Review: “Michigan at Antietam”
May 11, 2020 § Leave a comment
I highly recommend Jack Dempsey’s and Brian James Egen’s Michigan at Antietam: The Wolverine State’s Sacrifice on America’s Bloodiest Day (Arcadia Press) for anyone who has a Michigan relative who served in the September 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam.
In his forward, David Finney lists all of the Michigan units that served. This is a great aid for family history researchers.
The authors start with the first encounters of Michigan units on South Mountain which preceded the main battle at Antietam. They take the story through the post battle Union pursuit of the Confederates to the Potomac River.
The 17th Michigan is cited for its contribution to the Union’s success.
Maps show the positions and movements of Michigan units, and stories of Michigan residents and individuals with Michigan connections are told.
Chapter 11 reports on the efforts to install a Michigan monument at the battlefield.
In a recent update, the authors shared that the Michigan Civil War Association has obtained an easement from the Antietam National Battlefield for the monument site. Fundraising is continuing and agreement on the design will be followed by a model.
In the immediate postwar period, the significance of Antietam was overshadowed by the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.
The authors cite the mid-20th century Civil War centennial histories by Michigan native Bruce Catton for placing Antietam in its proper historical context.
Others not cited in the book continue Michigander Bruce Catton’s work on the significance of Antietam .
They include Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning (retired) who in his wrote in his 2005 essay, “The Top Ten Battles of All Time”,
“Antietam ranks as one of history’s most influential battles because if the South had been victorious outside Sharpsburg, it is very possible that France, England, and possibly even Russia would have recognized the new country.
“‘Their navies would have broken the Union blockade to reach the cotton needed for their mills and to deliver highly profitable war materials.
“France, who already had troops in Mexico, might have even provided ground forces to support the South.
“Lincoln most likely would not have issued his Emancipation Proclamation and might have been forced to make peace with the rebels, leaving the country divided.
“Although future events, such as the two World Wars, would likely have made the former enemies into allies, it is doubtful that, in their state of division, either the United States or Confederate States would have been able to attain the level of world influence or to develop into the political, trade, and military power that the unified United States would become.”
Another is James A. McPherson, the most prominent Civil War historian, shares that assessment. His 2004 book on Antietam is titled Crossroad of Freedom: Antietam and subtitled is “The Battle that Changed the Course of the Civil War. Oxford University Press in England published it as part of their series, “Pivotal Moments in American History”. That says it all.
The authors of Michigan at Antietam made similar observations.
To under understand the Battle of Antietam’s decisive role in American history and politics, the first book I would recommend is James A. McPherson’s Crossroad of Freedom: Antietam.
Then for everyone interested in more details I would recommend books such as recommend Jack Dempsey’s and Brian James Egen’s Michigan at Antietam.
Antietam and Our Family
My wife Cheryl A. Robinson’s 2nd great-grandfather Anson Croman and his unit, the 20th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, are mentioned on page 141.
He enlisted on July 29, 1862 in Company F.
He had lied about being 18, the minimum enlistment age, since he was only 17 years and 7 months old.
The 20th Michigan was among the troops rushed to the Washington, D.C. area as the Confederates moved north. They left Michigan on September 1 and arrived in Washington, D.C. on September 4.
On September 5 they crossed the Potomac River into Virginia. Their first assignment was to bury the dead on the Second Bull Run Battlefield from the August 29 and 30 fighting.
On September 8, the 20th returned to Washington, D.C. where it remained until September 18th, the day after the Battle of Antietam, when it was ordered to proceed to Sharpsburg.
It arrived at Sharpsburg on September 24th where it joined the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, IXth Corps.
The 20th served on picket duty on the east bank of Antietam Creek within sight of the Confederate pickets on the opposite bank.
It was among the units reviewed by President Lincoln on October 3.
When reviewing my research and source material I discovered that in 2004 I had I erroneously wrote that the 20th Michigan participated in the burial of the dead after the September 17 Battle of Antietam rather than on September 5 after the August 29 and 30 Second Battle of Bull Run.
The authors used that erroneous information in their book and for that I apologize.
This 272 page paperback is available for $24.99 from Arcadia Publishing.
Marshall Begel assisted in editing this post.
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Review: “Michigan at Antietam”
Seneca Leader and Civil War General Ely Parker Named after Robinson Ancestor
February 23, 2016 § Leave a comment
General Ely Samuel Parker (Hasanoanda) wearing his ancestor Red Jacket’s (Sagoyewatha) peace medal given to Red Jacket by President Washington in 1792.
Undated photo in the public domain.
