Civil War Moments: Retired Officer and Son Bond Best While Re-creating Historic Battles

STORY BY RANDY ROUGHTON // PHOTOS BY STAFF SGT. ANDREW LEE

14 December 2015

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Music from a fife and drums rang in the ears of a father and son as they sat around the campfire. Brian E. Withrow and his14-year-old son, Josh, talked with fellow re-enactors, also clad in Union blue, the night before their first re-enactment at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
Now and then, the discussion turned to times on the battlefield when the re-enactor could almost feel as if he was actually walking in the boots of a Civil War Soldier.
Fifteen years later, the Withrow duo are back in camp at the same Virginia battlefield, except the son is now a 29-year-old re-enactment veteran, and the father plays a commanding general’s assistant chief of staff . What hasn’t changed is their shared love of history, and the one thing that has kept them returning to re-enactment battlefieldsis the search for those special times when they feel almost transported back in time. They call those times “Civil War moments.”

Union forces re-enactors fire a row of cannons toward the direction of the Confederate forces during the re-enactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek near Middletown, Virginia. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andrew Lee)

“An example was at the 145^th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, and we were doing the battle through the cornfield,” said Brian, a retired lieutenant colonel and munitions officer. “It was early morning, still dark, with just the glimpses of light coming up. There was a mist over the field. The artillery was firing, and I could see the blasts from their muzzles.
“In front of me, the very first wave of federal soldiers was given the command to go into the cornfield. For that brief moment, there were no telephone poles, no vehicles. There was just the cannon fire and musketry fire with one of the just-right conditions and glimpses that give you that moment of, ‘Wow! That must have been what it was like.’”

Two Confederate re-enactors hold patrol before the Battle of Cedar Creek near Middletown, Virginia. Hundreds of re-enactors throughout the country participated in the 151st anniversary of the battle. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andrew Lee)

An interest in U.S. history from his youth led Brian to consider the re-enactment hobby when he was stationed at the Pentagon in 1997, with the numerous Civil War battlefields in Maryland and Virginia. Josh shared the love of history, so the two attended re-enactments together as spectators until his father asked him if he would like to try the hobby with him. They watched the 136^th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia in 1999, and after talking to re-enactors in the 3^rd U.S. Infantry, Company B, they decided to join the unit.
Josh was still two years away from his 16^th birthday, so he wasn’t able to carry a weapon at their first re-enactment at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park later that year, but as it turned out, he was right where the action was. In the Battle of Cedar Creek in the fall of 1864, forces led by Gen. Jubal Early over-ran federal forces, although Union Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan later made his famous ride to lead a rout of the Confederates, which helped the Union crush the resistance in the Shenandoah.
“I was too young to carry a gun, and I didn’t have any shoes that would fit me, so I had to stay in the tent while my dad went to take the field,” Josh said. “But, of course, the battle came to me. I was sitting there inside the tent, while there were two rows of infantry firing at each other around me, and it’s lighting up with the gunpowder. It was so dark outside, and all you could see were the flashes of the muzzles of the guns. It was just one of the coolest things I’d ever seen, and we were thinking, ‘We are going to keep on doing this.’”

Two Confederate re-enactors hold patrol before the Battle of Cedar Creek near Middletown, Virginia. Hundreds of re-enactors throughout the country participated in the 151st anniversary of the battle. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andrew Lee)

Brian’s interest in re-enacting began with a question about his ancestors’ role in the Civil War. Through his research and participation in re-enactments, he was able to correct what the family believed about an ancestor who fought and died in the war. For years, the family’s oral history showed that George Dugan, a private in the 10^th Illinois Infantry, died in a Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia. By the time he’d participated in the 150^th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, Brian had learned he actually died in action there, a fact he didn’t know when he attended the same battle as a private 10 years earlier.
“I now have a personal connection,” Brian said. “Not only had he died there, but fortunately for my family line, he had a son who ended up being my great great-grandfather.”
A glance at the uniforms in a closet in the family home in Stafford, Virginia, shows the variety of ranks Brian portrays in his hobby. He plays the role of Union Soldiers, as well as those from the Revolutionary War, from the ranks of private all the way up to the commanding general of the Union Army. After he retired from the Air Force, Brian let his beard grow, which coupled with the cigar he often has in his mouth in camp, gives him a resemblance to a U.S. history legend, Gen. (and former President) Ulysses S. Grant.

