, for details from the photo-pair. (I've written frequently about the park and its part of the city. To find the posts, search 'Madison Park' in this blog.)

{Caption: Madison Square from the Flat-Iron [i.e. Flatiron] Building, New York, 1905, 2 glass negatives, 8 x 10 in.}

Here are some details from the Dewey Arch photo.

1. You can tell that it's 20 past noon on a warm day. The park is full of people enjoying the shady peace it offers. It seems to be a work day; in other photos there are prams and children, but not this one. As usual the streets have lots of pedestrians and you can see bicyclists, two in this case, one of whom you see here, framed by the massive arch.


2. The wagon catches your eye, but also the crumbling imitation rock (called "staff") out of which the arch is constructed.


3. The contrast between Corinthian capitals and self-absorbed bench sitters is pointed, as they say.


3. A nice contrast here, as well, between imaginary heroic figures and a a very real New Yorker, pedestrian, literally, but I think not figuratively.


4. A contrast here between mundane and angelic with our interest falling more naturally with the former over the latter.


5. The great tower atop the old Madison Square Garden shows the only advertising on view in this photo.


-----------
*Update: the headline has been corrected: Everything Indy: The Invasion of the Roman Numerals

a fire on Reade Street

From time to time I've written about the many occupations of my great-grandfather, Louis Windmuller.[1] During his long life he helped found and manage a surprising number of business ventures — fire insurance, title insurance, banks, and land companies. Despite all this activity (and somewhat more[2]) he never abandoned his first enterprise as a "commission merchant" in an office called Louis Windmuller & Roelker at 20 Reade St. in Manhattan.[3]

Here you see the firm name and a signature on a back check he signed while the business was still young.

{source: stampwants}

The other day a reader left an interesting comment on a post I'd written a year ago about the commission merchant business. Using the handle "codepic," this person wrote:

Hi, I bumped into your blog post because I'm trying to track where my antique trunk is made. I found a parts catalog in here http://www.thisoldtrunk.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=112 from which I found the crystallized tin being described and I guess it's the same type of tin my trunk is made of. Interestingly the parts catalog dates to 1889 and has the address "20 Reade Street, New York". Have you seen any reference to Campfield or Wood family during your research?

The short answer to the question is "no" I do not know of any links between my great-grandfather's commission agent business and the firm of Campfield & Wood. Intrigued by the question I've done some online searching and come up with some interesting finds.

Campfield & Wood was in the business of supplying parts to manufacturers of trunks. Alexander Campfield held a patent for a zinc plating process used in the 1870s on metal trunk coverings like the one you see here with its interesting stamped pattern.

{Small trunk (27 x 14 x 12 in.) having a tin cover over pine wood. The tin is zinc plated by a patterned processing that was (probably) the one patented by Alexander Campfield in 1876; source: Collectors Weekly}

Here are the cover and a couple of pages from the source which codepic cites.

{1889 Campfield and Wood Trunk Parts Catalog, 29 pp, containing illustrations and descriptions of trunk locks, rollers, catches, handles, clamps, stamped metal, etc. Includes tools, trunk tacks, wood, and lining paper.}

Campfield & Wood show up in city directories of the 1870s, including these three.

{Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory (The Trow City Directory Company, 1879)}

{Gouldings New York city directory (Lawrence G. Goulding., 1877)}

{This entry in a copartnership directory of 1874 shows a couple of silent partners who had lent money to the business; Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory, John F. Trow, Publisher, H. Wilson, Compiler (Trow City Directory Co., 1874)}

It's interesting that in the 1830s there was a firm called Campfield & Wood & Co., carriage-makers, located not far from 20 Reade St.

{Longworth's American almanac: New-York register and city directory (T. Longworth, 1837)}

I'm sure there's more to be learned about Campfield & Wood, and I'm also sure that that firm and my great-grandfather's occupied offices at 20 Reade St. by coincidence and not from any connection between the two. Apart from street address there's nothing I can find that associates the one with the other.

New York City directories list the two businesses and many of their neighbors, both in the building at 20 Reade Street and in the buildings on either side of them.

