From Our Past

Fun Facts from my research, This Week in History, etc.

Laying the Groundwork for the Transcontinental Railroad

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by Sandra Merville Hart

Asa Whitney, a New York merchant, wanted a railroad that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. His goal was to make trade with China easier after returning from a trip to China in 1844.

In 1845, Whitney petitioned Congress for federal funding of a sixty-mile strip and proposed that land be granted as wages for workers. He didn’t give up when his request was denied. In 1849 he published Project for a Railroad, which outlined possible routes. Congress didn’t accept his ideas, but their interest was growing.

Whitney continued to talk about his dream and the public noticed. A transcontinental railroad brought many benefits. Train travel for passengers was faster and safer than stagecoaches and wagon trains. Mail delivery would be accomplished more quickly. Goods from the east could reach western customers in a timely manner. There were many merits to building it.

Others made proposals but Congressmen didn’t agree on the eastern terminus. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis sent four men to lead the exploration of potential routes for the transcontinental railroad. They learned that any of them worked. The least expensive was the route along the 32nd parallel.

Because routes along the South didn’t please Northern Congressmen and vice versa, debates continued.

Whitney stopped lobbying for the railroad in 1851, but a new champion came along in 1860. Theodore D. Judah believed the Donner Pass was the perfect area for the railroad to navigate through the Sierra Nevada mountains. As the engineer of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, he wanted to build the new railroad.

He brought Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis P. Huntington, and Mark Hopkins in on the project, leading to the establishment of Central Pacific Railroad Company of California.

Judah traveled to Washington City (as Washington DC was then called) where he talked with Congress. President Abraham Lincoln backed the idea and the first Pacific Railway Act went into effect on July 1, 1862. It stated the Union Pacific was to start in Omaha, Nebraska, and build toward the west. The Central Pacific started in Sacramento, California, and built toward the east to meet them roughly halfway.

It was a long journey of many years and several key people to make the decisions laying the groundwork for the Transcontinental Railroad, not the least of whom were Asa Whitney and Theodore Judah.

The hero in my novel, Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my “Spies of the Civil War” series, dreams of participating in building the Transcontinental Railroad. The fictional Union officer hopes that the war doesn’t last so long that he misses his opportunity. I was thrilled to use such an important part of our history in the story.  

Sources

“Asa Whitney,” Wikipedia, 2022/02/26 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_Whitney.

History.com Editors. “Transcontinental Railroad,” History.com, 2022/02/22 https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad.

“Pacific Railway Acts,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022/02/22 https://www.britannica.com/event/Pacific-Railway-Acts.

“The Beginnings of American Railroads and Mapping,” Library of Congress, 2022/02/26 https://www.loc.gov/collections/railroad-maps-1828-to-1900/articles-and-essays/history-of-railroads-and-maps/the-beginnings-of-american-railroads-and-mapping/.

“The Transcontinental Railroad,” Library of Congress, 2022/02/26 https://www.loc.gov/collections/railroad-maps-1828-to-1900/articles-and-essays/history-of-railroads-and-maps/the-transcontinental-railroad/.

“Transcontinental Railroad,” History.net, 2020/06/19 https://www.historynet.com/transcontinental-railroad.

Civil War in Washington DC: The Willard Hotel

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by Sandra Merville Hart

City Hotel, located at 1401 Pennsylvania NW in Washington DC, was expanded after Henry Willard leased it in 1847. He soon brought his brother, Joseph, into to the business and changed the name to Willard Hotel. They built a six-floor hotel on the southwest corner of 14th and F Streets. The brothers purchased a Presbyterian Church on F Street and converted it to a meeting hall with an auditorium called Willard Hall.

Henry went the extra mile to make his hotel successful. He greeted hotel guests as they stepped out of the stage. He was at the Central Market before dawn to select the highest quality of products available to serve for in his hotel’s dining rooms. Henry donned a white apron to carve meats at the dining table.

By the Civil War, the hotel was a center of activity for the bustling capital then known as Washington City. Luxurious gentlemen’s and ladies’ dining rooms could accommodate 2,500 diners daily. Elegant parlors invited guests to linger after a meal before retiring to their rooms.

