THE CRIMSON CORAL OF BETIO

11/20/1943 - 2,400 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor, advancing towards Japan, continuing the island hopping campaign that has seen the United States Navy and Marine Corps advance from the island of Guadalcanal through the South Pacific to the island of Bougainville, as part of Operation Galvanic, the Fifth Amphibious Corps of Major General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith (the nickname comes from his hard-driving command style and use of colorful language when angered), featuring the 2nd Marine Division of Major General Julian C. Smith (about 18,000 men), invades a tiny, bird-shaped island within the Gilbert Islands' Tarawa Atoll only two miles long, and only 800 yards across at its widest point called Betio (just big enough for a Japanese airfield) that its defending commander, Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki (in command of almost 5,000 men) has transformed into a fortress that he claims "... would take a million men one hundred years" to conquer.  For all concerned, the battle that follows will be a bloodbath.

Tarawa With Betio At Center

Made aware of the inadequacies of the region's inadequate defenses following Colonel Evans Carlson's raid of August 1942 on Mankin Island (100 miles to the north of Tarawa), Shibasaki (he replaces Rear Admiral Tomonari Saichiro in July of 1943) upgrades the Betio's defenses (his men are still working on various defensive positions when the U.S. invasion fleet shows up off the island) for almost a year, creating a fortress (Rear Admiral Harry Hill, in command of one of the task forces attacking Tarawa will call Betio "a little Gibraltar") of fourteen coastal guns (with four being Vickers 8-inch guns purchased from the British before the war) that cover approaches from the ocean or the island's lagoon, concrete bunkers (one, two stories tall), 500 pillboxes of logs and sand reinforced with cement, 62 heavy machine guns, 44 light machine guns, 9 anti-tank guns, 40 artillery pieces (many pre-registered on landing locations), trenches connecting all defensive positions, steel tetrahedrons to channel landing craft and men into firing lanes, dense acres of barbed wire, minefields, tank traps, and 14 dug-in Type 95 Japanese light tanks, all surrounding an airstrip down the center of Betio, with supplies brought on to the island from a long pier stretching beyond the island's surrounding coral reef.  The island has an elevation of only 8 to 10 feet above sea level, no cover other than brush and palm trees here and there, a seawall of coconut logs banded and stapled together about twenty feet from the water, and has tides that can drop multiple feet in only a matter of hours.  The island is an abattoir just waiting for butchery victims. 

Shibasaki

Gun Position

Taking the challenge of besting the Japanese commander's "conquest' boast are the men of the Marine Corps 2nd Division ... the Second and Eighth Marine Regiments and attached troops ticketed for the invasion, with the Sixth Marine Regiment in reserve.  Commanding the Marine portion of the operation is 61-year-old Holland McTyeire Smith, an brillant Alabamian born in the town of Hatchechubbee in 1882 who climbs a ladder to leadership of the Fifth Amphibious Corps (he will come to be called "The Father" of modern amphibious warfare) that includes a BS degree from Auburn University, first sergeant of a cavalry company in the Alabama National Guard, a law degree from the University of Alabama, joining the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant in 1905, completing officer training at Annapolis in 1906, duty stations that move from the Philippines to the Dominican Republic and cover the West Coast and East Coast of the United States, in addition to the Gulf of Mexico, WWI service in France (during which he becomes the first Marine, of only six, to graduate from the Army General Staff College), post war duties include serving aboard the battleships USS Wyoming, USS Arkansas, and USS California, command of the 1st Marine Division, and overseeing the formation and training of the newly created 2nd and 3rd Marine divisions.  58-year-old Marylander Julian Constable Smith's road to command of the 2nd Marine Division includes a degree from the University of Delaware, taking part in the 1914 occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico, passing a course of instruction at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, command of a machine gun battalion in Cuba, graduation from the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, captain of the Marine Corps Rifle and Pistol Team in 1928 and 1930, becoming the Naval Attache in London, and command of the Fleet Marine Force Training School in North Carolina.  Created in San Diego, California in 1941, the men of the 2nd Division of the Marine Corps are a mix of veterans and newbies, some with the combat experience of becoming the first Americans of the war to land on enemy soil (a company splashes ashore at Florida Island eighty minutes before Guadalcanal is invaded), a platoon makes the first American bayonet charge of the war, the division's artillery fires the first offensive land cannons of the war, and participate in the taking and defense of Guadalcanal and Tulagi during the Allies Solomons Campaign, including mop-up actions that keep the division on the infamous island a month longer than its more famous brothers of the 1sr Division. 

