Forward

I am grateful to be writing the forward to the 30th anniversary edition of my father’s acclaimed history Martyrdom: The Murder of John Washington Harrison at the Battle of Harrison’s Ford. Fans of his work know the personal mountain he climbed in an attempt to get the work published in 1962, and the ensuing legal struggles that occurred in 1997 after our family estate recognized his work posthumously published in 1993 by Wolf-Lips and Sons. We were shocked to find that an acquaintance he knew and entrusted with an original hard-copy manuscript, Mary Winston Churchill, was able to push the work to the press due to significant management turnover at Wolf-Lips and Sons in 1992. With renewed entrepreneurial vigor, she captured the young management team’s interest during a brief period when Civil War history was expected to be commercially attractive again due to anticipation of the Hollywood film Gettysburg (also released in 1993). Mary was ambitious enough to take authorship credit for his work after discovering his public obituary and confirming his death had occurred 20 years earlier in 1972. Mary Winston Churchill went on to receive critical acclaim and the Pulitzer Prize in History. My book, Injustice Due: A Sons Legal Battle with the Press To Reclaim His Fathers Name, won the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Journalism in 2011 by unraveling the corruption at Wolf-Lips and Sons.

Many historians consider Martyrdom: The Murder of John Washington Harrison at the Battle of Harrison’s Ford groundbreaking for three reasons. Firstly, a central figure in the story, Jebidyah Bowelmein, is an unlikely hero. Before joining the Union cause and the Army of The Potomac, he was a simple Amish woodworker with unremarkable German ancestry living in near cultural isolation in central Pennsylvania. Secondly, investigating the death of John Washington Harrison brought to light a deep and unpalatable conspiracy spanning generations of Virginian elite who remained loyal to British aristocracy. In 1962, when my father initially attempted to publish at Wolf-Lips and Sons, the board flatly rejected his work for the simple fact that personal letters written by John Washington Ford exposed his bisexual relations with Abigail Windswallow and Elija Windswallow, a father and daughter team and mutual owners of Liverdowns, a mercantile shipping magnate based in Liverpool. They coldly stated that the accusation was not grounded in fact and lacked sufficient evidence, despite written proof in John Washington Harrisons own words. ‘I look forward to meeting you and Abigail once again, for the last time we met I failed to sow enough seed into the bosom of thine heart. Know kindly that when my laden hands touch the reins of our burdened stock mules, it is forever strengthened by your godly spirit and kindness.’ written shortly before his death in March, 1863.

But perhaps the most explosive revelation was the Irish Brigades’ ties to a local community bank in Maryland that acted as a proxy for a French banking magnate Victor de Puie’, in an attempt to control the Northern Steel Industry. The scheme was to buy US Government bonds in anticipation of Robert E. Lee’s Northern Invasion Campaign. Insiders were then expected to recognize purchases as a mark and would then, counterintuitively, buy Confederate Bonds through their banking proxies in the south as a hedge to their already sizable financial stake in the North. The death of John Washington Harrison at the battle of Harrisons Ford on June 23, 1863 brought down a series of cascading dominoes that ultimately led to the Union victory at Gettysburg extinguishing the marketable value of Confederate Bonds and financial holdings of numerous northern industries through their southern banking proxies. Jebidyah Bowelmein, of course, was the linchpin in this story who acted as the naive scapegoat Victor de Puie’ needed to bring his financial plan to fruition. 

Ancillary to Jebidyah Bowelmein’s heroic rise is the fact that he was the right person, at the right place and at the right time. His story is marked with numerous anecdotes of serendipity. But most critical is the fact that his love interest, the spry, handkerchief waving, Urchin von Frauen, was manipulating him as well his Chief Artillery Assistant, the renowned Irish drunkard, gambler, and philanderer, O’Sirus O’Flattigan. Through Urchin von Frauen’s overt manipulations, Jebidyah Bowelmein, became Chief Artillery Assistant to the Army of The Potomac in June 1863 at a critical period of leadership turnover in The Army of the Potomac immediately prior to the Battle at Harrisons Ford. Research performed by my father by reading through the personal letters of Urchin von Frauen, uncovered that during The Second Battle of Bull Run, O’Sirus O’Flattigan had secretly been replacing the lead shot in artillery canister with rocks. While the personal justification for this endeavor has been hotly debated, a leading theory includes recognition that the leadership within the Irish Brigade secretly harbored the belief that England’s Neutrality in the war was de-facto support of the Southern Cause. 

The Virginia elite had their own established social hierarchy based on bloodlines deeply rooted in English ancestry which maintained family and business relations with Britain up to and sometimes throughout the war. So any British support for the North would directly conflict with self-serving mercantile interests, while openly supporting the South was a political non-starter as Britain had already legally banned the Atlantic Slave Trade with the Slave Trade Act of 1807. The Irish Brigade generally recognized the obvious and acted in anticipation of the eventual Union demise by being slow to act to their commanders requests, yet quick to take flight from the field. It is worth noting that political upheaval was the world standard following the numerous populist, and revolutionary uprisings in France and England in the 1840s which were romanticised in American press, poetry and literature.  Amidst this political backdrop, it’s easy to comprehend how a clear path to Union victory was not well envisioned by sympathetic abolitionists until Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation after the debacle at Chancellorsville, and the tide-turning moment of Gettysburg in July, 1863.