Cheryl A. Robinson’s family oral history is that Seneca leader and Civil War General Ely Samuel Parker (Seneca name Hasanoanda) was named after Cheryl’s fifth paternal grandfather Eli Stone.
Extreme caution must be taken with family oral history especially when it involves European-Americans and American Indians. Much of such oral history turns out to be family mythology.
Research suggests that is not the case with this family oral history.
In his 1919 biography, The Life of Ely S. Parker: Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois and General Grant’s Military Secretary, Arthur C. Parker states that:
(Hasanoanda) was named Ely after a prominent white citizen of the day.
Two sources identify that “prominent white citizen” as e Eli Stone, Cheryl’s fifth paternal great-grandfather.
Eli Stone was a Baptist missionary and one of the local founders of the mission on Seneca’s Tonawanda Reservation in New York.
Ely Samuel Parker (Hasanoanda) studied engineering and worked as a civil engineer.
Before the Civil War, the future General Grant and Ely Parker met in Galena, Illinois where Ely Parker was working on civil engineering projects. They became friends.
When the Civil War began, Ely Parker volunteered to serve. His offer was rejected because he was an American Indian. Ely Parker then contacted his friend Ulysses Grant who then a general.
General Grant who often (but now always) transcended the bigotry of his times obtained a captain’s commission for Ely Parker.
Captain Parker served as engineer including at the Siege of Petersburg
During the Siege of Petersburg, Ely Parker became Grant’s military secretary and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
On April 9, 1865 at the surrender of the Confederates at Appomattox, Virginia, in his role as General Grant’s military secretarty, Lt. Col. Parker drafted the surrender documents for Generals Grant and Lee to sign.
Then Lieutenant Colonel Ely Samuel Grant (seated on the right behind General Grant) at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, April 9, 1865.
From a engraving from a drawing by Alfred R. Waud in the public domain.
After the signing of the surrender, General Lee shook hands with General Grant’s staff.
When he came to Lt. Col. Parker General Lee hesitated, looked at Parker, then said “I am glad to see one real American here.” As General Lee was white supremacist, that remark could have been meant condescendingly rather than positively. In the racist racial hierarchy of the South in which General Lee believed and for which he fought, American Indians were viewed as inferiors barely one step above Africans.
In a moment of greatness, Lt. Col Parker shook General Lee’s hand and replied,
“We are all Americans.”
While Lt. Col. Parker was facilitating the surrender of the Confederates, Cheryl A. Robinson’s third maternal great-grandfather Anson Croman was serving in the 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment securing the railroad station and repairing the rail lines at Sutherland Station, Virginia to the southeast of Appomattox just west of Petersburg.
Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan also served near General Parker at the Sieges of Vicksburg and Petersburg.
Links, sources, and more information:
The Life of Ely S. Parker: Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois and General Grant’s Military Secretary by Arthur C. Parker. Full text in several digital formats.
Sources that identify Eli Stone as the person after whom General Ely Parker was named:
Ely Parker: Iroquois Chief and Union Officer
“He (General Parker) acquired his unusual first name (pronounced not ‘Ee-lye’ but ‘Ee-lee’) from a Baptist missionary, Elder Ely Stone.”
“Chief William Parker (General Parker’s father) owned a large farm on the reservation and became a converted member of the newly formed missionary Baptist church. Ely reputedly received his first name from Ely Stone, one of the local founders of the mission.”
Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment
Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan in the Appomattox Campaign 150 Years Ago
Includes documentation of General Lee’s white supremacist ideology.
150 Years Ago the 20th Michigan Enters Petersburg
150th anniversary of Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan at the 1863 siege of Vicksburg
Shortlink: http://bit.ly/1RkSnye
Honor Our Veterans By Taking Down the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina State Capitol Now
June 20, 2015 § Leave a comment
The most urgent reasons to immediately take and keep down the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol are to show respect for the nine African-American victims of what according to the Charleston police chief was a racially motivated hate crime and to support our grieving.
The next reason is to honor our veterans who fought an enemy displaying that flag.
In the words of one of our greatest generals and former Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, the cause the Confederate flag represents, “…was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought”.
Our family’s Union veteran:
Anson Croman (1844 – 1938), Company F, 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment, 1862 –1865.
The Musbachs and Robinsons are direct line descendants of Anson Croman and he is my 2nd great-grandfather-in-law.