The hotel also boasted of a 150-foot ballroom, where it hosted lavish events like the Napier Ball, given as a farewell on February 17, 1859, to the British Ambassador Lord Francis Napier and Lady Anne Napier. Eighteen hundred guests paid an expensive price of $10 each to attend. The ball’s success boosted the hotel’s prestige.

Willard’s boasted another honor—both Franklin Pierce and Abraham Lincoln stayed at their hotel before their presidential inaugurations.  

After the war began, Union regiments poured into the city for further training and the hotel lobby became a common meeting place for Union officers to make their reports.

One of these regiments, the 11th New York Infantry, was made up of firemen under Colonel Elmer F. Ellsworth. The entire regiment wore red shirts, gray breeches, gray jackets, and red caps, so they stood out in a crowd.

On May 9, 1861, the Willard brothers had cause to be grateful for Ellsworth’s Zouves when fire engulfed Samuel Owen’s tailor shop, which adjoined their hotel. With equipment borrowed from local firehouses, Ellsworth’s men helped the Washington Fire Department extinguish the blaze. His entire regiment was eventually called to fight the fire and Ellsworth, using the fire chief’s trumpet, took command until the crisis ended.

Henry Willard was so pleased with the results that he invited them all to breakfast. Undoubtedly, the situation would have been much worse without so many capable firefighters.

Union soldiers training for the Civil War battlefields faced a familiar battle that day.  

There is a scene at the Willard Hotel when characters in my novel, Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my “Spies of the Civil War” series, dine there. I was thrilled to use such an important location in the story.  

Sources

“11th New York Infantry Regiment,” Wikipedia, 2022/02/25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_New_York_Infantry_Regiment.

“A Ball at Willard’s,” White House Historical Association, 2022/02/25 https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/a-ball-at-willards.

Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington, Ballantine Books, 2004.

Selected by Dennett, Tyler. Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939.

“The Willard Hotel,” White House History, 2020/06/11 https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-willard-hotel.

“The Willard Hotel in the 19th Century,” Streets of Washington, 2020/06/11 http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2012/07/the-willard-hotel-in-19th-century.html.

Waller, Douglas. Lincoln’s Spies, Simon & Schuster, 2019.

“Willard Hotel,” National Park Service, 2020/06/11 https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc36.htm.

“Willard InterContinental Washington,” Wikipedia, 2020/06/11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_InterContinental_Washington.

Civil War in Washington DC: The Willard Hotel and President Lincoln’s Inauguration

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by Sandra Merville Hart

By 1860, the Willard Hotel, located at 1401 Pennsylvania NW, was a center of activity in the bustling capital then known as Washington City.

The South began seceding after Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. He had to travel from Illinois to Washington City for his inauguration.

Allan Pinkerton, head of Pinkerton National Detective Agency, learned of assassination plots for president-elect Lincoln’s life in Baltimore. He feared that he would be killed. Though Lincoln was reluctant to believe his life was in danger, he agreed to Pinkerton’s alternate travel plans. It meant that his family would come later. Ward Hill Lamon was Lincoln’s bodyguard.

Unfortunately, secrecy was required to ensure Lincoln’s safety. That meant he arrived at dawn in Washington City without the fanfare that normally accompanies such an event.

The president-elect was ushered into the less-crowded ladies’ entrance to Willard Hotel on 14th Street where one of the Willard brothers met him on February 23, 1861.

Many people ridiculed Lincoln for sneaking into the city and he soon regretted his decision.

Mary and the boys arrived and the family stayed in a comfortable second-floor suite.

Henry Willard learned that Lincoln had forgotten to pack his bedroom slippers and talked to his wife. She offered him a colorful pair that she recently knitted for her grandfather. Lincoln borrowed them for the remainder of his stay.

Mary Todd Lincoln didn’t receive the same warm welcome from the Washington society ladies at the hotel. They seemed to dislike her from the beginning.

Abraham Lincoln stayed at Willard Hotel for ten days. Then his Inauguration Day arrived. On March 4, 1861, over 25,000 people gathered at the Capitol to witness the swearing in of the sixteenth president.

No one could have foreseen the turmoil of the next four years on that cloudy, blustery day.

The Willard Hotel is steeped in history. There is a scene at this hotel in my novel, Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my “Spies of the Civil War” series, where the characters dine there. I was thrilled to use such an important location as part of the story.  

Sources

Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington, Ballantine Books, 2004.