The other businesses in their building include a supplier of wrapping paper, a merchant, an individual, one E. B. Higgins, who did not choose to have his occupation listed, and these three:

{source: Trow's Directory, 1872}

Next door at 18 Reade you can find a representative of the San Francisco firm of Murphy, Grant, & Co., the "largest and oldest wholesale dry-goods house on the Pacific Coast."[4] This is an 1896 trade card of Murphy, Grant, & Co. showing that they made the best overalls in the world.

{source: Harmer-Schau Auction Galleries}

Two doors to the east, at 16 Reade, were a manufacturer of pool tables[5] and two agents for the Thomas Manufacturing Co., which made mowers, rakes, and "tillage implements" in Springfield, Ohio. This is an ad for one of the Thomas Mfg. Co.'s seed drilling machines.[6]

{source (as you can see): an eBay auction}

A photoengraver, the National Photo-Engraving Co., occupied space in both 16 and 18 Reade. The firm's specialty was in printing stationery and books rather than the usual reproductions of drawings and paintings. Here is one of their ads, along with a (low-quality) reproduction of the work sample that the ad cites.

{source: The international annual of Anthony's photographic bulletin and American process year-book (E. & H.T. Anthony & Co., 1898)}

On the west side of 20 Reade the occupants were just as various. At 22-26 Reade were a print shop belonging to William P. Atkin, a bookbinder named Louis Gilbert, a purveyor of paper[7], a perfume manufacturer, and manufacturers of water meters and hydraulic power implements. In addition, the Dutch Reformed Church in America had its "Domestic Offices" and a shop at 26 Reade Street. R. Brinkerhoff, the Business Agent, was member of a family which had made its home at that address since the 18th century.[9]

The perfume manufacturer was Theodore Ricksecker who is credited as the first American perfumier.[8] This souvenir comes from the 1884 World Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.

{source: eBay auction}

The water meter and hydraulic power vendors were the same business.[10]

{sources: Factory and industrial management , Volume 21 (McGraw-Hill publishing company, Inc., 1901) and Technique: published annually by the junior class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1897)}

Also at 26 Reade Street was the Baldwin & Gleason Co., makers of celluloid pins and buttons.


There's a lot to be learned about 20 Reade and its neighbors from accounts of a fire that consumed the building next door. The Times gave the event extensive coverage, as you can read here: PERFUME-LADEN SMOKE CHOKES FIRE FIGHTERS; Five Also Badly Hurt at Fierce Blaze on Reade Street. Exploding Celluloid Spreads the Flames Which Burn Out a Five-Story Building and Damage Adjacent Property (New York Times, December 23, 1901). You can read the story here. The City's own fire report is more succinct. It says that on December 22, 1901, a fire destroyed the six-story brick building at 22-26 Reade Street. The fire stared in the sub-basement and extended upwards to the top floor by means of vertical belt shafts (used for powering manufacturing equipment) and the building's elevator shaft.[11] The Times' reporter wrote that the fire caused explosions when it reached the Baldwin & Gleason workshop. "These sounded like the bursting of big firecrackers, but were not of sufficient force to endanger the firemen and others inside the danger lines." The report also says that when the fire reached the Ricksecker establishment on the top two floors, "the odor of perfumes cold be discerned all the way down the block, and the firemen said afterward that ordinary smoke was nothing by comparison to that laden with the sickening smell of musk or even of high-priced colognes."

The Times man found that a man had been working in the sub-cellar early the same morning as the fire and it was presumed he had inadvertently left behind a cigarette stub or burning match behind.

As the fire progressed, he said, "the scene in the alley [behind the building] was probably the most remarkable of the whole fire. This alley is only 25 feet wide. From the fire escapes of buildings on one side it almost possible to reach to those on the other. Firemen swarmed up the escapes, but by the time they reached their positions of vantage the smoke was so dense that they could not be seen a few yards away. To an onlooker at the lower end of the alley it appeared as though they must all be suffocated, but they were not, and relatively few had to stop their work. In a saloon at the corner of the alley and Elm Street the celebrated belt given to John L. Sullivan by popular subscription when he was champion prizefighter of the world was on exhibition. The owners of the place heard of the fire and rushed down town to get out the treasure, which contains 365 diamonds and 15½ pounds of gold."

