Orlando Poe in Knoxville, Tennessee

By Susan Powers

[Post 3 in a series on Orlando Poe. Please see March 24, 2010 for Post 1, and May 17, 2010 for Post 2]

O. E. Babcock and O.M. Poe, 
Fort Sanders, Knoxville, TN, 
November 29. 1863

The outbreak of the American Civil War altered the direction of Orlando Poe’s career. The peace time task of mapping and surveying the Great Lakes gave way to the new mission of war. Poe was an Ohio native; he first worked to organize Ohio volunteers. He later served as a member of Major General George McClellan’s staff, taking part in the Rich Mountain campaign and helping McClellan to organize the defense of Washington D.C. In September of 1861, Poe was promoted to colonel and was given the command of the 2nd Michigan Volunteers. Prior to the Northern Virginia Campaign of 1862, Poe was given command of a brigade. By the end of 1862, Poe was promoted to brigadier- general of volunteers, but in the spring of 1863 Congress let his promotion expire. He reverted back to his former rank of lieutenant in the regular army. He quickly was promoted to captain and then soon after to chief engineer of the Twenty-Third Corps. By September, 1863, while directing the defenses of Knoxville, Tennessee, Poe was promoted to chief engineer of the Army of the Ohio.

Strategic military planning required reconnaissance. Routes, waterways, and the enemy’s position were scouted out in advance of troop movement. Among Poe’s papers at the Clarke is a small notebook, with the title “Itinerary of Route from Knoxville, Tenn. to London, Kty.” This journey of roughly 100 miles was made in three days, from September 28 through October 1, 1863, a few weeks before the siege of Knoxville. At the present time we are unsure of the author of the journal. The first two pages of the journal have been transcribed and posted below. It is interesting to note the detailed drawings and the house by house recording of who is loyal and who is a rebel, hence being a “good subject to bleed.”






Map of the Knoxville / London area, by Hal Jespersen, and “Topographical Signs for the use of Topographical Engineers in the Army of the Cumberland” card found among Poe’s papers.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

 

Itinerary of Route from Knoxville, Tennessee to London, Kentucky, September 28, 1863 – October 1, 1863                                                          

   

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Transcription of “Itinerary of Route,” pages 1 - 4

Journal of Route from Knoxville to Clinton [page 1 and 2, September 28, 1863]

Remarks

McBurk’s Grist Mill on the left of creek emptying into Bull Run. Elijah Jenning’s house on the left of road, has been in the Confederate army, but has since taken the oath. Country rocky, composed of lime or slate stone, set up on edge. Some indication of Iron. Log church called Zion on the right of fork. Road branching to the left leads to Emory. Blazes creek on the right.
Road crosses Beaver Creek over covered bridge. Rebel camp on eith[er] side of road in the woods. Guide boar[d] 9 miles to Knoxville
Fork in the road, left hand leads to Brick Chaple or Frotter’s Mill. Right fork to Clinton. Roads very good, but will be bad in wet weather, Have been worked some by the rebels. Good timber country.
Plenty of water abound in good clean springs.


Journal of Route from Knoxville to Clinton. (con.) [page 3 and 4, September 29, 1863]

Remarks

Wagon road & Rail Road through Gap between hills; wagon road in bad condition, rail road used in its place. no ties on the road. House on the right of road.
Road leads off to left to Lee’s Ferry across Clinch River. Henderson’s house on left a good, loyal citizen.
Yarnell’s house on the right; a strong rebel, rich with plenty of forage and stock. A good subject to bleed. Slaughter’s house on the left; loyal.
Road through very rough country. Wagon road leads of[f] to Right through Gap between hills. Woods on all sides.

Further Reading on Orlando M. Poe

Taylor, Paul. Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer. Kent: The Kent State University, 2009.

Orlando Poe and the United States Lake Survey

By Susan Powers

[Post 2 of a series on Orlando Metcalfe Poe, from the Orlando Poe Collection at Clarke Historical Library. To read Post 1, see March 24, 2010]

Prior to his service in the Civil War, Orlando Poe served as a topographical engineer working for Captain George G. Meade and the United States Lakes Survey. Meade, who would later become famous for his victory over General Robert E. Lee in 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg, admired and appreciated Poe’s work. Poe soon became Meade’s most valued assistant.


