December 7th -- "A Date Which Will Live In Infamy"

 

Photos taken the day of the surprise sneak attack on the United States Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Sunday, December 7, 1941.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivering an address to a join session of the U.S. Congress on
Monday, December 8, 1941 declaring the Japanese attack: "A date which will live in infamy".
Congress would vote to formally declare war on the Japanese Empire afterward entering
the United States of America into the Second World War.

This post is in honor of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (December 7th) -- Never Forget!

American Veterans At Gettysburg 1938

Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

This photo was taken at a reunion of American veterans of the War Between The States (American Civil War) 1861-1865 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Sunday, July 3, 1938 showing Confederate and Union veterans shaking hands across the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge at the Gettysburg National Battlefield -- 75 years after the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).

Main Street In Downtown Chester South Carolina -- Then & Now

Two photos taken at the same spot 114 years apart showing Main Street facing north in downtown Chester, South Carolina.

Downtown Chester is located on top of a hill with an excellent view showing Main Street. At the top of the hill, Main Street is situated between the historic Wylie Building on the left and the Confederate Soldiers Monument on the right. At the bottom of the hill between the fork where Main Street separates into York Street & Saluda Street (SC Highway 72) is the historic Bethel United Methodist Church.

Main Street looking north in downtown Chester, South Carolina, 1910.
Photo courtesy of the Chester County Historical Society.

Main Street looking north in downtown Chester, South Carolina, 2024.
Photo taken by this blogger, C.W. Roden.

In Waters Deep -- Poem

In ocean wastes no poppies blow,
No crosses stand in ordered row,
There young hearts sleep…. beneath the wave….
The spirited, the good, the brave,

But stars a constant vigil keep,
For them who lie beneath the deep.
'Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer
On certain spot and think. "He’s there."

But you can to the ocean go….
See whitecaps marching row on row;
Know one for him will always ride….
In and out…. with every tide.

And when your span of life is passed,
He’ll meet you at the "Captain’s Mast."
And they who mourn on distant shore
For sailors who’ll come home no more,

Can dry their tears and pray for these
Who rest beneath the heaving seas….
For stars that shine and winds that blow
And whitecaps marching row on row.

And they can never lonely be
For when they lived…. they chose the sea.

Written in 2001 by American poet Miss Eileen M. Mahoney (1933-2021) this poem serves as a tribute to sailors and marines who lost their lives in the service of their country. In Waters Deep is based on the classic World War I (1914-1918) poem In Flanders Fields by Canadian-born Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918).

Burial at sea ceremony aboard the USS Intrepid (CV-11) off the coast of Luzon, Philippines in 1944.
Image courtesy of the US Department of Archives.

Two Confederate Veterans In Honor Of Black History Month

Pictured in this photograph are two Confederate Veterans at a reunion of the United Confederate Veterans taken near the battlefield at Brice Crossroads near Baldwyn, Mississippi in July of 1921.

On the left is Joe Wiley, then 90 years old, who served in Company A, 7th Georgia Infantry Regiment, CSA. On the right is Howard Divinity, then 91 years old, who served in Company A, 12th Mississippi Infantry Regiment CSA.

This month of February, designated as Black History Month in the United States, this blogger honors their service, and that of all African-Americans who served honorably in America's wars.

An Inspirational Hanukkah Message Still Relevant Today

 

During the Hanukkah season in December of 1931, a Jewish Rabbi’s wife, Rachel Posner, photographed the family’s brass menorah sitting on the windowsill of their apartment home in the German northern port city of Kiel.

Opposite their home was the recently opened National Socialist Party’s regional headquarters with a large Nazi swastika flag hanging menacingly.

Rachel took the photo seen above of the menorah and its candles standing in defiance of the looming antisemitic threat beyond. When the camera's film was developed, she wrote those defiant words written in German on the back of the photo.

Less than two years later in 1933, just months after Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party came to power, Rachel Posner, her husband Rabbi Akiva Posner, and their three children: Avraham Chaim, Tova, and Shulamit, fled Germany for Palestine, taking their menorah with them as they built a new life.

Their family menorah still survives to this day and is currently on display at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel.

Today, over 90 years later, the ugly specter of antisemitism continues to exist in this world in various forms; threatening God's Chosen People and challenging their faith. Yet, always remember the lesson of the menorah -- that the light will always outshine the darkness.

This post is dedicated to my friends and readers of Jewish faith across the world, wherever y'all are. Have a Chag Urim Sameach (Happy Festival Of Lights) this Hanukkah season, and may each of the eight nights of Hanukkah be filled with warmth and light. 

The Wartime Service Of Lieutenant John Grimball C.S.N. (1840 - 1922) & The Last Sovereign Confederate Flag

Lieutenant John Grimball (1840-1922)
in Confederate Naval Uniform.
Photo taken in Paris, France in 1864 by
French photographer Georges Penabert.
Photograph courtesy U.S. Library of Congress.

