Month: May 2019

Civil War Women: Susie King Taylor, Union Nurse and Teacher

/ sandramervillehart

Born into slavery in Georgia in 1848, Susie Baker lived with her grandmother in Savannah after turning seven. She and her younger sister and brother secretly attended school taught by black women.

In April of 1862, the Civil War had been going on for a year when Susie accompanied her uncle to Saint Catherine Island, seeking protection from the Union fleet there. They were taken, two weeks later, to Saint Simons Island. About 600 black men, women, and children lived there.

Susie received two large boxes of books and Bibles from the North. She used these to teach about 40 children on the island, making her the first black teacher in Georgia for free African American students. Several adults came to her in the evenings to learn how to read.

She married Edward King, a black noncommissioned Union officer, while on St. Simons Island.

Cases of varioloid (a form of smallpox) broke out among the soldiers. One soldier had to be quarantined in his tent with only his doctor allowed to see him. Having been vaccinated, Susie nursed him daily. She also faithfully drank sassafras tea, believing this kept her blood clean.

After the island was evacuated in October of 1862, Susie traveled with her husband and brothers’ regiment. She nursed the wounded, laundered clothes, and taught many black soldiers to read.

Shrapnel, bullets, and cannon balls wreak havoc on the human body. Susie’s compassionate heart allowed her to look past the gruesome wounds as she sought to relieve the men’s suffering. She bound wounds and gave water to the parched men, alleviating pain as much as she was able.

After the war, she and her husband returned to Savannah. She started a school for freed children. In 1866, Edward died before their first child was born. Susie had started two more schools by 1868.

A job as a domestic servant took her to Boston, where she met and married Russell Taylor.

Susie didn’t forget the soldiers. She helped organize Corps 67, a chapter of the Women’s Relief Corps, and served as President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Guard of this corps.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Butchart, Ronald E. “Susie King Taylor (1848-1912),” Georgia Encyclopedia, 2019/03/30 https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/susie-king-taylor-1848-1912.

 

Lardas, Mark. African American Soldier in the Civil War: USCT 1862-66, Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2006.

 

Taylor, Susie King. Edited by Malone, Margaret Gay. In My Own Words: The Diary of Susie King Taylor, Civil War Nurse, Benchmark Books, 2004.

 

 

The Love Letter by Rachel Hauck

/ sandramervillehart

The story begins with a wounded soldier, Hamilton. He seems near death yet he must retrieve a letter that is very important to him.

Hamilton is a Revolutionary War soldier, fighting for independence from England. Though Esther loves Hamilton, she and her father are Loyalists. Their story is interwoven with that of a modern couple.

Actress Chloe Daschle is desperate to play a part where her character doesn’t die. Playing the part of Esther in a movie by a new scriptwriter, Jesse Gates, will rescue her from that typecasted role.

Jesse Gates’ play, based on an ancestor’s letter, has more to do with a tragedy from his own life than he cares to admit. Though Chloe tugs at his heart, he’ll never heal from his past enough to love again.

Despite failures in past relationships, Chloe still believes in love. In marriage. Jesse captivates her yet he has put up walls between them.

The author has woven an intricate story, binding the past and the present in a way that kept me turning pages.

Believable, likeable characters all face their own internal battles in a dual story that will stay with readers.

Recommend!

-Sandra Merville Hart

Amazon

Early Baseball Snacks

/ sandramervillehart

Doscher Brothers, a Cincinnati confectioner, made a type of flat popcorn ball and named it Popcorn Fritters. The snack, resembling a rice cake, was sold to the Cincinnati Red Stockings, probably beginning in the mid-1870s. Their home ballpark from 1876-1879 was Avenue Grounds, located about four miles from the center of Cincinnati. Fans traveled in trains and horse-drawn streetcars to games.

Two brothers, Frederick and Louis Rueckheim, experimented with adding molasses and peanuts into popcorn and introduced the treat when the World’s Fair came to Chicago in 1893. They perfected the product and began selling it as “Cracker Jacks” in 1896.

“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks” is a line from the popular 7th inning stretch baseball tune “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” This song, written by Albert Von Tilzer and Jack Norworth in 1908, immortalized both baseball snacks.

Sometime from 1896 to 1908, Cracker Jacks had become a popular snack at ballgames.

The song also mentions peanuts. That salty snack got its start in 1895. Harry Stevens, a ballpark concessioner, sold advertising on scorecards. A peanut company paid for their advertisement with peanuts—a very wise decision because Stevens sold them to fans at the ballparks.

It seems we can also thank Harry Stevens for bringing hot dogs to ballparks.

