MEET THE DIRECTORS: JOHNCIE AND TIM CARLSON 

The husband and wife directing team of Johncie and Tim Carlson will be at the helm as Virginia Morton’s popular Civil War novel marches onto the Eastern View High School stage. Spearheaded by the Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield (FCMB), the show will be the cornerstone event of two weekends of activities to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle. 

FCMB president Diane Logan says, “We are blessed to have the combined talents and experiences of Johncie and Tim shaping this show. They are passionate about theater and they love Culpeper. That’s a winning combination.” 

Both Tim and Johncie Carlson are Virginia born and the couple has lived in Culpeper since 1990. Mr. Carlson has worn many hats in his lifetime including chef, business owner, photographer, teacher, husband and father. But throughout his “march” through life, the constant has been music and theater. His love of the theater arts began in church, and continued through high school and college. 

After obtaining a degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Richmond, he opted to channel his acting—motivating skills into the business world. 

He says, “I’ve approached my life as a stage and I have worked with some wonderful people along the way.  When I met my wife Johncie, we moved to Culpeper to start our life, a family, and possibly get back to performing.  Yes, she too had a passion for the stage and song.  We have been in Culpeper raising our three children since 1990 and I am currently owner operator of Studio C Photography with Johncie.” 

Mr. Carlson has been involved in many theatrical productions in Culpeper and Richmond. His time has been equally split backstage, on stage, and the front of the house.  

According to him, “The theatre is a venue for entertainment, emotions, and stories.  Some of my most precious memories include the work itself, my fellow actors, and the goals attained.  A few high notes are “John the Baptist” in Godspell, Stage Manager/Designer of Charlie Brown’s Christmas, and crew of Hiawatha.  Not to mention the many small parts I have enjoyed as a supporting member of the story!  Please join us as we celebrate a Culpeper story…a journey being told through words, actions, music, staging, lights, costumes, and audience.  All parts of what we do are important and necessary.   I encourage the community to open themselves to the possibilities.  They may laugh and cry at the experience of…being on, behind, or in front of the stage. But each one will decide what memories they want to make…it will be fun!” 

The other half of the Carlson directing team, Johncie Carlson, received a Bachelor of Arts from Averett College (now University).  She has a diverse background of employment situations from teaching to serving tea and scones, processing film to providing travel arrangements, secretarial duties to sales.  But no matter the job, her down time has always included theatre or music.  

Mrs. Carlson has designed and directed three Broadway musical revues locally, and taught beginning drama and music for the middle school at St. Luke’s School.  Her 40-year involvement in community theatre has placed her both on stage and behind the scenes.  Some of her favorite roles include “Little Red” in Into the Woods, “Babe” in Crimes of the Heart, “Shy” in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, “Joanne” in Vanities, and “Rachel” in Two By Two.  Her latest endeavor has been opening Studio C Photography in 2010 with husband Tim. 

Excited about this new opportunity, she says, “Being able to lend a hand to bring Marching Through Culpeper to the stage for the first time is an honor and a challenge.  It is very rewarding to watch a stage production take shape, and in this case, to watch history come to life.  I’m looking forward to getting to know the characters better, and to meeting and working with community members as we help Virginia Morton see her dreams become a reality.”

I watched Susan and Steve Pappas suffer the departure of their leading actor while filming “Treasure in Heaven,” which brought filming to a halt. Yet through prayer and perseverance, they began filming anew with many talented new performers who took this inspiring film to a much higher level of achievement. Thanks Susan and Steve for giving me the honor of being in the cast.

Likewise when plans to stage “Marching Through Culpeper” came to a halt due to the departure of a key leader, I was buoyed by the prayers of many of you to persevere. And now amazing and talented new people have joined the team which will undoubtedly result in a better show Aug. 3-5, 10-12, 2012. I’m delighted to announce that theater veterans Johncie and Tim Carlson will be our directors. Stay tuned for more details.

Thanks to “The Journey through Hallowed Ground” folks for listing our Cedar Mountain 150th Weekend schedules on their website. Through JTHG we connected with MARS, the leading packager of bus tours in the Mid-Atlantic. They are marketing our August 4, 2012, luncheon with Dr. James Robertson at the Inn at Kelly’s Ford with attending a performance of “Marching Through Culpeper.” They’ve already booked a tour, so I encourage you to make your overnight reservations early.