The United States Lakes Survey began in 1841 when on March 3 of that year the United States Congress appropriated $15,000 to the Corps of Topographical Engineers to survey the northern and northwest lakes of the United States. Steamer ships were now sailing on the Great Lakes, and safe navigation routes and protected harbors were needed. In the letter that follows, Orlando Poe is assigned by Meade to survey the area around what is now Frankfort, Benzie County, Michigan.


Poe was to survey the “Harbor of the River aux becs scies (pronounced similarly to “oh beck see”),” a French term meaning “of the sawbills.” The French named the river after a species of duck that was prevalent in the area. In the 1850s, Tifft and Co. of Buffalo, New York, was conducting a large amount of commercial trade between Buffalo and the Chicago area. In 1854, one of the company’s sailing vessels lost rudder control and was about to wreck during a storm on Lake Michigan. To avoid crashing on the bluffs, the captain and all onboard used an improvised rudder to sail into the mouth of the Aux Becs Scies River, where they saved the ship and discovered a deep water, land-locked bay, now known as Betsie (an Anglophone interpretation of “Becs Scies”) Lake. The Tifft company requested that Congress make a survey of the area.  As a result of this survey and of others in the area, a channel was constructed by the Frankfort Land Company to improve the outlet of the river between Lake Michigan and Betsie Lake, creating the port that is today known as Frankfort Harbor.




Bluffs at Frankfort, Michigan
                                                   
  

Transcription of the letter from Captain George Meade to Orlando Poe, describing survey work to be done at Betsie Lake, Michigan, March 24, 1859

Office Survey N+N.W[1]. Lakes
Detroit – Mar. 24^th 1859
L[ieutenan]t. O. M. Poe
Top[ographical] Eng[inee]rs

Sir,
     You are herewith detailed to execute a survey of the “Harbor of the River Aux becs scies” required by orders from the Bureau of Top[ographical] Eng[inee]rs.
     This harbor it is understood consists of a small lake through which the river Aux becs scies debouches into Lake Michigan. At present there can be carried into it some 4 feet by the natural channel of the river, but parties interested, proposed cutting a new channel from the Lake of the river to Lake Michigan and it is understood this survey is made with a view to demonstrate the feasibility of this project, and also to exhibit the capacity of the Lake as a harbor, & the consequent importance of the improvement.
     You will therefore commence your survey about a mile above the mouth of the river, and continue it to a point below the southern extremity of the lake, and include inland the eastern shore of the lake. You will thoroughly sound out the shore of Lake Michigan included in your survey, to the 4 fathom curve, and you will sound out the river from its mouth in Lake Michigan to its debouche into the small lake, minutely sounding the lake in all parts.
     You will measure a base at some suitable position & extend a small triangulation over your survey & chain carefully the shore of Lake Michigan, and such other parts as may be required.
     Asst. O. N. Chaffee[2] is directed to report to you for this duty and you will take James Clague[3] an experienced leadsman.
     You will make a requisition for such instruments and apparatus, as in your judgment it may be necessary to take from here, with the understanding that a boat & crew can be procured there, and also accommodations for yourself & party.
     All expenditures will be made in my name duplicate receipts being taken therefore in the usual form, all services to be charged on your pay roll. Funds upon your requisition will be furnished for you.
     You will avail yourself of the first practicable opportunity of reaching the spot designated, and will be pleased to use every exertion in your power to complete this duty at the earliest practicable moment.

Very Respectfully
Your Ob[edien]t Servant
Geo[rge] G. Meade
Capt[ain] Top[ographical] Eng[ineers]

---

[1] Northern and Northwest
[2] Assistant Engineer Oliver N. Chafee. Chafee’s work on water levels, which he tabulated for the Report of the Superintendent of the U. S. Lake Survey, 1860, by George Gordon Meade, was a significant contribution to the study of the Great Lakes.
[3] James Clague also served as a “computer” for the U. S. Lakes Survey. See Meade, Report of the Superintendent of the U. S. Lake Survey, 1860.

