JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
LoC image of one of Vicksburg's wharf. We sure know it's before spring of 1865. One of these steamers wouldn't be there. It had come under fire on the way to Vicksburg, survived scandal, guerillas and near misses. Only had around a year left before joining a phantom fleet under the Mississippi.
White Cloud, far end.
Steamer " WXXXXX ", and James Watson.
Convinced quite a few photos in Civil War collections were not random shots, they had stories attached. We'd all seen the famous shot of staff at 2nd Corp Hospital, pre-Letterman. But why was the photo taken and what are all those people holding?
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/john-burns-a-wheres-waldo-at-2nd-corp-hospital.137623/#post-1623582
Vicksburg's wharf holds a few stories. We're familiar with Vicksburg's story, like Gettysburg and Petersburg and Atlanta- down on the wharf in 1864 were around a million more stories.
Like a spirit land of Shadows
They in silence on me gaze
And I feel my heart is beating
With the pulse of other days;
And I ask what great magician
Conjured forms like these afar?
Echo answers, ‘tis the sunshine,
By its alchymist Daguerre.
An 1851 poem by Caleb Lyon printed in an edition of the Photographic Art Journal. Lyon had his own problems with sticky fingers but wrote lovely poems.
That's paddle wheel steamer White Cloud, docked above her peers, will add her war later. Snugging up to White Cloud is one I can't identify- then Steamer James Watson. By the time this was taken there was an awful lot of Civil War history traversed by those paddle wheels.
The attack by guerillas raiding Wilton Plantation took a clerk from the ship
Right before she docked at Vicksburg, a scandal erupted around two of James Watson's officers. This is only one tiny snip- big noise at the time, with reason.
And came under fire on the way to Vicksburg.
A year later, James Watson joined the list of ships never making it to a post war auction.
And nearly made it to war's end. Nearly.
Bodies of 6 men and two women- looking for their names. James Watson's war ended only a month before Appomattox. Photos are shadows of what once was there- like James Watson.