Posted on 06/13/2003 4:28:03 AM PDT by WhiskeyPapa
Sons of Union Veterans regroup
By CAMERON McWHIRTER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eric Peterson, a Wisconsin native who lives in Gwinnett County, and his son Max hope to start a Georgia chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
A Civil War buff and northern transplant has a simple message for Georgians: The Yankees were the good guys.
Eric Peterson, born and raised in Wisconsin, is launching an effort this month to revive a defunct Georgia "camp" of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
The Snellville resident wants the group to achieve what was once unthinkable: rehabilitate the name of William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general credited with burning Atlanta to the ground.
"It will be a real hard sell here, and that's part of the trepidation," said Peterson, an insurance collection manager based in Duluth. "Did they do a lot of destruction? Oh yes, but I want to get the story out that this was not some ravening devil just out to burn everybody out."
Peterson -- a former camp commander of the group in Wisconsin -- has approval from the group's national headquarters to restart the James McPherson Camp 1, named for the U.S. major general killed in the Battle of Atlanta. He plans to hold an organizational meeting by the end of the month.
The first Union Veterans' camp set up in Georgia was established in 1995, but disbanded in 1999, when one of the organizing founders died. Earl Zeckman, an insurance agent in Dacula who had been the former group's treasurer, said, "I would love to see it activated again. . . . There are a bunch of us here, we are just all spread out, sort of hidden."
Peterson has names of about 30 potential members. The group will work to raise money for restoration of Union monuments and graves. It also will visit schools and public events to educate the public on the Union view of the Civil War, Peterson said. Peterson plans to have the camp up and running this year so that it can participate in commemorations next year of the 140th anniversary of Sherman's march through Georgia.
Sherman's fiery legacy
Restoring Sherman's reputation among longtime Georgians may prove difficult, since many were brought up to vilify the commander who led 100,000 Union troops into the state in 1864. Sherman slugged his way to Atlanta in a series of bloody engagements and captured the city in September 1864. Much of what was left of the city then burned.
In November, Sherman set out on his famous -- or infamous -- March to the Sea, cutting a swath of devastation through Georgia. Before his march, Sherman telegraphed Gen. Ulysses Grant that "until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless for us to occupy it; but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people, will cripple their military resources. . . . I can make this march, and make Georgia howl!"
Shortly before Christmas, he captured Savannah, ending effective Confederate resistance in the state.
Peterson's great-great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather fought in the Union army. One relative was wounded in 1862 and was sent home to Wisconsin. The other, however, marched with Sherman.
When Peterson and his family moved to Snellville about two years ago, he was shocked at how Union troops were portrayed at historic sites, museums and re-enactments, he said. Meanwhile, his son, Max, now 15, found himself sitting through history lessons at school that presented Union troops as wanton looters.
"It was the myth of raucous Vikings coming down from the North to destroy the South," Peterson said. "It started to dig at me."
When the national office of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War called about re-establishing a camp in Georgia, he quickly agreed to command the project.
Peterson's efforts parallel others in the South. With so many Northerners moving to the region for jobs and better weather, the Union descendants' group has seen growth in states that ancestors considered enemy territory, according to Steve Michaels, the organization's head of recruitment and retention.
In North Carolina, Douglas Elwell, who moved from Iowa, commands a camp that he helped start in Fayetteville. He said another camp has started in Charlotte and another is forming in Asheville.
"We haven't gotten negative responses," he said.
But the Union descendants' group has a long way to go to catch up with the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Although many more men fought for the United States than fought for the Confederate States (about 1.5 million compared with a little more than one million), Confederate descendants are much more active in commemorating Civil War heritage.
Yankees outnumbered this time
The Sons of Union Veterans has about 6,500 members in camps in fewer than 30 states, according to Michaels. By comparison, the Sons of Confederate Veterans has about 34,000 members across the United States, as well as Europe and Brazil, according to Denne Sweeney, a Texan who is the SCV's chairman of recruiting and retention.
Asked why he thinks the SCV dwarfs its Union counterpart, Sweeney said recent debates about the importance of the Confederacy and its symbols have angered many descendants of rebel soldiers. Many then joined the organization. "When these things flare up, they flock to us and we can't sign them up fast enough," he said.
Told of Peterson's plans to set up a Union descendants' group in Atlanta, Sweeney wished them well, but said: "It might be a little tough in the city that Sherman burned down."
Peterson believes his group has fewer members because Southerners are brought up near many of the Civil War battle sites, so the history remains more immediate. "We have a bigger potential membership. . . . but there is just not that commitment in the North as there is in the South," he said. "You can see things in a museum, but it's not the same as visiting a battlefield."
Peterson's son Max had a blunter assessment for the disparity. He said Southerners join because they still are angry that "they got their butts kicked."
Eric Peterson plans to hold an organizational meeting soon for a chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Anyone interested in attending should call 678-344-6893 or e-mail Peterson at redlegpete@juno.com.
For more information on the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, write them at: Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, P.O. Box 1865, Harrisburg, PA 17105 or call 717-232-7000. The group's Web site is suvcw.org.
Smart kid.
He was wounded twice and captured twice, once being a prisoner of war in the infamous "Andersonville".
Every few years I drive through Vicksburg and vist the Wisconsin Memorial with "Old Abe" atop the obelisk. There I find his name in bronze.
He started as a private and was a captain at the end of the war. Later he relocated to South Dakota where he became a member of the State Legislature. He lived to a ripe old age and was much loved by all who knew him.
Once, the National Parks Officer at the main gate of the Vicksburg Battlefield asked me if I cared to park and have a discussion. This gentleman, with his deep Southern drawl, was very knowledgeable about the seige and he harbored no grudges aside from a few friendly jabs here and there.
Although he was a descendant of a Confederate and I was a descendant of a Union soldier, we both fought in Vietnam and considered ourselves brothers.
What an enjoyable hour that was!
Walt
As an SCV member, I'll agree with that wholeheartedly.
I'd agree with you. The SCV and the SUV members are close cousins and to a great extent fight for the same causes: education, preservation, heritage.
We have only to look at the Gettysburg reunion of 1923, when the survivors of that great battle met for a reenactment. At a vast encampment on the battlefield the old men who had once fought against each other performed for cameras and companionably reminisced about the War. Then, as I understand it, many of those tough old birds, now in their eighties, went out drinking and whoring together! They had let the bitterness fade and honored one another as valiant warriors, as they had always done. (We women tend to be less inclined to let bygones be bygones.)
Most of my family is blessed with long, full lives.
Thanks for the replies gentlemen.
Nice to know. It's what you'd have expected.
The above is a monument dedicated to the 3,000 Union troops who perished trying to frontal assault Cheatham hill, Kennesaw mountain Georgia.
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