Cast of Characters: Military Men and Guerrillas

Wirt Adams.  William Wirt Adams (1819-1888) was a banker and planter in Mississippi near Jackson and Vicksburg. He served two sessions in the Mississippi House of Representatives. When the Civil War started, he formed the “Wirt Adams” Cavalry Regiment. They fought a rear-guard action in the Confederate retreat from Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, and subsequently to Corinth, Mississippi. Wirt’s regiment fought at the Battle of Shiloh, and were on outpost duty during the Siege of Corinth. After the fall of Vicksburg, both his regiment and the 28th Mississippi Cavalry harassed and skirmished units under General William T. Sherman. In September 1863, Adams was commissioned as brigadier general and assigned command of a brigade composed of both his regiment and the command of Colonel Logan. In February 1864, he attacked General Sherman’s advance on Meridian, Mississippi. Near the end of the war, he operated alongside General Nathan B. Forrest in Alabama. He and his brigade surrendered near Ramsey Station in Sumter County, Alabama, on May 4, 1865.

Thomas S. Allen.  Thomas Scott Allen (1825-1905) was a printer, teacher, newspaper publisher and politician from Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Before the Civil War he served in the Wisconsin State Assembly (1857). During the War he was captain of Company I, 2nd Wisconsin Infantry, was promoted to major on August 22, 1861, and then lieutenant colonel on August 30, 1862. He was wounded at Gainesville and Antietam, and was promoted to colonel of the 5th Wisconsin Infantry on January 26, 1863. Allen mustered out on August 2, 1864, and in 1866 he was given the grade of brevet brigadier general of Volunteers. After the War, Allen was elected the 9th Secretary of State, serving two terms (1866-1870).

Robert Anderson (1805-1871) graduated from West Point in 1825 and was a career military officer, serving in the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican War, where he was severely wounded. He was promoted to major of the 1st Regiment of Artillery in 1857 and in 1861 was the commanding officer of Fort Sumter when it was attacked. Anderson’s actions at Fort Sumter made him an immediate national hero and he was promoted to brigadier general, effective May 15, 1861. Anderson then went on a highly successful recruiting tour of the North. He was then given command of Union forces in Kentucky, where he was reluctant to implement President Lincoln’s wishes to distribute rifles to Unionists in Kentucky and he was removed late in 1861. His last military assignment was commanding Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island. Anderson retired from military service in October 1863, possibly due to failing health. On February 3, 1865, he was brevetted major general for “gallantry and meritorious service” in the defense of Fort Sumter. After the War ended, Anderson returned to Charleston where he raised the U.S. flag over the recaptured Fort Sumter during ceremonies that took place the same day that Lincoln was assassinated.

Christopher C. Andrews.  Christopher Columbus Andrews (1829-1922) enlisted as a private, but was commissioned a captain in the 3rd Minnesota Infantry. Captured by Confederates in Tennessee in July 1862, he was held as a prisoner of war until October, when he was exchanged. He returned to his regiment as lieutenant colonel and participated in the Vicksburg Campaign. In July 1863, Andrews was promoted to colonel and commanded a brigade in the operations to capture Little Rock, Arkansas, later in the year. Throughout the balance of the year and into early 1864, Andrews helped organize and foster the Unionists in Arkansas, and was influential in the reorganization of Arkansas as a free state. He was promoted to brigadier general in acknowledgement of his efforts while commanding troops near Augusta, Arkansas. Andrews was assigned to the command of the Second Division of the XIII Corps, and participated in the siege and storming of Fort Blakely in Alabama. On March 9, 1865, he was brevetted Major General and assigned command of the district of Mobile.

Christopher C. Augur.  Christopher Columbus Augur (1821-1898) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer who served in the Mexican War and on the western frontier. He was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers in 1861, and commanded a brigade under General Irvin McDowell. He was severely wounded at Cedar Mountain (August 9, 1862) while leading a division under General Nathaniel P. Banks. Augur was appointed major general on November 14, 1862, although the nomination had to be submitted three times before the U.S. Senate finally confirmed the appointment. Augur commanded a division in the Army of the Gulf during the siege of Port Hudson, and then commanded the XXII Corps and the Department of Washington from 1863 to the end of the War.

William W. Averell.  William Woods Averell (1832-1900) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer. Averell and Fitzhugh Lee were close friends at West Point and Lee had been sending his old friend taunting messages across the river during the winter of 1862-63. Averell had missed the Battle of Antietam and most of the Maryland Campaign as he recovered from a bout of malaria, known at the time as “Chickahominy Fever.” He did, however, command a Cavalry Brigade at the Battle of Fredericksburg.  After the Civil War, he invented American asphalt pavement, which made him a wealthy man.

Romeyn B. Ayres.  Romeyn Beck Ayres (1825-1888) graduated from West Point in 1847, but saw no fighting in the Mexican War. Ayres was stationed at various posts on the frontier and served at the Fort Monroe Artillery School from 1859 to 1861. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was a captain in the 5th U.S. Artillery, which he led in the First Battle of Bull Run and was heavily involved in the preceding Battle of Blackburn’s Ford. He was promoted to chief of artillery for Baldy Smith’s division in the Army of the Potomac for the Peninsula Campagin, the Seven Days Battles, and the Battle of Antietam. Just before the Battle of Fredericksburg he was promoted to brigadier general and chief of artillery of the VI Corps. In April of 1863 Ayres became a brigade commander in the 2nd Division of the V Corps and he led its 1st Brigade in the Battle of Chancellorsville. Ayres received praise for his performance at Gettysburg and he received a brevet promotion to major in the regular army for his actions. After the battle, his Division of Regular Army soldiers was sent to New York City to suppress the draft riots. In 1864 he led the 4th Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps in the Overland Campaign and then received command of the V Corps’ new 2nd Divison for the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. On August 1, 1864, he received a brevet promotion to major general for his contributions in these campaigns; he received particular commendations and brevet promotions for Weldon Railroad and Five Forks. Ayres continued to lead his division through the Appomattox Campaign and the Confederate surrender. After the War, Ayres returned to the regular army as a lieutenant colonel and performed mostly garrison duty in a number of posts in the South. In 1877 he commanded troops suppressing railroad strikes in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and in 1879 he was promoted to colonel of the 2nd U.S. Artillery.

Joseph Bailey (1825-1867) was a civil engineer and lumberman in Wisconsin before the Civil War. When the War started, he was commissioned captain of Company D, 4th Wisconsin Infantry (Hudson City Guards were Company G). In April 1862, Bailey was named acting chief engineer for the City of New Orleans shortly after its occupation. He was promoted to major in May of 1863 and supported the Union Army’s engineering activities at the Siege of Port Hudson. In August 1863, he was again promoted, to lieutenant colonel, when the 4th Infantry was re-designated the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry, and in June 1864, Bailey became colonel of the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry. During the 1864 Red River Campaign, Bailey saved the Union flotilla by suggesting to General Nathaniel Banks that the river could be damned to raise the water levels enough to float the gunboats over the rapids. Bailey oversaw the two week construction project as 3,000 troops struggled to build the dam that made it possible for the Union fleet to escape the Confederate forces. Some of these soldiers were lumberjacks from the 23rd and 24th Wisconsin regiments. For this achievement, Bailey was promoted to colonel, brevetted brigadier general, voted the Thanks of Congress, and presented with a sword and a purse of $3,000 by the officers of Admiral David D. Porter’s fleet. He was one of only 14 men to receive the Thanks of Congress for the Civil War, and the only one who was not an army or corps commander at the time.

After resigning from the army in 1865, Bailey returned to Wisconsin but moved his family later that year to Vernon County, Missouri. The next year, Bailey was elected county sheriff, with his office in Nevada City. On March 21, 1867, he was murdered by two brothers whom he had arrested for hog stealing and was conveying to Nevada City. On March 28, 1867, President Andrew Johnson nominated Bailey posthumously to be awarded the brevet grade of major general of Volunteers to rank from March 13, 1865 and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on March 30, 1867.

Theodorus Bailey (1805-1877) was appointed a midshipman in 1818 (at the age of 12 ) and saw his first sea duty  between 1819 and 1821, the frigate he was assigned to cruised to the western coast of Africa to protect the new colony of former slaves established by the United States (now Liberia). Between 1821 and 1827 his tours of duty included protecting shipping from pirates. In 1827 he received a commission as a lieutenant, and in 1833 was assigned to a 3-year cruise around the world searching for shipwrecked and stranded American seamen. From 1838-1840 he served in the New York Navy Yard. After the Mexican War broke out (spring 1846), Bailey received his first command, the sloop Lexington, and led his command in a blockade of the coast around San Blas in Lower California and made a successful raid on the town in January of 1847. In 1849 he was promoted to commander and in 1855 to captain. At the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron with his ship, the Colorado. During the push to take New Orleans, Bailey commanded one of the gunboat divisions during the fight to pass Forts Jackson and St. Philip. Once that feat had been accomplished, he continued on upriver to demand and receive the city’s surrender. Promoted to commodore on July 16, 1862, Bailey commanded the station at Sackett’s Harbor, New York, through the summer of 1862. In November 1862, Bailey became flag officer commanding the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. He held that post until the summer of 1864 when, after a bout of yellow fever, he was transferred to duty as the commandant at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. About halfway through that assignment, he received his promotion to rear admiral (July 25, 1866).

Absalom Baird (1824-1905) graduated from West Point in 1849 and was a career military officer. When the Civil War broke out, Baird was promoted to brevet captain in the regular army and he fought at the First Battle of Bull Run. In November 1861, he was promoted to major and served as an assistant inspector general. He became chief of staff to General Erasmus D. Keyes during the first part of the Siege of Yorktown, where his service earned him a further promotion to brigadier general of Volunteers in April, 1862. He commanded the 27th Brigade, 7th Division in the Army of the Ohio, and then the 3rd Division in the Army of Kentucky. Baird’s division became the 1st Division in General Thomas’ XIV Corps and he gained fame for his heroic efforts at the Battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga Campaign. In the Atlanta Campaign, Baird led a brigade charge in the Battle of Jonesborough, which earned him the Medal of Honor in 1896. He led his division in Sherman’s March to the Sea, the Carolinas Campaign, and in the Battle of Bentonville. Baird ended up with a brevet major general appointment in the regular army in 1866. After the War, Baird served as commander of the Department of Louisiana. He was appointed Inspector General of the Army in March, 1885, and was promoted to a full grade brigadier general. In 1887, he was named a Commander of the French Légion d’honneur. Baird retired from the Army in 1888 having reached the mandatory retirement age.

Lafayette C. Baker.  Lafayette Curry Baker (1826-1868) was an investigator and spy for the Union Army during the Civil War. Baker’s exploits are mainly known through his book, A History of the Secret Service, which he published in 1867. During the early months of the Civil War, he spied for General Winfield Scott. As Provost Marshal of Washington, D.C. from September 12, 1862 to November 7, 1863, Baker took charge of the Union Intelligence Service from Allan Pinkerton. After the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, Baker was put in charge of the investigation. Within two days, Baker’s agents in Maryland had made four arrests and had the names of two more conspirators, including the actual presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. Before the month was out, Booth along with David Herold were found holed up in a barn. Baker mustered out of volunteer service on January 15, 1866, and the following year was sacked from his position as government spymaster. President Andrew Johnson accused him of spying on him, a charge Baker admitted in his book which he published in response.

• History of the United States Secret Service, by General L. C. Baker, Philadelphia: L.C. Baker, 1867 (available in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library, E608 .B16).

Luther B. Baker.  Luther Byron Baker (1830-1896) served in the United States Secret Service with his brother, Major Joseph Stannard Baker. Their cousin, Colonel Lafayette C. Baker, was then the head of the United States Secret Service. In 1862, Lafayette C. Baker organized what was known as the First District of Columbia cavalry and in this command Luther B. Baker was given the rank of lieutenant. He ably served with that command until the close of hostilities in 1865, and then returned to the secret service and made himself famous by the capture of John Wilkes Booth. He was the only one who conversed with Booth before the barn was fired and was the first to reach him as he fell, mortally wounded by a bullet fired from Corbett’s rifle as he attempted to make his escape. He gave Booth a drink of water from his canteen and received his dying message to his mother. He and his cousin made the final disposition of Booth’s body. After the War, he farmed for a short time and then spent 25 years in the state auditor general’s office.

Nathaniel P. Banks. Nathaniel Prentice, or Prentiss, Banks (1816-1894) was the 24th governor of Massachusetts from 1858 to January 3, 1861.  Banks, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, was considered for a cabinet post. Lincoln, however, chose him as one of his first major generals of volunteers. Lacking in military training and experience, Banks was one of Lincoln’s first political general appointments. It was perceived that Banks would bring political benefits to the Lincoln Administration through his Massachusetts’ connections by helping to attract recruits and money for the Union cause. Banks was given command on the upper Potomac when Brigadier General Robert Patterson failed to move aggressively in that area, thus contributing to the defeat at Bull’s Run. He suffered defeat at First Battle of Winchester by Confederate commander, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and later met Jackson again at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, in Culpeper County, Virginia which resulted in a draw- both sides claiming victory. In December of 1862, Banks took command of the Department of the Gulf.  At the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, the Union troops under Banks’ command suffered heavy casualties during two siege attempts. The region was then being brought under Union control after receiving word that Vicksburg had fallen. Port Hudson was also notable because it was the first time African-American troops were used in a major Civil War battle. In the autumn of 1863, with the French in Mexico and trying to aid the Confederacy,  Banks successfully secured possession of the mouth of the Rio Grande River for the Union. In 1864, Banks oversaw the failed Red River Campaign in Louisiana, which General Sherman later described as “one damn blunder from beginning to end.” Banks and his men retreated after being defeated at the Battle of Mansfield and nearly defeated at Pleasant Hill. The withdrawal of the General Bank’s army put the Union fleet in peril. The Red River debacle resulted in the Confederates holding the region until after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender in 1865.  After the Red River Campaign, Banks was removed from command, placed on leave and sent back to Washington, D.C., for the remainder of the War.

Mustered out of military service after the war on August 24, 1865, Bank then served as a representative in the United States Congress from 1865-1877. He played a key role in the passage of the Alaska Purchase. Defeated in 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him the United States Marshall for Massachusetts, a position he served in from 1879-1888. In 1888, he was again elected to Congress for his tenth and final term.

For more information:

• Planting the Union Flag in Texas: The Campaigns of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in the West, by Stephen A. Dupree (College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2008).  UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.
• Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks, by James G. Hollandsworth, Jr. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998).  UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.

William Barksdale (1821-1863) had served as a captain in the Mexican War and as a U.S.  Representative from Mississippi from 1853 to 1861. On May 1, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 13th Mississippi Infantry (Confederate States Army), which he led in the First Battle of Bull Run. Barksdale was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Francis C. Barlow. Francis Channing Barlow (1834-1896) studied law at Harvard University and was practicing law on the staff of the New York Tribune newspaper when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted in the 12th New York State Militia and was quickly commissioned a first lieutenant. He mustered out after three months and by November 1861 was lieutenant colonel of the 61st New York Infantry. By the Peninsula Campaign (spring 1862) he was its colonel. Barlow saw action at the battles of Seven Pines, Glendale, and Malvern Hill. At the Battle of Antietam, he commanded the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, II Corps, and his men were in the center of fighting at the Sunken Road, where they captured about 300 prisoners. He was wounded in the battle and two days later was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers. Barlow gained a reputation as an aggressive fighter with strong personal confidence. It took Barlow a long to recover from his wound but he was back in command of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XI Corps, at the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Battle of Gettysburg. At Gettysburg he led his brigade to a defensive position on Blocher’s Knoll (now known as Barlow’s Knoll), which was overwhelmed by Jubal Early’s division resulting in serious losses, and Barlow himself was wounded and left for dead. He was hospitalized for a long time, returning to the Army in April 1864, just in time for the Overland Campaign. He commanded the 1st Division, II Corps at the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. He received a promotion to major general for his leadership at Spotsylvania. He also fought at the Battle of Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg. Barlow commanded the 2nd Division, II Corps, during the Battle of Sayler’s Creek (Appomattox Campaign). After the War, Barlow served as a United States Marshal in New York, as the New York Secretary of State (1866-1867), and the New York State Attorney General (1872-1873), prosecuting the Boss Tweed ring, before he returned to his law practice.

For more information:

• Fear Was Not in Him: The Civil War Letters of Major General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A., edited by Christian G. Samito (Bronx, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, 2004). UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this as an e-book.

John G. Barnard.  John Gross Barnard (1815-1882) graduated from West Point in 1833 and was a career officer in the U.S. Army. He served in engineering capacities during the Mexican War, and as the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy (1855-1856). During Civil War he served as Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac (1861-1862), Chief Engineer of the Department of Washington (1861-1864), and as Chief Engineer of the armies in the field (1864-1865) on General Grant’s staff. Barnard served in the honor guard for President Lincoln’s funeral in April 1865. He also was a distinguished scientist, co-founding the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; mathematician; historian and author, writing several scientific/engineering works and Civil War history papers.

Joseph K. Barnes (1817-1883) was the 12th Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, serving from 1864 to 1882. He had studied medicine at Harvard University and with Surgeon General Thomas Harris of the United States Navy, and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1838. In the Army, he served in the Seminole War and the Mexican War. During the Civil War, Barnes was ordered to Washington, D.C. where he was the attending surgeon for the city and became acquainted with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. In 1863, Barnes was appointed a medical inspector with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and later that year he was further advanced to the position of medical inspector general with the grade of Colonel. It was but a few weeks after this advancement that the difficulties between Stanton and Surgeon General William Alexander Hammond culminated in the detachment of the latter from his office. In September 1863, Barnes was by a special order of the War Department, became the acting Surgeon General. On August 22, 1864, he was advanced to the position of Surgeon General, with the grade of Brigadier General. In April 1865, Barnes attended the death bed of President Abraham Lincoln and ministered to Secretary of State William H. Seward. In 1881, Barnes was one of the surgeons who for weeks tried to save the dying President James A. Garfield, who had also been shot.

William F. Bartlett.  William Francis Bartlett (1840-1876) left Harvard to enlist as a private in the Civil War; by the end of the War he was a brigadier general of U. S. Volunteers. He was wounded four times.  He enlisted as a private the day Fort Sumter surrendered and in August, 1861, became a captain in the 20th Massachusetts Infantry. He lost a leg at Yorktown in the spring of 1862 during the Peninsular Campaign, but recovered sufficiently to be present with his class and receive his degree in June of that year. In November 1862 he became colonel of the 49th Massachusetts Infantry. The regiment was ordered to Louisiana and took part in the siege and capture of Fort Hudson in July of 1863, where Bartlett was twice wounded and thereafter compelled to be on horseback at all times. He was a prime target for marksmen, though Confederate officers reputedly told their men not to shoot at the one-legged Yankee. At the outset of General Grant’s Overland Campaign Bartlett organized the 57th Massachusetts, which he led at the Battle of the Wilderness, sustaining still another wound. He was appointed a brigadier general of Volunteers in June 1864. At the Battle of the Crater (July 30, 1864) was taken prisoner, his cork leg shattered with bullets. After several weeks in Libby Prison, General Bartlett was exchanged and put in command of the IX Corps, which he led with distinction until the end of hostilities. After the War he engaged for some time in business with the government-owned Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. Then he moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and died there on December 17, 1876.

For more information:

• Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, by Ezra J. Warner (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1964); UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this as an e-book.

William B. Bate.  William Brimage Bate (1826-1905) fought in the Mexican War, established a newspaper in Gallatin, Tennessee, served in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1849), was admitted to the state bar in 1852, and was elected attorney general for the Nashville district. He was a staunch supporter of secession in the years leading up to the Civil War. After the War started, Bate was elected colonel of the 2nd Tennessee Infantry. His regiment was in the Army of Mississippi in the Corinth area and then marched north and participated in the Battle of Shiloh where he was severely wounded. After spending several months recovering, Bate was promoted to brigadier general in October 1862 and given command of an infantry brigade in the Army of the Tennessee, taking part in the Tullahoma Campaign and the Battle of Hoover’s Gap. Bate participated in the Battle of Chickamauga and was given command of a division for the Battle of Missionary Ridge. As a result of his service in the Chattanooga Campaign, Bate was promoted to major general in February 1864. That summer, his division took part in the Atlanta Campaign, and saw action at the battles of Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, and Peachtree Creek, as well as the main Battle of Atlanta. At the Battle of Utoy Creek Bate used a deception plan that foiled the main Union attack. He was shot in the knee in a skirmish at Willis’ Grist Mill near Atlanta and rejoined his division in time to take part in General John B. Hood’s invasion of Tennessee in late 1864. He participated in the Battle of Franklin, the Battle of Nashville, the 1865 Carolinas Campaign, and the Battle of Bentonville. Bate and his men surrendered at Bennett Place near Greensboro, North Carolina.

After the War, Bate returned to Tennessee where he was served as the 23rd governor (1883-87) and as U.S. senator from Tennessee (1887-1905). He died from pneumonia a few days after attending Theodore Roosevelt’s March 4, 1905, inauguration as president.

DeWitt C. Baxter.  DeWitt Clinton Baxter (1829-1881) was the colonel of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry, also known as the Philadelphia Fire Zouaves. The regiment had been mustered in on August 10 and had only left for Washington on September 16. It was part of Baker’s “California Brigade” and was claimed by the state of Pennsylvania after Baker’s death.

P. G. T. Beauregard.  Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818-1893) was the first brigadier general of the Confederate Army, and commanded the defenses at Charleston, South Carolina, at the start of the Civil War. Three months later he is in command as the Confederate Army wins the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. Of note: As an adult, Beauregard rarely used his first name of Pierre and signed his correspondence G. T. Beauregard.

For more information:

• “Beauregard at Bermuda Hundred” in No Band of Brothers: Problems in the Rebel High Command (E487 .W8 1999 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

Henry H. Bell. Henry Haywood Bell (1808-1868) was a career naval man and was promoted to Commander in 1854. During the Civil War he was Fleet Captain of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and served in the campaigns that captured New Orleans. He was promoted to Commodore in July 1862. After completing his Gulf assignment in 1864, he was assigned to the New York Navy Yard as Inspector of Ordnance.

Henry W. Benham.  Henry Washington Benham (1813-1884) graduated from West Point at the top of his class. He primarily served in the Army’s Engineer Corps where he worked primarily with sea walls, harbors, and was an expert in the construction of pontoon bridges. In 1861 he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. He disobeyed orders and was subject to a court martial after the battle of James Island (Battle of Secessionville and more) on June 16, 1862, at which he was in immediate command, under General David Hunter.

Hiram Berdan (1824-1893) was a mechanical engineer and inventor from New York City who was also a world-renowned marksman. His inventions—which brought him wealth and international fame—included a repeating rifle (the Berdan rifle), the Berdan centerfire primer, a patented musket ball, and other weapons and accessories. In 1861, with the backing of General Winfield Scott and President Abraham Lincoln, Berdan helped recruit, and was colonel of, eighteen companies of sharpshooters—from eight states, including Wisconsin—which were formed into two sharpshooter regiments, the 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters. Berdan resigned his commission in January 1864, due to a disability, and he returned to his career as an engineer and inventor.

David B. Birney. David Bell Birney (1825-1864) grew up in an abolitionist family, and was a businessman and lawyer in Philadelphia. Shortly after Fort Sumter, he raised the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry largely at his own expense and becaBirneyme its lieutenant colonel. Just prior to the war he had been studying military texts in preparation for such a role. He was promoted to colonel on August 31, 1861, and to brigadier general on February 17, 1862, benefiting from his political connections rather than military merit. Birney participated in the Peninsula Campaign, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Chantilly, and the Battle of Fredericksburg. Birney led his division in heavy fighting at Chancellorsville, where it suffered more casualties than any other division. As a result of his distinguished service at Chancellorsville, he was promoted to major general in May,  1863. At the Battle of Gettysburg, Birney’s division was demolished to the point that it was finished as a fighting force. Birney was given a new division for the Overland Campaign and participated in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House (where he was wounded), and Cold Harbor. During the Siege of Petersburg in 1864, Birney became sick, and died three months later.

Francis P. Blair.  Francis Preston Blair (1821-1875) was a lawyer in Missouri who, before the Civil War, served in the Mexican War, was the attorney general for New Mexico Territory, served in the Missouri House of Representatives (1852-1856) and the U.S. House of Representatives (1856-1857, 1861-1862, 1863-1864), where he served as chairman of the Military Affairs Committee. He resigned from Congress in July 1862 to become a Union colonel of Missouri volunteers, and was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in August and major general in November. Blair commanded a division in the Vicksburg Campaign and in the fighting around Chattanooga, and was one of William T. Sherman’s corps commanders in his campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas. After the War, having spent much of his private fortune in support of the Union, Blair was financially ruined. In the 1868 presidential election, Blair was the Democratic candidate for vice president. From 1871-1873 he served in the U.S. Senate from Missouri.

John W. Blake.  John Wesley Blair (1822-1909) was a resident of Lafayette, Indiana, before the Civil War. Shortly after Fort Sumter, he was commissioned captain of Company C, 10th Indiana Infantry, and in September 1861 he was commissioned colonel of the 40th Indiana Infantry.

Louis Blenker (1812-1863) was a German-American who was born in Worms and had a successful military career in Germany before migrating to the United States. He settled on a farm in New York and at the beginning of the Civil War he organized the 8th New York Volunteer Infantry, of which he became colonel. He was noted for his coverage of the retreat at the First Battle of Bull Run and for his performance in western Virgina at the Battle of Cross Keys. After the Battle of Cross Keys, accusations were made, the primary ones being carelessness with respect to supplies and financial irregularities. He would die March 31, 1863, from the injuries suffered in the War.

Edward Bloodgood, from Milwaukee, was the son of a West Point graduate, had been active in the Wisconsin militia, volunteered early in the War, and rose through the ranks—sergeant major, 1st Wis. Infantry 3 months (May 17, 1861); captain, Company G, 1st Wis. Infantry 3 years (August 29, 1861); lieutenant colonel, 22nd Wis. Infantry (July 22, 1862); colonel, 22nd Wis. Infantry (August 17, 1864). At the Battle of Brentwood in Tennessee on March 25, 1863, Bloodgood tried to hold Brentwood—a station on the Nashville and Decatur Railroad—with a small force compared to Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest’s powerful column. Bloodgood surrendered when surrounded by Forrest’s troops and artillery. In 1864 Bloodgood became colonel of the 22nd after William L. Utley resigned because of a disability, although the two men had a long-standing feud and twenty-three of the twenty-seven line officers had petitioned Utley to resign.

James G. Blunt.  James Gilpatrick Blunt (1826-1881) was a physician in Columbus, Ohio, and was active in county politics. In 1856 he moved his family to Kansas, where he became involved in the Missouri-Kansas border conflict. Blunt joined a force that included James H. Lane and abolitionist John Brown. When the Civil War started, Blunt was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Kansas Infantry, a part of Lane’s Kansas Brigade. In April 1862, Blunt was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and given command of the Department and Army of Kansas.

Frederick A. Boardman(1832-1863) “had traveled the world as a young naval officer before helping to lead the 4th Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War.” He died in battle near New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 3, 1864.

For more information:

•  Frederick A. Boardman entry from Dictionary of Wisconsin History.
• Biographical sketch of Colonel Frederick A. Boardman in E.B. Quiner’s Military History of Wisconsin (Chicago, 1866): 1010-12, available digitally.
• Find A Grave entry.

John S. Bowen. John Stevens Bowen (1830-1863) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. He was first assigned to the army cavalry school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and in 1855 he was transferred to the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. Later in 1855 he resigned from the U.S. Army and in 1857 he moved to Missouri and became active in the Missouri Volunteer Militia, patrolling the border looking for Kansas Jayhawkers. In May 1861 Bowen was captured by Union General Nathaniel Lyon, and while waiting to be exchanged he was commissioned a colonel in the Confederate States Army. He then became a brigade commander in Kentucky under General Leonidas Polk. Bowen was promoted to brigadier general in March 1862 and his brigade was assigned to General John C. Breckinridge’s Reserve Corps of the Army of Mississippi. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Shiloh, where he was severely wounded. After his recovery he commanded a brigade command in the Army of West Tennessee and took part in the Second Battle of Corinth.

In 1863 Bowen was assigned to the post of Grand Gulf with only a brigade of infantry. He became convinced that Grant would land near Grand Gulf and he repeatedly requested additional supplies and men from General Pemberton, but each request was refused. At the Battle of Port Gibson (May 1, 1863), Bowen, despite being severely outnumbered, managed to delay Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee for most of a day. Bowen fought at the Battle of Champion Hill (May 16, 1863), where a counterattack by his division almost split Grant’s army in half. After that battle Pemberton retreated to Vicksburg, ordering Bowen to cover the retreat and he suffered defeat at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge. Bowen died from dysentery shortly after the fall of Vicksburg.

S. C. Boylston.  Samuel Cordes Boylston (1844-1913) was a graduate of The Citadel, and as part of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets had helped build the “Star of the West Battery” on Morris Island in December 1860. During the April 1861 Fort Sumter battle he is stationed at the “Mortar Battery.” On August 22, 1861, he is commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Confederate Army and is stationed at Fort Sumter from August 1861 to August 1863. Boylston is honorably discharged in Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 26, 1865, with the surrender of Johnston’s army.

Braxton Bragg (1817-1876) was a career United States Army officer, and then a general in the Confederate States Army. He graduated from the West Point in 1837 and was commissioned in the Gulf Coast region. Bragg received three brevet promotions for distinguished service in the Mexican War, most notably the Battle of Buena Vista. He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1856 to become a sugar plantation owner in Louisiana. He was a corps commander at the Battle of Shiloh and subsequently was named to command the Army of Mississippi (later known as the Army of Tennessee). He and Edmund Kirby Smith invaded Kentucky in 1862, but Bragg retreated following the inconclusive Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in October. In December, he fought the inconclusive Battle of Stones River, but once again withdrew his army. In 1863, he fought a series of battles against Union General William S. Rosecrans and the Union Army of the Cumberland. In June, he was outmaneuvered in the Tullahoma Campaign and retreated into Chattanooga. In September, he was forced to evacuate Chattanooga, but counterattacked Rosecrans and defeated him at the Battle of Chickamauga, the only major Confederate victory in the Western Theater. In November, Bragg’s army was routed in turn by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Battles for Chattanooga. Bragg was recalled in early 1864 to Richmond, where he became the military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Near the end of the Civil War, he defended Wilmington (N.C.), and served as a corps commander in the Carolinas Campaign. After the war Bragg worked as the superintendent of the New Orleans waterworks, a supervisor of harbor improvements at Mobile, Alabama, and as a railroad engineer and inspector in Texas.

For more information:

• “Soldier with a Blunted Sword: Braxton Bragg and His Lieutenants in the Chickamauga Campaign,” in No Band of Brothers: Problems in the Rebel High Command (E487 .W8 1999 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

Edward S. Bragg.  Edward Stuyvesant Bragg (1827-1912) moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1850 where he practiced law and was elected district attorney in 1853. When the Civil War started he was commissioned captain of Company E of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry. He was promoted to major in September 1861, lieutenant colonel in June 1862, and colonel in March 1863. Bragg missed the Battle of Gettysburg due to wounds suffered at the Battle of Chancellorsville. He was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in June 1864, and commanded the Iron Brigade for the later part of the War. Bragg mustered out in 1865 and returned to Wisconsin to resume his law practice. After the War, Bragg was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (served 1877-83 and 1885-87). In 1888, President Grover Cleveland appointed Bragg the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico (serving 1888-1889); was appointed consul general in Havana, Cuba in May, 1902, and in Hong Kong in September, 1902 (serving from 1903 to 1906).

John C. Breckinridge.  John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-1875) was a U.S. Representative (1851-1855) and U.S. Senator (1861) from Kentucky, the 14th Vice President of the United States under James Buchanan (1857-1861), one of two Democratic candidates for president in the 1860 election, a general in the Confederate States Army, and the Confederate States Secretary of War (February to May 1865). He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Stones River, Jackson, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, New Market (considered one of his best performances as a general), Cold Harbor, Monocacy, Fort Stevens, Third Winchester, First Saltville, and Marion. On January 19, 1865, Jefferson Davis appointed Breckinridge as the Confederate secretary of state. His first act as secretary was to promote Robert E. Lee to general-in-chief of all Confederate forces. By late February, Breckinridge concluded that the Confederate cause was hopeless and began laying the groundwork for surrender. He ensured that the Confederate archives, government and military, were captured intact by the Union forces, thus ensuring that a full account of the Confederate war effort would be preserved for history.

C. D. Brigham (d. 1894) was a journalist who wrote under the name “Jasper.”

W. T. H. Brooks.  William Thomas Harbaugh Brooks (1821-1870) graduated from West Point in 1841 and was a career military officer who served in the Seminole and Mexican Wars, and on the frontier in New Mexico Territory, but he was in New York when the Civil War started. Brooks was appointed brigadier general of Volunteers in September 1861. He commanded the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division of the IV Corps in the Peninsula Campaign, and the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division of the VI Corps at the Seven Days Battles, where he was wounded at the Battle of Savage’s Station (June 29, 1862). Brooks led the 1st Division of the VI Corps at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In June 1863, he was promoted to major general of Volunteers. This promotion was later revoked, on Brooks’s being involved in intrigues by VI Corps commanders against General Ambrose E. Burnside after Fredericksburg. Brooks did not participate in the Battle of Gettysburg because he was in command of the Department of the Monongahela and was in charge of protecting the city from possible Confederate raids. At the battles of Cold Harbor and Petersburg he commanded the 1st Division of the XVIII Corps. By July 1864 Brooks resigned from the Army due to poor health. After the War, Brooks moved to Alabama and farmed.

Francis E. Brownell. Francis Edwin Brownell (1840-1894) received the Medal of Honor in 1877 for his action in killing James W. Jackson, the inn proprietor who killed Elmer E. Ellsworth. Ellsworth was the first Union officer killed in the Civil War.

• Later in life, Brownell donated Jackson’s shotgun, his own rifle that he used to kill Jackson, and his Medal of Honor to the Smithsonian Institution.

George E. Bryant.  George Edwin Bryant (1832-1907) was born in Massachusetts, went to college and read the law there, being admitted to the bar shortly before moving to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was a law partner with Myron H. Orton. In 1860, Bryant was captain of the “Governor’s Guard” in Madison, the first company to offer their services in Wisconsin at the beginning of the Civil War. His company served five-months in the First Wisconsin Infantry. At the termination of their service, Captain Bryant returned home, and was shortly afterward commissioned colonel of the 12th Wisconsin Infantry.

After the War, Bryant returned to Wisconsin and his farm near Madison where he engaged in cattle breeding. He was elected county judge in Dane County (1865-1877), state senator (1875-1876), Wisconsin quartermaster general (1876-1882), and postmaster of Madison (1882-1886 and 1890-1894). Bryant was a member of the Republican state central committee (1896-1904) and was state superintendent of public property (1901- 1907).

For more information, see:

• George Edwin Bryant entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History
• Colonel George E. Bryant entry in The United States Biographical Dictionary (available online).

Franklin Buchanan (1800-1874) served in the U.S. Navy for 45 years (1815-1861), including with the Perry expedition to Japan in the 1850s, as the first superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy (11845-1847), in the Mexican War, and as commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. He resigned in early 1861 expecting Maryland to secede. He received a commission in the Confederate States Navy, eventually becoming the only full admiral.  Flag Officer Buchanan commanded the CSS Virginia (USS Merrimack) but was wounded in the leg before the Virginia/Merrimack engaged the Monitor in March 1862. In August 1862, Buchanan was promoted to the rank of admiral and sent to command Confederate naval forces at Mobile Bay, Alabama. He oversaw the construction of the ironclad CSS Tennessee and was on board during the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. He was wounded and taken prisoner, was exchanged in February 1865, and was convalescing when the War end. After the War, Buchanan lived in Maryland and in Mobile, Alabama.

Ralph P. Buckland.  Ralph Pomeroy Buckland (1812-1892) was an Ohio lawyer and politician before the Civil War. With the outbreak of the War, Buckland was commissioned colonel of the 72nd Ohio Infantry in January 1862. At the Battle of Shiloh, he commanded the 4th Brigade in William T. Sherman’s 5th Division of the Army of the Tennessee. He was commissioned a brigadier general of Volunteers on November 29, 1862. During the Siege of Vicksburg, Buckland commanded a brigade in Sherman’s XV Corps. In the 1864 elections, Buckland was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and resigned from the army in early January 1865 (served 1865-1869). In the omnibus promotions of 1865, he was brevetted a major general dating from March 13, 1865.

Simon B. Buckner.  Simon Bolivar Buckner (1823-1914) graduated from West Point and then became an instructor there. He served in the Mexican War.  Buckner returned to his native state of Kentucky in 1857. Governor Beriah Magoffin appointed him adjutant general in 1861. He tried to enforce Kentucky’s neutrality, but when that failed Buckner accepted a commission in the Confederate Army after declining a similar commission to the Union Army. In 1862, he will surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Fort Donelson. In the years following the war, Buckner will become active in politics and serve as Kentucky’s 30th governor, from 1887-1891.

Don Carlos Buell (1818-1898) was a career military officer who graduated from West Point. He fought in the Seminole War, the Mexican War, and the Civil War.  At the start of the Civil War, Buell was an early organizer of the Army of the Potomac and briefly commanded one of its divisions. In November 1861, he succeeded Brigadier General William T. Sherman in command at Louisville, Kentucky. Buell’s command was designated the Department of the Ohio and his troops the Army of the Ohio, later called the Army of the Cumberland. He captured Nashville on February 25, 1862. Buell led Union armies in the battles of Shiloh and Perryville, but failed to defeat the outnumbered Confederates after Perryville. Buell was relieved of field command in late 1862 and made no more significant military contributions.

For more information:

• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

John Buford (1826-1863) graduated from West Point and served along the Mexican border. In 1856-57 he participated in quelling the disturbances in “Bleeding Kansas,” and in 1857-58 he served with Albert Sidney Johnston in the Mormon War. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was offered and rejected a commission in the Confederate army. He was promoted to major in 1861 serving as assistant inspector general for the defenses of Washington D.C. He command the II Corps Cavalry Brigade of the Union Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run and was wounded in the knee. In July 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and was the chief of cavalry for Gen. George B McClellan during his Maryland Campaign and also fought at Fredericksburg and Brandy Station. In July 1863, Buford’s defense choices at Gettysburg are credited with helping give the Union an advantage. By December, Buford was seriously ill with typhoid fever and General Stoneman appealed for a deathbed promotion to major general. Upon hearing that Buford was dying, President Lincoln promoted him to major general of volunteers on December 16 and Buford died that same day after being informed of the promotion. Lincoln was among the mourners at his funeral. He was buried at West Point.

Napoleon Bonaparte Buford, older half-brother of John Buford, graduated from West Point and remained in the army until his resignation in 1835.  He rejoined the army in 1861, when he was elected colonel of the 27th Illinois Volunteers. After serving meritoriously in the early western campaigns of the Civil War, Napoleon Buford was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers on April 15, 1862, immediately after the battle of Shiloh. He was given command of a brigade in Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans’ Army of the Mississippi, and served in that capacity during the early phases of the Vicksburg campaign. In January 1863, he was given command at Cairo, Illinois, a position he held until September 12, 1863, when he took command of the garrison of Helena, Arkansas, a position he held until the end of the war. On March 13, 1865, he was promoted to brevet major general of volunteers, and was mustered out of the service on August 24, 1865.

Stephen G. Burbridge.  Stephen Gano Burbridge (1831-1894), a lawyer from Kentucky, became a controversial Union general. In 1864 he was given command to deal with the growing problem of Confederate guerrilla campaigns in Kentucky. Burbridge issued an order that  declared: “Whenever an unarmed Union citizen is murdered, four guerrillas will be selected from the prison and publicly shot to death.” He became known as “Butcher” Burbridge or the “Butcher of Kentucky.”

Ambrose E. Burnside.  Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824-1881) was an American soldier, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor (1866-1869) and a U.S. Senator (1875-1881).  As a Union general in the Civil War, he conducted successful campaigns in North Carolina (the Burnside Expedition between February and June 1862) and East Tennessee (Knoxville Campaign during the fall of 1863).  But he was defeated in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862) and the Battle of the Crater (July 30, 1864), earning him a reputation as one of the most incompetent generals of the War.  On a lighter note, his distinctive style of facial hair is now known as sideburns, which is derived from his last name.

Benjamin F. Butler.  Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818-1893) was a lawyer and Democratic politician from Massachusetts. Before the Civil War he served in the Massachusetts legislature and in 1859 ran for governor, but narrowly lost to incumbent Nathaniel P. Banks. In the 1860 presidential election, he initially was a supporter of John C. Breckinridge but changed his support to Jefferson Davis. Prior to the Civil War he was a brigadier general in the Massachusetts militia, but did not have significant military experience. During the Civil War, Butler served as a major general in the Union Army. His policies regarding slaves as contraband, his administration of occupied New Orleans, his ineffectual leadership in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, and the fiasco of Fort Fisher rank him as one of the most controversial political generals of the war. He was widely reviled for years after the War by Southern whites, who gave him the nickname “Beast Butler.” After the War he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts (1867-75 and 1877-79) where he played a prominent role in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, authored the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 that gave federal authority to prosecute and destroy the Klan in the South, and co-authored, with Sen. Charles Sumner, the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Civil Rights Act, a final act of Reconstruction, gave African American citizens the right to public accommodation such as hotels, restaurants, lodging, and public establishments. Butler was elected the 33rd governor of Massachusetts and served one year (January 1883-January 1884).

