We made it home after a fun family reunion weekend. The reunion was for my Mills family that started out in Maryland late 1600's to North Carolina to Tennessee then on to Missouri to Kansas (I born and raised) then on to Texas. We were very excited because we have found new Mills relation and was excited to meet them. The reunion was like all reunions, eat, visit, compare information, eat, visit, site see and did I mention eat, visit!
One very exciting thing happened to me and that was I was taken to the original log cabin that my great-great-great granddad lived in when he came to Kansas from Missouri in the late 1800's. I didn't know the land was still in the Mills family and the best part of it was the foundation was still there so I was able to get permission to have a stone from it. If you are into family genealogy as I am then you know what a find this means. What is strange I grew up in Kansas and was told and shown a lot about my family but know one ever took me back into the hills to this exact spot. I was like a kid in a candy store.
My great-great-great granddad was William Cloud Mills. My very first post for this blog was on him. If you would like to read the article click here.
I will be getting back to posting articles and news here at American Civil War Stories but first I have together all the info from the reunion and work on our Mills family website plus I draw out family charts for clients so have a lot to get started on; guess I better get started!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Be Gone for Awhile
Well, we are heading out for our family reunion. Boy! Family Reunions are a lot of work, making charts, buying items, organizing, etc. If you have every organized a family reunion you know what I mean. If you haven't then the next time you go to your family reunion, stop, look around and see what has to be done to prepare and what is happening now then what is to happen next. Lots of work but lots of fun!
Family reunions are a great place to get information if you are looking for your Civil War ancestor. You just don't know what you will find. You just might find a story like my Civil War ancestor William Cloud Mills. If you would like to read it click here.
I'll be back later next week, see you then!
Family reunions are a great place to get information if you are looking for your Civil War ancestor. You just don't know what you will find. You just might find a story like my Civil War ancestor William Cloud Mills. If you would like to read it click here.
I'll be back later next week, see you then!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Nest of Pirates
I finally have the time to get another article up for your enjoyment. As in my previous post I've been busy getting ready for a family reunion. I hope you enjoy this article about one of the Confederates’ most notorious and best spies.
So much attention is heaped upon the grand land battles of the Civil War that naval actions are often overlooked. On the seas, the Union war effort was a success right from the start.
The primary task of the navy was to enforce the blockade-an ambitious attempt by the Lincoln Administration to seal off the commerce of the South. The Union’s goal was to cripple the Southern economy so she would not be able to supply her armies and citizens at home.
The Confederacy had some 3,500 miles of coastline stretching from the Virginia beaches to the Gulf Coast of Texas. With ten major ports and another 180 inlets and accessible rivers, the task of patrolling the coastlines were daunting. In the summer of 1861, the Union navy only had about three dozen blockade ships to apprehend hundreds of Confederate merchant vessels determined to run the blockade. Nearly nine out of every ten ships were able to go undetected. The cost of insuring cargo skyrocketed and the mere fact that more than a tenth of the South’s goods never made it to European markets eventually took its toll on the Southern economic front.
The most active portion of the blockade was the Atlantic waters off the protruding coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina. There, numerous tidal basins and inlets provided a haven for cunning Confederate merchants determined to sneak out during storms or darkness. One Union naval officer called this area a “nest of pirates.”
One of the Confederates’ most notorious and best spies was Virginian Belle Boyd. Arrested numerous times for spying, she was paroled in 1864 and took ship aboard a blockade-runner near Wilmington, North Carolina, hoping to again flee federal agents who were chasing her because she had stolen crucial documents. Soon after leaving port, her boat was captured. The ship’s captain, Union officer Samuel Hardings, instantly fell in love with the twenty-year-old, flirtatious spy. They were soon married and spent the rest of the war in England, where Belle published her autobiography, which detailed many of her intelligence exploits.
By the war’s midpoint, 500 Union ships took part in the blockade with 150 on duty at any given time. These ships captured or destroyed more than 1,500 Confederate vessels. But blockade duty offered few opportunities for glory, and boredom rained upon seamen for months at a time. “Day after day, day after day, we lay inactive, roll, roll,” one sailor wrote home.
Union sailors did stay sane and alert, however, because if they caught the right merchant blockade-runner, the crew shared half of the bounty with the government. One little gunboat, the Aeolus, caught two runners off the Carolina coast and the bounty amounted to $40,000 for the captain, while each seaman pocketed a nifty $3,000. On the Confederate side, a successful blockade-runner captain would earn more than $5,000 in gold.
How effective was the blockade? By war’s end, the Union navy caught half of all runners. Prices soared in the supply-needy South. In 1863 it took ten Confederate dollars to buy what two years earlier had only cost one. Though some 10,000 runners ran the blockade during the war, the South never was able to overcome the ruinous inflation that eventually killed its economy and starved its armies.
If you would like to read more about Belle Boyd try this book:
So much attention is heaped upon the grand land battles of the Civil War that naval actions are often overlooked. On the seas, the Union war effort was a success right from the start.
The primary task of the navy was to enforce the blockade-an ambitious attempt by the Lincoln Administration to seal off the commerce of the South. The Union’s goal was to cripple the Southern economy so she would not be able to supply her armies and citizens at home.