Images of the Letter from Meade to Poe

               

 Click images to enlarge

 

Further Reading

Bevier, Thomas. Images of Benzie County. The Donning Company Publishers. Virginia Beach, Virginia. 1998.
Howard, John H. The Story of Frankfort. Frankfort: City Council of Frankfort, 1930.
Meade, George. Report of the Survey of North and Northwest Lakes. Detroit: Daily Free Press Steam Printing House, 1861.
Taylor, Paul. Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer. Kent: The Kent State University, 2009.
Woodford, Arthur. Charting the Inland Seas: A History of the U. S. Lake Survey. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

Orlando Metcalfe Poe

By John Fierst


[Post 1 in a series on Orlando Metcalfe Poe, from the Orlando Poe Collection at Clarke Historical Library. To read Post 2, see May 17, 2010]

Orlando Poe (1832-1895) grew up ten miles outside of the town of Canton, Ohio, on a farm located on the Tuscarawas River. His German ancestors had immigrated to the United States a century earlier. As a boy Poe dreamed of becoming a soldier, a dream he later realized. Educated at West Point, where he graduated sixth in his class in 1856, he chose a career with the corps of topographical engineers, and in that capacity he served as one of the most effective Union officers in the Civil War. When war broke out he was assigned to the staff of George McClellan, an association that later worked to his political disadvantage. McClellan’s enemies in Congress looked unfavorably on officers, like Poe, whose loyalty McClellan commanded.  Poe’s importance to the Union cause was only slowly acknowledged during the war, and even today few recognize the name of Brevet Brigadier General Orlando M. Poe. His ingenious defenses in the Battle of Knoxville won both the battle and the attention of William T. Sherman who made Poe his chief engineer and trusted advisor. Sherman placed Poe in charge of the destruction of Atlanta after the capture of that city. After the war, in the 1870s, the army appointed Poe chief engineer of the Upper Lakes Lighthouse District. In 1886 Poe laid out plans for a new, expanded lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, but he died before the lock, named after him, was completed in 1896.
Paul Taylor’s recent book, Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer (Kent State University Press, 2009), from which the above information was taken, will go a long way toward bringing Poe, even if posthumously, the recognition he deserves. In researching this excellent biography Taylor made use of the Orlando M. Poe Collection at the Clarke Historical Library. The documents in this collection are, for the most part, Civil War documents: letters, reports, muster rolls, maps, military orders, letters of mourning, and “Itinerary of the Route” notebooks. The Clarke Library came into possession of its collection of Poe documents sometime in the 1970s. There is no record of acquisition.
What follows is a letter Poe sent Jefferson Davis prior to the Civil War. (Other Poe documents will be presented in later posts.) This letter concerns Poe’s first military appointment. Poe requested that he be assigned to the topographical engineers. Having graduated toward the top of his class at West Point, Poe could choose the branch of service to which he would be assigned. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War at the time, granted Poe’s request.

Letter to Jefferson Davis from Orlando Poe

 

Click images to enlarge

West Point, N.Y.
July 17^th/[18]56
Hon. Jeff[erso]n Davis
Sir:
     If not too late I would respectfully beg leave to make application to be attached to the Topog[raphica]l Engineers, instead of to the Art[iller]y, as I made appl[icatio]n for the Art[iller]y under the impression that there were a number of vacancies in that arm, which I have learned is not the case.[1]
I am Sir very respectfully
Your Ob[edien]t Servant

Orlando M. Poe



[Reverse side]
Change of Appl[icatio]n for prom[otio]n
Endorsed by Assistant Adj[utant] Gene[ral]
saying informing of fact of
attach[men]t to Corps Topograph[ical] Eng[inee]rs
_____________________________
Recd July 21^st 1856



Respectfully returned for endorsement
Cadet Poe is informed that his name was laid before the Senate for confirmation as Brevet Second Lieutenant attached to [the] Corps of Topographical Engineers.
July 10, 1856                       By Order of
A[djutant] G[eneral’s] Office  Gausché
July 18/56                           Ass[istan]t Adj[utant] Gen[eral][2]