I invite you to explore our new website www.marchingthroughculpeperonstage.com. Tell your friends to sign up to receive updates, photos, and videos as we move into casting and rehearsals. Click here to ready the Dec. 24 Culpeper Star-Exponent article about the MTC stage production.

And follow our show on Facebook www.facebook.com/marchingthroughculpeper

UPCOMING JAN. 19, 2012

We will hold an organizational meeting of all those interested in helping with “Marching Through Culpeper,” both on and off stage, at 7 p.m. in the forum of Eastern View High School. We have many jobs other than performing including promo, ticket sales, helping with the “World Premiere Reception,” ushering, programs, etc. In short, WE NEED YOU!

He saw this as an opportunity and he penned a letter on impressively embossed official railroad stationery listing him as VP to Ellen. Not only did he praise her father’s heroism but he soothed the daughter’s fears. He let her know in a brotherly fashion that things were going very well for him, but added, “I hate to think of the future now—it seems so blank—no goal to reach, no object to strive for…So life passes —we wish and dream—build castles in the air, grasping at shadows all of our lives.”

Miracle of miracles, she answered his letter and they began corresponding. After four long heart-lonely years McClellan was corresponding directly with the beautiful Ellen. He was getting in subtle hints and all she had to do was read between the lines to know he was her most faithful and persistent admirer.

Another window of opportunity opened in the fall of 1859. Major Marcy was promoted and assigned to Minnesota. Ellen and Mrs. Marcy had decided to spend the winter with him. McClellan immediately fired off an invitation for them to stop over in Chicago as his guests as he had plenty of room in the large house on the lake he shared with Ambrose Burnside. 

Major Marcy hadn’t seen McClellan in years but they had maintained a correspondence and he was happy when McClellan left the army, and let his daughter know so. 

As Ellen stepped down from the train in Chicago on Oct. 20, she saw a new McClellan, but with the same desire for her burning in his eyes after 5 hopeless years. She had always liked him, but had never loved him. He was more mature, impressively prominent, and he obviously loved her with a doglike fidelity. There was no indication that he had ever loved anyone else. 

She was wavering. We have to wonder what was going on in her mind. At 24, she had received 8 marriage proposals and her beloved A.P. Hill was now a happily married man. Did her maturity tell her that her parent’s choice was indeed the right one? Could she be in love with McClellan after all? 

Four days later McClellan provided a private rail car and accompanied the family to St. Paul. En route he charged the ramparts again, risked it all, and proposed. This time Miss Nelly said yes. 

However, she requested that their engagement be kept a secret until Christmas because she had a bit of tidying up to do. There were two suitors eagerly awaiting her response to their marriage proposals and she had to clear the field before announcing her engagement to McClellan. 

After waiting 6 years he was anxious to tie the knot. He began his lifelong practice of writing to her every day they were separated. His wartime letters have given historians a clear and candid picture of his thoughts while commanding the Union Army. He kept nothing from Nelly. 

But at this point he’s trying to urge her down the aisle. “Don’t talk to me about going east to prepare for the wedding. I don’t want any preparation, I want you and you alone. I want you just as you are…we don’t need a trousseau. I want Nelly Marcy just as she is.” 

However, as you might guess Nelly held out for an impressive wedding in New York City and finally walked down the aisle May 22, 1860. Many dignitaries attended and among the groomsmen was A.P. Hill whose wife would soon deliver their first child. 

But oh how different would be the fates of the Hills and the McClellans as the winds of war began to stir across the country. Dolly Hill was widowed at age 30. But Ellen McClellan lived a life of luxury and spent most of her later years in Europe. 

George and Ellen McClellan

*From “The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox” by John Waugh (Highly recommended)

I have more exciting news about plans for the Battle of Cedar Mountain 150th Weekends August 3-5, 9-12, 2012. Dr. James Robertson, author and retired Virginia Tech history professor, will be here! Dr. Robertson is a legend and one of the most distinguished names in Civil War history. A nationally acclaimed teacher and lecturer, he has written or edited two dozen books on the Civil War era. His award-winning biography of “Stonewall” Jackson was hailed as “a book every student of the war should read and every chronicler should emulate.” 

In addition, he penned the definitive biography General A. P. Hill, The Story of a Confederate Warrior. There is no scholar more imminently qualified to discuss the personality conflict between Hill and Jackson that began during the Cedar Mountain campaign than Dr. Robertson. So make plans now so you can have a front row seat to hear him elaborate on the hearts and souls of these two talented generals whose every encounter caused sparks to fly. Yet they cooperated on the battlefield to bring Confederate victories.

Dr. Robertson will be one of our honored guests at the “World Premiere” reception prior to the “World Première” performance of Marching Through Culpeper at Eastern View High School on Friday, August 3, 2012. Then on Saturday, August 4th, he will speak at a luncheon and decipher the Hill-Jackson conflict. He will also sign copies of his latest book published by National Geographic, The Untold Civil War: Exploring the Human Side of War. You will surely want to add a signed copy of this collector’s item to your library.

And I am happy to tell you that plans for the Marching Through Culpeper stage production are moving forward. I invite you to visit our new website www.marchingthroughculpeperonstage.com. We will soon be posting on our blog and making exciting announcements, so stay tuned!

Lovely young Kitty married her first cousin Calvin McClung and moved with him to Louisville. But he died early in their marriage and then their infant son died. Overcome with grief, she returned to Hopemont. Her sister insisted that Kitty accompany on her on a visit to Washington hoping the exciting new social circuit would lift her out of her grief. And there she met A. P. Hill, a dashing army officer nine years her senior. It was love at first sight. 

The couple married in the parlor of Hopemont July 18, 1859. George McClellan did not travel from Illinois to attend the wedding. Thus the oldest of Dolly’s six brothers, John Hunt Morgan, was best man. As she stood between her brother and husband who would both gain fame as Confederate warriors, little could the new bride imagine that both would give their last full measure of devotion to the Confederacy. 

When the war erupted, John Hunt Morgan and her older brothers stole the rifles from the Lexington armory and headed south to fight for the Confederacy. Morgan became the first partisan ranger and began striking Union supply lines in Kentucky. He was called the “Rebel Raider” and the “Marion of the West.” His exploits are legendary but he was ultimately betrayed and shot in the back in Greenville, Tennessee in 1864. Today Hopemont, now called the Hunt-Morgan House, is open to the public. 

 The marriage of Dolly and A. P. Hill was exceedingly happy from first to last.  Dolly’s income eased financial pressures and the Washington social whirl was exciting for the couple who made friends so easily because they loved each other so obviously. A daughter later said, “Their union was ideal as Father was a man of unusually fine traits, gentle and courteous, a wonderful sense of humor, and a charming man.” 

The two became inseparable—not even war could keep them apart. Theirs would become one of the truly great love stories of the Civil War. 

Where, you may be wondering, was George McClellan all this time? He had left the army to take a job as chief of engineers of the Illinois Central Railroad. But in March 1858 he was still pining away over Ellen Marcy.  

Stay tuned for “McClellan Perseveres.”

Six performances are scheduled: Aug. 3, 4, 10, 11, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. and Aug. 5, 12, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. in the beautiful Eastern View High School auditorium. 

Two full weekends of Civil War related activities are being planned as we commemorate the Battle of Cedar Mountain 150th Anniversary. You’ll want to be here to listen to legendary scholars, take tours, see living history along 
downtown streets, and watch demonstrations on the battlefield. All proceeds will benefit battlefield preservation in Culpeper County. 

So make your overnight reservations now! Just as in August of 1862, all roads will lead to Culpeper in August of 2012. We’ll need the involvement of the whole community, so let me know if you’d like to help. 

UPCOMING, NEXT FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2011, 7:30 P.M. CULPEPER DEPOT: 

The Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield invite you to help commemorate the 149th anniversary of the battle at the Culpeper Depot as we welcome Gibson Worsham of Richmond to Culpeper. 

He will present the vivid wartime memoirs of his ancestor, John H. Worsham, as detailed in his book, “One of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry.” John H. Worsham kept a diary with one of the most complete first hand accounts of the Battle of Cedar Mountain. This is a historical snapshot through the eyes of a soldier in the midst of a fierce and bloody battle. I generally quote from this diary on my battlefield tours. 

Light refreshments will be provided at the conclusion of the presentation.

Everyone was through but Hill. He had been clearly rejected, but there was still the matter of his honor to be settled. He was a proud man who valued his honor, so much so that he would later challenge fellow Confederate General James Longstreet to a duel. He wrote a letter to Captain Marcy demanding justice and accusing Mrs. Marcy of starting the rumors. He demanded “That Mrs. Marcy correct this false impression with anyone who may have heard it and she should make known the name of the informant to be used by me as I may see fit.”

