Civil War Women

Margaret Buell

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Wife of Union General Don Carlos Buell

I could find no information about Buell's wife, except that her name was Margaret. Don Carlos Buell, named for an uncle, was born on March 23, 1818, near Marietta, Ohio. He was the first son of Salmon D. Buell and Eliza Buell, born on the farm of his grandfather, Judge Salmon Buell. He was named after his uncle, Don Carlos Buell, who was a lawyer in Ithaca, New York. His father died in 1825, and Buell grew up with his uncle in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he attended public schools, and proved himself a fair student.

In 1837, Buell received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and graduated in 1841, ranking 32 in a class of 52 graduates. Buell served in the military, and participated in both the Seminole War and the Mexican War. In the Mexican War, he was wounded at the Battle of Churubusco. Buell moved slowly up the ranks, finally attaining the rank of brevet major.

In December, 1860, Secretary of War John Floyd sent Major Buell to visit Robert Anderson, then in command of the US garrison at Charleston, South Carolina. Buell carried a message to Anderson that was too sensitive to go over the telegraph wires: "You may occupy any fort within Charleston Harbor." Anderson had wired Washington that at Fort Moultrie his position was threatened. With Washington's approval, Anderson could move to a much more formidable structure, Fort Sumter.

General Don Carlos Buell

When the American Civil War began, Buell was serving as an assistant adjutant general. With his military experience, he quickly was promoted to brigadier general. Buell reported to Washington, DC, in September 1861, where he served as a division commander in the Army of the Potomac under his friend, General George B. McClellan. In November of that same year, Buell succeeded William Tecumseh Sherman as commander of the Department of the Ohio. He helped organize the thousands of volunteers reporting for duty from Ohio and surrounding states, and prepared Ohio's defenses for a Confederate attack.

As commander of the Department of the Ohio, Buell was also the leader of the Army of the Ohio. During 1862, Buell played an important role in securing Kentucky and Tennessee for the Union. As General Ulysses S. Grant advanced on Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, the Army of the Ohio moved cautiously from Bowling Green, Kentucky toward Nashville, Tennessee.

Buell's hesitation gave CSA Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and William Hardee time to remove manufacturing equipment and goods south by train. Buell's command succeeded in capturing Nashville in central Tennessee, but President Abraham Lincoln and General Henry Halleck had wanted Buell to secure eastern Tennessee for the Union. And instead of pursuing the Rebels, Buell stopped when he ran into CSA General Nathan Bedford Forest's rearguard forces.

Sidney Johnston left Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on March 5 and arrived at Corinth, Mississippi on March 25. Buell decided to argue with Henry Halleck about his orders, and Halleck appealed to Washington. The next day, Lincoln combined his three Western Armies into the Department of the Mississippi, and put Halleck in command. On March 13, 1862, Buell left Nashville and developed a case of the slows.

Johnston moved a similar size body of troops further in less time to attack Grant at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862. On the first day, the Union soldiers were surprised, outnumbered, and almost defeated. That evening, forward division of the Army of the Ohio under Brigadier General William "Bull" Nelson arrived, and the combined forces of Buell and Grant drove the Confederates from the battlefield the following day.

General Buell praises his army for their victory at Shiloh:

GENERAL ORDERS No. 6.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,
Field of Shiloh, Tenn., April 8, 1862.
The general congratulates the army under his command on the imperishable honor which they won yesterday on the battle-field of Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing. The alacrity and zeal with which they pressed forward by forced marches to the succor of their comrades of a sister army imperiled by the attack of an overwhelming force; the gallantry with which they assaulted the enemy, and the persevering courage with which they maintained an incessant conflict against superior numbers from 6 o'clock in the morning until evening, when the enemy was driven from the field, are incidents which point to a great service nobly performed.
The general reminds his troops again that such results are not attained by individual prowess alone; that subordination and careful training are essential to the efficiency of every army, and that the success which has given them a brilliant page in history is greatly due to the readiness with which they have seconded the labors of their division, brigade, and regimental commanders, who first disciplined them in camp and then led them judiciously and gallantly in battle.
By command of Major-General Buell:
JAMES B. FRY,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Chief of Staff.

General Henry Halleck ordered Buell to proceed to the important railroad center of Chattanooga, Tennessee, on June 10, 1862. In three weeks, Buell had only moved ninety miles toward that city. On July 8, 1862, Henry Halleck wrote Buell: "The President says your progress is not satisfactory and you should move more rapidly."

Before the Army of the Ohio could capture that city, Buell fell back into Kentucky, because a Confederate army under CSA General Braxton Bragg had invaded the state. Bragg, in command of the Army of Mississippi, was about to completely fool Buell. On July 21, Bragg ordered a 770-mile flanking movement via railroad and ship. A week later, Bragg's men began arriving in force at Chattanooga. He had beaten the Union commander to that city. As a consolation, Buell took the railhead at Stevenson, Alabama, and reoccupied Nashville.

Buell intended to hold a 400-mile line stretching across the entire state of Tennessee. CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest severed the connection from Stevenson to Nashville with a raid on Murfreesboro. As the railroad was close to being fixed, Forrest again attacked, burning three bridges south of Nashville.

Abraham Lincoln had more derisive things to say about the commander of the Army of the Ohio. Then CSA General John Hunt Morgan began his raids into Kentucky. Morgan sent word to E. Kirby Smith in Knoxville, encouraging him to move into Kentucky. As Smith moved north, Buell (extending a non-existent line another 100 miles) dispatched 'Bull' Nelson to Kentucky to organize the recruits, but kept his division in Murfreesboro.

Smith took Richmond, Lexington, and Frankfurt, Kentucky, as Bragg screened Buell, who continued to fear an attack on Nashville. Before he knew it, Buell had the Army of Tennessee between himself and Louisville, Kentucky, the major communications and transportation hub for the Union armies in the West. When it finally dawned on Buell that Bragg was not going to attack Nashville but was heading due north towards Louisville, he had to scramble to defend his supply line. Buell regrouped when he arrived at Louisville on September 25 and 26.

Meanwhile the exhortations from the administration continued unabated, as the following message to Buell from General Henry Halleck demonstrates:

It is the wish of the Government that your army proceed to and occupy East Tennessee with all possible dispatch. It leaves to you the selection of the roads upon which to move to that object; but it urges that this selection be so made as to cover Nashville and at the same time prevent the enemy's return into Kentucky. To now withdraw your army to Nashville would have a most disastrous effect upon the country, already wearied with so many delays in our operations... Neither the Government nor the country can endure these repeated delays. Both require a prompt and immediate movement toward the accomplishment of the great object in view--the holding of East Tennessee.

On October 8, 1862, Braxton Bragg and Don Carlos Buell met at the Battle of Perryville (Kentucky), the largest battle fought on Kentucky soil. Buell attacked an army of 16,000 Confederates with almost 60,000 men (although only 30,000 were engaged in combat), and came close to losing. While Buell claimed victory, the battle is generally regarded as a draw. When Buell failed to pursue the retreating Confederates as ordered, claiming that he lacked the necessary supplies to carry out an offensive.

Buell was even so disliked by his senior officers that they had petitioned Abraham Lincoln and requested Buell be replaced. President Lincoln finally bowed to the pressure and relieved Buell of command on October 24, 1862, and replaced him with William S. Rosecrans.

For the next six months, a military commission, chaired by General Lew Wallace, investigated Buell's inaction. Buell remained on inactive duty in Cincinnati for the entire time that the committee met. The commission drafted a report of its findings but did not release it to the public. Buell was eventually offered new battlefield commands, but he refused to serve under officers he had once outranked. In his memoirs, General Ulysses S. Grant called this "the worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service. Buell resigned his commission on June 1, 1864, and returned to civilian life.

The fact that Don Carlos Buell was a former slave owner (he had inherited eight slaves when he married the widow of a fellow officer in 1851) left him open to charges that he was a Southern sympathizer. Buell did not help his cause when he strictly enforced a policy of noninterference with Southern civilians while campaigning in Alabama and Tennessee in mid-1862. His own soldiers murmured among themselves that their commanding general was "either a weak imbecile man, or a secession sympathizer."

Many Northerners have refused to honor Buell for his military service during the Civil War, accusing him of being sympathetic with the Confederates. He also supported George McClellan in the presidential election of 1864 against Abraham Lincoln, openly attacking the Union high command for its actions and high loss of life.

Following the war Buell lived again in Indiana, and then in Kentucky, employed in the iron and coal industry as president of the Green River Iron Company. From 1885 to 1889, he was a government pension agent.

Don Carlos Buell Gravesite

Don Carlos Buell died on November 19, 1898, at his home in Rockport, Kentucky, at the age of 80, and was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri

SOURCES
Don C. Buell
Don Carlos Buell
Don Carlos Buell Biography
Wikipedia: Don Carlos Buell
Don Carlos Buell Source Page
Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All
Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant

Irene Rucker Sheridan

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:12:00 +0000

Wife of Union General Philip Sheridan

Irene Rucker, born in 1853 at Fort Union, New Mexico, and spent all her life connected to the military. She was the daughter of Brigadier General Daniel H. Rucker, who was Quartermaster General of the US Army. Her mother, Flora McDonald Coodey, was the daughter of Joseph Coodey, a half-blood Cherokee, and granddaughter of Jane Ross, a sister of the celebrated Cherokee Chief John Ross. Joseph Coodey was a well to do citizen who owned and operated a grist mill on Bayou Menard near the crossing of the old stage coach road between Fort Gibson and Tahlequah. Irene spent most of her girlhood in Washington, DC, and at various Army posts.

Philip Henry Sheridan was born in Albany, New York, on March 6, 1831, but grew up in Ohio. He attended West Point and, after a one-year suspension for assaulting a fellow cadet with a bayonet. He fell only seven demerits short of being expelled, and finished 34th out of 49. Several other members of his class of 1853 also became well-known, including John Schofield, John Bell Hood, and James McPherson – first in the class of 1853.

Irene Rucker Sheridan

An obscure lieutenant serving in Oregon when the American Civil War began, Sheridan rose to the command of the Union's cavalry by the time the Confederacy surrendered. He saw action in Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and in Virginia, where his campaign through the Shenandoah Valley laid waste to an important source of Confederate supplies.

Sheridan started the Civil War as Chief Quartermaster of the Army of Southwest Missouri. Feeling that he would be a better field commander than a support officer, Little Phil, 5' 5" tall, persisted until he got an appointment as a colonel with the Second Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. A month later he commanded his first forces in combat.

At the Battle of Booneville, July 1, 1862, he held back several regiments of General James R. Chalmers' Cavalry. His actions so impressed his superiors that they promoted him to Brigadier General and assigned him command of the 11th Division, Third Corps, Army of the Ohio.

In the spring of 1862, just after Booneville, one of his fellow officers gave him the horse that he would ride throughout the war. At the time, the regiment was stationed at Rienzi, Mississippi, and Sheridan named the horse Rienzi. Sheridan was always able to control him by a firm hand and a few words. He was as cool and quiet under fire as any veteran trooper in the Cavalry Corps. At the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, the name of the horse was changed to Winchester, the name of the town made famous during Sheridan's ride through the Shenandoah Valley.

On October 8, 1862, Sheridan again distinguished himself during the Battle of Perryville. He pushed two Arkansas brigades across Bull Run but was ordered back by Third Corps commander, Major General Charles Gilbert. Both sides suffered heavy casualties.

On December 31, 1862, the first day of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Sheridan held back the Confederate advance until his ammunition ran out and he was forced to withdraw. For his actions, he was promoted to Major General, and put in charge of the Second Division, 4th Corps, Army of the Cumberland. In six months, he had risen from captain to major general.

At the Battle of Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863, Sheridan along with the rest of the army was forced to withdraw after two days of heavy losses. At the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, Sheridan took the initiative and broke through the Confederate lines. General Ulysses S. Grant, newly promoted to be general-in-chief of all the Union armies, decided he wanted Sheridan when he went east.

Philip Henry Sheridan
By William F. Cogswell

In March, 1864, Grant assigned him to command the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. During the Overland Campaign, Sheridan fought at the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864), and Spotsylvania Court House (May 8-21, 1864). From May 9-24, 1864, Grant sent him on a raid toward Richmond. The raid was less successful than hoped, although his soldiers killed CSA General J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern (May 11, 1864). Rejoining the Army of the Potomac, Sheridan's cavalry excelled at Haw's Shop (May 28, 1864), seized Cold Harbor (June 1-12, 1864) and withstood a number of assaults until reinforced.

Army of the Shenandoah
All during the war, the Confederacy sent armies out of Virginia through the Shenandoah Valley to threaten Washington, DC, and a raid throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania. CSA General Jubal Early attacked Union forces near Washington and raided several towns in Pennsylvania. In August 1864, General Grant organized the Army of the Shenandoah. He put Sheridan in charge to drive Early out of the Shenandoah and close it as a route to Washington.

Sheridan went at it with vigor. He beat Early at Third Winchester and Fisher's Hill. In the final battle, at Cedar Creek, Sheridan rallied the troops who were retreating after a surprise attack – Early was defeated. Sheridan ordered total destruction in the Shenandoah Valley – his troops destroyed crops and livestock, seized stores and equipment, and burned what they couldn't remove. Sheridan said, "If a crow wants to fly down the Shenandoah, he must carry his provisions with him."

The destruction presaged the scorched earth tactics of US General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia – deny an army a base from which to operate and bring the effects of war home to the population supporting it.

Sheridan again joined the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg in March, 1865. At Waynesboro on March 2, he trapped the remainder of Early's army and 1500 soldiers surrendered. On April 1, he cut off CSA General Robert E. Lee's lines of support at Five Forks, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg.

President Abraham Lincoln sent General Grant a telegram on April 7, 1865: "General Sheridan says, 'If the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender.' Let the thing be pressed." Sheridan wrote in his memoirs, "Feeling that the war was nearing its end, I desired my cavalry to be in at the death."

Sheridan's finest service of the Civil War was demonstrated during his relentless pursuit of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, effectively managing the most crucial aspects of the Appomattox Campaign for General Grant. His aggressive and well-executed performance at the Battle of Sayler's Creek on April 6 effectively sealed the fate of Lee's army, capturing over 20% of his remaining men.

At Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865, Sheridan blocked Lee's escape, forcing him to surrender later that day. After the surrender of Lee in Virginia and of General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, the only significant Confederate field force remaining was in Texas, under General under Edmund Kirby Smith.

Sheridan was supposed to lead troops in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, DC, but Grant had appointed him commander of the Military District of the Southwest on May 17, 1865, six days before the parade. With orders to defeat Smith without delay and restore Texas and Louisiana to Union control, Sheridan headed south, but Smith surrendered before Sheridan reached New Orleans.

In March 1867, with Reconstruction barely started, Sheridan was appointed military governor of Texas and Louisiana. He severely limited voter registration for former Confederates, and then required that only registered voters (including black men) be eligible to serve on juries.

An inquiry into the deadly riot of 1866 implicated numerous local officials, and Sheridan dismissed the mayor of New Orleans, the Louisiana attorney general, and a district judge. He later removed Louisiana Governor James Wells, accusing him of being "a political trickster and a dishonest man." He also dismissed Texas Governor James Throckmorton, a former Confederate, for being an "impediment to the reconstruction of the State," replacing him with the Republican who had lost to him in the previous election.

General Philip Henry Sheridan's Ride from Winchester
By Thure de Thulstrup

Sheridan had been feuding with President Andrew Johnson for months over interpretations of the Military Reconstruction Acts and voting rights issues, and within a month of the second firing, the president removed Sheridan, stating to an outraged General Grant that, "His rule has, in fact, been one of absolute tyranny, without references to the principles of our government or the nature of our free institutions."

Within six months, Sheridan succeeded William Tecumseh Sherman as commander of the Division of the Missouri, which encompassed the entire plains region from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi. There he immediately shaped a battle plan to crush Indian resistance on the southern plains. Following the tactics he had employed in Virginia, Sheridan sought to strike directly at the material basis of the Plains Indian nations.

Sheridan believed that attacking the Indians in their encampments during the winter would give him the element of surprise and take advantage of the scarce forage available for Indian mounts. He was unconcerned about the likelihood of high casualties among noncombatants, once remarking, "If a village is attacked and women and children killed, the responsibility is not with the soldiers but with the people whose crimes necessitated the attack."

The first demonstration of this strategy came in 1868, when three columns of troops under Sheridan converged on what is now northwestern Oklahoma to force the Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Cheyenne onto their reservations. The key engagement in this successful campaign was George Armstrong Custer's surprise attack on Black Kettle's village along the Washita, an attack that came at dawn after a forced march through a snowstorm.

Many historians now regard this victory as a massacre, since Black Kettle was a peaceful chief whose encampment was on reservation soil, but for Sheridan the attack served its purpose, helping to persuade other bands to give up their traditional way of life and move onto the reservations.

In March 1869, after Ulysses S. Grant became president and General Sherman became General of the Army, Sheridan was appointed lieutenant general with headquarters in Chicago. Returning to Chicago, he presided over the Great Chicago Fire of October 7-8, 1871. He brought troops into the city to stop looters and directed fire fighting and reconstruction. Although Sheridan's personal residence was spared, all of his professional and personal papers were destroyed.

While a bridesmaid at a wedding in Chicago, in 1874, Irene Rucker met General Sheridan, while his headquarters was there. Her father, General Daniel Rucker, Assistant Quartermaster United States Army, was on General Sheridan's staff. For the next few months, he courted her steadily, and contemporaries still recall the hero of the Civil War and "Miss Rucker riding down Wabash avenue in an open carriage."

On June 3, 1875, Irene Rucker married Philip Sheridan at the residence of her parents on Wabash Avenue in Chicago. She was a pretty brunette of 22; he was 44. The bride's dress was a white grosgrain silk softened by a tulle veil fastened with orange blossoms. The bride's accessories included a gold necklace with solitaire pendant, diamond solitaire earrings, and gold bracelets, all gifts of the bridegroom. General Sheridan and all the Army Officers appeared in full dress uniform.

After the wedding, the couple moved to Washington, DC, where they lived in a large house at Rhode Island Avenue and Seventeenth street N, bought for them by Chicago citizens who were grateful to General Sheridan for his work following the great Chicago fire in 1871. Irene quickly became one of the most popular members of Washington society, often entertaining as many as 300 callers a day. The Sheridans had four children: Mary, born in 1876; twin daughters, Irene and Louise, in 1877; and Philip, Jr., in 1880.

Sheridan Monument – Somerset, Ohio
In front of Perry County Courthouse

Sheridan refined his tactic of massive force directed in surprise attacks on Indian encampments, and mounted successful campaigns against the tribes of the southern plains in 1874-1875, and against those of the northern plains in 1876-1877, forcing them onto reservations with the tactics of total war. Although some of his generals in these campaigns, such as Nelson Miles, expressed a soldierly respect for the Indians they were fighting, Sheridan was notorious for his supposed declaration that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," which he steadfastly denied saying.

On November 1, 1883, Phil Sheridan succeeded William T. Sherman as Commanding General of the US Army, a position he held until shortly before his death. He was promoted to the rank of General of the Army of the United States by Act of Congress June 1, 1888, which is equivalent to a four-star general in the modern US Army. This is the nation's highest military office – which he achieved at the comparatively young age of fifty-two. He was the fourth man in US history to be so honored, the others being Washington, Grant, and Sherman.

In 1887, Sheridan had built a summer cottage in Nonquit, Massachusetts, overlooking Martha's Vineyard. The following year, he suffered a series of massive heart attacks, two months after sending his memoirs to the publisher. Although only 57 years old, hard living and hard campaigning and a lifelong love of good food and drink had taken their toll. Thin in his youth, he then weighed over 200 pounds.

General Philip Sheridan died August 5, 1888, at their vacation cottage, leaving Irene with four young children. His body was returned to Washington, DC, and lay in state at St. Matthew's Church until August 11, when he was laid to rest on a hillside facing the capital city near Arlington House, which helped elevate the Arlington National Cemetery to prominence.

General Philip Sheridan's Personal Memoirs (two volumes) were published soon after his death. Irene never remarried, saying, "would rather be the widow of Phil Sheridan than the wife of any man living." Curiously, Irene Rucker and his family are never mentioned in his memoirs.

Sheridan's famous horse Rienzi, renamed Winchester after it carried Sheridan on his desperate ride from there to Cedar Creek, was later stuffed and displayed at the Army museum on Governors Island in New York Harbor. In 1922, the museum was damaged by fire and it was decided that Winchester should be sent to the Smithsonian. The few remaining veterans of the city did not let Sheridan's war-horse leave without a fitting goodbye. They held a little goodbye ceremony, and the grandson of one of the veterans who attended read Thomas Buchanan Read's poem, Sheridan's Ride.

Fort Sheridan Centennial Legacy Statue
Depicts the General astride his mount Rienzi at the height of the Battle of Five Forks April, 1865.

A Time magazine article of May 1930 about Irene Sheridan stated:

Before the Senate last week came bill No. 319 to increase the pension of Irene Rucker Sheridan. Her present pension: $2,500 per year. Proposed the bill: $5,000. The Senate pensions committee recommendation: $3,600. Up rose Colorado's Senator Phipps, a man of wealth and generosity, and said:

"The action of the committee reducing the amount is a mistake. Mrs. Sheridan is the widow of General Phil Sheridan who had a wonderful record. Mrs. Sheridan is well along in years and in all human probability, she will not enjoy the advantages of a pension for many years to come. I ask that the bill be approved in the original amount."

The Senate snubbed its pensions committee, and unanimously voted the widow of one of the nation's five generals $5,000 per year. The bill must be acted upon by the House before she gets the money. Today Mrs. Sheridan, now living in retirement in Washington, is almost 80.

Since General Sheridan's death in 1888, Irene had divided her time between her home in Washington and the summer home in New England. She had not been active in Washington affairs since about the time of World War I. No one connected the wrinkled little old lady who gazed at Phil Sheridan's statue near her home with the great beauty of the 1870s.

Irene Rucker Sheridan died at her home at 2211 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, in 1936, at the age of 83. Funeral services were held in St. Matthew's Church, the same church in which Cardinal Gibbons performed the last rites for General Sheridan. Irene was survived by her three daughters, Mary, Irene, and Louise Sheridan, and two grandchildren, Carolina and Philip Sheridan III.

I don't usually make personal comments about the subjects of my posts, but this time I can't resist. While Sheridan was at times an able Civil War cavalry commander, he is one of my least favorite Civil War generals. First, because he had absolutely no regard for the lives of noncombatants. The second reason has to do with my Native American heritage. Regardless of his bigotry and carelessness, he seems to have had a wonderful wife.

SOURCES
Widow's Pension
Philip H. Sheridan
Scrappy Phil Sheridan
General Phil Sheridan
About Famous People
Irene Rucker Sheridan
General Daniel Henry Rucker
General Philip Henry Sheridan
Perry County Historical Society
Philip Henry Sheridan 1831 – 1888
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan

Almira Russell Hancock

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:26:00 +0000

Wife of Union General Winfield Scott Hancock

Almira Russell was the daughter of a prominent merchant in St. Louis. Winfield Scott Hancock was born on February 14, 1824, in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania – a small hamlet northwest of Philadelphia – the son of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth Hoxworth Hancock. Descended from a long line of American soldiers, he was christened with the name of America's greatest living soldier – General Winfield Scott, the hero of the War of 1812.

Winfield had a twin brother, Hilary, who showed some talent in his early years as a geologist, artist and cartoonist, but later became an alcoholic and skid row bum. After teaching school, Benjamin moved his family to Norristown, PA, where he practiced law. Winfield attended Norristown Academy, later transferring to a public school.

Almira Russell Hancock

In 1840, young Hancock received a coveted appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Hancock was then barely sixteen, short and weak; four years later, he was 6' 2" and strong. Hancock was popular and respected by his friends and peers at West Point, who included future Civil War generals: Stonewall Jackson, George B. McClellan, James Longstreet, Ulysses S. Grant, Ambrose Burnside, George Pickett, Don Carlos Buell, and Dana Harvey Hill. Hancock graduated on June 30, 1844, 18th in a class of 44, probably one of the youngest graduates of that year.

Hancock's first years in the army were spent along the Red River in Texas, and on the frontier fighting Indians. The Indian fighting years were spent hunting more wild game than Indians. When war broke out with Mexico in 1846, Hancock requested an assignment in a fighting unit, but he had few achievements to recommend him. Finally, on July 13, 1847, the young officer was transferred to Vera Cruz to serve under his namesake, General Winfield Scott, in the fight against the forces of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. He was there long enough to get commendations for bravery in four different battles. On August 20, 1847, Winfield Scott Hancock was breveted First Lieutenant.

Regimental headquarters returned to St. Louis, and West Point classmate Don Carlos Buell introduced Hancock to Almira (Allie) Russell, the daughter of a prominent St. Louis merchant. After a short courtship, they were married on January 24, 1850. The couple had two children, Russell (1850-84) born in St. Louis, and Ada Elizabeth (1857-75) born in Fort Myers, Florida.

On November 5, 1855, Lieutenant Hancock was appointed Assistant Quartermaster with the rank of captain, and ordered to Fort Myers, Florida, during the Seminole Wars of 1856-7. Hancock's young family accompanied him to his new posting, where Allie was the only woman on the post. It was difficult and arduous service, but Hancock performed his quartermaster duties with apparent ease and competence. He was quickly becoming indispensible in that capacity although, according to Allie, "he very much disliked quartermaster duties."

In 1857, Hancock served at Fort Leavenworth during the violence of Bleeding Kansas, observing firsthand the bitterness and enflamed feelings that the twin issues of slavery and States' Rights had brought to that frontier. Of his own loyalties, he would say: "I shall not fight on the principle of State-rights, but for the union, whole and undivided. I do not belong to a country formed of principalities."

Hancock was stationed in southern California in November 1858, and remained there, joined by Allie and the children, serving as a captain under future Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston. In California, Hancock became friends with several officers from the South. He became especially close to Lewis Armistead from Virginia.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Armistead and the other Southerners were , while Hancock remained in the service of the United States. On June 15, 1861, Hancock and Allie hosted a party for their friends – who were scattering because of the war. No one knew when – or if – they would see each other again. Lewis Armistead gave his Bible and personal effects to Allie for safekeeping – to be opened only if he died in battle. Allie said later that Hancock's men at the Battle of Gettysburg killed three of the six future Confederates who attended that party.

Winfield Scott Hancock headed East to offer his services in the defense of the Union. Arriving in the City of Washington in September, Hancock was summoned to the Headquarters of Major General George B. McClellan, who appointed Hancock, Brigadier General Of Volunteers on September 23, 1861, and an infantry brigade to command in the division of Brigadier General William F. Smith, Army of the Potomac.

Hancock's first action was during the Peninsula Campaign, where he commanded a brigade at the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. McClellan telegraphed to Washington that "Hancock was superb today," and Hancock the Superb was born.

General Winfield Scott Hancock

At the Battle of Antietam, Hancock took command of the First Division in the II Corps, after the mortal wounding of Major General Israel B. Richardson in the horrific fighting at Bloody Lane. Hancock made a dramatic entrance onto the battlefield, galloping between his troops and the enemy, parallel to the Sunken Road. His men assumed that Hancock would order counterattacks against the exhausted Confederates, but he carried orders from McClellan to hold his position.

General McClellan was replaced with General Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac about that time, and he was replaced by Hooker in the spring of 1863. Hancock was promoted to major general of volunteers on November 29, 1862, and led his division in the disastrous attack on Marye's Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg the following month, and he was wounded in the abdomen.

In May 1863, Hancock's division was instrumental in covering the withdrawal of Federal forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville – another terrible Union defeat – and he was wounded again. When General Darius Couch asked to be transferred out of the Army of the Potomac in protest of the actions General Hooker took in the battle, Hancock assumed command of II Corps, which he would lead until shortly before the war's end.

The Battle of Gettysburg
Hancock would provide his most important service at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After hearing that General John Reynolds was killed early on July 1, Major General George Gordon Meade, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, sent Hancock ahead to take command of the units on the field and assess the situation. Hancock thus was in temporary command of the left wing of the army, consisting of the I, II, III, and XI Corps.

At 3:30 PM, on July 1, 1863, Hancock arrived at Gettysburg, and found the commander of the Union XI Corps, Major General Oliver Otis Howard, attempting to establish a defensive position. Federal positions had collapsed both north and west of town, and General Howard had ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill.

General Hancock offered to show General Howard the orders from Meade giving him command of the field, but Howard did not wish to see them and told Hancock to "go ahead." Hancock then went to work establishing the Union battle line that would be known as the Fish Hook, and placed Union forces in a strong defensive position on Cemetery Ridge. Hancock's determination had a morale-boosting effect on the retreating Union soldiers, but he played no direct tactical role on the first day.

The Town of Gettysburg in 1863

On the second day of the battle, General Robert E. Lee attacked both Yankee flanks simultaneously, when US Major General Dan Sickles attempted to move his III Corps forward into the Peach Orchard. Sickles' action exposed the Federal left flank just as CSA General James Longstreet launched his attack toward the Round Tops.

Seeing the trouble, Hancock sent his First Division under Brigadier General John Caldwell to aide Sickles. The second brigade of that division was the famed Irish Brigade. Prior to marching to the relief of Sickles, Father William Corby, the chaplain of the Irish Brigade, gave the soldiers general absolution for their sins.

An officer described the scene as surreal:

The brigade stood in a column of regiments, closed in mass. Father Corby, addressing the men, said that each one would receive the benefit of absolution by making a sincere Act of Contrition, and firmly resolving to embrace the first opportunity of confessing his sins, and reminded them of the high and sacred nature of their trust as soldiers. Then, stretching his right hand toward the brigade, Father Corby pronounced the words of absolution. The service was more than impressive, it was awe-inspiring.

As General Longstreet's divisions slammed into the Union III Corps, it was virtually destroyed as a combat unit, and Sickles' leg was amputated after it was shattered by a cannonball. Caldwell's division was decimated in the Wheatfield. In the evening, the Confederates reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, but couldn't hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the II Corps, including an almost suicidal counterattack by the First Minnesota against a Confederate brigade, ordered in desperation by Hancock.

Day Three
On the third day at Gettysburg, General Meade placed Hancock in command of the I and III Corps, along with his own II Corps. Hancock was then commanding three-fifths of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863.

CSA General Robert E. Lee had not succeeded in his flank attacks, and believed that the Federals might have weakened their center to strengthen their flanks. Therefore, Lee planned to have Longstreet command Pickett's Virginia division plus six brigades from A. P. Hill's Corps in an infantry attack on General Hancock's II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack, Confederate artillery would try to weaken the Union line.

Hancock's Ride
General Hancock rides the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge, preceding Pickett's Charge.
By artist, Dale Gallon

Around 1 PM, between 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery bombardment that was probably the largest of the war. After waiting about 15 minutes, about 80 Federal cannons added to the din. During the artillery attack, Hancock rode along his line encouraging his men to hold their ground. A soldier who witnessed Hancock that day stated, "His daring heroism and splendid presence gave the men new courage."

During the massive Confederate artillery bombardment that preceded the infantry assault, Hancock was prominent on horseback encouraging his troops. When one of his subordinates protested, "General, the corps commander ought not to risk his life that way." Hancock is said to have replied, "There are times when a corps commander's life does not count."

At about 3 PM, the cannon fire subsided, and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and began to cross three-quarters of a mile of open ground, under intense fire from Union artillery massed on Cemetery Ridge, in what would be forever known as Pickett’s Charge.

In addition to the musketry and canister fire from Hancock's II Corps, the Confederates suffered fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions north of Little Round Top. The II Corps stymied the attack on their position, with only a few Confederate soldiers breaking through their line.

Although the Federal line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the Angle, at a low stone fence just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repulsed.

Hancock was not idle during the attack; he seemed to be everywhere on the battlefield, directing regiments and brigades into the fight. As he approached the Vermont Brigade commanded by Brigadier General George Stannard, Hancock suddenly reeled in his saddle and began to fall to the ground. Two of Stannard's officers sprang forward and caught Hancock as he fell.

It was discovered that Hancock had suffered a severe injury, when a bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and penetrated eight inches into his right groin, carrying with it some wood fragments and a large bent nail from the saddle. His aides applied a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding; Hancock removed the nail himself, and is said to have remarked wryly, "They must be hard up for ammunition when they throw such shot as that."

During the infantry assault, General Hancock's old friend, now Confederate General, Lewis Armistead was leading his brigade of Pickett's division, waving his hat from the tip of his saber. He and his men reached the stone wall near the Copse of Trees, which was the charge's objective. Armistead's brigade got farther in the charge than any other, but they were quickly overwhelmed by a Union counterattack. This event has been called the High Watermark of the Confederacy – the closest they ever came to winning Southern independence. Nearly half of the attackers did not return to their own lines.

General Armistead was shot three times just after crossing the stone wall. When he went down, he gave a Masonic sign asking for assistance. A fellow Mason, Captain Henry Bingham, a member of Hancock's staff and later a very influential Congressman, rushed to Armistead and offered to help. Bingham told Armistead that his old friend Hancock had just been wounded a few yards away. This scene is featured in Michael Shaara's novel, The Killer Angels, in which Armistead is a principal character.

Captain Bingham took the news of Armistead's wounding to Hancock, but Hancock couldn't go the aid of his friend because of his own wound, and they would not be reunited. Armistead's wounds weren't believed to be fatal, because he had been shot in the fleshy part of the arm and below the knee. According to the surgeon that tended him, none of the wounds caused bone, artery, or nerve damage.

Armistead was taken to a Union field hospital at the Spangler Farm, where he died two days later. Armistead's biographer, Wayne Motts, believes that Armistead died most likely from a pulmonary embolism, while others have argued that it was a combination of septic shock and heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

General Hancock refused to leave the field until his troops had repulsed the Confederate attack. Though in much pain, he continued to direct and encourage his men. He had been with his soldiers throughout the three-day battle, and he refused to leave them now. The Union victory was largely the result of the leadership of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. Gettysburg marked the zenith of Hancock's military career.

