The Preserve Talbot History coalition has been conducting research into our County’s Civil War history and that of the Talbot Boys monument. Additionally, we fully support the construction of a “Unity” Monument that would include commemoration of all Talbot veterans of that conflict.
To further understand both Talbot’s and our monument’s history, we must take you back to the events that unfolded in what is described as the greatest and most defining battle our Nation ever fought and the events thereafter.
The battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the “War that Forged our Nation.” Our Talbot ancestors are a unique part of that history and their story is told Nationwide.
In that fateful battle Talbot countians, some in blue and some in gray, faced one another on Culp’s Hill. These men had been neighbors, and some were family members split between the sides. The flag bearer for the Maryland Union regiment was Robert Ross and the flag bearer for the Maryland Confederate regiment was P.M. Moore – cousins from Trappe. When the shooting was over stories have been told of how the Maryland men in blue gingerly cared for the wounded Marylanders in gray.
Fifty years later there was a great reunion upon that same battlefield – a reunion for all who had fought on either side. Over fifty thousand veterans came to remember and reunite on the field upon which they once were enemies. Talbot veterans were among them. The theme of that reunion was of reconciliation, peace and national brotherhood. These veterans clad in blue and gray, ate, sang, prayed and embraced – together. Each side played the other’s battle songs and they jointly combined to create an association to construct monuments of remembrance at Gettysburg.
Many dignitaries gave heartfelt speeches, themed in reconciliation, peace and moving forward to build a better Nation. Pennsylvania’s Governor stated, “We are here not to commemorate a victory, but rather to emphasize the spirit of National brotherhood and National unity, which in the years since the close of that war has enabled this republic to move forward and upward…” When Governor Tener finished his speech the Confederates Veterans stood and honored the governor by giving him the “rebel yell”.
Within days of returning from the Gettysburg reunion our Talbot veterans organized to create the monument we now know as the Talbot Boys. The theme they chose was of a youthful color guard presenting his flag in surrender but looking upward and onward towards the future.
The men responsible for this monument continued building our County’s future. Records show that Talbot’s confederate and Union veterans joined to speak to our youth about the value of serving their Country through military service. General Joseph B Seth, the leader of the Talbot Boys committee, hosted the tenth annual “Conference of Charities” in Easton. Mr. Thomas Bartlett of Easton, the conference’s chairman stated, “It is the counties place to take the lead and do much of the work of bettering the social conditions of people” Mr. Bartlett promoted programs for the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, for child welfare and recreation and the expanded role of women in government.
These Are Our Ancestors – This is Talbot history.
To read the source documents for this article please go here.
Paul Callahan
Talbot County
Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin says
While it may be that Talbot men were among those who united, and even shook hands at Gettysburg, there were NO USCT men there, no African-Americans from the battles there, and the issues that grew from the war in terms of African Americans rights and their own incredible history of enslavement were not recognized. In fact both sides of white men were closer to unity in being against the rights of African Americans.
Anne Stalfort says
Thank you
Paul Callahan says
Mrs. Goodwin, with all due respect, for the past year we have been hearing accusations from the “Move the Monument” / Social Justice coalition that the “only” reason this monument was placed was to oppress people of color. That accusation has now been revealed to be unfounded. The similar accusation that these men rose “only” to protect slavery has also been revealed to be unfounded by the extensive documentation of the historic Constitutional and civil rights abuses Marylanders experienced at the hands of the Federal government.
It is time for the accusations to stop.
It is time for those interested in creating a better community to move on to those issues.
It is time that we all work together to build up instead of tearing down.
It is time to work towards a common goal of the creation of a Unity monument that will tell our unique Civil War history which would include the incredible history of Talbot’s USCT troops.
Jim Richardson says
The National Park Service has a different view on the Gettysburg reunion that took place in 1913. In an article entitled “Reconciliation at Gettysburg, (Teach It!)” I quote the following:
“Not all Americans agreed that celebrating reconciliation was a good way to commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg. Many African Americans commented that the reconciliation movement created a false equivalence between the two sides of the war. The editor of the Washington Bee, a Black newspaper, noted that the Gettysburg reunion celebrated both “those who fought for the preservation of Union and the extinction of human slavery” and “those who fought to destroy the Union and perpetuate slavery.” This false equivalence, he argued, pardoned the racism of the pro-slavery Confederacy.
