The Ulric Dahlgren bobblehead

And just for fun, I give you the Ulric Dahlgren bobblehead. I gotta git me one of these….

Here is the official press release issued by the Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau (with the blurb from article on Dahlgren in the Gettysburg Campaign excised):

Media Release

Contact: Hagerstown-Washington County CVB, 301-791-3246

Hagerstown Suns, 301-791-6266

For Immediate Release:

Hagerstown-Washington County CVB and Hagerstown Suns Unveil “Captain Ulric Dahlgren” Bobblehead; Hero of Battle of Hagerstown to be Given Away at July 9th Home Game

HAGERSTOWN, MD — The Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau will present Captain Ulric Dahlgren bobbleheads to the first 1,000 fans arriving at the Hagerstown Suns’ 7:05 p.m. game against the West Virginia Power on Saturday, July 9.

Gates will open at Municipal Stadium at 6:05 p.m., and the Suns advise fans to arrive early, as the supply of bobbleheads is not expected to last long.

The bobblehead commemorates the famous Civil War officer known as “The Hero of Hagerstown.” Captain Ulric Dahlgren was the son of the well-known Union Rear-Admiral John Adolf Dahlgren. On July 6th, 1863, then-Captain Dahlgren led a charge of Union Cavalry against numerically superior Confederate forces in the streets of Hagerstown. The hand-to-hand and fierce fighting exemplified the bravery and gallantry of Ulric Dahlgren.

The new bobblehead was unveiled at a press conference at the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Visitor Welcome Center.

“The Convention and Visitors Bureau is very proud to be the financial sponsor of this bobblehead giveaway,” Bureau President and CEO Tom Riford said. “With the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War upon us, we felt that this particular bobblehead would be unique, and a reminder of the struggles endured in Hagerstown during July 1863.”

Riford announced that a direct descendent of Ulric Dahlgren will be throwing out the first ceremonial pitch at the July 9th baseball game at Municipal Stadium, “Ulric Dahlgren, IV and Ulric Dahlgren, V have agreed to represent their famous ancestor’s legacy, and throw out the first pitch at the opening ceremony.”

Captain Ulric Dahlgren is the sixth figure to be honored by the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) with a bobblehead giveaway at Municipal Stadium, joining General George Washington, author Nora Roberts, MSO music director Elizabeth Schulze, General Abner Doubleday, and Hagerstown’s symbol Little Heiskell.

“It is appropriate that our sixth annual CVB-sponsored bobblehead be of such an important and historic figure from our city’s past,” Riford said. “Just as Hagerstown fielded the first minor league baseball team in Maryland, the CVB is proud to make the Hagerstown Suns the first professional baseball team ever to give away a Captain Ulric Dahlgren bobblehead.” The figure is historically accurate, and is dressed in the uniform of a Union Captain from 1863, complete with sword.

“This project has been more than eight months in the making,” according to Hagerstown Suns General Manager Bill Farley. “We’ve been working very hard with the CVB to make this bobblehead ready for the July 9th home game.”

“The Suns are proud to partner with the Convention and Visitors Bureau on the 2011 Ulric Dahlgren Bobblehead giveaway. We hope our fans enjoy adding another historical piece of Suns memorabilia to their collections.”

The game is expected to be a sell out. The Hagerstown Suns management urges people to purchase tickets as soon as possible.

The Hagerstown Suns play at Municipal Stadium in Hagerstown, MD and are a Class “A” affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Visit the Suns on the web at www.hagerstownsuns.com.

The Hagerstown Suns baseball team is a member of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau. For more information, see; www.marylandmemories.com. Washington County is part of the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area, and the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area. For more information see: www.heartofthecivilwar.org and also www.hallowedground.org.

Don’t forget: July 6th Premiere of “Valor in the Streets: The Battle of Hagerstown.” See: http://tinyurl.com/6b46kuk.

Don’t forget: Bobblehead Give-Away Night: July 9th at Municipal Stadium.

About Ulric Dahlgren (compiled by historian Steve Bockmiller, from multiple sources):

US Army Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was the second son of Rear-Admiral John Adolf and Mary Dahlgren, and was born April 3, 1842, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Completing his school-days in 1858, it was decided that his vocation was civil engineering, and, as he had received much practical instruction from his father, he was in 1859 employed to survey some tracts of wild land in Mississippi. In September, 1860, in obedience to his father’s wishes, he entered a Philadelphia law-office, but amid the rush of events which followed the inauguration of President Lincoln he desired to serve his country, and July 24, 1861, he was attached to a naval expedition from the Washington Yard to assist in the defense of Alexandria, Virginia. Ulric then reluctantly resumed his law studies, with the promise that he would be recalled when the hour of action should come.