---

 [1] Poe wrote directly to Davis, the Secretary of War, instead of writing to the chief of the Topographical Bureau because he was afraid of being turned down. According to Taylor, “Going straight to the top with his appeal was in Poe’s best interest, for he was probably well aware that John James Albert, chief of the Topographical Bureau, rejected out of hand any applicant who made the topogs his second option,” see Taylor, Orlando M. Poe, 22.
[2] C. H. Gausché.  The editors have been unable to find further information about Assistant Adjutant General Gausché

Further Reading on Orlando M. Poe

Taylor, Paul. 2009. Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer. Kent: The Kent State University Press.

Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye

Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye was born in December, 1841, in New Brunswick, Canada. At age fifteen she ran away from home to escape a tyrannical father and an unwanted arranged marriage. After two years of living as a single woman, Sarah decided to pursue her fortune disguised as a man. Her travels as a Bible salesman brought her to Flint, Michigan, where she resided in 1861, at the start of the Civil War. After the fall of Fort Sumter, Sarah volunteered for the Union cause and under disguise she soldiered using the alias Franklin (Frank) Thompson. She joined the United States Army, Company F, Second Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, in May of that year. Her militia unit was known as “Flint’s Union Greys.” She served in the Army as a field nurse, spy, soldier and mail carrier. After the war, she wrote her memoirs in a book entitled Nurse and Spy in the Union Army Comprising the Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps and Battle-Fields, which was published in 1865.

In the letter transcribed here, Sarah gives great detail about an accident she suffered while carrying the mail between Washington and Centreville, Virginia, near where the Second Battle of Bull Run (or the Second Battle of Manassas) was about to take place. Colonel Orlando Poe had assigned her to be postmaster for the regiment, and she felt a great sense of urgency and duty about delivering the mail before the battle began. In the letter she is writing to her friend, R. H. Halsted, to give him a Statement of Facts about the accident so that he can write an affidavit to the government on her behalf. She had been receiving a Civil War pension of twelve dollars per month since 1884, and she needed the testimony of her friend in order to support her request for an increase in pension. At the end of the letter, Sarah talks about how she has suffered with her injuries, and states, “my entire left side from my head to my foot shows symtoms of paralysis, and it may be, that very soon, I shall not need a pension.” This haunting statement was unfortunately true, for it was only one year later, on September 5, 1898, at age 57, that Sarah passed away. She is buried in the GAR section of Washington Cemetery in Houston, Texas, with a limestone marker that says, “Emma E. Seelye, Army Nurse.”

 

Transcription of a letter from Sarah Edmonds Seelye to Richard Halsted, requesting his support for her appeal for an increase in her Civil War pension

La Porte, Texas

Sept. 6, 1897

My Kind Friend[1]

   I herein give you a Statement of facts in regard to the accident referred to in my letter. Said accident occurred on the day of the 2nd battle of Bull Run, while on my way with the mail, from Washington, to our troops near Centerville[2].

   I was trying with all my might to reach Berry’s Brigade[3] before the battle commenced, and in order to do so, I took advantage of every near cut that I possibly could, by leaping fences and ditches instead of going a long way round.

   When I had accomplished about half the distance between Washington and Centerville, I saw a chance to cut off a mile or more, by leaving the road and taking a short cut, which I thought best to take advantage of, but after having gone a considerable distance from the road, I found myself confronted by a very wide ditch, which I attempted to cross; but instead of leaping across it my mule reared and fell headlong into it, and I was thrown with such force against the side of the ditch, that I was stunned and unable to escape further injury from the frantic efforts of the mule to extricate himself from such an unpleasant position.

   There was some water, and deep mud at the bottom of said ditch, and where the mule tried to get up, his feet stuck fast in the mud, and he would fall back and try again. Finally he succeeded in getting out, but how long I remained there I never knew, but the first sound that struck my ear was the booming of cannon, and the first thought that flashed across my brain was “The mail! The mail!”

