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Saturday September 14, 2024 at 3 PM

PIERRE-JEAN DE SMET, A BELGIAN JESUIT AMONG THE INDIANS

Lecture by Dominique De Cleer: Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Belgian Jesuit among the Indians. Pierre-Jean De Smet was born on January 30, 1801 in Dendermonde. Fascinated by the accounts of Father Charles Nerinckx, who was a missionary in Kentucky, in 1821, nine seminarians accompanied the religious man and left the country for America. They began their novitiate with the Jesuits at White Marsh, Maryland. Two years later, De Smet and his acolytes arrived at the Jesuit mission of Florissant near Saint-Louis. In 1827, he was ordained a priest. Ill, he returned to Belgium between 1833 and 1837. Back in America in 1840, at the request of a delegation of Têtes-Plates Indians, Black Robe began his first trip to the Rockies. In September 1851, he acted as mediator at the Great Conference of Fort Laramie. As the terms of the treaty were not being respected, General Harney called on him to pacify the tribes on the warpath. In June 1868, at the Fort Rice conference at which the Treaty of Fort Laramie (April 1868) was submitted to the Lakota Sioux, Pierre-Jean De Smet obtained Sitting Bull's acceptance of the treaty's clauses. He died in Florissant on May 23, 1873. .

Saturday October 12, 2024 at 3 PM

CHILD COMBATTANTS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Lecture by Farid Ameur: The Boys’ War, child combatants of the Civil War. During the American Civil War, around one hundred thousand children, comprising 3% of the military manpower, were incorporated into the fighting forces. This phenomenon not only shaped individual destinies but also reflected the tumultuous era – a time marked by violent and passionate customs within the American population, scarred by its most harrowing experience. The rapid militarization of a society devoid of military traditions compelled leaders to tap into all available human and material resources to sustain the war effort. Whether on land or at sea, these young, budding soldiers bore a heavy burden. Their roles varied based on their armed force: drummers, dispatch riders, ship’s boys and medical service auxiliaries. Yet, even when they managed to escape the horrors of combat, it was their childhood that paid the price. Through their firsthand experiences and immersion in warrior values, these children lost more than innocence. They became witnesses to a brutal reality, forever etching their stories into the fabric of history.

Saturday November 9, 2024 at 3 PM

WALT WHITMAN, COMMITTED POET AND HUMANIST

Lecture by Maurice Jaquemyns: Walt Whitman, committed poet and humanist. In 1862, Walt Whitman embarked on a poignant journey to locate his brother, who had vanished amidst the bloody battlefields of the American Civil War. As he traversed the war-torn landscape, Whitman grappled with the harrowing realities he encountered: the dire conditions prevailing in military hospitals. By night, he poured his thoughts into notebooks and penned heartfelt letters to his mother, seeking solace and release. The lecture will weave together carefully curated texts, distributed to participants, while iconography serves as a visual backdrop. The speaker will delve into the evolution of military medicine during this tumultuous conflict. A humanist at heart, Whitman translated his ideals into action throughout the war. His enduring work bore witness to a hope for humanity amid the chaos of the wartime world.

Saturday December 14, 2024 at 3 PM

GENERAL RICHARD "DICK" STROTHER TAYLOR (1826-1879)

Lecture by Jean-Claude Janssens: General Richard “Dick” Strother Taylor, the stubborn defender of Louisiana. Richard Dick Taylor spent his childhood in the forts of the Frontier. He was the son of General and later President Zachary Taylor. A graduate of Yale University in 1845, a Louisiana planter and politician, he had no military training. This did not prevent him from becoming one of the Confederacy's finest generals. His “masterpiece” was the 1864 Red River campaign in Louisiana. In 1865, he ended the war at the head of the Mississippi and Alabama departments. He died in New York in 1879 at the age of 53. The speaker will go into more detail about his life, which was as short as it was full.

CHAB NEWS END OF PUBLICATION NOTICE

The CHAB committee wishes to inform its foreign and American friends that due to severe budget constraints, the English version of the CHAB News is no longer published. However, the French version of our quarterly remains available to the contributing members of our association. Thank you for your understanding.
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LATEST PAINTINGS OF JOHN PAUL STRAIN

