Coonskins Tower

[Tom Hughes]

Was at Vicksburg on Monday and tried to snap a picture of where I thought the tower must have stood.

What do y'all think? Am I way off?

View attachment 433751


View attachment 433754

#1 sniping position before building tower?
#2 tower location?

I wish the National Park would erect a reproduction of the Coonskin Tower. Just for viewing, not for climbing due to any liability. But that would be a unique feature to have in the park to accurate tell the story of the siege.

 

[NFB22]

Interesting that I read a post about the 23rd Indiana when on this very day we have a guest speaker on the campus I work at giving a presentation about Lucy Higgs Nichols, who was a freed slave that served with the regiment as a nurse. She's buried in an unmarked grave in New Albany.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

https://germansons.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F105813779060

I found this any interesting side story from the siege. Where on the battlefield was it located.

Wow! He really had an impact.

 

[Tom Hughes]

Wow! He really had an impact.

Very interesting. That image clearly shows Coonskins Tower, but I've never seen a marker indicating its position in the national park. Maybe there's one but I've never noticed it.

 

[Bradley]

I've never seen a marker indicating its position in the national park. Maybe there's one but I've never noticed it.

There is not. If my memory serves, near the Illinois Memorial is a little infographic featuring that wartime photograph of the tower, but it does not speculate on an exact location.

I think I have nailed down within a few feet where it was, but I could be wrong.

 

[Stryker65]

Jeff Shaara's main character in his Vicksburg novel visited this tower to do some sharpshooting, too. In that novel, soldiers would take bets based on distance and the officer's perceived status, but I'm not sure as to the truth of those events.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Jeff Shaara's main character in his Vicksburg novel visited this tower to do some sharpshooting, too. In that novel, soldiers would take bets based on distance and the officer's perceived status, but I'm not sure as to the truth of those events.

Yes, his "A Chain of Thunder" is a good read - makes you feel like you were there in and around Vicksburg when it happened.

 

[Samwisep86]

There is not. If my memory serves, near the Illinois Memorial is a little infographic featuring that wartime photograph of the tower, but it does not speculate on an exact location.

I think I have nailed down within a few feet where it was, but I could be wrong.

A park volunteer was recently researching the tower to include it in a program he was doing about soldier life during the siege. If it's location is different that what is previously described earlier in this thread, send me a message and we can chat.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
If it was near the Illinois memorial, I'm thinking that's in the general vicinity of the marker describing the location of the Union's wooden mortar ?

Funny side note:

As a young kid during the late 1960s/early 70s ... my 8 year old self thought it was a tower the Yanks built and covered with
raccoon skins.

After all, we had grown up watching the TV show Daniel Boone and his "coonskin cap".

 

[Samwisep86]

I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
If it was near the Illinois memorial, I'm thinking that's in the general vicinity of the marker describing the location of the Union's wooden mortar ?

Funny side note:

As a young kid during the late 1960s/early 70s ... my 8 year old self thought it was a tower the Yanks built and covered with
raccoon skins.

After all, we had grown up watching the TV show Daniel Boone and his "coonskin cap".

That would certainly be a lot of raccoon skins.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

That would certainly be a lot of raccoon skins.

Yes indeed !

That's why my young brain found the name "coonskin tower" so fascinating.

 

[Stryker65]

Yes indeed !

That's why my young brain found the name "coonskin tower" so fascinating.

Hey, considering the Union somehow raised three regiments for a total of three thousand men each with a Buck Tail, I'd say a tower made of coonskins isn't that unrealistic.

 

[Samwisep86]

I can't claim credit for finding it (that goes to a VNMP volunteer), but has anyone else seen this sketch of Coonskin Foster before?

 

[Championhilz]

I can't claim credit for finding it (that goes to a VNMP volunteer), but has anyone else seen this sketch of Coonskin Foster before?

View attachment 550099

Do you know the source of this image?

 

[Samwisep86]

Do you know the source of this image?

Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, September 5, 1863.

 

[Bradley]

It's new to me! Thanks for sharing.

 

[gary]

Apparently "Coonskin" was captured near Atlanta (Marietta area?) on June 21, 1864 and was in CSA prisons in Macon, Ga and Columbia South Carolina. I found no details of his exchange/release. Either his prison time or his service in the army ended on April 2, 1865.
The 23rd Indiana was mustered July 23, 1865.

The above was the best I could do on short notice.

Coonskin is discussed in my first book. He escaped and reached Sherman's army.

 

[gary]

Here's what I wrote on pages 674-5 of my book Sharpshooters (1750-1900):

Lt. Henry "Coonskin" Foster received a twenty-day leave "for meritorious conduct and efficient service during the Siege of Vicksburg." Captured at Kennesaw Mountain on June 25, 1864, he was imprisoned temporarily in Columbia, South Carolina. He fell into ill-health, compelling him to write Maj. Gen. John Foster for financial assistance for medicine. His health recovered sufficiently for him to escape (Feb. 14-15) when Sherman's Army marched through the Carolinas. He returned to his command on Feb. 20, 1864 and as his enlistment had expired (Foster originally enlisted for three years on July 1, 1861), he was mustered out shortly after returning."

Unfortunately no pension application was filed by Lt. Foster after the war, and nothing is known of his postwar life."

Maj. Gen. John Foster, Corps of Engineers, started the war at Fort Sumter where he served under Anderson. He served with Gillmore in the Charleston area and assumed command of the forces that weren't drawn off to fight as part of Butler's Army of the James. While Gillmore was bottled up inThe Bermuda Hundred, Foster conceived of an armored galley with an armor plated tower. He intended to sail these up to Sumter, lower a drawbridge that would allow men to storm in and capture Sumter. Halleck pooh pooh the idea and Meigs refused to supply Foster with the material requested. Iron was needed elsewhere.

Can anyone described how the mail service worked? Interesting that a PoW could write to Uncle John for ducats to buy medicine.