   On crawling out of the ditch I realized that I had sustained severe injuries. I had no use of my left lower limb. I felt sure it was broken, and the intense pain in my left side, and breast, made me feel sick and faint; while the bare thought of the undelivered mail drove me almost frantic.

While my mind was thus taking in the situation, I was trying to creep towards the mule, which stood a few yards distant, patiently waiting for me. Notwithstanding my distressed condition I at once set about readjusting the saddle and mail bags, which now hung, mud bespattered, underneath the mule’s stomach; but how to get the mud off, and get on the mule’s back was the all important question. But after several ineffectual attempts to remount I finally succeeded, by making loops in a long rope halter, and fastening one end to the pummel of the saddle.

   I then started for the battlefield with the utmost speed that I could endure, and after extreme suffering I reached our troops, who had not yet become engaged in action, and after delivering the mail I went to the rear where I found Dr. Vickery,[4] with the hospital corps and ambulance.

I made no report of the accident, but simply said that I had hurt my leg and it was very painful, and asked him for something to rub on it to relieve the pain.

After the battle was over and the Army had gone into camp, I found myself in a more serious condition than when the accident occurred. I had received internal injuries which caused frequent hemorrhage from the lungs. But I dared not report the fact nor apply for medical treatment, for the very first thing would have been an examination of my lungs—which to me simply meant “dismissal from the Service.” Consequently I took the utmost pains to conceal the facts in the case and silently endured all the misery and distress which the unfortunate accident entailed upon me, rather than to be sent away from the army under guard like a criminal.

   Had it not been for you, and two other boys—Sam Houlton[5] and Robert Bostwick[6]—I probably should have died in my tent. Notwithstanding I was so lame I could not put my left foot to the ground, I would not give up but persisted in going after the mail, but when I returned I had three dear friends to take the burdens from my shoulders. You distributed the mail for me, sold my watches,[7] collected and took care of my money. Bostwick brought my meals to my tent, and Sam always had some new healing remedies for my wounds and bruises. God bless you all!

   Four years ago, when I had an application filed for increase of pension my left lower limb was bandaged from the ankle to the knee, and I had not been able to wear a shoe, proper, on it for over two years—and my left side from the waist to the collarbone I had to keep covered with porous plasters, to enable me to breathe with any degree of comfort. Thank heaven, I am much better now, than I was then, in many respects; but my entire left side from my head to my foot show symtoms of paralysis, and it may be, that very soon, I shall not need a pension.

With my Kindest regards

to you & family I am

Yours Fraternally

S. Emma E. Seelye

---

[1] Richard H. Halsted grew up in Genesee County and enlisted in the Michigan Second Infantry at Flint on April 23, 1861. Twenty-three at the time, he eventually rose to the rank of sergeant. He was taken prisoner at Campbell’s Station, Tennessee, on Nov. 16, 1863, but he returned to the regiment June 4, 1864, a month before he was mustered out of the army at Detroit. In 1897 Edmonds wrote to him and asked him to help her secure an increase in her pension from the government, something he agreed to do. She sent him her “statement of facts” on September 6, 1897. Halsted died at Concord, Michigan, in 1903. See Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War 1861-1865, vol. 2, Second Michigan Infantry (Kalamazoo: Ihling Bros. & Everard, 190?), 81; hereafter, Record: Second Michigan Infantry.

[2] Centreville, Virginia. The Second Battle of Bull Run took place between August 28th and 30th, 1862. Robert E. Lee defeated General John Pope’s Army of Virginia. Pope’s forces retreated to Centreville. For more on the battle see John J. Hennessy, Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993).

[3] Col. Hiram G. Berry of Maine distinguished himself in the battles of Bull Run and Williamsburg. He was made brigadier-general on March 20, 1862 and was assigned command of the Third Brigade, which at the time consisted of the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Michigan, and the 37th New York regiments. Edmond’s regiment was part of Berry’s Brigade, Kearny’s Division, Heintzelman’s Corps. At the Second Battle of Bull Run Lieutenant Colonel Louis Dillman commanded Edmond’s regiment. See Record: Second Michigan Infantry, 4, 7; also, Charles P. Mattocks, “Major-General Hiram G. Berry,” in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society, 3rd ser., vol.1 (Portland: Maine Historical Society, 1904), 162-86.

