Emancipation Trees of Texas & 2 National Holiday Holidays

We know  that he abhorred slavery and his well- spoken main goal was to preserve  the Union. An engagement in a Civil War seemed the only path forward to that end. Nevertheless, maybe he had an epiphany in 1862 to finally realize the issue of slavery indeed was the bedrock supporting the economic cause of contention.  After some hint of success on Sept 17, 1862, at Antietam he issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states shall be free, and  by Jan 1, 1863, the document was official. But on July 2, 1862, he signed into law that Land Grant Act that gave each state support for a University such as the one that I have been at for 60 years- Montana State University. Later in 1863, he issued a  Proclamation that Thanksgiving would be a national holiday. Lincoln was  incredible! 

until mid -May of 1865, and the federal authorities had no way to enforce the Proclamation until Union General Granger arrived. Then, between the shade of two bois d’arc trees that grew before the home of plantation owner, John B. Sweeny, Jr, masters and slaves of fourteen plantations of Brazoria County assembled on June 19th, 1865, and the slaves were pronounced as free. Likewise, at the Palmer Plantation in Missouri City, Texas, under a live oak tree,  the slaves learned that they too were free. These trees now play an important role in the Juneteenth celebrations-and the old live oak is the central feature of the Freedom Tree Park-  the newest National Holiday was established to commemorate the these events in June of 2021. Let the holiday serve as a reminder that Freedom and Liberty are to be cherished and slavery will never again appear on our shores. 

that the freedmen and plantation owners stood under no longer exist just as slavery doesn’t exist. The last one died in 2011. However, its trunk remains to serve as a monument to this memorable and historic event. Mr Sam Collins of Hitchcock, Texas was kind enough to supply a piece of wood from the dead Bois de Arc tree also known as Osage Orange. And Mr. Mike Rooney of Little Elm, Texas, not only helped with this entry but also was instrumental in acquiring wood from Mr. Paul Wierzbicki, city forester, of Missouri City,  Texas. The photo of the pens shows the bois de arc pen on the top and  the live oak pen on the bottom. 

most  significant Civil War locations. It was an important crossing point of the Potomac River having a pivot bridge over the B&O canal allowing ready access to the river. In order to assure protection of the site Federal troops maintained a presence in the area. 

crossed the river at Edwards Ferry via Harrison Island during the battle at Ball’s Bluff. Later in the year, Professor Thaddeus Lowe set up an observational balloon camp here and used tethered hot air balloons to observe Confederate activities in an around Leesburg. Then on June 25-27, 1863 about 75,000 Union troops crossed the river on twin pontoon bridges each 1400’ in length on their way to the battle of Gettysburg.  

having a girth diameter of almost 8 ft., graces the Edwards Ferry site and has witnessed the events described above. Mr  Luke Greer, photographer in Loudon  County, Va., was kind enough to find a tree sample which was made into the pen shown. 

Civil War were written in Kansas and Missouri  where irregular combatants fought. The fighting and deprecation's in  this area started shortly after passage of  the Kansas/Nebraska act in 1854.  On October 6, 1863 William Quantrill and his men, having sacked  Lawrence Kansas, happened upon a Federal post  (Ft Blair) at Baxter Springs, Ks. Defending the post were parts of the  3rd Wisconsin Cavalry and the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry.

surprising the Yankees, who suffered heavy casualties before  barricading themselves inside the earth-and-timber fortress. Soon union  General James G. Blunt appeared, commander of the  forces in Kansas, who was in the process of moving his headquarters  from Fort Scott, Kansas, to Fort Smith, Arkansas Blunt spotted Quantrill’s men but mistook them for Union troops because many were dressed in captured Yankee uniforms. Quantrill attacked, and the scene turned into a massacre.  

reconstructed Ft Blair with nice signage giving details about the battle. At the base of this sign once stood a giant example of one of this nation’s greatest and most beloved trees- an American Elm. Its classic  umbrella canopy shaded the troops  of Ft Blair but it also played a role in vigilante justice. The cause of death of the tree was most likely Dutch Elm disease which was  accidentally introduced to this country from Europe in the 1930s and it  quickly spread throughout the entire range of the elms. A slowly rotting trunk is all that presently remains of this important  tree. A small piece of it was enough to allow me to make the pen for the  collection. 

the upper canal and the Union ignorance of the Fredericksburg geography combined to stop an attack by Union General John Gibbon’s  troops during the battle on May 3, 1863.  Although the Union leaders had been warned of a “deep trench or canal [that] ran around the town, between it and the hills, which would prove a serious obstacle to the passage of troops,” that vital piece of information was ignored and Gibbon and his forces were sent in. They crossed the lower canal, but the Confederates forces destroyed the only bridge that spanned the upper canal. The canal was about 30’ wide, about 6’ deep, and in the Confederate field of fire.  

Gibbon’s forces were stymied. The dam was also the scene of North-South fraternization and unofficial  truces that occurred on the Rappahannock River in the winter of  1862-63.  In mid-April 1863, several Southern soldiers  “were up to their necks seining for fish” just below the dam. One Union soldier recounted the banter hollered across the dam. During the exchange, the Union soldier said he had come to help take Richmond.  The rebel replied that we would have a tough time doing that, and that “we would have a Hill to climb, a Longstreet to travel and a Stonewall to batter down…”  

white oak that was recovered from the crib dam by Historic Woods of Fredericksburg, Va. The wood had turned black by virtue of  being exposed to years of being under  water. When it was being turned on the lathe sparks began to fly. Close  examination of the wood revealed that it had begun to petrify. A very close look at the wood shows small crystals of silica.  

is the most enduring historic symbol of the birth of the Confederacy. It is a magnificent live oak under whose spreading branches on July 31,  1844, a crowd heard U.S. Rep. Robert Barnwell Rhett (fire eater)  proclaim that it was time to consider separation from the Union. 

"The one great evil from which all other evils have flowed is the overthrow of the Constitution of the United States. The government of the United  States is no longer  the government of a Confederate Republic, but of a consolidated  democracy…..  It is, in fact, such a government as Great Britain attempted to set over our fathers, and which was resisted and defeated by a seven years struggle for independence."   

unmarked today on private property and mostly unnoticed. The site on which it  stands is regarded as the birthplace  for a movement that grew into South Carolina's ultimate secession (Dec  1860) and the bombardment of  Ft Sumter. Emmett McCracken used to own  the land and he was kind enough to arrange to send along a piece of a  dead limb to me. The piece was thin and had to be glued to make it large enough to make into a pen.