Recovery and Recruitment
After the repulse of the Confederate attack, Hancock was taken to a field hospital, and eventually to his father's home in Norristown, Pennsylvania to recover. He was received at Norristown by his fellow citizens, and borne to his home on a stretcher, on the shoulders of soldiers of the Invalid Corps. His recovery was gradual but sure. Hancock's Norristown friends gave him a service of nine pieces of gold and silver plate ornamented with the trefoil badge of the Second Corps, and valued at $1600.

When Hancock had recovered enough to travel to West Point, he was honored with public receptions there, in New York, and at St. Louis, where he went to see his family, and where he also received from the Western Sanitary Fair a superb sword. The US Congress would vote a letter of thanks, to Hancock, "…for his gallant, meritorious and conspicuous share in that great and decisive victory."

Ordered to Washington, December 15th, 1863, Hancock promptly obeyed, although his wound was not yet healed, and was detailed to recruit new soldiers for the army. He soon raised 50,000 men for his corps (headquartered at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) with good success — the great cities of New York, Albany, and Boston, offered him every public and private facility for his use.

At Philadelphia, a public reception was given him; resolutions were offered by the city government, and Independence Hall was thrown open to his use, and on the February 22, he reviewed the volunteer troops of the city. In New York City, the Governor's Room in the City Hall was placed at his disposal. At Albany, the Legislature tendered an official testimonial of respect, as did the Legislature of Massachusetts and the merchants of Boston.

In March, 1864, Hancock was again ordered to the front, and he led his old corps through General Ulysses S. Grant's spring 1864 Overland Campaign, from the Rapidan to Petersburg. Grant was committed to a war of attrition, in which the superior Union forces would bleed Lee's army dry. Union casualties would be high, but the Union had greater resources to replace lost soldiers and equipment.

Hancock served with distinction in the strenuous and bloody series of battles that began in the Wilderness in early May, and continued through Yellow Tavern, North Anna, Old Church, Cold Harbor, Trevilian Station, and finally to the ten-month siege at Petersburg, Virginia.

At Spotsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864, Hancock led a magnificent pre-dawn charge at the head of his whole corps of 20,000 men. The target was the Mule Shoe – a salient in the Confederate trenches. In less than an hour, the II Corps broke through the Rebel lines, thanks in part to the absence of Confederate artillery support and wet powder caused by the rainfall the night before. Hancock took close to 4,000 prisoners, destroying a whole division of the Confederate Second Corps.

General Winfield Scott Hancock
Seated, surrounded by Generals Francis Barlow, David Birney, and John Gibbon
At Spotsylvania Court House

Hancock sent a brief despatch to General Grant: "General, I have captured from thirty to forty guns. I have finished up Johnson, and am now going into Early," (Confederate Generals Edward "Allegheny" Johnson and Jubal Early). For those heroic efforts, Hancock earned the rank of major general, but in June, his Gettysburg wound reopened, but he soon resumed command, sometimes traveling by ambulance.

Second Battle of Reams Station
Hancock's only significant defeat occurred during the Siege of Petersburg. Soon after the Union success at the Battle of Weldon Railroad, Hancock's II Corps was ordered to move south along that rail line, destroying track as it went. The intent was to stretch even farther the distance by which General Lee had to move his supplies. By late August 24, 1864, the II Corps was three miles south of Reams Station, when Hancock was informed that CSA General A.P. Hill's infantry and General Wade Hampton's cavalry were moving out of Petersburg's defenses to meet this threat.

During the morning of August 25, Hampton started driving Hancock's troops back up the Halifax Road toward Reams Station. Hill's attacks in the early afternoon only took some outlying trenches from the Union. Hill determined that a large frontal assault was needed to drive the Union forces off the railroad. It was 5:00 pm before the Confederates were ready for their second assault, and it began with a heavy barrage from the artillery.

By 6:00 pm, the assault had lost its momentum, and in return Hancock reminded the Confederates why he was a worthy adversary. Regrouping the II Corps, Hancock sent his men back down the lost trenches and across the field to Oak Grove Church. Initially successful, the counterattack soon failed. In the midst of this, Hancock told a staff officer, "Colonel, I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field!"

Hampton and Hill were finally able to coordinate an attack upon the Union position, and under this pressure, overran the Union position, capturing 9 guns, 12 colors, and many prisoners. The II Corps was shattered, and swept from the field by 7:00 pm. Hancock withdrew to the main Union line near the Jerusalem Plank Road, bemoaning the declining combat effectiveness of his troops. Hancock realized his greatest defeat as a corps commander, losing nearly 3,000 soldiers as casualties or as prisoners.

Hancock had some measure of success at Burgess Mill on October 27, 1864, when the II Corps stood their ground and beat off each attack, though they paid a heavy price for doing so. When night fell, Hancock decided to withdraw, but because of a lack of ambulances, he had to leave many of the most seriously injured soldiers behind.

For his corps' participation in the assaults at Deep Bottom in August 1864, General Hancock was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army, but it didn't make him feel any better. He never quite recovered from Reams Station, where he had lost so many of his men, his friends.

Farewell to the II Corps
In Grant's campaign against Lee, Hancock and his famed II Corps had been repeatedly called upon to plunge into the very worst of the fighting, and the casualties had been terrible. At the beginning of May 1864, the II Corps numbered 30,000 officers and men. Casualties since then had topped 26,000 killed, wounded or missing. These were men he had become fond of, had interacted with on a daily basis, had fought with for months, even years. He felt their losses deeply.

Reinforcements had flowed in regularly, but the damage to the II Corps could not be measured by numbers alone. The new men in the ranks were for the most part inexperienced, and many were bounty men or draftees, distrusted by the surviving combat veterans. Though he but had achieved many significant military victories, the II Corps wasn't Hancock's corps anymore.

General Winfield Scott Hancock asked to be relieved of command of the II Corps on November 25, 1864. With his old wound constantly troubling him – he had never regained full mobility and his youthful energy – and the loss of so many of his men contributed to his decision to give up field duty.

Hancock's farewell message to his soldiers, November 26, 1864:

Conscious that whatever military honor has fallen to me during my association with the Second Corps has been won by the gallantry of the officers and soldiers I have commanded… in parting from them, I am severing the strongest ties of my military life.

Hancock's first assignment after leaving field duty was to command the ceremonial First Veterans Corps, a largely ceremonial post. For the next three months, Hancock was at Washington organizing wounded veterans for service – as much as his health would permit. He did more recruiting, commanded the Middle Department, and relieved General Philip Sheridan in command of forces in the now-quiet Shenandoah Valley.

By spring 1865, the war had ended at Appomattox Court House, and General Hancock - who for three years had been one of the most conspicuous figures in the Army of the Potomac - was not there to take part in the final triumph.

Execution of Lincoln Assassination Conspirators
In April 1865, General Hancock was summoned to Washington to take charge of carrying out the execution of the Lincoln Conspirators. Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14, 1865, and by May 9, a military commission had been convened to try the accused. The actual assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was already dead, but the trial of his co-conspirators proceeded quickly, resulting in convictions. President Andrew Johnson ordered the executions to be carried out on July 7.

Although Hancock was reluctant to execute some of the less-culpable conspirators, especially Mary Surratt. He wrote to Judge Clampitt, Surratt's legal counsel:

I have been on many a battle and have seen death, and mixed with it in disaster and in victory. I have been in a living hell of fire, and shell and grapeshot, and, by God, I’d sooner be there ten thousand times over than to give the order this day for the execution of that poor woman. But I am a soldier, sworn to obey, and obey I must.

Hancock hoped that Mary Surratt would receive a pardon from President Johnson, so hopeful that as commander of the Middle Military District, he posted messengers all the way from the Arsenal to the White House, ready to relay the news to him at a moment's notice, should the pardon be granted. It wasn't.

Hancock remained in the postwar army as brigadier general. In 1866, U.S. Grant had him promoted major general in the regular army, and he served at that rank for the rest of his life. He was sent west, to command the Military Department of Missouri, based at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but his time there was brief.

On November 29, 1868, President Andrew Johnson named him to replace Philip Sheridan as military governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. It was in this position, that he would issue General Order Number 40, that would essentially allow the civilian government to quickly replace the military government. Hancock's refusal to use military authority to assist Republican radicals strengthened his ties to Democrats and angered Grant.

With the death of General George Gordon Meade, in 1872, Hancock became the senior major general in the US Army, and was assigned to take Meade's place as commander of the Division of the Atlantic, and moved to Governor's Island. The fine living there made Hancock grow fat. He eventually weighed over 250 pounds.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock
In old age

Winfield and Almira Hancock were devastated by the deaths of their children and grandchildren – their 18-year-old daughter Ada died of typhoid fever in 1875 in New York City. She was buried in Norristown in the same tomb her father would be buried in years later. On July 13, 1880, their four-month-old grandson, also named Winfield Scott Hancock, died. Son Russell, who was always weakly, was married and had three children – Ada, Gwyn, and Almira – when he died on December 30, 1884, in Mississippi.

Presidential Candidate
Democratic strategists had considered Hancock a potential presidential nominee as early as 1864, and his name resurfaced during subsequent presidential campaigns as the military hero who might best challenge Republican claims to a monopoly on patriotism. When Grant entered the White House in 1869, Hancock was ordered to the Department of Dakota, an assignment he regarded as punishment for political disagreement.

Hancock finally received the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1880. He stayed on active duty at Governor's Island in New York harbor. He and Almira found the constant flow of political visitors maddening. The Republicans nominated James A. Garfield, a longtime Ohio congressman, and attacked Hancock's complete lack of political experience.

Neither candidate for the 1880 Presidential Election inspired voters to shift political allegiance, and the outcome hinged upon Republican organization overwhelming Democratic disharmony. Garfield's majority was less than ten thousand votes; the electoral vote (214-155) would have gone the other way had New York's Tammany Democrats not betrayed Hancock at a cost of thirty-five electoral votes. But Hancock was the first Northerner to carry the Southern states in a Presidential election , since the war.

After Ulysses S. Grant died on July 23, 1885, President Grover Cleveland ordered Hancock to oversee the funeral of the former President and General of the United States Army. He organized and led the enormous New York City funeral procession for Grant on August 8, 1885.

In November 1885, Hancock visited Gettysburg and enjoyed reliving the experience with younger soldiers. In January 1886, he went to Washington and was bothered by a boil on the back of his neck. He went home earlier than planned, and by February the boil had turned into a carbuncle – a painful localized bacterial infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue.

Hancock had refused to be examined by his doctor, despite the illnesses that plagued him late in life, maybe because the field surgeons at Gettysburg had caused horrible suffering in trying to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his wound. For several days, his doctors didn't realize that he had severe diabetes, which made the situation deadly. He became delirious on the evening of February 5.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock died on February 9, 1886, at 2:35 PM, five days before his sixty-second birthday, at Governor's Island, still in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic. After a brief funeral service at Trinity Church in New York City February 12, 1886, General Hancock's remains were taken to his boyhood home of Norristown, PA, and placed in a mausoleum that he had designed alongside his daughter, Ada.

When General Hancock died, he left his wife, Almira, almost no money. She didn't even have her own home. Granted, there were many financial burdens on him [his brother Hilary, and the constant (and necessary) expense of entertaining guests] – but given his contacts and his intelligence, he should have made arrangements for her to be taken care of during her declining years.

Almira Russell Hancock received many requests to write about her husband and his military experiences and his correspondence. She wrote her memoirs, Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock, which was published in 1887 by Mark Twain's publishing firm, Webster & Company. Afterward, she burned Hancock's letters.

New York Times Article, April 20, 1893:
Mrs. Almira Russell Hancock, widow of General Winfield Scott Hancock, is seriously ill at her home, The Gramercy, 34 Gramercy Park. She is suffering from a complication of diseases, but with her splendid constitution has made a brave fight, and it is hoped that she will safely pass through the crisis which will come within the next twenty-four hours.

Almira Russell Hancock died in April 1893, and was buried near her family in St. Louis, Missouri. Although she outlived both of her children, she was survived by the three grandchildren fathered by her son, Russell.

New York Times Article, April 23, 1893:
The funeral of Mrs. Almira Russell Hancock, widow of General Winfield Scott Hancock, who died at her home, the Gramercy, 34 Gramercy Park Thursday afternoon, took place yesterday at noon at the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration on East Twenty-ninth Street.

Equestrian Statue of General Winfield Scott Hancock
Bronze by Sculptor Frank Edwin Ewell
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Winfield S. Hancock was a very able military commander. He successfully commanded the II Corps, Army of the Potomac, during some of the most critical battles of the Civil War. He cared about his men, and would most often be seen, leading from the front, such as when he was wounded at Gettysburg.

To the North, he was known as Hancock The Superb. To the South – The Thunderbolt of the Army of the Potomac. The Sioux and the Cheyenne called him Old Man of the Thunder. A man of great charisma and a commanding physical presence, he was a soldier's soldier, something of an artist, amateur scientist, botanist, and he even wrote some verse.

From Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs:

Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command. He commanded a corps longer than any other one, and his name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. He was a man of very conspicuous personal appearance... His genial disposition made him friends, and his personal courage and his presence with his command in the thickest of the fight, won for him the confidence of troops serving under him. No matter how hard the fight, the II Corps always felt that their commander was looking after them.

SOURCES
Reams Station
Battle of Gettysburg
Winfield S. Hancock
Hancock the Superb
Biography of a Soldier
Winfield Scott Hancock
The Hero of Gettysburg
Battle of Boydton Plank Road
Wikipedia: Winfield Scott Hancock
Major General Winfield Scott Hancock
Winfield Scott Hancock, Major General, USA
Winfield Scott Hancock – U.S. Major General

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Lydia McLane Johnston

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston

Lydia McLane was born January 31, 1822, at Wilmington, Delaware. She was the daughter of Catherine and Louis McLane. Her father was a diplomat and U.S. Cabinet officer, serving as U.S. Minister to England from 1829 - 1831, and from 1845 - 1846.

Joseph Eggleston Johnston was born February 3, 1807, at Longwood House in Farmville, Virginia, the eighth son of Judge Peter and Mary Johnston. He was named for the officer his father served under during in the Revolutionary War. When he was four years old, the family moved to Panicello, their new home near Abingdon, a location more convenient for Peter to serve the southwestern Virginia circuit.

Lydia McLane Johnston

Judge Johnston was an ardent huntsman, and his sons naturally followed his interest. A number of the veterans of the Battle of King's Mountain lived in the area and excited the youthful interest of the boys by telling stories of their adventures. Emulating these heroes, the boys organized themselves into armies with young Joe as one of the leaders. With such a background of outdoor activity, he became a fine horseman and a good marksman.

On cold nights, the family gathered around the fireplace to listen to one of the older boys read. It was then that Joe first made his acquaintance with the novels of Sir Walter Scott, for which he retained an affection throughout his life. Mrs. Johnston gave him his earliest teaching, and he later attended the Abingdon Academy, which his father had helped to establish some years before.

Through a political friend, Judge Johnston secured Joe an appointment to West Point, which President John Quincy Adams made February 21, 1825, when Joe was eighteen years old. In the roster of cadets from Virginia was Robert E. Lee, the son of Judge Johnston's Revolutionary leader.

In June of that year, the two young Virginians successfully passed the examinations to become members of an entering class of 105 cadets. Although Lee was slightly older, the two soon became fast friends. In the four years at West Point, Joe was associated with a number of cadets who later played important military roles in the Confederate Army. Three of them – Albert Sidney Johnston, Lee, and Joe Johnston – were among the first five nominations as full generals.

Johnston graduated from West Point in 1829. His class rank was 13 out of 46 and was commissioned in the Artillery. (Robert E. Lee was 2 out of 46.) In addition to those who achieved military prominence in the Confederacy, a cadet from Mississippi in the class of 1828 became its president. During their period together at West Point, Johnston and Jefferson Davis were only casual acquaintances.

On July 10, 1845, Lydia McLane married Joseph Johnston. They had no children.

As an officer in the US Army, Johnston served in the Black Hawk war of 1832. He resigned his commission in 1837 to become a civil engineer in Florida, where served in the Seminole War in 1837. He was a member of General Winfield Scott's expedition against Mexico City during the Mexican War, was made brevet colonel in 1848, and was wounded 5 times during that war. From 1855 - 1860, he served as Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st US Cavalry on the frontier and in Kansas during the border disturbances. On June 28, 1860, he was appointed quartermaster general of the US Army and promoted to Brigadier General.

When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, Johnston resigned as a brigadier general in the US Army, the highest-ranking US army officer to resign and join the Confederacy. He accepted a commission as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, and was placed in command of the Army of Northern Virginia. His success as co-commander at the Battle of First Bull Run led to his promotion to the newly created rank of full general on August 31, 1861. But he wasn't pleased that three other men outranked him.

General Joseph E. Johnston

Confederate President Jefferson Davis had ranked Johnston fourth in seniority – behind Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Robert E. Lee. Johnston responded by writing Davis an angry letter. He claimed that the president's rankings had been made "in violation of my rights as an officer, of the plighted [promised] faith of the Confederacy and the Constitution and laws of the land." Johnston concluded by stating that "I now and here declare my claim that... I still rightfully hold the rank of first general in the armies of the Southern Confederacy." But Davis refused to reconsider; he sent Johnston an insulting reply in which he called the general's arguments and statements "one-sided" and "as unfounded as they are unbecoming."

Still, Johnston led the Southern army at the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. Defending the capital of Richmond against General George B. McClellan, Johnston employed a strategy of gradual withdrawals, until his army was only five miles in front of the city. Finally cornered, Johnston attacked on May 31,1862, at the Battle of Seven Pines. The battle was tactically inconclusive, but it stopped McClellan's advance on Richmond.

Johnston was severely wounded on the second day of the battle, and Davis turned over command to the more aggressive Robert E. Lee. Johnston spent the remaining days of 1862 recovering from the wounds he suffered at Fair Oaks.

One month later, Lee forced McClellan to end his offensive campaign by defeating the Union general in a series of fierce clashes that came to be known as the Seven Days' Battles. Lee then followed up that victory with a series of other triumphs. Lee's performance convinced Davis to give him command of the Army of Northern Virginia for the rest of the war.

After recovering from his wound, Johnston was given command of the Department of the West, which gave him control of Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee and John C. Pemberton's Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. Pemberton faced General Ulysses S. Grant from inside the besieged city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Johnston was not able to find troops to relieve him, causing great consternation in the South when its last stronghold on the Mississippi River.

Johnston, Davis, and other Confederate officials continued to argue and debate about strategy, military authority, and other issues throughout the first few months of 1863. Meanwhile Union general Ulysses S. Grant launched a major offensive against Vicksburg, Mississippi, an important Confederate stronghold. If Grant could seize the city from the Confederacy, the North would control the entire length of the Mississippi River.

The struggle for Vicksburg ended in disaster for the Confederacy. In late May, Grant ordered his army to surround the city and stop all shipments of food and other supplies. Within a matter of weeks, Grant's siege had created great hunger and misery within Vicksburg. Johnston tried to come up with a plan to lift the siege, but the small size of his army prevented him from posing any significant threat to Grant's much larger force. Pemberton finally surrendered on July 4, 1863, giving the North control of both the city and the Mississippi River.

When President Davis learned that Vicksburg had fallen into Union hands, he blamed Johnston. He and many other people believed that Johnston should have offered more resistance to Grant. They charged that Johnston had been too cautious and timid in his actions. Johnston and his supporters, meanwhile, blamed flawed strategies devised by Davis and other Confederate officials for the loss of the city.

Later that year, General Braxton Bragg was defeated in the Battle of Chattanooga, and Jefferson reluctantly relieved his old friend of command and replaced him with Johnston as commander of the Army of Tennessee, a tough and battle-hardened force. But over the past year, it had been badly led by General Bragg.

In May 1864, Johnston faced his first major test as commander of the Army of Tennessee. A Union army of 100,000 under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman had marched into Georgia to destroy Johnston's army of 60,000. The North believed that if that army could be wiped out, Union control of the West would be complete, and weakening Southern support for the war might collapse altogether.

Throughout the months of May and June, Sherman moved his army southward in an attempt to smash the Confederate Army of Tennessee. The two armies engaged in countless bloody skirmishes during this period, but Johnston quickly and skillfully avoided all efforts to trap him. Instead, he steadily retreated deeper into Georgia, even as President Davis and other Confederate officials urged him to turn and attack the Yankee invaders.

By mid-July, Sherman had seized large sections of Georgia. Johnston's army had been pushed backward to the outskirts of Atlanta, one of the Confederacy’s last remaining major cities. Johnston's defensive maneuvers had enabled him to keep most of his army intact, but Davis and many other Confederate officials were very unhappy with his performance. They openly worried that Johnston might give up Atlanta without a fight, and became very frustrated when the general stubbornly refused to tell them about his plans.

Jefferson Davis became increasingly irritated and relieved Johnston of command on July 17, 1864, shortly before the Battle of Peachtree Creek, and replaced him with General John Bell Hood, an officer who had a reputation as a fierce and aggressive fighter. Within a few months, Sherman had captured Atlanta and launched a devastating campaign deep into the heart of the South. Hood, meanwhile, took his army into Tennessee, where it was torn to shreds by Union forces.

General Joseph E. Johnston Statue
The only statue of General Johnston
Dalton, Georgia

Johnston spent the last part of 1864 traveling around the South with Lydia. In February 1865, General Lee convinced Davis to recall Johnston to active service in the disintegrating Confederate Army. Johnston was ordered to assume command of rebel troops in the Carolinas and halt Sherman's advance on Richmond, but no Southern army was capable of stopping the Union forces as they rolled across the Confederacy.

From February to April 1865 Johnston led the remnants of the Army of Tennessee to North Carolina, where he successfully blocked his old antagonist Sherman from combining forces with Grant against Lee. On March 19, 1865, Johnston caught a portion of Sherman's army by surprise at the Battle of Bentonville, and briefly gained some tactical successes before superior numbers forced him to retreat.

But after learning of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House – despite orders to the contrary from Jefferson Davis – Johnston surrendered his army to General Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina, on April 26, 1865.

After the war, Johnston engaged in various pursuits. He was president of a railroad company in Arkansas, and became engaged in the insurance business in 1868 and 1869. He wrote an analysis of his activities in the Civil War, Narrative of Military Operations, published in 1874, in which he was highly critical of President Jefferson Davis and many of his fellow generals.

He returned to Virginia and settled in Richmond in 1877, and became president of an express company. Johnston served in the 46th Congress from 1879 to 1881 as a Democratic Congressman from Virginia, and was appointed Commissioner of Railroads by President Grover Cleveland in 1887 and served until 1891.

Lydia McLane Johnston died February 22, 1887, in Washington, DC, and was buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

Like Robert E. Lee, Johnston never forgot the man he surrendered to at the end of the Civil War, and would not allow an unkind word to be said about General William Tecumseh Sherman – once his adversary, now his friend – in his presence.

When Sherman died, Johnston was a pallbearer at his funeral; during the procession in New York City on February 19, 1891, he kept his hat off as a sign of respect, though it was a cold winter day. Someone asked him to put on his hat, to which Johnston replied, "If I were in his place and he standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat." He had done the same for Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan. Johnston contracted pneumonia after the funeral, and his strength gradually failed.

Lydia and Joseph E. Johnston Gravesite

General Joseph E. Johnston died of a heart attack on March 21, 1891, in Washington DC, at the age of 84. He was the last of the great leaders of the Civil War, both Federal and Confederate, with the exception of Beauregard. He was buried beside his wife in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

SOURCES
Joseph E. Johnston
Maryland Historical Society
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
General Joseph E. Johnston
Wikipedia: Joseph E. Johnston
Joseph E. Johnston 1807 – 1891
Biography of Joseph E. Johnston
General Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Boyhood Home of General Joseph E. Johnston
Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Mary Theodosia Palmer Banks

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Wife of Union General Nathaniel Prentice Banks

On April 11, 1847, Mary Theodosia Palmer of Providence, Rhode Island, married Nathaniel Banks, after a lengthy courtship. They had one son and two daughters together. She served as the first lady of Massachusetts when her husband was the governor (1858-1861).

Nathaniel Prentice Banks was born at Waltham, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1816, the son of a foreman at a Waltham textile mill. Until the age of 14, he attended a one–room school run by his father’s company, and then began working at the mill as a bobbin boy. He also assisted his father in making furniture, and after a few years apprenticed with a mechanic.

Mary Theodosia Palmer Banks
Her dress has three rows of ruffles along the bottom. It has a slight train in the back. Over the dress is a coat with large pagoda sleeves. Along the wrist and sleeve of the coat is lace. A large piece of lace is also decorating the front of the coat. In her hands she holds a closed umbrella. Her hair is split down the middle and pulled back. She is wearing a bonnet on her head.

Banks read widely, attended lectures in Boston given by public figures such as Daniel Webster, participated in a drama club, organized a dancing school, and joined a temperance society. Around the same time, he was also responsible for editing several weekly newspapers and a paper for the factory in which he worked.

While still working at the factory, Banks was also studying law; he was admitted to the bar at 23 years of age, but soon abandoned an unsuccessful law practice in Boston. He also started a debating society, and his energy and his ability to captivate audiences as a public speaker would serve him well later in life.

Political Life
Banks entered politics during the campaign of 1840, speaking locally for the Democratic Party and editing the Lowell Democrat. When the newspaper folded the next year, he established the Middlesex Reporter in Waltham, but that closed in 1842. Another foray into editing also ended with the failure of the publication, the Rumford Journal (1851–1852).

Banks ran unsuccessfully for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1844 and 1847, before winning the first of four consecutive one–year terms in 1848 (serving 1849–1852). On federal issues, he supported low tariffs and territorial expansion. While remaining publicly cautious on the slavery question, he developed close ties with Free Soilers, and was elected by a Democratic–Free Soil coalition as Speaker of the Massachusetts House for the 1851 and 1852 sessions.

In 1852, Banks was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives by a slim margin, with Free Soil support but some opposition from his own party. In Congress, he condemned the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which opened those territories to slavery, and broke with the presidential administration of Democrat Franklin Pierce.

Banks joined the American Party (Know Nothings) and was reelected to Congress in 1854 by a coalition of the Know–Nothings, Free Soil Whigs, and other Democrats opposed to the Kansas–Nebraska Act. At the opening of the Thirty-Fourth Congress the anti-Nebraska men gradually united in supporting Banks for speaker, and after one of the bitterest contests in the history of Congress – lasting from December 3, 1855, until February 2, 1856 – he was elected Speaker of the House by three votes on the 133rd ballot. As speaker, he distributed committee positions proportionally among the parties and impressed fellow congressmen with his aptitude for the position.

In 1856, Banks joined the new Republican Party, supporting its unsuccessful presidential nominee, John C. Fremont, and winning reelection to Congress as a Republican. This has been called the first national victory of the Republican party.

Banks resigned his seat in December 1857, and was governor of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1861, a period marked by notable reforms. He supported public education, penal reform, a reduction of the waiting period for naturalized citizens before they could vote – from 14 years to two – and cuts in expenditures during the economic depression that followed the financial panic of 1857. He vetoed a bill allowing black men to serve in the state militia.

In 1860, Banks received a few votes for the Republican vice presidential nomination, which went to Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. In early 1861, he relocated his family to Chicago, where he succeeded George B. McClellan as president of the Illinois Central railway.

Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, United States Army
Photographed by Matthew Brady

The Civil War
Although as governor he had been a strong advocate of peace, he was one of the earliest to offer his services to President Abraham Lincoln, who appointed him major general of volunteers on May 16, 1861. Banks was one of the most prominent of the volunteer officers. He was first assigned to Annapolis, Maryland, first as division commander and then as department commander, and was an important part of the effort to keep Maryland, a slave state, in the Union.

Unfortunately, Banks had no military experience, but shared the qualities of many political generals. He had courage, but was short on talent; he was a model soldier except in the fields of intuition and training. His heavy mustache and well-groomed appearance complemented his tall, thin frame. It was said that he had the air of one used to being in command.

Shenandoah Valley Campaign
When General George B. McClellan entered upon his Peninsular Campaign (March - July 1862), the important duty of defending Washington DC from the army of Stonewall Jackson fell to the corps commanded by Banks. In the spring, Banks was ordered to move against Thomas Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley.

With 38,000 men, Banks committed himself to driving Jackson from the valley in the hopes of linking up with McClellan and his coming advance on Richmond, the Confederate seat of government. But Jackson, with superior forces, defeated him at Winchester on May 25, and forced him back to the Potomac River. By early June, Jackson had driven Union forces from the Valley. He captured such a large amount of supplies left by the fleeing Union troops that the Confederates nicknamed the Union commander, Commissary Banks.

After that military failure, he was subordinated to Union General John Pope. As commander of the Army of Virginia's 2nd Corps (June – September 1862), Banks was again defeated by Jackson at Cedar Mountain (August 9), where the Union suffered heavy casualties, and Banks didn't perform well at Second Bull Run (Manassas). His decisions at Cedar Mountain were investigated by the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War.

Department of the Gulf
Banks briefly commanded the Military District of Washington, DC (September – October 1862), before President Lincoln selected him to replace General Benjamin Butler as commander of the Department of the Gulf (December 1862 – September 1864). Headquartered in Union–occupied New Orleans, Banks released political prisoners, eased trade restrictions, introduced a system of sharecropping between former slaves and masters, and implemented other changes aimed at appeasing the residents. He also organized several regiments of black Union soldiers, the Corps d'Afrique.

Militarily, Banks continued to perform poorly. Under orders to ascend the Mississippi River and join forces with General Ulysses S. Grant, who was then trying to capture Vicksburg, Banks first pushed a Confederate force up the Teche Bayou and marched to Alexandria, Louisiana, hauling off slaves, cotton, and cattle from a rich agricultural area.

Nathaniel Banks was told that when he united his army with Grant's, he would assume command of both. Banks, then, had the opportunity to become the leading general in the West – perhaps the most important general in the war. But he squandered what successes he had, never rendezvoused with Grant's army, and ultimately orchestrated some of the greatest military blunders of the war.

Because Banks had concentrated on political matters in his first six months as commander of the Department of the Gulf, his attack on Port Hudson was delayed and uncoordinated with the plans of General Grant. Assaults on May 27 and June 14, 1863, resulted in large numbers of Union casualties, but Port Hudson surrendered on July 9, after notification that Vicksburg had fallen to Grant. The entire Mississippi River was then under Union control. Banks received the official Thanks of Congress for Port Hudson, although credit was really due to Grant.

In the autumn of 1863, at the government's direction, Banks organized a number of expeditions to Texas, chiefly for the purpose of preventing the French in Mexico from aiding the Confederates, and to secure stores of cotton, and to restore a Unionist government to the state. He planned a quick thrust at the mouth of the Sabine River, then an overland move upon Houston and Galveston. The invasion resulted in a Union disaster at the Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863.

Six weeks later, Banks left New Orleans with twenty-three ships and landed an invasion force at Brazos Santiago, near the mouth of the Rio Grande, on November 2, 1863. Union troops soon occupied nearby Brownsville, Texas, and began to drive northward along the coast and up the Rio Grande to shut off the trade coming through the Confederacy's back door. Banks returned to New Orleans just one month after the landing at Brazos Santiago, pressed by his superiors to invade East Texas by way of the Red River.

Major General Nathaniel Prentice Banks
Statue of Nathaniel Prentice Banks at Waltham, Massachusetts
Sculpted by H. H. Kitson; dedicated 1908

Red River Campaign
The Red River Campaign consisted of a series of battles fought along the Red River in Louisiana during the from March 10 to May 22, 1864. The campaign was fought between the 30,000 Union troops under the command of Major General Banks and Confederate troops under the command of General Richard Taylor (son of former President Zachary Taylor), whose strength varied from 6,000 to 12,000.

Banks disagreed with the plan, hoping instead to mount an expedition to capture Galveston, but the movement was ordered by Chief of Staff Henry Halleck. Halleck's plan was approved by President Lincoln, and General Banks went ahead with it under official protest.

Banks' Army was routed at the Battle of Mansfield, and retreated twenty miles to make a stand the next day at the Battle of Pleasant Hill. They continued the retreat to Alexandria, where they rejoined with part of the Federal Inland Fleet. That naval force under David Porter had joined the Red River Campaign intending to take on cotton as lucrative prizes of war, and Banks had allowed rich speculators to come along for the gathering of cotton.

Banks was dependent on Porter's fleet to continue his retreat, but the fleet was trapped above the falls at Alexandria due to dangerously low water levels on the river that supplied the army. Banks approved a plan to build wing dams as a means to raise what little water was left in the channel. In ten days, 10,000 troops under fire built two dams, and managed to rescue Porter's fleet and Banks' army.

The failure of the campaign effectively ended Banks' military career. When he arrived near the Mississippi, was met by General Edward Canby, who replaced him as the field commander of the Army of the Gulf on the spot.

President Lincoln ordered Banks to return to Washington, DC, to lobby for the president's Reconstruction program. Banks again appeared before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War to defend his role in the Red River Campaign. The controversy surrounding profits from cotton confiscated during the campaign dogged his later political career. Admiral Porter realized a substantial sum of money during the campaign from the sale of cotton.

The secret presidential investigating commission headed by conservative Democrats William Farrar Smith and James T. Brady in early 1865 devoted considerable effort to trying to connect Banks with vice and irregular trading permits in the New Orleans area. The somewhat one-sided final commission report, which did not specifically accuse him of wrongdoing, was never released.

Following Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Banks again served briefly as commander of the Department of the Gulf (April – June 1865) before being mustered out of the U. S. Army on August 24, 1865. Congress later awarded him a $1,200 annual pension.