The Times reporter assures his readers that "the well-known landmark called Cobweb Hall, which has been standing since the memory of the oldest inhabitants began,... was not hurt except by having its walls and interior saturated with the thick smoke." Chances are, the smoke added to the ambience of this hangout. Another Times article described the place: "Rusty silverware, ceilings dusty with cobwebs, bar furniture, tables, and chairs of remote date, old prints on the walls, and Pattullo's name [that of the founder] in silver letters, on the front windows of the hostelry." (NYT, November 16, 1902)[12]

This detail from a panoramic map of Manhattan, made about 1900 shows the block where 20 Reade Street could be found. The building at 22-26 is shown out of scale (much narrower than it actually was). I've marked it in red. In addition I've identified the building at 20 Reade and also put white circles around the locations of "Cobweb Hall" and the saloon where the extravagant John L. Sullivan belt was being displayed.

{Bird's-eye-view of Manhattan and adjacent districts, New York City, New York, ca. 1900, Not drawn to scale; source: Library of Congress}

This detail from a fire insurance map of 1897 shows the block where the fire took place. I've outlined 22-26 Reade in blue and shown the rough locations of the saloon and "Cobweb Hall."

{Insurance maps of the City of New York. Borough of Manhattan. Volume 3. Published by Sanborn Map Co., 11 Broadway, New York. 1904. Source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

------

Some sources:

Collectors Weekly, Small Herringbone tin Trunk with Wood Handles. "Herringbone style tin in great shape. Measures 27" long, 14" wide 12" deep. Pine under the metal. Wooden runners on the bottom are offset, appears to be hand made."

Bird's-eye-view of Manhattan and adjacent districts, New York City, New York, ca. 1900, Not drawn to scale; source: Library of Congress

The Bay of San Francisco, the metropolis of the Pacific Coast and its suburban cities, a history (Lewis Publishing Co., 1892)

Index of wills, inventories, etc. in the office of the Secretary of State prior to 1901 (New Jersey. Dept. of State, 1912)

PERFUME-LADEN SMOKE CHOKES FIRE FIGHTERS; Five Also Badly Hurt at Fierce Blaze on Reade Street. Exploding Celluloid Spreads the Flames Which Burn Out a Five-Story Building and Damage Adjacent Property. New York Times, December 23, 1901. Extract: "Reade Street was the scene of all the excitement that the intricate machinery of the New York Fire Department can arouse at a dangerous conflagration yesterday afternoon. The building at 22, 24, and 26 was completely gutted from its sub-cellar to its roof. Chief Edward F. Croker estimated the losses to be at least $75,000, and the police said that the damage would not be far short of $100,000."

Report of the Fire Department of the City of New York (1902)

Safety Maintenance & Production , Volume 11 Insurance Engineering, Record for the Year 1905 (January 1906)

The Southeastern reporter, Volume 19 (West Pub. Co., 1894)

Index of wills, inventories, etc. in the office of the Secretary of State prior to 1901 (New Jersey. Dept. of State, 1912)

Home furnishing review, Volume 12 (Andrew J. Haire, 1897)

American printer and lithographer (Moore Publishing Co., 1895)

Annual report of the Commissioner of Labor, Issue 11, Part 1 (State Dept. of Labor, 1913)

The International harvester co (United States. Bureau of Corporations, Govt. Print. Off., 1913)

The Pharmaceutical era (New York, D. O. Haynes & Co., 1877)

The Sun. (New York, November 12, 1908)

The book of New York; forty years' recollections of the American metropolis (The Book of New York company, 1912)

The Mission field, Volume 1 (Boards of the Reformed Church in America, 1888)

Bragaws, my blog post dated November 20, 2010

The family of Joris Dircksen Brinckerhoff, 1638 compiled by Richard Brinkerhoff (New York, R. Brinkerhoff, 1887)

Pressure Lamps International

Ricksecker's Perfumes

Report of the Fire Department of the City of New York (1902)

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1996607

The Trow City Directory Co.'s, formerly Wilson's, copartnership and corporation directory of New York City (Trow, 1874)

The Trow City Directory Co.'s, formerly Wilson's, copartnership and corporation directory of New York City (Trow, 1879)

Gouldings New York city directory (Lawrence G. Goulding., 1877)

The Trow (formerly Wilson's) copartnership and corporation directory of New York City (Trow, 1901)

The Trow (formerly Wilson's) copartnership and corporation directory of New York City (Trow, 1909)

