Confederate Incognito: The Civil War Reports of 
“Long Grabs,”
a.k.a. Murdoch John McSween, 26th and 35th North Carolina Infantry

2013 Winner
Willie Parker Peace History Book Award, from the N.C. Society of Historians
and Award for Excellence in Publishing for a Book of Transcriptions of
Primary Source Material, from the North Carolina Genealogical Society

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Preferring anonymity, Murdoch John McSween wrote over 80 letters under the pseudonym “Long Grabs” to the Fayetteville Observer (North Carolina), serving as their unofficial war correspondent. For the first two full years of the war, 1862-1863, he was a sometimes drill master at Camp Mangum, in Raleigh, and a wanderer among the regiments in North Carolina and Virginia.  What he wrote was varied — the fighting in eastern North Carolina and at Fredericksburg and Petersburg in Virginia, the conditions of the soldiers, the hardships of the civilians, the history of places he visited, and biographical sketches such as that of Jefferson Davis. In 1863, based on certain promises made by Colonel Matt Ransom, McSween joined the 35th Regiment. A bitter dispute soon developed over those promises with the result that McSween was court-martialed and sentenced to twelve months at hard labor. Released, he joins the 26th Regiment and is twice wounded at the Battle of Petersburg. After the war, he returns to Fayetteville where he edits and publishes The Eagle newspaper.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – REVIEWS – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Editor E. B. Munson describes Murdoch John McSween as a well educated, rather affluent, gentleman vagabond, who served, it seems, at his own discretion in two North Carolina regiments during the war.  Fiercely independent, McSween apparently severed his ties with one regiment without permission and ended up doing some prison time during the war as a deserter.  Before and after his incarcerations, and while serving at Petersburg, he wrote detailed letters to the Fayetteville Observer under the pen name “Long Grabs,” describing his experiences in the army.

McSween paid meticulous attention to the seemingly unimportant “little things” which affected the average person’s life.  In October 1862, from Raleigh, N.C., he noted, “I fear there is much suffering among the poor classes.  A very old and feeble met me on the road and begged me to help her get something to eat.” (p.61)  It struck me that the war had so severely impacted the civilians that early in the conflict.  A month later, from Charlottesville, Va., he groused, “There is one very bad which will injure the reputation of the town abroad.  The barkeeper pours out your drink himself…the ancient privilege of every freeman to measure his own drink has been violated.” (p.65)  In Richmond a few weeks later he noted how the tragedy of war destroyed social barriers.  “The wealthy and accomplished, the poor and ignorant, work alike and put forth their hands to lift up the helpless soldier in his sick bed, to close his eyes, or smooth his brow in death.” (p.79)  Touching and poignant, McSween painted one of the most vivid images of the war I have ever read.

Without Munson’s meticulous editing, this work would have amounted to nothing more than a collection of Civil War letters.  He put the writings in context by explaining the historical background against which McSween wrote them.  Munson meticulously identified as many of the people, particularly the soldiers, about whom “Long Grabs” spoke.  He carefully tracked down the elusive writer to positively establish his identity.  This remarkable set of writings is a tribute to his dedication to accurately preserving the past.

Confederate Incognito chronicles the everyday experience of the war from both the front and the rear lines.  “Long Grabs,” while recording what he saw also wove a tapestry about himself—a fiercely independent, bluntly honest gentleman vagabond caught up in the Civil War.

— John Michael Priest, Blue & Gray Magazine 30.3 (March 2014): 30.

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Barry Munson of Winterville has received the North Carolina Genealogical Society 2013 “award for excellence for the publication of a book of transcriptions based on original North Carolina primary source material” as editor of Confederate Incognito: The Civil War Reports of “Long Grabs,” a.k.a. Murdoch John McSween, 26th and 35th North Carolina Infantry. The awards were presented at the NCGS annual meeting during the Fall Workshop on 9 November 2013 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh.

This engaging book grew from Munson’s curiosity about the pseudonym “Long Grabs,” an unofficial Civil War correspondent to the Fayetteville Observer. Munson not only collected the over 80 letters but also researched a wide variety of published and unpublished sources to add for historical context. In the process he was able to ferret out the identity of Murdoch John McSween and discover further resources, such as the more than twenty letters in the NC State Archives that McSween wrote to Governor Zebulon Vance pleading for help during his court-martial, and more information about the man. McSween was well educated and a keen observer with a sense of humor. As “Long Grabs” he presented his readers with reports of battles but also described, without sugar-coating, camp scenes and conditions, civilian hardships, sketches of political and military individuals, and scenes of places in eastern North Carolina where he happened to be. The work will be valuable for genealogists as well as Civil War and Eastern North Carolina local historians.

— Pam Toms, North Carolina Genealogical Society

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We are so fortunate to have been introduced to Murdoch John McSween by the truly phenomenal research of a proficient historian, a modern day Sherlock Holmes, who kept digging through a myriad of sources, looking for data pertaining to “Long Grabs,” so that his story could be told.

Under the pen name of “Long Grabs,” McSween chronicled the details of military life and the people involved, and he sent this information to theFayetteville Observer for publication.  In reading these letters, we get a close look, first-hand, into what really went on in these military units; what a typical day was like; how weather affected the men; about physical conditions; who died or was injured; data about the officers; places they went; people they met along the way; and relationships they formed….and this is just a sampling of what is included.

The letters, as old as they are, contain information that still can cause the blood to boil or the heart to break.  These feelings don’t usually don’t occur in a history book, but this one doesn’t always take on a prosaic tone.  For instance, our hearts broke when Lt. Jarvis B. Lutterloh died, and in June 1869, McSween passed near the spot where he breathed his last breath and a flood of memories swept over him.  The deep feeling of  sadness and loss could be felt in his words.

Another tragedy created anger and frustration as McSween was charged and found guilty for leaving his Regiment in the face of the enemy without permission and positive disobedience of orders.  You’ll have to read the book to find out who made these accusations and why they were believed; why McSween was imprisoned and treated cruelly for almost a year, his letters to the Governor going unanswered; why a massive letter writing campaign on his behalf was disregarded; why McSween held a grudge against particular officers until the bitter end.  There is so much more to this previously untold story that needs to be absorbed that, with piqued interest, the book will need to be read carefully from cover to cover, and appreciated.

Included at the back of the book are some impressive chapter notes, followed by a Bibliography section, ending with a helpful index.

We appreciate the tremendous effort Mr. Munson made on our behalf to search for and gather this collection of letters and present them to us in such a scholarly, yet reader-friendly manner.  It has been an honor to meet Mr. McSween, whose memory has been reborn due to the dedication of a skillful writer and some impeccable research.  Thank you!

— Judges’ Collective Comments
Willie Parker Peace History Book Award, NC Society of Historians (October 2013)

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Murdoch John McSween was a volunteer unofficial correspondent for the Fayetteville, N.C. Observer and was a regular writer to the newspaper from April 1862 until March 1865, except for a 12 month period. McSween was a well educated man who wrote about various matters such as: Confederate training camps, information on numerous officers, regiments, lists of casualties, army life and vices, volunteers and conscripts, as well as government departments and policies, hospitals, supply problems, conditions among civilians, crime and vice in Richmond, aspects of Southern culture, observations and evaluations of Generals Lee and Stuart and President Davis, the U.S. government and army, fortifications, the topography of the locations he is writing about and more. Sometimes his letters caused problems and he “paid for it.” He was an advocate for exposing the rights and wrongs he saw being done.

He did not represent any special person or interest. He signed his letters as “Long Grabs” and only the newspaper editor knew his real identity. The letters were written in Virginia or the eastern part of North Carolina.

Sketchy records show he enlisted in Co. K, 26th NC in December 1860 for 12 months, but he is not on the roster. In 1863 he joined Co. C, 35 NC where he had a bitter dispute with a general and a colonel resulting in a court martial and was sentenced to 12 months at hard labor. This explains the one year absence of his letter writing to the newspaper. He was released from imprisonment by Jefferson Davis’s order. McSween rejoined the 26th NC and records show he was a sergeant major. He was wounded twice at Petersburg.