In late 1865, Banks was elected as a Republican from Massachusetts to fill a vacant seat in Congress. As chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (1865–1873), Banks criticized the British for refitting Confederate ships during the Civil War, voted for the purchase of Alaska from Russia, but failed to gain passage of a resolution allowing the president to establish Haiti and Santo Domingo (today, the Dominican Republic) as U.S. protectorates.

In July 1872, upset with President Ulysses S. Grant over administration scandals, Banks announced his support of challenger Horace Greeley, the presidential nominee of the Liberal Republican and Democratic Parties. The endorsement cost Banks his congressional seat that fall, but the next year he was elected as an independent to the Massachusetts Senate, where he supported labor reform and women's suffrage.

In 1874, running as an independent, Banks was returned to Congress, and two years later won reelection as a Republican. He served as U.S. marshal of Boston from 1878 until resigning in 1888, while under investigation for the misuse of funds.

Banks was reelected to Congress in 1888, although he was showing signs of dementia. After failing to win nomination in 1890, he retired from public service. He spent his last years at home with his family, plagued by what is assumed to be Alzheimer's disease.

Nathaniel Prentice Banks died at Waltham, Massachusetts, on September 1, 1894, at the age of 78. He was survived by a son and two daughters.

SOURCES
Nathaniel P. Banks
Red River Campaign
Nathaniel Prentice Banks
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Handbook of Texas Online
Governors of Massachusetts
Wikipedia: Nathaniel Prentice Banks
Nathaniel Prentice Banks (1816 – 1894)
King of Louisiana, 1862-1865, and Other Government Work

Caroline Deslonde Beauregard

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:07:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born on May 28, 1818, at his family's plantation home, Contreras, in St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans, Louisiana. His parents were Creole planter Jacques Toutant Beauregard and Helene Judith de Reggio Beauregard. Beginning at age eight, Gustave (as he was called in his youth) attended three years at a private academy in New Orleans. At the age of 12, he was sent to a French boarding school in New York City for four years, where he first learned to speak English.

Gustave received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point at the age of 16, and graduated second in his class in 1838, which also included his future Bull Run opponent, Irvin McDowell. While at the academy, his artillery instructor was Robert Anderson, whom he would later face during the Civil War at Fort Sumter. His great admiration of the French leader Bonaparte earned him the nickname Little Napoleon from his classmates.

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Beauregard was commissioned a second lieutenant with the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1838, he assisted in the construction of Fort Adams on Brenton's Point at Newport, Rhode Island. In 1839, he was advanced to first lieutenant and assigned to build coastal defenses in Florida, before being transferred to Louisiana the next year.

From 1840 to 1844, he was involved in two major engineering projects at the passes of the Mississippi River and in the construction of Fort Livingston on Grand Terre Island at Barataria Bay. He was also posted to Pensacola, Florida, and later in 1844-45, at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.

During the Mexican War (1846~1848), Beauregard served under the command of General Winfield Scott. He was involved in the construction of defenses at Tampico, Mexico. During the siege of Vera Cruz, he was instrumental in the placement of artillery batteries, which helped to bring the operation to a successful conclusion. He continued to see action at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Chapultepec, and finally Mexico City, where he was twice wounded. Shortly afterward, Beauregard received the brevet rank of Major. With the war's end, Beauregard returned to peacetime duties in the United States.

In September 1841, Beauregard had married Marie Antoinette Laure Villere, the daughter of Jules Villere, a sugar planter in Plaquemines Parish, and a member of one of the most prominent Creole families in southern Louisiana. The couple had three children: René, Henri, and Laure. Marie died in March 1850, while giving birth to Laure.

After fourteen years of continuous service at the rank of Lieutenant, Beauregard attained the rank of Captain on March 3, 1853. He once again saw army engineer duty in Louisiana, correcting navigational problems on the Mississippi River, and overseeing construction of Fort Proctor east of New Orleans on the banks of Lake Borgne. Beauregard also supervised the repair of the fortifications in Mobile Bay and along the lower Mississippi River, updated the levee system, and stabilized the Federal Customs House which was near collapse due to settlement of the soft Louisiana soil. He received the rank of captain on March 3, 1853, and served as chief engineer for the draining of New Orleans in 1858–1861.

In 1860, the widower Beauregard married Caroline Deslonde, the daughter of André Deslonde, a sugar planter from St. James Parish. Her family had a substantial plantation at Belle Pointe, Laplace, Louisiana, in what is now St. John The Baptist Parish. They also had a home on Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, known as Stalian Hall. The newlyweds honeymooned briefly in what is today called the Beauregard-Keyes House at 1113 Chartres Street.

Beauregard-Keyes House
In the French Quarter of New Orleans

Caroline's sister, Mathilde Deslonde married John Slidell, a US Senator from Louisiana. Both men served important roles in the Confederacy, Beauregard the famous general and Slidell the US Senator from Louisiana, and later am important Confederate diplomat.

On January 23, 1861, P.G.T. Beauregard was appointed Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The secessionist debate had reached critical mass by this point and Beauregard's pro-Southern leanings were the probable cause for his prompt removal from this posting on January 28, 1861, giving him the shortest tenure as Superintendent in West Point history.

A few days later, his brother-in-law Senator John Slidell made an impassioned secession speech. On January 26, Louisiana withdrew from the Union, prompting Beauregard to resign his commission on February 20, 1861, thus ending his career as a United States military officer. Beauregard returned home to Louisiana and joined the Orleans Guards, a volunteer unit composed of elite Creole gentlemen of New Orleans, with the rank of Private.

Shortly thereafter, he was offered command of all artillery and engineering units in the Louisiana State forces with the rank of Colonel. Braxton Bragg had been given command of all state forces with the rank of Brigadier General. Insulted, Beauregard promptly refused. At the request of Governor Thomas Overton Moore, however, he made recommendations for strengthening the lower Mississippi River defenses at Forts Jackson and St. Philip.

In April 1861, General P.G.T. Beauregard was placed in command at Charleston, SC. He fired the first shot at Fort Sumter in South Carolina – where his former artillery instructor at West Point, Major Richard Anderson, was in command. Beauregard led the attack on Fort Sumter and accepted its surrender on April 12, starting the Civil War.

Offering his services to the fledgling Confederacy, Beauregard found himself placed in command of the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, with the rank of Brigadier General. The Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, located in Charleston Harbor, was soon to be provisioned. Beauregard found himself facing his old artillery instructor, Major Robert Anderson, who now commanded the garrison at Fort Sumter. Anderson refused the demand to surrender, causing his former student to begin a 36-hour bombardment. Fort Sumter was surrendered to Confederate forces on April 14, 1861, and the Little Napoleon became a household name throughout the South.

After Fort Sumter was evacuated, Beauregard was immediately ordered to Virginia, and he received a hero's welcome at each of the railroad stations along the route. He was given command of the Alexandria Line of defenses against an impending Federal offensive that was being organized by Union General Irvin McDowell (one of Beauregard's West Point classmates) against the Confederate railroad junction at Manassas.

Beauregard devised strategies to concentrate the forces of full General Joseph E. Johnston with his own to initiate an offensive against McDowell. Despite his seniority in rank, Johnston acquiesced to Beauregard's plan that essentially gave the Creole control of the impending battle. Though placed under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, at the eleventh hour, Beauregard was instrumental in the Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) on July 21, 1861. As Johnston's final troops arrived from the Shenandoah Valley, the Confederates launched a counterattack that routed the Union Army, sending it streaming back toward Washington in disorder.

Beauregard (and Johnston) criticized Confederate President Jefferson Davis for lack of supplies that hindered a push onward to Washington. And Beauregard enraged Davis when his report about Bull Run was printed in the newspaper, which suggested that Davis's interference with Beauregard's plans prevented the pursuit and full destruction of McDowell's army.

This was the first of several future conflicts with Davis, who considered many of Beauregard's battle plans too complicated for an army as inexperienced as the Confederates were in 1861. Throughout the war, Davis and Beauregard would argue about Beauregard's tendencies to devise grand strategies based on formal military principles, but with little regard to logistics, intelligence, relative military strengths, and politics.

Beauregard, the more romantic figure, received the bulk of the acclaim for the victory at Bull Run from the press and the general public. On July 23, General Johnston recommended to President Davis that Beauregard be promoted to full general, and Davis approved.

Beauregard remained as second-in-command of the Army of Northern Virginia under Joseph E. Johnston through January 29, 1862, when he was sent west to serve as second-in-command of the Army of the Mississippi under General Albert Sidney Johnston (no relation to Joseph E. Johnston), effective March 14, 1862.

The two generals planned the concentration of Confederate forces to oppose the advance of Major General Ulysses S. Grant before he could combine his army with that of Major General Don Carlos Buell in a thrust up the Tennessee River toward Corinth, MS. In the Battle of Shiloh, which began April 6, 1862, the Confederates launched a surprise attack against Grant's army and nearly defeated it. Once again, a more senior general named Johnston deferred to the junior Beauregard in planning the attack.

The massive frontal assault was marred by Beauregard's improper organization of forces caused intermingling of units and confusion of command, and failed to concentrate mass at the appropriate place on the line to affect the overall objectives of the attack. In midafternoon, General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was near the front of the battle action, was mortally wounded. Beauregard, positioned in the rear of the army to send reinforcements forward, assumed command. As darkness fell, he chose to call off the attack against Grant's final defensive line, which had contracted into a tight semicircle with their backs to the Tennessee River at Pittsburg Landing.

General P.G.T. Beauregard Monument
The General Beauregard Equestrian Statue, standing within a circular plot situated at the foot of Esplanade Avenue between Bayou St. John and the entrance to New Orleans City Park, was built in stages, with the base being dedicated on May 28, 1913 and the statue on November 11, 1915. Alexander Boyle's bronze statue depicts the Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard astride a prancing horse. The entire ensemble stands a total of 27 feet in height. The dark gray granite base is 10 feet tall, rising from a one-foot foundation. The statue is 16 feet tall.

Beauregard's decision was one of the most controversial of the Civil War and many have wondered what might have happened if the assault had gone forward into the night. Beauregard assumed that the battle was essentially won and his men could finish off Grant in the morning. Furthermore, the terrain to be crossed (a steep ravine containing a creek) was extremely difficult, and Grant's defensive line was heavy with massed artillery.

Unbeknownst to Beauregard, Buell's Army of the Ohio arrived during the night, and he and Grant launched a massive counterattack on April 7, in a surprise rout that produced 23,000 casualties. Overwhelmed, the Confederates retreated to Corinth. Later, Union troops approached Beauregard's fortifications, and he withdrew from Corinth on May 29 to Tupelo, MS, because contaminated water supply in Corinth were causing significant casualties in his army.

And when Beauregard went on medical leave from his army without requesting permission in advance, President Davis relieved him of command on June 27, 1862, replacing him with General Braxton Bragg. At Beauregard's request, his allies in the Confederate Congress petitioned President Davis to restore his command in the West, but Davis remained angry at Beauregard's unauthorized absence. Beauregard's career suffered greatly.

In August 1862, Beauregard was ordered to Charleston and took command of coastal defenses in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He wasn't happy with his new assignment, believing that he deserved command of one of the great Confederate field armies, but he defended against the formidable siege of Charleston by Union naval and ground forces. He held this post through April of 1864.

Caroline Deslonde Beauregard died on March 2, 1864. They had no children together. While visiting his forces in Florida, Beauregard received a telegram telling him of her death. She had been left behind in Union-occupied New Orleans and had been seriously ill for a period of two years. Beauregard also lost a much loved daughter in childbirth, followed shortly by the death of his young grandchild.

A Northern-leaning newspaper in New Orleans printed the opinion that Mrs. Beauregard's condition had been exacerbated by the traitorous actions of her husband. This so fanned negative popular opinion in New Orleans that 6000 people attended her funeral, and Union General Nathaniel Banks provided a steamer to carry her body up river for burial in her native parish. Beauregard wrote that he would like to rescue "her hallowed grave" at the head of an army.

On April 23, 1864, Beauregard was given command of the Department of North Carolina, to which he added the designation "and Southern Virginia." In mid–May at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, Beauregard halted Union General Benjamin Butler’s advance up the James River toward Richmond. Beauregard's forces defeated Butler's troops on May 16 at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, and bottled them up on a narrow neck of land between the James and Appomattox Rivers at the Bermuda Hundred lines.

With the arrival of General Ulysses S. Grant to reinforce Butler, Beauregard was forced to withdraw in the face of superior numbers and focus on the protection of Petersburg, Virginia. The arrival of General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia relegated him to secondary status for the remainder of the siege of Petersburg.

Beauregard served under Lee until September of 1864, when he took command of the Military Division of the West, which included two armies under Generals Richard Taylor and John Bell Hood, in Alabama and Georgia respectively. In October 1864, Beauregard went to North Carolina, where he united with General Joseph E. Johnson to resist the march of General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Sherman's March to the Sea in late 1864 played havoc with Beauregard's command. As his forces retreated northward into the Carolinas, he was made second-in-command of the Army of Tennessee on March 16, 1865, under General Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston and Beauregard surrendered their forces to Sherman on April 26, 1865.

After the collapse of the Confederacy, Beauregard returned to New Orleans and took the oath of allegiance to the United States. Though he applied for a Presidential pardon, it would be three years before one was granted. Legislation lifting all restrictions on former Confederate officers did not pass until 1876.

Rear Gardens at Beauregard-Keyes House

General Beauregard, beaten down by both war and peace, moved in the home at 1113 Chartres Street – where he and Caroline had spent their honeymoon in 1860 – for 18 months, between 1866 and 1868, while he searched for work.

Beauregard became involved in promotion of railroads, both as a company director and a consulting engineer. He was the president of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Mississippi Railroad from 1865 to 1870, and president of the New Orleans and Carrollton Street Railway from 1866 to 1876, for which he invented a system of cable-powered street railway cars.

General Beauregard spoke out in favor of civil rights and voting for the recently freed slaves. During the summer of 1873, the Reform Party, led by Beauregard and others who had fought for the Confederacy, brought forth a proposal for unification of the people with equal power sharing between whites and blacks with each race filling its quota for public office. Republicans rejected it because blacks didn't trust their former masters. Democrats rejected it because they thought the concept of equal rights for blacks was an absurdity.

Beauregard served in the government of the State of Louisiana, first as Adjutant General for the state militia from 1878 to 1888, and then less successfully as manager of the Louisiana Lottery. Though considered personally honest, he failed to reform corruption in the lottery. He was named the New Orleans commissioner of public works in 1888, and published A Commentary on the Campaign and Battle of Manassas in 1891.

General P.G.T. Beauregard, the Great Creole, died in New Orleans on February 20, 1893, at the age of 74, and was buried at Metairie Cemetery.

SOURCES
P.G.T. Beauregard
P. G. T. Beauregard
Wikipedia: P.G.T. Beauregard
Le Vieux Carré et Paul Morphy
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard Biography
General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard 1818 – 1893

Mary Richmond Bishop Burnside

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:13:00 +0000

Wife of Union General Ambrose Burnside

Mary Richmond Bishop was the daughter of Nathaniel and Fanny Windsor Bishop of Bristol, Rhode Island. Her father was a Rhode Island Militia Major. Mary was described as somewhat religious, a rather tall, and a stately young woman, who conveyed a courtly presence.

Ambrose Everett Burnside was born in Liberty, Indiana on May 23, 1824, the son of a South Carolina slaveowner who had freed his slaves and moved his family to Indiana. At the age of 19, Burnside, through his father's political connections was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1847, ranked 18 out of 38 in his class, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Artillery.

He was appointed to an artillery unit in the Mexican-American War. He arrived too late to see any action, but continued to serve with the Artillery in the newly acquired territories in the Southwestern United States. Official Army documents record that Burnside was wounded by an arrow in his neck during a skirmish against Apaches in Las Vegas, New Mexico, but saw no other action under fire.

Mary Bishop Burnside

In 1852, Burnside was appointed to the command of Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island. He met Miss Mary Bishop one evening at a Militia Ball held at the Old Armory in Providence, during his first visit to that city. But Burnside was soon ordered to return to the far western frontier to serve again in the Apache Wars, which interrupted their romance, but he soon returned to Rhode Island.

Ambrose Burnside married Mary Richmond Bishop on April 27, 1852. Although Mary dearly loved children and favored two nieces in the Burnside family, Ambrose and Mary had no children of their own.

While serving on the plains, Burnside became dissatisfied with the standard army carbine. In November 1852, Burnside resigned his commission in the US Army, but kept a position in the state militia. He took up permanent residence in Rhode Island, and devoted his time and energy to designing and patenting a breech-loading rifle that bears his name, the Burnside Carbine. The carbine used a special brass cartridge, also invented by Burnside.

With a working model, Burnside established his first company, Burnside & Bishop, which was destroyed by fire in late 1853. With the insurance money, he then formed the Bristol Firearms Company in January 1854 in Bristol, Rhode Island. Mary's family invested heavily in his venture, and Burnside was able to acquire the services of a respected Massachusetts gunsmith, George P. Foster, during the infancy stage of his corporate development.

In August, 1857, a board of army officers reported favorably upon the Burnside breechloader. The Secretary of War under President James Buchanan, John B. Floyd, contracted with the Bristol Firearms Company to equip a large portion of the Army with his carbine, and induced Burnside to establish a factory for its manufacture, which was established as the Bristol Rifle Works.

The works were no sooner complete than another gun maker allegedly bribed Floyd to break his $100,000 contract with Burnside. At that same time, Burnside ran as a Democrat for one of the Congressional seats in Rhode Island in 1858, and was defeated in a landslide. The burdens of the campaign contributed to his financial ruin. During the Civil War, the Burnside Carbine came into its own. More than 55,000 rifles were produced for the US Army from 1857 to 1865, and it was the third most used carbine utilized by the Union cavalry.

Burnside was forced into bankruptcy and had to hand over his rights in the company to his creditors. He pledged all of his personal property to the liquidation of his debts, and by practicing strict economy, Burnside eventually paid every obligation. He got a job in Chicago under future Union General George B. McClellan, then vice-president of the Illinois Central Railroad, where Burnside became treasurer. Burnside’s connection with the Illinois Central continued for the rest of his life. After the war he was one of many ex-Generals to be appointed to the boards of railway companies.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Burnside was a Brigadier General in the Rhode Island Militia. He raised a regiment, the First Rhode Island, and was appointed its Colonel on May 2, 1861. Within a month, he ascended to brigade command in the Department of Northeast Virginia. He inexpertly commanded the brigade at the Battle of First Bull Run, and was promoted to Brigadier General in the Union Army.

Burnside began to work on a plan to seize parts of the southern coastline that would involve a force 12,000 to 15,000 strong, recruited from coastal areas of New England. This force would descend on lightly defended parts of the coast, seize strategically located places, and gain control of the coastal waters of the Confederacy. McClellan approved of the plan, with Burnside commanding the new North Carolina Expeditionary Corps – three brigades assembled at Annapolis, MD – and the Department of North Carolina from September 1861 until July 1862.

By the start of 1862, Burnside was ready to move. He conducted a successful amphibious campaign that closed over 80% of the North Carolina seacoast to Confederate shipping for the remainder of the war. For his successes at the battles of Roanoke Island, New Bern, Beaufort, and Fort Macon – the first significant Union victories in the Eastern Theater – Burnside was promoted to major general on March 18, 1862.

Major General Ambrose Burnside
Burnside was a tall and handsome man of soldierly bearing, with charming manners, which won for him many friends and admirers.

Following McClellan's failure in the Peninsula Campaign, March through August 1862, Burnside was offered command of the Army of the Potomac. Refusing this opportunity, in part due to his loyalty to McClellan, he detached part of his corps in support of Major General John Pope's Army of Virginia in the Northern Virginia Campaign. Again offered command following the debacle at Second Bull Run, in that campaign, he again declined. Confident in his ability to command smaller armies, Burnside was not so confident that he could carry the burden of commanding the main army of the Union.

Burnside was given command of the Right Wing of the Army of the Potomac (the I and IX Corps) during the Maryland Campaign. He fought at South Mountain and then at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, where his two corps were placed on opposite ends of the Union battle line. He nonetheless remained in wing command over the IX Corps — a cumbersome arrangement that may explain his slowness in attacking and crossing what is now called Burnside Bridge. The delay allowed Confederate Lt. General A. P. Hill's Confederate division to come up from Harpers Ferry and repulse the Union breakthrough.

McClellan was removed after failing to pursue General Robert E. Lee's retreat from Antietam, and despite his relatively poor performance at Antietam, when Lincoln returned to his search for a new commander for the Army of the Potomac, it was Burnside he turned to. Although he still felt that he wasn't capable of performing the job, Burnside reluctantly accepted the role, possibly because the most likely alternative was General Hooker, whom Burnside considered even less suited for high command. On November 10, 1862, General Ambrose Burnside replaced General McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac.

President Abraham Lincoln pressured Burnside to take aggressive action and on November 14, 1862, approved his plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Burnside's plan was sound. He would march the Army of the Potomac to Fredericksburg, cross the river on pontoon boats before Lee's widely separated Confederate forces could unite to stop him, and attempt to capture Richmond. When the army reached Fredericksburg on November 17, there were very few Confederates on the opposite bank. There were also no pontoon boats. By the time they arrived, so had the Confederates.

On December 13, 1862, Burnside launched a frontal assault on strong Confederate defenses on the hills above Fredericksburg, and was repulsed with heavy losses. The Battle of Fredericksburg was a humiliating and costly defeat for the Union. His lack of resolution led to his losing the battle, in addition to disappointing Lincoln and injuring the army's morale. Accepting full blame for the loss, Burnside offered to retire from the army, but this was refused.

In January 1863, in an attempt to make up for Fredericksburg, General Burnside decided to cross the Rappahannock River and attack the Confederates from behind. As the troops began moving, it began raining heavily, with strong winds. By the end of the day, the march across the river was a muddy, disorganized mess, which was later called Burnside's Mud March. In its wake, he asked that several officers be relieved of duty and court-martialed, and he also offered to resign. Lincoln accepted his resignation, and on January 26, replaced him with Major General Joseph Hooker.

But President Lincoln was unwilling to lose Burnside completely. Unlike many failed generals, Burnside made it clear that he didn't consider himself suited to command at the highest level. In March 1863, Lincoln sent Burnside to Kentucky as commander of the Department of the Ohio, with orders to move into East Tennessee, where the population was strongly pro-Union. His advance was to be timed to coincide with Union General William Rosecrans' attack on Chattanooga, further to the south. After lengthy delays in front of Chattanooga, General Rosecrans finally made his move in August 1863.

In the Knoxville Campaign, Burnside's expedition progressed well. He captured Knoxville, the main city in East Tennessee, on September 2. One week later he captured the main Confederate army in East Tennessee at Cumberland Gap. Believing that he had achieved what he had been appointed to do, Burnside once again attempted to resign, but his resignation was refused.

After General Rosecrans was defeated at the Battle of Chickamauga, Burnside's command was in serious danger of attack. In the middle of November, that danger was realized when a major expedition under Confederate General James Longstreet was detached from the siege of Chattanooga with orders to recapture Knoxville and East Tennessee. Burnside skillfully outmaneuvered Longstreet and was able to reach his entrenchments and safety in Knoxville, where he was besieged, but Longstreet withdrew, eventually returning to Virginia.

Equestrian Monument to General Ambrose Burnside
Burnside Park, Providence, RI

Burnside was rewarded for his skilful performance at Knoxville with command of the IX Corps. After a period of reorganization in Maryland, that corps joined General Grant for the Overland Campaign. They fought at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Bethesda Church, where Burnside performed in a mediocre manner, appearing reluctant to commit his troops to frontal assaults after his Fredericksburg experience. After Cold Harbor, Burnside took his place in the siege lines at Petersburg, Virginia, in July 1864.

Trench Warfare at Petersburg
At Petersburg, Burnside agreed to a plan suggested by a regiment of Pennsylvania coal miners in his corps: to dig a mine under a fort in the Confederate entrenchments and ignite explosives there to achieve a surprise breakthrough. Only hours before the infantry attack, General George Meade decided it was too dangerous for Burnside to use his division of black troops, who had been specially trained for this mission.

Burnside couldn't decide who to send in their place, so he had his three subordinate commanders draw lots. The division chosen by chance was that commanded by Brigadier General James H. Ledlie – Burnside's worst division. Instead of going around the huge crater created by the blast, Ledlie's men marched into it, became trapped, and were subjected to murderous fire from Confederates around the rim, resulting in high casualties. Ledlie was reported to be drunk, and well behind the lines during the battle.

General George Meade blamed Burnside for the fiasco at the Crater, and Burnside was relieved of command on August 14 and placed on leave. A court of inquiry was convened in August, finally ending on September 9, after seventeen days. The court criticized Burnside for 'failure to comply with orders and to apply military principles,' but was satisfied that Burnside believed that he had taken the correct actions before the attack. Four other officers were also criticized. Even Grant was (indirectly) criticized, for failure to appoint a single officer to command all troops taking part in the operation.

In December, 1864, Burnside met with President Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant about his future. He was contemplating resignation, but Lincoln and Grant requested that he remain in the Army. He was never recalled to duty, and finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865.

The Burnside House
The distinctively designed Burnside House is made of red-orange brick with a mansard roof. Overall the style of the house is very eclectic and gives an innovative solution to its steep lot. It was finished in 1867 with an estimated total cost of $75,000, and was referred to as "one of the finest modern houses in Providence." General Burnside inhabited the house until his death in 1881.

After the war, Ambrose Burnside had successful business and political careers, serving as a director of the Illinois Central Railroad, and as president of several other railroad companies, including the Cincinnati & Martinsville Railroad, the Indianapolis & Vincennes Railroad, and the Rhode Locomotive Works.

Burnside was elected to three one-year terms as Governor of Rhode Island from 1866–1868. He was President of the Veterans' Association of the Grand Army of the Republic. The National Rifle Association chose him as their first president at its inception in 1871.

He was also elected to two six-year terms as US Senator from Rhode Island in 1870 and 1876, which post he held until his death. During his tenure, he served as chairman of Senate Education and Labor Committee, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mary Richmond Bishop Burnside died in 1876.

Major General Ambrose Burnside died very suddenly on September 13, 1881, from neuralgia of the heart at his home in Bristol, R.I. During the funeral ceremonies, he was remembered for his valuable service as a soldier and as a statesman, and in his adopted state, he was the most conspicuous man of his time. He and Mary are buried side by side at Swan Point Cemetery at Providence.

Gravestones of Mary and Ambrose Burnside

Some historians believe that General Burnside has been treated unfairly, not only during his lifetime but throughout written history as well. The traditional view is that he was a poor commander. Those who are inclined to be more charitable toward him ascribe his failures to politics, insubordination, a lack of adequate communication in the field, or at times, just plain bad luck.

Burnside is commonly referred to as Rhode Island's Own in recognition of his years of loyal service to his adopted state. Another of General Burnside's legacies is the term sideburns, which originated from his bushy side-whiskers, joining his ears to his mustache, but with a clean-shaven chin.

SOURCES
Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside
Ambrose Burnside 1824 – 1881
Wikipedia: Ambrose Burnside
Major General Ambrose E. Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside Biography
Ambrose Everett Burnside 1824 – 1881
Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside
Grave of General Ambrose Everett Burnside

Eliza McCardle Johnson

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:06:00 +0000

First Lady of the United States

Eliza McCardle was born October 4, 1810, at Leesburg, Tennessee, the only child of John and Sarah Phillips McCardle. Eliza lost her father when she was still a small child, and was raised by her widowed mother in Greeneville, Tennessee. After her father's death, Eliza McCardle helped her mother make quilts to support themselves. She was rather tall, and had hazel eyes and brown hair.

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808, Andrew Johnson was the younger of two sons born into the Johnson family. His father rescued two or three friends from drowning in 1812, but the effort cost him his health, and he died within a year, leaving his mother Mary to raise Andrew and his brother William. In an effort to provide a trade for her sons, Mary Johnson apprenticed her sons to a tailor in Raleigh when Andrew was fourteen, but Andrew ran away two years later.

Eliza McCardle Johnson

Andrew eventually settled in Greeneville, Tennessee, and established a tailor's shop by nailing a sign over the door stating simply, "A. Johnson, Tailor." Eliza met Andrew Johnson soon after he arrived in Greeneville in September 1826. They immediately liked each other – Eliza was almost 16, and Andrew only 17.

Eliza McCardle married Andrew Johnson May, 17, 1827, at the home of the bride's mother in Greeneville. Mordecai Lincoln, a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln presided over the nuptials. They set up housekeeping in the living quarters in the back of the shop, and both of them were sewing and running the business.

As Andrew became intrigued with political discussions of his customers, he realized he was handicapped by the lack of a good education. Eliza was better educated than Andrew, and she tutored him patiently. She helped him improve his reading, writing, and arithmetic. While he worked in his tailor shop, she often read aloud to him.

Eliza was a handsome woman with a strong nose and a wide mouth. She had brown hair, parted in the middle and blue eyes. She dressed well, but modestly, and in dark colors. Considered modest and retiring, Eliza's personality contrasted sharply with her husband's more aggressive, outgoing nature. With their limited means, her skill at keeping a house and bringing up a family had much to do with Johnson's success.

The Johnsons had three sons and two daughters, all born in Greeneville, Tennessee: Martha (1828-1891), Charles (1830-1863), Mary (1832-1883), Robert (1834-1869), and Andrew Jr. (1852-1879). In August, 1852, at age 42, Eliza gave birth to her fifth child, Andrew, Jr. Soon thereafter she was stricken with what a doctor diagnosed as consumption, now known as tuberculosis. Her face became lined earlier in life than normal due to illness.

Andrew became involved with local politics, and Eliza supported him in his political career. While maintaining his growing tailoring business, Andrew was elected alderman and later mayor of Greeneville. After his election to the state legislature in Nashville in 1835, Eliza stayed at home, taught the children, and managed the family and business finances.

Andrew Johnson rose rapidly serving in the state and national legislatures. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1853 to 1857, and was elected to the United States Senate and served there from October 1857 to March 1862, but Eliza did not join him in Washington.

Despite frequent, lengthy periods of separation while he held political office in Nashville or Washington, DC, the couple were apparently devoted to each other. From a study of Andrew Johnson's letters, there is no doubt of the importance of Eliza's influence on her husband.

Home of President Andrew & Eliza Johnson
Greeneville, Tennessee

Eliza Johnson was a thoroughly conventional mid-19th century woman who, though she showed strength and determination, did not question a woman's role in the larger world. From the start, she had a soothing, calming influence on Andrew's easily ruffled feathers. He had a deep inner sense of insecurity that Eliza fought to bolster. She also sought to strengthen his weaknesses. She had a soft voice that could reach Andrew in his darkest moments, and bring him to a more reflective mood.

As her children grew to adulthood, Eliza took great comfort in Martha and Mary, but her sons were trying to Eliza – sons Charles and Robert suffered from acute alcoholism. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles remained loyal to the Union. While recruiting Tennessee boys for the Union Army, he became the object of an intense Confederate manhunt. He joined the Middle Tennessee Union Infantry as an assistant surgeon; he was thrown from his horse and killed.

Robert served for a time in the Tennessee state legislature. During the Civil War, he was commissioned colonel of the First Tennessee Union Cavalry. He was private secretary to his father during his tenure as president, but died an alcoholic at age 35. Andrew Jr. founded the weekly Greeneville Intelligencer, but it failed after two years. He died soon thereafter at age 27.

Eliza Johnson remained in the background, seen but not often heard. She remained in Greeneville when Andrew was elected to the state legislature and later to the US House of Representatives. But
in 1860, she finally moved to Washington DC to join her husband, who was then a Senator.

When the Civil War broke out the following year, Andrew was loyal to the North. Eliza returned to Tennessee, but as the wife of a notorious Unionist, was harassed and expelled from Greeneville by the Confederates. She stayed with her daughter Mary (Mrs. Daniel) Stover in Carter County until October 1862, when she was forced to leave again. General Nathan Bedford Forrest at first refused to let her through the lines to join her husband, by then military governor of Tennessee in Nashville.

In March, 1863, Johnson urged the Confederates to reconsider and rejoin the union, but they refused, and notified Eliza and her family they would have to leave the state. Pleading illness, she declined to leave. Eventually she would travel to Cincinnati and to Indiana to seek out a spa for her health. Their home in Greeneville was destroyed during the war.

Then in late 1863, the Confederates left Tennessee, and Johnson set up a provisional state government in Nashville, where Eliza joined him. They were still in Nashville when they learned Johnson had been nominated for Vice President to run with President Lincoln, in an attempt to appeal to Southern supporters of the Union.

In late 1864, Eliza traveled to Boston to get medical help for her son Robert, whose drinking was out of control. Andrew Johnson was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket headed by Abraham Lincoln and was inaugurated March 4, 1865.

Eliza was still in Boston when she heard of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, and Andrew asked her to join him in Washington. She was devastated with fear for her husband's safety. Andrew Johnson became President of the United States on April 15, 1865, upon Lincoln's death. He was the first Vice President to succeed to the US Presidency because of an assassination.

President Andrew Johnson

By this time, Eliza Johnson had been ill for many years with tuberculosis. While her health periodically worsened or somewhat improved, she remained an invalid, and generally withdrawn from the public eye. She didn't join Andrew in Washington, DC, until June 1865.

When the Johnson family moved in, they comprised one of largest presidential families to enter the Executive Mansion. There were twelve in all – Martha Patterson, and her Senator husband, their two children, the widowed Mary Stover and her three children, as well as the two Johnson sons, Robert and 13-year-old Andy.

The president's office was directly across the hall from her second-floor bedroom, and she always listened for his voice. Whenever it grew excited or angry, she slowly crossed the hall and admonished him for losing his temper. Her calming influence always proved to be beneficial.

