Mrs. Potter's Memorial Monument

As the calendar neared the end of October and because Olivia was doing well getting up to speed and could now sit comfortably with our researchers while I stayed in the bowels of the BDC doing other tasks, I decided to work a bit on the Finding Aids backlog one afternoon in October while we were still officially in Archives Month.

Both Amanda Forbes and Samantha Perkins had done fine jobs with helping me get intellectual control over the archival material here in the Research Room during their respective tenures as my Library Assistants IV but I had only been able to finalize a few of their Finding Aids for the BDC's Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog over the past 4-5 years. That fact has weighed heavily on my heart and my mind as I get ever closer to retirement.

I wanted to change that situation at least a little bit during Archives Month 2022.

I thought that I would start small for quick results. Thus, I chose to begin with a Finding Aid for one archival item: an ink drawing on paper of one of the monuments at the Beaufort National Cemetery.

You can enlarge the illustration to follow along with me and test my transcriptions. Note: The "white hole" in the upper right was actually caused by my cellphone's flash reflecting on the encapsulation plastic. I assure you that the sketch is completely intact. 

At the far bottom left are three lines of handwritten text that I cannot read. If you can figure it out, please email what you think it says to me: gracec@bcgov.net. Neither Olivia nor I can translate the script into something intelligible. I hope that it may indicate the artist's identity. 

The text in the enclosed area on the left of the drawing reads: "On the reverse side a tablet containing the names of 176 soldiers who died at the hospital at the "Racecourse" near Charleston, S.C." 

In the center is a sketch of the monument inscribed "Immortality to Hundreds of Defenders of American Liberty Against the Great Rebellion." 

To the right are these words: "Monument to be erected at the National Cemetery at Beaufort, S.C. under the supervision of Mrs. L. T. Potter of Charleston, S.C. to the memory of the soldiers, who died at the "Racecourse" near Charleston, S.C., and are now removed to Beaufort, S.C. May 2nd, 1868." 

Analyzing the document, I can see that the Union men were re-interred on 2 May 1868 but that the monument was not installed at that point in time as it was "to be erected." According to the Beaufort National Cemetery website under the "Historical Information" section that monument "was erected during the 1880s." Thus my search window for the monument's installation was 1868 to 1890. I also had three potential lines of inquiry to investigate just from the textual notes on the sketch: the history of the Cemetery; What was the life story of  Mrs. L.T. Potter and why was she going to all this expense and trouble for the dead Union soldiers?; and the history of the Civil War prison camp at the Charleston Racecourse from which the soldiers' bodies were brought to Beaufort. Researching for more information about these topics would enhance the Historical Note for the Finding Aid for this particular item from the BDC's archives. 

I did a little Google searching about Mrs. Potter and the prisoner camp in Charleston at the Racecourse to get some context. Most of what I discovered in that pursuit now resides in the BDC vertical files. 

By using the Library's Ancestry Library Edition database, I uncovered a few key biographical facts about Mrs. L.T. Potter: Mrs. Potter's first name was Eliza; she was an immigrant to the United States; she married Lorenzo T. Potter, a man 13 years her senior in Richmond County, Georgia in 1856; They were living in Charleston, SC by 1860 and appeared to have owned 8 slaves; she gave birth to 10 children, though only 3 were still alive in 1900; her husband died in 1872; and she died in 1907 in Boston, MA at the ripe old age of 79.   

I decided to do some newspaper research in hopes of discovering appeals for donations; requests for monument design proposals; notices of fundraising success, etc. Although the Research Room has some local 19th Century newspapers on microfilm, we have no indexes to them. Therefore, I tend to use the digitized issues of the following local newspapers on the Chronicling America newspaper website instead: 

19^th Century Newspapers in the BDC Research Room on Microfilm:

Palmetto Herald (March 17, 1864 -December 29, 1864)                https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84-27012

Free South (January 17, 1863 - November 19, 1864) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026962/

New South (March 15, 1861 - September 29, 1866) https://historicnewspapers.sc.edu/lccn/sn83025760/

Port Royal Standard and Commercial (1874-1876) http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85026954/

Beaufort Republican and Sea Island Chronicle (1869 - 1871) http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92061879/  

Beaufort Republican (October 12, 1871 - October 16, 1873) http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026857/

Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort County Republican (October 23, 1873 – April 30, 1874)   http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92065401/

 Beaufort Tribune (1874-1876) is online only                     http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042623/. 

Alas, nothing came up in these newspapers about Mrs. Potter or her monument at the National Cemetery. 

Then I tried using my personal South Carolina State Library (SCSL) card to access the historical South Carolina newspapers available through the SCSL's subscription to the NewsBank database. I checked the back files of the Charleston Courier, 1803-1872 and the Charleston News and Courier, 1873- 1991 concentrating on the period between 1865 and 1890 to cover the years between the fall of South Carolina as a Confederate entity and the entire 1880s timeframe for the installation of the monument.