Captain Marcy, a man of honor, wrote his wife demanding to know if Hill’s charges were true. If so, he would insist upon Ellen marrying Hill as reparation. However, Mrs. Marcy was able to explain it away to her husband’s satisfaction.

Hill returned to the Washington social circuit and within a year spied across a crowded room the woman who would hold his heart until death.

He wrote his favorite sister Lucy, “You know that I am so constituted, that to be in love with someone is as necessary to me as my dinner, and there is now a little siren who has thrown her net around me, and I know not how soon I may yield up my right to flirt with whom I please. She is a sensible little beauty, and if the spasm will stay in me long enough, and she will say yes, why I don’t believe I could do better.” Hill courted her throughout 1858. To him, she was always “Dolly” the nickname given her by her Mammy. That is the name she became known by in Virginia.

Late spring 1859 Hill wrote McClellan, “I’m afraid there is no mistake about it this time, old fellow, and please God, and Kentucky bluegrass, my bachelor life is about to end, and I shall swell the number of blessed martyrs who have yielded up freedom to crinoline and blue eyes. She is young—24 yrs. 7 mos. gentle and amiable, yet holy, and sufficiently good looking for me—and what’s more—I know that you will like her and when you come to know her, say that I have done well. I believe her income is close to mine—and if this be so I am glad for her sake, and if not I will not be disappointed. I expect to be married in Lexington, Kentucky on July 18, and if you could ride down from Chicago, you know there is no one whose presence would delight me more.”*

Stay tuned for “McClellan Perseveres”

*From “The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox” by John Waugh (Highly recommended)

 Above all else, George McClellan was a gentleman. He withdrew and accepted his fate. Hill was now seething about the rumors about him swirling in Washington and he considered Mrs. Marcy the source. She spoke disparagingly of Hill in two letters to McClellan and now McClellan was also seething that she would defame his dear friend. Amazingly and to his credit, his friendship for Hill overrode his desire to see Ellen available again.   

 He wrote a stiff reply to Mrs. Marcy, “As a matter of course I transmitted to Hill none of the remarks you made: I thought that you would regret what you had written before the letter reached me—that reflection would convince you that you had been unjust to him, and that you had said unpleasant and bitter things to me in reference to one of my oldest and best friends. I shall destroy your letter and never allude to its contents to any human being.” 

McClellan was caught in the middle. Ellen even wrote to him for counsel about her engagement to Hill. He blandly advised her “To govern yourself by the dictates of your good sense and true woman’s feelings.”

 McClellan had had it. He was through with this entire depressing business and he retreated to Philadelphia and a self-imposed loveless life. He threw himself into writing his brilliant Crimean report.

 After less than a three month engagement, Ellen Marcy was also sounding the retreat. With rumors about her intended flying, she wrote her father a letter of surrender and reluctantly returned the ring to Hill. He gave it to his beloved sister Lucy. *

Stay tuned for “Hill Moves On.”

*From “The Class of  1846: From West Point to Appomatax” by John Waugh (Highly recommended.)

Suitors were swarming around her like moths to a flame. Ellen and her mother spent the winter of 1855-56 at the Willard Hotel in Washington. Who should be assigned to duty in Washington but McClellan’s close friend, the charming and dashing A. P. Hill. 

The polished Virginia cavalier hailed from a prominent Culpeper family. Known at West Point for his “amiability of heart” and “amenity of manners that endeared him to all his acquaintances,” the smooth dancer was also a polished horseman. And yes, Hill loved women. So much so that a youthful indiscretion during his first furlough at West Point sent him to the brothels of New York. That night of passion left him with a “disease” that forced him to drop out of West Point for a year and would dog him the rest of his life. 

In the fall of 1848 when his favorite sister was in school in Ellicott City, Maryland. Hill, who had just returned from West Point, began courting one of her friends, Emma Wilson, a dazzling brunette. She fell in love with him and accepted his marriage proposal. But her parents, who considered Hill beneath them socially, cut it off. 

But now he turned his charms on the prize—Ellen Marcy. It was not long before Miss Nelly was seeing a lot of Lieutenant Hill. Captain Marcy, who was home on a temporary assignment, noted their closeness with an uneasy eye. He cautioned Ellen that surely this romance would not get serious. She replied, “Oh, no Daddy, you mustn’t worry.” He returned to the frontier not fully convinced. 