Daniel A. Butterfield.  Daniel Adams Butterfield (1831-1901), who had little military background beyond part-time militia activities, became a brigadier general of the 12th New York Militia, later 12th New York Infantry, in five months of joining the military. He commanded the brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run and subsequently promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers. He fought in the Peninsular campaign and was wounded in June 1862 at Gaines Mills. He commanded the corps in the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg. In January 1863, he became chief of staff for General Joseph Hooker and was then promoted to major general of Volunteers. As Hooker’s chief of staff in the Army of the Cumberland, he fought at Chattanooga and in the Atlanta campaign.

After the War he remained in the service as colonel of the 5th U. S. Infantry in New York City and was superintendent of army recruitment. He resigned in 1870 and became U.S. assistant treasurer in New York City and later worked for American Express, a company his father co-founded. In 1892, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery at Gaines Mills. Butterfield is credited with adapting the bugle call now known as “Taps” during his service in the Civil War. After the Civil War, “Taps” was established as the official military call for the end of the day. Butterfield also designed the system of corps badges still used by the army.

George Cadwalader (1806-1879) was  a general in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. Pennsylvania Governor Curtin appointed him major general of the Pennsylvania state militia in April of 1861, and on May 25 he was appointed a major general of Volunteers in the U.S. Army.

Edward Canby.  Edward Richard Sprigg Canby (1817-1873) was a career Army officer. At the start of the Civil War, Canby commanded Fort Defiance, in New Mexico Territory. He was promoted to colonel of the 19th U.S. Infantry in May 1861, and by June commanded the Department of New Mexico.  H. H. Sibley was his former assistant.  Although defeated by Sibley at the Battle of Valverde (February 20-21, 1862), Canby and his troops eventually forced the Confederates to retreat to Texas after the Union strategic victory at the Battle of Glorieta Pass (March 26-28, 1862).

Charles E. Capehart.  Charles E. Capehart (1833-1911) joined the U.S. Volunteers and was made captain of Company A, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. He was promoted to major of the regiment and later lieutenant colonel. At the Battle of Gettysburg, on July 4, 1863, Capehart’s regiment, in a daring midnight charge down a mountainside during a thunderstorm, attacked and captured a retreating Confederate wagon train. Capehart received the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Gettysburg

William P. Carlin.  William Passmore Carlin (1829-1903) graduated from West Point in 1850 and was a career military officer. In the Civil War he led a brigade and then a division in the Army of the Tennessee in several of the most significant campaigns of the Western Theater of operations

Henry B. Carrington.  Henry Beebee Carrington (1824-1912) was a close friend and supporter of Salmon P. Chase when he was the governor of Ohio. Chase appointed him Judge Advocate General in 1857 and charged him with reorganizing Ohio’s state militia. Carrington subsequently became Ohio’s adjutant general and mustered in ten regiments of militia at the outbreak of the Civil War. In May of 1861 he was commissioned colonel of the 18th U.S. Infantry.

“Kit” Carson.  Christopher Houston Carson (1809-1868) was a mountain man, trapper, explorer, guide, Indian fighter, scout, and Civil War general in Texas and New Mexico.

Silas Casey (1807-1882) was a graduate of West Point and career military officer, served in the 2nd Seminole War, the Mexican War, and on the western frontier.  He fought in the Peninsula Campaign, where his division suffered heavy losses at Battle of Seven Pines and he was promoted to major general shortly after the battle. He wrote the three-volume System of Infantry Tactics, including Infantry Tactics volumes I and II, published by the army in August of 1862, and Infantry Tactics for Colored Troops, published in March, 1863. These manuals were used by both sides during the Civil War. In December 1862 he was appointed to the board that ultimately convicted Fitz John Porter of disobedience and cowardice for his actions at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

James R. Chalmers.  James Ronald Chalmers (1831-1898) grew up in Tennessee and Holly Springs, Mississippi, and gradated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in law. Despite no military experience, when the Civil War started he was elected colonel of the 9th Mississippi Infantry Regiment. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, and Stones River, among others. During 1864, as a cavalry brigade commander under General Nathan B. Forrest and later General John B. Hood, Chalmers participated in operations in northern Mississippi, Kentucky, and west Tennessee. By February 1865, he commanded all Mississippi cavalry. Chalmers surrendered in May 1865 and was paroled. Following the War Chalmers resumed his law career and served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1877-1882).

Joshua Chamberlain.  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828-1914) was a college professor in Maine, who volunteered and was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry. Although having no earlier education in military strategies, he became a highly respected and decorated Union officer, reaching the rank of brigadier general (and brevet major general). Chamberlain achieved renown at the Battle of Gettysburg for his valiant defense of Little Round Top. For his gallantry at Gettysburg, he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1893. He was given the honor of commanding the Union troops at the surrender ceremony for the infantry of Robert E. Lee’s Army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. After the War, he entered politics as a Republican and served four one-year terms as the 32nd governor of Maine. He also served on the faculty, and as president, of his alma mater, Bowdoin College.

Benjamin F. Cheatham.  Benjamin Franklin Cheatham (1820-1886) was a Confederate general. He had been born into two of the most prominent families of the middle Tennessee elite of the slave society. He was a captain in the Mexican War, being promoted to colonel of the 3rd Tennessee by the end of the war, and served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee militia. In the Civil War, he served in many battles of the Western Theater, including Shiloh, Perryville, and Stones River.

Jerome Clarke.  Marcellus Jerome Clarke (1844–March 15, 1865), a Confederate captain and one of Kentucky’s most famous guerrillas, was rumored to be Sue Mundy* because of his long hair and  smooth-faced features. Clarke had joined the 4th Kentucky Infantry (CSA) in 1861, and saw action at Fort Donelson and Chickamauga. He was then reassigned to John Hunt Morgan’s unit. After Morgan’s death (September 4, 1864,), Clarke formed his own guerrilla band and continued raiding throughout Kentucky. Clarke and his guerrillas joined with Quantrill’s Raiders, making them even more dangerous. On March 12, 1865, fifty Union soldiers from the 30th Wisconsin Infantry, under the command of Major Cyrus Wilson, surrounded a tobacco barn and captured Clarke, Henry C. Magruder, and Henry Metcalfe, another of the gang. At his trial, Clarke said that he was a regular Confederate soldier and that he had not committed the crimes he was being charged with, or that they had been committed by Quantrill. Clarke was convicted of being a guerrilla and hanged; several thousand people were estimated to have attended Clarke’s execution, attracted by rumors that he was “Sue Mundy.”After Clarke’s death, Magruder, in a memoir, confessed to being Sue Mundy.

* “Sue Mundy” was a fictional guerrilla character created by George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, who opposed the heavy-handed military rule of General Stephen G. Burbridge in Kentucky. Prentice created the “Sue Mundy” persona to portray Burbridge as an incompetent commander, unable to protect Kentucky citizens.

Powell Clayton (1833-1914) attended the Partridge Military Academy in Bristol, Pennsylvania, and then studied civil engineering in Wilmington, Delaware, before moving to Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1855 to work as a surveyor. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Clayton was elected captain of Company E of the 1st Kansas Infantry. His unit saw action in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, in August 1861, and Clayton received a citation for his leadership in the battle. In December 1861 he received a commission as lieutenant colonel of the 5th Kansas Cavalry and in March 1862 he was promoted to colonel. The 5th Kansas moved to Arkansas later in 1862 and was stationed at Helena. It fought guerrillas outside of Helena and carried out at least one significant raid up the Saint Francis River in March 1863. This raid is officially known as the Helena Expedition (March 5-12, 1863), but is also known as the Saint Francis River Expedition and the Little River Expedition. In October 1863, Clayton became the commander of the post at Pine Bluff. On October 25, 1863, he successfully repulsed a three-pronged Confederate attack by the forces of General John S. Marmaduke. With his forces badly outnumbered, Clayton effectively used freedmen to build barricades of piled cotton bales around the Pine Bluff courthouse and surrounding streets and put out fires started by the attackers to block the assault. Clayton was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers on August 1, 1864.

After the War, Clayton was the 9th governor of Arkansas, first Reconstruction Republican governor, serving from 1868-1871.  He served as U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1871-1877, and as United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1897 to 1905.

For more information:

• Powell Clayton article in The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture.

David R. Clendenin.  David Ramsey Clendenin (1830-1895) was the major of the 8th Illinois Cavalry from September 18, 1861, to December 5, 1862, when he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. On May 1, 1865, Clendenin was named to the 12-member Military Commission that was appointed to try those accused of the conspiracy to kill President Lincoln. After the War, he remained in the Regular Army after the end of the conflict, and retired in 1891 with the rank of colonel.

John Clowney (1816-1885), from Mineral Point (Wis.), was commissioned the major of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry on September 8, 1862. In the summer of 1864, he was in charge of an expedition in the Dakotas to build Fort Wadsworth. From March 8 to September 20, 1865—when the regiment mustered out—he was in command of the Post at Frankfort, Kentucky.

Howell Cobb (1815-1868) served as U.S. Congressman (1843-51; 1855-57), Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1849-51), governor of Georgia (1851-53), and as the 22nd U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (March 7, 1857-December 8, 1860). Following Georgia’s secession from the Union in 1861, he served as president of the Provisional Confederate Congress (1861-62) and a major general of the Confederate army.

Cobb began his military service as colonel of the 16th Georgia Infantry and was appointed a brigadier general in February 1862. Between February and June 1862, he represented the Confederate authorities in negotiations with Union officers for an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war. Cobb participated in the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, played a key role during the Battle of South Mountain, and fought at the Battle of Antietam. In September 1863 he was promoted to major general and put in command of the District of Georgia and Florida, and suggested the idea that led to the creation of Andersonville prison. During the Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea he commanded the Georgia reserve corps. In 1865 he led the hopeless Confederate resistance in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia (April 16). He surrendered at Macon, Georgia, April 20, 1865.

For more information:

• “Right of Secession (December 31, 1860),” a pamphlet written by Howell Cobb and included in Southern Pamphlets on Secession, November 1860-April 1861, edited by Jon L. Wakelyn (E 458.1 .S68 1996 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Howell Cobb entry in The New Georgia Encyclopedia.

John Coburn (1825-1908) was lawyer in Indiana, and a member of the Indiana House of Representatives (1850) and a judge of the court of common pleas (1859-1861) before the Civil War. When the War broke out, he became colonel of the 33rd Indiana Infantry. He was captured in Kentucky and spent time in Libby Prison. After being exchanged, he participated in the Atlanta Campaign and his troops were the first to enter Atlanta and secured the city’s surrender. Coburn’s Brigade consisted of the 33rd and 85th Indiana, the 19th Michigan, and the 22nd Wisconsin. After the War, Coburn was appointed the first secretary of Montana Territory resigned at once. He was elected judge of the fifth judicial circuit of Indiana in October 1865 and resigned in July 1866. Coburn served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1867 to 1875. After leaving Congress, he was served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Montana Territory for nearly two years (1884-1885), and then returned to Indiana to practice law.

Charles H. T. Collis.  Charles Henry Tucker “Tucky” Collis (1838-1902) was an Irish-American lawyer who enlisted in the 18th Pennsylvania Infantry at the beginning of the Civil War. He moved up quickly to sergeant major, captain, and then raised a company of European immigrants called Collis’ Independent Company of Zouaves d’Afrique. After the Shenandoah Valley campaign, Collis was promoted to colonel and recruited the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry. He received the Medal of Honor for the Battle of Fredericksburg and was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. After being brevetted brigadier general in the fall of 1864, he was given command of an independent brigade, which he commanded at the Siege of Petersburg. Collis mustered out May 29, 1865.

Everton J. Conger.  Everton Judson Conger (1834-1918) enlisted in the 8th Ohio Infantry (3 months) when the Civil War began. He later became a captain in the 3rd West Virginia Cavalry and eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the 1st District of Columbia Cavalry. He suffered three severe wounds during the War and was assigned to detached duty in Washington, D.C., where he joined Colonel Lafayette Baker’s intelligence service as a detective. Conger was ordered to accompany Lieutenant Doherty’s detachment from the 16th New York Cavalry to pursue Booth. Conger tracked down Willie Jett and interrogated him, learning of Booth’s location at the Garrett farm, and led the soldiers there. Conger was the one who set fire to the barn and removed Booth’s personal effects, including his diary. After the War, Conger moved to Illinois where he practiced law. Later he was appointed a U.S. District Court judge in Montana Territory. Finally he moved to Hawaii to live with his daughter, dying there in 1918.

Patrick E. Connor.  Patrick Edward Connor (1820-1891), an Irish immigrant, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1839 and was honorably discharged in 1844. In 1845 he became a naturalized citizen and in 1846 joined the Texas Volunteers, which were mustered into federal service for the Mexican War. In 1850 he headed west to the California gold rush. Connor was in command of a California Militia unit when the Civil War started. He recruited enough men to turn it into the 3rd California Infantry with Connor as colonel. His regiment was ordered to Utah Territory to protect the overland routes from Indians and quash any Mormon uprising that might occur. As senior officer Connor became commander of the District of Utah and established Fort Douglas in a commanding position over Salt Lake City. In March of 1865 a new District of the Plains was created with Connor as commander.

Connor made his reputation for his campaigns against Native Americans, starting with the Bear River Massacre on January 29, 1863, in which his command killed between 200 and 400 Shoshone Indians, including women and children. After the Bear River Battle (or massacre), Connor was appointed brigadier general in the Volunteer Army. From July to September 1865, he led the Powder River Expedition against the Dakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians, who were attacking travelers along the Bozeman Trail and overland mail routes. This Expedition is what is being referenced in the news item here. On the whole, the Expedition was “a dismal failure.” Still, Connor was brevetted a major general of Volunteers before being mustered out of service in 1866.

Thomas P. “Boston” Corbett (1832-1894?) enlisted as a private in Company I of the 12th  New York Militia when the Civil War started. Due to his eccentric behavior and refusal to take orders, Corbett was court-martialed; his initial death sentence was reduced and he was discharged in August 1863. A month later he enlisted again in Company L of the 16th New York Cavalry. In 1864, Corbett was captured by John S. Mosby’s men and held prisoner at Andersonville prison for five months. He was released in an exchange and on his return to his company he was promoted to sergeant. Corbett later testified for the prosecution in the trial of Captain Henry Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville.

Michael Corcoran (1827-1863) was the Irish-American colonel of the 69th New York Infantry and a close confidant of President Lincoln. He led the 69th at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he was taken prisoner; he was exchanged in August 1862. After promotion to brigadier general, he left the 69th and formed the Corcoran Legion, consisting of at least five other New York regiments. On December 22, 1863, while riding alone, his horse fell on him and he died from a fractured skull. Corcoran was largely idolized by his Irish-American troops and he figures prominently in many Union Irish ballads of the day.

Darius N. Couch. Darius Nash Couch (1822-1897) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War, garrison duty at both Fort Monroe and Fort Pickens, in the Seminole Wars, and from 1853 to 1854 he conducted a scientific mission for the Smithsonian Institution in Mexico.  He resigned his commission in 1855 and worked as a merchant and then copper fabricator.  At the beginning of the Civil War, he was appointed colonel of the 7th Massachusetts Infantry, and in August 1861 was promoted to brigadier general. Couch served in the Peninsula and Fredericksburg campaigns of 1862, and the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns of 1863.

Samuel W. Crawford.  Samuel Wylie Crawford (1829-1892) was the surgeon on duty at Fort Sumter (South Carolina) during the Confederate bombardment that started the Civil War in 1861. A month later he accepted a commission as major in the 13th U.S. Infantry. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers (April 1862) and led a brigade in the Department of the Shenandoah, participating in the Valley Campaign. At the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Crawford’s brigade launched a surprise attack upon the Confederate left, routing a division, but in a counterattack was driven back with large casualties. At the Battle of Antietam (September 1862), Crawford temporarily commanded his division, but was wounded and unable to return to the field until May 1863. At the Battle of Gettysburg, he led his division in a relatively minor engagement, but spent the rest of his life basking in its glory and helping to preserve the Gettysburg Battlefield. In the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, Crawford also commanded a garrison in the siege. He received a brevet grade of major general in 1864. Crawford was wounded in the action at the Weldon Railroad, and received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in the regular army for the Battle of Five Forks and to major general on March 13, 1865. Crawford was present for Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865, making him one of the few soldiers to be present at both the beginning and the effective end of the Civil War.

• The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, by Samuel Wylie Crawford, New York: C.L. Webster & Co., 1887 (available online on ebrary Academic Complete).

Thomas L. Crittenden.  Thomas Leonidas Crittenden (1819-1893) was a Union general during the American Civil War.  He was appointed a brigadier general of Volunteers in September and placed in command of the 5th Division in the Army of the Ohio.  He led the Division at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.

For more information:

• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

M. M. Crocker.  Marcellus Monroe Crocker (1830-1865) attended West Point but did not graduate. He held the title of captain in the 2nd Iowa Infantry inn 1861 and was promoted to colonel later that year. He took part in the Battle of Shiloh (April 1862), the Battle of Corinth (October 1862), and was promoted to general in November of 1862. He also took part in the Vicksburg Campaign, and the Battle of Jackson in 1863. Crocker suffered from consumption throughout his military career, and he became so ill while trying to join William T. Sherman for the Atlanta Campaign that he tendered his resignation, which was not accepted. Thinking that his health might improve in the desert, he was sent to New Mexico Territory. By December 1864, he was well enough that he was sent to Nashville, but his condition gradually worsened and he died on August 26, 1865.

George R. Crook (1828-1890) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving in Oregon and California fighting Indians. In 1857 he lead the Pitt River Expedition and was severely wounded. When the Civil War started he accepted as commission as colonel of the 36th Ohio Infantry. In September 1862 Crook assumed command of a brigade and led it at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, and was promoted to brigadier general. He fought at the Battle of Chickamauga (September 19-20, 1863) and was in pursuit of Joseph Wheeler during the Chattanooga Campaign. Crook commanded the Union’s Army of West Virginia at the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain (May 9, 1864), which allowed the Union forces to destroy the last railroad connecting Tennessee to Virginia. In late July 1864 he was defeated at the Second Battle of Kernstown and the Army of West Virginia was driven from the Shenandoah Valley. Nevertheless he was given command of the Department of West Virginia. Crook led his corps in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 at the battles of Opequon (Third Winchester), Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek. On October 21, 1864, he was promoted to major general of volunteers. In February 1865 Crook was captured at Cumberland, Maryland, and held as a prisoner of war in Richmond until being exchanged a month later. During the Appomattox Campaign he had command of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry division. Crook first went into action with his division at the battle of Dinwiddie Court House. He later took a prominent role in the battles of Five Forks, Amelia Springs, Sayler’s Creek and Appomattox Court House.

After the Civil War, Crook successfully campaigned against the Snake Indians in the 1864-68 Snake War, where he won nationwide recognition. Crook later defeated a mixed band of Paiute, Pit River and Modoc at the battle of Infernal Caverns in California. President Ulysses S. Grant next placed Crook in command of the Arizona Territory. Crook’s use of Apache scouts during the Yavapai War brought him much success in forcing the Yavapai and Tonto Apache onto reservations. Crook served against the Sioux during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and fought the Lakota at the Battle of the Rosebud. By 1882 Crook returned to Arizona to fight the Apache under Geronimo. After years of campaigning in the Indian Wars, Crook won steady promotion back up the ranks to the permanent grade of Major General, and President Grover Cleveland placed him in command of the “Military Division of the Missouri” in 1888.

Charles Cruft (1826-1883) lived in Indiana before the Civil War, where he was a lawyer, published the Terre Haute Wabash Express newspaper, and was president of a railroad. He raised the 31st Indiana Infantry and was appointed its colonel. He commanded a brigade at the Battle of Fort Donelson and was wounded in the fighting. He was wounded again at the Battle of Shiloh while leading his regiment in the Hornet’s Nest. Cruft was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in July, 1862, and was wounded again during the Battle of Richmond (Ky.). He participated in the battles of Stones River, Chickamauga, and Lookout Mountain. He led his division during the Atlanta Campaign and commanded a Provisional Division at the Battle of Nashville.

William B. Cushing.  Wisconsin native William Barker Cushing (1842-1874) was best known for sinking the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle during a daring nighttime raid on October 24, 1864.

Samuel R. Curtis.  Samuel Ryan Curtis (1805-1866) had been a congressman from Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1856-1860.  When the Civil War started he was appointed colonel of the 2nd Iowa Infantry. He was subsequently promoted to brigadier general and given command of the Army of the Southwest.  He moved his headquarters to Rolla, Missouri, to solidify Union control in Arkansas, and won the Battle of Pea Ridge.  He was promoted to major general for his success.

George A. Custer.  George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876) graduated from West Point in 1861, a year early due the outbreak of the Civil War. He served at the First Battle of Bull Run and then in the Peninsula Campaign in the 5th U. S. Cavalry. He is best known for the Battle of the Little Bighorn—Custer’s Last Stand—in late June of 1876.

Lysander Cutler (1807-1866) was a Milwaukee businessman before the war. Originally from Maine, he received some military experience fighting Indians as a colonel in the Maine militia in the 1830s. The financial panic of 1856 and depression of 1857 ruined him financially and he moved to Milwaukee where he eventually founded a grain business. His actual commission as the colonel of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry dated from July 16, 1861. He was appointed brigadier general in November 1862 and brevetted a major general in August 1864.

For more details:

• Gen. Lysander Cutler entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

John A. Dahlgren.  John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren (1809-1870) headed the Union Navy’s ordnance department during the Civil War. He designed several different kinds of guns and cannons, including the “Dahlgren gun,” which was a cast iron muzzle-loading canon. Dahlgren became known as the “father of American naval ordnance.” He reached the rank of rear admiral. His numerous books include The System of Boat Armaments in the United States Navy, Shells and Shell Guns, and Naval Percussion Locks and Primers.

Ulric Dahlgren (1842-1864) was the son of Union Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, and the nephew of Confederate Brigadier General Charles G. Dahlgren. Ulric Dahlgren is best know for what became known as the Dahlgren Affair. He was killed in a cavalry raid on Richmond, Virginia, while carrying out an alleged assassination plot against Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Cabinet; the plot is known as the Dahlgren Affair.

On February 28, 1864, Hugh Judson Kilpatrick’s division conducted a raid toward Richmond and through the Virginia Peninsula. He hoped to rescue Union prisoners of war held at Belle Isle and in Libby prisons in Richmond.  But the defenses around Richmond were too strong and Kilpatrick decided to escape down the Virginia Peninsula toward General Butler’s Army of the James. Colonel Ulric Dahlgren’s brigade, which was detached from the main force, had not made it across the James River when Kilpatrick bolted. Dahlgren and 200 of his troopers were either shot or taken prisoner; Dahlgren was killed. After their deaths the Confederates came up with the story of the assassination plot.

For more details on the raid, see:

• Chapter V (“The Ride into Fredericksburg, November 9, 1862″ starting on page 92) in the Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren, available on Google Books.

Napoleon J. T. Dana.  Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana (1822-1905) was a career military officer, a graduate of West Point who fought with distinction in the Mexican War. He resigned from the Army in 1855 and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he became a banker. Dana served as a brigadier general in the Minnesota State Militia from 1857 until 1861 when he became the first colonel of the 1st Minnesota Infantry in October 1861. In February, 1862, Dana was appointed brigadier general and given command of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division in the Union II Corps, and he led the brigade throughout the Peninsula Campaign and at the Battle of Antietam, where he was severely wounded. In late November, 1862, he was appointed a major general (not confirmed by the Senate until March) but could not resume his duties due to his wound until the summer of 1863. During the Gettysburg Campaign he will command the defenses of Philadelphia. In 1864 he was transferred to the Western Theater and commanded Vicksburg. His final command of the War was head of the Department of Mississippi.

John W. Davidson.  John Wynn Davidson (1825-1881) was a career military officer who graduated from West Point, and served in the Mexican War and on the Western frontier. Davidson commanded the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, IV Corps during the Peninsula Campaign. He fought at the battles of Yorktown and Williamsburg. During the Seven Days Battles (June 25-July 1, 1862) he received brevet promotions in the Regular Army for his service at Gaines’ Mill (June 27) and Golding’s Farm (June 27-28). He was then transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Theater and from December 1862 to March 26, 1863, he commanded the Army of Southeast Missouri until it was transferred to General Ulysses S. Grant in preparation for the Vicksburg Campaign. In late 1863 Davidson commanded the 1st Division in the Army of Arkansas and won the Battle of Bayou Fourche (September 10, 1863), which led to the fall of Little Rock. After the Civil War, Davidson was lieutenant colonel of the 10th Cavalry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers. He died in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1881 after being seriously injured by a fall from a horse.

Henry E. Davies, Jr.  Henry Eugene Davies (1836-1894) was one of the few nonprofessional soldiers in the Union cavalry in the East to be promoted to brigadier general. He led his brigade in several major battles, especially during the Overland Campaign, the Battle of Trevilian Station, the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign. After the War Davies was a prominent New York lawyer and held the public offices of Public Administrator of the City of New York (1866-69) and Assistant District Attorney of the United States for the Southern District of New York (1870-73). He then returned to the private practice. Davies was the author of Ten Days on the Plains (1871), Davies Memoir (1895) and General Sheridan (1895), in the “Great Commander Series.”

Charles H. Davis.  Charles Henry Davis (1807-1877) was a career naval officer. In November 1861 he was promoted to captain and in May 1862 was made Acting Flag Officer in command of the Western Gunboat Flotilla. On June 6, 1862, his ships had fought in the Battle of Memphis, which resulted in the sinking or capture of seven of the eight Confederate ships. In July, he cooperated with Flag Officer David G. Farragut in an attack on Vicksburg, Mississippi, but they were forced to withdraw. In August, he proceeded up the Yazoo River and successfully seized Confederate supplies and munitions there. He then returned to Washington, D.C., and in early 1863 he was promoted to rear admiral.

Jefferson C. Davis.  Jefferson Columbus Davis (1828-1879) had the misfortune of having the same first and last names as the president of the Confederacy. He was a career military officer who had served in the Mexican War, and was serving in the Fort Sumter garrison when it was bombarded at the start of the Civil War. Davis led the 3rd Division, Army of the Southwest.

Thomas C. Devin.  Thomas Casimer Devin (1822-1878), not to be confused with Brigadier General Charles Deven, Thomas Devin fought in Sheridan’s Valley Campaigns of 1864. When General Wesley Merritt replaced General Alfred Tobert as the Cavalry Corps commander, Devin received command of Merritt’s First Division. On November 19, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Devin a brigadier general of Volunteers for his part in the Battle of Cedar Creek (October 19, 1864).

John A. Dix.  John Adams Dix (1798-1879) served as  U.S. Senator from New York (1845-1849), Secretary of the Treasury (January 15-March 6, 1861),and the 24th Governor of New York (1873-1874).  He would become an early hero for the North in the Civil War when, at the outbreak of the War, he sent a telegram to Treasury agents in New Orleans ordering “If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.” Also at the beginning of the war, he arrested the members of the Maryland legislature, thereby preventing Maryland from seceding, and earned him President Lincoln’s gratitude.

Dix was appointed a major general, effective May 16, 1861, in the New York Militia, making him the highest ranking major general of volunteers during the war. During the summer of 1861 he commanded the Department of Maryland and the Department of Pennsylvania.

Grenville M. Dodge.  Grenville Mellen Dodge (1831-1916) was a civil engineer and railroad surveyor. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed colonel of the 4th Iowa Infantry in July 1861. He commanded the 1st Brigade, 4th Division at the Battle of Pea Ridge, where he was wounded. He was then appointed brigadier general of volunteers and placed in command of the District of Mississippi, where he was involved in protecting and building railroads. He participated in the Atlanta Campaign and intercepted John B. Hood’s flank attack. As the Civil War was ending in 1865, Dodge ordered a campaign (the Powder River Expedition) to quell Indian raids on the Bozeman Trail. Dodge provided Thomas Durant with information that allowed him to make a fortune smuggling cotton and after the War Dodge became Durant’s chief engineer on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Edward P. Doherty.  Edward Paul Doherty (1840-1897) was Canadian-born and had only come to the U.S. in 1860. He enlisted April 20, 1861, in the 71st New York Infantry (a 90-day regiment) and was captured at the First Battle of Bull Run. Doherty escaped and became a captain in the Corcoran Legion. He served for 2 years and was appoined a 1st lieutenant in the 16th New York Cavalry. On April 24, 1865, Doherty received orders to assemble a detachment of 25 men of the 16th N. Y. Infantry to accompany two detectives of the intelligence service to track down Booth and Herold.

Abner Doubleday (1819-1893), a graduate of West Point and a career military officer, he fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the 6th and 7th Wisconsin Infantries, part of the 4th Brigade, were in Doubleday’s First Division. Doubleday will play a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. After the War, Doubleday obtained a patent on the cable car railway that still runs in San Francisco.

Neal S. Dow (1804-1897), the son of Quaker parents, had the nickname the “Napoleon of Temperance” and the “Father of Prohibition.” He was also an ardent abolitionist and his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War began, Dow volunteered for service even though he was 57. He was appointed colonel of the 13th Maine Infantry and his regiment participated in the capture of New Orleans. He was promoted to brigadier general in April 1862, and was assigned to command Forts Jackson and Saint Philip, the two Confederate forts captured at the same time as New Orleans. Dow is best remembered for his role in the Siege of Port Hudson, May 21–July 9, 1863. During the Union assault on Port Hudson on May 27 he was wounded in the right arm and left thigh and sent to a nearby plantation to convalesce where he was captured by Confederates in early July. He was imprisoned for eight months, and then exchanged Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee on February 25, 1864. His health deteriorated in prison and as a consequence he resigned from the Union Army in November 1864.

Samuel F. Du Pont. Samuel Francis Du Pont (1803-1865) was a member of the prominent Du Pont family and a career naval officer. In June 1861 he was made president of a board formed to develop a plan of naval operations against the Confederacy. He was appointed flag officer serving aboard the steam frigate Wabash as commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. On November 7, Du Pont led a successful attack on the fortifications at Port Royal, which enabled Union naval forces to establish an effective blockade of the southern waters of Georgia and the entire eastern coast of Florida.

Basil W. Duke.  Basil Wilson Duke (1838-1916) was a lawyer before the Civil War. He is most noted as the second-in-command for his brother-in-law John Hunt Morgan. In 1864 he took over Morgan’s command after Morgan was killed by Union soldiers. At the end of the war, Duke was among Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ bodyguards after his flight from Richmond. After the War, Duke wrote a popular account of Morgan’s 1863 raid into Ohio called History of Morgan’s Cavalry, published in 1867. He also helped found the Louisville (Ky.) Filson Club and in 1904 he was appointed commissioner of the Shiloh National Military Park.

More information:

• The UWRF Library has a copy of the 1969 reprint of Duke’s 1911 Reminiscences of General Basil W. Duke (E 470 .D89)

William Dwight, Jr. (1831-1888) attended West Point but resigned before graduating. He took a commission as a captain in the 70th New York Infantry in May, 1861, was quickly promoted to lieutenant colonel in June, and full colonel in July. Dwight led his regiment during the Battle of Williamsburg, where he was seriously wounded on May 5, 1862, along with losing half of his command. Left for dead on the battlefield, Dwight was found by Confederate forces and held as a prisoner of war until his release in an exchange in November of that year. In recognition of his gallantry on the field, Dwight was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers and was transferred to the Western Theater where, later in 1863, he led his brigade in the attack of Port Hudson, Louisiana. Dwight served as chief-of-staff to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks during the Red River Campaign in early 1864, with service at the Battle of Mansfield and Battle of Pleasant Hill in De Soto Parish, Louisiana. He was then reassigned to the Eastern Theater and attached to the 1st Division of the 19th Army Corps.  Dwight later participated in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 and saw action at the battles of Winchester and Fisher’s Hill before the end of the War.

Jubal A. Early.  Jubal Anderson Early (1816-1894) strongly opposed secession at the Virginia Convention, but was soon aroused to take the opposite view when President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion. Early ends up serving as an officer in the Confederate Army, where Robert E. Lee appreciates his aggressive fighting and ability to command units independently.

Robert C. Eden.  Robert Charles Eden (1836-1907), originally from England, arrived in Oshkosh (Winnebago County), Wisconsin, in 1859. He and a partner bought the steamer “Enterprise” at Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1861. He traveled the upper Mississippi and western Wisconsin for a year before returning to Oshkosh. In 1862, he purchased a one-third interest in the Northwestern newspaper at Oshkosh. Eden enlisted in the Civil War at Oshkosh and was commissioned captain of Company B, 37th Wisconsin Infantry on April 11, 1864, and was promoted to major on December 15, 1864. Eden was given a commission as lieutenant colonel but was not mustered at that rank, and he mustered out on July 27, 1865. In 1864 Eden had married Annie Gardner Bain, his childhood sweet-heart.

Washington Lafayette Elliott (1825-1888) attended West Point and fought in the Mexican War. He remained in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of captain. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was still in the regular Army and fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. In the fall of 1861 he was commissioned colonel of the 2nd Iowa Cavalry and served under Gen. Pope at the Battle of Island Number 10. At the Siege of Corinth he led a brigade. Elliott became a brigadier general on June 11 as a result of his raid on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

Elmer E. Ellsworth. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth (1837-1861) was a colonel of Zouaves before being appointed a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. A Chicagoan, he was a close friend of President Lincoln’s family and accompanied Lincoln on his trip to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration. Ellsworth was shot on May 24, 1861, after pulling down a Confederate flag flying over the Marshall House in Alexandria.

For more information on Elmer E. Ellsworth:

• “Ellsworth is Namesake of Famed Civil War Officer Killed by Reb,” by John Halls, in Ellsworth, 1862-1962: Historical Album and Program Book, [Ellsworth, Wis.: Program Book Committee, 1962], p. 9. (F 589 .E44 E4 in the Chalmer Davee Library)
• From The Photographic History of the Civil War In Ten Volumes, Volume One: The Opening Battles, (New York: The Review of Reviews Co., 1911), p. 351 (digital copy on the Internet Archives): “One of the First to Fall. The shooting of this young patriot profoundly shocked and stirred the Federals at the opening of the war. Colonel Ellsworth had organized a Zouave regiment in Chicago, and in April, 1861, he organized another from the Fire Department in New York City. Colonel Ellsworth, on May 21, 1861, led his Fire Zouaves to Alexandria, Virginia, seized the city, and with his own hands pulled down a Southern flag floating over the Marshall House. Descending the stairs with the flag in his hand, he cried, ‘Behold my trophy!’ ‘Behold mine!’ came the reply from the proprietor of the hotel, James T. Jackson, as he emptied a shotgun into Ellsworth’s breast. Jackson was immediately shot dead by Private Broswell.”
• Article on Ellsworth at Mr. Lincoln’s White House.

William H. Emory.  William Hemsley Emory (1811-1887) graduated from West Point in 1831 and served in the Artillery until his resignation in 1836. He returned to the Army in 1838 and he quickly rose from lieutenant to captain to major. He specialized in mapping the U.S.-Mexican border in Texas and the Gadsden Purchase, as well as surveying the U.S.-Canadian border. He wrote Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego which became an important guide book for the road to Southern California (Washington, D.C. U.S. Congress, 1848). Emory was stationed in Indian Territory when the Civil War started. He was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in March 1862. He served first as a brigade commander in the Army of the Potomac (1862), and then was transferred to the Western Theater. He a division in the Port Hudson campaign. Emory returned to the Eastern Theater where he commanded the XIX Corps and served in all the major battles in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. At the Battle of Cedar Creek, Emory’s actions helped save the Union army from a devastating defeat. After the War, Emory held a number of posts, including command of the Department of the Gulf (Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi), a demanding and dangerous Reconstruction assignment.

John Ericsson (1803-1889) was a Swedish-American mechanical engineer and inventor, best known for designing the steam locomotive Novelty and the armored ship USS Monitor. Despite controversy over the ironclad’s unique design, the Monitor was launched on March 6, 1862. Ericcson’s design included a rotating turret that housed a pair of large cannons, which he designed for the Monitor.

Clement A. Evans.  Clement Anselm Evans (1833-1911) was a Georgia politician, preacher, historian and a prolific author. When Lincoln was elected president in 1860, Evans organized a company of militia and he was commissioned as major of the 31st Georgia Infantry in November 1861. He was promoted to colonel in May 1862 and fought in the Seven Days Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Antietam, and the first Battle of Fredericksburg. In 1864 he will be promoted to brigadier general. Evans survived five wounds during the War and became an influential Methodist minister after the War. The University of Wisconsin-River Falls library has Evans’ Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History, in Twelve Volumes, written by “distinguished men of the South,” and edited by “Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia” (E 484 .E9 1962).

Nathan G. Evans.  Nathan George”Shanks” Evans (1824-1868) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer until he resigned in 1861 to join the Confederacy. Evans’ exhibited good tactical leadership and bravery in battle, yet his abrasive personality and his love of whiskey led to problems with colleagues and superiors. He was assisted in defending the coastal areas just south of Charleston. Evans was placed in command of the First Military District, which included Secessionville, just two days before the battle there, but he played little part in the battle.

Richard S. Ewell.  Richard Stoddert Ewell (1817-1872) was a career military officer who graduated from West Point. He served in the Mexican War, and later skirmished with Cochise and the Apaches in New Mexico Territory in 1859. Ewell resigned his U.S. Army commission when his home state of Virginia seceded and was appointed a colonel of cavalry, being promoted to a brigadier general fairly quickly. In January of 1862, Ewell was promoted to major general, and served under Stonewall Jackson during the Valley Campaign.

Cassius Fairchild (1829-1868) was the colonel of the 16th Wisconsin Infantry, and brother of Lucius Fairchild, Wisconsin’s governor from 1866-1872.

When the Civil War broke out, “Fairchild was a member of the Governor’s Guard, a local militia. He was commissioned major in the 16th Wisconsin Infantry in October, 1861, and promoted that fall to lieutenant colonel. His regiment left for the South on March 18, 1862. Three weeks later, Fairchild was commanding new recruits at the Battle of Shiloh. On the first day of battle, April 6, 1862, he was shot in the thigh and had to leave the field. He spent the next year in Madison undergoing surgery and recovering slowly from the wound.

“Fairchild returned to his regiment in May 1863 in time to participate in the Siege of Vicksburg, but his injury limited his role. He took part in the capture of Vicksburg in the summer of 1863 and the subsequent Union advance through the South.

“He was made colonel of his regiment on March 17, 1864, and led it through the battles of Kennesaw Mountain and Atlanta, and Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864. He was brevetted a brigadier general on March 13, 1865, and was mustered out six weeks later.”

He died at age 39, on October 24, 1868, of complications from the wound he had received at Shiloh.

For more information:

• Col. Cassius Fairchild entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

Lucius Fairchild (1831-1896) is remembered as a colonel in the Iron Brigade, as Wisconsin’s 10th governor (1866-1872), and as a U.S. diplomat during the late 19th century.

“Five days after the Confederates attacked on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Fairchild was appointed captain of Co. K of the 1st Wisconsin Regiment. After three months of service around Washington, D.C., the regiment was disbanded. Fairchild accepted the appointment as a major in the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry and immediately rose to lieutenant colonel. A year later, on August 30, 1862, he was named colonel of the regiment, just as it entered its fiercest battles.

“Fairchild commanded troops in several of these battles, including Second Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, while he was leading a charge from Seminary Ridge to McPherson’s Ridge on July 1, 1863, he was hit by a ball that shattered his left arm, which had to be amputated. Shortly before he was mustered out of service, he was promoted to brigadier general.”

Fairchild was elected Wisconsin Secretary of State and served from 1864-1866. In 1865 he was elected governor and served three successive terms, from 1866-1872. As governor, Fairchild was active in promoting soldiers’ aid.

For more information:

• Gov. Lucius Fairchild entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History
• Sam Ross’ The Empty Sleeve: A Biography of Lucius Fairchild (F 586 .F3 R6 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

David G. Farragut (1801-1870).  David Glasgow Farragut, who grew up in a naval family, was a flag officer in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. For taking New Orleans, a decisive event in the war, Congress created the rank of rear admiral for him on July 16, 1862. Farragut is known in popular culture for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay (August 5, 1864), usually paraphrased: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

William W. Faulkner.  William Wallace Faulkner (1836-1865) was colonel of the 12th Kentucky Cavalry (Confederate). He entered the Civil War as a 1st lieutenant in the Kentucky State Guard. In the spring of 1862, he recruited a unit known as Faulkner’s Partisan Rangers. They disrupted Union supply and communication lines in west Tennessee and northern Mississippi. He was captured at Island No. 10 in the fall of 1862, but was exchanged by the end of the year. He commanded Faulkner’s Kentucky Partisans during the siege of Vicksburg. In late 1863 he raised the 12th Kentucky Cavalry (CSA) and in December, the 12th joined Nathan B. Forrest’s command and were mustered into Confederate service on January 28, 1864, with Faulkner as colonel. Faulkner’s 12th fought in all of Forrest’s campaigns in 1864 until Faulkner was wounded at the Battle of Harrisburg in August. In 1865, Faulkner was murdered in Dresden, Tennessee, by deserters.