Pvt. Joshua Withrow (middle) and other members of the Union provost take moment to warm by the fire and talk about previous re-enactments they’ve attended. Joshua got into re-enactments with his father when they attended an event in 2000. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andrew Lee)

While on the board of directors that created the Stafford Civil War Park, Brian portrayed a colonel in the 55^th Ohio Infantry at the grand opening in 2013, and spectators saw the beard and cigar and mistook him for Grant. The mistaken identity kept happening at subsequent reenactments and historical events, even to the point where Confederate re-enactment forces “captured” him, thinking they’d caught the overall Union commander. He was eventually asked to portray Grant for the 150^th anniversary re-enactments in 2011 and 2012.  Brian impersonates the famous general for the Civil War Impressionists Association in annual events at the National Mall in Washington and at numerous Civil War historic sites.
“I’m still a private in Company K of the 3^rd U.S. Infantry, so I still go out and do events as an infantry private,” Brian said. “Then again, I can put on three stars, and I can be the commanding general. I can play a private or the general-in-chief with equal enthusiasm.”
When he began the hobby, Brian had no interest in portraying an officer. He was still on active duty, and he wanted to experience a taste of a Union private’s daily life. However, after his Air Force retirement six years ago, he had an opportunity to join the Army of the Potomac headquarters staff as a guidon bearer for the command officer, which was appealing to him because of his love for horses, and in the past year he’s served as the commander’s assistant chief of staff.

Retired Lt. Col. Brian Withrow has gone to most of the major Civil War reenactments and other historical events since 1997. During that period, he has participated in his hobby from ranks ranging from private to general within the Union forces. Withrow plays a mounted staff officer in the role of the assistant chief of staff to the commanding general in 3rd U.S. Infantry, Company B. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andrew Lee)

The night before the re-enactment at Cedar Creek, Brian was also promoted to brigadier general and will transition into the role of the staff’s commanding officer.
Serving as an officer in a Civil War re-enactment unit is obviously completely different from an active-duty career. For example, there is no Uniform Code of Military Justice to keep them bound to the unit or to commander’s orders. Still, Brian has found common ground between the two. Safety, self-aid and buddy care, and survival training, as well as his logistics knowledge from a career in munitions, have all come into play at different times in the field. Also, Soldiers in the 19^th century operated on a code that wasn’t too different from the Air Force Core Values.
“From my research, I can’t say that they had what they called core values,” he said. “But clearly, in particular, the Soldiers who had been trained formally through the military academies during that time period, had a value system based on personal honor and morality. I think those attributes defined what it meant ideally to be a good Soldier then, and those traditions from our early American military experience are what evolved into what we call our core values now.”

Union and Confederate forces fire at each other during the re-enactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek. Hundreds of re-enactors came to participate in the two-day event for the 151st anniversary of the Civil War battle in Virginia. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andrew Lee)

For just a few days, re-enactors like the Withrows not only try to help re-create historic battles, but also get a taste of the living experiences Soldiers on both sides endured in the Civil War. Along with the bonding experiences when they swap war stories and glimpses of their lives with fellow re-enactors, they also sometimes experience some harsh conditions. They faced below freezing weather at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek in April, and there was the other extreme, where they faced temperatures above 100 degrees with elevated humidity at the 150^th Battle of First Manassas in July 2011.
“We got just a little taste of some of the environmental conditions these Soldiers went through,” Brian said. “The difference was we came out and may experience some of those conditions for a weekend. That gives you an appreciation for the fact that these guys did this week on end, month on end, on forced marches of 10 to 15 miles, summertime and wintertime. Again, we get this little glimpse, just a little taste of what they may have experienced.”
These days, it is difficult for both father and son to make every battle as they were able to do when Josh was younger. He’s not able to attend most re-enactments because of his schedule as a legislative affairs manager for Freedom Works in Washington. Since his father retired, his schedule as a government employee at Fort Belvoir also keeps him busy. But their love of the hobby remains as strong as it was around that campfire 15 years ago. Hearing the fife and drums still sounds sweet to their ears.

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Ignorance of History Is a Great Threat to Freedom, Democracy.

As one soldier, his uniform in tatters through years of bloody combat, charged the hill toward another man wearing another army's colors, neither could have fully imagined what was at stake that day.
Even the name of the town held no special meaning for either army; it was just another meaningless Pennsylvania town.

But Gettysburg certainly has meaning today, just as Bunker Hill, Iwo Jima and Normandy were special. What was at stake, on the hills at Gettysburg and the beaches at Normandy, was freedom.

Freedom and liberty are a couple of those words that are difficult to understand -- until you don't have them anymore. Most Americans have known nothing else but freedom, although there have been constant threats through the years to the rights guaranteed in the signing of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.

