March 25 is National Medal of Honor Day. Here at Civil War Tails, we currently have 11 recipients either portrayed or mentioned on our dioramas. In today’s Mewsing, we are highlighting those recipients who were involved in repulsing Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. (Italicized quotes are from each man’s Medal of Honor citation, which can be found on the Medal of Honor Society’s website or on Wikipedia.)

A week and a half ago, we here on Baltimore Street had some excitement—and not of the good kind. Shortly after 4:00 a.m. on March 1^st, a car plowed into the buildings that housed the Blue & Gray Gift Shop and the Crystal Wand, and exploded. A 4-alarm fire engulfed both buildings and it took firefighters two hours to put out the flames. Later that day, the day that the Blue & Gray Gift Shop was supposed to open for the season, the building was razed completely. The future of the other building is still being determined. While the driver of the car lost his life, amazingly he was the only fatality, and all the tenants made it out safely.

A tragedy like this really makes us stop and think. Here are a few thoughts we have had over the last ten days.

• Don’t take anything for granted. As fellow business owners here at Civil War Tails, we feel deeply for the owners of the Blue & Gray Gift Shop and the Crystal Wand. In a mere two hours, not only did their spring tourist season plans change, but everything was gone. We all know on some level that things can change in an instant, but this is a very tangible reminder. So, appreciate the blessings in your life, but be aware that in a split-second, they can disappear.
• Cherish your loved ones. Somewhere, a family is hurting, because in one split-second, a life ended. And undoubtedly they never saw it coming. Make sure the people you love know that you love them—now. Tomorrow morning might be too late.
• Remember, your decisions may affect another person’s life in a drastic way. We probably will never know why that car went off the road in the rain at 70+ mph at 4 a.m. But of all the possible reasons, some are things we can control (speed, awareness of road conditions, driving under the influence) and some are not (vehicle malfunctions, medical emergencies). Even if we think of ourselves as safe drivers, we still need the reminder: use wisdom to control what you can Lives, dreams, livelihoods, and possessions of others are at stake—not to mention your own life!
• Be grateful for our police (first on the scene), our EMS (second on the scene), and our firefighters—and support them. As we watched from our front yard, it struck me how in a situation where I would be helpless to help, each person on the scene knew exactly what to do. No one was panicked, no scurrying here and there like on TV—just calm, cool, doing their jobs, and taking control of the situation, minute by minute, window by window, flame by flame. The Inn at Cemetery Hill stands right behind the Blue & Gray Gift Shop, and thanks to the firefighters’ skill, it—as well as other nearby buildings—remains unscathed. Support your local fire department, even if only financially. Don’t take them for granted. And remember, by supporting your department, you’re helping protect more than just your local neighbors. Crews from many area departments came in the rain and fought those flames for two hours. I’m sure our local department couldn’t have done it alone.
• Be aware of Providence. Maybe you call it chance, but you need to consider “the little things” that show God is at work in our world today.
  • Was it just chance that a gym employee who lives just a couple buildings away was ready to head to work at the time of impact? He was on the scene immediately and because of his gym training, skill, and strength, he was able to rescue a trapped tenant. Let me just say, how many of us could do a chin-up onto a balcony? I sure can’t!
  • On Monday evening, the wind picked up into heavy gusts. Can you imagine fighting a 4-alarm fire in heavy wind? How many more buildings would have gone up? Was it just luck that 4 a.m. was calm with little or no breeze?
  • Consider even the really little things—it was a 4-alarm fire and a cat was lost inside one building. What were the odds that the cat would not only survive but safely make it back to its owner? Chance doesn’t care about you, but God cares for all of His creatures, even little furry ones.

Walking past the smoke-blackened, forlorn, empty building that housed Crystal Wand and the empty hole where the Blue & Gray Gift Shop once stood is a sobering wake-up call. Let us love our family more, loosen our hold on our possessions, and teach ourselves and our children that our decisions over things in our control affect other people, even when we are alone in the middle of the night.

“Desperation at Skull Camp Bridge” is enjoying a little extra attention these days. During this revamp, we are adding a few new horses to fill in the gaps and beef up the Union defensive line. It’s a good chance to give a home to some unused horses that we made years ago, and time to make some new ones.