Confederate naval veteran and South Carolina's own Lieutenant John Grimball, CSN, holds two unique distinctions in Southern history as both one of the longest serving Confederate servicemen of the War Between the States (1861-1865) and serving under the only sovereign Confederate national flag to circumnavigate the Earth, as well as the last official Confederate flag to formally surrender seven months after the war ended.

He would be present for the very first shots of the war, and also be there to surrender the last official Confederate military holdout.

John Grimball was born in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday, April 18, 1840, the fifth of nine children to wealthy planters John Berkley Grimball (1800-1892) and Margret Ann "Meta" Morris Grimball (1810-1881).

His father, John Berkeley Grimball (1800-1892), a graduate from Princeton University, grew rice at his plantation home, Pinebury, located in Colleton County, South Carolina south of Charleston. In 1830, the elder Grimball married Margaret "Meta" Morris, whose family owned the nearby Grove Plantation. The plantation was originally built by George Washington Morris (1799–1834), a grandson of Lewis Morris (1726–1798), signer of the Declaration of Independence. John inherited the Grove from his wife’s family in 1858, and they owned several African-American slaves. John Berkeley Grimball became a South Carolina State Senator and would later cast his vote in favor of secession from the United States in December 1860. 

Young John Grimball (Jack to his family and Johnnie to his close friends) left home in 1854, at the age of 14, to join the Navy. He earned an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, graduating 14th out of 15 in his class in 1858 becoming an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. One of his classmates and fellow graduates was future Spanish-American War (1898) hero Admiral George Dewey (1837-1917).

Now 18 year old John Grimball only U.S. Navy service was aboard the frigate USS Macedonian for two years and saw peacetime service in the Mediterranean Sea and the Caribbean; notably when the American ship and her crew assisted in the refloating of the British ship HMS Curacoa on Thursday, October 28, 1858 when the later ran aground on the Pelican Reef, off Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey) a few days before.

However, any dreams that the young man might have had of earning military glory in the U.S. Navy blue would soon come to an end with the secession of South Carolina two years later.

On Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24th, 1860, just four days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, Lieutenant Jack Grimball resigned his commission and offered his services to South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens (1805-1869). For this act he was publicly praised in an article by the Charleston Courier on Saturday, December 29, 1860, stating: "Nothing less can be expected of true sons of the South."

Four of John's five brothers also joined the newly sovereign State of South Carolina and Confederate service in infantry and artillery units. The fifth brother was too young to have served.

Two brothers, Private Berkley Grimball (1833-1899) and Private Arthur Grimball (1842-1894) both served in the SC Light Artillery, Parker's Company, also known as the Marion Artillery.

The third brother, Doctor Lewis Morris Grimball (1835-1901) served initially in Company I, 2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment, and then in Company B, 11th South Carolina Infantry (St. Paul's Rifles) before being assigned as a surgeon to various units for the remainder of the war. 

The last brother, Lieutenant William Heyward Grimball (1837-1864) served in Company E, 1st Regiment South Carolina Artillery in Charleston. He would be the only brother to die in the war on Wednesday, July 27, 1864 of typhoid fever contracted at James Island, South Carolina.

Grimball’s first assignment as an officer in the military of the State of South Carolina was in the garrison of Fort Moultrie. The coastal fort had been occupied by Federal forces until a few days prior on Wednesday, December 26, 1860 when the garrison commander, U.S. Major Robert Anderson, moved his men to nearby Fort Sumter in the center of Charleston Harbor, which offered better opportunities for defense.

Meanwhile, the outgoing U.S. President James Buchanan dispatched the unarmed merchant steamer ship Star of the West out of New York Harbor, with a cargo of supplies and military reinforcements for Major Anderson and his men.

Despite the fact the Star of the West was a civilian ship, when news of the mission spread to South Carolina, it was interpreted as an act of aggression by what was now seen as a foreign power.

When the ship arrived at Charleston Harbor on Wednesday, January 9, 1861, John Grimball and the rest of the defenders of Charleston were ready to greet them.

The ship was fired upon by Grimball and the defenders of Fort Moultrie and by cadets from the Citadel Military Academy manning a battery on nearby Morris Island. Seventeen shots were fired at the steamer, which was hit twice in the hull causing only minor damage. These shots are considered by many historians as the actual the first shots of the war. Although Star of the West itself suffered no major damage, her captain considered it too dangerous to continue and turned about to leave, abandoning the mission and returning to New York Harbor.

Two months later, after six more Southern States withdrew from the Federal Union, the Confederate States of America was officially formed on Monday, March 4, 1861 in Montgomery, Alabama. John Grimball officially joined the navy of the new American nation shortly afterward, receiving a commission as a Master (or sailing master-warrant officer) by Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory. 