Since the downfall of the Soviet Union, ignorance seems to be the most dangerous threat to the survival of the greatest democracy the world has ever known.

All you have to do to realize this is watch Jay Leno hit the streets looking for answers to basic American history questions.

One person, when asked which country the United States won its independence from, answered "Iraq." Another didn't recognize Mount Rushmore and said President Kennedy was the speaker of the Gettysburg Address.

If we're to write this off simply as a late-night talk show stunt, several studies prove we could be in trouble. A Department of Education report on the knowledge of American history of 22,000 students in all 50 states showed more than 50 percent of all high school seniors were unaware of the Cold War and almost six of 10 didn't have a basic understanding of how the United States became an independent nation.

In another survey by Luntz Research, 59 percent of teenagers could identify the Three Stooges, but only 41 percent could even name the legislative, executive and judicial branches.

But the ignorance isn't restricted to young Americans. The National Constitution Center interviewed 1,000 adults and found 24 percent couldn't name one right guaranteed by the First Amendment. Only 6 percent could cite freedoms of speech, press, assembly and religion.

Why is this so disturbing? The survival of democracy depends on an educated public, especially when it concerns constitutional rights. The architects of our independence knew this.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free," Thomas Jefferson said, "it expects what never was and never will be."

Some argue that schools just don't teach American history anymore. If kids are to learn about what happened Dec. 7, 1941, they must do it in a theater.

That's where parents must step in. If they're not learning even a basic knowledge of American government and history, teach them at home. Somehow, they must learn the significance of Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima and Gettysburg and how what happened in those places led to the freedoms we enjoy today.

Widows of North, South to Meet

William Jasper Martin and Robert Anderson might have tried to kill each other, had they met on the Gettysburg battlefield.
But on Tuesday, Alberta Martin, 90, the only known surviving Confederate widow, and Daisy Anderson, 97, one of only two living Union widows, just want to shake each other’s hands and catch up on old times when they meet at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennyslvania.
“I just want to ask how she’s been, and how she’s been able to live such a long life,” Martin said on the night before she left for Gettysburg.
“We will just talk about what we’ve seen, and I might find out more about the war. She might not be able to remember too much.”
The meeting was organized by Dr. Kenneth Chancey, commander of the Col. William C. Oates Camp No. 809 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
Chancey, an Enterprise dentist who spearheaded the SCV camp’s efforts to get Martin’s pension last year, heard there were also a couple of Union widows still living and in contact with the SUVCW and Gettysburg National Military Park. So he asked Martin in May if she’d like to meet the Union widows.
“At the time, she was in the hospital with the flu, so she couldn’t get too excited,” Chancey said, “but she said, ‘Let me feel better first. Then, I will get excited.’
“She reminds me a lot of my maternal grandmother. When she died, I never thought I’d have a relationship with an older woman like that until I met Mrs. Martin.”
Efforts to reach the other surviving Union widow, Bertha January of Tennessee, were unsuccessful, Chancey said.
The first date mentioned was Nov. 15, which Gettysburg recognizes as Remembrance Day, but Chancey requested an earlier date because of the deteriorating health of both women.
Anderson’s husband was an escaped former slave who served in the 125th United States Colored Troops. They married in 1922 when he was 79, and she was 21. Anderson died in an automobile accident in 1930. His widow now lives in Denver.
Martin’s husband served in Company K of the Fourth Alabama Infantry Regiment. They married in 1927 when he was 81, and she was 21 and had one child, William Oren Martin, now 68.
He became ill after attending a United Confederate Veterans meeting in Montgomery and died in 1932. Martin lives in Elba.
The widows plan to be special guests Tuesday at an interment ceremony for an unknown Civil War soldier who was found in a railroad embankment at Gettysburg in March 1996. It was the first discovery at Gettysburg since 1939.
If their health permits, Chancey said the women hope to shake hands over “The Angle,” the famous stone wall at Cemetery Ridge. For years after the Civil War until 1937, a Confederate and Union veteran met at the wall and shook hands.
Since adopting the Confederate widow, the SCV camp has taken Martin to the opening of the Civil War Museum in Franklin, Tenn., Richmond, Va., and reenactment activities in Selma. Her trip to Virginia was Martin’s first airplane trip in her life.
Martin, who had been ill recently, but was beginning to feel better before her flight to Gettysburg, said she was also looking forward to a breakfast Tuesday morning at Lee’s Headquarters. Chancey said she would be permitted to eat with the actual utensils General Robert E. Lee used 134 years ago.