I had to wade through several hundred hits across the three topics to learn only a few facts. For example, I  learned that General John P. Hatch, 1822 - 1901 agreed to support "a monument to the Martyrs of the Race Course" in the April 3, 1865 issue of the Charleston Courier but there was no additional information in the Charleston Courier about fundraising efforts. I also learned that there was a merchant sailing vessel named the Eliza Potter that was owned by L.T. Potter plied the east coast after the Civil War years. There were a lot of shipping news notices to review. However, I was sorely disappointed to find nothing more about the fund raising for the monument or the removal of the Union soldiers' bodies to the Beaufort National Cemetery in the surviving issues of the Charleston Courier or the Charleston News and Courier.    

Obviously, I needed to cast a larger net. I hoped that recent additions to the Chronicling America newspaper database for the period 1865 - 1890 might mention activities in Charleston and Beaufort, South Carolina. 

I hit pay dirt with an article about "A National Cemetery" from the Charleston Daily News on August 25, 1869. The heading has a tone of disapproval: "A National Cemetery. Confederates and Negro Children Buried and Paid for as Federal Soldiers. How the Yankee Speculates in the Bones of the Dead -- Mrs. Potter's $5000 Monument -- What It Cost".  The article continues and the bulk of the description provided is attributed to James R. Randall, the editor of the Augusta Constitutionalist newspaper in Georgia "who has just returned from a summer excursion to Port Royal Island."  Randall takes a tour of the National Cemetery, sees the monument, and hears a bit about how much it cost from his unnamed guide - who tells Randall that he installed the monument. 

The final three paragraphs of this article is attributed to an unnamed New York Tribune reporter who had also visited the Beaufort National Cemetery, saw the monument and the marble tablet listing out the Union soldiers who had died during their incarcerations at the Confederate Prisoner of War camp at the Washington Racecourse. He wrote that Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's church contributed $1800 to the project. "The monument was intended for Charleston, but government requested that it should be placed in the National Cemetery at Beaufort." 

Alas, there is so specific date of installation of the monument nor tablet. But based on the re-interment date on the sketch and the Charleston Daily News article, I conclude that Mrs. Potter's Memorial Monument was erected at some point between May 3, 1868 and August 25, 1869, a window of 15 months rather than the 120 months (the decade of the 1880s) that we had before I began the research. 

Beaufort National Cemetery is located in Beaufort, South Carolina at 1601 Boundary Street and is open daily for self-guided tours. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

For more information about Eliza Potter (Mrs. L.T. Potter), I recommend: 

Remembering the Civil War Fallen at Beaufort, S.C. : Eliza Potter's Story: A Lesson Plan for Middle School Students, National Cemetery Administration, Veterans Legacy Program, no date.     

“Mrs. Eliza Potter,” The Grand Army of the Republic Almanac for 1879. 64-72. Web. 

"Mrs. Eliza Potter" in Heroines of the Rebellion: Or, Woman's Work in the Civil War; A record of heroism, patriotism and patience by L. P. Brockett ... and Mrs. Mary C. Vaughan. With an introduction by Henry W. Bellows (Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, 1888), pp. 93-110. 

Though she put in a claim for $40,000 for medical services and supplies rendered to the Union prisoners under her care during the Civil War, she ultimately received half that amount from the Federal government in 1876. 

 For more information about the Racecourse prison camp, I recommend: 

"Memorial Day Uncovered: Charleston's 'Martyrs of the Racecourse'" by Amanda Kerr, 29 May 2017 The College Today blog post, College of Charleston website. 

"79. Washington Race Track 1792-1900," Alfred O. Halsey Map, 1949 by the Preservation Society of Charleston (SC). 

"Martyrs of the Race-Course : Union Prisoners' Cemetery at Charleston, S.C." digital image from Harper's Weekly (May 18, 1867) on the New York Public Library that confirms the bodies are still in Charleston in 1867. 

You can read the entire May 18, 1867 Harper's Weekly issue on the Internet Archive website. A short paragraph about the prison camp will be found on page 318 of the issue.

Note: "A National Cemetery" Charleston Daily News (Charleston, SC), 1865-1873, August 25, 1869, image 1 is on the Chronicling America website, 

https://chroniclingamerica.loc/lccn/sn84026994/1869-08-25/ed-2/seq-1/ [ Column 2]. 

Update: 16 November 2022 - While searching computer files for something entirely unrelated, I came across an intriguing office file folder heading, Archives Donor Relations. Within that was information about this particular monument. I discovered that Former Library Director Julie Zachowski reported to the Veterans Service Organizations Meeting of March 27, 1996 that the item would be on display at the Beaufort County Library and that she hoped to be able to purchase the drawing for $375.00 in donations. There's a handwritten note in Zachowski's hand that are potential clues to expand the Finding Aid. 

The plot thickens.