Photo from the collection of © Barbara Robinson
Links, sources, and more information:
Anson Croman and the Civil War
Shortlink: http://wp.me/p5YuOj-26
Anson Croman and the 150th Anniversary of the Grand Review
May 22, 2015 § Leave a comment
On May 23, 1865, the Army of the Potomac, which including the 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment, paraded in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington D.C. The Army of the Potomac had defeated the Army of Northern Virginia forcing General Lee to surrender.
”Washington, D.C. Infantry unit with fixed bayonets followed by ambulances passing on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Treasury” – Library of Congress caption.
Click for larger image.
None of the units are identified in the Library of Congress’s photos of the Grand Review. While this may not be the 20th Michigan, this illustrates how the 20th Michigan appeared at the Grand Review.
Library of Congress states: No known restrictions on publication (Library of Congress)
The next day on May 24th, the Army of the Tennessee paraded. Under the command of General Sherman, they had defeated the Confederate armies south and west of Virginia, forcing their surrender in North Carolina shortly after General Lee’s surrender.
This was a bittersweet celebration. The Confederacy was defeated and the major rebel armies had surrendered. But Abraham Lincoln, the architect of the victory with the abolition of slavery and reunification, was not present as he had been murdered five weeks earlier.
After the Grand Review, Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan were demobilized and returned to Michigan. Anson married Mariah.
Anson and Mariah Croman, undated.
Among the many things he did was with the rest of his life was to care for his great-grandchildren including my mother-in-law Marge (Mitchell) Robinson.
One of Anson’s great-grandsons Robert remembers Anson calling to his great-grandchildren to “come shake the hand that shook Abe Lincoln’s!”.
Anson died two months before his 94th birthday in 1938 and is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Waterloo, Michigan.
2004 photo of Anson Croman gravestone by Ralph E. Robinson, Anson’s great-grandson-in-law.
Links, sources, and more information:
1865: Anson Croman and the Civil War
1865 – 1938: The Rest of His Life
The Library of Congress has over 134 photos of the Grand Review.
If Anson Croman wrote letters home, none have survived.
Therefore the best way to preserve the story of his service is by sharing the history of his regiment.
Records document that Anson Croman was with his regiment from his 1862 enlistment until the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in 1865.
The Musbachs and Robinsons are direct line descendants of Anson Croman and he is my 2nd great-grandfather-in-law.
Shortlink: http://wp.me/p5YuOj-1S
Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan in the Appomattox Campaign 150 Years Ago
April 9, 2015 § 1 Comment
Orange ellipse, lower right: Location of the 20th Michigan at Sutherland Station, Virginia in a support position for the troops that pursued and trapped Lee’s army at Appomattox. Click on map for larger image.
Public domain image from the United States Military Academy (West Point) History Department’s American Civil War Atlas
150 years ago over the night of April 2-3, 1865 Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia retreated from Richmond to link up with General Johnson’s Army of Tennessee just to south in North Carolina.
Pursuing Union troops blocked every road south so Lee’s army was forced to retreat to the west.
The IXth Corps which included the 20th Michigan supported the pursuit by protecting the Union’s southern flank. The IXth Corps was also quickly repairing the South Side Railroad to supply the pursuing troops by rail.
Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment were in a support position at the Sutherland Station southwest of Richmond and west of Petersburg.
On April 9, the Union trapped General Lee at Appomattox finally forcing him to surrender to General Grant.
That is considered the symbolic end of the Civil War.
The last of the Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River surrendered in June marking the actual end of the Civil War.
Why Lee May Not Have Surrendered Earlier
After President Lincoln’s reelection in November, 1864, any hope of winning Confederate independence through war or negotiations ended.
Several times earlier in the war, Confederate generals surrendered without their troops being completely trapped and on the verge of total destruction as were General Lee’s forces at Appomattox.
As did those other Confederate generals, General Lee had the authority and opportunity to surrender.
University of Virginia historian Elizabeth R. Varnon suggests that General Lee knew independence was no longer possible and slavery was over.
Professor Varnon’s analysis is that General Lee held out as long as he did in order to place the Southern aristocracy in the strongest position possible to preserve as many of their privileges as possible including in race relations.
Links, sources, and more information:
Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War by Elizabeth R. Varon
1865: Anson Croman and the Civil War
If Anson Croman wrote letters home, none have survived. Therefore the best way to preserve the story of his service is by sharing the history of his regiment
Records document that Anson Croman was with his regiment from his 1862 enlistment until the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in 1865.
The Musbachs and Robinsons are direct line descendants of Anson Croman and he is my 2nd great-grandfather-in-law.
Shortlink: http://wp.me/p5YuOj-1w
Anson Croman and the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Fort Stedman
March 30, 2015 § Leave a comment
Orange arrow pointing to circle, upper center: March 23, 1865 position of the 20th Michigan at Battery Number 9 just north of Fort Stedman two days before the battle.
