R.Danny Witt, President         Art & Carol Bergeron, Editors
5500 Ashton Park Way             3901 Paces Ferry Road     
Glen Allen, VA 23059                Chester, VA 23831-1239    

August 2000 PROGRAM

James L. Conrad
"The Confederate Naval Academy"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 8, 2000
Boulevard United Methodist Church, 321 N. Boulevard,
Richmond, VA (corner of Boulevard and Stuart Ave.)
Enter basement door from Boulevard side.

Colonel James Lee Conrad,  United  States  Air  Force,  will
speak  on the history of Richmond's Confederate States Naval
Academy and  the  training  of  Rebel  midshipmen.   Colonel
Conrad is the author of Rebel Reefers: The Midshipmen of the
Confederate States Naval Academy, which  will  be  published
next summer by Savas Publishing.                            

The  presentation will cover the founding of the Confederate
States Naval Academy, the  life  of  Confederate  midshipmen
both  on  the school ship and aboard warships, their wartime
service on and off the school ship, including the  escorting
of the Confederate treasury from Richmond and the final fate
of the Naval Academy and its midshipmen.                    

Colonel Conrad is currently the Staff Judge Advocate for the
88th  Air  Base Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  He
is a 1978 graduate of the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  a
1981  graduate  of  the  Cumberland  School  of  Law  (Juris
Doctorate), and a 1993 graduate  of  the  George  Washington
University  Law  School (Master of Laws in Environmental and
Government Procurement Law.) He is the author of  The  Young
Lions:  Confederate  Cadets  at  War, which was published in
1997 by Stackpole Books.  Conrad has had  numerous  articles
published  in  Civil  War Times Illustrated, America's Civil
War, Military History, and Columbiad, as well as an entry in
Simon & Schuster's Encyclopedia of the Confederacy.         

Conrad will have  available  for  purchase  at  the  meeting
copies of his book The Young Lions.                         





Thomas G. Clemens

"Will the Real Iron Brigade Please Stand Up!"

Review of the July Program

Tom presented an informative talk on  "Will  the  Real  Iron
Brigade Please Stand Up!" The talk focused on who was really
entitled  to  the  nickname  "Iron  Brigade"  and  how  some
commonly  held  beliefs  about  the  unit are not completely
supported by the historical record.                         

The standard story is that  Brigadier  General  John  Gibbon
commanded  the  Iron Brigade and that it was composed of the
2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, and 24th Michigan
Infantry  regiments.   Its  nickname resulted primarily from
its fighting abilities as  demonstrated  at  the  Battle  of
South  Mountain.   According to legend, Major General George
B.  McClellan asked Major General Joseph Hooker for an "iron
brigade"  to  pierce  the  Confederate  center that day, and
Fighting Joe sent forward Gibbon's men, who had  been  known
as  the  "Black  Hat  Brigade"  because of their distinctive
Hardee hats.  The general's continued in conversation during
the  battle,  and  both  of  them  used  the  term "iron" in
describing the men.  Actually, Gibbon's was not  the  first,
nor the only, brigade to have this title.                   

As  Clemens pointed out, this entire tale is based primarily
upon a story by  W.   H.   Atkins,  which  appeared  in  the
veterans' publication The National Tribune in 1904.  None of
the generals mentioned by Atkins were  still  alive  at  the
time  to  refute  his  account.   Hooker  had  not been with
McClellan at the time and had not  even  witnessed  Gibbon's
men  in  action.   After the war, Gibbon was asked about the
sobriquet, but he could not recall when it had been  applied
to  his  brigade but thought it was shortly after the Battle
of Antietam.                                                

A unit of New Yorkers, the 1st Brigade, 1st Division,  First
Corps, was the original Iron Brigade.  Composed of the 22nd,
24th, 30th, and 84th (14th Brooklyn) regiments, this brigade
was commanded originally by Brigadier General Christopher C.
Augur.  In March 1862, while on a raid in central  Virginia,
the  men made a long and difficult march.  Brigadier General
Marsena Patrick, who saw them  coming  into  camp,  said  to
Augur, "Your men must be made of iron to make such marches."
From this time until the regiments were mustered out of  the
army  in  the  fall  of 1862, the 1st Brigade, 1st Division,
First Corps, was known as the Iron Brigade.                 