We hope you enjoy taking a stroll through the snapshots of new faces. Does a particular cat or horse catch your eye or imagination? Take a screenshot or print the photo and bring it with you the next time you visit Civil War Tails. Then you can enjoy your very own mini-scavenger hunt as you look for him on the diorama!

Sometimes an old-timer just needs a little glue to make him jump higher!

 

In the thick of things!

The current events of the last year have started us mewsing about how we view people with whom we do not agree. Watching the news and social media, it is easy to see “the other side” as faces on a screen, which is, in effect, dehumanizing them. That is a dangerous slippery slope. Please take the time to read and ponder this mewsing seriously.

During the Civil War, things were no different than they are now. Both sides vilified the other in newspaper print and in political speech. Individual citizens—civilian and soldier—easily lumped people of the other side into general stereotyped beliefs, rather than recognizing real human beings. For both sides, losing the war would be the end of the world. Sound familiar? This is human nature. But the big question is, when push comes to shove, do you believe the person from “the other side” is a human or a personification of an ideology? It’s an important distinction. Either view will dictate how you interact with that person.

What does it look like if you view “the other side” as a human? It means you will respect them, whether you agree with them or not. It means, when face-to-face, you will see a human, not an enemy. During the fighting on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, Pvt. Philip Grine of the 83^rd Pennsylvania Infantry ventured out between the fighting lines to retrieve a wounded Confederate. Later, he went out for a second enemy soldier. A third time he went out, and he was killed in the attempt to rescue yet another wounded Confederate. Why did he do it? To rescue fellow men who lay stranded and bleeding, and to see that they received medical attention at his regiment’s aid station. He didn’t care which uniform they wore, merely that they were suffering and he could do something about it, even at the risk of his own life.

But what happens when you dehumanize the other person? If we do not believe that every human being—whether we agree with them or not—is as valuable and deserving of life as we are, then we open the door to war crimes and atrocities:

At Fort Pillow during the Civil War, African-American soldiers were massacred after they had surrendered.

During WWII, German SS troops (not to be confused with the Wehrmacht, the German army) rounded up 80 prisoners who had surrendered, herded them into a barn, and then tossed in grenades and strafed them with machine gun and rifle fire.

In bushido, the code of the Japanese samurai, to lose is to lose your honor (respect). This view meant that Japanese soldiers in WWII had no respect for defeated enemy soldiers. During the Bataan Death March, Allied POWs were made to march over 80 miles, in extreme heat, without food, with little to no water, and in constant fear of random beatings or death by bullet or bayonet.

We all have beliefs that we feel strongly about. Opposing views can cause us to “see red.” But this is why the First Amendment is so important. It is the right to be able to speak my mind—and for you to speak yours, too. It does not mean we have to agree, and it does not mean that one of us has to give in to the other; it means we can discuss our beliefs and try to persuade each other, but it’s okay if we walk away from each other maintaining our original positions. Most importantly, we do not try to crush each other into submission. If we take this right away and silence those who believe differently, we dehumanize them, slipping down the slope toward the atrocities that come hand-in-hand with that. It sounds extreme, but the danger is closer than we might think. Let me ask you a question. Answer it honestly.

If you were faced with a member of “the other side” (politically, ideologically, religiously—think of anyone who “makes your blood boil”) who is in trouble, do you feel sympathy or that they “had it coming” and deserved it? What is your gut reaction?

If you really dig down deep, do you see the other person as a person or as an idea you do not agree with? If you can see past the ideology to the human being, then you will respond as Pvt. Grine did, helping the injured enemy. If you see only the ideology, well… what then? Do you want to crush the other person (by word, action, or law)? Think about what your answer says about how you truly see the other person.

One final thought. The gut reaction you felt—are you spreading this reaction (good or bad) to friends and loved ones? Think especially about your children. How you react to opposing viewpoints will impact how your children learn to view others. Talk to them about what they feel towards people who are “the other side” to them. And remember, yours is not the only voice that shapes them, and shaping the next generation is shaping the future. Dig deep, so you know what your child really believes.