Selected by Dennett, Tyler. Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939.

“The Willard Hotel,” White House History, 2020/06/11 https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-willard-hotel.

“The Willard Hotel in the 19th Century,” Streets of Washington, 2020/06/11 http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2012/07/the-willard-hotel-in-19th-century.html.

Waller, Douglas. Lincoln’s Spies, Simon & Schuster, 2019.

Civil War Songs Stirred Patriotic Feelings

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by Sandra Merville Hart

The American Civil War (1861—1865) inspired many songs. In fact, “The First Gun is Fired! May God Protect the Right!” was published three days after the firing on Fort Sumter, the official beginning of the war. George F. Root composed that song and over thirty others about the war.

Not all the songs popular during the war were written in that turbulent period. Also, different words were often written for the same tune. For example, the tune for “Maryland, My Maryland!” was the same as the Christmas song “O Tannenbaum.”

War songs often dealt with topics on the minds of soldiers, such as home, sweethearts, family, battles, battlefield deaths, faith, survival, and heroes. “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh,” “Just Before the Battle, Mother,” “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” and “Comrades, I Am Dying!” are examples of these.

Songs that particularly struck a chord with citizens dealt with patriotic themes, missing a family member, and grief for those who weren’t coming home, of which “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The Vacant Chair (or We Shall Meet but We Shall Miss Him)” are poignant examples.

“God Save the South,” “Dixie,” “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” “All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight,” and “Maryland, My Maryland!” were sung in the South.

“Battle Cry of Freedom,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “The Grant Pill,” and “The Children of the Battle Field” were among those sung in the North.

Union and Confederate armies heard each other’s bands playing on the eve of the Battle of Stones River. A musical rivalry ensued where Union and Confederate bands took turns playing songs that supported their own side. When bands played “Home! Sweet Home!”, both sides sang together. One can only imagine how mutual yearning for their families swelled their voices into the night sky.  

This song bound both sides together for an unforgettable moment.

Some of these tunes are examples of what the characters in my novel, Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my “Spies of the Civil War” series, enjoyed at regimental band concerts in the story. My hope is that these scenes transport readers back when such concerts were an oasis during those turbulent war days, as well as show that not everyone in the city was loyal to the Union.  

Sources

(Introduction by) Crawford, Richard. The Civil War Songbook, Dover Publications, Inc., 1977.

“Music of the American Civil War,” Wikipedia, 2022/02/01 ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_American_Civil_War.

Civil War Novel Releases Today!

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by Sandra Merville Hart

I’m thrilled to announce that Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my new “Spies of the Civil War” releases today, February 8, 2022!

Though the series is about a fictional family, there are actual historical spies who touch the stories.

Avenue of Betrayal is set in Washington City (Washington DC) in 1861. Union soldiers came to the capital to train. There were so many regiments camped in and around the city that citizens saw a sea of tents in every available field. Soldiers drilled daily so the sounds of marching feet, bugles, drums, and musketry permeated the atmosphere.

And there was a lot of spying for the Confederacy that happened within blocks of the White House.

Here’s a bit about the book:

Betrayed by her brother and the man she loves …

whom can she trust when tragedy strikes?

Soldiers are pouring into Washington City every day and have begun drilling in preparation for a battle with the Confederacy. Annie Swanson worries for her brother, whom she’s just discovered is a Confederate officer in his new home state of North Carolina. Even as Annie battles feelings of betrayal toward the big brother she’s always adored, her wealthy banker father swears her and her sister to secrecy about her brother’s actions. How could he forsake their mother’s abolitionist teachings?

Sergeant-Major John Finn camps within a mile of the Swansons’ mansion where his West Point pal once lived. Sweet Annie captured his heart at Will’s wedding last year and he looks forward to reestablishing their relationship—until he’s asked to spy on her father.

To prove her father’s loyalty to the Union, John agrees to spy on the Swanson family, though Annie must never know. Then the war strikes a blow that threatens to destroy them all—including the love that’s grown between them against all odds.

Order your copy today on Amazon and other retailers!

Civil War Bands and Music

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by Sandra Merville Hart

Music was very important to both soldiers and citizens during the Civil War.

Bugles and drums were used to convey orders on the battlefield because they could be heard over the din of battle. Regimental bands played on long marches to entertain the troops and keep their spirits up.