Still serving at Fort Moultrie, John Grimball was present for, and participated in, the bombardment of Fort Sumter on Friday, April 12, 1861 -- the official start of the war. The fort surrendered to the new Confederate States authorities two days later.

Master John Grimball's first naval service with the new Confederate States Navy was aboard the gunboat CSS Lady Davis -- named in honor of Confederate First Lady Varina Davis. At that time, the little gunboat served as flagship of Commodore Josiah Tattnall III's Savannah Defense Squadron, consisting of CSS Savannah, CSS Sampson, and CSS Resolute.

In spring of 1862, Grimball was promoted to Second Lieutenant and ordered to Memphis, Tennessee to serve aboard the casemate ironclad, CSS Arkansas, under the command of CSN Lieutenant Issac Brown. It would be serving aboard the Arkansas commanding the ship's bow gun that Lieutenant Grimball would receive his first serious taste of naval combat when the ship would make her famous run down the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers.

At the mouth of the Yazoo River on Tuesday, July 15, 1862, the CSS Arkansas engaged in battle with the three Union ships sent to intercept the ironclad: the timberclad gunboat USS Tyler, the ram ship USS Queen of the West, and the ironclad USS Carondelet -- the later causing the heaviest damage to the Arkansas in the engagement. The battle between the ironclads caused heavy damage to the Carondelet and inflicted 35 casualties. About 25 of the Arkansas crew had been killed or wounded during the battle.

The Arkansas would continue on her way downriver towards the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where it would fight its way through USN Commodore David G. Farragut's Union fleet on the Mississippi River, damaging 16 of the Union ships. The Confederate ship had fired 97 shots during the day's fighting, of which only 24 of which had missed the Union ships. The Arkansas received an enthusiastic welcome by the citizens of Vicksburg.

These actions would result in Farragut withdrawing his fleet downriver and giving the Confederacy a temporary reprieve on the Mississippi River. Out of the Arkansas crew of 160 men, 30 became casualties during these engagements -- 12 killed and 18 wounded, including several men from Grimball's gun crew.

The ironclad CSS Arkansas would soon meet her end when she ran into serious engine problems and was ultimately scuttled by her crew on the morning of Wednesday, August 6, 1862 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was the shortest serving Confederate Naval ironclad of the war -- about 21 days -- but one of the toughest.

Lieutenant Grimball was then transferred to the ironclad CSS Baltic in Mobile, Alabama, where he would serve from late August of 1862 till May of 1863 helping to lay torpedoes (Naval mines) in the Mobile Bay.

On Monday, May 18, 1863, John Grimball left Wilmington, North Carolina aboard the paddle-steamer CSS Robert E. Lee, a fast blockade runner that was bound to Bermuda, and then on to Liverpool, England, U.K. His assignment there was to assist Confederate agents in purchasing and building of blockade runners and commerce raiders for the fledgling C.S. Navy. 

Despite Great Britain officially being neutral in the American conflict, Liverpool was the unofficial home port of the Confederate overseas fleet. Confederate Naval Commander and foreign agent James D. Bulloch (1823-1901) was based in the city. The city provided ships, crews, munitions, medical supplies, and provisions of war.

Lieutenant Grimball's new duties would also have him travel across the English Channel to France (also officially neutral, and more strictly so than Britain) to help find crews and supplies for the Confederate fleet. He was in the French port city of Cherbourg on Saturday, June 11, 1864, when the commerce raider CSS Alabama arrived for a much-needed refit and resupply.

The Alabama, under the command of CSN Captain Raphael Seemes (1809-1877), had just completed her two-year voyage during which she'd captured or destroyed 65 Union merchant ships. Grimball and another officer volunteered to serve onboard Alabama if needed, but the French authorities prohibited them from joining the ship’s crew. Eight days later on Sunday, June 19, 1864, the CSS Alabama met and engaged in battle with the USS Kearsarge just off the Cherbourg harbor entrance and was sunk. Grimball witnessed the battle from shore.

It would be back in Liverpool that Lieutenant Grimball would soon find himself a more permanent home, as well as his greatest adventure of the war, as a top lieutenant aboard the famous Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah captained by CSN Commander James Iredell Waddell.

Originally built by the British in Glasgow, Scotland in 1863 as the troop transport ship Sea King, the vessel was secretly purchased by the Confederate States Navy along with a support vessel, the Laurel.

The Sea King left London on October 8, 1864, allegedly for an announced trading voyage to Bombay, India. The Laurel sailed from Liverpool the same day, carrying the Confederate officers and crew. The two ships rendezvoused at Funchal, Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal a few days later. There, it was refitted as a battle cruiser with several naval guns, ammunition, and ship's stores.

The new Confederate cruiser was commissioned on Wednesday, October 19, 1864, with the symbolic lowering the British Union Jack and the raising the "Stainless Banner" and the former Sea King was renamed the CSS Shenandoah, a ship that would earn both world-wide acclaim and infamy depending on who you ask.