My father also painted a clear portrait of O’Sirus O’Flattigan, the man. He was a deeply religious person who was complicated by a messianic complex not uncommon in the 1860s. It is likely that he did not believe the death and slaughter witnessed at Clamington, early in the Peninsula campaign along the James River, was warranted against the will of a people who had a right to determine their own political destiny. A recent immigrant and survivor of the Great Famine, O’Flattigan was sympathetic to the individual’s right to the pursuit of happiness and saw it as his duty to save the lives of his Irish Catholic brothers from violent ends by expediting the war to its ultimate conclusion: Union defeat and a return of The Southern States to its rightful inheritance under the Dominion of England. This was anticipated through the much publicized and editorialized observation of contrition, illness and desertion that plagued The Army of The Potomac ranks for the first three years of the war. Failing morale was the status quo and Generals foresaw a great challenge to keep The Army of The Potomac sufficiently manned and equipped to fight as a cohesive unit through a protracted war against English natives on their ‘own soil.’ 

The updated 30th anniversary volume sheds new light on The Army of The Potomac Commissary Officer, George Spitlittle, who, while working with the Quartermaster’s department, made frequent public overtures about the equipment demands and needs of his men. He quickly learned that by ballooning the department budget he was able to keep men, whose wartime contracts were expiring, in the field by acquiescing them to a soldiers life that might feed and house them not only better than his Confederate counterpart but what he likely could afford to provide himself on his own. In one letter home to his wife, Spitlittle confided, ‘I shan’t fight for a government that believes in emancipation of a man, but is willing to enslave and abuse ‘nother, by providing inadequate fluids on field, including the mothers milk, the spirit of the barrel, and two loaves for each man at each meal. Unless they cannot find the strength to raise their arms and carry the weight of the musket, a 30 mile a day march to a battle he does not know against whom, or to what end, in a country he has just arrived. While his captain graciously smiles and waves at him from behind a horse. I have seen no higher abuse of honor.’ Had the financial corruption within the Quartermaster department been exposed after the war, the Congressional Investigation response would likely have exceeded the Teapot Dome Scandal that broke a half-century later under the Warren G. Harding administration.

Although Lincoln himself thought the repeated demands outrageous, numerous cabinet meetings with the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, and his aide, Midnight McLucky, revealed heated debates recorded in personal messages delivered from Washington to general headquarters to The Army of The Potomac ‘Washington approves Spitlittles request, but demands that we curb the further requests. Secretary of Treasury, Chase, does not believe Lincoln will approve more Bonds to finance the next request for 15,000 more horses. As not enough cannon and murder in human history can account for such wanton destruction in four months of wandering and skirmishing in wilderness.’ written for the winter period between 1862-1863 where most of the fighting had been quelled by inclement weather.

The influence of romantic period authors also contributed significantly to the psychology and motives of men on the field in the heat of battle. Visions of brave, sword wielding men returning gloriously home from war was significantly popularized in the decades leading up to Fort Sumter where the French Napoleonic wars became the idealized example. From the outset, a State’s Right to act independently of a Federal behemoth led to frequent ‘accidental’ misunderstandings and failing to acknowledge orders by the commanding officers in the field. The most outrageous of course was O’Sirus O’Flatiigans independent decision to remove the lead shot from canister prior to The Second Battle of Bull Run from the entire inventory of the Irish Brigade Battery. When John Washington Harrisons 4th Brigade accidentally took the Beaver Creek Road instead of the perpendicular Hampstead Run to unite with James Longstreet’s unit at Stone Creek Bridge, they found themselves directly in front of an entrenched position of the Irish Brigades Battery and staring down the barrel of six French model Parrot rifles. 

Numerous public editorialists were watching from a safe position in a cornfield directly across Hampstead Run. The famous Mexican War Times editorialist and Native American, William Chocktaw Nottagan, observed, ‘John Washington Harrison horse was reared at the initial encounter upon the surprise discovery of the enemy entrenchment of the Irish Brigades Battery. O’Sirus O’Flattigan gave the order to ‘Fire!!’ in a loud yell that echoed across to the cornfield like the dropping of a hammer. Smoke and flames quickly engulfed the entire 4th Brigade. When the smoke dissipated, I found John Washington Harrison standing atop his horse in miraculous, commanding fashion. His soldiers shocked, frozen with fear, found their commander remained front facing amid a hellish hailstorm of shot. Never have I imagined a braver symbolic act than what I witnessed performed by Harrison against improbable odds of destruction at the Second Battle of Bull Run.’