Ice cream—another early ballpark food!—wasn’t selling well on a cool Spring day in 1905. Stevens sent his employees to buy sausages and Vienna rolls. The sausages were served on the rolls to fans and called “red hots.” They sold so well that he kept them on the menu. In 1910, a cartoonist shortened the name to “hot dog.”

What about drinks?

Brooklyn’s first enclosed ballpark included a saloon on an outfield corner where they sold beer.

The Cincinnati Reds ballpark from 1902-1911 was the Palace of the Fans, a grandstand designed after the Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. This park either had a bar on the grounds or one nearby because waiters served beer to standing-room crowds on “Rooter’s Row,” an area underneath opera-style boxes that jutted out three rows from the grandstand.

Since families attended baseball games, it seems likely those early ballparks also sold lemonade, tea, or coffee.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Reds Ballparks,” Reds.com, 2019/03/23 http://mlb.mlb.com/cin/history/ballparks.jsp.

Suess, Jeff. “Red’s legendary Palace of the Fans symbol of baseball’s growth,” Cincinnati.com, 2019/3/22 https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/04/05/reds-legendary-palace-fans-symbol-baseballs-growth/100063096/.

“The History of Ballpark Food,” History.com, 2019/03/23 https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-ballpark-food.

“The Story Behind Peanuts and Baseball,” National Peanut Board, 2019/03/25  https://www.nationalpeanutboard.org/news/whats-story-behind-peanuts-and-baseball.htm.

Weber, Roger. “A History of Food at the Ballpark,” SportsLibrary.net, 2019/03/25 http://baseballjudgments.tripod.com/id45.html.

Wilson, Laurnie. “Candy History: Cracker Jacks,” Candyfavorites.com, 2019/03/25 https://www.candyfavorites.com/blog/history-of-cracker-jacks-retro/.

Woellert, Dann. Cincinnati Candy—A Sweet History, American Palate, 2017.

 

Civil War Women: Harriet Tubman, Union Spy

/ sandramervillehart

Born into slavery on a Maryland plantation, Araminta Ross’s parents nicknamed her “Minty.” Minty later took her mother’s name, Harriet, to honor her.

At age twelve, she stepped between an overseer throwing a heavy object at a fugitive slave. It struck Harriet instead, breaking her skull. The injury caused headaches and narcolepsy that lasted all her life. She fell deeply asleep at random.

She married a free black man, John Tubman, around 1844.

Learning that she and two of her brothers were about to be sold, they escaped on September 17, 1849. Her brothers returned to the plantation, but Harriet pushed on, following safe houses on the Underground Railroad. She walked about 90 miles to freedom in Pennsylvania. Over the next few years, she rescued about 70 people, including her parents and other family members. Her husband had remarried and chose to stay in Maryland.

When the Civil War began, Harriet worked as cook, nurse, and laundress at Fort Monroe, Virginia. She assisted fugitive slaves there.

In May of 1862, soldiers and fugitives were dying of diseases when she arrived in Port Royal, South Carolina. Her knowledge of local roots helped significantly in treating their illnesses.

In 1863, Harriet, reporting directly to General David Hunter and General Rufus Saxton, commanded a team of espionage scouts searching for escape routes for slaves.

She found warehouses and ammunition and reported the locations to Colonel James Montgomery.

Late on June 2, 1863, Harriet led 150 black men, soldiers of 2nd South Carolina Battalion, on the Combahee River Raid. The surprise attack freed over 750 slaves.

After the war ended, Harriet and her family settled in Auburn, New York, and she continued to help folks in need.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Biography.com Editors. “Harriet Tubman,” A&E Television Networks, 2019/03/30 https://www.biography.com/people/harriet-tubman-9511430.

“Harriet Tubman,” History.com, 2019/03/30 https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harriet-tubman.

“Role in the Civil War,” Harriet Tubman Historical Society, 2019/03/30 http://www.harriet-tubman.org/role-in-the-civil-war/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Harriet Tubman: American Abolitionist,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019/03/30 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harriet-Tubman.

 

 

Flowers from Afghanistan by Suzy Parish

/ sandramervillehart

A tragedy leaves a hole in Mac’s heart and a mountain of debt. He can’t stand the raw grief in Sophie’s eyes so he does the only thing he can do for his wife—sign up as a contractor in Afghanistan. The dangerous work pays well.

Guilt fights with grief as he travels across the world. The miles apart don’t heal his relationship with his wife. They both mourn Little Mac’s death in their own ways.

This story is told entirely from Mac’s point of view as he faces danger in Afghanistan and the turmoil of his heart. He meets other men battling their own issues in the Afghanistan heat.

Believable story. Believable, flawed characters that touched my heart.

An adventure and a page-turner. Recommend.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Amazon