Benjamin Franklin Eshleman CSA WA

If people didn't know about Charlottesville before, they sure do now.

After the riot in Lee Park, I got to pondering if these monuments to the Lost Cause should be left up in public places? After all, the movement to restore the Kingdom of Hawaii has its own secessionist flag right here in my own back yard, some 4000 miles from Charlottesville.

My family has had soldiers in all of the major wars up to Vietnam (even though I was too young, I was more interested in Woodstock than Vietnam). On my father's side in the Revolutionary War was Falvey Frazier, reportedly killing his brother, who was fighting for the Brits, in hand to hand combat at the Battle of Yorktown 1781. On my mother's side there was General James Giles who in a convoluted way, we named our second son after and is today's guest blogger and tour guide. Seems our people were always siding with the rebels...first against Britain and then against the U.S. Government.

I was born in the Capital of the Confederacy at Stuart Circle Hospital, facing a equestrian statue of the Confederate master, if unsuccessful, strategist J.E.B. Stuart.

My paternal grandparents lived near and actually on Monument Avenue overlooking an ornate statue of Jefferson Davis and a stone's throw the statue of the man himself Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. There were old timey pictures of my grandfather's grandfather, T.C Leake in his Confederate uniform hanging in the house.There were many visits to Civil War sites outside of Central Virginia over the years.  North Carolina, Charleston's Fort Sumter, Atlanta, New Orleans, Mobile and finally Appomattox come to mind. 

I went to the Episcopal High School, which opened in 1839 but was closed in 1861 after the Federal occupation of Alexandria; over 500 students served as soldiers in the war and for the next five years the school was a large hospital for Federal Troops . In 1866 Lancelot Minor Blackford, who enlisted with the Confederate Virginia Rockbridge 1st Artillery, returned to reopen the school where Confederacy President Jefferson Davis sometimes visited. EHS had an extensive Civil War library collection and, to the detriment of my studies, I poured over Matthew Brady's iconic photographs and wandered and pondered in Alexandria's Fort Ward, a Federal defense against any possible Confederate attack against Washington DC.

Later came life in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia and adult life, where I continued to study the area where most of the major battles took place on the Northern Front. I often took my three children to these battlefields, albeit kicking and screaming at the thought of doing something so uncool with their dad.

A sheriff married my second wife and I under a statue of a Confederate common infantry soldier in the courtyard of the Charlottesville-Albermarle Court House, next door to Charlottesville's Lee Park, now renamed Emancipation Park.

I feel lucky to have viewed the war from both sides. The southern view from growing up in the Capital of the Confederacy and the northern view from researching my senior thesis in the library of Fort Ward.

I equally liked reading about that once Abraham Lincoln shed his early ineffectual and cautious generals and appointed the likes of Grant and Sherman and others, the game was on for real. These gentleman said in effect to the South "Ok, you want to play big boy war?" They then proceeded to hunt Lee down until the whole South was barefoot and eating shoe leather.

 I always wondered why the Federal government let the losers of the conflict put up so many honorific statues like the ones on Monument Avenue in Richmond ( and all over Dixieland ) after they had caused so much murder and mayhem. Yesteryear's fake news? Anyway, I thought the South was wrong and they/ we eventually got our ass handed to us for our trouble, not to mention setting the South back economically 150 years; but I have had a lot of fun studying it all as a hobby.

Eventually, my mom became as interested in the genealogy of her side of the family as my father was about the relatives on his side of the family mentioned above. 

As far as the War of Northern Aggression (my paternal grandfather's term), my mom found the book In Camp and Battle with the Washington Artillery of New Orleans a diary by William Miller Owen that brings to life the major figures and battles and many lesser known episodes of the Civil War. Owen frequently mentions Benjamin Franklin Eshleman, my great great great grandfather.

Colonel Eshleman directed an artillery unit in most or all of every major battle in the Civil War, including Gettysburg and the Western Front. My grandmother remembers hearing family recollections of him being awfully deaf. No shit; the cannonades he directed and received surely exposed him to unimaginable, up close and personal, slaughter and property devastation. It was no easy feat to survive all four years in the Confederacy. One day in 1909 the military caisson came and took him to rest in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Which brings us to Chef Ted's first guest blogger, second son Giles.  Here I present a letter that Giles wrote to his grandmother a few months ago:

Dear Granny,

Sorry for the delay in sending you New Orleans pics. My hangover from the bachelor party weekend didn't go away until around Thursday afternoon so I haven't been able to do much of anything since my return from Crescent City but I am back on my feet now and in high spirits once again. 

Our trip was planned for Thursday through Sunday and I did most of my sight seeing Thursday morning/afternoon. I flew down with the groom-to-be early Thursday morning from DC and we landed in Nola at 9:30am. Most of the other guys (about 17 of them) weren't getting in until the afternoon so I had a good portion of Thursday to do some historical and ancestral sight seeing which was a marvelous time. 