Champ Ferguson.  Irregular guerrilla forces under the notorious Ferguson murdered white and black Union soldiers who had been wounded and captured. Ferguson was tried after the War for these and other non-military killings and was found guilty and executed.

Clinton B. Fisk.  Clinton Bowen Fisk (1828-1890) was a merchant, miller, and banker in Coldwater, Michigan, until the financial Panic of 1857; he then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and started working in the insurance business. An abolitionist, Fisk was appointed colonel of the 33rd Missouri Infantry of the Union Army In September, 1862 and was commissioned brigadier general in November after organizing a brigade. He served most of the American Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas, commanding first the District of Southeast Missouri and later the Department of North Missouri. The primary duty of these commands was opposing raids into Missouri by Confederate cavalry and guerrillas.

After the War, Fisk was appointed assistant commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau for Kentucky and Tennessee. After authorizing legislation expired for the Freedmen’s Bureau, Fisk returned to his native New York and became successful in banking. In 1874 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the Board of Indian Commissioners. Fisk was a leader in the temperance movement and was the Prohibition Party’s candidate for president in 1888. Fisk University is named for him.

Charles L. Fitzhugh.  Charles Lane Fitzhugh (1838-1923) was appointed to West Point in in 1859, but left in September 1861 before finishing to join the Union war effort. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the 4th United States Regular Artillery in October 1861, and served as an aide-de-camp to Major General Don Carlos Buell between 1861 and 1863, including during the Shiloh Campaign (April 1862). Fitzhugh then led the 4th Regular Artillery’s Battery C, commanding it in all the Army of the Potomac’s 1864 battles and campaigns in Virginia. On December 24, 1864, he was commissioned a colonel of Volunteers, and was given command of the 6th New York Volunteer Cavalry in order to command the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division in Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah. He led the brigade from January 15, 1865 through to the end of the war (May 29, 1865). On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Fitzhugh for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers for “gallantry, energy and ability” and on July 17, 1866, President Johnson nominated Fitzhugh for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general in the U.S. Regular Army for “gallant and meritorious services in the field during the war.”

John B. Floyd.  John Buchanan Floyd (1806-1863) was the 24th U.S. Secretary of War from March 6, 1857-December 29, 1860. (His predecessor in that position was Jefferson Davis and his successor was Joseph Holt.) President Buchanan requested his resignation on December 29, 1860.  His resignation was precipitated by the refusal of Buchanan to order Major Robert Anderson to abandon Fort Sumter. On January 27, 1861, he was indicted for conspiracy and fraud. Floyd appeared in court in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 1861, to answer the charges against him, but the indictments were thrown out on a technicality. After the charges were thrown out he served in the Confederate army as a major general in the Provisional Army of Virginia.

Floyd is perhaps best known as the Confederate general who lost the crucial Battle of Fort Donelson in February of 1862. Floyd had enough political influence to be appointed a brigadier general, but had almost no military experience.  At Fort Donelson, in western Tennessee, he deferred to his more experienced subordinates, Gideon J. Pillow and Simon Bolivar Buckner.  When it became clear that the Confederates were going to loose Fort Donelson, Floyd turned his command over to Pillow, who immediately turned it over to Buckner.  Concerned that he would be arrested for treason if captured by the Union Army, Floyd then escaped to Nashville.  Jefferson Davis relieved him of command on March 11, 1862.

Manning F. Force.  Manning Ferguson Force (1824-1899) graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School in 1848 and became a lawyer in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he met fellow lawyer Rutherford B. Hayes (later the 19th U. S. president) and they formed a lifelong friendship. Prior to the Civil War, Force received his first military exposure as a member of the Cincinnati Literary Club’s Burnett Rifles. In August 1861, he was appointed major of the 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and in September he was promoted to lieutenant colonel with the responsibility of training new soldiers. His first action was during the campaign to capture Fort Donelson in February 1862. Shortly after the battle of Shiloh, where he commanded the 20th Ohio, Force was promoted to colonel. Acted as commander of the 2nd Brigade of Mortimer Leggett’s Division, 17th Corps during the siege at Vicksburg in 1863, Force was then promoted to brigadier general in August. In the summer of 1864, the 17th Corps joined William T. Sherman’s drive on Atlanta. While leading his brigade in the defense of Bald Hill, a crucial position in the battle for Atlanta, Force was struck by a Minié ball, which struck him on the left side of his face and exited the upper right side of his skull scarring him for life. In October, 1864, he rejoined Sherman’s Army and commanded the 1st in the March to the Sea.

Following the end of the Civil War, he was appointed military commander of the District of Mississippi, a position he held until January 1866 when he was mustered out of the Army.  After the War, Force returned to Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced law. He was elected judge of the County Court and then Superior Court serving until 1888. He was also a professor at the Cincinnati Law School and wrote extensively about the history of Ohio, the Civil War and law. In 1892, for his actions at Atlanta, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Andrew Hull Foote (1806-1863), a career naval officer, commanded the Mississippi River Squadron from 1861 to 1862.  He will organize and lead the gunboat flotilla in the capture of Forts Henry (February 6, 1862), Donelson (February 11-16, 1862), and Island No. 10 (February 28-April 8, 1862).  Foote was wounded in action at Fort Donelson, and later in 1862 he was promoted to rear admiral.

Nathan B. Forrest.  Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) had amassed a fortune prior to the Civil War as a planter, real estate investor, and slave trader. He was one of the few officers in either army to enlist as a private and be promoted to a general. Forrest lacked formal military education, but he had a gift for strategy and tactics, and was an innovative cavalry leader. After the War, he served as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

For more information:

• “That Devil Forrest: Nathan Bedford Forrest” in After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped, by David Hardin. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.

James W. Forsyth.  James William Forsyth (1835-1906) graduated from West Point in 1856 and was a career military officer. Forsyth joined the Union effort in the Civil War as colonel of the 64th Ohio Infantry. In 1862 he transferred to the Army of the Potomac where he served as the assistant U.S. inspector general during the Peninsular Campaign. During the Maryland Campaign he was assigned as aide-de-camp to Major General Joseph K. F. Mansfield. Forsyth then became provost marshal to the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Fredericksburg. In 1863 Forsyth served as adjutant to General Philip H. Sheridan at Chickamauga, and was brevetted to major in the Regular Army for his service at Chickamauga. When Sheridan transferred to the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps, Forsyth followed as his chief of staff. He participated in this capacity during the Overland Campaign. He was subsequently chief of staff of the Army of the Shenandoah during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 and chief of staff to the Union Cavalries during the Appomattox Campaign. He received brevets to lieutenant colonel, U.S.A. for Cedar Creek, colonel, U.S.A. for Five Forks and brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers, for the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. President Andrew Johnson promoted Forsyth to brigadier general of Volunteers, and he mustered out of volunteer service in 1866. Later in 1866, Johnson promoted him to brevet brigadier general in the regular army.

Forsyth remained in the Regular Army after the end of the Civil War. He was a strong supporter of African Americans and buffalo soldiers. He joined Sheridan again in 1867, and moved with him when he became commander of the Department of the Missouri in 1866. Forsyth served first as the department’s secretary and then as inspector, with an appointment in the cavalry. He took part in military campaigns against the Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa Indians in 1868-69. Forsyth went to Europe in 1870 as an official observer of the Franco-Prussian War. In 1878 Forsyth commanded the 1st U.S. Cavalry in the Bannock War, and in 1885 Forsyth was in command of Fort Maginnis, Montana, where the army was monitoring the Crow, Cree, and the Gros Ventres Indians. The town of Forsyth, Montana, is named for him. In 1886, he was promoted to colonel of the 7th U.S. Cavalry and was in command of the 7th Cavalry at the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890.

John G. Foster.  John Gray Foster (1823-1874) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer who served as an engineer in the Mexican War. When the Civil War began, Foster was in command of the garrison at Fort Moultrie. He immediately transferred his troops to Fort Sumter and became second-in-command to Major Robert Anderson. He was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers in October of 1861 and commanded a brigade in General Burnside’s North Carolina Expedition. Foster commanded the Department of North Carolina from 1862 to December 1863. He was then sent to assume the command of the Department of the Ohio and Army of the Ohio, but after only two months on February 9, 1864, he was forced to step down due to serious injuries he received when his horse fell. He returned to active duty in May of 1864, and was in command of the Department of the South. He assisted in Sherman’s March to the Sea. After the war, he continued his military service and was in command of the Department of Florida. After mustering out of volunteer service in 1866, he served in the regular army as an engineer. He became an expert on underwater demolitions, writing a manual of the in 1869. From 1871 to 1874 he held the position of assistant to the army’s Chief of Engineers in Washington, D.C.

Robert S. Foster.  Robert Sanford Foster (1834-1903) played a prominent role in the siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign. He had enlisted as a private of Indiana Volunteers early in the War and was quickly promoted in the 11th Indiana Zouave Regiment. He saw action at the Battle of Rich Mountain and then was transferred to the 13th Indiana Volunteers as a major and then colonel. Foster participated in the Valley Campaign of 1862, then took command of a brigade at Suffolk and following the Siege of Suffolk was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers. Next Foster commanded the 1st Brigade on Folly Island during the siege of Charleston Harbor. During the early part of 1864 Foster commanded a brigade, then division, in Florida and when Gillmore’s corps was transferred to the southeast Virginia, Foster was placed in command of the 1st Division, X Corps. During the Bermuda Hundred Campaign Foster served as chief of staff to Gillmore. He led his brigade during the first and second Battles of Deep Bottom and commanded the 2nd Division, X Corps at the Battle of New Market Heights. During the winter of 1864/1865 the Army of the James was reorganized and Foster was placed in command of the 1st Division of the XXIV Corps, now under the command of John Gibbon. Foster notably led his division in an assault on Fort Gregg during the Union breakthrough at Petersburg. Foster’s division was part of the Union force which blocked Robert E. Lee’s line of retreat at Appomattox Court House, leading to the Confederate surrender there. Foster served as a member of the commission which tried the Lincoln Conspirators. He resigned from the army in September 1865.

Gustavus V. Fox. Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821-1883), a U.S. Navy officer in the Mexican War, becomes the Assistant Secretary of the Navy on August 1, 1861, and served until November 1866.  At the opening of the Civil War, President Lincoln gives him a temporary appointment in the Navy and sent him with the Baltic, the steamer sent to resupply Fort Sumter.

William B. Franklin.  William Buel Franklin (1823-1903) graduated first in his class from West Point and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War. He constructed lighthouses on the Atlantic Coast and in 1859 took over as the engineer supervising the construction of the U.S. Capitol dome. In the Civil War he rose to the rank of a corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, fighting in several notable early battles in the Eastern Theater. Franklin, a staunch supporter of General McClellan, fell victim to the political intrigue that swept the Union Army and he will resign in early 1863. In 1864 he will be reassigned to corps command in the Department of the Gulf and will be wounded at the Battle of Mansfield, a disability that will limit his army career.

John C. Frémont. John Charles Frémont (1813-1890) was a U.S. military officer, and explorer, the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party in 1856 (losing to James Buchanan), and the Radical Republicans’ presidential candidate in 1864. Frémont led multiple survey expeditions in the American West and his “Report and Map” published by Congress guided thousands of emigrants to Oregon and California. He served as a lietuentant colonel in California during the Mexican-American War, capturing both Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. In the Civil War he serves as a major general, including a controversial term as commander of the Army’s Department of the West, May-Novembmer 1861. In March 1862 Frémont takes command of the Mountain Department of the Army, which included Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  When the Army of Virginia is created in June of that year and command given to John Pope, Frémont declines to serve and ends up siting out the rest of the war.

The UWRF Chalmer Davee Library has the following books on John C. Frémont:

• Frémont, Explorer for a Restless Nation, by Ferol Egan (E 415.9 .F8 E33 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).
• Lincoln, Master of Men: A Study in Character, by Alonzo Rothschild (E 457 .R84 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library); digitally available on Google Books.
• Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, by John C. Frémont, Senate Executive document 174, (F 592 .F822 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

Samuel G. French.  Samuel Gibbs French (1818-1910) graduated from West Point in 1843 and was a career military officer up to 1856 when he resigned his commission to become a planter in Mississippi. When the Civil War started French chose the Confederate side and was appointed chief of ordnance for Mississippi. In October 1861 he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate army and was promoted to major general in August 1862. French commanded a division at Jackson, Mississippi, during Johnston’s effort to relieve the Siege of Vicksburg. Later he served under Leonidas Polk in Mississippi. French served in the Atlanta Campaign as part of the Army of Tennessee. In early October 5, 1864, after the fall of Atlanta, French and his division were sent to capture Allatoona Pass and break Sherman’s line of communication, but the pass was held by a Union garrison who defended it in the Battle of Allatoona. When federal reinforcements arrived, French withdrew his division and rejoined the Army of Tennessee. French served in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign (September 18-December 27, 1864), but in December illness forced him to return home to recuperate. He returned to service in 1865, commanding forces in Mobile, Alabama, until the end of the war. After the War, he returned home to Mississippi and his plantation. He wrote a book, Two Wars, about his experiences in the Civil War.

William H. French.  William Henry French (1815-1881)  was a career military officer, a graduate of West Point and an aide-de-camp to several generals in the Mexican War. During the Seminole War, French argued with Stonewall Jackson and the two filed numerous charges against each other. French co-authored Instruction for Field Artillery, published in 1860, along with William F. Barry and Henry J. Hunt. In the Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War, he was engaged at the battles of Yorktown, Seven Pines, Oak Grove, Gaines’ Mill, Garnett’s & Golding’s Farm, Savage’s Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, and he received praise in official reports for his actions and leadership. French commanded the 3rd Division of the II Corps at the Battle of Antietam, making the first attack on the Confederate Division in the Sunken Road. He had just been promoted to major general in November, 1862 and led his division in the battle of Fredericksburg. He will also lead his division at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, but his military reputation will be ruined during the Mine Run Campaign in November 1863 when Major General George G. Meade claimed that French’s corps moved too slowly to exploit a potential advantage over General Robert E. Lee.

Max Friedman (1825- ) was the colonel of the 5th Cavalry/65th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers.

James B. Fry. James Barnet Fry (1827-1894) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. In 1861 he was General Irvin McDowell’s chief of staff and in 1862 held a similar position under General Don Carlos Buell. Fry was the last provost marshal general of the United States from 1863 to 1866. That office was abolished at the end of the Civil War. After the War he served as Adjutant General. Fry was a prolific author of historical books, including several on the Civil War.

E. W. Fuller was a veteran gunboat commander and was the captain of the CSS Queen of the West. He was called the “John Paul Jones of the South.”

Edward W. Gantt (1829-1874) was one of southwestern Arkansas’s leading politicians in the Civil War era. He pushed for secession in 1860 and was elected to the First Confederate Congress in 1861. On July 29, 1861, he was elected colonel of the 12th Arkansas Infantry, which he helped raise. and then Gantt was a prisoner of war from April to August 1862. After being exchanged, he became dissatisfied with his inability to secure a command, and in the fall of 1863, Gantt became a Union sympathizer. He fled to Union lines and appealed to his fellow Southerners to lay down their arms. He promoted radical social, economic, and political change during Reconstruction as he led the Freedmen’s Bureau and Radical Republicans in Arkansas.

For more on Gantt:

• See his entry in The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture.

Franklin Gardner.  Franklin Kitchell Gardner (1823-1873) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War and then pretty much over the whole country. When the Civil War broke out, he sided with his wife’s and mother’s families and joined the Confederate army.  He is best known for his service at the Siege of Port Hudson. Gardner built extensive fortifications at this strategically-important garrison. At the mercy of conflicting orders from Joseph E. Johnston and John C. Pemberton, Gardner found himself surrounded, besieged, and greatly outnumbered. His achievement at holding out for 47 days and inflicting severe losses on the enemy before surrendering has been praised by military historians. Gardner stayed in a Union prison camp until he was exchanged in August 1864. He was given command of the District of Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana. In January 1865 troops under his command opposed Grierson’s raid against the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Gardner surrendered with the department, and was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi on May 11, 1865

Kenner Garrard (1827-1879) graduated from West Point in 1851 and was a career military officer. In August 1862 he was appointed colonel of the 146th New York Infantry and took part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. In December 1863 he was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers and was made chief of the Cavalry Bureau in Washington, D.C.  A month later he took command of the 2nd Cavalry Division in the Army of the Cumberland. Garrard took part in Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign as a cavalry division commander, but failed to impress his superiors. Returning to the infantry, he participated in the Battle of Nashville and was cited for gallant conduct and was brevetted a major general of Volunteers. He was instrumental in the capture of Montgomery, Alabama. Garrard remained in the regular army after the war ended as commander of the District of Mobile, but resigned on November 9, 1866. He returned to Cincinnati and devoted the rest of his life to civic affairs and historical studies.

Augustus Gaylord (1826-1901) was a merchant in Saint Croix Falls and the Polk County treasurer. In 1860, when Louis P. Harvey was elected Secretary of State, he hired Gaylord to be his confidential clerk, and Gaylord relocated to Madison. In early 1861, then-Governor Harvey appointed him adjutant general for Wisconsin, an office he retained throughout the War.

John W. Geary.  John White Geary (1819-1873) was the colonel of the 28th Pennsylvania Infantry. He had been the first mayor San Francisco (1850-1851), the third territorial governor of Kansas (1856-1857), and the 16th governor of Pennsylvania (1867-1873). In early 1862 he was in command of the district of the upper Potomac River, where he was wounded and captured near Leesburg, Virginia, on March 8, 1862. He was immediately exchanged, returned to duty, and was promoted to brigadier general. He was given command of a brigade in Major General Nathaniel  Banks’s corps, which he led against Stonewall Jackson’s army in the Shenandoah Valley. In late June, his brigade joined Major General John Pope’s Army of Virginia. On August 9, 1862, Geary led his brigade at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, where he was seriously wounded. After recovering from his wounds he returned to duty on October 15 as a division commander, the corps was now part of the Army of the Potomac under Major General Henry W. Slocum.

George W. Getty.  George Washington Getty (1819-1901), a graduate of West Point and career military officer, was most noted for his role as a division commander in the Army of the Potomac during the final full year of the Civil War. Early in the Civil War, he was General Ambrose E. Burnside’s chief of Artillery. In September 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and assigned to the infantry. At the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 he commanded the Third Division of the IX Corps. Wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness, he recovered and led his troops during the lengthy Siege of Petersburg, and later in Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign. In 1879, Getty was a member of the Board of Conduct which exonerated General Fitz John Porter.

John Gibbon (1827-1896) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican War, but  without seeing combat, and in the Indian Wars. In 1862, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and commanded (Rufus) “King’s Wisconsin Brigade.” Gibbon ordered them to wear white leggings and distinctive black Hardee hats, which earned them the nickname the “Black Hat Brigade.” He commanded the brigade during their strong uphill charge at the Battle of South Mountain, where General Joseph Hooker exclaimed that the men “fought like iron.” From then on, they were known as the “Iron Brigade of the West.” Gibbon led the brigade for the last time at the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), where he personally manned an artillery piece in the bloody fighting at the Cornfield. Gibbon was promoted to command a division at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862), where he was wounded. Gibbon returned for the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863), but his division was in reserve and saw little action. At the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), he commanded the 2nd Division of the II Corps, which bore the brunt of fighting during the defense against Pickett’s Charge, when Gibbon was again wounded. Gibbon was back in command of the 2nd Division at the battles of the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864), Spotsylvania Court House (May 8-21, 1864), and Cold Harbor (May 31-June 12, 1864). In 1865, he He led his troops during the Appomattox Campaign and blocked the Confederate escape route at the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse (April 9, 1865); he was one of the three commissioners for the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. After the War, Gibbon stayed in the army and fought Dakota Indians in eastern Montana, arriving the day after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the Nez Perce Indians at the Battle of the Big Hole in western Montana.

Alfred Gibbs (1823-1868) graduated from West Point in 1846 and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War, fighting Apache Indians on the frontier, and in the cavalry service. During the Civil War he commanded the 130th New York Infantry, which in 1863 converted to the 1st Regiment New York Dragoons. He was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers from the date of the Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, and given permanent brigade command in December 1864. He received three brevet general awards for meritorious service in three key battles, Trevilian Station, Opequon or Third Winchester, and Five Forks. Gibbs also participated in the Overland Campaign, the Shenandoah Valley Campaigns, the breaking of the Confederate lines that ended the Siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox Campaign. After the War, Gibbs remained in the Regular Army as a major in the 7th U.S. Cavalry, but died young on December 26, 1868, at age 45.

Alvan C. Gillem.  Alvan Cullem Gillem (1830-1875) graduated from West Point in 1851 and served in the 2nd Seminole War and on the Texas frontier.  Although Southern-born, he remained loyal to the Federal government and fought in several battles in the Western Theater. From June 1, 1863, until the close of the war, with rank of brigadier general of volunteers, he was active in Tennessee, where he was adjutant general. He commanded the troops guarding the Nashville and Northwestern railroad from June 1863, until August 1864. In a campaign to protect the loyal mountaineers in eastern Tennessee, his troops surprised and killed Morgan in Greeneville. Following the War, he commanded occupation troops in Mississippi and Arkansas during Reconstruction. In 1873 he was prominent in the military operations against the Modoc Indians in California.

Quincy A. Gillmore.  Quincy Adams Gillmore (1825-1888) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer, serving as an engineer in constructing the fortifications at Hampton Roads and as an instructor of Practical Military Engineering at West Point.  He is best known for his actions in the Union victory at Fort Pulaski, where his modern rifled artillery readily pounded the fort’s exterior stone walls, an action that essentially rendered stone fortifications obsolete. He earned an international reputation as an organizer of siege operations and helped revolutionize the use of naval gunnery. At the Battle of Fort Pulaski, Gillmore was breveted a brigadier and later he became a major general of volunteers. A brilliant member of the U.S. Army’s Corps of Engineers, Gillmore was described by newspaper correspondent Whitelaw Reid as “a quick-speaking, quick-moving, soldierly man . . . a fine, wholesome looking, solid six footer, with big head, broad, good humored face, and a high forehead faintly elongated by a suspicion of baldness, curly brown hair and beard, and a frank open face.”

For more information:

• See the Battle for Fort Pulaski on the National Park Service website for the Fort Pulaski National Monument

Archibald C. Godwin.  Archibald Campbell Godwin (1831-1864) had built a fortune in gold mining, cattle, timber, and real estate in California, and in 1860 had lost the Democratic Party nomination for governor by one vote. When the Civil War broke out, he returned to Virginia and became the assistant provost marshal in charge of Libby Prison. In 1862 he became colonel of the 57th North Carolina Infantry and fought at the battles of Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. With the mortal wounding of Colonel Avery at Cemetery Hill, Godwin temporarily assumed command of Hoke’s Brigade and led it back into Virginia. On November 7, 1863, he was captured at Rappahannock Bridge. He was exchanged in 1864, and in August of that year promoted to brigadier general commanding what had formerly been known as Hoke’s Brigade. Terry was killed at the Battle of Opequon (Third Winchester) on September 19, 1864. During the War he acquired a reputation for being cruel to Union captives. There was some discussion after the War of trying Godwin for war crimes until it was discovered that he was already dead.

George H. Gordon (1823-1886).  George Henry Gordon graduated from West Point and served in the Mexican War. He resigned in 1854 to go to Harvard Law School, and he practiced law in Boston. When the Civil War began, Gordon organized and became colonel of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry, which guarded the upper Potomac River and Frederick, Maryland. In the spring of 1862, Gordon served under General Nathaniel P. Banks, unsuccessfully opposing Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. Gordon was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers in June 1862. Gordon commanded a brigade at the Battle of Antietam and was commander of the 1st Division, XI Corps, following the Battle of Gettysburg. He was then transferred to the Department of the South where he commanded the troops on Folly Island near Charleston, South Carolina. After the War he practiced law in Boston and wrote several books on Civil War history.

Willis A. Gorman. Willis Arnold Gorman (1816-1876) was the 2nd Territorial Governor of Minnesota from 1853-1857. In 1859, Gorman was elected to the Minnesota state legislature. During the 1860 presidential campaign, he vigorously supported his personal friend, Stephen A. Douglas. Gorman enlisted in the 1st Minnesota Volunteers in 1861 and was appointed colonel. Due to his gallant service at the Battle of Bull Run, he was made a brigadier general on October 1, 1861. Gorman also led his troops at Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Gordon commanded the Eastern District of the Department of Virginia from February 1865 until he left the army in August 1865.

For more information:

• See the Willis Arnold Gorman entry in the Minnesota Historical Society’s “Governors of Minnesota” website.

Gordon Granger (1822-1876) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer. He was promoted to brigadier general in March of 1862 and commanded the Cavalry Division in the Union’s Army of the Mississippi during the Battle of New Madrid and the Siege of Cornith. He is most famous for his actions commanding the Reserve Corps at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, 1863.

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was a career military officer who had fought in the Mexican War. He resigned from the Army in 1854, but quickly joined the Union Army after the outbreak of the Civil War. Early in the war he trained new regiments and then engaging the Confederacy near Cairo, Illinois. The Battle of Belmont was the first combat test for then-brigadier general Grant. In 1862, he fought a series of major battles and captured a Confederate army, earning a reputation as an aggressive general.

For more information:

• “The General’s Last Battle: Ulysses S. Grant” in After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped, by David Hardin. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.
• McClellan, Sherman, and Grant, by T. Harry Williams, 1962 (E 467 .W5 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).
• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

Martin E. Green (1815-1863).  Martin Edwin Green was a colonel in the Missouri State Guard (Confederate). He had been a leading secessionist and key organizer of the  State Guard in northern Missouri. Green was commissioned a Confederate brigadier general in 1862.

David M. Gregg.  David McMurtrie Gregg (1833-1916) graduated from West Point in 1855 and served in New Mexico Territory fighting Indians. When the Civil War started, Gregg returned to Washington, D. C. After a bout of typhoid fever he became the colonel of the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry in January 1862. He fought in the Peninsula Campaign, distinguishing himself in the Seven Days Battles. He was at the Battle of Antietam and was promoted to brigadier general just before the Battle of Fredericksburg. At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Gregg’s division participated in General George Stoneman’s raid. Gregg also participated in the primarily cavalry Battle of Brandy Station.

J. Irvin Gregg.  John Irvin Gregg (1826-1892) served in the Mexican War, being promoted to captain in the 11th U.S. Infantry. When the Civil War broke out, Gregg was commissioned a captain in the 3rd U.S. Cavalry on May 14, 1861. He then joined the volunteer army in June as a captain in the 34th Pennsylvania Infantry. He resigned soon afterward to accept a commission in the regular army as a captain in the 6th U.S. Cavalry. On November 14, 1862, Gregg was promoted to colonel of the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry. He then commanded many different cavalry brigades in the various reorganizations of the Army of the Potomac. He led the Third Brigade at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in a division commanded by his cousin David Gregg. Irvin Gregg continued to received promotions and in 1864 was brevetted brigadier general. On April 7, 1865, Gregg was slightly wounded at the Battle of Sayler’s Creek, captured the next day north of Farmville, Virginia, and was released two days later. Gregg was mustered out of the volunteer service on August 11, 1865. After the War Gregg remained in the Army, was named colonel of the 8th U.S. Cavalry, and fought Indians in Arizona Territory. He retired from active service in 1879.

Walter Q. Gresham.  Walter Quintin Gresham (1832-1895) was a lawyer and a member of the Indiana House of Representatives before the War. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 38th Indiana Infantry in September 1861, and in December of that year, he was promoted to colonel and placed in command of the 53rd Indiana Infantry. The 53rd Indiana subsequently took part in Grant’s Tennessee campaign of 1862, including the Siege of Corinth and Battle of Vicksburg. During the Siege of Vicksburg, Colonel Gresham commanded a brigade. In August 1863 he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, and was placed in command of the Federal forces at Natchez, Mississippi. In 1864 he commanded a division of the XVII Corps in Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, and before the Battle of Atlanta, on July 20, he received a gunshot wound to his knee that left him lame for life. After the War Gresham served as the 31st U.S. Postmaster General (1883-1884), the 35th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1884), a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals (1891-1893), and the 33rd U.S. Secretary of State (1893-1895). He was also twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Benjamin H. Grierson.  Benjamin Henry Grierson (1826-1911) was a music teacher and band leader in Illinois before the war. In 1861 he joined the 6th Illinois Cavalry and was promoted to colonel in 1862. In November of that year he became a brigade commander in the Cavalry Division of the Army of the Tennessee, and in December he participated in the pursuit of Confederate General Earl Van Dorn after his Holly Springs raid. Grierson is best known for Grierson’s Raid, an 1863 diversionary expedition through Confederate-held territory that severed enemy communication lines. Grierson left La Grange, Tennessee, on April 17, 1863. After the War, Grierson organized the 10th U.S. Cavalry, one of two mounted regiments composed of Black soldiers and white officers, called the Buffalo Soldiers.

Charles Griffin (1825-1867), a graduate of West Point and career military officer, his leadership abilities brought him steady promotion. Assigned command of a division in the V Corps, he served at the Battle of Fredericksburg and during the Chancellorsville Campaign.

Simon G. Griffin.  Simon Goodell Griffin (1824-1902) was a farmer, teacher, lawyer, and New Hampshire state legislator. He joined the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry as a captain, became lieutenant colonel of the 6th New Hampshire Infantry and then colonel. He led the regiment in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg. Griffin led the 1st Brigade of the 2nd Division briefly during the winter of 1862-63. He participated in the Siege of Vicksburg, and Sherman’s Meridian and Yazoo River Expeditions. Returning east, Griffin commanded the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, in the Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and the Battle of Cold Harbor. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in May, 1864. Griffin became acting division commander during the Appomattox Campaign, and also commanded the division in the Department of Washington after the Confederate surrender. After the War, Griffin was a manufacturer at Harrisville, New Hampshire, and was elected five times to a seat in the New Hampshire Legislature.

James Wilson Grimes (1816-1872) was the third governor of Iowa (1854-1858) and a U.S. senator from Iowa (1859-1869).  In February 1861 he had been a member of the Peace Conference held in Washington, D.C., a final effort to prevent what became the Civil War. After the Civil War, Grimes serves on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which drafted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. During the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, Grimes was one of seven Republican senators (along with Lyman Trumbull) to break party ranks and vote for acquittal.

Norman J. Hall.  Norman Jonathan Hall (1837-1867), a career military officer, had been appointed to West Point by Jefferson Davis. Hall was serving at Fort Sumter when the Civil War began and acted as an emissary for the fort early in the standoff. At one point in the artillery bombardment, the United States flag was knocked to the ground by a Confederate shell, Hall raced through across the parade ground to save the flag, and, with the help of two fellow soldiers, replaced the pole and hoisted “Old Glory” over the battered fort. In July 1862 Hall became colonel of the 7th Michigan Infantry, leading it during the Second Battle of Bull Run, at Antietam and Fredericksburg, where he volunteered to lead his men across the pontoon bridges. Despite these exploits, Hall is most noted for his defense of his sector of the Union line against Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Henry W. Halleck.  Henry Wager Halleck (1815-1872) was a graduate of West Point and served in the Mexican War. After the Mexican War, he was assigned to duty in California where he became one of the principal authors of California’s consitution in 1849. At the beginning of the Civil War, Halleck was best known as a military scholar and he became known as “Old Brains” (a sobriquet that became derogatory during the Civil War). He became a major general in the regular army, effective August 19, 1861, making him the fourth most senior general in the Army (behind Winfield Scott, McClellan, and John C. Frémont).  He was put in command of the Department of the Missouri in November 1861, where he cleaned up the mess that had been left behind by Frémont.

For more information:

• Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff, 1775-2010: Portraits & Biographical Sketches of the United States Army’s Senior Officer [including Henry Wager Halleck], by William Gardner Bell (D 114:2:G 28/775-2010 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library’s Federal Government Documents collection)
• Elements of Military Art and Science; or, Course of Instruction in Strategy, Fortification, Tactics of Battles, &c.; Embracing the Duties of Staff, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, and Engineers. Adapted to the Use of Volunteers and Militia, by H. W. Halleck, 1971 reprint of the 1846 edition (U102 .H18 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• General George H. Thomas: The Indomitable Warrior, Wilber Thomas (E 467.1 .T4 T34 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff, by Stephen E. Ambrose (E 467.1 .T4 T34 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

Joseph E. Hamblin.  Joseph Eldridge Hamblin (1828-1870) was an insurance broker at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was a long-time member of the 7th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, then the 7th Regiment of the New York militia, he enlisted in 1861 as adjutant in Duryea’s Zouaves and served in Northern Virginia under Butler, McClellan, Meade, and Grant, and Sheridan in the Sixty-fifth New York. As regimental colonel, Hamblin especially distinguished himself at the Battle of Cedar Creek, where he was wounded while leading a brigade of the VI Corps. Hamblin was brevetted as a brigadier general and in 1865 promoted to full rank, with the brevet of major general for gallantry at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek.

Henry A. Hambright.  Henry Augustus Hambright (1819-1893) was colonel of the 79th Pennsylvania Infantry. Before the war he had served as 1st Lieutenant in Company G, 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry, during Mexican War; as a public works contractor; supervisor of operations in Lancaster for the Pennsylvania Railroad; and captain of the Jackson Rifles militia company.

For more information:

• See the “Lancaster at War” blog, Better Know an Officer: Henry A. Hambright.

Charles S. Hamilton.  Charles Smith Hamilton (1822-1891) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican War. In 1853 he resigned and moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he became a farmer and miller. With the Civil War, Hamilton became colonel of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry, but was soon promoted to brigadier general and given a brigade in Nathaniel P. Banks’ division in the Army of the Potomac. In 1862 Hamilton was transferred to the Western Theater where he commanded the 3rd Division in the Army of the Mississippi at the battles of Iuka and Corinth. Following Corinth (October 3-4, 1862), he was promoted to major general. In 1863, when Grant ordered him to Vicksburg to serve under General John Alexander McClernand, Hamilton resigned. Grant gladly accepted the resignation, forwarding several pages of documentation to Washington to support his case. Hamilton returned to Wisconsin, became a U.S. marshal and paper manufacturer, and died in Milwaukee in 1891.

For more information:

• Gen. Charles Smith Hamilton entry from the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.
• “Memoirs of the Mexican War, by Charles S. Hamilton, Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 14, no. 1 (Sept. 1930):63-92 (in the UWRF Archives serials); also available online.

Wade Hampton III (1818-1902) was a Confederate cavalry general from South Carolina. His grandfather, the first Wade Hampton, had been a lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the American Revolution, and his father, “Colonel Wade Hampton,” had been an aide to General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. Hampton grew up in a wealthy planter family, and as an adult managed several of the family’s plantations. After his father died in 1858, this Wade Hampton inherited a vast fortune, the plantations, and one of the largest holdings of slaves in the South.
When the Civil War started, he enlisted as a private in the South Carolina Militia, but the governor of South Carolina insisted that he accept a colonel’s commission, despite his lack of military experience. Hampton organized and partially financed the unit known as “Hampton’s Legion,” which consisted of six companies of infantry, four companies of cavalry, and one battery of artillery, all of which he personally supplied weapons for. Hampton fought at the First Battle of Bull Run (where he was wounded), was promoted to brigadier general in May 1862, participated in the Peninsula Campaign and was severely wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, led a cavalry raid behind enemy lines around the time of the Battle of Fredericksburg, was slightly wounded in the Battle of Brandy Station (the War’s largest cavalry battle), was wounded more than once at the Battle of Gettysburg, was promoted to major general in August 1863, distinguished himself at the Battle of Trevilian Station while defeating Sheridan’s cavalry and lost no cavalry battles for the remainder of the war, conducted the Beefsteak Raid, was promoted to lieutenant general in February 1865, and surrendered at Bennett Place—the site of the largest surrender of Confederate soldiers—on April 26, 1865.

After the War, together with fellow Confederate General Jubal A. Early, Hampton became a proponent of the Lost Cause movement and worked to explain the Confederacy’s loss. He served as the 77th governor of South Carolina (1876-1879), a U.S. senator from South Carolina (1879-1891), and United States Railroad Commissioner (1893-1897). His election as governor was marked by extensive violence by the Red Shirts, a paramilitary group that worked to disrupt elections and prevent Black voting in the state.

Winfield S. Hancock.  Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer who served in the Mexican War. He earned his nickname of “Hancock the Superb” by leading a critical counterattack in the Battle of Williamsburg (General McClellan telegraphed to Washington that “Hancock was superb today”). Hancock will go on to be a hero at Gettysburg in 1863.

For more information:

• History of U.S. Political Parties, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, includes an Interview with Gen. Winfield S. Hancock (JK 2261 .S35 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)

William J. Hardee.  William Joseph Hardee (1815-1873) graduated from West Point in 1838 and participated in the Seminole Wars where he was stricken with illness. After he recovered, the Army sent him to France to study military tactics. In the Mexican-American War, Hardee served in the Army of Occupation under Zachary Taylor and won two brevet promotions. Hardee was wounded in a skirmish at La Rosia, Mexico in 1847. After the war, he led units of Texas Rangers and soldiers in Texas. In 1855, at the behest of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Hardee published Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics for the Exercise and Manoeuvres of Troops When Acting as Light Infantry or Riflemen, popularly known as Hardee’s Tactics, which became the best-known drill manual of the Civil War. He is also said to have designed the so-called Hardee hat about this time. He taught tactics at West Point and served as commandant of cadets (1856-1860).  In 1860 he was lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry.  (The UWRF Chalmer Davee Library has a 1971 reprint of Hardee’s Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics, UD160 .H25.)

When Hardee’s home state, Georgia, seceded from the Union, he resigned his commission and joined the Confederate Army as a colonel (March 1861), was promoted to brigadier general (June 17), major general (October 7), and lieutenant general (October 1862). He received his nickname of “Old Reliable” while commanding and training a brigade in Arkansas. Hardee participated in the battles of Shiloh (wounded in arm), Perryville, Stones River (his most successful battle), the Tullahoma Campaign, the battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Jonesboro, and the Atlanta, Savannah, and Carolinas campaigns. Hardee surrendered to Sherman on April 26, 1865.

Charles L. Harris (1834-1910) graduated from West Point, but chose a law career instead of a military career. Living in Madison, Wisconsin, when the Civil War started, he enlisted and was assigned to the 1st Wisconsin Infantry. He was soon promoted to colonel of the 11th Wisconsin Infantry and participated in the battles of Cotton Plant, Port Gibson, and the Red River Campaign. Harris mustered out with the regiment on September 4, 1865. In 1866 he was given the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers. Some time after the War, he moved his family to Cedar County, Nebraska, and was a member of the Nebraska State Senate.

William Harrow (1822-1872) was a lawyer in Illinois and Indiana before the Civil War, and he was a frequent associate of Abraham Lincoln for several years in Illinois. Through his political connections he was named major of the 14th Indiana Infantry, being promoted to lieutenant colonel and then colonel. He briefly resigned after the Battle of Kernstown—where he lost 54 men in action—after being accused of drunkenness at Kernstown, but he was reinstated the next month. He lost half of his men at the Battle of Antietam where they fought along the Sunken Road. Later Harrow became the commander of his brigade and led it at Fredericksburg. In April of 1863 he was promoted to brigadier general and led the 1st Brigade, 2d Division, II Corps—which included the 1st Minnesota—at Gettysburg. When General Gibbon was wounded at Gettysburg, Harrow became the commander of the 2nd Division. Soon after Gettysburg, Harrow was relieved of command in the Army of the Potomac and was reassigned to command of the 4th Division of the XV Corps in the Atlanta Campaign. After a reorganization in September 1864, Harrow was left without an assignment for the rest of the War and he resigned in April 1865.

John F. Hartranft.  John Frederick Hartranft (1830-1889) received a degree in civil engineering from Union College and was admitted to the bar later in his life.  He was an active Democrat and served as deputy sheriff in Montgomery County before the war.  He was authorized in 1861 to raise a regiment by Governor Andrew Curtin, and was later commissioned Colonel of the 4th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry—this regiment was later commissioned under General Irvin McDowell.  The 4th Pennsylvania walked off the battle field of the Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) prior to the battle starting.  Unlike the rest of the 4th Pennsylvania, Hartranft volunteered under General William Franklin.  Hartranft was later authorized to raise the 51st Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which served under General Ambrose Burnside and General John Pope.  Hartranft was later promoted to Brigadier General during the 51st Pennsylvania’s service in the western theater.  Hartranft is credited with keeping Fort Stedman in Union hands against General Lee in the Battle of Fort Stedman.  After the war, Hartranft served as special provost marshal for the trial of Lincoln’s conspirators.  He became an active member of the Republican Party, which led to him serving as the Auditor General of Pennsylvania (1867-1873) and Governor of Pennsylvania (1873-1879).  As governor he was known for supporting the working men and the rights of African Americans, while fighting corruption.  After serving as the Governor of Pennsylvania, Hartranft was Postmaster of Philadelphia, Collector for the Port of Philadelphia, commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard, and commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.    