Aside from these visits to the President's office and two public appearances – one at a reception for Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands and the other at a birthday party for her son Andy – Eliza Johnson remained totally out of the public eye. Most of her time was spent reading, knitting, and visiting with family.

Despite her infirmity and her opposition to a public life, Eliza was an important political adviser to President Johnson. She was an avid reader of national newspapers, administration papers, and political journals, and often assisted her husband in preparing his speeches. Eliza may well have influenced his lenient Reconstruction policy regarding former soldiers and the Proclamation of Amnesty.

Eliza steadfastly supported her husband at a time when his administration was under attack and no doubt served as a model and an inspiration to future First Ladies who found themselves in similar situations. She clipped newspaper and magazine articles about the President, and divided them into two parts. Those supporting her husband she gave him in the evening to assure him a pleasant night's sleep, and saved the more critical ones for the morning.

Eliza's oldest daughter, Martha Johnson Patterson, took over the duties of the First Lady. She was a competent, unpretentious, and gracious hostess. Eliza appeared publicly as First Lady on only two occasions - at a reception for Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands in 1866, and at her son Andrew's birthday party in 1867.

Washington and the White House weren't new to Martha. She had attended school in the capital while her father was a congressman, and enjoyed friendships with former First Ladies Sarah Polk and Harriet Lane, who acted as hostess for the only President who never married: James Buchanan. Martha had spent several holidays at the Polk White House.

Frail in health but strong in the face of adversity, Eliza McCardle Johnson was an important presence behind the scenes of the Johnson White House, influencing both her daughter's and her husband's agendas. According to Eliza, while a First Lady's public persona was "all very well for those who like it," she did "not like this public life at all. I often wish the time would come when we could return to where I feel we best belong."

The Johnsons found the presidential mansion in a state of disrepair, after four years of war and a stampede of visitors to President Lincoln's funeral. After her husband's assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln had remained in the White House until early June 1865. While she was bedridden in grief, vandals had free rein to slash carpet and furniture, rip wallpaper, and pilfer art objects and china.

As a result, the drapes and rugs were torn, much of the furniture was dirty and broken, the walls and floors were stained with tobacco juice, and the entire house was infested with insects. Congress granted $30,000 for the remodeling, and Martha remained within her budget, buying new wallpaper, slipcovers for old furniture, and muslin cloth to cover the carpets during receptions. She brought the long-forgotten portraits of former presidents out of storage and hung them on the ground floor.

In 1868, during the height of Andrew Johnson's quarrel with Congress that almost led to his impeachment, Eliza read all the newspapers, clipping out articles that she thought he should read. During those difficult days Eliza held daily prayer vigils for his acquittal and dictated that all White House social events continue as usual.

Martha's husband David Trotter Patterson was an attorney serving as a US Senator from Tennessee. In his father-in-law's impeachment trial provided President Johnson with the one-vote margin by which he escaped being removed from office. "I knew he'd be acquitted; I knew it," Eliza declared when she was told the results of the Senate vote. Her faith in him had never wavered during those difficult days in 1868.

The Johnson's departed from Washington before Grant's inauguration and returned to their home in Greeneville, Tennessee. Eliza had become a complete invalid, and Andrew assumed her care. The last years of her life were quiet.

Andrew ran for the US Senate in 1874 and won, which the Johnsons viewed the election as a vindication of his life and career. Eliza remained in Tennessee as he traveled to Washington to take his seat in 1875. Her health had remained poor, and she was in serious decline by that time.

Andrew Johnson only served a few months of his term. While visiting at his daughter Mary's home at Carter's Station, Tennessee, he suffered a stroke and died on July 31, 1875. He was buried in a private grave on their property, which later reverted to the federal government, and was designated as the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in Greeneville. Eliza was too ill to attend his funeral.

Andrew and Eliza Johnson Grave Marker
Andrew Johnson National Cemetery

Eliza McCardle Johnson died of tuberculosis on January 15, 1876, at age 67, having survived her husband by only six months. She was buried next to him.

SOURCES
Eliza Johnson
Eliza McCardle Johnson
Andrew Johnson 1865-1869
The First Lady From Tennessee
Eliza Johnson, Martha Johnson
Eliza McCardle Johnson 1810-1876
Wikipedia: Eliza McCardle Johnson
First Lady Biography: Eliza Johnson

Charlotte Maria Cross Wigfall

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:53:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General and Senator

Charlotte Maria Cross was born in 1818, and there is no further information about her early years. Louis Trezevant Wigfall was born April 21, 1816, on a plantation near Edgefield, South Carolina, to Levi Durant and Eliza Thomson Wigfall, a well-to-do socially-prominent couple. His father, who died in 1818, was a successful Charleston merchant before moving to Edgefield.

His mother was of the French Huguenot Trezavant family, and died when young Louis was 13. He was reared in a privileged and extremely class-conscious society. He immersed himself in the agrarian culture of the region and devoted himself to preserving and expanding it.

Tutored by a guardian until 1834, Louis then spent a year at Rice Creek Springs School, a military academy near Columbia, South Carolina, for children of elite aristocrats. He attended the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. A perceived insult by another student prompted the first of many dueling challenges he would make.

Charlotte Maria Cross Wigfall

In 1836, he entered South Carolina College to complete his studies, and graduated in 1837. Most of his time was spent at off-campus taverns rather than at his studies. During this time, he abandoned academics altogether for three months to fight in the Seminole War in Florida, achieving the rank of Lieutenant of volunteers.

In 1839, Wigfall was admitted to the bar, and returned to Edgefield and took over his brother's law practice. Having squandered his inheritance, and with a proclivity for drinking and gambling, he accumulated debts. He borrowed from friends to maintain a freewheeling lifestyle, including from his second cousin and future bride, Charlotte Maria Cross of Rhode Island, whom he married in 1841.

Business as an upcountry lawyer didn't suit his temperament and sense of purpose, nor prove to be as profitable as he had hoped. Wigfall believed in a society led by the planter class and based on slavery and the chivalric code. He often neglected his law practice for contentious politics.

In a five-month period in 1840, Wigfall managed to get into a fistfight and two duels, three near-duels, and was charged, but not indicted, for killing a man. This orgy of violence culminated in 1840 on an island in the Savannah River, where he took a bullet through both thighs while dueling with future Congressman Preston Brooks. His reputation as a duelist, often exaggerated, followed him his entire life, though he gave up the practice entirely after his marriage.

His initial foray into politics and the Brooks affair destroyed his law practice. He was elected delegate to the South Carolina Democratic Convention in 1844, but his violent temperament and behind-the-scenes meddling had already doomed his youthful political ambitions. He piled up medical bills on a sickly infant son who eventually died. Sheriff sales followed, swallowing up his Edgefield estate.

Wigfall witnessed South Carolina's dispute with the federal government over tariffs and became a lifelong advocate of states' rights. He carried his two core beliefs - in the romance of the Old South and the sovereignty of individual states - with him to Texas in 1848.

After Texas joined the United States in 1846, tens of thousands of immigrants poured across its borders in search of cheap land and new lives. Most came from the American South, which by then had developed a distinct culture based upon cotton and slavery.

A Texas cousin, James Hamilton, Jr., a former governor of South Carolina, arranged a fresh start for Wigfall, and a law partnership. First arriving in Galveston in 1848, he then moved with his wife, Charlotte, and their three children to Nacogdoches, where he was a law partner of Thomas J. Jennings and William B. Ochiltree. Soon Wigfall opened his own law office in Marshall.

Wigfall was active in Texas politics from the moment he arrived, alerting Texans to the dangers of abolition and the growing influence of non-slave states in the United States Congress. He quickly established himself as one of the community's most ardent and vocal fire-eaters, a name given to Southerners who supported radical means to defend slavery and states' rights.

At the Galveston County Democratic convention in 1848, Wigfall condemned congressional efforts to prohibit the expansion of slavery into the territories, and expressed sorrow that Texas would not take the lead in opposing such unconstitutional actions.

Wigfall served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1849–1850, and in the Texas Senate from 1857–1860. He played a major role in organizing Texas Democrats and fighting the American (Know-Nothing) party in 1855-56.

When Senator Sam Houston ran for governor in 1857, Wigfall followed him on the campaign trail, attacking his congressional record at each of Houston's stops, and accusing Houston of being a coward and a traitor to Texas and the South. Wigfall claimed that Houston had ambitions for a presidential nomination and courted the support of Northern abolitionists. Wigfall was one of the few men in Houston's opposition who rivaled him as a stump speaker, and he was widely credited with Houston's defeat for the governorship in 1857.

In 1858, Wigfall had a strong voice in the state Democratic convention that adopted a states' rights platform. With the breakup of the Know Nothing Party, many moderates moved back into the Democratic party, and it appeared that Wigfall's radicalism was repudiated. But he capitalized on the fear that John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry caused in the slave states.

In 1859, Wigfall was selected by the legislature to represent Texas in the United States Senate, filling the vacancy caused by the death of J. Pinckney Henderson and served from December 5, 1859, until March 23, 1861. As "the most violent partisan in the state," according to one contemporary, Wigfall was a natural choice for a state that was more and more supportive of the political position of the Deep South.

In the Senate, he became a leader in the effort to assure southern slave-owner's freedom to settle in the territories with their slaves. He continued his by-now familiar diatribes against federal powers and northern intrusion into southern life. He rarely concerned himself with Texas, but identified closely with his native South Carolina.

Louis Trezevant Wigfall

Wigfall was among a group of leading secessionists known as Fire Eaters. He earned a reputation for eloquence, acerbic debate, and readiness for encounter. He continued his fight for slavery and states' rights and against expanding the power of national government. His reputation for oratory and hard-drinking, along with a combative nature and high-minded sense of personal honor, made him one of the more imposing political figures of his time.

One of the most vociferous advocates for secession, and one of the people most responsible for tying the fortunes of the Lone Star State to the Confederacy, was Louis T. Wigfall. Texas had become a part of the Old South, and when southern states began leaving the Union in 1860, Texas followed suit. In 1860, Wigfall was instrumental in fracturing the Democratic Party, hoping to kill any possibility of compromise between north and south.

Insisting that the Democratic party platform of 1860 call for the Federal government to guarantee protection of slavery in the territories, he was key to the split of the Democratic party and the subsequent election of Abraham Lincoln as president.

Wigfall coauthored the Southern Manifesto, declaring that any hope for relief in the Union was gone, and that the honor and independence of the South required the organization of a Southern Confederacy. Wigfall helped foil efforts for compromise to save the Union and urged all slave states to secede. When South Carolina led the parade of southern states out of the Union, Wigfall rejoiced.

Wigfall joined the Texas delegation to the Montgomery Conference in Alabama, which formed the provisional government of the Confederacy, and which selected Jefferson Davis as its president. In Washington, Wigfall continued to hold his seat for 6 days after Texas had seceded on March 1, 1861, exhorting the rightness of the Southern cause and berating his Northern colleagues on the floor of the Senate and in Capitol Hill saloons.

During this time in Washington, he spied on Federal preparations for the coming conflict, secured weapons for delivery south, and went to Baltimore, Maryland, and recruited soldiers for the new Confederacy before traveling to the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. He was one of ten Southern senators who were expelled in absentia on July 11, 1861.

He was admitted to the Provisional Confederate Congress on April 29, 1861, where he served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Wigfall was at Fort Sumter in April 1861 when the Civil War began, gleefully demanding the surrender of the Federal post. Between April and July 1861, he was a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy, and served as an aide to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Wigfall continued his service to the Confederacy as a military commander - without great distinction, as according to many accounts he was often inebriated. He was commissioned colonel of the First Texas Infantry on August 28, 1861, and on November 21 Davis nominated him brigadier general in the Provisional Army, a move later confirmed by the Confederate Congress.

Mrs. Wigfall's Wedding Dress
Charlotte Maria Cross Wigfall, wife of the 1st Texas Regiment's Colonel, made her wedding dress into a Lone Star Flag for the Regiment, and presented this flag that she had sewn by hand to the regiment in the summer of 1861. Carried by the 1st Texas Infantry of General John Bell Hood's Brigade, the flag was captured during the Battle of Sharpsburg – September 17, 1862 – after nine of the men who carried it had fallen.
Artist: Dale Gallon

Wigfall commanded the Texas Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia (Hood's Texas Brigade) until February 20, 1862, when he resigned to take a seat in the Confederate Senate and represented the State of Texas for the remainder of the war. Despite his public advocacy of states' rights, Wigfall did little for Texas. In the Senate, he worked for military strength at the expense of state and individual rights.

An arrogant man, Wigfall came into conflict with President Davis. After the chief executive vetoed Wigfall's bill to upgrade staff positions in the army and limit presidential selection, Wigfall carried his fight into social circles, even going so far as to refuse to stand when Davis entered the room. Although a friend and supporter of the Confederate military, he was also an obstructionist in opposing Davis' nominations.

When Richmond fell, Wigfall fled Virginia. He first went home to Texas for almost a year. In the spring of 1866, he moved to England, and spent six years in self-imposed exile. He practiced law in England, but returned to the United States in 1872, first residing in Baltimore, MD.

Louis Trezevant Wigfall returned to Texas, landing at Galveston in January 1874. He intended to revive his long-dormant law practice, but he died unexpectedly on February 18, 1874, and was buried at Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery in Galveston. I found no record of the death of Charlotte Maria Cross Wigfall.

SOURCES
Louis Wigfall
The Fire Eaters
Louis T. Wigfall
Louis Trezevant Wigfall
The Handbook of Texas Online
Confederate Gazette – PDF FILE
Ordinance of Secession of Texas
Politicians in Trouble or Disgrace: Texas

Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Wife of Union General George B. McClellan

Ellen Mary Marcy was born in 1836 in Philadelphia. She was the blonde, blue-eyed daughter of Major Randolph Marcy – explorer of the famous Red River and Federal chief-of-staff in the first years of the war – an army officer who gained a good deal of fame in the decade just before the Civil War, as an explorer of the unsettled West. He was a strictly-business regular who blazed trails across the prairies and paved the way for the opening of the plains country.

Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan

George Brinton McClellan, the son of a surgeon, was born in Philadelphia December 3, 1826. He attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1840 at age 13, resigning himself to the study of law. After two years, he changed his goal to military service. With the assistance of his father's letter to President John Tyler, young George was accepted at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1842. The academy had waived its normal minimum age of 16, and George graduated second in the class in 1846.

McClellan was appointed to the staff of General Winfield Scott during the Mexican War (1846-48), and won three brevets for gallant conduct. He taught military engineering at West Point (1848-51), and in 1855 was sent to observe the Crimean War in order to obtain the latest information on European warfare.

Due to his intimate knowledge of Texas and Indian Territory geography, Major Randolph Marcy was selected for the Red River Expedition of 1852. Along with several troops and a young army lieutenant he liked very much – George B. McClellan – Marcy set out to discover the source of the Red River. Unlike his predecessors, he didn't use a boat, but explored mainly on horseback. He kept a meticulous diary, made friends with the Indians, and wrote a dictionary of the Wichita language.

In 1854 when McClellan was 27 years old, he met 18-year-old Ellen Mary Marcy, the daughter of his former commander, and it was love at first sight for him. He wrote to Ellen's mother: "I have not seen a very great deal of the little lady mentioned above, still that little has been sufficient to make me determined to win her if I can." Her father did everything he could to persuade the girl to accept him. He had no luck; Ellen simply didn't love McClellan.

She loved Lieutenant Ambrose Powell Hill (future general in the Army of Northern Virginia). She wrote to her father, telling him that she was going to marry Hill, and Marcy promptly blew his stack. Any woman, he told his daughter, who married an army officer was simply asking for trouble; pay was low, absences from home were frequent and extended, and military life offered no particular future. McClellan was also a soldier, but he was planning to leave the army and enter private industry, and his family had money.

Ellen was to abandon all communication with Lieutenant Hill, and "if you do not comply with my wishes in this respect," her father wrote, "I cannot tell what my feelings toward you will become. I fear that my ardent affections will turn to hate..." Ellen was stubborn, but she listened to her father, and let the matter rest for nearly a year. In the end, Marcy had his way, and Lieutenant Hill at last faded out of the picture. General Ambrose Powell Hill was killed in battle one week before the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.

In June, McClellan proposed and Ellen promptly rejected him. It probably didn't help that she was two or three inches taller than McClellan. Leaving Washington, McClellan continued to keep in touch with Ellen and the family. Life for Ellen was going quickly as George continued his quest by mail. Before she reached the age of 25, she had received and rejected nine proposals of marriage.

McClellan left the United States Army in 1857 to become chief of engineering and vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad, where he became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, the company's attorney. He became president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860. He performed well in both jobs, but despite his successes and lucrative salary ($10,000 per year), he was frustrated with civilian employment and continued to study classical military strategy.

In 1859, Major Marcy was ordered west, and the family visited McClellan in Chicago. On October 20, George again proposed marriage, and this time Ellen accepted. Ellen and George were married at Calvary Church, New York City, on May 22, 1860. McClellan was 33 and Ellen was 25.

They had a son and a daughter: George Brinton McClellan, Jr. who was born in Dresden, Germany, during the family's first trip to Europe. Known to the family as Max, he served as a US Representative from New York State and as Mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909. Their daughter, Mary ("May"), married a French diplomat and spent much of her life abroad. Neither Max nor May gave the McClellans any grandchildren.

The two would remain married for 25 years and were devoted to each other, writing daily when separated. "My whole existence is wrapped up in you," he wrote in one such letter. McClellan's personal life was without blemish. If Ellen Marcy ever regretted the turn of events, she left no record of it, coming down in history as a pretty, rather sad young woman looking out of the Brady photographs.

According to legend, Hill nourished a grudge against McClellan, and fought against him during the Civil War with more than ordinary vigor. Whenever the Confederates attacked the Army of the Potomac (which happened fairly often during the summer of 1862), the Union soldiers ascribed it to A. P. Hill and his personal feud with McClellan.

The story was told that McClellan was aroused from sleep early one morning by the crackling musketry from the picket line where Hill's division was opening another assault. McClellan detached himself grumpily from his blankets, and screamed these words: "My God, Ellen! Why didn't you marry him?"

McClellan offered his services to President Abraham Lincoln on the outbreak of the American Civil War. On May 3, 1861, he was named commander of the Department of the Ohio, responsible for the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and, later, western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, and Missouri. On May 14, he was commissioned a major general in the regular army, and at age 34 outranked everyone in the Army except Lt. General Winfield Scott, the general in chief.

General George Brinton McClellan
By Alexander Lawrie
Date unknown

On July 26, 1861, the day he reached the capital, McClellan was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Potomac, the main Union force responsible for the defense of Washington. On August 20, several military units in Virginia were consolidated into his department, and he immediately formed the Army of the Potomac, with himself as its first commander. He reveled in his newly acquired power and fame.

He grasped the magnitude of his new assignment, telling Ellen:

I find myself in a new and strange position here — President, Cabinet, General Scott & all deferring to me — by some strange operation of magic, I seem to have become the power of the land... I almost think that were I to win some small success now, I could become Dictator or anything else that might please me — but nothing of that kind would please me — therefore I won't be Dictator. Admirable self-denial!

–George B. McClellan, letter to Ellen, July 26, 1861

During the summer and fall, McClellan brought a high degree of organization to his new army, and greatly improved its morale by his frequent trips to review and encourage his units. It was a remarkable achievement, in which he came to personify the Army of the Potomac and reaped the adulation of his men.

He created defenses for Washington that were almost impregnable, consisting of 48 forts and strong points, with 480 guns manned by 7,200 artillerists. But this was also a time of tension in the high command, as he continued to quarrel frequently with the government and the general-in-chief, Lt. General Winfield Scott, on matters of strategy.

McClellan's antipathy to emancipation added to the pressure on him, as he received bitter criticism from Radical Republicans in the government. He viewed slavery as an institution recognized in the Constitution, and entitled to federal protection wherever it existed.

The dispute with Scott would become very personal. Scott (along with many in the War Department) was outraged that McClellan refused to divulge any details about his strategic planning, or even mundane details such as troop strengths and dispositions. McClellan claimed not to trust anyone in the administration to keep his plans secret from the press, and thus the enemy.

On November 1, 1861, General Winfield Scott retired, and McClellan became general in chief of all the Union armies. The president expressed his concern about the "vast labor" involved in the dual role of army commander and general-in-chief, but McClellan responded, "I can do it all." But Lincoln, as well as many other leaders and citizens of the northern states, became increasingly impatient with McClellan's slowness to attack the Confederate forces still massed near Washington.

McClellan further damaged his reputation by his insulting insubordination to his commander-in-chief. He privately referred to Lincoln, whom he had known before the war, as "nothing more than a well-meaning baboon", a "gorilla", and "ever unworthy of... his high position." On November 13, the president visited McClellan at his house, he made him wait for 30 minutes, only to be told that the general had gone to bed and could not see him.

McClellan insisted that his army should not undertake any new offensives until his new troops were fully trained. He developed a strategy to defeat the Confederate Army by invading Virginia from the sea, and to seize Richmond, and then other major cities in the South. McClellan believed that to keep resistance to a minimum, it should be made clear that the Union forces would not interfere with slavery and would help put down any slave insurrections.

Ellen Mary Marcy and Major General George B. McClellan

McClellan appointed Allan Pinkerton to employ his agents to spy on the Confederate Army. His reports exaggerated the size of the enemy, and McClellan was unwilling to launch an attack until he had more soldiers available. Under pressure from Radical Republicans in Congress, Abraham Lincoln decided in January, 1862, to appoint Edwin M. Stanton as his new Secretary of War.

Soon after this appointment, President Abraham Lincoln ordered McClellan to appear before a committee investigating the way the war was being fought. On January 15, 1862, he had to face the hostile questioning of Benjamin Wade and Zachariah Chandler. Wade asked McClellan why he was refusing to attack the Confederate Army. He replied that he had to prepare the proper routes of retreat.

Chandler then said: "General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before you strike at the rebels you want to be sure of plenty of room, so that you can run in case they strike back." Wade added, "Or in case you get scared." After McClellan left the room, Wade and Chandler came to the conclusion that McClellan was guilty of "infernal, unmitigated cowardice."

As a result of this meeting, Abraham Lincoln decided he must find a way to force McClellan to attack. On January 31, he issued General War Order Number One, which ordered McClellan to begin the offensive against the enemy before February 22. Lincoln also insisted on being consulted about McClellan's military plans.

On March 11, 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan as general in chief, leaving him in command of only the Army of the Potomac, so that McClellan could devote all his attention to the capture Richmond, the Confederate capital. Lincoln's order was ambiguous as to whether McClellan might be restored following a successful campaign.

Lincoln, Stanton, and a group of officers, called the War Board, directed the strategic actions of the Union armies that spring. Although McClellan was assuaged by supportive comments from Lincoln, in time he saw the change of command very differently, describing it as a part of an intrigue "to secure the failure of the approaching campaign."

The Peninsula Campaign
McClellan and the Army of the Potomac took part in what became known as the Peninsula Campaign, a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. Lincoln disagreed with McClellan's desire to attack Richmond from the east, and only gave in when the division commanders voted eight to four in favor of McClellan's strategy. The main objective was to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital.

In March 1862, McClellan moved his troops into the Shenandoah Valley, and along with John C. Fremont, Irvin McDowell, and Nathaniel Banks surrounded Thomas Stonewall Jackson and his 17,000 man army. Jackson won victories in the valley at McDowell, Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic before withdrawing to help in the defense of Richmond.

Abraham Lincoln, frustrated by McClellan's lack of success, sent in Major General John Pope, but he was easily beaten back by Jackson. McClellan wrote to Abraham Lincoln, complaining that a lack of resources was making it impossible to defeat the Confederate forces. He also made it clear that he was unwilling to employ tactics that would result in heavy casualties. He claimed that "every poor fellow that is killed or wounded almost haunts me!"

On April 2, 1862, McClellan arrived with 100,000 men at the southeastern tip of the peninsula. He took Yorktown after a month's siege but let its defenders escape. McClellan encountered the Confederate Army at Williamsburg on May 5. He was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston.

On May 31, Johnston's 41,800 men counterattacked McClellan's slightly larger army at Fair Oaks, only 6 miles from Richmond. Johnston was badly wounded during the Battle of Fair Oaks, and the aggressive General Robert E. Lee replaced him as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. The Union Army lost 5,031 men, and the Confederate Army 6,134.

McClellan had been unable to command the army personally because of a recurrence of malarial fever, but his subordinates were able to repel the attacks. Nevertheless, he received criticism from Washington for not counterattacking, which some believed could have opened the city of Richmond to capture. McClellan spent the next three weeks repositioning his troops and waiting for promised reinforcements, losing valuable time as Lee continued to strengthen Richmond's defenses.

McClellan maintained his estrangement from Abraham Lincoln by continuously calling for reinforcements. He also wrote a lengthy letter in which he proposed strategic and political guidance for the war, continuing his opposition to abolition as a tactic. He concluded by implying he should be restored as general in chief, but Lincoln named Major General Henry W. Halleck to that post without even informing McClellan.

A series of engagements known as the Seven Days' Battle took place, lasting from June 25 through July 1, 1862. On the second day, Union General Fitz-John Porter drove back a Confederate attack at Mechanicsville, 5 miles northeast of Richmond. Joined by Thomas Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate troops constantly attacked McClellan.

As Lee continued his offensive, McClellan played a passive role, taking no initiative and waiting for events to unfold. In a telegram to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, reporting on these events, McClellan blamed the Lincoln administration for his reversals. "If I save this army now, I tell you plainly I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army."

On June 27, a Confederate charge led by General John Bell Hood broke through the Union center at Gaines Mill. McClellan ordered the army to fall back toward the James River, where he would have the cover of Union gunboats. On July 2, after sharp rear guard actions at Savage's Station, Frayser's Farm, and Malvern Hill, the last engagement in the Seven Days' Battle, McClellan's troops reached Harrison's Landing and safety.

On July 1, 1862, McClellan and Lincoln met at Harrison's Landing, and McClellan once again insisted that the war should be waged against the Confederate Army and not slavery. Salmon P. Chase (Secretary of the Treasury), Edwin M. Stanton (Secretary of War) and vice president Hannibal Hamlin, who were all strong opponents of slavery, led the campaign to have McClellan sacked, but Lincoln decided to put McClellan in charge of all forces in the Washington area.

After General John Pope's defeat at Second Bull Run in August 1862, President Lincoln reluctantly returned to the man who had mended a broken army before. He realized that McClellan was a strong organizer and a skilled trainer of troops, able to recombine the units of Pope's army with the Army of the Potomac faster than anyone.

On September 2, 1862, Lincoln named McClellan to command "the fortifications of Washington, and all the troops for the defense of the capital." The appointment was controversial in the Cabinet, a majority of whom signed a petition declaring to the president "our deliberate opinion that, at this time, it is not safe to entrust to Major General McClellan the command of any Army of the United States."

The president admitted that it was like "curing the bite with the hair of the dog." But Lincoln told his secretary, John Hay, "We must use what tools we have. There is no man in the Army who can man these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape half as well as he. If he can't fight himself, he excels in making others ready to fight."

The Maryland Campaign
Northern fears of a continued offensive by General Robert E. Lee were realized when he launched his Maryland Campaign on September 4, 1862, hoping to arouse pro-Southern sympathy in the slave state of Maryland. McClellan's pursuit began on September 5. He marched toward Maryland with six of his reorganized corps, about 84,000 men, leaving two corps behind to defend Washington.

Lee divided his forces into multiple columns, spread apart widely as he moved into Maryland. On September 10, 1862, he sent Stonewall Jackson to capture the Union Army garrison at Harper's Ferry,
and moved the rest of his troops toward Antietam Creek. This was a risky move for a smaller army, but Lee was counting on his knowledge of McClellan's temperament.

However, Little Mac soon received a miraculous stroke of luck. Union soldiers accidentally found a copy of Lee's orders, and delivered them to McClellan's headquarters in Frederick, Maryland, on September 13. Upon realizing the value of this discovery, McClellan threw up his arms and exclaimed, "Now I know what to do!" He waved the order at his old Army friend, Brigadier General John Gibbon, and said, "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home."

He telegraphed President Lincoln:

I have the whole rebel force in front of me, but I am confident, and no time shall be lost. I think Lee has made a gross mistake, and that he will be severely punished for it. I have all the plans of the rebels, and will catch them in their own trap if my men are equal to the emergency... Will send you trophies.

Despite this show of bravado, McClellan continued his cautious line. After telegraphing the president at noon on September 13, he ordered his units to set out for the South Mountain passes the following morning. The 18-hour of delay allowed Lee time to react, because he received intelligence from a Confederate sympathizer that McClellan knew of his plans.

The Union army reached Antietam Creek, to the east of Sharpsburg, on the evening of September 15. A planned attack on September 16 was put off because of early morning fog, allowing Lee to prepare his defenses with an army less than half the size of McClellan's.

On the morning of September 17, 1862, McClellan and Major General Ambrose Burnside attacked Lee at the Battle of Antietam. The Union Army had 75,000 troops against 37,000 Confederate soldiers. Although outnumbered, Lee committed his entire force, and held out until Ambrose Powell Hill arrived from Harper's Ferry with reinforcements.

Burnside's Bridge at Antietam

McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, enabling Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill. During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. McClellan did not renew the assaults. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout the 18th, while removing his wounded. After dark, Lee ordered the battered Army of Northern Virginia to withdraw into the Shenandoah Valley, and crossed the Potomac River, unhindered.

McClellan wired to Washington, "Our victory was complete. The enemy is driven back into Virginia." Yet there was obvious disappointment that McClellan had not crushed Lee, who was fighting with a smaller army with its back to the Potomac River. Lincoln was angry at McClellan because his superior forces had not pursued Lee across the Potomac.

The Beginning of the End
The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in American military history. Despite significant advantages in manpower, McClellan had been unable to concentrate his forces effectively, which meant that Lee was able to shift his defenders to parry each of three Union thrusts, launched separately and sequentially against the Confederate left, center, and finally the right.

Historian James M. McPherson has pointed out that the two corps McClellan kept in reserve were in fact larger than Lee's entire force. The reason for McClellan's reluctance was that, as in previous battles, he was convinced he was outnumbered. The battle was tactically inconclusive, although Lee technically was defeated because he withdrew first from the battlefield.

As with the decisive battles in the Seven Days, McClellan's headquarters were too far to the rear to allow him personal control over the battle. He made no use of his cavalry forces for reconnaissance, and didn't share his overall battle plans with his corps commanders. And he was far too willing to accept cautious advice about saving his reserves, such as when a significant breakthrough in the center of the Confederate line could have been exploited.

It was the most costly day of the war with the Union Army having 2,108 killed, 9,549 wounded and 753 missing. The Confederate Army had 2,700 killed, 9,024 wounded and 2,000 missing. As a result of being unable to achieve a decisive victory at Antietam, Abraham Lincoln postponed the attempt to capture Richmond.

Lincoln and McClellan After Antietam
Here the gaunt figure of the Great Emancipator confronted General McClellan in his headquarters two weeks after Antietam. Brady's camera has preserved this remarkable occasion, the last time these two men met each other. "We spent some time on the battlefield and conversed fully on the state of affairs. He told me that he was satisfied with all that I had done, that he would stand by me. He parted from me with the utmost cordiality," said General McClellan.

A few days later came the order from Washington to "cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy or drive him South." However, McClellan refused to move, complaining that he needed fresh horses. Radical Republicans now began to openly question McClellan's loyalty.

Frustrated by McClellan's unwillingness to attack, Abraham Lincoln recalled him to Washington with the words: "My dear McClellan: If you don't want to use the Army I should like to borrow it for a while." On November 7, 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan from all commands and replaced him with Ambrose Burnside.

McClellan wrote to Ellen:

Those in whose judgment I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly, and that it was a masterpiece of art... I feel I have done all that can be asked in twice saving the country... I feel some little pride in having, with a beaten & demoralized army, defeated Lee so utterly... Well, one of these days history will, I trust, do me justice.

In October 1863, George B. McClellan openly declared his entrance into the political arena as a Democrat, and was nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 US presidential election. Following the example of Winfield Scott, he ran as a U.S. Army general still on active duty; he did not resign his commission until election day, November 8, 1864. In an attempt to obtain unity, Lincoln named a Southern Democrat, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, as his running mate.

During the campaign, McClellan declared the war a failure and urged immediate efforts for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the states, or other peaceable means, to the end that peace may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the States. McClellan made it clear that he disliked slavery because it weakened the country but he opposed forcible abolition as an object of the war or a necessary condition of peace and reunion.

The deep division in the party, the unity of the Republicans, and the military successes by Union forces in the fall of 1864 doomed McClellan's candidacy. Lincoln won the election handily, with 212 Electoral College votes to 21 for McClellan, and a popular vote of 403,000, or 55%. While McClellan was highly popular among the troops when he was commander, they voted for Lincoln over him by margins of 3-1 or higher. Lincoln's share of the vote in the Army of the Potomac was 70%.

After the 1864 election, McClellan set sail for Europe, and wrote to President Lincoln:

It would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that I still retained the approbation of your Excellency — as it is, I thank you for the confidence and kind feeling you once entertained for me, and which I am conscious of having justly forfeited...

In severing my official connection with your Excellency, I pray that God may bless you, and so direct your counsels that you may succeed in restoring to this distracted land the inestimable boon of peace, founded on the preservation of our Union and the mutual respect and sympathy of the now discordant and contending sections of our once happy country.

McClellan spent three years in Europe, returning to the US in 1867 to head the construction of a newly designed warship called the Stevens battery, a floating ironclad battery intended for harbor defense. McClellan, who lived with his family in Manhattan, rented an apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. In 1869, the project ran out of money, McClellan resigned, and the ship was eventually sold for scrap metal.