   

The Two Smiths - Holland (L) & Julian (R)

Ashore At Tulagi

At Efate in the New Hebrides, the division practices its invasion, and Julian Smith makes a command change when the leader of the Second Regiment, Colonel William W. Marshall suffers a nervous breakdown, replacing the ill warrior with his operations officer from Indiana, a man who has helped planned the details of the invasion, 38-year-old Lt. Colonel David Monroe Shoup (Shoup will eventually become the Commandant of the whole Corps).  Weighing anchor, the invasion force (the largest to ever be assembled at the time ... 17 carriers, 12 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 66 destroyers, 2 minesweepers, and 36 transports, and an assortment of landing craft that includes shallow draft Higgins boats and non-armored LVT "Alligators" (enough to bring in three waves of Marine invaders).  Tons of bombs dropped on the island in November, with the arrival of the fleet off Tarawa on 11/20/1943 (a Saturday), three hours of ship gunnery also hits the island (the Marines request more pre-invasion bombardment, but it will be denied by the Navy who claim all targets have been hit, with Rear Admiral Hill stating, "It is not our intention to wreck the island.  We do not intend to destroy it.  Gentlemen, we will obliterate it."  Wrong, although the USS Maryland, one of the battleships to survive Pearl Harbor makes one of the great single shots of the war, placing a half-ton, 16-inch armor-piercing shell into the ammunition room of an 8-inch gun on Betio's western tip that blows up the ammo, the gun, and its blockhouse while killing hundreds of Japanese troops), along with attacks from carrier planes.  Loaded with steak and eggs, fried potatoes, and hot coffee, the Marines climb down nets to their boats and head to their staging positions at 3:30 in the morning   The plan is for the Marines to attack over three beaches designated Red 1 (on the far west of Betio), Red 2 (in the center, just west of the supply pier), and Red 3 (just to the east of the pier) on the northern, lagoon side of the island (and there is a contingency landing site on the western part of the island designated Green Beach).  At 9:00, thirty minutes behind plan, the Marines head for shore and immediately run into trouble when it is discovered the Higgins boats won't have enough water beneath them to cross the reef (500 yards off shore) and a horribly accurate fire begins hitting the invaders.

Invasion Beaches    

Shoreward - Island Totally Obscured By Smoke

On The Beach - Day 1 At Betio

Five minutes ahead of the main invasion force, to suppress flanking fire that could hit all three of the landing sites, a Scout-Sniper Platoon, under the command of 29-year-old 1st Lt. William Deane "Hawk" Hawkins of Kansas, attacks the Betio pier from three landing craft.  Using grenades, flamethrowers, rifles, and bayonets, Hawkins' men clear the pier and move on to the island, while oblivious to the bullets flying by him, Hawkins stands upright, in an LVT, directing the action (wounded, he refuses evacuation, stating to the corpsman who comes over to try to treat him, "I came here to kill Japs, not to be evacuated.").  Ashore, Hawkins continues to attack enemy positions with his men and on the second day of the invasion, he will be killed after taking out a bunker protected by five machine guns (with grenades and by firing into the structure's loopholes) and three pillboxes (despite being wounded a second time and again refusing evacuation), before being mortally wounded in the chest by an exploding Japanese mortar round (for his two days of fighting on Betio, Hawkins will be awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor and the airstrip the Marines are fighting for will be christened Hawkins Field).

