Vintage Muscle Men

Monday, May 26, 2025

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was originally specifically designated as a day to remember the Union dead of the American Civil War. Eventually, it became a day to honor all our war dead, and modern commemorations often pay respects to the men of both sides, as I will today. More about that later. First I am posting the full lyrics to an anti-war song about a conflict that killed about 700,000 Americans, more than all our other wars combined. I posted a snippet from this last year, but in these times, I think the whole poem is worth a read:

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Virgil Caine is the name,
And I served on the Danville train,
'Til Stoneman's cavalry
Came and tore up the tracks again.
In the winter of '65,
We were hungry, just barely alive.
By May the tenth, Richmond had fell,
It's a time I remember, oh so well,

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,
And the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,
And the people were singin'.
They went Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,

Back with my wife in Tennessee,
When one day she called to me,
"Virgil, quick, come see,
there goes Robert E. Lee!"
Now I don't mind, I'm choppin' wood,
and I don't care if the money's no good.
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best.
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down . . .

Like my father before me,
I will work the land,
Like my brother above me,
Who took a rebel stand.
He was just eighteen, proud and brave,
But a Yankee laid him in his grave,
I swear by the mud below my feet,
You can't raise a Caine back up
When he's in defeat.

The night they drove old Dixie down . . .

Written by Robbie Robertson

Have we learned our lesson?

First, the Union

I'm starting with the Union side, and this is a pre-war photo of Sgt. William Hanson of the 2nd Maine Infantry. Killed at the First Battle of Manassas (aka Bull Run), he was buried on the battlefield.

Alpha A. Culver

This is Private Alpha A. Culver of the 24th New York Light Artillery. A prisoner of war,

he died in 1864 of disease at the dreadful Andersonville prison camp.

John and Isaiah Owens

The beautiful gilded folding photo case above was a keepsake of Mrs. Melinda Owens, mother of John and Isaiah Owens of Missouri. She lost both her sons in the war, John to disease and Isaiah to an accident. Mrs. Owens was awarded a Mother's Pension after witnesses swore that her son was healthy prior to a grueling winter march. I have cropped and enlarged the men's images:

Below is an unknown African-American soldier who looks so striking that I had to include him.

I hope he survived the war and was able to live in peace.

Gen. Isaac Stevens

While leading a regiment of Scottish-American Union soldiers at the Battle of Chantilly, Gen. Isaac Stevens was shot and killed after he picked up his unit's banner, the Cross of St. Andrew.

Ironically, the Confederate battle flag was based on the same design.

John J. Williams

The last soldier killed in action in the Civil War was Private John J. Williams who died

at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in far south Texas on May 13, 1865. The battle was a

Confederate victory, but the war was essentially already over due to Lee's surrender

to Grant in April, which both sides knew about. The Union commander had never been

in combat, and wanted to be able to say that he had, so he broke an informal truce and

attacked the Confederates. He should have been the one shot, not Private Williams.

Nurse Anne Bell

While battlefield aid stations in the Civil War were widely described as horrors, if a soldier

was lucky enough to survive them and get tranferred to a hospital far behind the front lines,

he had about a 90% chance of recovery. Twice as many soldiers died of disease

than from wounds. Above we see Nurse Anne Bell attending to two patients.

Next up, the Confederates.

And now, the Rebels

As noted earlier, Memorial Day began as a way to honor the Union Civil War dead. For over a century, most Southern states observed Confederate Memorial Day in April. Only Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi still have a legal holiday for it. I'm not putting these Rebel soldiers here to glorify them. I'm doing it because it was such a complete waste in every way. We start with Pvt. R. Cecil Johnson of the 8th Georgia Infantry Regiment. He was killed in action at the Battle of Upperville in Virginia on June 21, 1863

Stonewall Jackson

Robert E. Lee described the combat death of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

as the biggest single loss for the Confederacy of the entire Civil War.

J.E.B. Stuart

General James Ewell Brown Stuart was known to his friends as simply "Jeb" Stuart. When he was wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864, he fell into the arms of his close friend Lt. Colonel Gus Dorsey (below) who rushed him to an aid station. The general died the next day.