[4] Richard S. Vickery enlisted in the Second Infantry at Ft. Wayne on May 17, 1861 and was wounded in action on July 30, 1864. Thirty years old when he enlisted, he remained in the service long after the Civil War, rising to the rank of major and surgeon and serving as the surgeon of the Soldiers’ Home, Virginia. He retired in 1895. Record: Second Michigan Infantry, 176-77.

[5] In 1861 Samuel M. Holton, age twenty-three, enlisted in the Union Army in Battle Creek, his hometown, joining Company C, Second Infantry. He served as hospital steward and was connected with the hospital department from the time the regiment was organized, suggesting how Edmonds, who worked as a nurse, came to know him. He was taken prisoner at Savage Station, Virginia, on June 25, 1862, because he refused to leave his patients when the army left the hospital in the hands of the Confederates. He was exchanged four months later. Honorably discharged in 1865, he was still living in Battle Creek in the early 1900s. Record: Second Michigan Infantry, 91.

[6] Three Bostwicks enlisted in the Second Infantry—Dana, Lafayette, and Robert. Dana died “from wounds received in action, Nov. 24, 1863.” Robert died in prison at Andersonville, Georgia, on June 18, 1864. Lafayette, who was also wounded in action, but is listed as living in Pontiac, Michigan in the early 1900s, is the soldier to whom Edmonds is referring. In her letter to Richard Halsted, dated January 27, 1885, she writes “I wrote to Bostwick, and the enclosed is his reply.” They must have been close friends from the beginning; both enlisted in Flint in late May 1862. Lafayette Bostwick was discharged from service at Detroit on July 21, 1864. See Record: Second Michigan Infantry, 37-8; Emma E. Seelye to Richard H. Halsted, 27 January 1885, S. Emma E. Edmonds Papers, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.

[7] The meaning of “sold my watches” is unclear.

Sarah Edmonds Seelye to Richard Halsted Letter Images

  

Click images to enlarge

 

Commentary on the Seelye Letter

There are different methods of transcription. The editors of Michigan in Letters employ a conservative style of expanded transcription—the aim being to make the documents as easy to understand as possible without introducing changes of content or meaning. For clarity, minor textual changes are introduced in the transcriptions. These include: a standard form for datelines, salutations, and closings; standard paragraph breaks (paragraphs are separated by a line); capitalization of the first letter of each sentence; and standard terminal punctuation at the end of each sentence. Edmonds, for example, uses semi-colons or dashes to end complete sentences, the editors use periods. Missing words, when obvious, are supplied in brackets, and interlinear insertions are silently brought into the text. Words unintentionally repeated and words crossed out, if they don’t carry significant meaning, are silently emended (for example, Edmond’s “asked him for something to rub on it” is transcribed “asked for something to rub on it”). Otherwise, if not confusing to the reader, original punctuation, capitalization, and spellings are retained (Edmond’s “symtoms”—in “my foot shows symtoms of paralysis”—is retained).

Edmond’s letters to R. H. Halsted were given to the Clarke Historical Library in 1964 by Halsted’s grandson Kilbourne H. Snow. There are seven letters altogether. As part of the donation, the library also received a scrapbook Halsted kept, which contains newspaper clippings about Edmonds.

 

Further Reading on Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye

Edmonds, S. Emma E. Nurse and Spy in the Union Army : Comprising the Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-fields. Hartford: W. S. Williams & Company, 1865.

Fladeland, Betty. “New Light on Sarah Emma Edmonds, Alias Franklin Thompson.” Michigan History 47 (December 1963): 357-62. Recently reissued online http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/2009/julyaug/sarah_edmonds.html  (accessed July 15, 2009).

Pferdehirt, Julia. “Sarah Emma Edmonds 1841-1898: Soldier, Nurse, and Spy in the 2nd Michigan Infantry.” In More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Michigan Women. Guilford, Conn: Morris Book Publishing, 2007.Stevens, Bryna. Frank Thompson: Her Civil War Story. New York : Macmillan Pub. Co., 1992.