The Pier

Hawkins

Hell on Earth (only about a third of the first wave of invaders will make it to the beaches), the lagoon turns into a small crimson sea as LVTs are blown apart and holed, and men are shot wading ashore (and many also drown when they are prematurely unloaded before reaching the reef where they can be shuttled ashore in LVTs (among the drivers of the landing craft is Coast Guard member, Coxswain Edward Albert Heimberger, soon to be the actor Eddie Albert of "Oklahoma" and "Green Acres" fame ... at Tarawa, for rescuing 47 Marines stranded offshore, and supervising the rescue of 30 other men, Albert will be awarded a Bronze Star with a Combat "V" for his actions)... by the end of the first day, half of the "Alligators" will be destroyed), with even more killing taking place as the first waves of the attack are stopped at the seawall (from within the LVT that brought him ashore, Corporal John Joseph Spillane, a hard throwing baseball prospect of the Yankees and Cardinals engages in game of catch and toss with nearby enemy soldiers, fielding five grenades and throwing them back at nearby Japanese ... a game that concludes with the sixth grenade goes off in his hand ... the Marine will survive, but missing his right hand, he will never play professional baseball).  Stuart and Sherman tanks designated to support the invasion sink and are blown up (by the end of the first day only two, one named Colorado and one named China Gal, will remain functional), but a few make it ashore and are able to help the Marines push forward a few hundred yards from the beach.  And trying to gain control of the chaos, despite a leg wound which becomes infected, Colonel Shoup sets up a command post near the pier from which he begins coordinating a defense of the thin beachhead the Marines establish on the island (under constant fire from artillery, rifle, and machine gun fire, without rest for two days, Shoup will direct the invasion ashore ... winning a Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts).  

Albert

Pinned Down

At And Over The Seawall

Forward Under Fire

Walking Ashore

Despite for the most point being pinned down, here and there along the beachhead, individual Marines jump over the seawall and move forward ... and in small groups that sometimes include only a single man, men of the 2nd Division follow.  One of the Marines pressing forward is 22-year-old Staff Sgt. William Jennings Bordelon Jr. of San Antonio, Texas.  An assault engineer, the staff sergeant throws demolition charges he has prepared into positions blocking the advance of the Marines, destroying three pillboxes before being wounded by machine gun fire.  Ignoring his wounds, he covers men coming ashore near the pier, rescues two wounded engineers from the water, and creates a fourth demolition charge which he uses to blow up another pillbox just as he is being killed by Japanese fire from the position ... actions which win the young warrior a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.

Bordelone

Transferring Wounded Back To The Reef

Finding themselves without the LVTs necessary to bring them ashore, men of the fourth, fifth, and sixth waves of the invasion waiting at the reef, clamber out of their boats and wade ashore through sheets of killing Japanese fire.  As brave as it gets, it is a walk that is never forgotten by those that made it, or by those that witness it.  But the valor of a handful of Marines is not enough to carry the invading force across the island and as night falls (bringing infamy on himself, when Major John Schoettel is told where to land his men on Betio, he responds in the Gettysburg speak of General George Pickett, staing, "We have nothing left to land.), the 2nd Division prepares for a banzai attack that can push them out of their small and vulnerable defensive perimeter and throw them into the water.  The attack never comes though because Rear Admiral Shibasaki is killed outside his command bunker by an American shelling that also tears apart the wiring of the Japanese communication system, negating the ability of the Japanese to give or receive assault instructions.  The first day a near debacle (messages have been sent to the fleet command that the issue ashore is in doubt), the Marines survive their first night ashore with some silver linings to hang on to ... knocked off line by fire that closes Red Beach 1, Major Michael P. Ryan is forced to land what remains of his company at Green Beach, and discovers the area is lightly defended and can be a site where reinforcements can be brought ashore relatively safely, and going into action immediately. the Marines are able to bring ashore a battery of 75mm Pack Howitzers (each gun weighs 900 pounds). 

