From Our Past

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

Cincinnati Reds’ Palace of the Fans

/ sandramervillehart

When fire destroyed League Park’s main grandstand and pavilion in 1900, Red’s owner John T. Brush wanted a new and different ballpark to lure more fans to the games. Architect John G. Thurtle gave it to him.

Inspired by the Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, Thurtle designed the Palace of the Fans. It served as the Reds’ ballpark from 1902-1911.

The Palace’s hand-carved Corinthian columns—22 of them!—had intricate details on the top.

At the center of the covered grandstand was a triangular top containing the word “Cincinnati” and flanked by the American flag on either side. Nineteen opera-style “Fashion Boxes” lined the front, 3 rows deep, where wealthier fans sat. The boxes accommodated about 15 in each box.

Underneath the grandstand were carriage stalls, enabling the wealthy to leave their carriages only a short walk from their seats.

All this was quite fancy for ballparks of that day, unlike any before or after it.

Unfortunately, the detailed attention to the Greco-Roman ballpark didn’t extend to the players. There were no dugouts, no clubhouses, and no dressing rooms. Players sat on benches underneath the Fashion Boxes during the game.

Standing room for fans was also located below the Fashion Boxes. Those in “Rooter’s Row” stood near enough to players to hear and respond to their conversations. Waiters served beer to those in this section.

A weakness of League Park, the former baseball park, was that it faced the afternoon sun, so home plate had been moved to correct this problem.

The new ballpark was built on the same site as the old one that had burned, League Park, a former brickyard. It bordered 4 streets: Western Avenue (northeast), York Street (north), McLean Avenue (west) and Findlay Street (south).

Right-field seats were part of the League Park that had not been destroyed by fire. The stands held about 6,000 fans. Thousands more could stand in the outfield to observe the game.

Thursday, April 17, 1902, was Opening Day for the Season and for the Palace. About 10,000 fans attended the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Colts (later known as Chicago Cubs) that Chicago won, 6-1.

The grandstand required major repairs after a few short seasons. Damage from a fire sealed its fate. Palace of the Fans lasted only 10 years.

Interestingly enough, the last game the Reds played at the Palace was against the Chicago Cubs on October 12, 1911.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Crosley Field,” The Online Book of Baseball, 2019/03/23 http://www.thisgreatgame.com/ballparks-crosley-field.html.

“Palace of the Fans,” Ballparks.com, 2019/03/22 https://ballparks.com/baseball/national/palace.htm.

“Palace of the Fans,” Baseball-reference.com, 2019/03/22 https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Palace of the Fans.

“Palace of the Fans,” Digitalballparks.com, 2019/03/22 https://digitalballparks.com/National/Palace7.html.

“Palace of the Fans,” Wikipedia, 2019/03/23 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace of the Fans.

“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/.

 

Civil War Women: Sarah Morgan Dawson, Confederate Diarist

/ sandramervillehart

Sarah Morgan Dawson was twenty when she began writing in her diary on March 9, 1862. The Civil War raged near her family’s home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her family had already known hard times. In 1861, illness claimed her father’s life and a duel claimed a brother’s life.

War threatened to divide her family. Three brothers fought for the Confederacy and another, though he sided with the Union, refused to fight against his brothers.

Baton Rouge fell into Union hands. Most citizens ran for their lives, including Sarah’s family. She returned a few times to gather possessions from her home, but found that the Union soldiers who occupied the city had ransacked it. The home was unrecognizable on her last trip—the soldiers had plundered valuables and destroyed what they left behind. Sarah didn’t return to her childhood home until after the war.

Made homeless by the war, her family wandered from Baton Rouge, staying with friends and strangers.

Food supplies dwindled. Sarah had money to purchase food yet some places had none for sale.

They stayed near the Confederate army, making friends with many soldiers. Sarah did all she could to help them. Her family had escaped with few clothes … and everyone else was in the same predicament.

A serious buggy accident injured Sarah’s back. The injury prevented her from walking more than a few steps. She clung to her faith throughout the difficulties that mounted almost daily.

Her Union-sympathizer brother urged them to stay with him in New Orleans, which was now under Union control. They had little choice. A hard train ride and then a schooner took them to New Orleans.

Upon their arrival, they had to take an oath of allegiance to the Union. A Southerner at heart, taking the oath broke Sarah’s spirit. Even worse, Sarah’s mother complained so passionately to the Union soldiers of all she’d suffered at their hands that she was almost arrested. Sarah’s brother smoothed things over and took them into his home.

