Richard Kyle Fox: The Irish-born publisher whose Publication Documented America's Gilded-Age

Standing on the roof terrace of his recently opened publishing house at Franklin Square, Lower Manhattan on May 24, 1883, Richard Kyle Fox witnessed the opening of The Brooklyn Bridge. As the festive nuptials between Manhattan and Brooklyn proceeded, the millionaire's decision to send out ten thousand invitations to his palatial new building ensured that many of New York's dignitaries were afforded a unique vantage point from which to witness this "wire wedding" extravaganza.

Though President Chester A. Arthur could not avail of Fox's hospitality on this occasion due to his ceremonial engagements, he did find time to give a special salute by "doffing his cap repeatedly to the cheers that resounded from the gay and festive sporting palace." Who was Fox and how had he achieved such eminence?

Liam Hayes explains.

Richard Kyle Fox, c. 1908.

Born in Belfast on August 12, 1846, Richard Kyle Fox truly was the epitome of that "rags to riches" narrative popularised in many a Horatio Alger novel. Before arriving at Castle Garden immigration station (now Castle Clinton) in 1874, Fox's formative years were spent as an office boy at the Banner of Ulster newspaper and later as a debt collector for the Belfast News-Letter.

His background in the publishing industry in the Old World served him well as he almost immediately found employment. Following a brief period at the Commercial Bulletin, Fox secured a full time position at the then struggling National Police Gazette, a weekly newspaper which was mainly concerned with exposing rogues, racketeers, and all things nefarious.

Such was the Irishman's impact at the Police Gazette's advertising department, he was able to relieve the owners of their debt-ridden rag within a year in lieu of wages owed to him. Now at the helm, Fox doubled the pages to sixteen, began printing on eye-catching pink paper, and targeted young men who frequented Gotham's myriad of barrooms, brothels and barbershops. The Fox journalistic doctrine was simple: "Tell your story in three paragraphs at most; if you can't tell it in three, tell it in two, and if you can't tell it in two, get the hell out of here!"

An 1891 version of the National Police Gazette.

Boxing promoter

Fox's breakthrough occurred in 1880 following his decision to cover the much anticipated pugilistic contest between Tipperary's Paddy Ryan and Joe Goss of England. The fight, in which Ryan was victorious, created an unprecedented demand for the Police Gazette, and the accompanying woodcut illustrations of the event afforded those unable to travel to the illegal prizefight at Collier's Station, West Virginia a unique journalistic experience.

Subsequently entering the surreptitious world of prizefight promotion, the young publisher eventually encountered a young braggadocious Bostonian by the name of John L. Sullivan. Sullivan and Fox's less than cordial relationship, supposedly ignited by the former's refusal to accept the publisher's hospitality at Harry Hill's notorious Bowery entertainment establishment, ensured an evidently convenient discord, as both men profited handsomely from the publicity.

Becoming the biggest boxing promoter in the United States by pitting opponents against Sullivan, sales of Fox's Police Gazetteincreased rapidly. The practice of awarding championship belts was popularised by Fox, including the famous Police Gazette Diamond Belt. Other belts included Jack "nonpareil" Dempsey's middleweight belt, Jack McAuliffe's lightweight belt and Ike "Belfast Spider" Weir's featherweight championship belt. For his contribution to the fistic phenomenon of the late 1800s the publisher was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.

Sports promotion

In addition to the Police Gazette's boxing coverage, the prescient publisher also promoted all manner of athletic contests, including wrestling, weightlifting, baseball and many peculiar feats of human endeavour, most notably the exploits of French-Canadian strongman Louis Cyr and famed Irish-American wrestler William Muldoon. Annie Oakley, the celebrated female sharpshooter from Ohio was extremely proud of the medal awarded to her by Fox. In 1896 he sponsored Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo's successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in an eighteen-foot rowboat. In all, Fox is estimated to have donated almost $1 million in trophies and medals.

Not confining his publication to sports, Fox's Gazette was teeming with titillating woodcut illustrations of Gilded-Age beauties, voluptuous Victorian ladies, and many of the leading stage soubrettes of that era.

It was for the gratuitous nature of these illustrations that Fox came to the attention of Anthony Comstock (1844-1915), United States Postal Inspector and founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. "These weekly illustrated papers are staunch, well-constructed traps of the devil, capable of catching and securely holding the mind and heart of the young, until they yield a ready service to the father of all evil," wrote the Connecticut native in 1883. Comstock had Fox prosecuted on many occasions but this only resulted in increased interest and circulation for the wily Belfast man’s weekly. 

As the 1800s drew to a close, Fox was spending more and more time at his new offices in London's Fleet Street. He became a popular figure amongst Britain's aristocracy and was made an honorary member of the infamous Pelican Club. When Hugh Lowther, the extravagant Earl of Lonsdale required a lightweight carriage for his much anticipated race against Lord Shrewsbury in March, 1891, Fox had one specially shipped-over from New York.

Legacy

Richard Kyle Fox died on Nov. 24, 1922, at his home in Red Bank, New Jersey. He was interred in an elaborate, Egyptian-themed mausoleum at Woodlawn cemetery in the Bronx, New York. His beloved National Police Gazette, once the most popular perusal wherever men gathered to escape the confines of Gilded-Age propriety, had long been imitated and succeeded by the larger daily newspapers of media moguls such as William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

Fox's Police Gazette went bankrupt in 1932 and changed ownership many times before it eventually ceased publication under the ownership of Canadian publisher Joseph Azaria in 1977. The Police Gazette building (once one of the most impressive buildings in New York) from where Richard Kyle Fox had proudly witnessed the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 had been demolished a decade earlier. The building’s ornate railings, their glorious gilding long since disappeared, were fortunately salvaged by Pop-Art aficionado Ivan Karp and later donated to the Brooklyn Museum by the William and Marian Zeckendorf Foundation.

What do you think of Richard Kyle Fox? Let us know below.

Abraham Lincoln: The Story of how he Became a Wrestling Champion

Widely considered the greatest President in American history, much has been written about the man, the myth, the legend: Abraham Lincoln. From his acclaimed debates with Stephen A. Douglas, to his creation of the Emancipation Proclamation, to the Gettysburg Address, and finally his tragic death by the hands of John Wilkes Booth after the Civil War, President Lincoln will forever be an icon of US history. Even Lincoln’s childhood and early adulthood has come under scholarly examination. However, what is less spoken of is the strange but prolific wrestling career of the Great Emancipator. Brenden Woldman explains.

A painting of Abraham Lincoln reading as a boy. By Eastman Johnson, 1868.

In the moderately sized city of Stillwater in Payne County, Oklahoma stands the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Enshrined within those hallowed halls are America’s greatest wrestlers, from collegiate athletes to Olympic champions. But there is one man who was granted a spot within the Hall for his grappling tactics within the ring, and earned him an “Outstanding American” honor.[1] Though his gangly stature became a point of insult for his political rivals and contemporaries, with one man once telling Lincoln that he did not possess the “features the ladies would call handsome,” the future president as a young man was, surprisingly, built from stone.[2]  Lincoln may have been a thin, wiry young man standing at 6 feet, 4 inches and 180 lbs., but years of working manual labor as both a farmer in the Kentucky backwoods as well as a rail splitter helped forge a naturally strong specimen of a man who towered over any and all who stood beside him.[3]

Wrestling fame

Though he had no dreams of sporting grandeur, the future president, like many of his contemporaries who worked manual labor jobs, enjoyed physical activities like wrestling as a leisure activity. But just like in his political career Lincoln was a calculated and ambitious wrestler. Still, conversely to his political persona the young Lincoln was a confident sportsman who could be simply described as cocky. Lincoln’s confidence in his ability stemmed from his mastery of the “catch-as-catch-can” manner of wrestling, a brawling and combative style known for its bull-like aggressive rushes and hand-to-hand combat tactics to the opponent. Nevertheless, this bar fight style of wrestling still needed more than a hint of skill to pin a rival.[4] Lincoln’s rare mix of thin and wiry but broad, strong, and smart athlete made him nearly impossible to beat. His physical prowess made Bill Green, a local store owner from New Salem, Illinois, note that “[Lincoln] can outrun, outlift, outwrestle and throw day any man in Sangamon County,” after the young man beat multiple opponents in one day.[5] Moreover, Lincoln matched his reputation as an in-ring force with his loud public trash talking. After decisively defeating another opponent with a single toss in the ring, Honest Abe being as honest as he could be looked into an entire crowd and challenged any and all who dared to face him. Lincoln shouted, “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.”[6]Unsurprisingly, there were no takers.

The legend of Lincoln the wrestler continued to grow during the late 1820s and into the early 1830s. But what made Lincoln a local wrestling legend came in 1831, when the Great Emancipator was only 22 years old. Lincoln was quietly tending to the store he worked at as a clerk in New Salem when his boss Denton Offutt out of the blue challenged any of the local Clary’s Grove Boys to a good natured wrestling match with his star clerk.[7] The Clary’s Grove Boys, who were known for their rowdy, fraternity-like attitude toward frontiers life, enjoyed drinking and fighting more than anyone around.[8] After Offutt boasted that no one could beat his employee, the Clary’s Grove Boys’ “champion wrestler” Jack Armstrong took the challenge, believing, that he “had found only another subject by which [they] could display its strength and prowess.”[9] Lincoln accepted the challenge, getting up from behind his counter, and prepared to wrestle the feared Armstrong. 

Confident that he could outmatch the taller but gawky Lincoln, Armstrong felt no fear. Who could blame him? Lincoln had been, and would continue to be, judged by his physical appearance his entire life. However, soon after the match began, the Clary’s Grove Boys champion realized he had bit off more than he could chew. Lincoln from the start was able to control the match due to his enormous reach, forcing Armstrong to fight dirty as a means of desperation.[10] Annoyed by the lack of sportsmanship, Lincoln lost his temper and, according to legend, won the match by grabbing Armstrong by the neck, raising him above his head, shaking him around, and slamming him on the ground.[11] The crowd was shocked by Lincoln’s clear victory, and the rest of the Clary’s Grove Boys were angered by the result. Enraged, the Clary’s Grove Boys began to threaten Lincoln. Luckily, Armstrong bounced back up and defended the future president. Smiling, Armstrong looked at his friends and said, “Boys, Abe Lincoln is the best fellow that ever broke into this settlement. He shall be one of us.”[12]

A very impressive career

Lincoln gained the respect of Jack Armstrong and the rest of the Clary’s Grove Boys. As a result of his victory, the young Lincoln gained the reputation as the champion wrestler of New Salem, gladly taking on, and easily defeating, any and all opponents who came to challenge him. Amazingly, Lincoln was nearly impossible to beat. According to historians who have researched the win/loss record of Honest Abe, Lincoln has only one confirmed lose in allegedly more then 300 matches over the course of 12 years.[13] That sole lose came at the hands of Pvt. Lorenzo Dow Thompson, the St. Clair wrestling champion whom Lincoln met when he was a Captain during the Black Hawk War. Upon hearing of Thompson’s prowess at wrestling, Lincoln was certain in his own ability and “told my boys I could throw [Thompson].”[14] As confident as ever, Lincoln set up a match between himself and the private when both of their regiments had down time from fighting. Unfortunately, much like how Armstrong underestimated Lincoln, Lincoln underestimated Thompson. Though still in his physical prime, Lincoln realized rather quickly after the match began that he was wrestling “a powerful man” in Thompson, and that “the struggle [of winning] was a sever one.”[15] Shockingly, Lincoln for the first time in his career was thrown out of the ring and lost the match. When his men came to the defense of their captain claiming Thompson had cheated, Lincoln laughed and said Thompson won fairly. When asked how did he know, Lincoln simply said, “Why, gentlemen, that man could throw a grizzly bear.”[16]

In retrospect

There is something funny when we read or write about famous historical figures like Abraham Lincoln. For the most part, we think we know everything there is to know about a figure because we have been indoctrinated about the “greatest hits” of these figures. We all know about the stoic Lincoln who unified the Union during the Civil War, freed the slaves, and was assassinated, but we should never think we know everything about someone. Moreover, the importance of Lincoln as a wrestler transcends something more than an interesting tidbit of information about America’s greatest president. Lincoln learned about his own strength and confidence as well as humility through the sport. Writer and historian David Fleming said it best, noting that “when his wrestling skill diminished, Lincoln’s leadership qualities emerged.”[17] Without what he learned from wrestling, Abraham Lincoln would not have been the same man that became America’s sixteenth President.

Do you think Abraham Lincoln’s wresting career was important for his later political career? Let us know below.

 

You can read Brenden’s previous article on US politics: Violence in the Senate – Slavery, Honor and the Caning of Charles Sumner here.

[1] Christopher Klein, “10 Things You May Not Know About Abraham Lincoln,” History.com (A&E Television Networks, November 16, 2012), https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-abraham-lincoln)

[2] Susan Bell, “Lincoln's Looks Never Hindered His Approach to Life or Politics,” USC News (USC, February 19, 2015), https://news.usc.edu/75846/lincolns-looks-never-hindered-his-approach-to-life-or-politics/)

[3] “The Railsplitter: Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life,” National Museum of American History (National Museum of American History, n.d.), https://americanhistory.si.edu/lincoln/railsplitter)

[4] Bob Dellinger, “Wrestling in the USA,” National Wrestling Hall of Fame (National Wrestling Hall of Fame, n.d.), https://nwhof.org/stillwater/resources-library/history/wrestling-in-the-usa/)

[5] David Fleming, “The Civil Warrior,” Sports Illustrated (Sports Illustrated, n.d.), https://vault.si.com/vault/1995/02/06/the-civil-warrior-on-the-us-frontier-young-abe-lincoln-was-a-great-wrestler-and-sportsman)

[6] Klein, “10 Things You May Not Know About Abraham Lincoln,” https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-abraham-lincoln

[7] Dellinger, “Wrestling in the USA,” https://nwhof.org/stillwater/resources-library/history/wrestling-in-the-usa/, R.J. Norton, “Abraham Lincoln's Wrestling Match,” Abraham Lincoln Research Site (Abraham Lincoln Research Site, n.d.), https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln48.html)

[8] Norton, “Abraham Lincoln’s Wrestling Match,” https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln48.html

[9] Dan Evon, “Is Abraham Lincoln in the Wrestling Hall of Fame?,” Snopes.com (Snopes.com, n.d.), https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lincoln-wrestling-hall-of-fame/

[10] Dellinger, “Wrestling in the USA,” https://nwhof.org/stillwater/resources-library/history/wrestling-in-the-usa/

[11] Dellinger, “Wrestling in the USA,” https://nwhof.org/stillwater/resources-library/history/wrestling-in-the-usa/, Norton, “Abraham Lincoln’s Wrestling Match,” https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln48.html

[12] Norton, “Abraham Lincoln’s Wrestling Match,” https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln48.html

[13] Bryan Armen Graham, “Abraham Lincoln Was A Skilled Wrestler And World-Class Trash Talker,” Sports Illustrated (Sports Illustrated, February 12, 2013), https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2013/02/12/abraham-lincoln-was-a-skilled-wrestler-and-world-class-trash-talker)

[14] Evon, “Is Abraham Lincoln in the Wrestling Hall of Fame?,”https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lincoln-wrestling-hall-of-fame/

[15] Ibid.,

[16] Ibid.,

[17] Graham, “Abraham Lincoln Was A Skilled Wrestler and World-Class Trash Talker,” https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2013/02/12/abraham-lincoln-was-a-skilled-wrestler-and-world-class-trash-talker

What if Queen Victoria never made it to the Throne? Part 2 - The Many Sons of George III

Queen Victoria is one of the most famous monarchs in history. Her reign of 63 years was the longest in the history of the United Kingdom until Queen Elizabeth II surpassed her, reigning 68 years and counting. Her name is synonymous with an entire time period. Surely there was never an individual that made such an impact on a country, if not the world.

But what if that had never happened? What if she never came to the throne? What if the original heir presumptive had lived to take the throne? And most importantly, how would the world have been different? This is an examination of those scenarios and how one death changed the entire world.

In part one (here) we discussed the tragic death of Charlotte, Princess of Wales, and her stillborn son. Her death had major ramifications on the royal succession. In part two we look at the sons of George III who all found themselves suddenly in need of wives in order to continue the Hanover line.

Denise Tubbs explains.

George III in the 1770s. Painting by Johann Zoffany.

Great Britain has had its share to succession crises over the centuries. The legitimacy of Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville and their subsequent children has been debated for over 500 years. During the reign of Elizabeth I, succession was a huge topic since she refused to marry. Even spanning back to 1066, the Battle of Hastings between William of Normandy and Harold Godwinson started as a result of a succession crisis. So, what is it about this crisis that separates it from the rest? Well, no other royal house had more effect on world events for the next 100 years. 

George III had a lot of kids. A total of 15 children - nine sons and six girls. Of his daughters, two never had children, two were never married, one died in childhood, and the last had no surviving children. The continuation of the house of Hanover lied solely with his sons. His son the future George IV and Ernest Augustus both had only one child. Ernest Augustus had a son days apart from Victoria, missing the title of heir by a mere three days (Victoria was born on May 24, 1819 and George was born on May 27, 1819). The future William IV had a total of 10 children. Unfortunately, none of those 10 were legitimate. Prince Augustus Frederick had three children from his marriage; however, because he got married in secret and without the permission of his father, all were deemed illegitimate. Prince Frederick married, but had no children. Prince Adolphus has children but not until after the births of Victoria and Prince George. Lastly, Prince Edward had one child with Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld (she was the sister of Prince Leopold, Charlotte’s husband) before dying at the age of 52. This child was Victoria.

The line of succession

Since George IV was the oldest son and heir apparent to his father’s throne, that made his heir Charlotte. But when she died in 1817, the new heir apparent would have been the second oldest son of George III, Prince Fredrick. He would die in 1827, so the heir became the third oldest son of George III, William. At the time of Charlotte’s death William, Edward and Adolphus were not married. Ernest Augustus had married two years prior. All three unmarried princes were pressured by the public to do away with their bachelor life, marry and have a child before the line had no one left. The three of them would get married in rapid succession of each other - all getting married in 1818.  

So, let us recap since this was a lot of information. By 1817, George lost his only child and heir in childbirth, Charlotte. At the time of her death, William, Edward, and Adolphus were not married nor had any legitimate children. Ernest Augustus was married but had no children yet. Frederick was married but with no children. Augustus had children but they were ruled illegitimate. If William became king after George IV, and none of the remaining sons got married, William’s heir would be Ernest Augustus (Edward would be dead by 1820, so he and Frederick will be out of contention). Ernest Augustus had a son in 1819, so the throne would have passed to him next. If his son had no heir and the remaining sons were still alive the succession would have passed to Augustus and Adolphus. The line would die after Adolphus. 

This meant that the first son to have a child would be the father of the future of the country. The game is set, and as mentioned above, Victoria is born three days before her first Cousin George of Hanover in 1819. If Charlotte had not died in childbirth, there would have been no need for those three sons to make their rush to the altar. Victoria, as a result, would not have been born and her direct descendants who had a major effect on world history as we know it today would be drastically altered. Furthermore, even with Charlotte’s, if Victoria was born after George of Hanover she also would not have been in direct line to the throne. There are then two what if possibilities: of Victoria never being born or born after her cousin.

Next up we will look at the children of Victoria and the effect they would have on world events. 

Now, read part 3, the final part, here: What if Queen Victoria never made it to the Throne? Part 3 – The Impact of Queen Victoria on Europe

What do you think of this royal succession? Let us know below.

Sources

Wikipedia

PBS drama Victoria

Harriet Tubman: A Black US Civil War Heroine who Led a Spy RIng

The American Civil War created all manner of heroines. One such person was Harriet Tubman, a courageous African-American lady who led a spy ring and fought slavery during the US Civil War. Melissa Havran explains her courageous life.

Harriet Tubman in the 1860s.

Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is feeling that fear, insecurity, and doubt, but deciding that something else is more important. It's a quality that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary. Harriet Tubman, I believe, epitomized what it meant to be courageous. She believed in what she was doing, and continued to do it, regardless of the dangers involved.  As I began to research her role as a spy, I couldn't help but to question my own courage. If faced with the same dilemma, would I have been able to make the same choices Harriet made, even if those choices were a threat to my own wellbeing? Her story continues to amaze me. 

They called her “Moses” for leading enslaved people in the South to freedom up North. But Harriet Tubman fought slavery well beyond her role as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. As a soldier and spy for the Union Army during the Civil War, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States in what is known as the Combahee Ferry Raid.

By January 1, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, Tubman had been in South Carolina as a volunteer for the Union Army. With her family behind in Auburn, New York, and having established herself as a prominent abolitionist in Boston circles, Tubman, at the request of Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, had gone to Hilton Head, South Carolina, which had fallen to the Union Army early in the war.

Spy ring

For months, Harriet Tubman worked as a laundress, opening a washhouse, and serving as a nurse, until she was given orders to form a spy ring. Her orders came as a result of her role gathering clandestine information, forming allies and avoiding capture, as she led the Underground Railroad. In her new role, Tubman assumed leadership of a secret military mission in South Carolina’s low country.

Tubman partnered with Colonel James Montgomery, an abolitionist who commanded the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a black regiment. Together, the two planned a raid along the Combahee River, to rescue slaves, recruit freed men into the Union Army, and obliterate some of the wealthiest rice plantations in the region. 

Montgomery already had 300 men and, combined with the 8 scouts Tubman had recruited, the two were able to map the area and send word to slaves when a raid would take place.

One characteristic that made Tubman a successful spy ringleader, was that she could get black people to trust her when the Union officers knew that they were not trusted by the local people.  Perhaps the most interesting piece of this story is that Tubman was indeed, illiterate, yet she had great success as a spy leader. Since she couldn't read or write, she also couldn't write down any intelligence she gathered. Instead, she committed everything to memory, guiding the ships towards strategic points near the shore where fleeing slaves were waiting and Confederate property could be destroyed.

While it seemed Tubman, for the most part, was able to compartmentalize her role as spy, some of her missions seemed to have more of an effect on her than others.

On one particular raid, where Tubman and Montgomery were working together to bring gunboats up river, Tubman vividly recalled the horrific scene that day with running slaves, women, babies and crying children being chased down by rebels and killed.

Legacy

After researching Tubman’s life as a Union spy, what stands out most is that she was recognized a hero, but never paid - largely because she was a black woman. Often, Tubman’s brave work was documented by local newspapers. She was never referred to by name, but instead as "She Moses", because just like Moses, she led an enslaved people to freedom. Perhaps writing that a black woman was leading Montgomery’s band of 300 men was unfortunately a little too much for the 1860s.

But Tubman’s anonymity came to an end in July 1863 when Franklin Sanborn, the editor of Boston’s Commonwealthnewspaper, picked up the story and named Harriet Tubman, a friend of his, as the heroine.

In the end, Tubman petitioned the government several times to be paid for her duties as a soldier and was denied because she was a woman.

Tubman would eventually get a pension, but only as the widow of a black Union soldier she married after the war, not for her courageous service as a soldier.  To think of the lives saved because of the courage of another is truly what makes Tubman’s story stand out as one of the greatest in American history. If we all possessed this incredible characteristic of courage, I often wonder how our world would be different.

What do you think of Harriet Tubman? Let us know below.

Kobe Bryant quote source: https://www.goalcast.com/2018/12/28/kobe-bryant-quotes/

The Importance of the Telegraph in the US Civil War: Part 3 - The Union’s Use of the Telegraph

The American Civil War (1861-65) saw a breakthrough in various technologies. One of particular importance was the telegraph, a communication technology that had grown greatly in significance in the years before the US Civil War broke out. Here, K.R.T. Quirion concludes his three-part series on the importance of the telegraph in the US Civil War by looking at the role of the telegraph in the later years of the Civil War and its importance in the Union’s victory.

You can read part 1 in the series on the history of the telegraph in the 19th century here and part 2 on the telegraph in the early years of the US Civil War here.

Wagons and men of the U.S. Military Telegraph Construction Corps. Brandy Station, Virginia, 1864.

President Lincoln in the Telegraph Office

As an early adopter of the telegraph, Lincoln realized the importance of building a strong telegraphic infrastructure within the government and the military. With the Union facing the prospect of a 1,000-mile battle front, the telegraph gave Lincoln an unprecedented ability to “converse with his military leaders in the field as though he were in the tent with them” and power to “assume the role of commander-in-chief in a more titular sense.”[1]

Before Lincoln could exercise any degree of control over the nation’s dispersed military forces, it was necessary to organize the telegraphic capabilities of the Union. At the start of the Civil War all government telegraphs passed through one central communications hub, not even the War Department had its own separate line. [2]The organization of the USMTC soon remedied that deficiency when its headquarters were established inside of the War Department. By March of 1862, the telegraph had become so vital to the prosecution of the war that Secretary Stanton moved the USMTC telegraph office into to the “old library room, on the second floor front…adjoining his own quarters.”[3]In short order, the telegraph office of the War Department became Lincoln’s “Situation Room, where the president not only monitored events through incoming messages but also initiated communications directly to the field.” Lincoln spent more time in the telegraph office than in any other location during his presidency.[4]

Lincoln Takes Command

At first, Lincoln’s telegraphs were few. In the last six months of 1861, Lincoln sent only thirteen telegrams.[5]Despite this infrequency, the President exhibited no qualms about using the telegraph to “issue instructions regarding the disposition of troops.”[6]In these early telegraphs, Lincoln began exercising the authority of the commander-in-chief in a direct way. In one telegraph to John C. Fremont, the President ordered the General to begin deploying his troops in Kentucky. [7]Lincoln even went so far as to countermand Fremont’s own dispensation of his troops. [8]These first forays in taking direct command of Union troops were on a “glimmer of what was to happen.” [9]By 1862, the president had begun using the telegraph as means of directly communicating with commanders in the field without the filter of their commanding general. [10]Part of this direct action by Lincoln was brought about by has frustration with General George B. McClellan’s hesitancy to engage the enemy.

In May, the President traveled to the front lines of McClellan’s Peninsular campaign to see the work first hand. Upon arrival, Lincoln discovered that although the Union occupied Fort Monroe, the General had done nothing to silence the Confederate ironclad the Merrimac, or its base of operations at Norfolk, both of which resided just across the waters of Hampton Roads. Furious with McClellan’s complacency, the President took it upon himself to capture Norfolk and began “directing the movements” from his mobile White House at Fort Monroe. [11]

Having taken action and tasted the fruits of his decisiveness, Lincoln thereafter began issuing “explicit and direct command to his generals” through the telegraph network. [12]His deepening involvement with the intricacies of the war led Lincoln to practically live in the telegraph office, going so far as to request a cot be set up in that room so that he could remain in proximity to the wires rather than return to the White House. [13]The cipher and telegraph officers of the War Department on whom Lincoln relied said of the President that the “Commander-in-Chief…possessed an almost intuitive perception of the practical requirements of that….office, and…was performing the duties of that position in the most intelligent and effective manner.” [14]All of the “intuitive perception” in the world would have been useless however, had it not been for the amazing power of the telegraph.

Union Military Commanders Use the Telegraph

Lincoln was not the only Union commander who learned to use the telegraph to project himself across the vast lengths of the battlefront. It was in fact the “Young Napoleon” George McClellan himself that first grasped the great potential of this new technology. Later, General Ulysses S. Grant would perfect the use of the telegraph giving him a precision of control over the movements and actions of his troops unheard of before in the history of warfare.

McClellan had experience with commanding through the telegraph before he was appointed to lead the Union army. Fresh out of West Point, the Army sent McClellan to Europe as an official observer of the Crimean War. There he witnessed the first application of the telegraph in battle. Following that, he resigned his commission to become a railroad executive, where he became intimately acquainted with the telegraph. Thus, when he rejoined the army at the start of the Civil War, there was perhaps no military commander better suited to make use of this new technology.

Within the first few months of the war, McClellan enlisted the services of a Western Union Executive, Anton Stager, to organize a military field telegraph. It was soon after this that Stager was assigned to oversee the operations of the USMTC. In short order, McClellan, because of the telegraph, was able to exert unprecedented tactical communication with his command which allowed him to rapidly change battle plans. [15]He brought his experience with using the telegraph network with him once he was appointed to lead the Union’s forces. Once in Washington, McClellan’s headquarters were quickly “festooned with wires connecting him to all the fronts and making [him] the hub of military information.” [16]

Unfortunately for the President, all the information in the world could not get McClellan to move. The commander who would most effectively employ the telegraph was Ulysses S. Grant. Greely writes that:

From the opening of Grant’s campaign in the Wilderness to the close of the war, an aggregate of over two hundred miles of wire was put up and taken down from day to day; yet its efficiency as a constant means of communication between the several commands was not interfered with. [17]

The lines of the USMTC bound the corps of the Army of the Potomac together like “a perfect nervous system, and kept the great controlling head in touch with all its parts.” [18]Never after crossing the Rapidan did a single corps lose direct communication with the commanding general. 

Grant, more than any commander before him, employed the telegraph for both “grand tactics and for strategy in its broadest sense.” [19]From his headquarters in Virginia, Grant daily issued orders and read reports on the operations of his commanders who were dispersed across the vast battlefront of the Confederacy. With Meade in Virginia, Sherman in Georgia, Sigel in West Virginia, and Butler on the James River, Grant commanded a military force exceed half a million soldiers and conducted operations over eight hundred thousand square miles. [20]In his memoirs, General William Tecumseh Sherman said that, “[t]he value of the telegraph cannot be exaggerated, as illustrated by the perfect accord of action of the armies of Virginia and Georgia.” [21]

Conclusion

The successful application of the telegraph by the Union was the result of the concerted effort of Lincoln, his military commanders, and thousands of skilled USMTC operators. By the end of the Civil War, the USMTC had constructed 15,000 miles of dedicated military telegraph lines. [22]These lines were operated in addition to the thousands of commercial lines which were taken over by the federal government. Together this vast telecommunications network brought the President, the War Department, and the commanding generals “within seconds of each other”, though enemy fortifications or even thousands of miles of wilderness might have intervened. [23]

This intricately organized network allowed Grant to utilize the full potential of the telegraph. Grant more than any other commander besides Lincoln, learned to project himself using this new technology. In this way, Grant was able to strategically maneuver his forces across the battlefields of Virginia, Georgia, West Virginia and elsewhere with rapidity and precision. As Plum writes, the telegraph was of “infinite importance to the Commander, who, from his tent in Virginia, was to move his men upon the great continental chess-board of war understandingly.” [24]Grant acquired a precision and speed with this powerful new technology that allowed him to out maneuver his opponents. He used this power to command his army in ways that were unthinkable to previous generations of military leadership. With a clear picture of the immense theater of war and a powerful means of mobilizing his units Grant was able to cut off reinforcements to General Lee and shorten the conflict. [25]

 

How important do you think the telegraph was in the Union’s victory in the US Civil War? Let us know below.

Remember, you can read part 1 in the series on the history of the telegraph in the 19th century here and part 2 on the telegraph in the early years of the US Civil War here.

[1]Tom Wheeler, Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War, (New York, NY: Harper Business, 2007), 65. 

[2]Ibid., 1.

[3]Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office: Recollections of the United States Military Telegraph Corps during the Civil War, 38.

[4]Wheeler, Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War, 10. 

[5]Ibid., 40.

[6]Ibid., 42.

[7]The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed., Roy Basler, (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), vol. IV, 485. 

[8]Ibid., 499.

[9]Wheeler, 41.

[10]Ibid., 44.

[11]Bates, 117.

[12]Wheeler., 54

[13]Ibid., 77.

[14]Bates, 122.

[15]Edward Hagerman, The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1988), 37.

[16]Wheeler, 40.

[17]Greely, “The Military-Telegraph Service.”

[18]Ibid.

[19]Ibid.

[20]Ibid.

[21]Plum, Vol. II, 140.

[22]Greely.

[23]Ibid.

[24]Plum, Vol. II, 128.

[25]Greely.

The Battle that Turned the War of 1812?

The War of 1812 took place between the US and the UK from 1812 to 1815. There were many twists and turns in the war, and here Chuck Lyons tells us about the naval encounter at the Battle of Plattsburgh/Battle of Lake Champlain. This battle may have turned the course of the war.

The US Sloop Saratoga (left center) and the U.S. Brig Eagle (right) engaging the British flagship Confiance (center) off Plattsburg, New York, 11 September 1814. By Edward Tufnell.

In September 1814, twenty-seven months into the War of 1812, four British warships and a dozen gunboats sailed into Plattsburgh Bay at the northern end of Lake Champlain between New York State and Vermont. They were there to support an 11,000-strong army under General Sir George Prevost, an army that has been called “the strongest…that had ever been sent to North America,” and an army that intended to sever the new United States with a march on New York City.

In the battle that followed broadsides were fired at point blank range and gunboats exchanged fire within pistol shot of each other.

It would be a turning point of the War of 1812.

The opposing sides

The American ships were under the command of Lt. Thomas Macdonough, who was 28-years-old but had been in the Navy since he was sixteen, had fought with Stephen Decatur in the First Barbary War, and had been in command of Lake Champlain naval operations since October of 1812. The British force was under the command of newly-arrived Capt. George Downie, a twenty-year veteran of the British Navy.

Capt. Downie commanded the Confiance, a 1,200-ton frigate carrying thirty-seven guns, that was nearly double the size of the 734-ton American flagship Saratoga.  She was accompanied by the sloops Linnet, Chubb, and Finch, as well as twelve gunboats, each carrying one or two guns. In all, the British had sixteen vessels. Opposing them would be America’s fourteen vessels.  

Lt. Macdonough had retired to Plattsburg Bay to nullify the British superiority in long guns and was waiting in a north-south line when at about 9 a.m. Sept. 11, the British vessels rounded Cumberland Head on the eastern side of the bay firing blank charges to notify Prevost of their arrival 

The battle was quickly on.

The battle

“The firing was terrific, fairly shaking the ground, and so rapid that it seemed to be one continuous roar, intermingling with spiteful flashing from the mouths of guns, and dense clouds of smoke soon hung over the two fleets,” wrote Julius Hubbell, who watched the battle from Cumberland Hill on the east side of the Bay.

Capt. Downie was killed in the first fifteen minutes of the fighting.  

About 10:30 a.m. Lt. Robert Henley, commanding the American ship Eaglecut her cable and allowed his ship to drift south to the rear of Saratoga, which was now receiving fire from theLinnet and theConfiance. There he joined in firing on the latter with his undamaged port side guns.

By now nearly all the Saratoga’s starboard guns had been knocked out, and the ship had been set afire twice by hot shot from the Confiance. Finally, the single cannon left on the Saratoga’sstarboard side broke free and fell down the main hatch. Confiance by this time had only four port guns still operational. At this point, Lt. Macdonough let go his stern anchor, passed the hawser from one of the ship’s kedge anchors, which had been laid off Saratoga’s bow, under the bow and hauled to “wind ship” and bring the Saratoga’s thirteen undamaged port guns to bear on Confiance. Trying the same maneuver, but too badly damaged to execute it, the Confiancegot stuck halfway around leaving her stern open to the Saratoga’s guns.

Helpless,Confiancesurrendered at 11 a.m.

Lt. Macdonough then hauled again on the Saratoga’sanchor cable and turned her fury on the isolated Linnet. With water rising to as much as a foot above her lower deck, and the wounded in danger of drowning, the British brig struck her colors at 11:20 while USS Ticonderoga was finishing up its engagement with the British gunboats.Those gunboats that had not already dropped out of the fighting fled the scene.

None of the large vessels of either side had a mast left that would bear a sail.

The British had lost five officers, including Capt. Downie, forty-nine enlisted men killed and 116 wounded, a casualty rate of eighteen percent. The Americans suffered a casualty rate of thirteen percent with four officers and forty-eight men killed and another fifty-eight wounded. 

Meanwhile on land the British and American forces had engaged in an artillery duel until word reached Gen. Prevost of the defeat of his naval support in the bay.  Realizing there was no longer any reason for his assault and that Plattsburgh itself was no longer an objective, Provost called off the action and retreated north. 

Five months later the war was over.

What do you think the impact of the Battle of Plattsburgh/Battle of Lake Champlain was on the War of 1812? Let us know below.

The Importance of the Telegraph in the US Civil War: Part 2 - The Telegraph in the Early Years of the War

The American Civil War (1861-65) saw a breakthrough in various technologies. One of particular importance was the telegraph, a communication technology that had grown greatly in significance in the years before the US Civil War broke out. Here, K.R.T. Quirion continues his three-part series on the importance of the telegraph in the US Civil War by looking at the role of the telegraph in the early years of the US Civil War and how the Union made use of it.

You can read part 1 in the series on the history of the telegraph in the 19th century here.

US Military Telegraph Service battery wagon, Army of the Potomac headquarters. In Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864.