1897/98 LAIN'S DIRECTORY Brooklyn

Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory, John F. Trow, Publisher, H. Wilson, Compiler (Trow City Directory Co., 1874)

Gouldings New York city directory (Lawrence G. Goulding., 1877)

Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory (The Trow City Directory Company, 1879)

Longworth's American almanac: New-York register and city directory (T. Longworth, 1837)

------

Notes:

[1] For my posts on the man click the "Louis Windmuller" link in the panel at right. Here are links to the LW&R ones:

• flourishing, December 22, 2010
• commission merchant, November 06, 2010
• Madagascar No. 21, November 07, 2010
• an office on Reade Street, June 05, 2010

[2] His obituary in the Evening Post gave a pretty full run down of his many activities. You can read it here: Louis Windmuller Dead, New York Evening Post, October 20, 1913.

[3] He helped found and manage the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, the German-American insurance Company, the Hide and Leather National Bank, the German Alliance insurance Co., the Maiden Lane Safe Deposit Co. and Maiden Lane Savings Bank, the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company, the South Manhattan Realty Co., and the Newtown Savings Bank. Two years before his death Who's who in Finance, Banking, and Insurance (N.Y. 1911) gave the tersest possible summary of his public life:

Windmuller, Louis

Merchant, banker; born Münster, Westphalia, Germany, 1835; educated Gymnasium Carollnum, Münster; came to the United States, 1863; since then resident of New York City; married, New York City, Nov. 23, 1859, Annie Eliza Lefman.

Successfully engaged in business in New York City as a merchant; senior member of the firm of Louis Windmuller & Roelker of New-York and Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany; president Maiden Lane Savings Bank; first vice-president and director Maiden Lane Safe Deposit Co.; director and one of the founders German- American Insurance Co., Title Guarantee and Trust Co., German Alliance Insurance Co., South Manhattan Realty Co.

Independent; supported Cleveland on tariff issue, and in campaign of 1892, with Carl Schurz and others, formed the German-American Cleveland Union, contributing effectually to the Cleveland success of that year. Supported McKinley on financial issue, 1896; chairman German American Hughes Alliance, aiding in election of Governor Hughes 1908.

Member New York Chamber of Commerce, New York Board of Trade and Transportation (managing director); treasurer Legal Aid Society, giving gratuitously legal aid to helpless strangers. Life member New York Historical Society; member Germanistic Society, Germanic Museum Ass'n of Cambridge, Mass, (vice-president); vice-president Heine Monument Ass'n, Arion Society.

Recreations: Long walks; art and book collector.

Clubs: Merchants', Lotos, Press, Underwriters, New York Athletic, National Arts, Reform (treasurer since 1889).

Contributor on Economic, civic, and financial questions to North American Review, The Forum. Outlook, New York Times, New York Evening Post, New Yorker Staats Zeitung. Meyer's Konversations. Lexicon, the Berlin Nation and other periodicals.

Residence: Woodside, Queens Borough. Office: 20 Reade St., N. Y. City.

[4] This shows the Murphy, Grant, & Co. building in the 1870s.

{From a panorama engraving showing San Francisco by Frederick Hess, 1875}

For more on Murphy, Grant, & Co. see The Bay of San Francisco, the metropolis of the Pacific Coast and its suburban cities, a history (Lewis Publishing Co., 1892)

[5] Wallie Dorr, pool tables. "The sole manufacturer of the Doré [pool] tables is Wallie Dorr, 16 and 18 Reade street, New York, who is also the manufacturer of the novel and fascinating parlor game Loo-Wese, which in a brief period has become one of the best sellers and leaders in the higher class of toy lines." -- Home furnishing review, Volume 12 (Andrew J. Haire, 1897). See also: Wallie Dorr Co., 16-18 Reade st. (George S. Van DeWater, partner) -- Annual report of the Commissioner of Labor, Issue 11, Part 1 (State Dept. of Labor, 1913)

[6] The Thomas Manufacturing Co. also made razors like this one.

{Source: Thomas Mfg Co Dayton Ohio}

And early in the 20th century became known for its "pressure lamps" like this "kerosafe" model.

{source: Pressure Lamps International}

[7] The Vernon Paper Company were general paper dealers specializing in wrapping papers. See Lockwood's directory of the paper and allied trades, Volume 31 (Vance Pub. Corp., 1905) and Printing trades blue book (A.F. Lewis & Co., 1918) " Wrapping Papers, Vernon, Paul E., &Co. 22-24-26 Reade; tel. Worth 4725"

[8] Here's an ad for Ricksecker perfumes.

{source: vintagefeedsacks.blogspot}

"He is credited to have been the first American to establish a perfumery company, launching his first fragrance in 1868. Over the decades, he became renowned for his rich spice and floral fragrances in perfumes and colognes. His use of pottery and glass, in a variety of shapes, colors, techniques, and sizes were part of the appeal -- then, as is now for collectors." -- Ricksecker's Perfumes

[9] Some of the Brinkerhoff family were neighbors of the Louis Windmuller family in Woodside, Queens. George Brinckerhoff owned a farm a few hundred yards south of the Windmuller land as shown in this property map. George Brinckerhoff was connected to Louis Windmuller's wife, Annie, via Magretia Brinckerhoff who married Theodorus Van Wyck in 1693. Their daughter, Altje Van Wyck married Richard Thorne from whom Annie was directly descended. -- Bragaws on my blog, November 20, 2010.

[10] "The Standard Water Meter Company, successors to the Tuerk Hydraulic Power Company, manufacturers of Water Meters and Motors, are now situated at 22 to 26 Reade street, New York City. Their former place of business was 23 Vandewater street, and It is at the latter address that the factory Is yet situated. The Standard Disk Meter which they are putting upon the market has been approved by the Municipal Water Works Commissioner. It has the very latest improvements, and for accuracy and fine mechanical work they claim it cannot be excelled." -- Sanitary and heating age (Sanitary and Heating Publishing, 1901)

[11] Report of the Fire Department of the City of New York (1902)

[12] Cobweb Hall was popular among actors, professional people, sporting men, and politicians. "Mayor Grant and Mayor Gilroy used to drop in there frequently to discuss city affairs with the other celebrities who frequented the place" and its' second owner himself served as a city alderman at one time (New York Sun, February 18, 1919). A contemporary account says Cobweb Hall was

an aged and dust-encrusted structure, hedged in by the massive growths of a recent day. On a gray November afternoon, when snow threatens, let us enter the "snug," which is reached by a passage in front of an unembellished bar; the absence of all pretension is its charm; and if the tumblers of hot whisky-toddies which subdue the chill in the air with their aroma, are vicious on so cold a day, then here, at least, the vice is in its naked ugliness, without a speck of tinsel to gild it. Cobwebs are stretched across the walls and the ceiling; gauzy seas of them have veiled every object — the pyramids of ale-casks, and the demijohns at the bars. From every corner and crevice the eye meets them depending by their silken threads; but, notwithstanding their plenitude, it would appear less sacrilegious to the custodian to rob an altar of its plate than to destroy one of the finely-spun nets that have given his establishment its name. No one comes here or should come seeking luxury, for it does not exist. The tables and chairs are of plain deal, without cloths or cushions; albeit, they are as strong as the steaming Lochinvar and Dublin punches, that are served to you in glasses, not such as you have been used to, but plenary crystals that hold a generous half-pint. ... Genial sobriety is the rule at "Cobweb Hall," however. Men come through its dingy portals, and while away whole afternoons in sipping the hot toddies, and recalling the past with old friends and acquaintances. The atmosphere itself has an effect in giving the mind a retrospective turn, and in its yellow haze evolve the teeming figures of old times which have seemed almost lost to memory. -- "English Haunts in New York," Appletons journal , Volume 10 (D. Appleton and Co., 1873)

A Veterans' Day remembrance: July 1-3, 1863/1913

This photo shows two survivors of the Battle of Gettysburg. They're attending a massive reunion to commemorate the event, held on the 50th anniversary, July 1-3, 1913.

{Caption: GETTYSBURG REUNION: G.A.R. & U.C.V. (Grand Army of the Republic, United Confederate Veterans); source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division}

{Veterans Enrolling Their Names, Commands, and Camps and Home Addresses in One of the Thirty Register Books Located Throughout the Camp; source: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg}

{GETTYSBURG REUNION: VETERANS OF THE G.A.R. AND OF THE CONFEDERACY, AT THE ENCAMPMENT; source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division}

{Old Time Martial Music For Their Departing Comrades; source: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg}

This looks like it shows a reporter preparing a dispatch from the field.