For more information, see the:

• National Civil War Museum website.

John P. Hatch.  John Porter Hatch (1822-1901). graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War, in Oregon Territory, and on the frontier. When the Civil War broke out, Hatch was ordered back East and assigned to George B. McClellan’s cavalry. In September 1861 he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. Hatch’s brigade made a series of daring raids on enemy positions near the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, which earned his brigade the nickname “Iron Brigade.” After incurring the wrath of General John Pope for two failed cavalry raids, he was reassigned to the infantry. He commanded a brigade, and assumed division command after General Rufus King fell ill the evening before the Second Battle of Bull Run. Hatch led the division there and at the Battle of South Mountain, where he was shot in the leg. Hatch received the Medal of Honor in 1893 for his gallantry under severe enemy fire at the Battle of South Mountain. Hatch was disabled until February 1863, when he returned to light administrative duties, serving as a judge on courts-martial and commanding the draft rendezvous at Philadelphia. In 1864, he was assigned to the Department of the South, where he had charge of the coast division. He was in charge of operations on John’s Island, South Carolina, and led the Union forces at the Battle of Honey Hill in November. He participated in Sherman’s Georgia-Carolinas Campaign and took part in the attack on Charleston. Following the city’s surrender, Hatch assumed military command of it from February to August 1865. In the omnibus promotions following the war, Hatch was brevetted both as a major general of Volunteers and as a colonel in the Regular Army.

Arthur P. Hayne.   Arthur Peronneau Hayne (1788-1867) was a U.S. Senator from South Carolina from May to December of 1858.  He had served in the War of 1812 and was brevetted lieutenant colonel at New Orlenas. Hayne was the older brother of Robert Young Hayne, also a U.S. Senator and Governor of South Carolina, famous for the Webster-Hayne Debate over states’ rights; and cousin of Isaac W. Hayne, Attorney General of South Carolina.

Harry T. Hays (1820-1876).  Harry Thompson Hays served in the Mexican War and was a lawyer and politician in Louisiana before the Civil War. He entered the Confederate Army as colonel of the 7th Louisiana Infantry. Hays fought at the First Battle of Bull Run, in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1862, and was severely wounded at the Battle of Port Republic. Hays was promoted to brigadier general in July 1862 and assigned command of the First Louisiana Brigade, which was known as the “Louisiana Tigers.” Hays lost half of his brigade at the Battle of Antietam, and also fought at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At the Battle of Gettysburg, Hays and his brigade charged up Cemetery Hill in the twilight and overran several artillery batteries before being driven off for lack of support. He was briefly captured in November 1863, at Rappahannock Station, but escaped. He lost a third of his remaining men at the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5, 1864). Hays was badly wounded at Spotsylvania Court House. On May 10, 1865, Hays was promoted to major general, but with the demise of the Confederacy, his promotion was never formally approved. After the war Hays returned to New Orleans where he played a prominent role in the July 1866 New Orleans Riot. He deputized nearly two hundred of his former soldiers as the “Hays Brigade Relief Society.”

William B. Hazen.  William Babcock Hazen (1830-1887) was a close boyhood friend of future President James A. Garfield. He graduated from West Point in 1855 and then served in the Pacific Northwest and Texas, where he was severely wounded in a fight with Comanches. When the Civil War started he was appointed colonel of the 41st Ohio Infantry and then commanded a brigade in the Army of the Ohio. He served in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, and Stones River. His most famous service was defending “Hell’s Half Acre” at the Battle of Stones River, where he was wounded, and consequently promoted to brigadier general. He then participated in the Tullahoma Campaign and the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Hazen was promoted to brevet major in the regular army for Chickamauga and brevet lieutenant colonel for Chattanooga. He served in the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign, and distinguished himself at the Battle of Pickett’s Mill.

Following the War, he returned to the regular Army, serving as colonel of the 38th U.S. Infantry, a Buffalo Soldier regiment. He served primarily on the Western frontier, including being stationed at Fort Buford in the Dakota Territory from 1872 to 1880. One of Hazen’s most important roles was handling the negotiations that preceded the Battle of Washita River. Hazen offered testimony in the Belknap scandal, one of the procurement corruption scandals that rocked President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration. On December 15, 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes promoted Hazen to brigadier general and appointed him Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army, a post he held until his death.

Hans Christian Heg (1829-1863), from Waterford, was born in Norway and moved with his family to Wisconsin as a youngster. As an adult, Heg became a rising young politician who became an ardent member of first the Free Soil Party and later the recently-reformed Republican Party. He was the first Norwegian born candidate elected state-wide in Wisconsin. He was an outspoken anti-slavery activist and a leader of Wisconsin’s Wide Awakes, an anti-slave catcher militia. Heg was a major in the 4th Wisconsin Militia and served as Wisconsin State Prison Commissioner. When the Civil War began, Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall appointed Heg as colonel of the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment. The 15th Wisconsin was called the Scandinavian Regiment since its soldiers were almost all immigrants from Norway, with some from Denmark and Sweden. It was the only all Scandinavian regiment in the Union Army. Heg and the 15th Wisconsin fought in the battles of Perryville, Stones River, and Chickamauga, where he was mortally wounded. For more on Heg, including a photograph, see the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

Samuel P. Heintzelman.  Samuel Peter Heintzelman (1805-1880) was a career military officer who graduated from West Point and served in the Seminole War, the Mexican War, the Yuma War, and the Cortina Troubles. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was the colonel of the 17th Pennsylvania Infantry, but was soon promoted to command a division in the Army of Northeastern Virginia. He was wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run, but quickly recovered. He commanded the III Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsula Campaign and at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

Francis J. Herron.  Francis Jay Herron (1827-1902) was a banker in Dubuque, Iowa, before the Civil War. In 1859, he organized and was the captain of a militia company known as the “Governor’s Grays.” In April 1861 he was appointed captain of the 1st Iowa Infantry and served with Nathaniel Lyon in Missouri, participating in the battles of Boonville and Wilson’s Creek. In August 1861 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 9th Iowa Infantry and fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. After being exchanged, Herron was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers, and later received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Pea Ridge. Herron joined forces with James G. Blunt to engage Thomas C. Hindman in the Battle of Prairie Grove and forced the Confederates to abandon western Arkansas. For his actions at Prairie Grove, Herron was appointed major general of volunteers, becoming the youngest major general on either side at the time of his promotion. During the Siege of Vicksburg, Herron’s division was placed on the extreme left flank of the Union lines. Upon the surrender of the city Ulysses S. Grant chose Herron, along with generals James B. McPherson and John A. Logan, to lead the procession into the city and accept the formal surrender of arms on July 4, 1863. Herron next led the Yazoo City expedition, capturing the city, a Confederate fleet, and supplies there.

After the War, Herron stayed in Baton Rouge where he was tax collector for a district in New Orleans and served as a United States Marshal (1867-1869). He was the Secretary of State of Louisiana before moving to New York City in 1877, where he practiced law and served as a banker, but died a pauper in 1902.

Stephen G. Hicks (1809-1869) served in the army as a sergeant in the Black Hawk War, a captain in the Mexican War, and and a colonel in the Civil War. His father, John Hicks, was one of the seven men killed at the Battle of New Orleans (January 8, 1815). He served in the Kentucky state legislature from 1842 to 1848, studies law and was admitted to the bar. During the Civil War he enlisted in the 40th Illinois Infantry Regiment on July 22, 1861, and was honorably discharged on the July 24, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, and when recovered from his wound was appointed commander at Fort Anderson, Kentucky, in October 1863. Hicks was in command of the Fort during the Battle of Paducah and famously told Forrest that if he wanted the fort he would have to come take it.

A. P. Hill.  Ambrose Powell Hill, Jr., (1825-1865) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. He served briefly in the Mexican War and in the Seminole Wars. A Virginian, he chose to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. He gained early fame as the commander of the “Light Division” in the Seven Days Battles and became one of Stonewall Jackson’s ablest subordinates, distinguishing himself in the 1862 battles of Cedar Mountain (August 9), Second Bull Run (August 28-30), Antietam (September 17) , and Fredericksburg (December 11-15). Following Jackson’s death in 1863, Hill was promoted and given command of the Third Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia, which he led at the Battle of Gettysburg and until he was killed on April 2, 1865, at the Third Battle of Petersburg. Two interesting notes: he was once engaged to the woman that George B. McClellan eventually married, and when Hill did marry, it was to the sister of John Hunt Morgan, who was his best man at the wedding.

Benjamin H. Hill.  Benjamin Harvey Hill (1823-1882) was active in Georgia state politics as a member of the Know Nothing Party. Hill is the only non-Democratic member of the Georgia secession convention in January of 1861. He, along with Alexander Stephens, spoke publicly against the dissolution of the Union. Ultimately, Hill voted for secession, became a political ally of Jefferson Davis, is a member of the Confederate Provisional Congress, and was elected to the Confederate States Senate, a term which he held throughout its existence.

D. H. Hill.  Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889) was Stonewall Jackson’s brother-in-law and a close friend of both James Longstreet and Joe Johnston. He was a graduate of West Point and served with distinction in the Mexican War. He resigned his commission in 1849 to be a mathematics professor. When the War broke out he joined the Confederacy and, as colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry, he won the Battle of Big Bethel in 1861. He participated in the Yorktown and Williamsburg operations at the start of the Peninsula Campaign. As a major general, Hill led a division with great distinction in the Battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles.

Thomas C. Hindman. Thomas Carmichael Hindman (1828-1868) served in the Mexican War, then studied law and practiced first in Mississippi and then in Helena, Arkansas. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives (1854-1856) and in the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas (1859-1861). After Arkansas seceded, Hindman joined the Confederate army, was promoted brigadier general in 1861 and was slightly wounded at the Battle of Shiloh (April 1862). Later in 1862 he was promoted to major general and commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department, which he used to try to prevent a Union invasion of Arkansas. His tactics were not popular with the citizens and in August 1862 he was replaced. But he convinced his replacement to give him a command in northern Arkansas where he managed to intercept the Federal army, but his self-doubt led to a missed opportunity to destroy the Union army. After the War he fled to Mexico, later returning to Helena, Arkansas, where he was assassinated in 1868.

Ethan Allen Hitchcock (1798-1870) was the grandson of Ethan Allen of Revolutionary War fame, and a career Army officer who graduated from West Point in 1817—before many of the Civil War era generals were born—and had retired from the Army in 1855. When the Civil War started, Hitchcock applied to return to the service, but was rejected. General Winfield Scott intervened and Hitchcock was commissioned a major general in February, 1862. He served as special adviser to the Secretary of War, and then as the chairman of the War Board, which assisted President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton in the management of the War Department. He also served briefly as the commander of the Union armies during the period in which there was no general-in-chief. Hitchcock sat on the court-martial of Fitz John Porter. From November 1862 through the end of the war he served as Commissioner for Prisoner of War Exchange, and then Commissary-General of Prisoners.

Harrison C. Hobart.   Harrison Carroll Hobart (1815-1902), from Chilton (Wis.), was lieutenant colonel of the 21st Wisconsin Infantry and had been a prisoner of war since September 20, 1863. On March 1, 1864, he became the colonel of the 21st and Michael H. Fitch, from Prescott, became the lieutenant colonel.  Hobart, a lawyer, had served in the Wisconsin Territorial House of Representatives and in the Wisconsin State Senate and the Wisconsin State Assembly. He was appointed captain in the 4th Wisconsin Infantry in July 1861, and in October 1862 was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 21st Wisconsin. Hobart fought at the battles of Stones River and Hoover’s Gap. At the Battle of Chickamauga he was wounded and taken prisoner, and was sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. There he helped lead the escape of 109 Union prisoners through a tunnel out of the prison on February 9, 1864.

For more information on Hobart:

• See his entry from the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

Edward H. Hobson.  Edward Henry Hobson (1825-1901) was the colonel of the 13th Kentucky Infantry (Union) at the beginning of the Civil War. He commanded his regiment at the Battle of Shiloh and received a promotion to brigadier general. He is best known for pursuing Morgan’s Raiders through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, and defeating and then capturing most of them at the Battle of Buffington Island. On July 26, 1863, General Hobson pursued Morgan’s remaining men and finally forced Morgan to surrender at New Lisbon, Ohio. Hobson and about 750 men of the 171st Ohio Infantry were in turn captured by Morgan in June 1864, near Cynthiana, Kentucky, but he was able to negotiate his release. Hobson commanded a brigade of Kentucky mounted infantry and cavalry at the Battle of Saltville in October of 1864, and mustered out in August of 1865.

Robert F. Hoke.  Robert Frederick Hoke (1837-1912) graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1854 and then managed his family’s business interests. When North Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861, Hoke enlisted in the 1st North Carolina Infantry and was commissioned a second lieutenant, but promoted to captain within months. Hoke was commended for “coolness, judgment and efficiency” at the Battle of Big Bethel (June 10, 1861) by General D. H. Hill, and subsequently promoted to major. Next he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 33rd North Carolina Regiment, and cited for gallantry at the Battle of New Bern (March 14, 1862). Hoke was promoted to colonel, and fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28-30, 1862) and the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862). Hoke commanded a brigade, known as Hoke’s Brigade, at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862), and was promoted to brigadier general on January 17, 1863. He was severely wounded defending Marye’s Heights in the Battle of Chancellorsville and was sent home to recuperate, missing the rest of the campaigns for that year. Hoke and his division played a decisive role in the Confederate victory in the Battle of Cold Harbor in 1864 (May 31-June 12).

T. H. Holmes.  Theophilus Hunter Holmes (1804-1880) commanded the Confederate District of Arkansas. He planned a coordinated attack from three sides on the formidable Federal fortifications surrounding Helena. He wanted prevent Helena being used as a Union base for attacking further into Arkansas, and he also was attempting to relieve pressure on Vicksburg. Holmes graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. His father was a former governor of North Carolina and U.S. congressman from that state. Early in the Civil War he commanded coastal defenses in North Carolina and served as a brigadier general of North Carolina militia.

Joseph Holt (1807-1894) was the 18th U.S. Postmaster General from March 9, 1859-December 31, 1860, and the 25th U.S. Secretary of War from January 18-March 5, 1861. The Buchanan administration was shaken in December 1860 and January 1861, when the Confederacy was formed and many cabinet members resigned, including John B. Floyd of Virginia who resigned as Secretary of War. But Holt was anti-slavery and a strong supporter of the Union, and Buchanan appointed him Secretary of War. He served in that capacity until the end of Buchanan’s presidency, when President Lincoln replaced him with Simon Cameron. Lincoln appointed Holt Judge Advocate General of the United State Army in 1862, and as such he was the presiding judge in the trial of the accused conspirators in Lincoln’s assassination.

John Bell Hood (1831-1879) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer, but at the start of the Civil War chose to fight for his adopted state of Texas. During the Seven Days Battles in 1862, he earned a reputation for aggressive leadership as a brigade commander and was rewarded with a promotion to division commander. He led a division under General James Longstreet during the rest of 1862 into 1863. At the Battle of Gettysburg he was severely wounded and lost the use of his left arm. At the Battle of Chickamauga he was wounded again and his right leg was amputated.  Hood returned to field service during the Atlanta Campaign in 1864. He was defeated at the Battle of Franklin (November 30, 1864) and at the Battle of Nashville (December 15-16, 1864). After the War, Hood moved to Louisiana and worked as a cotton broker and in the insurance business. He died in a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans in 1879.

For more information:

• “The Crippled Knight: John Bell Hood” in After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped, by David Hardin. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.
• “Hood, Davis, and the Army of Tennessee: Elements of a Confederate Debacle” in No Band of Brothers: Problems in the Rebel High Command (E487 .W8 1999 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).
• Hood’s Texas Brigade in the Civil War, by Edward B. Williams. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.

Joseph Hooker (1814-1879), known as “Fighting Joe,” was a graduate of West Point and career military officer until 1853 when he resigned. He returned as a brigadier general at the beginning of the Civil War and distinguished himself in the Battle of Williamsburg, receiving a promotion to major general as a result. As a corps commander, he led the initial Union attacks at the Battle of Antietam, in which he was wounded. Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, he was given command of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker planned an audacious campaign against Robert E. Lee, but he was defeated by the Confederate Army at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Hooker began to pursue Lee at the start of the Gettysburg Campaign, but his poor performance at Chancellorsville prompted President Abraham Lincoln to relieve him from command just prior to the Battle of Gettysburg. In November 1863, Hooker helped relieve the besieged Union Army at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and achieved an important victory at the Battle of Lookout Mountain during the Chattanooga Campaign. On May 4, 1865, Hooker led President Lincoln’s funeral procession in Springfield, Illinois. Hooker retired from the army in 1868.

O. O. Howard.  Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909) was an 1891 graduate of West Point and a career military officer. During the Civil War, Howard became known as the “Christian general” because he tried to base policy decisions on his deep religious beliefs. Inn 1861, he commanded a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run, subsequently being promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. He was seriously wounded at Seven Pines which forced the amputation of his right arm. (Later in 1893, he was awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions at Battle of Seven Pines.) He returned to fight at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and led his division at Antietam and Fredericksburg. He was promoted to major general in 1862. Despite being routed and then heavily criticized for his leadership decisions at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, Howard received a Thanks of Congress for selecting the ground on which the battle would be fought at Gettysburg. He was able to further recover his reputation while posted after the war in the Western Theater.  After the War, during the Reconstruction era, he was in charge of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which had the mission of integrating the freed slaves into Southern society. He was also a leader in promoting higher education for freedmen, most notably in founding of Howard University in Washington and serving as its president 1867–1873.  In the 1870’s, Howard commanded troops in the West, conducting a famous campaign against the Nez Perce tribe.

Benjamin Huger (1805-1877) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican War. Huger did not resign his commission until after the Battle of Fort Sumter. In the Confederate Army he was appointed a brigadier general and took command of the Department of Norfolk. At the Battle of Roanoke Island in February 1862, Huger’s failure to reinforce the Confederate troops lead to a Union victory. Then the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk was handled poorly by Huger, and the Union controlled Norfolk for the rest of the war.

Andrew A. Humphreys.  Andrew Atkinson Humphreys (1810-1883) was a graduate of West Point and career military officer and a civil engineer in the U. S. Army. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, his division achieved the farthest advance against fierce Confederate fire from Marye’s Heights. An officer with little combat experience, he inspired his troops with his personal bravery.

David Hunter (1802-1886) was a graduate of West Point and served in the 2nd Seminole War and the Mexican War. In 1860 Hunter began correspondinge with Abraham Lincoln, focusing on his strong anti-slavery views. This relationship garnered him an invitation to ride on Lincoln’s inaugural train. Hunter also was appointed the fourth-ranking brigadier general of volunteers. He was wounded at the 1st Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, in August was promoted to major general of volunteers. He was a division commander under Frémont in the Department of the West.

Hunter’s main claims to fame was an unauthorized 1862 order emancipating slaves in three Southern states, and as the president of the military commission trying the conspirators involved with the assassination of Lincoln.

Stephen A. Hurlbut.  Stephen Augustus Hurlbut (1815-1882) was the commander of the U.S. Army of the Gulf in the American Civil War.  He was a presidential elector for the Whig Party in the 1848 Presidential Election.  He was selected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1859 and again in 1861.  Hurlbut joined the Union Army and became a Brigadier General in 1861 and a Major General in 1862.  He commanded the 4^th division of Army of the Tennesseeat the Battle of Shiloh and in the advance towards Corinth and the subsequent siege.

For more information:

• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

Rugus Ingalls (1818-1893), who graduated from West Point in the same class as Ulysses S. Grant, helped establish effective supply depots for McClellan’s army during the Peninsula Campaign. Following the Peninsula Campaign, he became the chief quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac. He served efficiently during the Northern Virginia and Maryland campaigns, winning praise for his logistics skills.

James W. Jackson.  James William Jackson (ca. 1824-1861) was the proprietor of the Marshall House, an inn located in Alexandria, Virginia. He killed Elmer E. Ellsworth, the first Union officer to be killed in the Civil War.

Stonewall Jackson.  Thomas Jonathan Jackson (1824-1863), known as “Stonewall” Jackson, is one of the best-known of the Confederate generals and military historians consider him to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders. He had received his famous nickname at the First Battle of Bull Run. By mid-afternoon the battle centered on Henry House Hill and as the Confederate lines began to crumble under heavy Union assault, Jackson’s brigade of Virginia soldiers provided crucial reinforcements. Brigadier General Barnard E. Bee reportedly shouted to his own troops: “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Rally behind the Virginians!”

For more information:

• Gods and Generals, by Jeff Shara (PS 3569 .H18 G63 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Mighty Stonewall, by Frank Everson Vandiver (E 467.1 .J15 V3 1989 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Stonewall Jackson, by John Esten Cooke (SPL E 467.1 .J15 C66 1893 in the UWRF University Archives & Area Research Center)
• Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend, by James I. Robertson, Jr. (E 467.1 .J15 R63 1997 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

Albert G. Jenkins.  Albert Gallatin Jenkins (1830-1864) graduated from Harvard Law School and was an attorney and planter in what is now West Virginia. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1857-1861), resigning to raise a company of mounted rangers that became part of the Confederate 8th Virginia Cavalry with Jenkins as its colonel. In early 1862 he became a delegate to the First Confederate Congress, which he left in August 1862 when he was appointed a brigadier general. In September, Jenkins’s cavalry raided northern Kentucky and West Virginia, and briefly entered extreme southern Ohio near Buffington Island, becoming one of the first organized Confederate units to enter a Northern state. In May 1864, Jenkins was severely wounded and captured during the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain. A Union surgeon amputated his arm, but he died twelve days later.

Charles R. Jennison.  Charles Rainsford “Doc” Jennison (1834-1884) had lived in Wisconsin from 1846-1857 and studied medicine there. He moved to Kansas in 1858 where he became a hero of the anti-slavery faction during the Bleeding Kansas border war. He was brutal and unscrupulous, blatantly plundering for person gain. Even before the Civil War started, in February 1861, Jennison became a captain of the Mound City Guards  and in September received a commission as colonel of the 7th Kansas Cavalry, which became known as “Jennison’s Jayhawkers.” In April 1862, Jennison, angered over James G. Blunt being named brigadier general in his stead, resigned from the army and turned to banditry as a Redleg. Following the Lawrence Massacre (August 21, 1863) Jennison was once again commissioned a colonel and raised the 15th Kansas Cavalry. During Price’s Raid into Missouri in October 1864, Jennison commanded a mixed brigade of Kansas militia and volunteers. In December Jennison found himself under arrest for plundering while returning through Missouri after the pursuit of Price. He was court-martialled and convicted on June 23, 1865, whereupon he was dishonorably dismissed. After the War, Jennison was elected to the Kansas Legislature and the Kansas State Senate.

William S. Jett.  William Storke “Willie” Jett (1846-1884), was from Westmoreland County, Virginia, and served in Company C of the 9th Virginia Cavalry, joining in June 1864 at the age of 17. Thirteen days later, Willie received a severe wound when shot in the abdomen during the First Battle of Reams Station, and the wound was so incapacitating that he never returned to active duty with his regiment. After the surrender of Lee, while on his way home to Westmoreland County, Willie and two other former Confederates, while waiting for the ferry along the Rappahannock River, met John Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold. As they waited together, they fell into conversation, and Herold divulged that they were Lincoln’s killers. Once across the river, Herold asked Willie to help find a place for Booth and himself to stay. After several tries, Willie took them to the Garrett Farm, introduced Booth as a returning Confederate soldier, and Garrett agreed to take in Booth. The next day, the men from the 16th N.Y. Cavalry found Jett and he gave up the whereabouts of Booth, guiding the cavalry to the Garrett farm.

Read more about Willie Jett:

• by Eric J. Mink, on the Mysteries and Conundrums website [accessed May 2015].

Bradley T. Johnson.  Bradley Tyler Johnson (1829-1903) served as a general in the Confederate States Army, despite the fact that his home state of Maryland remained loyal to the Union. He commanded the 1st Maryland Infantry (CSA).

Bushrod Johnson (1817-1880) was a teacher before the War and co-chancellor of the University of Nashville after the War. He was one of a handful of Confederate generals who were born and raised in the North. When the War started, he became a colonel of engineers in the Tennessee Militia and then in the Confederate States Army. He was instrumental in the building of Fort Donelson. Two days after the surrender of the Fort, Johnson was able to walk unimpeded through the porous Union  Army lines.

For more information:

• Yankee Quaker, Confederate General: The Curious Career of Bushrod Johnson, by Charles M. Cummings (E 467.1 .J6 C8 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)

Edward Johnson (1816-1873) was nicknamed “Allegheny Johnson” while commanding six infantry regiments in the Battle of Camp Allegheny on December 13, 1861. He had received the rank of colonel in the 12th Georgia Infantry on July 2, 1861, and the 12th Georgia fought in the battles of Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861), Cheat Mountain (September 12-15, 1861), and Greenbrier River (October 3, 1861). He was promoted to brigadier general on December 13, 1861.

Richard W. Johnson.  Richard Woodhouse Johnson (1827-1897) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer, primarily serving on the frontier. In 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Cavalry, and then brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers. On August 21, 1862, he was defeated and captured by John Hunt Morgan, whom he had been sent to drive out of Tennessee. Of local interest, he died and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Stovepipe Johnson.  Adam Rankin “Stovepipe” Johnson (1834-1922) was born in Kentucky and moved to Texas in 1854 where he became a noted Indian fighter and supplied Butterfield Overland Mail stations. When the Civil War started, he returned to Kentucky and joined Nathan B. Forrest’s cavalry.  He later received a promotion to colonel of a regiment of Partisan Rangers that often operated deep behind Federal lines in Kentucky, harassing Union supply lines and isolated garrisons.  He received his nickname by using two joints of stovepipe to simulate a cannon when he and 12 men raided Newburgh, Indiana.  In 1863, Johnson assumed command of a brigade in the cavalry division of General John Hunt Morgan and Johnson participated in Morgan’s Raid. Following the Confederate’s defeat at the Battle of Buffington Island, Johnson led nearly 350 men to safety across the Ohio River.  On August 21, 1864, he was blinded by an accidental shot from one of his own men.  Subsequently Johnson was captured by Union troops and imprisoned for most of the rest of the War.  Despite being blind, he returned to Texas where he founded a town, established a company, and worked to harness the water power of the Colorado River.

Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862) was a Confederate general in the Civil War. He saw extensive combat during his military career, fighting actions in the Black Hawk War, the Texas Revolution/War of Independence, the Mexican War, the Utah or Mormon War, and the Civil War. Like many regular army officers from the South he was opposed to secession, but resigned his commission soon after he heard of the secession of Texas. Jefferson Davis appointed him a full general around September 1, 1861, and he became the commander of the Western Department. Johnston was killed April 6, 1862, at the Battle of Shiloh. He was the highest ranking officer, Union or Confederate, killed during the entire war.

For more information:

• Albert Sidney Johnston, Soldier of Three Republics, by Charles P. Roland ( E467.1.J73 R6 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• ” ‘I must save this army’: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Shiloh Campaign, by John R. Lundberg, in The Shiloh Campaign, edited by Steven E. Woodworth. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.
• Utah Expedition, 1857-1858: A Documentary Account of the United States Military Movement Under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, and the Resistance by Brigham Young and the Mormon Nauvoo Legion, edited by LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, vol. 8 in the Far West and the Rockies Historical Series (F 591 .F35 v. 8 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)

Joseph E. Johnston (1807-1891). Joseph Eggleston Johnston, a graduate of West Point, was a career army officer, veteran of the Mexican War, and one of the most senior general officers in the Confederate Army. (He was unrelated to Albert S. Johnston, another Confederate general.) Johnston was the senior Confederate commander at the First Battle of Bull Run, but the victory is usually credited to P. G. T. Beauregard. Johnston suffered a severe wound at the Battle of Seven Pines (May 31-June 1, 1862), and he was replaced in command by his classmate at West Point, Robert E. Lee. In November 1862 he was appointed to command of the Department of the West. The major crisis he faced was defending Confederate control of Vicksburg. Johnston urged General John C. Pemberton abandoning the city and thus avoid being surrounded by General Ulyssess S. Grant. Had Pemberton joined forces with Johnston’s troops, they would have outnumbered Grant, but Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Pemberton to defend the city.  The relationship between Johnston and Davis had been a difficult one since the early days of the war, and became bitter as they publicly traded recriminations about who was to blame for the fall of Vicksburg.

In 1864, Johnston fought Union General William T. Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign. He surrendered his armies to Sherman on April 26, 1865. After the war Johnston was a railroad and insurance executive. He served a term in Congress and was commissioner of railroads under President Grover Cleveland. Johnston died of pneumonia that he contracted while serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of his former adversary, and later friend, William T. Sherman.

For more information:

• Narrative of Military Operations Directed During the Late War Between the States, by Joseph E. Johnston, 1959 edition with introduction by Frank E. Vandiver (E 470 .J73 1959 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).
• “The Good Hater: Joseph E. Johnston” in After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped, by David Hardin. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.

William “Grumble” Jones.  William Edmondson Jones (1824-1864), known as “Grumble” Jones, graduated from West Point and was a career military officer until he resigned in 1857 to become a planter. At the start of the Civil War, Jones joined the 1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment as a captain, commanding a company he had raised. On May 9 he was promoted to major in Virginia’s Provisional Army, and later that month both Jones and the regiment were transferred into the Confederate Army. Jones served under Col. J.E.B. Stuart in the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. The following month he was promoted to the rank of colonel was given command of the 1st Virginia Cavalry. In March 1862 Jones was given command of all cavalry in the Valley District. Jones’s cavalry was distinguished in the Second Bull Run Campaign, and he was wounded in a skirmish at Orange Court House (August 2, 1862). He was promoted to brigadier general on September 19, 1862, and on November 8, was assigned to command the 4th Brigade of Stuart’s Cavalry Division in the Army of Northern Virginia. On June 9, 1863, he fought in the largest cavalry engagement of the war, the Battle of Brandy Station. In October of that year, J.E.B. Stuart’s ongoing dissatisfaction with Jones resulted in Stuart having Jones court-martialed for insulting him. Although Grumble was found guilty, Robert E. Lee intervened, and Jones was transferred to the Trans-Allegheny Department in West Virginia. Jones recruited a brigade of cavalry there and campaigned in eastern Tennessee with General James Longstreet during the winter and spring of 1864. In May, Jones assumed command of the Confederate forces in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. In the Battle of Piedmont (June 5, 1864), Jones was shot and killed while leading a charge.

Henry M. Judah.  Henry Moses Judah (1821-1866) graduated from West Point in 1843 and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War and in the West, where he gained a reputation for bouts of inebriation. When the Civil War started, he returned to the East and was appointed a brigadier general in March 1862. He is most remembered for his role in helping thwart Morgan’s Raid in 1863 and for leading a disastrous attack during the Battle of Resaca. Judah led an infantry division under General Schofield during the Atlanta Campaign. Having been previously disciplined for poor performance and alcoholism by Schofield, Judah was given one last chance to redeem himself at the Battle of Resaca. In his haste to seize victory, he did not properly reconnoiter the battlefield terrain beforehand or use his artillery in the fight. It was his last field command, as Schofield soon removed him from duty. He was placed on routine administrative duty until the end of the war.

Philip Kearny (1815-1862) was a millionaire who obtained a commission as a second lieutenant of cavalry and fought Indians on the western frontier. In the early 1840s, her served as General Winfield Scott’s aide-de-camp and led Scott’s personal bodyguard in the Mexican War. He led a daring cavalry charge in the Mexican War and was the first man of the U.S. Army to enter Mexico City. After a storybook life, he was appointed a brigadier general when the Civil War started. He led the 3rd division into action at the Battle of Williamsburg and the Battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks. An interesting footnote, Kearny is credited with devising the first unit insignia patches used in the U.S. Army.

William H. Keim.  William High Keim (1813-1862) was commissioned as a major general of Pennsylvania Volunteers on April 20, 1861. When his 3 month enlistment expires in July he returned home to Reading. As it became evident that it was not going to be a quick war, Keim re-enlisted and was commissioned a brigadier general of Volunteers on December 20, 1861. He died of typhus on May 18, 1862, while in military service.

Benjamin F. Kelley.  Benjamin Franklin Kelley (1807-1891) was in the merchandise business before the Civil War broke out. He raised the 1st Virginia Infantry when the Civil War started and served as its colonel. In their first action, at the Battle of Philippi, he was badly wounded. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in May of 1861 and was victorious in several smaller battles. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in May, 1861. He played a prominent role in several military campaigns in West Virginia and Maryland, including pursuing General Robert E. Lee during the retreat from Gettysburg. In 1864, Kelley checked the enemy at Folck’s Mill, New Creek, and Moorefield, all in West Virginia. He was brevetted as a major general of volunteers in August, 1864. In 1865 Kelley, along with his immediate superior General George Crook, was captured by  Confederate partisans on February 21, 1865. Kelley was sent to a prison in Richmond, Virginia, but he and Crook were released on March 20 by a special exchange. He resigned from the army on June 1, 1865. Kelley was Jeremiah C. Sullivan’s father-in-law.

John D. Kennedy (1840-1896).  John Doby Kennedy was a Confederate general from South Carolina. At the First Battle of Bull Run (1st Manassas), he was struck by a Minie ball and badly wounded. While recovering, he was promoted to colonel when Joseph B. Kershaw was promoted to brigadier general.

E. D. Keyes.  Erasmus Darwin Keyes (1810-1895) was a career military officer and had been General Winfield Scott’s military secretary from January 1, 1860, to April 1861. When the Civil War broke out, he became colonel of the 11th U.S. Infantry and led the 1st Brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run. In August of 1861 he had been promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 1st Brigade in McDowell’s Division.

Judson Kilpatrick.  Hugh Judson Kilpatrick (1836-1881) was commonly referred to as Judson Kilpatrick. He graduated from West Point in 1861, just after the Civil War started. He was commissioned in the 1st U.S. Artillery, but within three days he was a captain in the 5th New York Infantry. Kilpatrick was wounded in the Battle of Big Bethel (June 10, 1861) and by September 1861 was lieutenant colonel of the 2nd New York Cavalry, a regiment he helped to raise. At the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28-31, 1862) he lost a full squadron of troopers in a reckless cavalry charge, but was still promoted to full colonel in December of that year. Because of his aggressive and fearless manner, he was nicknamed “Kill Cavalry.” He was jailed in 1862 on charges of corruption, accused of selling captured Confederate goods for personal gain. Kilpatrick gained public fame during the Chancellorsville Campaign in May 1863 by leading a cavalry sweep behind Confederate lines, capturing wagons, burning bridges, and riding around Lee. on June 9, 1863, Kilpatrick fought at Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle of the war, and received his brigadier general’s star on June 13. In the spring of 1864, Kilpatrick conducted a raid through the Virginia Peninsula, hoping to rescue Union prisoners of war held at Belle Isle and in Libby Prisons in Richmond. The raid resulted in 324 Union cavalrymen killed and wounded–including Ulric Dahlgren’ brigade–and 1000 more taken prisoner. The “Kilpatrick-Dahlgren” expedition was such a fiasco that Kilpatrick was transferred to command the 3rd Division of the Cavalry Corps of General William T. Sherman’s Army of the Cumberland.

Nathan Kimball (1822-1898) was a medical doctor before the Civil War, with military experience as a captain in the 2nd Indiana Infantry in the Mexican War. When the Civil War started, Kimball raised a company of infantry and was commissioned colonel of the 14th Indiana Infantry. He participated in the battles of Cheat Mountain and Kernstown.

Rufus King (1814-1876) became editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1845. Before the Civil War broke out, President Lincoln appointed him as ambassador to the Vatican. He was in New York boarding the boat for Europe when he heard of the attack on Fort Sumter. King rushed back to Washington, D.C., and was commissioned a brigadier general, with responsibility over the first Wisconsin brigade of volunteers that could be raised.  On October 1, 1861, he became the commander of the famous Iron Brigade.

For more details:

• Rufus King entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

Joseph F. Knipe.  Joseph Farmer Knipe (1823-1901) enlisted in the United States Army in 1842, rose to the rank of sergeant, and served in the Mexican War. He was discharged in 1847 and worked in the railroad industry and then the mercantile business. Knipe enrolled in the Pennsylvania state militia and became a major and aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Edward Williams. When the Civil War started, Williams and Knipe selected the site for the Pennsylvania’s new military training center, and in September 1861, Governor Andrew Curtin commissioned Knipe as a colonel and authorized him to raise the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He fought in the 1862 Valley Campaign and was wounded at the First Battle of Winchester and again at the Battle of Cedar Mountain. In April 1863 he was promoted to brigadier general. He led the 1st Brigade (1st Division, XII Corps) at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Suffering from lingering effects from his wounds and a bout with malaria, he temporarily left the Army, returned to Pennsylvania, and took command of a brigade of inexperienced New York militia, which he led in pursuit of the retreating Army of Northern Virginia following the Battle of Gettysburg. Returning to his XII Corps brigade, Knipe served in the Atlanta Campaign, then took command of a division of cavalry during John Bell Hood’s incursion into Tennessee. He captured 6,000 Confederates and eight battleflags in a decisive victory over the retreating Army of Tennessee following the Battle of Nashville.

Oscar H. La Grange.  Oscar Hugh La Grange (1837-1915) moved to Wisconsin with his family in 1845 and graduated from Ripon College and the University of Wisconsin. He became an abolitionist and participated in the Kansas warfare known as Bleeding Kansas. With the start of the Civil War he enlisted in the 4th Wisconsin Infantry (captain of Company B), but transferred to the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry. In 1863, La Grange became a brigade commander in the Army of the Cumberland (2nd Brigade, 1st Division). He participated in the Battle of Chickamauga. In 1864, La Grange was serving in the Battle of Rocky Face Ridge when he was taken prisoner. He was exchanged three months later and after returning to action, La Grange and his brigade played a vital role in the Battle of West Point. After the Civil War he served as superintendent of the San Francisco Mint.

Jim Lane. James Henry Lane (1814-1866), also known as Jim Lane, moved to Kansas Territory in 1855. He immediately became involved in the abolitionist movement in Kansas and was often called the leader of the Jayhawkers. When Kansas was admitted to the Union in 1861, Lane was elected a U.S. Senator and served from April 4, 1861-July 11, 1866. While serving as a senator, Lane raised a brigade composed of Jayhawkers that was known as the “Kansas Brigade” or “Lane’s Brigade,” which was composed of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers. He led this force against General Sterling Price in Missouri several times in 1861, including the looting and burning of Osceola on September 23, 1861, for which he was severly criticized.  In December of 1861 Lane was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers, but his commission was canceled in March of 1862 in an argument over whether a sitting U.S. senator could also hold the rank of general. Less than a month later he was reinstated and served as recruiting commissioner for Kansas.

There was also a Confederate general named James Henry Lane.

Charles H. Larrabee. Charles Hathaway Larrabee (1820-1883) was a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin from March 1859-March 1861. He enlisted in the Union Army on April 17, 1861, and served until his resignation in September 1863.

Jacob G. Lauman. Jacob Gartner Lauman (1813-1867) was a businessman in Burlington, Iowa, before the Civil War.  He helped raise several companies and was commissioned as the colonel of the 7th Iowa Infantry. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Belmont (November 7, 1861). He was then appointed to lead the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division at the attack on Fort Donelson. General Grant promoted him to brigadier general in March 1862 and he subsequently lead a brigade in General Hurlbut’s division. In 1863 Lauman led the 4th Division of the 17th Corps during the Vicksburg campaign, but was relieved of duty by General William T. Sherman shortly after the capture of Jackson, Mississippi. General Ord accused him of failing to properly execute orders and that his wanton disregard of the orders led to heavy casualties. He returned home for the rest of the war without being given a subsequent command.

Michael K. Lawler. Michael Kelly Lawler (1814-1882), colonel of the 18th Illinois, had served as a captain in the Mexican War. In May 1861 he recruited the 18th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and was appointed as its first colonel. He was wounded at the Battle of Fort Donelson, and in November 1862 he became a brigadier general. He fought with distinction in the Vicksburg Campaign in 1863. He led his men in the battles of Port Gibson, Champion’s Hill, and Big Black River Bridge. General Lawler served as commander of the 1st Division, XIII Corps, in the Department of the Gulf in Louisiana. He took command of the division during the disastrous Red River Campaign and led it on an expedition in June 1864 to secure a crossing of the Atchafalaya River. In the omnibus promotions at the end of the Civil War, Lawler will receive a promotion for distinguished service to major general in the Union army.

For more information:

• “Michael K. Lawler’s Ordeal with the Eighteenth Illinois,” by William A. Pitkin, in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, vol. 58, no. 4 (Winter 1965): 357-77.  Available online.