In 1870, McClellan became chief engineer for the New York City Department of Docks, and built a second home on Orange Mountain, New Jersey. Evidently the position did not demand his full-time attention because, starting in 1872, he also served as the president of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad.

After resigning this position in the spring of 1873, McClellan established Geo. B. McClellan & Co., Consulting Engineers & Accountants, and then left for a two-year trip through Europe, from 1873 to 1875. His essays on Europe were published in Scribner's, and his analyses of contemporary military issues in Harper's Monthly and The North American Review.

In 1877, the Democratic Party in New Jersey was divided into several contentious factions, producing a deadlock in the race for the gubernatorial nomination. At the state convention in early September, a delegate surprised many in the assembly by suggesting George McClellan. The response was enthusiastic, and he was nominated on the first ballot.

The general, who was attending dedication ceremonies for a Civil War memorial in Boston, had apparently expected his name to be presented, but had not anticipated receiving the nomination. He accepted the call and, still only 50 years of age, hoped that it would return him to public service. McClellan drew large, adoring crowds as he campaigned across the state, and won in November by almost 13,000 votes. He served as governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881.

In late 1880, McClellan moved his family to Gramercy Park in Manhattan, two months before the expiration of his gubernatorial term, and commuted to Trenton to attend to the duties of office. Over the next few years, McClellan and his wife spent winters in New York City, Augusts at a resort in New Hampshire's White Mountains or Maine's Mount Desert Island, and the rest of each year in New Jersey.

McClellan's final years were devoted to traveling and writing. He justified his military career in McClellan's Own Story, published posthumously in 1887.

In 1884, George campaigned for Grover Cleveland, the Democratic presidential nominee. In early 1885, McClellan was expected to be named secretary of war in the Cleveland administration, but his candidacy was torpedoed by Senator John McPherson of New Jersey, a member of a Democratic faction that begrudged the general's gubernatorial nomination in 1877.

General George B. McClellan died unexpectedly at age 58 at Orange, New Jersey, after having suffered from chest pains for a few weeks. His final words, at 3 am were, "I feel easy now. Thank you." He is buried at Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, New Jersey.

Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan, although in poor health, outlived George. She died in 1915 in Nice, France, while visiting May at her home.

General George B. McClellan Statue
In front of Philadelphia City Hall

When this sad war is over we will all return to our homes, and feel that we can ask no higher honor than the proud consciousness that we belonged to the Army of the Potomac.
-General George B. McClellan

Abraham Lincoln, in a discussion with journalists about General George McClellan (March, 1863):

I do not, as some do, regard McClellan either as a traitor or an officer without capacity. He sometimes has bad counselors, but he is loyal, and he has some fine military qualities. I adhered to him after nearly all my constitutional advisers lost faith in him. But do you want to know when I gave him up? It was after the Battle of Antietam.

The Blue Ridge was then between our army and Lee's. I directed McClellan peremptorily to move on Richmond. It was eleven days before he crossed his first man over the Potomac; it was eleven days after that before he crossed the last man. Thus he was twenty-two days in passing the river at a much easier and more practicable ford than that where Lee crossed his entire army between dark one night and daylight the next morning. That was the last grain of sand which broke the camel's back. I relieved McClellan at once.

SOURCES
George McClellan
George B. McClellan
Ohio History Central
Peninsular Campaign
National Park Service
Heavy Victorian Father
All Quiet on the Hudson
1864: Lincoln v. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan
Mr. Lincoln and New York
General George B. McClellan
Enter George McClellan – Hero
Wikipedia: George B. McClellan
George B. McClellan (1826-1885)

Rebecca Cole

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:54:00 +0000

Second African American Woman Doctor

Rebecca Cole was born March 16, 1846, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she attended the Institute for Colored Youth, graduating in 1863. In 1867, Rebecca became the second African American woman to receive a medical degree in the United States (Rebecca Crumpler graduated from the New England Female Medical College three years earlier.)

Drawing of Dr. Rebecca Cole

Rebecca was able to overcome racial and gender barriers to medical education by training in all-female institutions run by women who had been part of the first generation of female physicians graduating mid-century. During the Civil War, she entered the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she studied under the supervision of Ann Preston, the first woman dean of the school. She graduated from that school, and received a medical degree in 1867.

From 1872-1881, Dr. Cole worked with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first white American woman to receive a medical degree, at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children to gain clinical experience. Blackwell assigned Cole to the post of sanitary visitor, a position in which a traveling physician would visit families in their homes in slum neighborhoods and instruct them in family hygiene, prenatal, and infant care.

Cole went on to practice in Columbia, South Carolina for at time, and then returned to Philadelphia. In 1873, with the assistance of fellow woman physician Charlotte Abbey, Dr. Rebecca Cole started a Women's Directory Center to provide medical and legal services to destitute women and children in Philadelphia.

In January 1899, she was appointed superintendent of a home that was run by the Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children in Washington, DC. The annual report for that year reported that she possessed "all the qualities essential to such a position — ability, energy, experience, tact."

A subsequent report noted that:

Dr. Cole herself has more than fulfilled the expectations of her friends. With a clear and comprehensive view of her whole field of action, she has carried out her plans with the good sense and vigor which are a part of her character, while her cheerful optimism, her determination to see the best in every situation and in every individual, have created around her an atmosphere of sunshine that adds to the happiness and well being of every member of the large family.

Although Rebecca Cole practiced medicine for fifty years, few records survive to tell her story, and no images of her remain. Her medical thesis at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania was titled "The Eye and Its Appendages."

Dr. Rebecca Cole died in 1922.

SOURCES
Rebecca Cole
Dr. Rebecca J. Cole
Wikipedia: Rebecca Cole

Sallie Robbins Broadhead

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:01:00 +0000

Civil War Nurse and Teacher

Sallie Robbins Broadhead, a teacher in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, lived on the western end of Chambersburg Street in the end unit of a row house called Warren's Block with her husband Joseph and 4-year-old daughter Mary. Sallie, a thin, plain-looking young woman, kept a daily diary from mid-June to mid-July 1863, providing a graphic firsthand account of the ordeal endured that summer by the civilians of Gettysburg.

Gettysburg's residents, about 2400 in number, knew that Southern troops were not very far away. On June 21, Captain Robert Bell's local cavalry company and members of the Philadelphia City Troop had exchanged shots with Confederate pickets at Monterey, less than 20 miles from Gettysburg. The Adams Sentinel, one of Gettysburg's weekly newspapers, had reported on June 23 that sizable Confederate forces had entered nearby towns to look for supplies and horses.

The wonderful Gettysburg paintings included in this post are available at Dale Gallon's Official Website.

Coming Rain
Brigadier General John Buford at McPherson's Farm June 30, 1863
Buford with his brigade commanders, Devin and Gamble, discuss the impending battle.
By Dale Gallon

On June 23, 1863, Sallie Broadhead wrote in her diary:

As I expected, the Rebels have, several times, been within two or three miles, but they have not yet reached here. Two cavalry companies are here on scouting duty, but they can be of little use, as they have never seen service. Deserters come in every little while, who report the enemy near in large force.

The townspeople had heard false alarms and conflicting stories. On June 24, Sallie Broadhead had tried to convince herself that all would be well. "We are getting used to excitement, and many think the enemy, having been so long in the vicinity – without visiting us, will not favor us with their presence," she had written in her diary.

The experiences that Sallie would never forget began on the morning of June 26, 1863. She was sound asleep when her daughter Mary cried for water. When Sallie got up, she heard a commotion and looked out the window to see a large fire, and citizens were calling out that the rebels were coming.

General Early's Raid
On that rainy Friday afternoon of June 26, Confederate Major General Jubal A. Early and his division, some 5,000 men, were marching toward Gettysburg. Seven or eight miles from the small Pennsylvania town, he heard rumors that an enemy force of unknown strength awaited him there. Early approached Gettysburg from the west, and skirmished with 750 green troops in the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Volunteers.

Early had only planned to stop in Gettysburg long enough to collect supplies for the army. Lt. General Richard S. Ewell, commander of the 2nd Corps during Gen. Robert E. Lee's great invasion of the North, had given Early some other urgent tasks. After hurrying through Gettysburg, he was supposed to cut the Northern Central Railroad, at York, then destroy the imposing Columbia Bridge across the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville. If successful, he would help to pave the way for the capture of Harrisburg, the state capital.

From the top of a ridge about four miles outside Gettysburg, Colonel William W. Jennings, using his field glasses, eventually spotted Early's approaching troops. Attempts to raise 50,000 militia for Pennsylvania's defense had not met with much success. Jennings' outfit, the 26th Pennsylvania Militia, was one of the groups hastily thrown together to challenge the Southern invaders. Among its 743 members were young men from Pennsylvania College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary, two schools in Gettysburg.

Galloping down Chambersburg Street into town, Early's advance troops put on a performance that disgusted the Reverend Dr. Michael Jacobs, a prominent citizen. "The advance guard of the enemy, consisting of 180 to 200 cavalry, rode into Gettysburg at 3:15 PM, shouting and yelling like so many savages from the wilds of the Rocky Mountains; firing their pistols, not caring whether they killed or maimed man, woman, or child; and rushing from stable to stable in search of horses," he wrote, in an account published several months later.

From her house, at the far western end of town, Sallie Robbins Broadhead was one of the first to witness the arrival of Confederate troops on the afternoon of June 26. From her upstairs window, she watched the invaders. Her husband Joseph's job as a railroad engineer had taken him out of town.

We all stood in the doors while the cavalry passed, but when the infantry came, we closed them, for fear they would run into our houses and carry off everything we had, and went upstairs and looked out of the windows. They went along very orderly, only asking every now and then how many Yankee soldiers we had in town. I answered one that I did not know. He replied, "You are a funny woman; if I lived in town I would know that much.

Despite the potential for trouble, the evening of June 26 was relatively quiet. A Confederate band played Southern tunes, including Dixie, at the town square, annoying many residents. Most of Gettysburg's residents had little to say to their overnight guests.

The hours passed slowly for Sallie Broadhead the night of June 26:

I was left entirely alone, surrounded by thousands of ugly, rude, hostile soldiers, from whom violence might be expected. Even if the neighbors were at hand, it was not pleasant, and I feared my husband would be taken prisoner before he could return, or whilst trying to reach me.

Early's soldiers left Gettysburg on the morning of June 27, on their way to York, Pennsylvania. On the evening of June 29, it was said the people of Gettysburg could see Confederate campfires flickering on the eastern slopes of South Mountain. As Gettysburg's citizens would soon discover, Early's raid had been a mild preview of war.

Many of the residents were still not convinced of the danger, but Sallie Broadhead wasn't one of them. She wrote in her diary entry for June 30:

This morning the Rebels came to the top of the hill overlooking the town on the Chambersburg Pike and looked over our place. It begins to look as though we will have a battle soon, and we are in great fear.

The men Sallie saw were from Confederate General Johnston Pettigrew's Infantry Brigade. This force had been sent forward to reconnoiter the town and search for supplies. When Pettigrew spotted General John Buford's Federal Cavalry riding into town, he withdrew to his camp at Cashtown, as per his orders not to engage.

When the people spotted Buford's troopers coming up, they gave them a warm and enthusiastic welcome. Men, women, and children lined both sides of Washington Street waving, cheering, and singing patriotic songs. Buford allowed the young boys to follow along as the horses were lead to water, and quieted the worst fears of the town's population. The citizens were unaware that two armies – numbering 170,000 – were so near their town.

Expecting a Battle
Meade's Headquarters
Major General George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, speaks to Major General Winfield S. Hancock of the Second Corps while fighting commences on the Union left.
By Dale Gallon

As the two great armies probed each other’s movements slowly northward, neither expected to fight one of the Civil War’s most momentous battles in the crossroads Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. But during that summer, the citizens of Gettysburg had kept a wary eye on those movements, fearful that the ravages of war would disturb, and perhaps destroy, their tranquility.

The fateful day of July 1, 1863, dawned rainy and misty and by 7 am, it was cloudy and 72 degrees. As the sun rose, the fog and clouds cleared – the day was to become very hot and humid. By 8 am, the largest and most costly battle of the Civil War had erupted. The citizens would no longer need to worry about rumors.

Union General John Reynolds received orders from the recently appointed Union Commanding General George Meade at 4:00 am, instructing him to move the First and Eleventh Corps toward Gettysburg. At 5:00 am, Confederate General Henry Heth began to move his Confederate troops east towards Gettysburg. Heth's skirmishers came within sight of Union pickets at 7:30 am, July 1, 1863.

I got up early this morning to get my baking done before any fighting would begin. I had just put my bread in the pans when the cannons began to fire, and true enough the battle had begun in earnest, about two miles out on the Chambersburg Pike. What to do or where to go, I did not know. People were running here and there, screaming that the town would be shelled.

Confederate General A. P. Hill's brigades were clashing with General John Buford's Union cavalry, and Hill encountered stubborn resistance. While both sides sent couriers off for reinforcements, Buford held his ground – and the Battle of Gettysburg was under way.

Sallie wrote on July 1:

People are running here and there "screaming that the town would be shelled. No one knew where to go or what to do. My husband went to the garden and picked a mess of beans, for he declared the Rebels should not have one.

When she turned to her diary at nightfall, "the town was full of the filthy Rebels," cock-a-hoop with success: "all is quiet, but 0! how I dread tomorrow."

On July 2, shells and bullets began to hiss and whine once more; but in his Gettysburg garden Sallie Broadhead's husband doggedly "picked a mess of beans... [and] persevered until he had picked all, for he declared the Rebels should not have one."

During the first three days of July, the town and its people shook with the fury of deadly fighting. Sallie spent most of the daylight hours with her family and immediate neighbors, huddled in the safety of the large basement of the David Troxell house next door. "The time we sat in the cellar seemed long, listening to the terrific sound of the strife; more terrible never greeted human ears."

On July 3, after Pickett's Charge had failed, the most optimistic Southerner knew that the Confederates had lost the day. When General Robert E. Lee told General George Picket to rally his division together Picket answered "General, I have no division." He never forgave Lee for what happened to his men at Gettysburg.

The Day Is Ours
Pickett's Charge July 3, 1863
Brigadier General Lewis Armistead leading the heroic and tragic moments at the High Water Mark
By Dale Gallon

General Lee, "the saddest man in the Army of Northern Virginia," passed among his retreating, exhausted men, begging them to keep their ranks and assuring them: "It was my fault this time." Sir Arthur Fremantle found Confederate General James Longstreet sitting glumly on a fence and said tactlessly: "I wouldn't have missed this for anything." Replied the beaten general: "I would like to have missed it very much."

Sallie wrote in her diary on July 3, 1863:

We knew that with every explosion, and the scream of each shell, human beings were hurried, through excruciating pain into another world, and that many more were torn and mangled and lying in torment worse than death, and no one able to extend relief. The thought made me very sad, and feel that, if it was God's will, I would rather be taken away than remain to see the misery that would follow.

On July 4, General Lee packed up his troops and headed back to Virginia in a sudden downpour that washed the blood from the grass and pelted the wounded Confederate soldiers in the wagons heading home. The men who were too wounded to travel were brought to houses and laid side-by-side in the halls and rooms. Carpets, walls, and books that were used as pillows were stained with blood.

For the townspeople, the horror did not end with the Battle of Gettysburg, it continued on through summer and into fall with the stench of death and the agony of wounded Union and Confederate troops. The town of 2400 civilians had become one gigantic hospital, staffed by shopkeepers and lawyers, by housewives and teachers, and by children whose summer vacation became a learning experience in the realities of life. The needs of 22,000 wounded men saw to that.

During the struggle, and its aftermath, Gettysburg's civilians faced almost incomprehensible situations. As the bodies of the dead quickly became infested, the battle wounds of the living also became flyblown. Maimed and wounded soldiers sometimes remained for days on the battlefield before receiving attention or being moved to a hospital. The exposed and open wounds also became prime breeding and feeding sites for carnivorous species of flies.

Ready to Fight Again
General Robert E. Lee among the guns of Colonel E. P. Alexander's artillery prepares for a Union counterattack shortly after the failure of Pickett's Charge.
By Dale Gallon

Sallie Broadhead recorded the following incident just a few days after the battle:

I assisted in feeding some of the severely wounded, when I perceived that they were suffering on account of not having their wounds dressed. I did not know whether I could render any assistance in that way, but I thought I would try. I procured a basin and water, and went to a room where there were seven or eight, some shot in the arms, others in the legs, and one in his back, and another in the shoulder.

I asked if anyone would like to have his wounds dressed? Someone replied, "There is a man on the floor who cannot help himself, you would better see to him." Stooping over him, I asked for his wound, and he pointed to his leg. Such a horrible sight I had never seen, and hope never to see again. His leg was all covered with worms [maggots].

By July 13, the small Broadhead home housed more than a family of three:

The town is as full as ever of strangers, and the old story of the inability of a village of 2500 inhabitants overrun and eaten out by two large armies to accommodate from 10 to 12,000 visitors, is repeated almost hourly. Twenty are with us tonight, filling every bed and covering the floors.

Churches continued to be used as hospitals, causing parishioners to forgo normal services, prompting her to note in her diary, "We have had no Sundays... the churches have all been converted into hospitals." She also volunteered her services at the hospital in the Lutheran Seminary.

On July 14, Sallie made a diary entry that probably reflected the feelings of all the townspeople:

Little did I think... that I would have to record such terrible scenes as I have done. Had anyone suggested any such sights as within the bound of possibility, I would have thought it madness.

Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in the war. About one third of those engaged were lost – the North had 23,000 casualties, but the South lost 28,000 soldiers. The Confederates couldn't afford such a loss.

Sallie Broadhead privately published her diary in 1864, as The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from June 15 to July 15, 1863, in a 24-page pamphlet. It was intended solely "the kindred and nearest friends of the writer," but it was printed as a fund-raiser for the Sanitary fairs in the Pennsylvania area.

ALL OF THE WONDERFUL ARTWORK OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG CAN BE PURCHASED AT Dale Gallon's Official Website

SOURCES
Gettysburg
They Saw It Happen
Gettysburg's Good News
Insects and the Civil War
War Comes to Gettysburg
The Women of Gettysburg – PDF FILE
Days Of Darkness: The Gettysburg Civilians
Historic People and Places of Gettysburg – PDF FILE
Gettysburg's Preview of War: Early's June 26, 1863 Raid

Anna Marie Hennen Hood

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:37:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate John Bell Hood

Anna Marie Hennen was born June 28, 1837. She was the daughter of a prominent New Orleans attorney, Duncan Hennen, and granddaughter of Alfred Hennen, Justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court. She was described as beautiful, charming, and she was educated in Paris, France. She wouldn't meet John Bell Hood until after the Civil War.

John Bell Hood was born June 29, 1831 in Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky. He and his siblings were left with their mother for approximately eight months each year during the middle and late 1840s during Dr. John Hood's annual visits to Philadelphia, where he taught medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During the extended absences of his father, young John Bell would be influenced by his grandfathers – Lucas Hood, a crusty veteran of the Indian Wars, and his maternal grandfather James French, a Revolutionary War veteran – who engendered his love for the adventure of military life.

Anna Marie Hennen Hood

John Bell was urged by his father to take up the study of medicine, and was even offered an opportunity to study in Europe. But he wanted to follow in the soldier's footsteps of his forefathers, and with the assistance of his uncle, Judge Richard French, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, enrolling on July 1, 1849.

Many cadets from southern states would struggle academically, due to the general lower quality primary education in rural areas. This may explain Hood's poor academic performance, since he was educated at a subscription school in Clark County, Kentucky. At West Point, his weakest subjects were philosophy and French. His strongest classes were mathematics and drawing, and he ultimately graduated 44th out of 55 students in the Class of 1853, which included Civil War notables James B. McPherson, John M. Schofield, and Philip H. Sheridan.

In March, 1855, at the urging of US Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Congress authorized the formation of two new cavalry regiments that would protect settlements on the frontier of Texas. The Second Cavalry Regiment at Fort Mason, Texas, would be a virtual who's who of the Civil War.

Its commander was Mexican War hero Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston; Robert E. Lee was the regiment's lieutenant colonel; William J. Hardee and George Thomas, majors; Earl Van Dorn, George Stoneman, and E. Kirby Smith captains. Hood was promoted to second lieutenant of cavalry and reported to Colonel Johnston at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri in October, 1855.

In September 1860, Hood received orders to report to West Point to serve as Chief Instructor of Cavalry. However, at Hood's personal request to US Adjutant General Samuel Cooper, the order was rescinded, and he remained with the Second Cavalry Regiment.

In April 1861, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Hood tendered his resignation from the United States Army and offered his services to the newly formed Confederacy. He was promoted to full colonel, and given command of the Fourth Texas Regiment. On March 7, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command of the Texas Brigade of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. In October 1862, following the Battle of Antietam, Hood was promoted to Major General at the recommendation of General Lee.

John Bell Hood at Gettysburg
On the afternoon of July 2, 1863, General Hood's division was ordered by General James Longstreet to begin the attack on the Federal defenses on Little Round Top. The Confederates would have to approach the Federals over several hundred yards of open ground, and then assault the elevated Union positions through rough, boulder-strewn ravines.

Brigadier General Evander Law sent scouts around the right side of Little Round Top, and found the rear approaches to the Union positions to be unguarded. Law approached Hood, apprising him of the situation, and Hood agreed wholeheartedly that a flanking maneuver would be more effective, and sent an urgent message to General Longstreet requesting permission to do so. Longstreet refused; Hood appealed to him again via courier.

After Longstreet again refused again, Hood sent his adjutant to implore him to reconsider. Longstreet again denied his request, and ordered him to continue the attack as previously instructed. At this point, Hood personally rode to Longstreet, protested the attack that he was being ordered to conduct. Longstreet, for the fourth time, refused to allow him to attempt a flanking movement.

Hood's Protest
By artist Dale Gallon

Hood began the attack up the Emmitsburg Road as directed. At approximately five o'clock, 20 minutes after the attack began, Hood's left arm was shredded by shrapnel from Federal artillery. He would be taken to the rear, unable to participate any further in the battle. Although his wounded arm would be saved from amputation, it would be permanently paralyzed, and he carried it in a sling for the rest of his life.

The determined Confederate assault on the slopes of Little Round Top was eventually repulsed by the defending Federals; the carnage that Law and Hood had anticipated did in fact materialize.
Hood's division succeeded in removing the Federal troops at the base of Little Round Top, the area that would forever be called Devil's Den, but were able to seize only a portion of the summit of Little Round Top.

For the remainder of the battle, Hood's division held their ground, while on July 3, 1863, Lee's famous assault on the Union center, Pickett's Charge, failed to defeat Meade's Federals. The Battle of Gettysburg ended in a Confederate defeat, as Lee's army began their retreat back to Virginia in a driving rain on July 4th.

During his convalescence, Hood was a hero to the people of Richmond. Confederate authorities sent Longstreet's corps to northern Georgia to assist General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee in halting the Union advance through Middle Tennessee. Hood, recovering from his wound, accompanied the division into Georgia.

On September 18, 1863, Longstreet's corps reached the banks of Chickamauga Creek. The next day, while leading a furious assault during the Battle of Chickamauga, Hood was struck in the upper right leg by a rifle ball, shattering the femur. He was carried to a nearby house with his bloody leg dangling off the side of the litter. Doctors amputated his right leg just below the hip.

Hood was horribly disfigured by the amputation, retaining but a four-and-a-half-inch stump. His great physical strength and will pulled him through the hideous ordeal. Outfitted with a wooden leg, Hood returned to the army.

In less than seven weeks, Hood lost the use of one arm and underwent the amputation of his leg. The injuries entitled him to a medical discharge, but Hood remained in the army and received a promotion to lieutenant general in the Army of Tennessee on February 1, 1864.

He was assigned to serve as a corps commander under General Joseph E. Johnston. Arriving in Dalton, Georgia, on February 4, 1864, Hood served under Johnston throughout Union General William T. Sherman's north Georgia campaign during the spring of 1864. On July 17, 1864, Hood received a temporary promotion to full general.

Throughout the summer of 1864, General Joseph E. Johnston, commander of the Army of Tennessee, had conducted a campaign to slow the advance of General William T. Sherman's march to Atlanta. Disgusted with Johnston's inability to stop Sherman's progress, President Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with Hood, commanded the defending Confederate forces during the siege of Atlanta, from that time until evacuating the city on September 2, 1864.

In July 1864, when Hood assumed command of the Army of Tennessee, he had more than 50,000 soldiers. By November, battle casualties had reduced the number to less than 30,000. Despite a reputation for bravery, Hood's poor understanding of military tactics resulted in a series of crushing defeats to the armies under his command at the end of the Civil War.

On November 19, 1864, Hood's Army of Tennessee left Florence, Alabama, for an ill-fated invasion of Tennessee. On November 30, Hood's forces suffered staggering losses in a decisive defeat at Franklin, Tennessee, at the hands of a Union force commanded by his West Point classmate General John Schofield.

Two weeks later, Hood was routed at Nashville on December 16 by his former US Army colleague General George Thomas. After a humiliating retreat to Tupelo, Mississippi, Hood resigned his command on January 23, 1865, reverting to his permanent rank of lieutenant general.

During the waning days of the Confederacy, Davis ordered Hood to travel to Texas and attempt to raise an army of 25,000 troops. Learning of the surrender of General Kirby Smith in Texas, Hood surrendered to Federal authorities in Natchez, Mississippi on May 31, 1865.

After receiving his parole, Hood went to New Orleans, Louisiana. Although he had intended to settle in his previously adopted home state of Texas, Hood found that New Orleans offered more opportunities for post-war security, because it had been spared much of the destruction of the war.

He had borrowed $10,000 from friends in Kentucky, and would begin his new life in New Orleans. New Orleans became home to many ex-Confederate generals. Among them were, James Longstreet, P.G.T. Beauregard, Jubal Early, fellow Kentuckian Simon Buckner, and Fighting Joe Wheeler.

With business associates John C. Barwelli and Fred N. Taylor, Hood established J. B. Hood and Company, Cotton Factors and Commission Merchants, in February 1866. The cotton brokerage initially struggled and at the invitation of Longstreet, Hood took over the operation of his former commander's insurance business.

In 1866, he met and fell in love with Anna Marie Hennen, a native of New Orleans. On April 30, 1868, with Simon Buckner as his best man, John Bell Hood married Anna Marie Hennen. This was his first marriage; he was 35.

To the surprise of many friends, John and Anna Hood began producing children at an alarming
rate – eleven children in ten years, including three sets of twins. Their first daughter Lydia was born in 1869, the next year twins Annabel and Ethel. In 1871 John Bell, Jr. was born, followed by Duncan in 1873. Twins Marion and Lillian were born in 1874, and then another set of twins, Odile and Ida, in 1876. The tenth child, Oswald, was born in 1878, and finally Anna, in 1879. The eight girls and three boys were often referred to as Hood's Brigade.

New Orleans Home of Anna & John Bell Hood

During the period between 1870 and 1879, it appeared Hood prospered in the insurance and cotton businesses and various other enterprises. He also served the community in numerous philanthropic endeavors, as he assisted in fund raising for orphans, widows, and wounded soldiers.

Hood purchased and resided in a spacious house in the upscale Garden District with his wife, their children, and her recently widowed mother. The elegant home still stands at the corner of Camp and Third Street.

During the summer of 1878, a yellow fever epidemic ravaged New Orleans, and resulted in the deaths of more than 3000 people. The annual practice among families who could afford it was to retreat inland to escape the disease. Spending the dangerous months at the Hennen family retreat near Hammond, Louisiana, the Hoods were spared the terror of the epidemic.

But New Orleans was virtually isolated, and the Cotton Exchange had closed. All but two insurance companies in the city went bankrupt. During the winter of 1878 and the spring of 1879, Hood was wiped out financially. He was forced to allow his personal insurance policies to lapse, and he mortgaged his house to its fullest value.

Yellow fever continued to threaten New Orleans during the summer of 1879, but finances would not allow the Hood family to move out of the city. On August 20, a case of yellow fever developed in the house directly across the street from the Hood home. The next day, one month after the birth of their eleventh child, the general's beloved wife Anna was stricken with the fever. After initially appearing to have recovered from the affliction, she became ill after bathing and relapsed.

Anna Marie Hennen Hood died on Sunday, August 24, 1879, at 6:25 pm.

Walter V. Crouch, a close family friend, described the scene in an August 31 letter to Hood's close friend and former subordinate, General Randall Gibson:

I never saw a man so completely crushed in my life... He said that he was completely ruined and now without his wife he had nothing to live for. The precious little lambs who had gone to bed Sunday night knowing nothing of their mother's death, began to come in one by one until nine came in and such a scene I never want to witness again.

After the children left he said, "Major, I have never had the fever, but if I should have it and it's God's will l'm ready to go. I have requested Colonel Flowers to take charge of my children, and to appeal to the Confederate soldiers to support them for I have nothing on earth to leave them.

Completely devastated by the loss of his wife, struggling physically from his crippling war wounds, and under the stress of financial ruin and its impact on the security of his eleven young children, Hood contracted yellow fever on Thursday, August 27.

His eldest daughter, ten-year-old Lydia, fell victim on the same day. At noon on Saturday, August 29th, Lydia died.

Hood was soon advised of his own impending demise. Calmly accepting his fate, he agreed to receive last rites, and a priest at Trinity Episcopal Church, was summoned to his house. Over the next twelve hours, Hood drifted in and out of consciousness.

At 3:30 am Sunday, August 31, 1879, General John Bell Hood shuddered convulsively and died at age 48.

A brief funeral was held the next day, attended only by a few close friends. A salute was fired by a hastily arranged honor guard named the Continental Guards, and Hood's body was laid to rest beside those of his wife and daughter in Lafayette Cemetery Number One, near his Garden District home. A few years later, the remains of General Hood, Anna, and their oldest daughter Lydia were moved to the Hennen family crypt at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

For the next twelve decades, the only information on John Bell Hood's grave was his name, place of birth (misspelled), and his birth and death dates. However, on August 30, 2003, the 124th anniversary of his death, a lavish funeral and memorial service was held by his descendants and Confederate history organizations, and a bronze memorial marker was erected.

Orphans of Anna & John Bell Hood
Famous 1879 picture of the ten Hood orphans.

Within a week, the ten surviving Hood orphans, all under ten years of age, had been left destitute. On his deathbed, Hood had requested that his orphans be taken care of by his old Texas Brigade. As per his request, the Hood Orphan Memorial Publication Fund was set up by former Confederate general, Pierre G. T. Beauregard, for the purpose of raising funds for the children by selling Hood's memoirs. Members of the Texas Brigade sold a family portrait.

With no means of support for the ten surviving orphans Beauregard also organized a campaign to find homes for all the children. They were ultimately adopted by seven different families in Louisiana, New York, Mississippi, Georgia, and Kentucky, and were kept apart at great distances, except for the twins. Eventually, the families came back together.

A charity fund was also established that would ultimately raise over $30,000 for the support and education of the orphans. Anna would die in infancy and the surviving nine children would receive their shares of the fund at the age of 21.

A braver man, a purer patriot, a more gallant soldier never breathed than General Hood.
-Louise Wigfall Wright

SOURCES
John Bell Hood
General John Bell Hood
John Bell Hood 1831-1879
Wikipedia: John Bell Hood
In Defense of John Bell Hood
Descendants of John Bell Hood
Biography of General John Bell Hood, CSA
General John Bell Hood: Myths and Realities
John Bell Hood &The Army of Northern Virginia
John Bell Hood Historical Society Newsletter – PDF FILE

Helen Burden McDowell

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Wife of Union General Irvin McDowell

Helen Burden, born June 27, 1826, was the daughter of Henry and Helen McOuat Burden, who came to America from Scotland via Quebec. The family settled first in Albany, NY, then Troy, NY, where Helen's father owned the Burden Iron Works, which made horseshoes.

Irvin McDowell, born 1818 near Columbus, Ohio, entered the West Point Military Academy in 1834, when he was 16 years old. He graduated from West Point in 1838, and served on the Northern frontier during the Canada border disturbances, on the Maine frontier pending the disputed Territory controversy, and in the Mexican war under General John Ellis Wool. Helen met McDowell through General Wool, who was also from Troy, NY.

Helen Burden married Captain Irvin McDowell at the Second Presbyterian Church in Troy on November 13, 1844. He hailed from Ohio and was assistant adjutant general in Washington in April 1861. They had four children: Irvin, Helen, Elsie, and Henry Burden McDowell.

General Irvin McDowell

When the Civil War began, Irvin McDowell was a brevet major, a man of physical energy, wide interests, and strong opinions. He was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army on May 14, 1861, and given command of the Army of Northeastern Virginia, never having commanded troops in combat. The promotion was partly because of the influence of his mentor, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase.

On May 29, 1861, McDowell was given command of the Army of the Potomac, which consisted of about 30,000 men, who were almost entirely raw recruits. In response to the demand for some immediate action, on July 16 he was ordered to march against the Confederate army that was posted at Manassas Junction under General P.G.T. Beauregard, McDowell's classmate at West Point.

McDowell's plan of campaign had been carefully studied, and its principal feature was to turn the enemy's left flank while threatening the front, which was well posted behind Bull Run on an elevation that overlooked the entire plateau. His strategy during the First Battle of Bull Run was imaginative, but his troops were not experienced enough to carry it out effectively. His plans were admittedly excellent, but nothing could check the demoralization of the green troops.

On the morning of the July 21, 1861, the Federal army crossed the run and succeeded in throwing the enemy's left into such confusion that the presence of Generals Beauregard and Johnston was necessary to rally their troops, who then re-formed in a line on the crest of the hill. A severe struggle for this position ensued, and it was lost and won three times, and about three o'clock in the afternoon it remained in the control of the National forces. But soon after that hour, fresh Confederate reinforcements arrived and completely turned the tide of battle. The judgment of time attributes the defeat less to General McDowell's lack of ability than to the operation of forces that no man of his inexperience could have overcome.