There will always be other people whose viewpoints “drive us crazy,” but the important thing is to be aware of when we cross the line into seeing only the ideology and not the human being. That is when we lose the heart of Pvt. Grine and start down the slippery slope to becoming the SS.

Who would you rather be?

Often, as historians or armchair dabblers in history, we end up with a handful of favorite historical individuals. With some, we read everything we can find on them. With others, we recognize the name and enjoy tripping across snippets of them as we read books about broader campaigns or events. But sometimes, even our favorites can settle into a “mold.” We know the person’s appearance, character, and actions—and that’s who they are. We forget that we have never met them and never seen them in action.

In his reminiscences Riding With Custer, Maj. James Harvey Kidd of the 6th Michigan Cavalry recalls the first time he saw Gen. Phil Sheridan. Surprisingly, his description of Sheridan is not what you might expect. Sheridan is known for his Irish temper and his fiery spirit. We see that side of him as he comes riding down the pike from Winchester on his big black horse Rienzi, waving his hat to his retreating army and rallying them with the cry, “We will make coffee from Cedar Creek tonight!” Or perhaps we think of Five Forks, when he jumps Rienzi over the Confederate breastworks, carrying his battle flag. But this is not the picture that Kidd records.

The Michigan Brigade stood ready to pitch into the developing battle at Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864. During a lull, Maj. Kidd saw a general quietly riding up from the rear with his staff and escort. As a regimental commander, he had never seen Sheridan up close, and this was his first good look at the commander of the Union cavalry. Instead of the fiery temper we might expect, Sheridan’s voice was “mild and agreeable.” His eye was “brilliant and searching and at the same time emitted flashes of kindly good nature.”

But besides the strong face and firm jaw, there was nothing about Sheridan to mark him as the brilliant cavalry commander that we know. In fact, only the fact that he rode in front of his escort and staff singled him out as the general, instead of just an ordinary staff officer. As Kidd delved deeper into his description of Sheridan in his reminiscences, he struggled to pinpoint what it was that made Sheridan Sheridan. As far as either physical or mental attributes, “There were perhaps no special, single, salient points…. In making an estimate of the man it was the ensemble of his qualities that had to be considered. He had to be taken ‘all in all.’ So taken, he was Sheridan. He was not another, or like another.”

This is not the Sheridan generated by 150 years of biographical sketches and books. This is the Sheridan of 1864, as the average soldier saw him. There is an element of complexity, with all of the pieces that made him a brilliant tactician who “had no equal, with the possible exception of ‘Stonewall’ Jackson… If he had not the spark of genius, he came very near to having it,” but there is also a simplicity about him. Kidd almost gives a literary helpless shrug as he writes, “he was Sheridan,” as if to say, and that’s all there was to it.

And that Sheridan-ness was what rallied his shattered army around him at Cedar Creek and led to victory that day, and at Five Forks destroyed five brigades and set the armies on the road to Appomattox. Of course, on May 11, that was still many months on the future. This day, the Union cavalry had had only three days fully under Sheridan. “What impressed us at this first sight of him,” Kidd recalls, “was his calm, unruffled demeanor, his freedom from excitement, his poise, his apparently absolute confidence in himself and his troops, his masterful command of the situation.… In his bearing was the assurance that he was going to accomplish what he had pledged himself to do.”

On May 8, Sheridan had gone head-to-head with Gen. Meade (two hot tempers fully clashing) over who really controlled the cavalry—the commander of the cavalry or the commander of the army. Finally, Sheridan swore, “I could whip Jeb Stuart if you would only let me!” Gen. Grant, upon hearing about the argument from Meade, said, “Did he really say that? Well, he usually knows what he’s talking about.  Let him go ahead and do it.” And so now Sheridan had the cavalry firmly under his command and was about to act on his words. It seemed a tall order to whip the general who had ridden around the Union army twice. But, Kidd writes, “there was in his face and manner no hint of doubt or inquietude. The outcome was to him a foregone conclusion.” What Grant said held true. Sheridan did know what he was talking about. By nightfall, Jeb Stuart lay mortally wounded and his Confederate cavalry was shattered and retreating.