{GETTYSBURG REUNION: G.A.R. & U.C.V.; source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division}

There's no information about this photo. I like how, being the same age, the men seem to represent a broad cross section of society — urban & rural, well-dressed & shirt-sleeved, well-preserved & bent with age.

{GETTYSBURG REUNION: G.A.R. & U.C.V.; source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division}

This shows Lindley Miller Garrison, the Secretary of War, with Hunter Liggett, then head of the Army War College.

{GETTYSBURG REUNION: G.A.R. & U.C.V. SEC. GARRISON AND COL. LIGGETT, U.S.A.; source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division}

Local Boy Scouts served as escorts, aides, and orderlies.

{Boy Scouts - Gettysburg. Photo shows Boy Scouts at the Gettysburg Reunion (the Great Reunion) of July 1913, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Source: Flickr Commons project, 2009}

{Helping Their Own Comrade -- "To Rise in the World." (Sometimes Practiced in '61-'65.); source: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg}

This photo shows a ceremonial hand shake near the Bloody Angle, which was the culmination of Pickett's Charge.[1]

{Comrades; source: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg}

The Reunion at Bloody Angle[2]

{The reunion at "Bloody Angle" - Pickett's men in for[e]ground; Union men lined against wall. Photo shows the Gettysburg Reunion (the Great Reunion) of July 1913, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Source: Flickr Commons project, 2009}

Pickett's Charge

{"Pickett's Charge of July 3, 1913; source: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg}

The stone wall at the Bloody Angle.

{The Blue and Gray Side-by-Side on the "Stone Wall"; source: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg}

Authentic reënacters of 1913.

{Two Survivors in the Identical Uniforms of Blue and Gray They Wore There in the Battle of July 3rd, 1863; source: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg }

Pickett's Men at Bloody Angle

{Pickett's men at Bloody Angle. Photo shows the Gettysburg Reunion (the Great Reunion) of July 1913, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Source: Flickr Commons project, 2009 }

Detail:


Union Men at Bloody Angle

{12th Pa. Volunteers at Bloody Angle. Photo shows the 12th Pennsylvania Volunteers at the Gettysburg Reunion (the Great Reunion) of July 1913, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Source: Flickr Commons project, 2009}

Detail:


Here's an eye-witness account:

It is fitting that the side of the private soldiers who fought in the ranks on those three bloody days of July, 1963, should be heard. Below is the narrative of Simon Hubler, a soldier in the 143d Pennsylvania Infantry, who was in the great battle from start to finish. ...

WE were lying at White Oak Church, south of Falmouth, Va., when we received orders to march. We did not know where we were going, but our course took us to Bealton Station, thence along the Orange Alexandria Railroad in a northerly direction, and presently we arrived at Berlin's Ford, near Harper's Ferry', where we crossed the Potomac River about June 27 and proceeded to Middletown, Md. We arrived at this place Sunday. ... During the night of [July] second I heard some one cry for water out in front of our position. The boys told me I'd get plugged, but I took risk and proceeded with a canteen of water out in front of the line in the direction of the cry. Presently I came across the object of my search and found him to be a Confederate soldier mortally wounded. I gave him all the water that I had in my canteen. He asked me who I was, and I told him I belonged to the Pennysylvania Bucktail Brigade, whereupon he remarked, "Even though you are a Yank, you have a good heart in you." The next morning our skirmishers found him dead.

There was very little fighting and comparatively little excitement until about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. ... Suddenly a cannon roared over on our left, and then another boom sounded from the right. Immediately all the Confederate batteries in our front opened fire, and the famous cannonade of the third day's fight had begun. ... I was looking toward the lines of the enemy when I suddenly saw a line of the Confederates advance over a rise in the ground. I said: "Hello boys, here comes a charge!"

The Confederates came on as though on dress parade, directly toward our position. ... When they came within about 600 yards we directed two or three volleys of musketry into them, and almost at the same time they filed obliquely toward the left, and soon struck our lines to the right of our position.