Day One

Shoup's CP

At The Seawall With The Tide In

Dead Marines

Day two on Betio is more of the same of what had taken place the first day ... one by one, Marines advance across the island destroying Japanese defensive positions, with Green Beach getting cleared and becoming the location reinforcements can be landed at safely (advised as to what is happening on shore, Julian Smith will order in his reserves), and with only 18 amtracks left when dawn breaks, there is another murderous walk to shore from the reef (it lasts for five hours that take the lives of 108 men, wound 235, but put 600 more fighters on to the island with the Japanese now firing on the waders from a wrecked Japanese transport in the lagoon, Saida Maru (the position will eventually be reduced by Marine engineers throwing dynamite into the ship while they are protected by a squad of riflemen).  Inch by inch progress with naval gunfire called down on individual Japanese positions, the Marines establish a defensive line around most of the airfield, cross it, and set up positions on the south side of the island in positions abandoned by the Japanese.  And preventing Japanese from escaping Betio, Marines put ashore on the neighboring island of Bairiki and blow-up its only pillbox and the 12 machine gun positions protecting it.  With the exception of individual snipers, there are no enemy attacks on the Marine positions after night falls and before a weary and wounded Shoup is relieved by the division's Medal of Honor winning chief of staff, Colonel Merritt A. Edson (for his stand on Edson's Ridge at Guadalcanal), he sends a report to fleet that becomes famous in Marine Corps history, summing up the status ashore, Shoup states, "Combat efficiency: We are winning."

Rare Prisoner

Shoup

Area At West End Of Airfield

The Airfield - 11/21/1943

Day three on the island finds the Marines continuing to consolidate their hold on the island while fighting forward against still deadly fire as the Japanese begin to weaken under the rain of ruin that comes their way from the naval guns off shore and the firepower of the 2nd Division as more heavy equipment, tanks, and men come ashore at Green Beach.  Typical of the Marines effort and fighting spirit on 11/22 is the valorous performance of 33-year-old First Lt. Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman Jr.  Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Bonnyman joins the Marines in Phoenix, Arizona as a private (despite being exempted from the service because of his role in running a business deemed vital to the war effort, a copper mining operation).  After recruit training in San Diego, Bonnyman serves with distinction leading a Marine pioneer unit on Guadalcanal (a combat engineer unit), receiving a battlefield promotion to second lieutenant.  At Betio, Bonnyman is Executive Officer of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines Shore Party, and as such, on his own initiative, he leads a group of Marines down the deadly pier to the beach, where he a five engineers arm themselves with flame-throwers and demolition charges and begin destroying Japanese positions shooting up the invading men of the 2nd Division.  Day two on the island finds Bonnyman crawling 40 yards forward from the Marine line to the two-story bunker (the dead Shibasaki's command post) blocking further advancement across the island.  After scouting the obstruction, the lieutenant crawls back to his men and then fights them forward to the base of the structure.  Out of ammunition before an assault can be launched, the men return to their line and make plans to destroy the bunker the following day.  Attacking on 11/22 with a command of 21 men (because of the danger in their mission, the group is dubbed "The Forlorn Hope,"13 of them will survive being on Betio), Bonnyman exposes himself to repeated firing by the Japanese as charges are placed on both entrance/exits of the structure, which blown, sends roughly 100 Japanese (150 are dead inside the bunker) out into the open trying to escape (they are instead cut down by Bonnyman and his men firing from atop the bunker in action that will be captured on film by 22-year-old Marine Staff Sgt. Norman T. Hatch in the Academy Award winning short documentary of 1944, "With The Marines At Tarawa").  No rest for the weary, Bonnyman and his men are immediately counterattacked by the Japanese ... and Bonnyman is in the thick of the action, and standing at the group's forward position, kills three charging enemy riflemen before being mortally wounded.  For his actions on Betio, Bonnyman is awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor (the award will be accepted from Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, by Bonnyman's 12-year-old daughter, Frances, in 1947 ... body lost in the confusion of combat, through DNA testing, the warrior's remains are located on Betio in May of 2015, and the lieutenant's remains are returned to his childhood home of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is buried with full military honors and an overflight of Marine Cobra helicopters flying in a "missing man" formation on September 27, 2015).