We were staying in the French Quarter at the corner of Rampart and St. Phillip streets so we were about a ten minute walk to Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, etc. We set out on foot after checking into our bachelor pad and headed out to explore. Of course we were in need of refreshments by this time so our first stop was a customary visit to Cafe du Monde for coffee and beignets.

My compadre and the groom-to-be, enjoying his refreshments at Cafe du Monde. He is a close friend of mine from JMU. His bride to be is another proud JMU alum and a lovely gal. The wedding is on September 2nd in Monmouth Beach, NJ.

Next stop on our list was a short walk over to historic Jackson Square and Washington Artillery Park.

We took a nice stroll around the park which was lovely though quite a sweaty affair. The St. Louis Cathedral had the advantage of being much cooler and was also a very beautiful and interesting place to explore.

After exploring Jackson Square and the Cathedral we headed across the street to take in Washington Artillery Park which was very cool. It overlooks the Mississippi which I had never seen in person before so it was an awesome experience. I made sure to explain to Sean the historical significance of the Washington Artillery as the premiere Confederate artillery unit of the Civil War, serving in Longstreet's Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia and seeing action in ever major battle of the war in which that most important southern army fought. As I continued to explain the pivotal role my 3x great grandfather B. F. Eshleman played as the commander of the 2nd of four companies in the Battalion, he seemed to get distracted perhaps with thoughts of his pending nuptials as his eyes seemed to glaze over as if his thoughts were elsewhere. Since there would be plenty of time to discuss the particular battles and engagements later on, I decided it best to continue on and leave some discussion for later. 

Alas, from there I had to continue on alone as my compadre's brother was shortly arriving and they needed to get the house in order for the long weekend. It was with much regret that I informed them that I would unfortunately have to abstain from assisting them with said preparations as I had prior engagements to which I must attend. As much as I would have loved to toil alongside them, there was much left to do so I hopped in a cab to drive out to Metairie Cemetery to visit the Leverich and Eshleman plots.

New Orleans is obviously famous for its cemeteries because of their above ground tombs and they definitely did not disappoint. I had never seen anything like it before and it was quite an experience. Metairie is one of the biggest and oldest cemeteries in the city so it is very spacious with beautiful trees and landscaping. There were others that I saw that were little more than parking lots filled with tombs and they seemed quite dreary and spooky by comparison. 

Thankfully you had given me the exact locations of the plots so all I had to do was stop by the funeral home/office area and a very nice lady gave me a map and pointed out where I would be able to find them. After a considerable walk through the beautiful but very hot grounds of Metairie, I first found the Leverich tomb:

The Leverich tomb was beautiful and well maintained. A lot of it is made out of marble and it is a brilliant white color. The headstone is also marble and it unfortunately is starting to weather away on some of the oldest names. Here is a closer shot of the headstone but it is still tough to make out some of the dates:

Many of the names were familiar to me going up the Slingluff, Craig, Eshleman, Leverich, Inskeep, Giles line of the family but after the Leverich-Eshleman marriage, I'm not super familiar with some of these younger uncles and cousins and such so I'd love to go over them with you to see who all you know/know about. Down on the steps there are some more people as well and it looks like one of them had her name put there proactively? 

Over all it was a very nice experience to get to visit with and see the resting place of our Leverich kin. Their tomb is one of the most beautiful in the cemetery and seems like a nice place to rest. It was a special experience for me to get to visit them there. 

Next I moved on to find the Eshleman tomb which was only a short walk away. Theirs is not quite as grand but still very beautiful and shaded by some of the pretty trees that line the driveways:

And straight on:

The headstone on the Eshleman tomb was in much better condition so it is a lot easier to make out the names and dates. Here is a close up:

It is interesting to see the difference in dates between the two families as Eshleman obviously moved from Pennsylvania whereas the Leverich side had been there for quite a while. It is sad to see the two little boys at the top. I know about your Granny Craig and Fountain obviously (he has one of the cooler names ever by the way) but I don't know much about the Nott's or the other Eshleman's on there so I'd love to talk to you about those people as well as I'm sure you knew or knew of some or all of them. 

Once again it was very nice to visit with our family here and see the beautiful tomb. I am not an overly prayerful person but I said a prayer for your Granny Craig because while I did not know her I'm sure she meant a lot to you and that you miss her an awful lot. 

After viewing the family plots my next stop was to check out the Washington Artillery monument which is pretty much smack dab in between the Leverich and Eshleman tombs which are only a couple hundred yards apart.

Here is a view of the whole WA Monument which was really cool. I thought the cannons used as fence posts was a nice touch. Standing atop the monument is Colonel J. B. Walton who commanded the Battalion for most of the war. 

Here is a closer up shot. Below Walton you can see the tiger head which was the symbol of the unit which is still featured on the unit's flag to this day as a part of the Louisiana

National Guard. They were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and they lost one man there whose name is on the right side (all of the casualties from the civil war onward are listed from each war).

The monument was erected in 1887 I believe and as you can see in the bottom left corner, Benjamin Eshleman was one of the members of the building committee responsible for its erection.

