These days I'm finding the creation of this dust jacket very interesting.
Savas Beatie, 2019
None of the credit for creating it belings to me. I was at a loss for ideas about a cover because the picture that ought to have been used had already been used to death: The Battle of the Crater, by John Elder, which depicted the Petersburg Regiment, the 12th Virginia in action at the Battle of the Crater.
The Battle of the Crater, by John Elder
Hampton Newsome, who drew the maps and diagrams for The Petersburg Regiment, had the first idea for the cover of the book--the map that is in the background. It was Savas Beatie which came up with the idea of putting on the cover the last color bearer of the Petersburg Regiment, Sgt. William Crawford Smith.
Courtesy of William Turner
Sergeant Smith was a fascinating fellow. A native of Petersburg, he had moved to Nashville, Tennessee before the War of the Rebellion. When the war came, he returned to Petersburg and enlisted in the Petersburg Old Grays, which became the Petersburg Regiment's Company B. Smith was captured at Crampton's Gap on September 14, 1862. After his exchange, he returned to the regiment. An architect, he was engaged in bridging Germanna Ford in late April 1863 when the Federal advance across the Rapidan at Germanna Ford ended construction. Smith and some of his crew escaped. (See The Petersburg Regiment, 137-139.)
In 1864 Smith served in the Petersburg Regiment's color guard. He was nicked in the ankle by a bullet in the Wilderness May 6, 1864. (The Petersburg Regiment, 234.) Quickly recovering, he became the regiment's last color bearer on May 12, 1864, when he emerged at Spotsylvania as the only member of the color guard remaining unscathed. (The Petersburg Regiment, 250-251.) It is Sergeant Smith who is carrying the regiment's flag on July 30, 1864, in Elder's picture of the battle of the Crater. (The Petersburg Regiment, 301-304; Elder took the license of having Smith carry the color into the battle on the staff as he repaired it after the battle in which 75 bullets pierced the flag and nine smashed the staff.)
Detail from The Battle of the Crater, by John Elder
Smith was one of two members of the color guard to emerge unscathed from the battle of Globe Tavern on August 19, when the Petersburg Regiment was nearly surrounded and captured by counterattacking IX Corps troops. (The Petersburg Regiment, 316.)
Contrary to the claims of some Federals, the Petersburg Regiment's (the 12th Virginia's) flag was not captured at Appomattox. (See my blog entry of May 6, 2018, "The Last Battle Flag of the Petersburg Regiment." https://www.blogger.com/
Courtesy of Elise Phillips Atkins
Another soldier carried away in his shoe the portion of the banner that said "12th Va." That fragment was at Virginia Military Institute's Museum when I wrote The Petersburg Regiment.
Courtesy of Virginia Military Institute Museum
After the war, Smith returned to Nashville and resumed his career as an architect. For Nashville's 1897 Centennial Exhibition, he built a replica of The Parthenon that still stands. (My wife and I hope to tour Smith's Parthenon when we attend a legal conference in Nashville next spring.)
When the Spanish-American War began, Smith joined the 1st Tennessee Volunteer U. S. Infantry. He died of a stroke as its colonel in the Philippine Islands in 1899.
Courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives
