Confederate fighters get Delaware monument

[scone]

Confederate fighters get Delaware monument

Unveiling to be Saturday at Georgetown museum

By J.L. MILLER, The News Journal Posted Tuesday, May 8, 2007

GEORGETOWN -- The first historical monument to honor Delawareans who fought for the Confederacy will be unveiled Saturday in Georgetown.

The unveiling will be at noon on the grounds of the Nutter B. Marvel Museum on South Bedford Street, with ceremonies at the monument at 1 p.m.

The ceremonies will include speeches, a 21-gun salute, cannon salutes, and re-enactors will walk the grounds afterward.

"We've invited quite a few people. We're expecting close to 200," said Middletown resident Wayne Yarnall, publicity co-chair for the Seaford-based Delaware Grays Camp 2068 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

"We're going to have some descendants of the Delaware veterans there. They'll talk about what they know of their [ancestors]," said Yarnall, a descendant of Confederate Brig. Gen. William Yarnall Slack of Missouri.

Although the vast majority of Delawareans who fought in the war wore Union blue, an undetermined number -- possibly as few as 200 or as many as 2,000 -- fought for the Confederacy.

The Confederates' service went unheralded for well over a century before the Sons of Confederate Veterans decided that they deserved recognition, too.

The SCV is a nonprofit organization founded in 1896 to honor the memory of those who served honorably in the Confederate forces, and the Seaford camp reached an agreement last year with the Georgetown Historical Society to place the monument on the museum grounds.

The monument is a 9-foot-tall obelisk flanked by smaller stones bearing the names of Delawareans who served the South in a military or civilian capacity. Names will be added as they are documented.

One of those who served and whose name is included is a black man: David White, a slave from Georgetown who was traveling with his owner on a ship that was captured by the Confederate raider CSS Alabama on Oct. 9, 1862, near the Azores.

According to historical accounts, White voluntarily served as a mess steward aboard the Alabama and refused numerous opportunities to desert and gain his freedom.

White went down with the ship when it was sunk by the USS Kearsarge in June 1864 off Cherbourg, France.

[hoosier]

Considering that Delaware went for John Breckinridge in the election of 1860, I'm a bit surprised that the proportion of Delawareans who joined the Confederate forces wasn't higher.

[larry_cockerham]

Let's hear it for Delaware, the infamous home of a great little place known as Fort Delaware that afforded minimal hospitality to several young southern men after the battle for Gettysburg. Civil War. Not a good time.

[unionblue]

Grabbing Hold Of That Thin Slice of Delaware's Confederate Past.

http://civilwarmemory.typepad.com/ci...ng_hold_o.html

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[JohnW in E.TN]

Originally Posted by larry_cockerham

Let's hear it for Delaware, the infamous home of a great little place known as Fort Delaware that afforded minimal hospitality to several young southern men after the battle for Gettysburg. Civil War. Not a good time.

My gr-gr-Grandfather (Samuel Davis, 45th Virginia) took advantage of their plush accommodations in the Spring of 65 .


John W.

[Battalion]

article-

"...One of those who served and whose name is included is a black man: David White, a slave from Georgetown who was traveling with his owner on a ship that was captured by the Confederate raider CSS Alabama on Oct. 9, 1862, near the Azores.

According to historical accounts, White voluntarily served as a mess steward aboard the Alabama and refused numerous opportunities to desert and gain his freedom...."


He would not be gaining his freedom. He was a slave from Delaware.
If he had "escaped" to the North he would still be subject to slavery.

[larry_cockerham]

Life in a border state such as Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky or Missouri would have been a bit touchy to say the least. Other areas of the country, at least in the south, such as Lauderdale County, Alabama or Sullivan County, Tennessee where local sentiment didn't match the norm, would be just as interesting.

[unionblue]

John W. in E. TN,

Perhaps my Great-great-great grandfather bumped into yours during that spring of 1865.

Jacob Lee Hambleton of Company G, 19th Virginia Infantry Regiment, The Nelson Grays, ANV, was captured at the stone wall near the cospe of trees on July 3, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg. He was part of Garnett's Brigade in Picket's Charge that fateful day.

He too, was sent to those 'plush accommodations' at Ft. Delaware arriving on July 7, 1863. Jacob finally took the Oath of Allegiance on June 20, 1865, at Ft. Delaware and was released. He returned to Nelson County, Virgina, and lived there until his death on July 27, 1927.

Makes you wonder sometimes...

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[larry_cockerham]

Neil and John W., my wife's gg grandfather James Ratliff Whaley, corporal with the 51st Georgia Infantry was captured second day July at the Devil's den and treated to Ft. Delaware for the remainder of the war. He returned to Dale County, Alabama and prospered thereafter, living a long and prosperous life. Yes, many of these gentlemen must have met at close range, maybe tossed rocks at the same rat.

[scone]

Just shows how small the world really is at times by sharing a peice of history.

Makes you wonder how many northern born sons fought for the south.