The editor of this book was working on a project with the old Fayetteville newspaper when he came across “Long Grabs,” and was finally able to identify him as McSween. He has done an excellent job researching McSween, a patriotic Southerner, who put a bit of “spin” on his writings, probably for morale purposes.

The book is very well written and interesting. It is unique in that it is about a Southern newspaper correspondent. The introduction gives a good overview of McSween’s life and the chapter notes are numerous, identifying persons and places and his sources. I recommend it to all Civil War readers.

— Duane Benell, Confederate Courier (June 2013)

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Early in the war Carolinian McSween served as an unofficial war correspondent, wandering the Confederacy and dispatching letters to a Fayetteville newspaper about what he saw and whom he met, writing as “Long Grabs.” He enlisted in 1863, but continued his journalistic career. During his service, McSween ran afoul of military law, and served a year at hard labor, but returned to duty in time to serve in the trenches at Petersburg. Confederate Incognito consists of McSween’s collected letters. In preparing these dispatches for publication, East Carolina University librarian Munson has added clarificatory notes and occasional comments. McSween wrote of many people whom he met and many events to which he was a witness. So the book has his personal profile of Jefferson Davis, looks at soldiers and soldiering, details of battles, and so forth. But McSween also gives us a running commentary on daily life in the wartime Confederacy, noting things like the cost of goods or the price of a meal or hotel room, and similar commonplace matters that the ordinary citizen encountered in the course of his life. McSween’s commentary on the great and the great events, and on the details of life, makes Confederate Incognito an amusing read, and valuable as a documentary reference.

— New York Military Affairs Symposium Review 55 (Spring 2013): 8-9.

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 Citizen journalism has been around a long time, long before the historic YouTube videos and Tweets of the Arab Spring. During the American Civil War, the nation’s newspapers relied heavily on the public to supply the press with first-hand accounts of the war. Soldiers and citizens submitted letters and telegraphs for publication, which often provided the most detailed and immediate reports available. Additionally, the Southern press lagged behind its Northern counterpart in employing professional war correspondents to record the war, making citizen journalists all that much more critical to the flow of news in the South. Confederate Incognito: The Civil War Reports of “Long Grabs,” a.k.a. Murdoch John McSween, 26th and 35th North Carolina Infantry, edited by E. B. Munson, chronicles the wartime exploits of one such Southern nonprofessional correspondent, through a collection of more than eighty letters that were published in the Fayetteville Observer.

Little is known about the man who wrote under the odd pseudonym “Long Grabs.” Munson links “Long Grabs” to real-life Murdoch John McSween, an on-again-off-again drill instructor at Camp Mangum, in Raleigh, who seemed to prefer roving around North Carolina and Virginia documenting camp life to actual military service. The anonymity in writing as “Long Grabs,” afforded McSween the freedom to present unvarnished observations in his dispatches. He wrote with candor, often even commenting on the personal lives of major Confederate figures. For example, in a letter published March 12, 1863, Long Grabs described Jefferson Davis’s son as a “spoiled chicken,” a rambunctious child who, “can use more profanity, turn over more furniture, torment more cats, and invent more scenes of devilment, than all the little boys within his father’s jurisdiction.”

The letters include many unexpected passages, such as a description, in May 1862, of a performance by “Blind Tom,” a famous nineteenth-century African American musical savant; or the mention in October 1862 of the “lunatic asylum” at Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Hospital (“a library is much needed, and there should be gardens, fields, woods . . . This would no doubt tend to palliate and remove mental derangements”); or the January 1863 allegations that Union soldiers occupying Norfolk, Virginia were accepting bribes to return emancipated slaves into Southern bondage.

McSween’s personal story had its twists and turns. In 1863, McSween became embroiled in a dispute with Colonel Matt Ransom, of the 35th North Carolina, and was ultimately court-martialed and sentenced to twelve months of hard labor. Upon his release, “Long Grabs” enlisted in the 26th North Carolina and was wounded twice at the Battle of Petersburg. Following the war, McSween parlayed his reporting experience into a career as a publisher of another newspaper, the Fayetteville Eagle (1868-1875).