Indeed, the reconciliation movement focused on reconciliation between white Americans and overlooked Black Americans. This version of history often ignored the significant role of African Americans in the war. For instance, African Americans had a crucial role in the Gettysburg campaign. As the Confederate army marched north to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Confederate units tried to kidnap and enslave free Black people. Black residents of Gettysburg fought back in defense of their freedom in what historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. describes as “total war. Though African-American regiments of the U.S. army did not fight in the battle itself, African Americans at Gettysburg provided medical care, conducted burials, and rebuilt infrastructure. Yet the 1913 Gettysburg reunion was an all-white event, with the only African Americans in attendance being people working there.”
Paul Callahan says
Jim, Please see my comments to Mrs. Goodwin – it is time to move on
Shelley Warner says
Exactly
Brandon Hare says
“It’s time to move on”, says the guy desperately clinging to what can be best described as a morally grey monument.
If your counterpoint is to move on, then let’s do just that and erect a monument to veterans of the wars of a united country. Problem solved. Or how about no statue at all?
Something tells me this isn’t about the veteran aspect, so much as it is the confederate ties.
Anne Stalfort says
Nice to know that while the era of Jim Crow segregation was happening throughout our nation, and in this same era there were lynchings of Black men on the Eastern Shore, in Talbot County upstanding, civic-minded white men decided to erect a monument to the Confederate soldiers who fought for the Confederacy. So from 1916 until today, the Black citizens of Talbot County walk past a memorial to the glorification of a segregated society and the institution of slavery. This is unacceptable. And adding a Union soldier so you can call it the Unity Statue still leaves that despicable Confederate flag in a place of honor.
Michael Davis says
There is so much wrong with Mr. Callahan’s letter that it is hard to know where to begin. It is a paradigm case of White history. All those old White soldiers after Gettysburg got together, held hands, and sang Kumba. The picture Mr. Calllahan paints is so romantic, so White, and so wrong.
Just one example, in the campaign leading up to Gettysburg, Gen Stuart took a ride around the Union army capturing free Blacks in Pennsylvania and sending them into slavery in the South. Do you think many of those Black people were invited to Gettysburg to celebrate brotherhood with Stuart’s veterans who sent them into slavery?
Other southern generals were notoriously racist. There is considerable evidence that Gen. Gordon was a leader of the KKK after the war. Many other Confederate officers enslaved people who were probably not invited to the wonderful reunion described by Mr. Callahan.
The argument that the statue of the Talbot Boys is only honoring history is similar to an argument about all the Confederates honored on monument row in Richmond. They even had a large statue of Jefferson Davis who was a traitor and a rotten leader of the rebellion. While you could see many losers on monument row, there was no statue to James Longstreet who fought with Lee to the bitter end. And why not? Because Longstreet committed the ultimate sin by admitting that slavery was wrong. The history honored on monument row was pro-slavery history. Leaders who denounced slavery were not welcome.
A unity statute proposed by Mr. Callahan will also honor proslavery. What will the Union soldier look like on this new statue? How about we make him one of the Black Union soldiers lynched by Southern Generals? Or one of the Black soldiers massacred by Southern soldiers at the Battle of the Crater? Or any one of thousands that were massacred while unarmed by boys just like those Talbot Boys who were willing to kill and be killed for slavery? I don’t think a single Black soldier would model for that statue because they would know it honors racist Talbot history.
Eva M. Smorzaniuk, M.D. says
Neither the information on your website, nor the referenced sources, specifically link the Gettysburg reunion to the erection of a monument in Easton. One would think that, if this were true, why wasn’t a “unity” monument chosen, in the brotherly spirit of reconciliation? By 1914 most of the Talbot Countian men who had fought were dead or dying. The committee formed in Talbot County to erect a monument chose to honor only the 85 confederate soldiers, not the 300+ Talbot Countians who lost their lives fighting for the Union.
Paul says
Eva, The source documents show Oswald Tilghman at the Gettysburg reunion and as a original committee member for the Talbot Boys monument 6 days later here in Easton. There is no disputing that.
It is time to move on. The reason the Talbot Boys was placed is resolved. The accusations of the Move the Monument coalition have been proven unfounded.
To continue to argue this only causes more loss of credibility.
We all need to move forward in a constructive and positive way.
Elizabeth Ferguson says
Thank you, Mr. Callahan, for your well researched account. Some of us forget that today’s perspective is not the only perspective and our history should be viewed and taught as much as possible from the eyes of those who lived it.