It is easy to get wrapped up in reading the most recently published books, but it is also worthwhile to fall back on the first-hand accounts, whether written immediately after events like a diary or written years later like memoirs. These are the memories—images and first impressions seared into the mind’s eye of the men and women who were there, seeing historical figures face-to-face—and they offer fascinating glimpses into the people we know only as 200-year-old names and faces.

Source: Kidd, J. H. Riding With Custer: Recollections of a Cavalryman in the Civil War. Lincoln and London: U of Nebraska Press, 1997. (pg. 298-300.)

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a soldier was stirring—not even the dog…

And then, as the mantel clock struck midnight, there came the faint jingling of distant sleigh bells. The guard on his perch at Andersonville pricked up his ears. He could just make out the sleigh, dashing across the snow, the moonlight glinting off the bells and buckles of the reindeer’s harnesses. Santa Claus was right on schedule! Jimmy’s mouth began to water and his whiskers twitched as he thought of the mounds of “eggs and bakey [bacon]” that he, his fellow guards, and all their prisoners would enjoy in the morning. For one day—well, two days because Santa always gave them enough for leftovers—no one would be hungry.

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he gripped his rifle tighter. A dark shadow loomed behind the sleigh.

Jimmy knew it was best if only he saw Santa tonight, but this was an emergency! He raised his rifle and took careful aim over Santa’s head. This was the quickest way to raise the alarm! He fired.

Immediately, the dioramas around him burst into noise.

“What was that?”

“Who’s firing?”

“What’s going on?”

“Do we get presents if we’re awake?”

“Who fired the shot?”

“Where’s my hat?”

“What’s going on??”

Over it all, Jimmy bellowed, “COVID ALMOST HAS SANTAAAAA!!!!!!!”

8,824 sets of cat ears, 724 sets of horse ears, and 1 set of dog ears perked bolt upright.

“Fire!” Lt. Greene on USS Monitor ordered. “Over the sleigh, boys! Lay down cover! Fire!”

The two massive guns roared and the little ironclad rocked. CSS Virginia opened fire too.  The cats from the damaged gun on the port side gamely beat out the flames that licked at the wooden backing of the ship. They still wore their nightshirts and fuzzy slippers, but they’d do anything for Santa.

The smaller field artillery of “Kemper’s Advance” and Cowan’s lone gun opened up as well, trying to buy time for Santa.

But now a new thunder rolled behind them, low and steady, and Jimmy cheered and waved his hat. “Go on!” he shouted, caught up in the excitement of the flashing sabers and pounding hooves. “Hurrah!”

Col. Mosby dashed past first—his raiders were always in the saddle and ready. Sometimes Jimmy wondered if their equivalent of sleep-walking was sleep-raiding Union wagons. They were fully awake now as they galloped past, fur bristling and ears flat. They’d give COVID a run for its money before they let it catch Santa.

The reindeer were covered in snow that steamed off their sweaty bodies. Magical or not, they were beginning to lag, and all wished Rudolph, Donner, and Blitzen hadn’t picked this year to take off for a vacation to Maui. The sleigh was getting too heavy to pull at full speed for ten miles, short-handed. But maybe they could make it to the safety of Civil War Tails.

Suddenly, Santa saw Mosby and his cats come boiling over the hill to his right, their horses’ hooves kicking up a mini snowstorm as they swept around behind COVID and surrounded it.

With a sigh of relief, Santa turned back to his team—and gasped! Materializing in front of him, pounding at full charge, sabers lowered, came a looming line of Union and Confederate cavalry, unbroken to left and right, horses neighing, cats howling, and out in front, four lengths ahead and swerving to narrowly miss Dasher, was Gen. Custer yowling, “Come on, you Wolverines!” The line miraculously—or so it looked to Santa—split and flew past the reindeer and sleigh.