The Telegraph Demonstrates its Usefulness 

In 1861, journalists flooded into Washington, D.C. and would remain through the course of the Civil War to disseminate information across the country. The news of the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12 spread like wildfire and was immediately followed by President Lincoln’s call for 75,000 militia volunteers. [1]Because of the telegraph, Americans would read about war as the events unfolded. This speed in communications precipitated a speed in events as well.

Having read Lincoln’s call for the organization of a military, secessionists in Virginia and Maryland mobilized, hoping to capture Washington off guard and end the war before it began. The Confederacy’s secretary of war predicted that his new nation’s flag would “fly over the U.S. Capitol by May 1.” [2]Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts however, had already mobilized his state’s militia for action. 

When news of the secessionist’s plan reached the capitol on April 17, the Massachusetts militia was called by the War Department. Andrews telegraphed back that, “Two…regiments will start this afternoon.” [3]These forces however, were held up by secessionists in Baltimore en routeto intercepting the forces headed to Washington, D.C. [4]Luckily, five Pennsylvanian companies had been contact by telegraph and ordered to hasten to the Capital before the arrival of the Massachusetts soldiers, thereby cutting off the secessionist coup d’état.[5]Without the near instant communication of the telegraph, Union forces would have arrived too late to secure the capitol.

The Union Organizes its Telegraph System

As the events of April 17 demonstrated, the telegraph was destined to play a significant role in the course of the Civil War. Anticipating this, Myer hoped toexpand the role of the Signal Corps by creating an officer core. In 1861, he submitted a draft of legislation to Secretary of War Simon Cameron, “for the organization of a signal corps to serve during the present war, and to have the charge of all the telegraphic duty of the Army.”[6]Despite various appropriations of money to buy equipment, Congress did not approve the creation of a dedicated officer corps for the Signal Corp until March 1863. In the interim, Myer had to rely on field commanders to detail officers and men to duty in the “acting signal corps.” [7]

Concurrent with Myer’s efforts to grow the Signal Corps was the creation of a rival organization, the U.S. Military Telegraph Service (USMTC). The secessionist uprising in the North and Upper South during 1861 caused the “seizure of the commercial [telegraph] systems around Washington.” [8]A young, ambitious Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad was tasked with rebuilding, reinforcing, and extending the telegraph and railway infrastructure from Washington south toward the heart of the Confederacy. [9]The Superintendent’s name was Andrew Carnegie. Completing this, Carnegie and his task force enlarged the network to connect important stations such as “the navy yard and the arsenal, with the War Department, and to run lines to Arlington, Chain Bridge,” and other outposts.” [10]

Anson Stager, the general superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company was appointed captain and assistant-quartermaster of the USMTC on November 11, 1861, and was “assigned in Special Order 313 to duty as general manager of military telegraph lines.”[11]Stager and the entire USMTC reported directly to Secretary of War Stanton. By an act of Congress in 1862, the civilian operated USMTC, through the oversight of the War Department, took control of all commercial telegraph lines in the Union.

Battle for Supremacy

In an effort to outflank the USMTC, Myer proposed the creation of a “Telegraphic or Signal Train to accompany the Army on the march.”[12]These “trains” consisted of two wagons equipped with five miles of telegraphic wire and telegraph equipment. Raines, explains that, “[i]n battle, one wagon remained at the starting point as a receiving station, while the other traveled into the field with the sending instrument.” [13]The first field operations of the telegraph train were during the Peninsula campaign in May 1862. General McClellan witnessed “the great usefulness of this system” but perceived it as a supplement to the work already being done by the USMTC. [14]

The telegraph trains of the Signal Corps were again deployed during the battle of Fredericksburg. Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside was connected with his division commanders Maj. Gen. Edwin Sumner and Maj. Gen. William Franklin, as well as the Union supply base at Belle Plain throughout the course of the combat. The success of the trains enabled Myer to appropriate additional funds so that “by late 1863 thirty [telegraph trains] were in service throughout the Army.” [15]This success however, exacerbated the tension between the Signal Corps and the USMTC both of which were actively operating lines throughout the battlefront.

This inter-governmental conflict reached its peak following the failure of the Chancellorsville campaign in 1863. At the battle of Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863, both the Signal Corps and the USMTC were once again deployed side by side. The Signal Corps however, was forced to relinquish some of its lines to the USMTC as a result of the “technical limitations” of the Beardslee telegraph machine which the Signal Corps employed.[16]

The problem was that the Beardslee, which was powered by revolving magnets rather than by batteries, was only capable of generating enough electricity to transmit message in the five to eight mile range. [17]Maj. Gen Joseph Hooker was on the South side of the Rappahannock while his chief of staff Gen. Butterfield was ten miles on the North side of the river. The Signal Corps required three hours to transmit messages between the two commanders using a combination of electrical and visual signals. [18]Butterfield and Hooker soon overloaded the capacity of the Signal Corps lines which were staffed with many new operators and badly in need of repair after months of use. The system eventually collapsed entirely and the USMTC took over complete control of communication duties for the remainder of the campaign.

The USMTC Takes Over

In the wake of the Chancellorsville disaster, Myer decided to convert the Signal Corps to the superior Morse machine. This action however, put the Signal Corps in direct competition with the USMTC for trained operators. Without gaining the approval of Secretary Stanton, Myer placed a series of advertisements in the Army and Navy Official Gazette “calling for expert telegraphers to apply for commissions in the Signal Corps.” [19]Myer’s action was promptly chastised as “irregular and improper” by Assistant Secretary of War W. A. Nichols. [20]

Colonel Stager reacted to Myer’s action by recommending to Secretary Stanton that “management of all field and military electric telegraphs be confined to the...[USMTC], or, that that Department be abolished, and the whole business placed under the control of the Signal Corps.” [21]On November 10, 1893, Myer was recalled to the War Department where he was relieved of command. Stanton promptly issued Special Order 499 requiring “all magneto-electric field signal trains and apparatus” of the U.S. Signal Corps to be turned over to the USMTC as well as all Signal Corps personnel. [22]

In the aftermath of the Civil War the USMTC would be disbanded and the Signal Corps would by the sole department tasked with maintaining military communications. From 1863 until the end of the war however, all military telegraph communications would be carried out by the War Department through its civilian apparatus the USMTC. With this consolidation, the Union would finally be able to realize the potential of the telegraph.

What do you think about the importance of the telegraph in the US Civil War? Let us know below.

Now, you can read part 3 on The Union’s Use of the Telegraph in the US Civil War here.

[1]Paul Farhi, “How the Civil War gave birth to modern journalism in the nation’s capital,” Washington Post, (March 2, 2012). 

[2]Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 1 Fort Sumter to Perryville, (New York, NY: Random House, 1958), 53.

[3]James M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction, (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2001), 164.

[4]John E.O’Brien,Telegraphing in Battle: Reminiscences of the Civil War, (Scranton, PA: The Reader Press, 1910), 5.

[5]Plum, Vol. I, 64.

[6]Plum, Vol. I,9.

[7]Raines, Getting the Message Through: A Branch History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, 8.

[8]A.W. Greely, “The Military-Telegraph Service,” Signal Corp Association.

[9]David Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie, (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2007), 73.

[10]J. Emmet O’Brien, “Telegraphing in Battle.” The Century, Vol. 38, Is. 5 (Sep., 1889).

[11]David H. Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office: Recollections of the United States Military Telegraph Corps during the Civil War, (New York, NY: D. Appleton-Century Company Inc., 1907), 31.

[12]Raines, 17.

[13]Ibid., 18.

[14]U.S. War Department, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 Vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), Ser. 1, Vol. 5, 31.

[15]Raines, 20.

[16]Ibid.

[17]Paul J. Scheips, “Union Signal Communications: Innovation and Conflict,” Civil War History, Vol. IX, No. 4 (Dec. 1963), 11.

[18]Raines, 20.

[19]Scheips, “Union Signal Communications: Innovation and Conflict,” 11.

[20]Raines, 21.

[21]Plum, Vol. II, 101.

[22]Ibid., 102.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources:

Bates, David H. Lincoln in the Telegraph Office: Recollections of the United States Military Telegraph Corps during the Civil War. New York, NY: D. Appleton-Century Company Inc. (1907).

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Ed. Roy Basler. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (1953).

Greely, A.W. “The Military-Telegraph Service.” Signal Corp Association. Accessed May 3, 2016. 

http://www.civilwarsignals.org/pages/tele/telegreely/telegreely.html

Morse, Samuel F.B. “Improvement in the Mode of Communicating Information by Signals by the Application of Electro-Magnetism.” Patent No. 1,647. United Stets Patent Office. (June 20, 1840).

O’Brien, John E. Telegraphing in Battle: Reminiscences of the Civil War. Scranton, PA: The Reader Press. (1910).

Plum, William R. The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States, Vol. I & II. New York, NY: Arno Press. (1974).

“War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 Vols.” U.S. War Department. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. (1880–1901).

Secondary Sources:

Cambou, Don. Civil War Tech in Modern Marvels. New York, NY: A&E Television Network. (2006).

“Civil War and Industrial Expansion, 1860–1897 (Overview).”  Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. Accessed February 28, 2016. 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406400169.html

Clark, John E. Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. (2001).

Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 1 Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York, NY: Random House. (1958).

“First transatlantic telegraph cable completed.” History.com. Accessed March 01, 2016. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-transatlantic-telegraph-cable-completed.

Hagerman, Edward. The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (1988).

McPherson, James M. Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. (2001).

Nasaw, David. Andrew Carnegie. New York, NY: Penguin Books. (2007).