William Keppen says
The Talbot Boys statute obviously evokes strong feels among members of our city and community. Perhaps everyone would be better off, if it was donated to the Gettysburg National Battlefield Memorial, where it could be properly placed to commemorate that horrific battle and other memories of that tragic war.
Rev Julie Hart says
Well isn’t that a good idea!
I love people’s creativity.
I went to Seminary in Gettysburg and graduated from there. I walked the Battlefield almost everyday, weather permitting. It’s a place of deep contemplation. And The Talbot Boys Statue would see thousands more visitors there. What an excellent idea. An honorable one. What a gift to the Battlefield Park. The only problem I could foresee is the Park not willing to take it because it would set precedent for all the other States’ monuments.
But thank you for your creativity!
Rev Julie Hart
Brenda Mollick says
Leave our Talbot Boys there and stop all this nonsense..this statue never bothered anyone before so now why.people would walk by years ago and never gave this statue a thought.its time to let this go
Gren Whitman says
Mr. Callahan’s letter is a classic example of revisionist history.
An obviously Caucasian male proudly displaying the Confederate Stars-and-Bars above the letters “C.S.A.” is a self-explanatory monument to slavery and traitors, and needs no further exegesis by Callahan.
There is no way anyone can explain away the racist and white supremacist origins of the so-called Talbot Boys statue.
Paul says
Gren, You comments are totally inappropriate. You are making judgments based upon a person’s race and sex and would be considered “racist” in accordance to Dr. Ibram Kendi’s book “How to be an Antiracits”
It is also obvious that you have not done due diligence before you speak. The Preserve Talbot’s History website http://www.preservetalbothistory.org is there so you can learn from the original source documents.
You can continue the “propaganda” statements but the truth is right there on the website if you choose to take some time and learn.
The continued defense of the Move the Monument’s false narrative – that this monument was “only” placed to oppress people of color, only further diminishes the credibility of that coalition and that of the underlying social justice movement.
It is well past time that the facts are accepted and we all move on to more productive endeavors within our community.
Gren Whitman says
Paul, give me a break, please. You can claim it’s a goose all you want, but if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, IT’S A DUCK. You can engage in “whataboutism” all you want, but the factual reality remains, i.e., the Talbot Boys statue commemorates the racist, slavery-defending Confederacy and there is no justification for it being on display in front of a public building dedicated to impartial justice.
Matthew Rich says
Paul,
The documents you cite prove that the “Talbot Boy” statue was not a part of the monument planned by the Gettysburg survivors. They were planning a monument to honor Franklin Buchanan, Who only lived in Talbot county for 4 years from 1870-1874. Will you admit this fact and also admit that this group of veterans included the leaders of the Klu Klux Klan in Talbot County?
William Wilson says
They were better citizens than we are today! They did exactly what are nation needs today! But where is the leadership to bring this together?
Tom Mendenhall says
Thank you for an objective, thoughtful statement of the facts.
James L. Fulton says
Read the US Constitution: “Article III, Section 3, Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
All who fought for the Confederacy were traitors who, wittingly or unwittingly, fought for one of the worst causes imaginable: the right to enslave other human beings. Mourn their deaths if you must but do not glorify their cause.
Paul Callahan says
James, The declaration of Independences says: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government”
Additionally the US Constitution puts into law specific rights of the people that the Government shall not violate. Beginning in 1861 the Federal government unlawfully violated Marylanders Constitutional rights. The list of the Constitutional violations are many. One of the most egregious violation was the unlawful imprisonment of thousands of innocent Marylanders held in very harsh conditions – many died in captivity.
Talbot citizens witnessed a historic event here in Talbot in May 1862 when 125 Federal troops surround our courthouse, beat our judge unconscious, dragged him from that courthouse and imprisoned him. This event was for the the purpose to show the people of Talbot that the Federal government has supreme power over them.
Now go back to what I quoted from the Declaration of Independence and tell us how those words from our Founding Fathers applies to your statement that these men from Talbot were “Traitors”
Also of note is that your statement is a standard bullet point put out by the SPLC located in Montgomery Alabama.
Matthew Rich says
Paul,
Do you acknowledge that Black Americans have been systematically deprived of the rights you claim to defend? the Statue you claim to be defending is really a potent symbol of that deprivation, which remains deeply ingrained in the fabric of Talbot county. I suggest that your group’s true goal is to preserve and perpetuate Talbot County’s history of inequality. Shame is upon you.