Fiddles, banjos, fifes, and guitars were also popular instruments in regimental bands that played before and during battles to bolster the soldiers’ spirits.

When opposing sides camped near each other before battles, they were often close enough to hear each other’s bands playing. Union and Confederate bands took turns playing songs that supported their own side. This happened on the eve of the Battle of Stones River. When bands played “Home! Sweet Home!” both sides sang together. One can only imagine how their voices stirred the hearts of every listener as they joined together in song, all bound by mutual yearning for their families.  

On the Homefront, Civil War songs ignited patriotic feelings in citizens.

After the war began, Union soldiers traveled with their regiments to Washington DC, commonly called Washington City at that time, for training. The noise level escalated with the city’s expanding population as troops camped on every available field.

One of the benefits of all the regiments in the Union capital was the music. Bands gave concerts for the enjoyment of citizens. For instance, the United States Marine Band played in the White House garden on Saturday afternoons. Citizens flocked to concerts such as these and sang along with such songs as “Yankee Doodle” and “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.”

The characters in my novel, Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my “Spies of the Civil War” series, enjoy band concerts in the story. My hope is that these scenes transport readers back to concerts on the White House Garden in 1861, and also show that not everyone in the city was loyal to the Union.  

Sources

(Introduction by) Crawford, Richard. The Civil War Songbook, Dover Publications, Inc., 1977.

“Music of the American Civil War,” Wikipedia, 2022/02/01 ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_American_Civil_War.

Nolan, Jeannette Covert. Spy for the Confederacy: Rose O’Neal Greenhow, Julian Messner, Inc., 1960.

Grasshopper Weather

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by Sandra Merville Hart

I recently read On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her family moved to Minnesota when she was seven and first stayed in a sod house built into the creek bank. The details of everyday life in the 1870s fascinated me.

The Ingalls family was very poor. They had moved into the sod house too late to plant crops so finances were tight. Laura’s pa put all his hopes on next year’s crop, which promised to be a bountiful one. She dreamed of having all the things they’d done without and eating candy daily.

There was no snow by Thanksgiving of that year. Days were still warm though the nights were chilly. No rain. No more frost. Pa learned that the old-timers called it “grasshopper weather” but no one explained what that meant.

An unusually dry, hot, sunny summer followed. Plump wheat promised a beautiful crop. Pa planned to pay for the farmhouse he’d borrowed the money to build with the bountiful wheat.

Sunshine dimmed at lunchtime a couple of days before the planned harvest. A coming storm blackened the sky. No, not a normal storm. What was it?

Glittering thin snowflake-like matter blocked the sun. No wind. Then brown grasshoppers dropped to the ground, falling on Laura’s head and arms like hail. When she beat at them, they clung to her skin.

Grasshoppers by the millions ate the wheat crop, prairie grasses, leaves, cornstalks, and every vegetable in the garden. Though all windows were shut, brown grasshoppers came inside the house each time someone entered it.

Laura’s family endured a nightmare.

It’s estimated that one trillion Rocky Mountain locusts descended on the Great Plains in 1874, covering an area around 2,000,000 square miles and causing much devastation.

When large groups of grasshoppers swarm, they’re called locusts. In one day, these swarms can fly as far as 100 miles.

Locusts returned in smaller numbers some years but became extinct early in the 1900s. The arrival of farmers who plowed the prairie grass to grow crops changed the habitat, which many experts believe caused the extinction.   

Sources

“Grasshoppers in On the Banks of Plum Creek.” Study.com, 12 April 2017, study.com/academy/lesson/grasshoppers-in-on-the-banks-of-plum-creek.html.

Nuwer, Rachel. “When Weather Changes, Grasshopper Turns Locust,” The New York Times, 2021/09/29 https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/science/when-weather-changes-grasshopper-turns-locust.html.

Wheeler, John. “Weather Talk: Grasshopper plagues are gone with the wind,” AGWEEK, 2021/09/29 https://www.agweek.com/news/weather/4324688-weather-talk-grasshopper-plagues-are-gone-wind.

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. On the Banks of Plum Creek, HarperTrophy, 1971.

Confederate Spy Rose Greenhow Influences Characters in Avenue of Betrayal

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by Sandra Merville Hart

Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my new “Spies of the Civil War” series, releases on February 8, 2022. Here’s a bit of historical background for the story.