James H. Ledlie.  James Hewett Ledlie (1832-1882) worked as a civil engineer on the Erie Canal and in railroad construction before the Civil War. After the War started, he was appointed major of the 19th New York Infantry, which became the 3rd New York Artillery, and in December 1861 he was promoted to colonel. In December, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general in command of the Artillery Brigade of the Department of North Carolina and served primarily in garrison positions with North Carolina coastal artillery. Just after the start of the Overland Campaign in 1864, Ledlie transferred to the Army of the Potomac and assumed command of a brigade in General Ambrose Burnside’s IX Corps. At the Battle of North Anna, a brigade under the drunken Ledlie was repulsed from an ill-conceived assault against a strong position at Ox Ford on May 24. During the Siege of Petersburg, Ledlie and his division drew the short straw to replace troops that had been trained to enter a crater to attack Confederate troops; his untrained troops were slaughtered while he stayed behind the lines drinking. He was dismissed from the army after a court of inquiry and formally resigned on January 23, 1865. After the War, Ledlie resumed his civil engineering career working for the Union Pacific’s construction of the transcontinental railroad.

Albert L. Lee.  Albert Lindley Lee (1834-1907) was a lawyer and judge in Kansas and a founder of the Elwood Free Press before the Civil War. He started the War as major and then colonel of the 7th Kansas Cavalry. He was promoted to brigadier general in November 1862. Lee served as chief-of-staff to General John A. McClernand through much of the Vicksburg campaign, serving at the battles of Port Gibson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River. He led the cavalry forces during the Red River Campaign. In the last month of the war, he led a raid against Clinton near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Fitzhugh “Fitz” Lee (1835-1905) was a nephew of Robert E. Lee. He graduated from West Point and after practical experience as a cavalry officer he was an instructor of cavalry tactics at West Point when the Civil War broke out. He was a Confederate cavalry general during the Civil War, and after the Battle of Gettysburg General Stuart said he was “”one of the finest cavalry leaders on the continent.” After the War, he will be the 40th governor of Virginia (1886-1890), the U.S. consul-general in Cuba, and a U.S. general in the Spanish-American War.

Robert E. Lee.  Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870) graduated from West Point and served in the U.S. Army, primarily as an engineer. In 1831 he married Mary Custis, the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. Lee distinguished himself in the Mexican War and was one of Winfield Scott’s chief aides. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met and worked together during the Mexican War. In 1852, Lee was appointed superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 1855, he was promoted and served under Albert Sidney Johnston in the 2nd Cavalry. It meant leaving the Engineering Corps and its sequence of staff jobs for the combat command he truly wanted.

Robert E. Lee is best known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. When Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his personal desire for the Union to stay intact and despite the fact that President Abraham Lincoln had offered Lee command of the Union Army. He soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning numerous battles against larger Union armies. Lee would ultimately surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, and the remaining Confederate armies soon capitulated after Lee’s surrender.

After the War, Lee served as the president of what is now Washington and Lee University from October 1865 until his death in 1870, transforming it into a leading Southern college. Lee’s prewar family home, the Custis-Lee Mansion, was seized by Union forces during the war and turned into Arlington National Cemetery.

For more information:

• General Lee, by Fitzhugh Lee
• Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship
• Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg
• Lee’s Last Campaign: The Story of Lee and His Men Against Grant
• “The Legend: Robert E. Lee” in After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped, by David Hardin. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.
• Marbe Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society
• R. E. Lee, a Biography
• Robert E. Lee
• Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee

Samuel P. Lee.  Samuel Phillips Lee (1812-1897)—son-in-law of Francis P. Blair, brother-in-law of Montgomery Blair, and third cousin of Robert E. Lee—was a career navy officer. During the Civil War he commanded the Union’s North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (1862-1864), with the rank of acting rear admiral, and then the Mississippi River Squadron (October 1864-end of the War). Reverting to his permanent rank of captain after the Civil War, Lee was promoted to rear admiral in 1870 and retired from active service in 1873.

Stephen D. Lee.  Stephen Dill Lee (1833-1908) graduated from West Point and served in the Seminole War and on the western frontier. He resigned his commission in 1861 to join the South Caroline Militia. He was P.G.T. Beauregard’s aide-de-camp who delivered Beauregard’s ultimatum to Union Major Robert Anderson. Lee commanded a light battery in Hampton’s Legion in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army, was promoted to lieutenant colonel in March 1862, was the artillery chief for Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaw and then Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder. Lee participated in the Peninsula Campaign, Second Bull Run, and the Battle of Antietam where his artillery played a prominent role in defending the ground near the famed Dunker Church. In November 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general, and in May 1863 took command of Pemberton’s artillery defending Vicksburg. Lee was wounded at the Battle of Champion Hill. Lee was promoted to major general in August 1863 and lieutenant general in June 1864, the youngest Confederate lieutenant general during the American Civil War. After the War Lee became a planter in Mississippi, was the first president of Mississippi A&M College, and wrote extensively about the War.

W. H. F. Lee.  William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (1837-1891), was known as Rooney (or Roony) or W. H. F. Lee. He entered the United States Army in 1857 as a second lieutenant and served with the 6th U.S. Infantry under Albert Sidney Johnston, participating in the Utah War against the Mormons. In 1859, he resigned from the U.S. Army to operate his White House Plantation in Virginia. When the Civil War broke out, Lee was commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army cavalry, soon promoted to major, and after the Battle of South Mountain he was promoted to brigadier general. Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam under the command of his cousin, General Fitzhugh Lee. He commanded the 3rd Brigade of Stuart’s Cavalry Division at the Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Lee was wounded during the Battle of Brandy Station at the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign and was captured two weeks later while while recuperating. Lee was held as a prisoner of war until February 25, 1864, when he was exchanged for Union General Neal S. Dow. In April 1864, Lee was promoted to major general and commanded a division in the Cavalry Corps during the breakout from Petersburg and the retreat and surrender of his father’s army at Appomattox Court House. After the War, Rooney Lee served in the Virginia Senate (1875-1878) and the U.S. House of Representatives (1887-1891).

Mortimer D. Leggett.  Mortimer Dormer Leggett (1821-1896) was a teacher, studied medicine and then law. In 1847, he was named the first public school superintendent of Akron, Ohio. In 1850, he opened his law practice and five years later his firm created Ohio College of Law in Poland OH, where he was a professor. In 1858, he was named superintendent of Zanesville public schools. Although a Quaker, Leggett became a volunteer aide-de-camp to his friend George McClellan when the Civil War began. He helped raise the 78th Ohio Infantry and was named its colonel. It became part of the army of the Tennessee and fought at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth in 1862 with Leggett suffering wounds at the latter two battles.  In 1863, he commanded the brigade during the Vicksburg campaign, being wounded again at Champion’s Hill. He led the division for the Atlanta Campaign and on July 21, 1864 captured Bald Hill that was later renamed Leggett’s Hill in his honor. He was brevetted major general of volunteers in Sept. 1864 and continued the march with General Sherman through Georgia and the Carolinas. In August 1865, he was promoted to major general of volunteers and resigned the next month. After the war from 1871-1881, he was United States Patent Commissioner appointed by President Grant. He resumed his law practice in Ohio and co-founded the Brush Electric Company which later became part of General Electric.

John A. Logan.  John Alexander Logan (1826-1886) served in the Mexican War and then entered politics, serving in the Illinois state legislature in the 1850s. In the Civil War, he fought at the 1st Battle of Bull run, became colonel of the 31st Illinois Infantry, and fought at the Battles of Belmont and Fort Donelson. In March 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general (March 1862) and commanded the 1st brigade during the Siege of Corinth. In the spring of 1863 he was promoted to major general. During the Vicksburg Campaign, Logan commanded the 3rd Division of the XVII Corps, which was the first to enter the city of Vicksburg in 1863, and after its capture Logan served as its military governor. In November 1863 he succeeded William Tecumseh Sherman in command of the XV Corps; and after the death of James B. McPherson, he commanded the Army of the Tennessee at the Battle of Atlanta (July 22, 1864) until relieved by Oliver O. Howard. After the war, Logan served as a U.S. congressman (1867-1871) and senator (1871-1877) from Illinois, Logan was the unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States (with James G. Blaine) in 1884, and as the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was an important figure in the movement to recognize Memorial Day as an official holiday.

Lunsford L. Lomax.  Lunsford Lindsay Lomax (1835-1913) graduated from West Point in 1856, remaining good friends with classmate Fitzhugh Lee. He was assigned to the prestigious 2nd Cavalry regiment and served in Bleeding Kansas. Resigning from the army in April 1861, he became a captain in the Virginia state militia and was assigned to Joseph E. Johnston’s staff. He was appointed colonel of the 11th Virginia Cavalry in time for the Gettysburg campaign, and was promoted to brigadier general aftermath the battle. Lomax fought under Fitzhugh Lee from Culpeper Courthouse through the Battle of the Wilderness and around Petersburg. He was promoted to major general in August 1864 and was assigned to Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley. In command of the Valley District, he supervised the intelligence-gathering operations of Mosby’s Rangers. When Richmond was evacuated in 1865, Lomax tried to join forces with John Echols’s men at Lynchburg, Virginia, but unable to do so he surrendered with Joe Johnston in North Carolina.

James Longstreet (1821-1904) was a graduate of West Point where he was one year ahead o his friend, Ulysses S. Grant. He served with distinction in the Mexican War.  General Robert E. Lee referred to Longstreet as his “Old War Horse,” and made him his second-in-command. Longstreet’s talents as a general made significant contributions to the Confederate victories at Second Bull Run (August 28-30, 1862), Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862), and Chickamauga (September 19-20, 1863). He also performed strongly during the Seven Days Battles (June 25-July 1, 1862), the Battle of Antietam (September 16, 1862), and, until he was seriously wounded, at the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864). His most controversial service was at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), where some argue he failed to carry out Lee’s instructions and acted too slowly. He reluctantly supervised the disastrous Pickett’s Charge.

After the War, Longstreet’s conversion to the Republican Party, his campaigning for his old friend Ulysses S. Grant’s 1868 presidential bid, and the publication if his memoirs, which included critical comments about General Lee’s wartime performance, especially at Gettysburg, made him anathema to many of his former Confederate colleagues. The Lost Cause movement, led by General Jubal Early and a small group of disgruntled Confederate officers who believed General Lee was infallible, focused their attention on Longstreet’s actions at Gettysburg as a primary reason for the Confederacy’s loss of the war. His reputation in the South was damaged for over a century. Only in the second half of the 20th Century has his reputation been somewhat rehabilitated.

For more information:

• From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War, by James Longstreet, (E 470 .L85 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• James Longstreet, Lee’s War Horse, by H. J. Eckenrode and Bryan Conrad (E 467.1 .L55 E4 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg, by Glenn Tucker (E 475.53 .T8 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Lee the Soldier, edited by Gary W. Gallagher, which includes a reply to Longstreet by Jubal Early (E 467.1 .L4 L48 1996 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan (E 487 .M97 2000 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

Cyrus O. Loomis.  Cyrus O. Loomis (1821-1872) started the War as colonel of the 1st Michigan Artillery. In January 1863 he was appointed the chief of artillery on the staff of Major General George H. Thomas, 1st Division, Center Corps, Army of the Cumberland.

Richard S. C. Lord.  Richard S. C. Lord (1832-1866) graduated from the United States Military Academy in West Point in 1856 and was a career military officer, serving on the western frontier to fight against the Apache Indians. He continued his service with the 1st U.S. Cavalry when the Civil War began. During the Chancellorsville Campaign, he became a captain and commanded the regiment in a reserve brigade as part of the Army of the Potomac, and commanded the regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg. He eventually attained the rank of major and was later promoted to brevet colonel in the Regular Army when the war was over. He died from consumption in 1866 when he was only 34 years old.

William W. Loring.  William Wing Loring (1818-1886) joined the Florida Militia and gained his first combat experience fighting the Seminole Indians when he was only 14. He then ran away to fight in the Texas War for Independence, but he father caught up with him and took him home, where he became a 2nd lieutenant fight in the 2nd Seminole War. He studied law at Georgetown University and was admitted to the Florida bar in 1842. He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1843-45. Loring then served in the Mexican War and was wounded 3 times, including in an arm that ended up being amputated. During the California gold rush, Loring led a train of 600 mule teams from Missouri to Oregon, and was in command of the Oregon Territory for two years. He then was the commander of several forts on the frontier and fought Indians. He was promoted to colonel in the regular army at the age of 38, the youngest in the army. When the Civil War started, he resigned from the U.S. Army on May 13, 1861. Loring was commissioned a brigadier general and given command of the Army of the Northwest and sent to defend western Virginia. During the Vicksburg Campaign he was cut off from the rest of the army at the Battle of Champion Hill. Loring temporarily took over command of Leonidas Polk’s corps when Polk was killed at Pine Mountain on June 14, 1864, After being wounded at Ezra Church on July 28, 1864, Loring was out of action until after the fall of Atlanta. After the Civil War, Loring served for 9 years in Egypt.

Charles S. Lovell.  Charles Swain Lovell (1811-1871) was a career military officer. He served in the Second Seminole War, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private in 1831, was promoted to quartermaster, sergeant-major, and in 1837 was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Infantry. In 1861 he was promoted to major in the 10th U.S. Infantry, brevetted a lieutenant colonel in June 1862, and brevetted a colonel in July 1862. From January 1863 to February 1865 Lovell was a lieutenant colonel. During this time as lieutenant colonel of the 18th U.S. Infantry, Lovell was also acting assistant provost marshal general for Wisconsin and as such was responsible for “the draft, the arrest of deserters, treasonable practices, &c.” On February 16, 1865, he became colonel of the 14th U.S. Infantry. In March of 1865 Lovell was brevetted a brigadier general for his actions in the Battle of Antietam. Lovell retired from active service in 1870 and died in 1871.

T. S. C. Lowe. Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe (1832-1913) was an American scientist,  and inventor. By the late 1850s he was well-known for his balloon building and in In July 1861, President Lincoln appointed him Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps. Lowe organized the Corps as a civilian operation and he used a group of prominent American aeronauts and seven specially-built, gas-filled balloons to perform aerial reconnaissance for the Union Army. Lowe’s first outing was at the First Battle of Bull Run.

For more information:

• Above the Civil War: The Story of Thaddeus Lowe, Balloonist, Inventor, Railway Builder, by Eugene B. Block, (TL 620 .L6 B57 UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

Nathaniel Lyon (1818-1861) was the first Union general to be killed in the Civil War. Lyon graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. Lyon became a staunch abolitionist while serving in the border wars between Kansas and Missouri. When the Civil War started, Lyon was in charge of the U.S. arsenal in St. Louis, Missouri, and prevented its capture by pro-Confederate forces. Lyon was killed on August 10, 1861, at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. The Lyon Light Guards from Prescott, Wisconsin, were named in his honor.

“Billy” Magruder.  Henry C. Magruder (1843–1865) was a Confederate guerrilla who served primarily in his native state of Kentucky. Magruder originally enlisted in the Confederate States Army and served under General Simon B. Buckner. Magruder was captured at the Battle of Fort Donelson, but soon escaped and joined the personal bodyguard of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston. In this capacity, he participated in the Battle of Shiloh. After General Johnston’s demise, he joined the forces of General John Hunt Morgan, and participated in Morgan’s raids into Ohio and Indiana. He then formed his own guerrilla partisan ranger band of men and ran around the area just south of Louisville. On March 12, 1865, fifty Union soldiers from the 30th Wisconsin Infantry, under the command of Major Cyrus Wilson, surrounded a tobacco barn and captured Marcellus Jerome Clarke (“Sue Mundy”*), Magruder, and Henry Metcalfe. After Clarke’s execution, Magruder confessed to being Sue Mundy in his memoir. Magruder was tried, convicted of murder, and executed in October, 1865.

* “Sue Mundy” was a fictional guerrilla character created by George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, who opposed the heavy-handed military rule of General Stephen G. Burbridge in Kentucky. Prentice created the “Sue Mundy” persona to portray Burbridge as an incompetent commander, unable to protect Kentucky citizens. Clarke by this time was 20-years-old, wore his hair long, and had smooth-faced features, so many thought that he was Sue Mundy.

John B. Magruder.  John Bankhead Magruder (1807-1871) was a career military officer who served with the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Magruder is perhaps best remembered for his actions in delaying Union troops during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign by using elaborate ruses that gave McClellan the impression that the Confederates had more forces than they actually did. Magruder, however, performed poorly and not aggressively in the subsequent Seven Days Battle, earning a poor reputation with Robert E. Lee, who sent him to Texas. On January 1, 1863, Magruder’s forces won the Battle of Galveston, recapturing the city and port for the Confederacy.

William Mahone.  William “Little Billy” Mahone (1826-1895) was prominent in the building of Virginia’s roads and railroads before the Civil War. As a Confederate general, he was best known for regaining the initiative at the Battle of the Crater (July 30, 1864), and his counter-attack turned the engagement into a disastrous Union defeat. After the War, he returned to railroad building. He also led the Re-adjuster Party—a coalition of blacks, Republicans and Conservative Democrats—and was elected to the U.S. Senate from Virginia as an independent, serving from 1881 to 1887.

Joseph K. Mansfield. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield (1803-1862) commanded the Department of Washington (April 27-August 17, 1861) at the start of the Civil War; he was promoted to brigadier general on May 6, 1861.

Mahlon D. Manson.  Mahlon Dickerson Manson (1820-1895) studied medicine in Ohio and was a druggist in Indiana, a member of the Indiana legislature, and served in the 5th Indiana Volunteers in the Mexican War. He was a captain in the 10th Indiana Infantry and was promoted to colonel in less than a month. He commanded a brigade in the Army of the Ohio at the Battle of Mill Springs and based on his actions there was promoted to brigadier general in March of 1862. Manson was wounded at the Battle of Richmond (Ky.) and captured by Confederate forces. He was exchanged two months later and fought John Hunt Morgan during his raid into Ohio. In the span of two months Manson advanced from brigade to division to corps command, leading the XXIII Corps during the Knoxville Campaign. Returning to brigade command he participated in the Atlanta Campaign and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Resaca. After the War he served in the U. S. House of Representatives (1871-1873), was Indiana state auditor (1879-1881), and the 20th lieutenant governor of Indiana (1885-1886).

John S. Marmaduke.  John Sappington Marmaduke (1833-1887) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer. Although his father was a strong supporter of the Union, in the spring of 1861 Marmaduke’s pro-secession uncle, Missouri’s Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, soon appointed him colonel of the First Regiment of Rifles in the Missouri State Guard. Disgusted by their poor showing in the Battle of Boonville, he resigned, went to Richmond, and received a commission in the regular Confederate State Army. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. In November 1862, he received a promotion to brigadier general and his first battle in that capacity was the Battle of Prairie Grove (December 7, 1862). In September 1863 Marmaduke killed another Confederate officer in a duel. After the War, he served as the 25th governor of Missouri (1884-1887); his father had been the 8th governor of Missouri and his uncle the 15th.

John H. Martindale.  John Henry Martindale (1815-1881) was the son of Congressman Henry C. Martindale. He was an 1835 graduate of West Point. He later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1838. In 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers of the Union Army. He participated in the Peninsula campaign and was active in engagements at Yorktown, Hanover Court-house, Gaines’s Mill, Mechanicsville, Malvern and Harrison’s Landing. After Malvern and Harrison’s Landing, General Fitz John Porter charged Martindale with influencing his men to surrender at Malvern Hill. While the court found Martindale’s conduct “reprehensible”, no action was taken. He was later exonerated of. In 1862, he was appointed military governor of Washington where he served until May, 1864 when he joined Gen. Benjamin Butler’s army and led a division both at operations south of Richmond, the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, the Battle of Cold Harbor and at the Siege of Petersburg. While commanding the 18th Corps, he resigned from the army due to illness on 13 Sept. 1864. After the war, he resumed his law practice in Rochester, New York and was New York State Attorney General for the term of 1866 to 1868. From 1868 to 1879, he served as vice president of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.

Gilman Marston (1811-1890) was a lawyer and politician from New Hampshire before the Civil War.   Marston was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives (1845-1849), a delegate to the State constitutional convention (1850), and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1859-1863). Marston was the colonel of the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry and participated in the First Battle of Bull Run where his arm was shattered, but he refused an amputation. After he recovered, he fought in the Peninsula Campaign, Second Battle of Bull Run, and Battle of Fredericksburg. Marston was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in November 1862. He briefly returned to his seat in Congress while assigned to the defense of Washington, D.C. In 1864, he commanded a brigade during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign and took part in the Battle of Cold Harbor, where his brigade suffered heavy casualties. During the Union assaults on Petersburg, Marston assumed command of the 1st Division in the XVIII Corps on the last day of battle. He resigned in 1865 after being re-elected to Congress (1865-1867). On March 4, 1889 he was appointed U.S. Senator from New Hampshire to fill a vacancy and served until June 18, 1889.

John McArthur (1826-1906) was one of the ablest Union commanders in the Western Theater. At the outbreak of the Civil War, McArthur was appointed colonel of an Illinois volunteer regiment. Shortly after, he was elevated to command the 1st Brigade in Brigadier General Charles F. Smith’s division. Following Fort Donelson McArthur was promoted to brigadier general and led his brigade at the Battle of Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, and the siege of Vicksburg. His troops played a significant role in breaking the Confederate lines the second day of the Battle of Nashville, and he received a brevet promotion to major general of volunteers for his actions in that battle.

George A. McCall. George Archibald McCall (1802-1868) was a career military officer who had served with distinction in the Mexican War. He was one of the oldest West Point graduates to serve in the Civil War.

John McCausland (1836-1927) was a Confederate brigadier general, famous for the ransom of Hagerstown, Maryland, and the burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated with first honors from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1857, and taught mathematics there until 1861. In July 1861, he became colonel of the 36th Virginia Infantry. He fought at the Battle of Fort Donelson and escaped with his command before the Confederates surrendered the fort in February 1862. McCausland was promoted to brigadier general in May 1864, and served as a cavalry brigade commander in the Valley Campaigns of 1864, raiding into Maryland and Pennsylvania with General Jubal Early. He burned the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in retaliation for the destruction of private property by Union General David Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley, including the burning of the VMI. After the failure of Early’s campaign, McCausland rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia and participated in the Siege of Petersburg, the Battle of Five Forks, and the Appomattox Campaign. He escaped with his cavalry from Appomattox Court House before General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, but disbanded his unit soon after and was paroled in May 1865. After the War, he faced arson charges for the burning of Chambersburg, but was pardoned by President Ulysses S. Grant.

George B. McClellan.  George Brinton McClellan (1826-1885) was a major general during the Civil War. Early in the war, he played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army.

For more information:

• Lincoln, Master of Men: A Study in Character, by Alonzo Rothschild (E 457 .R84 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library); digitally available on Google Books
• McClellan, Sherman, and Grant, by T. Harry Williams, 1962 (E 467 .W5 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

John A. McClernand. John Alexander McClernand (1812-1900) was a prominent Democratic politician in Illinois and a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1859-1861, before the war.  Early in the war he served under General Grant in the Western Theater. He was second in command at the Battle of Belmont, and commanded the 1st Division of Grant’s army at Fort Donelson in February 1862. Following the Battle of Fort Donelson, McClernand is promoted to major general in March 1862. His service as a major general is tainted by his political maneuvering, which annoyed his fellow generals.

For more information:

• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

Alexander M. McCook. Alexander McDowell McCook (1831-1903) was a career military officer and one of “The Fighting McCooks.” At the start of the Civil War, McCook was appointed colonel of the 1st Ohio Infantry. He saw action at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, and in September he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. McCook commanded a division in Tennessee and  helped capture Nashville. McCook then commanded the 2nd Division in the Army of the Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh.

Anson G. McCook.  Anson George McCook (1835-1917) was one of the extended family known as “The Fighting McCooks.”  Anson enlisted in the 2nd Ohio Infantry when President Lincoln called for volunteers. It was a three-months regiment and he was commissioned as a captain. He saw combat at the First Battle of Bull Run. When the regiment was reorganized as a three-years regiment, McCook re-enlisted and was named as major. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 2nd Ohio. Battles he participated in include Perryville, Stones River, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge. During the Atlanta Campaign, McCook commanded a brigade of infantry and was distinguished by his actions at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. He was mustered out in late 1864, along with his regiment, and was then named colonel of the new 194th Ohio Infantry, which served with Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. He was brevetted a brigadier general of Volunteers for his gallant and meritorious service. Anson McCook resigned from the army in 1865. After the War, he was a three-term U.S. Representative from New York, serving from 1877 to 1883. McCook then served as the Secretary of the U.S. Senate until 1893.

Daniel McCook.  Daniel McCook (1798-1863) was one of the two brothers who, along with their 13 sons, are collectively known as “The Fighting McCooks.” Before the Civil War he was a lawyer in Ohio, and with the outbreak of the War, despite being 63 years old, Daniel volunteered his services to the Union. He was commissioned as a major and paymaster. He was killed in action at the Battle of Buffington Island during Morgan’s Raid.

Edward M. McCook.  Edward Moody McCook (1833-1909) was a member of “The Fighting McCooks” family. He moved to Kansas Territory as a young man and became a lawyer. In 1859 he joined the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush and then represented the Pikes Peak region in the Kansas Territorial House of Representatives. When the Civil War started in 1861 he went to Washington, D.C., and became a secret agent, gathering information of value to the Union army. Next he enlisted as a cavalry lieutenant in the regular army. He then joined the volunteer army as a captain in the 2nd Indiana Cavalry, rising to the rank of colonel by the middle of 1862. McCook commanded a cavalry brigade at the Battle of Perryville, and a division at Chickamauga. In April of 1864 he was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers and was given command of the 1st Cavalry Division in the Army of the Cumberland. His division raided and severed a railroad line in Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign, and tried to release the prisoners at Andersonville Prison. McCook was defeated at the Battle of Brown’s Mill, but served with distinction in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. In March and April 1865, he commanded the 1st Division in Wilson’s Raid through Alabama and Georgia, including the Battle of Selma where the Union cavalry dealt a crushing defeat to Nathan Bedford Forrest. In early May, McCook’s division was assigned to re-establish Federal control and authority in Florida, and the last Confederate troops in the state surrendered to McCook on May 13. After the War, McCook served as the U.S. Minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii (1866-1868), and as the governor of Colorado Territory (1869-1873), where he was among the first territorial governors to endorse women’s suffrage.

Robert L. McCook.  Robert Latimer McCook (1827-1862) was a member of “The Fighting McCooks” family. One of Daniel McCook’s sons, he practiced law in the family firm in Ohio before the Civil War. When the War broke out, McCook organized the 9th Ohio Infantry, and was appointed as its first colonel. He commanded a brigade in a number of battles, including Rich Mountain, Carnifex Ferry, and Mill Springs, where he was severely wounded. McCook was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in March of 1862.  Robert McCook was shot in a skirmish with the  4th Alabama Cavalry in Alabama. The Northern version of the story claims he was murdered by one of Confederate John Hunt Morgan’s guerrillas while lying helpless in an ambulance, but the Southern version disputes this. However it happened, he died within 24 hours.

Ben McCulloch. Benjamin McCulloch (1811-1862) was a Texas Ranger, a U.S. marshal, and a Confederate brigadier general. On August 10, 1861, McCulloch’s troops, though relatively poorly armed, defeated General Nathaniel Lyon’s Union troops at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in Missouri.  But McCulloch’s lack of confidence in Sterling Price’s Missouri forces led him to hesitate in striking boldly against Lyon, a move that might have given the Confederacy control of Missouri. The continuing feud between McCulloch and Price after Wilson’s Creek led to the appointment of Earl Van Dorn to the overall command of the Confederate troops in the area. At the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, on March 7, 1862, McCulloch led the Confederate right wing and his troops overran a key Union artillery position, but McCulloch was killed later in the day.

For more information:

• Benjamin McCulloch entry in The Handbook of Texas Online.
• The McCulloch (Ben and Henry Eustace) Family Papers are at the University of Texas at Austin.

Irvin McDowell (1818-1885), another career military officer, is perhaps best known for his defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run and some culpability in the Second Battle of Bull Run defeat. After First Bull Run he was put in charge of the forces left to defend Washington, D. C.

Justus McKinstry (1814-1897) was a graduate of West Point (in 1838) and served in both the Seminole War in Florida and the Mexican War. He was the U.S. Army quartermaster and provost Marshall of Saint Louis during the Frémont era, and is generally thought to have used his position as quartermaster to better his own situation with bribes and payoffs but history it seems has cleared him of these charges. In mid-1861 Frémont made McKinstry a general of infantry and gave him a division.

For more details see:

• G. E. Rule’s “Justus McKinstry and His Enemies” on the Civil War St. Louis website.

James B. McPherson.  James Birdseye McPherson (1828-1864) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer. In the Civil War he served on General Halleck’s staff and was the chief engineer in General Grant’s army during the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. In October 1862 he was promoted to major general and given command of the XVII Corps in Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. In March 1864 he was given command of the entire Army of the Tennessee, which by then was the right wing of General W.T. Sherman’s army. McPherson will be killed during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, the second highest ranking Union officer killed during the war and the only commander of a Union army to die in the field.

George G. Meade.  George Gordon Meade (1815-1872) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer. Meade’s Civil War combat experience started in the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles, and his division was arguably the most successful during the assaults at the Battle of Fredericksburg. But it was for defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in the summer of 1863 that he is best known.

Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-1867) was an Irish rebel who was condemned to death for sedition but instead was sent to a penal colony in Australia. In 1852 he escaped  and came to America. Meagher joined the U. S. Army at the start of the Civil War and became a brigadier general. He is notable for recruiting and leading the Irish Brigade, and for encouraging support for the Union among Irish immigrants. The Battle of Gaines’s Mill is considered the highlight of Meagher’s military career.

After the War, Meagher, like many other former Civil War soldiers, moved to Montana Territory. He was appointed Territorial Secretary, and, while Acting Governor, he fell to his death from a steamboat on the Missouri River near Fort Benton. It is still debated whether the fall was accidental or murder. His statue, showing him on horseback with sword raised, is in front of the Montana state capitol.

Henry Metcalfe—possibly Henry Clay Metcalfe (1844-1921)—was the third guerrilla captured with Jerome Clarke (“Sue Mundy”) and Henry C. Magruder on March 12, 1865, in Kentucky. Metcalfe was convicted of murder and sentenced to be hanged, but through the intercession of his attorney, his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for five years. He was soon released and became a respectable citizen in Ohio County, Kentucky.

Montgomery C. Meigs.  Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (1816-1892), a graduate of West Point, was a career military officer and a civil engineer. During the Civil War, he served as the Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army, replacing Joseph Johnston who had resigned to become a Confederate general. Meigs was efficient and honest, something the Union Army needed during the War.

Tomas Meja (1820-1867) fought as a cavalry general on the side of the Emperor Maximilian during the French intervention of 1862. He was executed for treason with the Emperor and General Miramon on June 19, 1867.

Wesley Merritt (1836-1910) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer. In 1862 he was appointed captain of the 2nd Cavalry and served as an aide-de-camp to General Philip St. George Cooke, who commanded the Cavalry Department of the Army of the Potomac. In 1863 he became the adjutant for General George Stoneman and participated in Stoneman’s Raid during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Merritt was wounded at the Battle of Brandy Station and soon after was appointed a brigadier general of Volunteers. During the Battle of during the Gettysburg he commanded a reserve cavalry brigade, but saw action on July 3 in a futile assault on the Confederate right flank that took the life of fellow general, Elon J. Farnsworth. Following the death of John Buford in December 1863, Merrit took command of the 1st Division of the Cavalry Corps, and in 1864 was the acting commander of the 1st Division while General Alfred Torbert was gone participating in Grant’s Overland Campaign. Merritt was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the regular army for his actions at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, where Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart was killed. During Sheridan’s Valley Campaigns, Merritt commanded the 1st Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Shenandoah, and his 1st Division routed the Confederates at the Battle of Opequon (Third Winchester). He received a brevet promotion to major general for that battle, and a brevet major general in the regular army in April 1865, for bravery at the Battle of Five Forks and the Appomattox Campaign. In June 1865, Merritt was given command of Cavalry Forces in the Military Division of the Southwest, and he led the 1st Division of Cavalry in their march from Shreveport, Louisiana, to San Antonio, Texas. Merritt mustered out of Volunteer service in January of 1866.

After the War, Merritt continued to serve in the cavalry on the western frontier. He was lieutenant colonel of the U.S. 9th Cavalry on July 28, 1866, and was made colonel of the 5th Cavalry on July 1, 1876, which he commanded in the Battle of Slim Buttes. Merritt was a member of the court of inquiry that was convened to consider the behavior of Major Marcus A. Reno at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where General George A. Custer and and most of the 7th Cavalry were killed. From 1882 to 1887 he served as the superintendent of West Point. Merritt was promoted to brigadier general in 1887 and major general in 1895. Merritt served in the Spanish-American War in the Philippines and after the Battle of Manila and he became the first American military governor of the Philippines.

Nelson A. Miles.  Nelson Appleton Miles (1839-1925) was a store clerk before the War. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 61st New York Infantry Regiment in May 1862, and was promoted to colonel after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. Miles is best known for his army service on the frontier after the Civil War. He participated in the campaign that scoured the Northern Plains after Custer’s defeat at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, his troops intercepted the Nez Percé band led by Chief Joseph in northern Montana, and he tracked Geronimo in Arizona. Miles City, Montana, is named for him.

Stephen Miller (1816-1881) was middle-aged when he joined the 1st Minnesota Infantry as a private. He quickly advanced to colonel of the regiment. In 1862 Miller returned from the War and replaced General Henry Hastings Sibley as commander of Camp Lincoln, where 303 Dakota men who had been convicted of participating in the Dakota War of 1862 were being held. By order of President Lincoln, Miller supervised the mass execution of 38 of those Dakota men condemned for their part in the war. In the fall of 1863, with the support of former Governor Alexander Ramsey and on the strength of his military career, Miller was elected the 4th governor of Minnesota. He served from 1864 to 1866. The one-time war hero and popular governor died an impoverished widower, in Worthington, Minnesota, in 1881.

Robert H. Milroy. Robert Huston Milroy (1816-1890) was a lawyer in Indiana before being appointed colonel of the 9th Indiana Infantry in April 1861.  He took part in the western Virginia campaign under Major General George B. McClellan and was promoted to brigadier general in September 1861 and major general in March 1863. Milroy is most remembered for his defeat at the Second Battle of Winchester in June 1863, where he was outmaneuvered by Confederate General Richard S. Ewell. Milroy had been ordered to withdraw his 6,900-man garrison from Winchester, but chose to remain in the face of the Confederate invasion, assuming that the fortifications of Winchester would withstand any assault or siege. After a period of inactivity following that defeat, Milroy was transferred to the Western Theater and fought briefly in the Third Battle of Murfreesboro in 1864. After the War, Milroy was a trustee of the Wabash and Erie Canal Company and, from 1872 to 1875 he was the superintendent of Indian Affairs in Washington Territory and an Indian agent for ten years following that.

Ormsby M. Mitchel.  Ormsby MacKnight (or McKnight) Mitchel (1810-1862), a graduate of West Point, was an American astronomer, attorney, surveyor, professor, and publisher.  He joined the Union Army as a brigadier general of volunteers and his first command was organizing the northern Kentucky defenses around Cincinnati. He then commanded the Department of the Ohio in the fall of 1861. It was during this period that he was involved in what became known as the Great Locomotive Chase. Mitchel led a division in the Army of the Ohio from December 1861 to July 1862, and was placed in charge of the defense of Nashville, Tennessee.

Robert B. Mitchell.  Robert Byington Mitchell (1823-1882) was a lawyer before the Civil War and had served in the Mexican War. He was the treasurer of Kansas Territory from 1859 to 1861. He was the Adjutant General of Kansas and was badly wounded at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. President Lincoln appointed him a brigadier general and he was given command at Fort Riley, Kansas. After the War he became the governor of New Mexico Territory (1866-1869).

James Montgomery (1814-1871) was a fervent abolitionist in Kansas and in 1857 he organized and commanded a “Self-Protective Company,” which he used to order pro-slavery settlers out of the region. In July 1861 Montgomery was commissioned colonel of the 3rd Kansas Infantry under James H. Lane. In January 1863 Montgomery was authorized to raise a regiment of African-American infantry in January 1863 that would become the 2nd South Carolina (African Descent). Throughout 1863 and part of 1864, Montgomery practiced his brand of warfare in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The most famous of his controversial operations was the Raid at Combahee Ferry in which 800 slaves were freed with the help of Harriett Tubman. Montgomery commanded a brigade in the Battle of Olustee in Florida (February 20, 1864). In September 1864 he resigned his commission and returned to Kansas. During Price’s Missouri Raid, Montgomery was colonel of the 6th Kansas State Militia. After the War, he farmed in Linn County, Kansas.

John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864) was a Confederate general from Lexington, Kentucky. He had served in the cavalry in the Mexican War. Morgan and a militia company he raised joined the Confederate States Army. Morgan soon raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, becoming its colonel on April 4, 1862, and they fought at the Battle of Shiloh. Morgan soon became a symbol to secessionists in their hopes for securing Kentucky for the Confederacy, and he became one of the leading Confederate raiders.

W. James Morgan. William James Morgan(d. 1866) was a grocer in Brunswick, Missouri, before the Civil War. At the beginning of the War he was authorized to raise a regiment of infantry, which he recruited predominantly in northern Missouri. The regiment, known as the Morgan Rangers, eventually became part of the 18th Missouri Volunteer Infantry, which completed formation in December, 1861, with Morgan as its colonel. Morgan and the 18th Missouri Infantry (Union) marched from St. Joseph to Platte City and set fire to the city and courthouse, and captured three Confederate soldiers who were home on furlough or their term of their enlistment was up. On December 17 Morgan ignored pleas for leniency and killed two of the prisoners. Due to his inflammatory actions in Platte County, Morgan was relieved of command of the regiment in February 1862.

John S. Mosby. John Singleton Mosby (1833-1916), known as the “Gray Ghost,” is famous for carrying out a daring raid at the Fairfax County, Virginia, court house on March 9, 1863, where his men captured three Union officers, including General Edwin Henry Stoughton. Mosby wrote in his memoirs that he found Stoughton in bed and roused him with a “spank on his bare back.” Mosby commanded the 43rd Battalion, 1st Virginia Cavalry, which was known as Mosby’s Rangers or Raiders. It was a partisan ranger unit noted for its lightning quick raids and its ability to elude Union Army pursuers and disappear. He started as a private in William “Grumble” Jones’s mounted rifles and participated in the 1st Battle of Bull Run. After impressing J.E.B. Stuart with his ability to gather intelligence, Mosby was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to Stuart’s cavalry scouts. He helped the general develop attack strategies and was responsible for Stuart’s “Ride around McClellan” during the Peninsula Campaign. In January 1863 Mosby was authorized to form and take command of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry. Officially his unit was part of the Army of Northern Virginia, but as partisan rangers operated outside the norms of regular cavalry. Mosby was seriously wounded on September 14, 1864, while taunting a Union regiment by riding back and forth in front of it. On November 18, 1864, Mosby’s command defeated Blazer’s Scouts at the Battle of Kabletown. After Robert E. Lee’s surrender, Mosby refused to formally surrender and simply disbanded his rangers. After the War, Mosby’s friendship with and political support of Ulysses S. Grant, and his work with those whom many Southerners considered the enemy, made Mosby a highly controversial figure in Virginia. President Grant appointed him U.S. consul to Hong Kong (1878-1885).

Gershom Mott (1822-1884) began the Civil War as lieutenant colonel of the 5th New Jersey Infantry. His regiment fought in the Peninsula Campaign and shortly after the Battle of Williamsburg he was promoted to colonel and command of the 6th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry. During the Second Battle of Bull Run, Mott was severely wounded and for his bravery was promoted to brigadier general. Mott led a brigade of the III Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville and was wounded again, thus missing the Battle of Gettysburg. Mott returned to duty in the fall of 1863 and led his brigade in the Bristoe and Mine Run campaigns. He commanded the 4th Division of the II Corps during the 1864 Overland Campaign. At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House his division suffered such heavy losses that it was discontinued. Mott continued as a brigade commander of the 3rd Division, II Corps, during the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign. He was one of the few Union officers to be commended for his actions in the disastrous Battle of the Crater, for which he was given a brevet promotion to major general. By the end of the War, he had a reputation for competency and bravery, and was promoted to major general on December 1, 1865. After the War, he held various offices in New Jersey state government: state treasurer, warden of the New Jersey State Prison, and major general and commander of the New Jersey National Guard (1873–1884).

Joseph A. Mower. Joseph Anthony Mower (1827-1870) entered the U.S. army in 1855, having previously served as a private in the Mexican War. During the Civil War he became colonel of the 11th Missouri Volunteer Regiment and fought at the Siege of Corinth. At the Battle of Corinth he was wounded and taken prisoner, but recovered by Union forces the same day. Mower was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers in November 1862. He commanded a brigade during the Vicksburg Campaign and Siege of Vicksburg where he caught the attention of William T. Sherman. Mower was promoted to major general in August 1864, and commanded a division during Sherman’s March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign.