The destruction of the North's whaling industry was part of the Confederate naval strategy to damage the North's economy and commerce, hindering their war effort. It was also hoped that the actions of these commercial raiders would draw Union warships from the blockade of Southern ports to protect the whalers.

To those ends, Commander Bulloch issued the following orders to the CSS Shenandoah:

Sir: You are about to proceed upon a cruise in the far-distant Pacific, into the seas and among the islands frequented by the great American whaling fleet, a source of abundant wealth to our enemies and a nursery for their seamen. It is hoped that you may be able to greatly damage and disperse that fleet, even if you do not succeed in utterly destroying it. 

Detailed Instructions from Commander Bulloch, C.S. Navy,
to Lieutenant J.I. Waddell, C.S. Navy, October 5, 1864.

The CSS Shenandoah undergoing repairs at dry dock in her extended stopover in
Melbourne, Australia in early February, 1865.
The 2nd Confederate National Naval Jack flies proudly above.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Naval History and Heritage archives.

For twelve-and-a-half months of service the CSS Shenandoah undertook commerce raiding around the world -- mostly the significant being New England whaling ships largely from New Bedford, Massachusetts. These commerce raids resulted in the capture and sinking (or bonding) of approximately 38 Union merchant vessels between Sunday, October 30, 1864 and Wednesday, June 28, 1865.

John Grimball was one of five lieutenants to serve among the Shenandoah’s crew, along with fellow South Carolinian, Dr. Charles Edward Lining (1834-1897) the ship's surgeon. Lieutenant Grimball served as second officer (third in command) and frequently led the boarding parties that captured the crews of the U.S. whaling ships encountered at sea. Once the crews were removed, most of the enemy vessels and their cargo were burned rather than sent into port as prizes.

Shenandoah was said to have destroyed 32 vessels, ransomed 6 others, and taken 1,053 Yankee prisoners (who were paroled and sent via neutral ships to American ports). In all the value of the vessels and cargoes destroyed by the raider, according to her officers' calculations, came to $1.4 million.

Ironically, it would be on June 28, 1865 -- five days after the surrender of the last Confederate land forces by Brigadier General Stand Watie at Doakesville, Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma -- that the CSS Shenandoah would have the most lucrative day of her career, Shenandoah encountered and decimated nine New England whaling ships working together in the Bering Strait in an 11-hour span.

It was here that the CSS Shenandoah fired the last actual shots of the American Civil War, across the bow of the New England whaler Nile and forcing her surrender almost three months after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on Sunday, April 9, 1865. Lieutenant Grimball himself is reported to have fired this last shot.
 
Two months later, on Wednesday, August 2, 1865, while traveling south towards the US west coast to wreak havoc on more shipping, the crew of the Shenandoah confirmed the news of the end of the war from a British vessel. The crew then removed and stored away their guns, which would never be fired again -- and sailed east around Cape Horn into the South Atlantic and returning to Liverpool where she began her journey a year before to formally surrender to neutral Great Britain.

British citizens stood on the shores in awe to see the Shenandoah arriving on the morning of Monday, November 6, 1865; her Confederate National colors flying proudly from her mast -- the last one to do so as a representative of a sovereign Southern nation.

Captain Waddell maneuvered his ship near the British warship HMS Donegal, dropping anchor in the river. The CSS Shenandoah was then formally surrendered his command to Royal Navy Captain James Dorset Paynter of Donegal. The Confederate flag was lowered again for the very last time under the watch of both the British Navy personal and now former Confederate Navy crews.

Lieutenant Grimball, the young man who'd seen the first shots fired at the Star of the West and at Fort Sumter in 1861, now witnessed the surrender of the last official Confederate military holdout. His was the longest service of any Confederate military officer in the War.

During her incredible thirteen month voyage of 58,000 miles (or 93,342 kilometers) -- about 50,400 nautical miles -- the CSS Shenandoah became the only Confederate Navy warship to circumnavigate the Earth.

The Shenandoah crossed the equator four times, covering points from its departure at Liverpool, around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, into the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean, across the Indian Ocean with an extended stopover in Australia, then from the South Pacific north into the Arctic Ocean above the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Strait, then back south around South America's Cape Horn, then back into the Atlantic Ocean and returning to Liverpool to surrender. 

Like her sister ship, the famed raider CSS Alabama, the CSS Shenandoah never made port in a Southern State during the course of the War Between The States. Her Stainless Banner Naval Jack is the only sovereign Confederate national banner to circle the globe during wartime -- a voyage that covered all five of the world's oceans and all of the traditional "seven seas" -- and the very last to be lowered in surrender.

The crew of the Shenandoah were held over briefly by British authorities before being released on parole. It was ruled that the crew of the Confederate sailors did not violate international law in carrying on their duty and were not guilty of piracy.