The 30th updated anniversary edition also sheds new light on the surprise discovery of Urchin von Frauen’s pornographic film. My father rightly recognized the historic and likely first use of  pictography adapted for profane use of sexual exploitation to influence wartime decisions. Von Frauen’s family estate discovered the film in a war chest buried beneath handkerchief cloths, and silk antebellum dresses in an old barn long since repurposed as a storage shed. The photographs have not been digitally altered and have been added to Appendix D. Although the photographs would not be considered pornographic in the modern sense, the photographs were likely considered exploitative for their time. I have considered publishing a follow up book specifically investigating the interesting pictography techniques utilized on film, which include: the suggestive and provocative use of lighting, perspective, and dress that are considered revolutionary in their own right. 

Despite my fathers best efforts, Urchin von Frauen’s motives unfortunately have been lost with time. It is known that she was an early advocate of Women’s Rights and her family was well connected and well travelled. Her mother Misha von Frauen even appeared in a brief excerpt from Alexis de Tocqueville’s travels in America in his second volume published in 1840, Democracy in America. ‘I stopped at a cafe in New Orleans across from the harbor to watch boats approach with their bounty and witnessed the most precarious encounter between two women, one remarkable beauty, Misha von Frauen and her friend Sarah Au Bon Pan. To my knowledge, it is customary to apply a half ounce of cream to an American cup of coffee, however these women were delighted with the utmost extreme use of cream till the cup had overfloweth. They giggled as the cream spilled all over the most artistically carved wooden table until it became a concerning mess for all the patrons gathered. When the owner of the cafe, a delightful small man with gold framed spectacles began accosting the young women, they adamantly argued that his tupperware was made of cheap tin and abruptly left the store with an aire of haughty disgust.’ The anecdote is possibly revealing as also present at the cafe at the time was the future Governor of Louisiana, Oscar James Dunn, who was meeting the future Ambassador to Egypt, Edwin de Leon. Details concerning their meeting are still unknown.

Some have speculated that the von Frauen family had ties to German nobility and their interest in the Civil War was primarily to act as economic and political saboteurs that sowed discord for another government agency that was to remain forever behind the curtain. Less confabulatory theories speculate that the von Frauen family was merely a household of entertainers who enjoyed the company of others and the thrill of existing perpetually on the edge of history without being directly involved in the matter at hand. Regardless of the motives, Urchin von Frauen finds herself as a central figure in Martyrdom: The Murder of John Washington Harrison at the Battle of Harrison’s Ford. A letter dated June 17th, 1863 O’Sirus O’Flattigan writes: ‘Dearest Urchin, the moon is rising low on the horizon as our team makes encampments, however the Chief Surgeon has placed me in a quarantine to evaluate the strangest of illness. I have become stricken with terror and an unexplainable holy quaking that is most disruptive. I fear I cannot support the men and have been advised out of action for sometime. My spirit and energy is drained, but I have been well supplied with the sweetest of Pennsylvania’s stock of rye whiskey. Please know that I do not blame you for this illness, but know that I suspect it to be the direct result of our loving communion. Please expect that I shall remain faithful as God has promised to smite the wicked with unholy fevers that once claimed the Savage Indian from this very same land.’

Thus, history finds that on the eve of the Battle of Harrisons Ford on June 22nd, 1863, Jebidyah Bowelmein, a lowly Amish woodworker, inherited the battle preparation responsibilities as Assistant Chief Artillery Officer of the Irish Brigade Battery. The order was received directly from General Joseph Hooker from his nearby Maryland headquarters, ‘Bowelmein please prepare your Battery as I am delivering orders to move upon the enemy encampment at dawn and O’Flattigan has been removed from service.’ Bowelmein in short order discovered a discrepancy in the quality of the canister and had the issue with the Brigade inventory corrected.

George Armstrong Custer who was witness to John Washington Harrison’s final charge at the Battle of Harrison’s Ford described what he saw as follows: ‘As the battle ensued it was apparent where the weakness stood on our lines, at the center, held by the Irish Brigade and the 69th Pennsylvania. Harrisons 4th Brigade found the weakness exploitable, despite being ordered by Robert E. Lee to coordinate a flanking attack with Richard Ewels 5th Brigade on the  Union right which held a less entrenched position at the bottom of Swampy Hollow. The Irish Brigade colors were still visible through the smoke and dust that rose heavily across the field and Harrison found a second chance at glory, reminiscent of his action at the Second Battle of Bull Run, irresistible. The last thing I saw as John Washington Harrison led his final gallant charge over the union pickets was a coordinated cloud of fire from the Parrot Rifles which fully enveloped his horse and body until it disappeared like a dove to a Magicians pocket.’ Custer dictated his final action report with an unusually dark spell of irony, ‘I believe no man will ever witness the murder of an entire brigade in such dramatic fashion, in such short order, on a hill of glory like Harrisons Ford ever again.’ All attempts to recover Harrison’s body from the field proved a failure. ‘As each limb was instantly separated from the center, it is likely that his mortal body entered the gates of heaven in a blinding light of glory.’ Observed Ambrose Bierce, chronicler for the San Francisco Examiner.