James A. Mulligan (1829-1864) was the colonel of the 23rd Illinois Infantry, known in Illinois as the “Irish Brigade.” In the Battle of Lexington (Battle of the Hemp Bales), his small force of 3,500 had tried to hold Lexington, Missouri, against Sterling Price’s 12,000 troop. He distinguished himself in other engagements in the Eastern theater, including the Battle of Leetown and the Second Battle of Kernstown, where he was mortally wounded. The U. S. Senate posthumously awarded to Colonel Mulligan of the rank of brevet brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers.

Sue Mundy.  “Sue Mundy” was a fictional guerrilla character created by George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, who opposed the heavy-handed military rule of General Stephen G. Burbridge in Kentucky. Prentice created the “Sue Mundy” persona to portray Burbridge as an incompetent commander, unable to protect Kentucky citizens.

Marcellus Jerome Clarke (1844–March 15, 1865), a Confederate captain and one of Kentucky’s most famous guerrillas, was rumored to be Sue Mundy because of his long hair and  smooth-faced features. Clarke had joined the 4th Kentucky Infantry (CSA) in 1861, and saw action at Fort Donelson and Chickamauga. He was then reassigned to John Hunt Morgan’s unit. After Morgan’s death (September 4, 1864,), Clarke formed his own guerrilla band and continued raiding throughout Kentucky. Clarke and his guerrillas joined with Quantrill’s Raiders, making them even more dangerous. On March 12, 1865, fifty Union soldiers from the 30th Wisconsin Infantry, under the command of Major Cyrus Wilson, surrounded a tobacco barn and captured Clarke, Henry C. Magruder, and Henry Metcalfe another of the gang. At his trial, Clarke said that he was a regular Confederate soldier and that he had not committed the crimes he was being charged with, or that they had been committed by Quantrill. Clarke was convicted of being a guerrilla and hanged; several thousand people were estimated to have attended Clarke’s execution, attracted by rumors that he was “Sue Mundy.” After Clarke’s death, Magruder, in a memoir, confessed to being Sue Mundy.

James S. Negley. James Scott Negley (1826-1901) served in the Mexican War, was a farmer, railroader, and U.S. Representative from the state of Pennsylvania. In April 1861 he was appointed a brigadier general in the Pennsylvania volunteers and raised a brigade. On November 29, 1862, he was appointed major general of Volunteers and took command of the 8th Division in the Army of the Ohio. Negley played a key role in the Union victory at the Battle of Murfreesboro in 1862.

Thomas H. Neill. Thomas Hewson Neill (1826-1885) graduated from West Point in 1847 and served on the frontier with the 5th U.S. Infantry and also taught briefly at West Point.

William “Bull” Nelson (1824-1862) was a career military officer. A native of Kentucky, Nelson went to Louisville and distributed arms to Kentucky loyalists early in the war. On July 1, 1861, he was detached from the Navy to recruit troops for a campaign into East Tennessee, and on September 16 was made a brigadier general for this work. At the end of November 1861, he joined the Army of the Ohio at Louisville. Nelson commanded the Fourth Division and that unit will became the first to enter Nashville on February 25, 1862. In April he led his division at the Battle of Shiloh, helping to stem the tide on the first day and bearing the brunt of the fighting on the left on the second day. On May 30, 1862, he was the first to enter Corinth, but then became embroiled in a fight with General John Pope over who deserved credit for occupying the abandoned town. Nelson was shot to death by fellow Union General Jefferson C. Davis on September 29, 1862, in Louisville following an argument.

John Newton (1822-1895) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer with the Corps of Engineers. He taught engineering at the Military Academy (1843-1846) and constructed fortifications along the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes (1846-1852).  Newton helped construct Washington defenses and participated in the Peninsula Campaign, and the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and the Chancesllorsville Campaign, where he was wounded. At the Battle of Gettysburg, he replaced the slain General John F. Reynolds in command of the I Corps and led it through the defense of Pickett’s Charge. He retained command of I Corps until the Army of the Potomac was reorganized in 1864, when he was sent to the Army of the Cumberland. In the Atlanta Campaign he served under Sherman, who regarded him highly. At the Battle of Peachtree Creek (July 20, 1864), he prevented a dangerous Confederate movement against Sherman and his rapidly constructed works allowed him to turn back the Confederate thrust. After the capture of Atlanta, Newton left active field duty and commanded the District of Key West and the Tortugas of the Department of the Gulf from 1864 to 1866. His last campaign resulted in a defeat at the Battle of Natural Bridge (March 6, 1865) in Florida. After the War he returned to the Corps of Engineers and in 1884 was appointed Chief Engineer.

Richard J. Oglesby.  Richard James Oglesby (1824-1899) was a colonel of the 8th Illinois Infantry, commanded a brigade at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, was promoted to brigadier general, was severely wounded at the Battle of Corinth, and was promoted to major general in 1862. He resigned his commission in May 1864 in order to run for governor of Illinois. Oglesby served three separate terms as the 14th governor of Illinois (1865-69; 1873; 1885-89), and U.S. senator from Illinois (1873-79). Oglesby was present in the room at the Petersen House when President Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865.

Edward O. C. Ord.  Edward Otho Cresap Ord (1818-1883) graduated from West Point, where he was William T. Sherman’s roommate. As a career military officer, he served in the Seminole War, the Indian Wars, and helped survey Sacramento and Los Angeles, California. When the Civil War began, Ord first served as a brigade commander in the Pennsylvania Reserves before being promoted to major general of volunteers in May 1862. He missed actually fighting at both Iuka and Cornith, Mississippi, but engaged the Confederates in their retreat at the Battle of Hatchie’s Bridge, where he was seriously wounded. Ord assumed command of the XIII Corps during the final days of the Siege of Vicksburg. After Vicksburg he returned East to command the XVIII Corps and was again seriously wounded in the attack on Fort Harrison (September 1864). In the spring of 1865, Ord was assigned command of the Army of the James during the Appomattox Campaign and was instrumental in forcing the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Following the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, General Grant asked Ord to investigate whether the Confederate government was involved with the assassination plot, which he determined was not true. Immediately following the end of the War, Ord command the Army of Occupation, headquartered at Richmond. He was mustered out of Volunteer service in September 1866, but continued to serve in the regular Army until he retired in 1881.

Peter J. Osterhaus.  Peter Joseph Osterhaus (1823-1917) was a Prussian Army officer who came to the United States after the 1848 Revolutions. Osterhaus was appointed a major of the 2nd Missouri Volunteers and took a conspicuous part in the battles of Wilson’s Creek and Pea Ridge. He was promoted to brigadier general in June, 1862. In 1863, he commanded a division in the Battle of Port Gibson, where he displayed tactical ability. He continued his division command during the Vicksburg Campaign, fighting in the Battle of Champion Hill and at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge, where he was slightly wounded.  Osterhaus participated in the Jackson, Mississippi, and the Battle of Lookout Mountain. He participated in the Atlanta Campaign, but a month-long sick leave caused him to miss the Battle of Atlanta. After returning to command and played a significant role in the Battle of Jonesboro. In the March to the Sea, he commanded the XV Corps. Osterhaus accepted Confederate General Kirby Smith’s surrender in 1865. After the War, in 1866,he was appointed United States Consul at Lyons, France. He subsequently retired in Germany and in 1915 was the oldest pensioner on the U.S. Army’s list.

Robert Ould (1829-1881), was the Confederate Commissioner of Exchange/Chief of the Bureau of Exchange. In 1861 he was appointed assistant secretary of war of the Confederate States. Under the cartel of exchange of prisoners of war, arranged by Generals Dix and Hill in 1862, Mr. Ould was appointed agent of exchange on behalf of the Confederacy. He held the position during the rest of the War, and earned the respect of all parties by his earnest and humane efforts. At Appomattox he tendered his parole to General Grant, who declined to treat him as a prisoner. He was subsequently imprisoned by order of Secretary Stanton, indicted for treason and tried by a military commission, which acquitted him.

Joshua T. Owen.  Joshua Thomas Owen (1822-1887) commanded the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry, commonly called the “Irish Regiment” for its predominantly Irish composition.

Eleazer A. Paine.  Eleazer Arthur Paine (1815-1882) graduated from West Point and served in the Seminole Wars. He resigned his commission in 1840. He then studied law and practiced as a lawyer in Ohio. He was a close friend of fellow Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln. When Civil War started, Paine was elected as the colonel of the 9th Illinois Infantry. In September of that year, he was appointed as a brigadier general of volunteers. Paine developed a reputation for harshness and cruelty toward the civilian populace, and was reprimanded for it by Congress. He was a first cousin of Halbert E. Paine.

Halbert E. Paine.  Halbert Eleazer Paine (1826-1905) commands the 4th Wisconsin Infantry/Cavalry during the Civil War. “He is best remembered for disobeying orders to return fugitive slaves to their owners and refusing to burn down the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”

• From the Dictionary of Wisconsin History entry on Halbert E. Paine.

John M. Palmer.  John McAuley Palmer (1817-1900) was a lawyer from Illinois, active in Illinois state politics prior to the Civil War. During the war he was colonel of the 14th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and was active in engagements at Island No. 10, Farmington, and Stone River. He was made a major general in November 1862. He participated at Chickamauga and then was assigned to command the 14th Army Corps under General Sherman and participated in fighting at Chattanooga, the Atlanta Campaign, and the march through Georgia. When his corps was placed under the command of Major General John M. Schofield, Palmer questioned his orders as he outranked Schofield, whose rank had been conferred later than this own. When Sherman ruled in favor of Schofield, Palmer resigned in protest on August 6, 1864 (the only resignation in the middle of an operation during the history of the United States).  In 1865, he was given the command of the Department of Kentucky, resigning in September 1866. After the War he returned to his legal practice in Springfield, Illinois. Palmer was elected Republican governor of Illinois, serving from 1869-1873. Returning to the Democratic Party, he won a U.S. Senate seat in 1891 serving until 1897.  In 1896, he unsuccessfully ran with Simon Bolivar Buckner, a former Confederate general, for president on the splinter Gold Democratic Party ticket.

John G. Parke.  John Grubb Parke (1827-1900) graduated from West Point in 1849 and was a career military officer. In the Civil War he served with with Ambrose E. Burnside often serving him as chief of staff in major engagements such as Antietam, Fredericksburg and the Overland Campaign. Parke also held significant field commands during Burnside’s North Carolina Expedition, Vicksburg and the battle of Fort Stedman as well as brief stints in command of the Army of the Potomac.

M. M. Parsons.  Mosby Monroe Parsons (1822-1865) was a lawyer and from 1853 to 1857 he was attorney general of Missouri. He had served as a captain in the Mexican War. Parsons was actively allied with Missouri Governor Clairborne Jackson in an effort to hold Missouri to the Confederate cause.  He commanded the 6th Division of the Missouri State Guard as a brigadier general, and in late 1862 he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate service.

Robert Patterson (1792-1881) had served in the Mexican War and was appointed a major general of Pennsylvania Volunteers when the Civil War started.  His inability to contain Joseph E. Johnston’s small Confederate army within the Shenandoah Valley allowed Johnston’s troops to reinforce the Confederate Army at the First Battle of Bull Run. Patterson was widely criticized for his failure to contain Johnston’s forces, and he received was discharged in late July 1861.

Everett Peabody (1830-1862) was a civil engineer working for various railroads in Massachusetts and Missouri before the Civil War. When the War started, he was first appointed a major in the 13th Missouri Volunteer Regiment and then on September 1, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the regiment. The regiment was posted to garrison duty at Lexington, Missouri, and Peabody took an active part in the siege of Lexington. Due to his regiment’s capture at Lexington, it was removed from the official roster of Missouri regiments and another “13th Missouri” was created in its place. After he was exchanged as a prisoner, Peabody rebuilt his regiment, which was then designated the 25th Missouri Infantry.

John J. Peck.  John James Peck (1821-1878) graduated from West Point—in the same class as Ulysses S. Grant—and served in the Mexican War and on the western frontier fighting Apache Indians. In August 1861 he accepted a commission as a brigadier general of Volunteers and served in George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, fighting in the siege of Yorktown and the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, the Seven Days battles, and Malvern Hill. When McClellan’s forces evacuated the peninsula, Peck was left in command of the Union garrison at Yorktown and in September 1862 he was given command of all Union troops in Virginia south of the James River. In 1863 Peck took command of the garrison at Suffolk.

John C. Pemberton.  John Clifford Pemberton (1814-1881) graduated from West Point, and served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War before resigning his commission to join the Confederacy in 1861. Despite his Northern birth, and having two brothers serving with the Union, his Virginia-born wife and many years of service in Southern states influenced his decision. Pemberton was promoted to major general in January 1862 and commanded the Confederate Department of South Carolina and Georgia from March to August 1862. In October of that year he was again promoted and assigned command of the Department of Mississippi and the defense of Vicksburg, where he faced his former Mexican War colleague, Ulysses S. Grant.

Alexander C. M. Pennington.  Alexander Cummings McWhorter Pennington (1838-1917) graduated from West Point in 1860 and was assigned to Battery A, 2nd U.S. Artillery, which was the first unit equipped as horse artillery. Pennington began the war as the lead (right) section chief in Battery A, and was cited for gallantry in the Peninsula Campaign. He was awarded brevet promotions to captain (June 9, 1863) for actions at Beverly Ford, Virginia, and major (July 3, 1863) for actions at Gettysburg. He commanded Battery M, 2nd U.S. Artillery in 1863 and 1864, also with the Horse Artillery. Promoted to captain in the regular army, Pennington took a volunteer commission as the colonel of the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry on October 1, 1864. Cited again for gallantry at Cedar Creek (October 19, 1864), he was awarded a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel. He commanded the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry through the end of the war, and mustered out of the volunteer service on August 1, 1865.

George E. Pickett.  George Edward Pickett (1825-1875) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, gaining national recognition for carrying the American flag over the parapet at the Battle of Chapultepec during the Mexican War. Later Pickett served on the Western frontier, including being in charge of the garrison on San Juan Island in northwest Washington state during the “Pig War.” When Virginia seceded Pickett resigned is commission, despite his personal dislike of slavery, and accepted a commission in the Confederate Army. Pickett led his brigade at the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, and Gaine’s Mill where he was wounded. He was promoted to major general in October 1862 but did not see any significant combat until Gettysburg. He is best remembered for his participation in the bloody assault at the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name, Pickett’s Charge. On April 1, 1865, Pickett’s defeat at the Battle of Five Forks was a pivotal moment that caused General Robert E. Lee to order the evacuation of Richmond, Virginia, and retreat toward Appomattox Court House. He surrendered with Lee’s army and was paroled at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Gideon J. Pillow.  Gideon Johnson Pillow (1806-1878) was a lawyer before the War, being a partner with James K. Polk, future president of the United States. He served in the Tennessee Militia in the 1830s and in the Mexican War in the 1840s. Although he opposed secession, Pillow joined the Confederacy just after the start of the Civil War. He soon came under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston in the Western Theater, where he fought in the Battle of Belmont (November 1861).

Pillow resigned from the Army on December 28, 1861, in a dispute with Major General Leonidas Polk, but he soon realized that this was a rash decision and was able to cancel his resignation. He was then given command of Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. His command was brief, however, when three additional brigadier generals were assigned to the fort, one of whom—John B. Floyd—outranked him and he found himself in the unofficial position of second-in-command. Floyd, who feared prosecution for treason if he should be captured, turned command of the army over to Pillow, who had similar concerns and immediately passed command to Simon B. Buckner. Pillow escaped in the night in a small boat across the Cumberland River.

Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884) was a detective and spy, best known for starting the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the first detective agency in the U.S. In his role as head of Union Intelligence Services during the war, Pinkerton foiled another assassination attempt against Lincoln. His wartime work was critical in raising Pinkerton’s profile and helping to bolster the reputation of his detective agency.

Alfred Pleasonton (1824-1897) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving on the frontier (including Minnesota) and in the Mexican War. Once the Civil War started, it took him longer than many of his contemporaries to become a brigadier general, commanding a cavalry brigade in the Army of the Potomac. He was wounded at the Battle of Antietam, participated in the Battle of Chacellorsville (although not as much as he tried to take credit for), lead the Union cavalry forces in the Battle of Brandy Station, and was held on a short leash by General George Meade at the Battle of Gettysburg.  In 1864 he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Theater, where he defeated Confederate General Sterling Price in two key battles, effectively ending the war in Missouri. In 1864 and 1865, he instituted a policy of amnesty and granted parole to Confederate prisoners on condition they go up the Missouri River to the Dakota and Montana Territories, resulting in the migration of many Confederates to the Montana goldfields.

Leonidas Polk (1806-1864) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War and a second cousin of President James K. Polk.  He organized the Army of Mississippi and part of the Army of Tennessee, in which he later served as Lieutenant General.  Polk led a corps during the Battle of Shiloh.

Trusten Polk (1811-1876) was a U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1857-1862. On January 10, 1862, he was expelled from the Senate for his support of the South. He then served as a colonel in the Confederate Army.

John Pope (1822-1892) was a career Army officer and one of four officers selected to escort the president-elect Lincoln to Washington, D.C. On June 14, 1861, he was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers. He had a brief but successful career in the Western Theater. On May 30, 1862, at the end of the Siege of Corinth, Pope became embroiled in a fight with General William “Bull” Nelson over who deserved credit for occupying the abandoned town. On June 26, Pope assumes command of the Army of Virginia, newly formed from the commands of Frémont, McDowell, and Banks. He is perhaps best known for his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 29-30. Following that battle, Pope was sent to Minnesota, where he commanded U.S. troops in the Dakota Conflict of 1862.

David D. Porter.  David Dixon Porter (1813-1891) was a career naval officer. He began his naval career at the age of ten as a midshipmen under the command of his father, Commodore David Porter. During the Civil War, Porter was part of a plan to hold Fort Pickens at Pensacola, Florida, for the Union. As acting rear admiral, Porter was in command of the Mississippi River Squadron in the Vicksburg campaign in 1863. After the fall of Vicksburg, he led the naval forces in the difficult Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Late in 1864, Porter was transferred to the Atlantic coast. He led the Navy in the joint assaults on Fort Fisher, which was the last significant naval action of the Civil War.

Fitz John (or FitzJohn) Porter (1822-1901) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. He is most known for his performance at the Second Battle of Bull Run and his subsequent court martial. His military career was ruined by the controversy. After the War, he worked for almost 25 years to restore his reputation.

William D. Porter.  William David Porter (1808-1864), a career naval officer, came from a navy family and signed on his first ship at age 12. In the fall of 1861 he was assigned to assist in establishing the Western Flotilla on the Mississippi. Between January and August 1862, Porter commanded the USS Essex up and down the Mississippi River. The Essex joined in the attack on Fort Henry, where a 32-pound shot pierced her boilers, scalding and temporarily blinding Porter. Porter completed the renovations on the Essex in July and rejoined the Western Flotilla at Vicksburg, Mississippi. On July 22, Porter took the Essex out to confront the Confederate ram CSS Arkansas, but had to withdraw. On August 5, his ship assisted Union Army troops in repelling the Confederate land attack on Baton Rouge. The following morning, heading north to Vicksburg, he confronted the Arkansas once more, this time destroying her.

Robert B. Potter.  Robert Brown Potter (1829-1887) was a lawyer in New York City before the Civil War. He enlisted as a private in the New York militia, was promoted to lieutenant, then major, the lieutenant colonel. He was wounded at the Battle of New Bern, commanded the 51st New York Infantry at Second Bull Run, was promoted to colonel and led the regiment at the Battle of Antietam, where he was wounded. Potter was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in March 1863 and led the 2nd Division, IX Corps, in the Siege of Vicksburg. He next commanded IX Corps in the Knoxville Campaign, and led the 2nd Division in the Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg. Potter was wounded in an assault on the Confederate works following the Battle of Fort Stedman, and he missed the closing campaigns of the war.

William H. Powell.  William Henry Powell (1825-1904) began the War as captain of Company B, 2nd West Virginia Cavalry, and rose to major (June 1862), lieutenant-colonel (October 1862), and colonel (May 1863). Powell was wounded in the chest and captured at Wytheville, Virginia on July 18, 1863, and exchanged on February 22, 1864. After the Valley Campaign, in October of 1864, Powell was promoted to brigadier general and the resigned on January 5, 1865. In 1890 he received the Medal of Honor for his heroism at Sinking Creek, Virginia (November 26, 1862), when, as part of a group of 20 men, he captured a 500-man enemy camp, without a single loss of life.  After the War, he was elected commander of the Society of the Army of West Virginia.

Benjamin M. Prentiss.  Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss (1819-1901) was a Union major general who ran for Congress prior to his participation in the Civil War. He was also a veteran of the Mexican War. He was ordered to defend railroad lines in Missouri before commanding troops during the Battle of Shiloh. He was the first one under attack at Shiloh. He was considered a hero for defending the “Hornet’s Nest” as long as he did before finally surrendering to the 19th Tennessee.

Sterling Price (1809-1867) was the 11th Governor of Missouri (1853-1857), a lawyer, and a slave owner and tobacco planter. He had served as a U.S. Army brigadier general during the Mexican War. Personally opposed to secession, he was elected presiding officer of the Missouri State Convention in 1861, which voted not to seceed. Outraged by Gen. Nathaniel Lyon’s seizure of the state militia’s camp at St. Louis, Price joined the Confederate cause. Price won the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861, during which Gen. Lyon was killed in action. Price and his Wilson’s Creek colleague Gen. Ben McCulloch could not agree on how to proceed following the battle and ultimately became bitter rivals.

At the end of the Civil War, rather than surrender Price led what was left of his army to Mexico where he tried unsuccessfully to seek service with the Emperor Maximilian. Price eventually returned to Missouri where he died of cholera in 1867.

For more information:

• General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West, by Albert Castel (E 467.1 .P87 C3 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Sterling Price: Portrait of a Southerner, by Robert E. Shalhope (E 467.1 .P87 S5 1971 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)

Henry Prince (1811-1892) graduated from West Point, was seriously wounded fighting Seminole Indians, and served in the Mexican War. In the Civil War, he was commissioned a brigadier general of Volunteers in 1862 and commanded the 2nd Division , II Corps, Army of Virginia at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, where he was captured. Following his release he commanded the 2nd Division, III Corps, Army of the Potomac in a number of engagements. His last active combat service came in the autumn of 1863 in the unproductive Bristoe and Mine Run Campaigns. After the Civil War Prince resumed his paymaster duties in the regular army and retired December 31, 1879. Despondent over his health, he committed suicide in his hotel room in London, England, in 1892.

Benjamin D. Pritchard.  Benjamin Dudley Pritchard (1835-1907)

James K. Proudfit.  James Kerr Proudit (1831-1917) was from Madison, Wisconsin, when he enlisted in the Civil War. From April 20 to August 21, 1861, Proudfit served as second lieutenant in the 1st Wisconsin Infantry. On September 27, 1861, he was mustered into service as first lieutenant and adjutant in the 12th Wisconsin Infantry; became the lieutenant colonel of the 12th on July 30, 1863; colonel on November 21, 1864; and on March 13, 1865, was brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers.  He was mustered out on July 16, 1865, and received his final discharge on August 9th. Following the Civil War, Proudfit was Assistant Adjutant General and Adjutant General of Wisconsin (1865-1868); first Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Madison, Wisconsin (1866); and U.S. Surveyor General of New Mexico (1872-1876). In 1877, Proudfit settled in Wyandotte (now Kansas City), Kansas. He died in 1917. His Civil War letters are in the University of Kansas Libraries, Kenneth Spencer Research Library.  [accessed May 3, 2015]

Roger A. Pryor.  Roger Atkinson Pryor (1828-1919) was was a newspaper editor, lawyer, and politician in Virginia who became known for his fiery oratory in favor of secession. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1859-March 3, 1861) from Virginia, and in the Confederate States House of Representatives (February-April 1862), also from Virginia. He was colonel of the 3rd Virginia Infantry, and was promoted to brigadier general on April 16, 1862. His brigade fought in the Peninsula Campaign and at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Pryor proved inept as a division commander, and in 1863 he resigned his commission and his brigade was broken up. In August of that year, he enlisted as a private and scout in a Virginia cavalry regiment under General Fitzhugh Lee. Pryor was captured on November 28, 1864, and confined in Fort Lafayette in New York as a suspected spy, but President Lincoln had him released on parole and he returned to Virginia. After the War, Pryor went into law practice with former Union General Benjamin F. Butler.

Isaac C. Pugh  Isaac Campbell Pugh (1805-1874) served in the Black Hawk War and the Mexican War, but his most notable military service was during the Civil War. At the start of the Civil War he was the captain of a company in the 8th Illinois Infantry, and three months later formed the 41st Illinois Infantry, becoming its colonel. He led the 41st Illinois at the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Hatchie’s Bridge, and the sieges of Corinth and Vicksburg.

William Clarke Quantrill (1837-1865) was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in Kentucky where he was mortally wounded in a Union ambush in May 1865, aged 27.

James S. Rains.  James Spencer Rains (1817-1880) was a  brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard (Confederate). He was wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, on March 7, 1862, and then ran afoul of his commander, General Earl Van Dorn, during the retreat.

George D. Ramsay.  George Douglas Ramsay (1802-1882) graduated from West Point in 1820 and was a career military officer who served in the Mexican War. At the start of the Civil War, he was a member of the ordnance board when made lieutenant colonel in August, 1861, and was in charge of the Washington arsenal until 1863. In September 1863, he was promoted brigadier general and served as chief of ordnance of the United States army with headquarters at Washington (1863-64); was promoted brigadier general, and made chief of ordnance of the United States army, September 15, 1863, and retired by age limit, September 12, 1864. He was inspector of arsenals (1864-66); commanded the Washington arsenal (1866-70); was brevetted major general, U. S. A., March 13, 1869, for long and faithful services.

Dodson Ramseur.  Stephen Dodson “Dod” Ramseur (1837-1864), at one point, the youngest general in the Confederate Army, had graduated from West Point in 1860. Ramseur fought at the Battle of Malvern Hill (Seven Days Battles), where he was severely wounded in the arm. General Robert E. Lee, impressed with Ramseur’s performance at Malvern Hill, promoted him to brigadier general in November 1862, when he was only 25. He then fought at the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 2, 1863), where Ramseur was again wounded, this time in the leg. On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Ramseur’s brigade, in an assault south from Oak Hill against the Union’s right flank, hit the defenders in the rear, routing them and driving them back through the town. At the Battle of the Wilderness, Ramseur’s brigade drove Burnside’s troops back over a half mile, and the Battle of Spotsylvania, his brigade counterattacked Hancock’s Corps and he was wounded again in the arm.  Ramseur assumed command of Jubal A. Early’s division when that general took over from Ewell after Spotsylvania. He fought at Cold Harbor and was the first division to intercept Grant before he could capture Petersburg. A month after the Battle of Opequon, Early routed two thirds of the Union army at the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19 where Ramseur displayed great bravery in rallying his troops. He was mortally wounded in that battle and died the next day.

Matt W. Ransom.  Matt Whitaker Ransom (1826-1904) served as North Carolina Attorney General and as a member of the North Carolina General Assembly, he was chosen as one of the three commissioners from North Carolina to the Confederate government at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1861. Ransom was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry and later colonel of the 35th North Carolina Infantry. He was promoted to brigadier general June 13, 1863. Ransom saw action in the battles of Seven Pines, the Seven Days Battles, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Plymouth, Weldon, Suffolk, and the Siege of Petersburg. He was wounded three times during the Civil War and finally surrendered at Appomattox. After the War Ransom was a Democratic U.S. senator from North Carolina (1872-95). He was later appointed United States Minister to Mexico (1895-7).

Thomas E. G. Ransom.   Thomac Edwin Greenfield Ransom (1834-1864) raised a body of soldiers that became Company E of the 11th Illinois Infantry. He was elected its captain, then was commissioned major of the regiment, lieutenant colonel, and on February 15, 1862, became the colonel.  In November of that same year he was commissioned a brigadier general. He died from dysentery in 1864, and was breveted a major general after his death. The community of Ransom, in Illinois, is named for him. There is an official Georgia Historical Society marker for him, and he has his own Facebook page.

John A. Rawlins.  John Aaron Rawlins (1831-1869) served as a volunteer aide-de-camp, but at Grant’s request, Rawlins joined the United States Army as a captain and assistant adjutant general under Grant’s command. After the War, he served as the 29th U.S. Secretary of War (March-September 1869).

For more information:

• John Aaron Rawlins

Jesse L. Reno.  Jesse Lee Reno (1823-1862) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. He served in the Mexican War and then served at several arsenals and with ordnance. In the fall of 1861 he took command of the 2nd Brigade in the Burnside Expedition. In July 1862 he took command of a division in the Army of the Potomac and he fought his friend, Stonewall Jackson, in the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was killed in battle on September 14, 1862, during the Battle of South Mountain.

Alexander W. Reynolds.  Alexander Welch Reynolds (1817-1876) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War. When the Civil War started, he went AWOL from the U.S. Army rather than resign his commission and joined the Confederate Army, quickly being promoted to colonel of the 50th  Virginia Infantry. Reynolds spent most of the War in the Western Theater in Kentucky and Tennessee. In December 1862 he was Reynolds, commanding a brigade in Carter Stevenson’s division when it was sent Vicksburg. During the Siege of Vicksburg his brigade held a portion of the southern-most sector near the “Salient Work.” Reynolds was promoted to brigadier general in September 1863 and led a brigade during the Chattanooga Campaign. He fought at the battles of Missionary Ridge, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, and Adairsville before being wounded in War. After the War, Reynolds was a colonel in the Egyptian Army, along with William W. Lorning and others.

John F. Reynolds.  James Fulton Reynolds (1820-1863) was a graduate of West Point, a career military officer, and by the Civil War one of the Union Army’s most respected senior commanders. He participated in the battles of Mechanicsville (Beaver Dam Creek) and Gaines’ Mill, after which he was captured but exchanged in two months. At the Second Battle of Bull Run his counterattack halted the Confederate advance long enough for the rest of the Union army to retreat, probably the most important factor in preventing its complete destruction. One of his divisions, commanded by Brig. Gen. George G. Meade, made the only breakthrough at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and afterward he was promoted to major general of volunteers. Reynolds was killed early in the Battle of Gettysburg, on July 1, 1863. He was supervising the placement of the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry when he was struck by a bullet and died almost instantly.

James C. Rice.  James Clay Rice (1828-1864) was a lawyer before the Civil War. When the War started, he joined a 3-month infantry regiment from New York and quickly became a captain. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run. The day after his 3-month regiment was mustered out, he became lieutenant colonel of the 44th New York Infantry, and subsequently fought in the Peninsula Campaign and became colonel of the regiment. He fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. When his brigade commander was mortally wounded at Gettysburg, Rice assumed command of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps and led it for the remainder of the battle. For his service at Gettysburg, Rice was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in August, 1863. In March, 1864, Rice was in command of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, V Corps, which he led into action at the Battle of the Wilderness. Rice was mortally wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House and died on the battlefield on May 10, 1864.

Israel B. Richardson (1815-1862), a career Army officer known as “Fighting Dick,” served in the 2nd Seminole War in Florida and in the Mexican War. In 1855 he took up farming in Michigan and when the Civil War broke out, Richardson recruited and organized the 2nd Michigan Infantry. He was appointed a colonel on May 25, 1861. He commanded the Fourth Brigade in Brigadier General Irvin McDowell’s 1st Division at the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861). His brigade saw limited action at the Battle of Bull Run, but provided covering action for the retreat. He commanded several brigades in the Army of the Potomac and then the 1st Division of the II Corps during the Peninsula Campaign in mid-1862; he was promoted to major general on July 4, 1862. He led his troops at the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28-30, 2862), and his 1st Division played a key role during the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862). He received a non-life-threatening wound at Antietam, but died from infection and pneumonia on November 3, 1862.

James B. Ricketts.  James Brewerton Ricketts (1817-1887) graduated from West Point in 1839 and was a career military officer who served in the Mexican and Seminole wars. When the Civil War started, Ricketts served in defense of Washington, D.C., commanding an artillery battery that helped capture Alexandria, Virginia, in early 1861. At the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861) he was shot four times and taken prisoner. For his personal bravery at Bull Run, Ricketts was brevetted a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and in 1862 was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers. Ricketts was exchanged and returned to duty in time to command a division at the battles of Cedar Mountain and Second Bull Run. At the Battle of Antietam he had two horses shot under him, the second one falling on him and badly injuring him. During his recovery, he served on the Fitz John Porter court-martial. Some think he voted for acquittal and that cost him subsequent promotion. He did not return to the field until March 1864, when he was assigned to a division in the VI Corps during the Overland Campaign. Ricketts was brevetted colonel in the Regular Army for gallant and meritorious services at the Battle of Cold Harbor (June 3, 1864). In July 1864 he helped defend Washington, D.C., against an attack by Confederate General Jubal Early, and for his service there, he was promoted to the brevet grade of major general of Volunteers. During the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, at the Battle of Cedar Creek, he commanded the VI Corps, but was wounded by a Minié ball through his chest that disabled him for life.

James W. Ripley.  James Wolfe Ripley (1794-1870) graduated from West Point in 1814 and was a career military officer. In the early days of the Civil War, he was instrumental in modernizing the artillery’s ordnance. Ripley also delayed the introduction of repeating rifles into U.S. arsenals, an act that has been widely criticized by historians.

Walter R. Robbins, 1st New Jersey.

George F. Robinson.  George Foster Robinson (1832-1907) was a soldier of United States Army and the attendant of Secretary of State William H. Seward. He is best known for his role in foiling the assassination attempt of Seward by Lewis Powell, for which Robinson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1871. Robinson joined 8th Maine Infantry in August 1863, and was serving as an attendant to Seward while recovering from wounds received at the Battle of Ware Bottom Church (May 20, 1864).

James S. Robinson.  James Sidney Robinson (1827-1892) was a newspaperman in Ohio and chief clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives (1856) before the War. When the Civil War started, he enlisted in the 4th Ohio Infantry and was soon promoted to captain. He participated in the Battle of Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861) and was promoted to major in October and lieutenant colonel in April 1862. In August 1862 Robinson was promoted to colonel of the 82nd Ohio Infantry. He participated in the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, and Chancellorsville. Robinson was severely wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg and after a lengthy recuperation he commanded a brigade in the XX Corps. He participated in the Atlanta Campaign and Sherman’s March to the Sea  in 1864.

Robert E. Rodes.  Robert Emmett Rodes (1829-1864) was one of the younger Confederate generals and the first of Robert E. Lee’s divisional commanders not trained at West Point (he was trained at the Virginia Military Institute). His division led Stonewall Jackson’s devastating surprise attack at the Battle of Chancellorsville, and Jackson, on his deathbed, promoted Rodes to major general. Rodes then served in the corps of Richard S. Ewell at the Battle of Gettysburg and in the Overland Campaign. The Corps, under Jubal A. Early, was then sent to the Shenandoah Valley, where Rodes was killed in action on September 19, 1864, at the Battle of Opequon (Third Battle of Winchester).

John Rodgers (1812-1882) was Union naval commander at the start of the Civil War. At the Battle of Port Royal he led a boat crew ashore under a flag of truce and found the fort abandoned, and he therefore raised the Union flag. Commander Rodgers then organized the Western Flotilla and supervised construction of the first ironclad gunboats on the western rivers. Next he took part in blockading operations off of Savannah in command of the Flag. In April 1862, he assumed command of the experimental ironclad Galena, which operated with distinction in the James River.

William S. Rosecrans. William Starke Rosecrans (1819-1898) was a graduate of West Point where he returned to teach engineering. He received the rank of brigadier general in the regular Union Army on May 16, 1861. While McClellan received the credit for the Union’s victories at Rich Mountain and Corrick’s Ford, Rosecrans’ plans and decisions proved extremely effective.

For more information, see:

• The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans, U.S.A., by William M. Lamers, New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1961 (E 467.1.R7 L3 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)

Lovell H. Rousseau.  Lovell Harrison Rousseau (1818-1869) was a lawyer and politician in Kentucky and Indiana before the Civil War, serving in the Indiana House of Representatives. Rousseau fought in the Mexican War, raising a company of volunteers. After that war, he served in the Indiana Senate and after relocating to Kentucky, served in the Kentucky Senate. With the start of the Civil War, Rousseau helped keep Kentucky from seceding and then raised two regiments of Kentuckians. Known as the Louisville Legion, they helped save Louisville from Confederate capture. He was later appointed colonel of the 5th Kentucky Infantry and then promoted first to brigadier general of volunteers and then major general of volunteers. Rousseau fought at the battles of Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, and around Chattanooga. From November 1863 to November 1865, he had command of Nashville, Tennessee.

Thomas L. Rosser.  Thomas Lafayette Rosser (1836-1910), known as “Tex,” attended West Point but left when Texas seceded in April of 1861. Despite being on opposite sides, he and his West Point room mate, George A. Custer, remained good friends. Rosser commanded the 2nd Company of New Orleans’ “Washington Artillery” at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he shot down one of General George B. McClellan’s observation balloons. As a captain, he commanded his battery during the Seven Days Battles, and was severely wounded at Mechanicsville. He was then promoted to colonel of the 5th Virginia Cavalry and commanded the advance of J.E.B. Stuart’s expedition to Catlett’s Station. At the Second Battle of Bull Run he captured General John Pope’s orderly and horses. Rosser also fought at the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Kelly’s Ford, where he was badly wounded, and Gettysburg. He was promoted to brigadier general and fought at the Battle of the Wilderness, Trevilian Station, where he was wounded again, in the Shenandoah Valley, at Cedar Creek and Tom’s Brook. For no tactical reason, Custer chased Rosser’s troops for over 10 miles and the action became known as the “Woodstock Races” in Union accounts. Rosser became known in the Southern press as the “Saviour of the Valley,” and was promoted to major general in November 1864. Rosser commanded a cavalry division during the Siege of Petersburg in the spring of 1865. Rosser was conspicuous during the Appomattox Campaign, capturing a Union general and rescuing a wagon train near Farmville. He led a daring early morning charge at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, and escaped with his command as Lee surrendered the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia. After the War, he became chief engineer of the eastern division of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and later was chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific. On June 10, 1898, President William McKinley appointed Rosser a brigadier general of United States Volunteers during the Spanish-American War.

Thomas H. Ruger.  Thomas Howard Ruger (1833-1907) moved with his family to Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1846, graduated from West Point in 1854 (3rd in his class), and resigned in 1855 to become a lawyer in Wisconsin.  He was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in June 1861, and promoted to colonel on August 20. He led his regiment in Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley campaigns, and participated in the Battle of Antietam. He was acting commander of a brigade at Antietam and was also wounded. In November 1862, he received a promotion to brigadier general of Volunteers and led a brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville. He temporarily commanded General Alpheus Williams’ division at Gettysburg. In the summer of 1863, Ruger was in New York City, where he aided in suppressing draft riots. Ruger led a brigade of XX Corps in the Atlanta Campaign, and led a division in the campaign against Hood’s Army in Tennessee. In November 1864 Ruger was breveted a major general of Volunteers for his service at the Battle of Franklin. In 1865 he had charge of the department of North Carolina.  He was mustered out of his volunteer commission, accepting a regular army commission as colonel, July 28, 1866, and on March 2, 1867, was brevetted brigadier general, regular army, for his services at Gettysburg.

After the War, Ruger was the military governor of Georgia and served in the Freedmen’s Bureau in Alabama in 1868. He served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point (1871-1876). Other commands he held were the Department of the South (1876-78), the Infantry and Cavalry School of Application (1885-86), the Department of Dakota (1886-91)–where he led the army’s 1887 expedition into the Big Horn Mountains during the Crow War, the Military Division of the Pacific (1891), the Department of California (1891-94), the Military Division of the Missouri (1894-95) and the Department of the East (1895-97). He retired, in 1897

David A. Russell.  David Allen Russell (1820-1864) graduated from West Point in 1845 and was a career military officer serving in the Mexican War and in the Pacific Northwest. When the Civil War started Russell joined the volunteer army as colonel of the 7th Massachusetts Infantry and served in the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. In 1862, Russell was promoted to major in the regular army and assigned to the U.S. 8th Infantry Regiment. Still in command of the 7th Massachusetts, he fought in the Battle of Antietam. Later in 1862, Russell was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers and commanded a brigade during the Rappahannock campaign. He later fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg. In 1864, Russell fought in the Overland Campaign. He was mortally wounded September 19, 1864, during the Battle of Opequon, also known as the Third Battle of Winchester.

Albert Rust (1818-1870), was a U.S. Representative from Arkansas from 1855 to 1861. In 1861 he was a delegate to the Arkansas secession congress. He served as colonel of the 3rd Arkansas Infantry.