Peters, Arthur K. Seven Trails West. New York, NY: Abbeville Press. (1996).

Raines, Rebecca R. Getting the Message Through: A Branch History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Washington D.C.: Center of Military History. (1996).

Wheeler, Tom. Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War. New York, NY: Harper Business. (2007). 

Journal Articles:

Farhi, Paul. “How the Civil War gave birth to modern journalism in the nation’s capital.” Washington Post.(March 2, 2012). 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-the-civil-war-gave-birth-to-modern-journalism-in-the-nations-capital/2012/02/24/gIQAIMFpmR_story.html.

O’Brien, J. Emmet. “Telegraphing in Battle.” The Century, Vol. 38, Is. 5 (Sep., 1889). http://www.civilwarsignals.org/pages/tele/teleinbat/teleinbat.html.

Scheips, Paul J. “Union Signal Communications: Innovation and Conflict.” Civil War History, Vol. IX, No. 4 (Dec. 1963).

Trotter, William R. “The Music of War.” HistoryNet. http://www.historynet.com/the-music-of-war.htm.

What if Queen Victoria never made it to the Throne? Part 1 - The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte of Wales

Queen Victoria is one of the most famous monarchs in history. Her reign of 63 years was the longest in the history of the United Kingdom until Queen Elizabeth II surpassed her, reigning 68 years and counting. Her name is synonymous with an entire time period. Surely there was never an individual that made such an impact on a country, if not the world. 

But what if that had never happened? What if she never came to the throne? What if the original heir presumptive had lived to take the throne? And most importantly, how would the world have been different? This is an examination of those scenarios and how one death changed the entire world.

Denise Tubbs starts this series by telling us of the tragic death of Princess Charlotte of Wales.

Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband Prince Leopold. By George Dawe.

Her name was Charlotte. Princess Charlotte to be formal.  She was the only daughter of King George IV and his wife Caroline of Brunswick. To say that her parents were in a loveless marriage didn’t quite cover the whole story. Prior to George’s ascension to the throne, he had been a party boy. He despised his father and used any chance he could get to live and spend his money. But as George III got older, he pressured his son to marry and have an heir. With him being the Prince of Wales, it was his duty. He was forced to marry Princess Caroline, Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel; a woman he found utterly undesirable in every way. Now there is a rumor that George had already been married and that his new marriage to Caroline was invalid. You see George had a love and her name was Maria Fitzherbert. The two of them had been in a torrid affair long before Caroline entered the picture. But there was a problem with Maria. She was a Catholic. And for those unfamiliar with English history, that’s not a good thing. The Church of England is a Protestant church; and its head is the reigning monarch. There were rules that forbade Protestants and Catholics from marrying. After a time of being together, it is suspected that the two were married in a Catholic ceremony held in secret. If it were true it would have thrown the succession and the state of the country into question. There has never been any confirmation of this, but his treatment of Caroline was downright horrible. Caroline’s story is a sad one, and she wouldn’t live long enough to see the events that later transpired.

The feeling was mutual on Caroline’s part. She hated George. After the wedding night, the two never found each other in the same bed. But at least one thing came of the wedding night. Charlotte was born just after the new year in 1796. Now that he had an heir, George felt his duty was fulfilled. Little did he know or realize that his father George III would eventually descend into madness. His madness was called “the madness of King George.” At the time, no one understood what caused the old king to lose all his faculties. His illness would later be a fear to all those descended from him. Every monarch after him feared that they too would get the madness. Later on, the theory was that his madness was based on the disease of Porphyria. Whether or not there is any truth is still debated to this day. 

George became more and more involved in the day-to-day responsibilities for his father until the old King died in 1820. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. So much happened in the five years before the old king passed away that changed the history of the world. 

Charlotte grows up

As Charlotte became older, naturally she was told she would be wed to someone of equal stature. She had many suitors to choose from. She was introduced to William, Hereditary Prince of Orange, who did not make the best impression on her. There was a rumor that her father got a hold too that Charlotte wanted to marry Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh. This would be problematic since they were closely related. Prince William Frederick and Charlotte were both grandchildren of George III. This would make them first cousins, a bit too close in the bloodline. Her father was against this and berated her for even thinking of the notion. 

She eventually settled on a young Prince, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. He was a German who had fought with Russia against Napoleon. They married in 1816, and she became pregnant with their first child soon after. On November 3, 1817 she went into labor. Up until that moment, Charlotte had what seemed to be a normal pregnancy. But it became apparent soon after that not all was right. She was having trouble pushing the child out, and time was passing quickly. On November 5 she finally gave birth to a stillborn son. Charlotte was exhausted after the ordeal and her doctors confirmed that the Princess was doing well.

Tragedy

However, the situation was far from ok. On November 6, Charlotte woke up to sickness. She vomited and held her abdomen in pain. The doctors were recalled to her bedside, while others rushed to wake Prince Leopold. The Prince, who had stayed with his wife throughout the previous days, was given opium and had gone to bed to rest. The doctor noticed she was clammy, cold, and bleeding. He could not stop the bleeding despite his efforts. By now Charlotte was having difficulty breathing, and they were having trouble waking the Prince. Sir Christian Stockmar, who was the primary doctor of Prince Leopold, had run into the room to see the Princess. She said the words “they have made me tipsy.” Sir Richard turned to go back to the Prince when the Princess shouted at him “Stocky, Stocky!” He returned to the room to find that the Princess was dead. 

Charlotte’s death sent shockwaves across the country. Only during the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, some 180 years later had there been this amount of grief in the nation. You could say that she was the Diana of her day. Adored by all, and a loss of not just to the Royal Family but the country too. Shops were closed for days, commemorative trinkets were produced in her memory, and windows and doors were draped in black. Her father was distraught with grief. So distraught, he could not even go to her funeral. They say her death changed him forever; he was never the same after. She is buried with her son in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. 

But there was one more thing that her death caused. A vacuum had been opened. And soon it would be large enough to have all of George III’s sons scrambling to find wives. Now that Charlotte was gone, there was no heir. She had been the only legitimate child of the Hanover dynasty. When George became King in 1820, a race began to see which of George III’s sons would have a legitimate child.

Next up, we’ll discuss the other sons of George III and just how weak Charlotte’s death made the monarchy.

Now, read part 2 here: What if Queen Victoria never made it to the Throne? Part 2 - The Many Sons of George III

What do you think the legacy is of Princess Charlotte of Wales? Let us know below.

The Importance of the Telegraph in the US Civil War: Part 1 - The Invention of the Telegraph

The American Civil War (1861-65) saw a breakthrough in various technologies. One of particular importance was the telegraph, a communication technology that had grown greatly in significance in the years before the US Civil War broke out. Here, K.R.T. Quirion starts his three-part series on the importance of the telegraph in the US Civil War by looking at the history of the telegraph globally and in the US before the war broke out.

Samuel Morse sending the message ‘What Hath God Wrought’ in 1844. Image available here.

Introduction

The five years of the American Civil War saw the development of hundreds of new technologies. The number of patents approved by the U.S.Patent Office had been steadily increasing before the war. In 1815, the agency issued 173 patents, 1,045 in 1844, and 7,653 in 1860. [1] With the start of the Civil War, the rate of innovation increased so much that at least 15,000 patents were issued every year of the war. [2]

Some of these technologies, like the Gatlin Gun and the Ironclad, were developed specifically for the battlefield; others, such as improvements in transportation and communication were not. Much has already been written on the role that these new technologies played in the Civil War. For instance, that the Minie ball contributed to the high casualty rate has been widely accepted as has the significance of the railroad across the nation’s 1,000-mile battlefront. 

This article will focus on the role of the telegraph. Specifically, it will look at how the Union employed this new technology to successfully prosecute the war. It will argue that the telegraph allowed Union commanders, the War Department, and President Lincoln to control huge armies with unprecedented precision across the vast American landscape. This was made possible by thousands of miles of telegraphic wire, sophisticated mobile communication units, and hundreds of trained and dedicated operators. Together, these factors helped to shorten one of the most tragic episodes in American history. 

The development of the military telegraphic communication system was a slow and difficult process. Not until the closing years of the war was the Union able to achieve a high level of telegraphic integration within its command structure.  In order to appreciate the important role of the telegraph, it is necessary to examine both the development of this infrastructure and how Union leaders sought to integrate it into the military’s command structure.

Military Communication before the Telegraph

Prior to the invention of the telegraph, commanders and their civilian leaders had limited means with which to communicate. The principal method was through writing by couriers or orally by messengers. On the field of battle, other means to communicate were developed to coordinate dispersed units. Smoke signals, trumpets, drums, and flags became important in this regard. In 1794, the French military organized two companies of balloon riding “aeronauts” who used flags to signal their observations of enemy troop movements to friendly units on the ground. [3]

By the 18thcentury, practically every nation had adopted its own signature march which its troops were required to memorize. Amid the chaos of battle, the identity of a distant column of troops could often be identified solely by their marching music. On multiple occasions, resourceful commanders were able to use this to their advantage. One German force in the Thirty Years’ War, obscured its identity by maneuvering to The Scots Marche. According to William Trotter, “Allied (Anglo-Dutch-Austrian) drummers played The French Retreate so convincingly” that part of the French army withdrew from the field during the Battle of Oudenarde in 1708. [4]

In America, the organizational structure of the British Army was closely followed, including field communication by fife and drum. These were further improved during the winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge. There, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben instituted the Continental Army’s first system of drill procedures, which included standardized maneuver and communication signals. These signaling methods “remained virtually unchanged until the invention of the electric telegraph.” [5]

In 1854, Dr. Albert Myer developed a new military signaling system which used a flag and torch combination. This system, known as “wigwag” employed only one flag as opposed to the traditional semaphores signaling, which employed two flags. [6]After appearing before a board of examination in Washington D.C., Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee declared that Dr. Myer’s wigwag “system might be useful as an accessory to… but not as a Substitute for the means now employed to convey intelligence by an Army in the Field, and especially on a Field of Battle.” [7]

Myer’s was authorized to test his new system in combat simulations. In June of 1860, the U.S. Army Signal Corps was created and Dr. Myers was appointed as its sole officer. By 1861, Myer had patented his signal system and was testing it in active combat situations in New Mexico under the command of Col. Thomas T. Fauntleroy. During this same time however, an even more revolutionary communication system was being created.   