Safe at last, Santa tugged on the reins, but he didn’t really have to—the reindeer of one accord had already slowed to a weary plod. Up ahead, he saw the welcome glimmering lights of the campfires and now the Christmas trees themselves, as cats hurried to throw the switches, knowing that nothing refreshed Santa and his team quite so much as Christmas tree lights and lighted garlands—and Civil War Tails had plenty to do the job!

Kemper’s infantry tramped past, followed by the cats from Little Round Top. Santa heard Tom Chamberlain shout to his brother, “Hey, Lawrence, isn’t this just like in 2017?”

Gen. Grant appeared, holding a steaming cup. “Haven’t got eggnog, but the ladies say it’ll be ready in a jiffy. But we’ve got hot chocolate!”

Santa chuckled. “I thought you fellows always have coffee on hand, ‘round the clock.”

Grant grinned. “Not always. On Black Friday, the boys in the Confederate camp change their coffee pot into a hot chocolate pot. Gives it a nice mocha touch.”

Santa raised his eyebrows as he took a sip. “It is good!”

Even the reindeer perked up at the smell of the hot chocolate.

“There’s plenty. Come on over and sit a while.”

“Thanks, but we’ve got work to do. Maybe I’ll stop by on my way out.” Santa turned the reindeer’s heads toward Andersonville. “Merry Christmas, General! Ho Ho Ho!”

As he drove away, Custer came trotting back, his face and black velvet uniform covered in snow, but wearing a broad grin. Behind him, the combined forces of his Michigan Brigade and Hampton and Fitz Lee pranced proudly. A few cavalrycats coughed or sniffed, but still grinned. Behind them, in a commandeered sleigh pulled by a couple of Mosby’s raiders, COVID wriggled and whimpered and blubbered, trussed up like a turkey. Mosby jauntily carried the grim reaper’s sickle over his shoulder.

Up on his pigeon roost, Jimmy saw the cavalry pass by and breathed a sigh of relief. Mosby caught his eye and held up the sickle with a grin, and tipped his hat in thanks for the alarm. Jimmy blushed and waved, then blushed even deeper when Mosby’s cats raised three cheers for him. But then his attention was drawn to movement by the gate and the muffled jingling of sleigh bells still packed with snow from the frenzied drive but gradually ringing clearer as the snow fell out. Drawing himself to his full 7/8-inch height, Jimmy took a deep breath and yowled over the camp below, “Wakey, wakey! Eggs and bakey!!”

This Thanksgiving, we at Civil War Tails would like to express our gratitude to and for all who have supported our museum and our town through this year. Gettysburg relies on its tourists, and this year was a reminder of just how important all of you are.

While our museum was closed for 2½ months, you supported us with notes, social media engagement, and online orders. It’s a blessing for us to hear how special our museum is to you, and we appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts.

When we reopened, we wondered how the summer would be. A big Thank You to all of you “Gettysburg faithfuls,” who had to postpone your spring trips and now showed up in summer! A big Thank You to all of you “first-timers,” who decided to make Gettysburg a destination for a day-trip or weekend escape. Against all expectations, this summer was quite good for Civil War Tails, and our fall months were, surprisingly, our best ever! Who would have thought it? We thank God for all of you, and your support of us and our wonderful town.

This Labor Day marked 5 years of Civil War Tails, and this year marked 25 years of Civil War cats. We look forward to many to come! It has been a joy to share our dioramas with all of you, and we are happy that our cats can bring a smile to you also.

We wish you a happy, healthy Thanksgiving!

–Ruth and Rebecca and 8,825 Civil War cats …and Patrick the dog!

2020 has been a rough year for all of us. At Civil War Tails, the Headless Horsecat has been busy, keeping us safe…

…from chaos

…and mayhem

…and beasties

…and monsters

…and yes, COVID-19!

But there’s always a bright side to everything. Through it all…

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…he didn’t have to wear a mask!!

Happy Halloween, everybody!!

Can’t get enough Headless Horsecat? Check out all of his adventures here!

In our past 25-Years Mewsings, we’ve discussed the progression of our dioramas. But today we take a look at a unique diorama. In its humble confines, “Come On, You Wolverines” represents the full history of Civil War cats.