Frederick/Friedrich Salomon (1826-1897) was born in Prussia, received a military education and was commissioned in the Prussian army. During the German uprisings of 1848, he supported the democrats and fled the country when the revolution was defeated. He settled in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1848, established himself in business, and soon rose to prominence within the German community in the Midwest. In 1860 he relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the 5th Missouri Infantry as a captain, enlisting for a three-month tour. When this was up, he was recalled to Wisconsin to help form the 9th Wisconsin Infantry, a regiment composed mainly of German immigrants. Salomon led his new brigade at the battles of Newtonia, Missouri (September 30, 1862) and Helena, Arkansas (July 4, 1863). In the latter battle, Salomon designed defenses that enabled his Union forces of 4,000 men to turn back 10,000 Confederates. Frederick Salomon was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on July 16, 1862, and his brother Charles E. Salomon (1824-1881) became colonel of the 9th Wisconsin on August 25, 1862.

For a fuller biography, see

• Frederick Salomon entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

John B. Sanborn.  John Benjamin Sanborn (1826-1904) was Minnesota’s adjutant general when the Civil War began. When the 4th Minnesota Infantry mustered into service in December 1861, Sanborn was named as the regiment’s colonel. The regiment was sent to Mississippi and Sanborn led the 4th Minnesota at both the Siege of Corinth (April 29-June 30, 1862), also known as the First Battle of Corinth. He led a brigade at the Battle of Iuka (September 19, 1862) and the Second Battle of Corinth (October 3-4, 1862). From late 1862 to mid 1863, he led a brigade for General Ulysses S. Grant’s Central Mississippi Campaign and Vicksburg Campaign. On August 4, 1863, he received a promotion to brigadier general. In October 1863 Sanborn was sent to command the Union forces in the District of Southwestern Missouri, and he led his men with distinction during Sterling Price’s raid into Missouri in 1864. On February 10, 1865, he was brevetted a major general. In June 1865, he was sent to join General John Pope on the western frontier to help subdue the Indian tribes, and in September of that year he, along with William Bent and Kit Carlson, were appointed as commissioners to negotiate a peace treaty with several Indian tribes. From 1867 to 1869, Sanborn was a key member of the Indian Peace Commission. He mustered out of the army in 1869 and returned to Minnesota, where he resumed his partnership in a law firm, was elected to the state legislature, and was involved in veterans organizations.

Robert C. Schenck.  Robert Cumming Schenck (1809-1890) was a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1843-1951, and U.S. Minister to Brazil. Schenck was an early and ardent supporter of Lincoln for president, and Lincoln appointed him a brigadier-general of Volunteers. At Bull Run, he commanded the Second Brigade in General Daniel Tyler’s First Division. Schenck  managed to keep his brigade from becoming part of the original “Great Skedaddle” mob that retreated from the battle. He participated in Jackson’s Valley Campaign of 1862, the Battle of Cross Keys, and the Second Battle of Bull Run, where he was severely wounded, his right arm being permanently injured. He was promoted to major general in September 1862 but was unfit for field duty for six months. Schenck was assigned to the command of VIII Corps, repressing turbulence, acts of disloyalty, and any complicity with treason, which did not make him  popular with the citizens in Maryland who were disloyal. In December 1863, he resigned his commission to take his seat in Congress, which he won in a large majority over Copperhead Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham. He was at once made chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs. After failing to be re-elected in 1870, Schenck was appointed by President Ulysses Grant as Minister to the United Kingdom. He served as a member of the Alabama Claims Commission, taking part in settling the claims arising from the exploits of Raphael Semmes and his Confederate raider.

John M. Schofield.  John McAllister Schofield (1831-1906) graduated from West Point, served in the artillery, and was a professor at West Point and at Washington University in St. Louis. When the Civil War began, Schofield became a major in a Missouri regiment and served as chief of staff to General Nathaniel Lyon. Schofield received the Medal of Honor (in 1892) for “conspicuous gallantry” during the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, where Lyon was killed in action. In November 1861 Schofield was promoted to brigadier general and to major general in November 1862. From 1861 to 1863 he held various commands in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. In 1863 he returned to Missouri as commander of the Department of Missouri. His command in Missouri was marred by controversy, with pro-Union Missourians sending a delegation to Washington DC to plead with President Lincoln to dismiss Schofield—for sympathizing with pro-Confederate Bushwhacker para-military marauders who were attacking loyal Union citizens. In 1864, as commander of the Army of the Ohio, he took part in the Atlanta Campaign, the Battle of Franklin, and the Battle of Nashville. After the War, Schofield served as the military governor of Virginia, as the U.S. Secretary of War (1868-1869), recommended that the United States establish a naval port at Pearl Harbor, was was superintendent of the United States Military Academy (1876-1881), was asked to re-open Fitz John Porter’s court-martial case and found that he had been wrongly convicted. His memoirs, Forty-six Years in the Army, were published in 1897.

Carl Schurz.  Carl Christian Schurz (1829-1906) was another German revolutionary—probably the best known of the Forty-Eighters—who came to the U.S. in 1852 and settled in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1855. There, his wife Margarethe became instrumental in establishing the kindergarten system in the United States and he became involved in politics and the anti-slavery movement. He ran unsuccessfully for Wisconsin lieutenant-governor in 1857 and 1859. Schurz was an early supporter of Lincoln and in 1860 was on the committee that brought Lincoln the news of his nomination as president. Fritz Anneke, a friend of Schurz’s from Germany, will become commander of the 34th Wisconsin Infantry.

In 1861 Lincoln made him ambassador to Spain (July 13-December 18, 1861) and he kept Spain from supporting the South when the Civil War broke out. He then persuaded Lincoln to give him a commission as a brigadier general and he served under John C. Frémont and then under Franz Siegel at the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28-30, 1862). As a major general of volunteers he served at the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863), the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), the Chattanooga Campaign (October-November 1863), and was with William Tecumseh Sherman’s army in North Carolina (March-April 1865).

After the War, Schurz was elected to the U.S. Senate (1869-1874) from Missouri, being the first German-American in the Senate. In the 1876 presidential campaign he supported Rutherford B. Hayes, who then named him Secretary of the Interior (1877-1881). Schurz is perhaps best known today for his famous saying: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” (Remarks in the Senate, February 29, 1872, The Congress Globe, page 1287, 42nd Congress, 2nd Session.)

For more information:

• Carl Schurz entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.
• Carl Schurz’s autobiography (E 664 .S39 A337 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Americanization of Carl Schurz, by Chester Verne Easum (E 664 .S39 E13)
• Carl Schurz, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse (E 664 .S39 T7 1982)
• Carl Schurz and German Unity, by Theodore Schreiber (E 664 .S39 S27)
• Carl Schurz, Militant Liberal, by Joseph Schafer (F 576 .W818 v. 1)
• Carl Schurz, Patriot, by Clara Tutt (E 664 .S39 T8 1960)
• Carl Schurz, Reformer, by Claude Moore Fuess (E 664 .S39 F92)
• German-Speaking Forty-Eighters: Builders of Watertown, Wisconsin, by Charles J. Wallman (F 589 .W3 W35 1992)

John S. Scott.  John Sims Scott was the colonel of the 1st Louisiana Cavalry. Scott raised the 1st Louisiana cavalry regiment starting in June 1861, and the regiment was mustered in September. The 1st Louisiana Cavalry was one of the most heavily endowed regiments, receiving some $500,000, largely from Louisiana planters, as many of the troopers of the Regiment were sons of planters or their relatives. Some of the more notable engagements the regiment participated in were Nashville, Elk River, Richmond (Ky.), Munfordville, Stone’s River, Murfreesborough, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Big Hill (Ky.), Perryville, and Danville (Ky.).  General Richard Taylor surrendered his army, which included the 1st Louisiana Cavalry Regiment, to General E.R.S. Canby near Citronelle, Alabama, on May 5, 1865. Final parole was at Gainesville, Alabama, on May 12, 1865. For more on Scott and the 1st Louisiana Cavalry, see They Rode with Forrest, by Michael R. Bradley (Pelican Publishing Co., 2012).

Winfield Scott (1786-1866) was a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army and general-in-chief of the army from 1841-1861. As the secession crisis developed during the latter part of 1860, Scott pleaded, unsuccessfully, to President Buchanan to reinforce the southern forts and armories against possible seizure. During the Civil War he conceived the Anaconda Plan, a strategy for the Union to defeat the Confederacy by blockading the Southern ports and cutting the South in two by advancing down the Mississippi River. In November 1861, when he was 75 years old, Scott retired. George B. McClellan succeeds him as the general-in-chief of the army.

For more information:

• Old Fuss and Feathers: The Life and Exploits of Lt.-General Winfield Scott, by Arthur D. Howden Smith (E 403.1 .S4 S6 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library)
• Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man, by Charles Winslow Elliott (E 403.1 .S4 E6)

John Sedgwick (1813-1864) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer who served in the Seminole Wars, the Mexican War, the Utah War, and fought Indians on the western frontier. In the Civil War, he commanded the 2nd brigade of Heintzelman’s division in the Army of the Potomac, and then his own division, for the Peninsula Campaign. He fought at Yorktown and Seven Pines, and was wounded in the arm and leg at the Battle of Glendale (June 30, 1862). In 1863 he played an important role in the Battle of Chancellorsville, but at the Battle of Gettysburg his corps arrived late and only a few units took part in the final Union attacks in the Wheatfield. Sedgwick was killed on May 9, 1864, at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House by a sharpshooter. Just seconds before he had said to his men who were taking cover, “I’m ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”

Raphael Semmes (1809-?), a career naval officer, was captain of the Confederate raider CSS Alabama. He resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy in February 1861 and offered his services to the Confederacy.

For more details on Semmes and the Alabama, see:

• the Naval History & Heritage Command’s Navy Department Library website, which includes a 1968 Naval Historical Foundation publication on Captain Raphael Semmes and the C.S.S. Alabama.

Truman Seymour (1824-1891) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. When the Civil War began in 1861, Seymour participated in the defense of Fort Sumter. He became a brigadier general of Volunteers on April 28, 1862, and participated in the Peninsula Campaign. Seymour performed well at the battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam. In late 1862, Seymour was sent to the Department of the South where he served as chief of staff to the commanding general from January 8 to April 23, 1863. He led a division on Folly Island, South Carolina, on July 4, participated in the attack on Morris Island on July 10, and commanded the unsuccessful attack on Fort Wagner on July 18. General Gillmore put Seymour in charge of the District of Florida. Gillmore’s division made an expedition to Florida in February 1864, and took possession of Jacksonville. Gillmore returned to South Carolina and left Seymour in tactical command. After Olustee, Seymour remained in command of the District of Florida until March 28, 1864. He then returned to Virginia and was captured at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. Seymour was exchanged in August 1864 and was present at Lee’s surrender in April 1865.

James M. Shackelford.  James Murrell Shackelford (1827-1907) served in a Kentucky unit in the Mexican War at a young age, and returning to Kentucky studied law. He was appointed colonel of the 25th Kentucky Infantry (Union) on January 1, 1862. He recruited another regiment which became the 8th Kentucky Cavalry (Union) with Shackelford as its colonel. On January 1, 1863, he was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers. Shackelford fought at the battles of Fort Donelson, Buffington Island (July 19, 1863), Salineville (July 26), New Lisbon, Cumberland Gap, Blountville, Campbell’s Station, Bean’s Station, and the Siege of Knoxville.

Joseph O. Shelby.   Joseph “Jo” Orville Shelby (1830-1897) came from one of Kentucky’s wealthiest and most influential families. He moved to Missouri in 1852 where he engaged in steamboating and was one of the largest slaveholders in the state. During the “Bleeding Kansas” struggle, he led a company on the pro-slavery side. In 1861, Shelby formed a cavalry company and was elected its captain, leading it at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Promoted to colonel, he commanded a brigade at the Battle of Prairie Grove. Shelby led his “Iron Brigade” of Missouri volunteers on what was to be the longest cavalry raid of the war at that time. Shelby’s Great Raid—between September 22 and October 26, 1863—caused great disruption in Missouri before returning to Arkansas. The raid cemented Colonel Shelby’s reputation as a cavalry commander and he was promoted to brigadier general as a result. The raid showed that Missouri was still vulnerable to Confederate raids. In 1864, Shelby’s determined harassment, in concert with other Confederate forces, played a large role in the failure of Union General Frederick Steele’s Camden Expedition. Shelby then accomplished the rare feat of capturing a Union tinclad, the USS Queen City. He then commanded a division during Sterling Price’s 1864 Missouri Raid and distinguished himself at the battles of Little Blue River and Westport. In June 1865, rather than surrender, Shelby and approximately 1,000 of his men went to Mexico and became known as “the undefeated.” Shelby returned to Missouri in 1867 and resumed farming. He was appointed the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Missouri, serving from 1893 until his death in 1897.

George F. Shepley.  George Foster Shepley (1819-1878) was a lawyer in Maine and U.S. Attorney for the District of Main (1848-9 and 1853-61). Shepley joined the army in November 1861 as colonel of the 12th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He served as the acting military mayor of New Orleans (May–July 1862); as military governor of the occupied parishes of Louisiana (1862–64), with the rank of brigadier general; and as the first military governor of Richmond, Virginia.

Philip H. Sheridan.  Philip Henry Sheridan (1831-1888) graduated from West Point in 1853 and was a career military officer serving in the West before the Civil War. His first job during the War was as a staff officer for General Henry W. Halleck in St. Louis. In December 1861 he became the chief commissary officer and quartermaster general of the Army of Southwest Missouri. He participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge (March 6-8, 1862) and the Siege of Corinth (April 29-May 30, 1862). On May 27 he was appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. His actions at the Battle of Booneville (July 1, 1862) so impressed his commanders that he was promoted to brigadier general. He was assigned to command the 11th Division in the III Corps, which he lead at the Battle of Perryville (October 8, 1862). His actions at the Battle of Stones River (December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863) resulted in a promotion to major general. In 1863, Sheridan and his division participated in the Tullahoma Campaign, the Battle of Chickamauga, and the Battle of Missionary Ridge. In 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant put Sheridan in command of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac for the Overland Campaign. From May 9 through May 24, 1864, Sheridan was sent on a raid toward Richmond, directly challenging the Confederate cavalry.  During the raid, he managed to mortally wound Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern on May 11 and beat Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee at Meadow Bridge on May 12.

Thomas W. Sherman.  Thomas West Sherman (1813-1879) was a career military officer who graduated from West Point and served with distinction in the Mexican War. At the start of the Civil War, Sherman was serving in the U.S. Artillery when he received a commission as brigadier general in May, 1861.  Sherman, commanding the ground forces, captured Port Royal in a combined Army-Navy operation. During the May 27, 1863, attack on Port Hudson, Sherman was severely wounded, which led to the amputation of his right leg. His injuries were so severe that he was not expected to live. Even the newspaper in his hometown (Newport, Rhode Island) printed an obituary for him. For the rest of the war he held only administrative commands in Louisiana.

William T. Sherman.  William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. As a general in the American Civil War, he received recognition for his military strategy and criticism for the harshness of the “scorched earth” policy that he used against the Confederates in Georgia in his March to the Sea—also known as the Savannah Campaign—in late 1864. He accepted the surrender of all the Confederate armies in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida in April 1865.

The UWRF Chalmer Davee Library has numerous books on William T. Sherman, including:

• March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman’s Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns, by Joseph T. Glatthaar (E 476.69 .G53)
• McClellan, Sherman, and Grant, by T. Harry Williams, 1962 (E 467 .W5)
• Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, by Himself, 1875 (E 467.1 .S55 S52), copies in both the main stacks and the UWRF Archives, plus a 1957 reprint (E 467.1 .S55 S52 1957)
• Memories of Gen. W. T. Sherman, written by himself, with an appendix, bringing his life down to its closing scenes, also a personal tribute and critique of the memoirs by Hon. James G. Blaine (E 467.1 .S55 A3 1891)
• Sherman and His Campaigns: A Military Biography, b6 S. M. Bowman and R. B. Irwin (E 467.1 .S55 B713 1865)
• Sherman, Fighting Prophet, Illustrated with Reproductions of Maps, Engravings and Photographs, by Lloyd Lewis, 1932 (E 467.1 .S55 L48)
• Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General Sherman and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, edited by Rachel Sherman Thorndike (E 415.7 .S55 1969)
• Sherman’s Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865, edited by Brooks D. Simpson and Jean V. Berlin (E 467.1 .S55 A4 1999)

James Shields (1810-1879) was American politician as well as an army officer. During his political career, he became a United States senator for Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri. He is the only person in American history to be a senator for three different states.  For his military career, he became a brigadier general during the Mexican War. In the Civil War, he was wounded in the Battle of Kernstown. Shields was the only general to defeat Stonewall Jackson in a battle during the Civil War.

Alexander Shimmelfenning (1824-1865) was a Prussian soldier and political revolutionary who emigrated to the U.S. in 1854. He worked in the U.S. War Department, where he associated with the Forty-Eighters (German military officers in the failed revolution of 1848 who fled to the United States), many of whom, like him, ended up serving in the Union Army. When the Civil War started, he raised a regiment of Germans from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh called the 1st German Regiment (of Pennsylvania), later designated the 74th Pennsylvania Infantry. Shimmelfenning fought at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He commanded the District of Charleston during Sherman’s March to the Sea, and he had the honor of accepting Charleston’s surrender on February 18, 1865. During his time of service in the swamps about Charleston, Schimmelfennig contracted a virulent form of tuberculosis, which ultimately led to his death on September 5, 1865, in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, where he visited a mineral springs sanatorium in an effort to find a cure.

Henry Hastings Sibley (1811-1891) was the former governor of neighboring Minnesota from 1858-1860.

Henry Hopkins Sibley (1816-1886), not to be confused with Henry Hastings Sibley. This H. H. Sibley  was a  West Point graduate and career Army officer from 1838 until 1861, when he resigned to join the Confederate Army.  He lead the Confederate forces in New Mexico Territory, where he hoped to capture Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Fort Union on the Santa Fe Trail and establish a supply line to the South.

Daniel E. Sickles. Daniel Edgar Sickles (1819-1914) was a New York politician (U.S. House) involved in a number of scandals, and during the Civil War was one of the most prominent political generals. Sickles had raised thousands of recruits for the Excelsior Brigade; however, he was not in charge of the Brigade at the Battle of Williamsburg nor at the Second Bull Run Battle. Sickles was a close ally of General Joseph Hooker, who gave him command of the III Corps in February 1863, making Sickles the only corps commander without a West Point education. Sickles is best remembered for his insubordination at the Battle of Gettysburg, which resulted in the near destruction of his III Corps, and the end of his military career.

Franz Sigel (1824-1902) was a German military officer who migrated to the United States in 1852 with other German Forty-Eighters. In 1857, he became a professor at the German-American Institute in Saint Louis, where he was influential in the Missouri immigrant community and attracted Germans to the Union and anti-slavery causes. He was commissioned a colonel of the 3rd Missouri Infantry in May 1861, and was promoted to brigadier general in early August 1861.

Henry W. Slocum. Henry Warner Slocum (1827-1894) was a career military office who graduated from West Point and served in the Seminole War. When the civil war started Slocum was appointed colonel of the 17th New York Infantry, which he led at the first Battle of Bull Run.  He was one of the youngest major generals in the Army and fought numerous major battles in the Eastern Theater and in Georgia and the Carolinas. At the Battle of Gettysburg he was accused of indecision on the battlefield, earning him the derogatory nickname “Slow Come”. After the war he served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A. J. Smith.  Andrew Jackson Smith (1815-1897) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer who fought in the Mexican War and in the Indian wars in Washington and Oregon territories. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith became colonel of the 2nd California Volunteer Cavalry and in 1862 became a brigadier general in the Volunteers, commanding the cavalry in the Department of the Missouri. He took part in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou and the capture of Arkansas Post, commanded a division in the Vicksburg Campaign, led another division in the Red River Campaign, and received the brevet rank of colonel in the regular army for his actions in the Battle of Pleasant Hill. In July 1864, Smith became a lieutenant colonel in the regular army and a major general in the Volunteers. He led the Union troops during Sterling Price’s Raid into Missouri. Smith is most noted for his victory at the Battle of Tupelo (July 14, 1864). He was brevetted major general for his success in leading his troops past the Confederates’ south flank at the Battle of Nashville, and he commanded the XVI corps in the final campaign against Mobile, Alabama, in 1865. After the Civil War, Smith became colonel of the U.S. 7th Cavalry, serving in the western U.S.

Charles F. Smith. Charles Ferguson Smith (1807-1862), who was a career military officer.  As a brigadier general of Volunteers, he had command of the District of Western Kentucky, and commanded U.S. Grant’s Second Division at the Battle of Fort Donelson.  Smith played an important role in the capture of Fort Donelson, and General Grant acknowledged that he “owed his success at Donelson emphatically” to Smith.  On the way to what would become the Battle of Shiloh, Smith’s leg was seriously injured jumping into a rowboat. Due to the injury, he was forced to hand over command of his division to W. H. L. Wallace.  Smith died on April 25, 1862, from an infection in his leg.

For more information:

• April 30, 1862, post: Death of General C. F. Smith
• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

Charles H. Smith.  Charles H Smith ()

Gustavus W. Smith.  Gustavus Woodson Smith (1821-1896) was a career military officer who fought in the Mexican War and was a civil engineer. He was commissioned a Confederate major general on September 19, 1861, and fought in the Battle of Seven Pines (Peninsula Campaign). In late August 1862, Smith took command of the defenses around Richmond, which was expanded to become the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. He acted as interim Confederate States Secretary of War from November 17 through November 21, 1862. Smith resigned his commission as a major general on February 17, 1863, and became a volunteer aide to General P.G.T. Beauregard for the rest of that year. Smith was also the superintendent of the Etowah Iron Works in 1863 until June 1, 1864, when he was commissioned a major general in the Georgia state militia and commanded its first division until the end of the war.

Kirby Smith. Edmund Kirby Smith (1824-1893), originally from Florida, graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War and in Texas. He resigned his commission on April 6, 1861, to join the Confederate Army and was promoted to brigadier general in June. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861), where he was severely wounded. He returned to duty as a major general and division commander in the Army of Northern Virginia. In February 1862 he was sent west and cooperated with Braxton Bragg in the invasion of Kentucky. He won the Battle of Richmond (August 30, 1862), received the Confederate “Thanks of Congress” for it, and was promoted to lieutenant general. Smith is best known for his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department beginning in January 1863, a department that never had more than 30,000 men to cover a huge area. After the fall of Vicksburg (July 4, 1863) and Port Hudson (July 9, 1863), he was he was virtually cut off from the Confederate capital at Richmond, and his area became known in the Confederacy as “Kirby Smithdom.” The war in the West devolved into one of small raids and guerrilla activity, yet his army was the only significant Confederate field army left after Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. Smith negotiated the surrender of his army on May 26, 1865, and signed the terms of surrender on June 2. He then fled to Mexico and Cuba to escape prosecution, but took the oath of amnesty on November 14, 1865. Following the War, Smith was in the telegraph and railroad business. In 1870 he became the president of the University of Nashville, and was a professor at the University of the South in Tennessee from 1875 to his death in 1893.

G. W. Smith. Gustavus Woodson Smith (1821-1896) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer for 12 years, who fought in the Mexican War, and then resigned to be a civil engineer. He was commissioned a Confederate major general in September of 1861, and served in northern Virginia, fighting at the Battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks. On May 31, 1862, Smith briefly took command of the Army of Northern Virginia after General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded; however, Jefferson Davis replaced him with Robert E. Lee the following day. Smith resigned his commission as a major general in February 1863, and became a volunteer aide to General P.G.T. Beauregard for the rest of that year. He was commissioned a major general in the Georgia state militia in June 1864 and commanded its first division until the end of the war.

John E. Smith. John Eugene Smith (1816-1897) emigrated from Switzerland and became a jeweler in Galena, Illinois. It was here that Smith joined the Union Army and become one of nine generals from Galena to fight in the Civil War. He participated in the battles Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, and Sherman’s March to the Sea. After the War, Smith stayed in the regular army until 1881 when he retired to Chicago, Illinois.

Martin L. Smith. Martin Luther Smith (1819-1866) was one of the few Northern-born generals to fight for the Confederacy. He graduated from West Point and spent much of his early military career in the South.  In February 1862 he was appointed colonel of the Confederate 21st Louisiana Infantry. He served under General David Twiggs, helping plan the defense of New Orleans. In April of that year he was promoted to brigadier general. In May of 1863 he took charge of constructing the defenses of Vicksburg, as well as leading a division. After Vicksburg fell, he was held as a prisoner of war for seven months and was exchanged in early 1864. He served briefly as the head of the Engineer Corps for the entire Confederate Army, when he became the chief engineer for the Army of Northern Virginia. Later, he held the same position for the Army of Tennessee. As chief engineer of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana at the end of the war, he prepared the defenses of Mobile, Alabama, where he remained until the city fell. After the War he established a civil engineering company in Savannah, Georgia, but died less than a year later.

Morgan L. Smith.  Morgan Lewis Smith (1822-1874) raised the 8th Missouri Infantry (Union) when the Civil War started and was elected its colonel. He commanded a brigade at the capture of Fort Donelson, and performed well at the Battle of Shiloh. Smith’s brigade took an active part in the Siege of Corinth and in July 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers. He served under General Sherman in the Vicksburg Campaign and was severely wounded at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. He rejoined his division in time for the Battle of Chattanooga. During the Atlanta Campaign, he temporarily commanded the XV Corps when General Logan assumed command of the Army of the Tennessee after General McPherson’s death. Smith returned to command his division at the battle of Ezra Church but was soon forced to leave active field command due to complications from his wound received at Chickasaw Bayou. He was then put in charge of Vicksburg.  After the Civil War Smith served as U.S. Consul in Honolulu, Hawaii.

William F. Smith.  William Farrar “Baldy” Smith (1824-1903), a graduate of West Point, was a civil engineer and member of the New York City police commission. He was appointed a Union brigadier general on August 13, 1861. At the Battle of Williamsburg, Smith led the 2nd Division of the IV Corps, which included the 5th Wisconsin Infantry. He led his division with conspicuous valor during the Battle of Antietam, and opened the “Cracker Line” to provide supplies and reinforcements to the besieged troops in Chattanooga.  In the Overland Campaign (1864), Smith commanded the XVIII Corps of the Army of the James in the Battle of Cold Harbor.

Peter Stagg (1836-1884) as an officer in the 1st Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, which was part of General George A. Custer’s famed Wolverine Brigade. Stagg was promoted to colonel of the regimment, and was the last man to command the Wolverine Brigade. He was brevetted brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for gallant and distinguished services.

Julius H. Stahel (1827-1912) was an Hungarian soldier—born Stahel-Számwald—who emigrated to the United States 1859. When the Civil War started, Stahel, together with Louis Blenker, recruited the 8th NewYork Infantry. Stahel, who had dropped the “Számwald” portion of his name, became its first lieutenant colonel and in April 1862 became the colonel. He led a brigade under Frémont at the Battle of Cross Keys. At the Second Battle of Bull Run, General Robert C. Schenck was wounded and Stahel became acting commander of the division. In the spring of 1864, Stahel was commander of the 1st Cavalry Division under Franz Sigel. At the Battle of Piedmont (June 5, 1864), Stahel was a cavalry commander under General David Hunter, and Stahel distinguished himself under fire until he was wounded; Stahel received the Medal of Honor in 1893. After the war, he served as a U.S. diplomat in Japan and China, a mining engineer, and a life insurance company executive.

David S. Stanley.  David Sloan Stanley (1828-1902) graduated from West Point in 1852 and then surveyed Western railroad routes and fought Indians. When the Civil War started he quickly rose to brigadier general in September 1861. He participated in the Battle of Island No. Ten, the Second Battle of Corinth, and the Battle of Stones River. In March 1863 Stanley was promoted to major general and led the Union cavalry in the Tullahoma Campaign. In 1864 he joined William T. Sherman as a division commander in the Army of the Cumberland during the Atlanta Campaign, and he was promoted to command of the IV Corps when General Oliver O. Howard was promoted to command of the Union Army of the Tennessee. After the capture of Atlanta city, instead of joining the March to the Sea, Sherman sent Stanley and his IV Corps to Tennessee to help protect the state from invasion by John Bell Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee.

John C. Starkweather. John Converse Starkweather (1830-1890), a lawyer, helped organize the Milwaukee Light Guard.  During the Civil War, Starkweather serves as colonel of the 1st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry from 1861 to 1863), when he is commissioned brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers.

For more information:

• John Converse Starkweather entry from the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

Frederick Steele (1819-1868) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer. He served in the Mexican War, in the Yuma War in California, and in Minnesota Territory, Kansas Territory, and Nebraska Territory. In May 1861 we was appointed a major in the 11th U.S. Infantry and fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. In September 1861 he became colonel of the 8th Iowa Infantry, at the end of January 1862 he was appointed a brigadier general of U.S. volunteers, and in March 1863 he was confirmed as a major general of volunteers. He fought at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in December 1862 and in the Battle of Arkansas Post in January 1863. For the Siege of Vicksburg, his division was renamed the 1st Division in General William T. Sherman’s XV Corps. A monument to Steele stands on the Vicksburg National Military Park. Steele led a force of African American soldiers General Edward Canby’s Army of West Mississippi between February 1865 and May 1865. His troops fought at the battles of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely.

Adolph von Steinwehr (1822-1877) was a German-born military officer who emigrated to the U.S. in 1854. At the start of the Civil War, Steinwehr raised the 29th New York Infantry, which consisted primarily of other German immigrants, and he commanded the regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. A year later Steinwehr was in command of the 2nd Division (including the 29th N.Y.) in Franz Sigel’s I Corps, which was assigned to John Pope’s Army of Virginia.

Henry S. Stellwagen. Henry Schreiner Stellwagen (1803-1866) was a career naval officer. In 1855, Stellwagen was promoted to Commander; in 1861, he helped plan and execute attacks on Forts Hatteras and Clark at Hatteras Inlet.;  in 1862 he was commissioned Captain; and in mid-1863, he was given command of the Mediterranean Squadron and remained there until 1864.

Carter L. Stevenson. Carter Littlepage Stevenson (1817-1888) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer who served in having spent much of his private fortune in support of the Union, was financially ruined the Seminole Wars, the Mexican War, and the Utah War. He resigned his commission when Virginia seceded from the Union in early 1861 and was commission a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate army. At Beauregard’s recommendation, he was promoted to colonel of the 53rd Virginia Infantry, and then to brigadier general in February 1862. Recognized again for his leadership ability, he was promoted to major general in October 1862 and led his division at the Battle of Perryville. In December, Stevenson with 10,000 men was sent to reinforce John C. Pemberton’s force at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and his division bore the brunt of fighting at the Battle of Champion’s Hill. During the Siege of Vicksburg, Stevenson commanded the right of the entire Confederate defensive line.

Charles P. Stone.  Charles Pomeroy Stone (1824-1887) was a career military officer, civil engineer, and surveyor, who had served with distinction in the Mexican War.  Stone was held responsible for the Union defeat at Ball’s Bluff. He was arrested and imprisoned for almost six months, mostly for political reasons, but never received a trial. After his release he would not again hold a significant command during the Civil War.

William M. Stone.  William Milo Stone (1827-1893) was the sixth governor of Iowa, serving from 1864-1868. He had served as the captain of Company B, 3rd Iowa Infantry, and was taken prison at the Battle of Shiloh. After being paroled, he was promoted to colonel of the 22nd Iowa Infantry and was wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg. Stone was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and was present when Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre. Stone helped carry the wounded Lincoln across the street. After leaving the governor’s office in 1868, Stone served one term in the Iowa House of Representatives, 1877–78, and was appointed Assistant Commissioner and then Commissioner of the U.S. General Land Office.

George Stoneman, Jr. (1822-1894) was a career military officer who graduated from West Point, where he was roommates with Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson. At the beginning of the Civil War, he refused David E. Twiggs’ order to surrender Fort Brown, Texas, to the Confederates. In the Army of the Potomac, he commanded the Cavalry Reserve and then the Cavalry Division, with the title Chief of Cavalry. During the Peninsula Campaign, he did not get along well with General George B. McClellan, who did not undertand how to make proper use of cavalry. McClellan’s replacement, General Joseph Hooker, had a better understanding of the strategic value of cavalry and put Stoneman in charge. But during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Hooker believed Stoneman did little and considered him one of the principal reasons for the Union defeat at there. Hooker needed to deflect criticism from himself and relieved Stoneman from his cavalry command, sending him back to Washington, D.C., for a desk job, Chief of the U.S. Cavalry Bureau. Eager to get back in the field and redeem his reputation, he get his friend General John Schofield to arrange for Stoneman to take command of the XXIII Corps in the Department of the Ohio.  On April 4, 1864, he was placed in command of the Department’s Cavalry Corps and took part in the Atlanta campaign.

While attempting to seize the Confederate prison at Andersonville (July 31, 1864), he was captured at Clinton, Georgia, along  with his aide-de-camp Myles Keogh and 700 men.  At the request of General William T. Sherman, both Stoneman and Keogh were exchanged three months later.  After his return to the army in late 1864, Stoneman salvaged his reputation by leading a raid into southwestern Virginia, destroying the salt works and ironworks near Wytheville.  He then led 6,000 men on another raid into North Carolina and Virginia in March 1865, nearly capturing Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  In June 1865, Stoneman was appointed commander of the Department of the Tennessee with headquarters in Memphis.  A riot between the black soldiers and black citizens and Irish laborers led to charges that Stoneman had not intervened quickly enough to restore order.  The Congressional committee that investigated the riots  both thanked Stoneman for his assistance and rebuked him for not acting as quickly as he could have.

After the War Stoneman was a controversial commander of the Arizona Military Department for one year from May 1870 to May 1871, when he was relieved of command. He retired from the military and moved to California where he was elected the 15th governor of California, serving from 1883 to 1887.

Abel D. Streight.  Abel Delos Streight (1828-1892) was a lumber merchant and publisher before the Civil War. He was appointed colonel of the 51st Indiana Infantry in December of 1861. Streight and his regiment saw very limited action during the first two years of their service. In 1863 (April 19-May 3), however, he led a notable raid—known as Streight’s Raid—into northern Alabama. This unsuccessful raid was coordinated with the more famous Grierson’s Raid. Streight’s Raid was poorly supplied and planned, and ended with the defeat and capture of Streight and his men by General Forrest. Streight was sent to Libby Prison. Eventually Streight was restored to active duty and placed in command of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, IV Corps, participating in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. He resigned in March of 1865 as a brevet brigadier general. Streight returned to Indianapolis were he served in the state senate, ran unsuccessfully for governor, and operated his publishing business until his death in 1892.

Silas H. Stringham.  Silas Horton Stringham (1798-1876) was a career naval officer. He was a flag officer in command of a Union Blockading fleet off the Virginia and North Carolina coast at the beginning of the Civil War. In July 1862 he was commissioned a rear admiral.

J.E.B. Stuart.  James Ewell Brown “J.E.B.” or simply “Jeb” Stuart (1833-1864), was the Confederate Army’s best cavalry officer. A graduate of West Point, he was a veteran of the frontier conflicts with Native Americans, Bleeding Kansas, and participated in the capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. He started the Civil War as a lieutenant colonel of Virginia Infantry and on July 1, 1861, was assigned to command all the cavalry companies of the Army of the Shenandoah, organized as the 1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment. Just before the First Battle of Bull Run, on July 16, 1861, he had been promoted to full colonel. He led his regiment in the First Battle of Bull Run and participated in the pursuit of the retreating Union troops. Stuart served under Stonewall Jackson in his Shenandoah Valley campaign, and then in increasingly important cavalry commands in the Army of Northern Virginia until his death on May 12, 1864, having been mortally wounded the previous day at the Battle of Yellow Tavern.

Samuel D. Sturgis (1822-1889) was a graduate of  West Point and a veteran of the Mexican War. When the Civil War broke out, Sturgis served in the 1st U.S. Cavalry. He was promoted to major and in August 1861, at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, he succeeded to command of the Federal forces after the death of Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon.

Jeremiah C. Sullivan. Jeremiah Cutler Sullivan (1830-1890) was a lawyer in Indiana, who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. Sullivan coined the name “Indianapolis” for the new state capital. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1848-1854 and was among a handful of former Navy officers who later served as infantry generals during the war. He saw action during the Valley Campaign and the First Battle of Kernstown and was commissioned a brigadier general in April of 1862. He then commanded a brigade in the Army of the Mississippi, serving under William S. Rosecrans, and saw combat in the battles of Iuka and Corinth. During the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign, Sullivan served on the field staff of Major General Ulysses S. Grant as the acting inspector general for his army. Following the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, Sullivan took the position of chief of staff for Major General James B. McPherson. In September, he was reassigned to the Department of West Virginia to serve under his father-in-law, Major General Benjamin F. Kelley.

Alfred Sully (1821-1879), a graduate of West Point, was a career officer in the Union Army. In 1861 his troops occupied Saint Joseph, Missouri, where he declared martial law to suppress the violent secessionist uprising in the city. On February 3, 1862 he became the colonel of the 1st Minnesota Infantry, and in September 1862  he was promoted to brigadier general. He will spend most of the Civil War years commanding cavalry troops out West in the “Indian Wars.”

Edwin V. Sumner.  Edwin Vose Sumner (1797-1863) was career U.S. Army officer and was the oldest field commander of any Army Corps on either side during the Civil War. Sumner was the senior officer to accompany President-elect Abraham Lincoln from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., in March of 1861. On March 12, Sumner was nominated by Lincoln to replace Gen. Twiggs and thus he became the first new Union general created by the secession crisis. He was then sent to command the Department of the Pacific in California, where he stayed until November 1861, when he was brought back East to command a division. In May 1862, he was promoted to major general in the Union Army. He led the II Corps of the Army of the Potomac through the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, the Maryland Campaign, and the Battle of Fredericksburg. Sumner died March 21, 1863, from a heart attack.

George Sykes (1822-1880), a graduate of West Point and career military officer, served in the Mexican War and the Seminole War. Early in the Civil War, he commanded U.S. Army regulars and his men often referred to themselves as “Sykes’ Regulars.” After the Battle of Antietam, Sykes was promoted to major general, and when corps commander Major General George G. Meade was promoted to lead the Army of the Potomac at the end of June, 1863, Sykes assumed command of the V Corps. At the Battle of Gettysburg, Sykes’ corps supported the beleaguered III Corps on the Union’s left flank.

Richard Taylor (1826-1879), the son of U.S. President Zachary Taylor, served as his father’s military secretary during the Mexican War, but had to leave due to rheumatoid arthritis. After his father’s death in 1850, Richard Taylor inherited a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana. When the Civil War started, General Braxton Bragg, who had known Taylor from before the War, thought his knowledge of military history would help him organize and train the Confederate forces. Taylor had been opposed to secession, but accepted the appointment. While serving in that capacity he was commissioned colonel of the 9th Louisiana Infantry and served at the First Battle of Bull Run. In October 1861 Taylor was promoted to brigadier general. He served in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. When Taylor was promoted to major general in July 1862, he was the youngest major general in the Confederacy. He was ordered to Opelousas, Louisiana, to conscript and enroll troops in the District of Western Louisiana. Unfortunately, attacks of rheumatoid arthritis left him crippled for days at a time and unable to command in battle. During 1863, Taylor directed an effective series of clashes with Union forces over control the Bayou Teche region in southern Louisiana. In 1864, Taylor defeated General Nathaniel P. Banks in the Red River Campaign, commanding the Confederate forces in the Battle of Mansfield and the Battle of Pleasant Hill. He pursued Banks back to the Mississippi River and, for his efforts, received the thanks of the Confederate Congress. Taylor was given command of the Department of Alabama and Mississippi and commanded the defenses around the city of Mobile, Alabama. After John Bell Hood’s disastrous campaign into Tennessee, Taylor was given command of the Army of Tennessee. On May 8, 1865, Taylor surrendered his Department to General Edward Canby, and was paroled three days later.

After the War, Richard Taylor wrote his memoirs, Destruction and Reconstruction, one of the most credited reports of the Civil War.

• 1955 reprint is available in the UWRF Library (E470 .T24).

Alfred H. Terry.  Alfred Howe Terry (1827-1890) attended Yale Law School, became a lawyer, and was clerk of the Superior Court of New Haven County, Connecticut. Once the Civil War began, Terry recruited the 2nd Connecticut Infantry and was its colonel; they fought at First Bull Run. In September 1861, he raised a special regiment–the 7th Connecticut Infantry–and was its colonel. In April 1861 he was appointed a brigadier general of Volunteers and was involved at the sieges against Charleston and Morris Island. In 1864 Terry’s division fought at the Battle of Proctor’s Creek and in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. During the Siege of Petersburg, Terry fought in battles north of the James River, including the Battle of New Market Heights. He briefly assumed command of the X Corps when General Birney died. Terry’s greatest achievement during the War was his command of the Fort Fisher Expeditionary Corps, and he worked well with Admiral Porter. After the Battle of Fort Fisher, Terry was promoted to major general of Volunteers and brigadier general in the regular army. After the fall of Wilmington, the Fort Fisher Expeditionary Corps was renamed the X Corps, with Terry remaining in command, and participated in the final stages of the Carolinas Campaign. He is generally considered one of the most capable generals with no previous military training to emerge from the war.