Invention of the Telegraph

The development of the electric telegraph was the work of many individuals over nearly a span of 80 years. In 1774, the first experiments with electronic signaling were conducted by Georges Louis Le Sage of Geneva. Le Sage’s technique employed twenty-four insulated wires that each represented an individual letter and were connected to a pith ball electroscope. When the desired letter was imputed, the electrical current would excite the respective ball on the other end thereby spelling words letter by letter. [8]

Samuel B. Morse began his work on the telegraph in 1832.  Morse’s improved telegraph machine was patented on June 20, 1840. Patent number 1,647 covered the electro telegraph machine itself, Morse’s specialized “code” system, the type set for communicating those symbols and even its accompanying dictionary. His patent also included a “mode for laying the circuit of conductors” needed to operate the telegraph system. [9]

With this new design, the electric telegraph would soon transform the nature of communications. Morse, too poor to test his invention on a large scale, went before Congress in order to request $30,000 with which to construct an appropriate experiment. Wary of spending taxpayer monies on a dead end, Morse’s request was initially rejected by Congress. Despite this, the 1843 Congress approved the expenditure in its “expiring hour” and Morse began the work of constructing a “double (circuit) wire between Washington [D.C.] and Baltimore.”[10]

Finally, in 1844, Morse sent the world's first electric telegraph message across the Washington-Baltimore circuit. [11]He quoted four simple words from Numbers 23:23, “What God hath wrought?” Underlying this dramatic message was the knowledge that the world had entered a new era of communication and connectedness. [12]In 1841, it had taken 110 days for the news of the death of President Harrison to reach Los Angeles, California. [13]By the end of the decade, more than 20,000 miles of telegraph line would tie together the American landscape. This near instant transmission of information forever altered the course of history.

The State of Telegraphic Communications before the Start of the Civil War

Implementation of the telegraph on the battlefield would first occur in Europe during the Crimean War (1854 - 1855). This crude military telegraph system was limited to inter-command center communications. Two years later in India, the English used a system of rollers and carts to deploy miles of telegraph lines that were said to have worked over distances of one hundred miles. [14]The success that the English experienced with the telegraph caught the attention of the German military. Beginning in 1855, they instituted the first telegraph system as a permanent part of their military organization. The French and the Spanish militaries followed soon after.

In America, the telegraph had just over seven years to “develop in peaceful employments” before the start of the Civil War. [15]During that time, thousands of miles of wire were laid in conjunction with the rail lines that were beginning to crisscross the American landscape. Together, these new technologies began to change the pace of American life. Near instant communication and speedy travel “began to insinuate time as a factor into people’s daily lives...” and “…in business thinking.” [16]

Three great companies grew out of America’s growing reliance on telecommunications: the American Telegraph Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the Southwestern Telegraph Company. By 1861, the combination of these three concerns had connected all of the major cities in the Union with the exception of those to San Francisco, California which were not completed until the end of the year. [17]There were more than 50,000 miles of telegraph cable in operation by 1861. [18]Yet, as the country headed toward war, the vast potential of the telegraph had only begun to be realized. Over the following five years, the telegraph would prove itself to be among the most revolutionary inventions of the 19thcentury. 

 

What do you think about the importance of the telegraph in the 19th century? Let us know below.

Now, you can read part 2 on the telegraph in the early years of the US Civil War here and part 3 on the Union’s use of the telegraph in the US Civil War here.

[1]“Civil War and Industrial Expansion, 1860–1897 (Overview),” Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, 1999, Encyclopedia.com, accessed February 28, 2016.

[2]Ibid.

[3]William R. Plum, The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States, Vol. I (New York, NY: Arno Press, 1974), 16.

[4]Ibid.

[5]Rebecca R. Raines, Getting the Message Through: A Branch History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, (Washington D.C.: Center of Military History, 1996), 4.

[6]Ibid., 5.

[7]Ibid., 6. 

[8]Plum, The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States, Vol. I,24.

[9]Samuel F.B. Morse, “Improvement in the Mode of Communicating Information by Signals by the Application of Electro-Magnetism,” Patent No. 1,647, United States Patent Office, (June 20, 1840), 1.

[10]Plum, Vol. 1,25.

[11]Don Cambou, Civil War Tech inModern Marvels, (New York, NY: A&E Television Network, 2006).

[12] “First transatlantic telegraph cable completed,” History.com, accessed March 01, 2016. 

[13]Arthur K. Peters, Seven Trails West, (New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1996), 173.

[14]Plum, Vol. I,27.

[15]Ibid., 26.

[16]John E. Clark, Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat, (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2001), 10.

[17]Plum, Vol. I,63.

[18]Cambou.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources:

Bates, David H. Lincoln in the Telegraph Office: Recollections of the United States Military Telegraph Corps during the Civil War. New York, NY: D. Appleton-Century Company Inc. (1907).

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Ed. Roy Basler. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (1953).

Greely, A.W. “The Military-Telegraph Service.” Signal Corp Association. Accessed May 3, 2016. 

http://www.civilwarsignals.org/pages/tele/telegreely/telegreely.html

Morse, Samuel F.B. “Improvement in the Mode of Communicating Information by Signals by the Application of Electro-Magnetism.” Patent No. 1,647. United Stets Patent Office. (June 20, 1840).

O’Brien, John E. Telegraphing in Battle: Reminiscences of the Civil War. Scranton, PA: The Reader Press. (1910).

Plum, William R. The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States, Vol. I & II. New York, NY: Arno Press. (1974).

“War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 Vols.” U.S. War Department. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. (1880–1901).

Secondary Sources:

Cambou, Don. Civil War Tech in Modern Marvels. New York, NY: A&E Television Network. (2006).

“Civil War and Industrial Expansion, 1860–1897 (Overview).”  Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. Accessed February 28, 2016. 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406400169.html

Clark, John E. Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. (2001).

Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 1 Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York, NY: Random House. (1958).

“First transatlantic telegraph cable completed.” History.com. Accessed March 01, 2016. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-transatlantic-telegraph-cable-completed.

Hagerman, Edward. The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (1988).

McPherson, James M. Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. (2001).

Nasaw, David. Andrew Carnegie. New York, NY: Penguin Books. (2007).

Peters, Arthur K. Seven Trails West. New York, NY: Abbeville Press. (1996).

Raines, Rebecca R. Getting the Message Through: A Branch History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Washington D.C.: Center of Military History. (1996).

Wheeler, Tom. Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War. New York, NY: Harper Business. (2007). 

Journal Articles:

Farhi, Paul. “How the Civil War gave birth to modern journalism in the nation’s capital.” Washington Post.(March 2, 2012). 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-the-civil-war-gave-birth-to-modern-journalism-in-the-nations-capital/2012/02/24/gIQAIMFpmR_story.html.

O’Brien, J. Emmet. “Telegraphing in Battle.” The Century, Vol. 38, Is. 5 (Sep., 1889). http://www.civilwarsignals.org/pages/tele/teleinbat/teleinbat.html.

Scheips, Paul J. “Union Signal Communications: Innovation and Conflict.” Civil War History, Vol. IX, No. 4 (Dec. 1963).

Trotter, William R. “The Music of War.” HistoryNet. http://www.historynet.com/the-music-of-war.htm.

The Controversial Career of the First Female US Senator: Rebecca Latimer Felton

In my history classes at Texas A&M University-Commerce, I enjoy talking about strong women in American history who championed for women’s rights. I consider Rebecca Latimer Felton (b. 1835) to be one of these powerful women. Felton became the oldest freshman senator  - and first female senator - at eighty-seven years old in 1922. In this article I analyze the political career of Rebecca Felton—a patriotic and successful, yet highly controversial legislator in the Progressive Era. 

Joshua V. Chanin explains.

Rebecca Felton in later life.

Political Beginnings 

Rebecca was unlike her boisterous peers on the playground, instead enjoying quieter, mature activities such as reading newspapers and partaking in dinner conversations on the state of American politics. Since her father was a Whig, young Rebecca naturally followed suite and devoted herself to reading dense material written by several prolific Whig leaders, including Henry Clay and Millard Fillmore. “I confess to a real liking for political questions. It was my habit for many years to keep up with the progress of great questions in the national congress and I found interest and food for thought in the daily, but dull, congressional record.” She later attested that Henry Clay was the greatest man in the United States in the nineteenth century. 