McDowell's men, who had been on their feet since two o'clock in the morning, who had marched twelve miles to the field and been engaged in heavy fighting since ten o'clock, were now exhausted by fatigue and want of food and water. Unable to withstand the fierce attack of fresh troops, they broke and retired in confusion down the hillside and made a disorderly retreat to Washington. Thus the first great battle of the Civil War was fought and lost.

Soon thereafter, General George B. McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac, and McDowell was retained at the head of one of its divisions. In March 1862, he was promoted to major general and placed in command of the First Corps, which became the Army of the Rappahannock, stationed to guard Washington.

In the summer of 1862, there were four independent Union commands in Virginia, and in quick succession they were attacked with such force that concentration became necessary, and the Army of Virginia was formed under General John Pope and the command of the Third Corps was given to General McDowell. The campaign of northern Virginia followed, and with his command he participated in the Battle of Cedar Mountain, the action of Rappahannock Station, and the Second Battle of Bull Run in late August 1862.

Criticized for his performance at Second Bull Run, McDowell was relieved of his command, and removed from duty in the field on September 6, 1862. Regarding this action of the War Department a direct reflection upon his military service, he asked for an investigation, the result of which was favorable to him. A court of inquiry reported "that the interests of the public service do not require any further investigation into the conduct of Major General McDowell." No further field command was entrusted to him during the Civil War.

McDowell was probably unfortunate in the roles that fell to him. His first ever independent command was the Army of the Potomac. His only major failing before First Bull Run was the slowness of his movements, hardly a unique failing amongst Union commanders at that time. The disaster at Second Bull Run was largely due to Pope's misreading of the situation. McDowell was simply one of many commanders to be promoted above their capacity early in the war.

McDowell remained in active service in the army, but not in the field. He was an able staff officer and a brilliant desk general, but like most of the early Union command choices, he was not suited for the battlefield because of his limited experience.

In 1863-64, he was President of the Court for investigating cotton frauds and of the board for retiring disabled officers. From July, 1864, to June, 1865, McDowell was in command of the Department of the Pacific, with headquarters in San Francisco, and held that office until July 27, 1865.

After the war, McDowell remained in the army, and had command of the Department of California until March 31, 1868. He was mustered out of the volunteer service September 1, 1866. In July 1868, he was assigned to the command of the Department of the East.

In November 1872, he was promoted to Major General in the regular United States Army. Soon after, he succeeded General George G. Meade as commander of the Division of the South, and remained until June 30, 1876, after which he returned to San Francisco in charge of the Division of the Pacific until his retirement from the army on October 15, 1882.

General McDowell had great fondness for landscape gardening, and during the last years of his life was Park Commissioner of San Francisco, in which capacity he constructed a park out of the neglected Presidio and laid out drives that command fine views of the Golden Gate. The last years of his life were spent in California.

General McDowell was not popular as a public man, but in private life he made a great many friends. He was hospitable and greatly enjoyed music, painting, and entertaining his friends. His family relations were pleasant, and his private life was beyond reproach. He bore his misfortunes with dignity and composure.

General Irvin McDowell died of a heart attack at San Francisco May 4, 1885, at age 67. He had been in failing health for some time. He was buried at the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio with full military honors by the Local Grand Army of the Republic.

Major General Irvin McDowell Gravestone

Helen Burden McDowell died December 7, 1891, in New York City.

SOURCES
History of War
Irvin McDowell
Civil War Bookshelf
Ohio History Central
Civil War Encyclopedia
General Irvin McDowell
Wikipedia: Irvin McDowell
Irvin McDowell (1818-1885)
Biography of Irvin McDowell
Virtual American Biographies
First Manassas - First Bull Run
Report of Brigadier General Irvin McDowell Regarding First Bull Run

Maria Louise Garland Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:15:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General James Longstreet

James Longstreet was born in Edgefield, South Carolina on January 8, 1821. His parent's names were James Longstreet and Mary Anne Dent. His father, who nicknamed him Pete, was a farmer, and Longstreet spent the first nine years engaged in farm work or outdoor activities with his older siblings William and Anna, as well as the four younger sisters he accumulated between 1822 and 1829.

His father owned slaves, and through the combined efforts of their toil and the family's work, the Longstreet farm was prosperous. Young James's early education was one gained through hard work, and he developed physical strength, independence of mind, and a strong work ethic.

While he dreamed of a military career, his parents recognized that entrance into West Point Military Academy would require preliminary academic training. On October 7, 1830, young Longstreet was removed from the rural life he loved, and sent to the Augusta, Georgia, home of his uncle, noted attorney Augustus B. Longstreet, where he enrolled at the prestigious Richmond County Academy.

General James Longstreet

A sociable young man, James gained several friends whom he would retain throughout his adult life: one of these was a young man named Ulysses Simpson Grant, who was in the class behind James. At the time he graduated from West Point as part of the class of 1842, he ranked 54th in a class of 56, sixteen of whom would go on to be Civil War generals.

With his graduation in June 1842, Longstreet received the coveted commission as a brevet second lieutenant and was assigned to the Fourth Infantry, which was commanded by Colonel John Garland, and stationed at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis.

After the customary graduation leave of absence, he reported for duty and entered at once into the garrison life. A year later, to Longstreet's delight, Ulysses S. Grant survived West Point and reported for duty at Jefferson Barracks. The two soon became constant companions. It was there that he introduced his cousin Julia Dent to Grant, and the two were soon married. James and Julia were descended from two brothers, George and Peter Dent of Charles County, Maryland.

James Longstreet fell in love with Maria Louise Garland – called Louise by her family – the colonel of the regiment's daughter. The couple honored her parents' request that they wait until Mary was older and were married in Lynchburg, Virginia, on March 8, 1848.

Maria Louise Garland Longstreet & Children
Photograph taken at Hall County, Georgia, 1870

Meanwhile, the ambitious Longstreet undertook tours of duty in Louisiana and Florida before traveling to Texas to join General Zachary Taylor's Eighth Infantry. During the border dispute that escalated into the Mexican War in May of 1846, 25-year-old Longstreet fought at the Battle of Cherubusco under General Winfield Scott, and received a severe wound to his leg at Chapultepec. He remained in Mexico at an army hospital until the end of the year, then returned to his regiment.

At another post in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, Louise gave birth to their first child, John Garland Longstreet, who was born on December 26, 1848. From 1849 to 1851, Longstreet served as commissary of the Department of Texas. On December 15, 1850, their second son, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, was born in San Antonio, Texas.

On April 19, 1853, another son, William Dent Longstreet was born In San Antonio, Texas. On July 19, 1854 Longstreet's youngest child, William Dent Longstreet, died in Washington DC. While visiting her parents in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Louise gave birth to a fourth son, James Longstreet, named after his father. Maria gave Longstreet a fifth child named Mary Anne Longstreet on December 31, 1860, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Civil War defined Longstreet's life. When Alabama seceded from the Union in January of 1861, Longstreet, like many other officers with ties to the south, felt the pull of his allegiance to his home in Georgia. He resigned his commission in the U.S. Army in May and joined the forces of the Confederacy as a lieutenant colonel. He traveled to the Confederate capitol at Richmond, Virginia, was appointed brigadier-general in June, and was sent to Manassas Junction, Virginia, to head a brigade of Virginia infantry.

Although Longstreet played but a minor role in the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861, he won the admiration of his superiors. Under General Joseph E. Johnston, Longstreet turned in one of his worst performances at the Battle of Seven Pines in Virginia on May 31, 1862.

Johnston's wounding during that battle required Longstreet to prove himself anew to Johnston's successor, Robert E. Lee. Longstreet's solid performance during the Seven Days battles on Virginia's peninsula earned him Lee's trust, as evidenced by his appointment as Lee's senior lieutenant in command of the Army of Northern Virginia's I Corps. Longstreet performed admirably in his new role. The two men developed a friendship that lasted until Lee's death in 1870.

Longstreet's wife and children had long since come from Texas, and were living with friends in Richmond, Virginia. Early in 1862, during a scarlet fever epidemic in that city, three of the four Longstreet children (Mary Anne, James, and Augustus Baldwin) died within eight days. The blow was almost too much for Longstreet; he hurriedly went to Richmond. It was some days before he could leave his wife 13-year-old son Garland, who were devastated by the tragedy.

The loss affected the general greatly. An aide noted that his "grief was very deep," while others commented on his change in personality. Because the Longstreets were too grief-stricken, General George Pickett and his fiancée LaSalle Corbett made the burial arrangements.

Lee recommended Longstreet for a promotion to Lieutenant General on October 11, 1862, and gave him command of the newly formed I Corps. His performance at Antietam earned Longstreet the epithet Old War Horse from General Lee. Another officer equally rewarded was Thomas Stonewall Jackson, who became leader of the II Corps.

Relied upon by Lee due to his methodical nature and thoroughness, Longstreet remained a trusted advisor, and Lee followed his counsel in many battles. A believer in tactical defense, Longstreet saw greater chance of victory in preserving the lives of his men and resisting the temptation to make heroic assaults on the enemy.

For most of Lee's first year in command, the Army of Northern Virginia possessed a highly effective command structure. Jackson executed Lee's orders without much question. Longstreet's role was often that of devil's advocate, as he promoted caution and identified potential flaws in his aggressive commander's plans.

It was Longstreet's actions at the Battle of Gettysburg, fought in Pennsylvania in July 1863, that haunted him after the war. That battle marked the first major campaign for the army without Jackson, who died in May 1863, and the beginning of problems within the army's high command.

Prior to the summer of 1863, Longstreet offered a plan to the Richmond government designed to relieve pressure on Vicksburg. His proposal was not adopted in favor of Lee's plan to invade the North. Lee's plan was designed to relieve Virginia of Union troops, giving farmers time to bring in their crops; to threaten Northern cities, convincing the Union government that a continued war was useless; and to relieve other parts of the Confederacy by causing Union armies in the west to move east.

Generals Lee and General Longstreet
Third day at Gettysburg

Reacting to the Army of Northern Virginia moving north, the Army of the Potomac moved much faster than Lee had expected, and the two armies met at Gettysburg. Longstreet told Lee that offensive attacks on the Federal position along Cemetery Ridge were doomed to failure. He preferred to flank the Union line and establish a defensive position somewhere between the Union Army and Washington DC. He felt that Meade would then be forced to attack a well-established Confederate line.

Lee's refusal to fight defensively rankled Longstreet, who barely concealed his displeasure. Still, his assault in the afternoon on July 2 virtually destroyed the Union Army's III Corps, but failed to capture the prominent Round Tops that dominated the Union position. Lee refused to relinquish the initiative, however, and issued plans for a massive frontal assault on the Union center the following day.

Pickett's Charge
Pickett's Charge was an infantry assault ordered by General Lee against Union positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, the last day of fighting at Gettysburg. Its futility was predicted by Longstreet, and it was arguably an avoidable mistake from which the Southern war effort never fully recovered psychologically.

At 1:00 that afternoon, after once again failing to dissuade Lee, Longstreet supervised a 140-cannon bombardment of the Union left flank. This barrage was answered by 110 Union guns, making it the largest artillery battle in U.S. history. After an hour, Meade ordered a cease fire, leading Lee to believe the Union batteries had been demolished, but it was largely ineffective..

During this bombardment, which drew a furious response from the Union guns on the ridge opposite, Longstreet showed himself at his most fearless. With the shells screaming and exploding all around him, he was observed by Brigadier General J. L. Kemper of Pickett's division:

Longstreet rode slowly and alone immediately in front of our entire line. He sat his large charger with a magnificent grace and composure I never before beheld. His bearing was to me the grandest moral spectacle of the war. I expected to see him fall every instant. Still he moved on, slowly and majestically, with an inspiring confidence, composure, self-possession, and repressed power in every movement and look, that fascinated me.

When the smoke cleared, Lee ordered Longstreet to advance on the Union center, an action Longstreet adamantly opposed; he could not bring himself to give the order to attack. Pickett had to ask, "General, shall I advance?" and Longstreet merely nodded.

At 3 pm, 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to history as Pickett's Charge. As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top.

Horrified, Longstreet and Major General George Pickett watched helplessly from Seminary Ridge as a line of well-shielded Union forces armed with highly accurate rifled muskets fired on their troops marching in formation toward Cemetery Ridge. Over 6,500 of Longstreet's men marched to their death, fell wounded on the field of battle, or were captured.

Longstreet reacted quickly after the disaster by getting artillery ready to repulse a possible Union counterattack, and helping to rally Pickett's men. The abject failure of Pickett's Charge was felt keenly throughout the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederacy.

Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg

Because Lee rejected his appeal, some writers have concluded that Longstreet did not give full attention to his command and only reluctantly ordered Pickett's Charge, as ordered by Lee. Longstreet's disagreement with Lee would later be used in the controversy regarding who was responsible for the South losing the war.

When the Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac River after Gettysburg, Longstreet wrote a letter to an uncle. In it he stated that he "would prefer that all the blame should rest upon me. As General Lee is our commander, he should have the support and influence we can give him." He then added, "The truth will be known in time, and I leave that to show how much of the responsibility of Gettysburg rests on my shoulders." Unfortunately for him, he could not know at the time how heavy that burden would be. It would define his military career and history's judgment of him.

Longstreet described his and Lee's wartime relationship as "affectionate, confidential, and even tender, from first to last." When Louise Longstreet gave birth to a son in October 1863, the couple named him Robert Lee Longstreet.

A physically strong man — he stood 6 feet 2 and weighed about 200 pounds — Longstreet had worked tirelessly for the cause. An excellent organizer, he assembled arguably the finest staff in the army. A skillful tactician, he had directed four assaults that defined his ability on a battlefield. His personal courage was never questioned. He lacked Stonewall Jackson’s prowess in independent command, but in other key respects he was Jackson's superior.

After Gettysburg, the Army of Tennessee was pushed south of Chattanooga and into northern Georgia, and Longstreet and two of his divisions were sent as reinforcements. Longstreet arrived in time to participate in the Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga.

Longstreet was then sent north to Knoxville, where he failed to chase Burnside's Union forces out of Knoxville. Longstreet and his men wintered in eastern Tennessee, and joined Lee in Virginia in early May 1864, and helped Lee repulse efforts by General Grant to breech the Confederate lines near Chancellorsville at the Battle of the Wilderness.

On the second day of fighting – almost exactly one year later, and three miles away from where Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men during the Battle of Chancellorsville – Longstreet was shot by his own men in the thickets of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. Many believe the battle wouldn't have ended in a draw if Longstreet had been able to direct his counterattack in person.

Longstreet was struck by a minié ball that hit him in the throat and exited through his right shoulder, severing nerves. As a result of his wounds, his once clear voice was now husky and his right arm was paralyzed. He was put on leave until his wounds healed. Longstreet's fall was recognized as a great blow to the South and a stroke of luck for the North.

Longstreet rejoined Lee in October 1864, with his right arm paralyzed and in a sling, initially unable to ride a horse. He had taught himself to write with his left hand; by periodically pulling on his arm, as advised by doctors, he was able to regain use of his right hand in later years. For the remainder of the Siege of Petersburg, he commanded the defenses in front of the capital of Richmond, including all forces north of the James River and Pickett's Division at Bermuda Hundred.

On April 2, the Federals attacked all along the line around Petersburg, and the Confederate line collapsed, causing Petersburg and Richmond to be abandoned. Longstreet retreated with Lee in the Appomattox Campaign, commanding both the First and Third Corps, following General A. P. Hill's death on April 2.

The situation had arisen which General Lee considered would justify surrender, an event that had been anticipated on both sides as the result of the fighting on the 6th and 7th of April. Longstreet advised him of his belief that Grant would treat them fairly.

As Lee rode toward Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, Longstreet said, "General, if he does not give us good terms, come back and let us fight it out." But General Grant, Longstreet's best friend at West Point and in the antebellum army, offered generous terms, and it was over, at a cost of more than 620,000 American lives.

At Appomattox, Longstreet was warmly received by Grant, and their friendship from before the war continued. Longstreet never saw Robert E. Lee again, although they did exchange letters prior to Lee's death in 1870.

After the war, Longstreet got involved with the Republican Party and became known as a traitor to the South. In November 1865, Ulysses S. Grant petitioned President Andrew Johnson to restore Longstreet's citizenship. When Longstreet and Johnson met, Johnson said, "There are three persons of the South who can never receive amnesty: Mr. Davis, General Lee, and yourself. You have given the Union cause too much trouble."

In 1867, Longstreet wrote letters to the New Orleans Times, which were reprinted widely. In them, he advised Southerners, as a "conquered people," to cooperate with the North and the Republicans, as the war was fought upon "Republican ideals." Southerners were furious. When he officially joined the Republican Party, supported the Grant administration, and accepted Republican political appointments, they were outraged.

The battle lines between the Republican North and the Democratic South were still very much in evidence, and Longstreet's party affiliation – and his surprising conversion to Roman Catholicism – branded him a traitor. Many Southerners – even those who had once hailed him as a military hero – now cast aspersions on his military record.

A group of Virginians, led by General Jubal A. Early, made charges that Longstreet failed to execute Lee's alleged order to attack at dawn on July 2, 1863, thereby costing the Confederates the victory at Gettysburg. Longstreet's displeasure with Lee at Gettysburg became the basis for which Early and his cohorts attacked him. In the process, General Lee was absolved of any responsibility for the defeat.

The blame for the heavy losses suffered at Gettysburg was placed squarely upon Longstreet's shoulders, and he was excluded from Confederate circles, even military reunions, and there are few monuments to Longstreet in the South. Such criticism chafed Longstreet, but he was unable to defend himself well in writing.

His warm friendship with now President Ulysses S. Grant helped Longstreet attain numerous patronage positions in New Orleans. He was nominated for the position of surveyor for the port of New Orleans with a generous salary. In January 1872, he was commissioned brigadier general in the state militia and was assigned responsibility for all the militia units and police forces in the city. At the end of the year, he resigned his post as state adjutant general but kept his militia commission.

In addition to sons Garland, Robert Lee, and James Jr., Longstreet had a new son and daughter. They were Fitz Randolph born in 1869, and the couple's tenth and last child Maria Louisa born in 1872. Although Louise and James had lost five children during their years together, the five living in 1872 all lived to adulthood.

After a local newspaper invited the general to move his family to Gainesville, Georgia, Longstreet shifted his political support to his home state in 1875. He purchased the Piedmont Hotel in Gainesville, as well as a farm outside town – which his neighbors derisively called Gettysburg. He continued to hold minor political offices granted as thanks for his work on behalf of the Republican Party's southern wing.

In January 1879 he was appointed postmaster of Gainesville, Georgia. Following a short stint as US Ambassador to Turkey that ended in 1881, Longstreet returned to Georgia and assumed the duties of US Marshal of Georgia at the age of sixty. Evidence of widespread corruption involving his deputies, however, led to his removal from that office in 1884.

While in Georgia, he had a very large two-story house built for his family; in 1889, it burned to the ground. He lost all of his war souvenirs, including his Confederate uniform and sword, a sash Jeb Stuart had given him, and a pair of Mexican spurs he had worn in both the Mexican War and the Civil War.

In January 1890, Maria Louise Longstreet died at the age of sixty-two at Gainesville, Georgia.

General James Longstreet at Gettysburg Reunion 1893
The above photograph was taken on April 29, 1893, in Gettysburg, while Longstreet was attending the reunion held commemorating the 30th anniversary of the battle. The reunion was not held on the actual anniversary of the battle due to the extreme heat and humidity common to Pennsylvania at that time of year. Veterans of the war were reaching advanced ages, and since most camped out in the open, it was not deemed advisable to subject their failing constitutions to such extremes in environment.

On September 8, 1897, at the age of 76, James Longstreet married Helen Dortch at the Governor's mansion in Atlanta, much to his children’s disapproval. He and his 34-year-old bride honeymooned briefly near Atlanta and later took a trip to Mexico. Helen would be instrumental in the effort to salvage her husband's reputation.

As the years passed, Longstreet became bitter, and his attempts to "set the record straight" made the situation worse. He was naive in many ways. He failed to follow his uncle's advice not to anger people by submitting controversial letters to newspapers. He didn't anticipate extreme, long-lasting Southern hatred toward him, nor that there would be consequences for supporting Grant, becoming a Republican, and accepting political appointments.

In defense of his criticism of Lee's tactical offensive at the Battle of Gettysburg, which Longstreet maintained resulted in the needless death of thousands of Confederate troops during Pickett's Charge, the former general published his memoirs, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, in 1896.

General Longstreet had received a letter from General A. A. Long dated May 31, 1875. In this letter, General Long states "I do not recollect of hearing of an order to attack at sunrise, or at any other designated hour, pending the operations at Gettysburg during the first three days of July, 1863." General Long, at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg was General Lee's military secretary.

On January 2, 1904, Longstreet contracted pneumonia. Large quantities of blood began to flow from his mouth, and he hemorrhaged so badly that the throat wound he had received 49 years earlier was reopened. Delirious for some time, he eventually lost consciousness.

James Longstreet died of pneumonia on the morning of January 2, 1904, just six days short of his 83rd birthday.

Lieutenant General James Longstreet
I love this one!
Hero was the name of Longstreet's horse.

On January 6th when the services began, a local guard unit and representatives of the Longstreet Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy attended the body. Two priests and Bishop Keiley, one of the general's old soldiers, conducted the services. All the Longstreet children except James attended.

After services at the courthouse, pallbearers carried the casket to a hearse, which began the long procession to Gainesville's Alta Vista Cemetery. State and local dignitaries, militia units, Confederate veterans carrying flags, and other groups followed as church bells tolled. At the gravesite, Bishop Keiley gave a eulogy, after which guards fired their volleys, and Taps sounded its haunting notes.

When the news of his death spread across the country, many newspapers had extolled his virtues as a man and his prowess as a general. Too bad they waited so long. As the pallbearers prepared to lower the casket, one of his old soldiers was moved to lay his uniform and enlistment papers on the lid of Longstreet's coffin, saying nothing, but speaking volumes.

Despite all the accusations, he still commanded the respect of thousands both North and South, both Blue and Gray. As Longstreet himself had said:

Error lives but a day. Truth is Eternal.

Helen Dorch Longstreet continued Longstreet's pursuit of clearing his name, publishing Lee and Longstreet at High Tide: Gettysburg in the Light of the Official Record in 1905. Mrs. Longstreet was a former newspaper editor and State Assistant Librarian for the State of Georgia before she married General Longstreet.

SOURCES
James Longstreet
Battle of Gettysburg
The Life of James Longstreet
James Longstreet (1821-1904)
Lieutenant General James Longstreet
About North Georgia: James Longstreet
Lieutenant General James Longstreet – PDF FILE
James Longstreet: Robert E. Lee's Most Valuable Soldier

Emily Hoffman

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Fiancée of Union General James Birdseye McPherson

Emily Hoffman was born at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1839. Her father was a prominent businessman. Born in Clyde, Ohio, in 1828, James Birdseye McPherson left home at 13 to clerk in the Green Springs store of Robert Smith, who helped McPherson get an appointment to West Point. There he excelled academically, developing into a skilled engineer, horseman, and tactician, graduating first in the class of 1853.

In 1858, McPherson took charge of the Pacific Coast harbor defenses at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Handsome, worldly, and personable, he became a favorite with fellow officers and San Francisco society. There he met Emily Hoffman, of a prominent Baltimore family, who became his fiancee. He idolized her Victorian combination of blue eyes, golden hair, and chaste daintiness.

Major General James B. McPherson

At the outbreak of the Civil War, McPherson returned east where he served as General Henry Halleck's aide, and later as General Ulysses S. Grant's chief engineer. With Grant at Forts Henry and Donelson and at Shiloh, McPherson became deeply attached to his commander. McPherson's courage under fire, professionalism, and loyalty brought rapid promotion.

Following the Battle of Shiloh in May of 1862, he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers. On October 8, 1862 he was promoted to Major General. His next appointment was to lead the Union's 17th Corps during the campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was his first time as commanding officer in charge of a military campaign.

On July 4, 1863, Grant gave McPherson the honor of leading the victorious Union troops into Vicksburg. He drew criticism in the North for his compassionate treatment of Vicksburg's war-torn families. He responded, "When the time comes that to be a soldier, a man must forget... the claims of humanity, I do not want to be a soldier."

When General Grant went east in early 1864 to take command of all the Union armies, he credited his trusted friends, McPherson and Sherman, with his successes of 1862 and 1863. Sherman received command of the West, and McPherson succeeded him as commander of the 30,000-man Army of the Tennessee.

During the spring of 1864, McPherson was granted leave for the first time in three years, and headed for Baltimore to marry Emily Hoffman, but en route General William Tecumseh Sherman ordered him back to Huntsville, Alabama, to prepare for the drive against Atlanta. During the Atlanta Campaign, he earned the respect of his superiors and the trust and affection of his army.

With all these grave responsibilities, it's no wonder that he didn't write his Baltimore fiancee as often as he should. He knew that Emily, the daughter of a prosperous local merchant, was exposed to many attentions, and perhaps he had also heard that a girl won't wait forever. In any case, by the summer of 1864, he feared that Emily was growing impatient. Now, with the Atlanta campaign under way, there would be even less time to write.

At this point, General Sherman wrote a letter to Emily, explaining her fiance's importance to the army and begging her to be patient.

Head-Quarters
Military Division of the Mississippi
Acworth, Ga.
June 9, 1864
My Dear Young Lady,
I hardly feel that I should apologize for intrusion, for I can claim an old acquaintance with your Brother and Sister in California, and feel almost that I know you through them, and others of your honored family. It has come to my knowledge that you are affianced to another close friend and associate of mine Maj General McPherson, and I fear that weighing mighty matters of State but lightly in the Realm of Love, you feel that he gives too much of his time to his Country and too little to you.

His rise in his profession has been rapid steady and well earned. Not a link unbroken. Not a thing omitted. Each step in his progress however has imposed on him fresh duties that as a man and a soldier and still more as a Patriot he could not avoid.

I did hope as he returned from Meridian, when his Corps the 17th was entitled to go home on furlough, that he too could steal a month to obey the promptings of his heart, to hasten to Baltimore and I so instructed, but by the changes incident to General Grant's elevation, McPherson succeeded to the Command of a separate Army and Department, and could not leave.

There is no rest for us in this war till you and all can look about you and feel there is Reason & Safety in the Land. God purifies the atmosphere with tempests and storms which fall alike upon the just and unjust, and in like manner he appeases the jarring elements of political discord by wars and famine. Heretofore as a nation we have escaped his wrath, but now with the vehemence of an hundred years accumulation we are in the storm, and would you have us shrink?

But I will not discuss so plain a point with one who bears the honored name of Hoffman, rather tell you of him whose every action I know fills your waking and sleeping thoughts, him so young but so prominent, whose cause is among the gallant and brave, who fight not for oppression and wrong but that the Government bequeathed to us by your ancestors shall not perish in ignominy and insult: but which shall survive in honor & glory, with a power to protect the weak, and shelter the helpless from the terrible disasters of a fratricidal war.

I know that at the outset of this war many of the Class with whom you associated, were wont to style us the barbarian hosts of the North, not unlike the hordes that followed Alaric from the wood of northern Europe to desolate the fair field of the dynastic Romans. This may be a parallel but not a fair one.

The People of the South were bound to us by a solemn compact which they have broken, and they taunted us with cowardice and poltroonery, which had we borne with submission, we would have passed down to history as a craven and coward race. I doubt even now if our brothers of the South would if free again to choose make so base an issue, but now we go further. We of the North have Rights in the South, in its rivers & vacant Land, the right to come & go when we please, and these Rights as a brave people we cannot & will not surrender on compulsion.

I know McPherson well, as a young man, handsome & noble soldier, activated by motives as pure as those of Washington, and I know that in making my testimony to his high & noble character, I will not offend the Girl he loves.

Be patient and I know that when the happy day comes for him to stand by your side as one Being identical in heart & human existence you will regard him with a high respect & honor that will convert simple love into something sublime & beautiful.

Yrs with respect
W. T. Sherman

Thus admonished, Emily sat at home trying to be patient while the Union Army swept through Georgia, establishing the right "to come & go when we please."

On July 17, 1864, Jefferson Davis replaced Joe Johnston with McPherson's old West Point roommate, John Bell Hood. Hood's first engagement against Union troops as commander, was north of Atlanta at Peachtree Creek. On the 20th, Hood was defeated and moved his forces into Atlanta. Meanwhile, McPherson advanced from Decatur meeting little opposition so that in the afternoon of the 21st of July, he had captured the outer earthworks guarding Atlanta and held the high ground on Bald Hill overlooking Atlanta. That night, Hood sent General Hardee with four divisions to circumvent McPherson's forces.

On July 22, 1864, Sherman felt that, due to the lack of enemy in front of him, Hood had evacuated Atlanta, and ordered an advance. But McPherson knew his old roommate, and knew he wouldn't give up Atlanta without a fight. If Atlanta was void of large concentrations of enemy troops, McPherson believed that Hood planned to attack the Union rear and side.

McPherson was discussing this possibility with Sherman at headquarters, when they heard a large concentration of gunfire from the direction of Decatur. Hardee had begun his attack. McPherson jumped on his horse and sped toward his troops. He found Grenville Dodge's corps struggling against a fierce assault. After giving orders to Dodge, he followed a line of the 16th Corps towards the 17th Corps, traveling only with his orderly.

Entering the woods that separated the two corps, McPherson had traveled only about 150 yards when he heard a cry of "Halt!" He stopped for an instant and saw a line of gray skirmishers, wheeled his horse, raised his hat, and made a quick dash to his right. The skirmishers let go with a volley.

McPherson staggered in the saddle for a short distance, and then fell to the ground. Within an hour, the Union lines were re-established, but the 35-year-old general lay dead in the arms of a broken-hearted Union private.

The general's body was sent through the lines under a flag of truce, and Sherman wept over his young friend, until tears dripped from his unkempt beard. He felt pangs of guilt for having denied McPherson's request for a furlough to be married. And, he felt tremendous grief over the sudden loss of such a friend.

"The country has lost one of its best soldiers, and I have lost my best friend, " General Grant said after hearing the news.

Scene of General McPherson's Death

The following day, a messenger appeared at the Baltimore residence of Samuel Hoffman, bearing a telegram for Emily's mother. Mrs. Hoffman's only son was in the Confederate service, and that perhaps made it less inexcusable when she remarked, as she handed Emily the message, that here at last was "some good news:"

REC'D, BALTIMORE, 23 1864,

TO MRS SAML HOFFMAN FRANKLIN ST

GENL BARRY DESIRES ME TO SAY THAT GENL MCPHERSON WAS KILLED IN BATTLE YESTERDAY HIS REMAINS WERE SENT TO HIS HOME LAST EVENING IN CHARGE OF HIS STAFF

JC VAN DUSEN
CAPT & ASST SUPR

Emily fled to her room and locked the door. She was still there three weeks later when a servant handed her a second letter from General Sherman. It was written from outside Atlanta – the city now lay under siege and victory was in sight – but the General's thoughts were far from jubilant:

HEADQUARTERS, Military Division of the Mississippi
In the Field, near Atlanta Geo.
August 5, 1864
Miss Emily Hoffman, Baltimore.
My Dear Young Lady,
A letter from your Mother to General Barry on my Staff reminds me that I owe you heartfelt sympathy and a sacred duty of recording the fame of one of our Country's brightest & most glorious Characters. I yield to none on Earth but yourself the right to excel me in lamentations for our Dead Hero. Why should death's darts reach the young and brilliant instead of older men who could better have been spared?

Nothing that I can record will elevate him in your mind's memory, but I could tell you many things that would form a bright halo about his image. We were more closely associated than any men in this life. I knew him before you did; when he was a Lieutenant of Engineers in New York, we occupied rooms in the same house.

Again we met at St. Louis, almost at the outset of this unnatural war, and from that day to this we have been closely associated. I see him now, so handsome, so smiling, on his fine black horse, booted & spurred, with his easy seat, the impersonation of the Gallant Knight.

We were at Shiloh together, at Corinth, at Oxford, at Jackson, at Vicksburg, at Meridian, and on this campaign. He had left me but a few minutes to place some of his troops approaching their position, and went through the wood by the same road he had come, and must have encountered the skirmish line of the Rebel Hardee's Corps, which had made a Circuit around the flank of Blair's troops.

Though always active and attending in person amidst dangers to his appropriate duties, on this occasion he was not exposing himself. He rode over ground he had twice passed that same day, over which hundreds had also passed, by a narrow wood road to the Rear of his Established Line.
He had not been gone from me half an hour before Col. Clark of his Staff rode up to me and reported that McPherson was dead or a prisoner in the hands of the Enemy.

He described that he had entered this road but a short distance in the wood some sixty yards ahead of his Staff & orderlies when a loud volley of muskets was heard, and in an instant after, his fine black horse came out with two wounds, riderless. Very shortly thereafter, other members of his staff came to me with his body in an ambulance. We carried it into a house, and laid it on a large table and examined the body. A simple bullet wound high up in the Right breast was all that disfigured his person. All else was as he left me, save his watch & purse were gone.

At this time the Battle was raging hot & fierce quite near us, and lest it should become necessary to burn the house in which we were, I directed his personal staff to convey the body to Marietta & thence North to his family. I think he could not have lived three minutes after the fatal shot, and fell from his horse within ten yards of the path or road along which he was riding. I think others will give you more detailed accounts of the attending circumstances. I enclose you a copy of my official letter announcing his death.

The lives of a thousand men such as Davis and Yancey and Toombs and Floyd and Buckner and Greeley and Lovejoy could not atone for that of McPherson. But it is in this world some men by falsehood and agitation raise the storm which falls upon the honorable and young who become involved in its Circles.