   

Marine Firing On A Concealed Sniper

Bonnyman

Atop The Bunker - Bonnyman Is Figure Below Smoke At Right

Bonnyman Award Ceremony

Though Bonnyman's attack advances the position of the Marines 400 yards, on the third day of battle there are still Japanese on the island to be dealt with, but when night falls they finally launch the banzai attack the Marines having been expecting.  Holding the southern half of a 400-yard cross-island Marine line, the Japanese hit the soldiers of Major William Jones' First Battalion, Sixth three times (after the first attack, the men are supported by a reserve company under the command of Major Wood Kyle), the last coming at 4:00 in the morning (holding a portion of the line, Lt. Norman Thomas will telephone Major Jones that his men can't hold much longer and need reinforcements, to which Jones responds, "You've got to hold!").  Rifles, bayonets, machine guns, grenades, and fists on the front line, as guns of the destroyers USS Schroder and USS Sigsbee pump salvo after salvo into the Japanese assembly areas, while Marine artillery lobs shells within 75-yards of the 2nd Division's line ... the killing finally ends at 5:00 a.m. with the Japanese now down to only a couple hundred remaining soldiers (in the attacks, the Marines will have 45 men killed and 128 wounded, while the Japanese lose over 500 soldiers).  Sensing victory is within their grasp, after bombs from the carriers and Marine artillery softens up the remaining Japanese, the Marines go on the attack again, supported by the Sherman tanks Colorado (cutting off a Japanese retreat, the tank fires an enfilade round into the fleeing soldiers and kills between 50 and 75 men ... the bodies are too devastated by the round to make an accurate count) and China Gal, and seven freshly landed light tanks ... obstinate, the last Japanese fight back, but as the attack proceeds, begin killing themselves as Marines reduce a 600-yard area called The Pocket that divides Shoup's beach area from where Major Mike Ryan landed his men on the first day of battle, and another group of Marines assaults the Japanese remaining on the eastern tip of Betio.  76 hours after the battle has begun, the clash ends with the Marines in control of the island Shibasaki had said would take a million men a 100 years to take.

Banzai Dead

Grenade

The Colorado At Red Beach 3

Suicides

Five Japanese Prisoners

The cost for the island has come at a high price though (while the Marines are battling the Japanese on Betio on the last official day of combat, offshore, the Japanese submarine, I-175 torpedoes the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay, sending the ship to the bottom of the Pacific and costing the lives of 687 Americans), with the 2nd Marine Division losing 922 enlisted men and 56 officers to violent death (with another 2,188 men wounded ... shocked by the losses, the battle will be heavily censored to the American public, but wanting the public prepared for the even costlier battles coming at the fleet approaches Japan, President Roosevelt authorizes the release of stories, photos, and film of the battle).  The Japanese losses in the bloodbath basically consist of Betio's entire command ... of the garrison of 3,636 Japanese, only one officer and sixteen enlisted men will be taken prisoner, and of the 1,200 Korean laborers on the island at the time of its invasion, only 129 will survive.  Despite the losses, the highest ranks of the American military rate he seizure of the island a worthwhile success ... the next link on the island hopping campaign across the Pacific, Betio, has been taken and now fleet operations can move on to Marshall Islands (and from there to the Marianas and beyond ... Admiral Chester Nimitz will have his Marines invading the Marshall Atoll of Kwajalein ten weeks after Tarawa), lessons learned which will be included into invasion doctrine including improvement of communications between units on shore and the fleet offshore, making more amtracks available and improving their armor, improving pre-invasion knowledge of beach and lagoon obstacles by the U.S. Navy creating UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) which will one day morph into the United States SEALS, and naval pre-invasion bombardment being lengthened and improved.

After American "Improvements"

Tarawa Base

Kwajalein Invasion

Battle over, on November 24 the two Smith generals walk the island and are horrified at the defenses their Marines had to engage.  "How did they do it?" Holland Smith asks Julian Smith as the men examine a blasted pillbox containing American and Japanese dead, killed in hand-to-hand fighting.  Spying over a hundred dead Marines floating in the lagoon and covering the invasion beaches tears well in Holland's eyes as he answers his own question with a question.  "Julian, how can such men be defeated?' Indeed ... and they won't be all the way to Tokyo Bay!  Decades later, here is to all the men that advanced the American cause in the Pacific and took a tiny speck of sand, coral, and palm away from the Japanese during the 76 hours of Tarawa, which began on November 20, 1943 ... thank you!  

