Notes & Queries

Notes & Queries EDITED BY BOYD B. STUTLER 517 Main Street Charleston, West Virginia this department is designed as an open forum for researchers and readers of Civil War History for questions on phases of the Great Conflict and its personnel. Also for notes on newly discovered or unrecorded sidelights of the war. Contributions are invited; address Notes and Queries Editor. QUERIES 21.150th Pennsylvania's Company "Q": I am attempting to research an unique organization which existed briefly in the Army of the Potomac — an outfit made up of officers courtmartialed for cowardice. This unit, known as Company "Q", was attached to the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers on May 13, 1864, near Spotsylvania. The members of this unhappy group were given the opportunity to redeem themselves by fighting as privates, and it may be said that most of the survivors of the detachment did redeem themselves and were restored to their commands. The history of Company "Q" is quite misty; the only references to it that I have been able to find are contained in Bruce Catton's Stillness at Appomattox, (page 215), and following this lead I found another mention in History of the 150th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, (pp. 197-198), by Lt. Col. Thomas Chamberlain, Executive Officer of the Regiment. Query: Can any reader tell me about Company "Q", or cite other sources of information? Irving Werstein 22.Origin of Memorial Day: I am deeply interested in determining the origin of Memorial Day, and the influences that brought about its establishment as our national 79 80BOYD B. STUTLEB day of remembrance of our military and civilian dead. I am aware of several early local services held at various places, North and South — notably at Charleston, S.C., May 1, 1865; Carbondale, 111., and Washington , D.C., 1866, and at other places — some one of which may have planted the suggestion of national observance. General John A. Logan was the principal speaker at the Carbondale, 111., memorial service in April, 1866, ("First to Remember," by Ray Hubbs, in American Legion Magazine, June, 1937) and two years later as Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic he issued General Order No. 11 setting apart May 30, 1868, as a memorial day for the Civil War dead. Information on memorial services prior to 1868 is wanted. Query: Can any reader cite references to show what influenced General Logan to issue his historic General Order No. 11? Ernest C. Klein 23.Isaac Sherman and Lincoln's Proclamation: I have a framed engraving (copyright 1895) of Frank B. Carpenter's painting "Lincoln and his Cabinet," inscribed by Carpenter to Russell Sage. The text of the inscription is: "To Honorable Russell Sage with the compliments of the artist, Frank B. Carpenter, New York, December 18, 1897." Below the engraved picture is a facsimile of the Emancipation Proclamation of September, 1862. Inserted with the facsimile is a handwritten slip which reads: "Revised in the private office of Sherman & Wibert, No. 1, Hanover Square, New York, by Isaac Sherman at the request of President Lincoln." Query: Does any one know the background for the unsupported statement that Isaac Sherman revised the September draft of the Emancipation Proclamation? Carl Haverlin 24."Lightning" Ellsworth and Sickles' Leg: This is a query on two subjects, not at all related. My point of interest is George Arthur Ellsworth, known as "Lightning" Ellsworth, who was chief telegraph operator for General John Hunt Morgan. He enlisted in Duke's 2nd Kentucky Cavalry in Chattanooga, and was of invaluable service to Morgan in his many raids, but little else of his life story seems to be known. Any information about him will be appreciated, particularly : where born, what he did in the twelve years after the war, when he died and where buried. Also, did he serve a sentence for murder in 1867? Second Query: The New York Tribune for August 1, 1863, mentions the establishment of a new medical and surgical museum at the Surgeon General's Department in Washington where "the amputated legs of Generals Kirby and Sickles, showing the nature of their wounds, are Notes ù- Queries81 placed on the shelves of the museum." Query: Are the legs still...