Grimball, and some of the other former Confederate officers, feared reprisals from the United States government for their raids after the formal end of the war. Grimball left Great Britain and stayed in Mexico where he and a few others worked for a time on a ranch.

A year later, after learning that the government would not charge him or any of his fellow officers with "piracy", John Grimball returned to South Carolina where he began a career in law, practicing in his native Charleston at first, then in New York City. He later returned to Charleston in the 1880s. In 1885, he would marry to Mary Georgianna Barnwell (1857-1920) and the couple would have two sons: Arthur (1886-1951) and William Heyward (1886-1964).

Lieutenant John Grimball died on Christmas Day, Monday December 25, 1922 at the age of 82; and is buried in historic Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

The grave of Lt. John Grimball at
Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, SC.
Photo courtesy of Find A Grave.

John Grimball wouldn't be the last member of the Grimball family to serve the State of South Carolina and his country in time of war.

First Lieutenant John "Jack" Grimball (1914-1991) was named for his grandfather and served in World War II with the U.S Army's 9th Armored Division (Co. A, 14th Tank Battalion) where he earned the Silver Star medal at the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944 - January 1945). Lieutenant Grimball was also awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his role in the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany on Wednesday, March 7, 1945 as part of Operation Lumberjack.

The Naval Ensign of the CSS Shenandoah behind a replica model of the vessel.
The flag is currently on display at the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia, USA.

The special thanks to the following sources used for this article:

John Grimball family papers, 1804-1893, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, South Carolina.

Sea of Gray: The Around the World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah. Hill and Wang. 2006.
The Voyage of the CSS Shenandoah: A Memorable Cruise. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2014.
Waddell and James D Horan. C.S.S. Shenandoah: The Memoirs of Lieutenant Commanding James I. Waddell. Bluejacket Books. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1996.
The American Civil War Museum, Richmond, Virginia.
The U.S. Library of Congress.
The U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command archives.

The Life Of Colonel Asbury Coward C.S.A. (1835 - 1925) & The Kings Mountain Military Academy

Colonel Asbury Coward (1835 - 1925).

 

Asbury Coward was born on Saturday, September 19, 1835 on the Quenby Plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina to Mr. Jesse Coward (1805-1850) and Mrs. Keziah Ann Dubois Coward (1807-1835). The couple were lowcountry rice planters who lived in Charleston County.

At age 19 Coward graduated from The Citadel Military College in Charleston, South Carolina in 1854. At the Citadel he was classmates with future Confederate Brigadier General Micah Jenkins (1835-1864).

He moved to Yorkville, South Carolina (modern-day York) in 1854 to study law under the direction of Mr. William Blackburn Wilson, one of the leading lawyers of his day. After only a couple of months, however, young Coward -- who reportedly liked to sign his name "A. Coward" -- decided against the law as his line of work. He much preferred outdoor activities and military life to working in some law office.

Coward persuaded his old classmate, Micah Jenkins, to come to Yorkville and together the two young men founded the Kings Mountain Military Academy in January of 1855.

Named for the nearby site of a major battle of the American Revolutionary War in 1780, the Kings Mountain Military Academy was a sort of prep school for the Citadel in the upcountry. The school's first class had 12 male students ranging from ages 11 to 16.

The school would quickly gain an outstanding reputation for its academics, as well as its strict discipline.  The five-year curriculum included classes in mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, physiology, history, grammar, English literature, foreign languages (French and German), Latin, and philosophy.

The Kings Mountain Military Academy thrived in those first years and by 1860, the academy had 10 instructors and nearly 200 student cadets.

Boasting a large campus building and dorms, the Kings Mountain Military Academy in York, South Carolina
had nearly 200 students and 11 instructors at its height, including Asbury Coward and Micah Jenkins.
The school operated from 1855 till 1861 when the American Civil War began. The academy would reopen
following the war, but never again achieved its initial success.
Photo courtesy of the SC Department of Archives & History.

On Christmas Day, Thursday, December 25, 1856, Coward married Elise Corbett Blum of Yorkville. Eventually the couple would have 17 children and would sadly outlive all but one.

When South Carolina seceded from the Union on Thursday, December 20, 1860, and the War Between The States broke out on Friday, April 12, 1861, both Coward and Jenkins immediately enlisted in the South Carolina military forces, and the school closed its doors for the duration of the war.

Asbury Coward entered the Confederate Army as captain in the adjutant general's department under Brigadier General David R. Jones. Later he was transferred to the field along with General Jones, who now commanded a brigade in the division of Major General John B. Magruder in the Peninsula Campaign where he was given a promotion to major following the Battle of Malvern Hill on Tuesday, July 1, 1862.