The Confederacy had some 3,500 miles of coastline stretching from the Virginia beaches to the Gulf Coast of Texas. With ten major ports and another 180 inlets and accessible rivers, the task of patrolling the coastlines were daunting. In the summer of 1861, the Union navy only had about three dozen blockade ships to apprehend hundreds of Confederate merchant vessels determined to run the blockade. Nearly nine out of every ten ships were able to go undetected. The cost of insuring cargo skyrocketed and the mere fact that more than a tenth of the South’s goods never made it to European markets eventually took its toll on the Southern economic front.
The most active portion of the blockade was the Atlantic waters off the protruding coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina. There, numerous tidal basins and inlets provided a haven for cunning Confederate merchants determined to sneak out during storms or darkness. One Union naval officer called this area a “nest of pirates.”
One of the Confederates’ most notorious and best spies was Virginian Belle Boyd. Arrested numerous times for spying, she was paroled in 1864 and took ship aboard a blockade-runner near Wilmington, North Carolina, hoping to again flee federal agents who were chasing her because she had stolen crucial documents. Soon after leaving port, her boat was captured. The ship’s captain, Union officer Samuel Hardings, instantly fell in love with the twenty-year-old, flirtatious spy. They were soon married and spent the rest of the war in England, where Belle published her autobiography, which detailed many of her intelligence exploits.
By the war’s midpoint, 500 Union ships took part in the blockade with 150 on duty at any given time. These ships captured or destroyed more than 1,500 Confederate vessels. But blockade duty offered few opportunities for glory, and boredom rained upon seamen for months at a time. “Day after day, day after day, we lay inactive, roll, roll,” one sailor wrote home.
Union sailors did stay sane and alert, however, because if they caught the right merchant blockade-runner, the crew shared half of the bounty with the government. One little gunboat, the Aeolus, caught two runners off the Carolina coast and the bounty amounted to $40,000 for the captain, while each seaman pocketed a nifty $3,000. On the Confederate side, a successful blockade-runner captain would earn more than $5,000 in gold.
How effective was the blockade? By war’s end, the Union navy caught half of all runners. Prices soared in the supply-needy South. In 1863 it took ten Confederate dollars to buy what two years earlier had only cost one. Though some 10,000 runners ran the blockade during the war, the South never was able to overcome the ruinous inflation that eventually killed its economy and starved its armies.
If you would like to read more about Belle Boyd try this book:
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Washington’s Boyhood Home Is Found
This has nothing to do with the American Civil War but since it's Independence Day I wanted to post this very exciting discovery!
"Researchers announced Wednesday that remains excavated in the last three years were those of the long-sought dwelling, on the old family farm in Virginia 50 miles south of Washington."
"Dr. Levy and other members of the excavation team said the foundations, stone-lined cellars and other remains suggested that this was far from being the rustic cottage of common perception, but instead one befitting a family of the local gentry. It was a much larger one-and-a-half-story residence, with perhaps eight rooms and an adjacent structure for the kitchen."
You can read the article in it's entirety by clicking here.
"Researchers announced Wednesday that remains excavated in the last three years were those of the long-sought dwelling, on the old family farm in Virginia 50 miles south of Washington."
"Dr. Levy and other members of the excavation team said the foundations, stone-lined cellars and other remains suggested that this was far from being the rustic cottage of common perception, but instead one befitting a family of the local gentry. It was a much larger one-and-a-half-story residence, with perhaps eight rooms and an adjacent structure for the kitchen."
You can read the article in it's entirety by clicking here.
I'm sorry I haven't been around lately so wanted to let you all know what has been going on that is keeping me so busy.First, I haven't forgot all you faithful readers and I do appreciate you taking the time to visit my civil war site. Civil War is just one of my passion along with Genealogy which bring me to family reunions. Yes, I'm working on a family reunion that will be held the 26 & 27 of July so it's right around the corner. As you can imagine I'm busy, busy, busy! I am trying to stay abreast of this site plus my genealogy site which if you would like to visit it's: http://genealogysf.blogspot.com, family reunion stuff and family to boot! Some how it will all come together. So if you don't have much to enjoy in the coming days don't despair I'll be back with lots new info for your enjoyment!
In the mean time I do want to post some sites that I think you will really enjoy.
1. Beautiful Dixie www.mybeautifulamerica.com/BeautifulDixie.htm
Site back and enjoy the music while viewing some beautiful pictures of the south. It's kind of nice to see some pictures of the places I have visited throught the years.
2. With the 4th tomorrow I thought you might like to visit some historical sites that has some very informative information.
Archiving Early America
Your Window To Early America
http://www.earlyamerica.com/
The Battle of Bunker Hill
http://www.masshist.org/bh/
Charters of Freedom: Declaration of Independence
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html
In the mean time I do want to post some sites that I think you will really enjoy.
1. Beautiful Dixie www.mybeautifulamerica.com/BeautifulDixie.htm
Site back and enjoy the music while viewing some beautiful pictures of the south. It's kind of nice to see some pictures of the places I have visited throught the years.
2. With the 4th tomorrow I thought you might like to visit some historical sites that has some very informative information.
Archiving Early America
Your Window To Early America
http://www.earlyamerica.com/
The Battle of Bunker Hill
http://www.masshist.org/bh/
Charters of Freedom: Declaration of Independence
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html
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