Though the series is about a fictional family, there are actual historical spies who touch the stories.

Avenue of Betrayal is set in Washington City (Washington DC) in 1861, where a surprising number of Confederate sympathizers and spies live.

Perhaps the most famous female Confederate spy who lived in Washington DC when the Civil War began was Rose O’Neal Greenhow. When many other Southerner sympathizers left, the widow remained with her eight-year-old daughter, Rose. Colonel Thomas Jordan asked Rose to be an agent shortly before leaving the city to fight for the South. Spying to uncover troop movements and government communications appealed to her. She agreed to send messages based on a cipher he provided.

Coded messages were sent on a “Secret Line,” which involved several couriers in a chain that passed on messages in common places such as docks, taverns, and farmhouses.

Rose’s spy network from Boston to New Orleans was the largest in the war—48 women and 2 men. She learned battle plans for Bull Run and passed this vital information to Confederate General Beauregard. The First Battle of Bull Run was a Confederate victory.

Several other messages about Washington’s defenses and troop information were sent from Rose to Beauregard. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, asked Allan Pinkerton, head of Lincoln’s Intelligence Service, to find Confederate spies and put Greenhow under surveillance.

About a month after the First Battle of Bull Run, Pinkerton discovered incriminating evidence. The home was searched. Rose and her daughter were placed under arrest at her home. Because she managed to get other secret messages out, they were moved to Washington’s Old Capitol prison. The Federals decided to send her South.

On June 4, 1862, she arrived in Richmond, where she was taken to the best hotel. Confederate President Jefferson Davis called on her the next day, saying, “But for you there would have been no battle of Bull Run.” Rose wrote that his words made up for all she’d endured.

Rose’s real-life story influences the fictional characters in Avenue of Betrayal.

Sources

Monson, Marianne. Women of the Blue & Gray, Thorndike Press, 2018.

Winkler, H. Donald. Stealing Secrets, Cumberland House, 2010.

Zeinert, Karen. Those Courageous Women of the Civil War, The Millbrook Press, 1998.

Ten Christmas Songs that Mention a Manger

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by Sandra Merville Hart

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 1:4-7)

The manger—a trough for horses and cattle to eat from—was the first bed for Jesus because there was no room at the inn.

Here’s a list of ten traditional Christmas songs that mention a manger:

  • “Away in a Manger”
  • “Angels We Have Heard on High” – See him in a manger laid
  • “Good Christian Men Rejoice” – And he is in the manger now  
  • “Angels and Shepherds” – Lo he is lying, born in a manger
  • “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” – Gentle Mary laid her child lowly in a manger
  • “O Come, All Ye Faithful” – Child, for us sinners poor and in the manger
  • “While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks” – and in a manger laid
  • “Mary’s Boy Child” – and in a manger cold and dark
  • “O Holy Night” – The King of Kings lay thus lowly manger
  • “Fum, Fum, Fum” In a manger poor and lowly

Can you think of others?

Merry Christmas!

https://www.amazon.com/Sandra-Merville-Hart/e/B00OBSJ3PU/

Sources

“Christmas Lyrics,” Mikeleal.com,  2021/10/04 http://www.mikeleal.com/christmas/songs.html.

Ten Christmas Songs that Mention Angels

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by Sandra Merville Hart

Angels played an important part in the birth of Jesus.

The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to let her know she’d bear the Son of God. His name was to be Jesus. (Luke 1:26-38)

An angel appeared to shepherds the night Jesus was born, telling them the “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Then many other angels joined them and sang praises to God. (Luke 2:8-14)

Here’s a list of ten traditional Christmas songs that mention angels:

  • “Angels We Have Heard on High”
  • “Angels From the Realms of Glory”
  • “Angels and Shepherds”  
  • “The First Noel” – The First Noel, the angel did say
  • “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” – Angels sang about His birth
  • “O Little Town of Bethlehem” – The angels keep their watch of wondering love
  • “God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen” – “Fear not, then,” said the angel
  • “Mary’s Boy Child” – Hark, now hear the angels sing, a king was born today
  • “O Holy Night” – Oh, hear the angel voices!
  • “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”

Can you think of others?

Merry Christmas!

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