A few months later, on Tuesday, August 12, 1862 Coward was promoted to colonel and not long after given command of the 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment. The regiment was attached to a brigade commanded by his old friend -- now Brigadier General -- Micah Jenkins under the command of Lieutenant General James Longstreet.

The following is an excerpt from Reminiscences of a Private by Frank M. Mixson, Company E, 1st South Carolina Volunteers (also assigned to Jenkins' Brigade) recalling when Coward first took command of the 5th South Carolina in late 1862:

It was here that Col. Coward took command of the Fifth South Carolina. I recollect how game he looked. He had the regiment formed for dress parade. He was dressed in a brand new suit, polished high top boots, shining spurs and bright sword. He did not weigh over one hundred and twenty pounds, but he looked game. He had the orders read appointing him colonel, and then he told the men that he was now their colonel and would be respected as such; he would not tell them to go only as he led them. When he got through his talk the Fifth knew they had a colonel, and after-events proved it, for from then on the Fifth was one of the best regiments in our brigade.

As a military academy teacher, Colonel Coward was said to have been a very strict, but excellent field officer.

The 5th South Carolina Infantry saw action with General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30th), and during Lee's first invasion of the North at Turner's Gap at the Battle of South Mountain (Sunday, September 14th) and the Battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland (Friday, September 19th).

Jenkins' brigade now served in the division of Major General George Pickett and was present at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15th) although it was not engaged.

Brigadier General Micah Jenkins CSA
(1835 - 1864) was Coward's best friend
and commanding officer both before
and during the War Between the States.

Through the first half of 1863, the 5th South Carolina would be detached from the Army of Northern Virginia. Jenkins' brigade was retained to defend Richmond, Virginia in June of that year missing Lee's second invasion of the North and the subsequent Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).

Coward's 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment and Jenkins brigade went with Major General John Bell Hood's Division to Georgia in the autumn of 1863 and participated in the second day's fighting at the Battle of Chickamauga on Sunday, September 20th with the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg.

Later that same year, the 5th South Carolina fought with Bragg's army during the disastrous Chattanooga Campaign at the Battle of Wauhatchie (October 28-29th) and the Knoxville Campaign.

On Saturday, January 16, 1864, General Micah Jenkins led his brigade to victory in the small Battle of Kimbrough's Crossroads (Dandridge) against Federal cavalry, which Colonel Coward's regiment took part in. Not long after Longstreet's Corps would return to Virginia and Lee's Army in time for the new spring campaign.

Tragically, during the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864), Brigadier General Micah Jenkins was riding ahead with General Longstreet when both men were accidentally struck down by friendly fire on Friday, May 6, 1864. Although Longstreet survived his neck wound, Jenkins -- along with two of Longstreet's aides -- died a few hours later. Colonel Coward witnessed his longtime friend and commanding officer's death.

That same afternoon Coward led his regiment in an attack through the now burning wilderness and, when the colors of the 5th South Carolina Regiment fell, Coward himself picked them up and led the charge over the Union earthworks along the Brock Road in the thick of the battle where he was wounded for the first time in the war. He would be back in command a week later, but was wounded again at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm on Friday, September 30, 1864.

The regiment's final engagement was at the Battle of Cumberland Church (Farmville, Virginia) on Friday, April 7, 1865.

Colonel Asbury Coward during his service
as Superintendent of The Citadel
(1890-1908).

Coward was still in command of the 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment when it, along with the rest of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered two days later at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on Sunday, April 9, 1865.  The regiment surrendered and subsequently paroled its remaining 19 officers and 263 men.

Following the surrender and end of the war, Asbury Coward returned to Yorkville to his wife and family. He would go on to have a very productive life beyond his service to the Confederate army.

Colonel Coward reopened the Kings Mountain Military Academy in 1866, but things were not the same as they were before. His friend, and former commanding officer, General Micah Jenkins, was dead. In the decades following the end of the war, not many families could afford to send their kids to boarding school. South Carolina was also under Federal military occupation until 1876 and the end of the Reconstruction Era and the school's cadets were not allowed the use of military rifles for their drills.

In spite of this, Coward kept the school going and maintained its usefulness and prestige, despite the extreme poverty in the State.

Colonel Coward also served as the chairman of the Kings Mountain Centennial Committee in 1880 and helped commemorate the Centennial Monument at the site of the Revolutionary War battlefield in Blacksburg, South Carolina.

His dedication to education would be well rewarded.

From 1884-1886, Colonel Coward would hold the office of South Carolina Superintendent of Education, and in 1890 would become Superintendent of The Citadel in Charleston and served at that post until 1908 when he was awarded a Carnegie Pension for his service to mankind. The Citadel made great strides under the leadership of Coward who gained the respect and affection of every student body he ever commanded.

The University of South Carolina in Columbia awarded him the honorary degree of doctor of laws in 1896 and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Coward to the prestigious West Point Board of Visitors in the early 1900s.