Editor E. B. Munson, who is a librarian at East Carolina University, provides a valuable layer of analysis and contextual information to the original letters. Munson’s chapter notes, footnotes, index, and bibliography should provide many potential hooks for readers, especially genealogists or those researching relatively obscure topics from North Carolina’s Civil War experience. Confederate Incognito would be a useful addition to any library collection with a focus on state and local history or for institutions with an interest in the history of journalism.

— Biff Hollingsworth, UNC-Chapel Hill
North Carolina Libraries 71.1 (Spring/Summer 2013): 37.

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This book, a collection of newspaper columns published during the Civil War by the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, is a rediscovery by E.B. Munson of the correspondence of a soldier who seemed to move freely between regiments.

Editor Munson, a researcher at East Carolina University, used detective skills to discover the real name of the correspondent who sent more than 80 letters to the newspaper under the pseudonym of “Long Grabs.”

Long Grabs, who was really Murdoch John McSween, was a long-winded writer who did not seem to know how to break his columns into paragraphs. More importantly, he was a keen observer of what was happening around him.

He had a way with words. Writing about how a general was replaced as adjutant general by Gov. Zeb Vance, McSween observed that he still kept his generalship: “Martin was as tenacious as the cunning opossum, when you pull all his feet away from the limb, and he still holds on by his tail.”

Sometimes his observations are puzzling, such as when he wrote in January 1863: “I find the Army in excellent condition” and then a few lines later wrote: “There are but few tents, but the army is beginning to regard tents as a nuisance.” In January?!

In another section, he noted how Petersburg had a large community of free blacks who wore fine clothes and drove nice carriages, which he noted as inconsistent with the generally accepted view that all blacks were poor slaves.

Long Grabs had a sense of humor. After describing J.E.B. Stuart as a “flashy, dashy, fancy, fast man,” he wrote that Stuart employed a French cook who was also “ventriloquist and comic genius.”

“Were he [Stuart] to add the Siamese twins, Tom Thumb and Long Grabs to his list [staff], his cabinet of curiosities would be complete.”

Though he would later find himself arrested for insubordination to a general, Long Grabs wrote in January 1863: “Our army has hardly a parallel in history for unanimous devotion to duty, voluntary self-sacrifice and constant endurance of hardship.”

Munson nicely supplements Long Grab’s columns with his own original writing about what was happening at the time and with selected columns he found published in the Observer by writers other than Long Grabs.

With 17 pages of chapter notes, this book could be valuable for anyone with ancestors from eastern North Carolina. This is a good book even for non-North Carolina readers who enjoy original sources since these letters are reprinted as they were originally published.

— Clint Johnson, author of Touring the Carolinas’ Civil War Sites and Touring Virginia’s and West Virginia’s Civil War Sites

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Interesting title, to say the least! I admit I was intrigued immediately. Murdoch John McSween wrote over 80 letters to the Fayetteville (NC) Observer during the Civil War using the pen name ‘Long Grabs.’ McSween was essentially an unofficial correspondent at the front for the Observer. Long Grabs saw interesting and varied service during the war, including surviving a court martial and prison term only to get wounded twice at Petersburg. During his time at Petersburg, it appears he was regularly writing back to the Observer with plenty of interesting details on the situation there, a good source for me to use at The Siege of Petersburg Online. He was, naturally enough, a newspaperman after the war, editing and publishing the Eagle.

— Brett Schulte,
The Order of Civil War Obsessively Compulsed – A Civil War Blog (Dec. 6, 2012)

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Editor Munson (East Carolina University) collects about 80 letters by a highly literate Tar Heel and Civil War correspondent, Murdoch John McSween, written to the Fayetteville Observer newspaper. McSween, writing under the pen name ‘Long Grabs,’ wrote about events in North Carolina and Virginia in a descriptive style, painting pictures not just of battles, but also scenes of soldiers at rest, scenes of civilian devastation, and profiles of major figures. Each chronological section begins with an overview of what was going on in McSween’s life and in the war at the time. An introduction gives details on the author’s search for the man behind the pen name and offers an account of McSween’s life during the war and after, when he edited and published The Eagle newspaper in Fayetteville. The book includes b&w historical illustrations and photos with in-depth captions.

— Reference & Research Book News, Inc. (February 2013)