Notes & Queries

Notes & Queries EDITED BY BOYD B. STUTLER 517 Main Street Charleston, West Virginia students of the erra, war period — or at least most of them — are constantly faced with unanswered questions about some phase of the war. And they are just as constantly uncovering new and unrecorded sidelights on military operations, personnel involved in the war, recording of its history, and a thousand and one other things. It has occurred to the editors that a section of Civil War History would be welcomed in which questions may be freely asked and just as freely answered if there is an answer to be found. Also in which notes of obscure items, of newly discovered incidents, or corrections of published writings may be published. Some one has the answer to nearly every perplexing question. It may bethat the answer has long been locked in an old, unpublished letter just recently resurrected from "grandpa's old trunk," or from an obscure pamphlet that had no more than local or family circulation, or from a newspaper clipping taken years ago and carefully laid in the family Bible (a custom that seems to have been abandoned in this modern age), or from other sources not available to the careful researcher. That same letter, pamphlet or newspaper cutting may also contain rich meat for an informative note on some obscure, but important, incident. Answers will be appended to the query if and when the answer can be found before publication. But if the answer is not readily at hand, readers are invited to furnish it, citing source of information, for publication in a later number. The notes (other than staff-inspired contributions ) must come spontaneously from the broad field. Some one, for instance, might locate the first printing of Artemus Ward's "High Handed Outrage at Utiky," a humorous skit which delighted thousands of Civil War soldiers in the field, and even Abraham Lincoln in the White House. Notes and Queries is designed as an open forum for the exchange of ideas and information. Make the best use of it. And so to Query No. 1: 77 78 WASHINGTON'S FIREMEN According to all contemporary reports, the regiment of New York Volunteer firemen ( 1st Fire Zouaves, 112th New York State Volunteers ) commanded by Colonel E. E. Ellsworth was one of the first units to arrive in Washington after Lincoln's call for troops. Almost immediately upon arrival they were called upon to man the capital city's fire equipment and apparently did a first-rate, professional job in saving Willard's Hotel from the flames. Washington's fire department was well organized and well equipped for its time; there had been no general exodus from the city, but the local firemen were conspicuous by their absence. No report tells us why the Zouaves were used Query: Where were the Washington firemen? Irving Herschbein CIVIL WAR SONG I am trying to find a Civil War poem or song in which the following lines occur: "She had three sons, / Three only ones; / Each worth his weight in gold. / One lies down near Appomattox, / Many miles away. / Another sleeps at Chickamauga / etc. Will some reader kindly tell me where this song or poem can be found, and also the name of the author? William H. Montgomery JOHN BROWN'S PIKES When John Brown assembled his arms for his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 he had, in addition to firearms, 954 pikes — long blades mounted on six- or eight-foot shafts. A few of the pikes were carried into Harpers Ferry by the raiders, some were hauled to a nearby schoolhouse which had been pressed into duty as an arms depot, but the greater number were left at the Kennedy Farm rendezvous. After the failure of the putsch, a number of the weapons were carried off by militiamen and souvenir hunters — the U. S. Marines recovered 483, which Colonel (later General) Robert E. Lee stored in the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. When that town was taken over by Virginia State troops on the night of April 18, 1861, the pikes fell into the hands of the Confederate forces, and were later shipped to Richmond with parts of the armory...