After briefly living in Johnson County, Tennessee with one of their adult children, both Colonel Coward and his wife (now 89 and 87 respectively) returned to York to live out the remainder of their lives.

Colonel Asbury Coward and his wife, Elise Corbett Blum Coward, taken in 1923, nearly 67 years after
the couple were married on Christmas Day in 1856.

Colonel Asbury Coward died on Tuesday, April 28, 1925 at the age of 89. He is buried in historic Rose Hill Cemetery in York, South Carolina next to his wife, Eliza, underneath a beautiful granite monument.

On Wednesday, October 7, 1931, the Kings Mountain Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a small monument honoring Colonel Coward near the Centennial Monument at Kings Mountain National Military Park in recognition for his work in helping to preserve the battlefield site for future generations.

Colonel Coward's marker near the Centennial
Monument at the Kings Mountain National
Military Park in Blacksburg, South Carolina.

The Kings Mountain Military Academy would close down permanently in 1908. A year later the property the academy stood on was sold to the York Episcopal Church. Today the York Place Episcopal Church Home For Children sits on the site of the former military school. A historical marker notes both the site of the academy and its first commandant, Brigadier General Micah Jenkins, who is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.

The marker is located on Kings Mountain Road (SC Highway 321) in York, South Carolina.

Both the Citadel and Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina have collections of Colonel Asbury Coward's personal letters during and after the war. His memoir was published in 1968.

One of Asbury and Elise Coward's sons, Dr. Francis Asbury Coward (1877-1922) would serve in the American Expeditionary Forces A.E.F. as a 1st Lieutenant and doctor in the Medical Corps on the Western Front in France in 1918 -- the last year of the First World War. He's buried in the family plot near his parents at Rose Hill Cemetery in York, South Carolina.

The grave of Colonel Asbury Coward and his wife Elise at
Rose Hill Cemetery in York, South Carolina.

This blogger would like to thank the good folks at the South Carolina State Department of Archives and Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina for providing the information for this article.

The Execution Of Lieutenant William Farrow U.S.A. -- Doolittle Raider From South Carolina (1918 - 1942)

Crew #16 of the Doolittle Raiders B-17 "Bat Out Of Hell"
(From left to right) Navigator Lt. George Barr, Pilot Lt. William G. Farrow, Engineer Gunner Sgt. Harold A. Spatz,
Co-Pilot Lt. Robert L. Hite, and Bombardier Cpl. Jacob D. DeShazer.
Photograph courtesy of the National Archives.

On Saturday, April 18, 1942 -- 80 years ago this month -- 80 men in 16 B-25B Mitchell two-engine bombers, led by famed aviator U.S. Lieutenant Colonel James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, launched from the pitching deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) and bombed the city of Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The Doolittle Raid was America’s initial payback for the Japanese naval sneak attack on Pearl Harbor four months earlier.

This daring raid was the first time that medium-sized Air Force bombers took off from a Navy aircraft carrier. The planes had been stripped down to pack in just enough bombs for the raid and fuel to reach China where the bomber crews would land, or bail out and meet up with Chinese partisans who would get them to American, or British-held parts of Asia.

The final B-25B Mitchell bomber to take off from the aircraft carrier's flight deck was number 40-2268 nicknamed the "Bat Out Of Hell" commanded by a 24 year old U.S. Army Air Corps lieutenant named William Farrow.


1st Lieutenant Bill Farrow

William Glover "Bill" Farrow was born to Isaac and Jessie Farrow in his grandmother's hometown in Darlington, South Carolina on Tuesday, September 24, 1918 -- less than two months before the end of the First World War.

At age 16, Farrow became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from St. John's High School in May of 1935, and later attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina for two years. During the fall of 1939, he received his pilot training at the Hawthorne School of Aeronautics in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

After college, Farrow enlisted in the United States Army on Saturday, November 23, 1940 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina joining the United States Army Air Corps' Aviation Cadet Program. He obtained his aviator badge and a commission as a second lieutenant at Kelly Field, Texas on Friday, July 11, 1941. Following his completion of the B-25 Mitchell bomber training program, he was sent to Pendleton Field in Oregon as a member of the 34th Bomb Squadron.

Farrow was stationed there when naval military forces of the Japanese Empire attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Sunday, December 7, 1941 and the United States formally entered World War II the next day.

In January of 1942, the 34th Bomb Squadron was transfered to Columbia Army Air Base in West Columbia, South Carolina. The next month in February, members of the squadron were approached by Lt. Colonel James Doolittle and asked to volunteer for a highly top secret mission, for which none of them were given details at the time. Farrow and many others jumped at the opportunity. In all, 80 men (five men per the 16 bombers) volunteered.

