PVT. Charles Leaman
U. S. Marine Corps, 1862 - 1865
Admiral John A. Dahlgren
Commander, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron
COMING FOR THE CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL
The Admiral's Guard
A historical action novel based on the letters of Cpl. Charles Leaman, U.S.M.C.,
guard to Adm. John Dahlgren, Commander, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron,
written during the Admiral's command from September 1863 to April 1865.
An exciting story garnered from the letters
of a young Marine and from Civil War Official Records
and periodicals related to events he wrote about.
By
Donald L. Collins
Author of The Volunteers, a novel about New York City's
Volunteer Fire Department 1830 -1865, including
Fire Zouaves, the Draft Riots, Confederate attempts
to burn the city and how a firemen's marching song
evolved into The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
With foreword by Major General Robert Haebel, USMC (Retired)
In mid-1863, Admiral John Dahlgren, with some behind-the-scenes maneuvering by President Lincoln, took command of the
important South Atlantic Blockading Squadron stretching from North Carolina to southern Florida. His appointment was controversial and his orders were clear. Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles wanted the Navy to take Charleston and claim the glory of seizing the seat of the rebellion. Welles and his assistant, Admiral Gus Fox, believed the answer was "ironclads," the Navy's newest weapon. The admiral soon found that the job was not possible without the assistance of the Union Army. In September he planned an attack on Fort Sumter by fleet sailors and a battallion of Marines he had recruited despite some resistance by Marine officers who were engaged in a rivalry for command of the Corps. Resistance also came from Navy officers who wanted additional Marines as guards on new ironclad ships being manned by inexperienced recruits. The Army planned a similar attack the same night but Dahlgren refused to relinquish command of the attack to the Army. Confederates broke the signal flags code used to communicate between the fleet and the Army and were aware of their plans. The Army failed to show up and the attack was a failure with numerous Navy and Marine attackers killed, injured and taken prisoners.
Sixteen year-old Charles Leaman, who had enlisted the previous Christmas by forging his father's signature, was one of the
Marines recruited for the mission. His vivid description of Confederates firing and tossing hand grenades down, cannons opening fire from nearby forts and finally fleeing while being chased by a Confederate ram, painted a tale of confusion and disappointment in his next letter home. The Admiral, who had been rowed to a position near the fort, lost a part of his eight-man Marine Guard during the attack. Pvt. Leaman was appointed as a replacement the next day. Because he was well educated by his prominent Lancaster County, Pennsylvania family, he was also assigned as an orderly. A prolific letter writer with an eye for detail, Leaman filled pages with details from his first week as a recruit at Philadelphia Navy Yard. He describes routine duty at Washington Navy Yard and the Marine Barracks there. With Confederate troops invading Pennsylvania, Pvt. Leaman wrote that workmen at the Washington Navy Yard were armed and sent with Marines to the Keystone state. Charley's letters halted for almost a month. Then, following what seemed to be a leave at home after the battle at Gettysburg, he chose to report to Brooklyn Navy Yard where he was stationed during the New York Draft Riots.
From Brooklyn he was ordered to Morris Island in South Carolina where Admiral Dahlgren was building a Marine Battalion.
The Marines were to support his inland waterways campaign aiding the Army. It was here that Charley and fellow Marines were the first Union troops to reach Forts Wagner and Gregg when the Confederates evacuated them. He wrote of finding wounded left behind and described the forts' substantial defenses, noting "we hurried up to get there too late." Soon, orders came for the Marines to report to the flagship for the planned Navy - Marine operation to retake Fort Sumter.
With his new job as one of the Admiral's guards, Charley saw and heard much more interesting news and sights.
His letters became much longer. He wrote of meeting Col. Ulric Dahlgren, the Admiral's son who lost a leg pursuing Confederates retreating from Gettysburg. He detailed the special crutch made for the Colonel. After recuperating on his father's flagship the young Colonel returned to Washington and was later killed in the poorly planned and controversial Kilpatrick/Dahlgren raid on Richmond. The thought of Ulric's mutilated body, which had been carried to Richmond where his wooden leg was run up a flag pole, took over the Admiral's mind. A Richmond newspaper was as intrigued with the crutch as Charley had been. It ran a story urging craftsmen to come view it in their office so it could be reproduced for Confederate amputees. Lincoln bypassed Secretary Welles and gave the Admiral permission to search for his son's body. Pvt. Leaman was at the Admiral's side during trips up the James River under a flag of truce to recover his son's remains. The Colonel's body disappeared from a grave where he was buried by Confederates and the Admiral's grief was so profound that Charley, and others, began to question his ability to command. Secretary Welles, who never liked Dahlgren's relationship with the President, ordered him back to Charleston to resume command of the blockade.
Admiral Dahlgren had a penchant for intelligence gathering and personally questioned escaped Union prisoners,
Confederate deserters and "contrabands" who were brought to the flagship. This gave Charley several opportunities to write home of the terrible conditions the Union prisoners were in when they escaped. Confederates moved Union prisoners into an area of Charleston that was under Union artillery fire. The Admiral requested that ".... a like number of Confederate officers" be sent from prison camps to him. When they arrived he advised the Confederate officer who had moved the Union officers into the danger zone that he would "chain the the Confederate officers to the monitor turrets and send them toward the city." The Union officers were quickly moved to another prison camp.