Part Of The Island From Spotter Plane

At The Water's Edge

Flamethrower

Sake Time!

Destroyed Alligator

A Silent Gun - Betio Now

        

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A BRIEF BLOODY FREEDOM

11/11/1831 - Payback a bitch in racist Southampton County (on Virginia's southern border, about twenty miles from the state's border with North Carolina, a county that has more slaves than it does white citizens), after leading a black slave revolt in August that results in over 200 deaths (the largest slave revolt in United States history), the insurrection's leader, Nat Turner, is caught at the end of October, tried and convicted on November 5, 1831 (considering his uprising the work of God, Turner pleads not guilty), and executed by hanging in the town of Jerusalem on the eleventh of the same month.  Afterwards, just to show their utter contempt for the man and to send a message to other slaves that might be contemplating revolt, the authorities in the Old Dominion state have Turner's corpse drawn, quartered, and skinned (with pieces of the body be taken as souvenirs), it's head cut off (the skull and brain are sent off for study to the College of Wooster in Ohio); the fat of rendered into wagon-wheel grease, and then with the body sufficiently abused, bury the man in an unmarked grave.

Turner

Born into slavery at the small but prosperous Virginia plantation of Benjamin Turner on October 2, 1800, Nathanial (soon called "Nat" by all that know him) Turner comes into the world with marks on his chest that many feel mark him as a prophet (actual father unknown, he quickly absorbs and makes his own the passionate hatred his African-born mother has for the institute of slavery).  From an early age Turner display's a depth of intelligence that reaps him privileges not experienced by most slaves of the time (he is also said to know about events that took place well ahead of his birth), the biggest of which is being taught to read and write by the plantation owner's son.  Exposed to the words and teachings of the Christian Bible, Turner quickly absorbs the book's religious ardour and becomes a preacher to the local slaves that call him "The Prophet" as he explains the fiery vision messages he is receiving directly from God.  But he also still a slave whose experiences as such will color his sermons about freedom ... three times in his youth he will be sold to a new owner (with the consequent loss of his family, that along with his mother and grandmother, will one day also include a wife and son), in 1821 he runs away from the tortures of a barbarous overseer and spends an arduous and hungry month of hiding at various locales in Southampton County while seeking his father, before returning to the Turner plantation after receiving a "Lord" message that he should return to the service of his "earthly master," and in 1830, he is the property of an eight-year-old boy named Putnum Moore who inherits him when his father, Thomas Moore, passes away.  Moore too young for the responsibility of owning a slave, Turner becomes a member of the household of craftsman Joseph Travis, the new husband of the Widow Moore.

Preaching

Believing he has been chosen by Heaven to free the slaves, Turner contemplates an initial plan of insurrection in which he and a group of trusted companions will capture the armoury located at the county seat Jerusalem, use the weapons procured to free further recruits, and moving from plantation to plantation, march thirty miles to the east into a snake infested area known as the Dismal Swamp, where capture will be difficult and the group can rest, train, and decide on it's next moves.  In 1831, Turner receives a message from God he thinks signals that it is almost time to rebel against the whites of Southampton County when he witnesses a solar eclipse on February 12.  Readying his followers for action, Turner collects weapons, passes messages on to his recruits in songs, and picks six fellow slaves as his lieutenants, Henry Porter, Hark Travis, Nelson Williams, Will Francis, Jack Reese, and Samuel Francis.  Rebellion originally slated to take place during the summer's Independence Day celebrations, the revolt is postponed when Turner comes down with an illness.  Recovered, when the Sun turns blueish-green on August 13th due to dust in the air from the recent explosion of Mt. St. Helens in Washington, it is decided that God has sent another message to Turner and that the insurrection should begin a week later, on August 21st.