During the winter of 1861-62 he was one of an association of young men who formed a light artillery company in Philadelphia, at the same time pursuing his studies.”

On the 26th of May, 1862, young Dahlgren, who was then just twenty years old, was sent to Harper’s Ferry, in charge of a battery of navy howitzers, and on the 29th was sent back to Washington to obtain needed supplies of ammunition. Appointed a captain in the army, he returned to Harper’s Ferry the next morning in time to take part in the final repulse of the rebels.

Captain Dahlgren was attached to the staff of General Sigel, and later the staff of Army of the Potomac commander Major General Joseph Hooker.

General Sigel desired to make Captain Dahlgren chief of artillery of his corps, and in a note addressed to the governor of Pennsylvania, endorsed by President Lincoln and Admirals Smith and Foote, spoke of his aide as a “young officer of merit and usefulness, who has already distinguished himself and reflected much credit on the service.”

Captain Dahlgren’s led sixty men on a raid into Fredericksburg, Virginia to disrupt Confederate operations there and held the town for three hours against a force of Confederates that outnumbered his 5 or 10 to 1, and then withdrew with thirty-one prisoners and their horses and accoutrements.

During the Gettysburg campaign he entered Greencastle and captured several very important dispatches, and then rode at break-neck speed through thirty miles of enemy-held territory to Gettysburg. Some historians have argued one of the letters revealed that General Robert E. Lee did not have the large force at Gettysburg that Union intelligence officers had estimated, and that General Meade then decided to stay and fight a third day. The third day of the Battle of Gettysburg resulted in a Union victory.

He was given one hundred men to operate with, and July 4, 1863, he attacked a brigade of Confederate cavalry and captured Greencastle. On his way back dashed into a rebel train, destroyed one hundred and seventy-six wagons, captured two hundred prisoners, three hundred horses, and one piece of artillery.

Confederates held Hagerstown, and were ransacking the town, and terrorizing the residents. In the July 6, 1863 Battle of Hagerstown, Captain Dahlgren, on horseback and in plain site to every enemy soldier, led a charge of 20 dismounted cavalrymen up Potomac Street toward Confederates emplaced at the present-day Zion Reformed Church. When he reached Franklin Street (at City Hall) his right foot and ankle was blasted by a shot from hiding Confederate soldiers. He was wounded in the foot by gunfire from the area of today’s Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company on West Franklin Street. It was said that his charge up Potomac Street was of such a heroic nature that Confederates ran from his fury, and he fought on even after being horrifically wounded. He avenged a dear friend’s life, and afterwards “no man could withstand him.”

Sent to his father’s home in Washington, gangrene set in and his foot had to be amputated. On July 24th he received his commission as colonel, directly from President Abraham Lincoln.

Returning to the field on February 18, 1864, he was given a command of five hundred picked men to join an expedition to release the Union prisoners at Richmond, Virginia. Colonel Dahlgren drove the enemy’s pickets into their works around Richmond, but the country being aroused he could not make the junction with Kilpatrick, and in endeavoring to return to the Union lines he was ambushed, and killed. Orders were allegedly found on his body to burn Richmond and capture and kill President Davis and his cabinet. This became an international incident. It may have inspired John Wilkes Booth to begin his plot against Abraham Lincoln, and Admiral Dahlgren spent the rest of his life trying to clear his son’s name.

Colonel Dahlgren’s remains were secured at the close of the war, and, after lying in state in the City Hall of Washington and Independence Hall of Philadelphia, were buried with distinguished honors at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. After the war, his step-mother, Madeline Vinton Dahlgren purchased the stone house on the National Road at the top of South Mountain and maintained it as a summer home for many years. That stone home is now the Historic Old South Mountain Inn restaurant. Mrs. Dahlgren constructed the Dahlgren Chapel across the street from the restaurant, which stands to this day. It honors both the Admiral, and the heroic son, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren.

Sadly, I will miss the game–we should be somewhere in southern Virginia about the time the first pitch is thrown by either Ric Dahlgren or his son Ulric V, but I’ve got a line on one of these little beauties, which will have a place of honor in my library at home.