I wanted to get someone to take a picture of me in front of it but there weren't many people around and since Sean chose to go to the bar instead of to a cemetery with me, a decided that a selfie was the best I could do.

It was a really great experience getting to see the monument in person. I had seen pictures online and read the book that you gave me obviously but it was very special for me to get to see it in person.

There were lots of other interesting things at Metairie as well. Here is another monument to the Louisiana Infantry Division of the Army of Northern Virginia. I'm sure Eshleman and the two Leverich brothers that were in the WA with him would have known some of those boys. 

Here is another cool tomb that I stumbled across. A lot of them had those little fern things growing out various cracks and corners but rather than looking neglected I think it gives them a certain character that looks pretty cool.

Thus concluded my jaunt around Metairie which was a really great experience that I will always remember. I hope to get to go back and visit again sometime. The next stop on my list was to head over to the Garden District to check out the old family dwelling and worship places. 

First I took a cab over to the Christ Church Cathedral. It is a huge and very beautiful stone cathedral so I was excited to explore it but because I inherited my father's impeccable timing, I showed up on the day that they were doing renovations to the entrance. I explained how I had traveled a long way to come see the old family church and that it would mean the world to me if I could look around but they regretfully informed me that they are open 7 days a week, year round...just not today.

Well, that's what almost happened. What actually happened is that I went to the adjacent parish building of some sort and found a woman at a desk there and explained my predicament and she very kindly offered to show me around. It was an abbreviated tour and she was very nice but couldn't tell me much in the way of history of the building. She did inform me that they do tours every Thursday from 11-2 and the guy who does them knows everything about the church. I had shown up on Thursday at around quarter past 2. Nonetheless, the church was really beautiful and one of the cooler churches I've been in. It had a wonderful combination of stone and wood architecture and it had tons of really beautiful stained glass.

I would have liked to poke around the church some more but I got to see a good bit of it which was nice. It was nice knowing that Dede and her family had all gone there and I enjoyed getting to soak that up for a while. 

3rd street is just a few blocks away so next I strolled down to Dede and Charla's old house in the Garden District at 1417 3rd street (thanks again for sending me the addresses). There house was really cool. I tried to snoop and check out the pool in the back but I couldn't see past the fence. I'm sure it would have been a really cool spot to hang out when they lived there. 

I know you mentioned that this house was originally a carriage house for the big house that faces the next street and that house is nothing short of ridiculous. I couldn't even get the whole house in one picture. This is maybe a third of the house:

The Garden District was awesome with really cool houses everywhere. The old Eshleman/Leverich/Craig/Slingluff house was definitely one of the cooler ones and only a couple of blocks from Dede's carriage house. I snooped around the premises and was able to get some good shots but it's kind of hard to get the whole thing in one picture.

I believe you mentioned that the previous owner had painted the wrought iron white but I definitely think the black looks better. That seems to be the traditional New Orleans style and I think the contrast with rest of the house looks really good. Here is another shot from the side.

It is a really beautiful house. I kept meandering about waiting for the owners to invite me in for cocktails and maybe a light lunch but they must have stepped out for a few minutes as no one came out to open the gate. It was really cool to get to see the house that Dede grew up in. I can imagine how distraught she was that they were going to leave the Garden District to move to some place called Norfolk, Virginia. I was glad to be able to go check on the place for her. 

And thus concluded my family history tour of New Orleans. From here I caught a cab back to the house and much to my dismay, all of the work had been completed and I wasn't able to chip in prepping the house at all. Undeterred, I soldiered on and declared the bar officially open and the rest of the weekend I'm not really at liberty to discuss.Overall it was a really great day and I really enjoyed getting to see all of the family history here. Thanks so much for sending me all the addresses and everything. I may have died of heat exhaustion wandering around Metairie without them. I think I'll be down coming to Richmond the weekend of August 26th, perhaps we can do some more reminiscing then? Lauren's brother is moving in to VCU that weekend so we are going to take him to lunch and stuff like that but other than that we don't have any plans. Let me know!

Love, 

Giles 

A shot of the family in front of the Anderson House, the Society of the Cincinnati national headquarters in Washington DC earlier this summer. If you are interested in officers that were in the Revolutionary War and beyond, this is a great place to start. One becomes a hereditary member if one can trace his genealogy to an officer in the American or French armies in the American Revolution. All of us males pictured here are members as, well, it is a male only privilege. Sorry Caroline, but rules are rules.

Caroline at ground zero at the Battle of the Wilderness earlier this summer. 

So what do to about the current brouhaha about all these Confederate statues on public property? Take a vote and if the majority want them removed, well move them to a battlefield like Wilderness, or a museum with all the other warriors of yesteryear. Simple hey?

Thank You Giles for a nice tour and commentary.
 and thank you gentle reader for stopping by.

P.S. Just as I was getting ready to post this, I came across this article in the Washington Post with quite a different view of Robert E. Lee

The Truth About Robert E.Lee: He Wasn't Very Good At His Job

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