Instructing His Lieutenants

On the evening of Monday, August 21st, Turner and six other slaves arm themselves with hatchets, axes (afternoon spending the afternoon dining on barbeque pig and brandy), and then, at about 2:00 in the morning, move on their first target, the Travis Family that Turner has been enslaved to.  Letting himself into the Travis home through a window, Turner opens the front door to his followers and the family is hacked to pieces (Turner strikes the first blow but his hatchet is too dull and doesn't draw blood ... Will Francis follows up though and his blow is mortal) in seconds in their sleep (showing the savagery that will afflict the county, the killers forget about a member of the family and later return to the home to slaughter Sally Travis' baby as it sleeps in its cradle before dumping its body in the fireplace).  Moving towards Jerusalem as planned (at each stop, newly freed slaves remove and burn their clothing before dressing in other garb as a statement of their new freedom and unwillingness to return to a life of bondage), Turner's insurgents grow in number (to around sixty insurgents, routine and fear at the repercussions keep the number from growing larger) as more homes and plantations are raided and the families inside are slaughtered (among the dead is Reverend Whitehead, a man who has allowed Turner to preach before his congregation ... screaming "Why, " he is slaughtered in a nearby cotton patch), but never enough to make their destination viable as they decimate Captain John Barrow's house (killing the man on the front porch while his wife slips out the back to safety ... then, to honor the ferocity with which the veteran of the War of 1812 has fought to protect his family, his killers drink the captain's blood), the Richard Porter home, the Jacob Williams abode (where Williams returns home from harvesting timber and discovers his wife and three children have been butchered), and the Rebecca Vaughan house where the killings end (before being murdered, her killers allow the women to complete her praying).  By the next day, the slaves will have killed somewhere between fifty-five and sixty-five people (all of them white, including fifteen women and twenty-nine children, ten under the age of five) and gotten within three miles of Jerusalem (Turner will confess to killing only Margaret Whitehead when the woman tries to warn her neighbors of the coming danger, braining Whitehead with blows from a fence post).  

The Travis Family Is Wiped Out

On To The Next Home

No More Margaret

They will get no further though as reacting with alacrity (the revolt is over in roughly thirty-six hours), Virginia Governor John B. Floyd calls out the state militia to deal with the uprising (martial law will be declared a week later), along with three companies of artillery.  Additionally, detachments from the USS Natchez and USS Warren (anchored in the waters of Norfolk, Virginia) also join in the suppression of the insurrection ... in all, over 3,000 very angry and armed white Southerners.  The first blow to Turner's plans comes shortly after the men approach Jerusalem in the form of shots being exchanged between the blacks and a force of eighteen white men under the command of Captain Alexander P. Peete.  Clash broken off when the whites retreat into the nearby woods, Turner and about forty of his party make camp at the deserted plantation of Major Thomas Ridley ... where that night they are attacked again and the insurrection suddenly becomes every man for himself with Turner slipping away in the darkness (he will never see any of his lieutenants again).  Moving and hiding, hiding and moving, unsure of his next move (the visions from God have now disappeared), a weary Turner on Thursday makes his way to the Travis property, grabs provisions from the abandoned farm, and in a nearby field, scratches out a hiding hole under a pile of fence rails, where he will remain for the next six weeks, leaving only at night to obtain water.

Map Of The Revolt

Governor Floyd

While Turner is in hiding, it is an exceptionally bad time to be black in Southampton County (as well as many other locales in Virginia and other neighboring states) ... whether as a slave or as a free black man (five will be accused of participating in the revolt and one will be hung).  Worst fears of the outnumbered white population becoming bloodily true, a large portion of whites in the county react to the revolt with an hysteria of revenge that will take the lives of over two hundred individuals (despite many whites being saved from being murdered by the actions of their slaves, the number is not higher due to the slaves being considered property that most of the captured slaves' owners don't want to lose permanently).  Nat Turner's remaining army of fifty-six individuals are executed (those not killed in the fighting around Jerusalem), many without a trial, an armed band of vigilantes rides out of Richmond intent on shooting any negro they meet, an Englishman selling books in the town of Petersburg is stripped naked and lashed out of town for stating that the blacks of the South should be freed, there are a myriad of hangings and lynchings, slaves are tortured and burnt alive, when a slave named Charlotte Francis is found to have pulled a knife to prevent the escape of her pregnant white mistress, she is tied to a tree and used for target practice by a detachment of militia, men have their heads cut off and mounted on signposts as warnings (for over a hundred years after, the county will sport a Blackhead Signpost Road ... only for much of the time, the road substitutes another word for Blackhead) of what happens to insurrectionists (somehow, fifteen blacks accused of participating in the revolt are actually acquitted by a Virginia jury), men are whipped, tortured, and maimed, and slaves are sold to plantations outside of Virginia.