After the War, Terry remained in the military. He helped to negotiate the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), which ended Red Cloud’s campaign against American troops in the region. Terry became a strong opponent of the Ku Klux Klan after being assigned as the last military governor of the Third Military District, based in Atlanta, where he served beginning on December 22, 1869. In the 1870s, Terry commanded one of the U.S. Army column marching westward into the Montana Territory during the Centennial Campaign in 1876–1877, and his column arrived shorted after the Battle of the Little Big Horn and discovered the bodies of General George A. Custer and his men. In late 1877 he went to Canada to negotiate with Sitting Bull and was still in command in Montana during the Nez Perce War and sent reinforcements to intercept Chief Joseph. In 1878, Terry served on the presidential board that reversed the court-martial conviction of Fitz John Porter.

William Terry (1824-1888) was a Virginia lawyer, politician, teacher, and soldier. When Virginia seceded, he enrolled in the Confederate Army and saw his first combat at the First Battle of Bull Run. Terry was promoted to major in the spring of 1862 and fought at the battles of Gaines’ Mill (June 27, 1862) and Malvern Hill (July 1, 1862) in the Peninsula Campaign, was wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run, fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. In February 1864 he was promoted to colonel and then was commissioned a brigadier general in May, following the Wilderness Campaign. Terry led what remained of the Stonewall Brigade and two other brigades at the Battle of Cold Harbor, the defense of Petersburg, and Jubal Early’s campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Terry’s hard-hitting final assault at the Battle of Monocacy finally broke the Union line and forced the withdrawal of Lew Wallace’s army. He was wounded at the Battle of Opequon (Third Winchester) and again at the Battle of Fort Stedman in 1865. Terry was recovering from his injuries when the War ended. After the War, he served as a U.S. Representative from Virginia (1871-1873 and 1875-1877).

George H. Thomas.  George Henry Thomas (1816-1870) was another career military officer. A native of Virginia, Thomas chose to stay with the Union when the Civil War broke out. He was promoted in rapid succession to be lieutenant colonel and colonel in the regular army, and then brigadier general of volunteers. Thomas became one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater. He won one of the first Union victories in the war, at Mill Springs in Kentucky, and served in important subordinate commands at Perryville and Stones River. His defense at the Battle of Chickamauga (1863) saved the Union Army from being completely routed and earned him his most famous nickname, the “Rock of Chickamauga.” He followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin-Nashville Campaign (1864), he won one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, at the Battle of Nashville. Despite his military success, Thomas developed a reputation as a slow, deliberate general (“Old Slow Trot” being another nickname). He shunned self-promotion and turned down advancements in position when he did not think they were justified. He had an uncomfortable personal relationship with General Ulysses S. Grant, which served him poorly as Grant advanced in rank. During Reconstruction, Thomas commanded troops in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. After the war, Thomas, unlike so many generals, did not write memoirs to advance his legacy.

For more information:

• “The Turncoat: George H. Thomas” in After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped, by David Hardin. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.

Lorenzo Thomas (1804-1875) was the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army at the beginning of the Civil War. He graduated from West Point and was a career military officer, having served in the Seminole War and the Mexican War. He was General William Butler’s chief of staff, and from 1853 to 1861, was General Winfield Scott’s chief of staff. He became the Army’s Adjutant General just before the Civil War broke out and retired in that position.

Albert P. Thompson (1829-1864), colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Infantry (Confederate), and also commanding the Third Brigade at Paducah, which included the 7th and 8th Kentucky Infantries in addition to the 3rd Kentucky. Colonel Thompson was killed by cannon fire while leading his troops. Before the Civil War, Thompson was a Paducah lawyer who served as McCracken County’s commonwealth attorney. During the War, Thompson had been severely wounded at the Battle of Baton Rouge.

M. Jeff Thompson.  Meriwether Jeff Thompson (1826-1876) was a brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard during the Civil War.  Before the Civil War he moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he supervised the construction of the western branch of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, served as mayor of St. Joseph (1857–60), and presided over the ceremony inaugurating the first ride of the Pony Express on April 3, 1860. Thompson gained national attention in May, 1861, when he cut down the U.S. flag at the St. Joseph post office and threw it down to an angry crowd of southern sympathizers who shredded it to pieces. During the War, he commanded the First Military District of Missouri, which covered the swampy southeastern quarter of the state from St. Louis to the Mississippi River. Thompson’s battalion became known as the “Swamp Rats” for their exploits and he gained renown as the “Swamp Fox of the Confederacy.” Thompson agreed to surrender his command at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas, on May 11, 1865, and agreed to have his men assemble at Wittsburg and Jacksonport, Arkansas, to lay down their arms and receive their paroles. Thompson’s command was widely dispersed throughout northeast Arkansas, more for reasons of available forage than anything else. About a third of his men refused to surrender and went to Mexico.

Alfred T. A. Torbert.  Alfred Thomas Archimedes Torbert (1833-1880) graduated from West Point in 1855 and was a career military officer. He was offered an appointment in the Confederate States Army in March 1861, but he refused it. In September 1861 he became colonel of the 1st New Jersey  Infantry, and by August 1862 was a brigade commander. He was wounded at South Mountain and in November of 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general. He led his New Jersey brigade at the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. In 1864, following the death of General John Buford, Torbert was given command of the 1st Divison of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps. During Sheridan’s Valley Campaigns of 1864, Torbert commanded the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Shenandoah and was promoted to brevet major general. Torbert received brevet promotions in the regular army for his service at Gettysburg, Haw’s Shop, Third Winchester, and Cedar Creek. After the War, Torbert served in a number of diplomatic posts and drowned when the S.S. Vera Cruz sank in 1880.

Joseph G. Totten.  Joseph Gilbert Totten (1788-1864) was a career military engineer. He was appointed Chief Engineer of the U.S. Army in 1838 and served in that position until his death from pneumonia in 1864. He was greatly admired by Gen. Scott because of their service together in the Mexican-American War.

Edward D. Townsend.  Edward Davis Townsend (1817-1893) was the grandson of U.S. Vice President Elbridge Gerry. Townsend graduated from West Point and participated in the Second Seminole War and the relocation of the Cherokee Indians. He transferred to the Adjutant General’s Corps in 1846 and after the Civil War he was the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army from 1869 to 1880.

John W. Turner.  John Wesley Turner (1833-1899) graduated from West Point in 1855 and was a career military officer, serving in the Third Seminole War. When the Civil War began, Turner was a 1st lieutenant and was quickly promoted to captain, serving on the staff of David Hunter in Kansas and then in the Department of the South, where he rendered valuable services at the battle of Fort Pulaski. In June 1863 Turner was appointed chief of staff in the Department of the South under Quincy A. Gillmore. He participated in operations against Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863 and in September of that year Turner was brevetted to Major in the U.S. Army for his service at Battery Wagner. The following day he was appointed brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers. In 1864 Turner continued as Gillmore’s chief of staff through the Bermuda Hundred Campaign and in June 1864 he received his first infantry command of the War (2nd Division, X Corps). Turner and his division participated in the Siege of Petersburg, primarily north of the James River. Although held in reserve at the battle of the Crater, Turner was nonetheless given a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army. During the winter of 1864-65 he served as chief of staff to the Army of the James. With the fall of Petersburg, Turner participated in the forced march to Appomattox Courthouse, where he and other troops of the Army of the James directly intercepted Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Turner was given brevet promotions to colonel, brigadier general, and major general in the U.S. Army for services at Petersburg. After the War, Turner continued in the U.S. Army until 1871 and then worked as a banker, civil engineer, and public works commissioner in St. Louis until his death in 1899.

Richard “Dick” Turner.  Richard Randolph Turner (18-1901) was a captain in the Confederate army and commissary of Libby Prison, but is best known as the “acting keeper” of Libby Prison when Richmond was evacuated. His cousin, Captain Thomas Pratt Turner, was the commandant of the prison, but when the Union troops came he was not to be found and Dick Turner, mistaken for his cousin, was arrested instead. After Dick Turner had been in prison about eight to ten days, he escaped and a few weeks later was slipped out of the city.

David E. Twiggs.  David Emanuel Twiggs (1790-1862) was a career Army officer and had fought in the Mexican-American War. After that war he was breveted a major general and given command of the Department of Texas where part of his charge was guarding the border with Mexico. He was absent on sick leave from his command for most of 1860, replaced temporarily by Robert E. Lee, but he returned to San Antonio and resumed command on December 13, 1860, in the midst of the secession uproar. A strong advocate of states rights, he requested on January 13, 1861, that he be relieved of command, but orders to that effect were not issued until the January 28. On February 1, the Texas Secession Convention voted to secede, and three days later appointed a trio of commissioners to confer with Twiggs at his San Antonio headquarters. Should Twiggs decline to surrender the federal arsenal and all public property to the commissioners, Benjamin McCulloch was commissioned to take the place by force. On February 15, Twiggs received the order relieving him of his command and Col. Carlos A. Waite, the next senior officer in the department, was named his successor. Waite was a strong Unionist and the Texans reasoned that he would not surrender the federal property and the committee ordered McCulloch to move on San Antonio. On February 18, Twiggs surrendered all U.S. property in the state to the Texas secessionists. Twiggs’s unwillingness to fire upon Texans in the streets of their own cities was not appreciated in the North. Twiggs was vilified and dismissed from federal service on March 1. He later accepted a commission in the Confederate Army. Due to poor health, he retired on October 11, 1861, and he died July 15, 1862, from pneumonia.

For more details:

• “Twiggs, David Emanuel” article by Thomas W. Cutrer and David Paul Smith in the Handbook of Texas Online, published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Erastus B. (Bernard) Tyler (1822-1892) was a businessman and merchant before the Civil War. When the War started, he helped raise the 7th Ohio Infantry and was its first colonel. In early 1862 he was given command of a brigade, which was eventually assigned to Shields’ division. Tyler had just been promoted to brigadier general on May 14, 1862. He was in command of the Union forces at the Battle of Port Republic. Tyler was involved in the Maryland Campaign and the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the defenses of Baltimore. During the Battle of Monocacy (July 1864), Tyler commanded two regiments of inexperienced Hundred Days Men that successfully held off numerous Confederate attempts to capture a strategic bridge on the Baltimore Pike.

William L. Utley (1814-1887) was a Wisconsin state assemblyman from 1851-1852 and a state senator from 1861-1862. Appointed state adjutant general in 1861, Utley is instrumental in securing the rapid mobilization of Wisconsin units for the Civil War. “The Camp at Racine is named ‘Utley’ out of compliment to the gallant and popular Adjutant General” (from the June 19, 1861, Hudson North Star). In 1862 he was commissioned colonel of the 22nd Wisconsin Infantry.

Horatio P. (Phillips) Van Cleve (1809-1891) was a graduate of West Point who served at frontier posts in Michigan Territory and then resigned in 1836 to settle in Michigan. an engineer for the state of Michigan in 1855, and then United States Surveyor of Public Lands in Minnesota. When the Civil War began, he became colonel of the 2nd Minnesota Infantry. Van Cleve served under General George H. Thomas at Mill Springs, and was later promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in recognition for his services at that battle. He commanded a brigade at the Siege of Corinth and a division at Perryville. Van Cleve was wounded at Stones River, but returned to his division upon recovery.

Earl Van Dorn (1820-1863) was a career military officer who fought in the Mexican War, the Seminole Wars, and the Comanche Wars.  With the start of the Civil War, he resigned his U.S. Army commission and was appointed a brigadier general in the Mississippi Militia in January 1862.  When Jefferson Davis became the president of the Confederacy, Van Dorn replaced him as major general and commander of Mississippi’s state forces.  He is known for his defeats at Pea Ridge and Corinth in 1862, and his murder by a civilian in May 1863.

Andrew J. Van Vorhes (1824-1873) was a newspaperman, the son of a newspaperman. He came to Stillwater, Minnesota, in 1855 and in 1856 established the Stillwater Messenger, which he ran until 1868. In 1860 he was a member of the Minnesota Legislature and in 1862 was selected as an agent to aid with the Indian payments, which is why he was at Fort Ridgely. In 1863 he was nominated as an assistant Quartermaster with the rank of captain and served in that capacity into 1865.

Robert B. Vance. Robert Brank Vance (1828-1899) was the brother of Governor Vance and a Confederate general. He was captured on January 14, 1864, at Crosbys Creek, Tennessee, and was a prisoner-of-war at Fort Delaware until March 10, 1865. After the War, Vance was elected to Congress six times, serving from 1873 to 1885, and later was elected to one term in the North Carolina House of Representatives, serving from 1894–1896.

John C. Vaughn.  John Crawford Vaughn (1824-1875) was a Confederate cavalry officer from eastern Tennessee. Vaughn raised Tennessee’s first Confederate regiment, which became the 3rd Tennessee Infantry with Vaughn as colonel. The regiment participated in breaking the Union right at the First Battle of Bull Run. In 1862 Vaughn’s regiment patrolled in the northern Cumberland Mountains, winning battles in Tazewell in August and helping to regain control of Cumberland Gap. In September, Vaughn was promoted to brigadier general. Vaughn’s brigade held heights north of Vicksburg for the first four months of 1863. On May 17, Grant’s forces sliced through the Confederate line at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge forcing the surrender of two of Vaughn’s regiments. When Vicksburg fell, Vaughn was taken prisoner but was paroled in October of 1863 and began reassembling his troops. In 1864 Vaughn’s mounted troops moved to the Shenandoah Valley. On June 5, the Confederates were beaten at the Battle of Piedmont, where Vaughn argued with William “Grumble” Jones about who was responsible. In April 1865, Vaughn and his troops were near Christanburg, Virginia, moving towards North Carolina after news of Lee’s surrender. On April 19, Vaughn joined the Jefferson Davis escort in Charlotte. On May 10, Vaughn surrendered.

James C. Veatch.  James Clifford Veatch (1819-1895), was a lawyer, county auditor, and Indiana state legislator. He was colonel of the 25th Indiana Infantry and led the regiment at the Battle of Fort Donelson. At the Battle of Shiloh he led the 2nd Brigade in Hurlbut’s division. In April 1862 Veatch became a brigadier general of Volunteers. He commanded a brigade during the siege of Corinth and the battle of Hatchie’s Bridge, where he was wounded. For the next year General Veatch commanded the District of Memphis. Veatch led the 4th Division of the XVI Corps during the Meridian Expedition, and joined Sherman’s forces for the Atlanta Campaign. He commanded of the 1st Division in the XIII Corps and participated in the Battle of Fort Blakely. He was brevetted to major general of Volunteers in March 1865.

John Bordenave Villepigue (1830-1862) a West Point graduate and career military officer. In the Civil War, he was initially commissioned as a captain of artillery but was quickly promoted to colonel of an infantry regiment. After defending Fort McRee in Pensacola harbor, he was promoted to chief of engineers and artillery on the staff of General Braxton Bragg. In early 1862 he was promoted again to brigadier general. General P.G.T. Beauregard put him in charge of Fort Pillow, Mississippi. On October 3-4, 1862, he commanded a brigade at the Second Battle of Corinth. He distinguished himself in both the successful opening attack and the covering of the eventual retreat. He died of pneumonia shortly after arriving in Port Hudson, Louisiana on 9 November 1862, where he had been sent to recuperate.

Von Weber, Max, see Weber, Max

James S. Wadsworth.  James Samuel Wadsworth (1807-1864) had spent the majority of his life managing his family’s estate in New York, later entering politics. He was a Free Soil Republican and was a member of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference that attempted to prevent the Civil War. Prior to the war, he had no military experience at all. He had served as a civilian volunteer aide-de-camp to Major General Irvin McDowell at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 8. McDowell recommended him for command and, on August 9, 1861, Wadsworth was commissioned a brigadier general. On October 3, 1861, he received command of the 2nd Brigade in McDowell’s Division.

Carlos A. Waite (?-1866) was a career U.S. Army officer. On June 5, 1860, he became colonel of the U.S. First Infantry. On February 15, 1861, at the height of the secession crisis, Gen. Twiggs was relieved of his command of the Department of Texas at his own request and Waite, the next senior officer in the department, was named his successor. Waite was a strong Unionist and his impending appointment to department command precipitated Benjamin McCulloch’s siege of federal troops in San Antonio on February 18, which culminated in Twiggs’s surrender of all United States property in the state to Texas authorities. Ironically, Waite received his appointment as department commander on February 19, the day after Twiggs had turned over United States forts and heavy equipment and pledged to remove federal troops immediately by way of the coast. On March 13, 1865, Waite was brevetted to brigadier general for “long and faithful service” in the army. He retired from active duty on February 8, 1864, and died on May 7, 1866.

For more information:

• “Waite, Carlos Adolphus” article by Thomas W. Cutrer in the Handbook of Texas Online, published by the Texas State Historical Association.

John George Walker (1821-1893) joined the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight in the Mexican War and remained in the service until he resigned in 1861 to join the Confederate Army. In January 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general and served in the Peninsula Campaign. In September, his division occupied Loudoun Heights, overlooking Harpers Ferry, until Stonewall Jackson captured Harpers Ferry on September 15. Walker then served under General Longstreet at South Mountain and Antietam. He was then transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department, where he organized 12 Texas regiments into a division which was nicknamed “Walker’s Greyhounds.” In March 1863,  Walker’s Greyhounds will be given the task of attacking General Ulysses S. Grant’s supply line opposite the besieged Vicksburg, Mississippi. On April 30, 1864, Walker’s troops played a critical role in the Confederate victory at the Battle of Mansfield. At the end of the Civil War, Walker fled to Mexico, where he remained for several years. Returning to the United States, he later served as the U.S. Consul in Bogotá, Colombia, and as a special commissioner to the Pan-American Convention.

John Grimes Walker (1835-1907) graduated at the head of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1856 and was a career naval officer, rising to the rank of admiral. During the Civil War, Walker distinguished himself under Rear Admiral David D. Porter during the Mississippi River campaigns, participating in the engagements at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which resulted in the fall of New Orleans. He later took part in the Navy’s operations in the Vicksburg Campaign, participating in the actions against Haines Bluff, Arkansas Post, the Yazoo Pass expedition, the attack on Fort Pemberton, and the capture of Yazoo City. At the siege of Vicksburg, Walker commanded the naval gun battery attached to the 15th Army Corps. His subsequent war service included operations which resulted in the capture of Fort Fisher, and he participated in the ensuing bombardments of Forts Anderson and Caswell on the Cape Fear River and in the capture of Wilmington, North Carolina.

L. P. Walker.  LeRoy Pope Walker (1817-1884) was the first Confederate Secretary of War, serving from February 25-September 16, 1861, and is perhaps best known for issuing the orders to fire on Fort Sumter. He also served briefly as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army.

Lew Wallace.  Lewis “Lew” Wallace (1827-1905) was a lawyer, politician, and author. A graduate of West Point, Wallace served in the Mexican War. At the beginning of the Civil War, Wallace was appointed state adjutant general in Indiana, and then was appointed the colonel of the 11th Indiana Infantry. After brief service in western Virginia, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and given the command of a brigade. Originally left behind to guard the recently taken Fort Henry, Wallace was called to Fort Donelson to organize a division of reinforcements. He made a key decision to help McClernand’s forces, which stabilized the Union line. Wallace then led a counter attack and retook lost ground. He is promoted to major general as of March 21, 1862.  Wallace’s most controversial command was yet to come, at the Battle of Shiloh, where he continued as the 3rd Division commander under Grant. Wallace failed to reinforce Sherman’s division in a timely manner, and after the battle became the scapegoat for the horrible casualties the Union suffered at Shiloh.

After the Civil War Wallace served as the 11th Governor of New Mexico Territory (1878-1881) and U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire (1881-1885).  Wallace authored the historical novel  Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, published in 1880, a bestselling book since its publication and perhaps better known today for its 1959 film adaptation with Charlton Heston.

For more information:

• Lew Wallace, Militant Romantic, by Robert E. Morsberger, Katharine M. Morsberger (PS 3136 .M6 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).
• “Intolerably Slow: Lew Wallace’s March to the Battlefield,” by Steven E. Woodworth, in The Shiloh Campaign, edited by Steven E. Woodworth. UWRF students, staff and faculty members have access to this e-book.
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace, 1922 edition (PS 3134 .B4 1922 in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library).

W. H. L. Wallace.  William Hervey Lamme Wallace (1821-1862) was considered by General Grant to be one of the Union’s greatest generals. He started the Civil War as a private in the 11th Illinois Infantry and then became its colonel. He rose up the ranks and commanded a brigade of General McClernand’s division of Grant’s Army of the Tennessee at the Battle of Fort Donelson. During the battle, much of McClernand’s division had been driven back with heavy losses and Wallace’s coolness under fire was especially noted. For his service at Fort Donelson Colonel Wallace was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers. At the Battle of Shiloh, Wallace managed to withstand six hours of assaults by the Confederates, directly next to the famous Hornet’s Nest, or Sunken Road. When his division was finally surrounded, he ordered a withdrawal and many escaped, but he was mortally wounded and only later found barely alive on the battlefield. He died three days later on April 10, 1862.

For more information:

• General W.H.L.Wallace page on the Public Art Murals of Ottawa, Illinois
• Wallace also has a Facebook page
• April 30, 1862, post: Who Are the Union’s Western Generals?

James H. Ward.  James H. (Harman or Harmon) Ward (1806-1861) was a career U.S. naval officer. In the spring of 1861, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles summons Ward to Washington, D.C., to plan for a relief expedition for Fort Sumter. Opposition from Gen. Scott forced cancellation of the plans. Once the war broke out, Ward pushed for front-line duty; he was the first naval officer killed in the war, dying on June 27, 1861.

William T. Ward.  William Thomas Ward (1808-1878) was a lawyer in Kentucky before the Civil War and served in the Kentucky House of Representatives (1850) and the U.S. House of Representatives (1851-1853). His military background was serving in the Mexican War as major of the 4th Kentucky Volunteers. When the Civil War broke out he was commissioned a brigadier general. Early in the Atlanta Campaign he led a brigade in the XX Corps and later he commanded the 3rd Division of the XX Corps in the remainder of the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign. He had conspicuous service at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. After the War he returned to his law practice in Kentucky.

Gouverneur K. Warren.  Gouverneur Kemble Warren (1830-1882) was a graduate of West Point and worked as a civil engineer on the transcontinental railroad surveys and mapping the trans-Mississippi West. He is best remembered for arranging the last-minute defense of Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg and is often referred to as the “Hero of Little Round Top.” He was promoted to major general of volunteers after Gettysburg. On October 14, 1863, he distinguished himself at the Battle of Bristoe Station and in March 1865 was breveted major general in the regular army for his actions in that battle. When the Army of the Potomac was reorganized in the spring of 1864, Warren assumed command of the V Corps and led it through the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox Campaign. Warren established a reputation of bringing his engineering traits to the role of infantry corps commander. He won the Battle of Globe Tavern (August 18-20, 1864) and he also won a limited success in the Battle of Peebles’ Farm (September-October 1864). Both General Ulysses S. Grant and his subordinate General Philip Sheridan, found Warren to be cautious and to move slowly. Sheridan removed Warren after the Battle of Five Forks (April 1, 1865), even though his corps carried the day at Five Forks, which was a pivotal battle in the final days of the War.

For more information:

• Explorer on the Northern Plains: Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren’s Preliminary Report of Explorations in Nebraska and Dakota, in the Years 1855-’56-’57, introduction by Frank N. Schubert (available in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library’s Government Documents, D 103.43/2:2, and as an e-book for use by UWRF students, staff and faculty members).

C. C. Washburn.  Cadwallader Colden Washburn (1818-1882) was a U.S. Congressman, Civil War officer, industrial empire builder, founder of General Mills, and the 11th governor of Wisconsin. Few people of his generation had as much influence on Wisconsin history.

Washburn, a Republican, served in the U.S. Congress from 1855-1861, and again after the Civil War, 1867-1870 (five terms in all).  At the same time, he broadened his business operations in banking and real estate.  Early in 1861 he moved to La Crosse and was sent as a delegate to an unsuccessful peace convention held in Washington, D.C., that had hoped to prevent the impending Civil War.

After the outbreak of hostilities, Washburn accepted an appointment as colonel of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, on October 10, 1861.  The following spring he led it south into Arkansas to join Union forces in the West.  Washburn was promoted to brigadier general in June 1862.  He took command of not only of his regiment, but also the entire 2nd Cavalry Brigade.  On July 7, 1862, it defeated Confederate forces at Cotton Plant, Arkansas, and then marched east to take possession of Helena, Arkansas.  From there it supported the Union campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi.

In March 1863 Washburn was commissioned a major general with command over all Union cavalry in West Tennessee, headquartered at Memphis.  After the Siege of Vicksburg in the summer of 1863, Washburn’s command was moved to New Orleans.  In August he led 16,000 men in support of the Red River Expedition, occupying and pacifying large areas along the Texas Coast.  He spent most of 1864 and the spring of 1865 in command at Memphis and Vicksburg.

After leaving the military in May 1865, Washburn returned to La Crosse. In 1866, he opened his first flour mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which became known as General Mills, and served again in Congress, from 1867 to 1870.  He was elected governor of Wisconsin in the fall of 1871 and served from 1872-1874.

For more information:

• “C.C. Washburn: The Evolution of a Flour Barron,” by Albert Kelsey in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 88, no. 4, (2005): 38-51.
• Sketch of Gen. Washburn’s Civil War service by E.B. Quiner in his book, Military History of Wisconsin (Chicago, 1866): 980-81.
• Washburn, Gov. Cadwallader Colden, in the online Dictionary of Wisconsin History.
• C. C. Washburn and the Upper Mississippi Valley, by Karel D. Bicha (available in the UWRF Chalmer Davee Library, E664.W29 B53 1995).

James B. Weaver.  James Baird Weaver (1833-1912) was a lawyer and abolitionist in Iowa before the Civil War. Weaver enlisted as a private in the 2nd Iowa Infantry in 1861 and soon received a commission as a lieutenant. He fought at the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Second Corinth. Weaver was promoted to major prior to Corinth and to colonel immediately following the battle. By the end of the war, he had been made brevet brigadier general. After the war he became active in Iowa politics. James B. Weaver was twice a candidate for President of the United States, in 1880 (Greenback Party) and 1892 (Populist Party).

Max Weber (1824-1901) served in the military in Germany, and came to America as part of a large group of political refugees who came to be as known as the Forty-Eighters (German Revolutions of 1848 ). At the start of the American Civil War, Weber raised a German-American unit known as the “Turner Rifles,” which became part of the the 20th New York Infantry; Weber was colonel of the 20th New York. From September 1861 until May 1862, he commanded Camp Hamilton, near Fort Monroe, and in late April 1862, he was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers. Weber then took part in the capture of Norfolk, Virginia, in early May. Weber’s brigade was the first to attack the Sunken Road during the Battle of Antietam, where he was severely wounded in his right arm. In 1864 he served under Generals David Hunter and Franz Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley. He was the garrison commander of Harpers Ferry and repelled Jubal A. Early’s July 4–7 raid.

Godfrey (or Gottfried) Weitzel (1835-1884) was born in Bavaria (Germany) and immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, with his parents. He graduated from West Point and was a career military officer working primarily as an engineer. In 1861 his company served as the bodyguard during the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln. Early in the Civil War he constructed defenses in Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., and for the Army of the Potomac. He then became the chief engineer on General Benjamin F. Butler’s staff. At this time he was commanding the advance in General Nathaniel P. Banks’ operations in western Louisiana and he commanded a division under Banks at the siege of Port Hudson. Weitzel commanded a division in the Lafourche campaign and from May through September 1864, he was chief engineer of the Army of the James, being engaged at Swift’s Creek, the actions near Drury’s Bluff, and in constructing the defenses of Bermuda Hundred, James River, and Deep Bottom. He assumed command of the XVIII Corps from September 1864 through the end of the year, and was brevetted colonel in the regular army for the capture of Fort Harrison. In November of 1864 he became a full major general of volunteers and was assigned command of the XXV Corps, which consisted of U.S. Colored Troops. He participated in the First Battle of Fort Fisher. He and his corps were reassigned to Virginia when General Butler was relieved of duty. During the final months of the war, Weitzel commanded all Federal troops north of the Appomattox River during the final operations against Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and on April 3, 1865, Weitzel took Richmond.

“Long” John Wentworth (1815-1888) was the editor of the Chicago Democrat, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives,  1843-1851, 1853-1855, 1865-1867. In 1861 was the mayor of Chicago.

Joseph R. West.  Joseph Rodman West (1822-1898 ) was born in New Orleans, grew up in Pennsylvania, was a captain attached to Maryland and District of Columbia Volunteers in the Mexican War, and then engaged in newspaper work in San Francisco, California. During the Civil War West jointed the 1st California Infantry as a lieutenant and was later promoted to colonel. He then was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers. He spent much of his service in New Mexico and Arizona territories. In April 1864, West was ordered to Arkansas to take command of the 2nd Division, VII Corps, which he led through the Red River Campaign. In the fall of 1864, West fought against Confederate General Sterling Price. He next commanded the cavalry in the Department of the Gulf (May-June 1865). He commanded the 1st Division of Cavalry in the Military Division of the Southwest, composed of two small brigades (six regiments) of volunteer cavalry exempted from mustering out. He led the division from Shreveport, Louisiana, to San Antonio, Texas, in July 1865, for Reconstruction duty and as a counter to Mexican forces along the Rio Grande. West was mustered out of volunteer service as a brevetted major general in San Antonio on January 4, 1866. After the War, West was deputy United States marshal and auditor for customs in New Orleans (1867-1871) and a U.S. senator from Louisiana (1871-1877).

Joseph Wheeler (1836-1906) graduated from West Point in 1859 and after graduating attended the U.S. Army Cavalry School. He picked up the nickname “Fightin’ Joe” fighting Indians in New Mexico. For much of the Civil War he served as the senior cavalry general in the Confederate Army of Tennessee and fought in most of its battles in the Western Theater. After the War Wheeler was a U.S. Representative from Alabama.

Julius White (1816-1890) was a lawyer before the war. He received a commission as colonel of the 37th Illinois Infantry in September 1861. At the Battle of Pea Ridge (March 7, 1862), he led a brigade of two Illinois regiments. In June 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general and during the Second Battle of Bull Run his “Railroad” brigade was posted in West Virginia, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. When Robert E. Lee invaded Maryland, White retreated to Harper’s Ferry and joined Colonel Dixon S. Miles’ garrison there. White outranked Miles, but he followed military protocol and let Miles retain command. Miles, however, proved to be incapable of mounting an effective defense and ran up the white flag. Miles was mortally wounded and White had to carry out the formal surrender. For surrendering, White was brought before a court of inquiry, but acquitted.

William Whiting (1813-1873) was a lawyer from Boston. He served as solicitor of the War Department 1862-1865. In 1868 he was a presidential elector, and in 1872 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, serving from March 4, 1873, to his death on June 29 of that same year. He wrote The War Powers of the President and the Legislative Powers of Congress in Relation to Rebellion, Treason, and Slavery (Boston, 1862; 10th ed., with large additions, 1863). He urged that the U. S. government had full belligerent rights against the inhabitants of seceded states, and without going beyond the Constitution could confiscate their property, emancipate their slaves, and treat them as public enemies.

Luther H. Whittlesey was from Mineral Point, Wisconsin. He started service as the captain of Company E of the 11th Wisconsin Infantry, and was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 11th Wisconsin on June 7, 1863, when the previous lieutenant colonel (Charles A. Wood) resigned.

Louis T. (Trezevant) Wigfall (1816-1874) was a Texas politician who served in the U.S. Senate, 1859-March 23, 1861, and in the Confederate Senate, 1862-1865.  He arrived in Charleston as the siege of Fort Sumter commenced. While he was indeed serving as a volunteer aide to General Beauregard, he had not see the General in two days when he took it upon himslef to row out to Fort Sumter. The official delegation from Beauregard’s staff—Major Lee, Porcher Miles, Senator Chesnut, and Roger A. Pryor—arrived later with the General’s terms.

Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) was a naval officer and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, which was commonly known as the Wilkes Expedition of 1842. Wilkes was promoted to the rank of commander in 1843 and that of captain in 1855.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was assigned to the command of the U.S.S. San Jacinto to search for the Confederate commerce destroyer Sumter.  “The Notorious Wilkes”—as Bermuda media called him—was officially thanked by Congress, but later the British government pressured President Lincoln to disavow his action.

For more information:

• “Charles Wilkes” article on the Naval History and Heritage Command website.
• For more on the Trent Affair, see the Naval History Blog posting for November 8, 1861.

Morton S. Wilkinson.  Morton Smith Wilkinson (1819-1894) moved to Stillwater, Minnesota, in 1847 and was elected to the first territorial legislature in 1849.  He served as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1859 to 1865 and was chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims, and as a U.S. Representative from Minnesota from 1869 to 1871.  He is best known for  introducing the U.S. Senate to a letter written to Jefferson Davis by Jesse D. Bright on March 1, 1861, involving firearm trades, which resulted in Bright being expelled from the Senate.

Orlando B. Willcox.  Orlando B. Willcox (1823-1907) was a graduate of West Point and a career military officer, serving in the Mexican War and the Third Seminole War, but he resigned from the Army in 1857 He was practicing law when the Civil War started and he was appointed colonel of the 1st Michigan Infantry. Willcox was wounded and captured in the First Battle of Bull Run. In 1895 he will be given the Medal of Honor for his “most distinguished gallantry” during the Battle. He will be released and exchanged in a little over a year, and led a division at the Battle of Antietam and a corps at the Battle of Fredericksburg. During the 1863 draft riots, he commanded the District of Indiana and Michigan, but again led a division at Knoxville and during Grant’s Overland Campaign. After the War, he served as the commander of the Department of Arizona, where he fought Apache Indians. The town of Willcox, Arizona is named in his honor.

Thomas R. Williams (1815-1862) graduated from West Point and became a career military officer who served in the Mexican War. In the Civil War, he was assigned to Major General Benjamin Butler’s command in the land operations against New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams and his 2nd Brigade—that included the 4th Wisconsin Infantry—were assigned the task of occupying Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was killed there on August 5, 1862.

August Willich (1810-1878) was a Prussian Army officer who immigrated to the United States in 1853. In 1858, he became editor of the German Republican in Cincinnatti, a German-language free labor newspaper, in which work he continued until the opening of the Civil War. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Willich actively recruited German immigrants in the southwestern Ohio region and he then joined the 9th Ohio Infantry. He saw action at the Battle of Rich Mountain and at Carnifex Ferry. At the request of Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton, Willich assumed command of the 32nd Indiana Infantry, also known as the First German.

James H. Wilson.  James Harrison Wilson (1837-1925) graduated from West Point in 1860. He was  topographical engineer before the Civil War, and for the Port Royal Expeditionary Force (September 1861-March 1862). As the topographical engineer for the Department of the South, he took part in the Battle of Fort Pulaski. He transferred to the Army of the Potomac in April 1862 and served as its topographic engineer, but also as an aide-de-camp to General George B. McClellan. He served under McClellan during the Maryland Campaign and was present at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. Wilson was transferred to General Grant’s Army of the Tennessee as a lieutenant colonel and topographical engineer, and during the Vicksburg Campaign, he was the inspector general of Grant’s army. In October 1863, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers, the only officer ever promoted to troop command from Grant’s regular staff. He continued on staff duty during the Battle of Chattanooga and was chief engineer of the force sent to relieve Knoxville. In 1864, he transferred from engineering to the cavalry, where he displayed notable leadership in many engagements of the Overland campaign, though his attempt to destroy Lee’s supply-line failed. At the Battle of Franklin, he became one of the few commanders ever to defeat the legendary cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest, helping to secure decisive Union victory in that campaign. Later, in Georgia, he captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

John H. Winder.  John Henry Winder (1800-1865) graduated from West Point and was a career military officer who served with distinction during the Mexican War. During the Civil War he was noted for commanding prisoner-of-war camps throughout the South, and for charges of improperly supplying the prisoners in his charge.

Henry Wirz.  Heinrich Hartmann Wirz, better known as Henry Wirz (1823-1865), was a Swiss-born Confederate officer best known for his command of Andersonville Prison (aka Camp Sumter), the Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Georgia. He was tried after the War for conspiracy and murder relating to his command of the camp, was convicted, and was executed on November 10, 1865.

Frank L. Wolford.  Frank Lane Wolford (1817-1895) was a lawyer and Kentucky state representative before the Civil War. During the War he was the colonel of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry (Union) from 1861 to 1864. He served as adjutant general of the State of Kentucky in 1867 and 1868. After the War, he again served in the Kentucky house of representatives and in the U.S. Congress.

James Wood (1820-1892) was a lawyer in New York before the Civil War. He had long been active in the militia, and was appointed a brigadier general in 1855. During the Civil War he became colonel of the 136th New York Infantry, and commanded it at the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Dallas, Atlanta, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and Bentonville. During the Atlanta Campaign he also led the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Division, XX Corps, which included the 26th Wisconsin Infantry. Wood was brevetted a major general of volunteers. After the War he resumed his law practice in New York, and was a member of the New York State Senate (1870-1873).

Thomas J. Wood.  Thomas John Wood (1823-1906), born in rural Munfordville, Kentucky, was a career military officer who served in the Mexican War and on the American frontier. During early days of the Civil War, Wood helped organize, train, and equip several volunteer regiments in Indiana, and in October 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general of Indiana volunteers.

John E. Wool. John Ellis Wool (1784-1869) was a career Army officer. Wool was the oldest general on either side of the war (age 77 when the Civil War began). He commanded the Department of the East, and his quick and decisive moves secured Fort Monroe, Virginia, for the Union.

John L. Worden. John Lorimer Worden (1818-1897) was the captain of the USS Monitor. He was a career naval officer. As the secession crisis moved toward civil war in early 1861, Lieutenant Worden was sent to Pensacola with secret instructions for the local Naval commander. While returning to Washington, D.C., by rail, he was arrested by Southern authorities and held as a prisoner of war for several months, an experience that badly damaged his health. In February 1862, upon resuming active duty, he was given command of the Monitor. Worden received serious eye injuries in the Battle of Hampton Roads, and he had to relinquish command. This battle made him a major war hero in the North and he was promoted to Commander in July 1862. In late 1862 he took command of the ironclad Montauk and joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Port Royal, South Carolina. In January 1863, he led his ship in the bombardment of Fort McAllister. In February 1863, Captain Worden took his ship into the Ogeechee River, where he destroyed the Confederate privateer Rattlesnake with five well-placed shots. His last action came on April 7, 1863, when the Montauk participated in an attack on Charleston, South Carolina.

For more information:

• John Lorimer Worden article on the Naval Historical Center website.

Horatio G. Wright. Horatio Gouverneur Wright (1820-1899) graduated from West Point in 1841 and was a career military officer as an engineer. When the Civil War started, he took part in the destruction of the Norfolk Navy Yard and began construction on the fortifications around Washington, D.C., before being assigned to the Department of Northeast Virginia. He was the Chief Engineer of the 3rd Division during First Bull Run. He was promoted to major in August 1861 and within a month to brigadier general of Volunteers. He served as General Sherman’s Chief Engineer in his Port Royal expedition. His success at commanding troops in Florida led to a promotion to major general in August 1862.  Wright commanded the 1st Division of the VI Corps (Army of the Potomac) at Mine Run and the Battle of the Wilderness, and, after General Sedwick’s death at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 9, Wright assumed command of the VI Corps. He commanded the first troops to break through the Confederate defenses at the Siege of Petersburg. After the War, Wright served as Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1879-1884) and was involved in a number of engineering projects, including the Brooklyn Bridge and the completion of the Washington Monument.

William L. Yancey. William Lowndes Yancey (1814-1863) was a journalist (Greenville Mountaineer [S.C.]), politician (U.S. House, 1844-1846; Confederate Senator, 1862-1863), orator, and diplomat. A member of the group known as the Fire-Eaters, Yancey was one of the most effective agitators for Southern secession and a rhetorical defender of slavery. During the Civil War, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Yancey to head a diplomatic delegation to Europe, hoping to secure formal recognition for the Confederacy. Yancey suffered from ill health for much of his life and died July 27, 1863,  at the age of 48.

Richard Yates (1815-1873) was the 13th governor of Illinois, from January 1861-January 1865. Yates sent more volunteers to serve as Union troops than any other state.

A. H. Young.  Austin H. Young (d. 1905) was “a resident of Prescott [Wisconsin] in the early [18]60s and was successively while residing there clerk of the court, district attorney and state senator. He was lately associated with Frank M. Nye in the practice of law and was one of the state University law lecturers. He was a brother of the late Arthur Young of Prescott.” From Young’s obituary in the River Falls Journal, February 23, 1905.

Charles Zagonyi/Károly Zágonyi (1822-1867?), known in the United States as Charles Zagonyi, was a military officer from Hungary. He was an aide to General Frémont and commander of his Body-Guard.  Zagonyi is best known for the charge he lead on October 25, 1861, which routed the Confederates holding Springfield. Zagonyi will be sidelined when Frémont is removed from command, and nothing is known of his whereabouts after 1867.

Felix Kirk Zollicoffer (1812-1862) was a newspaperman, a U.S. Representative from Tennessee, and a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. He led a Confederate invasion of eastern Kentucky and was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs on January 19, 1862.