Clemens shared some of  the  strongest  evidence  supporting
this brigade's claim to the nickname.  The papers of Colonel
Walter Phelps, Jr., of the 22nd New York, contain  a  number
of references to the term in his letters and diaries.  There
are also several relics that bolster this position.   Badges
were made up for the brigade's members, and they contain the
name Iron Brigade and a list of the regiments in it.  Several
years  ago,  a  relic  hunter  found one of the metals while
digging near Fredericksburg.  A flag carried by the 24th New
York  Infantry  is preserved in the state capital in Albany.
One side of the banner has the words  "24th  Regiment,  Iron
Brigade,  1st  Division,  1st  Army Corps." Finally, Captain
Austin W.  Holden, assistant surgeon of the 22nd  New  York,
wrote  a  song dedicated to Colonel Phelps called "A Song of
the Iron Brigade."                                          

During the course of the  Civil  War,  several  other  units
called  themselves  the Iron Brigade.  Included were the 3rd
Brigade, 1st Division, Third Corps (17th Maine, 3rd and  5th
Michigan,  1st,  37th,  and  101st  New  York) and Brigadier
General Jesse Reno's brigade of the Ninth  Corps  (21st  and
35th  Massachusetts,  51st New York, and 51st Pennsylvania).
Clemens concluded by  saying  that,  while  Gibbon's  "Black
Hats"  are  the most famous Iron Brigade, more than one unit
can claim the nickname and that we must be  careful  not  to
accept too readily some of the famous stories that have come
out of the Civil War.                                       

A  Louisianian's Recollections of the
Confederate  States  Naval  Academy

"...I received my orders, and instead of being  sent  to  an
ironclad  I was ordered to report on board of the schoolship
Patrick Henry to be examined  for  promotion.   Most  of  my
classmates  had  been  nominally taken out of active service
and put to school while I was at  sea,  and  they  were  now
passed  midshipmen.   I  had not opened a schoolbook since I
had left Annapolis, and the result  was  that  I  failed  to
pass.   But  I  was  given  another  chance and had to begin
school again.  Although I did not know it, if there was  one
thing that I needed more than anything else, it was a little
schooling."                                                 

"There were about sixty  young  midshipmen  on  the  Patrick
Henry,  varying  in  age  from fourteen to seventeen.  Their
jackets were made out of very coarse gray cloth and the food
they  had  to  eat was, at first, revolting to me.  The menu
offered little variety.  If it was not a tiny  lump  of  fat
pork,  it  was  a shaving of fresh meat as tough as the hide
which had once covered it, with a piece of  hardtack  and  a
tin  cup of hot water colored by chicory or grains of burned
corn, ground up, and brevetted coffee.  But  no  one  kicked
about  the  food,  as it was as good if not better than that
the poor soldiers in the trenches received.  The James River
furnished a capital article of chills and fever not malaria,
but the good old-fashioned kind with the shivers which  made
the  teeth  chatter  and  burning  fever  to  follow.  On an
average about one half of the midshipmen went  through  this
disagreeable experience every other day.  No one was allowed
to go on the sick-list on account of chills and  fever;  one
was,  however, allowed to lie down n the bare deck while the
chill was on, but had to return  to  duty  as  soon  as  the
paroxysm was over."                                         

From: Recollections of a Rebel Reefer, by James Morris Morgan
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917), pp. 205-207


Announcements

Upcoming Symposium.  Pamplin Historical Park & The  National
Museum  of the Civil War Soldier, near Petersburg, will hold
its Fourth Annual Civil War Symposium on October 21-22.  The
theme   this  year  is  "Cavalry  Raiders  and  Guerrillas."
Speakers and their topics are:                              

    Stephen Davis, "Civil War Cavalry Raids:                  
                   Just What Did They Achieve?"               
    Edwin C. Bearss, "Wilson's Alabama Raid"                  
    Jeffry D. Wert, "Mosby's Rangers"                         
    James A. Ramage, "John Hunt Morgan"                       
    Brian Steel Wills, "Nathan Bedford Forrest"               

In addition to these fine talks, the symposium will  include
a tour of Jeb Stuart's famous "Ride Around McClellan" in the
Spring  of  1862.   For  a   registration   form   or   more
information, call Pamplin Historical Park at 861-2408.      


Richmond Civil War Round Table  in  Cyberspace.   The  Round
Table's  Web site has been available for several months.  It
includes the monthly  newsletter,  photographs  of  previous
meetings,  and  a list of all forthcoming speakers.  The URL
or Web address is:                                          

http://members.tripod.com/~g-cowardin/rcwrt

(The - between g-co is an  underscore )


*Important Notice* December Meeting

The December meeting will  be  December  12,  2000,  at  the
Holiday Inn-Crossroads, 2000 Staples Mill Road.  Social hour
will begin at 6 p.m., with dinner following at 7  p.m.   The
speaker  is  Ed Bearss who will speak on "The Raising of the
Cairo," which will include information about the history  of
the Union ironclad.  The cost for this program is $25.50 per
person.  Seating is limited, so please get your reservations
in early.                                                   

Send  your  name,  address, and phone number, along with the
number of persons for whom you are  making  reservations  to
Sam Craghead.  Make your check out to the Richmond Civil War
Round Table.                                                

       Sam Craghead                                           
       4361D Lakefield Mews                                   
       Richmond, VA 23231                                     

If you have any questions, call Sam at 222-0503.              


Richmond Civil War Round Table Newsletter
Art & Carol Bergeron, Editors
3901 Paces Ferry Road
Chester, VA 23831-1239