Soon Hill was the officer in charge of Miss Nelly’s heart and when he proposed in the spring of 1856, she immediately accepted the engagement ring—without first clearing it with her father. 

When Ellen’s letter announcing the engagement reached her father in Laredo he could scarcely believe what he was reading. “Astonished” was the first word that burst from his angry pen. In a marathon heated 11-page letter he in essence said, “How could you do this to us?” 

In mounting recrimination and rage he continued, “I could never have supposed after the repeated conversations I have had with you upon the subject of marriage, and your knowledge of my opposition to your uniting yourself to a profession which has caused so many privations and separations in families that you would desire to do the very act of all others that is the most objectionable to me.” 

His chilling conclusion stated, “I thought I could confide in you and that I had nothing to fear but I find instead of that, you must have been holding out encouragement to him from the time I left. …I forgive you, but I shall expect that you at once abandon all communication with Mr. Hill. If you do not comply with my wishes, I cannot tell you what my feelings toward you would become. I fear that my ardent affection would turn to hate. Do nothing therefore my dear child without choosing between me and him.” 

A week later he wrote a more conciliatory letter and asked her to make no decision for six months. He needed to know if Hill had sufficient means to support her without his pay. He received a letter from Hill indicating he was worth about $10,000. “That is something,” Captain Marcy conceded, “but not much.” Moreover, the fact that Hill was a southerner concerned her father in the heated political climate. 

Now Ellen was fighting back for the man she loved. She reminded her father that McClellan was in the army and he had not objected to him. 

Meanwhile, in Washington Hill was feeling a strong sense of Deja-vu. Was this Emma Wilson and her snooty parents all over again? But the worst was yet to come. Mrs. Marcy was ready to unload on Hill personally with great vengeance. She had somehow learned of his indiscretion at West Point and she would see that the word got out.*

Stay tuned for “McClellan Returns”

*From “The Class of  1846: From West Point to Appomatax” by John Waugh (Highly recommended.)

He forewarned Mrs. Marcy that he was about to storm the redoubt. If she had any objections, she should state them now since Capt. Marcy was on the frontier. Now that he had shown his flag, it remained only for her to give her permission for him to “carry on the war as best I may.” He had no doubt that he would win this skirmish and that Miss Nelly would soon be his. 

George McClellan was never known for modesty. In fact during the upcoming war, many considered him pompous, ego centered, the Little Napoleon, and the only officer who could strut while being seated. This was perhaps the one time in his life when he misjudged the battle and suffered from severe overconfidence. For the rest of his military career he would see an imaginary enemy that he believed outnumbered him and he would suffer from what Lincoln would call, “the slows.” 

Since Mary Marcy shared her husband’s high opinion of McClellan, she granted her permission. Her husband wrote from the frontier that he was delighted McClellan was so pleased “with my dear Nelly. “ He hoped she would like him as much, for he was talented, good looking, and agreeable.” Mr. Marcy could not conceive that Ellen would not fall immediately in love with McClellan. He was everything the Marcy’s hoped for. They loved him very much. 

Unfortunately, their daughter didn’t. After a very short courtship, less than 2 months, he popped the question and to her parent’s utter horror, she turned him down. McClellan was unaccustomed to failing at anything, and that he should lose the only woman he’d ever loved was unthinkable.

He was still reeling when he was sent to Pensacola Florida for temporary duty. He now shifted to the only strategy left to him. He began courting her mother through a letter writing campaign. At least Mrs. Marcy was a sympathetic back door to his intended target and a co-mourner with whom he could share his anguish. 

“I succeeded in making a very great blunder and doing a very foolish thing in the way of pushing too far and too quickly.” He feared he had blown his chances and would regret it forever. But he would not give up. He would try to undo the unfavorable impression he had made. In his many letters to Mrs. Marcy he kicked himself again and again but vowed to wait as long “as there was a shadow of hope.” 

It promised to be a long wait. Miss Nelly would not give McClellan the time of day—no encouragement of any kind. She simply didn’t love him and no matter how much Daddy liked him, she wasn’t going to marry him. 

By the following spring he was coming to the conclusion that there was no hope. The only good effect “in giving my vanity so good a lesson.” He would soon leave for faraway places which he mused would “be a relief to the young lady that I will soon be out of the way.”*

 Stay tuned for the next episode: Enter A. P. Hill

*From “The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomatax” by John Waugh (highly recommended!)