At the beginning of 1864, Sarah’s heart broke to discover that two of her brothers died. They’d lost so much to the war that she hated the Union.

General Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. Sarah’s diary entries stopped on June 15, 1865.

It was published and inscribed: “To those who endured and forgave”.

Sarah read her diary many years later and wanted people to know that through it all, God never failed her. “Whatever the anguish, whatever the extremity, in His own good time He ever delivered me. So that I bless Him to-day for all of life’s joys and sorrows—for all He gave—for all He has taken—and I bear witness that it was all Very Good.” –Sarah Morgan Dawson, July 23rd, 1896, Charleston, South Carolina.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Dawson, Sarah Morgan. A Confederate Girl’s Diary: Civil War Centennial Series, Indiana University Press, 1960.

 

Cover Reveal for Upcoming “The Cowboys Collection” Release!

/ sandramervillehart

 

Revealing the book cover for the “Smitten Historical Romance Collection: The Cowboys” that releases in August!

All the authors in collection—Jennifer Uhlarik, Linda W. Yezak, Sandra Merville Hart, and Cindy Ervin Huff—have written stories with cowboy heroes and feisty heroines. Prepare to head to the Wild West!

I hope you love the book cover as much as we do!

Trail’s End, my novella in the collection, is set in the wild cowtown of Abilene, Kansas.

Back cover blurb:

Wade Chadwick has no money until his boss’s cattle sell, so he takes a kitchen job at Abby’s Home Cooking. The beautiful and prickly owner adds spice to his workday. Abby Cox hires the down-and-out cowboy even though the word cowboy leaves a bad taste in her mouth. Just as she’s ready to trust Wade with her heart, money starts to disappear…and so does her brother.

Future President Abraham Lincoln Visits Cincinnati

/ sandramervillehart

September 17, 1859 was a warm, sultry Saturday night in Cincinnati. Drummers played. Rockets glared reddish-yellow above Fifth Street residences. A Union flag waved above the Fifth Street Market House. Youngsters fed several bonfires to light the night for a crowd of over 4,000 who gazed at a man speaking from a 2nd floor balcony.

Abraham Lincoln of Illinois spoke from a building on the north side of the street where the Federal Courthouse stands. Earnest and, at time, humorous, Lincoln spoke against the expansion of slavery.

Reverend Moncure Conway was used to political gatherings. This one was a campaign specifically for Cincinnati attorney William Dennison who was running for Governor. Yet there was something compelling about Lincoln. He said that slavery was wrong. In that border city where slavery was legal across the Ohio River into Kentucky, a few folks in the crowd hissed their disapproval.

Lincoln waited for outbursts to subside a little. Then he replied that everyone was born with two hands and a mouth to be fed and he inferred it was the job of those two hands to feed that mouth.

The Republicans didn’t ask Lincoln to be their nominee until six months later on May 23, 1860. When someone in the Cincinnati crowd asked who Lincoln recommended they vote for, he didn’t have a choice for candidate. His advice was to vote for a man who’d fight slavery’s expansion.

Front-Porch Campaigns of the era preferred that presidential candidates allow the Republican Party to give their message to citizens.

Seventeen months later on February 18, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln, on his way to Washington, was back in Cincinnati. City buildings were decorated in red, white, and blue bunting. Wearing black with a gray shawl over his shoulders, Lincoln smiled at the train station’s enthusiastic crowd. Cannons boomed in welcome on his procession to center of the city. Young girls sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hail Columbia.” Officials made patriotic speeches. He went to Cincinnati’s Burnet House while there but it’s not clear where these speeches were made.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Tucker, Louis Leonard. Cincinnati during the Civil War, Ohio State University Press, 1962.

Wimberg, Robert J. Cincinnati and the Civil War: Off to Battle, Ohio Book Store, 1992.

“With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition,” Library of Congress Exhibitions, 2019/04/01 https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lincoln/the-run-for-president.html.

 

 

Civil War Women: Sister Anthony, Angel of the Battlefield

/ sandramervillehart

Mary O’Connell’s family emigrated to Boston from Ireland in 1821 when she was about seven-years-old. After joining the Sisters of Charity, she became known as Sister Anthony.