Though the cannon booms now, and the angry rattle of musketry tells me that I also will likely pay the same penalty, yet while Life lasts I will delight in the Memory of that bright particular star which has gone before to prepare the way for us more hardened sinners who must struggle on to the End.

With affection & respect,
W. T. Sherman

The letter did little good. Emily remained secluded in her room, blinds drawn, mourning her lost love. Food was left on a tray outside her door. She allowed no one to enter except her sister Dora, who gradually ruined her eyes reading aloud in the darkness. It was exactly a year later, when Emily Hoffman finally emerged, and spent the rest of her life as a spinster.

John Bell Hood had only taken command of the Confederate Army of Tennessee a few days before the battle. He wrote:

I will record the death of my classmate and boyhood friend, General James B. McPherson, the announcement of which caused me sincere sorrow. Since we had graduated in 1853, and had each been ordered off on duty in different directions, it has not been our fortune to meet.

Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His considerate and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many Federal officers.

Thirty years after the American Civil War, 16th Corps Commander Grenville Dodge explained why the Army of the Tennessee veterans rarely spoke of their magnificent victory at the Battle of Atlanta, a "giant among battles." Dodge replied, "The answer comes to all of us. It is as apparent to us today as it was that night. We lost our best friend, that superb soldier, our commander, General McPherson; his death counted so much more to us than victory, that we spoke of our battle, our great success, with our loss uppermost in our minds."

In 1876, the Society of the Army of the Tennessee unveiled its memorial - an equestrian statue at McPherson Square in Washington, DC. Five years later, President Rutherford B. Hayes opened ceremonies at Clyde, Ohio, where 20,000 people cheered as Sherman dedicated the bronze statue erected over McPherson's grave.

McPherson Monument
Clyde, Ohio, 1881

Emily Hoffman died June 15, 1891, at Baltimore.

SOURCES
James Birdseye McPherson
Death of High-Ranking General
Major General James B. McPherson
General Sherman and the Baltimore Belle
Biographical Sketch of James Birdseye McPherson

Julia Dent Grant

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Wife of Union General Ulysses S. Grant

Born at White Haven Plantation west of St. Louis. Missouri, Julia Dent was the daughter of Colonel Frederick Dent, a slaveholding planter and merchant. She grew up there in a typically Southern atmosphere. Julia, the fifth of seven children and the first girl, felt she was pampered by her brothers, but believed she remained unspoiled. Julia was rather plain in appearance and squinted through crossed eyes.

Growing up at White Haven, her family's plantation, Julia fished, rode horses, and played in the woods. Her playmates included slave children; eventually, the girls she played with as a child became her slave servants as adults. Julia attended the Mauro Boarding School in St. Louis for seven years among the daughters of other affluent parents, where she excelled in art and voice.

Julia Dent Grant

After returning home in 1844, she met Ulysses S. Grant, "Ulys" as she called him, when he was invited to White Haven by his former West Point roommate, Julia's brother Fred Dent. Second Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant had been assigned to nearby Jefferson Barracks after his graduation from West Point in 1843.

Ulysses became a frequent visitor at White Haven, where he and Julia enjoyed walks and horseback rides, often dodging her siblings and slaves to be alone. He admired her spirit and she shared his love of horses. Upon learning of his regiment's impending transfer, Grant proposed to Julia, but their marriage was delayed four years by the Mexican-American War, during which they saw each other only once.

Ulysses wrote frequent letters, and returned to White Haven to marry Julia on August 22, 1848. , who disapproved of the Dents' being slaveholders and did not attend the wedding. It was Julia's first trip away from home.

Julia Dent married Ulysses S. Grant on August 22, 1848, at White Haven plantation. Among Grant's attendants was James Longstreet of Civil War fame, who was also Julia's cousin. Neither of their fathers approved the match - hers because Grant's career as a soldier seemed bleak; his because the Dents were slaveholders. They spent their four-month honeymoon in Louisville, Kentucky, and visiting Grant's parents in Ohio, who refused to attend the wedding, though they did come to accept Julia.

The newlyweds left St. Louis in mid-November, 1848, and went to Detroit where Grant joined his Fourth Infantry unit. Upon reaching Detroit, Grant was informed he was instead to report to Sackets Harbor, an outpost in Northwestern New York on the shores of Lake Ontario. While their surroundings in Madison Barracks were quite rough and the weather inhospitable, Julia created a homey atmosphere for her new husband and they spent a happy winter there.

The Grants had four healthy children: Frederick, Ulysses Jr. (called Buck), Ellen (called Nellie), and Jesse. Although Ulysses' army duty took them to the far corners of the nation, Julia returned home to White Haven for the birth of their first child and after the birth of Ulysses Jr. in Ohio. Their last two children were born at the White Haven estate after Grant's resignation from the army in 1854.

Julia's love for her children was constant, and she always made sure to broaden their horizons: through education, the boys' accompanying Ulysses at the front during the war, the children's attendance at White House social functions, and their inclusion on the Grants' around-the-world tour.

When Ulysses S. Grant resigned from the military in 1854, he longed to spend time with his wife Julia and their young children. Since the army no longer provided him an income, he planned to support his family by farming at White Haven. Cultivating the 80 acres given to the Grants as a wedding gift, Ulysses also managed the rest of the land of his father-in-law, Colonel Dent.

With the help of the Dents' slaves, Grant planted crops of potatoes and wheat, cut wood, harvested fruit from the orchards, and tended a vegetable garden. He was so dedicated to his future that he commented to a friend, "whoever hears of me in ten years will hear of a well-to-do old Missouri farmer."

Establishing himself as a successful, independent farmer included the construction of his own house. Grant selected an elevated location about 100 feet from the road and close to his crops. In the fall of 1855, he began cutting, hewing, and notching logs for the cabin. Accustomed to the relative finery of the stone home built by Julia's brother Louis Dent, she lamented Ulysses' decision to build a log cabin, not even "a neat frame house."

The next spring and summer, he set about digging a cellar and setting the stones for the foundation; neighbors and slaves then assisted in the house raising. Grant completed much of the work himself, shingling the roof, building the stairs, and laying the floors. The cabin was divided into four rooms, two upstairs and two downstairs, with a hall running between them on both floors. Julia did her best to decorate the place, but even her standards of refinement could not conceal its rustic nature.

Julia recalled that it was "so crude and homely I did not like it at all, but I did not say so. I got out all my pretty covers, baskets, books, etc., and tried to make it look home-like and comfortable, but this was hard to do. The little house looked so unattractive that we facetiously called it Hardscrabble."

Even though Hardscrabble was the first house that the Grants ever owned, they lived there only three months. At the request of Colonel Dent, Julia and Ulysses returned to White Haven when her mother died in January 1857. The little cabin never again served as their home.

Those days were financially trying for the Grants, but Julia remained supportive of her hard-working husband. She considered herself "a splendid farmer's wife," raising chickens and even churning butter. Except for making a cake once a week, she left the cooking to the slaves.

When the Grants' farm and a job in St. Louis failed, Julia moved with Ulysses and their children to Galena, Illinois, where Ulysses took a job in his father's leather goods store when the Civil War called him to serve in the Union Army.

As it did for most Americans, the war dramatically altered the Grants' lives. In 1861, Ulysses immediately left to serve in the Union army, and his responsibilities kept him away from home for most of the war. Letters helped to ease the pain of separation, and Julia frequently traveled to her husband's encampments, both alone and with the children.

Grant always needed his wife with him; her steady nature, good humor, and common sense kept him focused and on an even keel. He was apt to fall into moods of uncertainty and depression, and Julia was able to keep his spirits up. After appointing Grant as Commander of the Army of the Potomac, President Lincoln sent for Julia to join her husband, knowing of her good influence on him.

After so many years of hardship and stress, Julia rejoiced in Grant's fame as a victorious general and a national hero. Julia served as the financial manager and agent for White Haven in her husband’s absence, leasing sections of the farm, collecting rent, and consolidating land titles.

General Ulysses S. Grant from West Point to Appomattox
Grant half-length portrait surrounded by nine scenes of his career from West Point graduation in 1843 to Lee's surrender in 1865; including artillery crew in the Tower of Chapultepec, Mexico, 1847; drilling Volunteers, 1861; Fort Donelson, 1862; Shiloh, 1862; Siege of Vicksburg, 1863; Chattanooga, 1863; appointment by Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief, 1864.

Shortly after Grant's narrow escape at the Battle of Belmont, November 6, 1861, Julia and the children made the trip to his headquarters at Cairo, Illinois to visit him. They stayed there through the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson. Grant then asked her to take the children and go to visit his parents in Covington, Kentucky, which she did. While there, she read the extremely negative accounts of her husband's actions at Shiloh. Near the end of June, Grant sent for his family to visit him at Memphis, Tennessee.

Grant was engaged September and October, 1862 in the battles of Iuka and Corinth. In early November, 1862 Grant again sent for Julia who traveled first to Jackson and then LaGrange, Tennessee. Grant soon moved on further south to Oxford, Mississippi and because of traveling difficulties, Julia could not follow immediately.

A few days after Julia's arrival at Oxford, Grant went back north to Holly Springs and she returned there with him. After spending Christmas and the first 9 days of the new year of 1863 there, Grant and Julia moved on to Headquarters of the Department of the Tennessee in Memphis. When Grant began moving down the Mississippi toward Vicksburg at the end of January, Julia stayed behind in Memphis in the Gayoso House, a hotel.

In mid-April 1863, Grant sent for Julia and the children to come to Vicksburg. Julia arrived just in time to witness the thrilling nighttime transport of the troops and ships past the Vicksburg batteries on April 16th. On approximately April 23rd, Julia left Vicksburg with the three children and went to St. Louis where she stayed with her father.

Julia spent the summer of 1863 on the family property in St. Louis. She said it was not a happy time for her as her neighbors were all Southern in their sympathies. After the fall of Vicksburg (July 4, 1863), Julia traveled there to visit Grant. On August 23 he accompanied her on her way back to St. Louis to place the three oldest children in school.

Shortly after Grant received his commission as lieutenant general, Julia accompanied him on a return trip to Washington, where she was introduced to the Lincolns at a White House reception. From there she returned to St. Louis where she spent the summer of 1864 with her father and children.

By the fall of 1864 Grant was situated with the Army of the Potomac and Julia and the children moved east, first trying to find a suitable home in Philadelphia. When nothing was available, she went across the Delaware River to the little town of Burlington, New Jersey, where she found a nice home at 309 Wood Street, and put the children in school.

Arriving late at night on November 18th, 1864 Grant came to visit his family in Burlington, and Julia accompanied Grant when he left for New York City. Mobs of adoring citizens followed her husband everywhere, making casual shopping and enjoyment of the city an impossibility. Julia stayed at Burlington until after the New Year.

In early January 1865, the Grants were presented with a house in Philadelphia, purchased for them by the Loyal Citizens of Philadelphia. They were thrilled with this gift and Grant advised Julia to move there at once, but she spent the winter with her husband in a two-room cabin at City Point, Virginia.

Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865. On April 14th, the Grants, with little Jesse, took a train to Burlington. In Philadelphia, Grant was told of the shooting of President Lincoln. With the War over, the family settled down in Washington DC, where Grant was the head of all the armies of the United States. In October of 1865, they purchased a house there.

The war's end, Lincoln's assassination and the turmoil afterwards, propelled the Grants into the spotlight. Given gifts, honors, and even a house in Galena, the years after the war brought fame and prosperity to the Grants. They spent their summers at Long Beach in New Jersey, where they bought a cottage.

Julia Dent Grant Statue
The Grant Home at Galena, Illinois, is in the background.

In the summer of 1868, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican party to be its candidate for the presidency, and was elected in the fall. Julia Grant entered the White House in 1869 to begin, in her words, "the happiest period" of her life. With Cabinet wives as her allies, she entertained extensively and lavishly. As First Lady, it was suggested to Julia that she have an operation to correct her crossed eyes, but President Grant said that he liked her that way.

During Grant's two terms of office (1869-1877), Julia was an active participant in presidential matters. She attended Senate hearings, read through the president's mail, and met with cabinet members, senators, justices, and diplomats. She reveled in her role as hostess to the nation, and all accounts reflect the warmth and home-like atmosphere she brought to the White House.

Indicative of this were her afternoon teas and public receptions open to everyone, and the elaborate wedding held in the White House East Room for her daughter Nellie in 1874. Julia also became a grandmother for the first time while living there. She enjoyed her time so completely at the White House that she felt like a "waif" when they left in 1877.

During Julia Grant's eight-year tenure, the White House was restored to the center of Washington's social life. Julia had succeeded in making it both a social center, as well as a comfortable home. Her last act was to prepare a luncheon for the incoming Rutherford and Lucy Hayes on Inauguration Day 1877. She sobbed like a child when she climbed into her carriage to leave.

In May 1877, the Grants embarked on a two-and-a-half year world tour. They met with both the dignitaries and common people of many countries, and visited many exotic points of interest. It was a welcome break from the political turmoil of the presidency, and they were treated as American celebrities. Nearly one-third of Julia’s memoirs are devoted to recollections of this trip, clearly a high point of her life. She noted that in foreign countries Ulysses finally got the recognition and respect he deserved.

The Grants returned to the US in 1879, but the high living soon came to an end. The Republicans failed to nominate Ulysses for a third term in office, and Grant's investments in a financial firm co-owned by his son Buck were stolen by Buck's partner, a swindler.

In a last effort to provide for his family, Ulysses S. Grant signed a lucrative contract to write his memoirs, but by then, he was already dying of throat cancer. He finished writing the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant in 1885, just before his death on July 23 at Mt. McGregor, New York.

He left behind a poignant note for Julia that was found on his body:

Look after our dear children and direct them in the paths of rectitude. It would distress me far more to hear that one of them could depart from an honorable, upright and virtuous life than it would to know that they were prostrated on a bed of sickness from which they were never to rise alive. They have never given us any cause for alarm on this account, and I trust they never will. With these few injunctions and the knowledge I have of your love and affection and the dutiful affection of all our children, I bid you a final farewell, until we meet in another and, I trust, better world.

Julia was grief-stricken, a state from which she never completely recovered. The profits from Ulysses' memoirs left Julia a wealthy woman, and she lived in homes in New York City and Washington, DC. For the last 17 years of her life, she worked to promote and sustain the memory of her beloved husband.

In 1897, Julia attended the dedication of Grant's Tomb overlooking the Hudson River in New York City, with President William McKinley at her side. Her many friends and acquaintances included Jefferson Davis' wife Varina, Jane Stanford, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Julia Dent Grant died on December 14, 1902, in Washington DC, from heart and kidney complications, at the age of 76.

Graves at Grant's Tomb

The final words of Julia's autobiography show the depth of her feelings for Ulysses S. Grant and the profound effect he had on her even after he had passed away:

For nearly thirty-seven years, I, his wife, rested and was warmed in the sunlight of his loyal love and great fame, and now, even though his beautiful life has gone out, it is as when some far-off planet disappears from the heavens; the light of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me.

SOURCES
Julia Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Julia Dent Grant
Ulysses S. Grant Facts
Julia Boggs Dent Grant
Slavery at White Haven
Julia Dent Grant, 1826-1902
Wikipedia: Julia Dent Grant
Julia Dent Grant Chronology
Ulysses S. Grant & White Haven
First Lady Biography: Julia Grant
Hardscrabble: The House that Grant Built

Rebecca (Fanny) Haralson Gordon

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General John Brown Gordon

Rebecca (Fanny) Haralson, September 18, 1837, and lived almost into our own time, was the daughter of General Hugh Anderson Haralson of LaGrange, Georgia. Her father had represented Georgia in Congress for many years and was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs during the Mexican War.

John Brown Gordon was born in Upson County, Georgia, February 6, 1832, to Zachariah and Malinda Cox Gordon, the fourth of twelve children. His father was a prominent Baptist minister and plantation owner. Around 1840, Zachariah moved his family to Walker County near Lafayette, where he built a summer resort hotel to take advantage of the medicinal appeal of the springs on the property. The hotel subsequently became one of the State's most fashionable vacation spots. Over two decades later, the Battle of Chickamauga was waged in part on the Gordon's property.

Fanny met John Brown Gordon after he left the University of Georgia in 1854 to study law in Atlanta. He was admitted to the Bar later that year, and began a law practice with Basil H. Overby and Logan E. Bleckly. Through them, Gordon met Fanny Haralson, who was the younger sister of the wives of both partners.

Fanny Haralson Gordon

In love at first sight, 22-year-old John married Fanny on her 17th birthday, September 18, 1854. The wedding took place at Myrtle Hill, the Haralson's ancestral home near La Grange, Georgia. It was a small private affair in her father's bedroom, because his health had taken a bad turn. In fact, one week later her father, General Haralson, died. Shortly after the wedding, John and Fanny moved to Atlanta. Theirs was a long and happy marriage.

When his practice began to falter, Gordon switched to journalism and wrote for a newspaper in Milledgeville – then Georgia's capital – for a year before moving to northwest Georgia to open a coal mining company. It was there, at the juncture of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, that Gordon was living when the Civil War erupted in 1861.

By the time war came, the Gordons had two small boys and were operating a coal mining company. Hus¬band and wife struggled with their loyalties to family and country. Gordon wrote in his memoir that Fanny "ended doubt as to what disposition was to be made of her by announcing that she intended to accompany me to the war. She left their children with relatives to free her up for what in her judgment was a higher duty. Because of Southern custom, she couldn't be a battlefield nurse, but she could stay in the camps while the battles in which John fought were raging nearby.

John Brown Gordon was just 28 years old when the war began, yet by the end of the war, he was second in command only to General Robert E. Lee. In 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier, and was elected captain of a volunteer company he recruited, which was composed of men from the mountains, and they became known as the "Raccoon Roughs."

General John Brown Gordon
By Matthew Brady

Fanny Gordon accompanied her general throughout the war, and is credited with saving his life when he was wounded five times at Antietam. Assigned by General Lee to hold an essential position during the Battle of Sharpsburg, Gordon's men were tremendously outnumbered. Their only hope, he decided, was for his men to hold their fire until the enemy troops were practically on top of them and then all fire at once. Their first volley knocked down almost the entire Yankee front line. Subsequent lines of Yankees met a similar fate.

But many Confederates also fell at what would be called the Battle of Bloody Lane (a sunken road), including Gordon. First, a minie ball passed through his calf, a second ball hit him higher in the same leg, a third through his left arm, mangling the muscles and tendons in his arm were mangled and severing a small artery. A forth ball hit him in his shoulder. Despite pleas he go to the rear, Gordon continued to lead his men.

General Gordon was finally stopped by a ball that hit him in the face, passing through his left cheek and out his jaw, leaving him helpless and insensible on the field. He fell with his face in his cap and might have drowned in his own blood if there hadn't been a bullet hole in the cap.

Gordon was carried on a litter to a barn where 6th Alabama Assistant Surgeon Thaddeus J. Weatherly dressed his wounds. When Gordon revived late that night he found himself lying on a pile of straw. His spirited young wife Fanny came to the barn as soon as she learned her husband had been wounded. When she reached him, she suppressed a scream as Gordon struggled to joke with her, saying he had been to an Irish wedding.

Fanny nursed her husband for seven months. She dressed his wounds, fed him brandy and beef tea because his jaw was wired shut, and provided long hours of bedside care and devotion. "Thenceforward, for the period in which my life hung in the balance," the general wrote, "she sat at my bedside, trying to supply concentrated nourishment to sustain me against the constant drainage."

The facial wound caused his face to blacken and swell and his eyes to narrow, so much so that he could barely see. None of this deterred her. His jaw had been wired shut, which made feeding an extremely difficult proposition, but she knelt at his side and managed to get a little liquid nourishment past his clenched teeth.

When erysipelas, a serious bacterial infection, attacked his left arm, she painted it relentlessly with iodine. "Under God's providence, I owe my life to her incessant watchfulness night and day, and to her tender nursing through weary weeks and anxious months," Gordon recalled. With Fanny's care and his own strong will, Gordon miraculously recovered.

Gordon returned to duty in March 1863 and was given command of a brigade of six Georgia regiments in Lt. General Jubal Early's Division. After leading a successful assault on Marye's Heights in Fredericksburg during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, Gordon was promoted to brigadier general.

After General Robert E. Lee restructured his army, Early's Division was absorbed into Lt. General Richard Ewell's Second Corps and marched into the Shenandoah Valley as part of Lee's second attempt to invade the North. At Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, Gordon's brigade of 1200 Georgians rolled up the Federal right flank north of the town and was driving the Yankees until ordered to halt by Early and Ewell, which Gordon later contended was a mistake that cost the Rebels the battle.

Gordon was a brilliant and captivating orator – a skill he put to effective use during the War to inspire his men. A Confederate officer at Gettysburg recalled that the sight of Gordon mounted on his magnificent, coal-black stallion as being "the most glorious and inspiring thing" he had ever seen. It was, he declared, an unforgettable "splendid picture of gallantry." Gordon "standing in his stirrups, bare headed, hat in hand, arms extended and, in a voice like a trumpet, exhorting his men" was "absolutely thrilling."

Fanny mostly kept pace, going to the rear before battles. Her husband marveled at her courage. "It requires the direst dangers, especially where those dangers threaten some cause or object around which their affections are entwined, to call out the marvelous courage of women," Gordon wrote. "Under such conditions they will brave death itself without a quiver."

In the Overland Campaign, Gordon commanded a division in Ewell's (later Early's) corps at the Battle of the Wilderness near the grounds of the Chancellorsville battlefield. His God-given ability to inspire his troops almost to madness was notably done on May 12, 1864, at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

General Lee was prepared to lead the charge of Gordon's men when Gordon rode up and said: "General Lee, this is no place for you. These men behind you are Georgians and Virginians. They have never failed you and will not fail you here." Then they took up the chant, "Lee to the rear," and Gordon seized Lee's horse's bridle and ordered some men to take Lee to the rear.

Gordon's success in turning back the massive Union assault at the Bloody Angle prevented a Confederate rout, and his erect posture saved his life, as a ball went through the back of his coat, just missing his spine. Some believe that Gordon's success in turning back the Federals at the Bloody Angle gave the Confederacy an additional year of life.

After Cold Harbor, Gordon left with General Jubal Early for the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Unbeknownst to John, Fanny followed him on June 14, 1864. At one point, her carriage broke down and she was almost captured, but with the help of men from the command of Robert Rodes, she continued unmolested.

On September 19, 1864, Fanny rushed out into the street during the Third Battle of Winchester to urge Gordon's retreating troops to go back and face the enemy. With bullets flying all around her, she shouted, "Go back to the front lines, you cowards! Turn around and fight." Fortunately, no harm came to either of them.

Gordon was horrified to find her in the street with shells and balls flying about her. "I saw Mrs. Gordon on the streets of Winchester, under fire, her soul aflame with patriotic ardor, appealing to retreating Confederates to halt and form a new line to resist the Union advance. She was so transported by her patriotic passion that she took no notice of the whizzing shot and shell, and seemed wholly unconscious of her great peril."

Lt. General Jubal Early, a bachelor, had little patience with wives who tried to follow their officer husbands to war. He remarked that he wished the Yankees would capture Mrs. Gordon because she always seemed to be around. Yet when she teased him about the remark during a dinner, Early relented, saying, "Mrs. Gordon, General Gordon is a better soldier when you are close by him than when you are away, and so hereafter, when I issue orders that officers’ wives must go to the rear, you may know that you are excepted."

In December 1864, Gordon was ordered to rejoin the Army of Northern Virginia as commander of the bulk of the Second Corps while Early remained in the Valley. Lee's army faced a siege at Petersburg, Virginia, by Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac.

Fanny Gordon stayed as near to the general as possible until late in the war – when she was incapacitated by childbirth, and ended up behind enemy lines in Virginia.

General Gordon's career was perhaps as brilliant as that of any officer in the Confederate army. In rapid succession he filled every grade – that of Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier General, Major General, and, near the end, was assigned to duty as Lieutenant General (by authority of the Secretary of War).

For General John Brown Gordon, April 9, 1865, began with leading his weakened and hungry forces into battle at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. When Lee's army had "been fought to a frazzle" and was surrounded by the enemy, General Gordon led the last charge of the Army of Northern Virginia, and captured the entrenchments and several pieces of artillery in his front.

Hours later, the Civil War was over. Gordon commanded, at the surrender at Appomattox, one half of the Army of Northern Virginia, under Robert E. Lee. On April 12, 1865, Gordon's Confederate troops officially surrendered to Major General Joshua L. Chamberlain, who was acting for General Ulysses S. Grant.

After the war ended, because fighting in North Georgia had damaged the Gordon's coal mines, and they lacked the money needed to reopen them, General Gordon had to look for a new occupation. After briefly owning and managing some sawmills near Brunswick, he moved to Kirkwood, an Atlanta suburb, and went into the insurance and publishing businesses.

Gordon rose through the ranks in civilian life as he had during the war. It must be said that after the war, he was a strong opponent of Reconstruction, and was generally acknowledged to be the titular leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia during the late 1860s – another Southern military figure, fighting to preserve a way of life that had already been lost.

Gordon lost his first run for governor in 1868, but the state Legislature selected him to represent Georgia in the US Senate, where he served from 1873 to 1880. In the Senate, he concentrated on economic issues and fostering national reconciliation. He was hailed by the New York Times as "the ablest man from the South in either House of Congress."

Gordon's career was tainted by scandal in 1880 when, having been reelected to the US Senate, he suddenly resigned to become general counsel of the state-controlled Western and Atlantic Railroad. When Governor Alfred Colquitt promptly appointed the railroad's former president Joseph E. Brown to fill Gordon's unexpired term as senator, a cry went up within his own Democratic Party that a corrupt bargain had been struck.

Although Gordon claimed that he was acting in the best interest of the party and his constituency by retiring from public life, he was never able to fully counter the charges by his critics that he was motivated strictly by personal gain.

None of this, however, detracted from his popularity. In 1886, he was elected governor of Georgia, and he stayed in the position until 1890, then rejoined the US Senate for another six years. When the United Confederate Veterans was organized in 1889, he was made the group's president.

As aggressive and optimistic in business as he had been in war, Gordon invested in a wide variety of businesses and a white elephant plantation in Taylor County. He lost most of his money in a failed venture to build a railroad from Georgia to Key West and establish a steamship line to linking it to Latin America.

Mistakes made by the Memphis branch of the insurance company, whose Atlanta branch Gordon headed, caused the company to go bankrupt. Gordon's financial status remained precarious for the rest of life and gave substance to claims that he exchanged political favors for money.

During the last decade of his life," says Ralph Lowell Eckert (author of John Brown Gordon: Soldier, Southerner, American) "Gordon remained extremely active in his efforts to vindicate the South and at the same time to establish a new spirit of nationalism" by embarking on a career as a lecturer. He retired from politics in 1896. For several years he lectured, and he published his highly successful memoir, Reminiscences of the Civil War, in 1903.

With Fanny at his side, John Brown Gordon died in Miami at age 71 on January 9, 1904, three months after his memoir, Reminiscences of the Civil War, was published. Despite his extremely debilitated state, he managed a last look, a smile and a touch for the one who had loved him and been loved by him almost from the day their eyes met, who had been with him in body and in spirit for half a century and who had been all things to him.

The general even received a tribute from President Theodore Roosevelt, who summed up what many felt by saying, "A more gallant, generous, and fearless gentleman and soldier has not been seen by our country."

Fanny soldiered on without him for another 27 years, but her life was a pale copy of the life she knew with the knight known as John Brown Gordon, who, it was said, was the only Civil War commander who was never defeated or repulsed when he led a charge or when he was in command.

Rebecca (Fanny) Haralson Gordon died April 28, 1931, at the age of 93 – an almost unheard of longevity in those days.

SOURCES
John Brown Gordon
Shot by Cupid’s Bow
John B. Gordon (1832-1904)
General John Brown Gordon
John and Fanny - A Love Story
Wikipedia: John Brown Gordon
The 9 Lives of General John Brown Gordon

Cremora (Belle) Cave Kemper

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General James Lawson Kemper

Cremora Cave was born in 1834, the daughter of Cremora and Belfield Cave. James Lawson Kemper was born on June 11, 1823, to William and Maria Allison Kemper in Madison County, Virginia. He was the sixth of eight children, and his childhood was spent at the two-story family home called Mountain Prospect, which also included 600 acres of land. His immediate family as well as four of his father's sisters, his maternal grandmother, and several domestic servants also lived there.

The first education that James Lawson Kemper received was in a field school built near his home. The Hill and Kemper families hired a teacher to teach their children in this building. One of Kemper's grade school friends, who became a friend for life, was Ambrose Powell Hill, better known as General A.P. Hill.

James was accepted to Locust Dale Academy when he was 13 years old, where he stayed from 1830-1840. He enrolled at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), and received a Bachelor of Arts and graduated first in his class in the spring of 1842, and received a Master's Degree in 1845.

After graduating from Washington College , Kemper decided to study law. Under the supervision of Judge George W. Summers of Charleston, Kanawha County, Virginia, he read the law and then successfully took the bar exam, and began practicing law a year later. At the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846 Kemper was commissioned a captain in the Virginia volunteers, but did not see active service.

Returning to Virginia and his law practice, in 1853 Kemper was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for the first of five terms, the last (1861-1863) as Speaker of the House. Early letters (pre-1861) illustrate Kemper's growing law practice and his involvement in politics.

In 1850, at about the age of twenty-seven, James began to court Cremora Conway Cave, affectionately called Belle by her future husband. She was sixteen years old at the time. Despite the age difference, on July 4, 1853, they were married by Reverend J. Earnest at the Madison Court House, and they were to have seven children.

General James Lawson Kemper
Harper's Weekly, January 17, 1874

At the beginning of the Civil War, James Kemper was a member of the Virginia State Legislature and helped organize Virginia troops for the Confederate forces. Rising through the ranks, he fought at Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and was promoted Brigadier General in June, 1862. He was the youngest of the brigade commanders, and the only nonprofessional military officer in the division that led Pickett's Charge, in which he was wounded and captured.

After a gallant performance at the Battle of Seven Pines during the Peninsula Campaign, Kemper was promoted to brigadier general on June 3, 1862, and briefly commanded a division in Longstreet's Corps. Upon the return to duty of wounded Major General George Pickett, Kemper reverted to brigade command.

In 1863, Kemper's brigade was assigned to Pickett's division in Longstreet's Corps, and missed the Battle of Chancellorsville while the corps was assigned to Suffolk, Virginia. But the corps returned in time for the Gettysburg Campaign, and Kemper rejoined Lee's army as a brigade commander in Pickett's division.

At Gettysburg, Kemper arrived with Pickett's division late on the second day of battle, July 2, 1863. His brigade was one of the main assault units in Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863, advancing on the right flank of Pickett's line. After crossing the Emmitsburg Road, Kemper's brigade was hit by flanking fire from two Vermont regiments, driving it to the left and disrupting the cohesion of the assault. Kemper rose on his spurs to urge his men forward, shouting "There are the guns, boys, go for them!"

This bravado made him a more visible target, and he was severely wounded by a bullet in the abdomen and thigh and captured by Union forces. Kemper was rescued by Confederate forces and carried back to Confederate lines on Seminary Ridge, but was too critically injured to be transported during the retreat from Gettysburg, and was left behind to be treated and recaptured. Newspaper accounts at the time claimed he was killed in action, and Robert E. Lee sent condolences to his family.

There exists a letter from Major General Ethan A. Hitchock, explaining to Kemper's wife Belle that she could not see her captured and badly wounded husband because Confederate authorities had refused the same courtesies to a Union family.

For three months, Kemper was a prisoner in a Federal hospital, and was exchanged September 19, 1863, on a certificate of the Federal surgeons that he could not live long. A long furlough enabled him to recover sufficiently to don his uniform again. For the rest of the war, he was too ill for combat – the bullet that struck him could not be removed surgically, and he suffered from groin pain for the remainder of his life.

From June 1864 until the Confederate surrender, Kemper was in command of the local forces around Richmond. He was promoted to Major General on September 19, 1864. After Appomattox he was paroled by United States military authorities on May 2, 1865.

After the war ended, General Kemper returned to Madison County to practice law and focus on rebuilding the state. He was concerned about Belle's health. Her condition began to decline – she had not been physically strong before. She came down with an eye infection that deteriorated her sight to the point of blindness within a few years.

Although he was involved with legal matters much of the time, James managed to take time to spend with his family. Depending mostly on income from his legal practices, he managed to make a decent living for himself and his family. Every year, James and Belle would take a vacation to the mineral springs.

James L. Kemper Residence
The land on which the Kemper Mansion sits was originally a 52 acre parcel on the north end of the Town of Madison, Virginia. Kemper bought the house and lot in 1868, after he came home to discover that his old house had been destroyed in a raid led by General George Armstrong Custer. It was built with an antebellum frame structure that was becoming very popular at the time (circa 1852) - the Greek Revival style. He practiced law in a small log cabin office behind the home after the war.

In 1870, Belle became very ill. Just when they thought she was going to recover, her condition made a turn for the worse. At the time, she was pregnant with their seventh child, and on September 8, she gave birth to their son, Reginald Heber Johns. The birth complicated things even more and within a month, Cremora (Belle) Cave Kemper died at the age of thirty-three. James couldn't stand to live in the house anymore, and spent his nights in his office on the grounds.

James Kemper was elected the first Governor of Virginia after Reconstruction, serving from 1874 to 1878. He became well known for his honesty and integrity, his initiation of the public school system, improvements on the public transportation system, and his strong position on civil rights.

As governor, Kemper fought for full civil rights and protection for the freedmen. He also supported a new constitution and the restoration of Virginia to normal relations with the United States. After he served his last term as governor, Kemper was offered the position as US Senator, but declined, thus ending his political career.