One of her first major political experiences was the 1844 presidential election between Henry Clay and James K. Polk. Rebecca, at age nine, “read the newspapers very diligently” and, like others among the higher social class, firmly believed that “Henry Clay’s election was a forgone conclusion. His ability as a statesman was so transcendent; defeat was unthinkable…” However, the pollsters were wrong, and Polk easily won the political race, capturing 170 electoral votes to Clay’s 105. Rebecca later recalled the political shockwaves in the South following the 1844 election: “It was a terrible affair—it ruptured friendships, split up neighborhoods and got among church people.” Rebecca’s political upbringing allowed the young girl to absorb a distinct preview of the life she would be drawn to in the future—a life of activism and unforeseen outcomes.

Standing at the Side

Amid an education at Madison Female College and responsibilities at the family plantation in Cartersville, Georgia, Rebecca Latimer fell in love with Dr. William Harrell Felton, a southern minister. The couple wed in October 1853. Political ambitions were put aside as Rebecca Felton settled into domesticity where she completed chores and tendered to five children—one of whom, Howard Erwin Felton, survived childhood. She was one among the many women in the South prior to the Civil War who did not have a public voice and was obligated to stand at the side of their husband. Rebecca Felton not only supported her spouse in his expansive political career in Georgia’s House of Representatives and the national House, she gradually honed her own political skills by polishing his speeches and helping draft bills—William Felton’s constituents often bragged that they were getting two politicians for the price of one. At first Rebecca Felton believed her career was tied to her husband, however, she strategically used her husband’s position as a springboard for her future roles. And her visibility as a champion for public education—interest in this subject increased after the Felton’s opened Felton Academy following the Civil War—and in women’s suffrage grew to immense capacities in the latter decades of the nineteenth century.

A Patriot

Like many Southerners during the Civil War, Felton did not label herself as a “rebel” nor a “secessionist.” Instead, she viewed herself as a patriot, a defender of Southern values, and a proud citizen of Georgia: “I loved my country. No heart ever was more loyal to the South and Southern honor.” Felton, among many in this region, were angry at the 1860 presidential election results and terrified that Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who had flirted with the idea of stopping the spread of slavery in the West, would abolish the slave trade and forcefully drive the Southern economy to a grinding halt. Thus, southerners kept a watchful eye for hostile political opponents and Union spies. Felton wrote about the hidden enemy in a diary: “..Danger lurked in every passing breeze and was concealed under every hasty legislative act of our political war leaders.” To combat this enemy fear, it was natural for southerners to adopt a patriotic tone in life and demonstrate fierce nationalism. 

Rebecca Felton’s love for the South and its common Confederate sympathizers during the war is evident in her 1911 memoirs: “Such heroism was unexemplified! The South has reason to be proud of its soldiers and its women. Their story of courage will bear repeating, because it was genuine, sincere and patriotic. Like all other military achievements, the officers earn and receive all the honors of war, but it was the plain soldiers and true-hearted women of the defunct Confederacy who deserve the medals of merit.” When the Confederate government ceased operations and fled Richmond in April 1865, many supporters blamed Confederate President Jefferson Davis for the country’s economic and political failures. Instead, Felton consistently defended the president’s policies, heeding to the fact that Davis had a herculean undertaking at the start of the war: “He was not faultless—he had many and violent enemies…he was victimized by newspaper reporters…he gave it the best that was in him—and went down with it in defeat.” Although patriotism plays a key role in fueling a politician’s agenda and despite being a Dixie woman of her time, Felton’s admiration for Southern racial politics cannot be ignored.

Racial Politics

Felton’s inhumane racial views coincided with her political career. She openly shunned Native Americans and called them “savages,” a label that presumably had been in her vocabulary since she was a young child when her mother occasionally told her bedside stories of Native-led massacres against the white man. Moreover, Felton promoted white supremacism by partaking in regional Ku Klux Klan activities and dissuading her husband’s political colleagues to vote on bills that favored more liberties for African Americans; she believed that more money spent on black education would result in more black crimes in neighborhoods, and voting rights for black women would lead directly to the rape of white women. Felton was eager to spread her nauseating racial beliefs to mass audiences and publicly mock the “half-civilized gorillas,” as she tried to do at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago where she proposed a southern history exhibit that featured “A cabin and real colored folk making mats, shuck collars, and baskets—a woman to spin and card cotton—and another to play banjo and show the actual life of slave—not the Uncle Tom sort.” To the relief of some, the suggested slave exhibit never came to fruition. 

During a bloody time where racial violence was already prevalent in the South, Rebecca Felton advocated for more lynchings in Georgia at the turn of the twentieth century. She wanted the rugged noose to play a fixed role in Southern society, as evident by an explicit diary entry dated on August 11, 1897: “When there is not enough religion in the pulpit to organize a crusade against sin; nor justice in the court house to promptly punish crime; nor manhood enough in the nation to put a sheltering arm about inonce and virtue—if it needs lynching to protect woman’s dearest possession from the ravening human beasts—then I say lynch, a thousand times a week if necessary.” Following the burning of Sam Hose, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, by a white mob in Georgia’s Coweta County in April 1899—where civilians sold parts of Hose’s body as souvenirs—Felton vocally made it known that Hose was a “beast” who was no better than a rabid dog. Not only was she an aggressive advocate of racial prejudice, Felton condemned anyone who dared to question the South’s racial practices. When Andrew Sledd, professor of Biblical Studies at Emory University, published an article in the Atlantic Monthlyin July 1902 criticizing the lynchings of black men, Felton played an instrumental role in forcing Emory’s administration to terminate Sledd for improper behavior and stoked public anger towards the professor through a series of editorial attacks in the Atlanta Constitution. Felton’s racial views were perpetual as she treaded lightly with progressive politics and stayed true to antiquated Southern beliefs—Felton, having possessed slaves since she was eighteen years old, was the last member of either house of Congress to have been a slave owner. 

U.S. Senator

The peak of Rebecca Felton’s political career was her one-day appointment to the United States Senate between November 21-22, 1922. A Senate seat suddenly became vacant on September 26, 1922, following the death of Thomas E. Watson. Since Georgia Governor Thomas W. Hardwick wanted to win the November special election for the seat and appease the women voters who were displeased on his opposition to the Nineteenth Amendment, he strategically decided to appoint Felton as Watson’s temporary replacement on October 3. Despite the fact that Congress was not expected to reconvene until the end of November—President Warren Harding persuaded Congress to meet earlier due to an influx of letters from Felton’s supporters requesting the woman to take the oath of office—Walter F. George, the special election winner, chose to step aside and allow Felton to be sworn in as the nation’s first woman senator on November 21. The symbolic gesture to permit a female to sit in one of the highest political chairs in the United States (even just for a day) was a major political victory for white women.

Equal Partners

Felton did not have the opportunity to support or challenge any legislation in the Senate since she only served for one day. However, in front of a filled senate chamber, Felton delivered a speech to her male peers on November 22, pronouncing the increasing influence women had in 1920s national politics: “When women of the country come in and sit with you, though there may be but very few in the next few years, I pledge you that you will get ability, you will get integrity of purpose, you will get exalted patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness.” The reactions in the chamber after the address varied. Felton wrote that some of the gentlemen “Seemed to be a little bit hysterical, but most of them occupied their time looking at the ceiling.” Felton’s triumphant exit from the Senate reinforced the suffrage message she had been campaigning about for decades. Felton had been an outspoken leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union since 1886 and had articulated the ideas of white women having more decision-making power in the home, acquiring education beyond basic schooling, and enjoying more influence over their children. 

Felton also had tirelessly championed for white women’s suffrage during her career—she ferociously debated anti-suffragist Mildred Lewis Rutherford in 1915. Although the suffrage marches in the 1910s propelled the government to pass the Nineteenth Amendment, the Georgia Legislature was the first state to reject the amendment on July 24, 1919. In retaliation, Felton criticized the hypocrisy of southern gentlemen who boasted about their chivalry but opposed women’s rights: “In truth, character seemed to have gone out of politics…The moral salt of character could not be rescued, inside the party, controlled by such machinery…these men in the saddle were full, fat and saucy!” Thus, white women in Georgia were not allowed to vote in the 1920 presidential election, having to wait until the 1922 congressional elections. 

Conclusion

Following an active career in politics—behind and in front of the curtain—Felton returned home to lecture at public libraries and write books; she died in Atlanta in January 1930. Senator George remarked that “All in all she [Felton] must be grouped among the great women of her time.” Despite her political success and critical efforts to advance the women’s suffrage movement, Rebecca Felton was unquestionably a flawed character, rooted in her discriminating beliefs on race and southern prejudice.

What do you think of Rebecca Felton? Let us know below.

References

Felton, Rebecca L. Country Life in Georgia in the Days of my Youth. Atlanta, GA: The Index Printing Company, 1919. 

Felton, Rebecca L. My Memoirs of Georgia Politics. Atlanta, GA: The Index Printing Company, 1911. 

Helms, Amanda. ““Poor forsaken colored girls:” Rebecca Latimer Felton, White Supremacy, and Prison Reform, 1896-1900.”  M.A. Thesis, DePaul University, 2013. 

Staman, A. Louise. Loosening Corsets: The Heroic Life of Georgia’s Feisty Mrs. Felton, First Woman Senator of the United States.Macon, GA: Tiger Iron Press, 2006. 

Talmadge, John E. Rebecca Latimer Felton: Nine Stormy Decades. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1960. 

Whites, LeeAnn. “Rebecca Latimer Felton and the Wife’s Farm: The Class and Racial Politics of Gender Reform.” Georgia Historical Quarterly76 (1992): 354-372.