In 1837, she began working at St. Peter’s Orphan Asylum and School for girls in Cincinnati. Later she was given charge of a new hospital, St. John’s Hotel for Invalids.

Camp Dennison, a Civil War training camp about fifteen miles from Cincinnati, required nurses for sick soldiers after the war began. Sister Anthony and five other nuns rode the train and then walked two to three miles to visit the regimental hospitals every day. To save this daily expense, the sisters stayed at a small wooden church near camp.

Requests for nurses prompted Sister Anthony and others to care for wounded on a hospital ship with Dr. George Curtis Blackman at the Battle of Shiloh. Dead and dying soldiers filled the decks. One overcrowded ship had seven hundred patients.

Because the sisters didn’t give preferential treatment, they were asked to care for wounded prisoners.

Sister Anthony helped bring wounded soldiers from the battlefield. She is credited with developing Battlefield Triage, earning President Lincoln’s praise.

After caring for wounded at Shiloh, she became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield.” Sister Anthony served at several battlefields, including Nashville, Cumberland Gap, Richmond, Lynchburg, and Culpeper Court House.

She didn’t distinguish between Union and Confederate soldiers. She knew generals on both sides and was acquainted with Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Joseph C. Butler and Louis Worthington gave a large Cincinnati building at Sixth and Lock Street to Sister Anthony in 1866. The hospital, meant to honor her and the other sisters’ war service, had two stipulations: exclude no one because of religion or color and they were to name it “The Hospital of the Good Samaritan.”

St. Joseph Foundling and Maternity Hospital opened later that year. It’s not clear why the name changed.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Battle Nurses,” Newspapers.com, 2019/03/30 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18267260/civil_war_nurses_catholic_sisters_in/.

Graves, Dan, MSL. “Sister Anthony, Battlefield Heroine,” Christianity.com, 2019/03/30 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/sister-anthony-battlefield-heroine-11630652.html.

“Mary O’Connell,” Wikipedia, 2019/03/30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_O%27Connell.

Wimberg, Robert J. Cincinnati and the Civil War: Off to Battle, Ohio Book Store, 1992.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

Civil War Women: Mollie Bean, Confederate Soldier

/ sandramervillehart / 10 Comments

Confederate Army of Northern Virginia cannons at Gettysburg Battlefield

On February 17, 1865, the train guard on the railroad cars between Danville and Richmond demanded to see the papers of a soldier dressed in light-colored corduroy pants, Yankee great coat, and fatigue hat dipped at a jaunty angle, almost touching the wearer’s right ear. The delicate soldier didn’t have any papers signed by the Provost Marshal nor did he seem concerned about the lack of documentation allowing him to ride the cars.

The soldier was arrested and taken to the chief of police. Rigorous questioning revealed an astonishing fact—the soldier was a young woman.

Mollie Bean claimed to be a soldier with the 47th North Carolina State troops. She’d served with them for two years and been wounded twice. Her wounds didn’t give away her disguise so they probably were minor wounds to the head, arms, or legs.

Mollie was taken as prisoner to Castle Thunder.

The reporter of the Richmond Whig didn’t believe her story of being with the 47th North Carolina for two years.

The Charlotte Daily Bulletin called her Mollie Bear, but the other papers noted referred to her as Mollie Bean.

Mollie’s regiment was in winter quarters near Hatcher’s Run when she was arrested.

Her regiment was part of Pickett’s Charge under Brigadier General James Pettigrew at the Battle of Gettysburg. They were at Cold Harbor. They took part in the long Petersburg siege, so Mollie surely experienced difficulties in her two years with the Confederate army.

There’s no record of how long she was held at Castle Thunder or what happened to her when she was released. Who she was and what happened to her remains a mystery.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“47th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry,” National Park Service, 2019/03/18 https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=CNC0047RI.

“Historical Sketch and Roster of the North Carolina 47th Infantry Regiment,” Amazon, 2019/03/18 https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Carolina-Infantry-Regiment-Regimental/dp/1517383056.

“Mollie Bean,” American Civil War Forum, 2019/03/18 https://www.americancivilwarforum.com/mollie-bean-2248424.html.

“Mollie Bean,” Soldier-Women of the America Civil War, 2019/03/18 http://civilwarsoldierwomen.blogspot.com/2011/01/mollie-bean.html.

“Mollie Bean,” Wikipedia, 2019/03/18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollie_Bean

Civil War Women: Major Pauline Cushman, Actress to Spy

/ sandramervillehart / 2 Comments

Harriet Wood became an actress a few years before the Civil War began and changed her name to Pauline Cushman, touring the country for various plays.

While Civil War battles raged early in 1863, a role led her to Wood’s Theater in Union-controlled Louisville, Kentucky. There were paroled Confederate officers in the area. Pauline’s beauty captured their attention and one asked her to toast Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the stage.

Her adventurous spirit aroused, Pauline met with Union Colonel Moore, Louisville’s provost marshal. The colonel, seizing the opportunity for her to gain the Southerners’ trust, advised her to accept the challenge.

While on stage the next evening, Pauline raised her glass in a toast. “Here’s to Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy. May the South always maintain her honor and her rights.”

Her impromptu toast appalled Union supporters in the crowd and thrilled Southern sympathizers. Pauline was fired and sent to the South.

Pauline traveled to Nashville where she met with Union Colonel William Truesdail, the Chief of Army Police. Truesdail asked to her to learn what she could about the Confederates, though he warned that, if caught spying, she’d be hanged.

She soon gained the trust of the Southerners. While at Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s army camp, she found his battle plans. The Southerners became suspicious of her. Pauline’s quick thinking and acting skills nearly saved her—until the battle plans were discovered in her shoe.

At a trial, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Pauline then became seriously ill—or employed her acting skills to seem so—delaying her hanging. Then, at the end of June, she heard a loud commotion outside. The Confederates abandoned the camp, leaving Pauline behind. To her great joy, the sound of Union bugles blared in the camp and she was rescued.

Both President Abraham Lincoln and General James A. Garfield (future President) praised Pauline. General Garfield gave her the rank of major as thanks for her suffering while in secret service.

Before the Civil War ended, Pauline began touring as Miss Major Cushman, speaking about her adventures and performing one-woman plays about them.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Biography.com Editors. “Pauline Cushman Biography,” Biography.com, 2019/03/17 https://www.biography.com/people/pauline-cushman.

Moore, Frank. Women of the War: True Stories of Brave Women in the Civil War, Blue Gray Books, 1997.

“Pauline Cushman,” NPS.gov, 2019/03/17 https://www.nps.gov/people/pauline-cushman.htm.

 

Civil War Women: Antonia Ford, Confederate Spy

/ sandramervillehart

Union officers often gathered at Antonia Ford’s family home in Fairfax Court House, Virginia. Like her father, the beautiful young woman was a secessionist. She learned of Union plans for the First Battle of Manassas and rode to warn the Confederate army. Southern officers held her under guard until her information was confirmed by other spies.

After this success, Antonia might have provided information to Brigadier General J.E.B. Stuart, who declared her an honorary aide-de-camp in October of 1861.

At 2 am on March 9, 1863, Cavalry Colonel John S. Mosby, along with 29 of his Confederate rangers, sneaked into Fairfax Court House and captured Union General Stoughton, several of his men, and horses.

Suspicions immediately shifted to Antonia, who had hosted Stoughton’s mother and sister in her home. The Secret Service sent a female undercover agent to the home, who spent hours talking with Antonia.

On March 15, Antonia was awoken by Secret Service agents. When she refused to pledge loyalty to the Union, they searched her house and found Confederate money and papers, letters from Federal officers, and J.E.B. Stuart’s order for her aide-de-camp. Charged with aiding and abetting Mosby’s capture of General Stoughton, she was arrested and held at Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C.

While there, she met Union Major Joseph Willard, who worked to get her released. Willard was part owner of the Willard Hotel in Washington. They fell in love.

Antonia learned in May that she would be exchanged for Northern prisoners. She was arrested again with her father for not swearing allegiance to the Union. They were released on September 18, 1863 after both took the oath of loyalty to the Union.

Antonia married Major Willard on March 10, 1864, and moved to Washington.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Antonia Ford Willard,” National Park Service, 2019/01/07 https://www.nps.gov/people/antonia-ford-willard.htm.

DiSilvestro, Roger. “Mosby’s Female Super Spy: Antonia Ford,” History.net, 2019/01/07 http://www.historynet.com/mosbys-female-super-spy-antonia-ford.htm.

Whitehead, A.M. “Antonia Ford (1838-1871).” Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 27 May. 2014. Web. 7 Jan. 2019.