Click on image for larger version.
Original base map in the public domain with additions by The Siege of Petersburg Online
Since June, 1864, General Grant had been extending the Union siege lines southwest of Petersburg and north of Richmond. That had stretched the Confederate forces to the breaking point.
In January, 1865 the Union had captured Wilmington, North Carolina and closed the last major Confederate port. That cut off more of the few supplies that were still making it around the Union siege lines.
Robert E. Lee realized the Union siege of Petersburg and Richmond was about to result in the capture of both cities and his army.
He decided to launch an attack on the eastern end of the…
View original post 141 more words
70 and 150 Years Ago: Two Promotions
January 30, 2015 § Leave a comment
70 years ago on January 1, 1945, Felix A. Cizewski, was promoted to Private First Class.
He was serving in Company C, 3110th Signal Service Battalion, Army Service Forces in Paris. He was in a hospital recovering from frostbite.
He is my late father.
LEFT: Private Felix A. Cizewski on
occupation duty in Munich between
April and July, 1945.
From the collection of Felix A. Cizewski
© Leonard H. Cizewski
RIGHT: Unit Morning Report recording
his promotion.
Public domain image
150 years ago on January 26, 1865, Anson Croman was promoted to corporal.
He served in Company F, 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment, Second Brigade, First Division, IX Corps, Army of the Potomac. At that time the 20th Michigan was part of the Union siege of Petersburg near Battery Nine just south of the the Appomattox River on the northeast edge of the city.
Anson Croman is Cheryl A. Robinson’s 2nd great-grandfather…
View original post 41 more words
Anson Croman 150 Years Ago: August to December, 1864
December 30, 2014 § Leave a comment
150 years ago Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment continued to serve in the Siege of Petersburg Virginia, south of Richmond.
By August, 1864 they could only muster about 85 men for duty. When the 20th Michigan began service in July, 1862 it had 1012 enlisted men and officers.
After the defeats in June and July, 1864, General Grant ceased frontal assaults on the Confederate defenses of Petersburg.
Instead he sought ways to cut off the railroads supplying Richmond and Petersburg and force the Confederates to extend their lines to the breaking point.
The IX Corps with the 20th Michigan were part of that campaign including:
August 19 to 21: The Weldon Railroad south of Petersburg connected the besieged Confederates with their last major port of Wilmington, North Carolina.
After a series of battles, the Union captured a section of the Weldon Railroad.
That forced the Confederates to…
View original post 423 more words
150th anniversary of the 20th Michigan in the Battle of the Crater
July 30, 2014 § Leave a comment
By June 12, 1864 the Confederates stopped the Union forces outside of Petersburg, Virginia. The Union ceased assaulting Petersburg and switched to a siege.
In an attempt to break into Petersburg, IXth Corps Union troops with coal mining experience dug a tunnel to place a mine under Confederate fortifications just east of Petersburg.
One hundred fifty years ago on July 30, 1864 the mine was exploded and Union troops assaulted Confederate positions. Among them was our Civil War ancestor Anson Croman in the 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment.
20th Michigan’s position (ORANGE CIRCLE) and direction of the attack to the west of the crater from the mine explosion.
Fair use of image from The Battle Atlas of the Civil War © Time-Life Books
Contemporary drawing of the Union assault on The Crater. The 20th Michigan is to the left out of this picture.
Image in the public domain.
The Confederates held…
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150th anniversary of Anson Croman and the 20th Michigan in the 1864 Overland Campaign
June 30, 2014 § Leave a comment
 Overland CampaignPublic domain image from the National Park Service |
On May 4, 1864, General Grant began the Overland Campaign which would lead 11 months later to the capture of the Confederate capitol of Richmond and the surrender of the main Confederate army in April, 1865.
The Overland Campaign lasted until June 12, 1864.
Anson Croman served in the 20th Michigan, IXth Corps.
Details are at:
Anson Croman and the Civil War: 1864
More information from the National Park Service:
Overland Campaign to Siege: Visitor Guide to Petersburg’s 1864/2014 Sesquicentennial Commemoration
If Anson Croman wrote letters home, none have survived. Therefore the best way to preserve the story of his service is by sharing the history of his regiment
Records document that Anson Croman was with his regiment from his 1862 enlistment until the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in 1865.
The Musbachs and Robinsons are direct line descendants of Anson…
View original post 9 more words
Anson Croman, the 20th Michigan Infantry Regiment, and the American Civil War 