Kemper was worn out physically and emotionally. In 1882, he moved into a new home at Walnut Hills in Orange County, Virginia. Walnut Hills was a mid-sized farm in a secluded area, where he retired to enjoy sheep farming and practicing law. The home overlooked the Rapidan River and had a lovely Blue Ridge view.
At the time, there were six of his seven children still living.

Eventually, James Lawson Kemper's health deteriorated, and he died in his sleep at Walnut Hills on April 7, 1895, and was buried in the family cemetery there.

SOURCES
James L. Kemper
Marriage and Family
James Lawson Kemper
Early Life and Education
A Guide to the Papers of James Lawson Kemper

Jessie Benton Fremont

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:53:00 +0000

Wife of Explorer & Civil War General John Charles Fremont

The daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton and his wife, Elizabeth, Jessie Benton was born in Lexington, Virginia, but was raised in Washington DC. Her father treated and educated her as if she were his son, and made her wise in the ways of social structure and politics, an unusual situation for the period, and introduced her to the leading politicians of the day.

Jessie was very close to her father and stuck by his side. He shared with her the many books and maps in the valise that always accompanied him on their trips to and from Missouri and Virginia. She began, too, to share his dream of a nation stretching from ocean to ocean.

A Young Jessie Benton Fremont

Seventeen year old Jesse was studying and living at Georgetown Seminary, when she met and fell in love with Lieutenant John C. Fremont, who was ten years her senior. The couple eloped and were married on October 19, 1841. Senator Benton was so disappointed that he became estranged for a time from his headstrong daughter.

For a while after their marriage, Jessie and her husband lived on army posts, until Fremont was assigned the task of exploring the West, and scouting land for future US territorial expansion. It was this assignment that began the couple's rise to fame.

A reconciliation occurred between Jessie and her father when he promoted Fremont's famous explorations of the West. Senator Benton had been persuaded by his ailing wife to accept the marriage, and the couple moved into the Benton home. John Fremont then gained famed as the Pathfinder to the West.

Fremont left his pregnant wife behind in the spring of 1842 to lead his first expedition to mark the trails West. He returned days before the birth of their eldest child, Elizabeth Benton "Lily" Fremont, who was born November 15, 1842, in Washington DC. He then headed off again, and Jessie and the baby remained behind.

Jessie was intensely interested in the details of his expedition, and became his recorder, making notes as he described his experiences. Adding human-interest touches to these printed reports, she wrote and edited best-selling stories of the adventures Fremont had while exploring the West with his scout, Kit Carson.

Thus, she involved herself in her most happy life's work, interpreting her husband and his actions for a public eager for information about the opening of the West. Written during a time when the concept of Manifest Destiny was becoming increasingly popular, these narratives were received with great enthusiasm.

Jessie gave birth to a son, Benton Frémont, on July 24, 1848, in Washington, DC. The baby died within the year in St. Louis.

In 1849, Jessie and Lily made a harrowing journey aboard ship to join Fremont in California. After disembarking and crossing the Isthmus of Panama, they boarded another vessel to San Francisco. With income from their gold mines, the Fremonts established a home and settled into San Francisco society. As a politically informed woman, Jessie was known to get involved in city politics and discuss with the men any issues that were of importance at the time.

John C. Fremont served from September 1850 to March 1851 as Senator from California. Jessie gave birth to their third child, John C. Frémont, Jr., April 19, 1851, at Las Mariposas, California. While the couple were visiting Paris, France, their fourth child, Anne Beverly Fremont, was born February 1, 1853. She died five months later in Washington, DC. Their fifth and final child, Francis Preston Fremont, was born May 17, 1855.

In 1856, Jessie became the first presidential candidate's wife to play an active part in a political campaign. When first-ever Republican Party candidate Fremont's name came up in rallies for votes, the slogan was "Fremont and Jessie too." Fremont garnered many northern votes, but lost overall.

The Fremonts then moved to California where they discovered gold on their property. They settled into San Francisco society with Jessie leading the way and enjoying discussing politics with the many educated men in that city. When war became imminent, John Fremont returned East to get a new commission, and Jessie went with him.

Jessie and John Fremont

In 1861, they returned to St. Louis when John was appointed commander of the Western Region. They shared the belief that St. Louis was unprepared for war and needed reinforcements and supplies, and both pressured Washington to send more supplies and troops to St. Louis. Jessie threw herself into the war effort, helping to organize a soldier's relief society in St. Louis and becoming very active in the Western Sanitary Commission which provided medicine and nursing to soldiers injured in the war.

These endeavors were some of the few acceptable avenues of participation for women in the 1860s, but Jessie, wanted more. She used her political expertise to make decisions for John and organized his military campaign to the extent that she was called, "General Jessie" by his critics. In spite of Jesse's help, Fremont was always in trouble. Her life was embroiled in the politics of the Civil War era. She actively supported her husband's antislavery platform and was an asset to his career and political goals.

Fremont served as a major general in the American Civil War, including a controversial term as commander of the Army's Department of the West from May to November 1861. Frémont replaced William S. Harney, who had negotiated the Harney-Price Truce, which permitted Missouri to remain neutral in the conflict as long as it did not send men or supplies to either side.

A Mature Jessie Benton Fremont

John overstepped his authority when he trumped the Commander in Chief by issuing his own emancipation proclamation, which summarily freed all Missouri slaves. John Fremont had a deep hatred for slavery and saw that it needed to end, but he neglected to confer with his President before issuing the order and Abraham Lincoln became angry with him.

Jessie, ever her husband's protector, went to see President Lincoln in Washington to plead Fremont's case. Lincoln listened but still removed John Fremont from the command of St. Louis and the Union's Western area. The Fremonts would not live in St. Louis again, moving to New York and then California, where Jessie was that state's first "First Lady." Being unsuccessful in both places, John Fremont declared bankruptcy in 1873.

After the war, Jessie started writing books and articles about her adventures in the West to support the family, and remained faithful to her husband, even when she heard rumors that he was being unfaithful.

In 1890, three months after having been allowed to resign with pension, rather than being drummed out of the Army for insubordination in an incident in California, John C. Fremont died in New York. He was buried in Rockland Cemetery, high atop the crest of The Palisades of the Hudson River just south of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

After the death of her husband, the Congress granted Jessie a widow's pension of $2000 a year. In 1891, she moved into a home in Los Angeles that was presented to her by a committee of ladies of the city as a token of their great regard. She remained in good health until about two and a half years before her death when an accident made her an invalid, but she was able to use a wheelchair and enjoy the outdoors.

Gravesite of Jessie Benton Fremont

In 1902, Jessie Benton Fremont, then a resident of the then back-water pueblo of Los Angeles, died at age 78, and she was cremated and buried in Los Angeles at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. Jessie Fremont had, within the framework of her era, demonstrated that women were capable of equal rights of citizenship and full participation with their male counterparts in family life, business and politics.

SOURCES
Jessie Benton Fremont
Wikipedia: Jessie Benton Fremont
Jessie Benton Fremont: Missouri's Trailblazer
Far-West sketches, by Jessie Benton Frémont

Mary Garth Gregg

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General John Gregg

Mary Francis Garth was raised in the lap of luxury in Decatur, Alabama. Her father, Jessie Winston Garth, was an Alabama senator and one of the wealthiest plantation owners in the state. He was also a Unionist, who strongly opposed secession, and was willing to give up his hundreds of slaves if it meant saving the Union.

John Gregg was born in 1828 in Lawrence County, Alabama. He was a well-educated man, and spent most of his formative years either attending or teaching school. In 1847, he graduated from La Grange College and studied law in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1852, at the age of twenty-four, he moved to Fairfield, Texas, where he was elected District Judge, and served in that position until 1860.

In 1858, Mary Garth married John Gregg in Morgan County, Alabama; both were thirty years old. At the time, John was a practicing attorney in Freestone County, Texas. Following the wedding, John took Mary with him back to Fairfield, where she enjoyed the prestige that came with being the wife of a prominent lawyer.
John Gregg became an ardent secessionist and voiced his strong opinions all the way to the Texas Secession Convention. He became a member of the Provincial Congress of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama, and later in Richmond, Virginia. Immediately after the first battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) in July 1861, John resigned his congressional seat and returned to Texas to recruit and organize the 7th Texas Infantry, and he was named its colonel.

After the Civil War began, Mary traveled with her husband. When the 7th Texas Infantry marched to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Mary went along. Their only separation came after the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862, when John was captured and sent to prison at Fort Warren, Massachusetts. Mary returned to her father's plantation. After his parole in July of 1862, their pattern of being together continued.

Confederate General John Gregg

In September of 1862, John was commissioned brigadier general and sent to Mississippi. One of the first major engagements of General Gregg's military career was the Battle of Raymond on May 12, 1863. The men under his charge were the 3rd, 10th, 30th, 41th, 50th and 9th battalions of Tennesseans, as well as the reconstituted 7th Texas Infantry. As John led his troops in battle, Mary stayed with friends in Brandon.

When the 7th Texas met General James B. McPherson's 17th Corps on that day, Gregg fought with a vengeance. Little did he know that he had led his brigade of 3,000 men into battle against a force of some 12,000 strong. After almost six hours of fierce fighting, Gregg was forced to retreat back to Jackson MS, where he would be involved in the Battle of Jackson on May 14, 1863.

After the fall of Vicksburg July 4, 1863, Gregg's Brigade was ordered to northern Georgia to reinforce General Braxton Bragg's beleaguered army. During the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19, 1863, John was severely injured when a bullet struck him in the neck. Mary traveled to the Confederate military hospital in Marietta, Georgia, to be by his side while he recuperated.

The Greggs remained together until January 1864, when John was transferred to Virginia to command Hood's famous Texas Brigade in General James Longstreet's Corps. On January 11, 1864, at a train station in Dalton, Georgia, Mary Gregg said goodbye to her husband as they boarded separate trains. Mary's train would take her south to her father's home, while John's train headed north to Richmond. The parting was emotional.

After recovering from his wounds, John Gregg was given command of the famous Hood's Texas Brigade in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He and his soldiers participated in the Overland Campaign during the spring of 1864, seeing action at the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor.

The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign (June 15, 1864 – March 25, 1865) was a Union effort to capture the city of Petersburg, Virginia, from Confederate forces under the command of General Robert E. Lee. Union forces captured Fort Harrison from the Confederates on September 30, 1864, which prompted Lee to order an offensive on the right flank of the Union forces on October 7, in an action that would be called the Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads.

The Union defensive lines were positioned along New Market Road, with further Union cavalry defending Darbytown Road. The initial Confederate attack was successful in dislodging the Union Cavalry from Darbytown Road, and the Rebels then attacked the Union lines on the New Market Road.

During this attack, the Texas Brigade's commander Brigadier General John Gregg was killed, and the attack was repulsed.

Mary had been staying at the her father's home in Decatur, Alabama, when the War Department of the Confederacy brought the heartbreaking news.

John Regan, Confederate Postmaster-General and John Gregg's best friend, wrote to Mary:

My Dear Madam,
I am called to perform the most melancholy duty. Your noble husband and my best friend has fallen in battle. I will not mock the grief which awaits you by more words. Keen and bitter as is my own sorrow for the loss of so dear a friend, and of an officer so valuable to the country and so esteemed by all. I wish it were in my power to bear a portion of the deeper and holier grief which must fall on you, the partner of his joys and sorrows, and the cherished idol of his heart.

After weeks of grief and depression, Mary decided she could not rest until she traveled to Virginia to claim her husband's body. First, however, she made plans to travel to Aberdeen, Mississippi, where her father owned land. She hoped to find Aberdeen a suitable place to live as well as to bury her husband.

Bust of Brigadier General John Gregg
Northwest of Texas State Memorial, Vicksburg, Mississippi

But, first she had to retrieve his body and this would not be easy. The Confederacy was unraveling, and a trip to Virginia through enemy lines would be an extremely risky maneuver. On January 18, 1865, accompanied by a family member, she began the 800-mile journey to Richmond.

After arriving, Mary succumbed to a nervous breakdown. They had to wait weeks before she could recover enough of her strength to make the long journey back home. Finally, on April 8, 1865, the casket bearing the remains of John Gregg arrived at Aberdeen, Mississippi, where he was buried in the Odd Fellows' Cemetery.

Mary purchased a home in Aberdeen and became a successful planter in Monroe County. She also opened her home to orphaned girls, giving them the loving home they would not have had otherwise. To local citizens, Mary Gregg became something of a saint.

Mary Garth Gregg's Home in Aberdeen, MS

As Mary Gregg, settled into her new life in Aberdeen, she became a successful planter and was one of the city's most prominent citizens. She was famous for her work with orphans as well as the afflicted. For the remaining thirty years of her life, she never left the town in which her husband's remains were interred. Later, she was among the women whose efforts began a Memorial Day observance.

Mary Garth Gregg died on June 15, 1897, and following a solemn and impressive ceremony, was laid to rest next to her husband at Aberdeen, Mississippi.

SOURCES
John Gregg
John Gregg (CSA)
Seventh Texas Infantry
Handbook of Texas Online
Mary Garth Gregg: A Steel Magnolia
General John Gregg: The End Of The Story
Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads

Elizabeth (Libbie) Bacon Custer

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:32:00 +0000

Wife of Union General George Armstrong Custer

Elizabeth "Libbie" Clift Bacon was born at Monroe, Michigan, April 8, 1842 – the only surviving child of Judge Daniel and Eleanor Sophia Bacon. At twenty, Libbie graduated as valedictorian from the Young Ladies' Seminary and Collegiate Institute in Monroe. At 5' 4" tall with chestnut brown hair and blue-grey eyes, she was both beautiful and intelligent, and her father hoped she would make a good marriage with a man from her own elevated social class.

Libbie met George Armstrong Custer at a Thanksgiving social in 1862, while he was visiting Monroe on leave during the Civil War. She fell deeply in love with him, but her father refused to allow them to get married. Custer was from a poor undistinguished family and the Judge hoped Libbie would have better than the life of an army wife.

Elizabeth Clift Bacon

Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, on December 5, 1839, and spent much of his childhood with a half-sister in Monroe, Michigan. Immediately after high school, he enrolled in West Point, where he utterly failed to distinguish himself. Several days after graduating last in his class, he failed in his duty as officer of the guard to stop a fight between two cadets. He was court-martialed and saved from punishment only by the huge need for officers with the outbreak of the Civil War.

Custer did unexpectedly well in the Civil War. He fought in the First Battle of Bull Run, and served with distinction in the Virginia and Gettysburg campaigns. Although his units suffered enormously high casualty rates – even by the standards of the bloody Civil War – his fearless aggression in battle earned him the respect of his commanding generals and increasingly put him in the public eye.

Custer's meteoric rise to brigadier general before Gettysburg, where he emerged as a national hero, overcame her father's objections. Judge Bacon relented, and Libbie Bacon married George Armstrong Custer on February 9, 1864. Custer advanced to the rank of Major General later that year at the age of 25.

George and Libbie Custer During the Civil War

From the beginning, Libbie's charm and attractiveness helped advance her husband's military career. She socialized with powerful Republican congressmen and senators, countering their suspicions that Custer had ties to the Democrats. Libbie and George had a loving but tumultuous relationship. Both were stubborn, opinionated, and ambitious. Despite hardships, they were utterly devoted to each other. She followed him to every assignment, even during the latter days of the Civil War.

Custer's cavalry played a critical role in forcing the retreat of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's forces that ended the war; in gratitude, General Philip Sheridan purchased the table on which General Ulysses S. Grant had written the terms of surrender accepted by General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, and gave it to the Custers.

After the Civil War, Sheridan assigned Custer to command a cavalry division in Hempstead, Texas. Libbie accompanied the troops in August 1865, and later wrote of her hardships in her second book, Tenting on the Plains, published in 1887. Her early response to Texas was mixed. She found that the homes, even of the well-to-do, were often poorly constructed. Many wealthy planters, however, welcomed the Custers warmly. One such family nursed Libbie when she fell ill with malaria.

After he became chief of cavalry in Texas in the fall of 1865, Custer moved his 4500 cavalrymen, and Libbie, to Austin to help support the efforts of the unpopular Reconstruction government, and to protect Texas from a perceived threat from the Maximilian regime in Mexico.

Despite being the head of the occupying forces, Custer and his wife were very popular with the citizens of Austin, and they continued associating with wealthy planters. Overall, whatever her criticism of the state, Libbie saw great economic potential in Texas, and tried unsuccessfully to interest her father in investing in Texas land.

Custer became lieutenant colonel (his peacetime rank) of the Seventh Cavalry in July 1866, and was assigned to a series of dreary and unsatisfying assignments in Kansas and the Dakota Territory. Libbie's prized Texas serapes decorated their quarters at Forts Riley, Leavenworth, and Lincoln. Life on the frontier outposts was difficult and Custer's career was plagued by problems.

In late 1867, Custer was court-martialed and suspended from duty for a year for being absent from duty during the campaign – he had left the field to be with Libbie. He maintained that he was simply being made a scapegoat for a failed campaign, and his old friend General Phil Sheridan agreed, calling Custer back to duty in 1868. In the eyes of the army, Custer redeemed himself by his November 1868 attack on Black Kettle's band on the banks of the Washita River.

Custer was sent to the Northern Plains in 1873, where he soon participated in a few small skirmishes with the Lakota in the Yellowstone area. The following year, he lead a 1200 person expedition to the Black Hills, whose possession the United States had guaranteed the Lakota just six years before.

In 1876, Custer was scheduled to lead part of the anti-Lakota expedition, along with Generals John Gibbon and George Crook. He almost didn't make it, however, because his previous testimony about Indian Service corruption so infuriated President Ulysses S. Grant that he relieved Custer of his command and replaced him with General Alfred Terry. Popular disgust, however, forced Grant to reverse his decision, and the Custers went West.

As first lady at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Libbie set the social tone for the post, and hosted multiple events for the officers and area dignitaries. She was quickly assigned the title Mrs. Major-General, but in a letter to her husband, she claimed that it made her sound stuck-up.

The 1876 campaign against the Sioux seemed like a chance for glory to Custer. From Fort Lincoln in what is now North Dakota, he led the Seventh Cavalry in pursuit of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne, who refused to be confined to the reservation system.

The United States plan for defeating the Lakota called for the three forces under the command of Crook, Gibbon, and Custer to trap the bulk of the Lakota and Cheyenne population between them and deal them a crushing defeat. Custer advanced much too quickly, which put him far ahead of Gibbon's slower-moving infantry brigades, and General Crook's forces had been turned back by Crazy Horse and his band at Rosebud Creek.

Custer neared what he thought was a large Indian village on the morning of June 25, 1876, and ordered an immediate attack on the Indian village. Contemptuous of Indian military prowess, he split his forces into three parts to ensure that fewer Indians would escape.

The attack was one the greatest fiascos of the United States Army. Thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors forced Custer's unit back onto a long, dusty ridge parallel to the Little Bighorn, surrounded them, and killed all 210 of them. Custer's blunders cost him his life but gained him everlasting fame.

Libbie Custer in 1876

When Libbie Custer learned that President Grant had publicly blamed Custer for the disaster at Little Big Horn, and had charged him with disobeying orders, she launched a one-woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband's image. To Libbie, George Armstrong Custer could do no wrong. She began writing articles and making speeches, all of which were brilliant pieces of propaganda aimed at glorifying her dead husband's memory.

After Custer's death, Libbie moved to New York, where she sought work to supplement her small widow's pension. She wrote three books about their life at frontier posts in order to ensure that Custer's memory would always be honored. In Boots and Saddles: Life in Dakota with General Custer, published in 1885, she describes her life from 1873 to 1876, and compellingly presents the shared anxiety of wives left at Fort Lincoln while their husbands fought and died at Little Big Horn.

In Tenting on the Plains: General Custer in Kansas and Texas (1887), she describes her experiences following General Custer in Kansas and Texas from 1865 to 1867. Insects, illness, and scorpions dominate her recollections of the march to Texas, and her Kansas memories include prairie fire, flood, and cholera.

In 1890, Libbie published her last book, Following the Guidon, in which she picks up the story when her husband returned to duty in Kansas in 1868 to join the campaign culminating in the Battle of Washita. She vividly recalls her fearful visits with captured Native Americans and tribal peace council delegates, while glorifying her husband's honest treatment of those he helped defeat.

Throughout her 57 years of widowhood, Mrs. Custer worked untiringly to defend her husband's reputation and transform him into a hero. She influenced a number of writers, and in all her works, her husband emerged as an exemplary son, brother, husband, and conscientious commanding officer. Since the army and the public saw Libbie as a model wife and a devoted widow, many Custer critics withheld their comments during her lifetime.

Known throughout her life for her undying devotion to her husband, Libbie was the only officer's wife to live in a tent on the edges of a Civil War battlefield, ride in the ranks with the soldiers, and accompany the 7th Cavalry on many of its expeditions. During those adventures, she wore her own uniformed dresses to show her dedication to her husband and the US Army.

Libbie Bacon Custer remained utterly devoted to her husband and never remarried. She died at her home in New York City on April 4, 1933, a few days before her 91st birthday. She was buried at West Point Military Academy next to her husband. They had no children.

Custer Grave at West Point

A year after Libbie Custer's death, Frederic Van de Water published The Glory-Hunter, and the reappraisal of Custer's character and career began.

SOURCES
Elizabeth Bacon Custer
General and Mrs. Custer
Elizabeth Clift Bacon Custer
Wikipedia: Elizabeth Bacon Custer
Life in Dakota with General Custer – Online Book

Kitty "Dolly" Morgan Hill

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill

Kitty Morgan was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1834, one of ten children born to Calvin and Henrietta Hunt Morgan. Her brother, John Hunt Morgan, would go on to become a famous Confederate cavalry general. Her sister, Henrietta Morgan, would later marry Basil Duke, who served in Morgan's Cavalry Corps.

Ambrose Powell Hill, Jr. was born on November 9, 1825, at the family estate, Greenland, ten miles west of Culpeper, Virginia, the last of four sons born to Thomas and Frances Hill. They named their new son after an uncle, Ambrose Powell Hill (1785-1858), who had served as a justice of the peace, sheriff, and legislator for Culpeper County.

Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill

Although he was known by his initials in the history of the Army of Northern Virginia, his mother called him Powell, and that was the name that he was called by his friends and family. From his father, young Powell learned to be a perfect horseman, but he was particularly close to his mother as the youngest son. An avid reader, Powell devoured everything from Shakespeare to the Bible to books on the exploits of Napoleon.

The class that entered West Point in the summer of 1842 was one of the Academy's finest – among Powell Hill's classmates would be several future Civil War generals such as George Pickett, David Jones, George McClellan, Cadmus Wilcox, Darius Couch, George Stoneman, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

In June 1855, Kitty Morgan married a cousin, Calvin McClung, who was a merchant in St. Louis, but he died suddenly soon thereafter. In 1857, Kitty attended a party at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, where she met Powell Hill, and they were very much attracted to each other.

Early in the winter of 1857, Powell wrote his sister Lucy:

I can reach you and you can reach me easily, that in case either of us be married, we can surely attend the other. Look out for mine at any time! You know 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. Alas, though, I much fear that the good things of this world are unequally distributed in her case. Her beauty and sense are her only dowry! But, when you come down you must be prepared to spend a week at Willard's and judge for yourself. So get your fine dresses ready.

Kitty was petite, vivacious, blue-eyed, and stylish, with luxuriant light brown hair that fell to her waist, and she sang like a bird. Her old black mammy nicknamed her Dolly, because when she was a child looked like a doll, and Powell always called her that.

Hill courted Dolly throughout 1858, and by 1859 they were planning marriage. Hill even wrote his old classmate George B. McClellan (later General in the Union Army) to invite him to the wedding:

My dear Mac,

I have been waiting for some time in the expectation that you would wend your way in this direction, and that I might have the opportunity of telling you over a cigar, that which I have been wanting to tell you for the last month – 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 years... gentle and amiable, yet lovely, 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 too her income is equal to mine – and if this is so I am glad for her sake, and if not I shall not be disappointed – I expect to be married in Lexington, Kentucky on the 18th of July and if you would come down from Chicago, you know there is no one whose presence would delight me more.
Hill.

On July 18, 1859, Powell Hill and Kitty Morgan were married at her mother's home outside Lexington, Kentucky. Dolly was resplendent in a silk wedding dress, and Hill was handsome in his blue army captain's uniform and a handsome red mustache. John Hunt Morgan was best man.

Dolly and Powell quickly grew to complement each other perfectly. They both made friends easily, and Powell was particularly proud of Dolly's musical talents and charm. Four children were born to the couple, all girls: Henrietta born in Washington in 1860, died during the war; Frances Russell (1861-1917); Lucy Lee (1863-1931); A. P. Hill (1865-1871).

While the Hills were finding domestic happiness, the country was in a state of unrest. It was clear by 1860 that the rift over slavery and states' rights that had been growing between North and South since the beginning of the Republic was going to lead to civil war.

In December, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Seven deep Southern states followed suit and elected Jefferson Davis their president. It was unclear what border states like Hill's home state of Virginia would do. But she leaned more and more toward secession, and in February, A.P. Hill resigned as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

When Virginia left the Union in the spring of 1861 and began to organize its armed forces, A.P. Hill, as he was called by his associates during the war, was a valuable commodity as a West Point educated soldier with a little combat experience. He strongly believed in states' rights, and felt it was his duty to defend the honor of Virginia. He was quickly made a colonel and was chosen to take command of a regiment, the 13th Virginia, a command raised mostly from the Shenandoah Valley region.

Dolly Hill used the silk from her wedding gown to make a beautiful battle flag for the regiment – "a beautiful silk banner, the handiwork of the accomplished lady of our Colonel, and will be prized and defended as the gift of a fair daughter of Kentucky, bidding us God Speed in fighting the battles of the South" for Hill's 13th Virginia.

Powell Hill was only thirty-five years old when the Civil War began, and though that was on the younger side for a corps commander, it was probably average for a general. He stood around the average height of the day, between approximately 5'8" and 5'9" and when well weighed around 150 to 160 pounds.

Dolly tried to remain close to her husband, something that often caused him anxiety over her safety. She stayed with friends, in a hotel, or wherever convenience demanded, always accompanied by two faithful servants. When she traveled, she would roll her jewelry and other valuables into her hair which she put in a chignon for safekeeping.

General Alfred Scales once wrote, "Mrs. Hill is not satisfied with remaining here after all the ladies had been ordered away and all the other had left, but said she had no home, and she might as well make Orange her home as anywhere else."

Seeing little action in the West Virginia Romney Campaign, Powell fought at Yorktown and Williamsburg during the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862. Recommended for promotion, in a mere 90 days he jumped from Colonel to Major General. Seeing action in the series of battles around Richmond known collectively as the Seven Days, he established a reputation for great bravery, skill, and aggressiveness while leading what became known as the Light Division.

In May 1863, at Chancellorsville, Powell was on Jackson's famous flank march and took command of the corps when Stonewall Jackson fell mortally wounded on the night of the May 2. General Robert E. Lee subsequently reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia, and gave Hill command of the new Third Corps (and promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General), which he led in the Gettysburg Campaign.

Powell was narrow-chested and frail, and his health was fragile, probably as a result of complications from the advanced stages of the gonorrhea he had contracted as a cadet at West Point. Always emotional, he was so high-strung before battle that he had an increasing tendency to become unwell when the fighting was about to begin.

Powell's poor health reduced his effectiveness at Gettysburg. Frequent illnesses and the stress of being in the field would drop his weight to 125 pounds by the end of the war. These debilitating symptoms didn't affect his relationship with his men, however; he was extraordinarily affectionate and always concerned with their wellbeing.

Dolly sometimes engaged in activities that she thought would help her husband. In 1864, when she heard that General Phil Sheridan was coming to a certain hotel, she sent her children to friends, and went to the hotel to obtain information. As she made her getaway, she was fired upon by Federal soldiers, but escaped unharmed.

Shortly before the Wilderness Campaign, the Hills decided to have their baby daughter Lucy Lee christened. The service was performed by Reverend Richard Davis, rector of St. Thomas' Parish at Orange Court House. General Lee stood as godfather and held the child in his arms. As the minister sprinkled the water on her brow and gave her his blessing, a tear rolled down the great old soldier's cheek. Cannonading was heard in the distance, and Lee and his corps commander rushed to their saddles and were soon galloping to the front.

Illness struck Powell again at the Wilderness in the spring of 1864, almost resulting in a disaster when he was unable to ride out and reorganize his tired men. He missed the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House because of the illness, but followed the troops anyway in an ambulance. He returned in time for the battles along the North Anna and Cold Harbor.

Powell Hill's men held many of the main lines around Petersburg during the siege, and were involved in most of the major engagements. Sickness, that seemed to worsen as the siege dragged on, continued to plague him, causing him to take brief leaves of absence frequently.

Returning from sick leave on the morning of April 2, 1865, Hill rode out to try and rally his collapsing lines. He was shot through the heart by a stray group of soldiers from the Union Sixth Corps. He died instantly. By General Lee's orders a charge was made, and his body recovered and buried in Chesterfield County.

With tears in his eyes, General Robert E. Lee remarked very sadly, "He is at rest now, and we who are left are the ones to suffer."

The war ended a week later with the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox.

The remains of Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill were later moved to Hollywood cemetery in Richmond. The statue below, raised by the survivors of his famous Light Division, now stands over his grave.

Bronze by Casper Buberl (Sculptor)
William Ludwell Sheppard (Designer)

SOURCES
A. P. Hill
Up Came Hill
The Last Campaign
Ambrose Powell Hill
And Then A.P. Hill Came Up
Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill

Isabella Morrison Hill

noreply@blogger.com (Maggiemac) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Wife of Confederate General Daniel Harvey Hill

Isabella Morrison was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Doctor Robert Hall Morrison, who was the first president of Davidson College near Charlotte, North Carolina. She was also the granddaughter of General Joseph Graham, who had seen extensive service in the Revolutionary War, including the Battle of Charlotte, and the Battle of Cowan's Ford on the Catawba River.

An intelligent woman, Isabella had met Daniel Harvey Hill while he was visiting one of his married sisters, who lived near Cottage Home, the residence of the Morrisons in Lincoln County, North Carolina. Born in York District, South Carolina, "Harvey" had graduated from West Point in 1842, and subsequently served on the frontier and in the Mexican War.

On November 2, 1848, Isabella Morrison married Daniel Harvey Hill. In February, 1849, Harvey resigned from the army and traveled with his young bride to Lexington, VA, where he accepted a position as a Professor of Mathematics at Washington College. The college was later renamed Washington and Lee in honor of Robert E. Lee, who served as president of the college after the Civil War.

In Lexington, Harvey renewed his acquaintance with Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, whom he had met during the Mexican War. Harvey recommended Jackson for a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute, also in Lexington, in 1851. Isabella's sister Mary Anna married "Stonewall" Jackson in 1857.

Isabella and Harvey would have nine children in all. Daniel Harvey Hill, Jr. would serve as president of North Carolina State College. Their youngest son, Joseph Morrison Hill, would preside as the Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1904 to 1909. The Davidson College Cemetery contains the graves of three sons of Harvey and Isabella Hill who died as children. Willie Morrison Hill, Robert Hall Morrison Hill, and James Irwin Hill.

Harvey was mathematics professor at Davidson College, until 1859, when he decided to set up a military school of his own. With some financial support from interested patrons, Hill set up the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte. The school had hardly begun its operation when the Civil War began.

Isabella's brothers were also in the Confederate service. Joseph Graham Morrison was a student at the Virginia Military Academy (Class of 1865), but he left school and was commissioned Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp on Stonewall Jackson's staff in June 1862. He witnessed firsthand Stonewall's mortal wounding at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. Robert Hall Morrison, Jr. was an aide to General Barringer, and became a physician after the War.

Daniel Harvey Hill
Portrait photograph taken early in the Civil War

With the coming of the Civil War, Hill led the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Big Bethel Church on June 10, 1861 – the first land battle in the state of Virginia. He was promoted to brigadier general the same day, and was given the rank of major general in early 1862 and lieutenant general in 1863. He served for the first two years of the war in the eastern theater and participated in the Peninsular Campaign and the battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam, all in 1862.

Harvey Hill was blamed by some contemporaries for the loss of a copy of General Robert E. Lee's Special Order 191, which was discovered by Union pickets on September 13, 1862. The lost order had been hand-copied by Jackson's adjutant, Robert Chilton, and sent to Hill, who insisted he never saw that copy, but received the same written order directly from Lee. The document revealed Lee's plans for the invasion of Maryland to Union commander George McClellan.

In the summer of 1863, Hill was reassigned to the Confederate Army of Tennessee, performing admirably at the Battle of Chickamauga under General Braxton Bragg. Hill was certainly the smartest general officer in the Confederate Army, but he had a habit of criticizing his superiors, first General Robert E. Lee and then Bragg.

In a bitter disagreement after Chickamauga, Hill publicly attacked Bragg for his failure to pursue the defeated Union army. Hill and several other officers accused Bragg of being incompetent, and petitioned Confederate President Jefferson Davis to remove Bragg from service. Instead, Davis relieved Hill of his command, and he subsequently led troops only twice, at Petersburg and at Bentonville, both in 1865.

Graves of Harvey and Isabella Morrison Hill and Their Children

After the war, Isabella and Harvey settled in Charlotte, NC, where he established a monthly magazine and a weekly newspaper. He was president of the University of Arkansas (1877–84) and of the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College (1886–89).

Daniel Harvey Hill died in Charlotte of stomach cancer on September 24, 1889. I found no record of Isabella's death.

SOURCES
D. H. Hill
Daniel Harvey Hill
Morrison Family Ties
Who Lost the Lost Order
Wikipedia: Daniel Harvey Hill