The din was awful. We could see the fighting only indistinctly, because of obstructions in the way and because of the powder smoke. We soon saw small bodies of Confederate retreating, and then large masses which hurried back, broken and disorganized. ... Pickett's charge was over about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and during the remaining hours of daylight the firing was desultory. We maintained the position we had occupied during the day and slept on our arms during the night of July 3.

-- JUST THE PLAIN, UNVARNISHED STORY OF A SOLDIER IN THE RANKS; Exactly What a Corporal in the 143d Pennsylvania Infantry Did, Thought and Saw During the Three-Days' Battle, New York Times, June 29, 1913.

Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. This dramatic lithograph comes from a painting -- The Battle of Gettysburg: Pickett's Charge, by Peter Frederick Rothermel, 1869.

{From Rothermel's Great Painting for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the Museum at the Capitol, Harrisburg; source: frontspiece in Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg}

You can view a photograph of the painting here.
----------------

Some sources:

GETTYSBURG ONE OF THE GREATEST BATTLES IN HISTORY; Sixteen Hundred Fell or Were Captured Every Hour of the Thirty That the Fight Lasted -- 153,000 Men Engaged, by Francis Trevelyan Miller, New York Times, June 29, 1913, Magazine Section. Extract: "MORE than 200,000 people, from all parts of the country, according to the estimates, are now on their way or are about to begin the journey to America's greatest battleground."

Editorial on the Gettysburg Reunion, New York Times, July 1, 1913. Extract: "Whether or not it was judicious, or even justifiable, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg by collecting on that tragic field great numbers of the men who took part in the dreadful and magnificent conflict -- that is a question to be answered affirmatively only if the results of their presence there are great enough to compensate for the swift thinning of the veteran ranks that is sure to follow."

JUST THE PLAIN, UNVARNISHED STORY OF A SOLDIER IN THE RANKS; Exactly What a Corporal in the 143d Pennsylvania Infantry Did, Thought and Saw During the Three-Days' Battle, New York Times, June 29, 1913.

Memoirs of Gettysburg Simon Hubler, 1st Sgt., 143rd PA Vol. Inf., Co. I

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, report of the Pennsylvania Commission, presented to His Excellency, John K. Tener, Governor of Pennsylvania, for transmittal to the General Assembly (Harrisburg, Pa., Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer, 1914)

Gettysburg Reunion (the Great Reunion) of 1913 By: Callie Oettinger Date: June 30 , 2011

Yesterdays Heroes Reunite during The 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg

Rare Motion Pictures Show Civil War Veterans at the 75th Gettysburg Battle Anniversary Reunion, National Parks Traveler site

The Great Gettysburg Reunion of 1913

1913 Gettysburg reunion in wikipedia

Grand Army of the Republic in wikipedia

United Confederate Veterans in wikipedia

List of G.A.R. Grand Army of the Republic and U.C.V. United Confederate Veterans links

Dr. Simon HUBLER, 1913

BIO: Simon HUBLER, Centre County, PA

---------

Notes:

[1] Quoting Wikipedia: "Pickett's Charge was an infantry assault ordered by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee against Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Union positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Its futility was predicted by the charge's commander, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, and it was arguably an avoidable mistake from which the Southern war effort never fully recovered psychologically. The farthest point reached by the attack has been referred to as the high-water mark of the Confederacy."

[2] Bloody Angle -- "The ceremonies incident to the hand-shake over the Stone Wall at "Bloody Angle" on the afternoon of July 3rd, in which one hundred and eighty survivors of the Philadelphia Brigade Association (Webb's Brigade), Comrade Thomas Thompson, Commanding, and John W. Frazier, Adjutant, and one hundred and twenty survivors of Pickett's Division Association, President, Major W. W. Bentley, Commanding, and Comrade Charles J. Loehr, Secretary, participated, were of intense interest. The two lines were formed one hundred feet apart, the Philadelphia Brigade on the North and Pickett's Division on the South side of the Stone Wall, over which they had fought with such desperate valor just fifty years ago to the hour — the former with their Division Battle Flag and the latter with their "Stars and Bars" they had carried over the wall behind their brigade commander, who fell between the guns of Cushing's Union battery, and besides the body of its youthful commander." -- Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, report of the Pennsylvania Commission, presented to His Excellency, John K. Tener, Governor of Pennsylvania, for transmittal to the General Assembly (Harrisburg, Pa., Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer, 1914)