THE WILDERNESS

CUSTER & HIS WOLVERINES

Renowned for their experience, skill, discipline, and morale, the Army of Northern Virginia was better than it had ever been in the spring of 1864. General Robert E. Lee commanded a combat force of 65,000 men, 8400 cavalry troopers, and 213 artillery pieces. Lee’s scouts reported the strength of General Ulysses S. Grant’s army was about 75,000 to 100,000 men and was streaming down the road that led by Stevensburg to Germanna and to Ely’s Ford at the Rapidan River. General Grant’s plan was to march on the Confederate Capitol of Richmond, seize control, and eliminate the southern government. Grant was the newly promoted “General in Chief” of all Union forces and he promised President Lincoln that no matter the losses his army would sustain engaging with the Army of Northern Virginia, he would not retreat. Lee promptly ordered his army eastward to meet the enemy advance. General Lee’s plan was to thwart the advantage of Grant’s superior numbers by engaging the Federal army while it was on the move in the thick entanglement of the Wilderness. There Grant’s superior artillery could not be employed in the battle and Lee’s skilled, battle- hardened troops would win the day over the many untested new recruits of the Federal army. On May 5th, General Lee was ready to go forward into the thicket of the Wilderness riding at the head of his Third Corps column. However General Longstreet’s First Corps was still a day’s march away. General Ewell’s Second Corps were advancing along the Old Stone Road and soon reported at 11 o’clock they could see a column of Federals crossing the turnpike toward the Orange Plank Road seeking to turn the Confederate right flank. At about noon, Lee could hear heavy firing from the direction of the Old Stone Road. As the firing steadily increased General Lee could not tell how his Second Corps was faring in the battle and needed to determine where and when to deploy his Third Corps into the battle. For two miles through the heavy woods and scrub growth, Lee, Stuart, Hill, and Taylor, rode ahead of Heth’s division, with no enemy in sight. Lee was very concerned at the separation of the two corps which he had not anticipated. Shortly before 3 o’clock the reconnaissance of generals turned into a clearing on the left-hand side of the road giving a better view of the ground. Suddenly a blue skirmish line appeared on the general’s left within easy rifle range. It appeared the Federals were just as surprised at meeting graycoats as the generals were at seeing them. Lee shouted orders to Taylor to bring up the troops! Incredibly the Federal troops withdrew without firing a shot! Had they pressed on, they might have made the richest captures made by any soldiers in the war. General Lee returned to his Third Corps and directed his men throughout the rest of the day. Lee put every brigade and regiment into action to the point there were no reserves left. Not a man in the line could be moved as there was heavy fire on all. But by nightfall the firing died away. The battle would begin the next morning, but soon reinforcements would arrive with Longstreet’s First Corps, changing the dynamics of the battle. Grant’s army had lost the battle suffering over 18,000 casualties, nearly twice as many as Lee’s army. It was another victory for the Army of Northern Virginia. But as promised, General Grant did not retreat.

On July 3, 1863, the epic battle of Gettysburg was raging across the fields and hills of Pennsylvania for the third day. Brigadier General George A. Custer, commanding the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, was one of the key officers that would play a crucial role in the day’s events. During the war, 23-year-old Custer had eleven horses shot out from under him, including two that day at Gettysburg. His uncanny ability to avoid certain death in battle was often referred to by his men as “Custer Luck”. Custer never ordered his men to go into battle without himself leading the engagement. Such was the case when he was ordered to attack with his Michigan Brigade at a critical moment of the battle. General Lee had ordered General JEB Stuart’s cavalry to flank Union forces and attack them from the rear, while General Pickett’s infantry would attack along Cemetery Ridge. Stuart’s cavalry were known as “The Invincibles” as they never lost in battle. Custer positioned his 7th Michigan regiment in line for an attack against Stuart’s oncoming formations. Out in front of his men, Custer shouted, “Come on, you Wolverines!” as the line moved forward, first at a walk, then at a trot, and finally at a full gallop. Waves of cavalrymen collided in furious hand to hand fighting with carbines, pistols, and sabres. Custer’s horse was shot out from under him. Quickly he commandeered a bugler’s horse, and Custer would personally take down General Stuart’s flag bearer. Stuart then sent General Wade Hampton’s Brigade into the fray. This time Custer led his 1st Michigan Regiment in another charge, and once again came the cry “Come on, you Wolverines!” A Pennsylvania trooper described the scene. “As the two columns approached each other, the pace of each increased, when suddenly a crash, like the falling of timber, betokened the crisis. So sudden and violent was the collision that many horses were turned end over end and crushed their riders beneath them.” Custer’s second horse was killed in the clash, but miraculously he was unhurt. Stuart’s cavalry then withdrew from the field, unable to break through. Confederate forces under General George Pickett were also unable to break through the Union position at Seminary Ridge. Lee had sent 12,500 men in nine infantry brigades across open fields for three-quarters of a mile under withering Union fire. Of the soldiers who participated in “Pickett’s Charge” 6,555 were either killed, wounded or captured. Lee’s army could not afford such losses. The next day, July 4th, General Lee ordered his Army of Northern Virginia to begin withdrawing from Gettysburg, when Major General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac did not counterattack. Lee’s route for his army’s retreat was southwest through Fairfield and over Monterey Pass to Hagerstown, and then crossing the Potomac. Early on July 4 General Meade dispatched his cavalry brigades to strike the enemy’s rear lines of communication and “harass and annoy him as much as possible in his retreat.” US Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick’s cavalry division, which included Custer and his Michigan regiments, were ordered to locate and destroy “a heavy train of wagons” spotted to the southwest heading towards Monterey Pass. The late afternoon of July 4 found Custer and his Wolverines about to be engulfed by heavy rainstorms as they continued their pursuit of Lee’s army. They would meet again, this time at Monterey Pass.

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