Civil War Joke in Ann Arbor Journal

"At a training down east, after an order was given to 'return ramrods,' one of the soldiers broke from the line and was off at full speed. 'Halloo,' bawled the commanding officer, 'where are you going?' 'Gown to Squire Muggins, to return the ramrod borrowed of him. You said return ramrods."

--Ann Arbor Journal, Sept.3, 1862

Mystery of the Blood Vials Solved

I tell you, I was so frustrated to not find the elusive identity of the actual person who sent the blood vials to Normal (most recent Courier story) but deadlines are deadlines so I had to grudgingly write it as an unsolved mystery.

But, reader, now I've found it. Dangit! After the Courier deadline! I think I'll amend the story and shoot it over to Gleanings, the YHS newsletter.

The soldier in question, according to this April 6, 1894 Ypsilanti Commercial article, is one David A. Wise, "the first man to enlist in this county," says this article. "He was a Lieutenant in Capt. Spencer's company, and while there the Captain edited a paper, and they printed a bill of fare for the Marshall House where Lieut. Wise was installed landlord in command..."

"He says he scraped up the blood from the floor, after the bodies had been removed, enclosed it in the vials, and sent them to Prof. Welch, the Principal of the Normal."

Likely I'm the only person who is relieved to know the answer, but here it is just for the record. Phew.

Mystery of the Missing Blood Vials

Two tiny vials containing what was said to be the first blood spilled in the Civil War once occupied a spot in the onetime science museum in what is now EMU's Sherzer Hall. The pic below is a never-before-published shot of what is thought to be part of the museum. It only came to light when one Archives member recently scanned a large number of old glass-plate negatives. Thanks to the Courier for publishing my story about the vials!

Historical Tidbit: Why it was Called the "Monitor Top" Fridge

You have seen the old refrigerators with the large cylindrical compressors on top. Apparently the public dubbed them with what turns out to be not a product name but a nickname, the "Monitor Top."

In 1927, General Electric introduced this "Monitor Top" refrigerator, so-named by the public because of the resemblance of the exposed compressor on top of its cabinet to the cylindrical turret of the Civil War gunship, the Monitor. Source.

"Depending on the model, these modern home appliances could cost from $300-$500 [$3,674-$6,124 today]. Compare that with the price of a new 1927 Model T Ford at $380 [$4,654] fresh from the factory."

The Civil War was about as distant from 1927 as WWII is from 2010. It is remarkable to DD that the Civil War had made an impression so lasting that more than six decades later, it was vivid enough in collective memory to provide a bit of slang.

I tried to think of a modern-day item that folks have nicknamed for an aspect of World War Two. The only vague example I could think of was the occasional joking reference to weight control as a "Battle of the Bulge" and, more tenuously, Godwin's Law, which states that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." Are there others I'm missing?

P. S.: The photo was stolen borrowed under fair use provisos from this site, which says, "This is the refrigerator I have in my kitchen, working, and using less energy than a modern refrigerator. The GE model CK refrigerator was their best, made in 1934 and using SO2 (sulphur dioxide) as its refrigerant gas. General Electric made the best and most reliable electric refrigerators for the home starting in the late 1920s with their DR model. The only model that routinely holds up and runs in present times without trouble is the CK, however." INSTANT ENVY!

Did Somebody Say They Wanted to Know When Ulysses S. Grant Visited Ypsilanti?

Tuesday, August 15th, 1865.

I was wrong when I said 1869. But I'm always happy to be wrong if it gives me a chance to learn something.

"Tues. 15th. Gen. U. S. Grant passed through in a special train which stopped + he shook hands with many (Com. 8-19-65)." So says an index card in the Ypsilanti chronology of Events file. The handwriting is that of Louis White, former Ypsilanti historian. James Mann, who was at the Archives today, very kindly found this card for me (waves).

I sped to the Archives' microfilm reader and feverishly threaded on the correct spool of film. June...July...ah hah! The microfilm reader does not have a printer, so I copied down the article from the August 19 Ypsilanti Commercial newspaper. Here 'tis:

General Grant in Ypsilanti
The special train conveying the hero of a hundred battles passed here Tuesday at 5 p.m. There was a large gathering of the people to greet him. The cars remained about 10 minutes giving quite a number of citizens an opportunity to take him by the hand. He was kept very busy in shaking hands.

General Cutcheon shook hands with him and remarked, "General, I was with you at Vicksburg." The great commander took off his hat and politely bowed.

Mr. Howland remarked to him, "I am a tanner," and he passed him the same compliment.

He took a number of children who pressed around him by the hand. In appearance he is some taller than we supposed. He looks every inch the soldier. He has an intellectual look. We endorse the poet Holland when he says "whose giant combinations and campaigns" won from his boys the sobriquet --'Old Brains'."

"That peerless man and soldier Gen. Grant." We call the especial attention of our readers to the poetry in another column. Unassuming, not a streak of vanity discernable in his nature, the people delight to do him honor--Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan a glorious trio. We honor them not in the spirit of man worship, but representing in their persons and acts the overthrow of the rebellion--the unity of the Republic disenthralled and marching on to a grand future." --Ypsilanti Commercial, August 19, 1865.

New AnnArbor.com Tale

What happens when a widowed septuagenarian Civil War veteran is given too much money, that he cannot control? Read about it in my new AnnArbor.com story, "That a Mind Gone Wrong Could Not Protect."