Found in The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts
Here is a very strange tale that I wish to share with my brothers in green that actually has a connection of sorts to Berdan's Sharpshooters. This story comes by way of a book titled "The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts" by Burke Davis. The book has some really neat stories, facts and not so factual items. I found two mentions in this book of the Berdan Sharpshooters. The first was of the development of a calcium light flare for night shooting. The second I would classify the following more as strange and not factual and here it is for your amusement.
Some latter-day tales of the war are a match for any of their predecessors. One concerning the fate of Stonewall Jackson is told by Roy A. Wykoff, Jr., of Davenport, Iowa:
In 1935 a retired army major, John Murphy, revealed to Wykoff that Stonewall Jackson was not killed at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May, 1863, as his contemporaries and history would have it. Murphy declared that as a Confederate sergeant he had served as orderly to Jackson, and as proof displayed, a silver watch engraved: "To T.J. Jackson from Robert E. Lee."
Murphy's tale: "Stonewall Jackson and I deserted from the Confederate States Army on May 2, 1863 at 9 P.M. We rode up the Plank Road to the Mountain, or Mineral Springs, Road, at Chancellorsville, and crossed the Union lines there.
"Eventually we rode to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where we found a group of dead Federal soldiers. This was in July,
1863. General Jackson put on a Federal soldier's uniform and found in its pocket papers identifying its owner as Moses E. Milner, California Volunteers.
"General Jackson joined the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters at Gettysburg, the regiment under Colonel Hiram Berdan.
"In 1867-68, General Jackson was a scout for General Custer and served also under the name of 'California Joe' Milner in the Black Hills for General Crook.
"In 1876, this man (General Stonewall Jackson, alias 'California Joe' Milner) was shot from ambush near Fort Robinson, Nebraska, by two cattle rustlers.
"On November I, as a lieutenant of the 14th U.S. Infantry, I buried this man, Jackson-Milner, in a lead-sheathed coffin at Fort Robinson military cemetery.”
As evidence, offered in face of the testimony of hundreds who saw Stonewall in his casket before his Richmond burial in May, 1863, Wykoff cites the records from Fort McPherson National Cemetary at Maxwell Nebraska, where a grave numbered 59211, Section S, is occupied by Moses E. Milner. Officials confirm the record of Milner's burial, but know nothing of the legend itself.
Fun story, eh? Davis's book also has some other very interesting "facts" and firsts. One of them reminded me of the episode on “Mythbusters” where they tried to reproduce a Rebel rocket but could not really get the thing off the ground. The book mentions that the rocket was multi staged and while they were able to recover the first stage, the rest of the rocket was never found. Maybe the Rebs beat Sputnik by a few years. I found the book on Amazon.com and recommend it as an inexpensive and fun read.
Reviewed by Pvt. Tim Pedersen
