Science - civil-war

May

2013

7:22pm, EDT

Moon behind mystery of 'Stonewall' Jackson's death

From the collection of Donald Olson

Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson is shown here in a photograph historians date to April 1863, just a few weeks before the Battle of Chancellorsville.

By Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com

Thanks to astronomy, the 19th-century mystery surrounding the death of Confederate general "Stonewall" Jackson during the Civil War may finally be solved.

Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was a major figure in the Civil War, second in command to Confederate general Robert E. Lee, when he was shot by friendly fire during the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. Shortly after that battle in northeastern Virginia, Jackson died of his wounds, leaving the Confederate army without one of its boldest military strategists just two months before the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg.

But exactly how Jackson's own troops could have mistaken him for the enemy has been unexplained until now. [Astronomy Detectives Solve Civil War Mystery (Photos)]

Famous 'flank attack'
Firsthand accounts of the Chancellorsville battle describe how Jackson kept his troops fighting into the night — a rarity at the time. That same day he had accomplished a major victory, squashing the Union's Twelfth Corps in a famous "flank attack." When the sun set that night and the sky darkened, Jackson pressed on, continuing the fighting by moonlight. It was then that a Confederate officer on the left wing of the 18th North Carolina regiment spotted Jackson and a group of riders coming toward him.

Mistaking his commander for advancing enemies, Major John Barry ordered his troops to fire. Jackson was hit with bullets in his right wrist and left arm, which had to be amputated, and died of complications from pneumonia eight days later.

His death has been described as a blow of bad luck, and Barry reportedly "felt extreme guilt over giving the command to fire," according to historian James Gillispie's book "Cape Fear Confederates" (McFarland, 2012).

But now, astronomers say they know why Barry couldn't identify his commander — it's all because of the moon. Astronomer Don Olson of Texas State University and Laurie E. Jasinski, a researcher and editor at the Texas State Historical Association, report their findings in the May 2013 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine.

"I remembered reading long ago that Stonewall Jackson was wounded by 'friendly fire' and that it happened at night," Olson told SPACE.com in an email. Olson decided to pursue the mystery on the occasion of the battle's 150th anniversary.

Sky & Telescope Magazine

This map shows the positions of the Union and Confederate troops on the night of the Battle of Chancellorsville, when Jackson was shot by friendly fire.

Olson and Jasinski calculated the moon's position and the lunar phase using astronomical software, and figured out exactly where Jackson's party, as well as the 18th North Carolina regiment, would have been at the time of the shooting, around 9 p.m. that night. They used Confederate almanacs in Richmond at the Virginia Historical Society, as well as battle maps by Robert Krick, a military historian who is an expert on the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson and the Civil War in Virginia.

"Once we calculated the compass direction of the moon and compared that to the detailed battle maps published by Robert Krick, it quickly became obvious how Stonewall Jackson would have been seen as a dark silhouette, from the point of view of the 18th North Carolina regiment," Olson said.

Historical mysteries
Olson has used astronomy to solve other historical whodunits before. For example, he calculated the direction of moonlight on the night of Paul Revere's ride in 1775 to explain why Revere wasn't spotted by British sentries on a nearby ship, and exposed how moonlight allowed soldiers on the Japanese I-58 submarine to see, and sink, the USS Indianapolis in 1945.

"We are always interested in any historical event that happened at night — very often, the moon plays an important role, as happened here," Olson said.

This latest discovery may help restore the reputation of Barry and the 18th North Carolina regiment, which "unfortunately became famous and best known for accidentally wounding Stonewall Jackson,"Gillispie wrote.

Jackson's death was mourned not just by his troops and fellow generals, but by the civilian public in the South. He is still regarded as one of the greatest military tacticians in U.S. history, and he earned his famous nickname for leading his troops to stand against attackers like a stone wall.

Without a trick of the moonlight on that fateful night, Jackson may not have died, and historians debate whether the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg, or even the whole Civil War, would have been different.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitterand Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

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Jan

2013

12:28pm, EST

Map takes you below surface to see Civil War shipwreck in 3-D

Tom Freeman

The battle between the USS Hatteras and the CSS Alabama on Jan. 11, 1863, as depicted in a painting by Tom Freeman.

By Douglas Main
Our Amazing Planet

On Jan. 11, 1863, a Union warship was sunk in a skirmish with a Confederate vessel in the Gulf of Mexico.

Exactly 150 years later, a new 3-D map of the USS Hatteras has been released that shows what the remains of the warship look like. The Hatteras rests on the ocean floor about 20 miles (32 kilometers) off Galveston, Texas, according to a release from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which helped to sponsor the expedition to map the shipwreck.

The Hatteras was sunk in a battle with the Confederate raider CSS Alabama, and was the only Union warship sunk in combat in the Gulf of Mexico during the Civil War.

"Most shipwreck survey maps are two-dimensional and based on observations made by sight, photographs or by feeling around in murky water while stretching a measuring tape," said James Delgado, with NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, in the statement. "Thanks to the high-resolution sonar, we have a three-dimensional map that not only provides measurements and observations, but the ability for researchers and the public to virtually swim through the wreck's exposed remains and even look below the surface at structure buried in loose silt."

Recent storms have dislodged some of the sediment that covered the ship, 57 feet (17 meters) beneath the surface, so researchers took advantage of the opportunity to map the vessel with state-of-the-art sonar in the fall of 2012, according to the statement.

The map has revealed previously unknown features of the shipwreck, including a largely intact paddlewheel that once propelled the vessel forward. It also shows damage to the wheel's steering column and the engine room.

The Hatteras rests in federal waters, and is protected under the Sunken Military Craft Act as a war grave, according to the release.

The ship was part of a blockade to prevent goods from traveling to and from Galveston, which remained one of the last bastions of the Confederacy late into the Civil War, the NOAA noted.