Turner

Turner's Sword

Only a matter of time until Turner is discovered, a dog is the first to lay claim to locating the revolt leader when it smells meat in the hiding hole ... then two blacks out hunting, and seeking the dog, stumble on the weary Nat, who begs them not to disclose to his pursuers his location.  Not wanting to grace any local trees though, the men of course let the story out and the pursuit of Turner is back on but he is no longer in his hole.  Guessing what is coming, Turner creeps out of the spot he has spent six weeks at a create another hiding place for himself in a tiny den under a fallen tree that he covers with brush.  His time runs out though when shortly after noon on Sunday, October 30, he pokes his head out of his hole and comes face to face with a local farmer named Benjamin Phipps, who upon finding out his identity, immediately arrests Turner.  Brought to Jerusalem to stand trial, while awaiting judgment, Turner tells his story to attorney Thomas Ruffin Gray (the confession will be published for the public after Turner's execution).  On arraignment, indicted for insurrection and conspiracy to murder, Turner pleads "not guilty" but it does no good when the plea is placed against the confession Turner has just given, which is the only evidence the Commonwealth of Virginia uses to establish the revolt leader's guilt.  Arrested on October 30, confession made on November 1, found guilty after a single day of trial before a board of magistrates that includes Justices Jeremiah Cobb, Samuel B. Hines, James D. Massenburg, James W. Parker, Robert Goodwin, James Trezevant, Ores A. Browne, Carr Bowers, Thomas Preston, and Richard A. Urquardt, twelve days after his capture, on Friday, November 11, 1831, at noon, Turner is hung  by local Deputy Sheriff Edward Butts.

Capture

The Killing Document

To The Gallows

Insurrection over, Mr. Turner's revolt moves the topic of slavery front and center, both in Virginia and the rest of the south as the nation continues to trudge towards its bloody Civil War (petitions to compensate seven slave owners for their lost human possessions are all rejected).  In 1831 and 1832 the Virginia legislature will debate manumission of its slaves, but will go in the opposite direction after Thomas R. Dew, the president of the College of William and Mary publishes a pamphlet defending the wisdom and benevolence of the institution and the folly of what it will take to abolish the practice of slavery ... slave patrols are beefed up, militia forces of the state are expanded, and new laws are passed restricting the movements of both slaves and free blacks, effectively ending their ability to meet in private, there new laws put into place prohibiting slaves or free blacks from being educated, and new requirements are put in place mandating white ministers be present when black people come together to worship.  Fear laws, they do nothing to stop the holocaust coming to America in the form of a Civil War over the issues of slavery and state rights

Working On Turner's "Confessions"

Turner's Bible

A controversial personality much like John Brown will become using killing in the cause of abolishing slavery, too some, Turner is a monster, but to others, he is a hero for taking a stand against the wrong.  And like John Brown, he will become a figure for future generations to either revile or celebrate ... and one who of course gets a fresh coat of Hollywood paint from generation to generation.  Already the subject of various history's of the period, in 1968, William Styron will win the Pulitzer Prize for his take on the tale with his novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Turner's rebellion is a featured part of Episode Five of the hit show Roots (the show has the insurrection incorrectly happening in 1841), there are a multitude of hip-hop and rap songs with Turner as a character, Turner's life and rebellion are featured in the 2016 film, Birth of a Nation (not to be confused with the silent film epic of D. W. Griffith, the 2016 film is written and directed by Nat Parker, and stars Parker as Turner!), and in 2018, he is front and center in a play that opens at the Forum Theatre in Washington D.C., Nat Turner in Jerusalem.

Birth Of A Nation Turner

Maniac

Hero

11/11/1831 ... Nate Turner, a slave way ahead of his times in believing black lives matter, goes off to meet his maker.

Turner