Codenamed the B-25B Special Project, the volunteer Air Corps flyers reported to Eglin Field in the Florida panhandle on Sunday, March 1, 1942. The crews received concentrated training for three weeks in simulated carrier deck takeoffs, low-level and night flying, low-altitude bombing, and over-water navigation.

On Wednesday, April 1, 1942, the crews and their respective specially modified aircraft departed from San Francisco harbor at Naval Air Station Alameda in California aboard the U.S. Navy's newest carrier, USS Hornet. The aircraft were strapped to the deck of the Hornet. Each aircraft aboard carried four specially constructed 500-pound bombs.

Two days later on April 13th they made rendezvous with the convoy Task Force 16 that would escort them to the point of launch. This task force was led by Vice Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey Jr. from his flagship, the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6). It was only then that the volunteers were told their mission objectives and their destination: Japan. 

The B-25B Mitchell Bombers used in Doolittle's Raid on the flight deck of the USS Hornet (CV-8)
on their way to the Japanese Islands in April 1942.
Lieutenant Farrow's B-25 "Bat Out Of Hell" is located in the back to the left of the photo.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the Air Force.

Doolittle's Raid

At 07:38 A.M. on the morning of Saturday, April 18th, while the task force was still about 650 nautical miles (750 miles) from the Japanese coast it was sighted by a Japanese picket boat which radioed an attack warning to Japan.

Admiral Halsey ordered the bombers to launch at once.

Doolittle's plane took off at 8:20 A.M. with the others all following rapidly, the last of which was number 16, Lieutenant Farrow's B-25 "Bat Out Of Hell" which was airborne by 9:20 A.M.

Doolittle reached Tokyo and dropped his bombs at 12:25 P.M. Close on his tail came the other raiders, who struck military targets at Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka.

The Japanese made no use of the patrol boat warning, mistakenly assuming the carriers to have had only short-range U.S. Navy aircraft, and were therefore no danger to the Japanese mainland. They also later falsely claimed to have shot down nine of the Raiders, when in fact all 16 bombers got through to land or crash in China or, in one case, divert to the Soviet Union, where the airplane was impounded.

Farrow's plane over the Japanese city of Nagoya, where the "Bat Out Of Hell" released its bombs from 500 feet destroying an oil storage tank and inflicting damage on the Mitsubishi Aircraft Factory and taking off for the Chinese coast. Sixteen hours after leaving the USS Hornet, the B-25s engines sputtered out of gas, and Lieutenant Farrow instructed his crew to bail out even though he knew they were close to enemy-held Nanchang city.

Before noon the next day, all five of the unlucky U.S. crewmen were captured by Japanese patrols and became prisoners of war.


Imprisonment & Execution

William Farrow and the rest of his crew were five of the eight members of Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders captured by the Japanese.

Farrow and his crew were tortured for six months by the Japanese military who tried to force them to sign confessions of guilt for "war crimes" in bombing civilians -- this in spite of the fact the Japanese military had done the same throughout the Pacific and Asia.

The captured members of Doolittle's Raiders were all tried by a Japanese military tribunal had sentenced to death for allegedly bombing civilian targets and "strafing non-combatants" with machine gun fire. Five of the Raiders had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment by the Emperor of Japan.

Of the remaining members of the crew of the "Bat Out Of Hell" Lieutenant Robert Hite, Navigator Lieutenant George Barr, and Bombardier Corporal George DeShazer remained prisoners of war for 40 months until they were liberated on Monday, August 20, 1945.

Lieutenant Farrow, his gunner Sergeant Harold Spatz, and 2nd Lieutenant Dean Hallmark of the 6th Bomber crew, were executed by firing squad at Kiangwan Cemetery, Shanghai, China on Thursday, October 15, 1942. The three men were forced to kneel and were tied to three small crosses, blindfolded, and then shot in the head.

Their bodies were cremated and their ashes were taken to the International Funeral Home in Shanghai, China, where they remained until 1946 when they were recovered along with their final letters written the night before their executions (which the Japanese never sent) and returned to the United States by American investigators.

Lieutenant William Farrow was awarded decorations posthumously, including: the Order of the Sacred Tripod of the Republic of China, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Purple Heart. He was also awarded the Prisoner of War Medal by Congressional order in 1985 .

On Monday, January 17, 1949, the ashes of Lieutenants William Farrow and Dean Hallmark were interred in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C. A simple marble base and urn bear Farrow's name in the family plot at Grove Hill Cemetery in Darlington, South Carolina.

Never Forget!

The grave of 1st Lieutenant William G. Farrow at Arlington
National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia near Washington D.C.
Section 12 Grave 157.
His ashes were interred on January 17, 1949 -- almost seven years
following his execution.

1st Lieutenant William "Billy" Farrow's memorial in his
family's plot at Grove Hill Cemetery in Darlington, SC.
The marker bears words from his last letter:
"I have built my house upon a rock, my faith in God is complete.
So I am unafraid."