Civil War cat cavalry was present long before we thought to make dioramas. In fact, if memory serves right, it was our becoming tired of having to “fix up” bridles and saddles after every battle that prompted us to set up stationary displays, instead of continuing to use our cat-soldiers as toys. Some of our early pre-diorama photos show the modest cavalries of our earliest cats—and yes, some of the horses in this photo are on “Come On, You Wolverines”!

Our oldest photo of a cavalry diorama is from January 2000, with the units’ horses color-coordinated. Incidentally, Capt. James H. Kidd recalls in his memoirs how the 6th Michigan Cavalry began with each company (troop) on matching horses. Troop A had bays, B had browns, and so forth. It didn’t last long!

Our cavalry “diorama” did not have a base, so it was always changing. In 2001, we began displaying our dioramas at the retirement community where we worked. This one-day event would continue annually until 2013, when we moved to Gettysburg. For the cavalry, this meant that we set the battle up, horse by horse, every time (plus a second time when we took them home that night!). During this time, the diorama generally represented Brandy Station (June 9, 1863).

In 2009, the cavalry finally received a base! With real grass clippings as ground cover, the clashing horses now portrayed fighting at East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg (July 3, 1863). But transportation remained a bit hazardous, since there was no way to anchor the horses to their base. So, the cavalrycats jammed their ranks between the walls of their platform and did their best to keep their horses propped up on their feet. There are advantages to galloping stirrup-to-stirrup when you’re a toy horse bouncing in the back of a pickup truck!

 

Finally, in fall 2017, we began revamping the cavalry battle into an intentional portrayal of a specific point in time at East Cavalry Field. We decided to use the old base of a defunct diorama that had been sitting around for years. It was a match meant to be—it just took us a while to realize it! At last the old base had a use, and at last the cavalry had a base with a surface that they could attach to! The base has a very slight topographical slope, so Rebecca made sure to visit East Cavalry Field, pinpoint where she believes this clash of cavalry took place, and orient the base accordingly.

The revamp meant evaluating each horse and cat. Sleepy, lazy (standing) store-bought horses were retired to green pastures and removed from the census of Civil War Cat horses. Some old clay cats and horses had lost so many limbs (and/or head) that they were “put down.” If the horse’s clay was still soft enough, we made a new horse. Unfortunately for the cats, there’s just no way to resurrect old dried-out blue and gray clay! Clay cats and horses who remained more-or-less intact were cleaned up by scraping a couple decades-worth of dust off their faces, uniforms, and white markings. In the meantime, the two cavalries enlisted young whippersnapper Sculpey cats. Some supplied their own fresh mounts, while others inherited veteran cavalry horses.

Finally, it was time to install the horses. On May 5, 2018, the first horse, a Union liver chestnut, was wired onto the base! Over three hundred horses would follow before the diorama was finally placed on display at Civil War Tails almost a year later, on Friday, May 3, 2019. 

Of the 313 horses on the diorama, only twenty are store-bought. (When you come to Civil War Tails, try to find and point out the store-bought horses—Ruth and Rebecca can tell you if you’re right!) Thirty-five clay horses remain; some of them are new, some are “middle-aged,” and some are original and date back to the late ‘90s! The remaining 258 horses are Sculpey, and 204 of them were made for this revamp. The cats share the same mix of old clay and new Sculpey, making this diorama unique. No other diorama has such a mix of generations of cats and horses. When you look at “Come On, You Wolverines,” you can see a microcosm of 25 years of Civil War cat history!

 

(Kidd, J. H. Riding With Custer: Recollections of a Cavalryman in the Civil War. Lincoln and London: U of Nebraska Press, 1997.)

If you’ve ever had a favorite pet that captured your heart, now you have a unique way to remember them. We have just added Pet Memorial Display Domes to our Merchandise page, under the “Pet Memorials” tab.

When you order, we will contact you for photos of your pet, so we can make a miniature model of him or her. By studying the supplied photos, we work to capture not only the markings, coloration, and physical appearance, but also the spirit and personality of your pet, as much as we can. For samples of some of our work, check out the Pet Memorials tab. 

These domes also make great Christmas gifts for friends and family!