Charley is probably one of a handful of people who had fleeting contact with both the Union and Confederate Civil War
submarines. While in Washington he mentions in a letter home that "The infernal machine that was laying here chained like a mad dog has gone." He was referring to the Union submarine Alligator, which at about the time his letter is dated, departed Washington Navy Yard under tow, headed for Charleston. The Alligator sank in a fierce storm off Cape Hatteras. Later, when daring Confederate seamen took their tiny David torpedo boat against the mighty New Ironsides, two crewmen were blown off the craft by the explosion. Charley and a Marine Sergeant took the pair in irons to the Admiral for questioning. He describes one survivor strutting around the flagship until the Admiral , who detested the submarines and torpedoes as "uncivil", advised him that his officers were urging that he be hanged. The strutting stopped and was replaced by fear.
When the CSS Hunley sank the USS Housatonic, Charley was with the Admiral as they rushed to the scene when word
reached the flagship. He noted the Admiral's "lack of surprise" at the successful attack that he had been warning his captains to expect. Naval warfare was changing dramatically and Admiral Dahlgren didn't like what he was witnessing. Charley talked with survivors from the sunken ship. Pvt. Leaman was witness to several ironclad ships sinking, in one case describing men clinging to a monitor's turret. He and the Admiral narrowly escaped becoming victims of Confederate torpedoes when the flagship Harvest Moon struck one and she sank almost immediately. Between such events blockade duty was boring. Charley filled letters with details of daily life including meals, duties and the views on the war of the men he served with. His strong opinions of military leaders reflected what many of his shipmates thought and discussed.
But, there was plenty of action to write home about as the Navy supported Army operations on the South's inland
waterways. As the war was winding down, he accompanied the Admiral on trips to Washington for discussions with President Lincoln and Secretary Welles. At Charleston he was on hand at meetings the Admiral had with Army commanders discussing support for their operations around the city. Several letters express the anxiousness of the Admiral to fully support General Sherman as he approached the coast of Georgia. Charley was at the door as the two men dined aboard the flagship. After capture of Savannah and Charleston, he was among the first Union troops to reach them, going to both cities with the Admiral. He wrote of the beauty of Savannah, spared by Sherman, and the effects of shelling Charleston. In prison camps he sought his fellow Marines captured during the Fort Sumter raid and attended the reburial of a Marine officer killed in that action. He noted Charlestonians' contempt for the Colored Troops that occupied the city. Charley wrote of the "glorious" celebration of ships gathered and decked out for the reraising the United States flag over Fort Sumter. The war ended and Pvt. Leaman was promoted to corporal, finishing his enlistment at the Marine Barracks in Boston.
Charles Leaman's letters were saved by his sister, then by his daughters in China where the now-Reverend Leaman went in
1870 and started one of the largest missionary schools there. He became known as "China Charley," and interestingly, was rescued from an anti-missionary Chinese mob by U. S. Marines sent to protect the mission and school during the Boxer Rebellion. The letters came back to the United States when the daughters were expelled from China after the Communists seized control. The bundle, labeled "Papa's Letters," was sold at an estate sale listed as "Civil War soldier letters."
Separating the pressed-together, still folded for mailing 120-year old letters, was slow and frustrating. Then transcribing
the individual folded pages where ink had bled though obscuring the tiny writing took almost two years. It was only after this was done that the "soldier's letters" were revealed as being written by a Marine. The novel is built around the exploits Pvt. Leaman mentions including submarine development, the Ulric Dahlgren raid, Marine engagements along the coast and Army-Navy relationships. Many articles related to these incidents that appeared in period publications, and information gathered from Official Records and the diaries of Admiral Dahgren and Secretary Welles, are used in the novel to flesh out the details of Leaman's letters. An extensive prologue provides background on Pvt. Leaman, Admiral Dahlgren, the Marine Corps of the period and the importance and controversy of President Lincoln's decision to impose the blockade.
The Admiral's Guard
will be published in time for Christmas 2009
in a hard cover pre-ordered, signed limited edition.
(It is expected to be priced at $29.95 plus prevailing shipping cost.)
$5.00 from every hard-cover book purchased
by August 1, 2009 will be donated to the
Lt. General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller Statue Fund.
Information about this project is available at
http:www.seagoingmarines.com
Hard-cover First Editions must be reserved by August 1, 2009. To reserve your copy
please send name, address, email address, phone number and number of copies to:
reservations4admiralsguard@gmail.com
or by U.S. Mail to:
Old Pueblo Press LLC
Suite 138 - PMB131
120 S. Houghton Rd.
Tucson AZ 85748
This is a reservation only.
Send NO MONEY until advised your order is ready to be shipped.
Orders will be filled based on those received prior to the deadline of August 1, 2009
The trade soft cover novel will be released in 2010.
